FEATURED POST

Singapore | Inside the prison that executes people for supplying cannabis

Published
Image
Singapore CNN  — Though he is provided with a straw mat, Matthew says he prefers to sleep on the concrete floor of his cell in the maximum-security wing of Singapore’s Changi Prison. “It’s more cooling that way,” says the 41-year-old former schoolteacher, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and seven strokes of the cane for selling methamphetamine. CNN met Matthew, who spoke on condition that his last name be withheld, during an exclusive tour of Changi Prison provided by Singapore authorities as they defended the city-state’s uncompromising position on drugs.

Iraq executes 3 former Saddam officials, 4 prisoners for terrorism

Published
BAGHDAD, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Iraq executed three former officials of ex-leader Saddam Hussein's government and four others convicted of terrorism, the Iraqi Ministry of Justice said Thursday, despite international calls to end death penalty in the country.

The ministry said the executed had committed crimes against humanity and murdered former government opponent Talib al-Suhail al-Tamimi in Lebanon.

One of the three convicts was Abed Hassan al-Majeed, a cousin of former leader Saddam Hussein and brother to Saddam's aid Ali Hassan al-Majeed, also known as Chemical Ali. The three were found guilty in the case of killing al-Tamimi, who was assassinated in Beirut in 1994, reportedly after planning a coup against Saddam Hussein.

The other four were charged for colluding in terror acts.

Iraq frequently announces execution of prisoners deemed to be " terrorists and criminals." That has sparked calls to abolish capital punishment by the UN mission in Iraq, the European Union and some international human rights groups. They have criticized the lack of transparency in Iraqi courts.

Death penalty in Iraq had been suspended for over a year since June 2003. But in August 2004 the Iraqi government reinstated it, saying it would curb widespread violence in the country.

Source: Xinhua, March 13, 2014
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Singapore | Inside the prison that executes people for supplying cannabis

Published
Image
Singapore CNN  — Though he is provided with a straw mat, Matthew says he prefers to sleep on the concrete floor of his cell in the maximum-security wing of Singapore’s Changi Prison. “It’s more cooling that way,” says the 41-year-old former schoolteacher, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and seven strokes of the cane for selling methamphetamine. CNN met Matthew, who spoke on condition that his last name be withheld, during an exclusive tour of Changi Prison provided by Singapore authorities as they defended the city-state’s uncompromising position on drugs.
Read more

Alabama executes Derrick Dearman

Published
Image
Derrick Dearman, who killed 5 in south Alabama axe murders, executed Thursday  Alabama death row inmate Derrick Dearman, who was convicted in the 2016 slayings of 5 people with an axe and 2 guns, was put to death Thursday night by lethal injection. He had given up his appeals earlier this year and volunteered to have his execution set.
Read more

After acquittal of ex-death row inmate, debate needed on Japan's death penalty

Published
Image
Japan should be ensuring the safety of its citizens, but instead it is taking people's lives. Is it acceptable to maintain the ultimate penalty under such circumstances? This is a serious question for society. The acquittal of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who had been handed the death penalty, has been finalized after prosecutors decided not to appeal the verdict issued by the Shizuoka District Court during his retrial.
Read more

Tennessee | A Death Row Pastor’s View of Executions

Published
Image
From 2010 to 2015 I was incarcerated at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, the site of death row for the men’s prison system. Though I wasn’t housed on death row, as the editor of the Maximum Times prison newspaper and, for a time, the chaplain’s clerk, I was on occasion able to visit. It was there that I was fortunate enough to meet author, prison volunteer and death row pastor Joseph B. Ingle.
Read more

Idaho | Firing squad chamber priced at $1M as state preps for next execution by lethal injection

Published
Image
The cost to maintain Idaho’s execution capabilities for prisoners sentenced to death, including upgrades to the area planned for a firing squad, has grown to nearly $1.3 million , according to the state’s prison system. The Idaho Department of Correction issued notice last week of changes to its procedures for lethal injection. These changes include the construction of an “execution preparation room” just before prisoners enter the execution chamber at the state’s maximum-security prison south of Boise. There, execution team members, with help from a “qualified physician,” will decide whether to use a standard IV or heightened means to inject the lethal chemicals.
Read more

Texas Supreme Court halts execution of man in shaken baby case after lawmakers’ last-minute appeal

Published
Image
The Texas Supreme Court halted Thursday night’s scheduled execution of a man who would have become the 1st person in the U.S. put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. Supporters of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002, turned to the Texas high court, which normally does not get involved in criminal cases, after both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, earlier in the day rejected appeals to halt his lethal injection.
Read more

Iran executes four for selling contaminated alcohol

Published
Image
Iranian authorities, on Wednesday, executed four people convicted of selling contaminated bootleg alcohol that killed 17 people last year.  The defendants had been sentenced to death in September 2023 for selling the contaminated alcohol that killed at least 17 people and put more than 190 others into a hospital in the province of Alborz, west of Tehran.  “The death penalty against four defendants in the case of poisoning caused by the consumption of alcoholic beverages was carried out at Karaj central prison,” the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said.
Read more

Iran | Man convicted on Sharia's "Judge Knowledge" due to lack of evidence hanged after family failed to raise blood money

Published
Image
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 16, 2024: Younes Akhtar Samar, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) based on elme-qazi and a qassameh ceremony due to the lack of evidence against him, was executed in Jiroft Prison after his family failed to raise the €300k blood money. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Jiroft Prison on 14 October. His identity has been established as Younes Akhtar Samar who was sentenced to qisas based on elm-e-qazi (knowledge of the judge) and a qassameh ceremony.
Read more

China | Man sentenced to death for murdering two kindergarten teachers in Shandong

Published
Image
19th September 2024 – (Qingdao) A 25-year-old man, Li Mouyong, was sentenced to death by the Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court on October 18 for the brutal murders of two kindergarten teachers in Pingdu, Shandong Province.  The court found Li guilty of intentional homicide, stripping him of his political rights for life. The tragic incident occurred on 11th December, when Li forcibly entered the rented accommodation of the two teachers, fatally stabbing one, Li Moufei, before proceeding to kill another teacher, Liu. 
Read more

Iran | Man Executed in Isfahan Due to Inability to Pay Blood Money

Published
Image
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 21, 2024: Mohammad Ashouri, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Isfahan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Isfahan Central Prison on 16 October. His identity has been established as 32-year-old Mohammad Ashouri from Mamasani county in Fars province. He was arrested six years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.
Read more