April 11
MALAYSIA:
Pakistani, Nigerian Nationals Charged With Trafficking In 1.6KG Heroin
A Pakistani and his Nigerian friend were charged at the magistrate's court here
today, with trafficking in 1.66kg of heroin last month.
No plea was recorded from Emanuel (Emanuel) from Islamabad, Pakistan and
Osyprme Innocent from Ogidi, Nigera.
They were alleged to have commited the offence at a security guard post in
Tropicana Condominium, Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park here at 10.50am on March 29.
The duo were charged under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which
carries the death penalty upon conviction.
Magistrate Erry Shahriman Nor Aripin set June 10 for mention of the case.
In the same court, Liban Ahmed Abdille, from Somalia pleaded not guilty to a
charge of abusing his 12-year-old daughter at their rented residence in Wangsa
Maju here between April last year and February this year.
(source: BERNAMA)
BANGLADESH:
Magistrates meet Bangla war criminal in jail
2 magistrates on Friday met condemned Bangladeshi war criminal Muhammad
Quamaruzzaman in a jail here to know whether he will seek presidential
clemency, 2 days after the death warrant for his execution was conveyed to the
radical Jamaat-e-Islami leader.
"2 executive magistrates came and met him (Quamaruzzaman) at his cell," an
official of the high-security Dhaka Central Jail briefly told reporters.
Witnesses said they stayed inside for over one and half hours.
The 2 declined to talk after they came out after meeting the 63-year old
death-row convict. The development came after State Minister for Home
Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the magistrates would be sent to the jail to know
the decision of Quamaruzzaman, who is an assistant secretary general of
fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami.
"If he files a mercy petition then it will be forwarded to the president,
otherwise, the verdict will be carried out in soonest possible time," he said
on Thursday.
According to jail officials, Quamaruzzaman had earlier said that he would take
some time to decide on seeking the clemency.
The apex court on April 6 rejected Quamaruzzaman's review petition after a
hearing but the four judges signed the order earlier on Friday, prompting jail
officials to prepare for the execution of the convict.
The ICT has handed him the death penalty for committing crimes against humanity
while siding with Pakistani troops during the 1971 liberation war while the
apex court headed by chief justice upheld the verdict on initial appeal.
Quamaruzzaman was found guilty of mass killing, murder, abduction, torture,
rape, persecution and abetment of torture in central Mymensingh region during
the 1971.
The Supreme Court on November 3 last year upheld his death penalty 18 months
after the special tribunal handed him the capital punishment for crimes against
humanity.
Bangladesh is trying high-profile suspects and alleged top 1971 war criminals
under a special law which also allowed the convicts to seek presidential mercy
in a last ditch effort to evade capital punishment.
If the execution is carried out, Quamaruzzaman would become the 2nd Islamist
hanged so far for war crimes, even though several others have been handed death
sentence.
(source: theshillongtimes.com)
************
Bangladesh moves to hang Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Quamaruzzaman
Bangladesh authorities on Saturday moved to hang a top Islamist leader for
overseeing a massacre during the nation's 1971 independence war, after he
refused to seek clemency from the country's president.
Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, the 3rd most senior figure in the Jamaat-e-Islami party,
was originally expected to be hanged in the early hours of Saturday morning,
but the execution was postponed at the last minute.
No official reason was given for the delay, but junior home minister
Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters the 62-year-old was now set to be hanged in the
capital's main jail on Saturday.
"The hanging of Kamaruzzaman... will take place today (Saturday)," Khan said in
remarks published by the mass circulation Bengali daily Prothom Alo.
On Friday, security was stepped up outside the jail where Kamaruzzaman was
being held, police said.
2 magistrates visited him in prison to find out whether he would seek clemency
from President Abdul Hamid, but the pair made no comment following the visit.
Khan, however, said the authorities had decided Kamaruzzaman would not be
granted any more time to seek mercy.
"No, he won't be given anymore time," the minister told reporters.
The move to execute him comes after the country's highest court rejected
Kamaruzzaman's final legal appeal on Monday, upholding the original death
sentence handed down to him by a controversial domestic war crimes court in May
2013.
Kamaruzzaman was convicted of abduction, torture and mass murder including a
slaughter in a remote northern hamlet that has since become known as the
"Village of Widows".
The conviction confirmed allegations that Kamaruzzaman was one of the chief
organisers of a pro-Pakistan militia that killed thousands of people.
The conflict led to the creation of an independent Bangladesh from what was
then East Pakistan.
If the execution is carried out, Kamaruzzaman would become the 2nd Islamist so
far hanged for war crimes, though several others have been handed death
sentences.
The UN on Wednesday urged Bangladesh against carrying out the sentence, saying
his trial did not meet "fair international" standards.
(source: Zee News)
EGYPT:
Egypt court confirms death sentence for Brotherhood head, 11 others
A Cairo court confirmed death sentences for Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed
Badie and 11 other defendants on Saturday, and a US-Egyptian citizen was jailed
for life over Islamist protest violence.
Judge Mohamed Nagy Shehata also sentenced to death two Islamists who have fled
the country, and he handed life terms to 23 detained defendants.
