HRW censures, urges end to death sentences in Kuwait
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has denounced death penalties handed down to people in Kuwait following "flawed" proceedings, calling for an end to the practice.
Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East director of the New York-based rights organization, said on Wednesday, “Issuing a death penalty sentence, especially after flawed proceedings, is a terrible way for the Kuwaiti authorities to begin 2016.”
Kuwait “should commute the executions immediately and reinstate the moratorium that had been in place from 2007 to 2013,” Stork added.
The remarks came more than one week after a Kuwaiti court sentenced to death Hassan Hajiya, a Kuwaiti citizen, and Abdulreda Dhaqany, an Iranian national, over allegations that the pair had been spying for Iran and Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah.
Both cases reportedly proceeded without adequate legal representation in the court.
Khaled al-Shatti, Hajiya’s lawyer, said his client was held and interrogated on an almost daily basis between August and September 2015 without any access to his legal representative. Dhaqany was also condemned to death in absentia.
The two were convicted alongside two dozen other people, who were sentenced to between five and 25 years in jail.
Kuwaiti prosecutors accused those convicted of being part of a “terrorist cell” that had committed acts violating state sanctity and planning to carry out attacks in the Persian Gulf country.
Reacting to the verdicts at the time, Iran dismissed as completely baseless allegations leveled in Kuwait against the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s embassy in Kuwait also in a statement rejected accusations linking Tehran to the cell and said a “systematic” media campaign is underway to harm the relationship between the two countries.
One of those sentenced, Zuhair al-Mahmeed, said in a note to a judge that he was beaten and tortured during interrogations. Mahmeed also noted that Kuwaiti officials threatened to mistreat his family members and strip him of his citizenship.
Kuwait executed five people in 2013 after a six-year de facto moratorium on the death penalty.
UAE says 3 Uzbeks arrested over Israeli-Moldovan rabbi's murder
Iran rejects involvement in murder of Israeli rabbi in UAE
Hamas denies reports about political bureau relocation to Turkey as false
Dec. 22: ‘Axis of Resistance’ operations against Israeli occupation
‘Abhorrent’: Oxfam says only 12 trucks delivered aid in North Gaza since Oct.
VIDEO | Leader receives religious eulogists on Hazrat Fatima birth anniv.
Pope Francis slams Israel’s ‘machine-gunning’ of Gaza children
US hostage-taking of Iranian nationals violation of intl. law: Deputy FM
VIDEO | Carol Singers for Palestine on London’s Parliament Square
Ansarullah says ‘Israeli terrorists’ incapable of confronting Yemen, warns of secret weapons
VIDEO | Yemenis praise the military for its successful operations against Israel
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
