Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Ghana, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United States, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe

United States

The January 25, 2024 execution of Kenneth Smith in the state of Alabama with nitrogen gas received widespread international condemnation. The European Union reiterated its commitment to abolishing the death penalty and called the execution method a “particularly cruel and unusual punishment.” The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, stated: “I deeply regret the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in Alabama despite serious concerns that this novel and untested method of suffocation may amount to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” A January 30 statement by four United Nations experts condemned the execution, called for a ban on nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, and urged for abolition of the death penalty in the U.S. and worldwide. The statement said: “The use, for the first time in humans and on an experimental basis, of a method of execution that has been shown to cause suffering in animals is simply outrageous. … Alabama’s use of Kenneth Smith as a human guinea pig to test a new method of execution amounted to unethical human experimentation and was nothing short of State-sanctioned torture.”

China 

On February 5, 2024, 57-year-old Yang Hengjun, a Chinese-Australian pro-democracy activist, was found guilty of espionage and given a suspended death sentence, which is converted to a life sentence or fixed-term sentence after a two-year reprieve if no other serious crimes are committed. “We have conveyed, firstly, to China our dismay, our despair, our frustration, but to put it really simply, our outrage at this verdict,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who met with the Chinese ambassador the same day the sentence was handed down, explained in a statement that “[t]he Australian Government has advocated for Dr. Yang with China at every opportunity, and at the highest levels,” and expressed its commitment “to press for Dr. Yang’s interests and wellbeing.” 

Two people who were sentenced to death for throwing two children – age two and one – out a 15th-floor balcony were executed on January 31, 2024. Zhang Bo, the father of the children, and his girlfriend Ye Chengchen, who saw his children from his first marriage as an “obstacle” and “burden on their future life together,” were sentenced to death in 2021 for the 2020 murders. On the same day, 30-year-old Wu Xieyu was executed; he was sentenced to death in 2021 for killing his mother with a dumbbell. 

Ghana 

On January 25, 2024, six people, including three soldiers, were found guilty of high treason and conspiracy to commit high treason and sentenced to death-by-hanging. Prosecutors said the six, who were arrested in 2021, were plotting a coup ahead of the 2020 elections. Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame said the conviction, which is the first treason conviction since 1966, “sends a strong signal to the nation that to destabilize or organize to overthrow the constitution will not be countenanced and will be taken quite seriously.” Defense lawyers are planning to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, according to BBC News. Although Ghana abolished the death penalty for murder, genocide, piracy, and smuggling in July 2023, capital punishment remains in the constitution for acts of treason. The last execution was carried out in 1992. 

Iran 

In an open letter, 25 human rights organizations expressed their concern over United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif’s February 2 to 5 visit to Iran, highlighting issues with the timing, context and nature of the visit. The visit is scheduled several weeks prior to the start of the 55^th session of the Human Rights Council, where the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, established following the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, and UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran will deliver reports. The January 29 letter states, “While we value diplomatic engagement as complementary to regular monitoring, public reporting and investigation work, we also know that Iranian authorities, in line with their consistent position, defended publicly time and again at the Human Rights Council, will play diplomatic engagement against accountability mechanisms.” The letter further explains that although “issues of the death penalty and of the rights of women and girls need urgent attention,” a visit now is unlikely to be productive as demonstrated by the aggressive rate of executions in spite of international criticism (i.e. according to the UN, there were at least 834 executions, the highest number in eight years, in 2023), the refusal to discuss issues relating to the death penalty and aspects of women’s rights during their universal periodic review in October 2023, censorship of free speech relating to these issues, and persecution of activists. The letter proposes modifying the visit to include “a strong monitoring component” and “access to independent civil society actors” and “human rights defenders.” In an exclusive email statement to Voice of America on February 5, U.N. rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani confirmed the visit, acknowledged the concern surrounding the visit, and provided reassurance that “the visit will not undermine our approach in terms of reporting and advocacy.”   

According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), at least 72 people were executed in Iran in January. On January 29, four Kurdish political prisoners – Mohsen Mazloum, Pejman Fatehi, Vafa Azarbar, and Hajir Faramarzi in Ghezelhesar – were executed on charges of moharabeh (waging war against god) and efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth). According to state news IRNA, they were arrested in June 2022 for allegedly plotting an attack on a Defense Ministry’s factory involved in producing equipment and espionage links to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.  

