May 9
HUNGARY:
Hungarian PM Orban wants to bring back death penalty
Hungary wants to reintroduce the death penalty. It may seem a surprising move
for an EU member state but that's exactly what Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor
Orban wants to do even though capital punishment is not permitted under EU
rules.
Many politicians say any member state that wants capital punishment should
leave the EU.
The European Parliament's Committee of Civil Liberties says reintroducing the
death penalty would be a clear violation of EU law.
"Viktor Orban doesn't defend anything." said Louis Michel, MP of the Alliance
of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. "He is destroying everything. By
launching a debate on the death penalty, he is turning Hungary against the flow
of history. That is the truth. Death penalty never reaches its goal. It is not
right for justice to commit a crime."
Many people say Orban is trying to prevent his popularity from plummeting after
support for radical nationalist Jobbik party soared.
Euronews correspondent Attila Magyar reported: "Hungarian political analysts
say Viktor Orban knows that it is impossible to reintroduce the death penalty,
but by 'keeping this on the agenda' he can gain some support. The latest
opinion polls show that almost 1/2 of the population agrees with the
reintroduction of the death penalty. So the Hungarian PM can act like the
protector of the Hungarian Sovereignty again."
(source: euronews)
INDIA:
Supreme Court sentences cab driver, friend to death for murder and rape of Pune
BPO employee
A cab driver and his male friend were sentenced to death for "brutally" raping
and murdering a BPO employee in Pune in 2007.
Describing them as a "menace to the society," the Supreme Court on Friday
sentenced to death a cab driver and his male friend for "brutally" raping and
murdering an "innocent and helpless" BPO employee in Pune in 2007.
The 22-year-old woman was traveling in her company's pick-up cab on November 1,
2007, when the driver Purushottam Borate and his friend Pradeep Kokate raped
and killer her viciously.
"They did not show any regret, sorrow or repentance at any point of time during
the commission of the heinous offence, nor thereafter, rather did they act in a
disturbingly normal manner after commission of crime," said a bench led by
Chief Justice of India H L Dattu.
Confirming the sentence awarded to the duo by the trial court and the Bombay
High Court, the bench said that the offence was so meticulously and carefully
planned and was executed with sheer brutality and apathy for humanity that in
every probability they have the potency to commit similar offence in future.
"It is clear that both the accused persons have been proved to be a menace to
society which strongly negates the probability that they can be reformed or
rehabilitated. The act shocks and repulses the collective conscience of the
community and the court," said the bench while rejecting the defence counsel's
plea to commute the death penalty to life term. The duo was heard by the top
court only on the point of sentence.
The Court drew a parallel with the case of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was
executed for the murder following a rape of a teenage girl in 1990 at her
apartment residence in Bhowanipur in West Bengal.
It thus noted: "The gruesome act of raping a victim who had reposed her trust
in the accused followed by a cold-blooded and brutal murder of the said victim
coupled with the calculated and remorseless conduct of the accused persons
after the commission of the offence, we cannot resist from concluding that the
depravity of the appellants' offence would attract no lesser sentence than the
death penalty."
The Court further underscored that it had to take into account the impact of
the crime on the community and particularly women working in the night shifts
at Pune, considered as a hub of Information Technology Centre.
Stating that criminal sentencing has become a matter of concern in view of the
rise in violent crimes against women, the bench said that punishments must act
as a deterrent.
"There are a shockingly large number of cases where the sentence of punishment
awarded to the accused is not in proportion to the gravity and magnitude of the
offence thereby encouraging the criminal and in the ultimate making justice
suffers, by weakening the system???s credibility. The object of sentencing
policy should be to see that the crime does not go unpunished and the victim of
crime as also the society has the satisfaction that justice has been done to
it," it emphasised.
The Court added: "The society today has been infected with a lawlessness that
has gravely undermined social order. Protection of society and stamping out
criminal proclivity must be the object of law which may be achieved by imposing
appropriate sentence. Therefore, in this context, the vital function that this
Court is required to discharge is to mould the sentencing system to meet this
challenge."
