Situation of Iran's Minorities Raised at 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEissF39-5EXNYhYELtodU1p-zSiam4wwj8F6a91tqgwx2z8m4rT4TdwEvTLfrH4ogaZquSB3HJ3xbJh1oCDilykT7ctpt_j_QxRdojuJ3PrQYCBsWnG6Jueb4vJpraF9FSgVhQn9bV-M20/s1600/Iran+Public+execution+JAN+4+2016+ph03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Public execution in Iran" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEissF39-5EXNYhYELtodU1p-zSiam4wwj8F6a91tqgwx2z8m4rT4TdwEvTLfrH4ogaZquSB3HJ3xbJh1oCDilykT7ctpt_j_QxRdojuJ3PrQYCBsWnG6Jueb4vJpraF9FSgVhQn9bV-M20/s400/Iran+Public+execution+JAN+4+2016+ph03.jpg" title="Public execution in Iran" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">ECPM (Ensemble contre la peine de mort) convened the 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty on 21-23 June 2016 in Oslo, Norway, to discuss ways forward in the abolition of the death penalty. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The event gathered around 1000 participants (ministers, diplomats, parliamentarians, academics, lawyers and members of civil society), among which Ms Monireh Shirani (Balochistan Human Rights Group, Sweden) who presented her view on the state of death penalty among migrants and minorities in Iran. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Baloch, Kurds, Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks and Turkmen are being systematically discriminated against and have less access to legal resources to defend themselves than the rest of the population, which results in minorities being the most threatened by executions. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iran is currently among the top countries when it comes to the number of executions in the past 5 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Below is the speech of Ms Monireh Shirani:</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ethnic minorities have long suffered discrimination as they have been viewed with suspicion and considered outsiders or foreign conspirators. The Amnesty report for 2015-16 states that "Iran's disadvantaged ethnic groups, Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, Kurds and Turkmen, continued to report that the state authorities systematically discriminated against them, particularly in employment, housing, access to political office, and the exercise of cultural, civil and political rights."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executions are part of the state policy in dealing with the ethnic minorities, to punish any cultural or political act. The large-scale executions of political and ideological dissidents have resulted in Iran being in the top countries when it comes to number of executions during the last 5 years. Other reasons are that the ethnic minorities also have less access to the legal resources needed to defend themselves due to a discriminatory system, poverty, marginalization and living in militarized zone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is a clear over representation of the Ahwazi arabs, Baloch and Kurds on the death row and in executions. Iran executed nearly 1000 prisoners last year, the majority of these executions were prisoners' sentence to death for drug-related offenses. Under Iran's current drug laws possession of 30 grams of heroin or cocaine would qualify for the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iran views these number as a great victory and defends its acts because they claim that they are in a war on drugs. Some of those who were convicted for drug related offenses were actually political dissidents. In Balochistan entire adult male populations from singled out villages have been executed, the regime fully admit to this and refers to the war on drugs and drug trafficking as crimes which have to be met with mass execution. Some of them were executed without trials others had trials conducted behind closed doors, before biased judges and in absence of legal representations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One can wonder how this is possible on a large scale.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, charges of act on national security and drug related offenses, are among the charges routinely used on ethnic minorities, fall within the jurisdiction of the Revolutionary court which is one for the strictest Judicial bodies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Revolutionary court consists of essentially closed meetings, the right of defense is ignored. The accused is not informed of his or her right to adequate defense. The right to assistance of interpretation of the proceedings in his or her mother tongue as Farsi is not the mother tongue of the ethnic minorities not given.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The family is prohibited to participate in the deliberations of the case. The courts is by law obliged to inform the accused of the verdict by sending a copy of the decision to his place of residence and from that time there is a 20 day appeal possibility. The Revolutionary court fails to follow its legal obligations and violates the accused's rights, because they don't send a copy, the family is not notified in time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The accused are usually moved to different locations, in different regions as a strategy to isolate the accused. This places a challenge on the prisoner because it makes it hard for the family to visit and give adequate support.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Iran there are thousands of minors in prison, often sentenced to death while underage and executed when coming to age. On the 27th of April Mohammad Sanchouli 22 years old was executed in Balochistan. He was arrested and convicted when he was 17 years old and spent 5 years in prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The obstacles confronted by minorities facing the death penalty is on the individual level impossible to tackle. The strategies and the ambiguity of the system is difficult for the individual and his/her family to overcome. Rather than finding reasonable evidence for the commission of a crime, judges generally rely on confessions, which have often been coerced through physical and psychological torture. Iranian television continue to broadcast self-incriminating testimonies of ethnic minority detainees even before their opening trial, undermining their fundamental rights of defendants to be considered innocent until proven guilty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last year in Ahwaz 5 prisoners were arrested in April and on in June they were brought in front of state TV by the Ministry of Information to make public confessions. These public confessions are frequent used when lack of evidence. For example in 2012 in Balochistan ten people were arrested for an assassination.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Confessions were broadcast on state TV. Some of them received long sentenced others were sentenced to death. A few years after the security forces arrested another 18 people for the same crime for which the people in 2012 had been tried and convicted for.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most of the minority prisoners have been arbitrary arrested. We have cases of security forces raiding homes and arresting people without warrants. In Ahwaz last year more than 75 people were arrested after a demonstration and for months their whereabouts were unknown to their families.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Waging war against God" (Moharebeh) enmity against God is one of the leading charges used by the Iranian regime to justify the inhuman executions of ethnic minorities groups in Iran. Other common charges against minorities sentences to death are charges of corruption on earth (Mofsid fil-arz), drug related offences and acts against national security. Another vulnerable group is religious minorities such as the Bahai who are also usually charged with espionage and acts against national security.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A few weeks ago, the Iranian government executed 5 Kurdish prisoners in the northwestern city of Urmia. They were hung publicly on charges of "conspiring against the Islamic Republic of Iran". They were human rights activists who used to document violations by security forces against civilians in the Kurdish city of Urmia. The regime is quick to state examples by using public hangings to discourage any form of activity in the regions. Many of these hangings take up to 20 minutes, a slow and painful death. The body is often left for a time before removed from the scene.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We the diaspora and the civil society living outside Iran depend on the United Nations as a tool to challenge the ongoing oppression in Iran. The UN's office on drugs and crime, the anti-drug agency has a multi-million dollar funding package, which includes EU money, for Iran's counter narcotics trafficking program. Iran's war on drugs have not resulted in the population being less addicted to drugs but rather resulted in mass executions of ethnic minorities. The international community needs to raise concern over the lack of the administration of justice in this war on drugs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This money should be conditional and the UN should demand that the capital punishment for drug related offense not be used, put pressure on the country to give the accused a fair trial and access to judicial system. The UN should at least demand that the Special rapporteurs be given access to the country as a condition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The strategy is to continue to work against the death penalty. To work with wide networks of law makers, lawyers, NGO's and activists to create new strategies towards universal abolition of the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Other tactics to challenge the status quo is Social media and media. Iran does not expose its execution records, it's quite hard to obtain full court records. Bridging the information gap is key. In Zahedan prison in April 8 men were executed. We still don't know the full identity of five of them. The civil society outside as well as in side Iran plays an important role in creating records and bring the information out. The state TV often dehumanize ethnic minorities in national media, promoting a discourse of uncivilized, barbaric, drug lord and illiterate people living in dangerous areas. People in the central part never see the regions of the minorities and so the only information that they have of us is the state's portrayal. That's why media coverage to is important so that the state narrative can be challenged.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: unpo.org, June 28, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

