Nov. 30
IRAN:
Jailed Iran Pastor Facing Death In Prison, Christians Warn
Pastor Irani has been held in one of Iran's toughest jails.
Iranian Christians and rights activists say a jailed Iranian pastor is facing
serious health problems and may not survive the remaining 5 years of his prison
term on "trumped-up charges" of "crimes against national security".
Pastor Behnam Irani, 41, reportedly lost about 5 kilograms as he fights a blood
infection.Iranian Christians have told BosNewsLife that he was previously
beaten by fellow inmates and guards of the Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj city,
one of the toughest jails in the country, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of
the nation's capital Tehran.
Rights activists with close knowledge about the pastor's situation said he was
in "Ward 2 of Salon 7" where each of the 15 square-meter cells hold up to 40
prisoners. "There are only 6 bathrooms for 600 inmates," added advocacy group
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
NO HEATING
Earlier this month, "the heating system broke [and] there is no hot water for
showers and at night it's just a few degrees above freezing," CSW said in
comments seen by BosNewsLife Friday, November 30.
Amid the difficulties, the pastor has been denied adequate medical treatment
"for his deteriorating health" and for injuries sustained from "frequent and
brutal beatings by prison guards and other inmates" since his imprisonment in
May last year, CSW and other sources said.
Acute stomach ulcers and colon complications have reportedly caused severe
bleeding, and he is now barely able to walk.
"If he does not get the medical treatment he needs soon, he may die in prison,"
CSW warned.
LONGER DETENTION
Iranian officials are not known to have commented on the latest developments,
but in the past they efended the detention of Christians for allegedly
violating laws of the strict Islamic nation.
Irani began a 1-year prison term in 2011 but was later told he would also have
to serve a five-year, previously suspended, sentence for "crimes against
national security".
There is also concern about a court verdict suggesting prosecutors to pursue
the death penalty for "apostasy", said Firouz Khandjani, a council member of
the 'Church of Iran' movement to which the pastor belongs.
Christians have linked the sentence to Irani's Christian activities as an
effective evangelical pastor of a 300-strong house church congregation.
MANY DETAINED
Hundreds of other evangelical Christians have also been detained, though many
were later released after promising not to return to their churches or groups,
Khandjani told BosNewsLife.
Though at least dozens of Christians remain detained throughout the country,
house churches continue to grow. There may be at least 100,000 devoted
Christians in the strict Islamic nation, according to church groups, with some
giving higher estimates.
"The international community must take a stand" as "Iran???s regime is
increasingly intolerant of religious minorities," commented CSW.
"It is more and more vital for the international community to take action to
persuade the Iranian regime to end the mistreatment of all prisoners of
conscience."
The group said it has been asking supporters to send a messages to the Iranian
government "demanding urgent medical treatment for Pastor Irani and to demand
his release from unjust imprisonment."
(source: BosNewsLife)
PAKISTAN:
In favour of capital punishment; In our society people want retributtion. If
offenders aren't punished proportionately, people settle scores themselves.
Mr Saroop Ijaz's thought-provoking piece on the death penalty, titlted "Stop
the machinery of death" (November 18) provides an alternative aspect of a very
important penal policy issue. While the arguments make a lot of sense, there
are certain very important factors which must be kept in mind before doing away
with capital punishment entirely.
There are 3 elementary questions which each penal jurisdiction requires to be
settled and they are: what to punish, how to punish and how much to punish.
First, the state declares certain acts as offences carrying a punitive
sanction. Then, there are various incarcerating or non-incarcerating
punishments and finally, the quantum of punishment is decided based on
mitigating factors. Assuming that every murder is punishable by a death
sentence is an erroneous presumption as investigators, lawyers and judges
ponder each and every aspect before awarding capital punishment. The law also
provides for grave and sudden provocation, right of self-defence, etc, awarding
lesser punishments keeping all contributing factors in mind.
Without going into any moral or dogmatic assertion on principles of the penal
policy, even though morality is inextricably linked with punitive sanctions
prevalent in a society, there are 4 major components of a penal policy:
deterrence, incapacitation, retribution and rehabilitation.
