April 13
BANGLADESH:
5 teachers arrested over death of Chattogram madrasa boy
The father of Md Habibur Rahman, an 11-year-old boy whose body was recovered
from a mosque inside a madrasa in Chattogram, has initiated a murder case.
Police showed 5 people, including the madrasa's teacher Tarekur Rahman and
Principal Abu Darda, arrested in connection with the case on Friday.
The 3 other arrestees are madrasa teachers Md Zubayer, Md Anas Ali, and Md
Abdus Samad.
Habibur's father Anisur Rahman started the murder case under Section 302 of the
Penal Code, Bayezid Bostami Police Station OC Ataur Rahman Khondaker said.
The accused face maximum death penalty if found guilty.
Anisur named Tarek and Abu Darda along with 7 others as suspects in the case.
"We had brought 5 suspects, including the madrasa's principal and Tarek, to the
police station for questioning. We have arrested all 5 of them after recording
the case," the OC said.
Habibur's body was found hanging from the grills of a window at a mosque inside
Omar Faruk al-Islamia Madrasa and Orphanage in Wazedia area of the port city on
Wednesday.
Some injury marks were found on his knees, police said.
The madrasa authorities claimed the boy had taken his own life, but the family
allege he was murdered and later his body was hanged.
His father Anisur pulls rickshaw in Chattogram City. The family from Dighinala
in Khagrhachharhi live in Shershah area of the port city while Habibur was a
residential student of the madrasa.
(source: bdnews24.com)
THAILAND:
Businessman could face death penalty for DUI murder of policeman
A leading Bangkok businessman faces the death penalty after being charged with
murder for the death of a top Crime Suppression Division policeman and his wife
last Thursday night.
Pol Col Jatuporn Ngamsuwitchakun died at the scene in his Suzuki Swift. His 44
year old wife Nutchanat died later in hospital. Their 16 year old daughter
Piyapha remains in a serious condition.
They were involved in a collision with a Mercedes Benz driven by 57 year old
Somchai Werotphiphat, the owner of a major automotive parts factory.
Daily News reports than he had been playing golf not far from the scene of the
collision and had consumed 4-5 bottles of beer before farewelling his friends
and driving home at around 11pm.
He allegedly told police he was so drunk that he couldn’t remember anything
until he was surrounded by airbags in his car.
Gen Wirachai said that this was not just a case of drink driving and negligence
causing death. He said the charges carry anything from 15 years to life
imprisonment or even the death penalty.
Somchai remains in custody in Taling Chan, western Bangkok.
Gen Wirachai said that the Thai police nationwide are set to charge anyone with
murder who causes death while drink driving.
“If people are injured in DUI cases drivers will face attempted murder charges
instead.”
(source: The Thaiger)
NORTH KOREA----executions
Fortune tellers executed in North Korea to ‘maintain social order’
North Korea have publicly executed 2 women and jailed another for life because
they were fortune tellers. The trio had allegedly formed a collective named the
Seven Star Group and claimed a ‘spirit oracle’ could be channelled through 2
children, aged 3 and 5, to tell the future.
A source within the country told Radio Free Asia that the execution was ordered
to ‘maintain social order’ over fears fortune telling had become too
widespread.
They added: ‘Even high-ranking officials and the families of judicial
authorities often visit fortune tellers before arranging weddings or making
business deals.’
Thousands of people reportedly attended the execution of the 2 women in
Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province.
In 2013, Kim Jong-un ordered the execution of his own uncle, Jang Song-thaek, a
high ranking government official, after accusing him of trying to increase his
own power.
The full extent of the use of capital punishment in North Korea is not fully
known, but its criminal code states the death penalty can be applied for
vaguely defined offences such as ‘crimes against the state’ and ‘crimes against
the people,’ according to the a report published by the UN.
It added: ‘The policy of regularly carrying out public executions serves to
instil fear in the general population.’ An amendment to the law in 2007
extended the death penalty non-violent offences such as smuggling, and
authorities are able to order a person’s execution if they deem the crime to be
‘extremely serious’.
North Korean defector Gim Gyu Min previously told Metro.co.uk about being
forced to attend public executions from the age of 6. He said: ‘Officials would
usually announce an execution was taking place about a week before it happened
and notices would be put up in the neighbourhood. ‘Everyone had to attend and
workers would be rounded up and brought as a group to the execution site. There
would be a little stage or a clearing, with a stake in the middle where the
person would be tied up with their friends and family standing closely nearby.
