Death Penalty News

Navid Afkari was a wrestling champion in Iran and his success in his country's No1 sport made him a hero.  But in 2018, Afkari was arrested after taking part in widespread protests against the Iranian regime He said he was tortured into confessing to murder and Amnesty International said his trial was 'grossly unfair'. Afkari was hanged last September, aged 27. Now, his name is used as focal point for those continuing their resistance against Iran's rulers. If things had been different, Navid Afkari could be fulfilling a lifelong dream of representing Iran in Olympic wrestling this week. (...) Last September, he was hanged in Iran for a crime he insisted he didn’t commit, executed by the country he longed to represent. Wrestling is Iran’s national sport, its history stretching back to the days of ancient Persia. They have won 43 Olympic medals, more than any other event in their history at the Games. And it’s clear to see how they are so good, with wrestling gyms popula...

The murder of wrestler Navid Afkari is the latest flashpoint in a history of human rights violations, notably against LGBTQ people. The International Olympic Committee has a history of banning countries from competing at the Olympic Games. From 1964 to 1988, South Africa was banned from competing due to its racist apartheid policies. In 2000, Afghanistan was banned for its treatment of women. Various countries were banned in the first half of the 20th Century for their involvement in the two World Wars. It’s time to add Iran to that list. Truth is, it’s been time for a while. The Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International paint a picture of an Iranian government steeped in “entrenched discrimination,” “torture” and “inhumane punishment.” LGBTQ rights are virtually non-existent there, as anti-discrimination policies are supplanted by an outright encouragement to discriminate. Gay people are executed in Iran simply for being gay, and the country’s foreign minister has cited “moral prin...

A Chinese man on death row for the 2003 slaying of a family of four was executed in Fukuoka on Thursday, marking the first inmate put to death since Justice Minister Masako Mori took office Oct. 31. Wei Wei, who had studied in Japan, was sentenced to death for the murder-robbery of a family in Fukuoka Prefecture.  The victims included an 11-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl. “For a self-serving purpose, the convict killed all the family members. … This is an extremely ruthless crime,” Mori said during a news conference. “We regarded very seriously the killing of four innocent people.” Wei, 40, conspired with two other Chinese men and killed Shinjiro Matsumoto, 41, a clothing dealer, his wife, Chika, 40, their son, Kai, 11, and daughter, Hina, 8, on June 20, 2003, and stole about ¥37,000 in cash.  Their bodies were found the same day in Hakata Bay, handcuffed and weighted down with dumbbells. The two accomplices fled to China where they were arr...

With a new imperial year and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, death row inmates are likely to be spared in the coming two years. Last year the Japanese government executed the highest number of prisoners in a single year since the death penalty resumed in 1993 after a five year pause. Japan is one of two developed democracies, the United States being the other, that continues to use the death penalty. But unlike the United States, the death penalty in Japan is neglected by the media and thus dodges a heated debate. Despite international scrutiny, Japan’s reluctance to abolish the death penalty and the execution method of hanging continues to draw protest by human rights advocates. In Japan, capital punishment is usually reserved for the most malicious and remorseless homicides. But as a discretionary system there are 18 crimes punishable by death that don’t have to end in death. This includes treason, attempted murder, armed robbery and kidnap. Sentencing is dependent on the...