Gaza man sentenced to death for collaborating with Israel

February 6, 2014: A Gaza military court sentenced a man convicted of collaborating with Israel to death and another to life in prison on the same charge.

The court did not determine a date for his execution. It said the evidence proved the defendant was guilty.

Neither defendant was identified by name.

Hamas has executed nearly two dozen people since taking over Gaza in 2007, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which opposes capital punishment.

Source: Ma'an, Feb. 8, 2014

Israel tried to influence Mandela trial, declassified documents show

Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

The Israeli Foreign Ministry tried to convince South Africa's apartheid regime not to seek the death penalty in Nelson Mandela's 1964 trial, newly released documents reveal.

According to the documents, which were declassified by the Israel State Archives on Sunday, Israel's stance resulted in a letter to the South African government urging it to negotiate with Mandela and the other defendants in the trial. The letter also criticized the regime's segregationist policies.

In 1964, after Mandela and other members of the African National Congress were indicted for sabotage and conspiracy, then-Foreign Minister Golda Meir urged Israel's charge d'affaires in Cape Town to express Israel's displeasure with the trial. Meir also praised Mandela's now-famous speech denouncing the trial, saying it was "a great performance that put on display immense courage and voiced the pain of millions of Africans."

As a result of Meir's effort, the Israeli Foreign Ministry convinced philosopher Martin Buber and Israeli author Haim Hazaz to send a letter to the government of South Africa to protest the regime's crackdown on the ANC.

"Talk to them. Listen to them. They have something to say. You will not silence their voices by hanging them. ... From the land of Israel, we ask you to assert your faith in the nobility of man, whatever the color of his skin. And if you 'do unto others' in accordance with this faith, the future is yours, and theirs -- and the world's," Buber and Hazaz wrote.

The head of the Israeli mission in Cape Town also sent a cable to Israel detailing the dire financial straits Mandela's wife, Winnie, was facing.

Source: Israel Hayom, December 9, 2013

Hamas court gives Gazan death sentence for aiding Israel

Execution in Gaza, October 2013

RAMALLAH, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- A Hamas military court on Thursday sentenced a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip to death for collaborating with Israel, a statement said.

The statement from the military judiciary did not give further information about the charges against the defendant or his identity.

Thursday's ruling put the number of death penalties issued by Hamas' courts against Gazans accused of aiding Israel was up to seven since the beginning of 2013.

Since 2010, the Islamic Hamas movement, which overran Gaza in 2007, executed 15 Palestinians, the majority of them on charges of collaboration with Israel, said the Independent Commission for Human Rights.

In 2012, militants from Hamas extra judicially gunned down seven people accused of collaborating with Israel. The summary executions took place on streets during an eight-day fight between Hamas and Israel.

Hamas carries out executions without getting them endorsed by the President of the PNA as the basic law stipulates.

Source: Xinhua, December 5, 2013

EU Missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah Condemn Death Sentence Issued in Gaza on 27 August

The EU Missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah condemn in a press release, the death sentence issued by a Gaza Military Court on 27 August.

As in their most recent statement on 13 August, the EU Missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah recall the EU's firm opposition under all circumstances to the use of capital punishment. The EU considers that abolition of the death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights. It considers capital punishment to be cruel and inhuman, failing to provide deterrence to criminal behaviour, and representing an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity.

The de facto authorities in Gaza must refrain from carrying out any executions of prisoners and comply with the de facto moratorium on executions put in place by the Palestinian Authority, pending abolition of the death penalty in line with the global trend.

Source: Palestine News Network, Sept. 6, 2013

Gaza court issues death penalty to convicted collaborator

A court in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday sentenced a man to death on charges of collaborating with Israel.

The court ruled that the man, identified only as B.H, be sentenced to death by hanging, but did not set a date for the execution.

Another man was sentenced to death on criminal charges of killing 3 Palestinians in Khan Younis.

The Hamas-run security services have cracked down on collaborators in the Gaza Strip since launching a campaign in the media to discourage working with Israeli intelligence.

Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel is punishable by death.

