Mar. 1
INDIA:
Bakery blast convict asks for transfer to Mumbai jail
German Bakery blast convict Himayat Baig has moved an application in the Bombay
high court seeking his transfer from Yerwada jail in Pune to Arthur Road jail
in Mumbai, or any other jail, on the grounds that there was a serious threat to
his life in Yerwada prison. The court is likely to hear his application on
Monday.
In December last year, Baig was transferred to Yerwada jail from Arthur Road on
the high court's orders after the jail superintendent had requested the court
that he may be shifted because his trial was not being heard and the Arthur
Road jail was already over-crowded. In such a situation there was risk to his
life in the Mumbai Central prison, he had said.
However, earlier this week Baig alleged that he was attacked in Yerwada jail
and there was a threat to his life. In his petition (a copy of which is with
The Asian Age) he said that he had been falsely implicated in the case and has
been receiving threats in the jail. The matter came to light when Baig wrote a
letter to his father saying other prisoners attacked him on February 19, and he
feared that he would be killed like Qateel Siddiqui, an accused in the same
case.
The petition also claimed that ATS (Anti-Terrorism Squad) officers are forcing
him to withdraw his current lawyer.
Baig's relatives have filed a complaint in regard to the alleged attack on him
and the Yerwada police is investigating the matter. Yerwada jail superintendent
Yogesh Desai did not speak on the issue.
On February 13, 2010, 17 people, including 5 foreign nationals, were killed and
58 injured after a powerful bomb exploded inside the popular German Bakery in
Pune. In April this year, the Pune sessions court convicted and awarded Baig
the death penalty, observing the case to be rarest of rare. His appeal against
the conviction is also pending in the high court.
(source: The Asian Age)
INDONESIA:
Widodo considering different views on death penalty, Jakarta governor says ----
Political ally says he told Indonesian president the death penalty should be
removed and replaced with life in jail as efforts continue to prevent execution
of 10 inmates, including 2 Australians
Jakarta's governor has reportedly said president Joko Widodo is considering
different views on the death penalty, including his own advice that it should
be removed from Indonesia's laws.
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known better as Ahok, was Jokowi's deputy for 2 years
at city hall, succeeding him when he became president.
Visiting a prison in Jakarta on Saturday, Ahok revealed he had told the
president he believes the death penalty should be removed from Indonesia's laws
and replaced with life in jail without remission.
"If from inside (jail) they're still controlling drugs, then execute them
immediately that day," Ahok said, as quoted by local news website detik.com.
"But if people want to change, give them a chance to live.
"Maybe he can make other people more aware instead of punishing him with death
... I don't agree with the death penalty."
The governor's comments come days away from the planned transfer of 2
Australians, Bali 9 ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, to the island
where Indonesia wants to execute them, together with 8 other drug traffickers.
Bali's chief prosecutor has said they could be taken from their cells in
Kerobokan as early as Sunday and taken to one of several jails on
Nusakambangan, known as Indonesia's Alcatraz.
Tony Abbott phoned Jokowi last week regarding the Bali 9 pair's case.
Afterwards Abbott told reporters the president was "carefully considering his
position".
According to detik.com, Ahok believes the same.
"I know he's very careful and meticulous in hearing all inputs," he was quoted
as saying.
"That's my experience with him."
But in his most recent public comments on the matter, Jokowi was sticking with
his policy.
"Our stance is clear. Our laws cannot be interfered," he told the business
website Kontan on Friday.
Australia is not the only nation concerned about Indonesia's death penalty
regime, with leaders from France, Brazil and the Netherlands also speaking to
the president on behalf of their citizens.
Nusakambangan prisons coordinator, Marsidin, on Saturday told reporters
everything was in place for the latest prisoners to be executed.
"We're ready to receive convicts," he said.
"The isolation cells are ready. Basically, we're ready."
Chan and Sukumaran were to be transferred to Nusakambangan earlier except not
everything on the island was ready for the execution of 10 people at once.