‘The condemned would be taken behind a curtain and have their head smashed to
knock them out, so when they were tied up they wouldn’t resist. ‘Guards would
then tie them up, take aim, and shoot.’
(source: metro.co.uk)
AUSTRALIA/BRUNEI:
Solidarity protest against death penalty for LGBTI people in Brunei
More than 100 LGBTIQ+ activists and supporters attended a rally in Brisbane on
April 13 targeting the Royal on the Park hotel. The hotel is owned by the
Sultan of Brunei, who recently introduced the death penalty for homosexuality,
adultery, blasphemy and apostasy.
The Rally across the street from the hotel is the 1st of many large-scale
actions in Australia to oppose the sultanate’s draconian new laws.
Speakers at the rally called for a boycott of the hotel in an effort to put
pressure on the Sultan’s business interests and help force the repeal of the
draconian laws.
The laws in Brunei have drawn condemnation from across the globe, and sparked
grassroots campaign fora boycott of the Sultan’s hotels overseas.
Speakers at the rally said it was vital for the campaign to continue and for
people to do all they could to stop the slaughter of innocent people since
Brunei is a country in our region, and a member of the Commonwealth.
Speakers made it clear that the campaign was not an attack on Islam, as most of
the victims of the new laws would be Muslim citizens of Brunei. The rally heard
that the corrupt regime in Brunei is perverting the holiness and the sanctity
of religion for base political reasons.
Speaking at the rally, a spokesperson for the Parents and Friends of Lesbians
and Gays, Shelley Argent, said the situation in Brunei is a human rights
emergency in our region.
“On Australia’s doorstep, people can now be murdered by their government simply
for being gay, or for adultery, blasphemy or apostasy,” she said. “We owe it to
our neighbours in Brunei to stand up for their rights.”
(source: Green Left Weekly)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
8 ALLEGED MURDERERS TO PAY DH 200,000 BLOOD MONEY
The Sharjah Sharia Court of First Instance has ordered 8 men accused of murder
to pay Dh200,000 as blood money to the victim's family, and sentenced them to 3
years and 6 months' in jail followed by deportation, Khaleejtimes reported on 8
April 2019. The convicts were found guilty of robbing and stabbing to death a
compatriot. Court records show that the incident took place when the accused,
all Asians, attacked the victim while he was walking on a highway in Sharjah.
After assaulting and stabbing him, they stole his money and fled. The victim
was rushed to Al Qasimi hospital, where he succumbed to his fatal injuries.The
court confronted the defendants with premeditated murder charge for stabbing
the man to death. But the accused denied all the charges. The lawyer of the
defendants, who was appointed by the court, requested the acquittal of the
accused and use clemency in the trial. The victim's parents accepted the blood
money and dropped their request for capital punishment.
(source: handsoffcain.info)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Amnesty: Saudi uses death penalty to crush opposition
Saudi Arabia systematically uses the death penalty to crush opposition figures,
Amnesty International has said, noting that the country’s Public Prosecution is
planning to execute more activists.
Saudi’s Public Prosecution is planning more executions of those who call for
freedom of expression, the rights group said, noting that prominent preacher
Sheikh Salman Al-Owdeh is one of those targeted for execution, Al-Sharq
reported yesterday.
According to Amnesty, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq and Iran topped its list of
countries which carry out executions, which has increased 75 % compared to last
year. Four new activists are facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia over
their participation in protests calling for reform in the country’s Eastern
Province.
Saudi Arabia has carried out a new campaign against activists, bringing the
number of those in prison to 14. All of these activists are male, with the
exception of two females, one of whom is pregnant. Two of these latest
prisoners hold US passports. Though most are not prominent opposition figures,
they have expressed their support for women’s rights and other reforms which
has led to their detention.
Many prisoners inside Saudi facilities were arrested without charge but have
since faced extortion, with some asked to pass part of their properties to the
Kingdom or face long prison terms.
Some of these prisoners are members of the Saudi royal family, such as
multi-billionaire businessman Al-Walid Bin Talal who was released after
conceding a portion of his property to the Kingdom.
(source: Middle East Monitor)
EGYPT:
Egypt inmates dread noose as executions rise under Sisi
After years of anxiously waiting in cramped prison cells, appointments with the
noose can come fast to the many on Egypt’s death row.
