Organ donor cards hard to implement in China, official says

A system of donor cards indicating consent for organ transplants will not work in China as families will insist on having the final say, and many people see nothing wrong in using organs from executed prisoners, an official said on Friday.

Nearly 1.5 million people in China need transplants every year, but only 10,000 can get organs, according to the Health Ministry.

Many of those organs are taken from executed criminals and rights groups say it is often done without their consent - something the government denies, even as it tries to move away from obtaining organs from death-row inmates.

"China has an obvious family hierarchy," Huang Jiefu, who oversees transplants for the ministry, told a news conference when asked whether China could adopt an organ donor card system as practiced in countries like the United States and Britain.

"Every Chinese family has a core figure - be it the grandfather, father or grandmother - and this person has the final say," he said.

In traditional Chinese thought, the body is a sacrosanct gift from your parents not to be defiled, Huang said.

"That's why it won't work without family consent," he said.

However, Huang was optimistic that attitudes were changing, citing a ministry survey that found 70 % of young people had no problem with organ donation.

China in 2007 banned organ transplants from living donors, except spouses, blood relatives and step or adopted family members, but launched a national system to coordinate donations after death in 2009. The organ shortage has driven a trade in illegal organ trafficking in the country.

Huang repeated that the goal was to reduce reliance on prisoners for organs by 2015, though he did not give any figures and China does not publish its death penalty numbers.

Still, many Chinese believe there is nothing wrong in using the organs of executed prisoners for transplants, he said.

"The legal philosophy of the death penalty is 'an eye for an eye' or 'a life for a life'. The public believes that saving a life is a worthy redemption of a dead prisoner.

"Every organ donation from executed prisoners has written consent from both the individual and the family," added Huang, who is an Australian-trained liver transplant surgeon.

But eventually, China will probably abolish the death penalty, so it will have to develop alternatives, he said.

"Depending on death row inmates for donations will lead China's organ transplants to a dead end."

Source: Reuters, May 17, 2013

Kansas has a death penalty, but it isn’t being used

No one has been put to death in Kansas since 1965.

“Kansas is 10 years and $20 million away from its first execution,” predicted lawyer and capital punishment opponent Sean O’Brien of Kansas City.

Kansas lawmakers reinstated the state’s death penalty in 1994. Since then, 13 men have been condemned to death for murder. All remain alive. Only nine sit on the state’s death row, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections’ website. The others’ sentences were reduced after appeals and plea agreements, or have been vacated pending a new trial.

Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court validated rewritten capital punishment laws, only two states with death penalty statutes — Kansas and New Hampshire — have not executed a single inmate.

The long gap between capital crime and capital punishment in Kansas is the result of several interlocking factors, experts say.

The state’s death penalty law is narrow, providing a way for even the most brutal killers to escape the punishment. Some prosecutors use the death penalty more as a negotiating tool than a criminal sanction, and some politicians remain ambivalent about executions, as do many residents in the state.

And the courts play a critical role.

All death sentences in Kansas are automatically reviewed by the state’s Supreme Court. It’s uniquely allowed to “scour the record” for trial and sentencing errors in capital cases, even those not raised by defense lawyers. That further raises the chances for delays.

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Source: The Kansas City Star, May 17, 2013

Arkansas loses pharmaceutical company account after revealing plans to use its drug in executions

Weeks after Arkansas acknowledged buying an anti-seizure drug to use in executions, the state correction department said Wednesday it's losing its account with the pharmaceutical company that supplied the chemical.

West-Ward Pharmaceuticals notified the Arkansas Department of Correction on Wednesday that the company was closing its account, prisons spokeswoman Shea Wilson told The Associated Press.

Wilson said she didn't know why the drug company was closing the prison system's account, but West-Ward's London-based parent company, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, said Wednesday that it objects to its products' use in capital punishment.

Hikma also said it has halted direct sales of injectable phenobarbital to U.S. corrections departments after Arkansas' actions last month. However, Hikma spokesman Matthew Cole would not discuss specifics about Arkansas' account.

"More broadly, we're working to try to ensure that there's no unintended use of our product for capital punishment purposes," Cole said.

The AP first reported last month that Arkansas planned to use phenobarbital in executions, even though the barbiturate has never been used in U.S. lethal injections.

Arkansas and many of the more than 30 other death penalty states once used a virtually identical three-drug process: The barbiturate sodium thiopental was administered to put an inmate to sleep, and two other drugs were administered to stop breathing and the heart.

As sodium thiopental supplies dried up, however, Arkansas and several other states initially turned their attention overseas, obtaining the drug from a different British supplier. But, in 2011, they lost their supplies to federal agents amid legal questions about how they got the drug.

So, as drugmakers have continued to object to their products' use in lethal injections, states have been looking for alternatives.

Arkansas this year said it was turning to phenobarbital, the drug it bought from West-Ward Pharmaceuticals.

However, lawyers for 9 death row inmates are challenging the use of the drug, contending that it could be inhumane.

Arkansas hasn't put a prisoner to death since 2005, and for now, the state doesn't have any pending executions.

That's expected to change, though, as Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel asked Gov. Mike Beebe to schedule execution dates for seven of the state's 37 death row inmates.

Source: Associated Press, May 16, 2013

Thailand: Unshackling death-row inmates 'not enough'

International organisations have welcomed Thailand's decision to remove the leg shackles from death row inmates, but say other forms of ill treatment still need to be addressed.

Matilda Bogner, regional representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Regional Office for Southeast Asia, said death row conditions in many countries fall far short of international norms that prohibit cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The OHCHR and the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations have regularly expressed concern over the shackling of inmates on death row, said Ms Bogner.

The practice of shackling undermined the dignity of the judicial process by seriously compromising the respectful treatment to which all prisoners were entitled, the Bangkok-based diplomat said.

"The decision of the government of Thailand is therefore a significant development we very much welcome. It is an important step towards the improvement of the conditions of detention for all detainees in Thailand," said Ms Bogner.

This, she said, illustrated Thailand's efforts to comply with its international obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

"We are confident that the government of Thailand will take additional steps in the near future to prevent any forms of ill-treatment," said the OHCHR regional representative.

