[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 14



SAUDI ARABIA----execution

Saudi Arabia beheads man for murder


A Saudi man convicted of murder was beheaded by the sword in the northern
city of Hail, the interior ministry said.

Abdullah bin Mashari was executed for shooting dead Mansour al Kharir
following an argument caused by "family differences", the ministry said in
a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

It was the 3rd execution announced in Saudi Arabia this year, after a
record 153 people were put to death in 2007. That figure compared with 37
beheaded in 2006, and the previous record number of 113 executions in
2000.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking can all carry
the death penalty in the ultra-conservative Gulf country, where executions
are usually carried out in public.

(source: Agence France Presse)






IRAN:

Appeal Fails to Stop Executions


Despite appeals for clemency, 4 Ahwazi activists were executed in secret
by the Iranian authorities, with further executions widely expected.

Below is an appeal published by the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation:

To: Ms. Louise Arbour, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the
United Nations

UNOG-OHCHR, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Dear Madam Commissioner:

Despite our appeal of 30/12/2007 and the appeals of the international
community and a large number of international human rights organizations,
the Iranian regime this week [Week 3] secretly executed the following four
political activists in Karoon prison in Ahwaz City: Ahmad Marmazi,
Abdolhussein Harabii, Hussein Asakereh, and Mehdi Haidari. They were all
Arab (Ahwazi) residents of Ma'sur (Mahshar), and were all married with
children.

4 more men are slated for execution, possibly next week [Week 4]. They are
all members of Iran's ethnic Arab minority in Khuzestan (al-Ahwaz)
province, a homeland to 5 million Ahwazi Arabs in Iran.

During the funeral of Mehdi Haidari in the Seyed-ol-Shohada Mosque in
Shilingaba, a poor section of Ahwaz, agents of the Ministry of
Intelligence and Security (MOIS) attacked about 800 funeral attendees and
arrested 150 to 200 of them. There are a number of juveniles among the
detainees. Since the arrests a week ago, the families of detainees have
been gathering outside the Khuzestan governor's office, demanding the
immediate release of their children and relatives. None but a very few
have been released so far.

Iranian Human Rights Activist Group (IHRG) has announced the names of 102
detainees:

1- Sheikh Abuhasan; 2- Mohsen Abidawi (45 years old); 3- Karim Ahmadi
(28); 4- Ebrahim Bawi (poet); 5- Ali Abed Bedawi; 6- Muhammad Darisawi; 7-
Qasem Daghaghle (18); 8- Rahim Daghaghle (16); 9- Ahmad Daghaghle; 10-
Morteza Daghaghle; 11- Mahmud Daghaghle; 12- Abdulreza Daghaghle; 13- Musa
Daghaghle; 14- Muhammad Daghaghle; 15- Saeed Dahani; 16- Musa Dahimi; 17 -
Musa Dahimi (Abu Auwan); 18- Jafar Dahimi; 19- Sadik Dahimi; 20- Maki
Duraghi; 21- Habib Duragi; 22- Jafar Duragi; 23- Seyed Ebrahim; 24- Abbas
Eshghi (famous singer/entertainer in Ahwaz); 25- Khaled Halafi; 26-
Hussein Heidari; 27- Khaled Halafi; 28- Abu Hassan (Poet); 29- Amer
Heidari; 30- Kazem Heydari; 31- Jaber Hamidi (20); 32- Jawas Heydari
(Poet); 33- Hamid Heydari Abumajud (Poet); 34- Kamal Heydari (Lawyer); 35-
Ahmad Heydari; 36- Adnan Heydari; 37- Jawad Heydari; 38- Jamil Heydari;
39- Saeed Heydari; 40- Amir Heydari; 41- Muhammad Jasem Batrani; 42- Qasem
Jalili; 43- Qasem Jalili; 44- Ahmad Khaledian (16); 45- Yusef Khaledian
(17); 46- Ramaden Khasergi; 47- Ahmad Majdam (18); 48- Majid Majdam; 49-
Saeed Majdam; 50- Seyed Tofiq Musawi; 51- Seyed Muhammad Musawi; 52- Seyed
Dahayi Musai; 53- Saeed Muhammad; 54- Seyed Ali Musawi; 55- Seyed Ebrahim
Musawi; 56- Jasem Mahawi; 57- Ebrahim Manesh Dawi (17); 58- Yaser Naseri
(18); 59- Ramadan Nawabsari; 60- Qader Neysi; 61- Aqil Neysi; 62- Ali
Neysi; 63- Qasem Neysi; 64- Yasin Neysi; 65- Hussein Neysi; 66- Mehdi Abu
Saleh; 67- Mehdi Abu Saleh; 68- Abdolzahra Sawar (18); 69- Musa Dahimi
(Sawari) (26); 70- Fadel Sharifi; 71- Salem Shakhi; 72- Ali Sawari; 73-
Hussein Sawari; 74- Seyad Jume Sawari (Poet); 75- Khaled Sawari (30); 76-
khalil Sawari (19); 77- Reza Sawari; 78- Feysal Sawari; 79- Rahim Sawari;
80- Kaleld Sawari; 81- Rasul Sawari; 82- Saeed Sawaedi; 83- Sattar Sayahi
Abu Sarwar (Poet) (30); 84- Mustafa Muhammad Sawari; 85- Hashem Sayyahi;
86- Hassan Saeedi; 87- Ahmad Shamusi (Lawyer); 88- Khaled Sayahi; 89-
Jamal Sayahi; 90- Khaled Sayahi; 91- Muhammad Sayahi; 92- Hassan Saeedi;
93- Seyed Nasser Al Seyyed; 94- Abu Shoja (Poet); 95- Jafar Soidi (Dahimi)
(13); 96- Qazi Tamimi; 97- Seyed Ebrahim Yaseri; 98- Seyed Naji Yaser; 99-
Seyed Fuad Yaseri; 100- Muhammad Amer Ziadat (Poet); 101- Mazid Zargani;
102- Sayed Naser al Sayed

