Oct. 7
UNITED KINGDOM:
Muslim preacher who endorses beheading of gay men gives lectures in
London----He also suggested burning gay people to death, throwing them off a
cliff, and crushing them under a falling wall
Islamic cleric Shaykh Hamza Sodagar who has previously called for the brutal
slaughter of gay men is currently conducting lectures in the UK.
On Monday, Sodagar started his classes at the Islamic Republic of Iran School
in Maida Vale, north-west London, and will carry on until 12 October.
According to Mirror, the school is a small independent mixed Muslim school
catering to students aged 6 to 17 and is run by the Iranian government.
Sodagar is born and raised in Washington D.C. and has spent the past 14 years
in Iran studying Islamic law and principles, reports Express.
His violent views towards the gay community were revealed in a video believed
to have been recorded sometime in 2010.
In the clip, he preaches about the death penalties that should be used to
punish gay men.
"If there's a homosexual man, the punishment is 1 of 5 things,' says Sodagar.
'One - the easiest one maybe - chop their head off, that's the easiest. Second
- burn them to death. Third - throw them off a cliff. Fourth - tear down a wall
on them so they die under that. Fifth - a combination of the above.'
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has urged the Home Secretary to 'revoke
the visa' of the preacher.
'In a free society, Hamza Sodagar has a right to believe that homosexuality is
sinful but not to preach about ways to kill lesbians and gay men,' Tatchell
said. 'Many people with far less extreme views, who have never advocated
violence, have been banned from entering the UK. Calling for death to LGBT
people crosses a red line.'
He added: 'The Home Office was wrong to grant him a visa and should now revoke
it. The cleric should be ordered out of the country.'
According to a speaker biography, Mr. Sodagar regards himself as a 'role model'
for 'young Muslims all around the world.'
The event is organised by a group called the Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission, which
also hosted Mr. Sodagar in 2014.
'Ahlulbayt... is a pro-Iranian regime organisation,' Tatchell warned. 'Iran has
the death penalty for homosexuality.'
(source: Gay Star News)
PAKISTAN:
Asia Bibi Blasphemy Case: Rights Groups Urge 24/7 Prayer as Christian Mother
Faces Last Chance to Overturn Death Sentence
A Christian charity is urging believers worldwide to unite in prayer for Asia
Bibi, the Pakistani Christian mother who has suffered in prison since she was
arrested in 2010, as she faces her final chance to overturn the decision which
sentenced her to death under the country's blasphemy laws.
Next week, Bibi will have her final appeal heard by the Supreme Court,
according to International Christian Concern (ICC), which notes that the
hearing is the final legal avenue available to avoid execution.
Advocate Said-ul-Malook, Bibi's lawyer, told the persecution charity, "I will
appear before the Supreme Court of Pakistan and argue her case while she will
remain in prison...I hope the result will be an acquittal."
As the deadline looms, religious freedom charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide
(CSW) is urging supporters to join in a 24-hour prayer movement on October 12
to pray for her release: "She needs our prayers now more than ever," CSW said.
The organization has asked believers to pray that Bibi would not only be
acquitted, but that she would have strength and restoration during and after
the hearing. It is also asking for prayers for Bibi's lawyer; for the wider
Christian community who may face a backlash whatever the outcome of the appeal;
for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Pakistan to maintain calm in the
country; for justice for others accused of blasphemy; and that the government
would urgently amend the blasphemy laws.
Critics have argued that Pakistan's blasphemy laws are often misused to "settle
personal scores" with minority groups such as Christians and Ahmadis.
"Pakistan has never executed anyone for blasphemy, but some people accused of
the offense in the past have been lynched by crowds," BBC News wrote. "Lawyers,
judges and those seeking to reform the blasphemy laws have also been
threatened, attacked or even killed."
As earlier reported, Bibi was first arrested in 2009 after getting into an
argument with two Muslim field workers when the women refused to drink from a
bucket of water she had touched because she was not Muslim. In turn, Bibi was
accused of defiling the name of the Prophet Muhammad, a serious charge which
carries the death penalty.
Later the women told a local cleric that Bibi had blasphemed against Islam by
saying: "My Christ died for me. What did Muhammad do for you?"
