Jan. 1
BANGLADESH:
Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami member charged over 1971 war crimes
Bangladesh's main Islamist party member has been charged over war crimes during
the 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.
The special war crimes tribunal, set up in 2010 to investigate abuses committed
in that war, has framed charges against Abdus Subhan, who was arrested last
September, of collaborating with Pakistani forces, the BBC reports.
However, Subhan has denied all the charges against him, the report added.
Bangladesh recently executed senior Islamist leader Abdul Kader Mullah,
convicted of atrocities committed during the 1971 Independence war.
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami supporters have criticized the International Crimes
Tribunal (ICT), claiming that it is a politically-motivated attempt to
eradicate its leaders.
4 other leading figures of Jamaat have also been convicted by the ICT and face
the death penalty, the report added.
(source: Business Standard)
INDIA:
Youth Gets Death Penalty for Rape, Murder of Minor
A fast-track court today awarded death penalty to a youth for raping and
killing an 8-year-old girl more than 3 years ago.
Shanker, aged 22, hailing from Madhya Pradesh, was found guilty of raping and
killing the minor in April, 2010.
Pronouncing the judgement, Additional District and Sessions Judge Sanjiv Gupta
said the offences committed by the convict falls in the "rarest of the rare
category".
The judge held him guilty under section 302 RPC (murder) and 376 RPC (rape).
The court directed the state government to pay a compensation of Rs two lakh to
the victim's family within a month.
(source: Outlook India)
IRAQ:
Rise in Iraq executions draws ire
Iraq's use of the death penalty has increased despite international
condemnation, with some fearing execution rates could rise further as officials
seek to appear tough on security ahead of elections.
At least 169 people were put to death in 2013, by far the country's highest
such figure since the 2003 US-led invasion, and one that puts it 3rd in the
world, behind just China and Iran.
Iraqi officials insist capital punishment is both sanctioned by Islam and an
effective way to curb violence, despite the fact that this year's executions
have had no visible impact on the worst protracted surge in bloodshed since
2008.
Diplomats and human rights groups calling for a moratorium meanwhile point to
major problems with Iraq's security forces and within the criminal justice
system.
"What is more disturbing than the fact of the use of the death penalty itself
... is the fact that the utter dysfunction of the criminal justice system means
that there is a very high likelihood that the people who are being executed are
innocent," said Erin Evers, Iraq researcher for New York-based Human Rights
Watch. "Not just trials, but the entire security system from the moment of
arrest right through the trials. It's both inadequacy of investigations, in
terms of lack of professionalism, lack of collection of evidence, to corruption
within the security apparatus, and between the security officers and the
judiciary."
Those sentenced to death are usually hanged, often in groups.
7 people were put to death in December, bringing the overall number for 2013 to
169, according to a tally. A total of 129 people were executed in 2012.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has said that Iraq's justice system is "not
functioning adequately".
And the US State Department said in its 2012 Human Rights Report that "credible
accounts of abuse and torture during arrest and investigation, in pretrial
detention, and after conviction, particularly by police and army, were common."
But Iraq's Justice Minister Hassan Al Shammari has insisted that executions are
carried out only after an exhaustive legal process.
Iraq's human rights ministry has also voiced approval for the executions.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
GLOBAL:
Persecution and Death: Legal Punishment in Islamic Societies
Capital punishment continues to be one of the most controversial and heated
issues in American public life on several levels -- political, religious,
intellectual, and legal. The controversy comes to a head particularly when the
practice is applied improperly. Courts in the United States at all levels,
including the Supreme Court, are still grappling with the question.
Throughout the world, 140 nations in one way or another have abolished capital
punishment, while 58 still insist on their legal right to practice it. Some of
the latter countries are discussed in a new report issued in Brussels on
December 30, 2013 by Human Rights Without Frontiers International (HRWF). This
body, established in Brussels in 1988, seeks to promote human rights around the
world.
In its present report, which is limited to countries where access to
information was possible, the HRWF is concerned with the general problem of
individuals put in prison and executed due to laws forbidding or restricting
their basic rights to freedom of religion or belief. It identifies 24
countries, 8 of which are members of the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC), as
depriving religious believers of their freedom. This would include forbidding
people to change religion or belief, sharing one's religion or beliefs, freedom
of association, and freedom of worship and assembly.
Since World War II, attempts have been made to affirm freedom of religion, and
even more to end capital punishment. The 1st affirmation was made in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 18): "Everyone has the right to
freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to
change his religion or belief, either alone or in community with others and in
public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance."
