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Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Outside the US, the death penalty is a vestige from another time
On Mar. 31, the United Arab Emirates informed the world that it had sentenced to death three people who had taken the life of an Israeli Moldovan rabbi last November, with what the prosecution called 'terrorist intention.' After the sentence, the Emirates's attorney general stressed that the sentences signified how his country will respond to any attempt to 'undermine national security and stability.' The UAE has shown no hesitancy about turning death sentences into executions. In February, it executed Shahzadi Khan, a domestic worker convicted of killing her employers' baby. Just days after Khan was put to death, the UAE carried out two more executions. Khan's case was marked by a litany of problems familiar to any observer of America's death penalty. She claimed that her taped confession had been coerced and she had been left without 'adequate representation' during the trial. Her lawyer described her death as an 'extrajudicial killing under the guise of legal proceedings.' But arguments about problems in the administration of capital punishment have much less purchase in the global effort to end state killing than they do in this country. There is no one-size-fits-all approach in the battle to end capital punishment. The most common strategy in the international arena has focused more on human rights appeals than worries about executing the innocent, discrimination or botched executions — the things that have moved the needle on the death penalty in this country. Typical is the position of the European Union, that 'Capital punishment violates the inalienable right to life and is incompatible with human dignity.' The UAE, along with some other pro-death-penalty nations, continues to ignore such arguments. Still, efforts to end the death penalty globally are gaining traction. Eighty years ago, 'only eight states had abolished the death penalty for all crimes.' Today, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, 144 countries have abolished it, and four others made progress toward abolition last year. Abolitionists will run into a trap if they insist that there is only one right way for death penalty countries to end the practice. We don't want the effort to end state killing worldwide to be just another 'West knows best' campaign. The danger of that is clear if we look at how the global death penalty scene breaks down. From what we know, China executes more people every year than any other nation. In 2024, Iran, which carried out the second most executions, put about 800 people to death. This was followed by Saudi Arabia (303 people), Iraq (94), North Korea (32) and the U.S. (25). And, like the UAE, other nations continue to impose death sentences for a broader array of offenses than just intentional killings. They use it for such things as 'sexual violence, homosexuality, blasphemy, fraud, security-related offenses, and drug-related offenses.' The International Commission Against the Death Penalty identifies nine different paths that countries have taken to end the death penalty. Some have done so because they needed to in order to be part of organizations like the EU, others because a court ordered them to do so. Some made a one-time and dramatic break from their pasts; others have ended the death penalty gradually. Despite these differences, the commission concludes that 'Leadership is key in the abolition of capital punishment as it increases respect and protection of the fundamental right to life.' Whatever arguments are used, the journey toward worldwide rejection of capital punishment will not be concluded quickly. But it will come. Meanwhile, we will have to endure more death sentences like those handed down in the UAE and the death of Khan and others like her. Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
15-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Outside the US, the death penalty is a vestige from another time
On Mar. 31, the United Arab Emirates informed the world that it had sentenced to death three people who had taken the life of an Israeli Moldovan rabbi last November, with what the prosecution called 'terrorist intention.' After the sentence, the Emirates's attorney general stressed that the sentences signified how his country will respond to any attempt to 'undermine national security and stability.' The UAE has shown no hesitancy about turning death sentences into executions. In February, it executed Shahzadi Khan, a domestic worker convicted of killing her employers' baby. Just days after Khan was put to death, the UAE carried out two more executions. Khan's case was marked by a litany of problems familiar to any observer of America's death penalty. She claimed that her taped confession had been coerced and she had been left without 'adequate representation' during the trial. Her lawyer described her death as an 'extrajudicial killing under the guise of legal proceedings.' But arguments about problems in the administration of capital punishment have much less purchase in the global effort to end state killing than they do in this country. There is no one-size-fits-all approach in the battle to end capital punishment. The most common strategy in the international arena has focused more on human rights appeals than worries about executing the innocent, discrimination or botched executions — the things that have moved the needle on the death penalty in this country. Typical is the position of the European Union, that 'Capital punishment violates