In the 12 months prior to the most recent executions, at least 19
Ahwazi-Arab activists have been publicly hanged (three were executed just
days after your visit to Tehran in September 2007). 4 others, including
Zamal Bawi, Faleh al-Mansouri, Said Saki, Rasoul Mazrea, are in danger of
imminent execution. The news of their impending executions has come from
family members as well as the Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Amnesty
International, and the Human Rights & Democracy Activists group, and from
Mr. Musa Pirbani, Khuzestan's prosecutor. Mr. Mazrea, Mr. al-Mansouri and
Mr. Saki, along with 3 other Ahwazis, were deported by the Syrian
government in May 2006. The men were all recognized refugees under UNHCR
protection, and were pending third-country resettlement at the time of
their deportation to Iran.

The charges against them include hoisting the Ahwazi flag, giving their
children Sunni names, converting from Shi'ism to Sunnism, preaching
"Wahabbism", and being "Mohareb" or enemies of god, which carries death
sentence. Other charges are "destabilizing the country", "attempting to
overthrow the government", "possession of improvised explosives",
"sabotage of oil installations" and being a "threat to national security."

Last year, Mr. Emadeldin Baghi, a leading Iranian human rights activist,
in a letter to the chief of the judiciary Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi,
argued that the trials of Ahwazi Arabs were flawed, the charges baseless,
and that the sentencing was based on a spurious interpretation of law and
that no evidence has been presented. Mr. Nkbakht, a prominent defense
lawyer in Iran, made a similar statement. Others, including the President
of the European Council, the UN General Assembly, 48 British MPs, the EU
Parliament, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned
their trials as unjust and unfair, and appealed for a halt to further
execution.

This new wave of executions is designed to intimidate and terrorize the
indigenous Ahwazi-Arab population into submission. Although the Ahwazi
Arab homeland in Iran's Khuzestan province is one of the most oil-rich
regions in the world and represents up to 90 % of Iran's oil production,
the community endures extreme levels of poverty, unemployment and
illiteracy. Ahwazis are subjected to repression and racial discrimination,
and are faced with land confiscation, forced displacement and forced
assimilation.

Also, on Friday 12 October 2007, in the predominantly Arab city of
Hamidieh in Khuzestan (al-Ahwaz), some 200 residents were arrested
following a peaceful march against poverty, unemployment and excessive
repression and persecution, on the occasion of this year's Muslim Eid
ul-Fitr holiday. The Iranian government refuses to divulge any information
on the whereabouts of the detainees.

We appeal to you to condemn the latest wave of arbitrary arrests and
secret executions, and call upon the Iranian authorities to halt the
imminent execution of the others. We request that you further call upon
Iran to ensure due legal process in accordance with internationally
recognized standards and to uphold its obligations with regard to civil
and political rights, including the provision of equal rights to ethnic,
religious and minority groups in Iran, including the indigenous
Ahwazi-Arabs.

For further information, please see a dossier of other human rights
violations against indigenous and ethnic Ahwazi-Arabs in Iran:
http://www.ahwazmedia.com/dossier.pdf

Sincerely,

Karim Abdian, Ph.D., Ahwaz Human Rights Organization

(Source: Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation)




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


Top Campaigner Harassed, Hangings Increase


Emaddedin Baghi, Iran's leading anti-death penalty campaigner, is back
behind bars in the countrys notorious Evin prison after intense harassment
leading to his hospitalisation and concern that he may have suffered a
heart attack.

3 days after Christmas, Baghi, 48, was taken ill in his cell. Alarm was
raised by a fellow-prisoner with whom he shared a cell in the
high-security section of the prison.

Baghi was immediately taken to the prison hospital. Later in the day he
suffered a second serious reversal and concerned medical staff ordered his
transfer to an outside civilian hospital for further tests and treatment.

In this hospital Baghi was allowed visits by his family before being
returned to jail.

Baghis illness came after weeks of interrogation by Irans intelligence
services following his arrest on Oct. 14, according to his family in a
Nov. 6 statement made to the Iranian Students News Agency after being
allowed their 1st visit. His arrest was to serve out a one-year sentenced
imposed 5 years ago for allegedly revealing state secrets and
disseminating anti-state propaganda during his human rights work.