Let us now examine the capital punishment in our peculiar environment. Pakistan
is a semi-tribal society where the expenditure on law and order is next to
nothing. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 13,860 people were
murdered in Pakistan in 2011, which is a 30 per cent increase since 2006. This
rate is extremely high and police investigation is not of high quality. There
is no forensic evidence collection or subsequent prosecution. The police
resources and training to combat violent crimes are insufficient. In these
circumstances, if the capital punishment is revoked, it will have a
catastrophic effect on the criminal justice system. It may well be argued that
the absence of better and more scientific investigative techniques is all the
more reason for the abolition of capital punishment. The objective reality on
ground is that the judges only award death punishment in cases where the
evidence is overwhelming. In most cases, life imprisonment is imparted.
One of the main absentees of the criminal justice system is the victim. The
presumption that the state will act on behalf of the victim removes the
emotional aspect of victimology from the discourse. In a tribal society like
ours, people want retribution more than other consideration. In case the
offenders are not punished in the proportionate manner, people take law into
their own hands to settle scores. Before forming opinions, it is extremely
important to conduct a survey of the victims to ascertain how they view the
matter.
It may sound a bit callous but the reality remains that we are a country of
huge population with meagre resources. While in West, governments can afford to
keep inmates locked up for extensive periods of time, we have overcrowded
prisons. The living conditions in prisons are also quite dismal. Our population
needs education, housing, health care, energy and above all, food security.
Keeping murderers in prisons for 20 odd years carries a cost which very few in
the country are prepared to pay.
Public opinion in Pakistan should also be gauged before embarking on the
journey to abolish capital punishment. The religious mafia has to be dealt with
at the very onset. There is little room for reason there. Sadly the liberals of
our country are also in the habit of picking Western ideas and start
campaigning for their adoption. While there is no harm in adopting fresh ideas
and modern concepts, some thought must be given to the ground realities and our
own societal framework. While Mr Saroop Ijaz's article initiates the debate,
other dissenting voices must also be heard and given due deliberation in order
to find solutions to a very important penal policy issue.
(source: Tariq Abbas Qureshi, The Express Tribune)
ASIA:
Asia moving away from the death penalty; Mabel Au says although there are
exceptions, Asian societies are joining the worldwide movement opposing the use
of capital punishment
Anti-death-penalty activists worldwide have been taking to the streets to
express their commitment to life and opposition to the death penalty. October
10 was World Day Against the Death Penalty, and yesterday more than 30 cities
illuminated a symbolic monument to commemorate the 1st abolition of the death
penalty by a European state in 1786.
The voices of activists echo the developments recorded by Amnesty International
last year, which show that the global trend towards abolition of the death
penalty continues. Last year, Amnesty recorded executions in 20 countries; in
2010, it was 23. Progress was made in all parts of the world, including Asia.
Malaysia has announced it will consider replacing the mandatory death penalty
for drug offences with prison sentences. Most of the estimated 900 death-row
prisoners have been sentenced for drug offences. Under Malaysian law, the death
penalty is mandatory for murder and drug trafficking. Mandatory death
sentences, which prevent judges using discretion, are contrary to international
human rights standards.
Singapore has proposed amendments to replace the mandatory death penalty with
discretionary sentencing in some cases, such as where suspects co-operate
substantively with investigations.
Beijing has eliminated the death penalty for 13 non-violent economic crimes,
and China's Criminal Procedure Law has been amended, introducing new procedures
enhancing access to legal aid, requiring the recording of interrogations and
introducing mandatory appellate hearings and more rigorous review processes in
death penalty cases.
Mongolia confirmed its moratorium on the use of the death penalty in January.
The extent of progress in Asia should not be overemphasised. The Malaysian
government's proposed review of the death penalty extends only to
drug-trafficking cases. In Singapore, one proposal is to make drug traffickers
liable to caning instead.
In China, the death penalty remains for other non-violent crimes, such as
corruption and drug trafficking, and the circumstances under which a death
sentence may be imposed for producing and selling fake drugs or poisonous or
harmful foodstuffs have been widened. People facing the death penalty in China
continue to face unfair trials.
Nevertheless, opposition to the death penalty is steadily growing in Asia, with
societies increasingly questioning the legitimacy of capital punishment. Last
year, a seminar on the reform of the death penalty was organised in China, and
this year two seminars aimed at the progressive abolition of the death penalty
in Asia have been held in Hong Kong.