However all execution orders must be approved by the president before they can be carried out. Hamas no longer recognizes the legitimacy of incumbent Mahmoud Abbas, whose 4-year term ended in 2009.

In early August, UN rights chief Navi Pillay described the judicial process in Gaza as deeply flawed.

"I am concerned about the process by which death sentences are imposed by military and civilian courts in the Gaza Strip," she said.

"Serious concerns have also been raised about ill-treatment and torture during interrogations of persons later sentenced to death."

Source: Ma'an News Agency, August 28, 2013

Hamas 'to publicly execute two men in Gaza'

Amnesty calls for Gaza's ruling party to halt 'inhuman and degrading' executions it says will be carried out next week.

Hamas is planning to publicly execute two prisoners in Gaza as a "lesson" to others next week, according to the human rights organisation Amnesty International, which has described the move as deeply disturbing.

A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to death for "collaboration with an enemy entity". He told his lawyer he had been beaten during interrogation, Amnesty reported.

An appeal at a military court is scheduled for Wednesday but he will be at risk of imminent execution if it is unsuccessful.

The second man, aged 27, confessed to the rape and murder of a six-year-old boy in 2000. He was sentenced to death despite being a minor at the time. According to Amnesty, he was "apparently tortured to 'confess'" to the crime.

The pair are among 40 prisoners on death row in Gaza. The most recent executions, of two men convicted of collaborating, took place in June at a police compound. One of them reportedly confessed after being tortured, according to Amnesty.

"Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees in the custody of Hamas security agencies are widespread and systematic," it added.

Philip Luther, the organisation's Middle East and north Africa director, called on Hamas to immediately halt imminent executions and commute all death sentences.

"This and other recent announcements by the Hamas authorities that they will carry out further executions are deeply disturbing," he said.

"The death penalty is cruel and inhuman and there is no evidence that it deters crime more effectively than other punishments. Public executions are degrading and compound the cruelty of the death penalty."

Hamas has carried out at least 16 executions since April 2010, according to Amnesty. Six suspected collaborators were shot dead in the street by masked gunmen shortly before the end of the war in Gaza last November.

Source: The Guardian, August 9, 2013

Hamas executes two Palestinians convicted of spying for Israel

(Reuters) - Hamas leaders said they had hanged two Palestinians found guilty of spying for Israel over a decade, making them the first to be executed since the end of a month-long amnesty for informants in April.

Sixteen Palestinians have been executed in Gaza for spying since Hamas seized the territory in 2007.

Hamas, which rejects any recognition of Israel as a legitimate state, says the executions are aimed at discouraging Palestinians from impoverished Gaza selling Israel information such as the whereabouts of top militants or weapons depots.

Human rights activists say such executions violate Palestinian law which says that any cases of this sort must be reviewed by President Mahmoud Abbas, but Hamas does not recognize the Western-backed Abbas as having authority in Gaza.

Source: Reuters, June 22, 2013

Gaza May Bring Back Public Hangings

Gaza needs to bring back public hangings, senior court official Khaled el-Batash argued this week in an interview with the local media outlet Filistine.

Batash said courts should have their own police, who would implement court rulings by publicly executing condemned criminals.

Public executions would serve to deter Gaza residents from serious crime, he argued.

Hamas has instituted the death penalty for several crimes, among them murder, rape, drug dealing, and "collaborating" with Israel, a charge applied to those who provide information on terrorist activity that is used to assassinate terrorists or otherwise thwart attacks.

The group has carried out several executions already, many of "collaborators," despite Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' insistence that by law the executions should be subject to his approval. During the Pillar of Defense battle several Gaza men were killed without trial, and at least one man's body was later dragged through the streets.

Other interviews revealed a split between top law officials in Gaza. Deputy head of police investigations Raeed al-Amoudi accused Israel of being behind the wide-scale weapons ownership among Gaza Arabs. Gaza police are trying to keep track of weapons traffic, he said.

On the other hand, top prosecutor Yahya al-Farah said weapons ownership by Gaza Arabs is a necessary part of the fight against Israel. Gaza police must not track weapons ownership, he said, in order to maintain the element of surprise against Israel in case of a military conflict.

