Oct. 23
IRAN----executions
Iran executes 10 men despite international pleas
A shop worker convicted of a drugs-related charge was among 10 men put to death
in Iran on Monday morning, despite calls on the country???s authorities by
Amnesty International, UN human rights experts and others to halt their
executions.
Saeed Sedeghi was permitted a "final meeting" with his mother at Evin Prison on
Sunday, when judicial officials announced that his death sentence would be
carried out early on Monday.
"Saeed Sedeghi and the nine other men executed today are the latest in Iran's
state killing spree, which has seen more than 360 individuals executed this
year - the majority of them convicted drugs offenders. Such executions inflict
needless suffering on Iranian families and are misguided, ineffectual and an
affront to human rights," said Ann Harrison, Deputy Middle East and North
Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.
Sedeghi's family has informed Amnesty International that his body was swiftly
returned to them after the execution.
On 13 October, it appeared that Sedeghi had been granted a stay of execution,
but his family were told nothing of his whereabouts until 21 October, when his
mother was informed of the impending execution and called to Evin Prison for a
final visit.
According to his family, Sedeghi had lost a lot of weight and had been
prohibited from calling other close relatives to say goodbye before his
execution.
Sedeghi's family told Amnesty International that he had said that after the
postponement of his execution he had been tortured in prison, including by
being subjected to mock execution. He also said that while in Evin Prison he
had been ordered to confess his guilt in front of a camera but had refused to
do so.
"The reports that Saeed Sedeghi was subjected to mock execution before his
death are deeply disturbing and must be investigated promptly and impartially,
with anyone found responsible for abuses brought to justice," said Harrison.
Following Sedeghi's execution, the authorities warned his family members not to
speak to the media and barred them from holding a public funeral ceremony after
his burial.
On 11 October, Sedeghi's brother, Majid Sedeghi, was arrested after giving
interviews to BBC Persian and Voice of America about his brother's plight. He
was held in Evin Prison before being released on bail 4 days later.
While Iran's security forces have a right to prosecute individuals for offences
connected to the production and supply of illegal drugs, drugs offences do not
meet the threshold of "most serious crimes" to which the death penalty must be
restricted under international law.
Iran - which is 2nd only to China in the number of executions carried out
annually - is believed to have put to death at least 368 people so far this
year, including 136 executions that have not been formally announced.
There is no clear evidence that the death penalty has had any identifiable
effect in deterring drug-related offences. International human rights standards
state that the death penalty should never be a mandatory sentence.
"We continue to urge the Iranian authorities to commute the death sentences of
everyone on death row, and to remove it from law as a possible punishment for
drugs offences," said Harrison.
(source: Amnesty International)
*************************
Iran keeps up high number of executions: UN expert
Iran, which on Monday executed 10 accused drug traffickers, is maintaining its
record-setting use of capital punishment, a UN investigator said.
Ahmad Shaheed, a former foreign minister for the Maldives, said ahead of the
presentation of his latest report that conditions were worsening in Iran on the
use of the law and discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities,
women and gays.
"Allegations contained in this report paint a disturbing picture of a
government that seriously struggles to comply with its international and
national obligations," Shaheed told a meeting with diplomats, journalists and
experts.
"The concerns remain unabated -- if anything, they are growing," he said of
Iran's use of executions and accusations of persecution and discrimination.
Shaheed said more than 300 people had been recorded executed in the first eight
months of the year but the figure was probably much higher as Iran has
restricted information this year.
He reported 670 executions in 2011 in Iran, which has the world's highest per
capita use of the death penalty.
"I don't see it as reducing," said the UN special rapporteur on human rights in
Iran, who will present his latest report to a UN General Assembly committee on
Wednesday.
Shaheed said he had been "shocked" to hear of the execution of 10 men in a
Tehran jail after they had been found guilty of trafficking narcotics.
"It is quite commonplace to have large numbers of people executed on the same
day in Iran," said Shaheed, who has not been able to visit the country since
taking up his post in June 2011.
Iran has drawn up a new penal code, still being considered by parliament, which
Shaheed said "omits" the use of stoning for executions.
But he added that this does not stop a judge ordering the controversial
execution. "Under the constitution of Iran, where the law is silent, a judge
has to refer to the Sharia" -- the Islamic law which still allows stoning.
The expert said the new penal code also allows a provision to avoid death
sentences for juvenile offenders.
