April 4



IRAN:

Juvenile Offender, Mohammad Kalhor, in Imminent Danger of Execution



Mohammad Kalhor's Lawyer, Mohammad Aqakhani, declared that his client who is sentenced to death for murdering his teacher at the age of 15, might be executed soon.

According to a close source, Mohammad Kalhor is a student from Boroujerd city who stabbed his 43-year-old physics teacher, Mohsen Khashkhashi, on November 22, 2014, when he was 15.

Mohammad Kalhor's lawyer, Mohammad Aqakhani, told IHR that the Head of the Judiciary approves the verdict and the case is sent to the Sentence Implementation Branch; therefore, Mohammad might be executed soon.

According to the forensic report which was delivered in January 2016, Mohammad Kalhor was mentally immature at the time of the crime. However, Branch 1 of the Criminal Court of Lorestan sentenced him to death. The verdict was rejected by the Supreme Court and was processed again in a parallel court in Lorestan. The second court also sentenced him to death in January 2017 which was approved by the Supreme Court.

Mohammad Kalhor's lawyer confirmed that his client was only 15 at the time of the crime and said, "Mr. Boroujerdi, Head of the National Security Commission and Boroujerd's representative, wrote a letter to the Supreme Court and asked for special attention to this case. Consequently, the Supreme Court approved Mohammad's verdict."

Mohammad Aqakhani continued, "We asked for a retrial for the 3rd time, but the Supreme Court hasn't replied to our request yet. Since our request has been denied twice before, the sentence might be implemented anytime which worries us."

He concluded, "We are worried about Mohammad's condition. He shouldn't be held at adults' prison. Besides, he needs to see a doctor and a psychiatrist."

It should be noted that Mohammad Kalhor was transferred from Lorestan's Correctional Center to Boroujerd Central Prison in February 2018 because he is 18 years old now and his case was sent to the Sentence Implementation Branch around the same time.

It is worth mentioning that the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Iran has signed, clearly bans execution and life imprisonment of juveniles.

In 2017, at least 5 juvenile offenders were executed in Iran. Furthermore, at least 3 juvenile offenders were executed in January 2018 in Iran.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

Latest Report Finds Human Rights in Iran Are Abysmal



The Iran Human Rights Monitor has released its report into the state of human rights in Iran during March 2018 and, as always, it makes for unpleasant reading, with many instances of executions, arbitrary murders, torture, corporal punishment, abuse of political prisoners, and lack of a just legal system.

Here, we will provide a summary of the key topics raised in the report, but for more information, please visit the site itself. As always, these numbers cited here are believed to be lower than the actual number of people who have been executed/killed/punished by the Regime, due to the Regime's attempts to hide their abuses.

Executions

There were 12 registered executions in March, with two unnamed men executed in public. This included some people who were suffering from mental illness and some who may have been children when the crime was committed.

Here are the names of the 10 that Iran HRM could identify:

1. Hamid Imani

2. Masoud Vakili

3. Keyvan Rashkhar

4. Ramin Razavi

5. Mehdi Sarabi

6. Ayoub Babakhani

7. Ehsan Yaqubi

8. Javad Golniat

9. Mohammad Rostami

10. Rahim Salimi

There are a further 86 inmates currently on death row in the notorious Gohardasht Prison.

Arbitrary murders

On March 26, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) opened fire and killed Ibrahim Soleimani, a porter and father of 5.

Deaths in custody

In March, 3 prisoners in Iran were tortured to death and 2 more died because the authorities refused to allow them urgent medical care.

The 3 tortured include:

-- Ghobad Azimi, who was killed under torture just 2 days after he was detained by the Javanroud Intelligence Agency, but his family were told that he committed suicide. This is a favoured tactic by the Regime to cover up their wrongdoing.

-- Mohammad Raji, a member of the Dervish Gonabadi community, who was arrested during a protest against the Regime's abuses against members of his faith.

-- Ali Savari, whose body shows signs of torture, was tortured to death by a notorious prison guard in Sheiban Prison, called Hamidian.

The HRM report only named one of the prisoners who died through a lack of medical attention. He was Vahid Safarzehi who reportedly swallowed a razor blade and could have been save if he'd been seen by a doctor.

Inhuman treatment and cruel punishments

The report cited 2 instances of public flogging in Bushehr and Sirjan in early March, but the victims are unnamed.

Arrests

At least 2,100 people were arrested in March, with 889 people arrested during the Persian fire festival celebrations and another 30 arrested during Persian New Year celebrations.

