Figures show dramatic reduction in Saudi Arabia’s use of death penalty

January 18, 2021 Article

Saudi Arabia, for years one of the world’s most prolific executioners, dramatically reduced the number of people put to death last year, following changes halting executions for non-violent drug-related crimes, according to the government’s tally and independent observers.

The Saudi government’s Human Rights Commission said on Monday it documented 27 executions in 2020.

That is compared to an all-time high of 184 executions the year before as documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The change represents an 85% reduction in the number of people put to death last year, compared to 2019.

“The sharp decrease was brought about in part by a moratorium on death penalties for drug-related offences,” the Saudi rights commission said.

The commission said the new law ordering a stop to such executions came into effect sometime last year.

The new directive for judges does not appear to have been published publicly and it was not immediately clear whether the law was changed by royal decree, as is typically the case.

The AP previously reported that Saudi Arabia last year also ordered an end to the death penalty for crimes committed by minors and ordered judges to end the controversial practice of public flogging, replacing it with jail time, fines or community service.

The force behind these changes is 34-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has the backing of his father, King Salman.

In an effort to modernise the country, attract foreign investment and revamp the economy, the prince has spearheaded a range of reforms curtailing the power of ultraconservative Wahhabis, who adhere to a strict interpretation of Islam that many Saudis still practise.

For years, the kingdom’s high rate of executions was in large part due to the number of people executed for non-lethal offences, which judges had wide discretion to rule on, particularly for drug-related crimes.

Amnesty International ranked Saudi Arabia third in the world for the highest number of executions in 2019, after China where the number of executions is believed to be in the thousands, and Iran.

Among those put to death that year by Saudi Arabia were 32 minority Shiites convicted on terrorism charges related to their participation in anti-government protests and clashes with police.

While some crimes, such as premeditated murder, can carry fixed punishments under the Saudi interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, drug-related offences are considered “ta’zir,” meaning neither the crime nor the punishment is defined in Islam.

Discretionary judgments for “ta’zir” crimes led to arbitrary rulings with contentious outcomes.

The kingdom has long been criticised by independent rights groups for applying the death sentence for non-violent crimes related to drug trafficking.

Many of those executed for such crimes were often poor Yemenis or low-level drug smugglers of South Asia descent, with the latter having little to no knowledge of Arabic and unable to understand or read the charges against them in court.

Saudi Arabia carries out executions mainly by beheading and sometimes in public.

The kingdom had argued that public executions and those of drug traffickers serve as a deterrent to combat crime.

“The moratorium on drug-related offences means the kingdom is giving more non-violent criminals a second chance,” the president of the government’s Human Rights Commission, Awwad Alawwad, said.

He said the change represents a sign the Saudi justice system is focusing more on rehabilitation and prevention rather than solely on punishment.

According to Human Rights Watch, there were just five executions for drug-related crimes last year in Saudi Arabia, all in January 2020.

Human Rights Watch deputy middle east director Adam Coogle said the decrease in executions is a positive sign, but that the Saudi authorities must also address “the country’s horribly unfair and biased criminal justice system that hands down these sentences.”

“As authorities announce reforms, Saudi prosecutors are still seeking the death penalty for high-profile detainees for nothing more than their peaceful ideas and political affiliations,” he said.

“Saudi Arabia must immediately end all executions and death sentences for non-violent crimes.”

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Categories: amnesty, Executions, human rights, News, Saudi Arabia

Foreign Secretary urges China to let UN human-rights commissioner visit Xinjiang

January 17, 2021 Article

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has called on China to allow the United Nations (UN) to visit a province where it is accused of “appalling” human-rights abuses against the Uighur minority group.

Mr Raab said reports of internment camps and women being forcibly sterilised in Xinjiang were “truly shocking” and that authorities in Beijing should permit the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit the sites.

