[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 15



IRAN:

Executions continue to mount in Iran


Tehran's prosecutor has called on the provincial punitive court to issue
death sentences for 17 more youths who were arrested under the bogus
charges of being "thugs and hooligans," state-run news agency Fars
reported today. In recent days the government controlled media had also
reported that 12 people were on the verge of execution in Kerman, eastern
Iran under the same charge.

Also today, ISNA, another state news agency reported that 2 people were
hanged in Tybad Prison in Khorasan Province, northeast Iran. The agency
identified the 2 as M. T., son of Abdulrahim and M. R. son of Mohammad.

On Sunday, August 12, the Etemad-Meli daily reported that a man was hanged
in public in Babolsar, in Mazandaran Province, North of Iran. The daily
identified the man by his 1st name Taqi.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, called on
the world community once again to end its inaction vis--vis the mullahs'
barbarism. She particularly called on the UN Secretary General, the High
Commissioner for Human Rights and members of the Security Council as well
as the EU members to condemn brutal violation of human rights and in
particular rising number of arbitrary executions in Iran. She also called
for the referral of the mullahs' human rights dossier which entails
numerous cases of crimes against humanity to the Security Council for
adoption of binding measures against the regime.

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

Denmark - Fifth Day of Rally in Protest of Wave of Executions in Iran


Iranian communities in Demark and supporters of the Iranian Resistance and
the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran held their 5th day of rally in
Copenhagen condemning the recent wave of executions in Iran.

Participants held banners condemning growing suppression in Iran and
calling on the international community to act immediately to stop barbaric
executions which are carried out in public everyday.

In the demonstration the Iranian and Danish Cultural Society read out its
statement condemning Nuri Al-Maliki's remarks against the People's
Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The statement also emphasized: while group executions is at its climax in
Iran, Maliki is concerned about the security of the Iranian regime.

Nuri Al-Maliki, current Prime Minister of Iraq, on Monday, August 6, 2007,
on the eve of his most recent to Tehran, once again repeated his
intentions to please the ruling mullahs in Iran and said, "The presence of
the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran in Iraq is a threat to Iran's
national security... and its presence on our soil is against Iraq's
constitution."

International legal and political organizations and personalities widely
condemned Al-Maliki's remarks and called on current Iraqi government to
respect the rights of the Iranian Mojahedin.

At the end of 5th day of rally an official from the Amnesty International
joined the rally and in his comments condemned crimes of the clerical
regime in Iran and expressed his solidarity with the gathering.

(source for both: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of
Iran)

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

Mother of Kurdish journalist on death row speaks


The mother of Kurdish journalist begged her son to stop hunger strike.

The mother of a Kurdish journalist on death row in Iran has begged her son
to halt a hunger strike he and his colleague, also sentenced to death,
have been staging for over a month.

Haj Khanoum the mother of Adnan Hassanpour, said after visiting him in
prison in Sanandaj (SINA), capital of Iran's Kurdistan region.

"During our meeting which lasted just over 30 minutes, my son was very
pale and he was shaking. He has lost much weight since he and (his cousin
and fellow Kurdish journalist) Abdolwahed Hiwa Boutimar started refusing
food 32 days ago", Khanoum said.

Butimar was arrested in late December 2006 while his cousin Hassanpour was
detained by police a month later.

According to Amnesty International, they were reportedly held by the
Ministry of Intelligence before being transferred to Mariwan prison and
sentenced to death on charges of espionage on July 17.

The death sentences against the two journalists prompted protest around
the world and has triggered a diplomatic row between Italy and Iran.

2 weeks ago the Foreign Ministry in Rome summoned an Iranian diplomat to
protest against a series of recent executions in Iran as well as the death
sentences against the Kurdish journalists.

Iran replied by saying Italy must not interfere in the Islamic Republic's
internal affairs.

"Adnan and Hiwa were casually informed they had been sentenced to death 15
days after the end of their trial which neither they nor their lawyers
were allowed to attend", Khanoum said.

She said her plea to Adnan to end his hunger strike had been in vain.

"He told me that as long as the authorities refuse to hear his and Hiwa's
complaints, they will refuse to eat".

