Death Penalty News

Jakarta, Dec 14 (IANS) Indonesian Minister of Law Supratman Andi Agtas has said that President Prabowo Subianto would grant amnesty to several categories of prisoners, including drug users and prisoners with long-term illnesses. According to Supratman, the move aims to reduce overcapacity in correctional facilities while addressing humanitarian concerns, Xinhua news agency reported. Prisoners suffering from chronic illnesses like HIV/AIDS and individuals with mental disorders are among those eligible.

Uganda’s constitutional court on Wednesday upheld an anti-gay law that allows the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”  President Yoweri Museveni signed the bill into law in May last year. The law is supported by many in the East African country but widely condemned by rights activists and others abroad.

Manuel Guerrero Aviña, a dual British-Mexican citizen, has been arrested in Qatar after falling victim to a police-led Grindr sting. The former British Airways manager was detained on 4 February 2024 after replying to a fake message on the app. Gay sex in the conservative Muslim country is punishable by up to seven years in prison, and carries the death penalty under Sharia law, although this is unenforced.

Burundi’s president said gay people should be stoned, amid a larger crackdown on the LGBT community in the East African country. “If you want to attract a curse to the country, accept homosexuality,” Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye said in a question and answer session with journalists and the public last Friday, according to Reuters.

LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged the Anglican Church of Uganda to reject the country's new anti-LGBT law, saying there is no justification for Anglicans anywhere to support legislation that goes against the Christian teachings of the Gospel. Under the law, approved by President Yoweri Museveni in May, gay sex is punishable by life in prison while "aggravated homosexuality", including transmitting HIV, attracts the death penalty. Justin Welby, leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said he had written to Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba, the Primate of Uganda, to express "grief and dismay" at the church's stance.

Global outcry over Museveni’s assent to draconian new anti-gay law, condemned as a ‘permission slip for hate and dehumanisation’ Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has signed into law the world’s harshest anti-LGBT bill, which allows the death penalty for homosexual acts. The move immediately drew widespread international outrage as well as condemnation from many Ugandans. Early on Monday, the speaker of the Ugandan parliament, Anita Among, released a statement on social media confirming Museveni had assented to the law first passed by MPs in March. It imposes the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain same-sex acts, up to 20 years in prison for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, and anyone convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” faces a 14-year sentence.

Uganda’s Parliament passed a revised Anti-Homosexuality Bill on Tuesday, retaining executions for certain same-sex activity and introducing harsher penalties for some categories of ‘offences’. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had declined to sign into law an earlier version of the Bill after the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) had advised him that it would be open to various legal challenges, sending it back to Parliament to be tightened up. The inclusion of the death penalty in particular would leave the bill open to legal challenge in a country that has effectively ended the use of capital punishment, wrote DAG Kaafuzi Jackson Kargaba in a letter to the president. However, Parliament has voted to retain the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” – defined as sex with a child or disabled person or while living with HIV. A 20-year prison sentence for “knowingly promoting homosexuality” has also been retained.

The Governor of Jigawa State, Muhammad Badaru, has assented to a bill stipulating stiffer punishment for rapists. The new Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law stipulates the death penalty for rape convicts who infect their victims with HIV/AIDS. PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the state House of Assembly passed the bill last Wednesday and transmitted it to the governor for assent. While assenting to the bill, Wednesday, Mr Badaru commended the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Musa Aliyu, and the state’s Council of Ulamas for their collaboration leading to the passage of the bill. The governor said he assented to the bill after consultation with the Council of Ulamas who assured him that no section of the law is in conflict with Islam and the culture of the people of Jigawa State. The law, expected to be gazetted soon, also stipulates that the Sharia law will take precedence if any matter in the new law contradicts Islamic teachings. The chairman, Jigawa council...

President Donald Trump nominated federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court Saturday, a choice LGBTQ rights groups are concerned could lead to a reduction in the rights of LGBTQ Americans. The Supreme Court has historically been important for the advancement of LGBTQ rights, with its rulings giving gay and lesbian people marriage equality and recently, protecting queer and trans people from employment discrimination under federal law. And there are a number of important cases soon to come before the court; for example, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia is set to be heard the day after Election Day. That case, in which a religious adoption agency is seeking the right to turn away LGBTQ couples, will determine whether taxpayer-funded organizations are allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ people. Senate Republicans have already promised a speedy confirmation process to install Trump’s nominee before the election, suggesting Barrett...

