Death Penalty News

PARIS (AP) — The trial of 20 men accused in the Islamic State group's coordinated attacks on Paris in 2015 that transformed France opened Wednesday in a custom-built complex embedded within a 13th-century courthouse. Nine gunmen and suicide bombers struck within minutes of each other at several locations around Paris on Nov. 13, 2015, leaving 130 people dead and spreading fear across the nation. It was the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II and one of the worst terror attacks to hit the West. The worst carnage was at the Bataclan concert hall , where three men with assault rifles gunned down scores of people and grabbed a handful of hostages. Other attackers targeted the national soccer stadium, where the president was attending a game, and as well as cafes filled with people on a mild autumn night. The lone surviving attacker from that night, Salah Abdeslam, is the key defendant — but he has so far refused to speak to investigators, denying them answers to many...

✔ Click here to Google translate the following story into your own language Le 29 avril 2015, Serge Atlaoui, condamné à la peine capitale en Indonésie pour trafic de drogue échappait in extremis à son exécution mais il reste depuis incarcéré dans le couloir de la mort. "On est traumatisés, on a du mal à se replonger dans cette période", souffle l'épouse de Serge Atlaoui. Quand la fin avril approche "on revit toute cette souffrance et cette cruauté", témoigne Sabine Atlaoui, 46 ans.  De cela, elle ne parle pas avec son mari, de dix ans son aîné. "On évite de s'infliger cette douleur", glisse cette secrétaire, employée en Moselle. Serge Atlaoui avait été arrêté en 2005 lors du démantèlement d'un laboratoire clandestin d'ecstasy, dans la banlieue de Jakarta. Soudeur de profession, il soutenait n'avoir fait qu'installer des machines dans ce qu'il croyait être une usine d'acrylique. Ce travail au noir, il l...

French citizens are among the biggest contingent of overseas fighters who have joined IS, with around 1,000 nationals estimated by counter-terror officials to have travelled to Iraq and Syria. France doesn't want them back. France's attitude to the killing of its citizens in Syria fighting for the Islamic State group has rarely been as frankly stated as it was in the lead up to the fall of Raqa. "We are committed along with our allies to the destruction of Daesh (Islamic State) and we're doing everything to that end," Defence Minister Florence Parly told reporters at the weekend. "What we want is to go to the end of this combat and of course if jihadists die in the fighting, then I'd say it's for the best," she added. French citizens are among the biggest contingent of overseas fighters who have joined IS, with around 1,000 nationals estimated by counter-terror officials to have travelled to Iraq and Syria. Their return hom...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's remarks over reinstating capital punishment following the approval of constitutional amendments in the April 16 referendum has triggered a fresh debate, collecting warnings from European allies. Erdogan said during his arrival to Ankara from Istanbul on April 17 that he would approve the return of the death penalty if the parliament passes such a law to pay respect "to our martyrs." "If [a bill] comes before me, I will approve it. But if there isn't support [from opposition MPs], then we could have another referendum for that," Erdogan said late on April 16 to a crowd in Istanbul, which chanted for its reintroduction. A referendum on restoring the death penalty in Turkey would constitute a break from European values, the French president's office warned on April 17. France said the organization of a referendum on the death penalty would "obviously be a break with values and engagements" that w...

Medieval: Public caning in Indonesia's Aceh province Indonesia’s Aceh province was allowed to implement Sharia law in 2014.  Public canings like the one in the photo on the left of a man accused of adultery have been staged ever since. Now two men accused of gay sex could become the first to face a lashing. The Associated Press reports that neighbors identified the men, both in their early 20s, as a gay couple. And a disturbing video online allegedly shows the moment when a group bursts in on the two naked men in a room, blocking the door, as one man frantically calls for help on a cell phone.  The men could face 100 lashes with a cane, because even though Indonesia does not criminalize homosexuality, Sharia law does.  Indonesia has been lurching toward religiosity. A story last year in The New York Times warned of an impending antigay crackdown that spreads outside of Aceh. There were reports of “Islamic vigilantes” who searched boarding houses f...

Indonesian President Joko Widodo and French President François Hollande During a meeting on Wednesday President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and French President Francois Hollande apparently failed to discuss Indonesia’s controversial policy on the death penalty that France has repeatedly criticized. France had several times requested Indonesia halt the plan to execute one of its citizens, Serge Atlaoui , who was put on death row after being convicted of drug charges, warning that the relationship between the two countries could suffer if it went ahead. Foreign Affairs Minister Retno LP Marsudi, who accompanied Jokowi during the meeting, said that the two leaders discussed ways to improve bilateral ties between Indonesia and France, but none of the topics were related to Serge’s fate or Indonesia’s death penalty. “There was no [such topic discussed],” Retno said at the State Palace. Hollande was in Jakarta for a one-day state visit as part of a week-long Southeast Asian tr...

Police officers on Nusakambangan island, where executions are carried out. JAKARTA (AFP) - Indonesia's President Joko Widodo said he would restore a moratorium on the death penalty if he won the backing of the people, after a spate of executions that drew international condemnation. Joko declared an anti-drugs campaign soon after coming to power in 2014 and refused all requests for pardons from death-row drug convicts, ending a four-year moratorium. But in recent months he has softened his position. Asked in an interview with AFP on Monday whether he would consider a moratorium, he said: "Why not? But I must ask my people. "If my people say OK, they say yes, I will start to prepare," he said. A moratorium could be the first step towards abolishing the death penalty, a move which needs approval in parliament which has been discussing the issue for the past year. However, he said it would be difficult to secure parliamentary backing without...

Serge Atlaoui L’ultime grand voyage international du président de la République, en Indonésie, devrait voir s’inviter le sort du Français Serge Atlaoui, condamné à la peine de mort pour trafic de drogue et emprisonné dans les geôles indonésiennes depuis 2005. François Hollande terminera ce mercredi 29 mars sa tournée en Asie du sud-est par l’Indonésie, le plus grand pays musulman du monde.  C'est l’ultime grand voyage international du président de la République. Le dernier président français à s'être rendu en Indonésie est… François Mitterrand en 1986.  Une trentaine de contrats devraient être signés dans les domaines de la défense, dans le domaine maritime (l’Indonésie comprend 17 000 îles !) et le développement urbain durable.  Il devrait être aussi question, mais discrètement, du sort du Français Serge Atlaoui, condamné pour trafic de drogue à la peine de mort et en prison depuis 2005. Fabrique d'acrylique ou de drogue ? Le Français a to...

President Erdogan of Turkey President Erdogan of Turkey has told supporters that he will approve the death penalty being reintroduced if parliament votes for it . Amid an ongoing crackdown since an attempted coup was suppressed, the president appeared outside his Istanbul residence as the crowd called for capital punishment to be restored. “This issue will be discussed in parliament, these villains have carried out bombings and I believe that political parties in parliament will make the right decision,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his cheering followers. “As the (executive) authority, I hereby announce my decision that if they make such a move, I will approve it.” Erdogan highlighted other countries around the world such as America and China that have the death penalty, and said “only in European Union” nations was it banned. Brussels’ warning Ankara outlawed capital punishment in 2004 as part of its bid to join the EU. Officials in Brussels have warned that...