Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire
Promoting human rights from Salisbury UK
We are pleased to attach the monthly minutes for the October meeting thanks to Lesley for preparing them. We discussed the Refugee, North Korean and Death Penalty campaigns, forthcoming films, Evensong at the Cathedral and Citizenship days at some of our schools.
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We attach the monthly death penalty report for October thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it.
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We attach an urgent action concerning a woman, Zeinab Sekaanvand Lokran in Iran who is at imminent risk of execution. The story – which we hope you will find time to read – is pretty horrific involving torture and a stillborn child. If you can write or email that would be appreciated.
She confessed to murdering her abusive husband, was denied access to a lawyer, beaten in a police station until she confessed and then lost her child due to shock. She has received no treatment or help after her miscarriage.
The World Day Against the Death Penalty was created in Rome on 13th May 2002, with 10th October 
established as the date for its annual commemoration in 2003. The World Coalition against the Death Penalty has 158 member organisations, made up of NGO’s, Bar Associations, local bodies and Unions.
Amnesty International is a member of the Coalition. It has been working to end executions since 1977, when only 15 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. That number has now risen to 140.
Since that date –
The United Nations Moratorium on the Death Penalty calls for States maintaining the death penalty to establish a moratorium on its use, with a view to abolition, and in the meantime to restrict the number of offences punishable by execution, and to respects the rights of those on death row. It also calls on States that have abolished the death penalty not to reinstate it. (Note: UN resolutions are not binding).
Amnesty International is calling for:
The Salisbury Group have included the abolition of the death penalty in its campaigns from the
beginning. It is currently focusing on the sentencing to death and execution of juveniles, in particular in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
For this year’s World Day, Amnesty are highlighting the case of the Japanese prisoner, Matsumoto Kenji. The Salisbury Group manned a stall at the NWR Conference on Saturday, (see photo) in the course of which they collected 50 signatures on cards calling on the Minister of Justice to halt the execution, to end the use of solitary confinement for death row prisoners and to end the use of the death penalty in Japan.
Matsumoto Kenji factsheet (pdf)
Sources:       World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Wikipedia, Amnesty International
The following three factsheets have been produced by the group for use on stalls and on campaigns generally. They can be downloaded here (pdf files). One is about the group and what it does and has achieved; another is a death penalty case in Japan for the World Day Against the Death Penalty on Saturday, and the last is about refugees.
[If any Amnesty group would like one of these sheets we are happy to modify them, with their own group details on for example, and send you an amended pdf]
We attach minutes of the September meeting thanks to group member Lesley for preparing them.
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Three year report on the group’s activities is published
The three year report, prepared by our chair, is published and shows what we have achieved over this time. It is always interesting to look back and review progress and for a small group, we have done a lot in the last 3 years.
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The death penalty report is now available thanks to group member Lesley for the work in putting it together. The report covers several countries but it must always be remembered that China leads the world in executing its citizens.
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We attach the latest monthly death penalty report with thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it. A fairly full report with a big section on Turkey which is contemplating reintroducing the death penalty following the recent failed coup.
There is something of an execution spree going on in Indonesia at present with a number of people already executed by firing squad and more likely to follow. This is a message sent out by Amnesty UK: –
I’m getting in touch with sad news. Last night, Indonesian authorities killed four prisoners by firing squad. All four had been convicted of drugs crimes, their families only told yesterday morning that their loved one would be killed that night.
Indonesian Fredi Budiman, and Nigerian prisoners Humphrey ‘Jeff’ Jefferson Ejike, Michael Titus Igweh, and Seck Osmane had their right to life taken from them in the depth of night in the middle of a raging storm. They were shot dead by a firing squad on Indonesia’s infamous ‘execution island’.
But ten more prisoners received a last-minute stay of execution.
The lives of ten more people hang in the balance. And we need to make sure the Indonesian authorities do not go ahead with these executions.
Thanks to [Amnesty supporters] contacting the Indonesian authorities and sharing the story, the tragic execution of four people last night made headlines around the world. All we can do now is keep calling for justice and for an end to the executions – with the hope that pressure from around the world will save the ten lives at stake.
Do please share our action to stop the remaining executions. Go to the Amnesty UK site for more details on how to take action.
action@amnesty.co.uk
