[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 10




SINGAPORE:

Plea of a Malaysian on Singapore’s death row to the republic’s president



Currently, I have requested my lawyer to write to the Attorney-General’s office 
to help me secure a Certificate of Substantive Assistance under Section 33(b) 
of the Misuse of Drug Act (Cap 185) Certificate of Co-operation

I will also be instructing my lawyers to refer me for psychiatrist evaluation 
to satisfy the requirement of Section 33b (1)(b) of the Misuse of Drug Act (Cap 
185). I humbly beg to your Excellency to delay the execution of my sentence as 
it is pending the outcome of the ongoing Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) 
investigation and the psychiatrist evaluation.

When I was in prison, I realized the harm and destruction drug abuse causes to 
families, communities, society and humanity as whole. I’ve failed to realise 
this truth in the years of my freedom, and had only gained this realisation 
when I was within a cell of 4 brick-walls for 4 years. I understand now, that 
nothing triumphs and matters more than the value of a life and living, love, 
family, freedom, moral and civic responsibility as human beings.

I have learned that even in our most dire situation, we can still reach out to 
others, to ease their burden and lift them up so that they will be comforted 
with the fact that they are not alone in their sufferings and struggles that 
they face. We must offer help to the broken, and offer hope to the hopeless.

If we, inmates in death row, were given a chance, we would share our life 
stories to the younger generation so that we could all stand united together 
with them against the abuse and misuse of drugs. Often times, the media only 
seeks to portray stories of positivity and successes, but chooses to side-line 
issues that are obviously not positive nor pleasant to hear like ours. We can 
write every week if we were given a small column in the newspaper, and also 
reach out to other various outlets such as radio, live interviews, TV, and 
social media. By our hands, we can disrupt the demand for drugs and remedy the 
cycle of addiction.

These efforts could begin in prison as well. We could conduct blood donation 
campaigns involving the inmates. This will be surely provide a boost of 
positive energy to everyone, especially us inmates, as we begin to realise that 
we, despite of our current circumstances, are able to still contribute back to 
our society. We would gain a sense of responsibility towards our fellow men and 
society. Most of the time, many inmates, such as me, feel nothing but dread and 
hopelessness, which turns us back to our old, damaging habits but by positively 
influencing the inmates, we go through a character rehabilitation and at the 
same time are able to save lives.

Parents, teachers, the media and public should band together in tackling drug 
abuse, it does not fall on the government’s hands only to tackle this. Parents 
should not view drugs as taboo and have conversations of their dangers over 
dinner. Meanwhile in schools, students should be educated on the dangers of 
drug misuse as early as primary level onwards. There are very few messages and 
warnings in the media, in TV and on the radio, on the danger of drugs. Even in 
Channel News Asia, there are no documentaries that shed light on the dangers of 
drug abuse. Meanwhile, youths, even those that are educated, expose themselves 
to recreational uses of these drugs, and exhibiting sensation seeking, 
risk-taking, impulsivity and anxiety, without realising the severity of their 
actions. Some even resort to such behaviour due to peer pressure or for the 
sake of impressing the wrong people. We have to reach out to them, in all the 
ways we can.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s office Ms, Indranee Rajah once said, “If 
you’re developing policy and programmes, you must know what’s on people mind, 
must know what are they feeling and every individual story gives you a deeper 
insight that gives you a more informed basis on which to do things to improves 
lives.”

Also, the Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Dr. Koh Poh Koon has 
mentioned, “By hearing more personalised stories, I think it can help us 
understand how we can mitigate some of the circumstances where some people seem 
to fall through the cracks and then on, craft ways in which we can also help to 
lift them up”.

The Government had, for many years, invested significantly in the prevention of 
drug abuse and in the treatment and rehabilitation of drugs addicts. Despite 
the imposition of mandatory death penalty, a sizeable number of drugs mules are 
still being caught yearly.

The drug syndicates are clearly still able to continue with their modus 
operandi, despite the significant hurdles placed by the Government for them to 
do business. They are able to do so due because people get manipulated by them.

A quick review of the profiles of these drug mules would reveal that most of 
them come from the lower income groups, where their families may have not been 
able to cultivate them in a measurable way and thus were prone to being misused 
by the wrong connection. They are not the masterminds, they are just vulnerable 
to the promise of high rewards for easy work, seeking an escape out of poverty, 
and thus offer themselves to assist the drug syndicates.

