Algeria: 3 Algerians sentenced to death for murder

3 Algerians accused of abducting and killing a young man 1 year ago in the Kabylie region have been handed the death penalty, Algerian media reported on Tuesday.

A 4th defendant, accused of demanding a ransom with threats, was jailed for 3 years and fined, the national APS news agency reported.

Defence lawyers had asked the court in Tizi Ouzou, the main city in Kabylie, to reclassify the charges as "assault leading to death," but the judge refused, according to Algerian daily El Watan.

The court instead convicted the 3 suspects of pre-meditated murder, kidnapping for ransom and hiding the body of the victim, which was found several days after he was abducted.

They were given the death penalty, which is still on Algeria's statute books, although no execution has been carried out since 1993.

A clear motive for the killing was not established.

Ghilas Hadjou, 19, the son of a businessman in the costal town of Azeffoune, was kidnapped on October 18 last year.

He was lured to the house of 1 of the 3 murder suspects, then under construction, where he was severely beaten and strangled, according to the police.

After killing Hadjou, they telephoned the 4th defendant and asked him to call the victim's father and demand the payment of a 50 million dinar (4.6 million euro) ransom to secure his son's release.

The day after Hadjou's body was found buried on the beach in Azeffoune, the suspects, who all knew the victim, were arrested.

The kidnapping sparked an emotional reaction, with the people of Azeffoune going on strike at the time, amid rumours that jihadist group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has strong ties to the Kabylie region, was responsible.

Since 2005, more than 70 people have been kidnapped in Algeria's restive eastern region, according to local media, with most of them freed after a ransom was paid.

Source: The Daily Star, November 19, 2013

State-sponsored homophobia: mapping gay rights internationally

"Paying one's sexual orientation
with one's life"

The debates that have raged around gay marriage in Western Europe and North America might have overshadowed the lack of basic rights afforded to gay and lesbian citizens in other countries. We look at where imprisonment is still a penalty for homosexual acts and where anti-discrimination laws serve to protect individuals.

Death penalty

Only in Africa and Asia do individuals risk paying for their sexual orientation with their lives. In five countries, legislation remains in place that punishes homosexuality with the death penalty - Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In parts of Nigeria and Somalia too, the murder of gay and lesbian individuals is practised and not prohibited in state legislation.

But national legislation doesn't quite capture the full picture - in many places homosexuals are murdered by vigilantes while the state turns a blind eye. In Jamaica, where homophobia is deep-seated, Dwayne Jones, a "cross-dressing" 17-year-old was "chopped and stabbed to death" by a mob according to local media reports. Incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation is only prohibited in 26 countries.

Life sentences

The statistics on imprisonment further demonstrate the extremes in the protection of gay rights. In ten countries, the punishment for 'homosexual illegal acts' is a sentence anywhere between 14 years and life. In a further 55 countries. homosexuals can face imprisonment for up to 14 years - 27 of those countries are in Africa.

With a few notable exceptions such as South Africa, most African countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe had some form of legal persecution against homosexuals. Reading the text of the laws themselves, most sentences are accompanied by considerable fines to be paid to the state.

Click here to read the full article

Source: DataBlog, October 15, 2013

Algeria: Ex-Police Chief Sentenced To Death

March 13, 2013: An Algeria court sentenced a former police commissioner to death for murdering a woman colleague and concealing the evidence of his crime, media reports said.

Abdelkrim Boutrik, formerly police chief in Adrar more than 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) from Algiers, cut the throat of 32-year-old police officer Cherifa Hadj Brahim in a remote desert area in July 2010 and hid the evidence.

The APS news agency said that after first denying any involvement in the killing, Boutrik was confronted by witness testimony and scientific evidence including on "his relations" with the victim.

El-Watan daily said in its online edition that Boutrik was also implicated in a vast network of alcohol trafficking, and that the murdered policewoman had "irrefutable evidence" of his involvement.

The death sentence was welcomed by relatives of the victim who attended the hearing in a court in Bechar in southwest Algeria.

"This killer deserves to be put to death at once. He killed an adorable girl who was loved by everyone in Adrar," said one woman outside the courthouse.