Somchai Homlaor, chair of Amnesty International Thailand, said shackling the inmates was a form of torture and a violation of the 2007 constitution.

The unshackling of the first 400 inmates would be hopefully expanded to include other detainees nationwide, and should include when they attend court hearings, said Mr Somchai.

He also called for other integrated measures such as ending the problem of prison overcrowding, separating detainees of different levels of offences and stages of processing - especially those on trial and those already convicted - and ensuring provision of additional and timely medical and public health services inside prisons.

Amnesty International Thailand director Parinya Boonridrerthaikul said 2/3 of the world had already abolished capital punishment. Thailand should follow that trend by announcing an immediate moratorium on the death penalty, under the 2nd national human rights plan of action.

Ms Parinya said the 3rd human rights master plan being drafted now should also continue the effort to end capital punishment.

Eventually, Thailand should adopt the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, she said. The protocol commits signatories to the abolition of the death penalty within their borders.

Source: Bangkok Post, May 16, 2013

The death penalty in North Korea: in the machinery of a totalitarian State

In a report published today, "The death penalty in North Korea: in the machinery of a totalitarian State", FIDH denounces the nature and scale of executions in North Korea. The report concludes that the death penalty remains, in North Korea, an essential part of the totalitarian system in place. Due to the lack of access to North Korea for independent human rights organizations to enter North Korea, and the difficulty to obtain any data from authorities, FIDH sent a fact-finding mission to Seoul in December 2012 to collect first-hand testimonies from a total of 12 North Korean asylum seekers

In the 90's, during the great famine, the regime extensively used the death penalty in order to maintain order through force and terror and thus dissuade any subversive act, including attempts to flee abroad. Over a thousand public executions would have been carried out in only a few years. Since then, the government has continued to use the death penalty on a large-scale as a repressive tool, executing individuals guilty of so-called "economical crimes", "treason" or other crimes vaguely defined, basically applying capital punishment for anyone considered as disturbing public order.

"In North Korea, insignificant acts, which according to the regime affect the State's legitimacy or ideology, including the cult of personality for the country's leaders, can lead you to a firing squad", declared Souhayr Belhassen, FIDH President.

Testimony

One of the persons FIDH met with witnessed the execution of a man in his thirties by firing squad in 2003. The latter was accused of cutting electric wires to sell them. The witness was told to attend the execution by the Party secretary working in his factory, in order to dissuade other workers from stealing electric wire. It happened in the South P'yong'an province, Sunchon city.

Kim Jong-un's coming to power at the beginning of 2012 did nothing to change the situation. On the contrary, 2 decrees, adopted in September, increased the number of offenses carrying the death penalty. They are respectively used to condemn to death anyone found guilty of trafficking foreign currencies or of revealing classified information.

FIDH's report stresses that the death penalty in North Korea is not only applied for crimes considered as non-serious under international law, but also in clear denial of the right to a fair trial. Charges are usually fabricated and sentences follow staged trials, if any trial at all. Public executions, which represent an extreme form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, are widespread. Moreover, the borderline between executions resulting from the death penalty and "extrajudicial" executions is close to nonexistent.

Testimony

Another person witnessed a women executed in a stadium in 2006 for human trafficking and smuggling. Later, the same person saw the execution of a man who had stolen a cow to feed his family. He was publicly executed by firing squad in the market place.

"All states that apply the death penalty are characterized by various forms of arbitrary, illegitimate, and illegal application. However, only in North Korea are all of these found in every executions", said Speedy Rice, professor at Washington & Lee University School of Law, and who took part in FIDH mission.

FIDH hopes that the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the situation of human rights in North Korea, whose members were nominated on May 7th, will shed light on the application of the death penalty and exhort the international community to place the issue of human rights at the heart of its interactions with North Korea.

Source: FIDH (Fédération Internationale des Droits de l'Homme), May 16, 2013

Iran: man hanged in public in Noshahr

Iran Human Rights, May 16: One man was hanged publicly in Noshahr (northern Iran) on May 16.

According to the state run Iranian news agency Mehr, the man who was not identified by name, was convicted of murdering another man identified as "Amir Arsalan Sheikh-Abbasi" with a knife after a verbal argument in 2008.

The man was a 25 year old father of two children

The execution was carried out at 5.30 AM in public.

Source: Iran Human Rights, May 17, 2013

Indonesia Executes Three Murderers

Indonesian President
 Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Indonesia executed three convicted murderers on Friday, an official said, the second time that the country has done so since 2008 in a move that drew condemnation from rights groups.

Suryadi Swabhuana, Jurit, and Ibrahim, all Indonesians, were put to death by firing squad in Nusakambangan prison, on an island off the coast of the main island of Java.

“We executed the three men early Friday,” said Mahfud Mannan, the deputy attorney general for criminal cases. “They were convicted in two separate cases of premeditated murder.”

Swabhuana, 46, was convicted of murder and theft in 1991, according to government records.

Jurit and Ibrahim, who both go by one name like many Indonesians, were convicted of murder in a second case. Further details were not available.

Indonesia resumed executions in March, when it put a Malawian drug trafficker to death. Prior to that, in 2008 it executed three men who played key roles in the 2002 Bali bombings.

Amnesty International slammed the latest executions as a “major regressive step.”

“The executions set Indonesia against global trends towards abolition of the death penalty,” said Josef Benedict, an Indonesia campaigner at Amnesty.

“Amnesty International calls on Indonesia to make [these] executions the last.”

Andreas Harsono, from Human Rights Watch, added that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono “should immediately act to stop executions and practisce what he preaches — that Indonesia is a democracy that respects rights.”

Mannan said that Indonesia plans to execute six more people this year to meet a target of 10. He declined to give further details.

A number of foreign nationals are jailed on the resort island of Bali, mainly on drugs offences, and several are on death row.

This includes British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford who was sentenced to death in January for cocaine smuggling and two men from the “Bali Nine” group of Australians convicted of attempting to smuggle heroin.

Executions in Indonesia are usually carried out by firing squad in the middle of the night in isolated locations.

