• Activists decry 'act of sheer brutality' after Saudi Arabia executes 7 young men

    By Abdullad al-Shihri , The Associated Press

    RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Seven Saudi men convicted of theft, looting and armed robbery were executed on Wednesday, according to the country's official news agency, more than a week after their families and a rights group appealed to the king for clemency.

    The executions took place in Abha, a city in the southern region of Asir, the Saudi Press Agency said. A resident who witnessed the execution said the seven were shot dead by a firing squad, a first in the kingdom, which traditionally has beheaded convicts sentenced to death.

    The witness spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution.


    Amnesty International called the executions an "act of sheer brutality."

    "We are outraged by the execution of seven men in Saudi Arabia this morning. We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances, but this case has been particularly shocking," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director.

    "It is a bloody day when a government executes seven people on the grounds of 'confessions' obtained under torture, submitted at a trial where they had no legal representation or recourse to appeal," Luther said.

    The south has been marginalized and suffered discrimination by the powerful central region where the capital, Riyadh, and the holy shrines of Mecca and Medina are located.

    The seven were arrested in 2006 and received death sentences in 2009, a Saudi newspaper reported at the time. The case was back in focus after Human Rights Watch earlier this month called for the sentences to be canceled because the men were juveniles at the time of their arrest.

    Torture claims
    One of the men told The Associated Press in early March that he was only 15 when he was arrested as part of a ring that stole jewelry in 2004 and 2005. Nasser al-Qahtani said he was tortured to confess and had no access to lawyers.

    Al-Qahtani said that during the years-long trial, he only faced the judge three times and when the men tried to complain to the judge about the torture or show torture marks on their bodies, they were ignored. He also said the judge never assigned him a lawyer.

    The original sentences called for death by firing squad and crucifixion.

    The oil-rich kingdom follows a strict implementation of Islamic law, or Shariah, under which people convicted of murder, rape or armed robbery can be executed, usually by sword.

    On Sunday, a Saudi paper reported that the government is looking into formally dropping public beheadings as a method of execution and instead considering death by a firing squad as an alternative. There have also been calls in the kingdom to replace public beheadings with lethal injections carried out in prisons.

    Local observers said there are fewer people willing to carry out beheadings.

    Saudi Arabia has executed 23 people so far this year, including the seven men on Wednesday. Last year it executed 76 people and in 2011, 79.

    'Strong evidence' that trial was not fair
    Also, several people were reported crucified in Saudi Arabia last year. Human rights groups have condemned crucifixions, including cases in which people were beheaded and then crucified. In 2009, Amnesty International condemned such executions as "the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment."

    On March 4, Human Rights Watch appealed to King Abdullah not to execute the seven men and said there was "strong evidence" that they did not get a fair trial.

    "It is high time for the Saudis to stop executing child offenders and start observing their obligations under international human rights law," said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at HRW.

    The following day, the king ordered a one-week suspension until the case was reviewed.

    The Washington-based Institute of Gulf Affairs, which campaigned for the suspension of the executions of the seven men, recently said in a note to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that one of the reasons the seven were sentenced to death was that "they hail from the south, a region that is heavily marginalized by the Saudi monarchy, which views them as lower class citizens."

  • Notorious drug lord executed by China over 'Golden Triangle' smuggling, hijackings

    China Daily / Reuters

    Drug lord Naw Kham is taken from a Chinese jail to be executed on Friday.

    By Ed Flanagan, Producer, NBC News

    BEIJING – A notorious gang leader and drug lord from Myanmar was among four foreigners executed in China Friday, marking the first time Beijing has extradited, tried and put to death foreign nationals. 

    Naw Kham and three accomplices from Thailand and Laos were given a lethal injection in Yunnan’s provincial capital, Kunming, late Friday afternoon.

    The four were found guilty last year and sentenced Wednesday for the October 2011 hijacking of two cargo ships and the murder of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River.

    But Beijing’s decision to live broadcast the final moments of the men as they waited in their cells followed by their walk to waiting police cars to the execution facility has drawn criticism across China’s websphere.

    The four were additionally found guilty of smuggling drugs, kidnapping and hijacking cargo ships in the “Golden Triangle,” a section of territory that overlaps parts of Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos that accounts for much of Asia’s opium and methamphetamines production.