The delay gave them another week to spend with family, some of whom -
Sukumaran's father and siblings - returned to Australia on Saturday.
(source: The Guardian)
*****************
Bali 9 executions still some way off, says prison chief
The head of the supermax prison on "death island" has revealed he does not
believe the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran and 8 other drug
felons will take place soon.
Hendra Eka Putra, the head of Pasir Putih prison on Nusakambangan, said a
meeting of police, grave diggers, the coffin maker, spiritual leaders, prison
authorities and local government officials would be held on Wednesday in the
seaport town of Cilacap.
Information from that meeting would be conveyed to the Attorney-General's
office, which would then send officials to visit the Nusakambangan prison
compound.
"So in my opinion it still takes sometime for the execution to take place," Mr
Hendra said.
"Having said this it is the Attorney-General's office that decides everything.
It may be possible that they make a decision on Thursday, we never know. But I
don't think it will take place soon."
Meanwhile, 5 of the 10 drug felons facing imminent execution, including Chan
and Sukumaran, still have ongoing legal cases before the courts.
Their lawyers argue that under international principles of law, prisoners
cannot be killed while they are exercising their legal rights.
But in a portentous tweet on Sunday, the lawyer for Chan and Sukumaran, Dr
Todung Mulya Lubis wrote: "We come closer to the end of our legal fight.
Execution is coming. Why is it so difficult to forgive?"
A close political ally of the president - Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja
Purnama - said he believed reformed drug felons should have the death penalty
commuted to life imprisonment without remission.
"Let he who lives in prison and becomes a good person guide someone who just
enters the prison to be a good person too", he said. "So there is one life that
can be used to make another realise his mistakes. This is better than executing
him", Mr Basuki said.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has expanded on a phone conversation he had
with Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The Prime Minister interpreted his comments as
Mr Joko "carefully considering Indonesia's position" on the executions.
However Mr Joko said he merely expressed that he understood Australia's
position.
"I don't know what his interpretation of what I said was," he was quoted as
saying in newswire detik.com.
"The words may be soft but look at my actions."
The timing of Chan and Sukumaran's transferral from Kerobokan jail in Bali to
Nusakambangan is still unknown.
Indonesian authorities have previously said they do not wish Chan and Sukumaran
to spend much time on Nusukambangan island because it could unsettle other
prisoners.
Those on death row will be given 72 hours notice before their execution -
however the men may be transferred to the island long before the notice period
begins.
Mr Hendra also said 2 doctors would this week come to the prison to assess
Brazilian drug trafficker Rodrigo Gularte, who has been diagnosed with
schizophrenia.
"He looks healthy physically. He does not disturb people or create problems,"
Mr Hendra said. "The strange thing however is that he speaks to animals. For
instance he talks to a cat as if it were a human. He asked the cat if it was
hungry or sick. We try to treat him well. That's why two more doctors will be
coming next week to examine his mental health, they are from the police and the
Attorney-General's office."
The Attorney-General, H.M. Prasetyo, has previously said there is no regulation
preventing the execution of a mentally ill person. "There is only a regulation
forbidding the execution of pregnant women and children under 18 years," he
said.
Mr Prasetyo has also vowed to proceed with the executions, saying that all 10
drug felons exhausted their legal avenues when the Indonesian president
rejected their clemency pleas.
On Sunday his spokesman, Tony Spontana, said all the prisoners were still on
the execution list.
He said the Attorney-General would officially announce when the executions
would be held and everyone would have to wait until then.
Cilacap priest Father Charles Burrows, who has been visiting Gularte in prison,
said a Constitutional Court ruling advised that prisoners could not be executed
while they were insane.
"If they just execute someone because of spite that is going to be very
negatively assessed by everyone," he said.
