Aug. 28
IRAN:
UN rights expert urges Iran to halt execution of 12 drug offenders
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed
Shaheed, on Friday urged Iran to halt the execution of Alireza Madadpour and 11
other individuals convicted on drug related offenses. All 12 individuals were
sentenced to death for drug offenses and recently transferred to solitary
confinement in Karaj Central Prison. Madadpour was arrested in November 2011
when 990 grams of crystal meth were found during a raid in a house he cleaned.
He was later convicted in July 2012 by the Karaj Revolutionary Court in a trial
that lasted 20 minutes, and was never given the opportunity to meet with his
defense lawyer. Madadpour's request for a pardon and retrial were denied.
Shaheed expressed serious concern regarding Iran's' insistence on using
drug-related executions as means to deter crimes and pointed out the open
acknowledgement of Iran's own government officials concerning the
ineffectiveness of executions in the prevention of drug-related crimes. Shaheed
stated that:
It is regrettable that the Government continues to proceed with executions for
crimes that do not meet the threshold of the "most serious crimes" as required
by international law, especially the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, to which Iran is State party. It is also troubling that
courts continue to issue death sentences in trials that not only breach
international fair trial standards but even domestic due process guarantees.
Shaheed urged Iran to impose a moratorium on executions and restrict the use of
the death penalty for the "most serious crimes."
Much international pressure has been directed toward Iran in recent years for
its use of the death penalty. In March Shaheed expressed continued concern
regarding Iran's alarming rate of juvenile executions and other flaws in the
justice system. In February Amnesty International criticized Iran's justice
system after 40 men were sentenced to death. In January AI reported on the many
juvenile offenders on death row in Iran.
(source: jurist.org)
BANGLADESH:
SC upholds death penalty for JMB man in Jhalokati judges killing case
The Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty handed down to a members of
banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for carrying out a
suicide bomb attack that killed 2 judges in Jhalokati in 2005.
A 5-member Appellate Division panel headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar
Sinha gave the verdict , rejecting the review plea filed by Asadul Islam on
Sunday morning.
Senior Assistant Judges Jagannath Pandey and Sohel Ahmed were killed in a
suicide bomb attack at Purba Chadkati in Jhalokati on November 14, 2005.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court had upheld death sentence of 7 JMB
leaders, including its chief Abdur Rahman, second-in-command Siddiqul Islam
alias Bangla Bhai and Asadul in the case filed over the killing of judges in
Jhalokati.
However, the death sentence of the militants except Asadul were executed in
2007.
(source: Dhaka Tribune)
****************
Bangladeshi jail 'cover-up' as UK journalist faces trial ---- Britain refuses
to release prison report as 81-year-old is held for sedition
The UK government is refusing to release a report that it secretly commissioned
into Bangladeshi prisons as concern grows ahead of a court appearance on
Tuesday of an elderly British journalist being held in a notorious Dhaka jail.
Shafik Rehman, 81, will face a supreme court hearing over allegations of
sedition. His family claim that the Foreign Office has effectively abandoned
him and fears that, if charged and convicted, he could be sentenced to death.
Even though no charges have been brought, Rehman has been detained for 4
months, during which his health has deteriorated. A prominent figure in
Bangladesh, Rehman is a former BBC journalist and talkshow host and is the 3rd
pro-opposition editor to be detained in the country since 2013.
The commercial arm of the UK's Ministry of Justice - Just Solutions
International (JSI) - completed a consultation on Bangladesh's prisons last
year. However, the findings of the report have never been made public, despite
concerns over the treatment of elderly prisoners. Freedom of information
requests have been rejected by the MoJ on the basis of "protecting national
security", alongside diplomatic reasons.
Critics claim the UK government is effectively protecting Bangladesh by
refusing to release potentially damning information about the conditions within
its prisons.
JSI was forced to close earlier this year after winning a contract to train
prison staff in Saudi Arabia. Set up by former UK justice secretary Chris
Grayling, JSI had contracts with numerous governments with questionable human
rights records, including Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey and Libya.
Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team of legal charity Reprieve, which
is representing Rehman, said: "By covering up these files, the UK government is
helping Bangladesh whitewash its abuse and mistreatment of prisoners like
Shafik.
"This 81-year-old British journalist spent a month in solitary confinement
lying on the floor of a Bangladeshi prison cell as his health collapsed.He has
now spent over 100 days in detention without charge and could face a death
sentence, just for doing his job. The Foreign Office needs to urgently step up
its assistance for imprisoned journalists like Shafik and support his release."