Iran has been strongly condemned by rights groups for the widespread executions
of those under the age of 18. Shaheed said Iran was still out of line with
international conventions which bar the execution of minors.
Shaheed's report says that human rights activists in Iran are beaten with
batons and threatened with mock hangings, rape, sleep deprivation, and threats
that relatives will be raped or killed.
He added that more than 40 journalists were also known to be detained, making
the country one of the worst press freedom offenders.
"Rule of law issues are some of the major concerns I have with Iran," Shaheed
said, highlighting vague charges, unfair trials and sentencing. The report also
criticizes Iran over discrimination against women and religious and ethnic
minorities.
But Shaheed said he would be looking into the human rights impact of
international sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
A government newspaper said Sunday that 6 million patients had been affected as
medicines were difficult to get hold of. Medicines are not covered by the UN
sanctions ordered against Iran's uranium enrichment.
The investigator said there were "concerns" about the impact of sanctions and
that he hoped to visit the country to make a study.
Shaheed's report is 23 pages long, while Iran's comments run to 66 pages. It
has called his allegations "baseless" and his investigation "illegitimate" and
politicized.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
(in) MOROCCO:
Former death row inmates speak out at abolition forum
Former convicts on death row in the Middle East and North Africa described
awaiting their dreaded fate as "daily torture" from which execution itself was
a "deliverance," at an abolition conference in Rabat.
"I spent 10 years on death row in Morocco, and the hardest thing was the wait,"
Ahmed Hamou told AFP at the three-day conference, which brought together
hundreds of officials and civil society representatives from the MENA region.
"In Section B, which is the death row ward at Kenitra prison (40 kilometres
north of Rabat), a terrible silence prevails. At the smallest sound, your heart
beats faster and you say to yourself: 'That's it. The time has come.'" Arrested
on political charges in 1983 in Casablanca, at a time when Morocco's largest
city was experiencing widespread social unrest, Haou was sentenced to death the
following year. In 1994, under international pressure, he was pardoned by the
late king Hassan II, father of the present monarch, Mohammed VI.
"In other wings of the prison, the opening of a cell door is synonymous with
hope and freedom. But on death row, it can spell the end and creates an
indescribable fear," said Haou, who described his ordeal at the Rabat
conference. "So the wait is like daily torture, and as you wait, execution
itself comes to mean deliverance," he said. A moratorium on executions in
Morocco has been in place since 1993, but around 100 convicts remain on death
row, with no Arab country having yet abolished capital punishment. The French
ambassador on human rights, Francois Zimery, argued that the north African
kingdom was able to play a pioneering role on the issue, pointing to the
peaceful atmosphere of the conference, the first of its kind. In their efforts
to see the death penalty outlawed, local NGOs also refer to Morocco's new
constitution, adopted by referendum last year, which stipulates "the right to
life."
Antoinette Chahine, a Lebanese former death row inmate participating in the
abolition conference, spoke of her 2 years in prison in Beirut, after she was
wrongly convicted of murder in 1997 and sentenced to death. "Women sentenced to
death in Lebanon are not executed, but no law explicitly mentions that," she
told AFP. "But in spite of that, the wait was terrible, until I was acquitted
by the court," Chahine said.
"The uncertainty makes every moment an unbearable form of torture. If I had
been executed, the judiciary would have killed an innocent person. That's why I
have devoted myself to abolishing the death penalty," she added. French
ambassador Zimery also spoke of the "human realities" involved, and stressed
that having a moratorium in place "means there are people on death row, who
suffer from the torture and uncertainty of the next day." France has launched
an international campaign, and has urged Morocco to take the lead in being the
first Arab country to do away with the death penalty. According to Amnesty
International, the MENA region has the highest execution rate in the world
relative to the size of its population. In Saudi Arabia, where rape, murder,
apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death, more
than 70 people were executed last year, most of them decapitated by sword.
(source: New Era)
INDIA:
Home Ministry rejects Ajmal Kasab's mercy plea, sends recommendation to
President
Union Home Ministry on Tuesday recommended the rejection of the mercy petition
of Pakistani terrorist and 26/11 lone survivor Ajmal Kasab. Senior lawyer
Ujjwal Nikam has welcomed the development, saying "President has to study the
recommendation of MHA. It's a positive phase in the case. It's a good
development." K Unnikrishnan, NSG martyr Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan's father,
said, "I am happy that we did not make a mistake. I am very sure that President
will take a decision very soon."
