Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Somalia

India 

The Aprajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, which out­lines the death penal­ty for rape result­ing in the victim’s death or ​“veg­e­ta­tive state,” was adopt­ed by the West Bengal gov­ern­ment in east­ern India on September 3, 2024. Under inter­na­tion­al law, it is unlaw­ful to pre­scribe the death penal­ty for a crime not meet­ing the ​“most seri­ous” crime (e.g., inten­tion­al mur­der) threshold. 

The mea­sure comes amidst a wave of nation­wide protests, includ­ing med­ical work­ers in sev­er­al cities launch­ing strikes on nonessen­tial ser­vices, sparked by the August 9 rape and killing of a 31-year-old med­ical trainee while on duty. ​“The author­i­ties must deliv­er jus­tice and account­abil­i­ty for the hor­rif­ic rape and mur­der of the woman doc­tor at the RG Kar Medical College and hos­pi­tal in Kolkata in August. However, the death penal­ty is nev­er the solu­tion, nor it would offer a ​‘quick fix’ to pre­vent vio­lence against women. There is no evi­dence that it has a unique deter­rent effect,” said Aakar Patel, Chair of Board at Amnesty International. ​“Even the Justice Verma Committee that was con­sti­tut­ed in 2012 to reform the laws and crim­i­nal jus­tice prac­tices relat­ing to crimes of sex­u­al vio­lence, includ­ing rape in India and Law Commission of India have opposed the death penal­ty in cas­es of vio­lence against women.” In 2013, the Justice Verma Committee specif­i­cal­ly said “[S]eeking of [the] death penal­ty would be a regres­sive step in the field of sen­tenc­ing and ref­or­ma­tion,” and high­light­ed the lack of deter­rent effect in its rec­om­men­da­tion. The Union Cabinet, the senior deci­sion-mak­ing body of the exec­u­tive branch, dis­re­gard­ed the rec­om­men­da­tion at the time. 

China 

The Higher People’s Court of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region reject­ed the appeal of Li Jianping, who was sen­tenced to death in 2022 for cor­rup­tion, bribery, embez­zle­ment and engag­ing in orga­nized crime. Mr. Li’s case, involv­ing the embez­zle­ment of 3 bil­lion yuan (421 mil­lion USD), con­sti­tutes the nation’s largest ever cor­rup­tion case. The case now moves on to the Supreme People’s Court for final review. 

Democratic Republic of the Congo 

According to the Associated Press, Military pros­e­cu­tor Lieutenant Colonel Innocent Radjabu urged the judge to sen­tence all but one of the 50 defen­dants on tri­al for par­tic­i­pat­ing in an attempt­ed coup ear­li­er in May to death. Among those on tri­al are three Americans — Marcel Malanga, son of Christian Malanga who led the coup, high school friend Tyler Thompson, and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun. The DRC lift­ed its mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty in March. 

Iran 

According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), at least 100 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed in August, bring­ing the total for the year to 402. Of the 100 exe­cu­tions, 50 were for mur­der charges, 46 for drug-relat­ed charges, 3 for rape, and one for moharabeh (enmi­ty against God). Of the 31 Afghan nation­als exe­cut­ed this year, 11 of them were exe­cut­ed in August. August also saw the first pub­lic hang­ing of the year — 21-year-old Amirreza Ajam Akrami was exe­cut­ed on August 26 for the mur­der of a lawyer — and the mass exe­cu­tion of 29 peo­ple on August 7. ​“The exe­cu­tion of at least 100 peo­ple in just one month should be met with back­lash from the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty! The vic­tims of the Islamic Republic’s exe­cu­tion machine are from the weak­est and most deprived com­mu­ni­ties who are killed with­out due process and fair tri­al rights to cre­ate soci­etal fear and intim­i­da­tion,” said IHRNGO Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. ​“The pub­lic, human rights organ­i­sa­tions and the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty must raise the polit­i­cal cost of these exe­cu­tions for Iranian author­i­ties through protest cam­paigns, con­dem­na­tions and political pressure.” 

