June 6
SUDAN:
Prominent Sudan rights activist accused of 'espionage'----Khartoum accuses
Mudawi Ibrahim Adam of 'spying' and 'tarnishing Sudan's reputation'
A prominent Sudanese human rights advocate could face the death penalty after
being accused Monday by the Sudanese authorities of espionage.
Mudawi Ibrahim Adam was arrested last September amid accusations that he was
involved in an Amnesty International report that alleged that Khartoum had used
chemical weapons against civilians in Darfur.
Adam's continued detention has drawn international criticism, while activists
have launched an online media campaign to show solidarity with the detained
rights advocate.
On Monday, Prosecutor-General Babiker Abdul Latif said in court that Ibrahim
stood accused of engaging in "espionage" against Sudan, tarnishing the
country's image, threatening national security, and undermining the
constitution, among other serious charges.
"He has also operated a terrorist and criminal organization, while preparing
fabricated reports about chemical weapons usage [by the government] in Darfur,"
Abdul Latif asserted.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Nabil Adeeb, head of Ibrahim's defense team,
described the government's case against his client as "weak" and "fabricated".
"We know these are trumped-up charges," he said. "They are merely intended to
keep Mr. Mudawi ... in jail for a long time."
In a report released last September, U.K.-based Amnesty International accused
Khartoum of using chemical arms against civilians in Sudan's western Darfur
region.
(source: worldbulletin.net)
NIGERIA/INDONESIA:
Nigeria pleads for death row nationals as Indonesia's top diplomat visits
The Federal Government on Monday pleaded with the government of Indonesia to
commute the death penalty passed on Nigerians in the country's prison, to life
imprisonment.
Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, made the plea in a joint communique
issued at the end of bilateral meeting between the minister and Retno Marsudi,
his counterpart from Indonesia.
He said, "On consular issues, Nigeria recognises the drugs emergency situation
in Indonesia and pleaded for commuting death penalty to life imprisonment."
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there are about 50 Nigerians
serving various jail terms for different offences in Indonesia with about 11 of
them on death row.
Human Rights organisation, Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), had
called on the federal government to boost its efforts in fighting for Nigerians
on death row in foreign countries.
The organisation stated that no fewer than 300 Nigerians were currently on
death row in prisons across Asian countries since 2016.
LEPAD said 120 Nigerians faced the prospects of death in Chinese prisons, and
over 170 in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and 5 in Qatar, United Arab
Emirate and Saudi Arabia.
The organisation estimated that about 16,500 Nigerians were being held abroad,
while most of those on death row were convicted of drug-related crimes.
Mr. Onyeama said the 2 countries agreed to deepen contacts between their
respective national Chambers of Commerce and private sector operators with a
view to further enhance bilateral trade and investments.
He added that they also agreed on the importance of enhancing the existing
cooperation between the 2 countries.
He said the 2 countries agreed to simplify bilateral trade through the
establishment of a Bonded Logistic Centre in one of Nigeria's ports that could
be used for Indonesian products.
Mrs. Marsudi had earlier announced her government's growing interest in
promoting mutually beneficial economic relations with Nigeria.
The visiting minister expressed concern that there had been decline in
bilateral trade between both countries in the last 5 years.
She said her government was prepared to enhance its economic relations with
African countries, especially with Nigeria, in the years ahead.
She said that Nigeria and Indonesia have the resources and energies to enhance
their areas of cooperation.
((source: Premium Times)
GHANA:
Mahama's Killers must be killed, but lawfully
What do we want? Justice for Capt. ? To kill those who killed him? Oh yes !
That is very simple. We can kill them because our laws permit killing of people
who have been tried and proven guilty of murder charges despite the fact that
Amnesty International is impressing upon us to expunge it from our law books. I
believe it should be there and apply them when necessary.
It can still be done with much ease. In fact, no hustle at all. The prisons
services are there to ensure that they are killed but not through instant
firing at the shooting range as a section of the public are calling for, and
for that matter missing the days of the revolution. How many of the youths in
this current generation saw the revolution anyway? We are only told by our
parents and grandparents who are gradually fading away with the painful
memories of the atrocities some innocent Ghanaians went through in the hands of
soldiers during military rule.
