June 22
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
Worker gets death penalty for killing sponsor
The RAK Criminal Court of First Instance has sentenced an Asian worker to death
by the firing squad for killing his sponsor in 2010.
After the family of the victim refused reconciliation, a court bench presided
by Judge Yusuf Rajab and comprising Judge Hamad Abdul Karim and Judge Arif
Humaidan, sentenced the culprit to death.
As per the court records, the incident happened in May 2010. The prosecution’s
arraignment sheet said the defendant admitted to premeditatedly hammering the
victim to death after a heated argument over a financial dispute at the shop he
worked. Though the defendant fled the scene after closing the shop, the police
arrested him in a few hours after the crime was discovered.
The defendant said he was angry with his sponsor because he treated him badly
and used abusive language frequently, after subjecting him to physically harsh
work.
In his plea, the defence lawyer said his client was neither responsible for nor
aware of his deeds because of a mental disturbance he suffered years ago. He
had also been treated harshly by his sponsor.
However, the medical report showed that the defendant had been mentally and
psychologically sound.
(source: Khaleej Times)
THE NETHERLANDS:
No racial hatred charges for British Sharia law expert
The public prosecution department has no plans to bring charges against a
British-Palestinian expert in Sharia law for allegedly making comments which
incited hatred and discrimination in Amsterdam earlier this year, news agency
ANP reports.
Haitham al-Haddad made the comments during a debate which replaced a 2-day
symposium at Amsterdam's VU University. The conference was cancelled following
a row over al-Haddad's views about Jews.
Anti-Islam campaigner Ehsan Jami had called for legal action against al-Haddad
after he told the debate ex Muslims deserve the death penalty, as outlined in
Sharia law.
However, the public prosecution department said al-Haddad had not committed any
offences because he had outlined a number of conditions for applying the death
penalty which made it clear this could not happen in the Netherlands.
(source: Dutch News)
IRAN:
Despite Shaky Evidence, Hamid Ghassemi Awaits Execution
In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran,
sister of Hamid Ghassemi,a prisoner whose death sentence has been sent to the
Judiciary’s Sentence Enforcement Unit, reported about her brother’s poor
psychological state in prison. “Unfortunately, Hamid is really messed up
psychologically. Any moment his sentence may be carried out and we have not
been able to do anything effective for him. Hamid says that each time he hears
the PA system in the ward, he thinks they are calling his name to go in for his
execution. He is really stressed out and worried about his state of limbo. He
keeps asking, ‘When will they hang me?’” said Parvin Ghassemi.
The death sentence of Hamid Ghassemi, who is accused of transferring army
information to foreign states, was sent to the Sentence Enforcement Unit on 13
April. According to his family, his execution may be carried out at any moment.
“No matter how hard we tried to meet with the Tehran Prosecutor or other
judicial authorities during this time, it was futile. Our only reprieve is that
with the media coverage of his execution sentence, everything has quieted down.
But we can’t trust this silence, either,” Hamid Ghassemi’s sister told the
Campaign.
Parvin Ghassemi told the Campaign that none of her brother’s charges are true,
and that they are all products of his interrogator’s minds. “I would like to
ask my country’s judicial authorities to review Hamid’s case one more time in a
fair court. If they have any evidence against Hamid, to present it and then
carry out his death sentence. By evidence I don’t mean what his interrogators
have presented, basing the whole case on it. This evidence is a document that
even certified specialists from the Judiciary refuse to validate,” she told the
Campaign.
Hamid Ghassemi-Shall an Iranian and Canadian citizen, traveled to Iran to visit
with his family on 8 May 2008. Security forces arrested his older brother,
Alborz Ghassemi on He was arrested on 13 May 2008. Alborz Ghassemi was a
training commander in the Iranian Army’s Naval Force. He had worked in the
Army’s Naval Force for 29 years and, according to his family members, he was
forced to retire under pressure from the Army’s Intelligence Unit. After his
arrest, his brother Hamid Ghassemi visited the Army Intelligence Unit several
times to inquire about his brother’s situation. On 14 June 2008, following one
of his visits, Hamid Ghassemi was also arrested and transferred to prison.