She was sentenced to death in 2010 by a local court in Punjab, but her death
sentence was suspended 5 years later. If Bibi's final appeal is overruled, her
only chance of avoiding execution would be through a presidential pardon.
BBC News reported that even if Bibi is released, she still faces an uncertain
future because of her Christian faith. Bibi's family still lives in hiding due
to the many death threats they have received. In addition, thousands of
protesters have vowed to kill her if she is released from prison, including an
imam from her own village.
While she faces an uncertain future, Asia Bibi was recently quoted by her
family as saying: "I forgive my persecutors, those who have falsely accused me,
and I await their forgiveness. . . . Jesus made this happy day for me and has
accepted my prayers. . . . But, although I have been in prison for seven years,
I do not hate those who did me wrong. . . . I pray that Jesus Christ will grant
peace to the whole world."
(source: gospelherald.com)
INDIA:
Nithari accused Surinder Koli gets death penalty in 6th case
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ghaziabad on Friday awarded
the death penalty to Surinder Koli in the 6th case related to the Nithari
killings.
The killings were discovered in 2006 when dismembered bodies of children and
women were found dumped around the Sector 31 house of Koli's employer, Moninder
Singh Pandher, in Noida.
The 6th case relates to a 25-year-old domestic help from Nithari in Noida, who
hailed from Nepal and had served as a domestic help at Pandher's house before
she disappeared on October 31, 2006. Koli has also been awarded the death
penalty in 5 other cases decided earlier at Ghaziabad.
According to the charge-sheet filed by CBI, the women had stopped working at
Pandher's house in August 2006 as she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. A
day before the woman disappeared, Koli had called her outside the house and
asked her to rejoin work.
On October 31, 2006, she left her house at 7am and told her husband that after
her work, she would go to Pandher's house to meet Koli as he had offered her to
resume work there. She never came back. Following a search, her husband and
brother-in-law went to meet Koli, who told them that the woman did not come to
their house.
After human skulls, bones, clothes and other remains were discovered from a
closed gallery behind Pandher's house at D5, sector 31 Noida, the woman's
husband identified her salwar. A skull superimposition test also identified the
victim as the 25-year-old domestic help.
The hearing in this case started in 2013 and Koli was held guilty after the
prosecution produced 50 witnesses. Koli was held guilty of abduction, rape,
murder and destruction of evidence.
Koli and Pandher were arrested in December 2006.
In January 2015, the Allahabad high court commuted Koli's sentence to life
imprisonment in 1 case. He is lodged in Dasna jail in Ghaziabad since December
2006.
(source: Hindustan Times)
IRAN:
Execution Looms for Iranian Child Bride
On September 30, a young woman delivered a stillborn child in Euromieh central
prison, in northern Iran. That would be tragic for any mother, but in Zeinab
Sokian's case, the tragedy is runs even deeper: the delivery brings her one
step closer to the gallows.
Zeinab, who was sentenced to death for allegedly murdering her husband in 2012,
when she was 17, was informed by authorities this week her execution could take
place in the coming weeks. (Zeinab had married a fellow prisoner who fathered
the child.)
Iranian law punishes intentional murder with death but prohibits the execution
of a pregnant woman. Zeinab, who is from a small village in northern Iran, was
just 15 at the time of 1st marriage. During her trial the court discounted
Zeinab's claims that her husband frequently beat and abused her, a source told
Human Rights Watch.
Under the Iranian Civil Code, girls can marry at 13 and boys at 15.
International human rights standards recommend 18 as the minimum age for
marriage. Those who marry young face a higher risk of physical and sexual abuse
than women who marry at 18 or later, studies show.
As a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran is obligated to
outlaw use of the death penalty on persons who were under age 18 at the time
they committed a capital offense. According to Amnesty International, Iran has
nevertheless executed at least 1 person convicted for an offense when they were
a child in 2016, and has at least 49 other child offenders on death row. Other
groups have documented cases in recent years where child defendants did not
have adequate access to lawyers.
Legal reforms in Iran that went into force in 2013 give judges discretion to
spare children the death penalty if they did not understand the nature of the
crime for which they were convicted. It also entitles those sentenced to death
prior to the 2013 reforms to a new trial, but places the onus on them to
request it - something that those from marginalized backgrounds may be
ill-equipped to do.
