Tag: China

#Deathpenalty report for September now available


No to the death penaltyThe death penalty report for September is now available thanks to Lesley for compiling it.  Links to other blog posts and in particular the continuing correspondence with John Glen MP concerning the government’s policy change on the death penalty.

Death penalty report, September

Report on possible reductions in the use of the death penalty by India and China.  This is to be welcomed although we cannot verify the situation in the latter country because the numbers executed are a state secret.

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#Deathpenalty report for June


No to the death penaltyAttached is the #Deathpenalty report for June prepared for the group by Lesley.  It reports on the increasing tide of executions in #Pakistan.  We note again that China doesn’t feature because, although they lead the world in the number of executions, it is a state secret.

Death penalty report

NB: the date given in the report for the World Day Against the Death Penalty should be 10th not 11th October.

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Deathpenalty report for May now available


No to the death penaltyThe monthly death penalty report is available here thanks to Lesley for compiling it.  A great deal of interest in the subject in the past month especially the executions in Indonesia.  The use of hair evidence by the FBI in America – which has led to a number of people being executed or dying on death row – has now been discredited.  Another interesting development is the criticism by the French President Francois Hollande of the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.  Like the UK, France has big arms sales contracts with the kingdom but unlike the UK, feels free to criticise them for their barbaric public beheadings.  The Willie Manning case is also featured.

May death penalty report

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Death penalty report


texas executionThis month’s #deathpenalty report is attached thanks to Lesley.  It makes depressing reading especially concerning countries in South East Asia and #Pakistan.

Report

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North Korean film


#northkorea

Kim Yong-Un
Kim Yong-Un

Sony Picture’s film The Interview, which was not screened due to the alleged hacking attack by North Korea, attracted considerable publicity at the end of last year.  It represented a flagrant attempt by North Korea – if indeed they are the culprits – to silence the screening of a film about the fictional attempt to assassinate the leader of that country, Kim Jong-un.

Amnesty International has released The Other Interview which features the story of Park Ji-hyu who fled starvation in North Korea and was then trafficked into China and sold as a slave to a farmer.  She was reported to the Chinese authorities as a defector and was forcibly returned to North Korea.  She was sent to one of their hellish prison camps where she faced starvation and torture.  She eventually managed to escape.

Amnesty International’s UK Director Kate Allen said ‘Sony has every right to make a comedy about North Korea.  We should all be worried when blackmail, threats to cinemas, and the hacking of private data are being used to censor and silence.

‘In reality, many people in North Korea are subjected to an existence beyond nightmares.  The population is ruled by fear with a network of prison camps a constant spectre for those who dare step out of line.

‘Thousands of people in the camps are worked to death, starved to death [or] beaten to death.  Some are sent there just for knowing someone who has fallen out of favour.

‘Amnesty is releasing The Other Interview so that people all over the world can hear first-hand how people in North Korea are suffering appallingly at the hands of Kim Jong-un and his officials.

‘They don’t want you to see it which is precisely why you should.’

A preview can be seen on YouTube.  We do not know if this film will be shown in Salisbury but we will see if we can arrange a viewing somewhere.

This is being written while the dreadful events are playing out in France following the assassination of journalists and cartoonists in the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.  This is another attempt – this time by violent means – to silence criticism and the particular kind of satire that this magazine goes in for.

The Salisbury group’s North Korean YouTube video clip can be see here.

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Death penalty report


This is the monthly #deathpenalty report with thanks to Lesley for compiling it.  One interesting fact is thatNo to the death penalty Indonesia has suspended an execution following the airline crash which has meant the eyes of the world’s media is upon them.

December Death Penalty report

We have added the Death Penalty Information site to list of links at the bottom of the home page

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Death penalty report: December


DEATH PENALTY SUMMARYNo to the death penalty

DECEMBER 2014

This is the summary for the group’s December meeting pulling together various news items about the use of the death penalty around the world.  We would like to draw your attention to a web site Penal Reform International, with useful information on the death penalty.  It is now in the list of links at the bottom of this site.

General

  • Ethiopia – Andrew Tsage, a political refugee in the UK since 1979, has been placed in solitary confinement and is under threat of execution.  He had been arrested at an Airport in Yemen, and sent on to Ethiopia.  International concern has been expressed at the deterioration of human rights and freedom of expression in Ethiopia.  David Cameron has written personally to the Ethiopian Prime Minister, but the Foreign Office say Tsage is not being held illegally.
  • USA –
  • Missouri – 19.11.14.  Leon Taylor was executed, despite disagreement over the type of sentence which should have been imposed.  This was the ninth execution in Missouri this year.
  • Texas – 4.12.14 – a US Federal Court issued a stay of execution hours before Scott Panetti was due to die, following representations from his lawyers regarding his mental health.
  • Saudi Arabia – 20.11.14 – the family of Simon Cumbera, an Irish national murdered while filming a news item, have expressed regret at the death sentence passed on Adil Sa’ad Al-Dubayti Al Mutayri.
  • Pakistan
  • Mohammad Asghar – David Cameron has commented in Parliament on the ‘appalling treatment’ received in prison by this Scottish man accused of blasphemy and shot while in prison.  Reprieve is trying to prevent his return from hospital to prison
  • 25.11.14 – Asia Bibi, the Christian woman sentenced to death following a conviction of ‘insulting the Prophet Muhammad, has filed her final appeal against execution
  • China – 25.11.14 – According to his lawyer, Nian Bin, a former death row prisoner acquitted of the charge of poisoning two children, is now being investigated again by the police.  They have refused to accept the Court’s decision and are restricting his movements.  Acquittals are rare in China, but this one prompted renewed calls for the abolition of the death penalty.
  • Thailand – 26.11.14 – Death sentences were passed by Pattani Provincial Court on five suspected militants convicted of killing four soldiers.  Human Rights Watch have accused Thailand of double standards, saying the Army was also responsible for rights violations.
  • Egypt – 2.12.14 following the dropping of murder charges against ex-President Hosni Mubarak, a Court sentenced 188 of his supporters to death in connection with the killing of 13 policemen in August 2013.
  • Cameroon – 3.12.14 – it was reported that Lawmakers are to vote on whether to implement the death penalty for people convicted of acts of terrorism.  This is in response to the activities of the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, on its border.
  • Indonesia – AI have called on the Indonesian Government to halt its plans to execute 5 people by the end of the year.

