Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: Algeria, Belarus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam

Algeria

On October 23, 2023, 38 indi­vid­u­als were sen­tenced to death for the mob killing of Jamal Ben Ismail, who had been mis­tak­en­ly iden­ti­fied as the arson­ist respon­si­ble for the August 2021 fires that killed 90 peo­ple in the north­west region. Despite the death sen­tences, all pris­on­ers will be resen­tenced to life impris­on­ment due to the nation­wide mora­to­ri­um in place since 1993 when the last exe­cu­tions occurred. 

Belarus 

After Alexander Taratuta was sen­tenced to death for mur­der, the European Union released a state­ment on October 19 urg­ing Belarus, the only European nation to retain cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, to move towards abo­li­tion by first adopt­ing a mora­to­ri­um. The state­ment said, ​“The [sic] cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment rep­re­sents the ulti­mate denial of human dig­ni­ty, fails to act as a deter­rent to crime and makes mis­car­riages of jus­tice irre­versible.” 

Democratic Republic of the Congo 

On October 9, Parliament Member Édouard Mwangachuchu was sen­tenced to death on charges of trea­son by the High Military Court. In addi­tion to trea­son, he was con­vict­ed of ​“ille­gal pos­ses­sion of weapons and muni­tions of war” and ​“par­tic­i­pa­tion in the M23 insur­rec­tionary move­ment,” a Tutsi-led March 23, 2021 move­ment that cap­tured areas of land in North Kivu. Defense coun­sel Me Thomas Gamakolo said they plan to appeal the ver­dict, as the tri­al was ​“based on eth­nic hatred and deduc­tions.” Death sen­tences in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in about 20 years, are often com­mut­ed to sen­tences of life impris­on­ment. 

Iran 

According to Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), 596 peo­ple have been exe­cut­ed in Iran this year, with 62 exe­cu­tions occur­ring in the last three weeks of October. On October 19, at least 10 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed in Karaj, all of whom were sen­tenced to death on drug-relat­ed charges. IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said, ​“The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) which col­lab­o­rates with the Islamic Republic on com­bat­ing drug traf­fick­ing, has an oblig­a­tion to take action against arbi­trary drug exe­cu­tions. The UN’s silence on these exe­cu­tions is a green light of approval.” 

Nigeria 

On October 9, 2023, police offi­cer Drambi Vandi was sen­tenced to death for killing lawyer Bolanle Raheem after she failed to stop at a vehi­cle check­point. Many in the coun­try sup­port­ed the sen­tence, as police are not often held account­able for their actions, and hoped it would serve as a warn­ing to oth­er police offi­cers. Although the nation has thou­sands of death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers, the last exe­cu­tion was car­ried out in 1999, accord­ing to Inibehe Effiong, a Nigerian human rights lawyer. 

Qatar 

On October 27, 2023, eight Indian for­mer naval offi­cers were sen­tenced to death on charges of espi­onage, accord­ing to Reuters. Anonymous sources told Reuters that the defen­dants were arrest­ed for spy­ing on Qatar’s sub­ma­rine pro­gram for Israel in August 2022. India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in a state­ment on social media: ​“The gov­ern­ment attach­es the high­est impor­tance to the case. I ful­ly share the con­cerns and pain of the fam­i­lies, under­lined that gov­ern­ment will con­tin­ue to make all efforts to secure their release.” 

Saudi Arabia 

Morris Tidball-Binz, UN Special Rapporteur on extra­ju­di­cial, sum­ma­ry or arbi­trary exe­cu­tions, raised con­cern over the immi­nent exe­cu­tion of Abdullah Al-Derazi, who was sen­tenced to death for crimes com­mit­ted at age 17. ​“Despite Saudi Arabia issu­ing a Royal Decree in 2020 aim­ing to abol­ish the death penal­ty for child defen­dants, includ­ing those con­vict­ed of ter­ror­ism offences, it is deeply con­cern­ing that the appli­ca­tion of the decree remains uncer­tain,” said Mr. Tidball-Binz in his October 16, 2023 press release. 

