July 9
ISRAEL:
The death penalty is making a comeback in Israel----By sentencing Palestinians
convicted of murder to death, the Israeli Right will only bring the mutual
cruelty between Jews and Palestinians to another level.
No one really wants to look back and learn anything from history. Every
colonial regime convinces itself at some point to raise the level of brutality
in order to force the natives to accept their situation. It seems like this is
the path we must also take.
Avigdor Lieberman's party is promoting an initiative that would allow military
tribunals to sentence terrorists who were convicted of murder to death. Naftali
Bennett's Jewish Home party already announced it would back the bill, as did
some Likud ministers. This was kind of expected. After all, the Right has been
calling on IDF soldiers to open fire on Palestinian stone-throwers, which can
itself become an informal death sentence.
In fact, the military regime in the West Bank has the legal option of using the
death penalty, but the prosecution rarely demands it, and rightfully so. The
new bill is intended to change this policy and allow a majority of justices to
sentence people to death (as opposed to a unanimous decision, which is the
current requirement). However, capital punishment does not prevent acts of
murder; even the Americans are starting to internalize this fact. It surely
will not deter Palestinians. Those who were willing to carry out suicide
bombings will also be willing to take the risk of being hanged.
Imposing the death penalty in Israel, aside from the inevitable international
drama that would accompany any sentence, will be bring the mutual hatred and
cruelty between Jews and Palestinians to another level. The British learned
this lesson not long ago.
In 1947, the Irgun Jewish underground group kidnapped 2 British sergeant1,
Sergeant Clifford Martin and Sergeant Mervyn Paice, threatening to kill them if
the death sentences passed on 3 Irgun militants were carried out. The 3 had
been captured by the British during a prison break, tried, and convicted on
charges of illegal possession of arms, and with the "intent to kill or cause
other harm to a large number of people." When the 3 men were executed by
hanging, the Irgun killed the 1 sergeants and hung their booby-trapped bodies
in a eucalyptus grove. Menachem Begin even wrote an open letter to one of the
fathers of the sergeants, in which he blamed the British government for the
incident.
Will an Israeli mother receive such a letter from Hamas in the coming years?
After the bodies of the sergeants were discovered, British officers and
soldiers took vengeance on passersby in Tel Aviv, beating and shooting them. 5
Jews were murdered, and a wave of anti-Semitism engulfed Britain. The British
government, on the other hand, ceased using capital punishment in Mandate
Palestine.
I don't expect much from the Right in the Israeli Knesset. But other parties,
especially Labor and Yesh Atid, who have recently decided to join the populist,
nationalist chorus spearheaded by the Right, must come out in opposition to the
death penalty.
(source: Noam Sheizaf, 972mag.com)
SUDAN:
Time Is 'Running Out' for Imprisoned Sudanese Pastors Facing Possible Death
Penalty for Their Christian Faith
The American Center for Law and Justice has warned that "time is running out"
for two imprisoned Presbyterian pastors who are on trial and facing a possible
death penalty for their Christian faith. The ACLJ has also launched a
letter-writing campaign for the pastors, and urged people to sign it.
"We have launched a massive letter-writing campaign to Sudan's new minister of
justice demanding Sudan follow international law, ensure that these persecuted
pastors can properly prepare a defense, and that the case be dismissed for a
lack of evidence," the law group said on Wednesday.
"The more letters we send to him, the higher the international pressure. The
higher the international pressure, the more likely pastors Michael and Peter
will find justice and freedom."
Rev. Yat Michael and the Rev. Peter Yen Reith of the South Sudan Presbyterian
Evangelical Church are officially being charged with espionage and blasphemy
under the Republic of Sudan's strict Islamic law, though church leaders have
pointed out that Christians are often targeted for their faith.
"This is not 'something new' for our church," the Rev. Tut Kony, another pastor
from the Presbyterian church, said in May. "Almost all pastors have gone to
jail under the government of Sudan. We have been stoned and beaten. This is
their habit to pull down the church. We are not surprised. This is the way they
deal with the church."
The Sudanese court has said that there is enough evidence to move forward with
the "trumped-up" espionage charges, which carry the death penalty, and gave the
pastors' attorney only two weeks to prove their innocence.
Their attorney has been denied access to the pastors, however, and been granted
only visitation rights at court.
Last week, the pastors' lead attorney (the lawyer who represented Christian
mother Meriam Ibrahim), Mohaned Mustafa, was arrested after speaking out
against the government and its land dispute over a church's property.
Although Mustafa was arrested just one day before the pastors' hearing, he was
released on bail and able to represent the pastors in last Thursday's hearing.
The ACLJ said that "the odds are stacked against Michael and Peter," but urged
supporters not to give up hope, and make their voices heard in the
letter-writing campaign.
"Just like Mariam Ibraheem, who was sentenced to die for her Christian faith
last year, these 2 pastors could be sentenced to hang for their faith if the
world is silent," reads the letter, which has been signed by over 204,000
people.
"Pastors Michael and Peter need your voice now. Time is of the essence. Our
silence could be their death."
