Sept. 14
ZIMBABWE:
Death penalty challenged
People's Democratic Party leader and lawyer Tendai Biti is challenging the
constitutionality of capital punishment several months after he appeared before
the same court arguing for sentences of death row inmates to be commuted to
life in prison.
Biti confirmed that the Constitutional Court will hear the application this
month.
"This case is now set down in the Constitutional Court on September 28 and we
are demanding an end to the death penalty," Biti said.
Many human rights groups and lawyers, among them Southern Africa Litigation
Centre (Salc), were looking forward to the hearing.
"Case coming up arguing death penalty is unconstitutional under new
Constitution - irrespective of its prior legality," Salc tweeted.
In January when he appeared before the same court on behalf of 15 inmates on
death row at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, Biti argued that their
sentences be commuted to life in prison.
Some of the inmates have been on death row for the past 18 years. Zimbabwe last
executed prisoners in 2005.
Notorious robbers Stephen Chidhumo and Edgar Masendeke were among the last
inmates hanged at Chikurubi.
Some in the government, among them Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, were
openly against capital punishment having escaped such a sentence by a whisker
during the liberation struggle.
Amnesty International is also on record urging Zimbabwe to completely do away
with the death penalty.
Under the new Constitution, the death sentence can be handed down only to male
offenders between the ages of 21 and 70 and only in cases of aggravated murder.
Biti has of late been handling human rights cases and recently won an
application against child marriages in the Constitutional Court.
(source: Newsday.co.zw)
IRAN:
Call for indictment of all government officials
A group of activist mothers and families of political prisoners and martyrs who
lost their lives during 2009 uprising after the sham elections in Iran have
announce in a letter that they would indict all government officials for their
crimes.
These families and mothers who are known as "Mothers of Laleh Park" in an open
letter called for justice for the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran
and indictment of all officials of the Iranian regime.
The following is excerpts of their letter:
Mass execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 in Iran is a
political massacre in which the prisoners who had received prison sentences and
were spending their prison terms or had finished their terms were executed by
the "Death Commission" following a fatwa or decree [by the Iranian regime's
then Supreme Leader Khomeini] and after retrial in closed and unfair courts
while their families were unaware of their executions. Nearly 5000 of these
Mojahed and Combatant human beings were executed and buried secretly in mass
graves in Khavaran, Behesht-e Zahra and some other unknown cemeteries in Tehran
alone.
Based on the Statute of the International Tribunal at Nuremberg, the 1988
massacre of political prisoners in Iran can be regarded as "crimes against
humanity" or "genocide" and officials of the Islamic Republic as the
perpetrators and accomplices of this heinous crime can be brought to justice in
international courts, because more than 30,000 political prisoners, who had
previously received prison sentences, have been massacred in absolute secrecy
and in systematic and planned group executions by the Iranian regime's
authorities after torture and rape and after secret and unfair retrials and
with government decree.
The regime of Islamic Republic during the past 28 years has remained silent
about this crime to avoid disclosure of its secrets. But the mothers and
families of the massacred political prisoners and other justice-seeking
activists in Iran and abroad in all these years have tried in different ways to
stand still and fight against this silence to hold the officials accountable
and bring the government to respond. These activities include but not limited
to a range of protests and sit-ins in front of Justice Department, writing
petitions to the judicial authorities and other official bodies, going to the
grave of their loved ones and interviews and writing and posting revealing
contents, attending memorial ceremonies at home and in Khavaran cemetery and
gathering together inside Iran as well as disclosure of this crime abroad via
writing memoirs, books, articles, interviews, holding ceremonies and memorials
and participating in various conferences and gatherings, etc., which did not
allow the voice of Iranian people and their cry for justice be silenced.
Following disclosure of Mr. Montazeri's audio file [and his speech during a
meeting with the officials of "Death Commission" responsible for the 1988
massacre], the issue has become more clear than ever before. The important
point in this file is the voice of the members of "Death Commission" admitting
the massacre, and no one can deny it anymore. Then, the mass grave of [the
massacred political prisoners] in Malek Abad in Mashhad was discovered and
revealed. And now no one can deny this crime and the killings and the regime
officials have started one by one to take a stance.
Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Justice Minister in Rouhani's Cabinet, flagrantly says:
"We are proud that we have implemented God's Commandment in this regard."
