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: Chadians given death over Frenchman murder

Riyadh: A Saudi court has sentenced to death two Chadian Islamists convicted of murdering a French expatriate in the western city of Jeddah, state news agency SPA reported on Thursday.

The two are part of a group of 12 people — seven Chadians, four Saudis, and a Yemeni — accused of having formed “a terrorist group to kill non-Muslims” in the kingdom.

The remaining 10 were sentenced to prison terms of between four and 22 years in the hearing that took place, SPA reported.

No more details were given on the circumstances of the murder.

But in September 2004, a Frenchman who worked for French group Thales was killed in an attack in Jeddah, during a period in which the kingdom witnessed a wave of attacks attributed to Al Qaida.

On Tuesday, a Saudi court sentenced two suspected Al Qaida members to death for the 2007 murder of four French expatriates near the western city of Madinah.

The two men were convicted of shooting dead the four while they were on a desert excursion from their homes in the capital Riyadh.

Another 12 men convicted of helping the attackers were jailed for periods of between three and 23 years, and banned from travelling abroad for a period equal to their sentence.

Police killed the suspected mastermind of the attack, Walid Motlaq Al Raddadi, a 23-year-old Saudi, in Madinah in April 2007.

Authorities in the kingdom set up specialised terrorism courts in 2011 to try dozens of Saudis and foreigners accused of belonging to Al Qaida or of being involved in a wave of bloody attacks that swept the country from 2003.

The attacks prompted authorities to crack down on the jihadist network founded by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a US commando operation in May 2011. The crackdown prompted many of the network’s Saudi militants to shift base to neighbouring Yemen.

Source: Agence France-Presse, January 17, 2014

Death penalty statistics, country by country

After the execution of Kim Jong-un's uncle, the brutality of North Korea's regime has once again come under the international spotlight. In a broader context, is the attention warranted? Find out who uses the death penalty today - and see how it compares to 2007.

Click here to read the full article

Source: The Guardian, December 14, 2013

The abuse of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia

Migrant workers make up a third (8 million) of the population and over half the workforce in Saudi Arabia. They are mainly unskilled labourers and domestic workers (jobs the Saudis don’t want to do), are inadequately protected by labour laws and are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse by their employers, including excessive working hours, wages withheld for months or years on end, forced confinement, food deprivation, and severe psychological, physical and sexual abuse. Women domestic workers “are also at particular risk of sexual violence and other abuses.”

A study by the Philippines-based Committee on Workers Overseas Welfare says “70 per cent of [Filipino] workers employed as caregivers or without a specific work qualification suffers continuous physical and psychological harassment” in the oil rich gulf state.

In addition to suffering extreme discrimination and violent mistreatment, migrant workers who manage to escape abusive employers are often victims of spurious criminal accusations. According to Human Rights Watch, the “Saudi justice system is characterized by arbitrary arrests, unfair trials and harsh punishments… [the] criminal justice system violates the most basic international human rights standards and detainees routinely face systematic violations of due process and fair trial rights”.

Migrants, who often don’t speak Arabic, are denied access to translators and lawyers, and frequently are not allowed to contact their embassies. In 2011 a 54-year old Indonesian worker, Ruyati Binti Satubi Saruna, was tried, sentenced and decapitated without being able to consult her government. More than 45 Indonesian foreign maids are said to be on death row. Saudi families are known to ask for up to 2 million US dollars in blood money in exchange for the release of incarcerated women awaiting execution.

In 2012, the Guardian newspaper reported, Saudi Arabia executed at least 69 people. The previous year it executed at least 79, including five women, The death toll included one woman beheaded for witchcraft and sorcery. The Saudi authorities are not forthcoming with the total numbers imprisoned and living under the shadow of the death penalty; however, Amnesty International said it knew of more than 120 people – mostly foreign nationals – on death row.

Click here to read the full article

Source: maareg.com, December 9, 2013

Yemen: Execution of female death row inmate postponed

The appealed court hearing of a woman in Ibb who had been sentenced to death in a self-defense case has been postponed until the end of December due to the resignation of the judge presiding over the case.

Raja Al-Hakami, 29, was imprisoned in October 2010 for shooting a 37-year-old man she said was trying to enter her home.

After the woman was initially sentenced to 2 years in prison and ordered to pay the victim's family an undetermined amount of money, the family appealed the decision. Al-Hakami was then sentenced to death by the Appeals Court.

Her case has drawn the attention of human rights activists, many of whom gathered outside the courtroom on Monday as the Appeals Court judge resigned, saying he wanted to uphold the death sentence.

Under increasing pressure from activist groups in June, including the Ibb branch of HOOD, the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedom, the Supreme Court in Ibb overturned the women's death sentence and returned the case to the Appeals Court.

"Executing Al-Hakmi is executing the dignity of all Yemeni women," said Mohammed Al-Moalmi, who gathered outside the courtroom to advocate for Al-Hakimi's case.

Abdulla Hassan Al-Mosawa, the lawyer representing the victim's family, also withdrew from the case this week.

"The victim's relatives insisted I continue, but I withdrew because my role was over after the first [Court of] Appeal's verdict," he said.

Faisel Al-Humaidi, the head of HOOD in Ibb and 1 of the 4 lawyers defending Al-Hakami, is optimistic that the Appeals Court will not uphold the death penalty for their client, calling her trial "unfair" and a "clear case of self defense."

"The law stipulates that if any person attacks you inside your house, you have the right...to defend yourself," Al-Humaidi said. "Yet the judge [in this case] did not rule in accordance."

