[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 22



SAUDI ARABIA----executions

2 Saudis, Yemeni beheaded


2 Saudis convicted of murder and a Yemeni found guilty of drug trafficking
were beheaded by the sword in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the interior
ministry announced.

It said Hassan al-Muhaissen and Abderrazak al-Quetaifi had attacked fellow
Saudi Mohammed al-Saleh with an axe and robbed him of his money, leaving
their victim in agony to bleed to death.

Their execution was carried out in Al-Ihsa, in the east of the
ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom, it said in statements carried by the
state news agency SPA.

It said Mansur Jrad, a resident from Yemen, was executed in the southern
province of Jizan which borders Yemen for smuggling hashish, although the
amount was not specified.

The latest beheadings brought to 12 the number of executions announced in
Saudi Arabia this year, after a record 153 people were put to death in
2007.

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

(source: Agence France Presse)






AFGHANISTAN:

Afghan journalist sentenced to death for distributing paper 'against
Islam'


An Afghan court on Tuesday sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to
death for distributing a paper he printed off the Internet that three
judges said violated the tenets of Islam, an official said.

The three-judge panel sentenced Sayad Parwez Kambaksh to death for
distributing a paper that humiliated Islam, said Fazel Wahab, the chief
judge in the northern province of Balkh, where the trial took place. Wahab
did not preside over the trial.

Kambaksh's family and the head of a journalists group denounced the
verdict and said Kambaksh was not represented by a lawyer at trial.
Members of a clerics council had been pushing for Kambaksh to be punished.

The case now goes to the 1st of 2 appeals courts, Wahab said. Kambaksh,
who has been jailed since October, will remain in custody during appeal.

Wahab said he did not immediately have the details of the paper that
Kambaksh circulated, other than that it was against Islam. Kambaksh
discussed the paper with his teacher and classmates at Balkh University
and several students complained to the government, Wahab said.

Kambaksh's brother, Yacoubi Brahimi, described Tuesday's proceeding as a
"secret trial," saying the family did not know it had been scheduled. Some
have accused Kambaksh of writing the paper in question, but Brahimi said
that his brother printed it off the Internet.

"He told them he didn't write this article," said Brahimi. "It was written
by an Iranian."

Wahab said that Kambaksh told the court that he could defend himself and
did not need a lawyer. But Kambaksh's brother said his brother should have
had an attorney.

Wahab said that only President Hamid Karzai can forgive Kambaksh because
he had confessed to violating the tenets of Islam.

Rhimullah Samandar, the head of the Kabul-based National Journalists Union
of Afghanistan, said Kambaksh had been sentenced to death under Article
130 of the Afghan constitution. That article says that if no law exists
regarding an issue than a court's decision should be in accord with Hanafi
jurisprudence.

Hanafi is an orthodox school of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence followed in
southern and central Asia.

Samandar called for Karzai to intervene.

"We completely condemn this trial," Samandar said. "It goes against the
freedom of speech and the freedom of the press."

Clerics in Balkh and Kunduz province arranged a demonstration in the city
of Mazar-i-Sharif last week against Kambaksh, calling on the government
not to release him.

Kambaksh also works as a journalist at the Jahan-i-Naw newspaper in
Mazar-i-Sharif.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Shock at death sentence passed on young journalist for blasphemy


A court in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif today passed the death
sentence on a young journalist, Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, for alleged
blasphemy. The trial was held behind closed doors and without any lawyer
defending him. His brother, fellow journalist Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, told
Reporters Without Borders: "I saw my brother leave the court. He was very
anxious. All the family was, too."

"We are deeply shocked by this trial, carried out in haste and without any
concern for the law or for free expression, which is protected by the
constitution," Reporters Without Borders said.

"Kambakhsh did not do anything to justify his being detained or being
given this sentence. We appeal to President Hamid Karzai to intervene
before it is too late."

At a news conference yesterday, Hafizullah Khaliqyar, the deputy
provincial prosecutor in charge of the case, threatened to imprison all
journalists who support Kambakhsh, adding that "Kambakhsh has confessed to
the crime and must be punished."

Kambakhsh was supposedly arrested because of a controversial article
commenting on verses in the Koran about women, although it has now been
established that he was not the articles author. Rahimullah Samandar, the
head of the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association, said he was
in fact arrested because of articles written by his brother, Ibrahimi,
criticising the provincial authorities.

A reporter for the newspaper Jahan-e Naw ("The New World") and a
journalism student at Balkh university, Kambakhsh, 23, was arrested on 27
October.

(source: Reporters WIthout Borders)






CHINA:

Varsity to raise funds for death row woman


Umi Azlim Mohamad Lazim, the Kelantan woman who is on death row in China
for drug trafficking, may be getting some monetary help from her alma
mater.

Universiti Malaysia Sabah and its students will be creating a fund for
legal representation that will hopefully release her from the death
sentence and get her out of prison in Guangzhou.

University vice-chancellor Datuk Prof Mohd Noh Dalimin said Umi Azlim was
a good student who spoke fluent English and was most likely victimised in
this instance.

He said that the university was trying to raise some RM300,000 and he
believed the target could be attained if everyone got involved.

(source: Brunei Press)






RUSSIA:

It is not time to abolish death penalty in Russia - MP


Western Europe should not expect Russia to abolish the death penalty in
the near future, First Deputy Duma Speaker Oleg Morozov said.

"We do not see the issue on the agenda," Morozov told a news conference at
Interfax on Tuesday.

"If we organize a referendum on the issue of abolishing the death penalty,
then nine out of ten people will support the death penalty," the MP said.

(source: Interfax)






NIGERIA:

We Hold Your Brief


Dear Counsel,

This requires your very urgent attention. I read with great dismay the
news that 2 persons were sentenced to death and subsequently executed at
the Kaduna ntal Prisons on May 30, 2006. The convicts, Kenneth Ekhone and
Auwalu Musa were said to have had their sentences confirmed by the Kano
State Governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau. Information we have is that those
convicts never got any legal representation and were never given a chance
to appeal.

I find this very appalling, especially when a moratorium on death penalty
is supposed to be in place in Nigeria. This confirms our earlier fears
that the Nigerian government has been secretly executing convicts in the
past 3 years.

Pleas, kindly clarify this position on death penalty in Nigeria. I am also
quite worried that civil society organizations in Nigeria that have been
in the forefront canvassing for the abolition of death penalty have kept
quiet in the face of all these violations.

R. A., ---- Abuja

**

Dear Mr. R. A.,


I was equally amazed when I read of these executions in the newspapers.

Let me say by way of stating the facts that there is currently no official
moratorium on death penalty in Nigeria. What obtained was a situation
where the nation had a President from 1999 to 2007 who was pro-abolition.
There is however a Bill sponsored by a coalition of civil societies
currently before the National Assembly for the abolition of death penalty.
It must also be stated that even before then; there had been no official
executions anywhere in Nigeria since 1995. This is why the executions in
Kaduna Central Prisons came as a shocker to many.

Although you did not state what the convicts were charged for, it must
also be borne in mind that Kano State operates the Sharia system of law
which favours death penalty. In as much as we cannot say precisely what
offences the 2 unfortunate convicts were tried for, it is quite
unimaginable that they were not given legal representation nor allowed to
appeal their sentence.

Death penalty is still constitutional and in our statutes books. This has
been held in several decisions of our apex court. What is worrisome in
this case is the issue of whether the convicts got adequate legal
representation. I hope the relevant civil societies organizations are
reading this and that more facts will eventually emerge as to the fate of
those convicts.

(source: The Day)