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Saudi Arabia Beheads a child

 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement

AI Index: MDE 23/031/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 149
3 August 2007

Saudi Arabia: Juvenile offender beheaded

Amnesty International is outraged at the recent beheading of a child offender in Saudi Arabia. According to press reports, the execution took place in the city of Taif on 21 July 2007.

Dhahian Rakan al-Sibai’i was sentenced to death for a murder he allegedly committed when he was just 15 years old. He was held in a juvenile facility until his 18th birthday and then moved to an adult prison. Dhahian appealed to the families of the victim to pardon him — as allowed by Shari’a law — but the outcome of his appeal is not known.

In May 2007, Amnesty International issued urgent appeals to the government of Saudi Arabia calling for a halt to his execution and urging commutation of the death sentence against him

The organisation calls upon King Abdullah to immediately halt all pending executions and take all necessary steps to stop the imposition of death sentences on juvenile offenders.

Due to the strict secrecy of the criminal justice system, it is not possible to know how many juvenile offenders have been put to death in Saudi Arabia, but according to a media report, over 100 juvenile offenders are said to be on death row. They include Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan national who was 17 at the time of the alleged murder for which she was sentenced to death following her arrest in 2005. They may also include Sultan Kohail, a 16-year-old Canadian national who was tried early this year on murder charges along with his brother Mohamed Kohail, aged 22.

Dhahian Rakan al-Sibai’i’s beheading is one of the latest in a recent spate of executions in Saudi Arabia. Since September 2006, at least 143 men and women have been executed in the Kingdom, which is one of the highest execution rates in the world.

Trial proceedings usually take place behind closed doors without adequate legal representation, and invariably fall short of international fair trial standards. Both children and adults are often convicted on the basis of “confessions” obtained under duress, including torture or other ill-treatment during incommunicado detention.

Background
International law prohibits Saudi Arabia from executing people for crimes committed when they are below the age of 18. Saudi Arabian officials have maintained that they comply with this obligation, contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, because they do not execute children. In fact, the convention prohibits executions for crimes committed while a person is a child, regardless of when the sentence is carried out.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam sends urgent letter to Yemen's President & officials

August 3rd 2007

To your Excellency General Ali ´Abdullah Saleh,
 
On behalf of the Stop Child Executions campaign (www.stopchildexecutions.com ), I would like to voice my concern for Yemen citizen Hafez Ibrahim who is in imminent risk of execution despite Yemen being state party to the ICCPR and CRC.
 
Article 6.5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) declares:
“Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age”.
 
Article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides that:
“Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age”.
 
Hafez Ibrahim was sentenced to death in 2005 for a murder he allegedly committed when he was 16. His death sentence was ratified by the President and was reportedly scheduled to be carried out on 6 April 2005.
 
However the former Minister of Human Rights had told Amnesty International that after this UA was issued on 5 April 2005, she appealed personally to you to stay the execution. She also said that Hafez Ibrahim’s age was disputed. She undertook to seek commutation of the death sentence, by obtaining a pardon from the family of the murder victim. On 7 April 2005 you stayed Hafez Ibrahim’s execution to allow time for an agreement to be reached in the case.
 
Relatives of the victim have reportedly refused to pardon Hafez Ibrahim, and in July 2007 the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against Hafez.
 
 As a concerned global citizena and human rights activist, I urge you to prevent the execution of Hafez Ibrahim and prevent any further application of such penalties against child offenders.
 
Sincerely,
 
 
Nazanin Afshin-Jam
Co-founder of Stop Child Executions Campaign
www.stopchildexecutions.com
www.nazanin.ca

COPIES TO

His Excellency Abdullah al-Ulufi 
Attorney General of Yemen

His Execellency Dr. Abdulla Abdulwali Nasher
Ambassador of Yemen in Canada

URGENT: Another Yemeni Youth facing imminent execution

PUBLIC                                                 

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Index: MDE 31/008/2007 

1 August 2007           

Further Information on UA 79/05 (MDE 31/003/2005, 5 April 2005) and follow-up (MDE 31/004/2005, 7 April 2005) – Fear of imminent execution

YEMEN      

Hafez Ibrahim (m) 

The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence against Hafez Ibrahim. Neither he nor his lawyer was reportedly informed of the court’s decision until yesterday, when the lawyer learnt that the execution is imminent.