Amnesty International raised sim­i­lar con­cern over Mr. Al-Derazi’s immi­nent exe­cu­tion, as well as the immi­nent exe­cu­tion of Jalal Labbad, who was also a minor at the time of his offense on October 23. The two men ​“were con­vict­ed of ter­ror­ism-relat­ed charges over their par­tic­i­pa­tion in anti-gov­ern­ment protests in gross­ly unfair tri­als that pri­mar­i­ly relied on tor­ture-taint­ed con­fes­sions. The Saudi author­i­ties have sen­tenced them to death, reneg­ing on their own promis­es to end the use of the death penal­ty in cas­es of indi­vid­u­als who were chil­dren at the time of their alleged crimes. The young men could now be put to death at any moment after the King rat­i­fies their death sen­tences, as they have exhaust­ed all domes­tic legal reme­dies,” said Amnesty International’s Middle East Researcher Dana Ahmed. 

Singapore 

On October 30, 2023, for­mer pres­i­dent of Mongolia and a com­mis­sion­er of the International Committee Against the Death Penalty Elbegdorj Tsakhia, authored an op-ed titled ​“My coun­try abol­ished the death penal­ty. So can yours,” direct­ed at the new­ly elect­ed Singporean pres­i­dent, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Mr. Tsakhia wrote ​“The truth is that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is not an inevitable part of Asia’s polit­i­cal and judi­cial real­i­ty. Ending it is not an impo­si­tion of Western val­ues on our soci­eties. It’s a choice inspired by uni­ver­sal human rights – one that has been made by the major­i­ty of the world’s nations.” Mr. Tsakhia empha­sized the ​“egre­gious” nature of exe­cu­tions for non-vio­lent drug offens­es. Although the president’s role in Singapore is large­ly cer­e­mo­ni­al, President Shanmugaratnam does have the pow­er to grant clemen­cy to death row pris­on­ers. Earlier in October, fam­i­lies of death row pris­on­ers and those exe­cut­ed sub­mit­ted a 1,700-signature peti­tion to secu­ri­ty offi­cials at the Ministry of Home Affairs urg­ing an imme­di­ate mora­to­ri­um.  

Taiwan 

On October 30, 2023, four men were charged with smug­gling $3 mil­lion worth of hero­in into the coun­try; if con­vict­ed, the men may be sen­tenced to death or life impris­on­ment. The last exe­cu­tion for hero­in smug­gling was car­ried out in 2002. 

On September 28, Chen Yen-hsiang, was sen­tenced to death for set­ting fire to his family’s shop, sub­se­quent­ly result­ing in eight deaths, four of whom were chil­dren. The pros­e­cu­tor said he decid­ed to cap­i­tal­ly charge Mr. Chen due to the bru­tal­i­ty of the crime and impos­si­bil­i­ty of reha­bil­i­ta­tion. 

Vietnam 

On October 28, 2023, six peo­ple were sen­tenced to death for traf­fick­ing 5.6 kilo­grams of hero­in. In Vietnam, pos­sess­ing or smug­gling more than 600 grams of hero­in or cocaine or more than 2.5 kilo­grams of metham­phet­a­mines car­ries a poten­tial death sen­tence. 

The fam­i­ly of Le Van Manh, who was exe­cut­ed last month, received his final let­ter and a muf­fled 18 sec­ond record­ing of his last words. The let­ter read, ​“I am not afraid of being exe­cut­ed. I am not ashamed because I am inno­cent. I was wrong­ly con­vict­ed. After my death, my par­ents will con­tin­ue to seek jus­tice for me. If moth­er and father become too old for that, then let my younger sib­lings and chil­dren con­tin­ue to do it for me until jus­tice is returned to me.” His moth­er, Nguyen Thi Viet, told Radio Free Asia that they will con­tin­ue to request more infor­ma­tion about his exe­cu­tion.