I humbly suggest that this could be an area of opportunity, a ‘low hanging 
fruit’, where more should be done (and can be done) to reach out to these 
potential drug mules. By doing so, there is a greater likelihood that there 
would be a reduction in the number of those who agree to become mules, thus 
lower incarceration rates.

Myself and the other drug mules currently in death row are willing to give our 
commitment to assist the CNB in any of these initiatives mentioned above, 
whether by way of TV programmes, documentaries, or newspaper articles to share 
our story and those of others we know from our time in remand and on the death 
row of how:

1) The drug syndicates identify and approach potential drug mules for their 
nefarious activities

2) The false assurances and promises that are made by syndicates to lure drug 
mule or allay the fears of drug mules.

3) The baseless assumptions that drug mules have when embarking on drug runs 
knowing or unknowingly for the syndicates

4) The certainty of being caught in Singapore for drug trafficking activities

5) The drug mules are regarded as dispensable by the drug syndicates. Not only 
do the drug syndicates cause irreparable harm to drug addicts and their family, 
but to the drug mules as well.

I humbly suggest that such initiatives to warn and educate potential drug mules 
are likely to be effective when fronted by those who have been caught and 
convicted.

I believe God has a purpose and has His will in my life. This journey of my 
life has taught me to seek His will more than of mine.

I have aging parents who needs me and I have my responsibilities to fulfil 
towards my family and society as well. My family has always been there for me 
and I humbly pray that I would be given a second chance to be there for them 
when they need me the most.

I feel ashamed and I deeply apologise for my lack of self-awareness, moral and 
public responsibility. I take this final opportunity to express my utmost 
regret and I beg your Excellency to be merciful and compassionate and spare my 
life by commuting my sentence of death to one of life imprisonment.

I shall be grateful forever, in thought and action.

* Pannir Selvam Pranthanam is a Malaysian sentenced to death in Singapore for 
drug trafficking. This November 7, 2018 letter to Singapore president Halimah 
Yacob was provided to Malay Mail by his family who said it was “written by 
Pannir on scraps of paper in prison and has been slightly edited for structure 
& grammar. The original notes can be seen on savepannir.info.”

(source: malaymail.com)








BANGLADESH:

Lone accused gets death in Risha murder case



A Dhaka court today sentenced 1 person to death in a case filed over the murder 
of Risha, a class VIII student of Willes Little Flower School, who was brutally 
killed in 2016.

Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court read out the 
verdict against Obaidul Haq, the lone accused in the case, in his presence.

Obaidul has also been fined Tk 50,000 in the case.

Risha’s mother Tania Hossain was present in the court during the verdict and 
expressed her satisfaction with the verdict.

HOW WAS RISHA KILLED?

14-year-old Risha was stabbed to death on a footbridge close to her school in 
Kakrail by her stalker Obaidul in 2016.

Risha lost her battle for life at the ICU of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on 
August 28, 2016, 4 days after she was stabbed.

Her mother Tania Hossain filed a case against Obaidul with Ramna Police Station 
under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.

The death of Risha, eldest child of Ramzan Hossain and Tania Hossain, sparked 
protests across the capital.

Obaidul was arrested in Nilphamari with locals’ help a week after Risha was 
stabbed. Hailing from Dinajpur’s Miradangi village, he used to work at a 
tailoring shop in Dhaka.

On November 14, 2016, Ali Hossain, inspector of Ramna Police Station, submitted 
the charge sheet against Obaidul while charge was framed on April 17, 2017.

(source: thedailystar.net)

************************

4 to hang for murder of a minor in Sylhet



A Sylhet court has handed the death penalty to 4 men for the murder of an 
11-year-old boy 8 years ago.

Judge Mohitul Hoque Inam Chowdhury of the Women and Children Repression 
Prevention Tribunal delivered the verdict on Wednesday.

The convicts are Dakhshin Surma natives Md Ismail Ali, 22, and Md Mithun Mia, 
20, Bharthokhola native Biplop alias Bipul, 18, and Lakshipur District's Junaid 
Hossain, 19. They are all being held at the Sylhet Central Jail.

According to the tribunal's Special Public Prosecutor Md Abdul Malek, the 
child, 'Nayeem', went missing after leaving home to attend the Tarabih prayers 
on Aug 14, 2011. Seven days later, his decomposed body was found packed in a 
sack in the woods next to his home.

