July 12
EGYPT:
Egypt court postpones Morsi espionage trial
A criminal court in the Egyptian capital of Cairo has postponed the trial of
Egypt's 1st elected President Mohamed Morsi on charges of alleged spying and
leaking classified documents to Qatar to July 21, judicial sources said.
Last month, Morsi was sentenced to death over charges of espionage and a mass
jailbreak incident in 2011 during demonstrations that removed the then Egyptian
leader, Hosni Mubarak. Apart from the death penalty, Morsi was also given a
life sentence.
The court postponed the hearing of the case involving Morsi and 10 other
people.
Morsi was overthrown in a military coup on July 3, 2013.
(source: albawaba.com)
THAILAND:
No DNA retest from Brit tourist bodies at Thai murder trial: Lawyer----The
defence team for 2 Myanmar nationals accused of murdering a pair of British
backpackers in Thailand said that they will not be able to retest crucial DNA
samples taken from the victims' bodies.
The defence team for 2 Myanmar nationals accused of murdering a pair of British
backpackers in Thailand confirmed Sunday (Jul 12) that they will not be able to
retest crucial DNA samples taken from the victims' bodies.
Migrant workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun are on trial for the murder of
24-year-old David Miller and the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23, on
Koh Tao island in September.
If found guilty they could face the death penalty. Both have pleaded not
guilty.
Thai police and prosecutors say forensic evidence strongly points towards the 2
22-year-old suspects with both men's DNA found on or inside the body of
Witheridge.
But the defence claims the men have been scapegoated by an under pressure
police force who bungled their investigation and coerced confessions from the
pair which they later retracted.
They had asked trial judges on the nearby island of Koh Samui permission to
independently retest all the police's DNA samples. On Friday the court ruled
that they could do so.
But there was confusion about which samples left in police possession were
still in a suitable state for retesting - particularly the crucial swabs taken
from Miller and Witheridge's bodies.
Lead defence lawyer Nakhon Chomphuchart told AFP Sunday that only a handful of
items found near the crime scene can be re-examined, including a garden hoe -
the suspected murder weapon - a shoe, a sock and some plastic bags.
But swabs from the victims were among the DNA samples used up in the testing
process.
"We wanted to be able to test more but with the other items there are no
samples left (to test)," he said.
'EVIDENCE FROM THE UK'
It is not clear how useful a retest on the available items will prove to either
side. Earlier in the week a witness testified to removing and washing down the
garden hoe when he came across it shortly after the holidaymakers' bodies were
found.
"The Court order means no possible retest on DNA samples from Hannah and
David's bodies," Andy Hall, a Thailand-based British rights activist who has
raised money for the accused and advises their legal team, told AFP.
"Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo (Win Zaw Tun) now have no chance to retest crucial
Thailand based forensic evidence implicating them in the crimes they are
charged of," he said, adding that the integrity of the police investigation
"has been seriously undermined" by the lack of retestable samples.
However Hall said the team plan to introduce evidence at the trial which was
obtained in Britain which they say contradicts the prosecution's case.
"We have seen important evidence from the UK investigation that contradicts
certain parts of the prosecution's case but we can't say which authorities have
given it to us and what the nature of the evidence is, until it is presented in
court," he said.
Witheridge and Miller's bludgeoned bodies were found on Koh Tao's main beach
just as Thailand's vital tourism industry was beginning to recover from months
of violent street protests that culminated in a May 2014 military coup.
The grim case shone a light on Thailand's many underpaid and often exploited
Myanmar migrants who work in the lucrative tourist sector, as well as the
country's opaque judicial system, which many Thais complain is weighted in
favour of the wealthy or influential.
The trial is taking place over 18 staggered days between now and September with
a verdict due in October. The accused are next due back on court on Jul 22.
(source: channelnewsasia.com)
ZIMBABWE:
Death row prisoner longs for wife, children----Death row inmate Cuthbert
Tapuwanashe Chawira says he has lost contact with his wife.
In his founding affidavit provided by Veritas, Chawira sentenced to death for
murder 15 years ago, said that the long incarceration on death row meant
complete loss of family contacts for many prisoners in his situation.
Chawira said he lost his wife to other men as it was clear that he was never to
come out of prison.
"I can confirm that I am married with a wife who has since moved on, and I have
3 children, the oldest who is 19 years old," he said.
"Being in prison as well puts a toll on members of our families. In my case my
wife left and only my children come to visit me, and only on holidays. I must
say that we are allowed visitors for a duration of 15 minutes each after every
2 weeks," he said.