Source: Agence France-Presse, May 17, 2013

Additional Information: Amnesty International

Indonesia resumed executions on 14 March 2013 after a four year hiatus, when Adami Wilson, a 48-year-old Malawian national, was put to death for drug-trafficking. The execution was a shocking and regressive step after years of positive indications that Indonesia was moving away from the death penalty. In October 2012, after news that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono commuted the death sentence of a drug trafficker, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the move was part of a wider push away from the use of the death penalty in Indonesia. Also in 2012, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of a drug trafficker to 12 years’ imprisonment and the President granted clemency for two others who had been sentenced to death for drug trafficking.

Amnesty International recognizes the obligation and duty for governments to protect the human rights of victims of crime, and believes that those found responsible, after a fair judicial process, should be punished with a sentence that is proportionate to the crime committed, but without recourse to the death penalty. There is no convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime any more effectively than other forms of punishment.

Amnesty International believes that the death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, and a violation of the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Indonesia is a state party. Moreover, Article 6(6) of the ICCPR states that “Nothing in this article shall be invoked to delay or to prevent the abolition of capital punishment by any State Party to the present Covenant”. The Human Rights Committee, the body overseeing the implementation of the ICCPR, has stated that Article 6 "refers generally to abolition [of the death penalty] in terms which strongly suggest... that abolition is desirable. The Committee concludes that all measures of abolition should be considered as progress in the enjoyment of the right to life”.

The then UN Commission on Human Rights, in resolution 2005/59, called upon all states that still maintain the death penalty “to make available to the public information with regard to the imposition of the death penalty and to any scheduled execution”. On 23 March 2012, the UN Human Rights Council adopted resolution 19/ 37 on the “Rights of the child” in which it called on states to ensure that inmates on death row, as well as their families and legal representatives are provided, in advance, with adequate information about a pending execution, its date, time and location, to allow a last visit or communication with the convicted person.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unreservedly in all cases and supports calls, also included in four resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly since 2007, for the establishment of a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. At the voting on the most recent of these resolutions in December 2012, Indonesia for the first time changed its vote from against to abstention. As of today 140 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice; in the Asia-Pacific region, out of 41 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, 17 have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, 10 are abolitionist in practice and one – Fiji – uses the death penalty only for exceptional military crimes.

Human Rights Group Urges Indonesia Not to Execute Three Criminals

Amnesty International has called for an immediate halt to the execution of three men, expected imminently.

“If the men are executed it would be a major setback in the use of the death penalty, in a country that appeared to be moving away from the brutal practice in recent years,” said a statement from the human rights organization obtained on Thursday night.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, Suryadi Swabuana, Jurit bin Abdullah and Ibrahim bin Ujang, are set to be executed this month.

But Amnesty International said there are indications the executions could be carried out as soon as this evening. The three men are now being held in isolation cells in the Nusakambangan Prison in Central Java, where they are due to be executed by firing squad.

In the statement, Amnesty International said it opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception.

“In Indonesia’s case, there is no clear indication why the country has decided to resume executions after a four year gap,” the statement said, adding that the period was broken on March 14 when Malawian national Adami Wilson, 48, was put to death for drug-trafficking.

This execution — and the three that are imminent — appear to contradict previous statements and actions taken by government officials, Amnesty International said.

In October last year President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono commuted the death sentence of a drug trafficker. Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the move was part of a wider push away from the use of the death penalty in Indonesia.

It also runs contrary to Indonesia’s efforts to seek commutations for its nationals on death row overseas, in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, the human rights group said.

“More executions in Indonesia must be stopped. They call into question many of the human rights reforms and commitments made by the Indonesian government in recent years. Where it seemed that President Yudhoyono, who is due to step down next year, would leave a positive legacy relating to human rights, the opposite now appears to be the case,” said Papang Hidayat, Amnesty International’s Indonesia researcher. “These developments in relation of the death penalty also undermine the positive role Indonesia has played in Asean in promoting better respect for human rights.”

Suryadi Swabuana was convicted and sentenced to death in 1992 for the murder of a family in South Sumatra province. His clemency application was rejected in 2003. Jurit bin Abdullah and Ibrahim bin Ujang were convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 for murder in Musi Banyuasin district, South Sumatra.

According to their lawyers, Jurit and Ibrahim re-filed clemency applications in 2006 and 2008 respectively, but have not received a reply from the President, the statement said.

In March, after the execution of Adami Wilson, the Attorney General announced plans to this year execute at least nine other people who are currently under sentence of death.

The authorities did not reveal the names of the nine or their execution dates.

There are at least 130 people under sentence of death in Indonesia.

Death sentences in the country are carried out by firing squad. The prisoner has the choice of standing or sitting, and can decide whether to have their eyes covered by a blindfold or hood. Firing squads are made up of 12 people, three of whose rifles are loaded with live ammunition, while the other nine are loaded with blanks. The squad fires from a distance of between five and 10 meters. 

Source: Jakarta Globe, May 16, 2013

Iran: Three hanged in Karaj

Iran Human Rights, May 15: Three prisoners were hanged in the Rajai Shahr Prison of Karaj (west of Tehran) today.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported yesterday that three prisoners were transferred from their wards at the Rajai Shahr Prison and scheduled to be executed today.

According to the reports from reliable sources two of the prisoners that IHR had reported about were executed today. These prisoners were identified as Hamid Shahriari from ward 1 and Hossein Nasiri from ward 6 and were convicted of murder. Afshin Karimi who was transferred from the ward 6 was not executed today.

A third prisoner whose identification will be announced in the near future was also executed in the Rajai Shahr Prison today.

Seven other prisoners were hanged in the prison of Rasht (northern Iran) today, said the Iranian state media.

Source: Iran Human Rights, May 15, 2013

Texas executes Jeffrey Williams

Jeffrey Williams

An inmate convicted of killing a Houston police officer was executed by lethal injection today at "The Walls" Unit in Huntsville, Texas.

In May 1999, Jeffrey Williams, now 37, was driving a stolen Lexus when policeman Troy Blando stopped him in a motel parking lot and tried to arrest him.

Williams shot Blando in the chest and fled, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Blando got back into his car and radioed for help, but he died from the gunshot wound.

Williams was arrested near the scene wearing one handcuff, according to an account of the case from the Texas attorney general's office.

