Web pages about "Death Penalty"

Make human rights in Tunisia a reality

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:25:31 +0100

A harsh and disturbing reality lies behind the image of Tunisia as a holiday paradise and human rights beacon that the government has sought to paint. In truth, it is a country where violations by security forces are rampant and go unpunished.

Saber Ragoubi was tried unfairly and sentenced to death in December 2007, largely on the basis of information obtained from him and other co-defendants under torture. At his trial, he said: “I was assaulted in Mornaguia prison and lost three of my front teeth; I request an investigation into the assault. I was also stripped naked to force me to shave my beard.” Read more about his case

Houssine Tarkhani was forcibly returned from France to Tunisia and was detained on arrival in June 2007. He has been charged with terrorist offences and is awaiting trial. When he was able to speak to his lawyer in 2007, he said: “I was beaten with a stick all over my body, given electric shocks and threatened with death. When I asked to read the police report, which I had been forced to sign without reading, I was subjected to further beatings. Read more about his case

The Tunisian government’s security and counter-terrorism policies and practices are leading to serious human rights violations, despite legal reforms that theoretically offer better protection.

Call on the Tunisian government to live up to the promises it has made on paper to respect human rights.

You can do something to improve the human rights situation in Tunisia by taking action on behalf of Saber Ragoubi and Houssine Tarkhani. Send a letter or a fax to the Tunisian authorities using the model letters attached and demand justice for them.

Tunisia: Human rights lip service

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:37:52 +0100

The Tunisian government is misleading the world as it conveys a positive image of the human rights situation in the country while abuses by its security forces continue unabated and are committed with impunity, Amnesty International revealed in a new report today.

“The Tunisian government has repeatedly asserted that it abides by its international human rights obligations, yet this is far from the reality. It is high time that the authorities stop paying lip service to human rights and take concrete action to end abuses,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Programme. “As a first step, the Tunisian authorities must acknowledge the disturbing allegations documented in this report, commit to investigating them and bring those responsible to justice."

The report, In the Name of Security: Routine Abuses in Tunisia, details Amnesty International’s concerns regarding serious human rights violations being committed in connection with the government's security and counter-terrorism policies. In their efforts to prevent the formation of what they call “terrorist cells” inside Tunisia, the authorities have been responsible for arbitrary arrests and detentions which breach Tunisian law, and have forcibly disappeared detainees, used torture and other ill-treatment and tried, convicted and sentenced people using unfair proceedings. In addition, they have tried civilians before military courts and produced little evidence to substantiate the charges.

A broad definition of terrorism in the Tunisian Anti-Terrorism Law is used by the authorities to criminalize legitimate and peaceful opposition activities. Although some legal reforms were introduced in recent years to provide better protection for detainees, the laws are routinely flouted by the Tunisian security forces, and have not served as an adequate safeguard against torture, unfair trial and other serious human rights abuses.

Ramzi el Aifi, Ousama Abbadi and Mahdi Ben Elhaj Ali were three of the co-defendants in the Soliman case. Their lawyers report that they were punched, tied up and kicked by prison guards at Mornaguia prison on 16 October 2007, apparently because they had gone on hunger strike in protest against their conditions of detention. Abbadi sustained a serious eye injury and a deep, open leg wound and was in a wheelchair, unable to stand, when seen by his lawyer on 20 October 2007. Ramzi el Aifi told his lawyer that he had been tied up with a rope, beaten up and that a stick had been inserted into his anus. No investigation into these abuses is known to have been initiated by the Tunisian authorities and those allegedly responsible have not faced ustice. Ramzi el Aifi and Ousama Abbadi were sentenced to life imprisonment, though Abbadi's sentence was reduced to 30 years' imprisonment on appeal. Mahdi Ben Elhaj Ali was sentenced to 12 years in prison, reduced to eight years on appeal.

Most human rights abuses are committed by forces of the Department of State Security (DSS), who use torture virtually with impunity.

By failing to investigate allegations of torture, the Public Prosecutor and his staff as well as judges, who often lack independence, effectively help to cover up instances in which detainees are held incommuncado for prolonged periods in breach of Tunisia's own law, as well as torture of detainees in violation of Tunisian and international law. Through their silence and failure to act, they become complicit in the abuses.