In letters written from his prison cell to the judicial authorities and
minister of intelligence, Baghi had threatened to go on hunger strike
unless the authorities halted their "unlawful, psychological torture,
according to sources.

Prison interrogation focused on Baghis public activities as head of the
Society to Defend Prisoners Rights. On the night before being taken ill in
his cell, there was a commotion in Baghis prison section. He later learned
that it was in a nearby cell where a student had committed suicide,
according to sources.

In recent weeks, scores of students have been arrested and jailed for
holding meetings and campaigning against a clamp-down on human rights.

Baghi had also publicly condemned the rights violations and escalation in
executions. Shortly before his arrest, he issued an open letter
criticising the reformist parties for not speaking up against the wave of
hangings justified by hardliners for tightening security.

During 2007, Iran became the worlds second most active state executioner
after China. Based on reports in the local press and confirmed by Amnesty
International, the number of executions for the year exceeded 300. This is
a 70 % increase on the number of known executions in 2006.

At least 6 of those executed in 2007 were child offenders, according to
Amnesty International. More than 70 of the 250 on death row are believed
to be child offenders.

The passing of the United Nations General Assemblys moratorium on
executions on Dec. 18 was ignored by Iran. On the following day, four
criminals were executed in the Evin prison, according to press reports.

Since Jan. 1, the gallows of Evin prison have been the busiest in the
country. On Jan. 2, there were eight hangings. They included one young
woman, Raheleh Zamani, who reportedly killed her husband after learning of
his affair.

So far this year, there have been at least 23 executions in different
places in the country. There have also been amputations of the hands and
feet of 5 robbers.

Since his return to prison, Baghi has been held in the prison's general
ward, an apparent relaxation in his prison regime in face of concern over
his health and protest over his treatment from such bodies as the European
Union, Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch.

The authorities have moved fast to head off any public show of solidarity.
On Jan. 5, they blocked all domestic access to an internet site set up by
Baghis friends and supporters, www.freedomforbaghi.blogspot.com.

The present harassment of the human rights activist comes after years of
repression.

In 1995, Baghi was suspended from his university teaching post.
Blacklisted for any academic or journalistic posts, he was forced to work
as a manual labourer to support his family.

In the late 90s, Baghi helped expose the role of the intelligence services
in the murder of dissident political activists and 5 journalists. 2 of
those murdered were Darioush Forouhar, president of the Iranian National
Party (INP) and his wife Parvaneh. The INP was the 1st party in Iran to
call for the abolition of the death penalty.

15 agents were eventually tried and found guilty of the murders. But
higher responsible officials have never been brought to justice.

In 2000, Baghi was sentenced to 2 years in prison for his human rights
activities, including the publishing of an article on the death penalty
arguing that abolition would not be contrary to Islamic law. This greatly
angered the Iranian religious establishment.

In 2005, Baghi founded Iran's 1st anti-capital punishment organisation,
the Association for the Right to Life. In the same year, he was honoured
with one of France's top human rights awards, the Civil Courage Prize. But
a long-enforced travel ban prevented him from receiving it personally.

In an interview with IPS last May, Baghi said the authorities had
prevented him from publishing a total of 7 books. But he hoped to get
around this ban, on his book on the death penalty, by arranging for it to
be printed in Afghanistan.

"For many activists, it is only the political prisoners who really matter.
Baghi is practically the 1st person here who defends the rights of
ordinary citizens," an activists and journalist told IPS after hearing of
Baghi's collapse in prison.

"When the police cracked down on the so-called "hooligans" some months
ago, throwing them into dungeons and executing them, it was Baghi who
courageously defended their rights, even though the massive state
propaganda machine did succeed in almost erasing all public sympathy for
these people.

"Baghi is now paying for standing up for the rights of people almost
nobody else wanted to defend."

(source: IPS)






CHINA:

Death penalty evidence rules arouse public attention


Southeast China's Jiangxi Province has recently issued a local regulation
to standardize evidence for death penalty cases involving intentional
homicide. The directive aims at avoiding incorrect verdicts and misjudged
cases.

A regulation to standardize evidence for death penalty cases involving
intentional homicide has been released jointly by the People's Court,
People's Procuratorate and the Public Security Department of Jiangxi
Province. This authoritative document aims at avoiding incorrect verdicts
and misjudged cases; it is the first of its kind regarding evidence for
death penalties involving deliberate murder. The directive has drawn close
attention from the legal profession and the public.

Based on the regulation, image data is now required as a part of evidence
collection. The document also stipulates that lawyers can be on the scene
when interrogating suspects if necessary and that all controversial
identification should be submitted to the court. Detectives cannot refuse
to bear witness without special reasons. Different standards of evidence
collection will be worked out according to each individual murder case.

A lot of incorrect verdicts and misjudged cases have been reported in
recent years, insiders said. One important reason for this is lack of
relative regulations. The new official document has created a unified
standard for evidence collection, identification and utilization, with
many unique rules.

(source: China Internet Information Center)