CENTRE FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT STUDIES

IRAN

Iranian authorities in 2011 carried out more than 600 executions and imprisoned more journalists and bloggers than any other country, Human Rights Watch said today in issuing its World Report 2012 Iran chapter. Iran’s judiciary works hand-in-hand with security and intelligence forces to harass, imprison and convict opposition and rights activists, despite increasing international condemnation of the country’s rights record.

In March the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Ahmed Shaheed to be the first special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran since 2002. Since Shaheed’s appointment the Iranian government has refused him entry to the country, executed more than 400 prisoners – including people convicted of committing crimes when they were children, and prosecuted dozens of outspoken lawyers, journalists, and rights activists for their peaceful speech and associational activities. In February the authorities placed the 2009 presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi under house arrest, where they remain.

“The Iranian government crushes all voices of opposition while scoffing at the international community’s growing concern over human rights,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

In its 676-page World Report 2012, Human Rights Watch assesses progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including popular uprisings in the Arab world that few would have imagined. Given the violent forces resisting the “Arab Spring,” the international community has an important role to play in assisting the birth of rights-respecting democracies in the region, Human Rights Watch said in the report.

In Iran, the authorities carried out more than 600 executions, according to several rights groups, even though the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and four UN experts pressed Iranian officials for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty, “particularly for drug-related and juvenile cases.” Government sources announced only around 350 of these executions. The vast majority were for drug-related offenses, including trafficking and possession. The pace of executions accelerated following the entry into force in December 2010 of an amended anti-narcotics law, drafted by the Expediency Council and approved by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Despite the hundreds of executions, Yuri Fedotov, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), made no mention of the wave of executions taking place in Iran for drug-related offenses and praised the country’s anti-drug efforts during a visit to Tehran in July. The UNODC has provided up to $22 million since 2005 to support training projects for Iran’s anti-drug forces, and the European commission, European Union member states, and several other governments including Japan, Norway, Australia and Canada, provide money, technical assistance, and legislative support to Iran’s anti-drug efforts.

Iran also led the world in the reported execution of people convicted of offenses they allegedly committed before age 18, despite the prohibition on such executions under international law. Iranian law allows capital punishment for people who have reached puberty, defined as age 9 for girls and 15 for boys. The judiciary allowed the execution of at least 3 children in 2011.

Authorities have executed at least 30 people since January 2010 on the charge of moharebeh (“enmity against God”), for alleged ties to armed or terrorist groups. On January 9, 2012, a revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, an Iranian-American, to death on charges of moharebeh, “corruption on earth,” and espionage. The judiciary sentenced Hekmati after authorities detained him for more than 4 months without providing him access to a lawyer, his family, or the Swiss consular officials who represent American interests in Iran.

As of December 42 journalists and bloggers were in prison in Iran, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. More than 60 journalists were forced into exile in 2011 alone, and authorities have shut down at least 40 publications since 2009. On January 17, 2012, Iran’s Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence for blogger Saeed Malekpour, a Canadian resident who was convicted of “insulting and desecrating Islam” in October 2011. At least 2 other individuals have been sentenced to death by the judiciary on internet-related charges. The government blocks certain websites that carry political news and analysis, slows down internet speeds to hinder web access, and jams foreign satellite broadcasts.

In January 2011 a revolutionary court sentenced Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent rights lawyer, to 11 years in prison and barred her from practicing law and leaving the country for 20 years on charges of “acting against the national security” and “propaganda against the regime.” The judiciary later reduced her sentence to 6 years and a 10-year ban on travel and practicing law. The judiciary prosecuted, convicted, or sentenced several other prominent lawyers to prison terms and bans on the practice of law. Earlier in the year Sadegh Larijani, the Head of the Judiciary, warned lawyers that they should refrain from giving interviews that damage the government’s reputation.

On January 10, 2012, the Interior Ministry’s election commission disqualified several dozen candidates from running in the upcoming March 2 parliamentary elections because of their “lack of adherence to Islam and the Constitution.” The disqualified candidates include several incumbents who were critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government. In November and December reformist and opposition activists, some of whom are currently serving prison terms, issued several statements calling the parliamentary elections a sham and concluding there was no reason to field candidates. In December the Iranian judiciary announced that anyone calling for a boycott of the upcoming parliamentary elections would be subject to prosecution.

