 This is the first time, I think, in which German authorities prosecuted somebody for ordering an honor murder, and not only for carrying it out. This is an important step in fighting such murders. The son, the actual murderer, will be out of jail before he's 30, which is probably why he was the one chosen to do it.
A German court imprisoned a Kurdish man, 50, for life on Tuesday for ordering the "honour killing" of his own daughter after being told she had lost her virginity.
A son and an Azeri friend lured the 20-year-old woman, Gulsum, to a lonely country road near the Dutch border, throttled her with a rope and clubbed her to death, inflicting horrific injuries to her face.
German authorities have vowed to stamp out the archaic custom among some Kurds, Turks and other ethnic groups of families murdering their own members who offend "family honour" through sexual relationships. Social workers had earlier tried to protect Gulsum.
The state court at Kleve sentenced Gulsum's brother, 20, to nine and a half years in youth prison, just short of the maximum youth sentence of 10 years. He and the victim were two out of three triplets. He had confessed to the killing after he was arrested.
His helper, 37, was jailed for seven and a half years.
Judges said they were convinced the only motive to murder Gulsum had been that she was no longer a virgin and had secretly undergone an abortion.
They said they were also convinced the father of 10, who denied the murder, had ordered his son to kill the sister.
(more)
Source: Earth Times
See also: Germany: Brother confesses to honor killing With thanks to Islam in Europe
 By FARNAZ FASSIHI At the height of Iran's bloody civil unrest this year, a young doctor named Ramin Pourandarjani defied his superiors. He refused to sign death certificates at a Tehran prison that he said were falsified to cover up murder. He testified to a parliamentary committee that jailers were torturing and raping protesters, his family says. He told friends and family he feared for his life. And on Nov. 10, the 26-year-old doctor was found dead in the military clinic where he lived and worked. The family of Dr. Pourandarjani, who occasionally treated prisoners in fulfillment of Iran's obligatory military service, says he was killed for his refusal to participate in a coverup at the notorious Kahrizak detention center, widely criticized for its unsanitary conditions. In a series of interviews over three weeks, Dr. Pourandarjani's family spoke in detail for the first time about their son's mysterious death. Iranian officials first blamed the doctor's death on a car accident, then a heart attack, then suicide and then poisoning, according to family members and government statements. The controversy over his fate is transforming the doctor into a martyr for the opposition movement challenging the legitimacy of Iran's rulers. In a sign of his mounting symbolic importance, on Dec. 8 Iran's national prosecutor, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, was pressed by local reporters at a news conference for answers. He said the case remains under investigation. Mr. Mohseni-Ejei couldn't be reached for comment. A spokesman for the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said the case is being probed and declined to answer questions. "I sent off my young, healthy and beautiful son to military service, and I got his dead body back," says his mother, Ruhangiz Pourandarjani, who lives in the northwest city of Tabriz. "Anyone who says he committed suicide is lying and should be afraid of God." In Iran, protestors now carry the doctor's picture in street marches and chant his name along with that of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman whose shooting death in June was captured on video and broadcast world-wide. A popular new slogan at some marches: "Our Neda is not dead, Our Ramin is not dead, it's the Supreme Leader who is dead," a reference to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mothers of individuals killed in Iran's antigovernment protests this year have formed a support group, Grieving Mothers, who march silently Sunday afternoons at Laleh Park in Tehran holding pictures of their dead children. This month, security officials arrested 15 members. They were freed a few days later when crowds gathered near the jail, demanding their release. The opposition says more than 70 Iranians have been killed since June in a crackdown on the protests that erupted after the nation's disputed presidential election. The government says 17 people have died, including a dozen of its own security forces. Iran denies allegations that jailed protesters were tortured or raped and blames the deaths in Kahrizak on a meningitis outbreak. The prison has been closed in the wake of torture allegations there. An influential Iranian parliamentarian and former health minister, Masoud Pezeshkian, is pressing for a full investigation of Dr. Pourandarjani's death. The claim of a suicide by "someone who was a witness in Kahrizak, and has no background for mental illness, is suspicious," he told local news agencies. More at WSJ 
