Death Penalty News

Maryam Abbasi-Nikoo is the mother of Bita Shafii, a student who protested the poisoning of students. On June 26, 2023, security forces raided their home and, upon realizing that Bita was not present, physically assaulted her father and detained her mother, Maryam Abbasi-Nikou, in place of her daughter. Now, after 52 days of uncertainty in prison and being deprived of basic rights, security authorities have brought charges of blasphemy against Maryam Abbasi-Nikou. An informed source, in conversation with the Iran Human Rights Monitor, said, “Maryam Abbasi-Nikoo is a resident of Shahin Shahr, Isfahan. On June 26, 2023, security forces arrested her at 11 p.m. by raiding her home. They told her family that they were taking her for a simple questioning session, and she would return home tomorrow.” 

France has urged all its citizens in Pakistan to leave the country temporarily amid violent anti-French protests across the country. The country's embassy in Pakistan warned of "serious threats to French interests in Pakistan", saying protests were increasing nationwide. Two police officers died this week in renewed clashes with protesters. The protests were sparked months ago after France defended the right to show cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. In October last year, French President Emmanuel Macron strongly defended freedom of expression after the beheading of a teacher who showed such cartoons during a class discussion. This prompted anger in parts of the Muslim world, including Pakistan, where there were calls for a boycott of French goods. Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are widely regarded as taboo in Islam, and are considered highly offensive by Muslims. The protests escalated this week after the Pakistani government arrested Saad Hussain Rizvi, leader of the...

Asad Noor, who is in hiding, says the police have been harassing his family in Chittagong over a Facebook video he posted defending a Buddhist monk. Bngladeshi blogger and secular activist Asaduzzaman Noor, accused of defaming Islam, has claimed that his family at Amtali Upzila of Barguna district (around 320 km south of Dhaka) is being harassed by the government for posting a Facebook video criticising alleged appropriation of a Buddhist temple. Noor, better known by his nom de plume Asad Noor, has been in hiding — in Bangladesh and abroad — for past several years after receiving death threats from Islamist groups for defending a Buddhist monk, and 10 Minute School, a pro-LGBTQ platform. He has been charged under the Digital Security Act, 2018, for defaming Islam — an offence punishable with a jail term of up to 10 years. When the law was implemented, Amnesty International described it as a serious threat to freedom of expression in Bangladesh. Bloggers, social media...