The Chinese government has denied accusations of widespread abuse in the north-western province, mainly targeted at the Uighur minority group, including allegations of forced sterilisation, slave labour and mass internment.

Appearing on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, Mr Raab was asked what the UK Government was doing amid accusations that China was holding a million Uighur people in “re-education camps” and women were subject to forced sterilisation.

Mr Raab said the Government had recently announced measures that would make sure “we don’t have any British businesses that are either supplying to or profiting from the internment camps”.

Earlier this month, Mr Raab announced that firms will face hefty fines unless they meet requirements showing their supply chains are free from forced labour and will be given robust guidance on how to carry out due diligence checks to make sure they are not sourcing products tainted by the human-rights violations.

Speaking on Sunday, Mr Raab said: “I think it’s a shocking, truly shocking, set of circumstances in Xinjiang, against the Uighur Muslims.”

Mr Raab said 38 other countries had followed the UK’s lead in “criticising and condemning human-rights abuses” in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

During the interview, Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge read to Mr Raab a tweet she said was sent by the Chinese embassy in the US discussing “eradicating extremism” and making Uighur women “no longer baby-making machines”.

She said: “I just want to be clear, we’re talking here about people being forced to have abortions, given injections to stop their periods, having surgery in some cases, so they’re unable to have children. Are words of condemnation and a few restrictions on British business really enough?”

Mr Raab replied: “It’s absolutely disgraceful. It’s appalling and shocking in the modern world, in a leading member of the international community, and, no, this isn’t enough.

“What China says is this is all lies cooked up by the West, and Britain a leading member amongst them.

“What we say is if you dispute the allegations and the claims and the reports, there’s a simple way to clear this up: allow the UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit and access and see these sites.

“We are pushing for an authoritative third party, like the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the UN, to conduct that visit.”

Mr Raab was also asked if he thought the treatment of the Uighur minority group in China was genocide and if the issue would be put on the agenda of the G7 summit that the UK is due to host in June.

He said: “I think it’s for a court to decide whether the very complex definition of genocide is met.

“But what is clear, frankly, whatever legal label you put on it, is that there are convincing and persuasive third party authoritative reports of serious violations of human rights on an appalling industrial scale.”

He said the UK was “excited” to work with the incoming President Joe Biden administration in the US on “making sure human rights and protecting democracy is on the agenda”.

Mr Raab added: “As we preside over the G7, and it’s an exciting year for international leadership for the UK, that will be the case, and I’ve already talked with Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Pelosi of the House of Representatives, recently, including speaking to her over the Christmas period.”

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Categories: China, Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary, News, UN human-rights commissioner

Women face new trial in Egypt for ‘indecent’ videos on TikTok

January 15, 2021 Article

An Egyptian judge overturned an acquittal verdict of two young women who were jailed last year for posting “indecent” videos on the social media video app TikTok, ordering their pretrial detention for 15 days over fresh charges of “human trafficking”, a judicial source said.

A Cairo court has accused 20-year-old student Haneen Hossam and 22-year-old Mawada Eladhm of recruiting young women for “indecent jobs that violate the principles and values of the Egyptian society”, the judicial official said.

Thursday’s motion came just two days after an appeals court had acquitted the two women and ordered their release.

Last summer, an Egyptian court of first instance sentenced Hossam and Adham along with another three women to two years in prison for “violating the values and principles of the Egyptian family”, inciting debauchery and promoting human trafficking.

The verdict came after the two women had vaulted to TikTok fame, amassing millions of followers for their video snippets set to catchy Egyptian club-pop tracks.

In their respective 15-second clips, the women wearing makeup pose in cars, dance in kitchens and joke in skits — familiar and seemingly tame content for the platform.

The two women were also fined 300,000 Egyptian pounds (nearly 19,000 US dollars).

Their case drew the ire of Egyptian feminists who dismissed the prosecution of Hossam and Adham as another example of their conservative society’s encroachment on women’s freedoms.