ECPM Ethnic minorities Iran Islamic Law Juvenile offenders sharia Situation of Iran's Minorities Raised at 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty

ECPM (Ensemble contre la peine de mort) convened the 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty on 21-23 June 2016 in Oslo, Norway, to dis...

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Japan: Capital punishment for a minor

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVlkJtujhRginAGLtsc-uM_P5tF3vO5-or0Kf3TUk6hyBaC56OpL2E-QtD7kElcHG3CHlrYWVyXfW7lv1P9hGp0TRJEbgTMZwTo_wZaYm5i0Jlo3vcL3CpgUbwB_wpwl8dpCPOnMA2KPk/s1600/Tokyo+execution+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Death chamber at Tokyo Detention Center" border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVlkJtujhRginAGLtsc-uM_P5tF3vO5-or0Kf3TUk6hyBaC56OpL2E-QtD7kElcHG3CHlrYWVyXfW7lv1P9hGp0TRJEbgTMZwTo_wZaYm5i0Jlo3vcL3CpgUbwB_wpwl8dpCPOnMA2KPk/s400/Tokyo+execution+chamber.jpg" title="Death chamber at Tokyo Detention Center" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Death chamber at Tokyo Detention Center</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold the death sentence given in a lay judge trial to a 24-year-old man for murders he committed when he was a minor raises questions about the lay judge trial system and capital punishment. These include whether the lay judges correctly understood the spirit of the Juvenile Law in sentencing the defendant to death. It was the 1st death sentence handed down on a minor in a lay judge trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The murders took place in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in 2010 when Yutaro Chiba was 18 - meaning he fell under the purview of the Juvenile Law. Chiba was convicted of entering his ex-girlfriend's house and stabbing to death the girl's sister and a female friend of the girl with a butcher knife, seriously injuring a male friend of the sister and abducting the girl. Prosecutors said Chiba killed the victims because they were trying to separate him and his former girlfriend.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since Chiba pleaded no contest to the key facts presented by the prosecution, the severity of punishment was the main issue in the trial, which was handled by a team of three professional and 6 lay judges, at the Sendai District Court. In its November 2010 ruling, the court said that in view of the heinousness of his crimes, the fact that Chiba was a minor at the time did not constitute sufficient reason to avoid capital punishment. The decision was upheld in 2014 in an appellate trial handled solely by professional judges at the Sendai High Court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The district court trial lasted 11 days. 5 hearings were held and the judges spent two days deciding on the penalty. During the trial, Chiba's lawyers argued that he was mentally immature, that his crimes were not premeditated and that a doctor's record of his examination pointed to the possibility that he could be rehabilitated. A legitimate question is whether the judges had enough time to examine the family environment of the accused and whatever reflection he had over his crimes. It must be asked whether the judges had fully considered and discussed the prospect of his rectification, in view of the Juvenile Law's main principle of helping problem youths achieve rehabilitation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chiba's family was fatherless. Under the Juvenile Law, a family court can send a minor to prosecutors if its judges deem such a move is appropriate. But the law also says that in examining the behavior of a minor and his or her personal history and family environment, a family court should use the expertise of medicine, psychology, pedagogy and other branches of learning. Regarding a crime committed by a minor who is under the age of 18, a court cannot hand down a death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Supreme Court and the Justice Ministry should consider whether lay judge trials, whose durations tend to be short, are suitable for handling serious crimes committed by minors. They also should think about whether it is appropriate to have lay judges participate in trials that may result in giving the death penalty because experience shows that handing down such a sentence puts an enormous psychological burden on lay judges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1983, the Supreme Court adopted a criterion comprising nine factors for sentencing someone to death, which said in a nutshell that a court can hand down the death penalty only when it is unavoidable in view of the gravity of the crimes of the accused. Under this criterion, the age of defendants when they commit their crimes was considered a key factor in trials involving minors. But this trend changed when the Supreme Court in 2006 remanded the case involving the 1999 murder in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture, of a 23-year-old woman and her baby daughter by a boy - who had just turned 18 - to the Hiroshima High Court. The Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for him in 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The judges in the Sendai trial are likely to have followed the trend set by the top court's handling of the Hikari case. In supporting the lower court rulings, the Supreme Court's First Petty Bench in a 5-0 ruling pointed out that in view of the serious nature of the crimes - that 2 people were murdered out of the accused's selfish motive - his criminal responsibility was extremely heavy even though he was a minor when he committed the murders and had no prior record.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The tendency to impose tougher punishment on crimes committed by minors appears to have set in. Through revisions of the Juvenile Law, the minimum age at which minors can face criminal punishment has been lowered from 16 years of age to 14 and the upper limit for a fixed prison term was raised from 15 years to 20. The Supreme Court and the Justice Ministry should rouse public discussions on whether imposing stricter punishment, including hanging, on minors will really contribute to reducing crimes by providing concrete data as well as information on how other countries cope with crimes by minors.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Editorial, The Japan Times, June 24, 2016<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Related articles:</b><br /><ul><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2016/06/japan-bar-association-chief-criticizes.html#ixzz4ClYR4bJE" target="_blank">Japan: Bar association chief criticizes naming of man sentenced to death</a>, June 20, 2016</li><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/search/label/Japan#ixzz4ClYnWSla" target="_blank">Japan: Death penalty to stand for man over 2010 murder as minor</a>, June 17, 2016</li></ul></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Asia Japan Juvenile offenders Lay judges Japan: Capital punishment for a minor

Death chamber at Tokyo Detention Center The Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold the death sentence given in a lay judge trial to a...

