Death Penalty News

A jailed Iranian rapper sentenced to death for supporting anti-government protests has had his sentence overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court, his lawyer has said. Toomaj Salehi was arrested in October 2022 after making public statements in support of protests that had exploded across Iran. His lawyer, Amir Raesian, said the Supreme Court has now ordered a retrial, and that the judges decided that Salehi's previous prison sentence of six years and three months went against Iran's multiple-offences rules, and was in excess of the legal punishment.

Aware that only the use of terror and force keeps it in power, the Cuban regime makes it clear that if necessary, it will not hesitate to kill. HAVANA TIMES – Inflation, misery, the lack of medicine, and power outages, which were the triggers for previous demonstrations, are worsening daily in Cuba. Given the possibility that these protests may occur again, the regime has threatened the death penalty for those who participate in demonstrations considered “illegal.”

An Iranian court has sentenced to death a popular rapper jailed for more than a year and a half for supporting nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, local media reported Wednesday . "Branch 1 of Isfahan Revolutionary Court sentenced Toomaj Salehi to death on the charge of corruption on Earth," the singer's lawyer Amir Raisian said, quoted by the reformist Shargh newspaper.

Khadim Hussain Rizvi was detained on November 24 after police launched a crackdown ISLAMABAD: A hardline cleric has been charged with terrorism and sedition by the Pakistani government after he led violent protests to oppose the acquittal of a Christian woman from blasphemy charges, a minister said. Khadim Hussain Rizvi and his party Tehreek-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) held protests after the Supreme Court overturned the death penalty for Asia Bibi in October. Demonstrators blocked major roads, burned cars and buses, and left large swathes of the country paralysed as they called for her execution. Rizvi was detained on November 24 after police launched a crackdown on hundreds of his supporters in the Punjab province and the port city of Karachi. Fawad Chaudhry, federal minister for information and broadcasting, told reporters in Islamabad that sedition and terrorism charges had been filed against Khadim Rizvi and other TLP leaders. During the protests, one TLP lead...

A top Iranian judiciary official has said antigovernment protest leaders should be handed the harshest possible sentences, while President Hassan Rohani suggested demonstrations were driven by opposition to his ultraconservative rivals in the ruling elite. Rohani and Hamid Shahriari, deputy head of Iran's judiciary, spoke on January 8 -- nearly 2 weeks after the start of a series of protests that have shaken the country and attracted attention worldwide. The ISNA news agency quoted Shahriari as saying that "surely those who organized and led the unrest against the establishment can expect the maximum penalty." The death penalty is the most severe sentence imposed by courts in Iran, where it can be applied for a range of crimes including treason, murder, and drug trafficking. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a powerful military branch created to protect the Islamic system established after the shah's 1979 overthrow, has repeatedl...

Public execution in Saudi Arabia (file photo) BAGHDAD — Saudi Arabia executed 47 people convicted of terrorism-related offenses on Saturday, including suspected members of Al Qaeda and a prominent cleric and government critic from the country’s Shiite minority. The executions, which were reported by the Saudi state news media, were the first of 2016 and followed a year in which at least 157 people were put to death, the most in two decades in the conservative Muslim kingdom. While most of those executed Saturday had been convicted of involvement with Al Qaeda during a wave of attacks about a decade ago, they also included Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shiite cleric and outspoken campaigner for Shiite rights. Sheikh Nimr, who was arrested in 2012, had harshly criticized the Sunni monarchy of neighboring Bahrain for its violent suppression of protests by its own Shiite population after the start of the so-called Arab Spring in 2011. The Saudi government accused him o...

A Saudi Arabian appeal court on Wednesday approved the death penalty of the prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi criminal court had earlier referred Sheikh Nimr's case to an appeal court, where the sentence was upheld on Wednesday, according to a Sky News report. Sheikh Nimr was detained in July 2012 following demonstrations that erupted in Qatif region, Saudi Arabia. He is accused of delivering anti-regime speeches and defending political prisoners. His arrest has sparked widespread protests in the Arab country, leaving several people dead. On October 15, Sheikh Nimr's family reported that a Saudi judge has found him guilty of "sedition" and sentenced him to death. Activists say there are over 30,000 political prisoners in Saudi Arabia. International human rights organizations have criticized Saudi Arabia for failing to address the rights situation in the kingdom.  They say Saudi Arabia has persistently implemented repress...