Hashemi Rafsanjani considers the audio file an insult to and desecration of
Khomeini and condemns its disclosure. He says: "I express extreme regret
regarding the recent wave of attacks created against Imam [Khomeini] that
continues in almost all foreign hostile media. This is tarnishing and damaging
Haj Ahmad [Khomeini's son] position and respectable house of Imam in the
society and they should not be allowed to reach their goals."
Hassan Khomeini [Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson] says: "The executions were
necessary to maintain the Islamic Revolution." Khomeini's other grandsons as
well as other mullahs including Mousavi Tabrizi, Mousavi Bojnourdi, and
Mohammad Ali Ansari joined the critics of Mr. Montazeri and supported the 1988
massacre.
Ali Falahian, former Minister of Intelligence under Rafsanjani's presidency,
regarding the massacre says: "The view of Imam [Khomeini] and all religious
scholars is that the sentence for those who rebel against the Islamic rule is
execution and there is no doubt about it. Imam said that God's Commandment must
be implemented and the history's judgment should be ignored."
Ahmad Khatami: "What the late Imam has done in [the] 1988 [massacre] was
according to Quran and religious jurisprudence and a revolutionary act. It was
a great service to the Muslim nation of Iran."
Taj-Zadeh talked about reconciliation and said: "Forgive but do not forget."
When and where did the regime officials ask for forgiveness that he (Taj-Zadeh)
says this and talks about national reconciliation? Can anybody talk about
reconciliation with a ruling government that with utter obscenity considers the
mass executions of political prisoners in 1988 legitimate and right and
implements the policy of physical elimination, torture and imprisonment or
heavy sentences for political and conscience activists in its extrajudicial
courts and emphasizes on continuation of this policy? Taj-Zadeh with pragmatism
says: "I apologize to the families of those executed in that catastrophe who
were not members of the PMOI."...
However, these days Khamenei, Rouhani, Khatami and other officials of the
regime and majority of the so-called reformers have remained silent because
they have directly or indirectly participated in this crime and have been an
accomplice in it and they know that if they say anything, they will be exposed
and disgraced more.
During the executions of political prisoners in 1988, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,
who was Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces at the time, on 27 July 1988
said: "This is a good opportunity to destroy them (the PMOI) and get rid of
them!"
In the early years of the revolution, Hassan Rouhani speaking in the regime's
parliament in July 1980 said: "We ask our army and the Revolutionary Court not
to rush in the case of the conspirators and do a wide range of investigation to
find their roots. I request that the conspirators be hanged in public during
Friday Prayers in order to have a greater impact."
We, Mothers of Laleh Park, who also grieve [our martyrs] in Khavaran grave
site, call for indictment of all officials of the Iranian regime who have been
complicit and had a role in the killings in the 1980s particularly the massacre
of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988 in Iran. We demand removal,
trial in courts and punishment of all those criminals who occupy the highest
judicial and executive positions and authorities in Iran. Our homeland in the
past 37 years has been invaded by those who have brought nothing but evil and
enmity of freedom, justice and equality, and their Sharia and civil laws and
achievements are also extremely discriminatory and against freedom. They have
no respect for human lives and ideas, and the outcome of their existence and
their present for us is repression and destruction of humanity. They are the
ones who have destroyed thousands and thousands of freedom-loving souls and
noble free and dynamic thoughts; but enough is enough and a solution must be
found.
We along with mothers and families of Khavaran (mothers and families of the
political prisoners who were massacred in 1988 and secretly buried in mass
graves in Khavaran cemetery) want to uncover the truth. We demand to know:
1) What was the exact method and process of decision making and implementation
of the mass executions of political prisoners and who were the perpetrators of
this brutal massacre?
2) On the basis of what law and for what crime, prisoners who were sentenced to
prison terms, were retried in closed-door courts and executed?
3) Why was the trial of political prisoners held behind closed doors?
4) Why were the families of political prisoners kept in absolute darkness about
the fate of their loved ones nearly 5 months after their executions from the
time the meetings were banned to handing over the bags containing their
belongings?
5) The exact number and names of the political prisoners who were massacred in
the summer of 1988 must be announced;
6) Where and how did they bury those who were executed?