    Beijing contends that, while Naw Kham masterminded the hijacking of the two Chinese cargo ships, he also colluded with Thai soldiers who may have been responsible for the slaying of the sailors. 

    Thai authorities are investigating nine of their soldiers alleged to be involved in the incident.

    The capture of Naw Kham – who was at the center of the region's bustling drug trade – was a coup for Chinese police and anti-drug ministries, which reportedly spent a year tracking the infamous smuggler.

    The search was unprecedented as it marked the first time that Chinese forces were seen actively searching for foreign national criminal suspects outside of China’s borders.

    Task force
    The importance Beijing placed on the search was underscored by a report last month by Chinese state media that revealed a task force set up to capture Naw Kham had at one point considered a controversial plan to use an unmanned drone to bomb a suspected hideout of Naw Kham’s gang in northeastern Myanmar.   

    The scheme was scrapped after the order to capture Naw Kham alive and bring him to trial was reiterated from senior leaders.

    Naw Kham’s capture and subsequent trial was given significant coverage in Chinese state media. In the run up to Friday’s execution, long reports detailing the gang’s crimes, celebrating the diligent work of China’s security forces and explaining the method of execution were repeatedly played on Chinese broadcaster CCTV.

    CCTV also ran two hours of live coverage leading up to the executions, showing the men’s final moments as they were led from their prison cells to execution facility. Despite rampant rumors and speculation that the state broadcaster was planning on showing the execution live, it ended its live coverage after the men were driven away.  

    The magnitude of Naw Kham’s capture and execution was never underplayed, with one CCTV reporter noting that officials there were comparing Naw Kham’s case to the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

    The comparison carries an undeniable message from the country’s ruling Communist Party to its people: China can and will look out for its nationals both at home and abroad.

    But many in China found the live broadcast of the men’s final moments in poor taste and an uncomfortable reminder of show executions from China’s turbulent period during the Cultural Revolution.

    “Even though they are deserved to die, these criminals have dignity too,” wrote one user on China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, “The Cultural Revolution is back.”

    “China is a country without humanity,” lamented another.

    “CCTV is as cruel as these criminals,” one user bluntly noted. 

    Mo Shaoping, a prominent criminal lawyer and advisor at the Central University of Finance and Economics Law School, argued that Beijing’s decision to broadcast the prisoners’ final moments was less about striking a nationalist chord and more about showing how the country has improved its handling of the death penalty – a sensitive topic for China’s leadership.

    “China has made progress in how it deals with the death penalty,” Mo said. “showing everything live helps people see that prisoners are being treated humanely in their final moments.”

    Indeed, much of the commentary on CCTV as cameras rolled on Naw Kham in his cell discussed how he had been given a full doctor’s inspection and that officers in the room had made small chat and offered cigarettes to the kingpin to help him relax.

    They also noted that Naw had actually gained weight and looked healthier after months under Chinese supervision.

    Mo also noted that the use of lethal injection mean that potential donor organs could not be harvested from the men, addressing another common criticism of China’s previous handling of state executions.

    NBC News Le Li contributed to this report.

  • Prosecutors seek death for soldier accused of Afghan massacre

    Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the American soldier charged with a grisly massacre of Afghan civilians, appears in a Washington state military courtroom Monday on accusations that he killed 16 villagers as they slept. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    TACOMA, Washington -- Military prosecutors said on Monday they would seek the death penalty for a U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers when he twice ventured out of his camp earlier this year.

    The lead prosecutor, Lieutenant Colonel Jay Morse, told a preliminary hearing he would present evidence proving "chilling premeditation" on the part of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a decorated veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.


    The shootings of mostly women and children in Afghanistan's Kandahar province in March marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on an individual U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and eroded already strained U.S.-Afghan ties after more than a decade of conflict in the country.

    Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.

    Morse said he was submitting a "capital referral" in the case, requesting that Bales be executed if convicted.

    The hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State was expected to last two weeks and include witness testimony from Afghanistan carried by live video, including testimony from villagers and Afghan soldiers.

    At the end, military commanders will decide whether there is sufficient evidence for Bales to stand trial by court-martial.

    'I just shot up some people'
    Bales, dressed in camouflage Army fatigues with his head shaven, embraced his wife Kari in court before the hearing began. He then sat silently watching the proceedings from the defense table as Morse summarized the prosecution's account of the events of March 10-11.

    According to Morse, Bales had been drinking with two fellow soldiers before he left his base, Camp Belambay, and went to a village where he committed the first killings.