Source: Israel National News, June 12, 2013

Hamas court sentences "collaborator" to death

A military court in the Gaza Strip has sentenced a Palestinian Authority resident to death for collaborating with Israel and another to life with hard labor, the Hamas interior ministry said on Thursday, according to the AFP news agency,

The 43-year-old, identified only by his initials AH, "has been sentenced to capital punishment for acts of collaboration with the occupation", a ministry statement said.

It said the life term was handed down to the second man, a 53-year-old identified as FM.

It was the third death sentence announced this year by the Islamist terrorist movement.

Two Palestinian Authority Arabs were hanged in April 2010 for collaboration with Israel in the first executions carried out by Hamas, which seized Gaza in June 2007 from the secular Fatah movement.

Under Palestinian law, collaborators, murderers and drugs traffickers all face the death penalty, according to AFP.

Source: Agence France-Presse, May 23, 2013

Iran: Two hanged in Tehran's Evin prison for 'espionage'

Tehran's Evin prison

Iran Human Rights, May 19: Two prisoners were hanged in Tehran’s Evin Prison early this morning Sunday May 19.

According to the state run Iranian news agency Fars, Kourosh Ahmadi and Mohammad Heydari were charged with espionage for giving sensitive information to the CIA and the Israeili intelligence service Mossad respectively and convicted of Moharebeh (war against the God).

Iran Human Rights (IHR) is investigating about the background of these prisoners.

Collaboration with foreign intelligence services is a charge commonly used by the Iranian authorities against journalists and political activists.

IHR strongly condemns execution of Kourosh Ahmadi and Mohamad Heydari and holds Iranian regime’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei responsible for these executions. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR urged the international community to condemn today’s executions. Amiry-Moghaddam said: " Today’s executions are part of the Iranian regime’s attempts to prevent protests before the upcoming presidential elections in June. Iranian regime’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei knows well that new protests can lead to the fall of his dictatorship". Amiry-Moghaddam added:" Several political prisoners are at imminent danger of execution in the Iranian prisons. The international community must intervene to stop these executions."

Since April 16 at least 62 people have been executed in Iran.

Source: Iran Human Rights, May 19, 2013

Iran: Death-row inmate hanged in Khoramabad

Iran Human Rights, May 18: One prisoner was hanged in the prison of Khoramabad (western Iran) today May 18.

According to the Iranian state broadcasting one prisoner who was not identified by name, was hanged in the prison of Khoramabad early this morning. The prisoner was convicted of possession and trafficking of 768 grams of crack, said the report.

Source: Iran Human Rights, May 18, 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

Gaza: Plea not to endorse collaborator's death penalty

132 capital punishment verdicts issued since PNA's establishment in West Bank and Gaza

Human rights organisations in the Palestinian territories have urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to endorse the death sentence passed by the Gaza Military Court against a collaborator with Israel, labelling the sentence 'tough and inhuman'.

The rights organisations have also demanded the suspension of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Revolutionary Penalty Law of 1979, as it is not a constitutional law ratified by the Palestinian parliament.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said that all Palestinian laws which lead to capital punishment, including the Penalty Law No 74 of 1936, which is used in the Gaza Strip, and the Jordanian Penalty Law No 16 for 1960 should be reviewed, and the Palestinian leadership should impose a unified penalty law which fits with the spirit of international human rights agreements and conventions.

On Sunday, the Gaza Military Court sentenced 23-year-old Faraj Abed Rabbo Faraj Abed Rabbo to death by hanging on charges of collaborating with the enemy as per article No 131 of the PLO Revolutionary Penalty Law, 1979 and article No 415 of the Palestinian penalty procedural law No 3/2001.

Abed Rabbo is a civilian employee of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and is from the village of Abed Rabbo, east of the Jabaliya Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip.

The organisations said that Abed Rabbo should be sentenced by a civilian court, not a military one and that he should be retried in a civilian court to secure a fair trial.

Concern

The human rights organisations said the capital punishment penalty should be suspended in accordance with international efforts to abolish this punishment and replace it with other penalties that secure justice is served.