Mousavi and Karroubi were placed under house arrest in February 2011 after they called for mass protests. Several days earlier, beginning on February 8, security forces had arbitrarily arrested dozens of political opposition members in Tehran and several other cities.

“The continued detention of Mousavi and Karroubi, not to mention the dozens of reformist candidates arrested after the disputed 2009 presidential election, is a reminder to all of us that Iran’s human rights crisis is linked to the demand of citizens to participate in free and fair elections,” Whitson said.

(source: human Rights Watch)

Iran using death penalty more and more, says HRW

Death penalty still persists in a number of countries worldwide.

CAIRO: Iran used the death penalty in an alarmingly increasing manner last year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in Cairo while launching their global rights report.

The New York-based organization reported that the country had the highest execution rate for minors.

Iran executed at least three children in 2011, one of them in public, while more than 100 juvenile offenders remain on death row, the report said. Iranian law allows capital punishment for those who have reached puberty, defined as 9 years for girls and 15 years for boys.

The number of executions increased after the entry into force in December 2010 of an amended anti-narcotics law. Since then, more than 400 prisoners were executed – including 67 drug offenders in January alone, HRW said.

Crimes punishable by death include espionage, sodomy, adultery and apostasy.

In 2011, Iranian authorities targeted lawyers, human rights activists, students and journalists; refused to allow regime critics to hold demonstrations and used force to break up massive demonstrations in Tehran and other major cities in support of the uprisings in the Arab world.

The New York-based group charged that the government continues to shut down newspapers, and target journalists and bloggers, accusing them of crimes such as “propaganda against the state.”

According to Reporters Without Borders, there were 49 journalists and bloggers in prison as of October.

EU condemns death sentencing in Gaza

(Source: maannews.net)

USA- Forgiveness key in group’s fight against death penalty

USA- Artist raises awareness about capital punishment

The death penalty has always been a hot topic issue in the United States. There are currently 34 states with the death penalty, with Nebraska being one of them. One artist who doesn’t believe in the death penalty is taking a stand to try and abolish capital punishment entirely.

Julie Green is an associate professor who teaches painting, drawing and contemporary issues in art at Oregon State University. Green has spent over a decade studying the final meals requested by inmates before dying. Her collection features 476 painted plates, each of which depict a unique last meal request of a former prisoner on death row.

“I have always been focused on food,” Green said on her website. “As a kid, I won eating contests; these days I grow organic produce. The years I spent in Oklahoma, which has the highest per capita rate of executions, turned my interest in food towards final meals.”

When Green lived in Oklahoma, she began reading the final meal requests of local inmates, which were published in the newspaper. “The Last Supper project” is currently on display in UNO’s art gallery, located on the first floor in the Weber Fine Arts building, as part of a four-week exhibition.

Green’s plates are painted with mineral paint and then porcelain fired. Her project has received national media attention from National Public Radio as well as magazines like Ceramics Monthly and Gastronomica.

The UNO exhibition marks the first time that all of Green’s plates created to date have been on display in a public location. The exhibition opened Jan. 13 with a reception from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. People lined the walls of the art gallery during the reception, carefully reading about each plate and the person who requested the final meal.

“The exhibit is so utterly demanding on the imagination of the viewer,” exhibit viewer Jacqueline Scoones said. “It’s entirely flat and almost cliché if all you do is look at the plates because really where it starts to resonate is if you bring to it your imagination. Each plate is a scene, each plate compels you to imagine.”

Green recently received a grant from the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation. The award is given to only 25 contemporary artists a year to acknowledge painters and sculptors nationwide who create work of exceptional quality.

Green’s “Last Supper” project is exceptional and thought provoking. The project begs the viewer to wonder about the personalities of the former death row inmates. The pictures depicted on the plates vary from a traditional dinner like chicken and mashed potatoes to a bag of Jolly Ranchers. Some inmates have no request at all.

“When looking at the inmates’ humble choices, it is important to note that while rituals and traditions vary, most states limit final-meal allowances to twenty dollars,” Green said on her website. “Texas, home to cattle ranches and more death-row executions (477) than any other state, doesn’t allow steak for a final meal. If you order steak in Texas, you get hamburger.”