Baluch and Kurdish minori­ties have con­tin­ued to be amongst those exe­cut­ed with the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran high­light­ing the dis­pro­por­tion­ate impact they’ve faced in an August 5 advo­ca­cy paper. ​“There has been a strik­ing surge in exe­cu­tions since the September 2022 protests, most notably in minor­i­ty-pop­u­lat­ed regions, with sev­er­al death sen­tences ren­dered most recent­ly against women of eth­nic minor­i­ty back­grounds, adding to the chill­ing effect on minor­i­ty rights activism.” In find­ings pub­lished on August 23, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed sim­i­lar con­cerns, stat­ing that ​“eth­nic and eth­no-reli­gious minori­ties are over­rep­re­sent­ed in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly sub­ject­ed to arbi­trary deten­tion and death sen­tences for broad­ly defined offences under the Islamic Criminal Code, as well as for drug-related offences.” 

Saudi Arabia 

On August 22, 2024, the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) raised con­cern over drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions, which have increased 174% com­pared to the pri­or year, which only saw 2 exe­cu­tions. AFP report­ed the exe­cu­tion of two Egyptian nation­als (Walid Farouk and Youssef Kleib), with­out any notice, on drug-relat­ed charges on August 21 at Tabuk General Prison, which hous­es more than 50 death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers on drug-relat­ed charges. A pris­on­er named Mohammad told AFP, ​“We are not noti­fied in advance to say good­bye to our loved ones or even pre­pare our­selves psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly.” ESOHR notes at least 34 Egyptian nation­als are amongst those await­ing exe­cu­tion at Tabuk. ​“ESOHR con­sid­ers the rapid pace of exe­cu­tions in recent months, the ter­ror faced by those sen­tenced for drug charges, and the fluc­tu­at­ing offi­cial stance between halt­ing and resum­ing exe­cu­tions as a form of manip­u­la­tion that exac­er­bates the psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ture they endure. This also reveals a par­tic­u­lar­ly harsh aspect of the death penal­ty that Saudi Arabia con­tin­ues to imple­ment on a large scale.” 

Singapore 

Two men, age 45 and 59, con­vict­ed of drug-traf­fick­ing were exe­cut­ed in ear­ly August prompt­ing the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, along with six oth­er orga­ni­za­tions, to call on Singapore to ​“imme­di­ate­ly estab­lish a mora­to­ri­um on all exe­cu­tions and cease the harass­ment of anti-death penal­ty activists, as crit­i­cal first steps.” The state­ment high­light­ed that the death penal­ty for drug-crimes is a vio­la­tion of inter­na­tion­al law, as is a manda­to­ry death penal­ty, and that both men had appeals pend­ing at the time exe­cu­tions were set. ​“The cir­cum­stances in which the author­i­ties of Singapore set and car­ried out these exe­cu­tions vio­late safe­guards under inter­na­tion­al law and stan­dards to pro­tect against the arbi­trary depri­va­tion of life.” 

Somalia 

On August 22, 2024, UNICEF expressed ​“deep regret” at the exe­cu­tion of four peo­ple who were con­vict­ed of offens­es com­mit­ted when they were under the age of 18 and alleged­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Al Shabaab. The four were sen­tenced to death by a mil­i­tary court, which the state­ment high­lights is ill-equipped to han­dle child jus­tice pro­ce­dures. ​“UNICEF urges the Puntland author­i­ties to treat chil­dren asso­ci­at­ed with armed groups as vic­tims and calls for a review of cur­rent judi­cial pro­ce­dures to ensure that chil­dren are not tried by mil­i­tary courts, have access to appro­pri­ate judi­cial pro­ce­dures, and are in line with def­i­n­i­tions of a child con­tained in the Puntland Juvenile Justice Act and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Somalia has ratified.”