August 22
LIBYA:
45 Sentenced to Death for 2011 Killings----Due Process Concerns in Mass Trial
Libya's judiciary convicted 99 defendants in a mass trial on August 15, 2018,
sentencing 45 to death and 54 to 5 years in prison, Human Rights Watch said
today. The judiciary has a record of conducting unfair trials.
The Government of National Accord should uphold the de-facto moratorium on the
death penalty and move toward complete abolition. Libya's Supreme Court, in its
review of the verdict, by the Tripoli Court of Appeals, should critically
evaluate the evidence in the case, including whether confessions were extracted
through torture or other illegal means.
"A judiciary that is in shambles has no business sentencing defendants to death
by the dozen," said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa
director at Human Rights Watch. "The quest for justice for past crimes can be
fulfilled only through trials that are fair, not through judicial killings."
Since the end of the 2011 revolution that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, the right of
defendants to a fair trial has continued to be undermined by obstacles to
accessing lawyers, the use of coerced confessions as evidence, lack of access
to court documents, and prolonged arbitrary detention, with no respect for due
process. Human Rights Watch has also documented intimidation, threats, and
attacks by armed groups against lawyers, prosecutors, and judges. Courts and
prosecutors' offices are only partly operational and are shut in some parts of
the country.
The trial relates to the killing of protesters during the 2011 revolution. In
an incident widely referred to the "Abu Saleem Highway Massacre," Gaddafi
sympathizers and members of his security forces in August 2011 allegedly
ambushed and killed 146 anti-Gaddafi protesters in the Abu Saleem area of
Tripoli, the capital, and hid some of the remains. Various armed groups started
to round up people allegedly involved in the killings after the 2011 revolution
ended. However, prosecutors only started interrogating the suspects in 2014.
The case went to court in August 2015.
Human Rights Watch in October 2015 interviewed some of the defendants at a
prison known as "Al-Roueimy" in the Ain Zara area of Tripoli. Defendants
described ill-treatment that appeared to amount to torture at various detention
facilities, including one run by the Abu Saleem Council, an armed group
controlling the area since 2011. The defendants also said they had lacked
access to lawyers during their interrogation, and initial court sessions. A
defendant also said that armed guards would accompany defendants to
interrogation sessions with the prosecutors, which they found intimidating.
A statement on August 15 by the Justice Ministry of the internationally backed
Government of National Accord in Tripoli said that the court had originally
charged 128 people in the "Abu Saleem Highway" incident. In addition to the 99
sentenced and 22 acquitted by the court on August 15, one defendant was freed
under an amnesty law, 3 died in detention in circumstances that the statement
did not elucidate and the cases of the remaining t3 had been tried previously.
Both the prosecutor and defendants can seek a review by the Supreme Court
cassation chamber. Also, under Libyan law, the Supreme Court reviews all death
sentences and must confirm them before an execution can be legally carried out.
In an August 19 statement, the Justice Ministry emphasized that "the defendants
in this case were given a fair trial and that all judicial guarantees were made
available to them."
International human rights law upholds every human being's inherent right to
life, and for countries that have not agreed to ban the death penalty
completely, it limits the death penalty to the most serious crimes, typically
crimes resulting in death. It strictly forbids the application of the death
penalty in any case in which it does not appear that the defendant received a
fair trial. In Libya, the death penalty appears frequently in legislation as a
proposed punishment for various crimes, including at least 30 articles of the
Penal Code.
Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all circumstances because of
its inherent cruelty and its irreversible and inhumane nature.
No death sentences have been implemented since 2010.
The August 15 Justice Ministry statement said that the court president and
members, the defense lawyers, and relatives of victims and the defendants were
present during the reading of the verdict. The statement makes no reference to
whether the defendants attended.
(source: Human Rights Watch)
SRI LANKA:
Sri Lanka to end execution moratorium soon: president
Sri Lanka will soon resume executions after a 42-year moratorium but will send
home 5 Pakistanis sentenced to death for drug smuggling for execution in their
home country, President Maithripala Sirisena said Wednesday.
The 5 are among 18 people, including a woman, on death row for drug offences
whose execution will go ahead, according to Sirisena. He did not give a date
for the 1st hanging.