The firing squad is unlawful and unconstitutional way of killing people during
the the military rule so we should allow it to belong to history as it is
believed that many innocent Ghanaians were wasted in that manner without a fair
hearing or trial before a court of competent jurisdiction. We can still kill
them but it should be done constitutionally and in a democratic manner else we
may be guilty of the same crimes that the alleged murderers committed by
killing the Captain.
Section 46 of the Criminal Code (Act 29/60) states emphatically that he who is
guilty of murder shall suffer death penalty. This is crystal clear and does not
need any Constitutional interpretations from the Supreme Court. It's black and
white in the Criminal Code and has not been repealed or ammended. Death penalty
for those who are guilty of murder charges and not to waste about it. The law
does not prescribe any punishment for murderers apart from death penalty so we
should rather call for due processes of the law and not instant execution of
them at the firing squad. The fact they were lawless doesn't mean the whole
country should also follow emotions and be lawless because our country is
govern by laws in a democratic dispensation.
Section 47 of the same Act defines murder as "Whoever intentionally causes the
death of another person by any unlawful harm is guilty of murder, unless his
crime is reduced to manslaughter by reason of such extreme provocation, or
other matter of partial excuse ..." Here the law goes ahead to cites grounds on
which murder charges can be reduced to manslaughter and that is through extreme
provocation or other matter of partial excuses. Did Capt. Maxwell Adama Mahama
provoke his assailants extremely to warrant his untimely death? If not, then we
are likely to gain some convictions on the charges of murder if prosecution is
able to make a strong case at the court.
We can still kill them if we really want to. It's a matter of the president
signing the death warrants after trial and hand them over to the prisons. They
will execute them without wasting our time. I am told there are some prison
officers who take execution allowances. I don't know whether they are still
taking it since they implemented the single spine salary structure. If they are
still taking it, then it means that there are some prison officers who are paid
by government to kill people who are proven guilty of murder charges and other
felonious crimes like treason and high treason. We can still fulfil the
biblical saying that "he who draws the sword dies by the sword"
constitutionally and democratically. It's still not late so tell our colleagues
in the military fraternity to hold their breaths. We are now in democratic
country where the rule of law is supreme.
The problem however with the death sentences and its execution is our
presidents who blatantly refuse to sign death warrants for people who are
proven guilty by courts on murder charges to be killed. That is a shirk of
legal responsibilities by our presidents and probably some of the reasons why
mob attacks and lynching of people seem to be on the rise. One of the effects
of death sentence is to deter others from committing such crimes after justice
is served. People have forgotten that if you kill, you will also be killed so
people commit heinous crime with impunity as we saw in the case Capt. Maxwell
Adama Mahama. We must remind them that death sentences still exist
My checks indicates that the last time a death sentence was executed in Ghana
was 1993 under the watch of H.E Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings. Since Paapa J left
the office as the president of the Republic, all the succeeding presidents have
failed to sign the death warrants which is a legal breach. It is a clear case
of abuse of human rights for the courts to condemn people to death and yet the
nation fails to take up its responsibilities to kill them. We are only
torturing them psychologically which is against their human rights. Isn't it a
contempt of court to have failed to carry out the orders of a court and a slap
in the face of our justice system? I believe it is.
We can put H.E Nana Akuffo Addo to test with the death of Capt. Maxwell Adama
Mahama if we really want justice to be served and not being emotional with the
whole thing. In no time, our emotions will heal particularly those of us who
are not directly connected to the family of Capt. Maxwell Adama Mahama. The
media will turn their eyes somewhere and discuss unreasonable political shows.
When no one is watching, that is when people can escape justice after several
adjournments in the court. We only talk in times of crisis and forget when our
emotions are healed. That is our nature as country and people.