Some of those arrested were trade unionists, some were attending a mixed-gender party, some were rallying on International Women's Day, and some were simply holding New Year celebrations. The linking factor is that these people who were rallying together for a political reason or even holding mass celebrations pose a threat to the Regime, which is incredibly weak.

Abuse of political prisoners

At least 5 political prisoners have been on hunger strike in March to oppose their own mistreatment/imprisonment or that of others. The Iranian Regime's authorities have reacted with violence, the refusal of urgent medical treatment (medical terrorism), or even transferred them to wards where violent or dangerous criminals are kept.

One man, Hamidreza Amini, was beaten in front of his wife and children while handcuffed and shackled to a hospital bed, while Soheil Arabi was beaten by prison guards and is now suspected of brain damage.

Prison conditions

The prisons in Iran are remarkably poor, far below the minimum standards laid out by the UN. As has been mentioned before, there are problems even getting drinking water for the prisoners let alone food, clean quarters, and working facilities (i.e. lights, doors).

This poses a hygiene risk and means that many prisoners are getting seriously ill. Some are even forced to pay for fixing facilities or bottled water.

(source: ncr-iran.org)








ZIMBABWE:

'Death row prisoners can be considered for parole'



Legal think-tank, Veritas, has said prisoners, whose death sentences have been commuted to life in prison may also be eligible for early release on parole.

Veritas, which has been advocating for the abolition of the death penalty, said the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) ruled in 2016 during the Makoni versus the Commissioner of Prisons and another case, that prisoners on death sentences can be considered for early release.

"Prisoners whose death sentences have been commuted may be eligible for early release on parole," Veritas said.

"The ConCourt ruled it unconstitutional for life prisoners to be denied the right to be considered for early release under section 115 of the Prisons Act," they said.

Veritas said the section (115 of the Prisons Act) has not yet been amended to comply with the court's ruling, adding that even before such an amendment, life prisoners must be considered for early release.

On March 10, President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed Clemency Order No 1 of 2018, which commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, and granting it to all prisoners, who have been on death row for 10 years and above.

"The clemency order is a welcome step, albeit a small one, towards abolition of the death penalty. No executions have been carried out in Zimbabwe since 2005, so there is an effective moratorium on the death penalty, which is likely to continue for as long as the President, known to favour abolition, remains in office. In view of this it seems not only cruel but futile for the courts to continue sentencing people to death," Veritas said.

On the clemency order, they said it now meant that all inmates on death row, who were sentenced to death before March 10, 2008, no longer face execution, but will serve life imprisonment instead.

"Section 48 of the Constitution allows a law to provide for the death penalty; it does not say the law must do so. Hence abolition would not entail amending the Constitution; it just needs simple Act of Parliament removing references to the death penalty from the criminal law code and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act."

Veritas have also provided the Justice minister with a draft Bill to abolish the death penalty, which is deemed cruel, inhuman and barbaric punishment.

Apart from commuting death sentences, the clemency order benefited about 3,000 prisoners.

(source: newsday.co.zw)








CHINA:

Chinese Official Given Death Sentence For Taking $166M In Bribes



The former deputy mayor of a city in North China has been handed a death sentence by a Shanxi Province court eager to crack down on government corruption. Zhang Zhongsheng, ex-deputy mayor of Luliang was reported by Chinese state media to have taken bribes totaling about $166 million in American dollars over the course of 16 years.

In a statement issued by the court, Zhang is described as having been "extremely greedy," and it says that he "crazily took bribes from 1997 to 2013 and did not restrain himself after the 18th National Party Congress and caused extraordinarily great losses to the nation and its people and should be punished severely by law." The sentence is all part of a massive anti-corruption crackdown spearheaded by President Xi and which has reportedly netted more than a million lower-level convictions in the last 5 years.

That severe punishment is death, which is rare in China, but a couple of years ago former Chinese lawmaker Bai Enpei was given a death sentence for a similar corruption case. This sentence was eventually changed to one of life imprisonment, which is "the standard practice for most such sentences" according to a report from the Xinhua news agency. So he still has some hope of not actually being executed by the state, since he can still appeal the verdict, and all death penalty sentences have to be ultimately approved by the supreme court in Beijing, as per the South China Morning Post.

As for Zhang, he was indeed taking in a staggering amount of cash bribes, averaging out to roughly $30,000 per day for the aforementioned 16 years. And he did it while living and working in the impoverished region of Lvliang, accepting gifts in exchange for deferential treatment in project approvals and distribution of coal resources, coal being the main industry in Shangxi.