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Saudi Prince to meet Ban Ki Moon, as juveniles await beheading

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNTBVxbiAKcrGPTLJtEzMWAAIsQNe1FZdjNefSnvhPYhhrx1YHh_pAcZvfctSi67NtW7UwBpvkjAxXDVnjVNC5H6yxAHhYGNqizqCm5VJXsIBQMAFZpstkaOVkFrb_06aiWF0AQUw0QaQ/s1600/UN+building.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UN building in NYC" border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNTBVxbiAKcrGPTLJtEzMWAAIsQNe1FZdjNefSnvhPYhhrx1YHh_pAcZvfctSi67NtW7UwBpvkjAxXDVnjVNC5H6yxAHhYGNqizqCm5VJXsIBQMAFZpstkaOVkFrb_06aiWF0AQUw0QaQ/s400/UN+building.jpg" title="UN building in NYC" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The UN Secretary-General must use a meeting with the Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia tomorrow to call for the release of three Saudi juveniles who face beheading after allegedly attending protests, human rights organization Reprieve has said.<br /><br /><b><span style="background-color: red; color: white;">Emergency Action:</span> UN Secretary General must ask Saudi Arabia to stop juvenile executions. <a href="https://reprieve.bsd.net/page/speakout/stop-saudi-juvenile-executions" target="_blank">Email the UN Secretary General now</a>.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prince Mohammed bin Salman will tomorrow (22nd) meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in New York, in the latest of a series of diplomatic meetings that included a trip to the White House last Friday. The meeting takes place amid fears for the fate of three juveniles who have been sentenced to death after they allegedly attended protests in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province in 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ali al-Nimr, Abdullah al Zaher and Dawood al-Marhoon – who are assisted by Reprieve – were all under 18 when they were arrested and tortured into ‘confessions’, which were later used to convict them in secretive trials. Last autumn, they were informed that their final appeals had been rejected. They could now be executed at any time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saudi Arabia has executed a record number of prisoners this year; a mass execution carried out on January 2nd saw at least two juveniles killed. One of them, Ali al-Ribh, had been arrested in school in the wake of the Eastern Province protests.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The execution of juveniles and prisoners arrested for non-violent alleged crimes is prohibited under international law. Research carried out by Reprieve last year found that, of those prisoners identified as facing execution in Saudi Arabia, some 72 per cent had been arrested for non-violent crimes, including political protest. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Commenting, Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said: “The Saudi authorities are engaged in unprecedented levels of repression – Prince Mohammed’s trip cannot mask his government’s skyrocketing use of torture, secret trials and beheadings. Among those who face execution for allegedly attending protests are juveniles Ali, Dawood and Abdullah, and it is crucial that Ban Ki Moon and other heads of state do not miss a crucial opportunity to raise their cases. The Secretary General must make clear to the Prince tomorrow that these terrible abuses in Saudi Arabia must stop – and that Ali, Dawood and Abdullah must be released.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li>Details of the Crown Prince’s trip were reported <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/saudi-deputy-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman-to-meet-un-chief" style="color: #06686b;" target="_blank">here</a>.</li><li>Details on the juveniles' cases are available at the Reprieve website (<a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/saudi-arabia-stop-the-crucifixtion-of-ali-al-nimr/" style="color: #06686b;" target="_blank">Ali al-Nimr</a> <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/case-study/dawood-al-marhoon/" style="color: #06686b;">Dawood al Marhoon</a>, and <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/case-study/abdullah-hasan-al-zaher/" style="color: #06686b;" target="_blank">Abdullah al-Zaher</a> await execution, while <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/juvenile-protester-was-among-saudi-mass-execution-victims-new-information-shows/" style="color: #06686b;">Ali al Ribh</a> was <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/juvenile-protester-was-among-saudi-mass-execution-victims-new-information-shows/" style="color: #06686b;" target="_blank">among 47 people executed</a> on January 2nd, 2016).</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reprieve, June 21, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

A. M. al-Nimr Islamic Law Juvenile offenders Protests Saudi Arabia sharia Torture United Nations Wahhabism Saudi Prince to meet Ban Ki Moon, as juveniles await beheading

The UN Secretary-General must use a meeting with the Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia tomorrow to call for the release of three Saudi juv...

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Japan: Bar association chief criticizes naming of man sentenced to death

