HUMAN RIGHTS - Iran: Kurdish teacher receives 20 lashes

Public flogging in Iran

NCRI - The Iranian regime's judiciary in Kurdistan province of Iran has lashed a teacher for "insulting a government employee while on duty."

Payman Nowdinian, a member of teachers association in Kurdistan had been sentenced to 20 lashes by mullahs judiciary in Sanadaj. The sentence was carried out on March 7, 2014.

Along with surge in executions that include minors and women, degrading punishments such as lashing in public and parading people in streets also has increased since Hassan Rouhani has taken office.

On March3, the Iranian regime's State Security Forces (Police) paraded a man in streets of a town in Tehran province to demonstrate 'police and judiciary toughness' in public.

The commander of police told a state-run news agency: 'After hard work by the state security forces and intelligence measures taken, an evil person was arrested and ... paraded in the streets of town of Pishva as punishment, and to demonstrate the toughness of police and the judiciary."

On January 22, three university students were lashed in public in the city of Shahrekord after bogus accusations of selling and drinking alcoholic beverages.

The three, all studying Management at Shahrekord Azad University, were convicted of charges trumped up by regime officials, classmates said. The three students were lashed in a crowded area of the city.

On February 5, dozens were arrested for 'disrupting the public security and order' in Tehran and paraded on the same day in Tehran Tajrish Square.

On February 2, thee Iranian regime's State Security Forces (Police) paraded a man in the northern city of Rasht a day after his arrest. The man identified by his initials as A. B. had been charged with "disrupting the public security order."

The head of police in the city, Mehrdad Mehregan, said the man had been arrested a day before and was paraded on February 2 in one of main streets in the city based on a order by judiciary officials.

In December, The Iranian regime lashed a man in public in town of Tokab in Western Azerbaijan province of Iran. The young man named Hussein Khosravi was lashed 80 times in public by the Iranian regime's torturers.

Another man was whipped 70 lashes in public on August 29 outside his home in the city of Saveh. According to the report by state-run news network the man had been arrested on drug related charges.

Source: NCRI, March 10, 2014

4 Men Publicly Whipped in Nigeria for Gay Sex Punishable by Death Penalty; Judge Lenient As Men Promised to Change

Four men were publicly whipped Thursday in northern Nigeria after being convicted of having gay sex by an Islamic court, according to a human rights activist with the Coalition for the Defense of Sexual Rights Network.

Dorothy Aken’Ova told the Associated Press that the men were sentenced to 15 strokes and the option of a $120 fine or a year’s imprisonment. The men were first detained in a wave of arrests following the country’s January implementation of stricter criminal penalties for homosexuality. Aken’Ova said the men risk further violence in prison if human rights groups don’t come up with money for the fines.

Aken’Ova said the men, all between 20 and 22 years old, were beaten before they confessed. They were later forced to prostate themselves on the floor of a regional court to be whipped.

Homosexuality can carry the death penalty under Shariah law in some northern Nigerian states — typically not enforced — but the judge said he was lenient because the men promised they had changed their ways since the homosexual acts, Aken’Ova told the AP.

Source: AP, March 6, 2014

Sultan of Brunei Threatens Critics of Sharia Law

Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah warned online critics of the country's Sharia Law that they could face prosecution once the new penal code takes effect next month:

They can no longer be given the liberty to continue with their mockery and if there is a basis for them to be brought to court, then therefore, the 1st phase of the Syariah (criminal) law this coming April will be relevant to them.

The Sultan issued this statement during the 30th National Day celebration after many Brunei netizens reacted negatively to the decision of the government to implement Sharia criminal laws.

Brunei is a Muslim-majority country. It is a monarchy where the Sultan is also the Prime Minister and wields absolute power in the government and in Brunei society. The Sultan is also one of the wealthiest people in the world.

Sharia is currently implemented in the country but it is limited to personal and family issues. But beginning April 1, the scope of Sharia punishments will be expanded to include stoning to death for adultery, cutting of limbs for theft, and flogging for violations such as abortion, alcohol consumption, and homosexuality. There is also capital punishment for rape and sodomy. Brunei is the first East Asian country to implement the Sharia law at the national level.

The Sultan may have been upset by social media comments which criticized the Sharia laws. In his speech, he cautioned his people to be wary of Internet users who are insulting Brunei's Islamic scholars and leaders of the government:

We must be wise and cautious in reaping its benefits. Otherwise, if we are careless and abuse (this technology), the adverse effects will not just be on the individual but on the nation as a whole.

They are using the new media such as blogs, WhatsApp and so on which are not just accessed by locals but also by those overseas.

Reacting to the sultan's speech, Sam Zarifi of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) urged Brunei to respect the dissenting views of its citizens:

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's statement illustrates that human rights, particularly respect for freedom of opinion and expression, is widely disregarded by the authorities in Brunei.

Free, unhindered debates on issues like the enactment or implementation of a law are important cornerstones of a democratic society.

Earlier, the ICJ criticized the Sharia penal code for being incompatible with Brunei's commitment to adhere to various international human rights agreements. In particular, the ICJ is deeply disappointed over the reintroduction of death penalty in the country:

If implemented, the code would lead to serious human rights violations by reintroducing the death penalty and imposing other cruel and inhuman punishment including stoning, even for conduct that should not even be considered criminal.

The 2013 Penal Code also specifies that a manner by which capital punishment is to be imposed for rape, adultery, sodomy and extramarital sexual relations is stoning to death, a particularly horrific form of torture and execution.

Brunei has not carried out the death penalty since 1957.

The ICJ also submitted a letter to the government asking clarification on provisions that they think would restrict free speech:

...we note, however, that provisions of the 2013 Penal Code, penalise both Muslims and non-Muslims for printing, disseminating, importing, broadcasting, and distributing publications "contrary to Hukum Syara" (Articles 213, 214, and 215). We consider that these provisions constitute undue restrictions on religious freedom and violate of the rights of freedom of expression and opinion.

The Malaysian Insider highlighted a comment from a reader who is worried over the strict implementation of the Sharia next month:

"It is truly frightening to think that we might potentially be stoned to death for being lovers, that we may be fined for being of a different sexual orientation, and that what we wear will be regulated."

But Professor Najibah Mohd Zin, a female Islamic scholar, believes that the proper implementation of the law would not create social problems:

We need to give proper attention to the implementation. We do not want to see discrepancies; otherwise it's not going to be just. We want to achieve justice, but if it's not just then it will be a setback to the Muslim countries.

I think the public should know the law very well. They should learn how it works within the modern context, rather than looking at it from a negative perspective. We don't implement the law in our time, that's why we have a lot of social problems.