Green says she plans to continue adding 50 more plates to “The Last Supper” project each year until capital punishment is abolished. The exhibition is free to the public and closes on Thursday, Feb. 9 at 3 p.m.

India- State moves HC for death penalty to one of Katara’s killers

China- Woman’s death sentence rouses public debate

Verdict could affect private lending market

SHANGHAI - The death sentence given an ex-millionaire businesswoman found guilty of fraudulent fundraising has provoked widespread discussions on capital punishment for illegal fundraising, as well as on private lending.

Wu Ying, 31, the former owner of Zhejiang-based Bense Holding Group, lost her appeal to the Zhejiang Provincial High People’s Court on Wednesday, which upheld the verdict and death penalty of a local court in 2009.

The high court rejected Wu’s appeal as she “brought huge losses to the nation and people with her serious crimes and should therefore be severely punished”.

Wu was found to have illegally raised 770 million yuan ($122 million) by promising investors high returns between May 2005 and February 2007.

Of the money fraudulently pooled, 380 million yuan could not be returned and large amounts of other debts were unpaid, according to the court.

Wu said she was not guilty at the first trial but admitted in the second that she had “illegally pooled public deposits”, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

However, the heaviest penalty for “fraudulent fundraising” is death, under the Criminal Law.

Zhang Yanfeng, Wu’s defense lawyer, said that he and his colleagues were shocked when they heard the second verdict and that they will make every effort to plea for a lesser sentence while waiting for the necessary review by the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing.

All death sentences in China require a final review by the top court before being carried out.

The crimes of “illegal pooling of public deposits” and “fraudulent fundraising” have similar definitions but divergent sentencing standards, said Wu Dong, a lawyer and partner of the M&A Law Firm in Shanghai.

On Thursday, many netizens were also calling for more lenient sentence for Wu. By 8:30 pm, about 64 percent of 398,885 respondents to an online survey at ifeng.com considered the death penalty too harsh for Wu and named the overabundance of hot money and lack of investment channels as the main reason she committed the crime.

China repealed the death penalty for 13 non-violent economic crimes in its 8th Amendment to the Criminal Law, which took effect on May 1. But capital punishment remained the most severe penalty for fraudulent fundraising.

Keeping the death penalty for fraudulent fundraising could be a sign of authorities’ determination to crack down on illicit private lending, which can affect many people and have a huge social impact, Wu Dong said.

He said the verdict in Wu’s case might serve as a warning to people involved in private lending markets, but the measure might not prove effective in the long run.

“It is better to make clear policies and laws to legalize, regulate and guide private financing than suppressing it, because there is always a need for borrowing and investing outside banks or financial institutions,” he said.

The verdict also sparked widespread controversy over private financing and underground lending in Zhejiang, a bustling coastal province flush with cash, which has also witnessed increasing crime related to private lending and borrowing in recent years.

In Jinhua, where Wu set up the business, cases of illegal pooling of public deposits surged from seven in 2008 to 34 in 2009, and the number of crimes of fraudulent fundraising cases jumped from one in 2008 to five in 2009, according to a Zhejiang University report on private financing in Zhejiang province.

At the same time, more small loan companies were set up as residents tried to avoid undocumented private lending in Jinhua and other cities in Zhejiang, according to the report.

In Wenzhou, private lending reached to about 110 billion yuan, according to a study by Wenzhou financial management authorities in September 2011.

Money lenders said they are paying close attention to Wu’s case because the verdict may affect future trends in underground lending markets.

Hua Xiang, an underground money lender in Wenzhou, said she stopped lending money in November. “About 7 billion yuan was unpaid, because the borrowers either ran away or simply have no money,” Hua said.

However, Hua said the severe punishment would not help lenders.

“The gone money is gone. Even if the borrowers are sentenced to death, I won’t get it back,” Hua said.

Tu Shanshan (not her real name), a businesswoman in Lishui, Zhejiang province, who used to borrow from underground lending markets, said Wu’s case has deadlocked money borrowers.

“In the past, borrowing money was all about investment and business, but now if you fail to run the business well, you might be charged with cheating and get jailed or even sentenced to death,” Tu said.

Yu Ran contributed to this story.

China Daily

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)

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