Death Penalty News

TOKYO — Japan on Friday executed a man dubbed the "Twitter killer" who murdered and dismembered nine people he met online, in the nation's first enactment of the death penalty since 2022. Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was hanged for killing his young victims, all but one of whom were women, after contacting them on the social media platform now called X. He had targeted users who posted about taking their own lives, telling them he could help them in their plans, or even die alongside them. Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said Shiraishi's crimes, carried out in 2017, included "robbery, rape, murder... destruction of a corpse and abandonment of a corpse".

A Saudi court sentenced a retired teacher to 30 years in jail for criticising the government on social media, less than two months after his death sentence was overturned, his brother said on Tuesday. The death sentence against Mohammed al-Ghamdi highlighted what critics describe as heightened repression under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Gulf kingdom's de facto ruler. Prince Mohammed addressed the case in an interview with Fox News that aired in September 2023, saying the government was "ashamed" over it and expressing hope the outcome could be changed.

(Beirut) – A Saudi court has sentenced a man to 20 years in prison on charges related to his peaceful social media activity, Human Rights Watch said today. The conviction is the latest example of Saudi Arabia’s likely transnational repression due to his family member’s activities abroad and yet another escalation in the country’s ever-worsening crackdown on freedom of expression and other basic rights.

December was the deadliest month in the kingdom, taking the total number of executions in 2023 to 170 Saudi Arabia executed four people on New Year’s Eve, taking the total number of executions carried out in 2023 to 170, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The four people executed on 31 December had been convicted of murder, SPA reported, citing statements from the interior ministry. They included two in the north-western city of Tabuk, one in the capital Riyadh and one in Jazan in the south-west.

After Mohammed bin Salman blames ‘bad laws’ for harsh rulings, brother of man sentenced to death for social media posts says de facto ruler can ‘cancel them’ DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Relatives of Saudis facing heavy sentences for social media posts are calling on the kingdom’s de facto ruler to take action after he voiced shame over their cases. In a rare interview with Fox News last week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was asked about Mohammed al-Ghamdi, a retired school teacher sentenced to death in July for posts on X, formerly Twitter, where he had around 10 followers.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, has confirmed that retired teacher Muhammed al Ghamdi was indeed sentenced to death for his social media posts . In an interview with Fox News on September 20, MBS admitted about the death sentence: “Shamefully, it's true,” and blamed the sentence on “bad laws.” “Do we have bad laws? Yes. Are we are changing that? Yes,” he said. MBS is right in saying that he is working to change bad laws: under his rule, bad laws have only become worse.

On July 10, 2023, the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh sentenced Muhammad bin Nasser Al-Ghamdi to death by Taazir, on charges related to his expression of opinion and his use of social media. The verdict against Al-Ghamdi (September 24, 1968) perpetuates the bloody vengeful trend of Saudi Arabia, as arbitrary sentences, including killing and imprisonment for decades, have intensified in recent years, against the exercising of legitimate rights or non-serious charges.  It also confirms the political use of the death penalty that has become apparent since the mass execution in January 2016 and the executions that followed.

There have been 94 executions so far this year. Saudi Arabia has sentenced to death a government critic who denounced alleged corruption and human rights abuses on social media, his brother and others familiar with the case told AFP on Monday. The judgment was handed down against Mohammed al-Ghamdi in July by the Specialised Criminal Court, which was established in 2008 to try terrorism cases. The charges include conspiracy against the Saudi leadership, undermining state institutions and supporting terrorist ideology, sources briefed on the details said.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 26, 2023: The scope of offences leading to the death penalty has widened significantly this year. In the latest case, state media have reported the death sentence against an unidentified man for consensual sex. Extramarital relations are criminalised under the Islamic Republic’s laws which proscribe the death penalty for the married party. On the other hand, Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei called for the execution of those who burnt the Quran in Sweden last week. Iran Human Rights once again calls for the urgent attention of the international community to the growing number of death sentences and executions in Iran. Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “In order to create fear to prevent popular protests, Islamic Republic authorities have expanded the scope of charges for which they’re issuing and carrying out death penalty charges as well as the already significant rise in the number of executions.”

The authorities have reportedly sentenced 11 persons to death in connection with the country's largest protest, since the 1979 revolution, over the mandatory hijab rule. The parents of an Iranian man have pleaded to the judiciary to spare him from death after he was reportedly sentenced for participating in the protest over Mahasa Amini’s death. The accused is identified as Mehdi Mohammed Karami.  The appeal comes following the execution of two other protesters by the Iranian authorities earlier this month.  The authorities have reportedly sentenced 11 persons to death in connection with the country’s largest protest since the 1979 revolution. “I am Mashallah Karami, father of Mohammad Mehdi Karami,” said the father in the video circulated on social media, “I respectfully ask the judiciary, I beg you please, I ask you.. to remove the death penalty from my son’s case,” he added. Mehdi’s mother also appealed to the judiciary to revoke her son’s death penalty. A video of the appe...