Although the death penalty is still on the statute books, Algeria has not carried out an execution since 1993.

Source: Agence France-Presse, March 13, 2013

Iraq executes 11 despite international outcry

IRAQI authorities executed 11 more people on Sunday - 10 Iraqis and one Algerian - despite widespread international calls for a moratorium on Baghdad's use of the death penalty.

The latest executions bring to at least 113 the number of times Iraq has followed through on death sentences so far this year, according to an AFP tally, already far outpacing 2011 when 68 people were put to death.

"Eleven persons - 10 Iraqis and one Algerian - were executed this morning because they were convicted of terrorist activities," a justice ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Sunday also marks the latest of several occasions that Baghdad has carried out multiple executions on a single day. On August 27, Iraq put 21 people to death in a single day.

The executions have sparked calls for a moratorium from the UN assistance mission in Iraq, from Britain, the European Union and human rights group Amnesty International.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed shock earlier this year at the number of executions, criticising the lack of transparency in court proceedings and calling for an immediate suspension of the death penalty.

Source: AFP, October 7, 2012

Algeria demands death sentence for top Qaeda boss

Algerian prosecutors on Sunday requested the death sentence for Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a top leader in Al-Qaeda's north African branch, and another person in a trial on the deaths of 2 Algerian soldiers.

Belmokhtar and nine co-defendants, of whom 4 are also on the run, are accused of perpetrating several "terrorist acts" including a May 2010 attack on soldiers in the southern Djelfa region that left 2 dead.

Belmokhtar, a native of central Algeria, is a founding member of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which later became known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

He heads one of AQIM's 2 main katibas (battalions), controlling the group's southern area.

Prosecutors also sought capital punishment for Abdelkader Benchneb, the chief accused present in court. They urged 15-year jail terms for the others, defence lawyer Hassiba Boumerdessi said.

Algeria has observed a moratorium on capital punishment since 1993.

A ruling was due later Sunday.

Nicknamed "the uncatchable," Belmokhtar rules over a large swathe of desert that straddles Algeria, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania and where his men are believed to hold several Europeans hostage.

Belmokhtar has already been sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in 2004 and 2008, and to 20 years in prison in 2007, over similar charges and the killing of 13 customs officers.

In November Belmokhtar told a Mauritanian news website that AQIM had acquired Libyan weapons during fighting that ended in the overthrow and killing of strongman Moamer Kadhafi.

He said AQIM was still demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the release of its French hostages.

On January 2, an Algiers court sentenced Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, the leader of the other key AQIM katiba who is also on the run, to life in prison for creating "an international terror group".

Source: Africasia.com, January 22, 2012

Death penalty is not the norm in the Middle East

Executions in the US, Iran and China were the main focus of demonstrations on Sunday to mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty.

While today 139 countries have abolished capital punishment in law or practice, a handful of countries account for a majority of the world's executions.

Many of the countries that still retain the death penalty are in the Middle East. Besides Iran, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and the Palestinian territories have all executed people this year – and not always for murder. Several of them, but most notably Iran and Saudi Arabia, apply the death penalty for a range of offences such as drug trafficking and sexual misconduct plus, sometimes, religious "crimes" such as apostasy and witchcraft.

Click here to read the full article.

Source: The Guardian, October 12, 2010

4th World Congress Against The Death Penalty - Video (Part 1)

Dictators and the death penalty

Abolition movements are gaining momentum in North Africa, but authoritarian regimes appear reluctant to remove capital punishment from the penal code.

“RULERS who could (abolish the death penalty) will not give it up easily,” says Nasser Amin, director of the Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession. Capital punishment is legislated in all North African countries. Libya and Egypt proscribe the death penalty for dozens of crimes ranging from murder to treason. Executions are carried out regularly by hanging or firing squad. Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia have moratoriums on executions, though courts continue to pronounce death sentences for various offences. Hundreds of prisoners wait on death row.