What the Sultan's speech revealed is the real danger of using Sharia law not to promote harmony in society but to stifle free expression and open debate in the country.

Source: Global Voice Advocacy, March 5, 2014

10 countries where homosexuality may be punishable by death

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday signed a law that imposes a 14-year prison sentence for homosexual acts - and life sentences for those found guilty of "aggravated homosexuality." A measure imposing the death penalty was removed from an earlier version of the bill.

Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda, as it is in 37 other African countries. Though the death penalty was removed from Uganda's law, it's a potential punishment elsewhere, including parts of Nigeria, Mauritania and Sudan.

(Last month, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed a measure similar to Uganda's into law; a few weeks later, a mob pulled 14 young men from their beds and assaulted them, screaming about cleansing their neighborhood of gay people.)

Here are the 10 countries where homosexuality may be punishable by death:

- Yemen: According to 1994 penal code, married men can be sentenced to death by stoning for homosexual intercourse. Unmarried men face whipping or one year in prison. Women face up to seven years in prison.

- Iran: In accordance with sharia law, homosexual intercourse between men can be punished by death, and men can be flogged for lesser acts such as kissing. Women may be flogged.

- Iraq: The penal code does not expressly prohibit homosexual acts, but people have been killed by militias and sentenced to death by judges citing sharia law.

- Mauritania: Muslim men engaging in homosexual sex can be stoned to death, according to a 1984 law. Women face prison.

- Nigeria: Federal law classifies homosexual behavior as a felony punishable by imprisonment, but several states have adopted sharia law and imposed a death penalty for men. A law signed in early January makes it illegal for gay people countrywide to hold a meeting or form clubs.

- Qatar: Sharia law in Qatar applies only to Muslims, who can be put to death for extramarital sex, regardless of sexual orientation.

- Saudi Arabia: Under the country's interpretation of sharia law, a married man engaging in sodomy or any non-Muslim who commits sodomy with a Muslim can be stoned to death. All sex outside of marriage is illegal.

- Somalia: The penal code stipulates prison, but in some southern regions, Islamic courts have imposed Sharia law and the death penalty.

- Sudan: Three-time offenders under the sodomy law can be put to death; first and second convictions result in flogging and imprisonment. Southern parts of the country have adopted more lenient laws.

- United Arab Emirates (UAE): Lawyers in the country and other experts disagree on whether federal law proscribes the death penalty for consensual homosexual sex or only for rape. In a recent Amnesty International report, the organization said it was not aware of any death sentences for homosexual acts. All sexual acts outside of marriage are banned.

Source: The Washington Post, Feb. 25, 2014

DPN: Pakistan should have been included in this list.

Saudi Arabia: Son who assaulted mother sentenced to 5 years in jail, 2,400 lashes; will have one tooth broken for breaking mother’s tooth

Manama: A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to five years in jail and to 2,400 lashes for assaulting his mother.

The man, in his 30s, will also have one tooth broken after he broke his mother’s tooth when he beat her as she was riding with him in a car, the court in Makkah said.

Judge Turki Al Qarni said that the tooth to be broken will be the same as the one his mother lost during his physical assault, Saudi daily Okaz reported on Thursday.

The ruling is based on the Quranic verse: “And We ordained therein for them: A life (is the retribution) for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds is a retribution” (Al Maidadh - 45).

The lashes will be given in 60 parts, 40 every 10 days, and the lashing will be carried out in public near a market, the judge said.

According to the report, the man was arrested after his bruised mother alerted the police at a security checkpoint and urged them to rescue her from him.

He was apprehended and the Red Crescent was called to take the mother to a hospital for medical treatment, the daily said.

The judge issued the ruling after he had the defendant checked for his mental faculties and whether he had taken any drugs.

According to the hospital report, the man was mentally sound and did not take drugs or consume alcohol.

Last year, a judge in the Red Sea city of Jeddah sentenced a man who had beaten his mother and broken her arm to remain in jail until she agreed to let him out.

The man, who admitted during the investigation that he had physically abused his elderly mother, was also sentenced to 200 lashes for his assault.

Judges in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries often issue harsh verdicts against people who abuse their parents, often based on the high status that parents have in Islam.

Islam commands kindness, respect and obedience to parents and gives preference to the mother.

Under Islamic principles, respect for parents follows immediately obedience of God.

In Surat Al Isra, the Quran says: "Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him and that you be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honour. And out of kindness, lower to them the wing of humility and say, ‘My Lord! Bestow on them Your Mercy as they cherished me in childhood.’ “

Source: Gulf News, Feb. 19, 2014

UAE: Death penalty for murderer of youth upheld

Fujairah Court of Appeals sentences UAE national to death for stabbing a stateless man to death.

The Fujairah Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court's ruling sentencing a UAE national to death for stabbing a stateless man to death during a bitter scuffle in a hotel.

The court also ordered the convict to be given 80 lashes for consuming alcohol.

The Appellate Court ruling was issued by Presiding Judge Ali Al Naqbi.

The victim's family had insisted on imposing death penalty on the defendant.

The incident happened in mid-February in 2012. The victim, Y.M.G, a stateless man in his 20s, who did not have identification papers then, was admitted in the Dibba-Fujairah hospital with a deep stab wound in the chest. He succumbed to the injury later.

The investigation team of the Fujairah Police suspected the involvement of a 24-year-old Emirati, identified as M.M.A.

The investigation showed that M.M.A. and the victim were at the same hotel in Dibba-Fujairah at the time of the crime. The team found out that the 2 had got into a brawl and M.M.A. stabbed YM.G., causing a severe wound in the chest.

M.M.A. was arrested. His urine sample tested positive for alcohol consumption.

Before the Court of First Instance, the victim's father refused to waive his son's right to retribution (Qasas) and accept the blood money (diya), On April 9, 2013, the court sentenced M.M.A. to death and ordered him to be whipped 80 times for using liquor.

The accused moved the Appellate Court, contending that he acted in self-defence when he stabbed the victim during the brawl. However, the court dismissed the defence lawyer's contention to this effect and upheld the earlier ruling.

Source: Khaleej Times, Feb. 4, 2014

Human Rights: 3 years in jail, 360 lashes for seeking sex partner on Twitter

A Saudi court sentenced a man to three years in jail and ordered him lashed 360 times after he was found guilty of offering himself to other men through Twitter.

Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police had arrested the man in the eastern town of Dammam following complaints by some men that the unnamed defendant had contacted them through his Twitter page and offered to have sex with him.

During interrogation by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the 30-year-old man confessed to making such offers to several men.