He told police that he did not know that Blando, who was in plain clothes, was a police officer, and that he thought Blando was trying to rob him, according to the attorney general's account. Court records show Blando, although in plain clothes, was carrying his badge around his neck. 

Testimony and confessions also linked Williams to 4 robberies, another shooting and an attempted robbery.

Williams, who said he had mental disabilities, appealed to the US Supreme Court, saying that he had ineffective trial lawyers.

He lost his appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court less than an hour before his scheduled execution.

Williams' attorneys contended that his execution should be postponed so that the courts could further review their claims that he received substandard legal help at his trial that influenced the jury's decision to sentence him to death. 

They also said he received "grossly deficient" counsel early on in the appeals process because his attorneys then didn't address the poor job his trial attorneys had done. 

"Mr. Williams has never been afforded the guarantee of constitutionally effective counsel at the punishment phase and he for 9 years has sought a remedy in the state and federal courts for the resulting deprivation of his right to one meaningful opportunity to challenge his death sentence," said Jonathan Sheldon, Williams lead attorney. 

Attorneys for the state opposed any delay, contending Williams' arguments were rejected by the courts, including the Supreme Court, in earlier appeals.

Williams said police are "clowns" and accused them of "killing all these kids." "Y'all are getting away with murder all the time."

He briefly picked up his head as the lethal drugs took effect, then took several deep breaths and gently snored.

Williams was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m. CDT, 26 minutes after lethal drug began.

Williams became the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 498th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982.

Williams becomes the 259th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.

Williams becomes the 12th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1332nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. 

At least 8 others have executions scheduled in the coming months.

Sources: Reuters, AP, Rick Halperin, May 15, 2013

Nebraska: Filibuster Kills Death Penalty Repeal Bill

Nebraska lawmakers hoping to repeal Nebraska's death penalty have failed to overcome a filibuster by senators opposed to the repeal.

The Unicameral voted 28-21 to invoke cloture and end debate, but the vote needed 33 to pass. That effectively kills the bill for this session.

Senator Ernie Chambers, of Omaha, has attempted to repeal the death penalty in Nebraska more than 30 times and vows to bring the measure back again next session.

The bill would have replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment without parole.

Source: KLIN News, May 15, 2013

Vietnam changes law to allow domestically produced poison in lethal injection, skirting EU ban

Vietnam has issued a new law allowing domestically produced chemicals to be used in lethal injections, a change that should enable it to resume the currently stalled executions of more than 530 people on death row.

The holdup was a result of an EU ban on its factories exporting chemicals used in lethal injections. The ban was issued because the EU regards capital punishment as a human rights violation. It has left Vietnam unable to execute a prisoner since November 2011, when the country decided to switch from firing squads to lethal injections on humanitarian grounds.

Vietnam's old law governing executions stipulated the names of the 3 chemicals produced in the EU that had to be used in lethal injection. The new law issued this week doesn't mention the chemicals by name, meaning local versions can be produced and used. The law will take effect on June 27.

In an interview earlier this year, European Union ambassador to Vietnam Franz Jessen said Vietnam might not have realized the practical implications of changing to lethal injections when it announced its plan to switch from the firing squad. He said the EU had hoped difficulties in sourcing the chemicals might have triggered a moratorium on the death penalty in the country.

Vietnam, a 1-party state that routinely sentences government critics to long prison terms, is under considerable international pressure to improve its human rights record, which most observers say has gotten worse over the last 2 years.

Jessen suggested that stopping executions would have earned Vietnam praise among the international community.

"A moratorium would have been a positive sign at a time when we need positive signs," he said.

EU factories are the main supplier of drugs that can be used in executions. Several American states have also said objections from European factories were making it hard to find the chemicals.

Source: Associated Press, May 15, 2013

Poison for lethal injection revealed

The poison that will be used for lethal injection in Vietnam from June 27, 2013 includes the sensory paralyzing drug, the drug that paralyzes the musculoskeletal system and the drug to stop the heart's activity.

The Government has issued Decree 47 on the implementation of the death penalty by lethal injection. Accordingly, 1 dose of poison includes 3 types of drugs as mentioned above. The poison will be provided by the Ministry of Health.

Decree 47 was signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and it will replace Decree 82 which was issued in 2011.

Previously, Decree 82 stipulated that the poison used for lethal injection includes Sodium thiopental (anesthesia,) Pancuronium bromide (the drug to paralyze the nervous and muscle system) and Potassium chloride (the drug used to stop the heart's activity).

However, Vietnam could not import the drug since other countries refused to sell it for the purpose of enforcing death penalty. The government had to ask the Ministry of Health to research and produce poison in Vietnam.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, preparation for the application of lethal injection has completed, with the construction and installation of equipment in 5 detention centers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Son La, Nghe An and Dak Lak. The training on the implementation of lethal injection has also completed. Lethal injection will be applied immediately when the poison is available.

Currently, over 500 prisoners are waiting for the death penalty execution by lethal injection.

Source: VietnamNet, May 15, 2013

Iran: Seven hanged in Rasht prison

Iran Human Rights, May 15: Seven prisoners were hanged in the central Prison of Rasht (Northern Iran) today.

According to the official website of the Iranian Judiciary in Gilan Province the prisoners were all convicted of possession and trafficking of narcotic drugs.

The prisoners were identified as: Jahangir Gorgij, Hashem bahar Ali, Shahram Hassan-Zadeh, Nemat Rajabi, Fahad Shirazi, Mohammad Zareiiand Tooraj Amini, said the report.

No further details were given in the report.

Source: Iran Human Rights, May 15, 2013

British firm moves to end supply of execution drugs to US

A UK pharmaceutical firm has announced that it is "putting in place concrete steps" to stop the use of its drugs in executions.

Hikma PLC, which is headquartered in London, made the announcement after it emerged that executioners at Arkansas Department of Corrections (DoC) had acquired drugs from the firm's subsidiary, West-Ward, which they intended to use to kill prisoners.

Arkansas had recently announced that it was moving to a new untested execution drug, called phenobarbital, after supplies of previously-used drugs were shut off. Papers filed with courts in the US have pointed out that the untested nature of the new drug in this context may result in prisoners not necessarily being killed but instead left in a “vegetative state” or with “devastating injuries that will cause prolonged suffering.”

