Sept. 15
IRAN----executions
Unidentified Man Hanged in Public in Front of Crowd of People
A prisoner was hanged in public in the city of Eslamabad-e Gharb (Kermanshah
province) on murder charges. Photos published from the public execution shows
children among the crowd of people who watched the hanging. According to a
report by the state-run news agency, Mehr, the execution was carried out on the
morning of Tuesday September 12. The report does not mention the name of the
prisoner, but identifies his age as 27.
The research of Iran Human Rights shows 34 people were hanged in public in Iran
in 2016; and an audience of hundreds of people, including children, were
present for most of these hangings. Human rights activists and informed membes
of civil society have always severely criticized this issue.
******************
Prisoner Hanged in Public While Crowd Watched
A prisoner was hanged in public in Salmas County (West Azerbaijan) in front of
a crowd of people. According to a report by the state-run news agency, Javan,
the public execution was carried out on the morning of Thursday September 14.
This report did not identify the prisoner's name, but the Center for Democracy
and Human Rights of Kurdistan has identified the prisoner as Davoud Hajizadeh.
The research of Iran Human Rights shows 34 people were hanged in public in Iran
in 2016; and an audience of hundreds of people, including children, were
present for most of these hangings. Human rights activists and informed membes
of civil society have always severely criticized this issue.
(source for all: Iran Human Rights)
BOTSWANA:
Death row inmates' last plea for life
After months of postponements, 2 Gantsi farmhands convicted of a gruesome 2014
murder, today make their final pleas for mercy to convince Justice Abednego
Tafa not to impose the death penalty on them. Tshiamo Kgalalelo and Mmika Mpe
were earlier this year convicted of abducting, robbing and killing their
employer, Reinette Vorster, before stealing her motor vehicle and burning her
inside it.
Attorneys, Themba Joina for Kgalalelo, and Archibald Gijima for Mpe, are due to
submit extenuating and mitigating factors in favour of their clients, in an
effort to stave off the death penalty.
Yesterday, an insider close to the case told Mmegi that the lawyers had already
submitted written mitigating and extenuating circumstances in the past 14 days
and as such, there was no room for any further delays in the matter. "The
mitigating and extenuating circumstances have been already filed as Judge Tafa
had ordered, and we are hopeful that this time around there will be some
progress. We expect defendants to mitigate verbally today and we also expect at
the same time that there won't be long presentations because the arguments have
already been filed," the source said.
The case has dragged since the guilty verdict was announced earlier this year,
with Tafa growing exasperated by the frequent glitches. Mitigation and
extenuation was due to have been done on June 28, but failed after Joina did
not appear, triggering a stern warning from Tafa. It is reported that
anti-death penalty groups are closely following the case with a view to jumping
in should Tafa send the duo to the gallows.
(source: mmegionline.com)
VIETNAM:
Vietnam's graft trial: Defense lawyer blames ousted Party bigwig for
sanctioning backyard banking services----The lawyer says Dinh La Thang enabled
scandal-hit OceanBank to function as the de facto internal institution for
PetroVietnam.
The defense lawyer of a former PetroVietnam chairman facing the death sentence
in a massive graft trial has said his client just enforced the executive orders
already sanctioned by a recently dismissed high-ranking official who then
headed the state energy giant.
Prosecutors on Thursday sought the death penalty for Nguyen Xuan Son, who was
Petro Vietnam's chairman from 2014 until he was arrested in 2015, on charges of
embezzlement. Son was also charged with abuse of power and economic
mismanagement.
The proposed sentence came as the OceanBank trial, with 51 bankers and
businessmen in the dock, was halfway through its expected 20-day duration,
opening a can of worms in one of Vietnam's toughest corruption crackdowns of
which PetroVietnam and the banking sector have been at the center.
Son was the CEO of OceanBank between 2008 and 2010, during which time
PetroVietnam became a major shareholder. The 55-year-old, who had held various
executive positions at PetroVietnam from 2003, is accused of pocketing around
$11 million from the bank.
He was charged with abusing his power to railroad OceanBank into forking out
illegal interest payments in pursuit of personal gains. According to
prosecutors, more than 50,000 individuals and nearly 400 businesses and
organizations have been identified as the beneficiaries of such interest
payments worth $70.4 million from OceanBank.
But Son's defense lawyer, Nguyen Minh Tam, dismissed such allegations on
Thursday, saying the buck stopped with Dinh La Thang, the chairman of
PetroVietnam between 2006 and 2011.
Tam essentially argued that it was Thang that signed off on documents that
authorized OceanBank to function as the de facto internal institution tasked
with exclusively handling all financial transactions for PetroVietnam.
Tam invoked a document dated September 2010 in which Thang asked PetroVietnam's
contractors and units to open accounts at OceanBank and use other financial
services there.
According to Tam, in September 2008, Thang had already signed off on another
document stating that PetroVietnam would use OceanBank-provided services. Tam
noted that Son did not become CEO of OceanBank until 3 months later, suggesting
his client had no sway on the issue.
"No one at PetroVietnam, including Son, could upend such policies," Tam said at
the trial. "There is thus no reason to charge him with abusing his power to
usurp assets."
Grilled by prosecutors on such policies last Monday, Hoang Van Dung, a
PetroVietnam representative, said the group only encouraged its units to use
OceanBank's financial services "on a voluntary basis."
Lawyers are scheduled to continue spelling out their defenses Friday. Ha Van
Tham, the former OceanBank chairman, is facing life imprisonment on charges
ranging from embezzlement to abuse of power. Other ex-bankers are facing up to
27 years in jail.
Dinh La Thang was dismissed from the Communist Party's decision-making
Politburo in May, and later fired from his position as the leader of Ho Chi
Minh City.
Thang was held responsible for "serious" violations and mismanagement during
his time as PetroVietnam's chairman from 2009 to 2011. The Central Inspection
Committee, the Party's top watchdog, also blamed Thang for an excessive stake
purchased in OceanBank. PetroVietnam held a VND800 billion ($35 million) stake
in the bank, but that was completely written off when the central bank took it
over in 2015.
Since May, Thang has been demoted to the post of vice head of the Central
Economic Commission, which advises the Party on economic policies.
The punishment handed down to him was the harshest to be meted out to a
Politburo member in years, if not decades.
"This is a very unusual case," Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asia analyst in
Washington, said of Thang's dismissal. The Party is trying to "show that even
the most politically powerful are not immune."
(source: vnexpress.net)
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