Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, and Vietnam

China 

On August 4, a South Korean nation­al con­vict­ed of drug-traf­fick­ing was exe­cut­ed in China, accord­ing to South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who added dur­ing a press con­fer­ence that this exe­cu­tion was ​“unre­lat­ed to the cur­rent bilat­er­al rela­tions” between the two nations. This was the first time a South Korean nation­al was exe­cut­ed in China for drug-traf­fick­ing since 2014, when four were executed. 

Indonesia 

On August 8, the Supreme Court com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Fredy Sambo, a for­mer two-star gen­er­al and head of Indonesia’s inter­nal affairs depart­ment, to life in prison with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of fur­ther com­mu­ta­tion to 20 years after 15 years have been served. Mr. Sambo was con­vict­ed of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der of his 27-year-old body­guard, Brigadier Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, in July 2022. Director of Amnesty International Indonesia, Usman Hamid, told the South China Morning Post that although pub­lic opin­ion was divid­ed, the ​“dom­i­nant pub­lic opin­ion had want­ed to see him executed.” 

Three sol­diers were arrest­ed at the end of August and charged with tor­tur­ing, abduct­ing, and mur­der­ing a civil­ian shop­keep­er named Imam Masykur. Regarding the case, Military Chief Admiral Yudo Margono told Antara News that ​“The max­i­mum pun­ish­ment should be the death penal­ty, at the very least, life in prison.” Mr. Hamid, direc­tor of Amnesty International Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post that ​“We want a speedy and fair probe into the inci­dent, so that we can be assured that human rights abuse will not be tolerated.” 

Capital pun­ish­ment is avail­able for crimes such as pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der, drug traf­fick­ing, cor­rup­tion, and ter­ror­ism in Indonesia. 

Saudi Arabia 

On August 30, retired school teacher Mohammed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi was sen­tenced to death for retweet­ing crit­i­cism on the plat­form X, for­mer­ly known as Twitter. Court doc­u­ments state the Mr. al-Ghamdi is charged with ​“betray­ing his reli­gion,” ​“dis­turb­ing the secu­ri­ty of soci­ety,” ​“con­spir­ing against the gov­ern­ment” and ​“impugn­ing the king­dom and the crown prince.” 

“The death sen­tence against Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, who has a total of just 10 fol­low­ers on both of his anony­mous Twitter accounts and is accused of noth­ing oth­er than express­ing his opin­ions on social media, is ludi­crous,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa 

The broth­er of Mr. al-Ghamdi, Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, who lives in the United Kingdom and is a promi­nent crit­ic of the Saudi Arabian gov­ern­ment, tweet­ed that ​“This false rul­ing aims to spite me per­son­al­ly after failed attempts by the inves­ti­ga­tors to have me return to the country.” 

“Al-Ghamdi’s death sen­tence over tweets is extreme­ly hor­rif­ic but stands in line with the Saudi author­i­ties’ esca­lat­ing crack­down,” said Lina Alhathloul, the head of mon­i­tor­ing and advo­ca­cy at the London-based advo­ca­cy group ALQST. ​“They are send­ing a clear and sin­is­ter mes­sage – that nobody is safe, and even a tweet can get you killed,” she said. 

Earlier in August, Saudi Arabia exe­cut­ed U.S. nation­al Bishoy Sharif Naji Naseef. According to the Saudi Press Agency Mr. Naseef was con­vict­ed of stran­gling his Egyptian father to death and sub­se­quent­ly muti­lat­ing his body. Mr. Naseef’s age and method of exe­cu­tion have not been shared publicly. 

Trinidad and Tobago 

On August 18, High Court Justice Margaret Mohammed vacat­ed the death sen­tences for four pris­on­ers on con­sti­tu­tion­al grounds and ordered that they be resen­tenced by a judge in the Criminal Assizes. The four pris­on­ers, each of whom have been await­ing exe­cu­tion for at least 12 years, will now receive com­pen­sa­tion due to the delays. 

A few weeks ear­li­er, Justice Mohammed vacat­ed the death sen­tence for Timothy Hunte, who has spent about 15 years on death row. ​“While the sen­tence under which the claimant is detained is that of a death sen­tence, he can­not law­ful­ly be exe­cut­ed and as long as he is detained on death row, his deten­tion would be cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment and in vio­la­tion of his rights under sec­tion 5 2(b) of the Constitution,” stat­ed Mohammed’s rul­ing, which also men­tions that ​“an award of dam­ages alone can­not com­pen­sate the claimant for his deten­tion on death row.” 

Trinidad and Tobago is the last English-speak­ing Caribbean coun­try to retain the manda­to­ry death penal­ty. In May 2022, the Privy Council ruled that the manda­to­ry death penal­ty for mur­der was con­sti­tu­tion­al, albeit cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. ​“It is strik­ing that there remains on the statute book a pro­vi­sion which, as the gov­ern­ment accepts, is a cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment because it man­dates the death penal­ty with­out regard to the degree of cul­pa­bil­i­ty. Nonetheless, such a pro­vi­sion is not uncon­sti­tu­tion­al,” stat­ed the law lords’ rul­ing. Any reform to exist­ing laws must be made by Parliament, the ruling explained. 

Uganda 

On August 18, 2023, a 20-year-old man was charged with ​“aggra­vat­ed homo­sex­u­al­i­ty” under the Anti-Homosexuality Act passed in May and if con­vict­ed, may receive the death penal­ty. He is alleged to have engaged in sex­u­al rela­tions with a 41-year-old man with a dis­abil­i­ty, who was unable to pro­vide con­sent for such acts, accord­ing to the Ugandan Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. 

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa said, ​“It is deeply dis­turb­ing that the Ugandan author­i­ties are pros­e­cut­ing peo­ple based on their real or per­ceived sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion or gen­der iden­ti­ty. Discrimination and per­se­cu­tion of les­bian, gay, bisex­u­al, trans­gen­der and inter­sex (LGBTI) peo­ple in the coun­try must be halted.” 

“This law is cre­at­ing a witch hunt,” said Frank Mugisha, a promi­nent gay-rights activist in Uganda. 

The recent Anti-Homosexuality Act pre­scribes the death penal­ty as poten­tial pun­ish­ment for ​“aggra­vat­ed homo­sex­u­al­i­ty,” which includes same-sex activ­i­ty with a minor, elder­ly per­son, or per­son with a dis­abil­i­ty, repeat offens­es, and same-sex rela­tions result­ing in the trans­mis­sion of HIV. Uganda has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in about 20 years. 

Vietnam 

On August 4, fam­i­ly mem­bers of Nguyen Van Chuong, who was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a police offi­cer, were noti­fied by the People’s Court of Hai Phong to make arrange­ments for Mr. Chuong’s remains. On August 14, fam­i­ly mem­bers were able to meet with Mr. Chuong, who has main­tained his inno­cence through­out 16 years of impris­on­ment. Amnesty International, as well as the United Nations, have called for the exe­cu­tion to be halt­ed. Regarding Mr. Chuong’s immi­nent exe­cu­tion, United Nations Human Rights Office spokesper­son Jeremy Laurence, stat­ed that ​“The use of con­fes­sions extract­ed under tor­ture that results in a death sen­tence vio­lates both the absolute pro­hi­bi­tion of tor­ture as well as fair tri­al guar­an­tees, ren­der­ing the sen­tence arbi­trary and a vio­la­tion of the right to life, as set out in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Viet Nam is a state party.”