May 20
IRAN----executions
At least 5 People Executed in Iran Today - 1 Hanged in Public
5 prisoners were hanged in 2 Iranian cities Tuesday morning May 19, reported
Iranian state media.
According to the official website of the Iranian Judiciary in Fars province
(Southern Iran), one man was hanged publicly in the city of Shiraz this
morning. The man who was identified as "Hossein A" was sentenced to death
convicted of rape, said the report which also mentioned that he was sentenced
to 37 years in prison and 111 lashes for kidnapping and robbery.
4 prisoners were hanged in the prison of Arak (Central Iran) this morning,
reported the official website of Judiciary in Markazi province. These prisoners
were identified as "Abdolrahman Sh.", "Isa B." and "Alireza B." for
participation in trafficking of 111 kilograms of heroin, and "Ahmadreza M." for
selling 11 grams of the narcotic substance "crystal", possession of 601 grams
of heroin and 79 grams of crystal.
The above mentioned charges have not been confirmed by independent sources.
The website of the "Human Rights Activists News Agency" (HRANA) reported about
execution of 5 prisoners in the Adelabad prison of Shiraz. One of the prisoners
was identified as "Mehdi Keshavarz" and all of them were convicted of murder,
said the report. These executions have not been announced by the official
sources yet.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
PAKISTAN----executions
2 murderers hanged in Machh, Faisalabad jails
2 death-row convicts were hanged to death in Machh and Faisalabad jails on
Wednesday morning.
Mohammad Musa was hanged in Balochistan's Machh jail for murdering a man named
Liaqat Ali in Quetta's Alamadar road area. He was convicted by a sessions court
judge in 2007.
The appeals of the convict had been rejected by higher and superior courts and
his mercy petitions was also rejected by President of Pakistan.
The home department issued his black warrant yesterday and Musa was
consequently hanged today.
Another condemned prisoner Ali Gul was also scheduled to be hanged but he was
pardoned by the victim's family.
This was the 1st hanging at Machh jail since former Muttahida Qaumi Movement
(MQM) worker Saulat Mirza's execution.
In Faisalabad's Central Jail, condemned prisoner Zulfiqar was sent to the
gallows for murdering a taxi driver named Anwar in 2000 in the Thikriwala
police station jurisdiction.
In 2000, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) had sentenced him to death under the
anti-terrorism act (ATA), whereas his black warrant was issued yesterday.
Pakistan lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases on
March 10.
Initially executions were resumed for terrorism offences only in the wake of a
Taliban massacre at an army-run school in Peshawar which had claimed the lives
of more than 150 persons, mostly schoolchildren, on December 16, 2014.
The United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch have called on Pakistan to re-impose its moratorium on the death penalty.
(source: Pakistan Herald)
CHINA:
RI woman to be executed in China
Time is running out for Wanipah, a 28-year-old migrant worker from Indramayu,
West Java, on death row at Hangzhou Penitentiary in China.
According to her family's lawyer, Iskandar Zulkarnaen, Wanipah was convicted in
April 2011 of smuggling 992.72 grams of heroin into China through Xiaoshan
Airport in Hangzhou in December 2010.
Wanipah was sentenced to death, with a grace period of at least 2 years before
execution. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry informed her family of her situation
in August 2011.
Iskandar, speaking for her family, said that his legal team planned to take
this urgent matter to House of Representatives Commission IX, which oversees
manpower.
He also plans to seek help from the Foreign Ministry and Office of the
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister to get a stay of
execution from the Chinese authorities.
Wanipah's family said they hoped the government could provide adequate
assistance and save their daughter's life.
"I hope Pak Jokowi can help resolve her case," Rusmini, Wanipah's cousin, said
recently, referring to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
"At the very least, her sentence could be reduced," said Wanipah's mother,
Nusriah.
Iskandar said that Wanipah was likely a victim of human trafficking as there
was evidence that her travel documents had been forged.
On her family card, Wanipah is recorded as having been born on April 17, 1987.
However, on her passport, her date of birth is May 1, 1978.
"It is possible that she had fallen victim to trafficking. We can see it, at
least, from the false data," Iskandar said.
Based on data from the Foreign Ministry, 299 Indonesians are now facing
execution overseas, 57 of whom were sentenced to death for drug offenses.
At least 467 Indonesians have been executed abroad, including 168 in Malaysia,
28 in Saudi Arabia, 15 in China, 4 in Singapore, 2 in Laos and 1 in Vietnam.