Abolition campaigns have focused efforts on convincing regime leaders and senior religious authorities of the ineffectiveness and contradictions of capital punishment. Activists have pressed governments to adopt UN Resolution 62/149, which calls for a moratorium on executions as a step towards striking the death penalty from the statute books. Only Algeria has voted in favour of the resolution. The absence of democracy in the region could be seen as an obstacle – or an opportunity – to abolition, says Amin.

Death penalty based on Sharia

“We’re not talking about democracies here,” he says. “To effect any change in this region you must convince the head of state. If he agrees, the parliament will agree.” But dictators have their reasons for maintaining the status quo. One oft-cited argument is that capital punishment is needed to counter rising crime rates. Hafez Abou Seada, chairman of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), isn’t buying it. He says the death penalty is an ineffective deterrent against crime, while its implementation risks the shedding of innocent blood. “For a long time we’ve used death penalty against drug dealers, yet drugs are widely available today, and at a very cheap price,” he told IPS. “Legislators tried to send a strong signal by the death penalty, but after strengthening the sentence what happened? Nothing.”

According to Abu Seada, Arab regimes promote the misconception that capital punishment is proscribed in Islam. In Egypt, for instance, the grand mufti, a state-appointed religious authority, is consulted before any execution order is carried out. The mufti rarely contradicts court rulings. “They (regimes) interpret Sharia according to their purposes,” he says. Sharia, or Islamic law, mandates capital punishment for only four offences: premeditated murder, adultery, apostasy and banditry. It sets strict requirements and offers alternative punishments such as compensation and exile. Even in the case of premeditated murder, the Qu’ran proscribes qasas (“an eye for an eye”), but also provides the option of the victim’s family accepting blood money in lieu of execution.

“Governments cannot really say the death penalty is taken from Sharia, because there are crimes such as adultery and apostasy that are punishable by death according to Sharia and are not part of the national legislation, while others (such as arson) are not in Sharia yet appear in national legislation,” says Taghreed Jaber, regional director of Prison Reform International. “In Morocco, for instance, there are 365 crimes that are punishable by death – which goes far beyond what Sharia calls for.”

Instrument of repression

If capital punishment is not an effective solution to crime, nor practised in accordance with Islam, why are North African leaders so reluctant to remove it from their penal code? “The death penalty is an effective instrument of fear and repression,” argues Amin. “It can be used to (intimidate) or eliminate political opponents.” Legislation blurs the grey line between terrorism and political activism, giving authorities broad discretion to arrest and execute dissidents. Capital crimes are usually tried in special courts, often without the right to appeal. “If you look at the crimes punishable by death you will notice that many of them are related to the security and stability of the state – which (encompasses) most political activities,” says Jaber.

She points out that while the threat of execution may not be intimidating to extremists ready to commit suicide for their cause, it will make political activists think twice before speaking out against the government. One problem throughout the region, says Jaber, is that the death penalty still enjoys popular support, as well as the backing of Islamic groups. If abolition movements can educate people on the political nature of capital punishment, and its divergences from Sharia, it could erode this support. The public would view the death penalty not as a criminal or religious issue, but as a violation of human rights.

Source: Helsinki Times, August 12, 2010

North Africa: Not Quite Islamic Executions

The Middle East leads the world in executions after China, says an annual Amnesty International report released Tuesday.

"The Middle East and North Africa have the highest per capita rate of executions in the world, according to our figures," Phillip Luther, deputy director for the region with Amnesty, tells IPS.

The Middle East: must be Islam then, most people would imagine. Wrong.

"If you take Egypt, or Syria, or Yemen, or Iraq, the vast majority of death sentences and executions carried out in those countries have nothing to do with Islamic law in any sense," says Luther. "They are on the basis of civil codes - often inherited, and the death penalty provisions within it - from the previous colonial period." Most executions are carried out under the penal code for offences related to drugs and violent crimes, Luther says.

So are executions in non-Islamic countries such as the U.S. and India, to say nothing of China, which is believed to execute thousands a year that it lets the world know nothing about. And Amnesty acknowledges as much, challenging China this year to produce a figure rather than guessing one of its own.