At the time, women’s rights advocates circulated an online petition describing the arrests as a “systematic crackdown that targets low-income women”.

Although Egypt remains far more liberal than Gulf Arab states, the Muslim-majority country has swung in a decidedly conservative direction over the past half-century.

Belly dancers, pop divas and social media influencers have faced backlash for violating the norms.

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Categories: Adham, Belly dancers, Egyptian feminists, Egyptian judge, Hossam, News, TikTok

Fire destroys hundreds of homes in Rohingya refugee camp

January 14, 2021 Article

A fire has raced through a sprawling Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh, destroying hundreds of homes, officials said.

No casualties were reported, but the UNHCR said more than 550 homes sheltering about 3,500 people as well as 150 shops were totally or partially destroyed in the fire.

The fire broke out early on Thursday in Nayapara Camp in the Cox’s Bazar district, where more than a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are staying. Nayapara is an old camp that was started decades ago.

Mohammed Shamsud Douza, a senior refugee official, said firefighters took two hours to bring the blaze under control.

No serious injuries were reported, and the cause of the fire was not immediately known.

A video showed many refugees searching through charred corrugated iron sheets for valuables.

“This is another devastating blow for the Rohingya people who have endured unspeakable hardship for years,” Save the Children’s country director in Bangladesh, Onno van Manen, said in a statement.

“Today’s devastating fire will have robbed many families of what little shelter and dignity was left to them.”

About 700,000 Rohingya fled to the camps in Cox’s Bazar after August 2017, when the military in Buddhist-majority Myanmar began a harsh crackdown on the Muslim group following an attack by insurgents.

The crackdown included rapes, killings and the torching of thousands of homes, and was termed ethnic cleansing by global rights groups and the UN.

Rohingya Muslims drown whilst escaping fighting in Myanmar

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Categories: Cox's Bazaar, fire, News, Refugee camp, Rohingya Muslims

Temporary mortuary for 1,300 bodies ‘sobering reminder’ of coronavirus impact

January 14, 2021 Article

A new temporary mortuary that can hold up to 1,300 bodies has been built in London as the capital faces a growing Covid-19 death toll.

A council leader described how the newly-built facility in north-west London acted as a “sobering reminder” of how the pandemic is affecting thousands of lives as he urged people to follow Covid-19 rules.

More than 10,500 people have died from Covid-19 in London since the start of the outbreak and the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan declared a major incident last week as hospitals came under increasing pressure.

The Ruislip facility is the latest of a number of temporary mortuaries set up across the country, including at the former military hospital Headley Court in Leatherhead, Surrey, and at a former aircraft hangar at RAF Coltishall north-east of Norwich.

It took just over a week to construct the facility on the site near Breakspear Crematorium in Ruislip.

It can currently hold 217 bodies, but will reach a capacity of 1,300 once building works are completed around January 20.

It will provide an additional 20% in capacity for public mortuaries in London, helping to relieve pressure on hospitals and council-run morgues.

Since the pandemic began, 10,820 deaths have been registered in London where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, show that 492 deaths involving Covid-19 were registered in the capital in the seven days to January 1 – the highest weekly number since the seven days to May 1.

Westminster City Council chief executive Stuart Love, who is leading the pan-London response, said local authorities worked with faith communities in the capital to ensure all religious requirements, wishes and needs were met.

When asked whether he thought the temporary mortuary could reach full capacity in the current wave of the pandemic, he said: “We really hope it doesn’t come to that.

“From my point of view, we have built this really hoping it doesn’t get used to its capacity.

“This really is a visual, sobering reminder that we are still in the midst of a severe pandemic. We want to give people hope but we are not there yet.

“This just re-emphasises the message of staying at home and looking after your loved ones.”

During the first wave of the pandemic, four temporary mortuaries were built in London to provide extra capacity.

Mr Love said those sites were decommissioned and a decision was made to open one hub in north-west London instead, making the process of storing bodies more streamlined.