(source: Indian Express)
PAKISTAN:
Children in the noose
On Tuesday this past week, the execution of Shafqat Hussain was halted again.
This was the 2nd time it happened.
According to reports, in March, Shafqat Hussain had once before been readied
for death, dressed in the white clothes that those about to be executed are
supposed to wear and write out his last will. The 1st stay came at the last
minute.
The Federal Investigation Agency would look into the disputed issue in the
case: Shafqat's age at the time the crime was committed. Shafqat and his
counsel have consistently held that he was 14 at the time of the offense and
that he is hence ineligible for the death penalty.
In granting this last stay, the judge noted that the Federal Investigation
Agency was the wrong institution for carrying out the investigation into
Shafqat's age. He ordered that a judicial agency should be asked to conduct the
investigation instead so that it would truly be the "independent inquiry" that
Shafqat's attorneys had asked for in the case.
Shafqat is accused of having kidnapped and then having killed a 7-year-old boy
from an apartment building in 2001. He has been tried under the Anti-Terrorism
Act.
Appeals to mercy are difficult ones to make in Pakistan's current gallows-happy
period. Since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted (in December, the
day after the attack on schoolchildren at Army Public School), many in Pakistan
have embraced the belief that a lot of executions will rid the country of
terrorism.
From then until this April; less than 4 months, over 100 executions have been
carried out. According to Amnesty International, the country is fast gaining
the reputation of the leading executioner in the world.
In a prescient irony, around the same time as Shafqat was held back from the
gallows, another former child prisoner was finally freed on bail in faraway
Canada. Omar Khadr, a Canadian Muslim, was captured by US forces after a
firefight in 2002.
He was 15 years old and severely injured. For the next 8 years, Khadr was held
at Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp where he was tortured and interrogated for
information on Al-Qaeda. In 2010, Khadr plead guilty to conspiring with
Al-Qaeda to commit terrorist acts making roadside bombs to target US troops in
Afghanistan spying on American military convoys and providing material support
for terrorism.
Omar Khadr thus became the 1st person to be tried before a war crimes tribunal
and a military commission for a crime committed when he was a juvenile.
Interviews with other prisoners who were incarcerated with Khadr revealed that
he was treated worse than other prisoners; severely injured when he arrived at
Bagram; he was also denied medication. In their appeal, Omar's lawyers argued
that the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol, an
international treaty prohibited the conviction of a child by a war crimes
tribunal. He was finally transferred from Guantanamo Bay to a Canadian prison
after serving nearly 12 1/2 years.
On May 7, 2015 a judge in a Canadian court decided that until adjudication of
the charges (which hold that somehow he, a severely injured teenager, had
thrown a grenade at a US soldier) should be freed on bail.
Canadian politicians, for whom Khadr has served as a poster child of the
lurking evils of terror, are livid.
"Omar Ahmed Khadr is a convicted murderer," railed Conservative Ryal Leef,
adding that "streets". Khadr does not face execution even if he is found
guilty.
It seems that Khadr, despite his many misfortunes is luckier than Shafqat
Hussain. Even with the weight of Canadian public opinion hanging heavy on the
eventual outcome of his trial in Canada (he was the last citizen of a NATO
country to be sent back to his country of nationality), it seems that there is
room for some possible fairness.
Shafqat Hussain, on the other hand, seems doomed to never getting the
independent investigation that his counsel have repeatedly asked for and which
is required for a fair determination to his case. Before he issued the latest
stay order, presiding Judge Minallah rightly remarked that haste in executing
Shafqat Hussain would result if it was later found that he was executed and it
was found that he was underage.
In the meantime, Minister of the Interior, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in a
speech on the floor of the National Assembly that "an inquiry was underway" to
determine Shafqat's actual age.
I have written about Shafqat's case before. Each time, a barrage of questions
comes my way insisting on his guilt and on the necessity of punishment.
It is useful therefore, to end this appeal with noting that an argument against
Shafqat???s execution is not the same as an argument for his innocence. When a
man - in this case a likely child at the time of his crime - is put to death,
there is no possibility of undoing the act. Since the state carries out the
act; the culpability falls in its own lap.