Progress towards limiting the use of the death penalty in Asia is uneven, with
frequent setbacks, but it mirrors the global trend towards abolition. On
November 19, the UN General Assembly's human rights committee adopted its 4th
draft resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions. The resolution
was co-sponsored by 91 states, the highest number yet. Reflecting changing
attitudes towards the death penalty in Asia, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and
Indonesia - all previous opponents of a global moratorium - moved from
opposition to abstention when voting.
(source: Mabel Au Mei-po is the director of Amnesty International Hong Kong
section; South China Morning Post)
ZIMBABWE:
Zimbabwe to appear at the Vatican over death penalty
Zimbabwe is appearing at the Vatican City to answer questions on why it still
maintains the death penalty law in its statute books together with about 20
other countries around the world who still do so.
Co-Minister of Home Affairs Theresa Makone told Radio VOP that she will be
attending the meeting in Rome to hear the Vatican???s view on death penalty and
argue the case for Zimbabwe.
The Catholic Church has been calling for the abolition of death penalty around
the world and in countries that the church has a presence.
"I shall be in Rome between 29 and 30 November where I will be talking about
the death sentence in Zimbabwe. There is a department of the Saint'Egidio
Community within the Roman Catholic Church which wants to hear from about 20
odd countries around the world which still maintain death penalty," said
Makone.
The Saint'Egidio Community seeks to encourage people around the world to
campaign for the end of death penalty.
Zimbabwe still maintains the death penalty although a proposed new constitution
for the country abolished it in respect of women, children under the age of 18
and senior citizens aged above 70 years.
"When I joined the unity government I was given a list of people on death row
that should get a presidential pardon. I said these people must be hanged but
the president said we will give you the job to hang them but I told him I don't
want to kill so no-one has the right to kill because that is up to God because
he is our creator," said Makone.
Speaking to the Catholic News ahead of the meeting, Pope Benedict XVI
encouraged delegates to the meeting to promote the abolition of the death
penalty and lobby for political and legislative initiatives that eliminate
death penalty.
(source: The Zimbabwean)
CHINA:
Death penalty for Chinese man who held 6 "sex slaves," killed 2
A man in central China was sentenced to death Friday for keeping 6 women as sex
slaves in a cellar for months and killing 2 of them, a case that shook the
Asian nation last year.
A court in Luoyang, a city in the central province of Henan, convicted Li Hao,
35, of rape, murder, organized prostitution, illegal detention and distribution
of pornography.
The court also sentenced one of the captives to three years in prison and
released 2 others on bail on grounds that they helped Li commit the murders,
though the fact that they might have done so under threat from their captor was
considered an extenuating circumstance by the judges.
Li, a local government official, kept the women locked up in 2 rooms measuring
2 sq. meters (21 sq. feet) each that he himself had dug under a cellar near his
home, where he raped them repeatedly and forced them to perform in pornographic
videos that he then aired on the Internet, until his arrest in September 2011.
The women were kidnapped by Li from night spots and karaoke clubs - the 1st of
them spent 21 months in captivity, the last was locked up for 2 months.
In order to terrify them, the accused killed 2 of the women who stood up to him
and buried their bodies in a shallow grave in the same cellar.
The other captives were fed just once every other day to weaken them
physically, and were not allowed outside the cellar except to work as
prostitutes and subsequently hand over the money to the man now condemned to
death.
During one such temporary release, however, one of the victims, 24, managed to
escape and ran to the police.
Li has a 1-year-old son with his wife, who had no idea about his hideous
practices until he was arrested, and needed psychological help after learning
the truth.
(source: Fox News)
JAPAN:
Majority support for death penalty questioned by professor
The Japanese government intentionally swells support for the death penalty in
its opinion surveys, stated an information science professor at Shizuoka
University.
Professor Fumiyasu Yamada said on Tuesday (November 27th) that of those 80 % of
the public who support the death penalty, a large segment of them would also
support abolishing it in the future.
"It has been reported that more than 80 % approve the death penalty, but seen
from an informatics perspective, it is unreasonable to make such a
generalisation," explained the expert as reported in Kyodo News.
Mr Yamada refers to the Cabinet Office December 2009 survey where 85.6 % of the
respondents agreed that under particular situations, the capital punishment is
necessary.
Another 5.7 % responded that in all circumstances, the death penalty should be
abolished and 8.6 % stated that were unsure either way.
The professor noted that the survey was biased, referring to the phraseology
used, such as "should be abolished in all circumstances", explaining that the
language is "too strong" and makes choosing it more difficult for people.
(source: Inside Japan News Network)
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