“We learnt from the first wave how additional capacity was or was not being used and that informed our decision-making this time round,” he said.

The entire Ruislip site, made up of tented facilities with refrigeration units, has cost £3.2 million, with the total expected to reach £4 million by March, Mr Love added.

“As the number of deaths have increased, particularly since Christmas Eve, we made the decision to build temporary capacity with the overriding principle of ensuring the dignity and respect for the bereaved and the diseased are maintained.

“It’s really important that people have confidence that bodies are being treated with respect.

“As mortuary capacity needs increase so do the risks around various elements of the system in storing the diseased.”

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Categories: Coronavirus, COVID-19, News, Ruislip, Temporary mortuary

Reading terror attacker handed whole-life sentence for park murders

January 11, 2021 Article

The Reading terror attacker who murdered three men in a park in a “swift, ruthless and brutal” knife attack has been handed a whole-life sentence.

Khairi Saadallah, 26, shouted “Allahu akhbar” as he fatally stabbed friends James Furlong, 36, Dr David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, on June 20 last year.

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Categories: James Furlong, Khairi Saadallah, News, Reading terror attacker, Whole life sentence

Anger as China says it is freeing Uighur women from being ‘baby-making machines’

January 11, 2021 Article

A Chinese official denied Beijing has imposed coercive birth control measures among Muslim minority women, following an outcry over a tweet by the Chinese Embassy in Washington claiming that government polices had freed women of the Uighur ethnic group from being “baby-making machines”.

Xu Guixiang, a deputy spokesperson for the Xinjiang regional government, told reporters that birth control decisions were made of the person’s own free will and that “no organisation or individual can interfere”.

“The growth rate of the Uighur population is not only higher than that of the whole Xinjiang population, but also higher than that of the minority population, and more significantly higher than that of the (Chinese majority) Han population,” Mr Xu said.

“As for the so-called forcing ethnic minority women in Xinjiang to wear IUDs, or undergo tubal ligations or abortions, it is even more malign.”

An investigation in June found that the Chinese government was forcing draconian birth control measures on Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, including IUD fittings, contraceptives, and even abortions and sterilisations.

The measures are backed by the threat of detention, with parents with three or more children swept into camps and prisons if they are unable to pay massive fines.

As a result, the birth rate in Xinjiang’s minority regions plummeted by over 60% in just three years, even as Beijing eases birth restrictions on the Han population ahead of a looming demographic crisis.

Twitter took down the Chinese Embassy’s January 7 tweet following protests by groups that accuse Beijing of seeking to eradicate Uighur culture.

Users complained the tweet was a violation of rules set by Twitter, which is blocked in China along with Facebook and other American social media platforms.

“China’s fascist government is now openly admitting and celebrating its use of concentration camps, forced labour, forced sterilisations and abortions, and other forms of torture to eliminate an ethnic and religious minority,” Nihad Awad, national executive director of The Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in an emailed statement.

China has been waging a years-long campaign against what it calls terrorism and religious fanaticism in Xinjiang and the embassy’s tweet referenced those polices, saying: “Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines.”

The tweet cited a study by Li Xiaoxia, a Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences researcher who has asserted that the birth control measures in Xinjiang are voluntary.

Ms Li’s papers in past years laid the theoretical foundations for justifying mass birth control measures.

In one 2017 paper, Ms Li said having many children was a sign of “religious extremism and ethnic separatism”.

Ms Li worried that predominantly minority districts were breeding grounds for terrorism, calling it “a big political risk”.

Monday’s news conference was the latest attempt by Beijing to deflect rising international criticism over its policies in Xinjiang, particularly over alleged forced labour and the detention of more than one million Uighurs, Kazakhs and others in prison-like centres for political indoctrination.

China says the centres are intended to combat extremism and teach job skills, but former residents and rights groups say they target Islam and minority languages and culture.