A top Home Ministry official said Kasab's mercy petition has been dismissed as
he was involved in a grave crime and waging war against India that led to
killing 166 people, including foreigners. The 25-year-old Pakistani and 9 other
fellow Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had landed in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 by
sea from Karachi and had gone on a shooting spree at various places, carrying
out the country's worst terror attack. While Kasab was captured alive, the
other terrorists were killed by security forces.
Kasab's mercy petition was sent to the Home Ministry by the Maharashtra
government last month after rejecting the plea. A brief official release said,
"the Home Ministry has only processed Kasab's mercy petition and submitted it
to President for decision".
Earlier, the Maharashtra home department had also recommended to President
Pranab Mukherjee to reject Kasab's mercy plea.
After nearly a 4-year-long legal battle, on August 29, the Supreme Court had
confirmed the death penalty awarded to the LeT operative by the trial court and
later upheld by the Bombay High Court. Upholding Kasab's conviction, the apex
Court had said that he killed without "the slightest twinge of conscience".
The Pakistani gunman is currently lodged in the bomb-proof and an egg-shaped
cell at the high-security Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai. After the Home Ministry's
recommendation, it is now left to President Pranab Mukherjee to take a final
decision on Kasab's mercy plea. There are more than a dozen mercy petitions
pending before the President for final decision which include Parliament attack
case convict Afzal Guru.
(source: IBN Live)
NIGERIA:
Nigeria must halt the execution of appeal-case prisoners
2 inmates in a Nigerian prison could be executed as soon as Tuesday, sources
told Amnesty International, prompting the organisation to call for their
appeals to be respected and preparations of the gallows to be halted.
The news came three weeks after the Governor Edo State in the Southwest of
Nigeria, Adams Oshiomhole, signed their death warrants.
According to information received by Amnesty International, neither the
convicted prisoners nor their families have been informed of the planned date
of execution.
"The Nigerian authorities must immediately halt any plans to execute the 2
prisoners on death row in Benin City prison," said Lucy Freeman, Amnesty
International's Deputy Programme Director for Africa.
"The inmates are party to an ongoing appeal and the judicial process must be
respected.
"To go ahead with any execution of prisoners when their death sentence is still
being challenged in the courts is a flagrant violation of human rights."
"Refusing to provide convicted persons and family members advance notice of the
date and time of execution is a clear violation of human rights. It is cruel,
inhuman and degrading."
Prison wardens at Benin City prison were seen preparing gallows for the
executions between Sunday night and Monday morning.
In a cruel twist, other inmates not on death row were made to wash the gallows
this morning.
A Court of Appeal ruling is still pending after a further appeal was submitted
by a Nigerian NGO, the Legal Defence and Assistance Project, in March 2010 on
behalf of then 840 death row inmates, including the pair in Benin prison.
An injunction was granted by the court upholding the appeal but it was lifted
in April 2012.
The judgment remains pending on a 2nd appeal which was filed by the
organisation the same month.
The Governor of Edo State signed the execution warrants after prison
authorities informed him that the death row inmates in Benin City prison were
'becoming unmanageable.'
Some death row inmates had been involved in a recent jailbreak incident in Oko
prison, according to the Edo state Attorney General.
"Amnesty International repeats that to execute detainees purely as a method of
controlling 'unmanageable' inmates is arbitrary and a totally unacceptable
violation of their right to life," Freeman added.
The Edo State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice Osagie Obayuwana
have previously refused to confirm when the executions would take place, but
indicated the decision would be taken by the state prison authorities.
The comptroller of Oko prison in Benin City later refused to confirm or deny to
Amnesty International when and if the executions would take place.
States which maintain the death penalty in law are obliged under international
human rights law and standards to ensure transparency in its use.
Refusing to provide convicted persons and family members with advance notice of
the date and time of execution is contrary to requirements under international
human rights standards, which require inmates on death row and their families
to be given reasonable advance notice of the scheduled date and time of the
execution, with a view to reducing the psychological suffering caused by the
lack of opportunity to prepare themselves for this event, as well as to allow
their lawyers to file final appeals as appropriate.
Information with regard to any scheduled execution must be made publically
available. Children and other family members of people to be executed must be
provided with the date, time and location of a pending execution, and must be
allow a last visit or communication with their convicted relative.