I don't know about Ghana but in some jurisdictions, members of the deceased
family are invited to watch the execution of people who are proven guilty of
murder charges. Psychologists believe that watching someone who killed a
relative of yours dying painfully gives you some kind psychological reliefs and
increase your confidence in the law because justice is served. You become
satisfied emotionally and psychologically whereas others schools of thoughts
call for total forgiveness.
We can equally do same by inviting the general public to watch how those who
are likely to be proven guilty of murder charges in the case of Capt. Maxwell
Adama Mahama will be executed by hanging since we want to see them dead. If
their deaths is what will give us psychological relieve of our traumas due to
how the Captain was gruesomely killed instead of calling on powers that be to
put stringent measures to ensure that mob attacks and lynching are totally
elminated from our society. Just imagine that after the judgment and the
following day, it is in the news that the killers of Capt. Maxwell Adama Mahama
have also been killed after proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction?
That one sound more democratic than handing them over to the soldiers to
execute them by firing squad at the shooting range.
We are in a democratic country and our ability to enforce the law will make the
rule of rule of law effective. Tell the presidents to sign death warrants
pilling on their desks. They should clear backlog of all death sentences on
their desks to serve as deterrent to others. I do not want to sign death
warrants that is I am not a president.
In Ghana, we kill murderers by hanging them because that is what the law says
and not through firing squad because rule of law has come to stay.
(source: Opinion; Ahanta Apemenyimheneba Kwofie III----News Ghana)
SAUDI ARABIA:
14 Protesters Facing Execution After Unfair Trials
Saudi Arabia should immediately quash the death sentences of 14 members of the
Shia community for protest-related crimes, Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch said today. The Court of Appeal of the notorious Specialized
Criminal Court upheld the sentences in May 2017, after they were handed down a
year ago on June 1, 2016, following a grossly unfair trial of 24 Saudi Shia
citizens. The Specialized Criminal Court is Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism
tribunal.
"The rise in death sentences against Saudi Arabian Shia is alarming and
suggests that the authorities are using the death penalty to settle scores and
crush dissent under the guise of combating 'terrorism' and maintaining national
security," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
Saudi authorities have executed more than 100 people since January 1, 2016
On May 25, 2017, the families of 3 of the defendants learned in a phone call
that the Court of Appeal of the Specialized Criminal Court had upheld the death
sentences against their relatives. The family members of another 2 defendants
subsequently called the court, on May 28, and were informed that the sentences
for their relatives and for the whole group of 14 had been upheld on appeal.
The exact date of the appeal court's decision is unknown.
Court documents show that all defendants, including the 14 sentenced to death,
were held in pretrial detention for more than 2 years before their trial began.
During that time, most were in solitary confinement, and Saudi Arabian
authorities denied them access to their families and lawyers while they
interrogated them.
Since 2013, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have recorded a
worrying increase in death sentences against political dissidents in Saudi
Arabia, including the Shia Muslim minority. The organizations are aware of at
least 38 members of Saudi Arabia's Shia community - who make up 10 to 15 % of
the population - currently sentenced to death. Saudi Arabian authorities
accused these individuals of activities deemed a risk to national security and
sentenced them to death after deeply flawed legal proceedings at the
Specialized Criminal Court.
"The sham court proceedings that led to death sentences for 38 Shia men and
boys brazenly flout international fair trial standards," said Lynn Maalouf,
director of research at Amnesty International in the Middle East. "The
sentences should immediately be quashed."
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch obtained the text of and analyzed
10 court judgments - involving 38 individuals - handed down by the Specialized
Criminal Court between 2013 and 2016. Most were against men and children
accused of protest-related crimes following mass demonstrations in 2011 and
2012, in Eastern Province towns where Shia Muslims form the majority.
In nearly all the trial judgments analyzed, defendants retracted their
"confessions," saying they were coerced in circumstances that in some cases
amounted to torture, including beatings and prolonged solitary confinement. The
court rejected all torture allegations without investigating the claims. Some
defendants asked the judges to request video footage from the prison that they
said would show them being tortured. Others asked the court to summon
interrogators as witnesses to describe how the "confessions" were obtained. In
all cases judges ignored these requests.