In a statement released today, Hikma announced it was taking “concrete steps” to prevent “unintended uses” of its drugs:

“Phenobarbital is the world’s most widely used anti-convulsant. Hikma strongly objects to the use of any of its products in capital punishment. The Company is putting in place concrete steps to restrict the supply of its products for unintended uses. It has ceased the direct sale of injectable phenobarbital to US departments of corrections and will work directly with its distribution partners to add restrictions for unintended use to its distribution contracts.”

Maya Foa, Deputy Director of the Death Penalty team at Reprieve, welcomed the news: "We are very pleased to hear that Hikma are actively working to prevent their drugs being used in executions. Their action, like that of many other companies before them, demonstrates that the pharmaceutical industry is not willing to see its drugs used to kill prisoners. Medicines are made to save and improve lives, not end them in executions. Departments of Correction in the US must take heed of this message.”

Source: Reprieve, May 15, 2013

Grotesque Speed for Florida Capital Cases

The Timely Justice Act, a grotesquely named bill passed by the Florida Legislature, could get to Gov. Rick Scott as soon as this week for him to sign into law. The measure would require a governor to sign a death warrant within 30 days of a review of a capital conviction by the State Supreme Court, and the state would be required to execute the defendant within 180 days of the warrant.

Also this week, an inmate on Florida’s death row, Clemente Javier Aguirre-Jarquin, presented DNA evidence that could exonerate him. He was convicted in 2006 of murdering two women, based largely on circumstantial evidence. On Monday, he was in court seeking a new trial because the DNA evidence showed that blood at the crime scene — none of it his — was that of a victim’s daughter, who, his lawyers argue, likely committed the murders.

Mr. Aguirre-Jarquin’s case offers good reason for Governor Scott to veto the bill. The state’s indisputably defective death penalty system is made more horrifying by attempts to rush inmates to execution.

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Source: The New York Times, The Editorial Board, May 14, 2013

Philadelphia abortion doctor spared death sentence, gets life in prison

(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA - A Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of killing three babies who were born alive in his clinic agreed Tuesday to give up his right to an appeal and faces life in prison but will be spared a death sentence.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was convicted Monday of first-degree murder in the deaths of the babies who were delivered alive and killed with scissors.

In a case that became a flashpoint in the nation's abortion debate, former clinic employees testified that Gosnell routinely performed illegal abortions past Pennsylvania's 24-week limit, that he delivered babies who were still moving, whimpering or breathing, and that he and his assistants dispatched the newborns by "snipping" their spines, as he referred to it.

Prosecutors agreed to two life sentences without parole for two of the three first-degree murder convictions, and Gosnell was to be sentenced Wednesday in the death of the third baby, an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of a patient and hundreds of lesser counts.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty because Gosnell killed more than one person, and his victims were especially vulnerable given their age. But Gosnell's own advanced age had made it unlikely he would ever be executed before his appeals ran out.

Gosnell has said he considered himself a pioneering inner-city doctor who helped desperate women get late-term abortions.

The case drew wide attention from anti-abortion activists, for whom it illustrated the need for much tighter regulation of clinics and, more important, what they consider the immorality of all abortion.

Abortion rights groups were equally adamant in condemning Dr. Gosnell. But they drew an opposite conclusion: abortion must be safe and available, they said, or desperate women will be driven to other “back-alley” practitioners like Dr. Gosnell.

Sources: CBS News, The New York Times, AP, May 14-15, 2013

Saudi family urges Royal approval of maid’s execution for murder

The family of an ageing Saudi man murdered by an Indonesian housemaid at his home urged King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to endorse her execution, rejecting persistent pleas by her embassy to pardon the woman under Islamic law.

The sons of Saud Al Otaibi said they had waited more than enough for the court to order the beheading of the maid after she was sentenced to death 3.5 years ago.

“We appeal for King Abdullah and the Minister of Interior Prince Mohammed bin Abdul Aziz to end this delay and order the quick execution of this killer…we will not feel any relief until the sentence is executed..we will not accept anything but right,” his son, Muneef said, quoted by the Saudi Arabic language daily Sabq.

According to the paper, the maid waited for the other family members to leave home, picked a large wood stick and hit Saud on his head as he bent down to pray at his house in the western town of Taif.

She then stole around SR31,000 in cash and jewelry worth nearly SR100,000 and fled. On her way out, she was offered a lift by a Saudi man, who drove her to an abandoned rest house outside the city and raped her with his eight friends.

They then stole all her money and drove her to nearby Makkah, where she was hosted by a friend.

Police later arrested the nine rapists who led them to the maid’s whereabouts. During investigation, she confessed to the murder, prompting court to sentence her to death.

Indonesian embassy officials, who were present in most court sessions, tried many times to persuade the victim’s sons to pardon the maid in return for Islamic diya (blood money) but they refused. The maid was again sentenced to death by an appeals court.

Source: Emirates 24/7, May 14, 2013

Dystopian Executions in Japan

Death Chamber
at Tokyo Detention Center

Imagine you sit on death row. You live in an isolated cell, where you are forbidden to speak to other inmates. The cell is frigid in the winter and boiling in the summer. Bright lights are kept on in your cell all day and night, making it impossible to sleep. The visits from your family and lawyer are supervised and irregular; friends are not allowed to see you.

Any moment and without warning, you can be taken from your cell and told you will be executed, usually within a few short hours. There will be no explanation as to why the Justice Ministry has decided to go ahead with your execution while others still wait on death row. You will not be able to contact your family or your lawyer. There isn’t even time for a last meal. You will be executed in secret, by hanging. Even the location of the execution site is unknown to the public. Your family and lawyer will only be informed a few days after the execution has taken place, so that they can collect your body.

Sound like the makings of a dystopian science-fiction novel? Unfortunately, you’ll be sad to learn that it’s actually the execution system of modern day Japan.

The death penalty in Japan is an institution shrouded in secrecy and brutality. Executions are done in secret, the conditions are unforgiving, and conviction rates defy both statistics and logic. There is no public accountability. The death penalty in Japan is a severe infringement of the basic rights of its citizens and a call for transparency must be demanded. As one of the most affluent and influential world democracies, Japan’s current lack of transparency regarding the death penalty is alarming, even for those who may believe that capital punishment is justified. One need only look to this year’s executions to see how Japan’s death penalty process blatantly disregards natural human rights.