The Pakistani state, with its morass of parallel jurisdictions, weight of
stalled cases and generally groaning wheels of justice is already beset with
the burdens of too many mistakes. The imperative then is to recognise that with
this much doubt and uncertainty regarding the age of a man to be put to death;
the just solution may be to search for an alternative punishment, instead of
one that can never be undone.
If Pakistanis mourn and mutter at the injustice of Guantanamo, the mistreatment
of men like Omar Khadr, so must they think critically, skeptically of their own
pronouncements of guilt.
(source: Dawn)
SOUTH AFRICA:
Why the death penalty won't solve SA's crime problem
There is no escaping the attention and energy focussed on all issues related to
crime in South Africa at this time.
The rate of violent crime is, once again, in the spotlight as both the famous
as well as ordinary members of South African communities continue to be the
victims of vicious crime and suffer violent deaths.
Widespread media coverage combines with rumour and anecdote to fuel the
ever-growing fear of crime and perceptions of the increased vulnerability of
citizens living in a dangerous, crime-ridden society.
Contract crime, which includes murder, attempted murder, rape, assault with
intent to do serious bodily harm, common and indecent assault, street muggings,
car hijackings and house break-ins, tends to characterise public perception
about crime in South Africa.
It is also this category of crime that generates the greatest media interest
and feeds into the fear and insecurity that defines South Africans' collective
state of mind about crime.
This, in turn, shapes public response and explains the public outcry over
recent, highly publicised rapes and murders featured in the media, and the call
for the death penalty to be reinstated.
South Africa had one of the highest execution rates globally. Solomon Ngobeni
was the last person to be officially executed in South Africa in November 1989.
Then President De Klerk declared a moratorium in February 1990 and the death
penalty was finally abolished in South Africa on 6 June 1995, as it was in
direct conflict with the new South African constitution.
Now, 20 years later some South Africans seem to think that this ruling might
have been wrong; Nicro (National Institute for Crime Prevention and the
Reintegration of Offenders) would like an opportunity to comment on the call to
reinstate the death penalty and its stance on crime and punishment.
When leading criminologists in America were asked in a study conducted at the
University of Colorado if they thought that the death penalty was an effective
way to deter crime, 88% said that it was not while only 5% said it was.
The rest did not express an opinion. There are few accurate investigations and
studies, largely as a result of the many variables such as the cultural and
religious beliefs, past events and geographical position which affect crime.
However, the USA provides some interesting statistics, especially as it is a
single country but with certain states not allowing the death penalty. In the 2
decade period between 1991 and 2010, states with the death penalty had 32.45%
more murders then those states that had abolished the death penalty.
Renown criminologist Jeffrey Fagan, a professor of law at Columbia University,
has publically stated that there is no credible scientific evidence that the
death penalty deters criminal behaviour.
Professor Fagan as well as several other experts in the field are firm in their
belief that even when executions are frequent and well-publicised, there are no
observable changes in crime. "Executions serve only to satisfy the urge for
vengeance. Any retributive value is short-lived, lasting only until the next
crime," says Fagan.
In the words of Pierre De Vos, who teaches Constitutional Law at the University
of Cape Town Law Faculty, where he serves as Deputy Dean:
"Executing a prisoner is a brutal and violent act. Whether a man or woman is
hanged, beheaded, injected with poison or shot, this violence and brutality
will be perpetrated by the state in our name and on our behalf."
"To endorse the death penalty is to endorse state violence and the brutality
that necessarily forms part of premeditating killing. The death penalty thus
brutalises the whole of society and implicates us all in the kind of violence
that we wish perpetrators to be punished for".
Incarceration and Retributive Justice
Theoretically, the aim of imprisonment is to protect society by separating
offenders who are a serious threat to the lives and personal security of
members of the community. The other aim of imprisonment is to condemn behaviour
that society considers to be highly unacceptable and which constitutes a
serious violation of basic values.