The Independent Commission for Human Rights expressed its concern about the capital punishment verdicts issued by the Gaza Permanent Military Court. The commission stressed capital punishment is a serious violation for the right to life secured by the international conventions for human rights. The commission said that it does not undermine the charges and accusations pressed against suspects who should be put on trial to be punished for their crimes, but those suspects should stand before courts which stick to legal procedures to secure justice.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said that since the PNA was established in 1994, 132 capital punishment verdicts had been passed. Of these, 106 verdicts were passed in the Gaza Strip and 26 in the West Bank. The centre said that 46 capital punishment verdicts had been passed in Gaza since 2007, since the Islamist Hamas group took control in the coastal strip.

Since that year, 27 capital punishments were implemented in the Palestinian territories, of which 25 were executed in Gaza and two were executed in the West Bank. The centre said that after Hamas took control in Gaza, a total of 14 capital punishment sentences were implemented in Gaza without the official endorsement of the Palestinian president, which is a violation of the law.

Source: Gulf News, March 26, 2013

Gaza: Hamas executes six suspected informants for Israel

November 20, 2012: Masked gunmen publicly shot dead six suspected collaborators with Israel in a large Gaza City intersection, witnesses said. An Associated Press reporter saw a large mob surrounding five of the bloodied corpses shortly after the killing.

Some in the crowd stomped and spat on the bodies. A sixth corpse was tied to a motorcycle and dragged through the streets as people screamed, "Spy! Spy!"

The Hamas military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, claimed responsibility in a large handwritten note attached to a nearby electricity pole. Hamas said the six were killed because they gave Israel information about fighters and rocket launching sites.

The killing came on the seventh day of an Israeli military offensive that has killed more than 120 Palestinians, both militants and civilians. Israel relies on a network of local informers to identify its targets in Gaza.

The six were killed in the afternoon in Gaza City's Sheik Radwan neighborhood.

Witnesses said a van stopped in the intersection, and four masked men pushed the six suspected informers out of the vehicle. Salim Mahmoud, 18, said the gunmen ordered the six to lie face down in the street and then shot them dead. Another witness, 13-year-old Mokhmen al-Gazhali, said the informers were killed one by one, as he mimicked the sound of gunfire.

They said only a few people were in the street at first – most Gazans have been staying indoors because of the Israeli air strikes – but the crowd quickly grew after the killings. Eventually several hundred men pushed and shoved to get a close look at the bodies, lying in a jumble on the ground. One man spat at the corpses, another kicked the head of one of the dead men.

"They should have been killed in a more brutal fashion so others don't even think about working with the occupation (Israel)," said one of the bystanders, 24-year-old Ashraf Maher.

One body was then tied by a cable to the back of a motorcycle and dragged through the streets.

A number of gunmen on motorcycles rode along as the body was pulled past a house of mourning for victims of an Israeli airstrike.

There is broad consensus among Palestinians that informers for Israel deserve harsh punishment, and it is rare to hear someone speak out against killings of alleged collaborators. Such public killings been carried out in the West Bank and Gaza since the first uprising against Israeli occupation in the late 1980s.

In Israel's last major Gaza offensive four years ago, 17 suspected collaborators who fled after their prisons were hit in air strikes were later shot dead in extra-judicial killings.

During the current offensive, today's killings brought to eight the number of suspected informers being shot dead in public. On November 16, the body of one alleged informer was found in a rubbish bin, and another was shot dead in the street. Hamas claimed responsibility for both killings.

Since seizing Gaza in 2007, Hamas has executed four informers by firing squad, and about a dozen more are on death row in Gaza.

Source: Ap, November 20, 2012

Iran Human Rights warns against massive executions in the coming weeks, urges international community to react

Iran Human Rights, August 20: Iran Human Rights (IHR) warns against the possibility of a new execution wave in Iran in the coming weeks. Several reports from Iran indicate that the Iranian authorities are planning to execute multiple prisoners, among them some political prisoners and some convicted of espionage.

Most of the executions will most likely be carried out following the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit scheduled to take place in Tehran from August 26-31. High-ranking officials from 40 NAM member countries along with observer countries and international organizations like the United Nations are expected to attend.