Lawyers for Filipino migrant worker Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, who was sentenced
to death for smuggling 2.6 kilograms of heroin into Jogjakarta from Malaysia in
2010, have lodged a request for a judicial review into her case. There is a
court hearing on Tuesday.
Frenchman Serge Areski Atlaoui also has a case underway, with his bid for a
judicial review to be heard on March 11.
The father of 4 was arrested near Jakarta in 2005 at a laboratory producing
ecstasy. He has always denied the charges, saying he was installing machinery
in what he thought was an acrylics factory.
And the lawyer for Nigerian Raheem Agbaje Salami, who was caught smuggling 5.3
kilograms of heroin into Indonesia in 1998, is trying to get the rejection of
his clemency plea nullified on the grounds it was not rejected within the time
limit.
Meanwhile, Dr Mulya will lodge an appeal in the administrative court by March
10 on behalf of Chan and Sukumaran.
The judicial commission is also investigating allegations that the judges who
sentenced the Australians to death offered a lighter sentence in exchange for
money.
Dr Mulya said the Attorney-General had repeatedly insisted that the rejection
of the clemency pleas was the final step before execution.
However, he said this was a matter of life and death.
"If you execute someone what if there was later found to be a lack of
evidence?" he said.
"The executions have to be delayed because of the actions taken by the parties
concerned."
(source: Sydney Morning Herald)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes, may now face
the death penalty
Raif Badawi, the Saudi Arabian blogger whose punishment of 1,000 lashes has
prompted international condemnation, may now face the death penalty.
Mr Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, told The Independent in a series of messages
that judges in Saudi Arabia's criminal court want him to undergo a re-trial for
apostasy. If found guilty, he would face a death sentence.
She said the "dangerous information" had come from "official sources" inside
the conservative kingdom, where Mr Badawi has already been sentenced to 10
years in prison and 1,000 lashes - administered at a rate of 50 per week - for
criticising the country's clerics through his liberal blog.
In 2013, a judge threw out the charge of apostasy against the 31-year-old
blogger after he assured the court that he was a Muslim. The evidence against
him had included the fact that he pressed the "Like" button on a Facebook page
for Arab Christians.
The news that the charge may now be re-examined will come as a bitter blow to
Mr Badawi's family and supporters, who had hoped that the international
pressure over his case would prompt Saudi Arabia to reduce his sentence.
Although he remains in prison, he has only been flogged once since his sentence
was passed, with subsequent punishments being repeatedly postponed.
(source: The Independent)
SRI LANKA:
Public Opinion On Death Penalty
Minister of public order John Amaratunga has decided to call for public opinion
regarding the re-introduction of the death penalty. The Minister is expected to
present a cabinet paper in this regard in the near future.
Minister Amaratunga further stated that public opinion will also be sought on
how the death penalty should be carried out and for what crimes. He said that
in 2001 when he was the internal affairs minister he had inspected the gallows
at the Welikada prison and had even imported a special rope used for the
hangings. However he said that since he did not get the approval of the then
President Chandrika Kumaratunge, he was unable to implement it.
Although the laws of the country have provisions for the enactment of the
gallows, it has not been in practice as presidential consent has not been given
so far. Minister Amaratunga also stated that he expected not only local
responses for the proposal but international opinion as well. The minister also
intends to visit the countries that currently carry out the death sentence and
gather more information on the issue.
At present there are 473 persons who have been convicted and sentenced to the
gallows, while 534 persons who have been handed the death sentence have
appealed against their verdicts.
(source: The Sunday Leader)
AFGHANISTAN----execution
Afghanistan Hangs Reputed Mafia Boss
A man described as one of Afghanistan's most notorious mafia bosses was hanged
on February 28.
Rais Khodaidad, also known as Rais Saiudullah, was arrested in September and
convicted of multiple counts of kidnapping, extortion, robbery, and murder and
sentenced to death by a Kabul court last month.
He was hanged at Kabul's Pol-e Charkhi prison.
He was the 1st person executed since the new Afghan government took power.