 TEHRAN, Iran — After months of denials, Iran acknowledged Saturday that at least three people detained in the country's postelection turmoil were beaten to death by their jailers. The surprise announcement by the hard-line judiciary confirmed one of the opposition's most devastating and embarrassing claims against authorities and the elite Revolutionary Guard forces that led the crackdown after June's disputed presidential vote. There was no immediate public reaction from the opposition, but some activists asserted that authorities under pressure over abuse claims were merely seeking to punish low ranking staff while shielding senior level officials who the opposition says are most to blame. Still, the statement offered some rare vindication for the government's critics, who had rejected earlier explanations from the police and the judiciary that the detainees' deaths were caused by illnesses like meningitis, not physical mistreatment. "The coroner's office has rejected that meningitis was the cause of the deaths and has confirmed the existence of signs of repeated beatings on the bodies and has declared that the wounds inflicted were the cause of the deaths," the judiciary statement said, according to the Web site of Iran's state TV. The judiciary also said it has charged 12 officials at Kahrizak prison — three of them with murder, but it did not identify them. The prison, on the southern outskirts of the capital, Tehran, was at the center of the opposition's claims that prisoners were tortured and raped in custody. Anger over the abuse claims, which emerged in August, extended far beyond the reformist camp, with influential conservative figures in the clerical hierarchy condemning the mistreatment of detainees. The outrage forced Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to order the immediate closure of the Kahrizak facility. The opposition says at least 72 protesters were killed in the postelection crackdown, but the government puts the number of confirmed dead at 30. More at FoxNews
Jim Hoft Planet Iran posted this shocking video produced by the BBC of a Basij member talking about the violence and murder by the regime after the Iranian election this year. He said the basiji were enforcing the will of Ayatollah Khamenei after the presidential election. This man escaped to Great Britain. He talks about Basij members raping and beating young protesters in prison. He says officials told him the rape and violence against the democratic protesters was thought to be a virtue. Thanks to Gateway Pundit
 The court in Amsterdam sentenced Younis K. (39) to nine years on Monday. They were shown evidence that he beat his wife, Aisha K (36), to death in their home in Amsterdam-Zuidoost in August 2007. His cousin, Tariq S (38) was acquitted. The prosecution had asked for 14 years in prison for both men.
K. supposedly murdered his wife because she wanted to divorce him and go live with another man. In this way the mother of four shamed the honor of his Pakistani family. The man killed his wife buy beating her many times, probably also with cricket bats. The court called the murder 'horrible' and said that Aisha K. must have suffered 'terrible pain'. "That the victim wanted to divorce can in no way even somewhat justify the acts of the suspect." During the trial K. more of less blamed his cousin for the death of his wife. He had asked him to come and mediate on that day. After which he had gone outside for a minute. When he came back, his wife was lying seriously injured in their home. The court did not deem this plausible, as nobody saw K. outside at the time of the murder.
The prosecution said that K. didn't beat his wife to death on his own, but that his cousin helped him. The court concluded that there were indications this was so, but that there was insufficient evidence that the injuries of the victim were caused by two people. The court gave K. a lighter sentence than demanded by the prosecution. They sentenced him for manslaughter and not for murder, which was the demand of the prosecution. The investigation of the case was not without difficulties. For a long time K. claimed that he had beat his wife himself. When he appeared in court in April, he suddenly said that he hadn't touched her at all, but that his cousin had been home at the time of the murder. S. was subsequently arrested.
K. will appeal his sentence, said his lawyer, Richard van der Weide. "My client is very disappointed and affected by this wrongful conviction, in his eyes." He says the court looked too much at the man's first statements, which were demonstrably inaccurate. The public prosecution didn't say yet whether they'll appeal.
