11/5/08
Saudi Arabia on Sunday beheaded a national convicted of killing a compatriot, the Interior Ministry said. Eid Bin Hamjahuj Al Shimari was found guilty of shooting dead a fellow national with a machine gun, the ministry said in a statement published on the SPA news agency. Al Shimari was executed in Arar town near the border with Iraq; becoming the 57th person to be executed in the kingdom this year.
8/5/08
Authorities in the state of Georgia yesterday ended a seven-month hiatus on executions in the US, putting to death convicted murderer William Lynd for killing his girlfriend in 1988. Lynd, 53, became the first person executed in the US since September 25. He was put to death at the Jackson state prison in Georgia, a prison spokeswoman said. The hiatus in executions followed several challenges in the US Supreme Court on the constitutionality of lethal injections, the method used to execute most death-row inmates. But on April 16 the judges ruled 7-2 that the risk of suffering to those executed by lethal injection did not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment”, which is barred under the US constitution. The seven judges, however, were split in their reasons for accepting lethal injections, all but ensuring more legal challenges to the death penalty.
Rana Husseini; 4/5/08
The Criminal Court has sentenced a 44-year-old man to death after convicting him of murdering his wife over financial matters in August 2006.The tribunal declared Ahmad M., a company owner, guilty of the premeditated murder of his wife at the front door of their building in an Amman suburb on August 2. The victim, who worked as a nurse at a private hospital, was married to the defendant for 10 years and is survived by two daughters. The court said the couple’s problems began when the victim took out a loan from the hospital she worked in and bought a piece of land and an apartment, which they resided.
24/4/08
Relatives of four people who died in an accident last month after two members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice chased their car said they would demand execution of the culprits who caused the accident, according to Al-Madinah daily. Authorities are questioning the two commission members and a policeman, who was also involved in the pursuit that led to the death of two men, a woman and the woman’s daughter. “I have already lodged a case at the General Court in Madinah demanding punishment of the culprits,” said Muhammad Khoj, whose son Omar was one of the four victims. The husband of the woman who died in the incident said he would also demand the execution of the culprits. He said his 17-year-old daughter had a mental collapse after learning of the deaths of her mother and sister.
Ebtihal Mubarak; 21/4/08
The case of a Turkish barber who was sentenced to death at the Jeddah General Court on March 31 on charges of blasphemy will be sent to the Appeals Court in Makkah next week. Sabri Bogday was sentenced to death after two men, one Saudi and the other Egyptian, reported to the authorities that he had sworn at God and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) at his barbershop in Jeddah early last year. Bogday was made to appear before three judges — Sheikh Muhammad Al-Aamer, Sheikh Fahd Al-Ammari and Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Lihidan — at the Jeddah General Court on June 13, 2007. A source told Arab News that Bogday admitted in court to swearing and did not challenge the witnesses’ testimonies.
Walid M. Sadi; 20/4/08
Many Jordanians rejoiced, temporarily, when the criminal law on the so-called honour crimes was amended, offering women equal treatment with men by granting them relative impunity if they kill or injure husbands caught in an illicit sexual relation. Before it was amended, Article 98 of the criminal code granted only men various degrees of impunity, including complete impunity when killing wives or female members of their families caught involved in extramarital relations or even appearing to be doing so. When the country went up in arms against the legal justification for this, Parliament dropped the full impunity clause and retained the extenuating circumstances element in the commission of such crimes, and extended it to women as well, who could kill or injure in the name of honour as well. This equal gender treatment is not absolute though, as women can only enjoy the same right “to kill or injure” as long as the illicit act of their husbands is committed in the family home. Otherwise, if the husband has an extramarital relation outside his home, the wife has no right to even touch him.
17/4/08
A Jordanian man convicted of trafficking tranquilizers was beheaded on Thursday, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. The ministry said that Mohammad Bin Awadh Al Khalidi was executed in Al Qarah town in the north western Jawf area. The execution brings to 43 the number of beheadings in Saudi Arabia this year. Last year, the kingdom beheaded 137 people.
15/4/08
At least 1200 people were executed globally last year, with China leading the world’s most prolific users of the death penalty, Amnesty International says. The London-based human rights group warned the figures were only minimum estimates and cautioned that the true extent of the use of capital punishment could not be known because in many countries, state executions were shrouded in official secrecy. “The secretive use of the death penalty must stop: the veil of secrecy surrounding the death penalty must be lifted,” Amnesty said. “Many governments claim that executions take place with public support. People therefore have a right to know what is being done in their name.”
14/4/08
A Filipina housemaid has been sentenced to death after she was convicted of murdering her employer’s daughter, according to her lawyer. Jakatia Pawa will appeal the ruling and denies stabbing to death 21-year-old Dala Al Naqi as she slept. According to the lawyer, Pawa had worked for her employer for five years and had no motive to kill the woman. Two other Filipina maids have recently been sentenced to death for murder in Kuwait.
Iran hangs four criminals; 14/3/08; http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=7139
Iran has hanged four criminals, including two members of a Sunni group blamed for a string of attacks in the southeast of the country, media reports said on Sunday. The two men, identified by only their initials A.M. and M.S., were hanged in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan for the capital offence of being “moharebeh” (an enemy of God), Kayhan newspaper reported. The local revolutionary court found them to be members the “terrorist group” Jundallah, and they were hanged in prison in the provincial capital of Zahedan. Jundallah has been behind a string of attacks in the province in recent years and is led by Abdolmalek Rigi, a shadowy young Sunni. Iran accuses its arch-enemy the United States of backing the group. Two other men convicted of abduction and murder were hanged in a prison in the northern city of Sari, the official IRNA new agency reported. The number of executions soared last year to 298, according to an AFP count.