Prisons protect the society only to the extent that they temporally restrain
offenders who are prone to commit acts of violence, but for other purposes,
like deterrence and rehabilitation, they are at best ineffective and at worst,
counterproductive.
Whilst imprisonment should, in theory, bring about behavioural change as well
as improved education and training, this does not occur on the scale required.
On the contrary, persons often leave prison with no improvement to their
behaviour, or with their ability and resolve to commit crime having been
strengthened even further.
Imprisonment often decreases an offender's future prospects: most persons leave
prison ill-equipped to lead a constructive life in society, and are frequently
at a disadvantage because they have been in prison.
The result of imprisonment sometimes makes prisoners reluctant or even unable
to obey the rules of a society which subjected them to inhuman conditions or
harsh sentences.
Stigmatisation and marginalisation leading to social exclusion often follows
imprisonment, resulting in conditions that soon lead to re-offending. This
results in what is referred to as the "revolving door effect".
The use of prison needs to be reduced to a level where the population consists
only of those from whom the public needs to be protected or who have committed
serious, violent offenses.
The community at large should also be involved in the process of re-socialising
offenders. To reach such a position will clearly be a lengthy process and will
need to be accompanied by a considerable amount of public education.
Jailed
Alternatives to Retributive Punishment
Nicro has for many years vigorously promoted reconciliation and healing, and
has dedicated its research and services to addressing the causes of crime and
restoring the balance affected by crime.
It is widely accepted, and Nicro agrees that there should be consequences for
criminal wrongdoing, and that most convicted persons should have a sanction
imposed on them. The nature of this sanction - imposed by society through the
courts - is, however, a complex issue that needs careful consideration.
It is generally accepted that sentencing has 4 objectives:
1.Punishment and retribution,
2.Reduction in crime through incapacitation and deterrence,
3.Protection of the public, and
4.Rehabilitation and reform.
Punishment and retribution through the use of incarceration as a response to
crime has escalated over recent years, more especially since the abolition of
the death penalty. This is perceived as a response by policy makers to the
increasingly punitive public attitude to South Africa's high crime rate and the
violent nature of crime.
Punishment, even under life imprisonment, should not be viewed as a form of
revenge. Instead, the re-socialisation of offenders towards becoming law
abiding citizens should be the primary goal.
The prison institution also has the duty in the case of all prisoners to strive
towards their re-socialisation and to preserve their ability to cope with life.
They should also counteract the negative effects of incarceration and
destructive personality changes which go with it.
The effectiveness of imprisonment as a sanction has, however, always been the
subject of debate. Its efficiency as a means to control crime has been
exaggerated, and the damage that it does to what is, in effect, an already
disadvantaged group in society, is underrated.
Nevertheless, imprisonment plays an important role in certain targeted cases,
such as for those regarded as dangerous to society, violent offenders, repeat
offenders and offenders who commit serious crime.
It is Nicro's contention that other offenders who do not fall into these
categories should be considered for non-custodial sentences that are effective
and in which society can have confidence.
South African law provides for a wide range of non-custodial sentences and our
courts should have no difficulty in determining appropriate sentences.
Nicro strongly advocates a problem-solving rather than a punitive approach for
certain categories of offenders, using non-custodial sentences to achieve the
above objectives.
Categories of offenders who could be considered should include persons
suffering serious mental health problems; persons suffering chemical
addictions; first offenders; offenders charged with less serious offences; and
young offenders who traditionally show a high propensity for behaviour
modification and reform.
Examples of non-custodial sentences provided for under South African law
include the use of fines, suspended sentences, postponed sentences, community
service, probation and supervisions, as well as attendance of treatment and
educational programmes.
All of these can be imposed with conditions such as attendance of treatment,
education and training programmes, conditions pertaining to reparation and
restoration, and specific conditions related to the individual person and case.
It is in the imposition of non-custodial sentences as this pertains to
programme attendance that Nicro sees potential for growth and far greater
opportunities to contribute to a reduction in crime.