Hafez Ibrahim was sentenced to death in 2005 for a murder he allegedly committed when he was 16. His death sentence was ratified by the President and was reportedly scheduled to be carried out on 6 April 2005.

However the former Minister of Human Rights had told Amnesty International that after this UA was issued on 5 April 2005, she appealed personally to the President to stay the execution. She also said that Hafez Ibrahim’s age was disputed. She undertook to seek commutation of the death sentence, by obtaining a pardon from the family of the murder victim. On 7 April 2005 the Yemeni president stayed Hafez Ibrahim’s execution to allow time for an agreement to be reached in the case.

Relatives of the victim have reportedly refused to pardon Hafez Ibrahim, and in July 2007 the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against Hafez.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Yemen has made significant progress in the prohibition of the use of the death penalty against juveniles, but courts continue to sentence children to death. The legal progress to prohibit the use of the death penalty against children followed the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by the government in 1991. At that time the prohibition of the use of the death penalty against juveniles was limited to offenders below the age of 15 at the time of the crime. However, this categorical prohibition was extended in 1994 to include children below the age of 18 at the time of the commission of capital offences. This is stipulated in Article 31 of the Penal Code, Law 12 of 1994, and marks a positive progress bringing Yemen’s laws into line with Article 37 of the CRC and Article 6 (5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which categorically prohibit the use of the death penalty against anyone under 18 years of age at the time of commission of any capital offence.

Yemen’s legislative progress in this regard has not been consistently matched by the practice of the courts, which have sometimes imposed the death penalty on offenders who were below the age of 18 at the time of the offence.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send fresh appeals quickly:

-  urging the authorities to protect Hafez Ibrahim from execution;

-  expressing grave concern that the death sentence imposed on Hafez Ibrahim was upheld contrary to Article 31 of the Yemeni Penal Code, Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 6 (5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit the use of the death penalty against juveniles and call for the death sentence to be replaced by a penalty consistent with international standards for the administration of juvenile justice;

– urging the President to commute all outstanding death sentences and establish a moratorium on executions, with a view to completely abolishing the death penalty, as called for by Paragraph 5(b) of resolution 2001/68 of the Commission on Human Rights.

APPEALS TO:

President:
His Excellency General ´Ali ´Abdullah Saleh
President of the Republic of Yemen
Sana’a
Republic of Yemen
Fax:          011  967 127 4147
Salutation: Your Excellency 
. 
Attorney General:
His Excellency Abdullah al-Ulufi
Office of Attorney General
Sanaa, Republic of Yemen
Fax:          011  967 137 4412
Salutation: Your Excellency 
. 
Minister of Interior:
His Excellency Dr Rashid Muhammad al-Alimi
Ministry of Interior
Sana’a
Republic of Yemen
Fax: 011  967 1 332 511
Salutation: Your Excellency
.
Minister of Human Rights:
Her Excellency Houda ‘Ali ‘Abdullatif al- Baan
Ministry for Human Rights
Sana’a, Republic of Yemen
Faxes:               011  967 1 444 838
Salutation: Your Excellency
. 
COPIES TO:
His Excellency Dr. Abdulla Abdulwali Nasher
Ambassador for Yemen
54 Chamberlain Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario K1S 1V9
Fax: (613) 729-8915
E-mail: info@yemenincanada.ca

Thank you for standing by, ready to respond again on behalf of Hafez Ibrahim.

Child in Yemen facing execution

YEMEN :  The Parliament of Children appealed to president Ali Abdllah Saleh, head of the High Judiciary Council and Minister of Justice to stop a death penalty against the juvenile child Walid Haikal.

In their petition, members of the Children Parliament said Walid was only 15 years when he committed the crime.
“We appeal to you to mercifully and fairly look to this case according to international conventions, especially the children right convention, which Yemen has signed,” said the petition. It said the convention disallows the execution of a child under 18 years.

The trial of Walid Haikal, convicted of a murder crime, lasted seven years, according to the petition.

This brings the total on children worldwide known to face execution to 80: 74 in Iran, 3 in Saudi Arabia, 2 in  Sudan, 1 in Yemen, all Islamic countries. 

