Jan. 24
FRANCE:
Executions in Iran
France condemns the 2 executions by hanging carried out in public on January 20
in Iran. Iran is thereby violating its international obligations under the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which it freely
subscribed. More than 350 executions are known to have been carried out in Iran
in 2012, making it a country with one of the highest death penalty rates.
France is campaigning for the universal abolition of the death penalty. It
lends its support to the abolitionists in Iran and urges the Iranian
authorities to immediately establish a moratorium on the death penalty with a
view toward its abolition. As Mr. Laurent Fabius, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
reaffirmed, France expresses its firm and constant opposition to the death
penalty everywhere and under all circumstances.
(source: France Diplomatie)
IRAQ:
Tariq Aziz, deputy to Saddam Hussein, asks to be executed quickly
Tariq Aziz, the former deputy to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, plans to ask
Pope Bendict XVI to support his wish to be executed promptly, his lawyer
reports.
Aziz, who was sentenced to death by an Iraqi panel in 2010 for crimes against
humanity, is reportedly suffering from depression as well as physical ailments
including diabetes and heart disease. His lawyer quoted Aziz as saying that "I
would prefer to be executed rather than stay in this condition."
The Iraqi leader, a Chaldean Catholic, has frequently sought help from the
Vatican since the fall of the Saddam Hussein government in 2003. His plea for a
quick execution is unlikely to win the Pope's support, however. Pope Benedict
has argued consistently against the death penalty, and both Vatican officials
and Iraqi bishops have urged clemency in the Aziz case.
(source: Catholic Culture)
INDIA:
Trial of 5 men charged with notorious New Delhi gang rape begins
The trial of 5 men charged with the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old
student on a New Delhi bus began in a closed courtroom Thursday with opening
arguments by the prosecution lawyers in a special fast-track court set up just
weeks ago to handle sexual assault cases.
The brutal attack last month set off protests across India and opened a
national debate about the epidemic of violence against women. A government
committee established in the wake of the attack has called for a complete
overhaul of the way the criminal justice system deals with rape, sexual
assaults and crimes against women in general.
The 5 men on trial - who face a maximum sentence of death by hanging if
convicted - covered their faces with woolen caps as they walked into the
courtroom Thursday surrounded by a phalanx of armed police. 2 hours later,
after proceedings were over, they were whisked away by the police.
Details of the day's proceedings were not available. The courtroom was closed
to the public and the media - a routine move in Indian rape cases - even though
defence lawyers had argued that since the victim is dead, the proceedings
should be opened. There was also a gag order on the lawyers to not reveal what
happened inside the court.
Judge Yogesh Khanna turned down requests by journalists Thursday that they be
briefed on the day's proceedings and said the gag order would remain.
Since Friday is a public holiday in India, the next hearing in the case was set
for Monday, when the defence will present its opening arguments.
A 6th suspect in the case has claimed he is a juvenile and is expected to be
tried in a juvenile court.
On Thursday, a magistrate separately rejected a petition by Subramanian Swamy,
a prominent politician, that no leniency be shown toward the accused who claims
to be a juvenile because of the brutal nature of the crime, said Jagdish
Shetty, an aide to Swamy.
Documents presented by prosecution last week to the Juvenile Justice Board
indicated that the defendant was a juvenile at the time of the attack, which
would make him ineligible for the death penalty.
Magistrate Geetanjali Goel is expected to rule on the suspect's age on Jan.28.
The suspect, who is not being identified by The Associated Press because he
says he is 17, would face 3 years in a reform facility if convicted as a
juvenile.
After the fast-track court hearing, M.L. Sharma, a defence lawyer for Mukesh
Singh, one of the accused, said he had withdrawn from the case. V.K. Anand, who
represents Mukesh's brother Ram Singh, will now defend both brothers. The 2
lawyers had been arguing over who was Mukesh Singh's real lawyer.
Sharma said he left the case to save his client from being tortured to fire
him. He has long maintained that the other defence lawyers were planted by the
police to ensure guilty verdicts.
Dozens of police were outside the sprawling court complex in south New Delhi
where the trial is taking place. Inside the court, about 30 policemen blocked
access to the room where Khanna heard the prosecution's case.
Outside the courtroom scores of journalists and curious onlookers crowded the
hallway.
Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan warned defence lawyers that if they spoke to
journalists he would slap contempt of court notices on them, said V.K. Anand, a
defence lawyer.
Police say the victim and a male friend were attacked after boarding a bus Dec.
16 as they tried to return home after an evening showing of the movie "Life of
Pi." The 6 men, the only occupants of the private bus, allegedly beat the man
with a metal bar and raped the woman with it, inflicting massive internal
injuries to her, police said. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside,
and the woman died 2 weeks later in a Singapore hospital.
Abhilasha Kumari, a New Delhi-based sociologist, said the attack could end up
having a large impact on the country.
"This case has brought the violence against women centre stage and it has, out
of sheer public pressure, forced the government to sensitize itself to crimes
against women," she said.
The trial began a day after a government panel recommended India strictly
enforce sexual assault laws, commit to holding speedy rape trials and change
the antiquated penal code to protect women.
The panel appointed to examine the criminal justice system's handling of
violence against women, received a staggering 80,000 suggestions from women's
groups and thousands of ordinary citizens.
Among the panel's suggestions were a ban on a traumatic vaginal exam of rape
victims and an end to political interference in sex crime cases. It has also
suggested the appointment of more judges to help speed up India's sluggish
judicial process and clear millions of pending cases.
Law Minister Ashwani Kumar said the government would take the recommendations
to the Cabinet and Parliament.
"Procedural inadequacies that lead to inordinate delays need to be addressed,"
he told reporters.
(source: 680news.com)
IRAN:
Stop Execution of Ahwazi Arab Political Prisoners; Whereabouts of 5 Condemned
Men Unknown
Iran's judiciary should quash death sentences against 5 members of Iran's
Ahwazi Arab minority and immediately cancel their execution, Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch said today. The sentences were handed down
by a revolutionary court and upheld by the country's Supreme Court on January
9, 2013.
The 5 men - Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka and his brother Sayed
Mokhtar Alboshoka, Hashem Sha'bani Amouri, and Hadi Rashidi (or Rashedi) - are
all activists in Iran's Arab-majority Khuzestan province, in southwest Iran. A
branch of the Revolutionary Court sentenced them to death on terrorism-related
charges following an unfair trial in July 2012. On January 18, authorities
informed families gathered outside Karoun Prison in the south-western city of
Ahvaz that the 5 men had been transferred out of the prison. Their whereabouts
are unknown.
"The reported transfer of these men to an unknown place is an extremely
worrying development," said Ann Harrison, deputy Middle East and North Africa
director at Amnesty International. "In Iran, death row prisoners are generally
moved to solitary confinement before their death sentences are carried out, and
we fear that the authorities may be planning to execute them imminently."
Security forces arrested all five men at their homes in early 2011 in advance
of the 6th anniversary of widespread protests by Ahwazi Arabs in April 2005.
Authorities arrested Mohammad Ali Amouri 20 days after Iraqi authorities had
forcibly returned him to Iran, from which he had fled in December 2007. They
did not allow him family visits for the 1st 9 months. The human rights groups
have received information that Amouri was subjected to physical and
psychological torture during this time.
Rashidi was hospitalized after his arrest, possibly as a result of torture or
other ill-treatment. Sources have told the groups that he is in poor health.
Family members outside the country have said that Sayed Jaber Alboshoka's jaw
and teeth were broken during his detention and that Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka has
experienced depression and memory loss as a result of torture or other
ill-treatment.
In May 2012, Al Arabiya reported that Intelligence Ministry agents forced
Sha'bani to confess to crimes he had not committed by pouring boiling water on
him.
A branch of the Revolutionary Court convicted the men in July 2012 on vaguely
worded charges related to national security that did not amount to
internationally recognizable criminal offenses. These included "gathering and
colluding against state security," "spreading propaganda against the system,"
"enmity against God," or moharebeh; and "corruption on earth," or ifsad
fil-arz. The death penalty is a possible punishment for the latter 2. Under
articles 186 and 190-91 of Iran's Penal Code, anyone found responsible for
taking up arms against the state, or belonging to an organization taking up
arms against the government, may be considered guilty of "enmity against God"
and risks being sentenced to death. The specific acts of which the men were
accused are not known.