(source: businesstech.co.za)
SUDAN:
South Sudanese Church Leaders Jailed in Sudan Charged, Could Face Death
Penalty----Pastor says he is trusting God will intervene on their behalf.
Sudanese authorities have charged 2 South Sudanese pastors under laws that call
for the death penalty, their attorney said.
National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) officials have charged the
Rev. Yat Michael and the Rev. Peter Yein Reith (also transliterated as Peter
Yen Reith) with undermining the constitutional system (Article 50 of the Sudan
Penal Code) and spying (Article 53) - offenses punishable by death or life
imprisonment - and waging war against the state (Article 51), which calls for
the death sentence, said the pastors' attorney.
They are also charged with inciting organized forces to complain and assaulting
religious beliefs, which call for prison sentences, the attorney said.
"The charges are serious," the attorney, a Muslim, told Morning Star News.
"However, we are doing everything possible to ensure their release. We hope to
hear good news about their release in coming days."
NISS is manned by hard-line Islamists who are given broad powers to arrest
Christians, black Africans, South Sudanese and other people lowly regarded in
the country that President Omar al-Bashir has pledged will be fully Arabic and
Islamic. The charges appear to be based solely on the 2 pastors' nationality,
race and faith, sources said.
Sudan fought a civil war with south Sudanese from 1983 to 2005, and since June
2011 has been fighting a rebel group in the Nuba Mountains that has its roots
in South Sudan, which became a separate country in 2011.
Michael was arrested on Dec. 21, 2014 after visiting a church service in
Khartoum, and Reith was arrested on Jan. 11 after submitting a letter from
leaders of their denomination, the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church
(SSPEC), inquiring about the whereabouts of Michael.
Their location was unknown for months, violating international human rights
agreements, but on April 30 they were transferred from Khartoum's downtown
police station to a NISS detention center on Street 51 in Khartoum, Michael's
wife told Morning Star News. On Monday (May 4) they were transferred to
Omdurman Prison, she said.
Morning Star News managed to speak with Michael on Thursday (May 7).
"God will intervene and protect us even in prison despite the serious charges
brought against us," the pastor said. "Thank you all for your prayers and
concerns for us over this long period of imprisonment."
NISS officials have demanded $12,000 from the SSPEC secretary general, the Rev.
Philip Akway Obang, for the release of the pastors, sources said. Local church
leaders expressed their outrage at the attempt to buy the pastors' freedom,
saying they fear NISS would arrest other Christians and make the same demand in
exchange for dropping charges.
A NISS officer who identified himself only as Jamal confirmed that the agency
had demanded that the pastors pay $6,000 each for the charges to be dropped.
The church that Michael had visited and encouraged in December, Khartoum Bahri
Evangelical Church, was the subject of government harassment, arrests and
demolition of part of its worship center as Muslim investors took it over. NISS
officials appear to be determined to punish the pastors for their support of
the embattled congregation, sources said.
The 2 pastors began a hunger strike on April 28 to protest their incarceration.
The attorney said the charges against them were quietly filed in March, and
that they are awaiting a hearing on Thursday (May 14) in Khartoum North.
The pastors' families have waited in agony, not knowing how they have been
treated.
"We are still worried about their detention," Michael's wife said. "Let us
continue to pray for them so that God can help them to be released."
Amnesty International has said holding the pastors incommunicado violates the
Interim Constitution of Sudan, the African Charter on Human and People's Rights
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, all of which
legally bind the Sudanese Government and all its agents.
"Holding the detainees incommunicado increases their risk of being subjected to
torture or ill treatment and/or enforced disappearance," Amnesty reported in
February.
Other Christians in the Bahri congregation have also been arrested. Police in
North Khartoum on Dec. 2 beat and arrested 38 Christians from the church that
Michael encouraged and fined most of them. They were released later that night.
On Oct. 5, 2013, Sudan's police and security forces broke through the church
fence, beat and arrested Christians in the compound and asserted parts of the
property belonged to a Muslim investor accompanying them. As Muslims nearby
shouted, "Allahu Akbar [God is greater]," plainclothes police and personnel
from NISS broke onto the property aboard a truck and 2 Land Cruisers. After
beating several Christians who were in the compound, they arrested some of
them; they were all released later that day.