What little we know about death row comes from the few inmates who have experienced it, such as Masao Akahori, who was exonerated and released after being imprisoned for 31 years due to a false confession he made after being beaten by police in 1954. Of death row, Akahori describes living in constant fear of execution, having even once been taken out of his cell for execution, only to be returned after the guards realized the execution order was for the prisoner in the adjacent cell. On death row, prisoners are also forbidden to speak to one another and live in constant isolation within the small confinements of their cell, with only sporadic, supervised visits from their lawyers or family members, and two brief exercise breaks a week.

The conditions of death row inmates’ cells are similarly bleak: inmate Masashi Daidoji, who still sits on death row, describes the cells as being unbearably hot in summer and freezing in winter in his prison diary. Daidoji writes how bright lights are kept on 24 hours a day and inmates are not allowed sleep masks for fear they might use them to make a cord to commit suicide. Inmates are also not allowed television and can listen to the radio, but cannot choose the station they listen to as to prevent them “from getting unnecessary information or stimulation from the outside world.” Printed material is often censored before it reaches inmates and the names of inmates that have been executed will be blacked out in newspapers before being given to prisoners still living on death row. If prisoners have complaints, they can make them to a Justice Ministry representative, but a representative is only legally obligated to visit the prison every two years.

Click here to read the full article

Source: The Bell Towers, Laura Giunta, May 9, 2013

NB: DPN does not support some of the conclusions of this otherwise remarkable article, and specifically that "Only when Japan’s death penalty policy becomes humane and transparent can it begin to have any sort of place within a civilized democracy." DPN believes that Japan will "begin to have any sort of place within a civilized democracy" when it has implemented a moratorium on executions and initiated the legislative process that will ultimately lead to the unconditional repeal of the death penalty. DPN believes that the death penalty is inherently cruel and barbaric, and that the notion of a "humane" form of capital punishment is a misconception that can only serve to perpetuate an anachronistic punishment.

British firm supplying execution drugs to US

A UK-headquartered company is supplying lethal injection drugs to Arkansas Death Row, it has emerged.

The US state recently announced that it was moving to a new execution drug, called phenobarbital, after supplies of previously-used drugs were shut off by companies which did not want to see their products used to execute.

It has since been revealed that Arkansas Department of Corrections (DoC) obtained the phenobarbital from West-Ward pharmaceuticals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hikma plc, which has its headquarters in London.

Recent moves by a number of global pharmaceutical companies – including Lundbeck, Fresenius Kabi, Teva and Hospira – to restrict the supply of a number of barbiturates in order to prevent their use in executions has left prisons in the US struggling to find the means by which to carry out the death penalty.

However, despite being warned by human rights charity Reprieve that their drugs are being used in this way, neither parent company Hikma nor West-Ward have yet followed the example of their competitors in taking concrete steps to restrict supply.

Arkansas is the first – and so far, the only – state to switch to phenobarbital, which has not previously been used in executions. Papers filed with courts in the US have pointed out that the untested nature of the drug in this context may result in prisoners not necessarily being killed but instead left in a “vegetative state” or with “devastating injuries that will cause prolonged suffering.”

Maya Foa, Deputy Head of Reprieve’s Death Penalty Team said: “It’s very disappointing to see a British firm fuelling executions in the USA. Hikma claims to be ‘committed to improving people’s lives’ yet the firm is apparently happy for its drugs to be used in the potentially torturous executions of prisoners in the USA. This callous indifference to the suffering of prisoners and disregard for corporate social responsibility is all the more surprising in light of the ethical steps taken by other manufacturers implicated in the execution drug trade. Hikma knows that it can prevent its drugs from being used to kill, just as other firms have done, yet it is choosing to do nothing. If no action is taken, Hikma may soon become the prime provider of execution drugs across the USA.”

Source: Reprieve, May 15, 2013

How European taxpayers are fueling executions in Iran

Public execution in Iran

When it comes to the death penalty, European governments are ardently abolitionist. Yet the European taxpayer may in fact be unwittingly fueling executions for drug-related offenses in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In a post on Iran's war on drugs, Marya Hannun mentions the "steep price" of the country's drug war -- namely the execution of hundreds of individuals annually for the possession, use, and trafficking of narcotics.

While Hannun references the praise that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has bestowed on Iran's anti-narcotics program despite the high execution rate for drug-related offenses, what is not discussed is the funding provided by European nations for these efforts. Countries such as France and Germany provide funds to the UNODC's integrated program of technical cooperation on drugs and crime in Iran, which ultimately results in gross human rights violations perpetrated by Iranian authorities.

According to the UNODC website, the integrated program was launched in March 2011 thanks to a "generous financial contribution" from the government of Norway. The program "aims to support national efforts on drugs and crime" and consists of three sub-programs: 1) illicit trafficking and border management; 2) drug demand reduction and HIV control; and 3) crime, justice and corruption.

There are counter-narratives to UNODC's high regard for Iran's anti-narcotics efforts, including allegations that law enforcement personnel in Iran are in fact partaking in and facilitating the sale of illicit drugs for profit on the black market. Regardless of government complicity, the fact remains that thousands of individuals are arrested each year with the technical and material support provided by sub-program 1, including body scanners, drug detecting kits, sniffer dogs, vehicles, and night-vision devices.

Of those arrested, hundreds will subsequently be sentenced to death by Iran's judiciary on drug allegations. Iran is a global leader in executions, with only China exceeding it in number of people put to death annually. According to Iran Human Rights, a Norwegian-based group that documents executions in Iran, at least 580 people were executed in the country in 2012. In these documented cases, at least 76 percent of executions were due to drug-related charges.

Since news of the frequency with which Iran puts individuals to death for drug-related offenses has come to light, UNODC and donor countries have come under fire for their support of the program, and human rights groups have encouraged donors to request greater transparency from the Iranian government about how their money is spent in this joint initiative.

