Human Rights Watch Dispatches: Pakistan’s Death Row Dilemma

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THE WEEK IN RIGHTS August 27, 2015 Follow us on:

Dispatches: Pakistan’s Death Row Dilemma Photo © Reprieve by Shantha Ray Barriga Abdul Basit, a 43-year-old prisoner paralyzed from the waist down after developing tuberculosis in prison in 2010, will likely go to the gallows in his wheelchair in the next few days. Basit is the latest person with a disability on death row whose life is at risk since the Pakistani government began its execution spree this year. Rather than confronting the inherent cruelty and injustice of capital punishment, Pakistani officials are puzzling over how to hang a man in a wheelchair. To save their client’s life, Basit’s lawyers are now arguing macabre technicalities, including that a prisoner in a wheelchair can’t meet the prison’s requirement that the condemned “mount” the scaffold and “stand” beneath the noose. Read more » share on:

Dispatches: Crimea – Keep Quiet or Else by Yulia Gorbunova & Tanya Lokshina A Russian military court has just sentenced a Ukrainian filmmaker from Crimea, Oleg Sentsov, to 20 years in jail for supposedly running a “terrorist organization.” His alleged accomplice, Crimean activist Olexander Kolchenko, received a 10-year term for his role in an alleged “terrorist” attack and participation in a “terrorist organization.” It’s clear the case against Sentsov lacked foundation and was politically motivated, while the charges of “terrorism” against Kolchenko &ndash who admitted to a role in an arson attack – are wholly disproportionate."  See the Latest News in Europe/Central Asia >>   share on:

Yemen: Cluster Munition Rockets Kill, Injure Dozens  Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces appear to have used cluster munition rockets in at least seven attacks in Yemen’s northwestern Hajja governorate, killing and wounding dozens of civilians. The attacks were carried out between late April and mid-July 2015.  See the Latest News in the Middle East/North Africa »   share on:

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