“The Tunisian authorities have an obligation to protect the public and combat terrorism, but when doing so they must comply with their obligations under international human rights law," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. "They must ensure that the anti-terrorism and related provisions do not facilitate human rights abuses, and that, in practice, the DDS and other security forces at all times fully respect international human rights laws and standards.”

Despite this record of abuses, a number of Arab and European governments and the US government have returned people they suspected of involvement in terrorism to Tunisia, where they have then suffered arbitrary arrest and detention, torture or other ill-treatment, and blatantly unfair trials.

Houssine Tarkhani was forcibly returned from France to Tunisia on 3 June 2007, and detained on arrival. He was kept in secret detention in the DSS in Tunis for nine days, in violation of international human rights law, as well as three days longer even than the period permitted by Tunisian law for garde à vue detention. During this time, his lawyer reported, Houssine Tarkhani was beaten with a stick all over his body, given electric shocks, insulted and threatened with death. He was subjected to further beating when he asked to be allowed to read the police report, which he was not permitted to read. During tis detention in garde à vue, none of his immediate relatives were informed of his detention as required under Tunisian law. His family knew of his whereabouts only when he was brought before an investigating judge on 12 June 2007. He first appeared before the investigating judge without the assistance of his lawyers, who were not permitted access to him until 19 June 2007, when they saw him at Mornaguia prison. His lawyer’s request to have him examined for evidence of torture still remains unanswered.

“Instead of forcibly returning Tunisian nationals who face torture and unfair trials, foreign governments should be pressing the Tunisian government to take concrete steps to promote human rights reform,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

Note to editors:

Amnesty International experts will present the findings of the report at a press briefing in Paris at 15:00 GMT on Monday 23 June.

To arrange for an interview with a spokesperson in Paris, please contact Aurélie Chatelard on + 33 (0) 6 76 94 37 05.

To arrange for an interview with a spokesperson in London, please contact Nicole Choueiry, Middle East and North Africa Press Officer on +44 (0) 7831 640 170.

Kurdish boy executed in Iran

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:52:50 +0100

A Kurdish boy, believed to be 16 or 17 years old at the time of execution, was executed in Iran on Tuesday. Mohammad Hassanzadeh was hanged in Sanandaj prison following his conviction for the murder, when aged about 15, of another boy, then aged 10.

A 60-year-old man, Rahim Pashabadi, also convicted of murder, was executed alongside him. Amnesty International condemned the execution.

"This latest execution of a juvenile offender is yet another blatant violation by the Iranian authorities of their international obligations under the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child not to sentence to death those under the age of 18 at the time of the offence," said the organisation.

"It runs against hopes created by yesterday's decision by the Head of Iran's Judiciary to grant a one-month reprieve to two juvenile offenders to allow more time to seek a resolution with the families of the victims."

The two juvenile offenders who were due to be executed on Wednesday were granted the reprieve by Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi on Tuesday. Behnoud Shojaee and Mohammad Feda’i were accused of premeditated murder and sentenced to qesas, or retribution, for which the penalty is death. Both had claimed that they did not intend to kill.

"We call on Iran to end, once and for all, such executions, including those of at least 85 other juvenile offenders on death row," said Amnesty International. "These juveniles should not have been sentenced to death in the first place."

Amnesty International has said that the organisation is also concerned about reports that Saeed Jazee, a third juvenile offender now aged 21, is also scheduled to be executed on 25 June.

Amnesty International has longstanding concerns with trial procedures that fall short of international standards which Iran is obliged to uphold.

In a recent letter by Mohammad Feda’i that was publicised on 7 June, he said that, while in detention, officials kicked and tortured him to the point that he agreed one night to sign a confession without knowledge of its content.

"I am a 21-year-old, a young man, who was only 16 when he entered prison. Like any other teenager, [I was] still living my childhood dreams […]," he wrote, adding "I was beaten and flogged repeatedly […] They hanged me from the ceiling [and] left me with no hope of living."