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjb1lmtiJ1Yf8_m7BvppgJDsgF90G5hZ2E6szy9UYfsoQ82HXMmyN1B2HPfQ7XiYFbPKbqHJDXTgGoe7QlrMOxqx3Qu1TVnyxVfJjaB3KpNAa91zAYrgsMvfAlNpiceQZvscRDzP-DmDY/s1600/Osaka+Prison+cell+block+where+prisoners+are+held+in+solitary+confinement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Typical death-row cell, Osaka Prison" border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjb1lmtiJ1Yf8_m7BvppgJDsgF90G5hZ2E6szy9UYfsoQ82HXMmyN1B2HPfQ7XiYFbPKbqHJDXTgGoe7QlrMOxqx3Qu1TVnyxVfJjaB3KpNAa91zAYrgsMvfAlNpiceQZvscRDzP-DmDY/s400/Osaka+Prison+cell+block+where+prisoners+are+held+in+solitary+confinement.jpg" title="Typical death-row cell, Osaka Prison" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Typical death-row cell, Osaka Prison</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">TOKYO — The head of the Japanese bar association on Friday criticized news organizations that reported the name of a man sentenced to death for a double murder committed when he was a juvenile.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It is regrettable that the news reports violated the juvenile law, which bans publishing articles and photographs that could identify a juvenile delinquent,” Kazuhiro Nakamoto, president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The statement was issued after the Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings that sentenced to death the man who was 18 when he killed two women and seriously injured a man in 2010.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Major newspapers including the Asahi, Yomiuri and Nikkei, as well as Kyodo News published the man’s name on the grounds that the opportunity for rehabilitation ends when a death penalty is finalized, and the name of a person to be executed by the state should not be kept confidential.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some other major newspapers, including the Mainichi and the Tokyo Shimbun, reported the Supreme Court decision without revealing the name of the man to be executed, saying the chance for his rehabilitation remains due to the possibility of amnesty or retrial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nakamoto said the dignity and the constitutionally guaranteed right to the pursuit of happiness of a minor are not terminated with the finalization of a death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“While it is needless to say that constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression is important and it is necessary to report the details of a crime in order to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents, it cannot be said the real name and photo of a minor are indispensable factors for news reports,” the national bar association head said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/bar-association-chief-criticizes-naming-of-man-sentenced-to-death" target="_blank">Japan Today</a>, June 18, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Asia Japan Juvenile offenders Media Japan: Bar association chief criticizes naming of man sentenced to death

Typical death-row cell, Osaka Prison TOKYO — The head of the Japanese bar association on Friday criticized news organizations that reported ...

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Japan: Death penalty to stand for man over 2010 murder as minor

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi70877LtEnQ2VgCZdKIs6SJB6C9cDUdkss3vIG-T7zioDYmoW9lkTPhxulHfuy16nXFeZ6D-XUDtxL2T2n-MnrZq2Wvh-eh8hItPK4qqoWVWVa7K2gAcfgkESjVTDDos-qmaPejPuY2dQ/s1600/japan+tokyo+death+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Execution chamber at Tokyo Detention Center" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi70877LtEnQ2VgCZdKIs6SJB6C9cDUdkss3vIG-T7zioDYmoW9lkTPhxulHfuy16nXFeZ6D-XUDtxL2T2n-MnrZq2Wvh-eh8hItPK4qqoWVWVa7K2gAcfgkESjVTDDos-qmaPejPuY2dQ/s400/japan+tokyo+death+chamber.jpg" title="Execution chamber at Tokyo Detention Center" width="333" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Execution chamber at Tokyo Detention Center</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A death sentence given to a man convicted of murdering 2 women and seriously injuring another man in 2010 when he was 18 is set to be finalized after the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld lower court rulings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The case of Yutaro Chiba, now 24, marks the 1st time capital punishment has been given to a minor under Japan's lay judge trial system that began in 2009.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In handing down the ruling, the top court's first petty bench said the defendant committed the crime based on a "very selfish motive" as he was determined to kill anyone who sabotaged his plan to run away with his former girlfriend.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to rulings by the Sendai district and high courts, Chiba was guilty of stabbing to death his former girlfriend's older sister Misa Nambu, 20, and her 18-year-old friend Mikako Omori, and seriously injuring a man who was with them at the time of the crime on Feb. 10 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Even if his age (as a minor) and having no criminal record is taken into account . . . his criminal responsibility is grave," the Supreme Court said, indicating that the death penalty cannot be avoided in line with the top court standards set in 1983 in the case of Norio Nagayama.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chiba is the 7th person whose death penalty has effectively been finalized for a crime committed by a minor since the so-called Nagayama standard which, in applying capital punishment, took into account factors such as the number of victims, brutality and social impact of the crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nagayama was a death row inmate who was hanged in 1997 for killing 4 people when he was 19.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Thursday, all 5 justices on the bench, presided by Justice Naoto Otani, unanimously rejected the appeal against Chiba's death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In terms of murders of 2 people for a person under 20 at the time of the crimes, Chiba will be the 2nd to be sentenced to death, following a man convicted of murdering a woman and her baby girl in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture, when he was 18.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Outside court, Chiba's chief lawyer, Hiroyuki Kusaba, criticized the ruling as being unacceptable.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court 'does not at all take into consideration how the defendant's environment affected his character, and also does not give any explanation about this," Kusaba said, referring to his client's difficult childhood.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to court testimonies by Chiba, his mother, and others, Chiba was raised by his mother after his parents divorced when he was 5. His mother, who repeatedly divorced and remarried, suffered violence from her boyfriend and later became addicted to alcohol. He was then raised by his grandmother's side.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As demanded by prosecutors, a panel of three professional and 6 citizen judges gave the death penalty to Chiba at the district court in November 2010.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court said it cannot just take into account his age when he committed the crime, given the brutality of the crime and the impact in terms of number of victims.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Sendai High Court upheld the lower court's decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chiba's lawyers had sought leniency for their client to avoid the death penalty, arguing he was "immature" at the time and that his crime was "not premeditated."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: The Japan Times, June 16, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Japan Juvenile offenders Lay judges Japan: Death penalty to stand for man over 2010 murder as minor

Execution chamber at Tokyo Detention Center A death sentence given to a man convicted of murdering 2 women and seriously injuring another ma...