The 2013 reforms aimed to prevent wrongful conviction of children for capital
offenses. If the Iranian government is serious about this goal, it should at a
minimum grant everyone facing the death penalty for alleged offenses committed
as children a new trial that conforms to international human rights standards.
This includes Zeinab, an alleged victim of domestic violence, who may otherwise
imminently face the gallows.
(source: Human Rights Watch)
******************
Prominent Politicians and lawmakers urge Canadian Government to demand UN
inquiry into hideous massacre of political prisoners in Iran in 1988
In a press conference at the Canadian Parliament on October 6, Members of
Parliament, representative of the Iranian-Canadian community, and eyewitnesses
to the 1988 massacre urged the government of Canada to implement a motion
adopted by parliament in 2013. That document condemned the massacre of
political prisoners and expressed solidarity with political prisoners being
held in Iranian jails today. Also, ever since 2003, Canada has sponsored an
annual United Nations resolution denouncing Iran's ongoing human rights
violations. The October 6 press conference urged the Canadian government to
mention the 1988 massacre in this year's resolution.
Speaking at the House of Commons, the speakers called on the Canadian
government to play a leading role in demanding a UN commission of inquiry on
this crime against humanity, thereby sending a clear message that Iran faces
consequences for human rights abuses.
In the summer of 1988, based on a fatwa decreed by the Islamic Republic's
founder Ayatollah Khomeini, some 30,000 political prisoners were massacred in
the space of a few months and buried secretly in mass graves. The overwhelming
majority of them were affiliated with the People's Mojahedin Organization of
Iran, which remains the principal opposition movement to this day.
In August 2016 an audio file surfaced of Khomeini's then-heir as the supreme
leader Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri speaking about the massacre, which
triggered a crisis in Tehran. In the recording, dated August 15, 1988,
Montazeri can be heard harshly criticizing members of Tehran's "Death
Commission" who were appointed by Khomeini.
Shahram Golestaneh, spokesman for the Iran Democratic Association provided new
details about dozens of officials involved in the massacre and some secret mass
graves where they were buried.
According to Golestaneh "Scores of the officials who were responsible for this
crime against humanity are at the helm of important Iranian institutions.
According to the report of the UN Secretary General in September, nearly 1,000
executions were reported in Iran in 2015, the highest in the past 2 decades.
The very same individuals who carried the 1988 massacre are continuing their
crimes with impunity."
He added: "According to information compiled by the National Council of
Resistance of Iran (NCRI) from sources inside Iran, most of the institutions of
the Iranian regime are run by the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre. In recent
weeks, about 60 of the most senior officials responsible for this massacre,
whose names had remained secret for nearly 3 decades have been identified.
These individuals were members of the "Death Commissions" in Tehran and 10
other Iranian provinces."
Golestaneh disclosed the details of 8 mass graves which have never been
revealed before. These mass graves are in Mashhad (north-east Iran), Zanjan
(north-west Iran), Kermanshah (western Iran), Sume'e Sara (northern Iran),
Tonekabon (northern Iran- 2 new mass graves were found there), Dezful
(south-west Iran), and Bandar-e Gaz (northern Iran).
Candice Bergen, Canada's former Minister of State and Conservative MP pointed
out the appalling human rights situation in Iran, particularly repression of
women, as described in the recent report of the UN Secretary General. She
dismissed the notion of possible moderation under Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani and said that the very same officials who are responsible for
modern-day repressive measures were implicated in the 1988 massacre and
represent both the hardline and "moderate" faction of the regime. She joined
her colleagues in asking the Canadian government to implement the 2013 motion
and to ask for a UN investigation.
Michael Cooper, a Member of Parliament from Edmonton, reiterated that the
Iranian regime executed children as young as 15 in the massacre of 1988. He
stated that he stood with the Iranian Canadian community in commemorating
30,000 political prisoners mass murdered in 1988. He elaborated on the role of
the Iranian regime in fighting in Syria, human rights abuses inside Iran, and
funding terrorist groups such as Hezbollah. He said that if the massacre of
1988 taught us anything, it is that the Iranian regime is anything but normal.
