Oct. 28
VIETNAM:
3 Vietnamese caught trafficking heroin from Laos Police in the north-central
province of Quang Tri have said they arrested 3 men who had allegedly been
trafficking heroin from Laos for a long time.
After 10 months of surveillance, they caught Nguyen Trung Hieu, 22, and Le Xuan
Duong, 24, near the Lao Bao border gate in late September with nearly 1
kilogram of marijuana and 579 synthetic heroin tablets.
Another gang member, Nguyen Minh Quoc, 24, was arrested later in Dong Ha, the
province capital.
The police said they had been observing the gangsters who went to Laos to buy
heroin and returned with the drug hidden in milk boxes.
At the border they would climb on top of the bus to stash away the milk boxes.
They would pick up the boxes if the bus went through safely, but would pretend
to have nothing to do with them if they were discovered.
Drug trafficking from Laos to Vietnam has been rampant, with many arrests being
made this year.
The Lao police earlier this month arrested a couple who planned to carry around
116 kilograms of heroin into Vietnam.
Between April and early September police busted at least 6 trafficking
operations, arresting several Laotians and Vietnamese and seizing dozens of
kilograms of heroin.
The arrested gangsters confessed they had trafficked hundreds of kilograms for
years from Laos to Vietnam, sometimes even to China.
Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws. Those convicted of
smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of meth face
the death penalty.
(source: Thanh Nien News)
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan Detains Christian Worker For Blasphemy
A Christian worker was without his wife and 5 children Saturday, October 27, as
Pakistani police sent him to jail on "false" charges of "blasphemy" against
Islam, a rights group said.
Sweeper and cleaner Barkat Masih, who converted from Hinduism to Christianity,
was detained October 1 in the eastern city of Bahawalpur following a dispute
with co-workers, explained Pakistan-based advocacy group World Vision in
Progress (WVIP).
Rights activists said his problems began during a September night-shift at a
Muslim shrine, where 2 men demanded his keys.
"They asked him to give them the duplicate keys of the shrine so that they
could take the property papers of the land on which the shrine was built," said
Farrukh H. Saif, WVIP's executive director.
Masih refused because he realized they would use those documents to obtain the
land through illegal means, according to WVIP investigators.
POLICE COMPLAINT
The 2 men, identified as Muhammad Saleem and Muhammad Shoaib, threatened him
with "consequences" and 1 month later submitted an application to local police
alleging that Masih "committed blasphemy" against Islam's Prophet of Islam
Mohammed and Allah, Saif said.
BosNewsLife wasn't able to reach the 2 men for comment, however rights
activists say Pakistan's controversial blasphemy legislation has been used to
settle personal grievances.
Saif said his group was convinced of Masih's innocence. "His superiors knew him
as an honest man" who besides the shrine also worked at two other locations,
including a nearby high school.
He said that WVIP is pressuring authorities to release Masih from the notorious
Bahawalpur Central Jail, where reports say dangerous criminals are being held.
"Our lawyers are doing their best to get the case against Barkat Masih
overturned," he told BosNewsLife in a statement. He said a final court hearing
on the case was expected as early as November 8.
PRAYERS URGED
Saif said his group had asked supporters to "please keep Barkat Masih and his
family in prayers."
If convicted he can face the death penalty or at least life imprisonment.
Masih isn't alone.
At least 15 people are known to be on death row over blasphemy allegations and
at least 52 people have been killed while awaiting trial on similar charges,
according to rights activists.
(source: BosNewsLife)
********************
Bringing up baby on death row, by the regretful British mother who smuggled 3
million pounds worth of heroin over border in 3 bulging suitcases
In a bare, whitewashed courtroom in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, Khadijah
Shah tenderly rocks her baby, Malaika. The only home the infant has known since
her birth four weeks ago is a filthy, overcrowded prison cell.
'There's no cot in the jail,' says Khadijah in a thick Midlands accent. 'She
has to share my bunk with me. I'm afraid I might squash her or push her out of
bed in the night.
'But she's not sleeping much. She's always getting bitten by mosquitoes and
she's had a lot of diarrhoea. She's peaceful now, but at night she cries all
the time.
'Thankfully, the other girls in the cell don't seem to mind.'
At 9.30am one day in May, Khadijah, 25, and her 2 older children - Ibrahim, 5,
and Aleesha, 4 - were arrested at Islamabad airport as they tried to check in
for a flight to Birmingham.