    Morse said Bales then returned to the camp and told a drinking buddy, Sergeant Jason McLaughlin, "I just shot up some people," before leaving for a second village and killing more people. Morse called Bales' actions "deliberate, methodical."

    According to McLaughlin, Bales asked him to smell his rifle and said "I'll be back at 5 (a.m.). You got me?" McLaughlin said he did not think Bales was serious, and "didn't think too much about it," going back to sleep for guard duty that started at 3 a.m.

    Child witnesses to Afghan massacre: Bales was not alone

    Prosecutors showed a video shot by night-vision camera from a surveillance balloon over the camp, showing a figure they identified as Bales walking back to the post wearing a dark blue bed sheet or throw rug tied around his neck like a cloak.

    He is seen being confronted by three soldiers, including the two men prosecutors said he had been drinking with, who ordered him to drop his weapons and took him into custody as he is heard saying, "Are you ****ing kidding me?"

    One of the three, Corporal David Godwin, testified that Bales kept repeating the words, "I thought I was doing the right thing," and "It's bad. It's bad. It's really bad." Several witnesses said Bales' trousers were spattered with blood. One said he had a "ghost-like look."

    Drank whiskey, watched assassin film
    Godwin recounted that he, Bales and McLaughlin had been drinking whiskey together in McLaughlin's room while watching the Hollywood film "Man on Fire," which stars Denzel Washington as a former assassin bent on revenge.

    Several witnesses from the camp said Bales had been aggrieved over the lack of action over an improvised explosive device attack on a patrol near the camp several days earlier, in which one U.S. soldier lost the lower part of a leg.

    Officials: US soldier in Afghanistan shooting spree said 'I did it'

    Prosecutors said Bales had been armed with a rifle, a pistol and a grenade launcher on the night in question, and that the killings took place over a five-hour period in two villages. The dead included members of four families, most shot in the head.

    When Bales returned to the camp and surrendered his weapons, he was brought to Captain Daniel Fields, team leader, at the camp's command center. "What the **** just happened?" Fields said he asked Bales. He said Bales avoided eye contact and just said "I'm sorry, I let you down."

    Bales was not expected to testify during the so-called Article 32 hearing.

    News that Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians has sent shockwaves through his Washington state neighborhood. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.

    John Henry Browne, Bales' civilian lawyer, has suggested Bales may not have acted alone and may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

    Kari Bales told NBC station KING5.com before Monday's hearing that she believed he was innocent, as a massacre of innocent civilians was "not something my husband would have done ... not the Bob that I know."

    No motive has emerged for the killings.

    Kari Bales had complained about financial difficulties on her blog in the year before the killings, and she had noted that Bales was disappointed at being passed over for a promotion.

    Browne described those stresses as garden-variety — nothing that would prompt such a massacre — and has also said, without elaborating, that Bales suffered a traumatic incident during his second Iraq tour that triggered "tremendous depression.”

    Asked about the prospect of the death penalty, Kari Bales told KING5 that she had not “had time to worry about that.”

    “I know that’s a possibility,” she added. “If and when that happens then that’s the time I will worry about it. It’s in God’s hands.”

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    More content from NBCNews.com:

    Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook


  • UK police resist calls to give cops guns despite double murder

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    The debate over whether to give British police officers guns has been reignited following the killing of two unarmed officers, who authorities believe may have been lured to their deaths in an ambush by a suspected double killer.

    Police constables Fiona Bone, 32, and Nicola Hughes, 23, were shot dead after responding to a hoax call about a burglary in the northern English city of Manchester. A grenade was also thrown during the attack.

    Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Peter Fahy said that it appeared to have been “an act of absolutely cold-blooded murder. It's almost impossible to fathom such an evil act."

    The suspect, Dale Cregan, 29, handed himself into a local police station after the shootings on Tuesday.

    The Telegraph newspaper reported Cregan had been arrested on suspicion of murdering a man called Mark Short in June, but was then released on bail as police investigated and went into hiding. Cregan is also suspected of killing Short’s father David in August.

    Police officers in the U.K. do not routinely carry guns, but armed response units can be called to incidents involving firearms.

    'Beggars belief'
    Darren Rathband, the twin brother of Constable David Rathband who killed himself 18 months after he was shot and blinded by a gunman in July 2010, called for British officers to be given guns, The Guardian newspaper reported. 