Most recently, migrant worker Siti Zaenab was executed last month in Medina,
Saudi Arabia, after being sentenced to death in January 2001.
She was arrested in October 1999 for stabbing her Saudi Arabian employer to
death. Siti, from Madura in East Java, had worked in that country since 1997.
Just days after Siti's execution, another migrant worker, Karni, was executed
in Saudi Arabia. She received the death penalty in 2013 after killing her
employer's child in 2012.
The executions were carried out without prior notice from the Saudi Arabian
government and despite requests for pardons filed by the Indonesian government
earlier this year.
(source: The Jakarta Post)
EGYPT:
Egypt Court Issues Death Penalty for Georgetown Political Science Professor
Emad Shahin would be a dead man walking if he were in Egypt. Fortunately for
him, he's in Washington, DC.
Shahin was sentenced earlier this week to death in absentia by the Cairo
Criminal Court along with 35 other defendants, including former Egyptian
President Mohamed Morsi, on charges of espionage.
"This amount of death sentences is unprecedented in Egypt's modern history,"
Shahin told VICE News.
Shahin is a professor of public policy at the American University of Cairo, but
is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University and Columbia University.
He says he's embittered by the turn of events since President Abdel Fattah El
Sisi rose to power in a military takeover in July 2013.
Shahin first found out through Facebook that he faced criminal charges in
December 2013.
"I remember vividly I was giving a couple of lectures overseas and one night
this person contacted me on Facebook in shock, I didn't know this person at
all, and he said he knows of me and he found my name on the list of the people
who are going to be in charged in the Grand Espionage case".
Listed as defendant number 33, the evidence consists of being cc'd on emails of
other co-defendants in the same case as part of a bid to undermine Egypt's
national security by having contact with Hamas and Iran.
"I didn't take it seriously and he kept urging me to take it seriously and not
go back to Egypt" he explained to VICE News.
The tenured professor at the American University in Cairo has been in
self-imposed exile since January 2014, building on his impressive academic
credentials gained at various universities such as Harvard, Columbia and Notre
Dame.
Shahin vehemently maintains his innocence and claims the authorities have not
even contacted him regarding the specific charges.
The trials have been criticized internationally, with the US State Department
saying it was "deeply concerned" about the trials and Amnesty International
calling the proceedings, "charade trials."
The Egyptian government hit back immediately, maintaining that its judiciary is
independent and releasing a statement condemning the international criticism as
"an unacceptable intrusion into the work of the Egyptian judicial system" and
that these harsh reactions "display a complete lack of respect for its
procedures."
"The judicial context and the political environment in general is not conducive
to a fair trial and due process," Shahin said, adding that Sisi is "treating
Egypt as an extension of the army and not the other way around."
Shahin compares Sisi, who swept to power capturing 96 % of the national vote a
year ago, to the ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
"Sisi is putting people in a tough choice the same way Mubarak did - either me
or chaos, either me or insecurity and instability" he told VICE News.
In the course of outlining the oppressive political climate in Egypt since July
2013, Shahin goes even further in his comparisons to say, "he (Sisi) is exactly
like Saddam Hussein."
With Sisi's ascent to power, state security forces have killed over 1000
people, over 40,000 are languishing in prisons including journalists and
activists, protests have been effectively banned from public spaces, and a
report released today by several women's rights organizations notes that
state-sanctioned sexual violence has surged.
"When Saddam Hussein got rid of enemies he asked others to get involved in the
institutional process so everyone's hands were stained by blood and that's
exactly what Sisi did to a large part of society," Shahin said. "It was his
mandate to kill opponents and many people will wake up and regret this. This
injustice is not going to last."
Shahin's death sentence is not final until 2 June when the Grand Mufti, Egypt's
highest religious authority, approves the court decision. The decision can
still be appealed but Shahin is not even considering this.
"This is a farce and these are sham trials. If I take them seriously that means
I am vindicating the process and I am not going to do that. They are using
their means and I am using mine. I know it's a state against individuals but
what we stand for is democracy, human rights and rule of law."
As the end of the semester approaches, Shahin is setting his sights on
conducting more activism, informed by his scholarly work.
"I wanted to be viewed as an academic and scholar solely but this is too much,"
he said, in reference to the death sentence hanging over his head.
He is insistent that a political tipping point is imminent if the Sisi
government continues to silence dissent.
"They are acting on their madness so they have to be stopped, that's what I am
trying to do" Shahin said.
(source: vice.com)
************************
Egypt executions show 'profound disregard for human rights': ICJ
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) condemned on Monday the
"egregious human rights violations" of Egyptian authorities, including "the
right to life."