His family alleged that the perprators killed Nayeem over an old feud with his 
family.

A case was started by Nayeem's father Abdul Hoque as plaintiff against several 
unidentified suspects with Dakshin Surma police on Aug 20, 2011. On Nov 26 that 
year, Dakshin Surma Police Deputy Inspector Md Harun Mazumber formally pressed 
charges against 5 suspects in the case.

(source: bdnews24.com)








KUWAIT:

Cassation court ‘commutes’ death penalty of Pakistani to life in jail in 
Indian’s murder



The Court of Cassation has overturned the verdict of the Court of First 
Instance and commuted the death sentence of a Pakistani man to life 
imprisonment, reports Al- Anba daily.

According to the sources the Pakistani works for a Kuwaiti family and has been 
convicted of stabbing to death an Indian over financial matters. The suspect 
summarized the incident saying he invited the victim to the outhouse of the 
Kuwaiti villa and demanded the victim pay the money which he had borrowed from 
him. He said both men were involved in a heated argument and he lost his temper 
and stabbed the man in the stomach with a knife.

The Indian resisted and pushed him and in a fit of anger he then stabbed the 
victim several times in the back, chest and abdomen until he died. The Public 
Prosecutor had charged the Pakistani with premeditated murder.

(source: Arab Times)








IRAN:

Annual report on the death penalty in Iran, October 2019----Iran top per capita 
executioner



Hundreds of people in Iran are sentenced to death annually. October 10, the 
World Day against the Death Penalty, reminds us of the thousands of death row 
prisoners lingering in jails in Iran.

Iranian regime officials have never heeded to the International community’s 
calls to abolish the death penalty.

Iran’s deliberate use of capital punishment has been a constant source of 
international outrage and condemnation. According to several independent 
international bodies, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in 
Iran and Amnesty International, Iran is the leading state in executions per 
capita, second only to China in terms of figures. Iran also tops the charts in 
the number of executions of minors and juvenile offenders.

Iran Human Rights Monitor has recorded the execution of more than 200 
individuals since the beginning of 2019 in Iran.

At least 8 juvenile offenders and 10 women were executed, and 12 executions 
were carried out publicly.

There are 6 political prisoners among those executed.

The Iranian regime uses execution as a tool to suppress and silence a 
disgruntled public the majority of whom live under the poverty line, are 
unemployed and deprived of freedom of expression.

In March 2019, the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, appointed a former 
notorious judge responsible for mass executions as the head of judiciary to 
keep a lid on social unrest.

Since then Ebrahim Raisi, who has participated in “death commissions” that 
ordered the 1988 massacre of thousands of prisoners, at least 173 people have 
been executed across Iran.

At least nine women have been executed in a period of slightly over eight 
months, while in a year-long period from 2016 to 2018, the number of women 
executed by the Iranian regime in the whole year ranged between 6 and 10. At 
the same time, the execution of drug-related prisoners escalated.

On March 5, 2019, the U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino 
denounced Raisi’s appointment as the head of Iran’s all-powerful judiciary 
calling it a “disgrace” and a “mockery of legal process” since Raisi is 
responsible for the deaths of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s, 
including the 1988 massacre.

Palladino tweeted (both Farsi and English): “Ebrahim Raeesi (Raisi), involved 
in mass executions of political prisoners, was chosen to lead Iran’s judiciary. 
What a disgrace! The regime makes a mockery of the legal process by allowing 
unfair trials and inhumane prison conditions. Iranians deserve better!”

Executions carried out in prisons across Iran:

Most of the executions in 2019, have been carried out in Raja’i Shahr Prison.

Executions in Iran contrary to international law

Death penalty violates the most fundamental human rights, the right to life and 
the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

160 countries across the world have either abolished the death penalty or at 
least called a moratorium on its use.

The Iranian regime has not only refused to abolish the death penalty, but it 
executed:

•12 people in public

•Eight juvenile offenders

•Mentally disabled

•10 women

•33 people on drug related charges

•People convicted of vague charges such as “waging war on God” or “corruption 
on earth”

•People on other non-violent crimes such as financial offences and ape

Furthermore, because of the clerical regime’s failure to categorize murders 
according to their degrees, anyone committing murder is sentenced to death, 
regardless of their motives.

At least 10 women hanged

At least 10 women were executed since the beginning of 2019.