Ameen Al-Hakami, Raja's brother, said at the time of shooting, Raja was living with their 80-year-old father.

Al-Hakami has been in Ibb Central Prison since Oct. 20, 2010.

Source: Yemen Times, December 5, 2013

State-sponsored homophobia: mapping gay rights internationally

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

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

Death penalty

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

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

Life sentences

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

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

Click here to read the full article

Source: DataBlog, October 15, 2013

Yemen: Islamist gunmen "execute" suspected homosexual

It is the sixth such murder since the start of the year

Aden: Gunmen have shot dead a Yemeni man in the south of the country because they suspected he was homosexual, police have said.

One of two men on a motorbike opened fire at the man in his twenties late on Thursday outside his house in Huta, the capital of Lahij province, killing him on the spot.

Police said the attackers, presumed Islamist militants, escaped after the killing, the sixth such murder since the start of the year.

Similar killings in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation’s provinces of Abyan and Aden have been blamed on an Al Qaida-affiliated group, Ansar Al Sharia.

For the past year, Ansar Al Sharia has imposed Islamic law in areas of Abyan where it still holds sway.

Its so-called courts have tried and condemned to death several people accused of different crimes. Others have had hands amputated after being “convicted” of theft.

After an army offensive in May 2012 ousted the militants from areas they controlled, they holed up in mountainous regions of south and southeast Yemen.

From there they have launched regular attacks, mainly targeting the security forces.

Source: Agence France-Presse, September 27, 2013

Saudi Arabia executes Yemeni for murder

Public execution in KSA

In 2012, the Gulf country executed 76 people.

Riyadh: Saudi authorities executed a Yemeni in Mecca on Wednesday after he was convicted of murdering a fellow countryman, the interior ministry said.

Husni Tawhal had been accused of stabbing Saqr Sulaia to death, the ministry said, quoted by state news agency SPA.

This brought to 61 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia this year.

In 2012, the Gulf country executed 76 people, according to a tally based on official figures. Human Rights Watch has put the number at 69.

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

Source: Agence France-Presse, August 21, 2013

Top Executioners For 2012: China, Iran and Iraq

Execution in China

July 26, 2013: Of the 40 countries worldwide that retain the death penalty, 33 are dictatorial, authoritarian or illiberal States.

Seventeen of these countries were responsible for approximately 3,909 executions, 98.5% of the world total in 2012.

China alone carried out about 3,000, about 76%, of the world total of executions; Iran put at least 580 people to death and Iraq, at least 129; Saudi Arabia, at least 84; Yemen, at least 28; North Korea, at least 20; Sudan, at least 19; Afghanistan, 14; Gambia, 9; Somalia, at least 8; Palestine (Gaza Strip), 6; South Sudan, at least 5; Belarus, at least 3; Syria, at least 1; Bangladesh, 1; Pakistan, 1; and United Arab Emirates, 1.

Many of these countries do not issue official statistics on the practice of the death penalty, therefore the number of executions may, in fact, be much higher.

This is the prevalent situation worldwide concerning the practice of the death penalty. It points to the fact that the fight against the death penalty entails, beyond the stopping of executions, a battle for transparency of information concerning capital punishment, for democracy, for respect of the rule of law and for political rights and civil liberties.

The terrible podium of the world’s top executioners is occupied by three authoritarian States in 2012: China, Iran and Iraq.

Although the death penalty remains a State secret in China, some news in recent years, including declarations from official sources, suggest that the use of the death penalty may have diminished compared to preceding years.

A major turnabout came after the introduction of a legal reform on 1 January 2007, which required that every capital sentence handed down in China by an inferior court be reviewed by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC). Since then, the top court has overturned “on average” 10 per cent of death sentences handed down each year in the country.

According to William A. Schabas, Professor of international law at Middlesex University in London, in 2012 “China has probably executed about 3,000 people.” “This represents a decline of more than 50% from the number only five years ago,” he wrote on his blog on 18 December 2012, after more than a decade of his participation in various conferences on capital punishment in China and many encounters with experts in the Chinese criminal justice system.

According to the Dui Hua Foundation’s estimate, “the number of executions has been sharply reduced, although in 2012 it remained high at around 3,000 per year.” The Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that works on behalf of political prisoners and monitors Chinese prisons, estimated that China had carried out “about” 4,000 executions in 2011, while there were “about” 5,000 in 2010, as in 2009, still a slight decrease as compared to 2008, when the number of executions “exceeded 5,000 and may have been as high as 7,000.” According to the Foundation, run by business executive-turned-human-rights advocate John Kamm – who still maintains good relations with government officials – about 6,000 people were executed in 2007, a 25 to 30 per cent drop from 2006, in which estimates reported at least 7,500 executions.

Given that the great majority – at least 90 per cent – of these cases are death penalty review cases, as the SPC doesn’t have jurisdiction over many other cases, an approximate but realistic estimate would put the number of death sentences in 2012 – between definitive sentences and those suspended for two years – at around 8,300, a sharp decrease from about 9,400 estimated in 2011.

Considering further that, since February 2010, the Supreme People’s Court has recommended to use a policy of “justice tempered with mercy,” suggesting to the courts to “suspend the death sentence for two years for all cases that don’t require immediate execution,” it is realistic to conclude that the executions in 2012, as estimated by Professor William Schabas and the Dui Hua Foundation, were about 3,000, a significant decrease compared to the 4,000 of 2011.