IHR urges the international community to pay special attention to Iran in the coming weeks. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson for IHR, said today, "There are several reports indicating that Iranian authorities have scheduled executions for the coming weeks. We are deeply concerned about these possible executions and urge the international community to react before it is too late." He added, "We specifically ask the UN and leaders of the countries attending the NAM summit to address the issue of the death penalty in Iran."

There were no reported executions in the Muslim month of Ramadan, which ended on August 20. It is expected that news of executions will emerge in the next month. According to the IHR annual death penalty reports, in the past years, there has been a noticeable increase in executions after Ramadan. In 2011, at least 72 people were executed in the first three weeks following Ramadan.

For the past few months, Iranian authorities have aired several times on state television what they call "confessions" of Iranians involved in espionage and cooperation with Israel. On August 6, state television aired purported confessions by 14 suspects (six women and eight men) in connection with the killing of five nuclear scientists. Some of the people whose "confessions" were aired on state television are: Behzad Abdoli, Firouzeh Yeganeh, Maryam Zargar, Ramtin Mahdavi Moshaie, Arash Kheradkish and Maziar Ebrahimi.

IHR believes that the confessions made by these prisoners were serious enough to put them at risk of execution. In May, another prisoner, identified as Majid Jamali Fashi, was hanged publicly in Tehran after his confessions were aired on state television.

There are other prisoners who are in imminent danger of execution and require urgent attention.

Gholamreza Khosravi, 50, was arrested in 2008 in Rafsanjan, Kerman (southeastern Iran). His initial charge was affiliated with his alleged support of Simay Azadi, a television station linked to the Mujahedin-e Khalgh (MEK or PMOI).

Gholamreza Khosravi was sentenced to death after a second trial in the Tehran Revolutionary Court. He was charged with Moharebeh (enmity against God) for his alleged ties to the MEK. The death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court on April 21. According to sources in Iran, the execution is scheduled to take place on September 10.

Abdolreza Ghanbari, 44, a teacher, was arrested in the aftermath of the December 2009 Ashura protests. He was sentenced to death based on the charge of Moharebeh for his alleged ties with the MEK. His request for pardon was rejected by the Supreme Court. He may be executed at any time.

Ahmad Daneshpour Moghaddam, 42, and Mohsen Daneshpour Moghaddam, 69, son and father, were also arrested in connection with the Ashura protests. They were charged with Moharebeh, for their alleged ties with the MEK, and sentenced to death. They may be executed at any time.

There are continued concerns about the imminent execution of Saeed Malekpour, 37, a web programmer whose main charges include Moharebeh and Insulting and desecrating Islam. His death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court in January 2012. He may be executed at any time.

There are also more than 20 Kurdish political prisoners on death row in Iran that may be in danger of imminent execution.

Source: Iran Human Rights, August 23, 2012

URGENT APPEAL to the Palestinian Authority for 4 men facing execution

At least four men from Gaza City are facing execution in the Gaza Strip. One of them, Na'el Jamal Qandil Doghmosh, was sentenced to death after, according to his family, he was tortured to make him "confess" to a murder.

Na'el Jamal Qandil Doghmosh could be executed at any time, by hanging. Sentenced to death for murder in April 2011, his final appeal was rejected by the Court of Cassation on 13 May 2012. According to his family, he "confessed" under torture by police investigators after he was arrested on 9 May 2010, aged 18. When his family was first able to visit him two months later, his nails had been torn out and he had burns and bruises on his body.

According to the local human rights NGO Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), another man, known only as F.T.W., also faces execution by hanging for murder. His sentence was confirmed on 21 May by the Court of Cassation. Thirty-eight-year-old J.Z.J. may also be executed at any time, by firing squad: his appeal to the Military High Court was rejected on 14 February 2012.

Another man, known only as A.M.A., was convicted on 11 January 2012 by the Permanent Military Court of "collaboration" with the Israeli army and murder. Though he has an appeal pending in the military court against his sentence to death by hanging, Amnesty International is gravely concerned that he will face execution in the near future if his appeal is unsuccessful.