 An elementary Catholic school in Weert (Netherlands) decided to serve just halal food this year for its Christmas meal. The school has about 400 students and about ten Muslim students. However, after some parents complained, the school backed down.The Christmas meal is organized every year together with the parents association. According to principal Margo Janssen they decided for practical considerations to serve halal for everybody. In previous years they took the Muslims into account and served them separate halal dishes, but this wouldn't be necessary if everybody is served halal. Janssen points out that this is also done in hospitals and prisons. This year they thought it would be simpler and cheaper to serve everybody halal. According to Janssen this also follows Christian thought, which says you should take others into account. He says that there's no real reason to make a fuss about it. "It's the spirit of the times. We have no intention at all to give a signal with this. It's still a Christmas meal with a Christian background." They would have a nativity scene and a candle march. It all happened with the best of intentions, he says. Jean Paul van der Donk, chairman of the parents association, says they've received eight complaints from angry parents. But, he says, those parents should understand that they didn't choose halal food for religious reasons, but purely for practical reasons. Catholics aren't forbidden to eat halal meat, while the opposite is the case for Muslims. After getting complaints from parents the management decided to review the issue. The school has since changed its mind and decided to offer every student a choice of what to eat. "We've been naive as a school," the school's site says. They hope to now go back to having a festive Christmas meal, and hope the school's name won't be damaged by one not so well thought out decision. Sources: Telegraaf, Trouw, Rorate (Dutch), h/t NRP
 These events have been reported to World Threats. Dec. 11 - The head of the SSF, Ahmadi Moghadam, afraid of the spreading revolt threatened the people and said, “time of compromising with the course of hypocrisy (a religious term in this case dealing with people who claim to be Muslims yet do unislamic things) after the election is over and the SSF will not be easy with anybody.
It will act decisively about those who break the law. Some people ruin their past and act in the course of the enemies’ goals while apparently showing that they are supporting revolution and imam. The SSF must act so that hooligans and wrong-doers always fear police forces.” Reacting to the slogans “death to Khamenei” and “Khamenei is a murderer, his leadership is void” he said, “these days in gatherings and unrests some people offend the sacred issues and values of Islam by their slogans.” Dec. 11 - Reports from Gohardasht Prison in Karaj say that political prisoner Adel Akbari Jahed, 35, died of blood cancer having been deprived of treatment for the last five years. Dec. 11 - Mullah Sedighi, the regimes Tehran Friday Imam of Tehran, mourned Khomeini’s torn picture and said while crying, “How they offend Imam’s picture too. Our sacred issues have gone under question.” He also emphasized that Iran would not stop its nuclear activities at any price. He called the international community’s attempts to stop Iran’s nuclear activities “repeating and fussing propaganda of the Western World” and added, “West has imposed lies by media war and has come to the field full force”. In Uromieh Mullah Hassani, the Friday Imam, shouted, “to tear Imam’s (Khomeini) picture is really being shameless and we the lovers of Velayat (Supreme Leadership) cannot bear it anymore. Are you offending the sacred realm of Imam by tearing his picture? shame on those who play with the system’s prestige.
He threatened, “we have sworn to be loyal to the Supreme Leader. We are ready to die for that and we are armed ready to shoot you one by one in the head. We are ready to sacrifice our lives for the Islamic Republic. We have asked the judiciary to count the organizers of these movements as hypocrites and monarchists and to act decisively against them. He talked about the fact that Khomeini’s picture was torn on Dec. 7 and said that the clerical school in Qom should close on Saturday Dec. 12 and march against this act. Dec. 12 - At noon approximately 1000 students form Sharif Industrial University in Tehran gathered in protest in front of the university’s dining hall. They boycotted the meal and chanted “death to the dictator” and “until Ahmadinejad is out of power it will be like this every day. Dec. 12 - at about 3:00 PM 400 to 500 students gathered in front of the engineering building at Tehran University and chanted slogans. People in Enghelab Square wave their hands for the students. At 1530 some pro-Khamenei student raised pictures of Khomeini and Khamenei in front of the Engineering building. Protesting students pulled them down. Some people are gathering in Enghelab Square to support the students, The SSF is dispersing people who have gathered in front of Tehran University to support the students. Analysis . The students are obviously not giving up and the government is slowly losing control of the people. When this revolution goes to open armed conflict is anybody’s guess right now. Without more reporting by independent news agencies is is difficult to establish the depth of the revolution across Iran. The amount of press suppression and communications disruption indicate that the revolution is more widespread than the government wants the people or the outside world to know. At some point this internal struggle will be reflected in external affairs. Perhaps Iran’s suggestion of a swap of 400 kilos of 3.5% enriched uranium for an equivalent amount of 20% enriched uranium on Kish Island has something to do with trying to reduce the external pressure in the face of another round of sanctions. Continued reduction in the supply and increases in the cost of essential goods will not help the regime maintain stability. Another round of sanctions will only increase the discontent. Notice also how the regime continues to couch everything in religious terms. The people wanting their freedom are called hypocrites. Being labeled a hypocrite can get you the death sentence under Islam. It is somewhat akin to excommunication with extreme prejudice. If the regime has gone beyond using civil terms and is using religious terms, they are not feeling secure at all. World Threats
 From CAN: A moderate Muslim organization in the United Kingdom called the Quilliam Foundation has published a report warning about the infiltration of radical Islam into the country’s corrections system, BBC News reports. “Prominent pro al-Qaeda ideologues such as Abu Qatada have been able to smuggle messages out of prison to their supporters,” the report states. “Other convicted extremists have issued pro-jihadist statements from prison while others have appeared on Islamic TV stations from within prison.” The report also warns that radical Muslims have been allowed to lead prayer services in prisons and acted as liaisons between the prison authorities and Muslim inmates. Some are even allowed to act as religious teachers to other inmates.