On September 26, 2019, Leila Zarafshan was hanged in the Central Prison of 
Sanandaj.

An unidentified woman was hanged along with seven male prisoners on September 
25, 2019, Raja’i Shahr Prison of Karaj.

A 38-year-old woman was executed in Mashhad Central Prison, on August 25, 2019.

4 women were executed in 8 days in July. They include Maliheh Salehian hanged 
in the central prison of Mahabad, Zahra Safari Moghadam, 43, hanged in the 
Prison of Nowshahr, and Arasteh Ranjbar and Nazdar Vatankhah who had already 
spent 15 years in prison, hanged in the Central Prison of Urmia.

The Iranian regime is the top executioner of women and holds the record on per 
capita executions in the world.

Many of the women convicted of murder in Iran are themselves victims of 
domestic violence against women and have committed murder in self-defense.

The inhuman verdicts of execution particularly for Iranian women are carried 
out at the end of a non-standard and illegal due process.

Iran execute 8 child offenders

At least 8 people have been executed in Iran in 2019 for offences allegedly 
committed when they were children.

In a flagrant violation of international human rights, the Iranian regime in 
April flogged and executed two teenage boys without notifying their family or 
lawyers.

Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat, 2 17-year-old cousins, were executed on 
April 25 soon after being transferred to Adelabad prison in the southern Fars 
province. Both were arrested in more than two years ago, when they were 15 
years old, and convicted on rape charges.

The boys’ families were granted a visit to the prison the previous day but were 
not told that it was in preparation for their execution, the human rights group 
said.

The families reportedly learned of the news when they received telephone calls 
from Iran’s Legal Medicine Organisation.

Both bodies were reported to have been laden with lash marks, indicating that 
they had been flogged before their deaths.

Amnesty International said in a statement on April 29.”The Iranian authorities 
have once again proved that they are sickeningly prepared to put children to 
death, in flagrant disregard of international law.”

International law strictly prohibits the use of capital punishment in all cases 
in which the accused was under 18 at the time of the crime.

Iran is a signatory of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, which 
forbids use of the death penalty.

In 2013 changes to the penal code designed to protect minors in Iran’s criminal 
justice system were introduced allowing judges to use discretion in sentencing 
for capital punishment crimes.

However, according to Amnesty International the changes had not been 
meaningfully implemented, allowing the authorities to “whitewash their 
continuing violations of children’s rights and deflect criticism of their 
appalling record as one of the world’s last executioners of juvenile 
offenders.”

More than 90 other juveniles remain at risk of execution. Many of them have 
spent prolonged periods on death row – in some cases more than decade.

Executions on political grounds

Iran has executed several people on vague charges with little transparency or 
due process.

At least eight prisoners convicted of “waging war on God” or “corruption on 
earth” has been executed in 2019.

They include Seyyed Jamal Haji Zavvareh, Maliheh Salehian, Abdullah Karmollah 
Chab, Ghassem Abdullah, Hamid Derakhshandeh, Behrouz Abdipour, Hossein Roshan 
and Mohsen Kounani.

At least 40 inmates convicted of similar charges are on death row in Iran.

Iran is also notorious for executing people for crimes that do not meet the 
basic international standard of limiting capital punishment to the most serious 
offenses.

In a recent case, the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced a supporter of the 
People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) to death.

According to the sentence, the PMOI activist Abdullah Qasempour was sentenced 
to death and eight years of prison on charges of “enmity with God by membership 
in, endorsement of and cooperation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of 
Iran”.

The Court accused 34-year-old Abdullah Qasempour of filming the incident and 
sending the video to media affiliated with the PMOI/MEK.

The judiciary’s long record of violating detainees’ rights and applying of the 
death penalty without due process have raised grave concerns.

2 prisoners Abdullah Karmollah Chab and Ghassem Abdullah, from Iran’s Ahwazi 
Arab minority, were executed on August 4, following months of torture during 
which both were forced to make false confessions.

In August Iranian authorities executed Hamidreza Derakhshandeh, a man who had 
killed the regime’s Friday Prayer Leader in Kazerun.

Friday Prayer leaders are mullahs who directly represent Ali Khamenei, the 
Iranian regime’s supreme leader, in different cities, which makes them much 
hated among the Iranian population who are fed up with the repression and 
corruption of regime officials.

