Death Penalty News

Mohammad Namjoo-Motlagh: 'I will remain their voice until Iran is freed from oppression' A decorated Iranian wrestler fled to Germany to avoid a possible death sentence or being blinded by the authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran for his social media posts in support of the revolt against the Iranian theocratic state. The star wrestler Mohammad Namjoo-Motlagh told the US government news outlet RFE/RL's Radio Farda in late January that "It was clear where this was going" and "I would either lose my life or they would blind me, or in the best-case scenario, I would be sent to prison."

British Olympic diver Tom Daley created his new documentary "Illegal to Be Me" to increase LGBT visibility and subvert systemic homophobia. British Olympic champion Tom Daley has taken it upon himself to shed light on an issue he cares deeply about. The four-time Olympic medalist and three-time world diving champion features in a recently released documentary where he visits some of the most homophobic nations in the Commonwealth. “Did you know 35 of the 56 countries involved in the Commonwealth Games still criminalize same-sex relationships and seven have the death penalty?,” Daley reveals in the doc. On Tuesday, BBC1 and iPlayer broadcasted the new feature, Tom Daley: Illegal to Be Me, at 9 p.m. to share Daley’s advocacy for LGBT rights with viewers around the world. Daley made his first appearance at an international competition at just 12 years old. His elite diving career started at the 2007 Australian Youth Olympic Festival where he won silver with synchro-partner Call...

TOKYO -- Three death-row inmates were hanged Tuesday, the Ministry of Justice said, in Japan's first executions since December 2019 and first under the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The three were identified as Yasutaka Fujishiro, 65, who killed seven of his relatives in Hyogo Prefecture in 2004, and Tomoaki Takanezawa, 54, and Mitsunori Onogawa, 44, who were convicted of killing two employees at two separate pachinko parlors in Gunma Prefecture in 2003. Following Tuesday's executions, the number of inmates sitting on death row in Japan stands at 107. RELATED |  Japan opens up death chamber to media The Kobe District Court in western Japan sentenced Fujishiro to death in May 2009 and the decision was finalized in June 2015 after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal. Takanezawa and Onogawa, who also robbed one of their victims and stole money from one of the pachinko parlors, were sentenced to death by the Saitama District Court near Tokyo.  RELATED |  J...

'Those 10 countries where you can’t be yourself should not be allowed to compete at the Olympic Games. My mission is to try and change that' Tom Daley has called for countries that punish being gay with death to be banned from the 2024 Olympics. Britain’s Olympic diving champion said he was making it his mission to “create change” before the Paris Games in three years' time. “There were more out LGBT athletes in Tokyo than any of the previous Olympics combined, which is a great step forward,” Daley told the Attitude Awards in London. “Yet there are still 10 countries that punish being gay with death that were still allowed to compete at the Olympic Games. I think that is quite shocking to a lot of people. “I want to make it my mission, hopefully before the Paris Olympics, to make it so that the countries that criminalise and punish by death LGBT people are not allowed to compete.” According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association the deat...

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...

An author has expertly explained why Tom Daley saying he’s proud to be gay at the Olympics is necessary, actually. Following Tom Daley’s groundbreaking victory in the men’s synchronised 10m platform dive during the Tokyo Olympics, the Team GB athlete said: “I am proud to say I am a gay man and an Olympic champion.” While many celebrated Daley’s win and his pride in being a part of the LBGT+ community, others were critical and argued that “mentioning his sexuality” wasn’t necessary. One particular troll tweeted: “His sexual preference bears no relation to his skills.” Author of The Complete David Bowie Nicholas Pegg expertly replied to the thread, explaining that it was in fact “necessary” for Daley to mention his sexuality at the Olympics because many countries competing oppose LGBT+ rights. He wrote: “There are 10 nations taking part in this year’s Tokyo Olympics which prescribe the death penalty for homosexuality. “They would literally execute Tom Daley.” The list includes Afghanista...

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...

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...

With the execution of Aum Shinrikyo leader and six of his followers, Japan looks to leave behind an era of tragedy.  On July 6, 2018, Japanese authorities executed seven members of the religious movement Aum Shinrikyo (Aum true religion, or supreme truth), which carried out the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack and a series of other atrocities. None of the seven of the executed men were directly involved in releasing the gas on that tragic day; four of those who did remain under a death sentence, and their executions may be imminent. The seven executed were involved in planning and organizing the various crimes committed by Aum. Asahara Shoko (born Matsumoto Chizuo), was the founder and leader of the movement, having developed the doctrinal system instrumental to Aum’s violence and its concept of a final cosmic war of good (Aum) against evil (the corrupt material world and everyone — from the Japanese government to the general public — who lived in it). Asahara is believed...