the inalienable right to life and is incompatible with human dignity.' The UAE, along with some other pro-death-penalty nations, continues to ignore such arguments. Still, efforts to end the death penalty globally are gaining traction. Eighty years ago, 'only eight states had abolished the death penalty for all crimes.' Today, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, 144 countries have abolished it, and four others made progress toward abolition last year. Abolitionists will run into a trap if they insist that there is only one right way for death penalty countries to end the practice. We don't want the effort to end state killing worldwide to be just another 'West knows best' campaign. The danger of that is clear if we look at how the global death penalty scene breaks down. From what we know, China executes more people every year than any other nation. In 2024, Iran, which carried out the second most executions, put about 800 people to death. This was followed by Saudi Arabia (303 people), Iraq (94), North Korea (32) and the U.S. (25). And, like the UAE, other nations continue to impose death sentences for a broader array of offenses than just intentional killings. They use it for such things as 'sexual violence, homosexuality, blasphemy, fraud, security-related offenses, and drug-related offenses.' The International Commission Against the Death Penalty identifies nine different paths that countries have taken to end the death penalty. Some have done so because they needed to in order to be part of organizations like the EU, others because a court ordered them to do so. Some made a one-time and dramatic break from their pasts; others have ended the death penalty gradually. Despite these differences, the commission concludes that 'Leadership is key in the abolition of capital punishment as it increases respect and protection of the fundamental right to life.' Whatever arguments are used, the journey toward worldwide rejection of capital punishment will not be concluded quickly. But it will come. Meanwhile, we will have to endure more death sentences like those handed down in the UAE and the death of Khan and others like her.
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
U.A.E. Sentences Three People to Death for Killing an Israeli Rabbi
The United Arab Emirates on Monday sentenced three people to death for the abduction and killing of an Israeli Moldovan rabbi last November, a case that raised concerns about the safety of the country's small but growing Jewish community. The U.A.E.'s state news agency, WAM, reported that the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeals' State Security Chamber decided on the death penalty for the 'premeditated murder with terrorist intention' of Rabbi Zvi Kogan. A fourth person was sentenced for aiding in the crime — in what way the government did not say — to a prison term, followed by deportation from the country. The defendant was sentenced to life in prison, but typically that means being released after 20 years or more. The authorities did not disclose the identities of those sentenced, but the U.A.E. Interior Ministry previously identified three people accused of murder as Olimboy Tohirovich and Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, both 28, and Azizbek Kamilovich, 33, all Uzbek nationals. State media released photos of them, blindfolded and shackled at the wrists and ankles, after their extradition from Turkey. 'The defendants had tracked and murdered the victim,' WAM said in its report on Monday. 'The evidence presented by the State Security Prosecution to the court included the defendants' detailed confessions to the crimes of murder and kidnapping, along with forensic reports, post-mortem examination findings, details of the instruments used in the crime and witness testimonies.' The report did not quote the authorities offering a motive for the murder of Rabbi Kogan, 28, or any further details about how he was kidnapped and later killed. The rabbi disappeared on Nov. 21 and was last reported seen in Dubai, the most populous of the nation's seven emirates, according to an Israeli official who spoke to The New York Times at the time. Israeli news outlets reported that his car had been found abandoned in Al Ain, a city in the adjacent emirate of Abu Dhabi, on the border with Oman. His body was found three days later. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel denounced the killing at the time as an 'antisemitic terrorist act.' Rabbi Kogan was a dual citizen of Israel and Moldova and had worked in the Emirates as part of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a Hasidic branch of Orthodox Judaism that conducts Jewish outreach around the world. He also helped manage the Rimon kosher supermarket in Dubai's affluent Al Wasl Road neighborhood. This month, the supermarket announced that it was moving and would accept only delivery orders for the time being. The Israeli embassy and consulate in the Emirates did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the sentences. The kidnapping and killing of the rabbi rattled the small Jewish population of the Emirates; estimates of its number ranges from hundreds to a few thousand. More Israelis and Jews have made the Emirates their home since the country formally established ties with Israel in the 2020 Abraham Accords. Emirati authorities said on Monday that the capital sentences 'are automatically subject to appeal' to the criminal division of the Federal Supreme Court. Cases of capital punishment are rare in the Emirates, but executions are carried out promptly after defendants exhaust their appeals.