“The judge sentenced him to three years in prison and ordered him lashed 360 times as a deterrent punishment for such an act,” Sabq daily said without identifying the man.

Source: Emirates 24/7, Feb. 3, 2014

Human Rights: Man lashed 20 times for sodomy in Nigeria

January 16, 2014: A young man convicted of sodomy was whipped 20 times in a northern Nigerian Shariah court.

Though Mubarak Ibrahim was found guilty under Shariah law, it is the first conviction of a gay man in Nigeria since President Goodluck Jonathan signed a bill that further criminalizes homosexuality under the West African nation's Western-style penal code.

Activists believe the new law has whipped up homophobia and endangers gay people in a country where lynchings and mob justice are common.

But the Muslim Rights Concern group on Thursday (January 16) said it was "the other way round as the practice of homosexualism and lesbianism is most capable of instigating widespread hatred and turning society upside down."

It praised Jonathan for resisting pressures from Western powers that have condemned the law and urged them to stop what it called meddling in Nigerian internal affairs. "Most reprehensible is the attempt by foreign powers to intimidate and coerce Nigeria into absorbing their despicable culture by threatening to withhold foreign aid," it said.

In the city of Bauchi, 28-year-old Ibrahim, an unemployed artisan, pleaded guilty to committing one act of sodomy seven years ago. He said he was misled into the act by the principal of the high school he was attending and has not committed a homosexual act since.

Judge Nuhu Mohammed said he would spare Ibrahim the sentence of death by stoning because the crime occurred so many years ago and because the young man had shown "great remorse."

The 20 lashes were administered in the public court. Ibrahim also was ordered to pay a fine of 5,000 naira ($30). It was not immediately clear if he had been able to pay and go free.

He was among 12 men — 11 Muslims and one Christian — who have been arrested by police since Christmas for belonging to a gay club.

Dorothy Aken'Ova, a human rights activist whose organization is helping with lawyers, said police had lured four of the men, then tortured them into providing a list of 168 wanted gay men.

Shariah Commission chairman Mustapha Baba Ilela has denied any of those arrested were tortured. He told The Associated Press that police were hunting for other members of a gay club, but would not say how many.

The Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act that Jonathan signed on Jan. 7 brought widespread condemnation from abroad — including the United States, Britain, Canada, the European Union and the United Nations. The UNAIDS agency says the law could criminalize people in programs to fight HIV-AIDS. The U.S. says it violates the rights of all Nigerians to free speech and association.

Source: The Associated Press, January 16, 2014

Iran: 3 prisoners flogged in public

Public flogging in Iran

HRANA News Agency – Three prisoners were flogged in public on December 25, 2013.

The sentence was carried out in the main square of the city of Dehdasht.

According to a report from Fars, Majid Karami, the prosecutor of Kohgiluye va Boyerahmad province, said: “These three defendants were convicted of cooperating with electrical wires stealers and disobeying police.”

The 3 prisoners were flogged 74 times in public.

Source: HRANA, January 16, 2014

Nigeria: 11 Muslim men accused of being gay face possible death sentence by religious court

Predominantly Muslim states in Nigeria introduced Sharia law in 2000 Predominantly Muslim states in Nigeria introduced Sharia law in 2000

An Islamic court in Nigeria has put on trial 11 Muslim men accused of violating their religion due to their alleged sexuality – if found guilty they could be sentenced to death by stoning.

The trials are taking place in the country’s northern state of Bauchi.

Jibrin Danlami Hassan, the commissioner of Bauchi state’s Sharia Commission, said the men were arrested by residents of Bauchi city.

They were handed to the Islamic police force, which interrogated them, he said.

“They accept that they are doing that dirty game,” Mr Hassan told the BBC.

A Nigerian gay rights campaigner from the Nigeria-based International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights said some of those arrested had been beaten up and tortured.

The claims were denied by Mr Hassan.

Predominantly Muslim states in Nigeria introduced Sharia law, a legal system based on Islamic theory and philosophy of justice, in 2000.

Under Sharia law, a person can be sentenced to death by stoning if convicted of homosexuality.

Reports say that a 12th person arrested in Bauchi – a Christian – would be tried under secular law.

Several stoning sentences have been handed down by Sharia courts in northern Nigeria since 1999; however, none have so far been carried out.

There has been worldwide condemnation of Nigeria after the country’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, signed into law a draconian anti-gay bill.

Anyone who enters into a same-sex marriage or civil union may be jailed for up to 14 years. The law also bans people who register, operate or participate in gay clubs, societies or organisations, or who publicly show that they are in a same-sex relationship.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague have all criticised President Jonathan’s decision.

Same-sex relationships were already illegal in the country prior to the new law passing.

Source: PinkNews, January 16, 2014

Nigeria: Muslim man receives 20 lashes by Sharia court for breaking anti-gay laws

A man in northern Nigeria has received 20 lashes after an Sharia court convicted him of breaking laws against same-sex activity.

The man is among 11 Muslim men accused of violating their religion due to their alleged sexuality.

The trials are taking place in the country’s northern state of Bauchi.

Jibrin Danlami Hassan, the commissioner of Bauchi state’s Sharia Commission, said the men were arrested by residents of Bauchi city.

The BBC reports that a court in Bauchi city said it took into account that the defendant, arrested last month, committed the offence seven years ago, and claimed he was no longer involved in same-sex activity.

Along with 20 lashes, he was also ordered to pay a fine of around £18.

The trial of two other men was adjourned until 23 January.

Predominantly Muslim states in Nigeria introduced Sharia law, a legal system based on Islamic theory and philosophy of justice, in 2000.

It sanctions severe physical penalties for violating its code.

There has been worldwide condemnation of Nigeria after the country’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, signed into law a draconian anti-gay bill.

Source: PinkNews, January 16, 2014

Human Rights: Jail, 99 lashes for 7 Saudi men caught at mixed party with alcohol

A Saudi court sentenced seven men to long jail terms and ordered them lashed 99 times each in front of a girls’ college after they were caught at a mixed party with alcohol in the conservative Gulf Kingdom, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

Police raided a rest house in the western Saudi town of Taif and arrested seven men and 15 university girls for staging a mixed party and having alcohol.

The court on Tuesday sentenced the two “organisers” of the party to 20 months in prison and ordered them lashed 99 times each in front of the Taif girls’ college.

The court also sentenced the other five young men to eight months in jail and ordered them lashed 99 times each at the same place.

Sabq did not say whether the female college students were punished but Saudi authorities have handed girls to their families in previous similar cases.