Amnesty International has recorded the names of at least 85 other juvenile offenders at risk of execution in Iran and fears there may be many others also at risk. Iran remains by far the most prolific executioner of juvenile offenders. In recent years, only two other countries – Saudi Arabia and Yemen – have carried out such executions.

Amnesty International said that the organisation recognises the right and responsibilities of states to bring those suspected of criminal offences to justice in fair proceedings, but opposes the death penalty in all cases.

"We call on Iran’s leaders, its judiciary and its new parliamentarians to ensure that Iran joins the global trend away from the use of the death penalty, powerfully expressed in the UN General Assembly’s resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions on 18 December 2007," said Amnesty International.

Death penalty

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:51:44 +0100

Facts & Figures
Related documents

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The death penalty violates the right to life. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It has no place in a modern criminal justice system.

An execution, just like torture, involves a deliberate assault on a prisoner. Even so-called 'humane' methods such as lethal injection can entail excruciating suffering.

Capital punishment is irrevocable. All judicial systems make mistakes, and as long as the death penalty persists, innocent people will be executed.

It is also discriminatory and is often used disproportionately against the poor, the powerless and the marginalized, as well as against people whom repressive governments want to eliminate.

The death penalty does not deter crime more than other punishments. In Canada the homicide rate has fallen by 40 per cent since 1975; the death penalty was abolished for murder in 1976.

International human rights treaties prohibit courts sentencing anyone who was under 18 years old at the time of the crime to death, or executing them. But a small number of countries continue to execute child offenders, violating their obligations under international law.

Key facts

137 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
60 countries retain and use the death penalty, most often as a punishment for people convicted of murder.
At least 1,252 people were known to be executed in 24 countries during 2007. The true figure was certainly higher.
88 per cent of all known executions in 2007 took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the USA.

More key facts:

What Amnesty International is doing

Amnesty International works for an end to executions and the abolition of the death penalty everywhere.

A downward trend
Soon after its foundation in 1961 Amnesty International began sending appeals to prevent the execution of prisoners of conscience. Over time, its opposition to the death penalty has broadened to include all prisoners, regardless of the crimes of which they have been convicted.

Progress has been dramatic in the last few decades. In 1977 only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Thirty years later, that number had grown to 90.

Working together
Amnesty International conducts an ongoing programme of work against the death penalty, including campaigns in individual countries, working in cooperation with civil society.

It is a founding member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP) – a coalition of more than 40 human rights organizations, bar associations, trade unions and local and regional authorities, who have joined together in an effort to rid the world of capital punishment.

Amnesty International coordinates the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN). This was established in 2006 and is made up of lawyers, parliamentarians and activists from numerous countries including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

Collecting information
Amnesty International monitors developments all over the world. This is not easy. For example, the vast majority of the world’s executions occur in China but the Chinese government does not release death penalty statistics.

By monitoring available public reports, Amnesty International has calculated that at least 470 people were executed in China during 2007. This is certainly an underestimate – the true figure is more likely to be 6,000.

Campaigning for abolition
On 18 December, the UN General Assembly endorsed a resolution calling for "a moratorium on executions" by an overwhelming majority: 104 votes in favour, 54 against and 29 abstentions. This is an increase of five votes in favour since the Third Committee of the General Assembly adopted the resolution on the 15 November. Congo, Kiribati, Madagascar, Nauru and Palau followed the 99 countries that supported the resolution in mid-November. The resolution enjoyed strong cross-regional support.

The resolution carries considerable moral and political weight, although it is not legally binding on states. Establishing a moratorium on executions is an important tool for convincing states still using the death penalty to engage in a nation-wide debate and to review their laws on capital punishment. If death penalty laws are under review, states must deem that it is only fair to stop executing people during the process.

Amnesty International is calling for

A moratorium on executions throughout the world.
Abolition of the death penalty for all crimes.
Universal ratification of treaties providing for abolition, including the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
All countries that retain the death penalty to comply with their international obligations not to use it against child offenders.

Success story

Uzbekistan became the first country to abolish executions in 2008 on 1 January. It became the 135th country in the world to abolish the death penalty in law or practice.