Hassanpour, who writes for the Kurdish weekly ASO, and Boutimar, a
publicist and environmental activist, want their sentences to be suspended
and a new trial to be held, this time in the presence of their lawyers.

They also asked to be transferred from the high-security prison of
Sanandaj to another prison in Mariwan where they would be closer to their
families.

An international campaign is underway to save the journalists' lives led
by Amnesty International and Reporters without Borders.

In Italy, where the government is leading attempts in the United Nations
Security Council for a worldwide moratorium on capital punishment,
numerous parliamentarians and activists have also spoken out on behalf to
the two journalists.

Amnesty International has appealed to human rights supporters around the
world to urge the Iranian government to suspend the death sentences and
hold a new trial for the men.

"Proceedings before Revolutionary Courts in Iran do not meet international
standards for fair trial," Amnesty said in a statement.

"The penal code contains a number of vaguely-worded provisions relating to
association and 'national security' which prohibit a range of activities ,
including those connected with journalism or public discourse."

Iran has executed over 150 people so far this year, compared to the 177
put to death over the whole of 2006.

(source: Kurdish Aspect. com)






IRAQ:

Getting Away With Murder: Delay Chemical Ali's Execution

JURIST Contributing Editor Michael Kelly of Creighton University School of
Law says that the execution of "Chemical Ali" for the Anfal genocide
against the Iraqi Kurds should be postponed so that his role in subsequent
cases exploring other atrocities can be fully explored...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known in the West as "Chemical Ali", was
charged on August 8, 2007, along with 14 others, for the massacre of
Iraq's Shi'ites in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War. Tens of thousands
were killed in the uprising which the U.S. urged but failed to support.
Iraqi High Tribunal Prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi announced that the trial
would begin on August 21. Formal charges range from crimes against
humanity to genocide. Al-Majid, Saddam Hussein's cousin and frequent
military commander of choice, was instrumental in brutally repressing
post-Gulf War uprisings. There is just one snag in this process. Al-Majid
may be dead within weeks of entering his plea in this trial.

On June 24, 2007, al-Majid was convicted on charges of genocide, war
crimes and crimes against humanity as a key ringleader in the military
reprisals known as the "Anfal Campaigns" that claimed the lives of up to
180,000 Iraqi Kurds during the waning years of the Iran-Iraq War. Al-Majid
often supplemented his attacks against civilian targets and villages with
chemical weapons - hence the sobriquet "Chemical Ali." He drew the death
sentence in that trial and, per Iraqi law, his case was immediately
forwarded to an appellate chamber for automatic review. If confirmed by
the appellate court, also per Iraqi law, his execution must be carried out
within 30 days.

This same procedure played out in December, 2006, when Saddam's death
sentence in the Dujail trial for the massacre of 182 Shi'a was hurriedly
and amateurishly carried out after confirmation by the appellate court. At
the time of his execution, Saddam was half-way through the Anfal trial.
Many observers, including myself, argued strenuously for Saddam's
execution to be postponed until all seven trials could be completed, or at
least the Anfal trial itself; or, in the alternative, have the trial
continue posthumously against him so that the record of his involvement
and guilt could be established. Instead, not only was Saddam executed, but
the Iraqi High Tribunal declined to continue the trial posthumously
against him. Moreover, all charges against Saddam in the Anfal genocide
were dropped.

Thus, Saddam got away with murder. His role in the Anfal Campaigns was not
officially established through a court process, flawed as that process is.
The storytelling function of a criminal trial is vitally important for the
victims involved. In the case of Saddam's legally required but premature
execution, Iraq's Kurds were denied that function. And although the Shi'a
of Dujail got their day in court against Saddam, the Kurds did not.
Similarly, the Shi'a of southern Iraq will not get their day in court
against al-Majid in the 1991 Shi'ite Uprising trial that the Kurds got in
the Anfal trial.

The best institutions learn from their mistakes. The IHT and the Iraqi
government should learn from the mishandling of the Saddam proceedings. My
advice to the Iraqi government and the IHT on the matter of al-Majid
remains the same as it was with Saddam. Postpone al-Majid's execution so
that his role in the suppression of the Shi'ites can be fully explored
with his active defense. Do not rescind it, or commute it, just postpone
it. Failing that, at least let the trial against him continue
posthumously. And at the very least avoid dropping the charges against
him. To drop the charges is not only an insult to the survivors, but to
the memory of the victims as well.