Source: Emirates 24/7, January 7, 2014

IRAN 2013: 660 executions, 2/3 under Hassan Rouhani

In 2013, subsistence of Velayat-e faqih regime continued on gallows, group executions in prisons and city streets throughout the country, and torture and tormenting to death of the political prisoners. 

The ruling mullahs employed at least 60 suppressive organs, including the revolutionary guards, the anti-popular Basij force, plainclothes, variety of intelligence organs to suppressive institutions such as district police, dormitory police, intangible police, metro police, women's police, etc., and not one day went by without suppression and slaughter.

Some angles of this all encompassing suppression may be recounted as follows:

A. Executions

1. Since the beginning of 2013 till December 31, execution of at least 660 prisoners was registered in Iran with 430 of them executed after the June 14 election show. This is while news on many executions never finds its way out of the prisons. 25 of those executed were women. Public execution of 2 young men of 20 and 23 years old for stealing the equivalent of 35 Euros, execution of 3 youngsters who were 12, 15 and 17 years old at the time of their arrests, hanging a bleeding 28 year old who a few hours prior to his execution had committed suicide, hanging the body of a 23 year old in Zahedan who had already died a few hours back of a heart attack, hanging of Ms. Geitei Marami, 34, whose body was bleeding due to 100 lashes she received prior to her execution, emphasizing on the execution of a wretched prisoner who had come alive after his execution in the mortuary, are but a minute segment of mullahs' regime record replete with crimes in 2013. On December 11, head of regime's judiciary system Mullah Sadeq Larijani called reports by international bodies on degrading condition of human rights in Iran as fabricated and prejudiced and said: "Opposing the death sentence is opposing Islam's orders."

Public hanging in Tehran

2. Meanwhile thousands of prisoners throughout the country are on the death row. As an example, just in Ghezel Hessar prison, there are 3000 prisoners who are sentenced to death. To facilitate group executions, the clerical regime has put up 3 platforms each capable of concurrently hanging 12 people. In protest to these executions, it is now 2 months that a number of political prisoners who are sentenced to death have gone on a hunger strike in Ghezel Hessar. In the last weeks of 2013, several thousand other prisoners went on a 10-day hunger strike.

3. Staging horrific public group executions to intensify atmosphere of terror and fright in the society increased in 2013. Cities such as Noshahr, Babol, Ghemshahr, Tonkabon, Shiraz, Jahrom, Fasa, Ahvaz, Dehdasht, Hendijan, Shahrkord, Ilam and Karaj were witness to these horrific scenes. State-run media published horrific pictures of these executions to deepen the atmosphere of terror and fright. On many occasions, including in Lakan prison in Rasht, prisoners are forced by henchmen to participate in the dreadful scenes of hanging of their co-inmates or friends and those who refuse to participate in this anti-human action are sent to solitary confinement. 

B. Execution of political prisoners

4. Execution of political prisoners, especially the ethnic and religious minorities, showed an increase last year. On October 26, 16 Baluchi political prisoners were collectively hanged in Zahedan prison. Regime officials confessed that these people who had been in prison for a long time, were executed in revenge for a number of revolutionary guards killed in Saravan. On that same day, another Baluchi political prisoner in the prison in Hamedan, and 2 Kurdish political prisoners Habibollah Golparipour, 29, and Reza Esmaeili (Mamedi), 34, in the central prison of Urumia and Salmasrespectively, were hanged. On the next day, a Baluchi political prisoner was executed in Barsilon prison in Khorramabad. On November 3, 4 Arab prisoners from Shadegan were executed. On November 4, Shirkoo Ma'arefi, a Kurdish political prisoner was executed in city of Saghez. There is no news on a number of political prisoners who in recent months have been transferred from their cells to unknown locations. Meanwhile, execution of political prisoners as ordinary or narcotic trafficking prisoners is a known routine in the mullahs' regime. Apprehensive of social tumult, regime has refrained from handing over bodies of political prisoners to their families and secretly buried them.

C. Murder, secretly killing, and tormenting to death of prisoners

5. A number of prisoners lost their lives under torture or were secretly disposed of by employing various methods. Amir Moussai was killed under torture in Borazjan prison on February 1. On June 24, Alireza Shahbakhsh, a Baluchi prisoner, after spending 7 years in prison and following his vindication in regime's court, suspiciously lost his life in ward one of Zahedan prison only 1 day before he was to be released. On June 20, Afshin Ossanlou, a 42 year old labor activist, suspiciously and suddenly died in hall 12 of ward 4 of Gohardasht prison. He too had only a few months remaining from his 5-year prison term. On October 24, body of Ali Marashi from Ahvaz was handed over to his family with broken rib and skull.

6. This year, a number of prisoners lost their lives due to lack of medical treatment. In the early days of the year, Abdolrahman Rahnavard, 30, was transferred from Roudan prison in Hormozgan province to Bandar Abbas central prison for medical treatment; however, head of the prison prevented his hospitalization that led to his death. On July 15, Ahmad Bajlani, 44, and suffering from hepatitis and tuberculosis, lost his life in this same prison after tolerating 1 week of excruciating pain, in absence of least medical treatment. Political prisoner Alireza Karami, an employee of Oil Company, who had acute heart problem, lost his life on April 6 because of lack of medical treatment. During his 16 years in prison due to terrible conditions of regime's dungeons, and suffering most severe tortures, he had many diseases.

7. Condition of a great number of prisoners has deteriorated because they were deprived of medical services. In reply to protests from prisoners who are supporters of PMOI and many of them are political prisoners of the 1980s who suffer from many ailments due to many years and prison and the tortures they have endured, henchmen say: "You are Monafeq. The sentence for all of you is death."

4 members of Daneshpour Moghaddam family are in critical condition. Mohsen Daneshpour Moghadam, 72, is suffering from acute cardiac and digestive system ailments and his 41 year old son Ahmad has acute digestive system malady. Both Mohsen and Ahmad Daneshpour are condemned to death. Ms. Motahareh Bahrami, 62, suffers of acute disc prolapse and Ms. Rayhaneh Haj Ebrahim Dabbagh has severe pain in the leg and back plus acute problem of the digestive system.

