Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and United States

Georgia’s execution of Willie Pye – the state’s first in more than four years – garnered criticism from the European Union. “Although the European Union and its 27 Member States oppose capital punishment in all circumstances, we are especially concerned about the scheduled execution of Mr. Pye given his intellectual disability and issues regarding the quality of his legal representation,” said the EU’s letter to the state’s Board of Pardons and Parole in support of Mr. Pye’s clemency petition, which was subsequently denied on March 19, 2024. Following the March 20 execution, the EU expressed regret, once again highlighting evidence of Mr. Pye’s intellectual disability. “The use of the death penalty for persons with such impairments is explicitly prohibited by international standards on the human rights of those facing the death penalty,” said the statement. Mr. Pye’s execution not only violated international law but also state law and Supreme Court precedent (i.e. Atkins v. Virginia, 2002) prohibiting the death penalty for people with intellectual disabilities.

Afghanistan 

On March 23, 2024, Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, announced in an audio broadcast aired on state television that it will resume publicly stoning women to death for adultery. “You may call it a violation of women’s rights when we publicly stone or flog them for committing adultery because they conflict with your democratic principles. [But] I represent Allah, and you represent Satan,” said Mr. Akhundzada, according to The Guardian’s translation of the broadcast. “The Taliban’s work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun,” he said. 

Human rights groups criticized the declaration, which violates international human rights law. “Two years ago, they didn’t have the courage they have today to vow stoning women to death in public; now they do,” said Sahar Fetrat, an Afghan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “They tested their draconian policies one by one, and have reached this point because there is no one to hold them accountable for the abuses. Through the bodies of Afghan women, the Taliban demand and command moral and societal orders. We should all be warned that if not stopped, more and more will come.”

Democratic Republic of the Congo 

On March 13, 2024, the Ministry of Justice formally lifted a moratorium on use of the death penalty to allow for the death penalty in cases of treason, terrorism, and urban banditry resulting in death. “The government’s decision to reinstate executions is a gross injustice for people sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo and shows a callous disregard for the right to life,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa. ECPM (Ensemble contre la peine de mort), an international abolitionist group, also criticized the move, warning that the majority of the over 800 death row prisoners (as of the beginning of 2024) are at risk of execution. The nation last carried out executions in 2003. 

India 

On March 6, 2024, five people were sentenced to death for the 2019 murder of politician Rama Chandra Behera. According to public prosecutor Aswini Kumar Mallick, the conviction was based on evidence in 94 documents and the testimony of 54 witnesses. The death sentence of Dinesh Paswan, who was convicted of the 2021 rape and murder of a three-year-old, was commuted to a 30-year term sentence by the Allahabad High Court on March 5. Project 39A, based at the National Law University in Delhi, found that 2023 had the highest death row population in nearly two decades, with 561 death-sentenced prisoners, and the imposition of 120 new death sentences. 

Iran 

Established by the United Nations Human Rights Council in November 2022 in response to the repression of widespread “Women, Life, Freedom” protests, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI) presented its first report on March 8, 2024, stating that “many of the serious human rights violations outlined in the present report amount to crimes against humanity.” The report’s recommendations included urging for a halt to all executions and releasing arbitrarily detained prisoners. 

Despite a lack of transparency and cooperation from the nation, the report found that as of January 2024 at least 28 people had been sentenced to death in connection to the protests, at least 9 of whom have been executed and at least 6 of whom are awaiting execution. The Mission found consistent violations of defendants’ rights to fair trials and due process, repeated calls from state officials for expedited proceedings, and an absence of investigations into allegations of torture and/or coerced confessions before proceeding with executions. The report states that the 9 executions of protestors “amount[ed] to unlawful and arbitrary deprivation of their right to life and have violated the prohibition against torture and ill-treatment.”  

The Mission identified over 100 individuals who have been charged with death-eligible offenses, including crimes which do not meet the international legal threshold of a “most serious” crime (i.e. intentional murder). Javad Rouhi, who was given three death sentences for the crime of apostasy, is one such individual; all death sentences against Mr. Rouhi were overturned, however, Mr. Rouhi subsequently died in custody following credible allegations of torture, one of several instances of deaths in custody following torture. 

According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights, political prisoners across five prisons have been hunger striking every Tuesday for eight consecutive weeks in protest of the death penalty. The prisoners released a statement on the eighth night, the eve of Persian new year, reiterating their commitment to “protest the death penalty from behind bars in the coming year,” seeing it as their “moral duty” to act and referring to the practice as “medieval” and “state murder.” As of April 1, there have been 98 executions reported by Iran Human Rights. 

Nigeria 

On March 26, 2024, Chinese national Frank Geng-Quangrong was sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend, 22-year-old Ummukulsum Sani, in September 2022. “This is a signal that whoever is coming to a society should be prepared to comply with the extant laws of that society,” said Kano Justice Commissioner Haruna Dederi. Mr. Geng-Quangrong has three months to file for appeal. 

Pakistan 

On March 22, 2024, Aasiya Bibi was sentenced to death on 2021 changes of blasphemy for burning pages of the Quran. On March 20, two women, age 23 and 24, were sentenced to death for the March 2022 killing of their religious teacher, who they suspected of blasphemy. On March 11, 22-year-old student Junaid Munir was sentenced to death for sharing blasphemous content via WhatsApp in 2022. 

Russia 

The March 22, 2024 attack on Crocus City Hall, which resulted in at least 144 deaths according to state news agency RIA Novosti, has prompted discussions on possible reinstatement of the death penalty as punishment for the suspected assailants, nine of whom have been detained as of March 29. Former president and prime minister Dmitri A. Medvedev has tweeted his support, saying it’s “necessary” to kill them. Lower chamber of parliament member Maria Butina has suggested that Belarus has the right to request extradition of the suspects since at least two of their citizens were also killed in the attack and could subsequently try them capitally, as the only European nation to retain the death penalty. Although Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri S. Peskov stated that it would not currently engage in discussion on restoring the death penalty, Vladimir Putin has publicly and repeatedly opposed the death penalty in the past, with statements as recent as 2022 and as far back as 2002. In a March 26 ceremony for young artists and educators, President Putin said it was “extremely important … to rely on these values of creativity, humanism and mercy,” which RT has reported to be “widely interpreted as a signal to lawmakers and the public to tone down the calls for administering the death penalty.” Mikhail Vinogradov, founder and president of the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation, wrote in a piece published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that “no drastic decisions are likely” regarding Russia’s death penalty or migration policy. 

Russia has maintained a moratorium for 28 years; it was first imposed by the Constitutional Court in 1999, which ruled that the death penalty could not be used until jury trials were implemented; following the implementation of jury trials in 2009, the court ruled that the moratorium would remain in place, stating that “[s]table guarantees of the human right not to be subjected to the death penalty have been formed and a constitutional and legal regime has emerged.” The court’s 2009 decision abided by Council of Europe’s rules, from which Russia was expelled in 2022. Some parliamentary proponents have argued that the Constitutional Court has the power to restore the death penalty, while chair of the court, Judge Valery Zorkin, has stated that the constitutionally provided right to life prevents the imposition of the death penalty and restoring the death penalty would require constitutional changes. 

Saudi Arabia 

Using data from 229 executions carried out from the beginning of January 2016 to end of February 2024, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights found that 40% (93) of the people executed were from Al-Qatif, which constitutes 1.6% of the overall population and has been the site of protests since 2011. The report concludes: “The nature of the charges and the course of the trials, alongside the violations accompanying arrests and interrogations, clearly show that Saudi Arabia has used the death penalty over these years as a retaliatory method, aiming to intimidate and frighten the society.”