(source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty)
IRAN----executions
7 Men and 1 Woman Executed in Iran
On 25th and 26th of February, 8 prisoners including 1 woman were executed in
prisons of Kerman (Shahab), Bandar Abbas, Jiroft, and Adel Abad in Shiraz.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA),
during 25th and 26th of February, 7 men and one woman were hanged in prisons of
Kerman (Shahab), Bandar Abbas, Jiroft, and Adel Abad in Shiraz.
Hossein Shahriari and Davood Jamal Barezi, who had been charged with drug
related crimes, were executed in prison of Jiroft, on 26th February. Also, on
the same date, Mansoor Kargar, who had been charged with Adultery and Murder,
was executed in prison of Bandar Abbas.
In addition, Ali Barsalamat, Moradbakhsh Saboki, Ali Dashtestan and Marzieh
Hossein Zehi, were executed because of drug related crimes, in Kerman prison,
also on 25th February, Amir Bagherpoor was executed in Adel Abad with charge of
Murder.
(source: HRANA News Agency)
EGYPT:
Egypt court lists Hamas 'terrorist group,' sentences Brotherhood
members----Court said Hamas targeted civilians and security forces inside the
Sinai Peninsula, allegations the group denies
An Egyptian court designated the Palestinian group Hamas as a "terrorist
organization," judicial sources said on Saturday, part of a sustained crackdown
on opposition groups. In a separate case earlier in the day, a court sentenced
the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's top leader, Mohamed Badie, to life in prison,
while other members of the group received the death penalty.
Saturday's ruling comes just days after Egypt adopted a new anti-terrorism law
allowing the authorities to close the premises of any declared "terrorist"
organisation, and to freeze its assets as well as those of its members.
Hamas was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, which authorities in Egypt have
also declared a "terrorist group." The army ousted one of its leaders, Mohamed
Morsi, from the presidency as part of a 2013 coup. Morsi himself is facing
several trials on charges that are punishable by death. Some 22,000 people have
been arrested since Morsi's ouster, including most of the Brotherhood's
leaders, as well as secular activists swept up by police during protests.
The relationship between Egypt's authorities and Hamas has soured since
Morsi???s ouster. The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned in Egypt since the
military coup in 2013. Since then, Egyptian authorities have accused Hamas of
aiding armed groups, who have waged a string of deadly attacks on security
forces in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
In January, an Egyptian court also declared Hamas' armed wing al-Qassam
Brigades a "terrorist" group. The case was based on allegations that al-Qassam
staged attacks to support the Muslim Brotherhood, and carried out deadly
operations in the Sinai Peninsula in October 2014, allegations that the group
denied. Armed groups in Sinai have killed scores of policemen and soldiers
since Morsi's overthrow, vowing revenge for a crackdown on his supporters that
has left more than 1,400 people dead.
"The Egyptian court's decision to list the Hamas movement as a terror
organization is shocking and is dangerous, and it targets the Palestinian
people and its factions of resistance," Hamas said in a statement after the
ruling.
"It will have no influence on the Hamas movement," Hamas said.
The ruling Saturday by Judge Mohamed el-Sayed of the Court For Urgent Matters
said Hamas had targeted both civilians and security forces inside the Sinai
Peninsula, and that the group aimed to harm the country.
"It has been proven without any doubt that the movement has committed acts of
sabotage, assassinations and the killing of innocent civilians and members of
the armed forces and police in Egypt," the court wrote, according to state news
agency MENA.
While a court ruled in January that Hamas' armed wing was a terrorist
organization, Saturday's broader ruling against the entire group has
potentially greater consequences for the relationship between Cairo and Hamas,
which dominates the Gaza Strip on Egypt's border.
After the January decision against Hamas' Qassem Brigades, a source close to
the armed wing signaled the group would no longer accept Egypt as a broker
between it and Israel. Cairo has for many years played a central role in
engineering ceasefires between Israel and Hamas, including a truce reached
between the sides in August that ended a 50-day Gaza war.
