Document - Kuwait: Halt the execution of three Bangladeshi migrant workers

KUWAIT Kuwait: Halt the execution of three Bangladeshi migrant workers

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE


AI Index: MDE 17/004/2002 (Public)
News Service No: 107
25 June 2002

Kuwait: Halt the execution of three Bangladeshi migrant workers
In a letter sent today to the Amir of Kuwait, Shaikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, Amnesty International urged the Kuwaiti authorities to suspend the imminent execution of Mohammad Zahar Abdul Sattar, Anwar al-Zamaan and Anwar Khan Mohammad, migrant workers from Bangladesh, who have been sentenced to death in connection with the rape and murder of a Sri Lankan national, after a grossly unfair trial according to one of their lawyers.

Their execution is currently scheduled to take place tomorrow, Wednesday, 26 June, 2002, at eight o’clock in the morning, at Nayef Palace, Kuwait City.

One of their lawyers has stated that while in detention all three men were repeatedly beaten; that their legs were bound and the soles of their feet beaten bloody by a baton and no medical attention was ever made available to them. He also added that they did not understand the lower court proceedings which resulted in sentences to life imprisonment for all three men, nor the appeal court hearings which concluded that they should be put to death.

Amnesty International recognizes the rights and responsibilities of governments to bring to justice those suspected of criminal offences, but is unconditionally opposed to the death penalty in all cases, as the ultimate violation of the right to life.

June Ray, Middle East Program Director, said: "The decision to proceed with the execution of these three individuals flies in the face of the progress represented by Kuwait's accession in 1996 to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

"Plans to execute these three men must be immediately halted and an investigation initiated into the allegations of torture while in detention. The authorities should find out whether the accused understood the court procedures they faced," she added.


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