Leila’s brother Amr was hanged in February.
The news of his impending execution — one of many carried out under incumbent
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi — shook her.
“I found out at night that he would be hanged the next day,” Leila told AFP,
which has used pseudonyms in this story to protect families’ identities.
“We were all in shock. My mother was hysterical,” Leila said.
“It was a very tough night. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone”.
Amr was accused, along with eight others, of assassinating former prosecutor
general Hisham Barakat, who was killed in a car bomb in June 2015.
Leila said Amr was preparing to get married — buying suits and readying a new
home — when he was arrested in February 2016, in the family residence in a
major southern Egyptian town.
She alleges he disappeared for two weeks, and that the family only found out
where he was thanks to lawyers, and relatives of other prisoners.
Amr said she saw signs of torture, including scars, on her brother’s body
during jail visits.
Executions — always by hanging — have risen sharply under Sisi, who won a
second term in March last year.
So far this year, 15 people have been executed in 2 separate trials,
calculations by AFP show.
And between early 2017 and late 2018, Egypt executed 92 people, according to a
recent report by local rights groups Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
and Adalah for Rights and Freedoms.
These numbers are far higher than for previous governments, including that of
former dictator Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed in the 2011 Arab Spring
protests.
A total of 11 people were executed in the last 3 full years of Mubarak’s rule,
according to Amnesty International.
– ‘Arbitrary killings’ –
At a February summit with European Union leaders in the resort town of Sharm El
Sheikh, Sisi vehemently defended use of the death penalty.
“You are not going to teach us about our humanity…respect our humanity…as we
respect yours,” he said.
The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on executions Agnes Callamard told AFP
the increased “use of the death penalty … (constitutes) arbitrary killings”
that are designed to crush dissent.
AFP spoke to families of men executed, and others who are on death row.
After the Sisi-led military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July
2013, experts note Egyptian judges have been more authoritarian, in line with
an ongoing government crackdown which has incarcerated thousands.
“We are witnessing a rise in death sentences from tens per year before 2011 to
hundreds per year after 2013,” Sahar Aziz, a law professor at Rutgers
University, told AFP.
London-based rights group Reprieve estimates that at least 2,159 individuals
were provisionally sentenced to death between 2014 and 2018.
Hundreds of sentences have subsequently been commuted, but many remain on death
row.
In March 2014 — just prior to Sisi’s elevation to the presidency in June that
year — the UN said Egypt’s mass death sentences contravened international law.
The Egyptian legal system is based on Islamic sharia law, which legitimises
capital punishment.
A high level Egyptian judicial source with knowledge of the death sentences
handed down said “there is no politicisation of these cases whatsoever”.
“We are implementing Islam according to its laws and you’re getting upset? If
you are a terrorist who killed, then you must also be killed,” he told AFP.
He preferred not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
An Amnesty report this week ranks Egypt sixth globally in the number of people
executed in 2018 behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Iraq.
Many of the death sentences were handed down at mass trials involving hundreds
of defendants and lasting just days.
– ‘Taste of injustice’ –
“How many court sessions are needed to ensure that every prisoner is given a
fair trial to explain their side of the story?” said Osama.
His father Abbas Al Minyawi is on death row (names have again been changed to
protect identities).
He was one of 183 defendants accused of storming a Cairo police station and
killing 11 policemen and 2 civilians.
Minyawi and 19 others in the ‘Kerdasa massacre’ case do not know when they will
be executed.
“My dad was sentenced to death — and also my mother in a way was also condemned
to die with this news,” Osama told AFP.
“The taste of injustice is bitter,” he added.
The “troubling speed” at which the death penalty has been used indicates that
Egypt’s legal process has been politicised as part of the authorities’
crackdown, law professor Aziz contended.
UN special rapporteur Callamard said “the circumstances leading to the
imposition of these sentences and their execution are a great matter of
concern”.
She also blamed international powers for failing to hold Egypt accountable over
its flagrant use of capital punishment.
“This (international) deafening silence has become an integral part to the
spiralling human rights violations in Egypt”.
For the relatives of those executed, such as Leila, painful memories endure.
“He wasn’t the same person I remember when I saw him in the morgue,” Leila said
of her brother.
“He was so beautiful. He was sleeping peacefully.”
(source: siasat.com)
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