But religion is not behind most executions in the Islamic world of the Middle East and North Africa - and not even in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, says Luther. "If you look at the majority of those sentenced and executed (in Saudi Arabia and Iran), they are executed on the basis of penal codes. Those sentenced under Islamic law are very few."

In Iran, many have been charged with enmity against god, "which clearly has a religious sanction," says Luther, "but which is used in a political way against people who are perceived by the state of rebelling against the state." The motives in Iran are more political than religious because among those executed are a disproportionate number of political prisoners, or members of ethnic or religious minorities.

The sanction comes in the name of religion, but is basically a handle used by the state for its own political ends, and not because it's out to create Islam justice in society.

Amnesty International recorded 388 executions in Iran last year, but says the true figure could be higher. "At least 14 executions took place in public," the report says. "In one 8-week period between the presidential election on Jun. 12 and the inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term as President on Aug. 5, Amnesty International recorded 112 executions; by contrast, in the 5 1/2 months between Jan. 1 and Jun. 12, at least 196 executions had taken place."

Many countries within the region such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon have maintained a long-term moratorium on the death penalty of at least 10 years.

The Amnesty report lists 624 executions across the Middle East and North Africa last year. There are no definite figures over earlier years to compare this with, but the general trend in the region is downward, says Luther. "Only 7 countries in this region carried out executions last year (Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen). In terms of the number of countries, that trend is going down, as it is across the world as a whole."

At the same time there is a louder legislative debate in many of these countries to at least reduce the number of crimes punishable by death. "In Lebanon the ministry of justice itself is campaigning to end the death penalty," says Luther. "Algeria was one of the co-sponsors in the U.N. General Assembly in 2008 for a call for a global moratorium, the first Middle East or North African state to do so."

But even though executions are carried out mostly under the penal code, they are at their highest in Iran and Saudi Arabia. "In Saudi Arabia, the authorities continued to execute at an alarming rate," the Amnesty report says. "At least 69 people were publicly beheaded during 2009.

"At the end of 2009 Amnesty International knew of at least 141 people on death row in Saudi Arabia, including at least 104 foreign nationals, mostly from developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Prisoners are sentenced in largely secret and unfair trials, often without a defence lawyer, and so the true figures for those under sentence of death are believed to be much higher."

Source: All Africa News, March 31, 2010

Algerian Government rejects a proposal to abolish the death penalty

June 9, 2009: the Algerian Government rejected a proposal to abolish the death penalty based on the struggle against Islamic terrorism, and security and organised crime considerations.

The death penalty is no longer applied in Algeria, the last execution was in 1993.

Though leaving the door open for eventual abolition in the next few years, the Algerian government justified the rejection of secular RCD Party (Rassemblement pour la culture et la démocratie) parliamentarian Ali Brahimi’s proposal, with a statement by the Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia to the Assembly: "The continuing fight against terrorism makes it necessary to maintain the death penalty. Algeria is committed to fighting all forms of criminality. Abolition could be interpreted as a lack of strength and an admission of weakness by the public authorities," the Government argued.

The Government’s decision arrives in the middle of a debate on the death penalty that saw the secular front against the Islamic front in February.

The Muslim Oulemas Association, led by Abderahmane Chibane, ex Minister of Religion during the 1980s, played an important role in the campaign. He called the elimination of the death penalty "a threat to the spirit and the letter of the Koran."

Source: AP, 09/06/2009

Algerian parliamentarians filed a bill aimed at abolishing capital punishment

December 6, 2008: a group of Algerian parliamentarians filed a bill aimed at abolishing capital punishment, a move supported by the World Coalition.

The text was sponsored by 20 other lawmakers and states: “The death penalty is abolished. No one shall be executed.” The bill seeks to replace capital punishment with life imprisonment in Algerian law.

Once vetted by the Committee of Algeria's National Popular Assembly, the text will be in the hands of the government, which sets the parliamentary agenda. “It will all depend on us and on whatever international pressure may be applied”, said Ali Brahimi. The sponsors of the bill will organise a conference on the death penalty on December 15.