On 14 March 2012, China amended again the 1979 Criminal Procedure Law, highlighting the human rights protection. A phrase calling for “respecting and protecting human rights” was added to the revised law’s first chapter on aim and basic principles. The amendment further specifies the procedures for the Supreme People’s Court to review death penalty cases in order that such cases will be handled “with sufficient care”, and “legal oversight” will be strengthened.

According to the fifth annual report of Iran Human Rights (IHR) on the death penalty in Iran, in 2012 the Islamic Republic carried out at least 580 executions, a number among the highest in more than 15 years. According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, at least 587 people were executed in 2012.

Iran Human Rights emphasizes that the actual number of executions is probably much higher than the figures included in its annual report. At least 240 additional executions were not included in the report, due to difficulties in confirming some of the details. In fact, only 85 out of the 325 estimated secret executions in Vakilabad Prison were included in the 2012 report. In 2011, on the basis of these same sources, Iran Human Rights had estimated at least 676 executions.

Since the 2009 post-election protests in Iran, the number of executions, particularly public executions, has risen dramatically. According to Iran Human Rights, in 2012 there were at least 60 public executions, a number six times higher than numbers from 2009, when at least 12 people were hanged in public places. In 2010, at least 19 people were hanged publicly. In 2011, public executions have more than tripled, with at least 65 people being executed in public. The trend has continued in 2013. Just in January and February 2013 alone, at least 20 people were hanged in public. As of 30 June, at least 37 public executions were held.

The execution of child offenders continued into 2012 and 2013, in open violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which it is a co-signatory. A juvenile offender was executed in public in March 2012, according to Amnesty International. Another two possible minor offenders were executed 2013 (in January and February).

The use of the death penalty for purely political motives continued in 2012 and 2013. But it is probable that many of the people put to death for ordinary crimes or for “terrorism,” may well be in fact political opponents, in particular members of Iran’s ethnic minorities, including Iranian Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Baluchis, and Arabs. Accused of being Mohareb – enemies of Allah – those arrested are often subject to rapid and severe trials that often end with a sentence of death. The punishment for Moharebeh is death or amputation of the right hand and left foot, according to the Iranian penal code. According to Iran Human Rights, at least 23 (3%) of 294 people who were executed in 2012 according to the official Iranian sources were convicted of Moharebeh (war against God).

However, the death penalty is not the only punishment dictated by the Iranian implementation of Sharia. There is also torture, amputation, flogging and other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments. These are not isolated incidents and they occur in flagrant violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that Iran signed and which expressly prohibits such practices.

In 2012, Iraq executed at least 129 people, the highest number since 2005. They were a significant and worrying increase compared to the previous year when at least 68 people were executed.

Iraq has already executed at least 50 people in 2013 (as of 16 April).

Executions began in August 2005. Since then, as of 16 April 2013, at least 497 executions were carried out, most of them related to acts of terrorism.

In April 2013, there were about 1,400 people held on death row, according to Iraqi Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari.

Source: Hands Off Cain, 2013 Report, July 26, 2013

At-a-glance: Capital punishment around the world

Public execution in Iran

Last year 682 people were executed in 21 countries, but figures show there is a movement away from capital punishment globally. Here's a closer look at the figures.

Globally, there is a movement away from capital punishment, but there are pockets around the world where it is carried out. We take a look at where the death penalty is practised, how often and for what crime.

(Note: These figures are from Amnesty International, and can't always be independantly verified)

More than 2/3 of countries worldwide have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

But the latest annual data on global death penalty rates published by Amnesty International shows that 2012 saw a resumption of executions in Gambia, India, Japan and Pakistan. There has also been a sharp rise in reported executions in Iraq in 2012 compared to 2011.

THE NUMBER OF EXECUTIONS IN 2012

Amnesty International reports the number of people executed in 2012 rose by 2 to 682 executions in 21 countries compared to the previous year. But the number of people sentenced to death fell by 10 % to 1,722 (in 58 countries) in 2012. In 2011, some 1,923 were sentenced to death in 63 countries.

But these figures represent a marked decrease from a decade ago. For example, 28 countries carried out executions in 2003.

The figures do not include the thousands of people who Amnesty International believes have been executed in China, where the number remains a state secret.

HIGHEST RATES

Year-on-year, the same countries appear in Amnesty International's list of top 8 countries with the highest number of executions. In 2012, the top 8 included:

1. China keeps secret the number of executions carried out. Amnesty International says reliable media sources and human rights groups estimate the number of executions to be in the thousands - more executions than the rest of the world put together. The death penalty has been used for drug-related offences and economic crimes.

2. Iran has the 2nd-highest level of executions worldwide in 2012, mostly for drug-related crimes. 4 people were executed in June 2012 for the "offence" of "enmity against God and corruption on Earth". Capital punishment has been used for crimes including "adultery", "sodomy" and the religious offence of "apostasy".

3. Iraq saw the number of executions almost double from the previous year.

4. Saudi Arabia often carries out executions by public beheading. Defendants are rarely allowed formal representation by a lawyer and can be held in detention for weeks at a time based on "confessions" obtained under duress. One accused man was executed by a practice known as crucifixion, where the beheaded body is publicly displayed. Crimes that are punishable by death include "sorcery" and forms of "aggravated" robbery.

Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia account for three quarters of confirmed executions in 2012.

5. USA saw Connecticut become the 17th abolitionist state in the country. Concerns about the discriminatory application of the death penalty and the possibility of wrongful convictions have led to a series of abolitions in individual states.