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2015: Aftab Bahadur Masih, “I just received my Black Warrant”

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrKdfcQIge5Ho_i7o7XP4lUEEAVKYcYpQQgnIvsqfGZoTq0-ucUMM9EmXAHQMmjs_nhbIx56T2sDRq1CkfoRiuFdwyScHvmGjPjSf5ZJux4r60H6N6sBc-j2PgeJZXOkWIqkQJGIQyzN0/s1600/Aftab_Bahadur_Masih.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img alt="Two faces of Aftab Bahadur Masih, separated by two decades on death row." border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrKdfcQIge5Ho_i7o7XP4lUEEAVKYcYpQQgnIvsqfGZoTq0-ucUMM9EmXAHQMmjs_nhbIx56T2sDRq1CkfoRiuFdwyScHvmGjPjSf5ZJux4r60H6N6sBc-j2PgeJZXOkWIqkQJGIQyzN0/s320/Aftab_Bahadur_Masih.jpg" title="Two faces of Aftab Bahadur Masih, separated by two decades on death row." width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A year ago today, Pakistan amid its ravenous 2015 execution binge hanged Aftab Bahadur Masih in Lahore for a 1992 murder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Left: Two faces of Aftab Bahadur Masih, separated by two decades on death row.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the anti-death penalty organization <a href="http://reprieve.org.uk/" target="_blank">Reprieve</a>, Masih <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1187331" target="_blank">was only 15 years old</a> when he committed the crime. According to Masih himself, he never committed it at all -- but instead was tortured into confession by the police.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Don't take my word for it. Masih wrote a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/09/22-years-pakistan-death-row-what-purpose-execution" target="_blank">moving first-person essay</a> for the Guardian (read below) that was published hours before his hanging.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I just received my Black Warrant. It says I will be hanged by the neck until dead on Wednesday, 10 June. I am innocent, but I do not know whether that will make any difference.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/09/22-years-pakistan-death-row-what-purpose-execution" target="_blank">Read the rest here.</a> Masih was also a self-taught painter; one of his products can be seen in <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/06/09/as-pakistan-resumes-executions-a-juvenile-catholics-case-sparks-alarm/" target="_blank">this Wall Street Journal</a> story.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Reprieve launches the "<b>Juveniles on Death Row Project</b>" to find those detained as children who are now languishing on death row, and stop their executions. Together we can save many lives, but we urgently need extra funds to get this new project off the ground. <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/06/reprieve-juveniles-on-death-row-project.html" target="_blank">Click here to find out HOW YOU CAN HELP</a>.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.executedtoday.com/2016/06/10/2015-aftab-bahadur-masih-i-just-received-my-black-warrant/" target="_blank">ExecutedToday.com</a>, June 10, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">My 22 years on Pakistan’s death row could end this week. What purpose will my execution serve?</span></b></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">By Aftab Bahadur</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I am an innocent man who’s spent all my adult life awaiting death, sentenced under legislation meant to stop terrorists. But I still paint and live in hope</i></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />The following piece was published by The Guardian on June 9, 2015:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Aftab Bahadur is currently in Central Jail Lahore (Kot Lakhpat), where he is scheduled to be hanged at roughly 3am BST on Wednesday morning. He was sentenced to die for a crime on 5 September 1992 where a woman – Sabiha Bari – and her two sons were murdered. Ghulam Mustafa, a plumber with whom Aftab worked as a plumber’s apprentice, was arrested early in the morning of 6 September 1992, and implicated Aftab under torture. Ghulam is set to die on Wednesday as well, but has recanted his statement and said Aftab had nothing to do with the crime. The only “eyewitness” to the crime who testified against Aftab has recently made a statement before a religious minister that he was coerced into his testimony, that he was not even there, and that he certainly did not see Aftab commit the crime. Aftab insists he is innocent. According to Aftab, when he was arrested the police asked for a 50,000 rupee bribe and said they would let him go if he paid. As a plumber’s apprentice, Aftab said he could not pay.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Aftab was convicted under the Speedy Trials Act in April 1993. Special trials under the Act were intended for terrorists, but they been abused in a number of high-profile cases. Aftab has now been on death row for over 22 years. This is an essay he recently wrote from his prison cell, translated from the Urdu by Reprieve, who are helping to provide him with pro bono legal assistance:</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">I just received my Black Warrant. It says I will be hanged by the neck until dead on Wednesday, 10 June. I am innocent, but I do not know whether that will make any difference. During last 22 years of my imprisonment, I have received death warrants many times. It is strange, but I cannot even tell you how many times I have been told that I am about to die. Obviously it feels bad whenever the warrants are issued. I start to count down the days, which is in itself painful, and I find that my nerves are shackled in the same way as my body. In truth, I die many times before my death. I suppose my life experience is different from that of most people, but I doubt there is anything more dreadful than being told that you are going to die, and then sitting in a prison cell just waiting for that moment. For many years – since I was just 15 years old – I have been stranded between life and death. It has been a complete limbo, total uncertainty about the future.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">I am a Christian, and sometimes that is difficult here. Unfortunately, there is one prisoner in particular who has tried to make our lives more difficult. I don’t know why he does it. I got very upset over the Christian bombings that took place in Peshawar. This hurt me deeply, and I wish that Pakistani people could possess a sense of nationality that overrode their sectarianism. There is a small group of us here who are Christians, just four or five, and we are now all in one cell, which has improved my life.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">I do everything I can to escape my misery. I am an art lover. I was an artist – just an ordinary one – from my early days, when I was first conscious of anything. Even back then, I was inclined towards painting, as well as writing verses. Although I had no training, it was just a gift of God. But after I was brought to jail I had no other way to express my feelings, as I was then in a state of complete alienation and loneliness. I began some time ago to paint all the signs for the Kot Lakhpat jail, where I am held. Then I was asked to do signs for other jails. Nothing in this world can give me more happiness than the feeling when I paint some idea, or feeling on the canvas. It is my life, so I am happy to do it. My workload is great, and I am exhausted at the end of each day, but I am glad of that, as it keeps my mind off other things.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">I have no family to visit me, so when someone does come, it is a wonderful experience. It allows me to reap ideas from the outside world that I can then lay down on my canvas. Being asked about how I was tortured by the police brought back terrible memories that I turned into pictures, though it would perhaps have been better not to have to think of what the police did to try to get me to confess falsely to this crime.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">When we heard the news about lifting the death penalty moratorium in December 2014, fear prevailed throughout the cells of the prison here. There was an overriding sense of horror. The atmosphere hung, gloomy, over us all. But then the executions actually started at Kot Lakhpat jail, and everyone started to go through mental torture. Those who were being hanged had been our companions for many years on this road to death, and it is only natural that their deaths left us in a state of despair.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">While the death penalty moratorium was ended on the pretext of killing terrorists, most of the people here in Kot Lakhpat are charged with regular crimes. Quite how killing them is going to stop the sectarian violence in this country, I cannot say. I hope I do not die on Wednesday, but I have no source of money, so I can only rely on God and on my volunteer lawyers. I have not given up hope, though the night is very dark.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">-- Aftab Bahadur was executed in the early hours of Wednesday 10 June 2015.</blockquote><div><b>Related article:</b><br /><br /><ul><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2015/06/pakistan-executes-aftab-bahadur.html" target="_blank">Pakistan executes Aftab Bahadur, sentenced to death at 15, despite evidence of innocence</a>, June 10, 2015</li></ul><br /><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div></div>

Innocence Juvenile offenders Moratorium Pakistan 2015: Aftab Bahadur Masih, “I just received my Black Warrant”

A year ago today, Pakistan amid its ravenous 2015 execution binge hanged Aftab Bahadur Masih in Lahore for a 1992 murder. Left: Two faces of...