An increase in Muslim prison gang activity and the presence of extremist texts in Islamic libraries for prisoners is also warned about. It also concludes that it takes 5-7 years after a prisoner is indoctrinated into extremism for him to partake in acts of violence. “This means that prisoners leaving prison today may ‘graduate’ into terrorism around 2015,” Quilliam’s press release states. The website of the Quilliam Foundation describes the organization as “the world’s first counter-extremism think tank.” It is led by former members of Hizb ut-Tharir, a radical Islamic group that seeks to resurrect the Caliphate and establish Sharia Law. The organization says it opposes such efforts to establish Islamic doctrine as a form of governance and is staunchly against terrorism and extremism. World Threats
 Pajamas Media The Saudi mutawas (“morality police”) are terrifying. Like vultures, they swoop down on their vulnerable prey, especially women, and then send them straight to Hell.
The “long beards” curse and beat their female prisoner, totally terrify her; then, they throw her into a dark, medieval dungeon, (assume the worst here).
They remove her only in order to gang-rape and torture her—all presumably in the name of Islam. Her crime? In one instance, although the woman was a foreign national, she dared to take a taxi downtown without a male escort. Remind me: Why are we still allies with Saudi Arabia? Why did President Obama bow to the King who presides over such Hell? Can we find no oil elsewhere, no other sources of energy? Do Americans really understand what goes on in Saudi Arabia? Have we forgotten that the Saudis have single-handedly exported Wahhabi fundamentalism and propaganda that has poisoned both westerners and those in the east—and have funded western universities and media as well? Does anyone remember that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia? Or that Osama bin Laden is a Saudi? Do we not understand that the Kingdom has funded bin Laden? Are we aware, even dimly, of how very barbaric the Saudi rulers are—despite all their suave, smooth, westernized, glitzy exteriors? Do we understand what it means to live in the 8th or 9th centuries? Prometheus Books is about to publish a book by Sami Alrabaa which is called Veiled Atrocities: True Stories of Oppression in Saudi Arabia. Once I picked it up, I literally could not put it down. Alrabaa is a professor of anthropology and sociology who, for five years, chaired a department of European Languages and Translation at King Saud University. [To continue reading this article, click here] FPM
 Giving out the wrong message. Absurd Britannia Alert: "Spared jail, the forced marriage case father who told wife: 'I'll cut out your tongue,'" by James Tozer in the Daily Mail, November 19 A muslim who threatened to kill his wife and cut out her tongue after she blocked an arranged marriage for their daughter has been banned from seeing his family. In the first prosecution of its kind, Aurang Zeb has been convicted of breaching a Forced Marriage Protection Order taken out to stop him taking Rozina Akhtar out of Britain to marry. But despite his chilling threats he escaped imprisonment and was given community service. Last night campaigners condemned the sentence, saying it sent out the wrong message. 'There's clear evidence that this man threatened to kill his wife, so how can he be given community service?' said Shazia Qayum of Karma Nirvana, a group which helps victims of forced marriage. 'He should have been locked up. The law just isn't strong enough at the moment, and it's time the Government made forced marriage a criminal offence.'... Yes, and there is much more to be done as well. With thanks to JihadWatch
 TEHRAN, Iran — One of Iran's prominent pro-reform figures was released on bail Wednesday after spending nearly four months in jail on charges of inciting the country's postelection unrest, the official IRNA news agency reported. It said Saeed Shariati, one of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign aides during the disputed June election, has been released on the order of Tehran's Revolutionary Court. The agency gave no further details, but reported separately that a group of 12 people who had been detained in two protest gatherings since last month have also been released after questioning. Shariati was among more than 100 opposition politicians and activists who have been on trial since August on charges of fomenting the street unrest that broke out after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June. In the days after the June 12 election, hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters poured into the streets of major Iranian cities to protest what they said was a fraudulent result. The opposition says at least 72 people were killed in the ensuing security crackdown on protesters and that many of those detained were abused in custody. The government puts the number of dead at 30. Mousavi claims he was the rightful winner of the election and that Ahmadinejad was declared the winner after massive vote fraud. FoxNews