"I am determined to carry out the death penalty for serious drug offenders and
I will start with a list (of 18) given to me by the prisons," he told a public
meeting in the north of the country.
Sirisena said he would hold talks with talks with Pakistan's new Prime Minister
Imran Khan on repatriating the condemned Pakistanis and having them executed
there.
He gave no further details on the feasibility of such a move.
International rights groups and the European Union have asked Sri Lanka to
reconsider since Sirisena announced last month that he wanted to end the
moratorium on hanging.
Police believe the Indian Ocean island is being used as a transit point by drug
traffickers. More than a tonne of cocaine seized in recent years was destroyed
by police in January.
Official figures show there were 373 convicts on death row in Sri Lanka,
including the 18 drug offenders, as of last month.
Death sentences are still passed for crimes including murder, rape and
drug-related offences but the last execution was in 1976.
Nearly 900 people are in prison after being sentenced to death, although many
have had their sentences commuted to life or are appealing.
(source: dailymail.co.uk)
****************************
Sri Lankan Catholics need to follow pope's call on death penalty----Pope
Francis has taken a consistently principled position that human life is sacred.
I was among the Sri Lankans who were shocked to see media reports in July
indicating that President Maithripala Sirisena and his cabinet have given the
green light to execute drug offenders on death row.
For more than 4Pope Francis has taken a consistently principled position that
human life is sacred0 years, through civil wars and insurrections, Sri Lanka
was 1 of 29 countries that had maintained a moratorium on the death penalty.
Another 106 countries had abolished it fully by 2017, a year when 23 countries
were known to have carried out executions.
If some detainees are engaged in drug-related offences from within prison
grounds, cited as a reason to rein in the death penalty, security in prisons
must be strengthened. This includes using new technology and holding prison
officials accountable.
There is no evidence in Sri Lanka, or in other countries, that the death
penalty has reduced crime by having a deterrent effect.
In Sri Lanka, there are serious deficiencies in the criminal justice system,
including a lack of easily accessible, quality, legal aid.
The death penalty is an irreversible form of punishment which grants no space
to consider new evidence that may emerge after a conviction is made, for
example through new technology, indicating a wrongful conviction.
It has been pointed out that in countries such as America, Canada and the UK,
people wrongly convicted have been released from death row decades after they
were put there as new evidence has shown they were wrongfully imprisoned.
Meanwhile, the Colombo-based European Ambassadors have written to the Sri
Lankan president stressing their unequivocal opposition to capital punishment
in all circumstances and all cases.
A European Union (EU) diplomat was also quoted as telling the media "if Sri
Lanka resumes capital punishment, Colombo will immediately lose its GSP-Plus
status."
Pope Francis has been forthright and taken a consistently principled position
that human life is sacred and the death penalty is "an inhuman measure that
humiliates human dignity, in whatever form it is carried out."
He further described it as being "contrary to the Gospel."
However, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Catholic Archbishop of Colombo,
clarified in statement issued around July 20 that he supports the president's
move to implement the death penalty in certain cases. He said perpetrators of
gruesome crimes could be considered as having forfeited their own right to
life, and whatever punishment was given by courts should be implemented.
The president has called to lift the 42-year moratorium on the death penalty
for some death row convicts.
Less than 2 weeks after Cardinal Ranjith's statement, the Vatican's
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a letter to bishops on
Aug. 1 announcing that a revision of Church teachings had been approved by Pope
Francis. The revision stated categorically that the death penalty is
inadmissible and unnecessary even when used to protect the life of innocent
people.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka followed this up with a statement
of their own on Aug. 9 that quoted extensively from the CDF's letter and made
it clear in no uncertain terms that they unequivocally oppose the death
penalty.
Now is the time for Sri Lankan Catholics, including the Catholic Bishops
Conference, the Conference of (Catholic) Major Religious Superiors, and lay
groups to follow the pope's call for churches to work toward the total
abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances.
Together, we must call on the country to ratify the 2nd Optional Protocol to
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that calls for the
abolition of the death penalty. Some 85 countries had ratified it by the end of
2017.