Shumit Rehman, the 57-year-old son of the former journalist, said that he was
afraid his father would never be free again. "I'm terrified that my dad's
health will fail," he said. "He has a stent in his artery and had to be rushed
to hospital once already. He's missed important medical appointments in London.
The UK government has information about conditions in Bangladeshi prisons that
it is keeping secret. I want to know if ministers think these jails are safe
for a frail old man like my dad.
"Instead of covering up poor conditions in Bangladesh's jails, the Foreign
Office should call for my father's immediate release."
A Foreign Office spokesman said it "continues to provide consular assistance"
in the case.
(source: The Guardian)
INDIA:
Death Row
Each time he got away, 'Dr Death' Pol seemed to have grown in confidence. The
fact that he buried the victims in his backyard says something about how
self-assured he was.
Over 13 years, 5 women and a man went missing from 3 villages, all in a
perimeter of 10 to 12 km, in south-west Maharashtra's Satara district. All 6
cases remained plain 'missing persons complaints' in the dusty registers of the
Wai police station till a body was dug out on August 11 this year in Dhom
village from a poultry farm belonging to a man everybody called Doctor.
Since then, 5 more bodies have been dug out in this quiet village of around 110
houses - 3 from the same poultry farm and 2 from a plot of land adjacent to the
Doctor's village home. The Doctor is now referred to as Dr Death in media
reports. Villagers are afraid even to utter his name - Santosh Pol - lest he
mark them for the next grave in his backyard.
As more details of Pol's serial killing and 'confessions' emerge from his
interrogation by the Satara police, families of the victims have raised
questions on how Pol could kill at will and then bury the victims in his
backyard without the cops smelling anything suspicious.
When Surekha Kisan Chikane, 30, a mother of two, went missing on May 23, 2003,
her husband Kisan Chikane, who runs a shop in Navi Mumbai's APMC market, told
cops he suspected Pol's involvement. Surekha had gone to Pol's clinic in the
village that day. She never returned. Chikane, in fact, dragged Pol, who had a
Bachelor of Electropathy Medical Science degree, to the police station,
requesting cops to question him. But the Wai police did nothing and Pol
allegedly went ahead to fill 5 more graves.
In at least 3 other cases the cops had a good reason to at least question Pol.
There is evidence that he was in a relationship with 2 of the 3 victims. The
3rd victim was a distant relative of Pol and he was involved in helping her to
resolve a land dispute when she was killed. In fact, Pol was booked in this
case. But he secured an acquittal.
Each time he got away, Pol seemed to have grown in confidence. The very fact
that he buried the victims in his backyard says something about how
self-assured he was. The graves he dug were at best rudimentary - 4-foot deep,
3-by-3 trenches. Dogs are known to smell rotting flesh covered by just 4 foot
of earth.
And cops have found 2 fresh trenches in his farmhouse of the same
specification. While Pol has told police that one was for his partner Jyoti
Mandhare, who, according to cops, knew all about the murders, he has refused to
reveal his plan for the 2nd grave. The jewellery he removed from his victims'
bodies was all sold to jewellers in Wai itself. Keeping track of jewellers who
buy stolen property is one of the most basic crime busting practices.
Families of 3 more missing persons in Wai taluka have now requested the police
to investigate the cases afresh. They have told the cops that all 3 were, at
some point or the other, in touch with Pol.
Those who once hoped that the loved ones would one day return were unaware all
this while that they were burried not very far from them in Pol's backyard.
They are now demanding not just punishment for Dr Death, but also action
against cops who either looked away or wilted under pressure or were plain
incompetent.
A father of 2 wants the murder of his wife punished. 2 girls want Pol to answer
why he took their mom away. 2 families, who lost their sole earning members to
Pol's brutality, want the death penalty for him. 2 boys and a girl, who
struggled to make a life for themselves in the absence of their mother's
guiding hand, want him to feel the pain too. They are not afraid to take his
name. They have nothing more to lose.
(source: Alka Dhupka, Mumbai Mirror)
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan's death row: Where even angels fear to tread
Last week, the Supreme Court of Pakistan set a date for the final appeal
hearing for Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death in 2010 on accusations of
alleged blasphemy. The 51-year-old Christian convict and mother of 5 will have
her final appeal heard before the court during the 2nd week in October.