A spokesman for the Egyptian government declined to say what actions the
government would take to enforce the ruling.
Meanwhile, Badie, the top leader of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, was among 14
who were sentenced to life, alongside deputy leader Khairat El-Shater and
leading figure Mohamed El-Beltagy. 4 lower-level members were sentenced to
death for inciting violence that led to the killing of protesters demonstrating
outside a Brotherhood office days before Morsi's ouster.
2 of those sentenced to death and three sentenced to life were tried in
absentia. The death sentences are subject to appeal and many of the defendants
are already serving lengthy sentences on other charges. Badie has already been
sentenced to multiple life terms, and was one of hundreds given the death
sentence in a mass trial that drew international criticism of Egypt's judicial
system.
(source: Al Jazeera)
**********
Muslim Brotherhood Media Spokesman: Death Penalty Will Not Stop Revolutionary
Movement----The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Montaser assures flawed,
vindictive verdicts and sentences will not stop the tide roaring against the
fascist military junta and its corrupt gang.
Egyptian judiciary Saturday issued its own death certificate with the latest
unjust clearly-politicized court sentences that lack the minimum requirement of
essential logic or reason just as they lack legal justification. A junta court
ruled today for the execution of four Muslim Brotherhood members on false and
flimsy fabricated charges, thus severing the last link between the Egyptian
judiciary and the proud people of Egypt and their Revolution. Only recently,
the same judiciary acquitted and exonerated ousted Mubarak's top officials, and
sentenced to death many innocent revolutionaries.
The death penalty will not stop the revolutionary movement or the tide raging
against the military junta and its ruthless gang. In fact, this Revolution gets
ever stronger, and more powerful, as it faces more intensified trials and
tribulations - as the murderer, with his cronies and corrupt judges increase
their oppression, persecution and tyranny.
The judicial institution, with the latest sentences along with previous ones,
for the execution of revolutionaries and acquittal of all those who killed the
men and women of the Revolution, since January 2011, proves to the Egyptian
people first, and the whole world too, that there is no hope in reform, and
that the Revolution must cleanse the homeland of the "Sultan's judges" and
restructure the judicial institution.
The path of freedom and dignity is full of obstacles and adversity. The Muslim
Brotherhood has pledged to all the Egyptian people, especially the men and
women of the Revolution, to spare no effort in pursuit of freedom for this
homeland, whatever this costs the group. We are ready and willing to sacrifice
our blood and our souls for this country.
We reiterate, yet again: whatever happens, there is no retreat and no
compromise on the demands of the Egyptian people. We also stress that the blood
of the revolutionaries will be a curse on the murderer, the coup commander, and
his criminal cronies and corrupt judges. Revolutionary courts will exact
retribution for this homeland, from all criminals, all those who stole and
plundered its resources, and imprisoned its innocent people.
To all the men and women of the Egyptian Revolution, unwavering in their
steadfastness, who do not fear no threats nor are cowered by unjust death
sentences: Continue the Revolution until we eliminate these oppressors.
Continue until we stop this injustice, which has reached a horrifying
crescendo. Be confident that the completion of your Revolution is what will
stop this tyranny in Egypt forever.
(source: ikhwanweb.com)
AUSTRALIA:
Death penalty never intended as deterrent
The death penalty was never meant to be a deterrent, it is to remove those who
are of no value to society, who denigrate society breaching laws committing
unacceptable crimes.
It cost about $2 million to keep a prisoner in jail for 20 years.
Workers Compensation in no-fault accidental loss of life values that life at
about $300,000, life and every part of your body has a value.
Those who oppose the death penalty must be prepared to pay the jail costs by
paying greatly increased tax of 40%.
We live in a user pays society - someone has to pay this money and build new
jails.
GJ MAY, Forestdale
(source: Letter to the Editor, Queensland Times)
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