Capital punishment has now been replaced with life or long-term imprisonment.

India: Time to end the lethal lottery of India’s death penalty system

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:18:06 +0100

(New Delhi): The first major study into India’s legal judgements on death penalty cases has revealed that the system is riddled with fatal flaws and that the only remedy is to abolish the death penalty completely, said the study authors in New Delhi today.

Amnesty International believes that at least 140 people have been sentenced to death in 2006 and 2007. According to the latest available official figures, there were 273 persons on death row as of 31 December 2005. But this figure is likely to be considerably higher today.

The fate of these death row prisoners is ultimately a lottery. In the first comprehensive analysis of around 700 Supreme Court judgements on death penalty cases over more than 50 years, the authors expose a judicial system that has failed to meet international laws and standards relating to the death penalty.

Amnesty International India and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (Tamil Nadu & Puducherry) have issued the study, Lethal Lottery: The Death Penalty in India, A study of Supreme Court judgments in death penalty cases 1950-2006.

It is the first to examine the essential unfairness of the death penalty system in India by analysing evidence found in Supreme Court judgments of abuse of law and procedure and of arbitrariness and inconsistency in the investigation, trial, sentencing and appeal stages in capital cases. It demonstrates that:

• the administration of the death penalty in India has not been in the “rarest of rare cases” as claimed in the country

• on the contrary, there is ample evidence to show that the death penalty has been an arbitrary, imprecise and abusive means of dealing with defendants.

Dr V Suresh, President, PUCL (TN & Puducherry) said: “While the death penalty continues to be used in India, there remains a danger that it will be used disproportionately against ethnic minorities, the poor or other disadvantaged groups. There is only one way to ensure such inequalities in the administration of justice do not occur: the complete abolition of the death penalty.”

Amnesty International welcomes the current hiatus of executions in the country. The relative lack of executions in the last decade -- one in 2004 -- illustrates that the people of India are willing to live without the death penalty.

“India stands at a crossroads. It can choose to join the global trend towards a moratorium on the death penalty, as adopted by the UN General Assembly last year. It will also then join 27 countries in the Asia Pacific region which have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.

“Or it can continue to hang death row inmates, when the judicial system that puts them there has been shown by this extensive research to be unfair,” said Mukul Sharma, Amnesty International-India Director.

The full report is available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/report/info/ASA20/007/2008 and a summary, at http://www.amnesty.org/en/report/info/ASA20/006/2008

Background:

The study of the courts highlights some of the main failings as:

Errors in consideration of evidence - most death sentences handed down in India are based on circumstantial evidence alone. In a 1994 Supreme Court appeal, the Court noted sarcastically that the main witness's memory constantly improved. His testimony at the trial three years after the incident was observed to be far more detailed than his confessional statement recorded a few days after.
Inadequate legal representation - concerns included lawyers ignoring key facts of mental incompetence, omitting to provide any arguments on sentencing, or failing to dispute claims that the accused was under 18 years of age at the time of the crime despite evidence to the contrary.
Anti-terrorist legislation - concerns include the broad definition of ‘terrorist acts’, insufficient safeguards on arrest, and provisions allowing for confessions made to police to be admissible as evidence.
Arbitrariness in sentencing - in the same month, different benches of the Supreme Court have treated similar cases differently, with mitigating factors taken into account or disregarded arbitrarily.
In the Bachan Singh judgment of 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty should be used only in the "rarest of rare" cases. More than a quarter of a century later, it is clear that through the failure of the courts and the State authorities to apply consistently the procedures laid down by law and by that judgment, the Court's strictures remain unfulfilled.

A total of 135 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, having realised executions are unacceptable. In 2007, only 24 countries carried out executions (China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the USA were the main five perpetrators, accounting for 88 per cent of all known executions). See http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty

Secret video shows horror of Saudi beheading

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:50:03 +0100

Secretly filmed footage of a man being beheaded in Saudi Arabia has been received by Amnesty International. The organization strongly condemns the execution and calls for the Saudi Arabian government to adhere to the UN moratorium on executions around the world.