However, Chawira said for most death row prisoners, their families had already
abandoned them and forgotten that they ever existed.
"But, most of us [death row prisoners] do not receive visitors. Society has
written us off and no one considers us human beings. We are the hidden sore of
a very conflicted society. We are not normal people and the only thing that has
kept us going is the fact that we have all converted to Christianity and
survive by praying and the faith that only our Lord will save us," he said.
Chawira said to comfort themselves as they were now outcasts, abandoned by
family members and facing death, they sought solace from their favourite verse,
Isaiah 43 verse 25 which reads, "I, even I, am he who blots out our
transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more."
Another death row prisoner Emmanuel Dolosi (47) also mentioned his family.
"I am a married man with 4 children, but 1 is deceased," Dolosi said in his
founding affidavit.
"There is nothing as challenging to a human being as living a life without
hope. Most of us have no hope that we will live and we are just sitting in the
dark waiting to be executed. The greatest suffering of a death row prisoner is
psychological, severe paranoia, psychiatric and bipolar challenges," Chawira
said.
"The majority of us have been on death row for periods that range from four to
18 years. It is our contention that subjecting us to such lengthy periods on
death row, results in permanent stress, constant fear resulting in extreme
physical, psychological and emotional harm."
All of the 74 death row inmates in the country, including Chawira and Dolosi,
admitted that they had committed grievous crimes of murder and hurt people,
adding they were sorry for their sins.
"I want to make it clear to this honourable court [Constitutional Court] that
this application in no way seeks to undo the grave effects and consequences to
innocent persons of the crimes we were convicted of," Chawira said.
"In this regard, I want to apologise for the pain we have caused and the
crimes, we have committed. However, I wish to restate that despite the
commission of these crimes we are still human beings and we are entitled to the
enjoyment and protection of Zimbabwe's laws and indeed the constitution.
Section 2 of the constitution makes it clear that it is the supreme law of the
country."
The death row inmates continue to keep their hopes to life on the premise that
soon the country's laws might be aligned to the constitution which says every
person has a right to life.
The death row prisoners reminded Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, in charge
of the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, that he was also once
on death row himself and knew of the filthy, dirty and disease-infested
conditions of Zimbabwe's prisons.
They said the prisons needed to be improved in line with international human
rights treaties that Zimbabwe was signatory to.
"I am fully aware that the first respondent [Mnangagwa] in his personal
capacity knows and has experienced the inhumane and degrading status quo of
having to wait on death row.
"In the 1960s he was sentenced to death, and was only saved by virtue of his
age. He is familiar with the death row phenomenon, and the death row syndrome.
His testimony and experience is more horrendous than ours," Chawira's affidavit
reads.
But founding affidavits by legal experts Veritas for 2 death row prisoners, who
are battling the government to revoke their sentences to life imprisonment,
revealed that condemned inmates long for family connection and occasionally
want to be visited.
Veritas, among many organisations in Zimbabwe, has been advocating for
amendments of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act relating to the death
penalty and the Criminal Law Code (Section 20) for them to be in line with
Section 48 of the constitution stipulates that every person has a right to
life.
(source: The Standard)
ISRAEL:
Netanyahu orders Likud ministers not to back death penalty for terrorists----PM
tells Likud he will form advisory panel to debate the proposed legislation
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday ordered his Likud ministers not to
support a proposed bill that would impose the death penalty on terrorists who
kill Israelis. As a compromise with Likud hardliners, Netanyahu announced he
would form an advisory panel to debate the controversial issue.
Netanyahu's decision effectively buries the proposal by the Yisrael Beitenu
party of former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, which is scheduled to come
up before a 10-member ministerial committee is tasked with deciding which laws
the government backs in the Knesset.
Israeli law allows for the death penalty for those convicted of genocide, war
crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and treason
during times of war. Israel has only executed 1 person - one of the Nazi
masterminds of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann, put to death in 1962.
But under existing law, only a military court can impose the death sentence and
an army general can commute it. The proposed bill would allow civilian district
courts to impose the penalty by a simple majority of judges.
Last week, Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett voiced support for the
bill.
"It's moral and it's right," he wrote on his Facebook page, calling on
opposition leader and head of the Zionist Union party Isaac Herzog and leader
of the Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid to support the bill, "there is no difference
between coalition and opposition on these issues," Bennett added.