The defendants were accused of plotting unrest from their headquarters in a
sprawling Cairo protest camp in the months after the military overthrew
Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Among those sentenced to life in prison was Mohamed Soltan, a US-Egyptian
citizen who is on hunger strike.
His father Salah Soltan was among the 11 detainees sentenced to death.
Soltan's family called for Mohamed's immediate release in a statement after the
verdict, charging that there was no evidence against him.
The US embassy, in a statement, said it was "gravely concerned" about Mohamed
Soltan and would "continue to monitor his case closely and to provide him with
all possible support."
The rulings can be appealed before the Court of Cassation, which has overturned
dozens of othe r death sentences, including against Badie.
So far Egypt has executed 1 Islamist sentenced to death after Morsi's
overthrow, following his conviction of involvement in the murder of a youth
during violent protests in July 2013.
Shehata, who has sentenced dozens of Islamists to death in other cases, read
out a Koranic verse that stipulates amputation and crucifixion for outlaws,
before rendering his verdict on Saturday.
At a previous session, he had sought the opinion of the country's mufti, the
Islamic legal authority, on the death sentences.
The mufti has an advisory role under Egyptian law.
Known as the "Rabaa Operations Room" case, the prosecution accused the
defendants of organising months of unrest and protests against the ouster of
Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure himself now on trial.
Rabaa protest camp
The Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp in Cairo was dispersed by police on August
14, 2013 in a 12-hour operation that left hundreds of protesters and about 10
policemen dead.
Mohamed Soltan was shot in the arm during the dispersal, and he was arrested
days later as police hunted down Islamist activists who had fled the protest
camp.
Police moved in to disperse the camp after weeks of failed European and
US-brokered negotiations with the Brotherhood, who publicly insisted on Morsi's
return.
The Islamist was the country's 1st freely elected president and he ruled only
for a year before the army toppled him, spurred by massive protests demanding
his resignation.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who toppled Morsi and
then won an election, has pledged to eradicate the Brotherhood.
The government has blacklisted the movement as a terrorist organisation amid a
spike in militant attacks that have killed dozens of policemen and soldiers.
The deadliest attacks have been claimed by jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula and
in Cairo, and the Brotherhood insists it is committed to non-violence.
But decapitated and driven underground, the Islamist movement is believed to
have radicalised with members adopting militant tactics against policemen.
(source: al-monitor.com)
****************
http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/uaa08415.pdf
(source: Amnesty International)
INDONESIA:
Bali 9 pair's death row fight moves to Indonesia's constitutional court ----
Lawyers for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran say new legal challenge is aimed
at clarifying prisoners' rights
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran's fight to be rescued from death row has moved
to Indonesia's constitutional court, a challenge their lawyers argue is more
than a delaying tactic.
On Monday the Bali 9 pair lost a bid to challenge their clemency rejections in
the state administrative court, which upheld its earlier decision that
presidential decrees were outside its jurisdiction.
The Indonesian government is now waiting on the legal efforts of a few other
prisoners before setting an execution date.
Chan's and Sukumaran's lawyers on Thursday sought a constitutional court review
to make clear the president's obligations on considering clemency. They also
wish to challenge the barrier preventing foreign citizens from constitutional
court appeals.
The Indonesian attorney general, HM Prasetyo, has dismissed the challenge as
delaying tactics and says he will not recognise it.
The Indonesian lawyer for the death row pair, Inneke Kusuma, told reporters the
effort was not aimed at delaying the executions, but at clarifying a prisoner's
rights. She argued the president???s obligations when assessing a prisoner's
life were unclear, for example, the weight that should be given to
rehabilitation.
"This judicial review won't delay the executions but we will tell the
government, 'Please hold on until this process is done,' because if the
constitutional court accepts what we lodge, the documents, maybe there will be
a new mechanism to consider their clemency," she said.
The challenge was lodged on Thursday and could take several months.
The lawyers' argument is that the president, Joko Widodo, breached his
responsibilities to treat the applications for mercy on their merits, instead
rejecting them because he wishes to deny clemency to all death row drug
offenders.
Prasetyo says the pair have had their appeals, and any constitutional court
decision would apply only to future cases anyway.
His spokesman says they are considering setting the executions for a date in
April that avoids the Asia-Africa conference, when Indonesia hosts various
heads of state.
The Sydney men are imprisoned on central Java's Nusa Kambangan island, where
Indonesia would execute them by firing squad. 2 of the other 8 prisoners in
line for execution with the Australians have applied for supreme court judicial
reviews, and another is also pursuing an administrative court case.
(source: The Guardian)
****************
NZer facing death penalty struggles with health
The lawyer for a New Zealander facing the death penalty in Indonesia says his
client is not in good shape to continue his trial.
Antony de Malmanche is charged with smuggling 1.7 kilograms of crystal
methamphetamine into Bali.
He collapsed in court on Tuesday with an angina attack.
His lawyer Craig Tuck said the 52-year-old needed at least 2 weeks to recover.
"He's crying, he's distressed, he's scared this his health on top of all the
trial stress is going to take him out.
"So he's not, in my view at the moment, today, in great shape to be facing a
firing squad if it doesn't all work out."
Mr Tuck said the prosecutor wanted de Malmanche back in court on Tuesday.
(source: RadioNZ)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