 TEHRAN - Iran has sentenced five people to death over the unrest that followed the country's disputed June presidential election, state television reported Tuesday. At least three others caught up in the turmoil have received death sentences previously. Iran began a mass trial in August of prominent opposition figures and activists, accusing them of a range of charges from rioting to spying and plotting what authorities have called a "soft revolution" to topple the country's Islamic rulers. The opposition led massive street protests and clashed with security forces in the weeks following the disputed June 12 presidential election. The opposition claimed fraud after election authorities declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of a second term and their anger unleashed the most serious internal unrest in Iran in the 30 years since the Islamic Revolution. A Justice Department statement said the five sentenced to death were members of "terrorist and armed opposition groups," state television reported. The statement said the courts have sentenced a total of 89 defendants since the process began and 81 of them got prison terms ranging from six months up to 15 years. "So far, 89 of defendants were tried and based on their cases, death sentences were issued for five of them," the statement said. It said the 81 people sentenced to prison terms were charged with a range of offenses from security violations, agitating against the Islamic Republic, violating law and order, damaging public and private property, and assaulting civilians and security forces. Breitbart
 A near-empty prison in the US state of Illinois is among the locations being considered to house Guantanamo detainees who might be transferred to the country. US officials are set to visit the Thomson Correctional Centre this week as they consider its suitability for re-housing detainees currently held at the US military base in Cuba. Under a plan pitched to the Obama administration, the Federal Bureau of Prisons would operate the facility as a maximum-security jail, leasing a portion to the US defence department which would then be used to house fewer than 100 Guantanamo detainees. The centre, located about 240km west of Chicago, was built in 2001 and has 1,600 cells. It currently houses only about 200 minimum-security prisoners. Barack Obama, the US president, has vowed to shut Guantanamo Bay by January next year amid international outcry over the torture of inmates held at the facility since it opened in 2002. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, who supports the planned use of the Thomson Correctional Centre, said it would hold "the only group of Guantanamo detainees" on US soil. Bringing the prisoners to the US, he told reporters, was necessary to both "make America safer" and to convince other countries to repatriate some of the 215 detainees still held at the military prison camp. Durbin insisted that the prisoners could be "safely and securely" held in whichever facility wins the contract and dismissed those who he said were "sowing the seeds of fear" in order to win political points. "No one has ever escaped from one of these facilities," Durbin said, noting that the US prison system currently holds "some of the most dangerous people you could imagine." Durbin said preliminary estimates show more than 3,000 jobs would be created, potentially injecting more than $1bn into the local economy over the first four years of operation. "This is an opportunity to dramatically reduce unemployment, create thousands of good-paying jobs and breathe new economic life into this part of downstate Illinois," Durbin, the US Senate's second-ranking Democrat, said in a statement. Obama administration officials have been searching for a facility to hold foreign terror suspects and they have considered as possible sites Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and a facility in Standish, Michigan. The White House declined comment on the Thomson facility, with an aide saying no decision has been made and that multiple options are under consideration. Al Jazeera (English)
 SOME of Britain’s most dangerous Al-Qaeda leaders are promoting jihad from inside high-security prisons by smuggling out propaganda for the internet and finding recruits. In an authoritative report, Quilliam, a think tank funded by the Home Office, claims “mismanagement” by the Prison Service is helping AlQaeda gain recruits and risks “strengthening jihadist movements”. Abu Qatada, described by MI5 as “Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, has published fatwas — religious rulings — on the internet from Long Lartin prison, in Worcestershire, calling for holy war and the murder of moderate Muslims, it reveals. Abu Doha — said to be Al-Qaeda’s main recruiter in Europe — has taken courses in Belmarsh prison, south London, enabling him to mentor other inmates. Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, shadow security minister, said prisons risked becoming “incubators of extremism”. Qatada, a radical Islamist cleric who is wanted on terrorism charges in Jordan, is held in the the “supermax” segregation wing of Long Lartin. Built at the height of the IRA’s bombing campaign and designed to house dangerous inmates, it should be one of the most secure buildings in the country. Like other jailed terrorist leaders, Qatada is meant to be cut off from his supporters outside. Yet it is said that last year, under the noses of warders, Qatada and Adel Abdel Bary, leader of the UK branch of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, were able to smuggle out a series of fatwas legitimising attacks by AlQaeda and endorsing the murder of moderate Muslims. Qatada and Bary are two of about 100 Islamist terrorists in UK prisons. Many are held in supposedly top-security jails such as Belmarsh, Frankland in Co Durham and Woodhill in Milton Keynes, for inciting or plotting attacks in which hundreds of people could have died. More at Times Online