The 5 men are founding members of Al-Hiwar ("Dialogue" in Arabic), a scientific
and cultural institute registered during the administration of Iran's former
President Mohammad Khatami, who served from1997 to 2005. Al-Hiwar organizes
seminars, educational and art classes, and poetry recitals that have taken
place in the town of Ramshir (known in Arabic as Khalafiye). Authorities banned
al-Hiwar in May 2005, and many of its members have since been arrested.
Iranian Ahwazi Arab rights groups maintain that authorities extracted
"confessions" from the 5 men while subjecting them to torture or mistreatment
and denying them access to a lawyer and their families for the 1st 9 months of
their detentionat a local Intelligence Ministry facility. The men later denied
the charges against them in court, sources reported.
Article 38 of the Iranian Constitution prohibits all forms of torture "for the
purpose of obtaining confessions." The Penal Code also provides for the
punishment of officials who torture citizens to obtain confessions. Despite
these legal and constitutional guarantees regarding confessions under duress,
"confessions" are sometimes broadcast on television even before a trial has
concluded and are generally accepted as evidence in Iranian courts. Such
broadcasts violate Iran's fair trial obligations under article 14 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which it is a state
party.
Iranian authorities have executed dozens of people since the disputed 2009
presidential election, many of them from ethnic minorities, for moharebeh
because of their alleged ties to armed or terrorist groups. Since May 2011,
authorities have executed at least 11 Iranian Ahwazi Arab men and a 16-year-old
boy for alleged links to groups involved in attacking security forces.
Rights activists maintain that at least another 6 Iranian Ahwazi Arabs have
been tortured to death in the custody of security and intelligence forces in
connection with anti-government demonstrations that swept across Khuzestan
province on the 2011 and 2012 anniversaries of the 2005 unrest. According to
Kurdish rights activists, more than 20 members of Iran's Kurdish minority are
on death row after conviction for political offenses. They include Zaniar and
Loghman Moradi, who are at imminent risk of execution.
In 2012 Iran remained one of the world's foremost executioners, with more than
500 prisoners hanged either in prisons or in public. Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch oppose capital punishment in all circumstances because of
its irreversible, cruel, and inhumane nature.
"Iranian authorities should end the suffering of the 5 men's families by
immediately informing them of their whereabouts and allowing them family visits
and access to their lawyers," said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director
at Human Rights Watch. "On no account should they be executed."
Background
Jaber Alboshoka, 28, is a computer scientist who had been performing his
national service as a private in the army; Mokhtar Alboshoka, 28, worked at a
stone mining company; Rashidi, 26, holds a masters degree in applied chemistry
and was a chemistry teacher; Sha'bani, 39, was an Arabic literature teacher and
a student working toward a master's degree in political science at Ahwaz
University; and Amouri, 34, was a fisheries engineer and school teacher.
The Iranian government alleges that the five men are part of an armed Arab
terrorist group responsible for shooting at several government employees. In
December 2011 a government-run TV station broadcast televised "confessions" of
several of the men, including Rashidi and Sha'bani, in which they claimed
responsibility for armed attacks against government officials.
Human rights groups have previously expressed concern regarding the condition
of Rashidi, Sha'bani, and other Iranian Ahwazi Arab activists detained by
security and intelligence forces, and worry about their fate in light of
reports of the execution of Heidarian and 3 other Ahwazi Arab men in June for
their alleged role in the killing of a police officer. On June 9, officials in
Ahvaz's Karoun prison transferred Taha, Abbas, and Abdul-Rahman Heidarian, all
brothers, as well as another man, to an unknown location. About a week later
authorities informed the men's families that they had been executed.
The December 2011 program that aired the confessions of Rashidi and Sha'bani
also showed Taha Heidarian "confessing" to involvement in the killing of a law
enforcement official in April 2011 amid widespread protests in Khuzestan.
Several days after reports surfaced regarding the executions, Iranian Ahwazi
Arab rights groups circulated a video purporting to show the men, following
their arrest by security forces, reading a plea to save their lives addressed
to Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights
situation in Iran. It has not been possible to verify the authenticity of the
video.
UN human rights mechanisms have condemned the executions of the 4 men.
(source: Human Rights Watch)
VIETNAM:
Dead Men Waiting: Vietnam Plans To Make Own Drugs For Use In Lethal Injections
Suppliers from the European Union strictly regulated the export of drugs that
are used for capital punishment, torture or other forms of inhuman treatment.
