Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Vietnam

October 10, 2023 marked the 21^st World Day Against the Death Penalty. Regarding this year’s theme, ​“The Death Penalty, an Irreversible Torture,” Raphaël Chenuil Hazan, exec­u­tive direc­tor of France-based abo­li­tion­ist group EPCM, said ​“Today, we no longer need to demon­strate to any­one that the death penal­ty is a sophis­ti­cat­ed form of tor­ture, both in the phase of sen­tenc­ing or inves­ti­ga­tion (where phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ture is often used to obtain con­fes­sions), where the ele­ments of a fair tri­al are often unfor­tu­nate­ly not met, and dur­ing the psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly unbear­able wait for an exe­cu­tion, which hangs over the heads of the con­demned like a sword of Damocles.” 

In hon­or of the day, UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judi­cial, sum­ma­ry or arbi­trary exe­cu­tions, Morris Tidball-Binz, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and oth­er Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Alice Jill Edwards, released a state­ment call­ing for abo­li­tion and prais­ing nations who have made progress. ​“Although inter­na­tion­al law per­mits the death penal­ty in very lim­it­ed cir­cum­stances, in prac­tice it is almost impos­si­ble for States to impose the death penal­ty while com­ply­ing with human rights oblig­a­tions, includ­ing the absolute and uni­ver­sal pro­hi­bi­tion of torture.” 

China 

On September 12, 2023, Wang Bin, for­mer chair­man of China Life Insurance, was sen­tenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accept­ing 325 mil­lion yuan, or $44.6m, in bribes. Following the two-year reprieve, Mr. Wang’s death sen­tence will be com­mut­ed to life with­out parole. He was also sen­tenced to a year in prison for con­ceal­ing 54.2 mil­lion yuan in over­seas deposits. 

On September 18, a woman named Yu Huaying who abduct­ed and traf­ficked 11 chil­dren from 1993 to 1996 was sen­tenced to death. The court cit­ed the seri­ous­ness of the crime and its neg­a­tive soci­etal impact as rea­son for the sentence. 

Iran 

As of October 10, 2023, there have been at least 534 exe­cu­tions in Iran accord­ing to Norway-based Iran Human Rights Watch; this marks a 25% increase com­pared to the same peri­od last year in which 428 exe­cu­tions were report­ed. 57% of exe­cu­tions have been for drug-relat­ed charges, mark­ing a dra­mat­ic increase from the pre­vi­ous year (180 drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions in 2022 and 305 drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions so far in 2023). The Baluch minor­i­ty con­tin­ues to be dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed, account­ing for 21% of all exe­cu­tions and 31% of drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions in 2023 yet com­pris­ing 2 – 5% of Iran’s pop­u­la­tion. 

Imprisoned anti-death penal­ty and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi was award­ed the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. With four more cas­es against her pend­ing, Ms. Mohammadi is cur­rent­ly serv­ing a sen­tence of about 10 years and 154 lash­es in Evin prison. Most recent­ly, she was sen­tenced to anoth­er year in prison for ​“pro­pa­gan­da against the sys­tem” after issu­ing a state­ment on the con­di­tion of women pris­on­ers to Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran. 

North Korea 

According to Radio Free Asia, nine peo­ple – sev­en men and two women – were pub­licly exe­cut­ed for oper­at­ing a beef dis­tri­b­u­tion ring from 2017 to 2023. The smug­gling ring ille­gal­ly slaugh­tered and dis­trib­uted the meat from 2,100 state-owned cows to meat mar­kets and busi­ness­es. According to a res­i­dent, ​“every­one between the ages of 17 and 60 who can walk” in the area was ordered to attend the pub­lic exe­cu­tion on 9/​5 Wednesday, total­ing 25,000 spectators. 

Pakistan 

On September 4, 2023, four peo­ple in their 20s were sen­tenced to death for shar­ing blas­phe­mous con­tent about the Prophet Muhammad and the Holy Quran on social media. 

On September 22, a father was sen­tenced to death and fined Rs 1million for the rape of his 14-year-old daugh­ter. 

On September 28, a bill to intro­duce pub­lic hang­ings for con­vict­ed rapists passed the Senate Standing Committee on Interior. Proposed by Senator Mushtaq Ahmed of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) par­ty, the bill was opposed by the inte­ri­or and for­eign affairs min­istries, as well as Senator Sherry Rehman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) who regard­ed the mea­sure as ​“fur­ther bru­tal­iza­tion of society.” 

Saudi Arabia 

On September 8, 2023, Saudi Arabia car­ried out the 100^th exe­cu­tion this year. In response, Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director, said: ​“In clear con­trast to Saudi Arabia’s repeat­ed promis­es to lim­it its use of the death penal­ty, the Saudi author­i­ties have already exe­cut­ed 100 peo­ple this year, reveal­ing their chill­ing dis­re­gard for the right to life. The author­i­ties’ relent­less killing spree rais­es seri­ous fears for the lives of young men on death row who were under 18 at the time of the crimes.”

South Korea 

Two death row pris­on­ers – Yoo Young-chul, a ser­i­al killer con­vict­ed of the mur­der of 21 peo­ple, and Jung Hyung-gu, con­vict­ed of killing new­ly­weds – were trans­ferred to a Uiwang deten­tion cen­ter equipped with exe­cu­tions facil­i­ties on September 25, 2023. According to Yonhap News Agency, a min­istry of jus­tice offi­cial said the trans­fer was a ​“nec­es­sary mea­sure for cor­rec­tion­al admin­is­tra­tion,” though there is spec­u­la­tion there will be a resump­tion of exe­cu­tions as the Uiwang facil­i­ty is the only one with a func­tion­ing exe­cu­tion cham­ber. About a month pri­or, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon ordered the inspec­tion of four cor­rec­tion­al insti­tu­tions’ exe­cu­tion facil­i­ties, telling par­lia­ment that main­te­nance of its facil­i­ties is a duty of the Ministry of Justice. South Korea retains cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and has 59 pris­on­ers on death row, although the nation has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since December 30, 1997 when 23 pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed. Amid an increase in vio­lent crimes and recidi­vism rate, the gov­ern­ment is con­sid­er­ing intro­duc­ing the sen­tence of life with­out parole and is pay­ing atten­tion to pub­lic sen­ti­ment on the resump­tion of exe­cu­tions, though the Ministry of Justice tells The Korea Times that its offi­cial stance remains unchanged and a thor­ough review would be required pri­or the resump­tion of executions. 

Vietnam 

On September 22, 2023, Le Van Manh, who was con­vict­ed of mur­der in 2005, was exe­cut­ed despite calls from the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to spare his life. 

Regarding the exe­cu­tion, Mr. Tidball-Binz, the UN Special Rapporteur on extra­ju­di­cial, sum­ma­ry or arbi­trary exe­cu­tions said: ​“I am dis­turbed by the exe­cu­tion of Le Van Manh despite calls for clemen­cy, in light of seri­ous doubts about the fair­ness of his tri­al pro­ceed­ings and cred­i­ble alle­ga­tions of tor­ture or ill-treat­ment to extract a con­fes­sion.” 

A day pri­or to the exe­cu­tion a joint state­ment by a European Union del­e­ga­tion, embassies of Canada, United Kingdom, and Norway urged for clemen­cy. ​“We strong­ly oppose the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment at all times and in all cir­cum­stances, which is a cru­el, inhu­man, and degrad­ing pun­ish­ment and can nev­er be jus­ti­fied, and advo­cate for Vietnam to adopt a mora­to­ri­um on all exe­cu­tions,” the statement said.