Source: Yemen News http://www.newsyemen.net/en/view_news.asp?sub_no=3_2007_07_25_6771 

 

Thank you Canada

Nazanin Afshin-jam and SCE Campaign wish to thank Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs , honorable Peter McKay and the Canadian Government for their immediate response to Nazanin’s urgent request to intervene in Sina Paymard’s execution yesterday. Ottawa issued a strong statement yesterday to Iranian authorities about Sina:

http://news.gc.ca:80/web/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=341929

Canada Calls upon Iran to Overturn Death Sentence of Sina Paymard

July 17, 2007
No. 94

The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, made an urgent appeal today to Iranian authorities to overturn the death sentence of Sina Paymard.

“Canada calls upon the Iranian government to stay the execution sentence given to Sina Paymard for a crime he was convicted of committing while a minor.

“The Government of Iran must live up to its commitments and obligations under international law as well as its own domestic law. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Both of these international binding agreements clearly prohibit the execution of minors or people who have been convicted of crimes committed while they were minors.

“The execution of minors is a subject of the utmost concern for Canada, and we urge Iranian authorities to commute the death sentence in this case.” 

 

URGENT ACTION : Help Stop Beheading of 17 year old girl in Saudi Arabia

Yesterday we reported that a 17 year old Sri Lankan girl, Rizana Nafeek, is sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. To help stop the sentence please urgently sign the letter created by Amnesty International addressed to Saudi Arabian authorities:

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=295

 

Update: One of our readers informed us of an online petition to stop the execution:

http://www.petitiononline.com/rizana1/petition.html 

Children facing execution: Iran 73, Saudi Arabia 3, Sudan 2

The list of known names of the Iranian Children facing execution now reached 73. The alarming rise in numbers is partially due to the increased attention to this issue within Iran after the formations of The Stop Child Executions Campaigns by SCE , Amnesty International and other human rights organizations and activists.

When the Stop Child Executions Campaign was initially formed, only four months ago, there were only 21 known cases and to date we have located 52 more children facing executions in Iran, 3 in Saudi Arabia and 2 in Sudan.

IRAN (73)

Middle East
Legal System: Islamic Sharia
Signatory to ICCPR and CRC

 .

 Girls (3):

  1. Delara Darabi, 17
  2. Nazbibi Ateshbejan, 16
  3. Soghra Najafpour, 13
Boys (70):
  1. Abbass Hosseini, 17    
  2. Abdolkhaleq Rakhshani       
  3. Ahmad Jabari, 15       
  4. Ahmad Nourzahi, 12   
  5. Akoo Hosseini          
  6. Ali Alijan, 17       
  7. Ali Mahin Torabi, 16       
  8. Ali Norumohammadi, 16 
  9. Alireza Movassili Roudi, 16       
  10. Amir Calehchaleh, 17       
  11. Asghar, 16       
  12. Behador Khaleqi, 16     
  13. Beniamin Rasouli, 17     
  14. Farshad Sa’eedi, 17       
  15. Farzad, 15       
  16. Feyz Mohammad, 16       
  17. Feyzollah Soltani
  18. Gholam Nabi Barahouti, 16
  19. Habib Afsar, 15
  20. Hamed, 15
  21. Hamid, 17
  22. Hamid Reza, 14
  23. Hamzeh S., 17
  24. Hani Momeni Yasaqi
  25. Hasan Mozaffari
  26. Hedayat Niroumand, 14 or 15
  27. Hossein Gharabaghloo, 16
  28. Hossein Haghi, 17
  29. Hossein Toranj, 17
  30. Iman, 17
  31. Khodamorad Shahemzadeh, 17
  32. Mahmoud, 17
  33. Masoud, 17
  34. Mehdi, 16
  35. Mehyar Haghgoo, 17
  36. Mehyar Anvari, 17
  37. Milad Bakhtiari, 16
  38. Mohammad Ahmadi 16
  39. Mohammad Jahedi
  40. Mohammad Jamali Paghale, 15
  41. Mohammad Mavari, 16
  42. Mohammad Pezhman
  43. Mohammad Reza Turk
  44. Morteza Feizi, 16
  45. Mosleh Zamani 17
  46. Mostafa, 16
  47. Mostafa Sa’idi
  48. Nabavat Baba’I, 17
  49. Na’im Kolb’ali, 15
  50. Naser Qasemi, 15
  51. Ne’mat, 15
  52. Omarraddin Alkuzehi, 17
  53. Omid Sarani, 17
  54. Rahman Shahidi
  55. Rasoul Eyvatvandi, 17
  56. Rasoul Mohammadi, 17
  57. Rasoul Nouriyani
  58. Rasoul Safari, 17
  59. Reza Alinejad, 17
  60. Saber
  61. Sadegh Ahmadpour, 17
  62. Sa’eed Jazee, 17
  63. Sa’id Arab
  64. Sajjad, 17
  65. Salman Akbari, 17
  66. Shahram Pourmansouri, 17
  67. Sina Paymard, 16
  68. Siyavash Shirnejad
  69. Vahid, 16
  70. Zolf’ali Hamzeh,
SAUDI ARABIA (3)
Middle East
Legal System: Islamic Sharia
Signatory to ICCPR and CRC
. 
1. Dhahian Rakan al-Sibai’ I (male)
2. Sultan Kohail (male – 16)
3. Rizana Nafeek(female - 17) 
SUDAN (2)
Africa
Legal system: Islamic Sharia
Signatory to ICCPR and CRC

