Death Penalty

Father of woman on death row in Abu Dhabi moves HC to know her well-being

The father of an Indian woman on death row in Abu Dhabi has approached the Delhi High Court, seeking to know her well-being. In his petition, which is likely to come up for hearing on Monday, Shabbir Khan -- a? resident of Banda in Uttar Pradesh --? said there was "profound uncertainty" with respect to his daughter Shahzadi's condition, and his repeated applications to the Ministry of External Affairs for clarification were "fruitless". The plea further alleged that Shahzadi was inadequately represented before the local courts in a case pertaining to the alleged murder of her employer's four-month-old child and she was pressured into "confessing", leading to the imposition of death penalty on July 31, 2023. "On February 14, 2025, the petitioner's daughter telephoned him from detention, informing him that she had been relocated within the facility and prior to her potential execution, her final wish was to speak with her parents," the petition said. "The petitioner, with considerabl

54 Indian citizens sentenced to death by foreign courts: Govt tells RS

As per information available with the Ministry of External Affairs, the number of Indian citizens who have been awarded death sentences by foreign courts stands at 54, the government informed Parliament on Thursday. Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said this in a written response to a query in Rajya Sabha. The government was asked whether the Centre is taking any measures to save the life of Nimisha Priya who has been sentenced to death by a Yemen court, as also the number of Indian citizens who have been awarded death sentences by the foreign courts. "As per information available with this Ministry, the number of Indian citizens who have been awarded death sentences by foreign courts is 54," the minister said in his response. The ministry was asked whether the government takes any "pro-active measures" to save the lives of such citizens; and if so, the details thereof. "The Government of India accords high priority to the welfare of Indians abroad and ..

I was nearly sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan: Mark Zuckerberg

On the Joe Rogan Podcast, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke on stricter content controls and the growing regulatory pressures on technology firms worldwide

Pak court awards death sentence, 80-yr-imprisonment to four over blasphemy

A Pakistani court has awarded a death sentence and 80-year imprisonment to four persons for uploading blasphemous content on Facebook, an official said on Saturday. Additional Sessions Judge Mohammad Tariq Ayub on Friday convicted four suspects -- Wajid Ali, Ahfaq Ali Saqib, Rana Usman and Suleman Sajid -- for insulting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), his companions, and his wives. The court official said the convicts uploaded blasphemous content on Facebook from four different IDs. "The judge after hearing arguments of both prosecution and defence and witnesses accounts awarded the death penalty and 80 years imprisonment to each of them on different counts," the official said. They were also slapped with a fine of PKR 5.2 million. Pakistan's Federal Investigation (FIA) Cybercrime registered a case under Section 11 of the PECA (Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act) and 295A, 295B, 295C, 298A, 109 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Shiraz Farooqi, a citizen. According t

Sharon Raj murder: Kerala girl gets death sentence for poisoning ex-lover

Greeshma, a literature student from Tamil Nadu, and Sharon, a BSc Radiology student from Kerala, were in a year-long relationship that ended with Sharon's murder in 2022

China executes two men involved in 2024 deadly social revenge killings

Chinese authorities on Monday executed two men who were involved in carrying out deadly social revenge killings with a car and knife last year, according to a media report. The authorities on Monday executed a 62-year-old man who drove his car into people exercising outside a stadium last year, killing 35 people and injuring over 40, the report said. Fan Weiqiu, who was stated to be angry over the division of the property after his divorce, carried out the attack a day before the Chinese military held its prestigious air show in Zhuhai City. He was executed less than a month after a court sentenced him to death. The Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court held a public trial of Fan for the crime of endangering public safety by dangerous means in accordance with the law, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The court termed his motive "extremely vile" and "the methods" used by him "particularly cruel". Also, officials on Monday executed Xu Jiajin, a man convicted of killing eight

RG Kar rape-murder: Sealdah Court finds accused Sanjay Roy guilty

RG Kar rape-murder: Nationwide protests had erupted after a trainee docto was found dead in the hospital's seminar room on August 9

Indian nurse's death sentence not ratified by President: Yemeni embassy

The capital punishment handed to Indian nurse Nimisha Priya by a Yemeni court has not been ratified by President Rashad al-Alimi, the West Asian nation's embassy said on Monday. The embassy issued the clarification to a media outlet following its report on the case. The Yemeni government emphasises that the entire case has been handled by the Houthi militias, and therefore, Rashad Al-Alimi, Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, Yemen has not ratified this judgment, the mission said. Priya, hailing from Kollengode in Kerala's Palakkad district, has been found guilty of murdering a Yemeni citizen in July, 2017. The 37-year-old nurse is presently lodged in a jail in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital city that is under the control of Iran-backed Houthis. According to reports, Priya was handed capital punishment by a trial court in 2020 while Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council upheld the verdict in November 2023. Last week, India said it is closely following the developments in the