(source: Ruki Fernando is a Sri Lankan human rights activist who was detained
under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He is still under investigation. He is
also a member of the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission of the
Conference of Major Religious Superiors and an adviser to the INFORM Human
Rights Documentation Centre----heraldmalaysia.com)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi Prosecution Seeks Death Penalty for Female Activist----1st Woman Facing
Execution in Trials of Shia Protesters
Saudi Arabia's Public Prosecution is seeking the death penalty against 5
Eastern Province activists, including female human rights activist Israa
al-Ghomgham, Human Rights Watch said today. The activists, along with 1 other
person not facing execution, are being tried in the country's terrorism
tribunal on charges solely related to their peaceful activism.
The Public Prosecution, which reports directly to the king, accused the
detained activists of several charges that do not resemble recognizable crimes,
including "participating in protests in the Qatif region," "incitement to
protest," "chanting slogans hostile to the regime," "attempting to inflame
public opinion," "filming protests and publishing on social media," and
"providing moral support to rioters." It called for their execution based on
the Islamic law principle of ta'zir, in which the judge has discretion over the
definition of what constitutes a crime and over the sentence. Authorities have
held all 6 activists in pretrial detention and without legal representation for
over 2 years. Their next court date has been scheduled for October 28, 2018.
"Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like
Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behavior, is monstrous,"
said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Every
day, the Saudi monarchy's unrestrained despotism makes it harder for its public
relations teams to spin the fairy tale of 'reform' to allies and international
business."
Al-Ghomgham is a Shia activist well known for participating in and documenting
mass demonstrations in the Eastern Province that began in early 2011, calling
for an end to the systematic discrimination that Saudi Shia citizens face in
the majority-Sunni country. Authorities arrested al-Ghomgham and her husband in
a night raid on their home on December 6, 2015 and have held them in Dammam's
al-Mabahith prison ever since.
Saudi activists told Human Rights Watch that the Public Prosecution's recent
demand makes al-Ghomgham the 1st female activist to possibly face the death
penalty for her human rights-related work, which sets a dangerous precedent for
other women activists currently behind bars.
Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), set up in 2008 to try
terrorism cases, has since been increasingly used to prosecute peaceful
dissidents. The court is notorious for its violations of fair trial standards
and has previously sentenced other Shia activists to death on politically
motivated charges. The court sentenced a prominent Shia cleric, Nimr al-Nimr,
and 7 other men to death for their role in the 2011 Eastern Province
demonstrations in 2014 and another 14 people in 2016 for participating in the
protests. Saudi authorities executed al-Nimr and at least three other Shia men
on January 2, 2016 when they carried out the largest mass execution since 1980,
putting 47 men to death.
International standards, including the Arab Charter on Human Rights, ratified
by Saudi Arabia, require countries that retain the death penalty to use it only
for the "most serious crimes," and in exceptional circumstances. Human Rights
Watch opposes capital punishment in all countries and under all circumstances.
Capital punishment is unique in its cruelty and finality, and it is inevitably
and universally plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error.
A recent crackdown on women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia has led to the
arrest of at least 13 women under the pretext of maintaining national security.
While some have since been released, others remain detained without charge.
They are: Loujain al-Hathloul, Aziza al-Yousef, Eman al-Nafjan, Nouf Abdelaziz,
Mayaa al-Zahrani, Hatoon al-Fassi, Samar Badawi, Nassema al-Sadah, and Amal
al-Harbi. Authorities have accused several of them of serious crimes and local
media outlets carried out an unprecedented campaign against them, labeling them
"traitors."
"If the Crown Prince is truly serious about reform, he should immediately step
in to ensure no activist is unjustly detained for his or her human rights
work," added Whitson.
(source: Human Rights Watch)
*********************
Saudi Arabia seeks its 1st death penalty against a female human rights
activist----5 human rights activists on trial, including one who would be the
first female human rights activist to face capital punishment
Saudi Arabian prosecutors are seeking the death sentence for five human rights
activists, including a woman who is thought to be the first female campaigner
facing execution, rights groups said.
Israa al-Ghomgham, a Shia activist arrested with her husband in 2015, will be
tried in the country's terrorism tribunal even though charges she faces are
only related to peaceful activism, Human Rights Watch said.
Saudi Shia citizens face systematic discrimination in the majority-Sunni
nation, including obstacles to seeking work and education, and restrictions on
religious practice. Al-Ghomgahm had joined and documented mass protests for
Shia rights that began in 2011 as the "Arab Spring" swept across the region.
"Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like
Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behavior, is monstrous,"
said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
Al-Ghomgham has been held in jail, without access to legal support, since she
was detained in a night raid on her home in December 2015. The decision to seek
the death penalty for her, her husband Moussa al-Hashem and 4 others was first
highlighted by ALQST, a London-based Saudi rights group.
They face charges including "participating in protests", "chanting slogans
hostile to the regime," "attempting to inflame public opinion," and "filming
protests and publishing on social media", Human Rights Watch said.
The trial is set to start on October 28th, and will be the latest shadow on
crown prince Mohammed bin Salman's efforts to promote himself as a modernising
reformer.
The kingdom's youngest ruler in the modern era, the 32 year-old power behind
the throne has pledged to rein in religious extremists and diversify a
moribund, oil-dependent economy.
He has rolled back some restrictions on women including a long-standing ban on
women drivers, launched a raft of economic reforms, and imprisoned some of his
most powerful royal relatives in an anti-corruption drive.
But social and economic transformation have gone hand-in-hand with a tightening
of political controls, as the crown prince made clear he wants the new Saudi
Arabia to be shaped only by him.
Ahead of lifting the ban on women drivers, he arrested over a dozen of the
activists who had campaigned for the very change that he was bringing in. Many
are still in jail, facing serious charges, and branded "traitors" by local
media.
The campaign to muzzle critics has not just been domestic. Saudi Arabia
dramatically cut all ties with Canada after the country's foreign minister
called on Twitter for the release of 2 jailed activists.
The Canadian ambassador was expelled, Saudi scholarship students told to leave
Canada and new trade and investment suspended.
Prosecutors seeking the death penatly for al-Ghomgham could set a dangerous
precedent for other women activists currently behind bars, Human Rights Watch
warned.
The kingdom has previously executed Shia activists, and the Specialised
Criminal Court set up in 2008 where the case will be held, is "notorious for
its violations of fair trial standards", Human Rights Watch said.
A government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for
comment on the case.
(source: The Guardian)
IRAN----execution
Man Hanged at Gachsaran Prison
1 prisoner was hanged at Gachsaran Prison on murder charges.
According to a report by HRANA, on the morning of Monday, August 20, a prisoner
was executed at Gachsaran Prison. The prisoner, sentenced to death on murder
charges, was identified as Keramat Hassani.
Keramat Hassani was from a village in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad.
A close source told IHR, "Mr. Hassani's family was attacked by 3 thieves in
2010 and their teenage son was murdered by them. Mr. Hassani shot 2 of the
thieves which lead to the death of 1 of them and a severe injury in the spinal
cord of the other one."
It should be noted that the prisoner had gone on a hunger strike last year in
protest because the prison guards tortured him frequently.
The execution of this prisoner has not been announced by the state-run media so
far.
According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the
517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. There
is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in
issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and
intent.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
INDIA:
13 people sentenced to death for raping minors in MP
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday confirmed that a
total of 13 individuals have been sentenced to death in connection with the
raping of minor girls in the state.
Madhya Pradesh was the 1st state to promulgate a law to award death penalty to
individuals accused in rape of minor girls. The law, which awards the death
penalty to rapists of girls below the age of 12, was unanimously passed in the
state assembly in December last year.
Addressing the media here, Chouhan said, "As per the provisions to penalise
such culprits with the harshest of punishment, 13 people have so far been
sentenced to death."
Speaking on the steps being taken to put a stop to such incidents in the
future, Chouhan said, "On one hand, we are imparting lessons and inculcating
the right values, and on the other hand, strict punishments, a culmination of
the 2 will help us prevent such incidents from happening." When asked to
comment on the death penalty awarded to 2 culprits earlier today, Chouhan said,
"Today I can say that my heart is satisfied."
The 2 accused, Irfan and Asif, had abducted a 7-year-old girl from her school
in Hafiz colony in Mandsaur in June this year. The duo then tortured and raped
the girl before killing her and throwing her body at a secluded spot in the
city.
Following the incident, the 2 men were arrested, while a Special Investigation
Team was set up to investigate the matter. The 2 accused were awarded the death
sentence by a special court in Mandsaur earlier today.
(source: sify.com)
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