INDONESIA:
EXECUTIONS FEARED FOR END OF APRIL
The Indonesian Attorney General announced that the execution of 10 prisoners
might be carried out
after the Asia-Africa Conference, end of April.
View the full Urgent Action, including case information, addresses and sample
messages, here.
On 9 April Indonesian Attorney General HM Prasetyo made a statement implying
that his office may
carry out the executions of 10 prisoners after the Asia-Africa Conference,
which is being held
between 19 and 24 April in the Indonesian city of Bandung.
Although the final list of those facing executions has yet to be announced, the
death row prisoners
facing imminent executions are believed to include Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran (both
Australian, males), Raheem Agbaje Salami (Nigerian, male), Mary Jane Fiesta
Veloso (Filipino,
female), Zainal Abidin (Indonesian, male), Martin Anderson, alias Belo
(Ghanaian, male), Rodrigo
Gularte (Brazilian, male), Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise (Nigerian, male), Okwudili
Oyatanze (Nigerian,
male) and one other individual. All 10 were sentenced to death for drug
trafficking, an offense that
does not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes” for which the death
penalty may be imposed
under international law. Indonesian President Joko Widodo rejected their
clemency applications in
December 2014 and January 2015.
The lawyers for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have filed a legal challenge
at the Constitutional
Court questioning the Indonesian president's process of refusing to pardon them
from the death
penalty. Rodrigo Gularte has been diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia
and bipolar disorder
with psychotic characteristics, an illness which has deteriorated while he has
been on death row.
However, on 20 April the Attorney General’s office said that Rodrigo Gularte is
mentally fit for the
execution.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Further information on those facing executions:
View the full Urgent Action here.
Name: Andrew Chan (m), Myuran Sukumaran (m), Raheem Agbaje Salami (m), Martin
Anderson (m), Mary
Jane Fiesta Veloso (f), Zainal Abidin (m), Rodrigo Gularte (m), Sylvester
Obiekwe Nwolise (m),
Okwudili Oyatanze (m)
Issues: Imminent execution, Death penalty, Legal concern
Further information on UA: 305/14 (5 December 2014) and updates (13 January
2015, 15 January 2015,
30 January 2015, 4 March 2015)
Issue Date: 22 April 2015
Country: Indonesia
Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact!
EITHER send a short email to u...@aiusa.org with "UA 305/14" in the subject
line, and include in the
body of the email the number of letters and/or emails you sent.
OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action.
Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office
if sending appeals
after the below date. This is the fifth update of UA 305/14. Further
information:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA21/1124/2015/en/. If you receive a
response from a
government official, please forward it to us at u...@aiusa.org or to the Urgent
Action Office address
below.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Please write immediately in English or your own language:
* Calling on the authorities to immediately halt plans to carry out any
executions;
* Urging them to establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to
abolishing the death
penalty and to commute all death sentences to terms of imprisonment;
* Reminding them that international safeguards clearly state that no
execution must be carried out
while appeals are pending, that the death penalty should not be imposed or
implemented against
people with mental disabilities and illnesses, and that drug trafficking is
not an offense for
which the death penalty can be imposed under international law;
* Pointing out that there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty
deters crime more
effectively than other punishments and that the decision to resume
executions has set Indonesia
against the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty and the
country’s own progress
in this area.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 3 JUNE 2015 TO:
President of the Republic of Indonesia
H. E. Joko Widodo
Istana Merdeka
Jakarta Pusat 10110
Indonesia
Fax: 011 62 21 386 4816 /011 62 21 344 2233
Email: du...@setneg.go.id.
Twitter: jokowi_do2
Salutation: Dear President
Minister of Law and Human Rights
Yasona H. Laoly
Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav No. 4-5
Kuningan, Jakarta Selatan 12950, Indonesia
Fax: 011 62 215 253095
Email: rohu...@kemenkumham.go.id Twitter: Humas_Kumham
Salutation: Dear Minister
And copies to:
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Retno Marsudi
Jl. Pejambon No.6. Jakarta Pusat, 10110
Indonesia
Fax: 011 62 21 3857316
Email: kontak-k...@kemlu.go.id
Also send copies to:
H.E. Ambassador Budi Bowoleksono, Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia
2020 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington DC 20036
Fax: 1 202 775 5365 I Phone: 1 202 775 5200 I Email:
ik...@embassyofindonesia.org or
http://www.embassyofindonesia.org/contactform/contact-form.php
Please share widely with your networks: http://bit.ly/1HlMGNY
We encourage you to share Urgent Actions with your friends and colleagues! When
you share with your
networks, instead of forwarding the original email, please use the "Forward
this email to a friend"
link found at the very bottom of this email. Thank you for your activism!