(source: Star Africa)
*******************
Death Penalty: Oshiomhole's Quandry
The vexed question about whether to abolish the death penalty anywhere in the
world elicits considerable passion - understandably. It is no less so here. I
recall a piece I wrote on the issue (Abolishing Death Penalty Would Be a Grave
Mistake) February 4, 2003. I received a deluge of email for and against my
views; many of those against were quite colourful, to put it mildly!
I have since then modified my views slightly. I still believe that the death
penalty is necessary in Nigeria for the most heinous or egregious crimes and
that it should be applied when it's an open and shut case (though really how
many cases are so?).
However, since my stint as Chair of the Lagos State Prerogative of Mercy
Council some years back as well as some pro bono criminal matters I either had
or am currently involved in, both of which involved going to the prisons to
interview prisoners, it has since become apparent to me that the open and shut
cases are not that many after all. And that some prisoners who are currently
detained as ATIs (Awaiting Trial Inmates) or as convicts actually have no
business there, having been roped in by our dear Police and were unable to or
not savvy enough to buy their way out, and so are quite innocent of the crimes
they have been accused of. Others, rightly convicted and serving out various
jail terms or on death row.
Of those convicted and sentenced for serious felonies there are 2 broad
categories, at least of those who freely admit their guilt: the repentant and
redeemed, and the unrepentant, unremorseful and unredeemable. I have interacted
with or spoken to those who fall into either category. I have seen genuine turn
around cases in which a murderer, armed robber or drug addict has, even within
the prison confines, genuinely turned a new leaf. The prison warders who daily
interact intimately with them also know the genuine turn around cases,
appreciate and often acknowledge how far they've come, even desiring for them
at times a new start in life were it to be within their powers.
Since 2002 there has been a de facto moratorium in Nigeria on death row
executions. Indeed, Nigeria is in good company as there are several countries
which have adopted the 2007 UN resolution moratorium against the death penalty.
The death penalty is no longer accepted fallback position in many of these
countries and is being abolished altogether in many of them; indeed, the 10th
World Day Against the Death Penalty was marked 2 weeks ago. (The World Day is a
move by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, an alliance of NGOs, bar
associations, local bodies and unions whose aim is to strengthen the
international dimension of the fight against the death penalty. It lobbies
international organisations and States, organises international events and
facilitates the creation and development of national and regional coalitions
against the death penaltywas marked worldwide recently - source Wikipedia).
Indeed, we had more or less marked one decade of our unofficial moratorium with
minimum fuss. Which was why, when in 2010 year the Governor's Forum decided to
resume hangings of death row inmates as a way of decongesting prisons there was
public outcry - sufficient to make them have a rethink.
Have I ever been the victim of a serious crime? Yes, twice. I have encountered
armed robbers; on one of those occasions I had a gun pointed at my head.
Another time I encountered vicious hoodlums. As anyone who has will tell you
it's a most traumatic experience, worsened when they have suffered the loss of
a loved one in the attack. Ditto kidnappers, ritual killers and the like. Would
I shed a tear or two if they were caught and sentenced to death? No. However, I
wouldn't now do a celebratory jig either - in the past I might have.
Let's fast forward to another scenario. Suppose the armed robbers who attacked
me had been caught and sentenced to death and after all those many years were
still awaiting the hangman's noose. Suppose they were now totally changed
persons, repentant, remorseful, have bettered themselves in prison, taken
classes and exams or learnt a useful skill or trade, given their lives to
Christ or become committed Muslims, looked up to by other prisoners as role
models, respected leaders within their prison confines, admired even by the
prison wardens, et cetera. Would I shed a tear or two upon learning that the
execution of their death sentence is now imminent? Actually I might - but then
again, the caveat being that I didn't suffer the loss of my life or any loved
one in their attacks, those who have worn that unfortunate shoe might be in a
better position to answer.
It is in this context of all the forgoing that I now comment on the signing
last week (ironically as the world, including Nigeria, marked World Day Against
Death Penalty) of the death warrants of 2 murder convicts by Edo State
Governor, Adams Oshiomhole. The 2 men, Osaremwinda Aiguohian and Daniel Nsofor,
had been convicted and sentenced to death (affirmed all the way to the Supreme
Court) for crimes so heinous that the Supreme Court in the appeal of one
considered him a sure candidate for Hades.
