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

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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)

Pakistan: "Death the only punishment for blasphemer"

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The Federal Shariat Court (FSC) has ordered for deletion of life imprisonment term from "Tahafaz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat" law, saying sentence in blasphemy case is only death sentence and awarding any other punishment in this respect is not lawful.

A 5-member larger bench of the FSC, headed by Justice Fida Hussain, was hearing a contempt of court petition filed by Hashmat Habib on Wednesday. While pronouncing the judgment, the bench said the FSC had given a decision in 1990 that life imprisonment, mentioned with death sentence in blasphemy law should be deleted as any blasphemous act is not acceptable and the blasphemer is liable to be punished under death penalty.

Hashmat Habib had filed petition in FSC that court's 1990 decision has not been implemented so far. He prayed the court to issue orders for implementation of this verdict besides initiating contempt of court proceedings against those who have failed to implement the decision.

Source: Pakistan Today, December 4, 2013
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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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

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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
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Saudi authorities agree to postpone execution of Kenyan national

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Tennessee | New law allows death penalty for child rape

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