Elijan Anayat, another regional government spokesperson, said all those at the centres had “graduated” as of October 2019, countering reports that China continues to expand the system.

“With the help of the government, they have achieved stable employment, improved the quality of life and lived a normal life,” Mr Anayat said.

“At present, there is no education and training centre in Xinjiang.”

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Categories: birth rates, China, Chinese Embassy, Muslim Uighurs, News, Xinjiang

Terrorist stabbed three people to death in less than a minute, court told

January 5, 2021 Article

Three men were “executed” in a Reading park by a “ruthlessly efficient” terrorist in less than one minute, a court has heard.

Khairi Saadallah, 26, shouted “Allahu akhbar” during the violent spree which left teacher James Furlong, 36, scientist David Wails, 49, and US citizen Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, dead.

Three other people – Stephen Young, Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan – were also injured before Saadallah threw away the knife and ran off, pursued by an off-duty police officer.

The failed Libyan asylum seeker had launched the attacks in Forbury Gardens, Reading, as the victims were enjoying a summer evening on June 20 last year after the first lockdown restrictions in England were relaxed.

Roger Smith, who was among the victims’ group, saw Mr Ritchie-Bennett “just going over sideways, like a tree being felled” as he was stabbed in the neck.

He said it “all happened really quickly” and was like a “weird dream”.

Another eyewitness, Andrew Cafe, said: “I saw him holding the knife and as he was charging towards us he shouted ‘Allah Akbar’.”

As Saadallah was detained, a Muslim member of the public told him: “You have nothing to do with Islam, bastard,” adding: “I am just livid.”

Following his arrest, Saadallah initially said he wanted to plead guilty to the “jihad that I done” but later feigned mental illness in police interviews.

Saadallah, of Basingstoke Road, Reading, pleaded guilty to three murders and three attempted murders and appeared at the Old Bailey on Tuesday for the start of his sentencing.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC said Saadallah aimed to kill as many people as possible in the name of violent jihad.

She said: “In just half a minute, the defendant was able to inflict catastrophic injuries to three people and serious injuries to three others.

“The prosecution’s case was that this was not an accident. This was not a frenzied attack by someone wielding a knife in a random, uncontrolled manner.

“The defendant was aiming to inflict the maximum amount of damage in the shortest possible time to allow him to kill as many people as possible.

“In effect, the killings of Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, David Wails and James Furlong were highly effective executions.”

Mr Ritchie-Bennett and Mr Furlong both suffered single stab wounds to the neck, and Mr Wails was stabbed once to the back.

Ms Morgan said the defendant was “ruthlessly efficient” in his actions, having planned and executed the attack with “determination and precision”.

The court heard that Saadallah, who arrived in Britain in 2012, had previously been involved with militias who had been part of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and was pictured handling weapons, including firearms.

Since living in Britain he had been repeatedly arrested and convicted of various offences, including theft and assault, between 2013 and last year.

He developed an emotionally unstable and anti-social personality disorder, with his behaviour worsened by alcohol and cannabis misuse, the court was told.

In 2017, the “impressionable and volatile” defendant associated at HMP Bullingdon with prominent radical preacher Omar Brooks, who is associated with the banned terrorist organisation Al-Muhajiroun.

An examination of his mobile phone revealed his interest in extremist material, including the flag of the so-called Islamic State and Jihadi John.

The court was told Saadallah was released from HMP Bullingdon on June 5, just days before the attack.

He then researched the location for his attack online and carried out reconnaissance on June 17, the court heard.

On June 18, he was in contact with his probation officer who alerted his mental health team over concern about comments Saadallah had made about “magic”.

Saadallah contacted the crisis team himself, but when they visited him on June 19, he did not open the door.

Police visited him the same day, prompted by concerns from his brother, but Saadallah insisted he was “alright”, while standing near a knife he had bought from Morrisons supermarket.

