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	Death by stoning is always cruel and inhuman by Amnesty International / Human Rights Watch   Sept 2010   Iran: Woman to suffer 99 lashes over photo.   An Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery now faces 99 lashes after the publication of a photo which claimed to show her without a headscarf.   Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani''s son Sajjad has given several interviews saying he was told of the new sentence of 99 lashes by people who have recently been released from the prison in Tabriz where his mother is being held.   He said that a prison judge confirmed that she was to be lashed for spreading "corruption and indecency" after a photograph of her without a headscarf appeared in a British newspaper.   Ms Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was given the death penalty for an extramarital relationship. After an international outcry, Iranian officials temporarily halted Ms Ashtiani''s stoning sentence in July. But there are fears the death sentence could still be carried out by hanging.   July 2010   The Iranian judiciary should immediately halt plans to execute a woman convicted of adultery, Human Rights Watch said today. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43 year-old mother of two who was previously punished with flogging for having an “illicit relationship,” faces imminent death by stoning after a second court convicted her of adultery during marriage.   On May 15, 2006, a criminal court in East Azerbaijan province found Ashtiani guilty of having an “illicit relationship” with two men following the death of her husband. She was sentenced to flogging and was given 99 lashes.   In September 2006, during the murder trial of a man accused of killing Ashtiani’s husband, another court reopened an adultery case based on events that allegedly took place before her husband died and eventually convicted her of “adultery while being married.”   During the trial, Ashtiani retracted a confession she had made during a pretrial interrogation, alleging that she had been forced to make the confession under duress. She has continued to deny the adultery charge.   “Death by stoning is always cruel and inhuman, and it is especially abhorrent in cases where judges rely on their own hunches instead of evidence to proclaim a defendant guilty,” said Nadya Khalife, Middle East women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Iran should immediately put a stop to this execution – and all executions.”   Under Iran’s penal code, adultery is a “crime against God” for both men and women. It is punishable by 100 lashes for unmarried men and women, but married offenders are sentenced to death by stoning. Cases of adultery must be proven either by a repeated confession by the defendant or by the testimony of witnesses – four men or three men and two women.   However, Iran’s penal code also allows judges in hodud (morality) crimes such as adultery to use their own “knowledge” to determine whether an accused is guilty in the absence of direct evidence.   Ashtiani’s lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, said in a recent posting on his blog, Modafe’, that two of the five judges found Ashtiani not guilty during the second trial. The three remaining judges found her guilty of adultery on the basis of their own “knowledge.” Ashtiani was convicted by a majority of votes.   The Supreme Court confirmed Ashtiani’s death sentence on May 27, 2007. She has exhausted the legal appeals process and the judiciary has denied her repeated requests for clemency.   Mostafaei issued a statement on his blog several days ago indicating that he fears his client could be executed at any moment. She is being held in Tabriz prison.   Updated: July 2010   Sadly, execution by stoning continues in Iran. Right now fifteen more people are on death row awaiting the same barbaric verdict - stoning in which victims are buried up to their necks in the ground and then large rocks are thrown at their heads.   Sakineh”s children and lawyer say she is innocent and that she did not get a fair trial - they state her confession was forced from her and, speaking only Azerbaijani, she did not understand what was being asked of her in court.   Despite Iran"s signing of a UN convention that requires the death penalty only be used for the "most serious crimes" and despite the Iranian Parliament passing a law banning stoning last year, stoning for adultery continues. Visit the related web page
	Bringing Banks to account for Stolen Funds by Otaviano Canuto and Janamitra Devan International Herald Tribune   On Jan. 12, 2010, a devastating earthquake left more than 230,000 Haitians dead and nearly a million homeless.   That very day, thousands of miles away, a legal drama was unfolding whose victims would be the same Haitian people. Despite the efforts of Swiss authorities, legal constraints prevented the return of stolen assets held by the family of Haiti"s ex-dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier in Switzerland, money that could be used for recovery following the natural disaster.   The Swiss Supreme Court had ordered the release of $5.7 million to the Duvalier family, saying that the statute of limitations had expired. As soon as the decision was made public, the Swiss officials ordered the assets frozen on a constitutional basis and announced they were working on legislative reforms to make the return of stolen assets easier.   The legal challenges revealed by the Duvalier case are not unique. Countries around the world face legal constraints when dealing with stolen assets — especially developing countries with scarce resources to match the skills and creativity of criminals.   Every year tens of billions of dollars is stolen from developing countries and stashed away in the developed world. In the past 15 years, only $5 billion have been successfully returned to their countries of origin.   The magnitude of the problem suggests that a better approach to combat looted funds starts with preventing assets from being stolen and laundered in the first place. That would place a significant requirement on financial centers and their financial institutions. Absent prevention and early detection, there will always be safe havens for the corrupt.   A recent U.S. Senate investigation revealed that despite efforts to crack down on money laundering, millions of dollars are still funneled into the United States by corrupt foreign officials through U.S. financial institutions, lawyers, lobbyists and other professionals.   The Senate report recommended that the U.S. Treasury adopt a recent U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime proposal to strengthen bank scrutiny of “politically exposed persons” — high-level public officials and their associates — and to require intermediaries to know their customers and check the source of their funds and wealth.   Laws and regulations do matter, but they are not enough if implementation and enforcement don’t follow. This requires active participation from private financial institutions as well as gatekeepers, since experience demonstrates that reputational and business risks are not enough to deter the private sector from associating with the corrupt.   During the G-20 summit in September, industrialized and developing economies committed to fight this scourge and reclaim stolen capital for development — an endeavor that puts international financial centers at the front line of the battle.   The Financial Action Task Force, the international body that combats money laundering and the financing of terrorism, has recently agreed to strengthen its efforts against corruption. The task force recognized the proceeds of corruption as a significant risk to the international financial system. It agreed to further cooperation between financial intelligence units and law enforcement. It also decided to strengthen its tools to prevent and detect the abuse of the financial system by cronies and their associates.   But much more is needed. Stronger standards are not enough without adequate implementation. To be effective, the financial system needs to be vigilant, to review politically exposed persons’ accounts, to require the declaration of individual owners behind a company and other financial disclosures.   Success will depend on active cooperation between the public and the private sector, along with international organizations and civil society. Financial institutions must become a central part in efforts against theft to ensure there are no financial safe havens for stolen funds.
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