UA Network Office AIUSA │600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington DC 20003
T. 202.509.8193 │ F. 202.509.8193 │E. u...@aiusa.org │amnestyusa.org/urgent
SOMALILAND:
Activist Who Questioned Executions Detained ---- Free, Drop Charges Against
Prominent Rights Lawyer
Somaliland authorities on April 18, 2015, detained a prominent human rights
activist, apparently for criticizing the government's execution of 6 prisoners,
Human Rights Watch said today. Police arrested Guleid Ahmed Jama after he made
statements on the radio denouncing the executions, the 1st in Somaliland in
nearly a decade. The authorities should immediately release him and drop the
charges against him.
Guleid, 29, is a lawyer and the chairman of the Human Rights Centre, one of
Somaliland's few independent human rights monitoring organizations. He has been
charged with "anti-national" propaganda and other crimes, and faces up to 6
years in prison or longer. Police initially held him in isolation and denied
him contact with his family.
"Human rights activists shouldn't face prosecution for voicing their concerns,"
said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Every day
that the authorities keep Guleid in jail is another day of setbacks for human
rights in Somaliland."
The criminal charges against Guleid violate his right to free expression and
appear intended to intimidate and silence criticism of the government, Human
Rights Watch said.
Police arrested Guleid, on the order of a regional court judge, on the morning
of April 18 as he was representing clients at the regional court in Hargeisa,
Somaliland's capital. Police initially took him to the Central Investigation
Department and then transferred him to Hargeisa's central police station.
Guleid's arrest came 2 days after the BBC Somali service broadcast an interview
with him in which he criticized the government's April 13 execution of the six
men, who had been convicted of murder. Guleid raised due process concerns in
death penalty cases, particularly those handled before the military courts. He
also called for judicial, police, and legislative reforms. The Regional Court
judge who ordered his arrest questioned him about his interview comments, a
source close to Guleid told Human Rights Watch.
The death sentences were the first carried out in Somaliland since 2006. Human
Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently
cruel and irreversible punishment.
On April 19, the state attorney contested the order of the Hargeisa Regional
Court to release Guleid on bail. In a letter to the Regional Court of Appeal,
he alleged that Guleid had committed a range of criminal offenses, including
"anti-national" propaganda, intimidation of the public, and publication of
false information. He also accused Guleid of running an unregistered human
rights organization, even though the Human Rights Centre's registration was
renewed as of January 1. The Court of Appeal suspended the lower court's
release order.
On April 20, Guleid appeared before the Regional Court, which ordered his
detention for another seven days and transferred him to Hargeisa Central
Prison. Guleid's lawyers were able to meet with him there. An April 20 charge
sheet lists as evidence to support the charges the comments made by Guleid in
his BBC Somali service interview and the Human Rights Centre's December 2014
annual report.
Somaliland's independent human rights groups have faced obstruction from
government authorities before. In 2007, under the previous government, the
Somaliland Human Rights Organization Network was effectively dismantled after a
leadership struggle that was characterized by overt government interference.
For years, Somaliland had no human rights monitoring organization. The Human
Rights Centre was established in 2012. The current government has arrested
journalists, particularly those reporting on corruption or on developments in
the contested border regions of Sool and Sanaag, and harassed staff of popular
newspapers. On April 21, 2015, Somaliland's national electoral commission
announced that national elections would take place in June 2016.
In 1998, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on
Human Rights Defenders, which states that individuals and associations have the
right "to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human
rights and fundamental freedoms."
"Somaliland's government should ensure there is space for dissenting views and
public debate on critical issues of public concern, especially as elections
draw near," Lefkow said. "The authorities need to recognize that organizations
such as the Human Rights Centre are an asset to Somaliland, not a threat."
(source: Human Rights Watch)
SAUDI ARABIA----execution
Indian beheaded in Saudi for murdering boss
Saudi Arabia beheaded 2 people for murder Wednesday, one of whom was from
India, the interior ministry said.
Sajada Ansari, a shepherd, was convicted of robbing his Saudi boss as he slept
and beating him to death with a hammer, the ministry said in a statement
carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The other convict, Saudi Mater al-Rowaeeli, was condemned for shooting dead his
ex-wife and 2 of their children.
Both executions were carried out in the kingdom's north.
They bring to 65 the number of beheadings by the sword this year in Saudi
Arabia, a surge that compares with 87 death sentences in all of 2014, according
to AFP tallies.
Drug trafficking, rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable
by death under the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.
Amnesty International's 2014 global report on the death penalty ranks Saudi
Arabia among the top five executioners in the world.
The interior ministry has cited deterrence as a reason for carrying out the
punishment and says executing murderers aims "to maintain security and realise
justice".