Proponents cite the deterrent effect of death penalties, but opponents argue
that there is no research-based evidence of this claim, adding that the death
penalty goes against international norms in most Western countries - except for
some of the states in the US.
"Death sentences will strengthen Israel's deterrence - it's moral and ethical
to legislate it in order to save the lives of our citizens. It has broad
support among the people," the bill's sponsor, Knesset member Sharon Gal of
Yisrael Beitenu, wrote last week.
But Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is set to oppose the bill, citing major
concerns over legal issues. Weinstein is expected to prohibit the Knesset from
bringing it to the plenum until the bill???s legality has been thoroughly
examined, the daily Haaretz reported Sunday.
(source: i24news.tv)
*******************
A death penalty for terrorists would be terrible for Israel----Not only would
the death penalty have no deterrent effect on bona fide terrorists. It's just
plain wrong.
The death penalty proposal is only the latest in a long-running tactic of
Liberman's: float outrageous ideas during the campaign season to rally his
far-right base and then try and turn them into policies and legislation after
the elections. The first example was "no loyalty, no citizenship," which
appeared during the 2009 campaign - a direct attack on Arab citizens. That was
eventually translated into a series of bills designed to harangue them,
sponsored or co-sponsored by Liberman's legislators. Some of them passed. We
should have known his "death penalty for terrorists" slogan was no stunt
either.
Haaretz ticks off some of the obvious and well-known reasons why the law is
ill-conceived: research has shown that the death penalty has little deterrent
effect, especially when the potential perpetrator is ideologically motivated to
commit, for example, a suicide attack. The Western world has largely disavowed
the death penalty, with the exception of the U.S. (and I want to believe that
even there it is fated to go the way of bans on gay marriage). Further,
Israel's attorney general is set to oppose the draft law, reports Haaretz, such
that even if the committee approves the bill as expected, it will face hurdles.
But stranger things have happened and the consequences of this bill actually
passing one day must be considered. Those consequences will be terrible - for
Israel.
First, it's worth reiterating why it will have zero impact on terrorism against
Israeli citizens. It's not only suicide bombers who are willing to die. Lately,
there have been more and more low-grade incidents such as stabbings, vehicle
attacks and stone-throwing that end with the attacker being killed on the spot,
rather than apprehending or incapacitating the suspect. The minister in charge
of police in the previous government, a member of Liberman's party, even gave
what many perceived as a green light to police to kill terrorism suspects on
the spot last year. Palestinians have no illusions about the fact that even
demonstrating carries risk of death.
Anyone plotting a genuine terror attack, even if it is not a suicide bombing,
can reasonably count on being killed on the spot. The abstract notion of some
lengthy legal process that might drag on for years will be so remote as to
deter no one.
The main impact, then, will be on Israel's own society. Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu won the recent elections by conflating leftists with ISIS. In this
pithy ad, the key words (and among the only words) are "my brother" - used by
the ISIS member to greet the Israeli left-winger. Commentators have long
accused human rights organizations in Israel of supporting, or being supported
by, terrorists. It has become such a routine accusation that many Israelis now
take it for granted.
With such relentless incitement, a law stipulating death penalty for terrorists
would surely ratchet up the expectation of punishment for "the Left," even in
its broadest definition (the ad just showed regular people, not activists, as
the Left). The same expectation will legitimize increasingly severe limitations
on the activity of left-wing organizations beyond the NGO bill.
Then consider Israel's fetish over its image: hasbara. Play out a scenario in
which Israel actually captures a terrorist alive, puts him or her on trial,
sentences the perpetrator to death and all appeals are rejected. Imagine the
global images that will be flashed over the newswires as Israel takes a person
whose life was spent being harassed by the IDF, waiting at checkpoints, locked
into a tiny geographic region, maybe jailed as a minor, lost brothers or
parents to the conflict, and executes him through lethal injection. Go message
that.
These are reasons why the bill is bad for Israel. It is the language that
Israel's automatic defenders must try and understand. But what if I were to say
that it is unjust for the perpetrators? That all over the Western world,
society has decided that death is an unacceptable, immoral response even to
heinous crimes; that even I as a feminist do not support death penalty for
rapists and murderers?
The right wing will say I care more about Palestinians than about Jews. They
will assume that a moral argument for Palestinians taints or trumps any
arguments about Israel and reveals my true pro-Palestinian bias. Sadly, they're
wrong. The law simply has multi-directional ways of being awful.
(source: Dahlia Scheindlin, 972mag.com)
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