 TEHRAN, Iran — The showdown between Iran's clerical leaders and a resilient protest movement sharpened Saturday, as opposition leaders accused the government of becoming more brutal than the shah's regime and authorities announced a new Internet crackdown. Two of Iran's top pro-reform figures said in a Web statement that police used excessive force against anti-government protesters who took to the streets last week on the sidelines of state-sanctioned rallies to mark the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, who lead the protest movement rejecting the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's June re-election, said authorities wielding batons even struck women on their heads.
They called such treatment an ugly act that was not even seen during Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's response to the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled him. "I can't understand why they should treat people like this," Karroubi was quoted as saying by several opposition Web sites. "... I struggled against the Pahlavi regime for 15 years ... but there were no such crackdowns." Such Web statements have been the mainstay of an opposition movement struggling to stay alive despite being brutally swept off the streets in the weeks after the June 12 election. Mousavi and his supporters contend that he was the rightful winner of the vote, but that Ahmadinejad was fraudulently declared the winner. In a clear effort to silence the opposition's Internet outlet, Iranian authorities announced they were deploying a special police unit to sweep Web sites for political material and prosecute those deemed to be spreading lies, Iranian media reported Saturday. Many opposition Web sites are already banned, but the opposition has continued to set up new Web sites within days of the old ones being blocked. The new 12-member police unit will report to the prosecutor's office, signaling an intention to bring offenders to trial. "Authorities know that the Internet is one of the few available channels for the opposition to make its voice heard. They want to silence opposition voices," said reform-minded journalist Akbar Montajabi, who described the measure as the latest set of restrictions imposed on media in the country. Iran also pushed ahead Saturday with another key component in its battle with the opposition, sentencing a student activist to eight years in prison, according to the pro-opposition Web site Mowjcamp. More than 100 activists and some senior pro-reform figures have been on trial since August on charges of participating in rallies and plotting to overthrow the country's clerical rulers.
 A man who stabbed a pregnant Egyptian woman to death in a German courtroom in front of her husband and three-year-old son has been sentenced to the maximum penalty of life in jail. Alex Wiens, 28, stabbed Marwa al-Sherbini, who was wearing a hijab, at least 16 times on July 1, in the same courthouse in the eastern city of Dresden where the trial took place. The case of Wiens, who has admitted holding anti-Islamic and xenophobic views, shocked Germany and incensed the Muslim world, sparking protests from Egypt to Iran. Prosecutors said the attack was motivated by "a pronounced hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims". Elwy Ali Okaz, al-Sherbini's husband, who was stabbed as he tried to protect his wife during the attack, was then shot in the leg by police who apparently took him for the attacker. Egyptian media quickly dubbed al-Sherbini a martyr and there were huge protests against the murder in several Muslim countries. Nadim Baba, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from Dresden, said the perception of Islamaphobia in Germany was unlikely to go away despite the stiff sentence. "We've heard calls from people in Egypt for the death penalty, and to be fair to the Egyptian authorities ... they've been at pains to explain to their public that the death penalty doesn't exist in Europe and that what was handed down today was in fact the harshest sentence possible under German law," he said. "The judges went out of their way to stress that because this was an exceptionally brutal case, after 15 years the killer will be reassessed before there's any chance of him being let out, which is an exceptional measure." Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, the Egyptian ambassador to Germany, welcomed the verdict, saying:"Justice has been honoured." "Getting the maximum possible sentence, I think that itself says a lot," he said.
