Death Penalty News

Iranian political prisoner Babak Shahbazi faces an imminent risk of execution following a Supreme Court decision to uphold his death sentence, the Norway-based human rights organization Hengaw said on Monday. Hengaw said Shahbazi, a father of two, was convicted of “spying for Israel” and “corruption on earth” in proceedings it described as “grossly unfair and based on forced confessions extracted under severe torture.” Iranian authorities have not commented on the allegations. According to Hengaw, parts of the evidence cited in court included casual conversations Shahbazi had with friends, some of whom were also allegedly tortured into implicating him. It said the trial was marked by “contradictions” and a “lack of credible evidence.”

“What did you come to us for? You came to protect us? From whom? You ‘protected’ me from my husband, whom you killed.” A 21-year-old Russian soldier was found guilty Monday of killing an unarmed civilian in Ukraine’s first war crimes trial since Russia’s invasion. He was sentenced to life in prison. A court in Kyiv handed down the verdict after Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin pleaded guilty last week to killing a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the northeastern Sumy province but said he was following orders. Shishimarin pleaded guilty to killing 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov, who was pushing his bicycle near the village of Chupakhivka, near the Russian border, during the early days of the invasion in late February. Shelipov “died on the spot just a few meters from his home,” according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. Shishimarin’s charge, “violation of the rules and customs of war," is punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment. Shelipov’s widow last week said she would ...

Officials say mobile crematoria and heavy machinery being brought into city to remove thousands of dead, rubble, as mayor claims stark parallel with infamous Holocaust death camp Russia has turned the city of Mariupol into a Nazi-style death camp, burning bodies and blocking humanitarian convoys to hide evidence of mass killings and other atrocities there, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said more than 5,000 civilians — including at least 210 children — had been killed during weeks of Russian bombardment and street fighting in the southern Ukrainian city, which has been held under a devastating siege. He said Russian forces bombed hospitals, including one where 50 people burned to death. Mariupol city officials said in a message posted to Telegram that mobile crematoria were being operated by Russian officials to burn the bodies of those that had been slaughtered, imagery that raised the specter of the 20th century’s greatest crime. “The world has not...

As Russia ramps up its assault on Ukraine, some pundits on Russian state television have advocated implementing hangings by court-martial in the country if Russia is successful in establishing control. Speaking on Russia-1, a state-owned Russian television channel, one expert cited Russian President Vladimir Putin 's "special military operation" in Ukraine that began on February 24. The pundit, whose identity was unclear, repeated the Kremlin's line that the invasion launched by Putin is a "special military operation" to disarm Ukraine and detain leaders it claims are neo-Nazis. Ukraine and the West say this is a false pretext used in an attempt to justify the invasion. "I would restore the death penalty by hanging through military tribunal," he said, noting that he believes some in Ukraine pose a danger to Russians. "There are people in Ukraine who threaten Russian citizens and create a threat for us," he claimed. "In my view, this ...