Zimbabwe's Prez, who once faced death penalty, approves Bill to abolish it

Zimbabwe has abolished the death penalty, a widely expected move in a country that last carried out the punishment nearly two decades ago. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who once faced the death penalty himself in the 1960s during the war of independence, approved the law this week after a bill passed through Parliament. Zimbabwe has about 60 prisoners on death row, and the new law spares them. The country last executed someone in 2005, partly because at one point no one was willing to take up the job of state executioner. Amnesty International on Tuesday described the law as a beacon of hope for the abolitionist movement in the region." Other African countries such as Kenya, Liberia and Ghana have recently taken positive steps towards abolishing the death penalty but are yet to put it into law, according to the human rights group, which campaigns against the death penalty. Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe's leader since 2017, has publicly spoken of his opposition to capital punishment. He has

China sentences man to death for driving car into crowd, killing 35 people

China has been witnessing a rise in incidents of violence targeting random members of the public - including children - in recent months as economic growth stutters

Here's how families, advocates react to Biden's death row commutations

Victims' families and others affected by crimes that resulted in federal death row convictions shared a range of emotions on Monday, from relief to anger, after President Joe Biden commuted dozens of the sentences. Biden converted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The inmates include people who were convicted in the slayings of police, military officers and federal prisoners and guards. Others were involved in deadly robberies and drug deals. Three inmates will remain on federal death row: Dylann Roof, convicted of the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; the 2013 Boston Marathon Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh's Tree of life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. Opponents of the death penalty lauded Biden for a decision they'd long sought. Supporters of Donald .

Biden commutes 37 federal death sentences in latest use of pardon power

Of the 40 men on federal Death Row in Terre Haute, Indiana, 18 are White, 15 are Black, six are Latino and one is Asian. At least nine of the spared convicts were on death row for killing

Vietnam upholds tycoon Truong My Lan's death sentence unless she pays $9 bn

Real estate tycoon Truong My La has been ordered to pay three-quarters of the amount she is accused of defrauding to have her ruling reduced to a life sentence

Former Bank of China chairman sentenced to death on corruption charges

The former chairman of the Bank of China, Liu Liange, was on Tuesday sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption and illegal issuance of loans. He was found to have accepted bribes worth over 121 million yuan (USD 16.8 million), a court in Jinan city in China's eastern Shandong Province said in its verdict. Liu was deprived of political rights for life, all of his personal property will be confiscated, and all his illegal gains must be recovered and turned over to the state treasury, the court sentence read, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The court found that Liu had taken advantage of his various positions at the Export-Import Bank of China and Bank of China, respectively, to assist others in matters such as loan financing, project cooperation and personnel arrangements -- while illegally accepting bribes in return. Moreover, he was found to have knowingly facilitated the issuance of loans totalling more than 3.32 billion yuan to unqualified companies in ...

Over 100 persons killed in name of honour in Sindh from Jan to Jun in Pak

The Sindh Suhai Organisation voiced concern regarding rising incidents of violence against women, including murder and sexual harassment, in the province

Firms consider removing Taiwan staff from China after death penalty threat

The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure

Yemen's Houthis sentence 44 to death on charges of treachery, spying

A court run by Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday sentenced 44 people to death, including a businessman working with aid groups, on spying charges, a defence lawyer said. The 44 were among 49 people who were detained by the Iran-backed rebels and accused of collaborating with the enemy, a reference to the Saudi-led coalition that has been at war with the Houthis since 2015, lawyer Abdel-Majeed Sabra said. Four were given prison sentences, Sabra said. Sixteen were sentenced to death in absentia, while 28 were brought before the Specialised Criminal Court in the capital Sanaa, Sabra said. Among those sentenced to death was Adnan al-Harazi, CEO of Prodigy Systems, a Sanaa-based company that developed systems to help humanitarian groups register and verify the distribution of aid to those in need in the war-stricken country. The Houthis detained al-Harazi in March last year after throwing stones at his company. Saturday's court ruling included the seizure of al-Harazi's properties, Sabr

Vietnam billionaire sentenced to death in country's biggest fraud case

Truong My Lan faces charges ranging from bribery, abuse of power, appropriation and violations of banking law

UK court says Assange can't be extradited until US rules out death penalty

A British court ruled on Tuesday that Julian Assange can't be extradited to the United States on espionage charges unless US authorities guarantee he won't get the death penalty, giving the WikiLeaks founder a partial victory in his long legal battle over the site's publication of classified American documents. Two High Court judges said they would grant Assange a new appeal unless US authorities give further assurances within three weeks about what will happen to him. The ruling means the legal saga, which has dragged on for more than a decade, will continue and Assange will remain inside London's high-security Belmarsh Prison, where he has spent the last five years. Judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson said the US must guarantee that Assange, who is Australian, is afforded the same First Amendment protections as a United States citizen, and that the death penalty is not imposed. The judges said that if the US files new assurances, "we will give the parties an opportunity to .

44 yrs after hanging, Pak SC says Bhutto's trial didn't follow due process

Lahore High Court had sentenced Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to death on March 18, 1978, on charges of ordering the assassination of Ahmed Reza Kasuri, a founding member of the PPP