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Reprieve: Juveniles on Death Row Project

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHruZxo0_xiO-LwEGi3eAOnFvi0FrwVKFmhJI2YGlqybjjsndKlga-X-rRj7qgsUU6_LiRgTbuSxzxyj2ZBvDn_qIrCrZpA5WRcADOz7XqLTdBEyhgMtTx6pZ9R2XP3bolVxyt2s28o7s/s1600/Reprieve+Juvenile+Offenders+on+DR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHruZxo0_xiO-LwEGi3eAOnFvi0FrwVKFmhJI2YGlqybjjsndKlga-X-rRj7qgsUU6_LiRgTbuSxzxyj2ZBvDn_qIrCrZpA5WRcADOz7XqLTdBEyhgMtTx6pZ9R2XP3bolVxyt2s28o7s/s400/Reprieve+Juvenile+Offenders+on+DR.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seeing a child with a noose around their neck would make anyone turn away in horror. It's not something most people imagine is still happening. But it's likely there are hundreds of prisoners on death rows around the world who were detained as children - potentially as many as 800 in Pakistan alone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thousands of Reprieve supporters have already taken action to save the lives of Ibrahim Halawa in Egypt and Ali Al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia - both sentenced to death for attending political protests when they were children. Now we want to make sure other kids like them never end up on the world's death rows. Here's how we're going to do it together.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We're launching our dedicated Juveniles on Death Row Project - to find those detained as children who are now languishing on death row, and stop their executions. Together we can save many lives, but we urgently need extra funds to get this new project off the ground.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>All donations to Reprieve are being matched and will make twice the difference</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Act now - double your donation, double your impact.</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://reprieve.bsd.net/page/contribute/double-your-impact" target="_blank">Donate now</a></span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We know what a huge difference we can make on the ground, so your support right now will go a long way. Recently, a prisoner in Malawi was freed on the day of his court hearing after Reprieve staff found that his mental health assessment listed his age as 17, and even took place on the children's wing. He had been sentenced to death after the police beat him and forced him to sign a forged 'confession'.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But cases like this often just fall through the cracks - unless we're there to pick them up. With the funds we raise right now, we can work with our local partners to locate juveniles who are facing execution, investigate their cases and provide lawyers to take their cases to court. We can expose countries where children are being sentenced to death. We can save lives right now, and together we can apply public and legal pressure to stop it for good.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our Juveniles on Death Row Project is new and will be entirely funded by our supporters. Will you join those taking the lead in getting this project off the ground <a href="https://reprieve.bsd.net/page/contribute/double-your-impact" target="_blank">by making a donation now</a>?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All prisoners facing execution are at risk of extreme human rights abuses, but children are particularly vulnerable and in need of our help. They often face torture to extract false confessions and being put on trial for their life without proper legal representation. They end up on death row in adult prisons where conditions are brutal. They face years on death row, then the hangman's noose or the executioner's sword.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Anyone who cares about justice will agree that death row is no place for any child - so let's make sure we stop it for good.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We have the law and public opinion on our side. The execution of people arrested as children is banned under international law and even domestic law in many countries - which gives us the chance to save lives right now and reduce execution rates worldwide.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We know we can make a difference when we're on the ground - and with your donations our Juveniles on Death Row Project can get our team to the frontline and increase our presence where we're needed most.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thank you to everyone who donates right now to help make this happen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Matched Funding - how it works</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A group of Reprieve's generous supporters have put together a pot of 30,000 pounds to match any donations to Reprieve up to that amount - meaning that we can raise a total of 60,000 pounds to fund our work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's simple - the more donations we receive, the more of the matched fund we will get, and the more people we can help.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/juveniles-on-death-row-project/" target="_blank">reprieve.org.uk</a>, June 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Donation Egypt Juvenile offenders Pakistan Saudi Arabia Reprieve: Juveniles on Death Row Project

Seeing a child with a noose around their neck would make anyone turn away in horror. It's not something most people imagine is still hap...