Harassment, arrests and persecution of Christians have intensified since the
secession of South Sudan in July 2011, when Bashir vowed to adopt a stricter
version of sharia (Islamic law) and recognize only Islamic culture and the
Arabic language. The Sudanese Minister of Guidance and Endowments announced in
April 2013 that no new licenses would be granted for building new churches in
Sudan, citing a decrease in the South Sudanese population.
Sudan since 2012 has expelled foreign Christians and bulldozed church buildings
on the pretext that they belonged to South Sudanese. Besides raiding Christian
bookstores and arresting Christians, authorities threatened to kill South
Sudanese Christians who do not leave or cooperate with them in their effort to
find other Christians (see Morning Star News).
Due to its treatment of Christians and other human rights violations, Sudan has
been designated a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department
since 1999, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
recommended the country remain on the list in its 2015 report.
Sudan ranked 6th on Christian support organization Open Doors' 2015 World Watch
List of 50 countries where Christians face most persecution, moving up from
11th place the previous year.
(source: Morning Star News)
MALAYSIA:
2 Indonesians spared from death penalty in Malaysia
2 Indonesians spared recently from the death penalty by a Malaysian court are
slated to return soon to Indonesia, the Foreign Ministry stated on Saturday.
Maharani and Surya Darma Putra were freed after the judges of Putrajaya Federal
Court, Malaysia, rejected the capital punishment sought by the prosecutor in a
drug distribution case on Thursday.
"With that verdict, the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur is processing all
the documents for Maharani and Surya Darma Putra to return to Indonesia," the
embassy said in a statement as quoted by Antara news agency.
Maharani and Surya were detained in an apartment in Ampang Hilir, Kuala Lumpur,
in June 2009 for possession of drugs, namely 1,170.9 grams of heroin and 198.35
grams of morphine.
A Pakistani named Naseem Haider and an Indian named Sunita were arrested along
with the pair.
In the 1st stage of the trial, the 4 were convicted of drug distribution and
were sentenced to death.
However, the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected the prosecutor's demand due to a
failure to show proof of the ownership of the drugs and the intentions of the 4
people.
The prosecutor then proceeded to appeal at the Court of Appeal yet the court
reached a similar decision to the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
The Putrajaya Federal Court then strengthened the decision, to finally free the
2 Indonesian nationals.
A total of 165 Indonesians are facing capital punishment for various crimes
with 7 of them spared from the death penalty this year. Of the 165, 48 were
already indicted with binding law.
So far, a total of 217 Indonesians have been spared from the death penalty
since 2009.
(source: The Jakarta Post)
INDONESIA:
Filipino detained in Sandakan murder probe
A 32 year old Filipino man was detained by police around 7pm on Thursday night
to facilitate investigation into the murder of a man.
According to police chief ACP Zabidi Mohd. Zain, the suspect was detained at
the Letat Jaya Town squatters area.
On Wednesday evening, a Filipino man was found murdered at a construction site
in front of Bus Sida Workshop near Mile 3, Kampung Mangkalinau.
The victim was found by the public lying face-down in a pool of blood, and
police were informed at around 7.54pm.
Based on the victim's friend's information, the victim is believed to be a
Visaya in his 40's is, and had been identified as Lawrence Perig.
Initial inspection on the victim's body found that the victim succumbed to
serious injuries on left side of his head and both hands believed to have been
slashed by a sharp object.
The scene of the incident was a construction site where several workers lived
in wooden houses built at the site. The victim's body was found some 30 meters
from his house.
The case is being investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code which
provides the death penalty upon conviction.
(source: The Borneo Post)
********************************
Indonesian leader insists the death penalty is 'positive' for his country
Indonesian President Joko Widodo insisted on Saturday that the death penalty
was "positive" for his country after the execution of 7 foreign drug convicts
by firing squad last month sparked international outrage.