(source: celebritynetworth.com)








PHILIPPINES:

Solon: Death sentence vs. employers of slain OFW just 'paper victory'



While most welcomed the decision of a Kuwaiti court to impose death penalty on the employers of slain overseas Filipino worker Joanna Demafelis, a lawmaker remained skeptical on the ruling.

"I didn't rejoice, because first of all, there is no jurisdiction over the suspect because he was never arraigned, although we have different justice systems," Rep. Aniceto Bertiz of the ACTS-OFW Party-list said.

Bertiz also said information on the whereabouts of Lebanese Nader Essam Assaf and his Syrian wife Mona Hassoun all came from Kuwaiti officials, and Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa.

"For the past several months now, since the imposition of the ban, (we hear) only the side of Ambassador Villa who is in Kuwait. Why did we not hear anything from the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) coming directly from our post in Lebanon?" he asked.

The lawmaker then said that it would not be possible for Kuwait to carry out the sentence against Assaf soon, until the Lebanese government decides he is really guilty.

"If it's really true that the killer is in the custody of Lebanon, it can only be imposed or implemented if both countries will agree to extradite the suspect, pero until then, para bang, it is just a paper victory," Bertiz said.

He also said the sentence felt like it was just to appease President Rodrigo Duterte, after he ordered the total deployment ban to Kuwait.

"Although we really appreciate the decision of Kuwait because it is sweet and swift justice for Demafelis, para bang kinakalma 'yung isipan ng tao [it feels like it's to pacify] because of this crisis going on," he said.

The lawmaker also noted the Philippines should not lift the ban anytime soon.

"Partial-lift we can consider for those skilled workers, but definitely if Kuwait government is just doing this for their self-interest so that we can send workers again to the country, I think this is really not a good gesture," he said.

Bertiz said there should be a task force monitoring Demafelis' case - which would involve the DFA, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) in the Philippines.

Interpol-Lebanon earlier released the details on Assaf being under Lebanese custody.

Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevara said Tuesday that Duterte has ordered DFA, through the official mission to Kuwait, to verify reports that Assaf will face death penalty.

Assaf and his Syrian wife Mona were found guilty of murder in the death of 29-year-old Demafelis, according to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello. Her body was found inside a freezer in an apartment in Kuwait, where it may have been kept for over a year.

(source: CNN)



INDONESIA:

Capital Punishment, Human Rights, and Indonesia's Chance for the Moral High Ground----The execution of Indonesian migrant workers highlights the need for new protections, both abroad and at home.



On Sunday March 18, Saudi Arabian authorities beheaded Indonesian migrant worker Zaini Misrin without providing diplomatic notice to the relevant Indonesian authorities.

The execution was carried out undeterred by repeated requests from Indonesian President Joko Widodo for clemency. Zaini was executed in spite of strong evidence suggesting he was coerced into confessing to killing his employer and that his own translator was complicit in this coercion.

There are fears that more Indonesian migrant workers may be executed in Saudi Arabia. While a large number of Indonesian citizens are on death row in Saudi Arabia, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated there are 2 specific cases involving Indonesian female migrant workers that have been listed as critical.

Zaini is not the 1st Indonesian to be beheaded in the Gulf state. In 2011, the execution of an Indonesian migrant worker prompted Indonesia to recall its ambassador and to begin a moratorium halting the placement of Indonesian migrant workers in the informal sector in Saudi Arabia. In 2015, the execution of 2 mentally ill Indonesian women migrant domestic workers prompted the Indonesian government to extend the moratorium to 21, mainly Middle Eastern, countries.

Despite the moratoriums, which have been widely criticized by migrant rights organizations for being a reactionary move that violates a number of human rights, thousands of Indonesians continue to be employed in Saudi Arabia as domestic workers, migrating through irregular channels and living without any of the legal and social protections that documented migrant workers enjoy.

The latest beheading sparked waves of protest within Indonesia and across the globe. Swathes of outraged activists have called the execution a blatant violation of human rights. The framing of the capital punishment as a human rights violation, however, is made difficult by the fact that none of the core international human rights treaties explicitly forbid capital punishment.

The use of the death penalty is only forbidden in an Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and this optional protocol, with only 85 state parties, has not come close to achieving universal ratification. In spite of a number of nonbinding resolutions issued by the United Nations General Assembly calling for its abolition, capital punishment continues to largely be understood as a legally permissible exception to the right to life.