In his closing arguments on Monday, prosecutor Frank Heinrich said there was no doubt of Wiens' reasons. "It's clear that his motive was hatred for Muslims," Heinrich told the panel of judges. "Like a maniacal, cold-blooded killer, he started stabbing the woman and her husband, who was trying to protect her." Al-Sherbini and the defendant met in August 2008, when she asked him to clear a playground swing where he sat smoking a cigarette so Mustafa, her son, could use it. He refused, calling al-Sherbini an "Islamist", a "terrorist" and a "whore". She pressed charges for defamation and he was fined $1,170. An appeal against the conviction brought them together again in July. The defendant allegedly plunged an 18cm kitchen knife into the chest, back and arm of al-Sherbini, 31, three months pregnant at the time with her second child. Wiens, who arrived in Germany from Perm in the Urals in 2003, reportedly struggled with bouts of depression. Germany has the second-largest Muslim population in western Europe after France and some groups criticised the German government for taking several days to condemn the murder. Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 WASHINGTON sniper John Allen Muhammad, who killed 10 people in a 2002 shooting spree around the US capital, will be executed today after the nation's top court denied a stay of execution. Muhammad's lawyers had appealed for the US Supreme Court to delay the execution while it examines a plea on whether his sentence was constitutional. "The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to the chief justice and by him referred to the court is denied,'' Monday's Supreme Court ruling said. Muhammad is now due to be put to death by lethal injection at 9:00 pm Tuesday in Virginia. During the 2002 rampage that left 10 people dead and the Washington region paralyzed with fear, Muhammad, a skilled marksman, picked off victims in shopping malls, outside schools and at gas stations. With the aid of a high-power sniper rifle and scope, he unleashed a reign of terror over three weeks, killing each of his victims with a single bullet fired from a distance. But his lawyers argued Muhammad had not been properly legally represented during his trial in March 2004, when his legal team did not contest his request to defend himself even though he was clearly suffering from mental problems. The defence team had asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether the 2004 sentence was constitutional, and a hearing had been set for November 24. In a dissenting statement attached to the ruling, Justice John Stevens, backed by two other justices, said Monday: "This case once again highlights the perversity of executing inmates before their appeals process has been fully concluded. "By denying Muhammad's stay of application we have allowed Virginia to truncate our deliberative process on the matter - involving a death row inmate - that demands the most careful attention. "This result is particularly unfortunate in light of the limited time Muhammad was given to make his case to the district court.'' Muhammad's lawyers last week asked the nation's highest court to halt his execution to give the justices more time to examine an appeal against his death sentence. "Trial counsel knew that Muhammad had been diagnosed with severe mental illness, and personally observed Muhammad's struggle with severe symptoms of psychiatric disorders prior to the start of the trial,'' said one of two documents presented to the court last week. "These paranoid and delusional beliefs were clearly evident in and had devastating effect on, Muhammad's behavior in this case,'' the lawyers' petition read. Muhammad's teenaged accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, is serving a sentence of life in prison. Source: The Australian
 TEHRAN: An Iranian-American man has been sentenced to 15 years in an Iranian prison for his role in protests after the disputed presidential election in June, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Tuesday. The United States is "deeply concerned" that Kian Tajbakhsh has been sentenced to prison, spokesman Ian Kelly said. "Mr. Tajbakhsh poses no threat to the Iranian government or its national security," Kelly said. "Given the groundless nature of charges against him we call on Iran to grant his immediate release.