7) Where are the wills and testaments of those who were executed?
8) Why the families [of the executed political prisoners] do not have the right
to hold memorial ceremonies freely?
9) Why Khavaran's graveyard doors are closed and the security forces deny
access to the families?
10) Why Khavaran and other unnamed graveyards have been turned upside down
several times?
We thank Mr. Ahmad Montazeri, for making the audio file available to the public
and provided it to people (although with 28 years delay), to help uncover the
truth. We call on the regime's officials to stop the pressure and case making
against him.
We also call on Mr. Ahmad Montazeri and other officials, who distanced
themselves from the regime and claim that the Islamic Republic's officials are
criminals and regret their alignment and association with them, to help the
families and justice-seekers to uncover the truth and provide them with
information and expose the Islamic Republic's secrecy and concealment of their
crimes. Of course, we welcome these bold actions which are in the public
interests.
The right to know the truth and seek justice is the most obvious right and
demand of the families and Justice-Seekers and we follow it relentlessly.
(source: NCR-Iran)
PHILIPPINES:
CBCP to Catholic solons, judges: Oppose death penalty
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Wednesday urged
lawmakers and the public to oppose proposals to restore death penalty in the
country, saying it transgresses the dignity of the human person.
CBCP President and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said there was
a "striking and compelling contradiction and irreconcilability" between death
sentence and the constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
"For many centuries, the death penalty was unquestionably accepted by most
including the Church. However, with time our understanding evolves and we learn
to become more human in our behavior according to the dignity bestowed upon us
and our moral sense evolves," Villegas said in an ethical guideline released on
Wednesday.
"You cannot, without contradiction, insist that the person is secure from cruel
punishment and at the same time open the possibility of inflicting upon him or
her the most cruel punishment possible: the calculated, planned and deliberate
deprivation of life!" he added.
The revival of death penalty, the 1st bill filed in the House of
Representatives in the 17th Congress, is one of the main thrusts of the
administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
CBCP's statements came amid confusing accounts on Duterte's supposed "go-ahead"
for the execution of Filipina convicted drug courier Mary Jane Veloso, who
remains on death row in Indonesia for drug smuggling.
'Legal obligation'
Villegas summarized the Philippine Catholic Church's appeal into 3 points: for
Catholic lawmakers to withhold support from any attempt to restore the death
penalty; for Catholic jurists to study the issue and to oppose, through proper
judicial proceedings, the re-introduction of capital punishment; and for
Catholic judges to heed the teaching of the Church and to appreciate every
possible attenuating or mitigating circumstance so as not to impose the death
penalty.
Citing the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which the Philippines ratified, Villegas said the Philippines has an
international legal obligation not to restore death penalty. Article 1 of the
Protocol states that "no one within the jurisdiction of a State Party to the
present Protocol shall be executed," and that "each State Party shall take all
necessary measures to abolish death penalty within its jurisdiction."
"Believing that the abolition of the death penalty contributes to the
enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights,
convinced that all measures of abolition of the death penalty should be
considered as progress in the enjoyment of the right to life, these are some of
the premises underlying the obligation of State-parties, among them the
Philippines, not to execute anyone and not to restore the death penalty to our
statute books," Villegas said. 'Unchristian, primitive'
The CBCP president said favoring the restoration of death penalty is a position
"that the Christian cannot and must not maintain," noting that it is equivalent
to depriving a person of the right to life.
"When the State kills in the name of justice, it is in fact saying that the
condemned person has no right to live, is undeserving of the basic right to
life, and that there is no saving quality or attribute in him or her
whatsoever," Villegas said.
"The Gospel by which we all live and in which we all find hope is one that
proclaims the inestimable value of human life and the inexhaustible love and
mercy of God that constantly renews, even when it seems that no renewal is
likely or possible!" he added.
Villegas said taking someone's life as punishment for an offense was not
"paying back," but "some primitive sense that engenders the discredited 'eye
for an eye, tooth for a tooth.'"
"When the State kills, it kills with no less reprehensibility as when a
criminal kills, for the same violence is involved, and the result is the same:
the curtailment of human life and the violation of its inalienable value and
worth," he said. "Not really retribution then but the restoration both of the
victim as well as society and the offender to optimal, human, humanizing and
just relations! This is the positive moment of justice."