    "It beggars belief. How many officers need to die before the powers realize that it is the 21st century and you cannot fight crime with an outdated piece of plastic [U.K. police's truncheon] and a bit of spray?,” he said. “…I am angry some other families have now lost a daughter, sister, mother or wife and it makes me angry that the thin blue line is getting thinner and thinner."

    Paul Beshenivsky, widower of Police Constable Sharon Beshenivsky, who was shot dead in 2005, told ITV News that it was time to give firearms to police.

    “I think police, in honesty, should be armed,” he said. “I think something more should be done for the safety of officers.”

    He said his wife’s death had been talked about for several years after she was killed but then had been “sort of slightly forgotten.”

    Read more on this story from ITV News

    Sir Hugh Orde, president of the U.K.’s Association of Chief Police Officers, told ITV News that the murders were a “stark reminder” of the risks police officers faced.

    “I don’t think there’s any desire from the [police] service, top to bottom, quite frankly for a routinely armed police service,” he said, noting that armed officers were available to respond when needed.

    “Whilst this is an awful week for the service, fortunately these events are very rare still,” he added.

    Life in prison 'an equal deterrent'
    Asked whether the death penalty should be brought back in the U.K. for police killers, Orde said he was not in favor of the idea.

    “I think if an officer is shot on duty … anyone convicted should go to prison and never come out,” he said. “I think that’s an equal deterrent and more fitting to our current culture.”

    And Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, a Liberal Democrat, warned against a “rush to instant judgments.”

    "We have a long tradition in this country, which is a great tradition, of policing in the community, of the police being part of the public and the public supporting and giving their consent to the police,” he said Wednesday, according to The Guardian newspaper.

    "I think if we were, in an instant to, in a sense, arm our police to the teeth so they become separate from the public, that would be quite a big change, which would have considerable risks attached to it,” he added.

    NBC News' partner ITV News and Reuters contributed to this report.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook


  • Wanted: Sri Lanka hangman

    By Reuters

    Sri Lanka on Tuesday began interviews for the post of hangman a year after two positions fell vacant, with at least 480 convicts on death row.


    But it was not quite clear how the two successful candidates would fill their days - the death penalty has not been used in Sri Lanka, a predominantly Buddhist country, since 1976.

    "About 176 applicants are there and interviews are going on today and tomorrow," Gamini Kulatunga, commissioner operations at the Prisons Department, told Reuters. "Only males will be eligible for the post."

    The two posts fell vacant after one hangman was promoted and the other retired.

    At least 480 people convicted of murder and drugs offenses could potentially be executed, Kulatunga said.

    There has been an alarming rise in child abuse, rapes, murders, and drug trafficking since the 25-year war against Tamil Tiger separatists ended in May 2009, prompting some lawyers and politicians to push for the death penalty to be reintroduced.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Somaliland military court sentences 17 civilians to death

    By msnbc.com staff

    A military court in Somalia's autonomous northern region of Somaliland has sentenced 17 civilians to death for attacking a military base, the BBC reports.

    According to the report, 30 armed members of a clan attacked soldiers in a camp on Tuesday. Seven people, including three soldiers, were killed in the resulting firefight.

    Following the attack, 28 people were arrested and held overnight. A military trial followed, in which three people were acquitted and the trial of three others was postponed.

    Five minors were given life sentences, and the remaining 17 civilians were sentenced to death, after reportedly confessing to conducting the attacks.

    According to the BBC, the attackers claimed the military had built on land that they had owned for generations. An attack on Somaliland's military carries a mandatory death penalty for adults, the BBC says.

    Somaliland, a breakaway, semi-desert territory on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, has been spared by much of the violence plaguing Somalia, but the BBC says land disputes are common.

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

  • Norway mass killer Anders Breivik: I was motivated by goodness and 'would have done it again'

    During his statement, Breivik showed no remorse and made no admission of guilt. ITN's Paul Davies reports.  

    By Alastair Jamieson and Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

    Self-confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik told his trial in Norway Tuesday that he was motivated by "goodness, not evil" and said, "I would have done it again."

    On the second day of his trial, he boasted about last July's massacre in a pre-pepared statement to court, saying:  "I have carried out the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack committed in Europe since the Second World War."

    Breivik, 33, has said he acted to protect his country by setting off a car bomb that killed eight people at government headquarters in Oslo last July, then killing another 69 people in a shooting spree at a youth summer camp organized by the ruling Labor Party.