(source: Agence France-Presse)
PHILIPPINES:
Revisiting the death penalty for drug offenses
Not discounting the power of prayer, the execution of Filipina OFW Mary Jane
Veloso seems inescapable considering that Indonesia has made a seriously hard
stand to arrest its increasingly severe drug problem, and has vowed not to give
in to international pressure in meting out its tough drug laws.
Despite this foreboding scenario, however, we join in supporting the optimistic
view that the Indonesian court should reconsider its decision due to the merits
of Veloso's statement of innocence that she did not knowingly agree to act as a
courier, and that her recruiter underhandedly placed the drugs in her luggage.
China has similarly done the same and several Filipinos have been executed due
to drug related cases. Like Indonesia, it has also refused to listen to our
government's appeals for clemency, underscoring the argument that it needed to
enforce its laws to arrest the incidence of illegal drug trade in the country.
According to the latest data from the Department of Foreign Affairs, about 787
Filipinos are facing drug-related cases around the world. There are 116 cases
in the Americas, 104 in Europe and 244 in the Middle East and Africa, but the
majority, 343 of which are in Asia. This reflects the seriousness and gravity
of the illegal drug epidemic. Notwithstanding the merits of Veloso's case, we
should emulate what these countries are doing to discourage the drug trade in
their jurisdiction. While it is true that the death penalty did not entirely
eradicate the drug problem in these countries, it has nevertheless offered a
strong deterrence. In the Philippines, the severity of the drug epidemic can be
readily surmised just by realizing that 60 % of our inmates are incarcerated
due to drug related offenses. Further supporting this concern is the advisory
given by the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) under the section
"Drug-related Crimes" in its "Philippines 2014 Crime and Safety Report":
"Production, trafficking, and consumption of illegal drugs are issues of
concern...Transnational organized crime groups both exploit under-staffed and
under-resourced law enforcement and a weak judicial system to establish
clandestine drug laboratories and import wholesale quantities of
methamphetamine to supply the domestic market...Regionally, the Philippines is
an identified source of methamphetamine for Guam and a transit point from
Africa to Southeast Asia (emphasis mine)".
This cancer continues to grow and root itself in the very foundations of our
society while simultaneously, boldly mocking the weight of our criminal justice
system. Having said this, I strongly feel that we need to draw on both China
and Indonesia's iron-hand approach to arrest this menace. Even in our own
national experience, no one can deny the high deterrent psychological effect of
the execution of Lim Seng during the Marcos administration when capital
punishment was still being enforced in the Philippines. Lim Seng was a Chinese
drug lord that was tried and sentenced to die by firing squad in December 1972.
His execution was a good example which put terror in the hearts of other
big-time pushers during the time.
The concept of capital punishment in the Philippine context has had a varied
history. Many Filipinos oppose it due to religious and humanitarian arguments,
while its proponents view it as an effective way of deterring crimes. Although
I do not subscribe to the opinion that the death penalty is the only solution
to the problem of the drug menace in our country, I am firmly convinced of the
fact that its absence has emboldened many local and foreign operators and
syndicates to perpetuate and broaden their activities here. As a result, many
of our countrymen have directly and indirectly fallen victims to this scourge.
Indeed, the life of every individual is priceless and valuable, but we should
not hesitate to choose the ruin of one to deter the ruin of greater populace.
(source: Commentary; Danilo Suarez----Manila Standard Today)
THAILAND:
Give graft court death penalty powers: Veera
The charter drafters have been urged to set up a corruption court empowered to
give corrupt officials the death penalty if the damage to the state from their
crimes exceeds Bt5 million.
Veera Somkwamkid, secretary-general of the People's Network against Corruption,
made the suggestion in a letter submitted to Constitution Drafting Committee
(CDC) chairman Borwornsak Uwanno yesterday.
Veera said his long fight against graft made him realise that lax and
ineffective laws caused anti-corruption efforts to fail. He proposed that
corruption cases have no statute of limitations and a special court be set up
to try them.
He said politicians convicted for corruption must be banned from politics for
life and have all assets confiscated if their cases proceeded through three
courts. Politicians or state officials convicted of corruption with less than
Bt1 million must be jailed for 20 years, allowed no pardon, or have their
sentences commuted, he said.
If damage to the state was above Bt1 million, they must be given a
life-sentence without right of pardon. Veera said those convicted should also
face civil suits, which force them to pay compensation - double the amount of
damage to the state.
All political office holders must declare their assets to the National
Anti-Corruption Commission. They must not run in elections for more than two
consecutive terms, he proposed.
Veera also said that members of civic groups should declare their assets.
Independent agencies in charge of corruption cases must finish graft probes
within 1 year.
(source: The Nation)
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