Last year, Kazerun was shook by popular protests by thousands of citizens who 
were enraged by the regime’s policies to change the municipal divisions of the 
city, which would pave the way for more embezzlement by regime officials and 
result in lower services to the city’s inhabitants.

Popular protests across Iran regularly target Iranian regime officials, 
including Friday Prayer leaders, for their role in government corruption.

In comments following the killing of the regime’s Friday Prayer leader in 
Kazerun, Derakhsan had said, “Dear people of Iran, I love all of you, I love 
the poor people of Iran, those who don’t have bread to eat at night, those who 
have become sick of having to borrow money to make ends meet…

“I had heard and seen cases of injustice. Hundreds of these cases. There’s only 
so much I can do to buy and give to the poor. I saw these crimes. I’m not a 
criminal. This was my first time. My friends know me. I’m not a criminal.”

Targeting opponents of the death penalty

On June 18, 2019, the Revolutionary Court of Tehran examined a new case filed 
against Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee and Atena Daemi for their protest while in 
detention to the executions of three Kurdish dissidents.

The court sentenced them to 1.5 years’ imprisonment for “propaganda against the 
state” and to 2 years and one-month imprisonment for “insulting the leader 
(i.e. Ali Khamenei).”

Amir Raissian, lawyer of Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, told the press on September 5, 
2019, that the same verdict had been upheld in the revision stage without being 
examined by the Revision Court.

They have been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison on the charge of “propaganda 
against the state,” and to 2 years and 1 month for “insulting the leader (Ali 
Khamenei).” Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee was released from prison in April after more 
than three years in jail.

In September 2019, on the first anniversary of the executions of Kurdish 
political prisoners Zaniar Moradi, Loghman Moradi and Ramin Hossein Panahi, 
Atena Daemi sent an open letter out of Evin Prison emphasizing her opposition 
to death penalty.

In part of her letter, she referred to her new sentence, writing, “What an 
honor to receive another prison sentence for my opposition to death penalty and 
for defending humane living.”

Call for the elimination of the death penalty

On the eve of October 10 which marks the World Day against the Death Penalty, 
Iran Human Rights Monitor urges all international human rights organizations, 
especially the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on 
the situation of human rights in Iran, journalists and the media, to condemn 
horrendous executions in Iran and take immediate action to stop these medieval 
crimes being carried out in the twenty-first century.

We want an Iran, free of any executions.

(source: Iran Human Rights Monitor)

***********************

Day Against Death Penalty: A Focus on Human Rights in Iran



Once upon a time, it seemed impossible to imagine a world without the death 
penalty. Dictators used the gallows to strangle any opposing voice. They 
pursued to insinuate the people that there is only a way to counter crimes, and 
it is the physical removal of criminals and guilty people.

Therefore, none dared challenge this violent sentence in fear of being accused 
by rulers of seeking to escape punishment.

However, the reality shows that the number of death penalties for political 
interests or ethnic and racial cleansing is much more than executions for 
committing crimes. This is because only criminals can persuade themselves to 
use this brutal penalty against others.

Iran, the record holder of executions per capita

Today, while many nations have abolished the death penalty or are moving toward 
abolishing it, some governments still insist on killing people under the excuse 
of reducing crimes in society. One of these governments is the Islamic Republic 
system in Iran, which seeks to justify the death sentence under “religious 
rituals”.

In fact, the Iranian government’s human rights violations under the excuse of 
enforcing the law never diminished crimes in the country. Instead, it ranked 
Iran as the world record holder of executions per capita.

Using the death penalty as a tool for oppression

In this regard, Iranian rulers’ weakness in resolving crises pushed them to use 
the noose as a solution for any social, cultural, and economic issue. On the 
other hand, they practice the death sentence as the main tool to crackdown on 
dissidents and opponents.

Mass executions in the Islamic Republic

During the summer of 1988, the Islamic Republic committed an enormous massacre 
of political prisoners and executed more than 30,000 people, most of them 
members and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran 
(PMOI/MEK). Iranian authorities buried victims in unknown mass graves across 
Iran. Many families of the victims are still looking for the graves of their 
loved ones, and authorities refrain from informing them.

In this context, the 1988 massacre of MEK members were the most important mass 
killing in Iran. The Iranian government continues to employ this inhuman 
penalty regularly, and occasionally in public. During the presidency of Hassan 
Rouhani, who touts himself as a moderate, 3,800 people were executed in Iran, 
including teenagers, women, political dissidents, and religious and ethnic 
minorities.