While the Norwegian government provided the initial cash infusion to the integrated program, it has since ceased funding sub-program 1 and requested that its support only be applied to sub-programs 2 and 3. The Danish government, meanwhile, announced last month that it would no longer provide financial support to the program following revelations that its donations were indirectly sponsoring the death penalty in Iran. At the time of the decision, the Danish government had provided about 5 million Danish kroner (or $875,000) annually in the previous two years to the program and was expected to provide about 7 million Danish kroner ($1.2 million) over the next two years.

While Denmark's decision to cut the funding has been welcomed by human rights groups, there's more work to be done. Questions remain over the transparency of the program -- specifically UNODC's ability to ensure that donor countries who have restricted their support to only sub-programs 2 and 3 will indeed have that money applied to the intended targets.

To this end, the France-based anti-death penalty group Together Against the Death Penalty (Ensemble contre le peine de mort, or ECPM) has started a petition calling on other European Union member states to follow the Danish example. Short of governments cutting off funding altogether, ECPM and its organizational co-signers are requesting that funding from donor countries be conditioned on an immediate moratorium on death sentences for drug-related offenses in Iran and that contribution amounts be made public and solely allocated to prevention programs.

Given that abolition of the death penalty is a pre-condition for entry of any nation into the European Union, it is time the EU call on its member states to apply more scrutiny of its support for such activities abroad as well. The case of Iran is a fine place to start.

Source: Foreign Policy, Gissou Nia, Monday, May 13, 2013

Saudi Arabia executions toll hits 40

In 2012, the kingdom executed 76 people

Riyadh: A Saudi convicted of murder was beheaded on Tuesday, the interior ministry announced, raising to 40 the number of people executed in the kingdom this year.

Maneh Al Daen was found guilty of stabbing to death a fellow tribesman, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

He was beheaded in the southwestern city of Najran.

His beheading brings to 40 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia since the start of the year, according to an AFP tally.

In 2012, the kingdom executed 76 people, according to a count based on official figures.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict version of sharia.

Source: AFP, May 14, 2013

Palestinian collaborators sentenced to death

Many informants handed themselves in during the two month amnesty that ended on Sunday, says Hamas.

Ramallah: The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has condemned the death sentence passed by the Gaza Military Court on a Palestinian who was found guilty of collaborating with Israel, demanding an immediate suspension of death verdicts executed in Gaza without presidential approval.

PCHR said in a statement that the military court sentenced a Palestinian civilian identified as M.A.N from Al Sha’af neighbourhood, east of Gaza, to death under the Revolutionary Penalty Law, 1979.

The centre said this was the second verdict of its kind since the beginning of the year and that a total of 134 death verdicts had been passed in the Palestinian territories since the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was set up in 1994.

Of these, 107 death verdicts had been issued in the Gaza Strip and 27 other death verdicts passed in the West Bank.

The centre said that since the Islamist movement Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, a total of 46 death verdicts had been passed.

The centre added that a total of 27 death sentences had already been executed in the Palestinian territories, 25 of which had been executed in Gaza and the other two in the West Bank. The centre said that there had been 14 executions in Gaza since 2007 and that these had occurred without the approval of the PNA President Mahmoud Abbas, contrary to the terms of the Palestinian Basic Law which enjoys constitutional status.

The two months amnesty announced by the Hamas Ministry of Interior on March 12 giving collaborators with Israel the chance to turn themselves in ended on Sunday with the ministry announcing that a large number of collaborators have already surrendered to the authorities.

Hamas’ Ministry of Interior said the Israeli security service had suffered from the amnesty despite the massive efforts the security service had put in to secure their collaborators.

The ministry said the Hamas campaign had introduced the Palestinian public in Gaza to the sophisticated tactics which the Israelis use to recruit collaborators through hundreds of lectures, workshops and seminars to arm the Palestinian public with the necessary knowledge to resist the Israeli attempts.

The ministry said that only collaborators with blood on their hands will be sentenced to death, but none of the others will be, and those who turn themselves in and show genuine repentance will be spared and the individual’s offence would not be disclosed.

Source: Gulf News, May 13, 2013

Birmingham high-school students make film on world's longest-serving death row prisoner

Death Row in Japanese Prison

Two high-school students from Birmingham’s King Edward’s School have made a hard-hitting new film about a prisoner in Japan who has been on death row for 45 years - longer than anyone else in the world.

The nine-minute film, which has already been watched hundreds of times on video-hosting site Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/61635615), tells the story of Hakamada Iwao, a former professional boxer sentenced to death in Japan in 1968.

There are longstanding doubts about the fairness of Hakamada’s original trial and he is currently waiting to hear whether he will be granted a retrial. During his trial he testified that police had beaten and forced him to sign a “confession” after he was interrogated - without a lawyer present - for 20 days. He was convicted of the 1966 murder of four people

Hakamada now suffers from a mental illness after spending 28 years of his time on Japan’s notoriously harsh death row in solitary confinement. The Guinness Book of World Records recently confirmed that the 77-year-old Hakamada Iwao has been under a death sentence for longer than anyone else in the world.

The King Edward’s film was created by two of the Edgbaston school’s lower-sixth pupils - Rohan Jain and Tom Haynes - and features numerous pupils as well as many members of staff at the school. The film shows staff and students speaking about notable events in their own lives, with each of the 45 years Hakamada has been on death row represented.

Rohan and Tom are both members of the Amnesty International Society at the school and the film emerged from their Monday lunchtime meetings, with the production and filming being done at lunchtimes and during after-school hours, taking three months to complete.

Rohan Jain, Head of King Edward’s Amnesty Society, said: “I was inspired by a Jeremy Irons short film about Hakamada. It was the idea of having people talk about an important thing that had happened in their lives in the last 45 years that seemed like a really powerful - and deeply emotional - way to tell Hakamada’s story.”

Tom Haynes said: “The reaction has been totally positive. Many teachers have approached us saying how powerful they found the film. We’ve had new students joining our Amnesty society and the existing ones have really bonded around the film.”

Gill Hudson, who teaches religion and philosophy at the school, said: “The students were totally dedicated to making the film. Along with the other members of the school’s Amnesty group, they care deeply about the plight of Hakamada and they believe that young people working together can make a difference.”