From Brunei to Brazil, Budapest to Boise, LGBTQ+ people are fighting for their lives and dignity. On May 17, 1990, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders, recognizing homosexuality as a natural variant of human sexuality. This milestone now marks an annual celebration of sexual and gender diversities, known as the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). Yet the lasting impact of stigma, and “othering” is evident in the discrimination and abuse that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around the world continue to experience. “Breaking the Silence” is this year’s theme, under the pall of a pandemic that has had a devastating effect on lives and livelihoods across the globe. COVID-19 has affected people across divisions of race, class, and gender and exposed the fault lines of inequality, disproportionately affecting those on the social and economic margins . In a crisis, it’s easy to...

Iran Human Rights (IHR); May 15, 2020: According to informed sources, several cases of Coronavirus infection (COVID-19) have been identified in Ward 7 of Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj.  The authorities have claimed that the prisoners are infected with tuberculosis and have transferred them to unknown locations.  One of the three halls in Ward 7 is dedicated to tuberculosis and HIV prisoners, whose exposure to COVID-19 can be fatal. IHR has learned that in the past few days, several prisoners with COVID-19 symptoms at Ward 7 of Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj have been transferred to an unknown location.  Prison officials told inmates that the men had been taken to medical facilities for tuberculosis. An informed source also told Iran Human Rights that the head of Ward 7 and a caseworker [their names are protected by IHR] had contracted COVID-19. "All prisoners in Ward 7 of the prison have been tested for Coronavirus and seven cases were positive,” ano...

He said criticizing a religious leader's anti-gay statements is "an attack on the state." The president of Turkey said that a prominent cleric was “absolutely right” to say that homosexuality “brings illnesses.” This past Friday, the head of the Turkish government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) Ali Erbas used a Ramadan address to denounce homosexuality, which he said “brings illnesses and corrupts generations.” RELATED |  Turkey uses tear gas to break up gay pride gathering While he did not specifically mention the current global pandemic, Erbas said that homosexuality “causes” HIV, which is not true. “Come and let’s fight together to protect people from such evil,” he said. His comments drew criticism from the Ankara Bar Association, which said that they “came from ages ago” and would encourage hate crimes. They also accused the Diyanet of ignoring child abuse in religious institutions. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, yesterd...

Twenty-one-year-old Shamim Pretty has found shelter in a Kampala safe house for the past three years. Shamim Pretty is not her real name. She told VOA when she was 16 years old, her mother kicked her out of their home after learning that her daughter was transgender. Her mother also called the police. “When they took me to the police, my mother was there waiting for me,” said Pretty. “They really mistreated me. There was an officer who was very homophobic. He got hold of me and beat me up.” A group called Icebreakers Uganda provides help to members of the country’s LGBT community. The term LGBT is short for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. Icebreakers Uganda set up the Kampala safe house in 2012. That was the year before Ugandan lawmakers voted to increase the punishment for homosexuality from life in prison to death. Under pressure from Western governments, Uganda overturned the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2014. But gay sex remains illegal and members o...

In an effort to help curb Uganda’s HIV transmission rates, Africa’s leading HIV experts have issued a joint statement urging the government to end the criminalisation of homosexuality.  The International AIDS Society (IAS) Governing Council Africa regional representatives which include, Serge Paul Eholié from Côte d’Ivoire, Keletso Makofane from Harvard University, James G. Hakim from Zimbabwe and Kenneth Ngure from Kenya issued the joint statement following reports of the so-called “Kill the Gays” Bill. “Uganda is facing a serious threat to human rights and the HIV response with the announcement of plans to introduce legislation that will impose the death penalty on people found to have had sex with a member of their own sex or to have ‘promoted’ homosexuality,” the joint statement says. “The bill is an expansion of a previous one that was passed five years ago and subsequently invalidated on a technicality. The latest bill would extend penalties to ‘promotion’ of h...

Nearly two million people live in Depok An Indonesian city of nearly two million people is planning an anti-LGBT law. The city council of Depok, not far from the capital Jakarta, is following other regions legislating against LGBT people amid nationwide anti-LGBT hysteria. Homosexuality is not currently illegal in most of the country. But in some areas, it is illegal under Sharia Law. City Council member and opposition party politician Hamzah told local media all parties in the city supported the draft law. But, exact details of the law were unclear, according to Suara. Hamzah told the news site the regulations were based on philosophical and sociological concerns. He said it ran contrary to Pancasila, the foundational philosophy of the country. Hamzah also reportedly referenced data from the Depok City AIDS Commission. He claimed there was an increase in the number of gay men and the number of people living with HIV in recent years. ‘So it seems ...