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Pakistan hangings pass 400

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4pUIByWUe8G-kSfpS1horpKEmCVRhOv9hYIe1NiGMQbdC1Z438fvkTqHC3ZbN9Qrn1uqh3-bS3U_lMyGEBVXkv1_C5GDjqlVmljugVPA8tZwZ38W0UQWtd7OjGVDGlHUITz6PypmGuKA/s1600/Death+Penalty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4pUIByWUe8G-kSfpS1horpKEmCVRhOv9hYIe1NiGMQbdC1Z438fvkTqHC3ZbN9Qrn1uqh3-bS3U_lMyGEBVXkv1_C5GDjqlVmljugVPA8tZwZ38W0UQWtd7OjGVDGlHUITz6PypmGuKA/s400/Death+Penalty.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pakistan has executed over 400 people since resuming hangings in December 2014, according to new research from international human rights organisation Reprieve.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The country has become one of the world’s most prolific executioners since lifting a moratorium on hangings which had been in place for several years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to publicly-available data analyzed by Reprieve, June has seen four hangings so far, bringing the total since the lifting of the moratorium to 404 – although the figure could be higher as not all executions in the country are necessarily reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">72 of those hangings have taken place in 2016, which means that Pakistan likely holds its position in the world’s top five executioners for the year so far - behind China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, but ahead of the USA. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pakistan has seen a number of controversial death penalty cases recently. Abdul Basit, a paralysed prisoner who needs to use a wheelchair, continues to be held under sentence of death despite concerns that there is no way to execute him that would not carry a high risk of prolonged suffering. He recently told his lawyers that, during a previous attempt to hang him, the prison authorities had built a slope or ramp up to the gallows in order to take him to be hanged in his wheelchair.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also facing potential imminent execution is Muhammad Anwar, despite his having been arrested as a child. His case is currently before Pakistan’s Supreme Court, as both Pakistani and international law prohibit the execution of people arrested for alleged offences which took place when they were under 18.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Commenting, Maya Foa, Director of Reprieve’s Death Penalty Team said: “That Pakistan has gone from a non-executing state to executing over 400 people in little over 18 months is truly shocking. The Pakistani Government seems indifferent to the plight of the many prisoners who should not even be on death row – those arrested as children, or suffering from severe physical or mental illnesses. They need to put a halt to all executions until a full review of this chaotic capital punishment system can be carried out.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reprieve estimates that Pakistan’s current rate of execution for 2016 so far means it maintains its place in the world’s top five executioners, according to available figures. Reprieve is yet to finalise estimates for Saudi Arabia and Iran, but the former is believed to have executed close to 100 people, and the latter 195 (according to <a href="http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/publications/human-rights-data/chart-of-executions/1000000620-ihrdc-chart-of-executions-by-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-2016.html" target="_blank">Iran Human Rights</a>), in 2016 so far. Due to state secrecy, figures are unavailable for China but guesswork by human rights organizations tends to put them in the thousands. According to the <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/execution-list-2016" target="_blank">Death Penalty Information Centre</a> (DPIC), US executions for 2016 so far total 14. Due to the conflict in Iraq, it is extremely difficult to determine the use of the death penalty there, but according to Cornell Law School’s ‘<a href="http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm?country=iraq" target="_blank">Death Penalty Worldwide</a>’ site, there have been 22 executions confirmed for 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reprieve, June 7, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span>

Abdul Basit China Disabled inmate Iran Iraq Juvenile offenders Pakistan Saudi Arabia USA Pakistan hangings pass 400

Pakistan has executed over 400 people since resuming hangings in December 2014, according to new research from international human rights or...

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Pakistan Supreme Court to consider case of juvenile facing hanging

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqeFNRY1dWkD9ACns9qxcEA0zI-NrapGY8iurh_jpvoTScL3ACxJrOVjE6CGsp9JEdGojYAhvw53AZEjKOoHPvA_OnL9Z_nkRBgwp2lipL46ERseFphu9LyxJK5mosRx7aZ-kSkMLy0I/s1600/noose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqeFNRY1dWkD9ACns9qxcEA0zI-NrapGY8iurh_jpvoTScL3ACxJrOVjE6CGsp9JEdGojYAhvw53AZEjKOoHPvA_OnL9Z_nkRBgwp2lipL46ERseFphu9LyxJK5mosRx7aZ-kSkMLy0I/s400/noose.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Judges will tomorrow [Wednesday 8 June] consider the case of a prisoner who could be hanged at as little as three days’ notice, despite evidence that he was arrested as a child.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Muhammad Anwar was arrested when he was just 17 years old, and subsequently sentenced to death on murder charges. Although his birth certificate shows that he was a juvenile when arrested, he continues to be held under sentence of death, in violation of both Pakistani and international law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An execution warrant was issued for Anwar on 12 December last year, but the process was stayed at the last minute by the courts to allow the issue of his juvenility to be considered. His lawyers will tomorrow ask the Supreme Court to ensure that Pakistan’s Government complies with its legal obligations and commutes his death sentence. The court had previously been due to consider his case last month, but the hearing was postponed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anwar was sentenced to death in 1998, five years after his arrest, and has now spent 23 years facing execution. In 2000, Pakistan introduced laws intended to bring it into line with international law banning the use of the death penalty against children. The country’s President subsequently decreed in 2001 that anyone facing the death penalty for offences committed when they were a child should have their sentence commuted to life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anwar’s family have since made a number of attempts to have his death sentence commuted, in line with Pakistani law, but no final decision has been taken by the authorities. They are now appealing to the Supreme Court in the hope that it will correct this historic mistake and ensure Anwar’s death sentence is commuted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The nature of Pakistan’s death penalty system means that Anwar could face execution with as little as three days’ notice of receiving a ‘black warrant,’ which could be handed down at any time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maya Foa, Director of the death penalty team at international human rights organization Reprieve said: “Anwar and his family have spent years trying to get someone to take a proper look at the evidence of his juvenility. The bottom line is that he simply should not be facing execution under either Pakistani or international law. However, he has been the victim of bureaucratic incompetence by the Pakistani Government, and as a result his case has fallen between the cracks. The Supreme Court now has the chance to correct this historic wrong and commute his sentence.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reprieve, June 7, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Commutation Juvenile offenders Pakistan Pakistan Supreme Court to consider case of juvenile facing hanging

Judges will tomorrow [Wednesday 8 June] consider the case of a prisoner who could be hanged at as little as three days’ notice, despite evid...

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Saving young lives from execution in Iran