Urgent Actions

  • Bangladesh – UA283/14 – Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, a leading member of an opposition party, is at imminent risk of execution before being able to lodge an appeal.  Circulated to DPLWG 17.11.14
  • Iraq – UA300/14 – Ahmed Al-Alwani, a former member of Iraq’s Parliament, has been sentenced to death for killing two soldiers, following a trial marred with irregularities.  He has only a month to appeal.  Circulated to DPLWG 28.11.14. (This month’s Group DP Urgent Action)
  • Saudi Arabia – UA 309/09 – Ali Agirdas, convicted of drug trafficking after an unfair trial, was executed on 20th November.  His family learned of this through the media, and the authorities are refusing to release his body to them.  Circulated to DPLWG 28.11.14.
  • USA – Florida – UA 162/14 – the execution of Shane Kormondy has been scheduled for 15th January.  Kormondy was found guilty of the murder of Gary McAdams in 1993.  This would be the 21st execution under the governorship of Rick Scott.

Campaigning

  • Reggie Clemons – there has been no further news.  The Justice for Reggie website has not been updated since August.
Moses Akatugba
Moses Akatugba
  • Moses Akatugba – further cards were signed for Moses at the Amnesty Film Night at the Arts Centre
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Death penalty


#stoptorture #deathpenalty.  The November report on the death penalty is attached thanks to groupNo to the death penalty member Lesley for compiling this.

Death Penalty Report

Don’t forget you can access other sites with a human rights theme from the blog roll at the bottom of this page.

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#deathpenalty report


This is the monthly death penalty report thanks to Lesley.

General

  • UK
  • 19th Sept – A Death Row Pop Up Restaurant offering a ‘last meal without the nasty execution bit’ was due to open in No to the death penaltyHoxton, London.  Condemned by Amnesty as ‘in appallingly bad taste’, the owners initially issued an apology but later withdrew it, saying ‘all over the world there are attractions that have the potential to offend’
  • LC spoke with Kate Allen at the recent Stop Torture Campaign Skills Day and raised the Group’s concern that the Death Penalty was no longer a distinct campaign.   Kate noted our concern, but said AI needed to look more to local groups to take the campaign forward. 
  • Pakistan – Mohammed Asghar, the British Pakistani 70 year old with paranoid schizophrenia, sentenced to death for ‘blasphemy’ was shot and badly injured in his prison cell by a prison guard. There is an on-line 38 Degrees Petition calling on David Cameron to press his case with the Pakistan Government.
  • USA
  • 21st September – the third anniversary of the execution of the execution of Troy Davis.  An excerpt from the statement issued by the National Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty reads: ‘……. I am Troy Davis. And we are 90 million strong. You, Xxxxx, are Troy Davis, and we are 90 million stronger – because of you. Together we are building the ground-game state by state and nationwide to fulfil Troy’s wishes: to keep fighting this battle until we end the death penalty once and for all.’
  • Texas – News today (9 October) that Manuel Velez was released from prison following 6 years on Death Row and 9 years in prison. Convicted and sentenced to death in 2008 for the killing of his girlfriend’s child, in 2012 his death sentence was thrown out because of false testimony during the sentencing phase.  A new trial was ordered because of inadequate legal assistance in his original trial.  The DA’s office continue to maintain, however, that he contributed to the child’s death.  See a separate post on this subject. 
  • Afghanistan – Despite attempts by AI and other Human Rights Organisations to persuade the new President, Ashraf Ghani, to stop the execution of 5 men convicted of rape, they were hanged on 8th October.  There were accusations of a lack of evidence and forced confessions. 

Death Penalty Statistics for 2013

  • 778 executions were known to have been carried out in 22 countries
  • 1,925 people in 57 countries were known to have been sentenced to death
  • 23,392 people were known to have been on death row world-wide
  • These figures do not include the thousands of executions likely to have taken place in China where they are a state secret.

Urgent Actions

  • Iran – UA 85/14 – (update) Reyhaneh Jabbari – her execution date of 30th September was deferred, but she remains at risk as the family of the man killed (who Reyhaneh claims sexually assaulted her) could request her execution at any time.  David Cameron has spoken out on her behalf to President Rouhani, and been criticised for ‘unacceptable remarks’.  Circulated to DPLWG; posted on the Group’s blog – 1.10.14. This month’s Group Urgent Action.
  • Bahrain – UA 252/14 – Maher Abbas Ahmad – sentenced to death in February for the premeditated murder of a policeman at a ‘gathering’, has lodged his final appeal and could be at risk of execution. He told his lawyer he was tortured into making a confession. Circulated to DPLWG 9.10.14.

Campaigning

  • World Day Against the Death Penalty – 10th October.   The Group are asked to sign cards to be sent to Reggie Clemons
  • Death Penalty Stall – A signing event will take place on Saturday ll1th October from 9.00-12..00 mid-day in the Library Covered Way. We will be asking the public to sign cards calling for justice for Moses Akatugba, the young Nigerian tortured and sentenced to death for the alleged theft of three mobile phones.

 

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