The law group added that it's been working with Ibrahim to raise awareness for
the pastors' case. The Christian mother was originally sentenced to death in
Sudan in 2014 for marrying an American Christian citizen, but following great
international pressure, the Sudanese court acquitted her of all charges.
(source: christianpost.com)
EGYPT:
Egypt sentences 10 to death for killing judge's guard
An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced 10 men to death for killing a security
guard for one of the judges hearing a case against ousted president Mohamed
Morsi, an official said.
Sergent Abdallah Metwally was part of a team of policemen guarding the home of
judge Hussein Kandil, when he was gunned down in February 2014 in the city of
Mansoura north of Cairo.
At the time, Kandil was the presiding judge in Morsi's trial for escaping from
jail during the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime president Hosni Mubarak.
Since Morsi's overthrow in July 2013 by then army chief and now President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi, hundreds of people have been sentenced to death in speedy
trials amid a brutal government crackdown on his supporters.
In May, Morsi and more than 100 co-defendants were sentenced to death in that
trial for plotting jailbreaks and attacks on police.
On Thursday, the Muslim Brotherhood - which has been lobbying the Africa's
highest judicial authority to intervene against Egypt's use of the death
penalty for more than a year - called for international and regional bodies,
including the UN Security Council and EU, to intervene in what the group's
lawyers described as a situation presenting "a grave threat to regional
stability".
"It is inevitable that the increase in state oppression will result in unwieldy
and increasingly hostile dissent, a situation that will only exacerbate the
threats to peace and security in an increasingly uncertain region," Tayab Ali,
a partner at UK-based ITN Solicitors, said in a statement.
In a letter to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, according to
Thursday's statement, the Brotherhood requested that the EU give an update on
the steps it has taken since Morsi's death sentence was confirmed in mid-June
and review its relationship with the Egyptian government.
The group also called for the Security Council to investigate, under the UN
charter, the extent to which the current situation in Egypt threatens regional
stability.
Egyptian authorities have blamed the Brotherhood movement for the violence that
has rocked Egypt after his overthrow, including increasing attacks in the Sinai
Peninsula.
Rights groups, however, accuse the authorities of using the judiciary in its
crackdown against Morsi supporters that has left hundreds dead and thousands
jailed in the past 2 years.
In retaliation, militants have targeted security forces, and in recent months
have also attacked judges and prosecutors.
On 29 June, the country's top state prosecutor Hisham Barakat was assassinated
in a Cairo car bombing - the highest-ranking official to be murdered since the
ouster of Morsi.
In May, gunmen killed 2 judges and a prosecutor in Sinai.
The 10 men sentenced to death on Thursday were among 24 tried in a court in
Mansoura in connection with Metwally's murder, the official said. Verdicts
against the 14 others will be announced in September.
In line with Egyptian law, the death sentences were referred to the mufti, the
government's official interpreter of Islamic law, and the court will deliver
its final ruling on 7 September.<>P> Also on Thursday, the Mansoura court
confirmed death sentences against four men accused of forming a "terrorist
group", while nine others were sentenced to life.
The men were also accused of receiving weapons training in the Gaza Strip from
Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
(source: middleeasteye.net)
THAILAND:
Thai police say key DNA evidence in murders of Britons has been lost
Thai police said on Thursday some key DNA evidence in the trial of 2 men for
the murders of 2 British tourists had been lost or "finished" and so could not
be retested as the defence has demanded.
The trial of 2 Myanmar migrant workers, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun began on
Wednesday. The 2 men are accused of killing David Miller, 24, and Hannah
Witheridge, 23.
The high-profile case has raised questions about the competence of the
investigation and the treatment of migrant labourers in Thailand.
The murdered pair were found on a beach on Koh Tao, an island in southern
Thailand popular with backpackers and scuba divers, on Sept 15.
Post-mortem examinations showed both had suffered severe head wounds and
Witheridge had been raped.
Both accused men deny the killings.
The defence wants some evidence central to the case re-examined. But Police
Lieutenant Colonel Somsak Nurod, who led the original investigation, said some
evidence could no longer be re-tested as it had been lost, including a hair
sample found in Witheridge's hand. "There is documentation of the testing we
did at the time but some of the evidence, including the hair sample, was lost,
so it cannot be retested," Somsak told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He added that biological samples found on cigarette butts taken from the crime
scene were "finished", but declined to go into further details.
Chief defence lawyer Nakhon Chompuchat told reporters that a garden hoe
allegedly used as the murder weapon would be retested.
"We contacted the institute and they said if they are doing the testing as an
emergency case then it can be done in three to seven days," said Nakhon. "We
will definitely test the garden hoe."
Cross-examination on Wednesday centred on why police were slow to seal off the
crime scene, why doctors arrived hours after the bodies were found and whether
officers on the island were trained to use a DNA testing kit.
Thai police said in October the 2 accused men had confessed to the killings,
but they later retracted their confessions, saying they had made them while
being tortured.
Police say they have a watertight case, and that DNA found on the victims
matched the suspects.
Critics have argued the arrests resulted from discriminatory ethnic profiling.
The men could face the death penalty if found guilty. A verdict is expected in
October.
(source: Reuters)
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