Court documents seen by The Mail on Sunday say that inside their suitcases,
hidden beneath layers of clothing, was a staggering quantity of 100 % pure
Afghan heroin - 65kg (145lb). At current UK wholesale drug prices, the haul
would be worth up to 2.8?million pounds.
'My daughter cried when she left,' Khadijah said. 'I cried. She said she didn't
want to leave me, that she'd rather be in prison. It was awful, and I miss them
so much. But I couldn't have let them stay. There are no toys, no playground,
nothing for them to do. They'd both been ill, and Ibrahim had lost so much
weight he looked like a bag of bones.'
Like many alleged drug 'mules' before her, Khadijah said she had 'no idea' that
the suitcases, which she was asked to take to England by a friend, contained
heroin.
There is no way of proving whether she is telling the truth. What is clear is
that either way, she was only a tiny segment of a much bigger conspiracy, which
directly links Taliban killings of British troops in Afghanistan to the heroin
bought by addicts on our streets.
'To be capable of a 65kg shipment, the mafia which organised this would have to
be a major network, also sending drugs to Africa, every country in Europe, and
Dubai,' said an international law enforcement analyst interviewed in Pakistan
last week. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity.
'In Afghanistan, a proportion of the money it raises will be benefiting the
Taliban insurgency. It is also likely that the dealers here in Pakistan and the
distributors in Britain are basically all in the same group.' Pakistan, said
the analyst, is now used to transit about 40 % of the world's total heroin
supply. At Western wholesale prices, the country's share is worth about 20
billion pounds a year.
Of this, he added, the annual total successfully trafficked to Britain weighs
about 20 tons, with a wholesale value of up to 1 billion pounds..
Yet to date, Khadijah is the only person facing punishment from the airport
seizure on May 6. 'She is not a woman of means - she obviously didn't buy the
heroin herself,' said her lawyer, Shahzad Akbar. However, no further arrests
have been made in Pakistan or Britain.
At the end of May, Clive Stafford Smith, of the human rights charity Reprieve,
which is working with Mr Akbar, volunteered to supply information Reprieve had
uncovered about the broader drug conspiracy - information Khadijah did not know
herself - to the Serious And Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the UK body that
investigates drug trafficking. Mr Stafford Smith said: 'It took 4 1/2 months
for them to set up a meeting. They seemed to have little interest in catching
the real criminals.'
Born to Pakistani parents in the Birmingham suburb of Small Heath, Khadijah
left Sheldon Heath community school at 16 with no qualifications. 'I just
dropped out of my GCSE courses,' she admitted.
She wasn't, she said, ever formally assessed as having special educational
needs. But according to Mr Stafford Smith, who has seen her with Mr Akbar, she
has difficulty reading and writing.
'She didn't pay much attention at school,' said Khadijah's sister, Zaneb. 'She
did a computer course but she couldn't get a job. She's a very naive person.
She's a good mother, but she's like a child herself.'
'I didn't open the cases. I didn't know what was inside them'
Khadijah was still just 17 when she moved in with her boyfriend Ahzar, the
father of Ibrahim and Aleesha.
But when the children were still very young, Ahzar left her - because his
parents had arranged a marriage with someone they considered more suitable.
'I was sad when he disappeared, but now we have very little contact,' Khadijah
said.
'I've tried to get maintenance from him, but he's unemployed, so he has no
money, anyway.'
About a year ago, Khadijah began seeing Amar, the father of Malaika. At around
the same time, she met a man who lived in Smethwick named Imran Khan (no
relation to the famous cricketer). It was he who organised her trip to
Pakistan. Khadijah said: 'It was meant to be just a holiday. I was staying with
the kids in a guesthouse in Islamabad. On the last night a guy called Shakil
turned up from Rawalpindi. He seemed like a decent guy - certainly not a
criminal.
'He had the suitcases and Imran asked me to take them to England. They said it
was just clothes they wanted taking to Britain. Imran took my own luggage and
said he'd bring it back with him later. I didn't open the cases and I didn't
know what was in them.'
But someone was about to tip off Pakistan's specialist drugs agency, the
Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF). A report filed in court by ANF senior investigator,
Syed Imtiaz, states: 'On May 6, 2012 at about 8.00 I received information that
British national woman Khadijah Shah will travel through flight PK-791
Islamabad to Birmingham with a huge quantity of heroin.'
Khadijah is being kept in Rawalpindi Central Jail - a vast, sprawling compound
containing dozens of separate cell blocks
He put together a team of officers and rushed to the airport. They quickly
identified Khadijah, who was clutching three British passports and pushing a
trolley with the suitcases into the departures hall. When the ANF men asked her
to open the bags, they found 123 sealed and wrapped bags of heroin.
