Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Yemen

The University of Oxford Death Penalty Research Unit, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with sev­er­al human rights non­prof­its, recent­ly launched a data­base of for­eign nation­als sen­tenced to death or exe­cut­ed from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2021 in Asia and the Middle East. They found that Saudi Arabia leads the Middle East in sen­tenc­ing for­eign nation­als to death (385 peo­ple) and drug-traf­fick­ing (283), close­ly fol­lowed by mur­der (257), are the top crimes for which for­eign nation­als in the region are cap­i­tal­ly con­vict­ed. Among the for­eign nation­als sen­tenced to the death in the Middle East, Pakistani (155) is the most com­mon nation­al­i­ty and labor­er (254) is the most com­mon occu­pa­tion. Indonesia leads Asia in sen­tenc­ing for­eign nation­als to death (142 peo­ple) and drug-traf­fick­ing (338) is the main crime for which peo­ple are cap­i­tal­ly con­vict­ed. In Asia, Laborer (44) fol­lowed by Retail/​Hospitality (35), is the main occu­pa­tion of for­eign nation­als exe­cut­ed and most for­eign nation­als (269) are await­ing exe­cu­tion; in the Middle East, 379 peo­ple have already been exe­cut­ed and 215 peo­ple are awaiting execution. 

China 

On December 10, 2023, in hon­or of International Human Rights Day, the European Union Delegation in China issued a state­ment high­light­ing prob­lem­at­ic areas of China’s human rights record, includ­ing its reten­tion and appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty. Although data about the num­ber of death sen­tences and exe­cu­tions is a state secret, ​“the esti­mat­ed num­ber of death sen­tences and exe­cu­tions in China exceeds by far that of all oth­er coun­tries tak­en togeth­er,” said the state­ment. ​“The EU calls upon China to pro­vide more trans­paren­cy in the appli­ca­tion and impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty and to fur­ther reduce the num­ber of crim­i­nal offens­es pun­ish­able by death.” Maintaining its posi­tion on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the ​“EU reaf­firms that the death penal­ty remains an inef­fec­tive, unnec­es­sary and irrev­o­ca­ble pun­ish­ment, and there­fore urges China to intro­duce a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions and ulti­mate­ly abol­ish this inhuman practice.” 

On December 18, 2023, Lao Rongzhi, a woman con­vict­ed of rob­bery, extor­tion, and the mur­der of sev­en peo­ple between 1996 and 1999, was exe­cut­ed. Ms. Rongzhi, who evad­ed arrest for 20 years, alleged­ly tar­get­ed vic­tims at enter­tain­ment venues and her then-boyfriend, Fa Ziying, killed them. 

Indonesia 

On December 5, 2023, Medan District Court in North Sumatra sen­tenced 60-year-old Wardani Ibrahim to death for trans­port­ing 43 kilo­grams of crys­tal metham­phet­a­mine. The judge high­light­ed how the defendant’s actions hin­dered government’s efforts to elim­i­nate nar­cotics dis­tri­b­u­tion and endan­gered the younger gen­er­a­tion; the judge found no mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors in Mr. Wardani’s case, who was charged under the 2009 Narcotics Law. 

Iran 

There have so far been at least 52 exe­cu­tions in 2024, accord­ing to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO). On January 23, 23-year-old Mohammad Ghobadlou was exe­cut­ed in Karaj. Mr. Ghobadlou was sen­tenced to death both in the Revolutionary Courts and the Criminal Courts for run­ning over and killing an offi­cial dur­ing ​“Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022 – he is at least the ninth ​“Woman, Life, Freedom” pro­test­er to have been exe­cut­ed. According to Amnesty International, Mr. Ghobadlou has been under psy­chi­atric care for bipo­lar dis­or­der since the age of 15 and for the first month of deten­tion was denied his med­ica­tion, as well as access to his lawyer. Farhad Salimi, a Kurdish-Sunni polit­i­cal pris­on­er, was also exe­cut­ed on January 23 in Karaj; Mr. Salimi, who was on hunger strike at the time of exe­cu­tion, was arrest­ed in 2010, along with six oth­ers. The sev­en defen­dants were ​“phys­i­cal­ly and psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly tor­tured to extract forced con­fes­sions,” accord­ing to IHRNGO. Four of the defen­dants have been exe­cut­ed – two were exe­cut­ed in November 2023, while Davoud Abdolllahi (exe­cut­ed January 2) and Mr. Salimi were exe­cut­ed in January 2024 – and IHRNGO warns that the remain­ing three are at ​“grave risk.” 

The judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency announced on December 10, 2023 that the tri­al of 33-year-old Swedish European Union employ­ee Johan Floderus, accused of espi­onage for Israel and ​“cor­rup­tion on earth,” had begun. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has called for Mr. Floderus’ release and said the charges were ​“com­plete­ly with­out fac­tu­al basis,” as has the European Union’s diplo­mat­ic ser­vice. An offi­cial spokesper­son for the European Union stat­ed: ​“We are seek­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion and more infor­ma­tion from them in close coor­di­na­tion with the Swedish author­i­ties who bear the con­sular respon­si­bil­i­ty. The European Union will con­tin­ue to work tire­less­ly to secure the release of our col­league Johan and that of oth­er EU nation­als … who are arbitrarily detained.” 

Mr. Floderus’ father told The Guardian of the ​“unac­cept­able” con­di­tions of con­fine­ment in which his son has been kept for more than 600 days. Mr. Floderus’ has been held in a con­tin­u­ous­ly lit shared cell with no bed and has not been grant­ed rou­tine con­sular vis­its or phone calls. ​“There have been calls on approx­i­mate­ly 15 days and at least five of these have been allowed after he went on hunger strike,” said Mr. Floderus’ father. Mr. Floderus was orig­i­nal­ly detained in April 2022 dur­ing Sweden’s his­toric tri­al of for­mer Iranian offi­cial Hamid Noury for his involve­ment in the 1988 sum­mer mas­sacres, when at least 5,000 dis­si­dents were exe­cut­ed, accord­ing to 2018 num­bers from Amnesty International. Under the uni­ver­sal juris­dic­tion prin­ci­pal, Sweden pros­e­cut­ed Mr. Noury, who was con­vict­ed ​“for grave breach­es of inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law and mur­der” in July 2022 and sen­tenced to life in prison. On December 19, the Svea Court of Appeal upheld Mr. Noury’s sen­tence. While sev­er­al hun­dred pro­test­ers out­side the court cel­e­brat­ed the deci­sion, Mr. Noury’s son told the Iran’s Fars news agency ​“we will go to high­er Swedish courts as well as inter­na­tion­al courts and present our evidence.” 

According to Mizan, an unnamed man was exe­cut­ed in Zahedan Central Prison on December 16, 2023 for ​“links with for­eign ser­vices includ­ing Mossad.” He was con­vict­ed of ​“intel­li­gence coop­er­a­tion and espi­onage for the ben­e­fit for the hos­tile Zionist regime [Israel]” and ​“col­lect­ing and pro­vid­ing clas­si­fied infor­ma­tion to the Mossad spy ser­vice with the aim of dis­rupt­ing pub­lic order,” accord­ing to France24. On December 29, 2023, Iran exe­cut­ed three men and one woman for links to Mossad; they were charged with kid­nap­ping Iranian secu­ri­ty forces and accused of set­ting the cars and homes of some agents on fire. 

In a December 21, 2023 video inter­view, mem­ber of par­lia­ment Yahya Ebrahimi raised con­cern over the immi­nent exe­cu­tion of thou­sands in a coun­ty with a pop­u­la­tion of 144,000. Mr. Ebrahimi said: ​“1000 to 2000 young peo­ple in Delfan coun­ty have unfor­tu­nate­ly been sen­tenced to death for sell­ing drugs and their cas­es are at the imple­men­ta­tion stage.” Upon pub­li­ca­tion of the inter­view, Mr. Ebrahimi retract­ed his state­ment, say­ing the infor­ma­tion he received was false. 

Israel 

The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Knesset, or par­lia­ment, held a closed door ses­sion to dis­cuss leg­is­la­tion man­dat­ing the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of ter­ror­ism, despite push­back from rel­a­tives of hostages held by Hamas dur­ing par­lia­men­tary dis­cus­sions in November. The next day, Knesset mem­ber (KM) Ariel Kallner of the Likud par­ty con­firmed that the death penal­ty remains an option for those involved in the October 7 attack, accord­ing to the Jerusalem Post. ​“Our pri­ma­ry goal is to ensure their con­vic­tion. The sys­tem swift­ly adjust­ed itself to com­bat these inhu­man mon­sters. As Knesset mem­bers, we ful­ly sup­port this effort,” said KM Kallner. ​“We hope that the High Court of Justice judges also com­pre­hend the grav­i­ty of the situation.” 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who advanced the pro­pos­al last month, reit­er­at­ed calls for exe­cut­ing impris­oned mem­bers of Hamas, tweet­ing: ​“he death penal­ty must be applied against the ter­ror­ists. Prisoners from elite Hamas forces must be exe­cut­ed for each day that pass­es in which the kid­napped are not released.” 

Japan 

On January 18, the Kofu District Court sen­tenced 21-year-old Endo Yuki to death on mur­der and arson charges for killing the par­ents of female class­mate who reject­ed his roman­tic advances in 2021. Mr. Endo, who com­mit­ted the crime at age 19, is the first per­son sen­tenced to death for a com­mit­ting a crime when age 18 or 19 under the new­ly revised juve­nile law in 2022 low­ered the legal age of adult­hood from 20 to 18. Presiding Judge Jun Mikami said that the defendant’s ​“age is not a rea­son to avoid the death penalty.” 