Ms. Sedigeh Moradi has neck disc prolapse; Ali Moezi, 63, has cancer and severe renal problem; Mashallah Haeri, 62, has acute cardiac problem with a record of several cardiac arrests in prison as well as respiratory problems and brain hemorrhage; Mohammad Banazadeh Amirkhizi, 67, suffers from acute pain in his bones and recently experienced a cardiac arrest; Saleh Kohandel, has acute blood problem; Meisaq Yazdan Nejad, a 27 year old student, is in critical condition due to tortures and prison conditions. Ali Asghar Mahmoudian, has been sent to exile to Semnan prison and is held in the ward for ordinary dangerous prisoners that was previously a stable and has various ailments due to terrible hygienic conditions. Gholamreza Khossravi has acute pain of the vertebra, Dr. Asghar Qatan, 60, has numerous ailments such as hypertension, severe diabetics, high cholesterol, has lost vision of one eye, and suffered a cardiac arrest last month. Mohammad Saemi, 64, is suffering from various diseases, including cardiac and renal problems, arthritis, disc prolapse, and damage to the ear drum. Saeid Massouri is suffering from all kinds of diseases, including acute problem with his digestive system. Assadollah Hadi, Mohammad Davari and Mohammadali Mansouri are amongst prisoners who are in critical condition because they are deprived of medical care.

Zaniar Moradi, a Kurdish prisoner on death row, is suffering from acute disc prolapsed, Khaled Hardani, has severe heart problem, Mehdi Sajedifar, 35, has cancer of esophagus, Mohammadreza Pourshajari (Siamak Mehr) is suffering from diabetics and heart problem, Reza Shahabi, needs surgery on his neck vertebra, but he has not been allowed to have this operation. Mohammad Sediq Kaboudvand, is suffering of various diseases, but officials do not allow him to receive medical treatment outside the prison. Kayvan Samimi, a journalist,is being kept in prison despite his old age and various ailments, including arthritis of knees and back. Salaheddin Moradi, from Gonabadi Darvishes, suffers from renal pain and internal bleeding; Kassra Nouri has acute disc prolapsed; Mostafa Daneshjou, lawyer of Daravish has respiratory problems. Mohammad Saifzadeh, 66 year old lawyer, has had a brain stroke. He has numbness of hand and foot, back and neck disc prolapse, and severe chest pains. Hassan Fatali Ashtiyani, Abdolfattah Soltani, Hamidreza Moradi, Ali Saedi, Iraj Mohammadi, Ayatollah Kazemi Boroujerdi, Argjang Davoudi, Shahram and Farhang Pourmansouri, Ebrahim Babadi, Nameq Mahmoudi, Adel Naimi, Mehdi Khodaii, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Assadollah Assadi and Farhad Rouhi Arash Sharifi and Mohammad Nazariare some of the other patients that their ailments have intensified due to deprivation of medical treatment.

8. Meanwhile, along with the rocket attacks and massacre of PMOI members in Ashraf and Camp Liberty, arbitrary arrests and increasing pressure on PMOI supporters and their families continued on a larger scale in 2013, especially during the months before the election. Some of these people are still in prisons. On January 13, Mr. Reza AkbariMonfared and his son Ali were apprehended. His sister, Maryam Akbari Monfared, mother of 3 small children, has been imprisoned for the last 3 years on the mullahs' invented charge of Moharebeh. 4 of the brothers and sisters of Mr. Akbari have been executed by the clerical regime. Mr. Hassan Sadeqi, his wife Fatema Mossanawere arrested on charge of making arrangements for holding memorial ceremony for Gholamhossein Sadeqi, a PMOI member in Camp Liberty,Baghdad who died of a heart attack because he was deprived of medical treatment.

9. Arbitrary arrest of prisoners and their conditional release on heavy bails is one of the methods used by the regime to impose pressure on political prisoners and their families.

D. Harsh prison conditions

Public Execution in Iran

10. As confessed by regime's head of prisons organization, the official capacity of Ghezel Hessar prison is 5000, but right now there are over 22000 prisoners piled up there. Prisoners even lack enough space to sit. They rest in turns and are even compelled to use the space inside restrooms to rest. Sanitary conditions are deplorable, water is contaminated, and lack of minimum facilities to bathe has given rise to dermal and epidemic diseases among inmates. Prison's infirmary is void of minimum medical equipment and facilities; moreover, prison' henchmen deprive prisoners that most of them are suffering of various ailments from access to specialist physicians and medical services. The very limited food ration causes malnutrition and lack of heating devices in the cold season adds to prison's catastrophic conditions.

11. Bandar Abbas prison can contain 400 prisoners, but it is now keeping 4000 prisoners that 300 of them are condemned to death. Prisoners are deprived of the least medical attention in this prison. The only medicine in this prison are Methadone and Hallucinatory pills despite outbreak of hepatitis, nothing is done to contain this disease and even medical treatment is withheld. Instead of isolating prisoners with hepatitis, prison guards intentionally distribute them in other wards. Breathing is difficult in the cells of this prison, especially during the hot season. Water is repugnant, contaminated and has a bad taste. Prison's market sells expired-date food to prisoners at very high prices. Wards contaminated with sewage, with a repugnant smell, and thrive of insidious insects are part of the catastrophic condition of this medieval prison. Mullahs' regime sends political prisoners on exile to this prison and compels them to spend their sentence amongst ordinary prisoners. The condition of solitary cells in this prison is even deadlier. The cells are so small that one cannot rest. Prisoner is kept in these cells of cement floor and wall without any blanket or floor covering. There is no natural light in these cells, food is just enough to keep the prisoner alive, and there is no sign of hygiene provisions or medical services.

12. Qerchak prison in Varaminthat is known to people as the 2nd Kahrizak, is a women's prison. To place added pressure on female political prisoners, mullahs' regime exiles them to this prison. This prison is composed of 7 buildings to house 2000 prisoners and dozens of children who are under 2 years old. These buildings are very old and they have the appearance of a rudimentary storage. Gangs within the prison freely distribute drugs to addicted prisoners. Lacking a sewage system, toilets are constantly contaminated. Water in this prison is contaminated as well and the food ration is adequate just for subsistence.

13. In Isfahan's Dastgerd prison with a capacity of 4000, over 10000 prisoners are dumped. Because of scarcity of space, the corridors leading to toilets are full of prisoners.

14. In Mashhad's Vakilabad prison over 25000 prisoners are held. The number of prisoners condemned to death in this prison is reported to be over 4000. On many occasions during 2013, regime has secretly hanged prisoners in large groups.

15. Broadcasting noise in Gohardasht is yet another method to torture political prisoners in this prison. This anti-human measure that is also cancerous has seriously endangered the health of prisoners and they have dryness of mucus, muscular pains, severe headaches, blurred vision, nausea and continuous numbness. Prisoners staged a strike to protest this anti-human measure.