Another event will take place in January thanks to Algeria's National Commission for the Promotion of Human Rights and to World Coalition member organisation Penal Reform International. Apart from Brahimi's RDC party, representatives from two other political movements, including the ruling FLN, told Le Soir d'Algérie newspaper that they favoured abolition.

However the April 2009 presidential election may shift attention away from the abolition bill.

Source: Worldcoalition.org, 09/12/2008

Algeria: Death Sentences Follow Fugitives Thick and Fast

Algeria is set to be among the top 3 countries in the world with the highest number of death sentences passed in 2008, regularly condemning people accused of terrorism -- whether or not they are present in court to answer charges.

So far this year, nearly 300 death sentences have been handed down by courts and tribunals around the country, Amar Zaidi, a lawyer and human rights activist told IPS. Most of these sentences were passed in absentia to people on terrorism related charges.

Only a small number of this year's death sentences have been for premeditated murder and drugs-related offences, according to press reports.

In 2007, Algeria sentenced 271 people to death, putting it third on the list of 51 countries still passing death sentences, according to Amnesty International. China was top of the list with more than 1,800 death sentences, followed by Pakistan with more than 307.

In 2007, Algeria was the only Arab nation to vote for the U.N. resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Algeria could do this because since 1993 it has observed a moratorium on executions.

Since the passing of the U.N. moratorium, there has been a worldwide reduction in the use of the death penalty, according to NGOs. Algeria's civil society needs to do more to educate the public on death penalty abolition, said Zaidi.

Hocim Azem, vice-president of the Amazigh World Congress, an NGO representing the estimated eight million indigenous Berbers in Algeria, said it was also important for anti-death penalty campaigners to put pressure on politicians.

"It is necessary to abolish this cruel punishment which belongs to a bygone age. But deputies show no special interest in death penalty abolition," he told IPS.

"There is no serious debate about the death penalty in parliament. The democratic opposition is too weak to change anything and propose new legislation. The government procrastinates."

He said a major reason for this inertia was religion. Then came "fear of terrorism" and political and social factors.

In 2006, the Labour Party tabled a bill to abolish the death penalty. But eight parties, including the ruling National Liberation Front, refused to back the bill. Also in 2006, the criminal code was revised and the number of death penalty crimes was reduced.

Azem called into question the fairness of the trials which have resulted in the passing of death sentences. "Many citizens have been arrested and sentenced without evidence," he said.

The party Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) is actively pressing for death penalty abolition. RCD holds 19 seats in the 390-seat parliament.

Hadj Arab Lila, an RCD MP and lawyer, told IPS that she would support abolition of this "cruel and inhuman" punishment. "It is absurd that it is still retained in our criminal code."

Many expect RCD party chief Said Saadi to contest next year's presidential elections. The party is now campaigning against a constitutional amendment that would allow President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to serve a 3rd term.

Saadi is popular among the Berbers, many of whom support death penalty abolition. Many Berbers also support the Socialist Forces Front (SFF), also in favour of abolition. But the SFF boycotted the 2007 elections, and is not represented in parliament.

Farouk Ksentini, head of the human rights advisory commission, has recently called on the president to abolish the death penalty. "It has no deterrent affect on crime," he told the press. It was also tarnishing the country's reputation, he said.

Ksentiti said that he was facing criticism from clerics because of his anti-death penalty views.

Ksentiti has also raised the issue of Abdelmoumene Khelifa, apparently hinting at what could be an additional reason for Algeria abolishing the death penalty. He said Britain was refusing to hand over Khelifa because it was feared that he might face the death penalty. In 2007, Khelifa was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment after the collapse of his financial empire, including the Khelifa Bank which was closed by the Algerian authorities.

European Union members are prevented from extraditing anyone to a country where they have been sentenced to death in absentia or could face the death penalty -- even if that country is observing an execution moratorium.

In the most recent statement on the death penalty from an NGO, the honorary president of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights, Abdennour Ali Yahia, called for a new debate on the issue.

"Before making a decision, there should be consultation between men of justice and religion," he was quoted as saying in the Algerian French-language newspaper L'Expression Oct. 15. He added that there were innocent people on death row.

Source: IPS News