(source: Op-Ed; The Jurist----Michael J. Kelly is Professor of Law at
Creighton University School of Law in Omaha, Nebraska. He is author of
Nowhere to Hide: Defeat of the Sovereign Immunity Defense for Crimes of
Genocide & the Trials of Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein (Peter Lang
2005) with a foreword by Desmond Tutu, winner of the 2006 Book of the Year
Award from the U.S. National Chapter of LAssociation Internationale de
Droit Pnal.)






INDONESIA:

Lawyer hopes Bali heroin 3 will be spared


A DEFENCE lawyer says Indonesia's Supreme Court could still save 3 members
of the Bali Nine heroin ring, despite a panel of judges recommending their
death penalties be upheld.

Three judges from the Denpasar District Court have advised the Supreme
Court to reject a last-ditch appeal by Australian drug smugglers Matthew
Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen.

But the trio's lawyer Farhat Abbas insists the Supreme Court is under no
obligation to take the lower court's opinion into consideration.

A decision on the appeal, known as a judicial review, is not expected for
at least several weeks.

"The decision makers are the judges at the Supreme Court," Abbas said
today.

"The opinion from the district court has nothing to do with the case
because they can only hear it, but they cannot make a decision.

"It will not affect our case."

The trio launched the appeal earlier this year.

In emotional appeals to the Denpasar District Court in June, they finally
admitted their roles in the failed bid to smuggle heroin from Bali into
Australia.

During the hearings, defence lawyers argued they should have faced charges
under drug possession laws, which carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in
jail, rather than drug export laws, which allow for death.

The appeal is the trio's final bid to beat the death penalty, other than
an appeal to Indonesia's president for clemency.

3 other Australians facing the death penalty over the plot - Scott Rush,
21, and ringleaders Andrew Chan, 23, and Myuran Sukumaran, 26 - have also
launched challenges, arguing Indonesia's Constitutional Court should scrap
the death penalty because the nation's constitution affords life as a
basic right.

The case is due to resume in Jakarta next week, with a decision some weeks
away.

Meanwhile, there could also be some movement in the cases of the remaining
3 members of the Bali Nine who are not facing death.

Lawyers for Michael Czugaj, 22, and Martin Stephens, 31, said they would
soon make a decision on whether to launch a final appeal against their
life sentences.

"Next week I'm going to meet (Stephens's) family in Bali, and I'm going to
see the situation for the judicial review," his lawyer Wirawan Adnan said.

Czugaj's lawyer Frans Passar also confirmed his client was also weighing
an appeal.

The only female in the group, Renae Lawrence, has ruled out an appeal
against her 20-year term, but could have her sentence shaved by one or two
months to mark Indonesia's Independence Day holiday on Friday.

Under the Indonesian system, all prisoners are eligible for remission on
Independence Day and some religious holidays, if they have served at least
6 months of their sentence and are not sentenced to either life in prison
or death.

(source: AAP)






BANGLADESH:

Cotler client faces execution


When you speak to Shoaib Choudhury on the phone, it seems almost
unfathomable that this man who is laughing and sounds so relaxed and
serene is facing charges that lead to his execution if he is convicted.

The Bangladeshi journalist and editor of the English-language Weekly Blitz
has, for almost four years, lived almost every day under a Sword of
Damocles for daring to be a pro-Israel Muslim and for crusading against
the forces of radical Islam that he says are taking over his beloved
country.

At writing, Choudhury was scheduled, after 5 postponements in less than a
year, to go on trial Aug. 17 for sedition, treason and blasphemy, charges
all dating back to his attempt to travel to Israel in 2003 to give a
speech on interfaith dialogue.

Since then, he has been attacked, beaten, tortured and jailed, and efforts
to have the charges against him dropped  including by his international
counsel, MP Irwin Cotler  have failed.

Yet, speaking on Aug. 5 to The CJN during a trip to the United States  he
was allowed to leave his country for the trip  Choudhury, in contrast to
his upbeat manner, also came across as a man of serious and determined
conviction and moral courage.