1. Abdelrhman Zakaria Mohamed (male – 16)
2. Ahmed Abdullah Suleiman (male – 16)

Sri Lankan girl sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia

Domestic worker Rizana Nafeek was sentenced to death on 16 June for a murder committed while she was 17 years old.

She was arrested in May 2005 in Jeddah on charges of murdering an infant in her care. She had no access to lawyers either during interrogation or at her trial and was believed to have confessed to the murder during police questioning. She has since retracted her confession.

She apparently told the authorities that she was born in February 1988, but they seem to have ignored this on the basis that her passport indicated that she was born in February 1982. According to information available to Amnesty International no medical examination is believed to have been carried out to< ascertain her age, nor was she given the opportunity to present her birth certificate, which reportedly shows that she was born in 1988.

Rizana Nafeek is believed to have appealed against her sentence, but if her appeal is unsuccessful she could be executed within days. 

Saudi Arabia is a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which expressly prohibits the execution of offenders for crimes committed when they were under 18 years old.

Source:
Amnesty International

 

Amnesty International (Sweden) protest against Child Executions in Iran

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Eric Klefberg

Today Amnesty in the city of Borås, Sweden demonstrated on the town square in Borås to protest executions of minors in Iran. “Death penalty is used as state terrorism and Iran is breaking human rights in many ways” said Osborn Holmstrand who also gathered signatures for a petition.

Amnesty-protest mot avrättningar

[Mån 18:43] Borås I dag tog Amnesty Borås plats på Stora torget i Borås för att protestera mot avrättningar av minderåriga i Iran. 

Imprisonment is not Islamic according to Iran's head of judiciary

According to ISNA news agency during the weekly meeting of Iran’s highest judiciary, the head of Iran’s juiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi today said: ” From the viewpoint of Islamic Sharia, the issue of imprisonment is in conrtast with the the Islamic penal rules. Imprisonment in Islam is very limited. In fact the more widespread use of imprisonment as a punishment and penalty has been one of the politics of the infidel regimes throughout the human history” .  
“Imprisonment is being excessively in Iran’s penal laws. “  He added
  
Islamic fundamentalists believe that depending on the nature of the crime, physical punishmentes such as flogging, chopping hands, removal of eyes, Stoning and executions should be used instead of imprisonemnt.  In the past two months 2 children were executed by Ayatollah Shahrudi’s approval.
به گزارش ايسنا آيت الله هاشمي شاهرودي در جلسه اين هفته مسوولان عالي قضايي گفت؛ از ديدگاه فقه اسلامي بحث زندان خلاف سياست کيفري اسلامي بوده و موارد حبس و زنداني کردن در اسلام بسيار محدود است. واقعيت اين است که استفاده گسترده از حبس و زندان به عنوان کيفر و مجازات از جمله سياست هاي حکومت هاي طاغوتي در طول تاريخ بشر بوده است.