The United Nations Convention Against Torture is one of the few human rights treaties that Saudi Arabia has ratified. Although the committee that implements the convention has been notably inconsistent in its stance on the death penalty, the committee in its 2016 concluding observations on the report of Saudi Arabia encouraged the state to establish a moratorium on executions and to commute all existing death sentences. With 20 Indonesian citizens currently on death row in Saudi Arabia, Jakarta has a vested interest in seeing the recommendations of the committee implemented.

Indonesia fights tirelessly to secure clemency for its citizens facing the death penalty abroad through diplomatic negotiations, legal channels, and even by paying blood money or ransoms where possible. Domestically, however, Indonesia continues to implement capital punishment, executing Indonesian and foreign citizens alike and defending its right to do so with arguments of national sovereignty.

During the 2017 Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, where Indonesia's human rights track record was reviewed by 103 states, capital punishment was the main human rights issue that came into the spotlight with 30 individual states recommending Indonesia abolish the death penalty or place a moratorium on its use.

The Indonesian National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) contends the Indonesian government is losing the moral justification to protect its citizens on death row abroad when the state continues to carry out executions at home. The results of extensive monitoring carried out by Komnas Perempuan regarding women facing the death penalty revealed that the majority of women on death row are victims of gender-based violence and that female domestic workers are targeted by international drug smuggling and human trafficking syndicates, unknowingly made into drug mules by perpetrators who exploit the women's layered vulnerabilities.

An important finding of the Commission shows that the death penalty and the extensive periods of time that people spend on death row in Indonesia have economic, physical, and psychological effects on the convicted person and their families that are torturous and inhumane. These findings of the Commission are in line with the statement of the Committee Against Torture that prolonged time on death row could amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.

Komnas Perempuan notes that currently in Indonesia there are a number of former women migrant workers who have been sentenced to death despite indications that they are victims of human trafficking. Filipino national Mary Jane Veloso and Indonesian Merry Utami, imprisoned in 2010 and 2001 respectively, are 2 women currently on death row in Indonesia. Both of these women are former migrant workers and they are both indicated to be victims of human trafficking whose progress through the judicial system has been markedly unjust.

The commissioner of Komnas Perempuan's Migrant Worker Task Force, Thaufik Zulbahary, explained, "Migrant workers, especially women migrant domestic workers are one of the most vulnerable groups in society ... they are prone to experiencing human rights violations at every stage of migration." To effectively work at reducing these vulnerabilities and improving outcomes for migrant workers, international advocacy - including pushing for global ratification of the Convention on Migrant Workers - must be accompanied by grassroots initiatives aimed at improving the fulfillment of migrant workers' human rights.

One such grass roots initiative is TKI Bijak, a program that is operating in West Java, Indonesia, disseminating information to prospective migrant workers about proper recruitment procedures and practical information regarding destination countries and human rights concerns for each respective country. Through initiatives like this, prospective migrant workers are equipped with the means to make educated decisions about their deployment and the risk of human rights violations are minimized.

On the international stage it is essential that the discourse surrounding the death penalty stops focusing on capital punishment as an issue of state sovereignty and a legitimate exception on the right to life. The various international human rights mechanisms and treaty bodies, especially the Committee Against Torture, have the responsibility to take a stronger stance in opposing the death penalty and take the lead in shifting the international discourse to focus on the right to life as the ultimate, nonderogable human right that transcends notions of sovereignty.

While the international community slowly works toward global abolition of capital punishment, states should at a minimum observe the Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty. This document, published by the Economic and Social Council in a 1984 resolution, states in the 4th and 5th points that capital punishment may be imposed only when the guilt of the person charged is based upon clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts. The safeguard further states that capital punishment may only be imposed pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court after legal process that gives all possible safeguards to ensure a fair trial, including adequate legal assistance at all stages of the proceedings.

It is estimated that there are around 4.5 million Indonesian migrant workers currently working overseas. As a country that prides itself on endeavoring to provide the highest possible protections for its citizens abroad, Indonesia in a purely pragmatic sense has a vested interest in leading by example and looking to abolish the death penalty or at the very least commute the death sentence for victims who are indicated to be victims of human trafficking or have been denied a fair trial. The domestic cessation of the implementation of capital punishment is an important first step that will give added legitimacy to Indonesia's attempts to seek clemency for its citizens on death row abroad.

(source: Jack Britton is a translator, researcher, and writer currently embedded with the Indonesian National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) in Jakarta, Indonesia----the diplomat.com)

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