E. Medieval punishments

Shiraz  public amputation,  January 24, 2013

16. Barbaric punishments such as stoning, amputations, blinding, cutting off the ear... help complete the cycle of atrocity and terror in mullahs' regime. In the past year, 4 stoning sentences, including 2 women in city of Tabriz, gouging out of the eye and cutting off the ear of an imprisoned worker in Tehran, and cutting off the hand of 8 prisoners in Shiraz, Sari and Abadanwere issued. Assadollah Jafari, regime's deputy of the judiciary, called "carrying out amputation of hand and foot as one of the honors of [mullahs'] judiciary system" (regime's news agencies - 30 January 2013). Public prosecutor of Shiraz said that amputation of hand is a "serious warning" to all those that "create insecurity". And regime's Guardian Council once again reiterated on punishment of stoning in mullahs' "new penal code" of 2013 (Spokesman for Majlis Judiciary Commission - 21 January 2013).

F. Murdering people, especially in border areas

17. While thieves and smugglers with their several billion dollar embezzlements are holding the highest state offices, suppressive forces, on a daily basis and on various pretexts, shot and killed, plundered the property, set fire on vehicles, or killed porter animals of the defenseless and deprived citizens and petty businessmen who are working in border areas or port cities such as Bandar Abbas to support their families' livelihood.

G. Arbitrary detentions

18. Arbitrary and blind arrests were conducted in different cities under pretext of suppressive projects such as "increasing social security". In Sanadaj alone, in just 4 days, 193 people were arrested. In Tehran, just on December 15, the arrestees numbered 123. In Bandar Abbas dozens were arrested in nightly assaults on the houses where young people lived.

19. Humiliating and insulting the arrestees, especially the young, by putting women's dress on them and taking them around in city streets met wide abhorrence on part of the Iranian people.

20. In the universities, suppressive measures aimed at thwarting eruption of student protests continued. Through issuing hundreds of suspension sentences, the regime deprived students on various pretexts from their right to education or sent them to its medieval prisons after least protests or student activities. Karamatollah Zaerian, a 27 year old student in Tehran University, was arrested 3 times and after his sudden disappearance was suspiciously found dead. Nonetheless, students shouted their rage and abhorrence of this anti-human regime on different occasions with slogans such as "death to dictator" or "student dies, but refuses to be humiliated" and on many occasions they disrupted speeches by regime's elements.

21. Imposing pressure and prejudice against women which has become institutionalized continued in 2013 on various arenas. Suppressive patrols, using the mullahs' fabricated excuse of "mal-veiling" harassed women especially during the summer. In order to broaden suppression of women, the clerical regime presented "national plan for veiling special to the schools" for children and girl students. Firouzabadi, Commander in Chief of regime's Armed Forces, said: to preserve "veiling and sanctity" elements of the security forces and mullahs' judiciary system ought to "confront" women. He added: "If mal-veiling and unchastity... are used to mar the revolution then they become a security matter and security organs ought to confront them." (Tasnim news agency, affiliated with IRGC - 22 November 2013)

H. Suppression of followers of religions

22. In 2013, the clerical regime added new dimension to the arrest and oppression of pastors and Christians. A number of them were arrested in Tehran, Fars, Isfahan and Azerbaijan on charges of "acting against the national security" or "evangelizing and propaganda in favor of Christianity" and participation in religious rituals. Apprehension of priest Robert Asserian, a leader of Assemblies of God Church of Iran in Tehran who was later released because of international pressures; condemnation of pastor Verveer Avanessian to 3.5 years in prison and pastor Saeid Abedini to 8 years in prison; condemning 4 Christian compatriots who were arrested in a church-house to 80 lashes in November; imposing pressure on a number of Armenian pastors to end their activities or to leave the country; closing down of many church-houses plus the principal church of Armenians in Taleghani Street in Tehran is but part of regime's crimes against Christians. In a suppressive measure on December 15, as Christmas was nearing, entry of Farsi-speaking members of the Saint Petrous Churchin Tehran to this church was barred and conducting sermons and religious rituals in Persian was declared prohibited.

23. Imposing pressures and apprehension of Zoroastrians, Gonabadi Darvishes, and followers of Yarsan faith continued. In February, 7 lawyers of and Daravish prisoners in ward 350 of Evin prison refused to attend regime's court. Subsequently, they were tortured and transferred to solitary confinement in ward 209. 2 of the Daravish prisoners in Adelabad prison in Shiraz staged a hunger strike for 90 days in protest to suppressive measures against Daravish and their lawyers. Suppressive and insulting steps against Daravish of Yarsan met a wave of protest from these compatriots.

24. The clerical regime continued imposition of pressures on and apprehension of Baha'is last year. On August 24, AtaollahRezvani, a 52 year old merchant, was finally assassinated in Bandar Abbas after he was numerously threatened by the intelligence ministry and the Office of Friday prayer Imam of the city to stop selling water pumps. In Semnan prison's women's ward, a number of Baha'i women are living in harsh conditions beside ordinary criminals. 3 of these women have their infants with them. On December 12, suppressive elements destroyed Baha'is cemetery in Sanandaj. This is the 3rd Baha'i cemetery that is being destroyed by mullahs.

I. Suppression of freedom of expression

Destroying TV satellite dishes

25. Reporters without Borders reported on December 18: Iran is 1 of the 5 large prisons for reporters in the world. The number of Iranian reporters imprisoned in Iran until the June sham elections was 71. This organization announced that since Rouhani's election, 42 more reporters or journalists have been arrested and 12 publications had to cease their activities.

26. Unable to confront the popularity of prohibited televisions, in particular Simaye Azadi (INTV) that is a dependable source for accessing information and news, the clerical regime acts with severity to limit access of people to satellite channels. Mullah Mohammad Saeidi, Qom's Friday prayer Imam, said on September 25: "Today, through a cultural assault, the enemy is targeting the core of our homes and our families." Hossein Zolfaqari, commander of border patrols of regime's security forces, reported of a 99% increase in discovery of satellite equipment (ISNA state news agency - September 26). In a suppressive act on September 26, the revolutionary guards crushed 800 satellite "antennas and receivers" under the wheels of armored personnel carriers. The regime called this act "an act of value to confront the cultural assault of enemies of revolution and the system:. In a span of 6 months in Hamedan, 32000 satellite dishes were gathered (Mehr news agency, affiliated with the Intelligence Ministry - 8 October 2013). Moreover, 5000 satellite receivers were confiscated in Bandar Abbas customs (state media - December 13).