    He has pleaded not guilty, saying he acted in defense of Norway against multiculturalism.

    The trial will turn on whether Breivik is found guilty or insane.

    Stoyan Nenov / Reuters

    Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik at the start of the second day of his terrorism and murder trial in Oslo, Tuesday.

    While he risks being kept behind bars for the rest of his life, the high school dropout has said being labeled insane would be a "fate worse than death."

    Breivik spoke for longer than the 30 minutes allotted for his 13-page statement, and was asked to finish by the judge. The statement is the start of an expected five days of testimony from Breivik before other witnesses are called.

    Breivik insisted he should continue, telling the judge, "I never asked for 5 days, I just want 1 hour to explain myself," Sky News journalist Trygve Sorvaag reported on Twitter.

    Breivik said the aim of the massacre was to end "multicultural drift", and set out his views on Muslims and sharia law. A court order prohibited broadcasters from showing pictures from inside the court while Breivik was speaking.

    "People will understand me one day and see that multiculturism has failed," he said. "If I am right, how can what I did be illegal?"

    "They (Norwegians) risk being a minority in their own capital in their own country in the future," he added.

    Reporters inside the court described Breivik as "rambling", and said the court - in particular, relatives of the victims - grew impatient with the speech.

    BBC reporter Matthew Price posted a picture of Breivik in the courtroom on Twitter after his speech had finished.

    Earlier Tuesday, one of the lay judges hearing the case was dismissed after it emerged he had posted a comment on a Facebook page saying Breivik should face the death penalty.

    Anders Breivik to Norway court: I killed 77 people but am not guilty

    Shortly after the killings, Thomas Indrebø posted "the death penalty is the only just outcome of this case."

    Breivik's defense lawyer said Indrebø should be dismissed from the case because of the remark, and it was later announced he would be replaced by a reserve lay judge.

    The trial began on Monday, with two professional judges, as well as three lay judges chosen from civil society, presiding over the court.

    The lay judge's dismissal is not expected to lead to any mistrial verdict.

    Confessed killer Anders Breivik returned to the Norwegian youth camp where he killed 69 people to reenact his bloodbath for police. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

    Norway's VG newspaper reported the text of Indrebø's posting, according to a translation posted on The Telegraph news website.

    "The death penalty is the only just sentence in this case!!!!!!!!!!" read the message. The Telegraph said the comment was posted below an article in VG only a day after Breivik killed 77 people with a bomb and gunfire.

    A previous version of the story quoted Breivik as saying he "would do it all again," rather than "I would have done it again," based on a translation by Sky News.

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Sources: Briton killed after threat to expose Chinese leader's wife

    Tunisia still wants sun lovers, new Islamist government says

    Sources: Briton killed after threat to expose Chinese leader's wife

    Elite Secret Service agents among those suspended

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

  • Amnesty reports sharp increase in Iran executions

    By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

    Iran carried out death sentences on at least 360 people in 2011, up by more than 40 percent on the year before, according to a report published Tuesday by Amnesty International.

    The report noted increases in other Mideast countries including Saudi Arabia, where at least 82 people were executed in 2011, for crimes including “sorcery,” an Amnesty statement said. That figure was up from at least 27 in 2010.

    Iran’s total, which was up from at least 252 people in 2010, included at least three juvenile offenders “in violation of international law,” Amnesty said. There were another four unconfirmed executions of juveniles in Iran, it added.

    Read the full Amnesty International report

    The group said it had received “credible reports” that there were a large number of unacknowledged executions in Iran, which would “almost double the number of ‘official’ ones there.”

    Among those executed in Iran were people convicted of offenses such as adultery and sodomy.

    Thousands thought killed in China
    Amnesty said that in total 20 countries carried out at least 676 executions in 2011, compared to 23 countries and 527 judicial killings the year before.

    But it said the figures did not include “thousands of prisoners thought to have been executed in China.”

    The statement said most countries “either hanged or shot their condemned prisoners, but there were also beheadings in Saudi Arabia and lethal injections in China, Taiwan and the USA.”

    The group said 68 people were executed in Iraq, 43 in the United States, at least 41 in Yemen, 30 in North Korea, and 10 in Somalia.

    Overall, at least 18,750 people were under sentence of death worldwide at the end of 2011, the statement added.