What is expected of the international community?

In conclusion, the civilized world should never turn a blind eye to what is 
happening in Iran, and should never satisfy to the reduction of the number of 
executions for a short while. The international community and human rights 
organizations must compel the Iranian government to respect human rights 
conventions and behave like a normal state toward its citizens and should be 
accountable for the 1988 massacre of MEK members.

(source: irannewsupdate.com)

************************

Iran’s Regime Ranks First for Executions per Capita



Iran’s regime holds the infamous record of the world’s top executioner per 
capita. It also ranks first for most number of juvenile executions in the 
world. Women are also victims of the death penalty in Iran, with at least nine 
women having been executed since mi-June alone.

Since Hassan Rouhani took office as President, Iran’s regime has executed at 
least 3,800 people. In fact, as early as 1980, Rouhani, as a lawmaker, had 
called for dissidents to be made an example of by being hanged in public.

“Conspirators should be hanged in Friday prayers for people to see them and to 
have more of an impact,” Rouhani told a Parliament session on July 13, 1980.

Executions have continued unabated in Iran all throughout 2019. Iran Human 
Rights Monitor (Iran-HRM) reports that at least 199 people have been executed 
in Iran thus far this year.

According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human 
rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, the Iranian authorities hanged at least six 
juvenile offenders last year.

Contrary to the regime's so-called Citizens Rights Charter, Iranians do not 
have a right to life.

Currently, the age at which execution is permissible under the mullahs’ 
draconian laws is 9 lunar years for girls and 15 lunar years for boys. In many 
cases, victims are held in prison until they reach 18 years of age and are then 
executed.

Death penalty targeting the Iranian opposition MEK

Since 1981, Iran’s regime has executed some 120,000 opponents, primarily 
activists of the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization 
of Iran (PMOI), otherwise known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

In 1988, some 30000 political prisoners primarily affiliated with the MEK were 
arbitrarily executed in a matter of months, following a fatwa by Khomeini.

Death Commissions were set up across the country sending prisoners who refused 
to renounce the MEK to the gallows. The victims were buried in mass graves.

More than 5.000 names of those massacred have been published by the MEK.

The perpetrators of this crime against humanity continue to run the country 
with impunity.

Earlier this year, the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader appointed Ebrahim Raisi, 
a member of the Tehran Death Commission, as the country’s Judiciary Chief. And 
in 2018, Rouhani appointed Alireza Avaei, a member of the Dezful Death 
Commission, as Iran’s Justice Minister.

On August 28, 2019, Amnesty International reiterated its call on the United 
Nations to set up an independent investigation into Iran’s 1988 massacre of 
thousands of political prisoners. A large number of testimonies regarding the 
massacre are public record.

Asma Jahangir, the late UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, drew attention to the 
1988 massacre in her report to the UN General Assembly on October 25, 2017: 
“The families of the victims have a right to remedy, reparation, and the right 
to know about the truth of these events and the fate of the victims without 
risking reprisal. I, therefore, reiterate my call upon the Government to ensure 
that a thorough and independent investigation into these events is carried 
out.”

Iran HRM published an updated report into the massacre on October 8, 2019, that 
concluded that the time has come for the international community to break its 
30-year silence regarding the 1988 massacre and end 3 decades of impunity for 
the clerical regime’s leaders in Iran.

Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi has outlined the NCRI’s vision for a 
future free Iran without the death penalty.

“Our plan for future is an Iran without the death penalty and devoid of 
torture. Our plan is putting an end to torture and all forms of human rights 
abuse in Iran,” Maryam Rajavi said.

(source: ncr-iran.org)








UGANDA:

Uganda plans bill imposing death penalty for gay sex



Uganda announced plans on Thursday for a bill that would impose the death 
penalty on homosexuals, saying the legislation would curb a rise in unnatural 
sex in the east African nation.

The bill - colloquially known as "Kill the Gays" in Uganda - was nullified five 
years ago on a technicality and the government said it plans to resurrect it 
within weeks.

"Homosexuality is not natural to Ugandans, but there has been a massive 
recruitment by gay people in schools, and especially among the youth, where 
they are promoting the falsehood that people are born like that," Ethics and 
Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Our current penal law is limited. It only criminalises the act. We want it 
made clear that anyone who is even involved in promotion and recruitment has to 
be criminalised. Those that do grave acts will be given the death sentence."