James Bezan, an influential voice in the Canadian Parliament on Iran human
rights, used the press conference to praise the 2013 motion adopted by
parliament. Bezan called for an end to impunity and urged the Canadian
government to implement the motion and ask the UN to conduct an inquiry into
this hideous crime.
David Kilgour, Chairman of Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran pointed out
the leading role that Canada can play in the human rights field. He cited the
example of South Africa under Apartheid, when Canada led the way to change the
status quo. As a former lawyer, he stated that impunity should come to an end
and Canada should stand up for accountability and the rule of law in the case
of this crime against humanity.
Mr. Ahmad Hassani gave an account of his brother, Mahmoud Hassani's execution
as part of 30,000 political prisoners mass murdered in 1988. He said to date,
the regime has not provided any details about where his body was buried. Mr.
Mehdi Garmroudi, who also lost his brother in the massacre of 1988, provided
his own eyewitness account.
(source: NCR-Iran)
JAPAN:
In historic move, Japan's legal community takes stand against death penalty
Japanese lawyers positioned themselves against the death penalty on Friday, as
the Japan Federation of Bar Associations called for abolition of a punishment
that critics say is uniquely cruel and vengeful.
JFBA members approved a declaration that seeks to abolish the death penalty by
2020 and to replace it with life imprisonment, a change that will bring Japan
into line with most other developed nations.
The JFBA represents around 37,600 Japanese lawyers and hundreds of foreign
legal professionals. In the past it has expressed unease over the death penalty
but has stopped short of taking a stand against it.
Friday's move will set the legal profession against the government, which has
executed 16 people since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in 2012.
In a joint statement, the European Union and the Norwegian, Icelandic and Swiss
embassies called the JFBA's decision "timely and welcome."
"We hope that an open, public debate on this issue in Japan will follow,
allowing the people of Japan to weigh for themselves the evidence from a
growing number of countries . . . that an abolition of death penalty can
actually strengthen the capacity of judicial systems to effectively deliver
justice and, at the same time, prevent irreversible miscarriages of justice,"
they said.
The move was welcomed by activists, who say the death penalty is error-prone
and leaves prisoners with no opportunity for rehabilitation.
"Capital punishment in all cases should be abolished because the inherent
dignity of the person cannot be squared with the death penalty, a form of
punishment unique in its cruelty and finality," Kanae Doi of the Tokyo branch
of Human Rights Watch said Friday.
"The death penalty is widely rejected by rights-respecting democracies around
the world and I see no reason why Japan cannot follow the stream. I welcome the
JFBA restarting the discussion in this direction."
EU governments have been lobbying hard for Japan to end executions. British,
French and Italian diplomats press the case regularly in their meetings with
lawyers, legislators and journalists.
Some European diplomats privately express frustration that abolition is not
even a subject of public debate in Japan.
The French Embassy in Tokyo said Friday it hopes that discussion will now
emerge.
"We have been calling on Japan to introduce a moratorium for many years," the
embassy said in a statement. "In this respect, we salute the declaration of the
JFBA. The death penalty is a moral issue, but it is also necessary to question
its usefulness."
Japan is 1 of only 2 Group of 7 nations that retain the death penalty.
In the U.S., figures show the trend is slowing. Executions in the U.S. this
year are on track to be the lowest in 25 years, and the trend is matched by a
sharp decline in the number of death sentences passed by American courts.
Japan's death row prisoners are usually kept in solitary confinement and are
required to stay silent, conditions that critics call both inhumane and
excessively punitive.
Doubts about the reliability of convictions have been fueled by cases such as
that of Iwao Hakamada. He was sentenced to death in 1968 in a case based on
evidence apparently fabricated by police.
Hakamada was freed in 2014 but now lives with severe mental impairments after
more than 4 decades on death row.
In 2015 Japan executed 3 prisoners. That year, the case of 89-year-old Masaru
Okunishi also drew attention. He died in the hospital after 46 years on death
row, fighting to clear his name in the murders of 5 women. He said his
confessions were forced and sought a retrial on 9 occasions.
(source: The Japan Times)
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