As an independent, internationally respected academic, Mr. Tajbakhsh has always sought to foster better understanding between Iran and the United States and Iran and the international community." Kelly said the prison sentence is for 15 years. Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA, reported that Tajbakhsh had been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. Tajbakhsh's attorney said he plans to appeal the verdict from Iran's Revolutionary Court, IRNA reported. Tajbakhsh was arrested in July and was one of more than 1,000 people detained following a massive government crackdown. He was tried along with nearly 100 others, including journalists, reformist leaders and former government ministers. Exactly what Tajbakhsh was convicted of was unclear. He had been accused of numerous charges, including plotting a "soft revolution" against the Iranian regime through his work with George Soros' Open Society Institute, according to IRNA. Tajbakhsh resigned from his position with the institute after he was arrested and detained for four months in 2007 on unspecified charges. He holds dual citizenship in Iran and the United States. Tajbakhsh was the only American among the nearly 100 people on trial for their role in the post-election unrest. The State Department has expressed its deep concern over Tajbakhsh's detention and trial and has called on Iran to release him. The protests were primarily against a decision by Iran's election authority, which declared incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner of the June 12 race. Opposition supporters accused the government of fraud. The mass trial included Tehran-based Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari, who was released from prison on Saturday. Bahari, who is an Iranian and Canadian national, arrived in London, England, on Tuesday to witness the upcoming birth of his first child, the magazine reported. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the mass trial a "sign of weakness" that shows that the Islamic republic "is afraid of its own people." "It is a show trial, there's no doubt about it," Clinton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria on his "GPS" program. "It demonstrates I think better than any of us could ever say that this Iranian leadership is afraid of their own people, and afraid of the truth and the facts coming out." Source: CNN
 FIVE Sydney men have been found guilty of terrorism offences after one of the longest criminal trials in Australian history.
Mohamed Ali Elomar, 44, Khaled Cheikho, 36, his nephew Moustafa Cheikho, 32, Abdul Rakib Hasan, 40, and Mohammed Omar Jamal, 25, were today convicted of doing an act in preparation for a terrorist act.
After a trial lasting almost a year, a NSW Supreme Court jury deliberated for more than a month before returning its verdict.
And it can now be revealed that four other men involved in the terror conspiracy pleaded guilty last year to various terrorism offences before they were due to stand trial with their five co-accused.
Mazen Touma, 29, Mirshad Mulahalilovic, 33, Khaled Sharrouf, 28, and another man who cannot be named for legal reasons, were sentenced to jail terms ranging from three-and-a-half years to 14 years for their crimes.
The trial began last November, following eight months of pre-trial hearings.
Crown prosecutor Richard Maidment SC admitted it was a circumstantial case in his closing address to the jury.
“This was a case that relied on circumstantial evidence, creating a picture in the nature of a mosaic or a large jigsaw puzzle,” he said.
“The Crown does not suggest that the evidence reveals that they had reached any firm conclusion as to what precise action was to be carried out, what targets were to be selected, who was actually to carry the bomb, where it was to be placed, how it was to be placed, how big it was going to be, whether it was going to be in a vehicle or in a backpack or how it was going to be taken to the relevant target.”
But the jury was convinced that there was sufficient evidence that the men were involved in a conspiracy to prepare for a terrorist act that according to authorities, was intended to create “maximum damage”.
The group were, according to the Crown, motivated by “a perception that the participation of Australia in the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan ... were acts of aggression against the wider Muslim community”.
The men were arrested in the early hours of November 8, 2005, when police conducted simultaneous raids in homes across Sydney.
 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas says the brother of a spokesman for the Palestinian militant group has died in an Egyptian prison after being tortured. Hamas says Yousef Abu Zuhri died from internal bleeding. He was the brother of spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. On Tuesday, another spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, urged Egypt to investigate. An Egyptian prison official says Abu Zuhri died of heart and kidney failure due to pre-existing conditions. A security official in Cairo said the man was not tortured. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. International human rights groups say torture is systematic in Egyptian jails. Abu Zuhri was arrested in April for entering Egypt illegally. Source: FoxNews
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This is the first time, I think, in which German authorities prosecuted somebody for ordering an honor murder, and not only for carrying it out. This is an important step in fighting such murders. The son, the actual murderer, will be out of jail before he's 30, which is probably why he was the one chosen to do it. 
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