Japan 

Forty-five-year-old Shinji Aoba was sentenced to death by Kyoto District Court on January 25, 2024. Mr. Aoba, who had set fire to the Kyoto Animation studio in 2019 over alleged plagiarism claims, was convicted of killing 36 people – Japan’s worst mass killing in at least two decades. Judge Keisuke Masuda determined that Mr. Aoba was “neither insane nor mentally incompetent at the time of the crime” and concluded that “[t]he liability of taking the lives of 36 people is extremely grave, so there is no reason for the death penalty to be avoided.” Japan, along with the United States, are the only G7 countries to retain use of capital punishment.  

Saudi Arabia 

During the United Nation’s Human Rights Council’s Fourth Universal Periodic Review of Saudi Arabia, 33 countries made recommendations relating to capital punishment, including restrictions on the application (i.e. exempting minors) and/or abolition of the practice entirely. Hala Al-Tuwaijri, president of Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission, explained during the January 22, 2024 session that the nation has “maximum cooperation and seriousness in dealing with the mechanism.” In highlighting the nation’s progress, she specifically mentioned the abolition of the death penalty for juveniles under a “historical reform in the field of juvenile justice,” despite the law permitting death sentences for minors in certain cases, the continued execution of minors during the review period, and eight prisoners currently sentenced to death for crimes committed as minors, according to the European Saudi Organisation on Human Rights (ESOHR). ESOHR described Ms. Al-Tuwaijri’s speech “as an affirmation of the official role of the Human Rights Commission in whitewashing Saudi Arabia’s image,” adding that “the recommendations resulting from this mechanism should not be influenced by the manipulation and misleading information presented by the [Saudi Arabian Human Rights] commission.” Echoing similar concerns, Amnesty International’s Middle East Researcher Dana Ahmed stated: “Saudi Arabian authorities must seize the review’s recommendations as a wake-up call to end their most egregious human rights violations, including the relentless crackdown on freedom of expression, the sentencing of child offenders to death, and the torture and ill-treatment of migrants. The international community should not be hoodwinked by any promises of change by Saudi Arabia, but instead exert their collective influence to ensure crucial rights reforms take place in the country.”  

On January 31, 2024, four Ethiopian nationals, who were sentenced to death for the murder of a Sudanese national, were executed. On January 30, Awn Hassan Abu Abdullah, who was accused of engaging in terrorist-related activities, was executed. The Specialized Criminal Court, which has a history of targeting activists according to ESOHR, sentenced Mr. Abu Abdullah to death on vague charges that were not disclosed to the public. According to ESOHR, “the arrest, trial, and execution of Awn Abu Abdullah are likely related to his legitimate activities, such as expressing opinions and participating in gatherings, raising concerns about his potential exposure to Saudi Arabia’s practices of torture, ill-treatment, and unfair trials.” 

Vietnam 

On January 22, 2024, nine people were sentenced to death for drug-trafficking; they were convicted of trafficking 231lbs of methamphetamine and heroin into Vietnam from 2021 to early 2022. In Vietnam, being convicted of trafficking 100 grams or more of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, or amphetamine carries a death sentence. According to the Ministry of Public Security, 2023 saw an increase in both the number of drug-trafficking suspects arrested (15%) and the number of cases (10%). 

Zimbabwe 

On February 6, 2024, Zimbabwe’s cabinet has supported a bill introduced last November to abolish the death penalty. “In view of the need to retain the deterrent element in sentencing murderers, it is expected that the new law will impose lengthy sentences without violating the right to life,” said Information Minister Jenfan Muswere. The bill still needs to be passed by parliament. 

Zimbabwe, which last carried out an execution in 2005, inherited capital punishment from their time as British colony. According to data from Amnesty International, four sub-Saharan African nations – Botswana, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan – have carried out at least 109 executions from 2018-2022; in 2022, two sub-Saharan African nations, Somalia and South Sudan, carried out at least 11 executions. According to the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Somalia has carried out at least 7 executions so far this year.