Death Penalty News

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 25, (Agencies): The Criminal Court decided to adjourn the case of an Islamic education teacher accused of assaulting six children in the areas of Khitan and Farwaniya. The accused has previously faced the death penalty in another case, during which he uttered the phrase, “I am a defender on Judgment Day, a police officer, and our rights will not be violated…” The accused stated, “I have been an Islamic education teacher for 15 years, and no one has ever complained about me. They claim I took the boy behind the grocery store and assaulted him. There are surveillance cameras in the grocery store. How could I take the boy there? There is nothing behind the grocery store; it’s a factory with cameras in every corner. I am a defender on Judgment Day.”

Religious school principal sentenced to death for raping 13 schoolgirls as new sexual violence legislation nears final vote An Indonesian court has sentenced a married religious school principal to death for raping 13 schoolgirls in a landmark case that draws an emphatic line under the controversial Sexual Violence Eradication Bill now nearing a final vote in the House of Representatives (DPR). Originally given a life term, Herry Wirawan was accused of sexually grooming and assaulting the teenagers, nine of whom were impregnated, between 2016 and 2021 at a pesantren, or Islamic boarding school, in Bandung, south of Jakarta. Under normal circumstances, the 36-year-old father of three would have only been liable for a maximum prison term of 15 years on each charge, although his status as a teacher allowed the district court to extend that to 20 years. But the Bandung High Court judges were acting on a 2016 amendment to the Child Protection Law which prescribes death for serial child rap...

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka will ban the wearing of the burqa and shut more than a thousand Islamic schools, a government minister said on Saturday, the latest actions affecting the country’s minority Muslim population. Minister for public security Sarath Weerasekera told a news conference he had signed a paper on Friday for cabinet approval to ban the full face covering worn by some Muslim women on “national security” grounds. “In our early days Muslim women and girls never wore the burqa,” he said. “It is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently. We are definitely going to ban it.” The wearing of the burqa in the majority-Buddhist nation was temporarily banned in 2019 after the bombing of churches and hotels by Islamic militants that killed more than 250. Other countries have enacted burqa bans in recent years as well, including Switzerland, France, and Denmark. RELATED |  While Iranian Women Are Routinely Flogged for Not Wearing the Hijab, UN Rights Office Lamen...