African countries have some of the world's most prohibitive laws governing 
homosexuality. Same-sex relationships are considered taboo and gay sex is a 
crime across most of continent, with punishments ranging from imprisonment to 
death.

Earlier this year, Brunei sparked international outcry over plans to impose the 
death penalty for gay sex, backtracking only after intense criticism. 
(Reporting by Nita Bhalla. Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the 
Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers 
humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights 
and climate change.

(source: Reuters)








NIGERIA:

Kaduna police commissioner advocates death penalty for corrupt practices in 
Nigeria

Alhaji Ali Aji-Janga, Commissioner of Police in Kaduna State on Wednesday 
called for a review of punishment for corruption in the country to include life 
imprisonment and death penalty.

The police commissioner gave the advice at the 4th Multidisciplinary National 
Conference with the theme: “The Challenges of Insecurity to National 
Development: Repositioning Science and Technology in Nigeria,” holding in 
Zaria, Kaduna State.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Aji-Janga was the special guest at the 
event organised by Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic.

Represented by Zaria Area Commander, ACP Surajo Mohammed-Fana, the police 
commissioner said it was imperative to apply stiffer punishment in view of the 
negative consequences of corruption on the overall development of the nation.

He said: “The penalty for corrupt practices in Nigeria should be reviewed to 
either life imprisonment or death penalty to serve as deterrent.

“Persons found to have corruptly enriched themselves should not only be made to 
return such ill-gotten wealth but should be barred from holding any public 
office.

“The need to fight corruption and insecurity in the nation should no longer be 
a debate but an issue of priority, because there is so much at stake.”

He urged the youth as leaders of tomorrow, to spearhead the fight against 
corruption in the country, stressing that “to tolerate corruption is to debase 
the social, economic and political security of Nigeria.”

Aji-Janga advised that government, organisations and other employers of labour 
to realistically compensate workers in terms of remuneration and ensuring 
security for their jobs, to insulate them from corrupt practices.

The police commissioner added that the issue of insecurity and corruption 
should be of concern to all Nigerians, who must collectively work to terminate 
it.

Prof. Ibrahim Mohammed-Dabo, the Team Leader, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) 
Refinery Project, described insecurity as a breakdown of social and societal 
values.

In a paper entitled: “The Challenges of Insecurity to National Development: 
Repositioning Science and Technology in Nigeria”, the professor identified weak 
judicial system as one of the problems fueling corruption in Nigeria.

He also pointed out that insufficient and ineffective security system was 
posing a great threat to Nigeria as a natiom.

“Nigeria’s security agencies are found to be among the best security outfits in 
global peace keeping missions, but yet, they failed to adequately address the 
insecurity situation bedeviling Nigeria.

“The security agencies are not adequately equipped to confront the insurgents 
and other criminalities across Nigeria,” Mohammed-Dabo noted.

He lamented that lack of coordination among security agencies had led to 
unwanted collision between them, to the detriment of national security.

Mohammed-Dabo described corruption as a serious monster that affects the 
implementation of viable and meaningful projects in the country, and advised 
all Nigerians to re-examine themselves.

“If all of us will have the fear of God Almighty and be patriotic, Nigeria will 
certainly attain the greatest heights of development. Let us all embrace and 
practice “Change begins with me.”

Declaring the conference opened, Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, 
Alhaji Shehu Muhammad lauded the institution for organising the event.

The commissioner, represented by Zonal Director, Zaria Education Division, 
Alhaji Mohammed Tukur-Bashir said that the government was doing everying 
possible to enhance the standard of education in the state.

Earlier, Rector of the polytechnic, Alhaji Mohamed Kabir-Abdullahi said the 
conference was timely in view of the devastating nature of insecurity in the 
country.

The Rector, who was represented by his Deputy, Mr Thomas Kaza described 
security as the bedrock of meaningful development.

“It is important to note that security is critical to national growth and 
development of any nation.

“Today, everybody is no longer safe in Nigeria due to kidnapping, 
armed-robbery, gangsterism, drug abuse among others.

“This is why I say the theme of the conference is apt, timely and critical.

“I therefore, urge the participants to be attentive to gain a lot from the 
conference for your own good, the society and the nation at large,” he said.

(source: pulse.ng)