The horrific footage shows the condemned man’s public execution. He kneels on a mat while spectators and guards watch. With one strike of the executioner’s sword, his head rolls off and his body collapses in a heap.

Amnesty International has been closely monitoring the prisoner’s case, a Jordanian citizen convicted on drug trafficking related charges; the footage filmed on a mobile phone is consistent with AI’s records.
Executions in Saudi Arabia are generally held in public. Prisoners are usually sentenced to death following inadequate legal representation.

Saudi Arabia continues to execute prisoners despite the UN General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions on 18 December 2007. The beheading is counter to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and comes at a time when there is a clear international trend away from the use of the death penalty.

“As a member of the UN Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia should take a leading role in implementing the UN moratorium on executions and commute all outstanding death sentences," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“Very few countries currently carry out executions, and it is deplorable that a member state of the Human Rights Council continues to execute people. Trials are grossly unfair with prisoners getting inadequate or no legal representation. Foreign nationals are often not even given adequate interpretation facilities and consequently remain ignorant of the exact nature of the charges against them or the punishment they face.”

The footage is a dire reflection of the extensive use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. In defiance of the world community, in 2007, Saudi Arabia executed at least 143 people, including three women, and children.

Since January 2008 the figure has already reached 53. On Friday 25 April 2008, three more people were put to death in Saudi Arabia. All were convicted of drug related crime, following trials about which very little is known. Amnesty International remains gravely concerned for the lives of a number of prisoners at risk of imminent execution and has issued urgent appeals calling for the commutation of their sentences.

“Amnesty International calls on the Saudi government to cease executions and adopt an immediate moratorium on executions in accordance with the UN resolution,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

Saudi Arabia: Secret video shows horror of beheading

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:59:58 +0100

Amnesty International has received secretly filmed grisly footage of a man being beheaded in Saudi Arabia. The organization strongly condemns the execution and calls for the Saudi Arabian government to adhere to the UN moratorium on executions around the world.

The horrific footage shows the condemned man’s public execution. He kneels on a mat while spectators and guards watch. With one strike of the executioner’s sword, his head rolls off and his body collapses in a heap. Amnesty International has been closely monitoring the prisoner’s case, a Jordanian citizen convicted on drug trafficking related charges; the footage filmed on a mobile phone is consistent with AI’s records.

Executions in Saudi Arabia are generally held in public. Prisoners are usually sentenced to death following inadequate legal representation. Saudi Arabia continues to execute prisoners despite the UN General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions on 18 December 2007. The beheading is counter to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and comes at a time when there is a clear international trend away from the use of the death penalty.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said: “As a member of the UN Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia should take a leading role in implementing the UN moratorium on executions and commute all outstanding death sentences.

“Very few countries currently carry out executions, and it is deplorable that a member state of the Human Rights Council continues to execute people. Trials are grossly unfair with prisoners getting inadequate or no legal representation. Foreign nationals are often not even given adequate interpretation facilities and consequently remain ignorant of the exact nature of the charges against them or the punishment they face.”

The footage is a dire reflection of the extensive use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. In defiance of the world community, in 2007, Saudi Arabia executed at least 143 people, including three women, and children. Since January 2008 the figure has already reached 53. This morning (25 April) three more people were put to death in Saudi Arabia. All were convicted of drug related crime, following trials about which very little is known. Amnesty International remains gravely concerned for the lives of a number of prisoners at risk of imminent execution and has issued urgent appeals calling for the commutation of their sentences.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said: “Amnesty International calls on the Saudi government to cease executions and adopt an immediate moratorium on executions in accordance with the UN resolution.”

Note to Editors
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Iraq executions follow apparently unfair trials

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:25:43 +0100

Twenty-eight people have been executed in Iraq this week following what appear to have been hasty and unfair trials. Those executed were arrested in clashes that took place in the past three weeks.

Amnesty International has said that, for them to be arrested, sentenced and executed within such a short period raises serious concerns about the trial process. The organization has called on the Iraqi authorities to disclose all relevant information about these trials, including whether those executed had access to legal representation or not.