The court heard that a psychiatrist had since concluded that the events of June 20 were “unrelated to the effects of either mental disorder or substance misuse”.

Mr Justice Sweeney adjourned the hearing until Wednesday and said the sentencing would conclude on Monday.

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Categories: Islamist attack, Khairi Saadallah, Knife Attack, News, Reading attack, Sentencing

Arrests made after mob demolishes Hindu temple in Pakistan

December 31, 2020 Article

A mob led by members of Pakistan’s radical Islamist party demolished a Hindu temple after setting it on fire in a deeply conservative northwestern town, a senior police official said.

The incident in the town of Karak drew condemnation from human rights activists and Pakistan’s minister for human rights, Shireen Mazari.

Ms Mazari went on Twitter to condemn the burning of the temple and urged police to ensure the arrest of those involved.

District police chief Irfan Ullah said police detained several people over their involvement in the attack on the temple.

Witnesses said the mob, led by activists and local leaders of the radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, attacked the temple after local Hindus received permission from authorities to renovate it.

The incident comes weeks after the government allowed minority Hindus to build a new temple in Islamabad on the recommendation of a council of clerics.

Although Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully together in Pakistan, there have been other attacks on Hindu temples in recent years.

Most of the Pakistan’s minority Hindus migrated to India in 1947 when India was divided by Britain’s government.

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Categories: Attack, Hindu Temple, Hindus, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, News, Pakistan

1,800 Rohingya relocated to isolated island

December 30, 2020 Article

Seven Bangladesh navy ships carrying 1,804 Rohingya refugees have arrived at an isolated island where they will be relocated despite concerns among human rights groups about their safety.

They reached Bhashan Char island, 21 miles from the mainland, after a four-hour naval journey from the port city of Chittagong, government official Mohammed Khurshed Alam Khan said.

He said authorities at the island received 433 men, 523 women and 848 children.

Authorities insist all were willing to be relocated and no pressure was placed on them.

But several human rights and activist groups say some were forced to go.

It was the second group of Rohingya refugees transferred from crowded, squalid camps in Cox’s Bazar district to the island.

Authorities sent a first group of 1,642 on December 4 despite calls for a halt by human rights groups.

Rear admiral Md Mozammel Haque, commander of the local navy, said the number of refugees willing to join the second phase of relocation “exceeded their expectations”.

He said the authorities were initially expecting to relocate around 1,200 refugees, but 1,804 chose to go.

The island surfaced only 20 years ago and was not previously inhabited.

It was regularly submerged by monsoon rains but now has flood protection embankments, houses, hospitals and mosques built at a cost of more than 112 million dollars (£83 million) by the Bangladesh navy.

The island’s facilities are designed to accommodate 100,000 people, just a fraction of the million Rohingya Muslims who fled waves of violent persecution in their native Myanmar and are currently living in the camps in Cox’s Bazar.

International aid agencies and the United Nations have opposed the relocation since it was first proposed in 2015, expressing fear that a big storm could wash over the island and endanger thousands of lives.

The UN also voiced concern that refugees be allowed to make a “free and informed decision” about whether to relocate.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have urged the government to cancel the plan.

An influential cabinet minister and general secretary of the governing party, Obaidul Quader, said that the Rohingya are being moved to the island because their repatriation to Myanmar has been delayed.

He said refugees who were earlier taken to Bhashan Char have expressed satisfaction.

About 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar to Bangladesh after August 2017, when Myanmar’s military began a harsh crackdown on the minority group following an attack by insurgents.

Security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and burning thousands of homes.

Bangladesh has attempted to start sending refugees back to Myanmar under a bilateral agreement, but no-one was willing to go.

The Rohingya are not recognised as citizens in Myanmar, rendering them stateless, and face other state-sanctioned discrimination.

Rohingya Muslims drown whilst escaping fighting in Myanmar

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Categories: Bangladesh, Bhashan Char, Island, Myanmar, News, Rohingya