"If I am convicted or I am executed, it will not change our mission," he
said. "I am sure that someone else would take over."

Choudhury is almost serene in that knowledge and acceptance. His wife,
Happy, and two children, daughter Priyanka, 17, and son Hamzalah, 7, he
said, support him completely. So, he added, do thousands of fellow
Bangladeshis who share his pluralistic sensibilities and are fighting with
him for the forces enlightenment to prevail over the tide of radical Islam
in his country that is rising despite its origins as a secular
parliamentary democracy.

"There's a large, large number of Bangladeshi people who feel the same as
we do," Choudhury said, "and many of them  or at least some of them  have
openly expressed their support for me," in particular the Bangladesh
Minority Lawyers Association, which is representing him in court.

On the other hand, most top-ranked lawyers in Bangladesh won't touch his
case, "because they think if they support a Muslim Zionist, it will hamper
their careers," he noted. "They dont like to support me, but I don't
care."

On the eve of returning to his country, Choudhury was buoyed by his
six-day trip to New York, New Jersey and Washington, where he addressed
synagogue audiences, visited Capitol Hill, and lunched with the American
Jewish Committee, which last year presented Choudhury, at the time in
absentia, with its Moral Courage Award.

He also received some excellent news during the trip. Despite Choudhury's
own belief that a diagnosed case of glaucoma was causing impairment of
sight in his right eye, a New York doctor told him that he has never had
the disease, just the effects of a bad eye infection that was never
properly treated and made worse by sleeping on a jail floor under poor
conditions.

Throughout the trip, Choudhury was accompanied by Richard Benkin, a Jewish
activist who was able to help Choudhury get out of prison on bail in 2005.
The 2 invariably address each other as "my brother" and launched a website
together  interfaithstrength.com  to promote understanding among
religions.

Still, they don't necessarily agree on everything. Despite his generally
optimistic outlook, Choudhury thinks there is only a 50-50 chance that
charges against him will be dropped, and it won't be accomplished so
easily, because of the necessity to "appease radical forces."

Benkin told The CJN that while the fact that Choudhury was allowed out of
his country might be taken as a positive sign, "it's not good policy to
wait and hope that things go well."

Benkin believes the current interim Bangladeshi government "has to see
that if the case is not resolved, there could be some real, serious
consequences," particularly with regard to trade benefits.

"There are many possible routes by which these charges can be dropped,"
Benkin said, but he quoted Cotler to the effect that you cannot expect
Bangladesh to do the "logical" or "right" thing.

"It defies logic that until this point, the sedition charges against him
remain," Benkin said, "while they have been dropped against other
journalists. It's almost 4 years later, and the government has yet to
produce its first shred of credible evidence that there's anything here to
deal with."

Choudhury has on occasion identified with the notion that he is living out
the pages of a Franz Kafka novel. Benkin sometimes calls him "Joseph K,"
the protagonist in Kafka's masterpiece, The Trial.

Then theres what Choudhury considers the completely laughable notion that
he has been a Mossad spy  "I mean, it's too funny!"  or that he is
blasphemous in his acceptance of other religions.

Choudhury said he inherited his tolerant, open nature from his father, who
received a master's degree in India and instilled in his family the
principle "never to hate any particular religion."

Choudhury first met Jews when he was starting out as a journalist, "and
they were many of my colleagues. They were wonderful."

It is incomprehensible to him why his country has not yet recognized
Israel, a nation that was among the first to recognize Bangladeshi
independence in 1971. Choudhury has referred to himself proudly as a
"Muslim Zionist" and said that "as a Bangladeshi, I feel personally
obligated towards Israel."

Choudhury is grateful for the support he has received from the West, most
notably in the form of strong resolutions by the U.S. Congress and the
European Union. He is also grateful for Cotler's efforts and for
representations made by the Canadian government on his behalf and by other
canadians, including a letter in May sent by the Canadian Journalists for
Free Expression to Bangladesh's high commissioner in Ottawa.

Whatever support he may have, however, Choudhury is facing a real threat
if charges against him are not dropped. Yet, as Benkin said, Choudhury
"would not entertain any notion of not going back," despite several offers
of political asylum.

"He would never even consider it," Benkin said.

(source: Canadian Jewish News)