Captain Alborz Ghassemi was sentenced to death on charges of “passing
information to the Mujahedin-e Khalgh Organization.” A year later, on 19 May
2009, he became sick and died in prison. Hamid Ghassemi, 44, was also charged
with “passing information to the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization,” and in
February 2009, he was found guilty of “moharebeh” (enmity with God), and
sentenced to death. During an in-person visit with his family on 14 April this
year, he was served with papers that confirmed his death sentence has been
forwarded to the Enforcement Unit.
Hamid Ghassemi’s sister told the Campaign that the only evidence presented to
the court for his “passing information to the Mojahedin-e-Khalgh Organization”
was a piece of A4 paper based upon which the death sentence was issued. “The
only evidence and document presented at court for Hamid’s espionage was a sheet
of paper on which the following line was printed: ‘Hello Dear Alborz. Please
send the information for me.’ They court said that according to this paper,
Hamid is accused of asking Alborz for information pertaining confidential Army
information, which he then passed to foreigners. We requested expert evaluation
of the document during the trial, but the court did not allow it. We then
sought the opinions of 2 certified Judiciary experts ourselves, and both of
them stated that because of certain signs, this document is not reliable and
that this could never have been an email exchange between the 2 brothers. But
they didn’t even accept their own experts’ opinion,” she said.
Ghassemi told the Campaign that her brother has rejected his charges during his
entire interrogation and trial stages. “Hamid was under interrogation for 6
months. He spent 18 months in solitary confinement, but during none of these
stages, not even once, did he say that he had taken information or passed it
along to foreigners. He refuted these espionage charges in court, too. But in
the trial session, even the Judge did not dare speak. The court was entirely
under the influence of the case interrogators. The same interrogators who had
accused him of espionage based on an A4 sheet of paper, demanding his
execution.”
Parvin Ghassemi emphasized that neither one of her brothers were members of the
Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization. “I vehemently deny their membership. Hamid was
in no way a member of the M.E.K. and he has not be affiliated with any
political groups and has never had any political activities. I ask all those
who can help me to do something to stop his execution sentence. There is no
reliable document about his charges in his case,” she concluded.
******************
Death row political prisoner Yunes Aghayan is awaiting justice
Following the news published by some media outlets that Yunes Aghayan, a member
of Iran’s Azerbaijani minority and an Ahl-e Haq follower, was executed, Iran
Human Rights spoke to a close source to his family for confirmation. The source
denied the news that the execution was carried out and insisted on Yunes
Aghayan’s innocence. On Thursday, Yunes Aghayan, with his hands and feet
shackled, was transferred from Orumiyeh prison to Mahabad prison. According to
the source, a trial is set for tomorrow to review the case.
Yunes Aghayan and 4 others were arrested in 2004. In January 2005, Yunes
Aghayan and Mehdi Qasemzadeh were sentenced to death by branch 2 of the Mahabad
Revolutionary Court. They were charged with "Moharebeh" (waging war against
God). The Supreme Court upheld their death sentences in April 2005. Mehdi
Qasemzadeh was executed in February 2009.
According to an urgent action appeal published by Amnesty International in
April 2009, Yunes Aghayan was arrested following "at least two clashes in
September 2004 between members of a group of Ahl-e Haq members and police. The
group had refused to take down religious slogans at the entrance to their
cattle farm in Uch Tepe, West Azerbaijan Province. During the clashes, 5 Ahl-e
Haq members and at least 3 members of the security forces were killed."
The 3 other prisoners— Sahand Ali Mohammadi, Bakhshali Mohammadi, and Ebadollah
Qasemzadeh— were also sentenced to death but their sentences were overturned by
the Supreme Court in September 2007. The 3 men are currently serving 13-year
prison sentences in exile in the Yazd province (central Iran).
(source for both: Iran Human Rights)
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