Vietnam.net reported that 532 inmates are currently languishing in local jails
waiting to be executed - mostly for crimes such as drug trafficking, rape and
corruption.
BBC reported that Vietnam ceased using firing quads to execute prisoners in
July 2011, citing, among other things, the rising costs of such procedures and
the 'stress' suffered by the executioners. No executions have been carried out
since that time since officials have been unable to acquire the necessary drugs
required to carry out lethal injections.
But now, given that prisons are filling up with condemned prisoners, some
Vietnamese officials have called for a return to firing squads.
A number of high-profile death-sentence cases have emerged recently in Vietnam.
Last November, a court sentenced a 61-year-old Filipino woman to death after
she was arrested for smuggling illegal methamphetamines into Vietnam. Amodia
Teresita Palacio was charged with possessing more than 5 kilograms (11 pounds)
of the drug at an airport in Hanoi in April, Agence France-Presse reported.
In a trial she was convicted of repeatedly attempting to enter Vietnam from
Thailand to sneak drugs in.
Vietnam boasts some of the toughest drug laws in the world -- the possession of
more than 1/2 kilogram of drugs can mean the death penalty.
Other "crimes" can also lead to execution.
In late December, police arrested 14 Catholic human rights activists for
"subversion" after they went online to expose incidents of corruption among
Communist party officials. The official charge under the nation's criminal code
was "carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people's
administration."
AsiaNews reported that about 40 activists and bloggers were convicted of
similar charges under a directive by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to crack
down on dissent, particularly those who disseminate information over the
Internet.
Dung ordered police "to prevent the formation of opposition political
organizations."
"We are deeply saddened by the actions of the government of Vietnam," Father Le
Quoc Thang, secretary of the Justice and Peace Committee of the Bishops'
Council of Vietnam, said in reaction to the mass arrests.
"They claim Vietnam is under the rule of law, but their behavior is not in
accordance with the law."
Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division at Human Rights Watch,
said that state repression in Vietnam has been tightening for years.
"Vietnam finds itself in a rapidly developing economic and human rights
morass," he wrote.
"With the ascension of [PM Dung] in 2006, Vietnam has seen several intensifying
trends. First, cronyism and corruption in state enterprises, and an epidemic of
seizures of land by well-connected foreign and national investors, has fueled
popular anger with [Communist Party] officials using their positions to enrich
themselves. Second, Dung has worked closely with police allies in the Ministry
of Public Security (MPS) to keep a lid on dissent, and his connections with the
ministry have made him one of the most powerful prime ministers in recent
memory."
As a result, Robertson added, independent writers, bloggers, religious leaders
and activists who "question government policies, expose official corruption,
resist land seizures and expropriations, demand freedom to practice their
beliefs or call for democratic alternatives to 1-party rule are routinely
subject to police harassment and intrusive surveillance, detained incommunicado
for a year or more without access to legal counsel and sentenced to
increasingly long prison terms in one-day trials for violating vague national
security laws."
(source: International Business Times)
THAILAND:
Thai police say Australian duo admit to shooting
Thai police say the 2 Australian men arrested over the alleged shooting of 2
German tourists in Phuket have confessed to the crime.
The 2 Phuket residents, John Edward Cohen and Adam Lewis Shea, are being held
in a provincial prison following their arrest on Tuesday after a shooting in
the Patong bar district.
Police say the men are believed to be members of an Australian bikie gang.
They say the men have confessed to the shooting but detailed investigations
will continue in case they change their plea at trial.
Both have been charged with attempted murder and one is alleged to have a
criminal record in Australia.
Penalties for attempted murder in Thailand range from the death penalty to 15
to 20 years in prison.
It is alleged the men were in dispute with a Danish man over payment for a
motorbike when one of them attempted to shoot the Dane but accidentally hit and
injured two German tourists.
Police say while they think Cohen and Shea have links to a bikie gang, there is
no structured gang operating on Phuket and the shooting was not gang-related.
CCTV stills posted on the website showed one of the German men nursing a bloody
wound to his arm.
A local newspaper reported that German tourist Johann Baschenegger, 41, was
admitted to hospital in a serious condition after being shot.
Joseph Woerner, 71, was reportedly in a satisfactory condition.
Australian officials say the men are receiving consular assistance.
(source: Yahoo News)
_______________________________________________
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