6. Yemen saw 2 people executed for crimes committed when they were reportedly under 18.

7. North Korea carries out executions in public as well as in secret. Death sentences have been known to be handed down for crimes which do not carry the death penalty under North Korean law.

8. Sudan is said to use the death penalty as a tool against real or perceived opposition activists.

Source: SBS, July 24, 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 executes 5 Yemenis, displays bodies

Darkness at noon...

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed five Yemenis and displayed their bodies in public for killing a national and forming a gang that committed robberies across several towns in the kingdom, the interior ministry said.

The five were executed in the southwestern town of Jizan, bringing the number of people executed in the kingdom this year to 46, according to an AFP tally.

A witness in Jizan told AFP that the five men were displayed in public near a university.

In a picture posted on Twitter (left), five men are seen hanging from a rope tied to their waists on a horizontal bar between two cranes. It was unclear if they were beheaded or shot.

The ministry said that Khaled, Adel and Qasim Saraa as well as Saif Ali Al Sahari and Khaled Showie Al Sahari had formed a gang which committed “several crimes in various regions in the kingdom and robbed stores.”

The five had killed Ahmad Haroubi, a Saudi, by beating him up and strangling him, it said.

In March, a Saudi firing squad executed seven men convicted of armed robbery in public despite last-minute appeals by rights groups that their lives be spared.

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

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

Source: Agence France-Presse, May 21, 2013

Official number of Guantanamo Bay hunger strikers jumps to 100

http://rt.com/news/guantanamo-bay-hunger-strikers-502/

The official number of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay reached 100 on Saturday – three more than the day before. Twenty of the detainees are receiving enteral feeds, five of whom are being observed in a detainee hospital.

Lawyers for the detainees contest the official numbers, saying that some 130 prisoners are actually taking part in the protest. The hunger strike began around February 6, when detainees claimed prison officials searched their copies of the Koran for contraband, according to their attorneys.

Prisoners are also protesting their extrajudicial incarceration at the prison. Most of Guantanamo Bay’s 166 detainees have been cleared for release or were never charged, a situation that has prompted criticism from human rights organizations.

The Executioner's Tale: A Talk With One of Yemen's Designated Killers

Public execution in Yemen
Sanaa, July 6, 2009

With a toothless grin Saleh Shamsadeen sits in the prison governor's office, right beside the family of an inmate sentenced to death. Clasping his aging AK-47 rifle, he jokes that their lawyer is trying to take his next customer away from him. As one of Yemen's executioners, Shamsadeen, 65, has shot dead at least 300 people on behalf of the state in a 12-year career in one of the country's provincial prisons, far from the more congested urban penitentiaries. That number suggests far more people are being executed than is officially acknowledged.

In figures released on Wednesday, Amnesty International welcomed a downward trend in countries carrying out the death penalty, including Yemen. But the country - with at least 28 executions recorded in 2012 - ranks 6th in the world behind China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the U.S., according to the annual report.

Executions at the prison in Ibb, Yemen's 5th largest city, take place between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. The prisoner lies facedown on a blue tarpaulin. A doctor with a stethoscope locates the heart through the condemned man's back and marks it with a large dot surrounded by a circle in red pen. The verdict is then read out. A brief pause ensues to allow the family of the person wronged - most likely killed - by the prisoner to decide if they are going to forgive the prisoner. If so, the proceedings will come to a halt. Shamsadeen says, in that event, he swings his gun to the sky and fires off the bullets in celebration.

If the aggrieved family remains silent, however, Shamsadeen will straddle the prisoner, aim at the dot and circle and fire at least two bullets at point-blank range. On two occasions, he says, it took 10 bullets to kill the condemned.

The numbers Shamsadeen cites suggest that executions in Yemen far exceed the Amnesty International figures. Certainly the 2012 statistic of 28 seems small. "I killed 101 people in 2001," he says, recalling his busiest year and blaming the spike in deaths on a particularly officious judge. He is currently running at about three executions a month in Ibb, where public executions were abandoned in 2004 after several gatherings came under attack by armed family members and fellow tribesmen attempting to make last-minute rescues.

Yemen is one of the most highly armed countries in the world - 2nd only to the U.S. Shootings and gunfights are common, and many of the death sentences are handed out for murder, according to strict Shari'a, which metes out judgment on the basis of an eye for an eye, a life for a life. The real figure for executions carried out in Yemen is further clouded by the country's tribal system, which acts as a substitute to state rule of law in rural areas untouched and ungoverned by central government and where justice is carried out via tribal sheiks. How many people are executed under urf (unwritten tribal law) rather than under the dysfunctional state judicial system is unknown.

Human Rights Minister Hooria Mashhour admits there are many problems within Yemen's judicial system - including corruption - that need to be addressed, but capital punishment will not be one of them. "Our system is based on Shari'a. For qisas [the Islamic law of retaliation] there has to be a death penalty," she says. Families of victims can opt to be paid "blood money" instead of pressing for execution - but in one of the poorest countries in the world, few of the condemned can afford such restitution.

Figures released annually by Amnesty International since 2007 show at least 165 people have been executed in Yemen in the past five years, but the rights group admits accurate figures are hard to come by. "Finding out the number of people executed in Yemen is not easy because of this lack of information," says Dina el-Mamoun of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa program. "The tribe is more powerful than the state," Mashhour points out. "All are equal in front of urf. But state justice at the moment doesn't guarantee equality."