The judges admitted the "confessions" as evidence, and then convicted the
detainees almost solely based on these "confessions."
"Death sentences based on coerced 'confessions' violate international human
rights law and are a repugnant yet all-too-common outcome in security-related
cases in Saudi Arabia," Maalouf said. "These death penalty trials fail to meet
even the most basic requirements for due process."
On January 2, 2016, Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution of 47 men for
"terrorism offenses." Among those executed were Ali Sa'eed al-Ribh, whose trial
judgment indicates that he was under 18 at the time of some of the crimes for
which he was sentenced to death. As a state party to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, Saudi Arabia is legally obliged to ensure that no one
under 18 at the time of a crime is sentenced to death or to life in prison
without the possibility of release.
Those currently on death row include four Saudi Arabian nationals who were
found guilty of offenses committed when they were teenagers - Ali al-Nimr,
Dawoud al-Marhoun, Abdullah al-Zaher, and Abdulkareem Al-Hawaj.
The January 2, 2016 executions also included a prominent Shia Muslim cleric,
Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, the uncle of Ali al-Nimr. Sheikh al-Nimr was a vocal
critic of the government, and was convicted following a grossly unfair trial.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch oppose the death penalty in all
cases without exception. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and
degrading punishment and unique in its finality. It is inevitably and
universally plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error.
Pending full abolition of the death penalty, the Saudi Arabian authorities
should immediately establish an official moratorium on executions, and remove
any death penalty provisions that are in breach of international human rights
law, such as provisions for its use against juvenile offenders and those
suffering from mental disabilities, Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch said.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world's most prolific executioners and has put to
death more than 400 people since the beginning of 2014, most for murder,
drug-related crimes, and terrorism.
In addition to conducting unfair trials, Saudi Arabia has executed alleged
child offenders and nonviolent offenders, including for drug-related crimes and
"crimes" such as sorcery, in violation of international law which restricts the
use of the death penalty to the "most serious crimes" - generally defined to
include only intentional killing. Since the beginning of 2014, Saudi Arabia has
executed at least 147 people for nonviolent drug crimes.
(source: Human RightsWatch)
IRAQ:
Dozens Found Handcuffed, Executed in, around Mosul----Evidence Points to
Killings by Government Forces
At least 26 bodies of blindfolded and handcuffed men have been found in
government held areas in and around Mosul since the operation to retake the
city began in October 2016, Human Rights Watch said today.
In 15 of the cases, local armed forces told a foreign journalist that the men
were extrajudicially killed by government security forces who had them in
custody under suspicion of Islamic State (also known as ISIS) affiliation. In
the remaining cases, reported by local and international sources, the sites of
the apparent executions - all in government held territory - raise concerns
about government responsibility for the killings. A foreign journalist also
said that a government official told them that a Sunni Popular Mobilization
Forces (known as the PMF or Hashd al-Sha'abi) unit, which is part of the
government forces working to retake Mosul, was responsible for the
extrajudicial killing of 25 men in their custody and dumping the bodies in the
Tigris River.
"The bodies of bound and blindfolded men are being found one after the other in
and around Mosul and in the Tigris River, raising serious concerns about
extrajudicial killings by government forces," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle
East director at Human Rights Watch. "The lack of any apparent government
action to investigate these deaths undermines the government's statements on
protecting detainee rights."
Extrajudicial executions during an armed conflict are war crimes and if
widespread or systematic, carried out as part of policy, would constitute
crimes against humanity.
Iraqi forces, including the Popular Mobilization Forces, are screening and
detaining men fleeing Mosul, in some cases in unidentified and informal
detention centers where they are cut off from contact with the outside world.
The authorities have not released any information on the number of people
detained, or being investigated or charged. Given past abuse of people detained
by the PMF and other government military and security forces, Human Rights
Watch has flagged concerns about detainees' treatment, including possible
executions.