The Hamas de facto administration in the Gaza Strip executed three men by hanging on 7 April: Mohammed Baraka, from Deir al-Balah, who was convicted of murder, W.K.J., from al-Bureij refugee camp, convicted of treason and being an accessory to murder, and M.J.A., convicted of abduction and murder. Soon after the executions, Hamas officials stated that anyone found to have collaborated with Israel would be executed as a deterrent against such "treasonous" activities.

Please write immediately:

- Urging the authorities to ensure that the death sentences of the four men (naming them) are not carried out, and that all death sentences are commuted;

- Expressing concern at the allegations that Na'el Jamal Qandil Doghmosh "confessed" under torture and urging the authorities to investigate thoroughly these claims and bring anyone responsible to justice;

- Urging them to take steps to abolish the death penalty, for which no convincing evidence has ever been produced to show that it is a more effective deterrent than other forms of punishment.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 9 JULY 2012 TO:

Minister of Justice

Muhammad Faraj al-Ghoul

HAMAS DE FACTO ADMINISTRATION IN GAZA

VIA ISRAEL

Fax: 011 970 8 288 0103 -OR- 011 970 8 282 2008 -OR- 011 970 8 288 1818

Please fax before 2pm Palestine time (GMT+2) and please keep trying. 011 970 and 011 972 may both work as country codes

Salutation: Dear Mr. al-Ghoul

Head of the High Council of Justices

Abdel Raouf al-Halabi

Email: hjc27117@moj.ps

Salutation: Dear Judge al-Halabi

Prime Minister

Isma'il Abd al-Salam Ahmad Haniyeh

HAMAS DE FACTO ADMINISTRATION IN GAZA

VIA ISRAEL

Fax: 011 972 8 288 4815

Salutation: Dear Mr. Haniyeh

Also send copies to:

Chief Representative Maen Rashid Areikat

Palestine Liberation Organization Office

1320 18th St NW Suite 200

Washington, DC 20036

Phone: 1 202 974 6360

Fax: 1 202 974 6278

Email: plomission1@aol.com

Twitter: @plodelegationus

Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the above date.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has jurisdiction over the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, which make up the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), all of which are under Israeli military occupation. However, intra-Palestinian factional violence and tensions between Fatah and Hamas, the Palestinian party which won the last parliamentary elections in 2006, resulted in the West Bank being governed by a caretaker government appointed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas and, as of June 2007, Gaza being governed by the Hamas de facto administration led by Isma'il Haniyeh.

Following Hamas' takeover of Gaza, PA President Mahmoud Abbas suspended the operations of PA security forces and judicial institutions in Gaza, creating a legal and institutional vacuum there. Hamas responded by creating a parallel law-enforcement and judicial apparatus. These lack appropriately trained personnel, accountability mechanisms or safeguards.

Under Palestinian law, all death sentences must be ratified by President Mahmoud Abbas before they can be carried out. However, the Hamas de facto administration has been carrying out executions without the requisite approval of the president. Many of the death sentences are imposed by military courts, under the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Revolutionary Code 1979, whose procedures do not meet international standards for fair trials.

Though no executions were carried out in Gaza between 2006 and 2009, the Hamas administration is known to have executed 11 people since 2010. There are around 30 Palestinians on death row, at least some of whom have been convicted after unfair trials, particularly before the military courts. Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees is routine in Gaza. During 2011, the local human rights organization the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) reported receiving over 100 allegations of torture in detention by various security agencies in Gaza and 100 allegations of torture by the police in Gaza.

Names: Na'el Jamal Qandil Doghmosh (m), F.T.W. (m), J.Z.J (m), A.M.A(m)

Issues: Legal concern, Imminent execution, Torture

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Iran executes man charged with espionage and killing nuclear scientist

Iran Human Rights, May 15: A prisoner identified as "Majid Jamali Fashi" was hanged in Tehran this morning.

According to the official site of the Iranian judiciary in Tehran," Majid Jamali Fashi" was convicted of "Moharebeh" and "corruption on earth" for murdering the Iranian nuclear scientist "(Masoud) Ali Mohammadi" and espionage for Mosad (the Israeli intelligence). He was sentenced to death in September 2011.

