Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire
Promoting human rights from Salisbury UK
We attach the death penalty report for this month thanks to Lesley for her work on this. The news about 
Reggie Clemons is most welcome after years of campaigning, with the decision to ‘vacate’ the previous judgement. It shows that persistent campaigning does work. The decision by Mongolia to end the death penalty is welcome especially when you consider the barbaric activities of their neighbour.
On the dark side, Saudi continues to execute with a promise to put 50 people to death.
Salar ShadizadiWe attach an urgent action for a Young man who is facing execution in Iran. Iran is one of the world’s leaders in executions second only to China. Urgent actions are at the core of Amnesty’s work and involves writing to the country concerned and usually to its embassy here in the UK. There is some evidence that they have an effect, as in this case, where execution was at least delayed as a result of international pressure.
The attachment gives all the information and the back story so if you do have time to write that would be appreciated.
On 1 June, Atena Farghadani, a 29-year-old painter and activist, was sentenced to 12 years and nine months in prison simply because she was seen to be critical of the Iranian regime in her art and in her peaceful activism.
Atena had used her right to freedom of expression to show her dissent at a new government Bill in a cartoon she’d drawn; she associated with the families of political prisoners; she posted anti-government messages on Facebook.
Atena’s peaceful activism led to her arrest in August 2014, a period of detention and release before being rearrested in November.
In June 2015, she was prosecuted by the Iranian state and found guilty of charges including:
Atena’s trial lasted just half a day. The ‘evidence’ against her relied on Atena’s answers under long stretches of interrogation, while she was held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer or her family.
Atena is now imprisoned for 12 years and nine months, simply for being seen to be critical of the authorities.
Atena’s lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, visited Atena in prison after her trial and shook her hand. The handshake led to charges of ‘illegitimate sexual relationship short of adultery’ and ‘indecent conduct’ being brought against both Atena and her lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, who will be tried for those charges in due course.
Mohammad was arrested on 13 June for shaking Atena’s hand, and released three days later after he’d paid a bail amounting to around $60,000. Both Mohammad and Atena will be tried for indecent conduct and illegitimate sexual relationship for shaking hands in prison.
On 9 October we saw a note leaked from prison by Atena that said ahead of her trial for this ‘crime’ she was forced to have a virginity and pregancy test – apparently to investigate the charge against her. Such virginity testing is internationally recognised as a form of violence and discrimination against women and girls.
Iran’s judicial authorities really have reached a new low. Tell them they must immediately release Atena and investigate the mistreatment she says she’s experienced.
Atena has effectively been punished for her cartoons with a sentence that is itself a gross caricature of justice. No one should be in jail for their art or peaceful activism”
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty Deputy Director, Middle East and North Africa
Atena is a prisoner of conscience – she has committed no real crime. She is being unfairly punished simply for exercising her right to free speech, association and assembly. Iran has pledged to protect free speech, including through artistic activities, as a signatory of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Please sign the petition and call on Iran’s Supreme Leader and the Head of the Iranian Judiciary to release Atena immediately.
Last August, 12 members of the Revolutionary Guards came to Atena’s house. They confiscated her personal belongings, blindfolded her and took her to Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Atena was released in November last year, but rearrested just six weeks later. In the time that she was released, she gave media interviews and posted a video on YouTube describing how the prison guards had interrogated her for 9 hours every day for six weeks. She said that female prison guards had beaten her and subjected her to degrading body searches.
Just weeks after posting her YouTube video, Atena was once again arrested – possibly as reprisal for speaking out.
Atena was kept in solitary confinement for over two weeks when she was detained last year in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. During that time she was denied access to her lawyer or family. After her release from detention, she said that she’d been beaten by prison guards.
Three weeks after she was rearrested in January this year, Atena went on hunger strike to protest that she was being held in extremely poor prison conditions, in a jail that does not have a section for political prisoners. Atena’s health suffered considerably as a result; her lawyer told us that Atena had suffered a heart attack and briefly lost consciousness in late February as a result of her hunger strike.
Call on Iran to release Atena and reunite her with her family immediately: she has committed no crime.
If you are moved to sign the petition, please go to:
The minutes of the September meeting are now available thanks to Lesley. We discussed North Korea, the death penalty (see separate post on this), the forthcoming vigil on 17 October and agreeing to write to John Glen concerning his failure to reply to our letter of 5 August.
The 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.
Below is the death penalty report for August thanks to Lesley for its preparation. It links in part to other items on this blog and in particular the decision by the UK’s Foreign Office to drop explicit reference to the abolition of the death penalty from its list of policies.
We attach an urgent action concerning Iran, which along with Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia are the world’s leading executioners of its citizens. This concerns a juvenile who was 15 at the time of the alleged crime. He was charged with the murder of a friend but was denied access to a lawyer at the investigation stage and he alleges he was tortured in custody.
His execution has been delayed to 10 August so this case is urgent. It is believed that an astonishing 72 juveniles have been executed between 2005 and 2014 and around 160 are currently on death row.
Please write if you have time.
The media has devoted considerable space to the #executions of five people in #Indonesia. It has been on 
the main news and in all of the main papers in the UK to a greater or lesser extent. There is a general sense of outrage that the execution and the manner of its doing – that is by firing squad – are barbaric. One would be forgiven for thinking that Indonesia is the only place where people are being executed.
It isn’t. We must not forget that China continues to execute more than the rest of the world put together although the precise number is not known because it is a state secret. Executions continue at a faster rate than previously in Iran. Public beheadings still continue in Saudi Arabia. And in the southern states of USA, many are executed after spending years and years on death row. Pakistan has been busy too. The list is a long one.
Amnesty is opposed to the death penalty in all cases. We should be outraged wherever it happens not just in one country such as Indonesia. If you feel outraged at the use of this penalty, why don’t you join us and write letters or send emails? Follow this site or the Amnesty site for urgent actions.
This is the monthly report on the state of death penalty around the world, thanks to Lesley for compiling it.
The news that Ray Hilton has been released after 28 years on death row is both heartening and shocking. That the state of Alabama should have so badly conducted his trial and then refused to allow the fresh ballistic evidence to be heard, which was the only evidence against him, is particularly shocking. There can be few better examples of the dangers of this penalty than a case such as this.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 