'When they found the drugs, I was stunned,' Khadijah said. 'Imran had been
using me. They took me into a small office where a lady officer questioned me.
She said I wasn't giving her enough information and she slapped me several
times around the face in front of my kids. They were screaming, hysterical.
Later my son asked me, "Mummy, have we been arrested?"'
The law enforcement analyst said that recently, drug mafias operating out of
Pakistan have increasingly been using women as couriers, especially those who
are pregnant.
Last month, another British woman, Yasmeen Akhtar - now one of those sharing
Khadijah's cell - was also arrested at Islamabad airport, albeit with 'only'
7kg of drugs. In part, the analyst said, this is because the drug barons think
female couriers will be less conspicuous. But there may be another reason: that
they believe their networks will be safer if the courier is caught, because
Pakistani police are reluctant to torture women.
Here confirmation came from a surprising source - Captain Ahzar Zubair, the
Rawalpindi police chief, whose jurisdiction includes the whole of the
Rawalpindi-Islamabad area. He said: 'A woman will not be harshly interrogated.
Usually she will be the only one punished.
'It's not easy to pick up everyone, and as soon as someone has been arrested,
they will know. To catch the rest is a difficult job.'
By nightfall on May 6, Khadijah and the children were in Adiala, the Rawalpindi
Central Jail - a vast, sprawling compound containing dozens of separate cell
blocks. Above its main gate, painted an incongruous pink, is an Urdu
inscription: 'Hate the crime, not the criminal.'
At that time of year, temperatures in the shade regularly top more than 40C
(104F). There was no air conditioning and very little room at the jail, said
Khadijah.
'In the cell there's 2 double-decker bunks,' she added. 'Each one has one adult
prisoner, but the kids had to share my bed with me. There's very little room to
walk around. There's a toilet, but no privacy - we just use it in front of each
other.'
The jail food, mainly bread and rice, is 'horrible', though she is able to
supplement it by buying her own vegetables.
'My baby seems so ill in this prison. She cries so much'
For the birth, Khadijah was taken to a nearby hospital, but 3 days later mother
and daughter were back at Adiala. Describing the experience of nursing a
newborn in prison, Khadijah's eyes fill up with tears: 'I'm really worried
about her. I breastfeed her, and she has put on some weight, but she seems to
be ill, and she cries so much.
'She's had no medical treatment, no vaccines. The only medicine they seem to
have here is Ibuprofen [which, according to its manufacturers, should never be
given to a baby of this age].'
Pakistani legal sources say there are several possibilities as to how the ANF
received its tip-off. One is that corrupt officials, who had been paid to
ensure the drug shipment went through, discovered that more heroin than had
been agreed was in the suitcases, and so had Khadijah arrested because they had
not been paid enough.
Another, said the international analyst, is that the gang deliberately set her
up to provide a diversion, so that while the ANF was occupied with her, other,
bigger shipments could be smuggled out.
Whatever the truth, it is evident that the present outcome could have been
avoided.
For at least a decade, Britain has helped to train the ANF, and provided it
with equipment worth millions of pounds. The ANF also works with MI6, and it
sent a team to a 4-day meeting at MI6???s London headquarters in January 2011.
The ANF's annual report states that it has frequently shared 'real time'
intelligence with its British partners. It has also arranged 'controlled
deliveries' when instead of being stopped at Islamabad airport, couriers have
been allowed to reach the UK, where they can be placed under surveillance.
In several cases, this has led to the successful prosecution of the British end
of international drugs conspiracies. For some reason, when they got the tip-off
about Khadijah, this was not arranged.
'We have to assume they didn't tell SOCA, so a controlled delivery was not
carried out,' said the analyst. 'Maybe there was a lack of trust. Maybe they
just wanted to get all the credit which, with a controlled delivery, would have
been shared.' Repeated requests for an interview with the ANF were declined.
A SOCA spokeswoman said: 'SOCA's response to an increase in seizures of heroin
trafficked through Pakistan in 2011-12 has included improved intelligence
exchange with Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force. SOCA's activity overseas is
conducted in compliance with international humanitarian law and the principles
of human rights.'
(source: The Daily Mail)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
EU Parliament motion prejudiced: Gargash
Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, described a
European Union resolution on the UAE as 'biased and prejudiced'.
The European Union Parliament had issued a resolution concerning the detainees
and conditions of foreign labour and criticising conditions of the women in the
UAE and death penalty in the UAE laws.
