Posts Tagged ‘death penalty’
December 12th, 2011
The
death penalty has been dropped against a
USA journalist in Philadelphia who has spent thirty years on death row.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing white police officer
Daniel Faulknerin 1981, will have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, after Faulkner’s widow reportedly persuaded prosecutors to stop pushing for the death penalty. The death sentence of Abu-Jamal, a former member of the African-American leftist group Black Panther, was
quashed in April, and the state of Pennsylvania was given six months to select a jury and hold a new sentencing hearing, or agree to a life sentence.
November 10th, 2010
Asia Bibi, a Christian mother-of-five, has
been sentenced to death for blasphemy. Bibi is accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad during an argument with a group of Muslim women. She has denied the charges and has told investigators that she is being persecuted because of her faith. It is thought she will now appeal in a local court in Sheikhupura, near Lahore. No one has ever been executed under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, most of those convicted are freed on appeal, although 10 defendants are thought to have been murdered whilst on trial.
November 3rd, 2010
British author Alan Shadrake has been found guilty of insulting Singapore’s judiciary in a book he wrote about the city state’s use of the death penalty.
(more…)
July 26th, 2010
The wife and brother-in-law of the lawyer who defended
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the mother of two who was sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery,
have been arrested. The lawyer, Mohammed Mostafaei, who is also a human rights activist, drew
international attention to the case, which eventually forced the Iranian authorites to
overturn the ruling. On Saturday his office was searched and he was arrested but later released.
March 4th, 2010
A factory worker has been
executed by firing squad in North Korea for divulging information to a friend in South Korea. The man, who has only been identified by his surname Chong, was accused of sharing the price of rice and other information on an illegal mobile phone with a defector. Seoul-based Open Radio for North Korea revealed that security officials raided the man’s house and found a Chinese-manufactured phone. North Korea does allow mobile devices to be used, but their range is limited to the capital Pyongyang. The country is notorious for its disregard of human rights and has no organised political opposition or a free media.
December 15th, 2009
Blogger and pro-democracy activist Nguyen Tien Trung is facing the death penalty after being charged with “trying to overthrow the government” and is due to be tried at the end of the month. Trung was arrested in July on a charge of propaganda against the state which related to blogs he had posted including an open letter to the government on education policy. According to his father he is now facing the more serious charge of “subverting the people’s administration”. His supporters believe the charges are intended to intimidate students who are calling for more press freedom. Read more
here
