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Indonesia | 14 years on death row: Timeline of Mary Jane Veloso’s ordeal and fight for justice

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MANILA, Philippines — The case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking, has spanned over a decade and remains one of the most high-profile legal battles involving an overseas Filipino worker. Veloso was arrested on April 25, 2010, at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, after she was found in possession of more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin. She was sentenced to death in October – just six months after her arrest. Indonesia’s Supreme Court upheld the penalty in May 2011.

Iran | Public hanging in Bandar-e-Deylam Beach Park, 2 executed in Shiraz

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Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); June 19, 2023: State media have reported the public execution of an unnamed man in a beach park in Bandar-e-Deylam in Khuzestan province.

This is the second public execution in 2023. Repeating its warning about the resumption of public executions, Iran Human Rights urges the international community for urgent action to stop these state crimes.

Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The international community must not tolerate such medieval punishments in 2023. Governments with diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic, particularly those in negotiations, must not turn a blind eye to these crimes.”

According to Fars news agency, a man was publicly hanged in a park beach in Bandar-e-Deylam, Khuzestan province, on 18 June. The unnamed man was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of two policemen on 29 March 2022.

Another unidentified man was publicly hanged for charges of efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth) in Maragheh on 25 May, less than a month ago.

2021 was the first year in over a decade during which no public executions were carried out by the Islamic Republic. This followed 2020 when only one execution was recorded, which was the lowest number since 2016, when Iran Human Rights started its systematic monitoring of executions in Iran. 

There is no indication that the decline in the number of public executions were the result of policy change, but rather a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. 

In 2022, public executions returned to the streets of Iran with two people publicly executed. At least five other men have been sentenced to public executions, including Afghan nationals Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeim Hashem Ghotali.

According to Iran Human Rights reports, at least 341 people have been executed in 2023 in Iran.

Two executions in Shiraz


Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); June 14, 2023: Alireza Shahcheraghi and Taher Nouri were executed for drug-related charges in Shiraz Central Prison.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Shiraz Central Prison on 11 June. Their identities have been established as Alireza Shahcheraghi and 38-year-old Taher Nouri. They were both sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court in separate cases.

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “Taher Nouri was arrested for drug-related charges around three years ago and sentenced to death.”

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

According to the 2022 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 256 people were executed for drug-related offences in 2022, a more than two-fold increase compared to 2021 (126) and ten times more than 2020 (25).

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, June 19-14, 2023


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde
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