J. Rigorous suppression of cyber space

26. In 2013, the clerical regime increased the extent of suppression of cyber space netizens. Filtering, control of the internet and sites and emails of netizens was implemented using at least 12 organs of spying and suppression. In the first weeks of 2013, in order to intensify suppression of internet, by orders from Khamenei, a new organ called "Base for Soft War" was formed in the headquarters of the armed forces. Mohammad Ali Assoudi, cultural and propaganda deputy of IRGC, said: "20000 forces of the revolutionary guards are active in different cultural areas to confront the Soft War." He added that this measure "was taken to implement commands by the supreme leader regarding confronting soft war" (Bahar state-run newspaper - 2 January 2013).

Just in the last week of July, the security forces closed down and sealed 67 coffee nets in the greater Tehran and issued warnings to more. Sajedinia, Commander of security forces in greater Tehran, stressed that offenders "would be punished without tolerance" (ISNA news agency -July 27). Previously, secretariat of regime's Supreme Council of Cyber Space had called "getting around filtering to access social networks in the internet a crime".

Access to cyber space is solely possible through IPs registered by communications company that belongs to IRGC. The suppressive FTA (Iran's space for creation and exchange of information) Police of internet conditioned any use of the internet to presenting one's national code and password. For owners of coffee nets various restrictions and prohibitions were imposed that led to closing down of a large number of coffee nets in different cities because these restrictions were not observed.

Similarly last year, a number of compatriots were arrested and tortured and underwent all kinds of pressures simply for writing articles in the internet. The arrest of 8 bloggers, including a woman in Rafsanjan, on charge of "insulting the sanctities" of the system, are among these arrests (20 November 2013).

27. This year, music studios were closed down under the pretext of "prohibited recording" and some members of musical groups were arrested on charge of "un-cultural underground activities, including production of forbidden songs and music".

What was covered in this report was but a small portion of the dreadful condition that the Iranian people are living in day in and day out. Infants are raised in death camps for sins their mothers never committed, elderly fathers and mothers are taken hostage on mullahs' fabricated-charges brought against their children and are deprived of the most rudimentary rights in regime's dungeons, and the Iranian youth and women are condemned to gradual death in torture centers and safe houses.

660 registered executions in 2013, with 2/3 during Rouhani's office, vividly shows that fanning the mirage of moderation in this regime is solely a means to deceive the international community and justify deals with and appeasement of the henchmen ruling Iran. Therefore, once again, the Iranian Resistance calls for referral of the dossier of barbaric and systematic violation of human rights in Iran to the UN Security Council and for leaders of this regime to be brought to justice. Moreover, it underscores that any continuation or expansion of economic and political relations with the mullahs should have as requisite improvement of human rights situation in Iran.

Source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, January 4, 2014

Human Rights: Saudi activist gets 300 lashes and four-year prison sentence for democracy call

Riyadh: A Saudi judge sentenced a political activist to 300 lashes and four years in prison for calling for a constitutional monarchy in Saudi Arabia, his rights group said on Sunday.

Omar Al Saeed is the fourth member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) to be jailed this year after the group issued statements attacking the ruling family over its human rights record and calling for democracy.

Saeed did not have legal representation at the secret hearing when he was sentenced, ACPRA said in a statement on its website.

“It’s just another troubling instance of Saudi authorities’ absolute refusal to countenance any activism or criticism of Saudi policies or human rights abuses,” said Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch.

A spokesman for the Justice Ministry said he could not comment on the report or confirm its accuracy.

Saudi Arabia’s only elections are for half the seats on relatively powerless town councils. Licensed media exercises stringent self censorship, public expressions of dissent are often not tolerated and demonstrations are banned.

During the Arab Spring in early 2011, protests were restricted to the Qatif district of Eastern Province.

Unrest was avoided after King Abdullah pledged $110 billion (Dh404 billion) in spending on social benefits and top clerics and tribal leaders said people should back the ruling family.

Foreign analysts say there appears to be little public demand for big political changes in Saudi Arabia now, although they point to evidence on social media of growing frustration at corruption, poverty and poor state services.

The government has denied charges by international rights groups that it used a campaign against Islamist militants over the past decade to stifle dissent.

However, human rights lawyers inside the country have said some of those sentenced in security courts, including a group jailed in Jeddah in late 2011, were peaceful activists put on trial for demanding political change.

Source: Reuters, December 16, 2013

Brunei introduces stoning, flogging, amputation among new sharia punishments

Public flogging in Iran,
another Sharia country

The Sultan of Brunei has announced tough new Islamic punishments as part of a new sharia penal code.

The punishments, which would only apply to Muslims, include death by stoning for adultery, flogging for drinking alcohol, and severing of limbs for theft.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said the new laws would be enforced from April next year.

"It is because of our need that Allah the almighty, in all his generosity, has created laws for us, so that we can utilise them to obtain justice," the monarch said.

The oil-rich kingdom has been working for several years to introduce the new code.

The 67-year-old sultan has presided over a shift to more conservative Islam and anti-sedition laws in recent years, and said sharia criminal law should be established to work alongside the country's civil law more prominently.

Brunei already enforces Islamic teachings more sternly than its neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia.

Evangelism of other religions and the sale of alcohol is strictly forbidden.

"Brunei is showing its feudal characteristics as an 18th-century state rather than an important member of a regional South East Asian economic and social consensus in the 21st century," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The kingdom, with a population of just over 400,000, has been ruled by the monarchy for six centuries.

Sources: AFP/Reuters, October 22, 2013

Human Rights: UAE court sentences Filipina maid to 3 months, 100 lashes for theft and illegitimate pregnancy

A Filipina housemaid will be lashed 100 times on charges of stealing her employer in Fujairah after he discovered her pregnancy from an illegitimate relationship.

A criminal court in the eastern emirate also sentenced the maid to three months in prison after she was arrested by the police and brought to court.

The maid was charged with stealing cash from her Emirati employer after he discovered that she was pregnant following an affair.

Police arrested the fleeing maid after an extensive manhunt and said she confessed to robbing her employer’s house while he was away.

The Arabic language daily Al Khaleej did not identify the maid or mention what will happen to her infant.

Source: Emirates 24/7, October 9, 2013

Omani newspaper apologises for article on homosexuality

The maximum penalty for homosexuality in Oman is three years in prison, whereas in other Gulf states, longer sentences, flogging and even the death penalty are not unknown.

A newspaper in Oman has printed a front page apology for a sympathetic article on homosexuality in the Gulf state that it published last week.

The article in The Week suggested that Oman was more tolerant about people's sexuality than other Gulf states, even though homosexuality is illegal there.

The article was denounced across online social networks in Oman and even by the country's journalists' association.

As in all Gulf states, Oman does have an underground gay scene.

It is widely seen as more tolerant than many of its neighbours as long as activities remain discreet.