On December 8, 2023 five judges on the Supreme Court’s Third Petty Bench unan­i­mous­ly upheld the death sen­tence of for­mer police­man, Mitsuru Nakata. Mr. Nakata was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing his wife, age 38, and two chil­dren, aged nine and six, in 2017. According to Kyodo News, Presiding Judge Yasumasa Nagamine com­ment­ed that Mr. Nakata’s dis­re­gard for human life was ​“extreme, based on his deter­mined and strong inten­tion to kill” and high­light­ed his lack of remorse. 

Pakistan 

The Islamabad District and Sessions Court sen­tenced Shahnawaz Amir to death and imposed a penal­ty of $1million rupees on December 14. Mr. Amir was con­vict­ed on December 9 of mur­der­ing his 37-year-old Canadian-Pakistani wife, Sarah Inman, at their farm­house in November 2022. 

Qatar 

On December 28, 2023, the Court of Appeal of Qatar dropped the death sen­tence against eight Indian for­mer naval offi­cers, who were orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced in October on charges of espi­onage. Although the court orders have not been made pub­lic, Indian for­eign min­istry spokesper­son Randhir Jaiswal said in a press brief­ing: ​“What we can tell you, con­firm to you is, that the death penal­ty has now been con­vert­ed into vary­ing prison sen­tences for the eight Indian nationals.” 

Saudi Arabia 

In 2023, the offi­cial news agency report­ed that, accord­ing to the Ministry of the Interior, 172 exe­cu­tions were car­ried out, mark­ing a 15% increase from the offi­cial fig­ure report­ed in 2022; as the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem still lacks trans­paren­cy, the actu­al fig­ure of exe­cu­tions is like­ly to be high­er, accord­ing to the Saudi European Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR). The high­est num­ber of exe­cu­tions took place in the month of December (42) and unprece­dent­ed exe­cu­tions were car­ried out dur­ing the holy month of Ramadan. 70% of exe­cu­tions were for charges not meet­ing the inter­na­tion­al thresh­old of a ​“most-seri­ous” offense and com­mon unfair tri­al prac­tices includ­ed tor­ture, ill-treat­ment, and the denial of the right to ade­quate self-defense. According to the ESOHR, ​“the per­cent­age of dis­cre­tionary death sen­tences from the total exe­cu­tions decreased in 2023 com­pared to the pre­vi­ous 11 years by approx­i­mate­ly 16%. ESOHR high­lights that suc­ces­sive offi­cial promis­es, affirm­ing that reduc­ing dis­cre­tionary death sen­tences would con­tribute to an over­all reduc­tion in exe­cu­tion num­bers, demon­strate the inef­fec­tive­ness of these assurances.” 

Taiwan 

On December 7, 2023, Taiwan High Court’s Taichung Branch Court upheld the Nantou District Court’s death sen­tence and life-long sus­pen­sion of civ­il rights for Lee Hung-yuan. In its rul­ing, the Taichung Branch Court point­ed to the Taiwan Forensic Psychology Association’s foren­sic psy­chi­atric exam­i­na­tion that deter­mined the unlike­li­hood of Mr. Lee’s reha­bil­i­ta­tion and iden­ti­fied the crime as a ​“most seri­ous crime” under inter­na­tion­al law. Mr. Lee, who is able to appeal the deci­sion, was con­vict­ed of shoot­ing five employ­ees, result­ing in four dead and one crit­i­cal­ly injured, at a biotech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny at which he used to work. 

Yemen 

On December 5, 35-year-old Fatema Saleh al-Arwali, child and women human rights activist and for­mer head of the Yemeni office of the Arab League’s Arab Women Leadership Council, was sen­tenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Prosecution in Houthi-con­trolled Sanaa on espi­onage charges. Ms. al-Arawali was arrest­ed in August 2022, short­ly after return­ing from vis­it­ing her fam­i­ly in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and accused of pro­vid­ing the UAE with intelligence. 

Dozens of local activists, lawyers, and aca­d­e­mics signed a peti­tion con­demn­ing the denial of legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion dur­ing Ms. al-Arawali’s first tri­al, inhu­mane deten­tion in a light­less under­ground cell and urged her release. ​“We urge that the death sen­tence imposed on her be over­turned. We urge human rights and civ­il soci­ety groups to unite in oppo­si­tion to this unfair sen­tenc­ing that under­mines jus­tice,” said the petition. 

International orga­ni­za­tions, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties have crit­i­cized the sen­tence and urged her release. Human Rights Watch Yemen and Bahrain researcher, Niku Jafarnia, said ​“Repression of human rights defend­ers and women’s rights activists in Houthi-con­trolled ter­ri­to­ries is reach­ing ter­ri­fy­ing new lev­els. Instead of pro­vid­ing peo­ple in their ter­ri­to­ry with basic neces­si­ties such as food and water, the Houthis are sup­press­ing human rights and freedoms.”