FEATURED POST

Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

Published
Image
Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

Iran continued frenetic pace of capital punishment in 2011

Published
PARIS, Feb 23 (KUNA) - Iran now holds second position in absolute numbers among world nations executing its people and ranks only behind China in carrying out an expanding policy of capital punishment. But in "proportional per capita" terms, Iran leads all countries carrying out death sentences worldwide, according to information from Human Rights groups here.

Iranian authorities have kept up an alarming cadence of executions that began after the troubled elections in that country in 2009 and is using capital punishment as a means of political repression and terror, the sources indicated.

"China executes thousands every year but, proportionately, Iran is the leader based on their comparative populations," Nicolas Braye, an official at "Together Against the Death Penalty (TADP)" said Thursday.

Moreover, Iran only announced 62 percent of cases of capital punishment in 2011, when the number of executions rose to 676 from 646 a year earlier. The government officially acknowledges putting to death 416 people last year, and 60 of these were public events, Braye indicated to KUNA in an exclusive interview.

"What distinguishes the 2011 report from those of preceding years is the dramatic increase in the number of public executions," the NGO said.

"Iran is using executions to terrorise the population," Braye affirmed.

"What it seems from the numbers is a deliberate policy to terrorise people and deter any notion of adopting an 'Arab Spring' stance by the people," he added in the interview.

The NGO said the number of public executions in 2011 had tripled compared with those in preceding years and this is being viewed as a government method to discourage any political dissent or "non-conformist" behaviour.

"Iran is also one of the only countries to use the death penalty as a means of repression against political opponents. A recent law approved by the Guardians of the Revolution Council has increased the number of crimes punishable by death. Three Internet site designers are currently on death row, " the abolitionist NGO said.

Braye also noted that Iran had executed four juveniles who were underage when they were sentenced and he dismissed as "unsatisfactory" ambiguous Iranian efforts to modify the law to protect minors from capital punishment.

"They are still considering the 15-18 age group as (adults) but have protected the below 15 year-olds," he observed.

The official and his NGO defended the reliability of their sources, saying that almost two-thirds of executions were officially announced in Iran and the remainder were confirmed through independent sources.

Source: Kuwait News Agency, Feb. 23, 2012
Location: Iran
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

Published
Image
Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.
Read more

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

Published
Image
The following document is a written record of convicted killer Hamida Djandoubi's last moments before he was guillotined in a Marseilles prison on September 10, 1977. This written record -- dated September 9 -- was written by a judge appointed to witness the execution. Djandoubi's execution was the last execution carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. Then-President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had voiced his "loathing for the death penalty" before he was elected to office, flatly turned down Djandoubi's appeal for clemency and chose to let "Justice run its course", as he did on two previous instances ( Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977). Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was executed in Marseilles' Baumettes prison in September 1977. The following text was writ
Read more

Cruel and Unusual: Documentary explores epicenter of Texas’ prison system

Published
Image
Every few years, from childhood until my late teens, my granddad would take me along with him to the small Texas town where he grew up—Normangee, population 522—to visit old relatives and even older graves. The drive took us up I-45, beyond the Houston sprawl, past pine forests, and eventually through Huntsville, epicenter of the state prison system. One of the city’s seven prisons was just off the interstate, and as we passed by I’d stare at the guard towers and barbed wire before turning my attention across the street to the Texas Prison Museum, which had its own mock guard towers in the parking lot. (“Prison” and “museum” were words that never seemed to go together.) Later, I learned that the museum’s central attraction was the wooden electric chair the state used for executions until 1964.
Read more

Saudi authorities agree to postpone execution of Kenyan national

Published
Image
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13 – Saudi Arabia has acceded to Kenya’s request to postpone the execution of Stephen Munyakho that was set for Wednesday to allow for further negotiations between all parties. According to Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya will be engaging stakeholders in Nairobi and Riyadh, including religious leaders, to agree on the next urgent steps.
Read more

Missouri | Man Facing Execution Next Month Is Hospitalized With Heart Problem

Published
Image
David Hosier, who is weeks away from execution, is in a hospital after suffering what a Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman described as a “medical emergency." ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri death row prisoner who is due to be executed next month has been hospitalized because of a “medical emergency,” a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections said.
Read more