Commenting on the EU Parliament's resolution, Gargash described it as a "biased
and prejudiced resolution which throws accusations haphazardly without
substantiating facts on the ground and purposely overlooks the milestones made
by the UAE and endorsed by the relevant international organisations,
particularly in the areas of foreign labour, comprehensive social care and
women???s empowerment, and the fact that the UAE represents a society of people
of over 200 different nationalities who coexist in an atmosphere of openness
and tolerance."
Dr Gargash revealed that the UAE has not been summoned to this discussion and
that it requested the EU Parliament to defer discussion of the motion for the
resolution to allow for an opportunity to express its points of view which
would help give accuracy, balance and credibility to the resolution, but the
parliament???s procedure made it difficult to consider that request.
"As a result, the final resolution came prejudiced and unfair which impacted
its credibility. The resolution adopted unsubstantiated accusations by groups
and organisations that made it a top priority to tarnish the UAE's reputation,"
he said.
"The UAE will continue to take all necessary measures to protect its security
and stability, on the basis of its institutions, laws and regulations
observed."
He concluded by saying: "There is no room for leniency when it comes to laws
and constitutional foundations, no matter what circumstances are."
(source: Khaleej Times)
SOMALIA---female killed by stoning
Woman stoned to death for adultery
Stoning adulterers is not "extremist"; it is Islamic law. The caliph Umar, one
of Muhammad's closest companions, even maintained that it was originally in the
Qur'an:
'Umar said, "I am afraid that after a long time has passed, people may say, "We
do not find the Verses of the Rajam (stoning to death) in the Holy Book," and
consequently they may go astray by leaving an obligation that Allah has
revealed. Lo! I confirm that the penalty of Rajam be inflicted on him who
commits illegal sexual intercourse, if he is already married and the crime is
proved by witnesses or pregnancy or confession." Sufyan added, "I have
memorized this narration in this way." 'Umar added, "Surely Allah's Apostle
carried out the penalty of Rajam, and so did we after him." (Bukhari, vol. 8,
bk. 82, no. 816)
"Allah's Apostle" is, of course, Muhammad, who did indeed carry out stonings.
Here is the hadith in which he challenges the rabbis about stoning, and in
which there is amidst the barbarism and brutality a final act of love and
compassion:
The Jews came to Allah's Apostle and told him that a man and a woman from
amongst them had committed illegal sexual intercourse. Allah's Apostle said to
them, "What do you find in the Torah (old Testament) about the legal punishment
of Ar-Rajm (stoning)?" They replied, (But) we announce their crime and lash
them." Abdullah bin Salam said, "You are telling a lie; Torah contains the
order of Rajm." They brought and opened the Torah and one of them solaced his
hand on the Verse of Rajm and read the verses preceding and following it.
Abdullah bin Salam said to him, "Lift your hand." When he lifted his hand, the
Verse of Rajm was written there. They said, "Muhammad has told the truth; the
Torah has the Verse of Rajm. The Prophet then gave the order that both of them
should be stoned to death. ('Abdullah bin 'Umar said, "I saw the man leaning
over the woman to shelter her from the stones." (Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 56, no.
829) Even the monkeys practiced stoning, according to another hadith:
During the pre-lslamic period of ignorance I saw a she-monkey surrounded by a
number of monkeys. They were all stoning it, because it had committed illegal
sexual intercourse. I too, stoned it along with them. (Bukhari, vol. 5, bk. 58,
no. 188)
Muhammad's example is, of course, normative for Islamic behavior, since "verily
in the messenger of Allah ye have a good example for him who looketh unto Allah
and the Last Day, and remembereth Allah much" (Qur'an 33:21).
"Al-Shabaab order woman stoned to death for sex offence," by Abdulkadir Khalif
in Africa Review, October 26 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):
A young woman was stoned to death Thursday in Somalia after being convicted of
engaging in out-of-marriage sex, reports say.
Residents of Jamama town, 425km south of Mogadishu in Lower Juba region, said
that militants loyal to Al-Shabaab carried out the stoning at the town's main
square in late afternoon.
"Many residents were called to attend the execution of the punishment," a
resident who requested anonymity for own safety told Kulmiye, an independent
broadcaster in Mogadishu.
He added that Al-Shabaab officials in the town witnessed the stoning.
"The woman admitted having out-of-marriage sex," said an Islamist official who
talked to the crowd after the stoning was completed. "This type of punishments
that are compatible with Sharia (Islamic laws) will be administered," said the
official.
(source: indepthafrica.com)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