Bibi initially appealed against her death sentence to the Lahore High Court,
which in October 2014, upheld the verdict. The Supreme Court agreed last July
to hear Bibi's case and stayed her death sentence.
One of the most controversial blasphemy cases to-date, Punjab Governor Salmaan
Taseer was assassinated for standing with Bibi; Minister for minorities Shahbaz
Bhatti was gunned down by terrorists and Taseer's assassin Mumtaz Qadri was
given death in February 2016.
It all began over Bibi sharing a bowl of water with a Muslim woman in June 2009
in the town of Sheikhupura in the Punjab province. As the women were picking
berries, a Muslim woman became furious when Bibi drank from the same bowl that
the Muslim women drank out of, which lead to a heated debate.
Becoming prey to decades-old bias and prejudice against religious minorities,
Bibi paid the price for standing her ground and asking for equality. She was
accused of blasphemy, which she has repeatedly said she never committed.
Bibi, who has been in the jail for 6 years now, has a deteriorating health and
the Christian rights groups in Pakistan have been reporting how she needs
special medical care as she has had lung infection and has trouble walking too.
The reports from these groups suggest that she is suffering from "Death Row
Syndrome" and is under mental trauma.
A lot has changed even outside Bibi's jail cell. Pakistan, which had a
moratorium on death penalty, has executed over 400 people since resuming
hangings in December 2014 after the Army Public School attacks, according to an
international human rights organisation, Reprieve.
What started out to execute terrorists is now a penalty on non-terrorists too.
Pakistan has become one of the world's most prolific executioners since lifting
a moratorium on hangings, which had been in place for several years. According
to publicly available data analysed by Reprieve, June saw 4 hangings, bringing
the total since December 2014 to 404 - though the figure could be higher as not
all executions in the country are reported. 86 of those hangings have taken
place in 2016, which means that Pakistan likely holds its position in the
world's top 5 executioners for the year so far behind China, Iran and Saudi
Arabia, but ahead of the US.
Pakistan has seen a number of controversial death penalty cases recently. Abdul
Basit, a paralysed prisoner who needs to use a wheelchair, continues to be held
under sentence of death despite concerns that there is no way to execute him
that would not carry a high risk of prolonged suffering. He recently told his
lawyers that, during a previous attempt to hang him, the prison authorities had
built a slope or ramp up to the gallows to take him to be hanged in his
wheelchair.
Also facing potential imminent execution is Muhammad Anwar, despite his having
been arrested as a child. His case is currently before the Supreme Court, as
both Pakistani and international law prohibit the execution of people arrested
for alleged offences that took place when they were under-18.
The Justice Project Pakistan in its report explains how the country has one of
the largest death row populations in the world. This is partly because there
are over 20 offences for which a person may receive death penalty, including
non-lethal crimes such as blasphemy, kidnapping, and drug offences. There are
around 7,595 prisoners on death row, hanging being only legal means of
execution in the country.
A blasphemy convict has never been hanged by the state. Will the Supreme Court
of Pakistan uphold Bibi's sentence? Or will President Mamnoon Hussain hear her
clemency appeal and pardon her?
(source: newindianexpress.com)
INDONESIA:
Police Arrest Dealer in Possession of 295 Kilograms of Marijuana
Bekasi Police arrested a suspected drug dealer found in possession of 295
kilograms of marijuana, in Cikarang, Bekasi, on Wednesday (24/08).
The 29-year-old male suspect identified only by his initials I.D., was arrested
at around 3.00 p.m. on Wednesday after receiving a tip-off from local
residents, Bekasi Police chief Sr. Comr. Awal Chairuddin said.
"The suspect [likely] acquired the goods from Sumatra, through delivery by
land," Awal said on Thursday.
Awal explained that the marijuana was purportedly delivered by another suspect
identified only by the initial U, who is still at large. He was a former
associate of I.D.'s parents, who are currently incarcerated for drug-related
offences.
After being questioned, the suspect admitted to being a warehouse keeper and
also selling marijuana, in exchange for money ranging from Rp 2 million ($150)
to Rp 20 million, depending on the amount sold.
"We are still conducting investigations with the suspect as well as his parents
before proceeding," Awal said.
After the arrest, police officers then raided a boarding house in the vicinity
and found 15 large sacks of marijuana which were packed, sealed and ready for
distribution.
The suspect could face the death penalty if found guilty.
(source: Jakarta Globe)
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