Iranian state media on Sunday announced that the trials of 10 to 15 "convicts of collaboration with Mosad (the Israeli intelligence service) took place in Tehran. According to these news "most" of those charged were sentenced to imprisonment. According to the Iranian opposition website Kalemeh the Iranian student Omid Kokabee was among those convicted for espionage on Sunday. Iran Human Rights has now confirmed that Omid Kokabee, the Iranian graduate student at the University of Texas, who was arrested by the Iranian authorities when he was visiting Iran, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail. According to the state run Mehr news agency the verdicts can be appealed within 20 days.

Iran Human Rights spokesperson condemned today’s execution and the heavy jail sentences issued on Sunday. He said: "We have many reports indicating that prisoners are subjected to torture and forced confessions". He added: "Often the prisoners are sentenced based on the confessions they have made under torture".

Source: Iran Human Rights, May 15, 2012

Majid Jamali Fashi Hanged: Iran Executes Accused Israeli Mossad Spy

Majid Jamali Fashi

A man has been hanged in Iran after being accused of working as a spy for Israel.

Majid Jamali Fashi was executed after being found guilty of killing a nuclear scientist in 2010. He was convicted in August after a trial at a revolutionary court in Tehran.

Iranian state media said that Jamali Fashi was paid $120,000 to assassinate Professor Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at Tehran University, who died after a motorbike laden with explosives was detonated by remote control outside his home.

Fashi, whose official crime was reportedly "corruption on Earth", appeared in Iranian television in January to issue a confession for the killing.

He also detailed the Mossad operation and the intelligence he was said to have gathered.

However opposition groups in Iran have said Mohammdi was killed by the government for his anti-establishment views, and that Fashi's confession was made under duress.

Mohammadi is one of several Iranian nuclear experts who have been killed in suspected assassinations in recent years, as tensions over the country's nuclear programme have continued to rise.

Iran claims it is attempting to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, but the US and Israel are adamant the country is attempting to build a nuclear bomb.

Click here to read the full article

Source: Huffington Post UK, May 15, 2012

Palestinian Authority, Rights Group Condemn Gaza Executions

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) Saturday condemned Hamas execution of 3 Gaza residents, 1 convicted of collaboration with Israel and the other 2 for murder.

Hamas security executed early Saturday 3 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 1 on charges of treason and spying for Israel, while the other 2 were executed after they were convicted of murder, according to a Hamas report

PA Minister of Health Fathi Abu Moghli considered in a statement the executions “inhuman” and a violation of international law.

He slammed the executions, stressing that they should not have happened because President Mahmoud Abbas has not authorized them as required by law.

He said this act by Hamas in Gaza undermines efforts to gain membership in the United Nations “as we try to show the world that we are a civilized, modern, humanitarian and democratic state.”

Abu Moghli praised Abbas for not ratifying any death sentence since he took office in 2005 and urged him to issue a presidential decree banning the death penalty or at least suspend it as called for by an October 15, 2007 United Nations General Assembly resolution calling on member states to suspend capital punishment until it is totally abolished.

PCHR also stressed that executions should not be carried out without approval from the head of the PA as required by the Palestinian criminal law.

It reiterated its opposition to capital punishment as a blatant violation of the fundamental human right to life.

Source: WAFA, April 7, 2012

Hamas executes 3 in Gaza, including "traitor"

(Reuters) - Islamist group Hamas executed three men on Saturday, hanging two convicted murderers and a Gazan found guilty of collaborating with Israel, the Hamas-run ministry of interior said.

It did not name the men and gave few details of the allegations against them, but said one of trio was convicted of kidnapping a boy, raping him and then killing him.

It denounced the man who helped Israel as a "traitor".

The ministry said in a statement the families of the murder victims had refused to offer an amnesty to the killers.

The executions were carried out "in accordance with our religion, rulings of the Palestinian law and in preserving the rights of citizens and achieving the security of the community", the statement said.

Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, at least 11 prisoners have been executed and more than 30 death sentences have been handed down by the courts, including to numerous people charged with helping the Israeli security forces.

