[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 29



IRAN----execution

Iran hangs man for corruption


Iran has hanged a customs broker for bribery and corruption - a rare
punishment for financial crimes in the Islamic republic, the judiciary
spokesman said on Tuesday.

"3 customs officials and a customs broker were sentenced to death for
corruption, bribery, disruption in the financial system and fraud in
pricing exported goods," Ali Reza Jamshidi told reporters. "The customs
broker has been hanged but the other 3 have appealed that their sentence
be reduced to life imprisonment, which is being studied," he said, without
specifying when the unidentified man had been executed. Jamshidi said it
was "rare" for financial offenders to be given a death sentence in Iran,
which has executed 28 convicts so far this year, according to media
reports.

(source: Agence France Presse)

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

Iran's Tarnished Record on Human Rights


The king Cyrus the Great, following his conquest of Babylon in 539 B.C.,
issued the Cyrus Cylinder, which today is widely recognized as the first
document defining a person's human rights, thus making Iran home to the
1st charter of human rights. History would prove later how paradoxical
this act would become.

Last November, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution
calling on Iran to end human rights violations in the country. The
resolution, which also asked U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to submit
a progress report in 2008, underscores the need for the government of Iran
to adhere to international human rights norms and put an end to practices
such as the death penalty for child offenders that tarnish its image as a
civilized nation.

Human rights violations in Iran can take several forms, from the
imprisonment of journalists and members of the opposition to hangings and
amputations of convicted criminals or the stoning of women accused of
adultery. Although they are all serious violations of human rights, a
particularly cruel practice is the death sentence of minors.

According to the Agence France-Presse, 298 people (both adults and minors)
were hanged in 2007 a substantial increase over the 177 hangings in 2006.
Publicly disclosed executions for 2008 already number 23. Iran has
presently one of the highest numbers of recorded executions of any country
in the world.

Today, Iran is one of the few countries in the world that still executes
children and child offenders (those accused of committing an offense when
they were under 18 years of age).

According to Amnesty International in its report "Iran: The last
executioner of children," "Although executions of child offenders are few
compared to the total number of executions in Iran, they highlight the
government's disregard for its commitments and obligations under
international law, which prohibits in all circumstances the use of the
death penalty for child offenders."

Protesters light candles during a protest in Manila, Philippines,
condemning the execution of two teenagers in Iran because of their
homosexuality. (Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images)By sentencing child offenders
to death, Iran is violating two treaties to which it is signatory, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The ICCPR establishes in its
Article 6 that "Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes
committed by persons below 18 years of age."

The CRC, in its Article 37, provides that "Neither capital punishment nor
life imprisonment without the possibility of release shall be imposed for
offenses committed by persons below 18 years of age."

The Iranian government is also violating customary international law,
since excluding child offenders from the death penalty is now so widely
accepted in practice that it has become a rule of customary law and, as
such, binding on every state. That situation has been confirmed by the UN
Human Rights Committee.

Iranian government officials have repeatedly stated that children are not
executed in Iran, even though it is widely known that minors below 18 have
been executed. That in some cases the authorities wait until the child
offenders have turned 18 to execute them doesn't change the character of
Iran's abuse of international law and obligations.

Equally reprehensible is the issue of amputations. In several cases in
Iran, amputations take on an especially cruel character, since they
involve both the right hand and the left foot of those amputated, making
it particularly impossible for them to walk even with a cane or crutches.

Iranian poet Simin Behbahani and Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi (R) sit
under a banner reading "One million signatures to change the biased laws"
in Tehran, 27 August 2007. Iranians petitioning to achieve equal rights
for women and men in Iran said today they hoped that their efforts would
help change people's mentalities on the matter. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty
Images)Ms. Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and 2003 Nobel Peace Prize
laureate, has strongly condemned the executions and amputations being
carried out in Iran, and stated that violations of human rights in the
country have reached new dimensions. She has also stressed that these
violations of human rights contravene human rights conventions that Iran
has signed. Amnesty International calls amputations a "cruel, inhuman, and
degrading punishment."

The Iranian government has been keen in obtaining international
recognition and respect. A basic condition for them is to follow
international rules of civilized behavior that both executions of minors
and cruel amputations clearly violate.

Iranian authorities should implement an immediate moratorium on all
executions of those under 18 at the time of their crime with a view to a
later abolition of the death penalty in the country. They should also
eliminate the barbaric practice of amputation.

(source: The Epoch Times----Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas
Press Club of America award, is the foreign correspondent for the Middle
East Times International (Australia) )






LIBYA----executions

Execution of Ghanaians in Libya causes diplomatic row


The alleged execution of 2 Ghanaians in Libya for murder is believed to be
raising diplomatic tensions between the 2 countries.

The 2 Ghanaians are suspected to have been executed under Sharia Law in
Libya after President Kufuor tried unsuccessfully to secure their release.

Another Ghanaian, believed to be on the death row, has his life hanging on
the balance.

Ghanaians have been urged to exercise restraint as diplomatic efforts are
underway to resolve the issue.

It is believed if not handled carefully, the issue could degenerate into a
serious crisis which could put a strain on relations between Ghana and
Libya.

That, it is feared could have very serious implications for the efforts at
continental unity that is being pushed by leaders on the Continent.

(source: Joy Online)






SAUDI ARABIA----execution/female

Saudi beheads Nigerian woman


A Nigerian woman and a Pakistani man were executed in the Muslim holy city
of Mecca today for drug trafficking, the Saudi interior ministry said.

Ghulam Nawaz was beheaded by the sword after being found guilty of drug
smuggling in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the ministry said in a
statement carried by the official SPA news agency. In a separate
statement, the ministry said Tawa Ibrahim, the Nigerian, was beheaded for
cocaine trafficking.

Their executions bring to 18 the number announced by Saudi authorities
since the start of the 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: The Times)






INDONESIA:

Bali Bombers' Execution Could Be Delayed By Appeal


A last-ditch appeal by 3 Islamic militants on death row for a 2002 bombing
on Indonesia's Bali could delay their execution, an official said on
Tuesday.

The Indonesians -- Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and Amrozi -- face a firing squad
for 2 nightclub blasts on the resort island in which more than 200 people
died, after the country's Supreme Court rejected their final appeal in
September.

Last week, lawyers for the 3 handed over documents to the Cilacap District
Court, requesting a second judicial review of their case by the Supreme
Court.

Although a 2nd case review is not possible under existing laws, the
execution would have to wait until the request is rejected, a spokesman
for the attorney general's office, Bonaventura Daulat Nainggolan, told
Reuters.

"We need to wait until all legal processes are out of the way before we
can proceed with the execution," Nainggolan said by telephone.

"It all depends on the court. If it doesn't reject it straight away but
decides to examine the request first, it would certainly stretch the date
of the execution."

A 30-day period for the militants to request clemency from the president
or be executed expires early next month, Nainggolan said.

The three bombers, who are held in the country's maximum security prison
on an island off Java, have repeatedly said they will not appeal to the
president for clemency, saying they want to die as martyrs.

Achmad Michdan, who heads the legal defense for the militants, said their
efforts should not be interpreted as a cowardly act to slow down the
execution.

"This is about restoring the legal supremacy in the country. We are not
living in the jungle, the laws need to be applied as they are and not
changed to anyone's desire," Michdan told Reuters by telephone.

The lawyers argue that anti-terrorism laws, which were written in the wake
of the 2002 attacks, should not be applied retrospectively.

(source: Reuters)