Majidreza Rahnavard's execution took place four days after Mohsen Shekari, also aged 23, was executed on charges of wounding a member of the security forces. A 23-year-old executed in Iran in connection with the anti-government protests, has left instructions before his death that no one is to mourn him or read Quran at his grave. Majidreza Rahnavard was hanged in public on Monday in the city of Mashhad.  Rahnavard's execution took place four days after Mohsen Shekari, also aged 23, was executed on charges of wounding a member of the security forces. It was the first case of death penalty being used against a protester, defying international outcry. A video surfaced today that showed Rahnavard expressing what was probably his last wishes. In it, Rahnavard, blindfolded and flanked by two masked guards, is seen speaking to the camera. "I don't want anyone to mourn upon my grave. I don't want them to read Quran or pray. Just celebrate and play celebrating music,...

Equatorial Guinea, one of the world's most authoritarian countries, has abolished the death penalty, state television announced on Monday citing a new law signed by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Capital punishment was "totally abolished" in the oil-rich central African nation after the president signed a new penal code, shared on Twitter by the vice president. The last official execution in the small country was carried out in 2014, according to Amnesty International, but international NGOs and the United Nations regularly accuse the regime of forced disappearances, arbitrary detention and torture. The death penalty remains legal in more than 30 African countries, although only around half have executed people in recent years. "I am writing in capitals to seal this unique moment: 'EQUATORIAL GUINEA HAS ABOLISHED THE DEATH PENALTY'," tweeted Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, one of the head of state's sons and viewed as his likel...

MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — The man charged with stabbing Salman Rushdie on a lecture stage in western New York said in an interview that he was surprised to learn the accomplished author had survived the attack. Speaking to the New York Post from jail, Hadi Matar said he decided to see Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution after he saw a tweet last winter about the writer's planned appearance. “I don’t like the person. I don’t think he’s a very good person,” Matar told the newspaper. “He’s someone who attacked Islam. He attacked their beliefs, the belief systems.” Matar, 24, said he considered late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini “a great person” but wouldn't say whether he was following a fatwa, or edict, issued by Khomeini in Iran in 1989 that called for Rushdie’s death after the author published “The Satanic Verses.” Iran has denied involvement in the attack. Matar, who lives in Fairview, New Jersey, said he hadn't had any contact with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard....

Social media users are sharing a video created by satirical publication The Onion and claiming it shows a new death penalty procedure introduced in Ohio. The chyron of the news segment reads: “OHIO INTRODUCES NEW DEATH PENALTY PROCEDURE”. The anchor in the video mentions: “Facing mounting criticism that lethal injection is cruel and outdated, Ohio has replaced it with a system that quickly and humanely rips off the heads of death row inmates using powerful robotic arms. The new device is designed to be as humane as possible, emitting soothing white noise and putting prisoners on a cushioned seat before its metallic talons dig into their necks and painlessly wrench their heads off…” The video continues to discuss the procedure. However, the logo of the news station seen on the bottom right is “ONN”, also known as the Onion News Network ( here ). The Onion is a satirical website. The video is available on The Onion’s website ( here ) and was published on May 5, 2014. Reuters reported in ...

TEHRAN — Vahid Muharrami stumbled upon the plans for his own execution while working on the prison computer system. An inmate in northwestern Iran, he had been tapped by prison officials to help with computer work at the facility because of his technical expertise. That’s how, in August 2020, he came across the documents that meant he had two more days to live, at most. “When I saw the special paperwork in the system, I realized that I was only 24 hours or 48 hours max away from the gallows,” said Muharrami, 37, who was sentenced to death for his part in a 2014 brawl that killed a man. He had already watched as 130 other convicts in his prison, in the city of Ardebil, were sent to their deaths over the previous six and a half years. Muharrami asked for permission to call his mother to dictate his last will and testament over the phone — and to prepare her for seeing his broken, lifeless body in the prison yard, so that she wouldn’t pass out as many other mothers of executed men had. Bu...

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (April 19, 2022) commuted the death sentence of Mohammed Firoz, who raped and murdered a 4-year-old innocent girl, to life imprisonment.  The apex court, while pronouncing its verdict, said, "Every sinner also has a future and the justice in this case is that the punishment for the hanging of the convict should be commuted to life imprisonment."  A three-judge bench of Justices UU Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi, while delivering its verdict, also said, "The maximum punishment awarded to a criminal cannot always be a deciding factor to correct his perverted mindset." In the judgment delivered on April 19, the Supreme Court also said that when released from jail, he should be given a chance to become a socially useful person.  Lawyer Nitin Meshram is very happy with the apex court's decision. He tweeted his happiness. Meshram wrote in a tweet, "I got a stay on the death sentence in this case in 2014. Happy ...