Hamas refuses to recognize Israel and its charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Under local law, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is meant to have the final say on whether executions should be carried out, but Hamas refuses any such consultations.

Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned the use of the death penalty in Gaza, but Hamas rejects such criticism.

"The rulings were carried out ... after the defendants had been given their full right to defend themselves," the interior ministry said.

Source: Reuters, April 7, 2012

Death for 3 Lebanese who spied for Israel: judiciary

3 Lebanese were sentenced to death by a military court on Friday for spying for Israel, a judicial source said.

The tribunal "condemned to death Mussa Ali Mussa, who was found guilty of having contacted the Israeli enemy and passing on information," the source said.

The court found that Mussa had passed on to the Jewish state between 2000 and 2010 "information on officials from Hezbollah," the powerful Lebanese Shiite group.

The court also condemned to death in absentia Ali Sweid and Ahmed Hussein Abdullah on charges of spying for Israel.

Lebanese authorities in 2009 launched a national crackdown on alleged Israeli espionage rings. Lebanon and Israel remain technically in a state of war and convicted spies can face the death penalty.

More than 100 people have been arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Israel's Mossad spy agency, including an army general, members of the security forces and telecoms employees.

Several people have so far been sentenced to death, including one found guilty of helping Israel during its devastating 2006 war with arch-enemy Hezbollah. However, none of the death sentences has yet been carried out.

Source: The Daily Star, Feb. 24, 2012

Lebanon: No life or death sentence reductions under new law

Inmates sentenced to life in prison or to death will not benefit from a draft law that reduces prison sentences from a year to nine months, the chair of Parliament’s Justice and Administration Committee said Monday.

After a committee meeting in advance of Wednesday’s legislative session, during which Parliament is set to vote on the new penal law and a number of other issues, MP Robert Ghanem said inmates sentenced to less than one year will also have their sentences reduced.

“A prison year in general would become nine months, for those who have sentences of less than one year, every month would be counted as 20 days,” Ghanem told reporters after he chaired a meeting of lawmakers who have been working on the draft law since 2009.

“However, those who are convicted of repeating the same crime for which they had served a sentence before would also not benefit from the new penal law,” Ghanem said.

At least 4 prisoners were killed and nearly 10 were injured at Roumieh prison last spring when rioters in the complex confronted the Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese Army.

Inmates in the country’s prisons and their families have repeatedly protested against poor conditions and overcrowding, staging hunger strikes and protests. In addition to calling for the sentence reduction, prisoners, their families and activists have called for a general amnesty.

To reduce the pressure on the overcrowded Roumieh prison, Lebanon’s largest, Cabinet and Parliament have both held talks on the establishment of new prisons.

Deputy Prime Minister Samir Mokbel announced last week that an agreement had been reached among the Cabinet ministers on the locations of two new prisons, which are to be built in north and south Lebanon.

Ghanem said future verdicts should clearly specify whether a convict has already committed the same offense to avoid any confusion in the implementation of the new law.

“Based on Law 258 of the Penal Code, the verdict must specify whether the convict is repeating a crime,” Ghanem said.

When asked whether Parliament would approve the draft law, Ghanem said reducing the prison year to nine months is part of the new prison policy that Parliament should approve.

He added that after parliamentary approval the policy would be transferred to the Justice Ministry for implementation because the ministry was set to take over prison administration from the ISF in approximately 3 years.

Source: The Daily Star, Feb. 20, 2012

Three sentenced to death for "spying" for Israel

February 17, 2012: Judicial officials say a Lebanese military court convicted a former policeman of spying for Israel and sentenced him to death.

A military court found Haitham al-Sahmarani guilty of giving sensitive security information to Israeli intelligence agents including during a monthlong 2006 war between Israel and the militant Hezbollah group.

The officials said al-Sahmarani's sister and her husband who are believed to be in Israel were also sentenced to death in absentia on similar charges. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Al-Sahmarani is a former chief sergeant. He was arrested in 2009.

Lebanon and Israel technically remain at war, and more than 100 people in Lebanon have been arrested since 2009 on suspicion of collaborating with the Jewish state.

Source: AP, February 17, 2012