Mashhour says Yemen's judicial system is set for review during the current period of fragile political transition following a yearlong uprising in 2011 in which President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to hand over power to his deputy. The ongoing National Dialogue, launched last month, will precede the writing of a new constitution. Says Mashhour, "The National Dialogue will give us the chance to make this change to a fully independent judicial system."

Shamsadeen, who was a prison guard for 20 years before taking on the role of executioner, likes to practice gallows humor - few other people are qualified. "I was in the appeals court once when a prisoner had their death sentence overturned," he says. "When the judge made the announcement, I stood up and shouted, 'I object. I object.'" He laughs at his own joke.

But the regularity of the executions takes its toll on the executioners as well. Talking to TIME on the night before carrying out a death penalty, Shamsadeen reflected on his work, for which he receives $140 a month for basic guard duty and an extra $47 per execution. "I am not happy to kill people," Shamsadeen says before describing how on 1 occasion he refused the order to execute an inmate. Mohammed Taher Samoum was 13 when he was arrested after playing with a gun that went off and killed a friend in 1999. 11 years later Shamsadeen was ordered to execute him. "I'd known him since he was a young boy in the prison. He was like a son to me." That apparently has saved the young man's life - so far. The other prison guards, he explains, "said I must have a heart of stone [because of the work], and if I didn't have the heart to kill him, no one would."

Asked if he would recommend his job to anyone else, he replies, "Anyone except my children." Then he oils his rifle and checks his bullets in preparation for the following morning. "The pain keeps you awake at night. I can't sleep sometimes remembering the people I've killed."

Source: TIME World, April 14, 2013

Death penalty 2012: Despite setbacks, a death penalty-free world came closer

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Press Release - Despite some disappointing setbacks in 2012, the global trend towards ending the death penalty continued, Amnesty International found in its annual review of death sentences and executions.

2012 saw the resumption of executions in several countries that had not used the death penalty in some time, notably India, Japan, Pakistan and Gambia, as well as an alarming escalation in executions in Iraq.

But the use of the death penalty continues to be restricted to an isolated group of countries, and progress towards its abolition was seen in all regions of the world.

Only 21 of the world's countries were recorded as having carried out executions in 2012 - the same number as in 2011, but down from 28 countries a decade earlier in 2003.

In 2012, at least 682 executions were known to have been carried out worldwide, 2 more than in 2011. At least 1,722 newly imposed death sentences in 58 countries could be confirmed, compared to 1,923 in 63 countries the year before.

But these figures do not include the thousands of executions that Amnesty International believes were carried out in China, where the numbers are kept secret.

"The regression we saw in some countries this year was disappointing, but it does not reverse the worldwide trend against using the death penalty. In many parts of the world, executions are becoming a thing of the past," said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

"Only 1 in 10 countries in the world carries out executions. Their leaders should ask themselves why they are still applying a cruel and inhumane punishment that the rest of the world is leaving behind."

The top 5 executing countries in the world were once again China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and USA, with Yemen closely behind.

Methods of executions in 2012 included hanging, beheading, firing squad and lethal injection. In Saudi Arabia, the body of 1 man executed through beheading was displayed in what is known as "crucifixion".

People faced the death penalty for a range of crimes including non-violent drug-related and economic offences, but also for "apostasy", "blasphemy", and "adultery" - acts that should not be considered crimes at all.

The Asia-Pacific region saw some disappointing setbacks in 2012, with India, Japan and Pakistan resuming executions after long periods when these countries were execution-free.

In November, India carried out its 1st execution since 2004 when Ajmal Kasab, 1 of the gunmen involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was hanged.

In Japan, 3 death row inmates were executed in March - followed by another 4 later in the year - ending a 20-month hiatus in executions there.

China once again executed more people than the rest of the world put together, but due to the secrecy surrounding the use of the death penalty in the country it was not possible to obtain accurate figures on the use of capital punishment in China.

But there were also positive developments in the region. Vietnam did not carry out any death sentence, while Singapore observed a moratorium on the death penalty and Mongolia ratified a key international treaty committing the country to abolition.

The Pacific sub-region continued to be a virtually death penalty-free area.

Although the Middle East and North Africa saw a few positive developments, use of the death penalty in the region is still a cause of great concern.

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen saw continued high levels of executions; 99 % of all executions in the region were carried out in these 4 countries.

In particular, there was an alarming rise in Iraq's use of the death penalty, where at least 129 people were put to death - almost double the 2011 figure of 68.

Iran once again came second behind China when it came to the number of executions.314 executions were officially acknowledged by the authorities, but the real number is almost certainly much higher as scores of other executions not officially acknowledged were also recorded.

The conflict in Syria made it impossible to confirm whether the death penalty was used there in 2012.

In the Americas, the USA remains the only country to carry out executions - the total number, 43, was the same as in 2011, but only 9 states executed in 2012, compared to 13 in 2011. Connecticut became the 17th abolitionist state in April, while a referendum on the abolition of the death penalty was narrowly defeated in California in November.

The English-speaking Caribbean remained execution-free; 12 death sentences were recorded in 3 of the sub-region's 12 countries.

In sub-Saharan Africa, there was further progress towards abolition. Benin took legislative steps to remove relevant provisions from its laws, and Ghana plans to abolish the death penalty in its new Constitution. There are no more prisoners on death row in Sierra Leone.

However, executions and death sentences imposed in the region increased substantially from 2011 to 2012, due to higher figures reported from Sudan and Gambia.

August saw the execution of nine people in Gambia - the country's 1st in almost 3 decades. Following an international outcry, President Yahya -Jammeh announced a "conditional" moratorium on executions which would be "automatically lifted" if crime rates increased. In Sudan, there were at least 19 executions and 199 death sentences.