The film has been shown at King Edward’s School assembly, emailed to parents of students at the school and publicised via social media. Amnesty staff in the London headquarters of the human rights organisation are also helping to publicise the film.

Amnesty International UK Campaigner on the Death Penalty Kim Manning Cooper said: “This is a fantastic film with a simple but really powerful year-by-year concept.

“Thankfully capital punishment is slowly being abolished around the world, but films like this remind us that a small hard-core of countries still persist in using this cruel and unnecessary punishment.”

So far this year Japan has carried out five hangings and last year it executed seven people. Japan was one of only 21 countries to execute prisoners in 2012, while 140 countries have either formally abolished capital punishment or no longer use it.

Source: Ekklesia, May 11, 2013

Amnesty Film from King Edward's School on Vimeo.

Ohio prosecutors face hurdles in Ariel Castro death penalty pursuit

Ariel Castro

Experts say Ohio laws governing fetal homicides could be open to constitutional challenge as prosecutors look to press charges.

Ohio prosecutors will face a struggle to press death penalty charges against the Cleveland kidnapping suspect in relation to any miscarriages suffered by the three women he allegedly held captive for a decade, legal experts said on Friday.

If Ariel Castro is handed a death sentence for "aggravated murder", he would become the 1st person in the US to be put on death row under the country's proliferating and controversial fetal homicide laws. The provisions extend legal rights to unborn babies, in some cases - including Ohio - as early as conception.

The prosecutor for Cuyahoga County, that covers Cleveland, indicated on Thursday that he would pursue a possible death sentence against Castro, who is being held on $8m bail having been accused of kidnapping 3 young women for 9 to 11 years each. Timothy McGinty said there would be a count for "each act of aggravated murders he committed by terminating pregnancies".

The women escaped from Castro's house in the west side of Cleveland on Monday. Michelle Knight had been missing since 2002, Amanda Berry since 2003 and Gina DeJesus since 2004.

Castro has been charged with kidnapping and raping the 3 women, as well as kidnapping a 6-year-old girl born to Berry in captivity. He was confirmed as the father on Friday. Castro will now go before a grand jury, at which point prosecutors say they will press the more serious death penalty charges relating to the multiple miscarriages that took place within the house.

Ohio is 1 of at least 38 states that have some form of fetal homicide law on their statute books. In Ohio's case, protection for the fetus against violent attack has been incorporated into the state's general criminal laws since 1996, with the fetus being defined as a legal entity right from conception.

Anyone can be prosecuted in Ohio for aggravated murder - which carries the death penalty - if they are proved to have "purposely, and with prior calculation and design, caused...the unlawful termination of another's pregnancy". That could be applied to a miscarriage by any of the 3 women at any stage of pre-natal development - the law states that murder charges can be brought if an "unborn member of the species homo sapiens, who is or was carried in the womb of another" is killed.

Fetal homicide laws are controversial because they are seen by pro-abortion campaigners as a back-door attempt by anti-abortionists to overturn Roe v Wade, the US supreme court judgment that set a constitutional right to a medical termination before the fetus reaches the age of viability. Delivering that ruling, the court defined a "person" as beginning at birth.

Richard Dieter, the director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said that were Castro put on death row for "aggravated murder" of a fetus, the verdict would almost certainly be open to constitutional challenge. "There is no one on death row for fetal homicide, and it raises some fundamental questions about whether a person has been killed. It may be in Ohio statute, but that doesn't make it constitutional."

Legal experts say that a decision to enhance Castro's prosecution into a capital case would pose both the prosecution and defense with large challenges. Katherine Federle, a law professor at Ohio State University, said that the prosecution would have to prove that Castro not only intended to terminate the pregnancies but also that his actions were to blame for the miscarriages - which might be hard to do where incidents occurred several years ago.

"We don't know what evidence the FBI and police have managed to assemble, so it's difficult to assess the case they will bring. But it could be quite a challenge for them to prove that the defendant was the cause of the terminations," Federle said.

Michael Benza, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who has defended several death penalty cases, said Castro's legal team would also face daunting hurdles. "In this case there is certain to be huge sympathy for these 3 young women - they have been a regular part of the public discussion in Cleveland for the past 10 years. So it's going to be hard to get the jury to go past that and pay attention just to what's happening in the courtroom."

McGinty's announcement that prosecutors may seek the death penalty is not an idle threat. Ohio has one of the highest rates of execution outside the south.

Last year, Ohio executed 3 prisoners, more than any other state outside Texas, Arizona and Oklahoma and equal to Florida. Since the reintroduction of the death penalty in the modern era in 1976, Ohio has put to death 51 prisoners; it has the 7th largest death row in the country, with 147 inmates.

Fetal homicide was incorporated into the state's homicide laws in 1996. The 1st case prosecuted under the law was that of Gregory Robbins, a member of the US air force who battered his wife causing her to lose her unborn baby.

Source: The Guardian, May 11, 2013

Iran: Four hanged for drug trafficking

Iran Human Rights, May 9: Four prisoners were hanged in Semnan Province (northern Iran) early this morning reported the Iranian state media.

According to the Iranian state broadcasting one prisoner was hanged in the prison of Semnan early this morning May 9. The prisoner who was not identified by name was convicted of carrying 70 kilograms of heroin, said the report.

The state run Iranian news agency Fars reported that three prisoners were hanged in the prison of Shahrud (Semann Province, northern Iran) early this morning. According to this report the prisoners were identified as "A. S." convicted of possession and trafficking of 2900 grams of heroin, "M. Kh." and "H. R." for participation in possession and trafficking of 3894 grams of heroin.

Source: Iran Human Rights, May 9, 2013

Man beheaded for drug trafficking in Saudi Arabia

Public execution in Saudi Arabia

38 people executed in kingdom this year

Riyadh: Saudi authorities on Wednesday beheaded a Pakistani man found guilty of smuggling drugs into the kingdom, the interior ministry said.

The man was caught attempting to smuggle heroin hidden inside his stomach, the ministry said.

He was executed in Riyadh.

His beheading brings to 38 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the year, according to an AFP tally.

In 2012, the kingdom executed 76 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Human Rights Watch has put the number at 69.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia’s strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, May 9, 2013