On May 13 and 15, 2017, 2 groups of aid workers and a foreign journalist said
that they saw groups of corpses, 15 bodies in all, by the side of a road
between the village of Athba and town of Hammam al-Alil, about 15 kilometers
south of west Mosul. The area is entirely under the control of Iraqi government
forces. One group said they had driven past the area a day earlier and the
bodies had not been there, suggesting they were killed on May 12 or 13.
Local armed forces at the nearest checkpoint told the journalist that they saw
Iraqi "security forces" bring the men to the area and shoot them. The
journalist observed many bullet casings in the area on May 15. The journalist
found an identity card on one of the bodies and confirmed with a contact within
the National Security Service, a security body under the ultimate control of
the prime minister, that the name was on their government database of about
90,000 people wanted for ISIS-affiliation.
Human Rights Watch obtained 7 photos of the bodies at the site, which show the
corpses in various lying and kneeling positions, all blindfolded with their
hands bound with plastic handcuffs or fabric.
Human Rights Watch shared these photos with Stefan Schmitt of the International
Forensic Program at Physicians for Human Rights, who said that there were no
indications that the bodies were dragged or placed in the locations, such as
drag marks or shifting of clothing. The positioning of at least 2 of the bodies
was consistent with kneeling prior to execution and then falling forward, he
said, and he concluded that it was likely the victims were executed in the
place they were found.
On April 20, 2017, Reuters reported that over the course of the last several
months, residents of Qayyarah, a town 60 kilometers south of Mosul and firmly
under Iraqi government control since August 2016, had seen at least 6 bodies
floating down the Tigris River blindfolded with their hands bound. On May 21, a
local fighter told Human Rights Watch he saw another bound body floating in the
river by the bridge near Qayyarah. The Tigris River flows south, which suggests
that the bodies were placed in the river north of Qayyarah, but could not have
come from ISIS-controlled territory because of several dams in the river south
of Mosul.
An officer of the PMF 90th Brigade told Human Rights Watch over the phone that
his forces were holding detainees in bathrooms of abandoned homes in Safina, a
village 20 kilometers north of Qayyarah, along the Tigris River, and said they
had "business with the men" they were holding. He said no visitors were allowed
at the detention sites. On May 21, a foreign journalist told Human Rights Watch
that a government official informed them that the 90th Brigade was holding
alleged ISIS affiliates in the same village. According to the journalist, the
official said the 90th Brigade had been holding detainees there for at least
four months, and he personally knew of at least 25 detainees held there whom
the 90th Brigade had executed and dumped into the river.
In several other cases, bound and blindfolded corpses of men whose bodies bore
signs of being executed were found in government held parts in and around
Mosul, aid workers and journalists told Human Rights Watch.
At the end of April 2017, an aid worker visited the morgue at Qayyarah hospital
that had reopened about two months earlier. Human Rights Watch reviewed a photo
the aid worker took inside the morgue of a large pile of bodies. On the top of
the pile was a man who had been shot. He was lying chest down, with a blindfold
and with his hands bound with plastic handcuffs. Human Rights Watch visited the
hospital in mid-May and 2 head doctors told researchers that they had received
orders from the health and defense ministers that they were not to respond to
any information requests on the morgue, or allow any visitors. They did not
provide a reason, but said it was a "red line."
In late January, another foreign journalist showed Human Rights Watch pictures
of the bodies of two bound men in a residential neighborhood of east Mosul
fully under the control of Iraqi forces that he had taken two days earlier.
Residents said they knew nothing about the identities of the men or
circumstances of their death. Also in late January, Human Rights Watch
interviewed a resident of the outskirts of Gogjali, a suburb of east Mosul, who
pointed out a spot where he had found the body of a blindfolded man in the mud
next to a trench. He and neighbors had buried the body. He said he knew nothing
about the man's death or identity.
Media reports also have captured chilling incidents of executions during the
operation.
"If Iraqi authorities want civilians who spent over 2 years living under ISIS
to feel safe and protected, they need to ensure that anyone responsible for
murdering prisoners is brought to justice," Fakih said.
(source: Human Rights Watch)
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