Belarus continued to be the only country in Europe and Central Asia to carry out executions, and did so under strict secrecy, with at least 3 men put to death in 2012.

Latvia was the 97th country worldwide to become abolitionist for all crimes, after removing the last capital crimes from its legislation during 2012.

One argument frequently deployed by proponents of the death penalty is that it acts as a deterrent against crime. However, a major 2012 study in the USA concluded that the deterrence argument should not be put forward to justify the use of the death penalty.

"Governments still executing have run out of arguments to justify themselves. There is no evidence whatsoever to indicate that the death penalty works as a special deterrent against crime," said Shetty.

"The real reason for the death penalty's use can often be found elsewhere. In 2012, we were once again very concerned to see countries executing for what appeared to be political purposes "either as a populist measure, or as an outright tool of repression."

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The death penalty violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Source: Amnesty International, April 9, 2013

Saudi executes, crucifies Yemeni murderer

Riyadh: Saudi authorities on Wednesday beheaded a Yemeni man and then crucified his body after he was convicted of murdering a Pakistani national, the kingdom's interior ministry announced.

The Yemeni citizen Mohammad Rashad Khairi Hussain killed a Pakistani, Pashteh Sayed Khan, after he committed sodomy with him, said a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

The Yemeni was also convicted of carrying out a series of attacks and robberies.

The execution in the southern city of Jizan was followed by crucifixion, implemented by the ultra-conservative country for serious crimes.

The beheading brings to 28 the number of people put to death in Saudi Arabia so far this year.

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

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

Source: Agence France-Presse, March 27, 2013

Yemeni Man Beheaded and Crucified for Male Rape, Murder, Theft

April 15, 2013: A religious court in Saudi Arabia has executed and crucified a Yemeni man who robbed, raped and killed a Pakistani male migrant worker.

Saudi Arabia’s ministry of interior released a statement saying Mohammed Rashad Hussein, a Yemeni national, has been executed and crucified.

He was accused of murdering Sayed Khan, a Pakistani migrant worker.

He attacked him, stole from him and raped him before killing him.

The statement, released two weeks ago, was reported in some Arabic media but wasn't repeated in any English based media.

It added Hussein was trying to pick up men and harass them in-order to rape them in the city of Jizan, in the extreme south west of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

It also said that a court investigated and then convicted Hussein for multiple crimes, including banditry, theft, sodomy and murder, according to Sharia law, but did not specify the method of execution (if beheading or firing squad).

Ali, a 32-year-old gay law student in Jeddah told Gay Star News: ‘What the guy did was totally criminal and wrong, although I could not verify any other details than what has been reported by the Saudi press.

‘As for the act of male rape, sodomy, if a man was to rape a woman he would be treated in the same severity, so it is an aggravating factor but not itself the reason for the severe sentence.

‘Rape, along with violent robbery and drug dealing can be very severely punished by a public execution and crucifixion.

'The majority of capital punishments carried out in the Kingdom are involve public shooting or beheading, it is very likely the man was beheaded with a sword and then crucified, but I could not verify this either.

‘Most of those put to death are not Saudi citizens but migrant workers.

‘As a human rights advocate I do not support the death penalty.

‘I also think Saudi Arabia’s excessive sexual repression has a great deal to answer for, it is sadly not unheard of that men, out of extreme sexual frustration, do harass attempt to rape men and women.’

Source: gaystarnews.com, April 15, 2013

Related videos:

Saudis behead, crucify Sudanese man for robbery, rape and murder

Apr 21, 2012

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia beheaded and crucified a Sudanese man in Riyadh on Friday after he was convicted of raping, robbing and killing a woman, the interior ministry announced. ... Source: GulfNews, AFP, April 20, 2012 ...

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Yemen: Minor put to death for murder

Public execution in Yemen
Sanaa, July 6, 2009

March 9, 2013: Mohammed Haza'a was put to death by the Yemeni government despite legitimate questions as to whether he was under the age of 18 when he committed an alleged murder.

In 1999, Mohammed shot an intruder at his home in the central Yemeni city of Tiaz.

The man later died of his wounds. Various judges, including the one who made the initial ruling, determined that the killing was self-defense and that Mohammed was underage at the time of the crime. Ignoring these concerns, an appeals court eventually sentenced him to death.

Mohammed's execution was denounced by the European Union and comes on the heels of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report condemning the Yemeni government's use of the juvenile death penalty. Released last week, the report makes clear that international law, to which Yemen is a signatory, "prohibits, without exception, the execution of individuals for crimes committed before they turn 18."

Source: theatlantic.com, March 12, 2013

Yemen: Juvenile Offenders Face Execution; At Least 22 on Death Row; Dozens More at Risk of Death Sentence

Public execution in Yemen
Sanaa, July 6, 2009

Yemen's government should stop seeking and carrying out the death penalty for child offenders, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi should immediately reverse execution orders for three alleged juvenile offenders on death row who have exhausted all appeals and could face a firing squad at any moment.

The 30-page report, "'Look at Us with a Merciful Eye': Juvenile Offenders Awaiting Execution on Yemen's Death Row," found that at least 22 individuals have been sentenced to death despite evidence that they were under age 18 at the time of their alleged crimes. In the last 5 years, Yemen has executed at least 15 young men and women who said they were under 18 at the time of their offense. Most recently, on December 3, 2012, a government firing squad in Sanaa executed Hind al-Barti, a young woman convicted of murder whose birth certificate indicated she was 15 at the time of her alleged crime.