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) used similar
language in its own Article 18, which recognized the right "to have or to adopt
a religion or belief" of one's choice. It continued, "No one shall be subject
to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or
belief of his choice." The U.N. General Assembly has also adopted non-binding
resolutions for a moratorium on executions.
The European Union has gone farther through its legally binding Charter of
Fundamental Rights, passed in 2000 and effective in December 2009. Article 2 of
the Charter states, "No one shall be condemned to the death penalty or
executed."
It is saddening that the HRWF Report states that hundreds of prisoners are in
the 24 countries discussed, including the 8 states who have been accepted as
members of the U.N. Human Rights Council despite their dismal record on human
rights and their refusal to allow or their rigid control over religious
freedom. The report identifies 10 of the 24 countries as the worst in grossly
violating individual freedom to change religion or belief. Apostasy is a
capital offense punishable by death in eight of them: Afghanistan, Iran,
Malaysia, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
Other studies note the use of capital punishment. In Iran in 2011-2012, there
were 360 juridical executions; in Saudi Arabia, 60 in 2012, with another 250 on
death row; and in Yemen, 41 in 2011. There can be no greater defining
distinction between the cultures of the Western world -- certainly in Europe
and increasingly in the U.S. -- all of which are concerned with constitutional
questions of due process and equal protection, and countries abiding by sharia
law than this use of capital punishment on the basis of religious intolerance.
While the countries that hold the largest number of prisoners are China,
Eritrea, Iran, and North Korea, it is pertinent to say it is the Muslim
countries that are the most wedded to capital punishment. They make conversion
from Islam to another religious belief a criminal offense, and they persecute
or intimidate those of other religions who may emigrate, as have Egyptian
Copts, to escape the threat of imprisonment or capital punishment.
It is the Islamic nations where freedom of religion and expression on religious
issues is most violated, largely because of the laws against what are said to
be blasphemy or defamation of religion or of the Prophet. In these countries
there is total denial of religious freedom other than Islam, or else punishment
for any change of religion or belief from Islam, or controls over freedom of
association, worship, and assembly.
Even if capital punishment is not always carried out as the penalty in these
countries, those punished for their beliefs are subjugated to threats of the
death penalty, flogging, stoning, amputation, and imprisonment. They may also
suffer "civic death" by deprivation of citizenship, by marriage being annulled,
by losing rights over children.
In Saudi Arabia, which has no codified penal code and where judicial rulings
are arbitrary and indeterminate, 52 Ethiopian Christians were recently arrested
for taking part in a service in a private home; some were imprisoned and others
deported. In Libya, a number of Copts were imprisoned for trying to convert
others. In Egypt, the government for some time used the Penal Code to prosecute
supposed proselytizing by non-Muslims. In Egypt and other Arab and Islamic
countries, the charge of blasphemy has been used to prosecute and imprison
those who do not accept the official Islamic beliefs, and who are accused of
"insulting Islam or the Prophet."
A typical example is Iran, which defines itself as follows: "The official
religion of Iran is Islam and the Twelver Ja'fari school, and this will remain
eternally immutable." The law states that capital punishment will be the
penalty for male apostates, a penalty the courts must apply on the basis of
sharia law.
Individuals who were simply celebrating the Christmas festival or were building
a non-religious orphanage were arrested and imprisoned on the basis of absurd
allegations that they had converted from Islam to Christianity, that they were
encouraging the conversion of others to Christianity, that they were acting
against the regime by promoting Christianity, that they were insulting the
supreme leader, and that they were committing crimes against Iran's national
security. They were tortured and severely beaten during interrogation in
prison. The activity of Christians is closely monitored, Bibles are often
confiscated, security cameras are present outside churches, and worshipers are
subjected to identity checks.
Moreover, Iran persecutes not only Christians, but also others. It regards
Baha'i's as apostates from Islam, who have no right to believe in the Baha'i
faith or profess it individually or in community. They have therefore been
accused of espionage, anti-Islamic activity, and acting in cooperation with
Israel. More than 100 Baha'i's are currently in prison.
Whatever one's views about the retention of capital punishment for the direst
offenses, 2 actions are necessary. One is the immediate release of all those
imprisoned for religious reasons. The other is the necessity to work toward
changing the Islamic attitude to freedom of religion or belief. Laws that
criminalize "blasphemy" and restrict freedom of expression should be abolished.
Individuals belonging to non-Muslim faiths should not be intimidated or
mistreated. By adopting principles of freedom of religion and belief, Islamic
society will take a giant step in moving to democratic development, the
exercise of the rule of law, and real human rights.
(source: American Thinker; Michael Curtis is author of Jews, Antisemitism, and
the Middle East)
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