Death Penalty News

An Iranian female LGBT activist arrived safely in an undisclosed country after her release from prison on bail following the cancellation of her death sentence. Zahra Sedighi-Hamedani, known as Sareh, “expresses her gratitude to all LGB activists who accompanied her on this difficult journey to freedom.” the Germany-based Iranian LGBT rights group 6Rang said in a statement on December 1. “She congratulates the LGBT community, activists and the global community who supported the #FreeSareh campaign,” it added.

Amid nationwide mass protests across Iran, human rights activists have raised concerns that the country’s judiciary system may secretly execute two female LGBT activists, who have been on death row since early September. Activists have warned that with the international focus on the ongoing protests, sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, the two executions may go ahead. A 31-year-old blogger called Zahra Sedighi-Hamedani, known as Sareh, and 24-year-old Elham Chubdar, both members of the LGBT community, were sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Urmia in the northwest of Iran. The case is thought to be the first time that a woman has been sentenced to death in Iran for her sexual orientation, according to civil rights groups. The two women were convicted of "spreading corruption on earth", a charge that has frequently been used against those deemed to have broken the country's strict Islamic Sharia laws. Iranian judiciary authorities use t...

Zahra (Sareh) Sedighi and Elham Choobdar, 2 LGBT rights activists have been sentenced to death on charges of efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth) by the Urmia Revolutionary Court. Opposing the death penalty in general, Iran Human Rights calls for the revocation of Zahra Sadighi and Elham Choobdar’s death sentences and calls on the international community for an immediate and strong reaction to their sentences and the wave of executions in Iran. Iran Human Rights Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “Zahra Sadighi and Elham Choobdar were sentenced to death without due process and in unfair legal proceedings based on forced confessions. Their convictions have no legal validity. Islamic Republic authorities have also cited promoting homosexuality as one of the reasons for their arrests. Their lives can be saved by immediate and strong reactions by the international community and civil society.” According to the Judiciary’s Mizan Newsagency, 31-year-old Zahra (Sareh) Sedighi, a Naghdeh n...

Iran’s regime has executed between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians since the nation’s Islamic revolution in 1979. Photo: Clandestine "Gay Pride" in Tehran, Iran The Islamic Republic of Iran imposed the death penalty on 2 LGBT activists for allegedly promoting homosexuality, human rights organization Hengaw reported on Sunday. According to Hengaw, an organization that documents human rights violations in Kurdistan, “Zahra Sediqi Hamedani, known as ‘Sareh,’ 31, from Naqadeh, and Elham Chubdar, 24, from Urmia, both activists of the LGBT community, were sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Urmia in a joint case on the charge of ‘Corruption on Earth’ through the promoting of homosexuality.” The Hengaw Human Rights Organization added that “the sentence has been announced to them in the past few days in the women's ward of Urmia Central Prison.” Urmia is a city in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran. The independent Iranian news Twitter feed 1500tasvir also report...

The state‘s Sharia law system imposes the death penalty on same-sex relations. The 6G Iranian and Lesbian and Transgender Network reported Tuesday on its website that an Iranian lesbian named Sarah was arrested in the province of West Azerbaijan while seeking to cross the border into Turkey. The Islamic Republic’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested Sarah in November and, according to the pro-Iran Tasnim news agency, individuals were detained on charges of "forming a gang for trafficking girls and supporting homosexuality." The Iranian theocratic state‘s Sharia law system imposes the death penalty on same-sex relations. According to an IRGC statement, one of the charges against the vague "trafficking network" was "communicating and supporting homosexual groups" who "operated under the auspices of the trans-regional intelligence services.“ The Islamic Republic’s security forces frequently charge dissidents, protestors against the regime a...

“I believe, as a marginalized individual—being a black gay female immigrant disabled judge—that my perspective is a little different.” Grace Helen Whitener, a Black, gay, female, disabled, immigrant judge has been appointed to Washington State’s Supreme Court. Whitener was sworn in by Democrat governor Jay Inslee, who also swore in Jewish Native American politician Raquel Monotya-Lewis and Mary Yu, an Asian-American Latina lesbian who officiated the first same-sex marriage in Washington. Whitener, Montoya-Lewis and Yu’s appointments mean Washington State is now one of the most diverse courts in history. Before her history-making nomination to the Supreme Court, Whitener said: “I believe, as a marginalized individual—being a black gay female immigrant disabled judge—that my perspective is a little different. “I try to make sure that everyone that comes into this courtroom feels welcome, feels safe, and feels like they will get a fair hearing.” Throughout her c...

Lesbian couple 'Fad' and 'Nanz', from Saudi Arabia, feared being killed in their home country, but have now found happiness in London A lesbian couple who fled Saudi Arabia because they feared the death penalty have declared their love for each other on TV. The two women, who now live in London, were forced to keep their relationship a secret in their home country - where under sharia law, same-sex relationships can be punishable by death. Now free to love each other, they gave a moving interview to the Arabic-language TV show 'Jaafar Talk' which airs on the DW channel, during a Valentine's Day special. Using 'Fad' and 'Nanz' as aliases, as the segment includes images of the pair in Saudi Arabia, they revealed how they fell in love after meeting on Snapchat. They managed to keep their relationship a secret until Nanz, who says she discovered her sexuality in her early teens, began to attract suspicion from relatives bec...

Brunei is introducing strict new Islamic laws that make sex between men an offence punishable by stoning to death. The new measures, that come into force on Wednesday, also cover a range of other crimes including punishment for theft by amputation. The move has sparked international condemnation. The sultan of the small south-east Asian nation on Wednesday called for "stronger" Islamic teachings. "I want to see Islamic teachings in this country grow stronger," Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said at a public address, according to AFP news agency, without mentioning the new laws. Brunei's gay community has expressed shock and fear at the "medieval punishments". "You wake up and realise that your neighbours, your family or even that nice old lady that sells prawn fritters by the side of the road doesn't think you're human, or is okay with stoning," one Bruneian gay man, who did not want to be identified, told the BBC....

Lawmakers in the Malaysian state of Pahang are considering legalising the caning of gay people. Two women in the northeastern state of Terengganu received six lashings each on Monday for having gay sex.  The sentence was handed down last month after the women, who are 32 and 22, pleaded guilty to having sex in a car. They were caught by Sharia enforcement officials. The director of Pahang’s Islamic Religious Department, Mohamad Noor Abdul Rani, welcomed the punishment and said it could spread to his state. “We support [the caning sentence] as it shows the beauty of Islam but in Pahang, we have not decided yet and will look into it,” he said, according to New Straits Times. His department is responsible for passing religious laws, which exist alongside civil legislation in Malaysia’s legal system. Amnesty International’s Malaysia Researcher, Rachel Chhoa-Howard, told PinkNews that Monday’s canings represented “the first time to our knowledge that caning has ...