(source: inquirer.net)
TURKEY:
Erdogan: people of Turkey want death penalty back
The people of Turkey demand reinstating the death penalty, the country's
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Erdogan said that if the Turkish parliament decides to restore the death
penalty, no one has the right to criticize this, since decisions of the
parliament reflect the will of people, Trend reports.
Earlier, Turkey's Minister for the EU Affairs Omer Celik said that reinstating
the death penalty in Turkey wasn't put up for consideration by the country's
parliament.
Turkey cancelled the death penalty in 2001. Reinstating the death penalty was
discussed after the military coup attempt in Turkey.
(source: vestnikkavkaza.net)
INDONESIA:
Drug trafficking suspects held at hypermall
Police detained a man and a woman for allegedly trafficking 301.50 grams of
syabu at 1Borneo Hypermall here last Friday.
City police chief ACP M Chandra said the foreign suspects, who are related and
in their 20s and 30s, were detained by narcotic police at a restaurant in
1Borneo Hypermall around 2.30pm on September 9.
"Police believe that based on initial police investigation, the suspects were
waiting for clients when police from the narcotic division approached them as
they were acting suspiciously.
"Upon inspection, police found 6 plastic packages containing crystal-like
substance believed to be syabu in the woman's handbag.
"The drugs, weighing 301.50 grams with market price at RM42,000, were
confiscated and both suspects were taken to the police station for further
investigation," he said yesterday.
Chandra added that both suspects would be remanded until Sept 16 to facilitate
police investigation.
He said the case would be investigated under section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs
Act 1952, which carries the mandatory death penalty if found guilty.
(source: The Borneo Post)
NIGERIA:
Women leader wants death penalty for rape
Coordinator of Global Initiative for Women and Children, Hajia Hafsat Baba has
advocated death by hanging for convicted rapists in Kaduna State.
She described as lenient, the life imprisonment for rapists proposed by Kaduna
State Governor Nasir el-Rufa'i in the new Child Right Bill forwarded to the
State House of Assembly.
Hajia Hafsat, who is also the 3rd Vice President of National Council of Women
Society lamented the alarming increase in cases of rape especially rape of
minors. She said, there was need for stiffer punishment to serve as deterrent.
"Recently a minor who was a victim of rape was discharged from Barau Dikko
hospital, she was so much damaged that she had to go into the emergency to be
operated upon twice because she was bleeding profusely," she said.
Hafsat said "I believe and I hope that it should be death by hanging. During my
discussion with the governor, he assured us that it is going to be death by
hanging and we are actually looking forward to that. We do not want life
imprisonment."
(source: dailytrust.com.ng)
INDIA:
Jigisha murder case: Death row convict challenges conviction
1 of the 2 death row convicts in the 2009 Jigisha Ghosh murder case has moved
the Delhi High Court challenging his conviction and the sentence awarded to him
by the trial court.
Convict Amit Shukla, who along with accused Ravi Kapoor was handed down death
penalty has approached the high court, saying the trial court has awarded him
the capital punishment by "wrongly holding that the case falls in the category
of rarest of rare".
The trial court on July 14 held Kapoor, Shukla and Baljeet Malik guilty on
various counts, including the murder of 28-year-old IT executive Jigisha.
The court while sentencing Kapoor and Shukla to death on August 22, had said
the girl was killed in a "cold-blooded, inhuman and cruel manner" and "brutally
mauled to death".
The 3rd offender Baljeet Malik was given reprieve from the gallows for his good
conduct in jail. Malik has already challenged his conviction and sentence of
life imprisonment by the trial court before the high court.
While seeking setting aside of his conviction and order on sentence, Shukla
through his counsel Amit Kumar said the trial court has committed error by
awarding death penalty simply on the basis of biased jail/probation report
about his client.
"It has also not been noticed that for the similar offence one of the convict
has been sentenced for life imprisonment," the appeal, which would come up for
hearing on September 15, said.
Meanwhile, the trial court, which has awarded death to 2 of the accused has
sent the case file to the Delhi High Court for confirmation of the capital
punishment.
It is mandatory for a trial court to refer a death penalty case to a high court
for confirmation of sentence within 30 days of the pronouncement of the
verdict.
(source: statetimes.in)
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