"The circumstances of these executions make it urgent for the Iraqi authorities to establish a moratorium on the death penalty," Amnesty International said today.

Amnesty International has repeatedly expressed its concerns about the trials conducted by criminal courts in Iraq, and whose procedures fall short of international standards for fair trials.

"The Iraqi government argues that reinstating capital punishment would curb the widespread violence in the country," said Amnesty International. "The reality, however, is that violence has continued unabated and the death penalty has not been a deterrent."

The death penalty is being used extensively since its reintroduction in 2004 and hundreds of people have been sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as a violation of the right to life and as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

US Supreme Court rules lethal injections constitutional

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:45:36 +0100

The US Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the state of Kentucky's lethal injection procedures are constitutional. The ruling is likely to be followed by moves in various US jurisdictions to resume executions. However, the ruling is unlikely to stop litigation on this issue, according to Amnesty International.

Executions in the USA have been suspended since late September 2007 as states waited for the Supreme Court's decision. A majority of the 36 death penalty states, and the federal government, use the same three-drug combination as Kentucky to anesthetize, paralyze and kill the condemned prisoner.

Officials in a number of states, including Florida, Georgia, Arizona and Ohio, have already suggested that the Baze v. Rees decision should clear the way to a resumption of executions in their jurisdictions. The likelihood of execution dates being set soon in states such as Texas and Alabama is high.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally, regardless of the method chosen to kill the condemned prisoner. The organization says that there is no such thing as a humane, fair, reliable or useful death penalty system.

Chief Justice Roberts indicated that, in future cases, a stay of execution on the lethal injection issue would likely only be granted if "the condemned prisoner establishes that the State's lethal injection protocol creates a demonstrated risk of severe pain."

"He must show that the risk is substantial when compared to the known and available alternatives. "

Justice Stevens, concurring in the judgment, nevertheless wrote that he had assumed the Supreme Court's decision would bring the debate about lethal injection as a method of execution to a close.

"It now seems clear that it will not," he concluded. He went on to say that he was convinced that the case would also generate wider debate about the death penalty in general.

He wrote that his own experience had now led him to the conclusion that “the imposition of the death penalty represents the pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernible social or public purposes. A penalty with such negligible returns to the State is patently excessive and cruel and unusual punishment."

In similar vein, Justice Breyer pointed to the wider concerns about the death penalty, beyond the issue of any risks associated with lethal injections:

"The death penalty itself, of course, brings with it serious risks, for example, risks of executing the wrong person, risks that unwarranted animus (in respect, e.g., to the race of victims), may play a role, risks that those convicted will find themselves on death row for many years, perhaps decades, to come… But the lawfulness of the death penalty is not before us."

Justice Stevens pointed out that the risk of executing the innocent “can be entirely eliminated” by abolishing the death penalty.

Amnesty International emphasized that to end the death penalty is to abandon a destructive, diversionary and divisive public policy that is not consistent with widely held values. A recent indicator of this was the landmark UN General Assembly resolution in late 2007 calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.

The organization pointed to the words of Justice Stevens in the Baze opinion: "State-sanctioned killing is becoming more and more anachronistic."

Iraq: 28 people executed after what seems to be hasty and unfair trials

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:40:50 +0100

The execution of 28 people this week following what appears to be hasty and unfair trials makes it urgent for the Iraqi authorities to establish a moratorium on the death penalty, Amnesty International said today.

“Those executed were arrested in clashes that took place in the past three weeks. For them to be arrested, sentenced and executed within such a short period raises serious concerns about the trial process,” said Amnesty International. “The Iraqi authorities must disclose all relevant information about these trials, including whether those executed had access to legal representation or not.”

Amnesty International has repeatedly expressed its concerns about the trials conducted by criminal courts in Iraq, and whose procedures fall short of international standards for fair trials.

“The Iraqi government argued in 2004 that reinstating capital punishment would curb the widespread violence in the country,” said Amnesty International. “The reality, however, is that violence has continued unabated and the death penalty has not been a deterrent.”

The death penalty has been used extensively since its reintroduction in 2004 and hundreds of people have been sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as a violation of the right to life and as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.