"President Hadi should break with Yemen's past of arbitrary justice and state-sanctioned violence by reversing the execution orders of the three young men with signed execution decrees," said Priyanka Motaparthy, children's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Ending executions of juvenile offenders is a clear and straightforward way for Yemen's government to show it honors its human rights commitments."

Hadi should order a review of all death sentences where there is doubt that the individual was at least 18 at the time of the offense, and commute all sentences when evidence regarding an offender's age remains inconclusive or in conflict, Human Rights Watch said. Yemen's penal code and international law prohibit the execution of juvenile offenders.

Human Rights Watch interviewed five young men and a young woman on death row in the Sanaa Central Prison, and reviewed case files for 19 other alleged juvenile offenders. Among those interviewed was al-Barti, who told Human Rights Watch in March 2012 that she had made a false confession after police officers beat her and threatened her with rape. Government authorities only gave her family a few hours' notice before her execution.

"There is strong evidence that Hind al-Barti was just a girl when she was accused of murder, yet she was sentenced - and received - the ultimate punishment," said Motaparthy. "The Yemeni government should have reduced her sentence if there was any reason to believe she was under 18 at the time of the crime."

Like al-Barti, several juvenile offenders told Human Rights Watch that they faced threats, physical abuse, and torture in police custody, which they said led them to make false confessions.

"They beat me with their hands, sometimes they would electro-shock me until I fell down," said Ibrahim al-Omaisy, one of the youths Human Rights Watch interviewed. "At that point if they had asked me, 'Did you kill 1,000?' I would have said yes out of fear."

The 3 alleged juvenile offenders who have exhausted all appeals are Mohammed Taher Sumoom, Walid Hussein Haikal, and Mohammad al-Tawil. Yemen's former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, signed their execution decrees before he left office in February 2012. The president's signature is the final step before carrying out death penalty sentences.

Haikal told Human Rights Watch that he was accused of murdering a man from his neighborhood in 2000, when he was in the seventh grade. He said that after his arrest, he spent two months at the Interior Ministry's Criminal Investigations Division, and that police beat and tortured him throughout his time there, leading him to make a false confession.

Since 1994, Yemen's penal code has also banned the execution of juvenile offenders and stipulates a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for individuals under 18 who commit capital offenses. However, juvenile offenders faced serious obstacles when they tried to prove their age in court, Human Rights Watch found. In some cases, defendants simply lacked the documentation to prove they were under age 18 at the time of their alleged crime. Yemen has one of the lowest birth registration rates in the world: among a population of more than 24 million, the government registers only 22 % of births, and only 5 % of births among poor and rural populations, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF.

Yemen's government should also establish an independent review committee - separate from the office of the public prosecutor- to develop clear procedures and guidelines for determining a defendant's age, Human Rights Watch said. The committee should have authority to examine both past and future cases, and should ensure that all juveniles accused of murder and other offenses have access to an independent impartial age determination process that considers medical evidence, impartial records, and interviews.

But even when the defendants have proof that they were under 18 at the time of an alleged crime, judges have blatantly ignored it, Human Rights Watch found. Bashir Muhammad al-Dihar, sentenced to death by a Sanaa trial court, told Human Rights Watch that during his sentencing, "the judge said that, 'even if he was 10 years old...the punishment for a murderer is death.'" In February 2013, al-Dihar was told that an appeals court had reduced his sentence to seven years in jail based on his age. He told Human Rights Watch that he feared Yemen's supreme court might reinstate the death sentence in his case.

Yemen has ratified both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which specifically prohibit capital punishment of anyone who was under 18 at the time of the offense.

When courts cannot establish conclusively that a defendant was 18 or older at the time of the alleged crime, international law indicates that the courts may not impose a death sentence. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, charged with interpreting the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has stated that, "If there is no proof of age, the child is entitled to a reliable medical or social investigation that may establish his/her age and, in the case of conflict or inconclusive evidence, the child shall have the right to the rule of the benefit of the doubt."

Yemen is 1 of only 4 countries known to have executed people in the last 5 years for crimes committed as children. The others are Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment.

"The government has a real opportunity to prove its commitment to protecting children - the most vulnerable members of its population - by reversing execution orders in urgent juvenile offender cases, and observing its own prohibition on the death penalty for juvenile offenders,??? Motaparthy said. "Sending child offenders before firing squads is hardly the way for Yemen to show that it respects human rights."

Source: Human Rights Watch, March 4, 2013

Yemen should stop child executions, says Human Rights Watch

Rights group calls on president to reverse orders for 3 juveniles on death row after at least 15 executed in 5 years.

Yemen has executed at least 15 young male and female offenders, all aged under 18 when they committed the offences, in the last 5 years, Human Rights Watch has said, urging the government to halt such executions.

The New-York-based group also called on the president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to reverse the execution orders of 3 juveniles on death row, whose appeals have been exhausted.

"Sending child offenders before firing squads is hardly the way for Yemen to show that it respects human rights," said Priyanka Motaparthy, children's rights researcher at HRW.

In a 30-page report, HRW cited the case of Hind al-Barti, executed by a government firing squad in Sana'a on murder charges. The group said the young woman's birth certificate showed she was 15 at the time of the alleged murder.

Barti told HRW in March 2012 that she had made a false confession after police officers beat her and threatened her with rape. Government authorities only gave her family a few hours' notice before her execution.