Governor Oshiomhole's decision has attracted a hail of angry criticisms,
particularly from Amnesty International, Avocats Sans Frontieres and other
Rights Groups. There are also some confusing reports - I'm unable to clarify as
the time of writing this - that their matters were on appeal or that their
executions had been stayed by injunction. But to whom and by whom? The Supreme
Court had long since affirmed their sentences.
Oshiomhole's government has defended itself, saying the Governor was exercising
his Prerogative of Mercy and that based on the nature of the crimes they were
sentenced to death for, as well as reports by prison warders that the 2
convicts were very disruptive and had been the arrowhead of various jail break
attempts and were a security risk, he???d signed their death warrants.
My perspective is: we need to understand/know fully what the moratorium
(informal or not) we have in place is all about. Is it for just some categories
of prisoners (the 'repented and redeemed')? If that answer is in the negative,
as I strongly believe it is, why then do the Governors feel the need to resume
the signing of death warrants? Is it to decongest prisons as earlier
recommended by the Governors Forum in 2010? If that question is answered in the
positive, then they need to be educated that killing off people is neither an
effective nor humane way to decongest prisons. In any case, of the almost
49,000 in prison custody, only 870 or 1.78% are on death row. Majority, some
35,000 or 72% (some of whom have been awaiting trial for over 15 years), are
ATIs. What this says is that what they need to be looking at is overhauling the
ENTIRE criminal justice system, not killing off a minuscule proportion of
prison inmates. Even if they were all to have their death sentences carried out
tomorrow, their demise will hardly make an impact on the terrible conditions or
security situation of our prisons.
Government (state and federal) needs to speak with one voice on this moratorium
issue. We are either unofficially (or even, officially) ending the death
penalty or we are not. If we are not, then let the hangings resume; we should
not have one leg in and the other out.
But let us remember, even in more advanced nations like the United States where
some states in the union still cling to it with no apologies and where
executions are still carried out, even with a much more sophisticated and
better criminal justice and legal system than we have, some persons still have
been sent to their wrongful deaths only to subsequently be completely
exonerated (by DNA evidence and other developments in science not available at
the time of their sentencing or executions - and let's not forget that the
average wait of the death row inmate in the US can be as long as 13 years given
that they often go the whole hog in the appeals system) of the crimes for which
they were charged, tried and convicted.
It is for that reason, and only that reason, that I would support the continued
moratorium on the execution of death sentences, at least until we radically
overhaul our entire criminal justice system. It is then we can then decide as a
country (and on the state level) whether we would like to keep the death
penalty in our statute books and in line with our own peculiarities, challenges
and context (and we should so with no apologies if we choose to walk that path)
or whether the death penalty has seen its day, in the firm belief that 'it is
better to set 9 guilty men free than to wrongly convict 1 innocent man'.
To summarise, my position on the death penalty is: I do not support its
abolition in our current climes and at this time. There are simply too many
invidious and heinous crimes routinely committed here, and with impunity - the
lynching of the Aluu 4 is one such. I however support its moratorium because it
is a fact that some of our convicts on death row were simply at the wrong place
at the wrong time and wrongly roped in by our law enforcement agents and had no
one to ably speak for them. My view is that the moratorium on the execution of
death sentences should be in place until such a time as we can boast an
adequate, effective and just criminal justice system in the fullest sense of
it. Then, and only then, should we consider if we would like to remove it from
our statute books altogether or restrict it for an extremely small and
restricted category of crimes - including egregious acts of corruption.
Of course, I should say that rapid economic and other development would also go
a long way towards reducing the terrible crimes committed in this country.
There's a whole army of unemployed and unemployable angry youths whose idle
minds are the devil's workshop.
Plus reducing drastically the level of corruption. Those youths are not blind.
They see how the corrupt live unchallenged and with impunity. In their bid to
get rich quick and be like them or even due to resentment and anger at the
injustice of it all, killings for hire, kidnappings, ritual killings, armed
robbery, selling of fake and adulterated drugs, terrorism and the like have
taken root. Those are our current realities. Until they are eliminated or
drastically reduced, we cannot indeed must not, for the sake of being
fashionable or being politically correct jettison the death penalty without
more. Our security, sovereignty and value system come first, not being like the
Joneses.
That said, I think Governor Oshiomhole and other Governors who may be minded to
sign away the lives of current death row inmates should make haste slowly. It's
Aiguohian and Nsofor (certified, hardened, 'unmanageable' criminals and by all
accounts headed for hell) this time. But who might it be next time?...
(source: Funke Aboyade----This Day Live)
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