The entire front page of the English language newspaper The Week is given over to the apology. It reads: "There was never any intention to knowingly or unknowingly cause harm, offend or hurt the sentiments of the people with our article last week".

The extravagance of the apology shows just how controversial it is to broach the issue of homosexuality with any sympathy in Oman.

'Advocating' homosexuality

The article in question - which is now offline - traced the story of a young gay man in the country under the headline, The Outsiders.

A member of the influential Shura Council, Tawfiq al-Lawati, tweeted that the article was advocating homosexuality and that it suggested Oman was a safe haven for gays.

He called for the information ministry to take action against the paper for breaking the country's press code.

Mr Lawati's tweets received considerable support, although some Omanis countered that the article was simply documenting a truth about the country and it was the job of the press to reflect reality.

Source: BBC News, Sept. 2, 2013

Iran: Three hanged in Karaj

Iran Human Rights, August 18: Three prisoners were hanged publicly in Karaj (west of Tehran) today Sunday August 18.

According to the official Iranian news agency IRNA three young men identified as Meraj T., Ali A. and Milad P. (ages 20-24 years) were hanged at three different spots of the city today.

The prisoners were convicted of theft, kidnapping and rape and were sentenced to prison, flogging and execution said the report.

Source: Iran Human Rights, August 18, 2013

Saudi Arabia: Prison, lashes for liberal Saudi website founder; apostasy charges dropped

Riyadh: The founder of a liberal minded website in Saudi Arabic has been sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes after angering Islamic authorities in the country, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Raif Badawi, through his website known as Free Saudi Liberals, had urged Saudis to share opinions about the role of religion in the country, which follows a strict form of Islam that includes harsh punishments for challenging customs. A judge in the Red Sea port of Jiddah imposed the sentences but dropped charges of apostasy, which could have brought a death sentence, the Al Watan newspaper reported.

Badawi has been held since June 2012. The newspaper did not name the judge who sentenced Badawi, nor did it say when the ruling was handed down. It was unclear Tuesday whether Badawi would receive any credit for the time he’s already served.

Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the US was “deeply concerned” by the sentence given to Badawi. “We believe that when public speech is deemed offensive, be it via social media or any other means, the issue is best addressed through open dialogue and honest debate,” Psaki said.

Hard-line Saudi clerics have raised repeated objections to social media, including one prominent Islamic scholar describing Twitter as a path to hell. He later withdrew the comment.

Source: Agence France-Presse, July 31, 2013

Saudi Arabia: Two Yemenis executed for robberies

July 4, 2013: Two Yemenis condemned to death for forming an armed gang and for robbery were executed in the Saudi capital, the interior ministry said.

In a statement cited by the official SPA news agency, the ministry said the two were the leaders of a gang whose other members have been sentenced to flogging and prison terms.

A total of 56 people have now been put to death in Saudi Arabia since the start of the year, according to an AFP count.

Source: Agence France-Presse, July 4, 2013

Saudi Arabia deserves worldwide condemnation

Will Saudi Arabia ever join modern civilization? Or will it remain a virtual medieval country?

Alas, the latter seems likely. Barbaric executions, most of them public beheadings, still take place in that country. Its “justice” system, based on Islamic Sharia law, is about as “just” as the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century, when so-called heretics were interrogated, tortured and put to death for the most ridiculous “crimes,” mainly an unwillingness to believe in medieval Catholicism.

Saudi Arabia is one of five countries that still practice public executions. The others, not surprisingly, are Iran, Syria, North Korea and Yemen. Those condemned in Saudi Arabia are beheaded by a swordsman in front of crowds. Some, including now and then female adulterers, are stoned to death.

One especially appalling execution happened last January when 22-year-old Rizana Nafeek was beheaded. Nafeek was convicted of smothering the 4-month-old baby boy whom she was babysitting. When she was just 17, Nafeek came to Saudi Arabia from Sri Lanka in order to work as a maid for a Saudi family. She wanted to earn money to help her three other siblings back home pay for schooling. At the time, in order to be accepted into a Saudi work program, Nafeek’s passport was falsified to make her seem older than she was. She was a minor when the baby died, and she insisted the baby began choking while bottle-feeding and that she tried to revive it.

Nafeek had no access to lawyers. She did not speak Arabic. Her translator was poorly trained if not downright incompetent. Not once in her trial was the age issue considered, a glaring omission because Saudi Arabia, surprisingly, is a signatory to the international Convention of the Rights of the Child.

Can you imagine the helplessness and terror of Nafeek, undergoing a trial she did not understand so far from home, then languishing in a prison cell, missing so badly her loved ones as she awaited the fate of having her head severed? What kind of “justice” was that? It wasn’t justice at all. It was an example of barbarity that should have ceased hundreds of years ago. It the same kind of “justice” that was meted out to the 14-year-old Pakistani girl by a Taliban goon, who shot her in the head just because she was on her way to school in a bus. Fortunately, that courageous girl lived, and her cause — the right to education for Pakistani girls — lives too.

It’s stomach-churning how radical interpretations of religion are used to justify such utterly inhuman acts. In Saudi Arabia, there is a long list of crimes for which people can be executed, including adultery, witchcraft, sorcery and apostasy. The latter three, especially, hark back to the Dark Ages and to our own colonial Salem, Massachusetts, where at least 19 people, mostly women, were hanged for practicing “witchcraft.” A charge of “apostasy” can be made against anyone who dares to criticize or to question Islam. Thus, Saudi Arabia, a theocratic monarchy, is obviously a very dark and dangerous place to live. Its leader, King Abdullah, must approve any execution.

Other atrocities occur regularly in Saudi Arabia, including cane-floggings, the amputation of hands and feet and the gouging out of eyes. In 2010, a 13-year-old schoolgirl was lashed 90 times in front of fellow students for allegedly assaulting her teacher. Another disturbing fact is that many people put to death are guest workers, like the unfortunate Nafeek, and they cannot properly defend themselves in such a feudal and lopsided “justice” system. As of last January, there were 45 guest-working maids on death row, awaiting execution.

Saudi Arabia, of course, is oil-rich. That’s a shame because otherwise the United States would probably condemn that country as it does most other tyrannical nations. To find out more about Saudi Arabia’s atrocities and how to protest them, go to www.amnesty.org. You can register your outrage via that site.

Source: Dennis Dalman, Alexandria Echo Press. Dennis Dalman, a former reporter for the Echo Press, is a regular contributing columnist to the Opinion page. He is currently the editor of the St. Joseph Newsleader. He can be reached via e-mail at dennisdalman@jetup.net.