Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire
Promoting human rights from Salisbury UK
The latest death penalty report is now available thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it. It contains information on death penalty matters in Bangladesh, Turkey, USA and other countries. The report, as ever, is unable to include any information about China where details of executions are a state secret. It is believed to be the world’s largest executioner.
August – September Report 2019
The current issue of the monthly death penalty report is now available thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it. A number of countries are featured including, as ever, the USA, and Japan which has executed several people recently.
You may want to join a small group by writing one of the urgent actions featured in this report. We have several members who do this in the privacy of their own hom
We have a number of events planned in the period between now and Christmas so these are listed below. Please note that some are yet to be fully confirmed and dates may change for one or two so please check here or on our Facebook or Twitter pages for updates.
7 September Coffee morning at St Thomas’s church in Salisbury. After an absence of several years we are pleased to be able to host this event again in this church. It would be a good time to make yourself known if wish to join us. We hope to show a looped film.
8 October THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED Author and journalist Paul Mason is coming to speak at the Salisbury Methodist church starting at 7:30. Paul has written a book Clear Bright Future and the issue of human rights in the modern age is discussed. We are awaiting confirmation from his agent over the date. Note this event is postponed from June hence the link text saying it was ‘cancelled’.
10 October World Day Against the Death Penalty. Details of any event nearer the time. See our latest DP report.
24 October As part of schools Citizenship programme, we shall be giving a presentation at Bishops Wordsworth. We rather regret few schools take part in this so if any teacher in the Salisbury area is reading this and would like a presentation in their school, please get in touch.
December Evensong at the Cathedral. Date to be agreed. All welcome. Photo shows the Amnesty candle in the Cathedral. 
13 November Film at the Arts Centre. The film is Nae Pasaran about a group of Scottish workers refusing to repair aircraft engines destined for the Chilean government after the coup which took place there.
17 December Our annual carol singing event in the Victoria Road, College Street, Marlborough Road area with members of the Farrant Singers. This is a popular event and several families come into the street to listen to a selection of carols properly sung by this choir.
We look forward to seeing you at one or more of these events.
Carol singing in 2018
Attached is the monthly death penalty report for mid June/July 2019 compiled by group member Lesley. It covers a number of countries and in addition to the usual suspects, includes Sri Lanka which is planning to start executing it citizens again.
Note that China is not included which is believed to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world put together but the details are a state secret.
Amnesty International has received reports indicating that the President was due to consider signing execution warrants as early as the week of 24 June. Should this be confirmed, up to 13 prisoners would be put at imminent risk of execution.
There is completely secrecy around the dates of any scheduled executions, as well as identities of the death row prisoners most at risk. Amnesty International has not been able to confirm whether the individuals had fair trials, access to lawyers or whether they were able to engage in a meaningful clemency process. Sri Lanka has not implemented this ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment for more than four decades. It should continue to honour a tradition that chooses life instead of vengeance.
Source: Amnesty
The US is the only country in the Americas which still has the death penalty.
There is an opportunity to join Amnesty members for a protest outside the American Embassy on the continued use of the penalty. They will be gathering signatures for a petition and, to illustrate the barbarity of the practice, you can also tweet a picture of yourself sitting in our mock electric chair.
Meeting at 1:30 in the small park opposite the US Embassy on 30 June.
Belarus remains the only country in the whole of Europe and the former Soviet Union which still carries out death sentences. Only days ago, news emerged from Belarus that another death row prisoner had been executed. This was not officially confirmed as the Belarusian authorities do not publicly confirm executions or even tell families of death-row prisoners that their loved ones have been executed until weeks after it has happened.
Join Amnesty and international activists on 8 July for a discussion, exhibition and short film regarding the brutal reality of Europe’s last executioner.
Details: deathpenalty@amnesty.org.uk or on Facebook
While a lot of attention – quite rightly – has been focused on the plight of Zaghari-Ratcliffe, there are other things going in that country including the execution of minors. Below are details of an urgent action which if you have time, we would be grateful if you could send a message of some kind. There is an option to tweet.
Danial Zeinolabedini, an 18-year-old imprisoned in Mahabad prison, West Azerbaijan province, is at risk of execution. He was sentenced to death in June 2018 after an unfair trial in which he was convicted of a murder that took place when he was 17 years old. His execution would be a grave violation of international law.
Further details from an Iran human rights group.
If you live in the Salisbury, South Wilts area and would like to join us, you would be very welcome. The best thing is to keep an eye on this site and come along to an event and make yourself known. It is free to join locally.
Attached is the latest monthly death penalty report thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it. It is a little longer than usual as there seems to be a lot of activity on the DP front. Please note that there is no reporting from China which executes more of its citizens than the rest of the world combined but the details are a state secret.
In our links at the bottom of the site page, we have just added Human Rights Connected https://humanrightsconnected.org/ a Washington DC based organisation
Many people were outraged at the treatment Asia Bibi received in Pakistan and have written letters in support of her. We have today (12 June 2019) heard that she has been acquitted.
Asia Bibi is a Christian farm worker, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010. After an eight-year ordeal, Pakistan’s Supreme Court acquitted her of all charges and released her in October 2018. Following the decision by the Supreme Court to uphold her acquittal on 29 January 2019, it was confirmed by the Pakistani Foreign Office on 9 May that she had left Pakistan and safely arrived in Canada to be reunited with her family.
We are extremely grateful to supporters who wrote appeals to not only acquit Asia Bibi but to also ensure her safe passage out of Pakistan. Her wrongful death sentence has also helped bring more nuance into the discourse around the blasphemy laws and their rampant misuse. Offered asylum in Canada, Asia Bibi can begin to live her life as a free woman.
We thank you, for standing with Asia Bibi during her ordeal. It’s a great relief that Asia Bibi and her family are safe. She should never have been imprisoned in the first place, let alone faced the death penalty. Omar Waraich, Deputy South Asia Director at Amnesty International.
Source: Amnesty press release
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 