The statement was made in reference to Egypt's execution of 6 young men on
Sunday, "following their conviction in an unfair trial by a military court".
Meanwhile, the Egyptian administrative judiciary postponed to 2 June an
examination of a lawsuit that demanded the halt of the executions and are yet
to decide on whether the execution was legal.
According to the ICJ, the military proceedings in the "Arab Sharkas" case in
which these young men were executed, violated their right to a fair trial by "a
competent, independent and impartial tribunal".
Egypt's criminal law requires that those who receive death sentences are
hanged.
"Rights of defence were undermined, including the ability to have confidential
access to a lawyer," while all of the accused alleged that they had been
subjected to ill-treatment and torture while detained.
The ICJ also condemned Egypt's mass-death sentencing of approximately 109
people, including former president Mohamed Morsi, in an espionage case.
Additionally, according to previous statements to Daily News Egypt, families of
the executed said that 2 of the defendants were arrested 3 days before the
alleged "Arab Sharkas" confrontation took place, while 2 others had already
been detained for 3 months.
"Rather than contributing to serious human rights violations, Egyptian judges
should preserve the dignity of their office and act in defence of the rule of
law and human rights, not as a tool of repression," Said Benarbia, the Director
of the ICJ Middle East and North Africa programme said.
The ICJ added that it opposes the death penalty under any circumstances as a
violation of the right to life while the African Commission on Human and
People's Rights called on Egypt to "refrain" from carrying out the death
penalty.
Other local groups, including an Anti-death penalty group, has previously
called for a halt to these executions and has met with the state-backed
National Council for Human Rights in attempts to put an end to executions.
The UN General Assembly has repeatedly called for a moratorium on the use of
capital punishment.
(source: Daily News Egypt)
BANGLADESH:
4 to walk gallows for murder in Bagerhat
A Bagerhat court yesterday sentenced 4 people to death and another to life
imprisonment for killing a man in Morelganj upazila of the district in 2006.
The death penalty awardees are Lavlu Kha, son of Afsar Ali Kha of Saprakhali
village, Al Amin Hawlader, son of Tazel Hawlader of the village, Habibur Rahman
Hawlader, son of Abdul Majid Hawlader of Pashchim Baharbunia village, and
Bellal Hossain Hawlader, son of Abdul Majid Hawlader of Surjomukhi village.
The lifer is Harun Sheikh, son of Abdur Rob Sheikh of Pashchim Baharbunia
village.
Judge Md Asifuzzaman of the Additional District and Sessions Judge's Court-2
also fined the death penalty awardees Tk 20,000 each in absentia. Meanwhile,
the lifer was fined Tk 25,000. In default, he is to suffer another 1 year in
jail.
The court acquitted 6 other accused as charges brought against them could not
be proved.
They are Dulal Hossain, Masum Hawlader, Ujjal Hossain Hawlader, Lavlu Kazi,
Mizanur Rahman and Mostafizur Rahman of the area.
According to the prosecution, the convicts killed Sarwar Hossain Hawlader, son
of Bashir Uddin Hawlader of Uttar Phulhata village, over a land dispute on
February 20 in 2006.
The following day, the victim's wife filed a murder case with Morelganj Police
Station against 17 people.
On October 30 in 2007, police pressed charges against 12 people.
After examining witnesses and evidence, the judge found the 5 guilty and
pronounced the verdict.
(source: The Daily Star)
SUDAN:
Sudan Tries 2 Pastors on Charges That May Bring Death Penalty
Sudan began the trial of 2 South Sudanese church leaders accused by authorities
of espionage and undermining the constitution, charges that could carry the
death penalty, a defense lawyer said.
Yat Michael and Peter Yen attended proceedings at a criminal court in Sudan's
capital of Khartoum on Tuesday, Mohannad Mostafa, a member of the defense team,
said by phone. Officials from the National Intelligence and Security Service
recited the claims against the defendants, Mostafa said.
"The charges are fabricated by security," Mostafa said. "There is no evidence
against them." Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman didn't answer 2 calls
seeking comment.
Amnesty International, the London-based advocacy group, in February said the
two pastors were being held in secret detention and were at risk of torture.
Michael was seized by men identifying themselves as security officers on Dec.
21 during a visit to Khartoum, Amnesty said. Yen, who'd sent a letter to
Sudanese authorities inquiring about Michael, was arrested on Jan. 11 after
being summoned to a security office, it said.
(source: Bloomberg News)
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