Executions condemned
By MANDEEP SINGH
Published: 12 December 2006
HUMAN rights activists have condemned yesterday’s execution of three convicted killers in Bahrain.
They were the first death sentences to be carried out in Bahrain in more than 10 years.
The last person to be executed was Bahraini Issa Ahmad Qambar, who went before a firing squad in March 1996 for murdering a plainclothes policeman.
At the time it was the first death penalty to be carried out in Bahrain in more than 20 years.
Yesterday’s executions of a Bangladeshi couple and a Pakistani man took place inside Jaw prison at 6am.
Executions condemned
By MANDEEP SINGH
Published: 12 December 2006
HUMAN rights activists have condemned yesterday’s execution of three convicted killers in Bahrain.
They were the first death sentences to be carried out in Bahrain in more than 10 years.
The last person to be executed was Bahraini Issa Ahmad Qambar, who went before a firing squad in March 1996 for murdering a plainclothes policeman.
At the time it was the first death penalty to be carried out in Bahrain in more than 20 years.
Yesterday’s executions of a Bangladeshi couple and a Pakistani man took place inside Jaw prison at 6am.
They went before a firing squad nearly three weeks after His Majesty King Hamad confirmed the sentences on November 21.
The two Bangladeshis, housemaid Jasmine Anwar Hussain, 23, and her accomplice Mohammed Hilaluddin, 33, had been convicted of killing Bahraini housewife Latifa Abdulla Abdulaziz in November 2004.
Pakistani Mohammed Hanif Atta Mohammed, 37, was convicted for his part in the murder of his lover’s Bahraini husband, Ibrahim Al Asmawi, in August 2003.
“It is really very sad that this has happened,” said the Bahrain co-ordinator for Amnesty International, Nasser Burdestani.
“This is also more unfortunate since the whole world had appealed to Bahrain’s government not to resort to this kind of punishment.”
Mr Burdestani said it was ironic the execution date was finalised on Sunday – the same day that the world was marking the International Day for Human Rights.
“We have campaigned to remove this kind of punishment from all civilised societies and we are very perturbed our pleas have fallen on deaf ears,” added Mr Burdestani.
Meanwhile, vice-president of the now-dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights Nabeel Rajab also criticised the execution. “It is a black spot on Bahrain’s human rights record,” he said.
“I am really sorry this has happened at a time when the entire world is looking at getting rid of such forms of execution.”
He said international surveys showed that capital punishment does not help to reduce crime.
“On the other hand, other forms of punishment – like life in prison and hard labour – have contributed to reforming criminals,” he added.
Citing the example of Europe, he said crime has fallen after capital punishment was abolished.
“In the US, on the other hand, crime has been increasing and they still have various forms of capital punishment,” said Mr Rajab.
He said he also opposed capital punishment on the grounds that a person could be found innocent at a later date.
“This has happened many times,” he said.
“Alleged killers who have been executed have been found to be innocent several years later.”
The Migrant Workers Protection Society said although it was in favour of adequate punishments for proven crimes, it felt that sentences handed out to expatriates are usually much harsher than those given to Bahrainis.
A spokesman said the death sentence had now been abolished in almost all civilised countries.
“We are of the strong opinion that now the sentences have been carried out, it would not look well for Bahrain on the international front,” he said.
The remains of the Bangladeshi couple have now been buried in Bahrain, while those of the Pakistani will be repatriated to his home in Kotli, in the Kashmir province.
Bangladesh Embassy first secretary Shameem Al Mamum said the families of the two Bangladeshis had asked for the last rites to be conducted here.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Embassy community welfare attaché Habib-ur-Rehman Gilani said the body of Mohammed had been handed over to his brother Mohammed Punnoo.
“The mortal remains will be taken home by a Pakistan International Airlines flight on Thursday after all the formalities have been completed,” he confirmed.
Mohammed and his brother had made frantic last-minute appeals to His Majesty King Hamad to commute the death sentence and convert it to life imprisonment (25 years in jail).
Mohammed’s written appeal was handed over to embassy officials during a meeting over Eid and later forwarded to authorities.
Another appeal by his brother was sent to the King on Sunday.
The Pakistani community in Bahrain had also made a desperate bid to save Mohammed’s life by trying to negotiate a “blood money” deal with members of the victim’s family.
Mohammed and his lover, Suraya Ghulam Hussain, murdered her 72-year-old husband in August 2003.
Mohammed beat the bedridden man unconscious before his lover helped him set fire to the man’s home in Mukharqa, near the Manama Police Fort.
His 42-year-old lover had a child by Mohammed and was jailed for 25 years for her part in the murder.
Meanwhile, the Bangladeshi couple were sentenced to death for smashing Ms Abdulaziz’s skull with a pickaxe at her home in Buhair, East Riffa, in the mistaken belief there was gold in her safe. All three had been convicted and sentenced by the High Criminal Court.
© Gulf Daily News