Jakarta put to death 2 Australians, a Brazilian, and 4 Nigerians on a prison
island, along with one Indonesian, despite worldwide calls for them to be
spared and heartrending pleas from their families.
Canberra recalled its ambassador from Jakarta at what it called the "cruel and
unnecessary" executions while the United Nations expressed deep regret.
However Widodo, who took office last year, has been unswayed by the
international appeals, insisting that Indonesia is facing an emergency due to
rising narcotics use.
In an interview on Saturday with journalists in Abepura, eastern Indonesia, he
voiced no regret at the executions and insisted: "The death penalty is still
our positive law."
Asked about the anger in other countries, he said: "My duty as president of
Indonesia is to carry out the law and I'm sure other countries will understand
this."
And he added: "Every day 50 young Indonesians die, in one year that is 18,000
dead. I hope they understand about that."
Widodo was referring to figures that he has often used to back up his claims
about Indonesia's drugs emergency, including claims that more than 4.5 million
users are in need of rehabilitation.
However, academics have questioned the accuracy of those figures and analysts
believe Widodo is trying to present himself as a tough leader after his
position was weakened by a series of political crises.
There has been particular anger in Australia - a neighbour and key ally of
Indonesia - at the execution of its citizens, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran,
the ringleaders of the so-called "Bali 9" heroin-trafficking gang.
Canberra mounted a sustained diplomatic campaign to save the pair, in their
30s, saying they were reformed characters after a decade behind bars.
Meanwhile the Brazilian among the group, Rodrigo Gularte, was delusional and
oblivious to his fate until the final moments before he faced the firing squad,
according to his priest and a lawyer.
His family had said he was a paranoid schizophrenic and his lawyer Ricky
Gunawan told reporters that he had a "delusional mind".
A Filipina had been among the group due to be executed last month, but was
given an 11th-hour reprieve.
The single mother had claimed she was the victim of human traffickers, and just
before she was due to face the firing squad her alleged recruiter surrendered
to police in the Philippines.
A Frenchman had also been due to be put to death but was removed from the list
several days before the executions after Paris stepped up pressure on Jakarta.
Indonesia had an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty between 2008 and
2012 but resumed executions in 2013.
Widodo has accelerated the death penalty campaign - so far 14 drug convicts
have been executed during his presidency, 12 of them foreigners.
(source: South China Morning Post)
SURINAME:
Statement by the Spokesperson on the abolition of Death Penalty in Suriname
"Suriname's recent ratification of a new penal code, which includes abolition
of the death penalty, is an important step forward that sends a welcome signal
to other countries in the region and beyond.
The European Union has a strong and principled policy on the abolition of the
death penalty as it cannot be justified under any circumstances. This stance is
rooted in the belief in the inherent dignity of all human beings and the
inviolability of the human person.
Suriname's decision to join the ever-increasing number of de jure abolitionist
countries in the world is an important positive step. This could be further
consolidated by signing and ratifying the 2ndOptional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Protocol to the
American Convention on Human Rights, both instruments aiming at the global
abolition of the death penalty."
(source: eeas.europa.eu)
TUNISIA:
Tunisian Association Against Torture Calls for Abolishing Death Penalty
President Beji Caid Essebsi, Friday, stressed the need to anchor liberties,
human rights and independence of the judiciary.
"Tunisia should break with practices that violate the principles of the
Constitution," the Head of State also said at his meeting at the Palace of
Carthage with a delegation of the Tunisian Association Against Torture.
According to a Presidency press release, Caid Essebsi also pledged "to spare no
effort to intervene in this area under the provisions of the Constitution,"
stressing the importance of "completing the stage of building democracy."
Speaking after the meeting, President of the Tunisian Association Against
Torture Radhia Nasraoui said focus was placed on the slowness of the judiciary
in addressing torture cases.
The association calls for the abolition of capital punishment and the
possibility of making May 8 of each year a national day against torture.
On May 8, 1987, leftist activist Nabil Barakati was tortured to death in a
police station in Gaafour, Governorate of Siliana.
(source: Tunis Afrique Presse)
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