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbf7JmiB-tKrl3DPH0l5AQ5Q2ju7olZHQxVzRr_aod4m3lt0JGH-eMkdOmrJT1p2L3dT-y3V0X8ooovS5RmMkvro_DMENbcf9gcJzVIE6HXTgch2sGy5pCDSCzuGrUP-TLfqB5GlFuVxE/s1600/Iran+Death+Penalty+For+Juvenile+Offenders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbf7JmiB-tKrl3DPH0l5AQ5Q2ju7olZHQxVzRr_aod4m3lt0JGH-eMkdOmrJT1p2L3dT-y3V0X8ooovS5RmMkvro_DMENbcf9gcJzVIE6HXTgch2sGy5pCDSCzuGrUP-TLfqB5GlFuVxE/s400/Iran+Death+Penalty+For+Juvenile+Offenders.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>To mark 1 June - International Children's Day - Raha Bahreini from our Iran team describes how Amnesty has managed to raise awareness about the death penalty and save juvenile offenders from the gallows in Iran.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It starts with a panicked phone call.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our contact tells us that a juvenile offender (a person aged below 18 at the time of their crime) has just been transferred to solitary confinement - the final step before execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is often our 1st glimpse of this young person and the desperate situation they are in. Why? Because the families of those on death row often fear reprisals if they publicize the plight of their loved ones. They sometimes believe that international lobbying and public campaigning will only complicate the situation and hasten the execution. At times, the authorities themselves give families false assurances, claiming that if the family does not publicize the case, their loved ones might be spared.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The moment we are prompted to intervene is often the moment when the authorities' promises are exposed as hollow and the young person is just days or hours away from execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>A race against the clock</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once we get the call, it's a race against the clock - and winning literally becomes a matter of life and death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We scramble to collect court documents and testimonies, verifying them through reliably informed sources. We work swiftly and under pressure alongside our media and campaigning colleagues to issue a press release and send urgent appeals to our network of activists. We co-ordinate efforts among our global offices and organize Twitter storms, letter-writing campaigns, and email actions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Through all this, we urge our activists to generate a global outcry about this young person who, up until a few days ago, had been suffering in isolation on death row.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once we have exhausted every avenue, there is nothing left to do but wait.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At this point, we feel helpless, imagining that young person frightened and alone in their cell. We keep in touch with our contacts, scrabbling for updates. Iran is several hours ahead of London and they execute at dawn, so we keep awake until late, checking our phones for good news - while dreading the worst.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Lives saved</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our greatest moments of relief come when we hear that we have saved a life - as we did when Alireza Tajiki was spared execution last month. He had been arrested when he was just 15 years old and sentenced to death in 2013 on the basis of torture-tainted "confessions". When we learned of his execution date, we had just 4 days to save him. But in those four days we got hundreds of people to appeal to Iran's authorities while we engaged in diplomatic interventions. And it worked. The authorities stopped his execution within 24 hours of the moment he was scheduled to be hanged. Although Alireza Tajiki is still at risk of execution, this short-term victory gives us time to build on our efforts to save him once and for all.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alireza isn't our only success. There is Salar Shadizadi, who we saved twice from execution. Like Alireza, he was sentenced to death for a crime committed when he was 15 years old. First, we convinced the authorities to postpone his execution and move him out of solitary confinement in August 2015. When they rescheduled his execution to November, we stopped them again - despite having just a few days to do it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnZQ3QEO8Oz4Ju2dayq4RpGg0jIiY8MEmucqSjKsQqumYwdh2UGFmWBRTWhIL80xgoUb2rTz-NDGkSGy91rheLQLApjROICFfk7bx38lAaKyT1_kZuWQyvp-d3BiMvO4K4t7dmvYeYMy8/s1600/Iran+executes+juvenile+offenders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnZQ3QEO8Oz4Ju2dayq4RpGg0jIiY8MEmucqSjKsQqumYwdh2UGFmWBRTWhIL80xgoUb2rTz-NDGkSGy91rheLQLApjROICFfk7bx38lAaKyT1_kZuWQyvp-d3BiMvO4K4t7dmvYeYMy8/s320/Iran+executes+juvenile+offenders.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There was also Saman Naseem, who had been scheduled to hang in February 2015. He was sentenced to death based on "confessions" that he said were extracted through torture. We launched a worldwide campaign to stop his execution. Then, the day before the execution, Saman was transferred to an undisclosed location where he remained for the next 5 months. In that time, we mobilized our activists to demand that the authorities reveal his fate and whereabouts. In July 2015, his family was finally informed that he was alive and was allowed to visit him. The authorities quashed his death sentence and granted him a retrial - 2 positive steps that we had campaigned for.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The power of a movement</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the past 18 months, thousands of people worldwide have spoken out against Iran's use of the death penalty on juvenile offenders, which is illegal under international law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">These efforts have shed light on the plight of more than 160 juvenile offenders languishing on Iran's death row. They have also hugely increased the reputational cost of executing juvenile offenders for the Iranian authorities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With help from Amnesty's supporters, we have achieved a fantastic outcome for Alireza, Salar and Saman.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But our work is far from finished. The immediate threat of execution may be over, but the tortuous waiting game continues for these and other young people growing up on Iran's death row. Only yesterday, Mohammad Reza Haddadi - who has spent the last 12 years on death row for a crime committed when he was 15 - was spared execution a 6th time, thanks to yet another public campaign on his behalf.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And so our struggle continues, until the authorities stop giving juvenile offenders the death penalty - so that no child faces the gallows in Iran again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International, June 1, 2016<br /><br /><b>Related (and recommended) content:</b><br /><ul><li><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/01/waiting-to-die-iranian-child-inmates.html" target="_blank">Waiting to die: the Iranian child inmates facing execution – in pictures</a>, The Guardian, January 13, 2016</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Call to revoke young man's death sentence</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Iranian Resistance is calling for the cancellation of a death sentence issued for Mohammad Reza Haddadi, aged 15 at the time of his alleged crime, and requests from all human rights organizations, especially the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary Executions and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran to take urgent action aimed at forcing the cancellation of this criminal execution. Haddadi has been held in Adel Abad Prison of Shiraz, central Iran, for the past 13 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moreover, three prisoners in the cities of Shiraz, Kavar (located 51 kilometers south of Shiraz) and Nour (in Mazandaran Province, northern Iran) were hanged through the span of May 28th to the 30th.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2 inmates were also hanged on May 31st in Noshahr Prison (northern Iran). Therefore, the number of executions in Iran reached 73 in the month of May.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executions, lashing and torture, especially against the youth, reflect the increasing fear sensed by the fascist regime ruling Iran regarding an imminent eruption of anger and social protests. These developments reveal that the mask of moderation used by the criminals ruling Iran is nothing but a deceptive plot.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/human-rights/20468-iran-call-to-revoke-young-man-s-death-sentence" target="_blank">NCRI</a>, May 31, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Amnesty International Iran Islamic Law Juvenile offenders sharia Torture Saving young lives from execution in Iran

To mark 1 June - International Children's Day - Raha Bahreini from our Iran team describes how Amnesty has managed to raise awareness ab...

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