"There is strong evidence that Hind al-Barti was just a girl when she was accused of murder, yet she was sentenced - and received - the ultimate punishment," said Motaparthy.

"The Yemeni government should have reduced her sentence if there was any reason to believe she was under 18 at the time of the crime."

HRW said several other juvenile offenders it interviewed said they had faced threats, physical abuse and torture in custody, which they said led them to make false confessions.

Yemen's human rights minister Hooria Mashhour said Yemeni law prohibited the execution of offenders under the age of 18, but that people often lacked birth certificates to prove their age.

"Problems happen during procedures, during trials, where they treat the young offender as a fully responsible adult," said Mashhour, when asked about the HRW report.

"When rulings are issued and we, as ministry of human rights, intervene, the judiciary consider our action as interference by the executive branch in their work."

Hadi, who took office a year ago after popular protests forced the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit, is trying to reassert government authority in a nation that was lawless, chaotic and impoverished even before the political upheaval.

An official of a Yemeni group, the Seyaj Organisation for Childhood Protection, said it had managed to get the execution of an alleged child offender halted on Wednesday at the last minute after contacting Hadi. The juvenile, Mohammed Abdulkarim Hazaa, was not among the three named by HRW as on death row.

Source: The Guardian, March 4, 2013

Stepping Back From Capital Punishment

In December, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for a global moratorium on the death penalty. This fourth such vote in five years was supported by a record 111 nations.

Yet in the first month of 2013, Saudi Arabia beheaded nine people. In recent weeks, Yemen has sentenced a juvenile offender to death, fueling hunger strikes by scores of imprisoned children. Iran has reportedly begun imposing death sentences for petty criminals accused of robbery.

Elsewhere, a court in Indonesia, where there have been no state executions since 2008, sentenced a British grandmother to death for drug trafficking — reportedly to gasps of disbelief in the courtroom. Zimbabwe has hired a hangman after seven years of searching, while Sri Lanka, which has not carried out an execution since 1976, has reportedly recruited two executioners who are undergoing special training.

In the United States, the trend is toward fewer executions and death sentences, with more states repealing the death penalty. Nevertheless, in 2012 there were 43 executions and 77 death sentences.

Such developments make for grim reading. However, we at the International Commission against the Death Penalty — an independent body opposed to capital punishment in all cases — remain hopeful. It is clear that the world is becoming an increasingly lonely place for states that practice executions.

Much remains to be done, not least because a handful of states remain willing to risk international outrage, controversy and isolation by persisting with this cruel, inhuman and degrading practice. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen — all in the global spotlight in recent weeks — are accompanied by China, Iraq, North Korea and the United States as the world’s most prolific executioners year on year.        

Click here to read the full article

Source: The New York Times, Feb. 20, 2013

Yemeni authorities 'ignored pleas' to save Ahmed Saleh Abdullah al-Ma'ouri from execution

Yemeni policemen prepare Yahia al-Raghwa,
22,  for his execution outside the central
prison in Sanaa on July 6, 2009.

Yemeni authorities 'ignored pleas' to save prisoner from execution; Death sentences in Yemen are often passed after proceedings that fall short of fair trial standards

Authorities in Yemen "played deaf" to last-ditch calls to save a prisoner who was executed on Wednesday, Amnesty International has said.

Ahmed Saleh Abdullah al-Ma'ouri was shot despite repeated appeals by Amnesty International and after being pardoned by members of the victims' family - normally grounds for a reprieve under Yemeni law.

"We are dismayed that Yemeni authorities went ahead with this execution despite appeals to prevent it happening," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa.

"Until Ahmed's last moments, we were appealing for the execution to at least be delayed, but the authorities played deaf to pleas to save his life."

Amnesty International called for the execution to be halted on Monday, before learning on Wednesday from Ahmed's fellow prisoners that it was still due to go ahead.

In response to renewed calls for a reprieve, the head of the General Prison in al-Baydha told Amnesty International that a request had been submitted to the public prosecution for a postponement but that it had not responded.

An emotional Ahmed called Amnesty International on his way to the prison yard in what may have been his last phone call.

On being told Amnesty International had not been able to reach the public prosecution about his case this morning, he said officials had told him they would not consider appeals without receiving orders from the authorities.

A representative from the public prosecution was present, but refused to speak to Amnesty International when Ahmed tried to hand him the phone.

Ahmed, who had served around 10 years in prison, was executed by shooting at around midday Yemeni time (09:00 GMT).

"It appears that the authorities ignored all pleas to save Ahmed from execution, for reasons which are unclear," said Philip Luther.

"His case now becomes another statistic exposing Yemen's use of this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. We once again appeal to the Yemeni authorities to impose a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty."

Ahmed Saleh Abdullah al-Ma'ouri was 1st sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and son in 2003.

Some family members pardoned him and he was subsequently granted a pardon by then President Ali Abdullah Saleh in January 2006, but he was tried and sentenced to death again in September 2006 after other relatives of the victims lodged a fresh complaint.

Ahmed was pardoned for a 2nd time by the then President in 2010 on the basis that a pardon had been granted by the victims' family, but the presidential pardon was later withdrawn for reasons not known to Amnesty International.

Amnesty International has long-standing concerns about the use of the death penalty in Yemen, particularly as death sentences are often passed after proceedings which fall short of fair trial standards.

In 2012, dozens were executed. In 2011, at least 41 people were executed and in 2010, at least 62. Hundreds of people are believed to be under sentence of death.

Source: Amnesty International, February 13, 2013