April 10
TRINIDAD:
Sense of hoplessness
People in Port-of-Spain may be well dressed, smell good, and outwardly look
happy when in fact they are in serious pain experiencing a lot concerns,
including distress and a sense of hopelessness, says Anglican Bishop Claude
Berkley.
Calling on people not to lose hope and heart and to see the Easter season as a
time of reflection of perspectives, Anglican Bishop, Claude Berkley said,
"people will make a mess of things as is human nature, but get back on course
and strive to make right." Delivering the sermon at yesterday's Palm Sunday
service at Trinity Cathedral, Port-of-Spain, Berkeley said, "People are afraid,
marginalised, and more and more people are on the breadline." "I am seeking to
make representation to the HDC (Housing Development Corporation) for about five
people right now," he said, "All of them with very, very sad stories." While
today might be a confusing day, he said, it need not be.
Seeing Palm Sunday as a day of reflection on perspectives, he said, his
perspective was that God is in control and continues to work with people to
discern and take charge of their siuation.
"In that way we can work around the murders, disruptions, turmoils, economic
hardships, marginalisation of people, the loss of faith, the hopelessness we
see on the streets. We look for the creativity and imagination of what is
available to us, so that we can transform our city of Port-of- Spain for the
greater honour and glory of God," he said.
Shift in societal responsibility, he said, has created many of societies
problems.
The breakdown of family life, influences of popular culture, the "Get rich
quick, or die trying" notion and a number of new philosophies that engage
living, he told Newsday after the service, have caused people to go off course.
"Now we are seeking to address that breach of good community living by exacting
murder or the penalty of death on the persons. It is shown that the death
penalty is a not a deterrent to those who are of that mind," he said.
He reiterated the church's position that the death penalty should be abolished
and other means of treating those who would have run afoul of the law, be
implemented.
Some injustices may be done by holding people who have committed offences, many
years before they could be tried, he said.
Before talking about exacting justice, he said, the issues of detection and
conviction have to be addressed.
While the death penalty was controversial, he said, "If you are carrying out
the death penalty, you are doing what is forbidden.
Thou shalt not kill." Noting arguments in favour of not spending tax payers
money to keep criminals in jails, Berkley expressed support for restorative
justice.
People who commit crimes, he said, should go through the rehabilitative
process, work and contribute to the well being of their victims.
(source: Newsday)
SAUDI ARABIA----executions
3 Pakistanis executed by Saudi Arabia for smuggling heroin----Amnesty reported
158 death penalties in Saudi Arabia during 2015
Saudi Arabia on Sunday executed three Pakistani nationals convicted of
smuggling heroin, bringing the number of executions in the kingdom to 26 this
year.
The state-run SPA news agency said the 3 had been found guilty of "smuggling
quantities of heroin in their stomachs".
It named the 3 men as Mohammed Ashraf Shafi Mohammed, Mohammed Aref Mohammed
Anayt and Mohammed Afdal Asghar Ali. All 3 are Pakistani citizens.
SPA reported 153 people being executed in the ultra-conservative kingdom last
year, a number confirmed by London-based rights group Amnesty International.
Among those executed was Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a high-profile figure
behind a string of Shiite protests in 2011 demanding reform in the Sunni-ruled
kingdom.
Amnesty reported 158 death penalties in the country for 2015, the highest
annual rate in the past 2 decades.
Saudi Arabia has a strict Islamic legal code under which murder, drug
trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
BANGLADESH:
High Court judges hear death row convict teenage Oishee's statement in chamber
In a bid to assess the mental health of teenage death row convict Oishee
Rahman, High Court judges have heard her statement in the chamber.
Found guilty of murdering her parents, Oishee was brought to the court on
Monday by the prison authorities on a previous order by the bench of Justice
Jahangir Hossain Selim and Justice Md Jahangir Hossain.
At the beginning of the hearing, the court said that a report filed by doctors
at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) says the teenage girl
has been diagnosed with mental illness.
A petition over the matter has been filed and that's why the court ordered to
produce her, it said.
Oishee was then taken to the chamber, where judges heard her for 15 minutes in
presence of counsels.
She was sent back to the prison after giving her statement and the court then
proceeded with arguments by the State and the defence.
On Apr 3, the High Court ordered the inspector general of prisons to produce
the girl before it.
Oishee's counsel Sujit Chatterjee Bappy told bdnews24.com then, "Oishee was
deranged at that time. No person will kill his or her parents in the right
state of mind."
Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua filed a petition in 2013, on which the
High Court ordered the BSMMU to examine her mental health.
On Apr 26, 2014, BSMMU submitted a report diagnosing Oishee with mental
illness.
The teenager is now lodged at the Kashimpur prison in Gazipur.
In November 2015, a Dhaka speedy trial tribunal awarded the death penalty to
Oishee.
Her friend Mizanur Rahman was given a 2-year jail term for aiding and abetting.
The 3rd defendant Asaduzzaman Jony, another friend of Oishee, was acquitted of
the charges of abetment.
On Aug 16, 2013, Inspector Mahfuzur Rahman and his wife Swapna Rahman were
found murdered in their apartment in Dhaka in 2013.
The bloodstained bodies were found in a locked bathroom in their apartment.
Police said Oishee mixed sleeping pills in the coffee to render her parents
unconscious.
Later, she stabbed her mother and then her father to death.
After the killings, the teenage girl left the apartment with her younger
brother.
The slain police officer's brother started a murder case the next day. Oishee
surrendered to police the same day.
In March 2014, police pressed charges against Oishee, her 2 friends and the
underage house help.
The house help is being tried at a juvenile court.
In November 2015, the trial court's order of Oishee's death sentence was
forwarded as the death reference to the High Court for it approval.
On Dec 6 the same year, Oishee filed a petition challenging the trial court's
verdict.
The court started hearing the matters on Mar 12 this year.
(source: bdnews24.com)
PAKISTAN:
Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav accused of espionage gets death penalty
Kulbhushan Jadhav sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in espionage
and sabotage activities against Pakistan.
Former Indian Naval Officer Kulbhushan Jadhav who was arrested in Pakistan on
spying charges has been sentenced to death, the head of the Pakistan Military's
Public Relations Department announced on Monday afternoon.
Jadhav, a 1991 commissioned Naval officer, was arrested in March 2016 by
Pakistan authorities on the charges that he was dealing with Balochistan
freedom fighters. The allegation was that the officer, who retired in 2013, was
an active RAW agent, a charge denied by India.
"The spy has been tried through Field General Court Martial (FGCM) under
Pakistan Army Act and awarded death sentence," the military's media wing
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
The COAS, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has confirmed his death sentence awarded by
FGCM, the statement added.
Pakistan also claimed that Jadhav confessed before a Magistrate and the Court
that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage / sabotage
activities aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan by impeding the
efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies for restoring peace in Balochistan and
Karachi.
It also claimed that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer as per legal
provisions.
Earlier, Pakistan Army had also released a "confessional video" of Jadhav, who
said he was a serving Indian Navy officer.
India has acknowledged Jadhav as a retired Indian Navy officer, but denied the
allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.
(source: dnaindia.com)
PHILIPPINES/SAUDI ARABIA:
Issue for Duterte to tackle: 10 Filipinos are on Saudi death row
10 Filipinos are now in death row in various jails here after they had been
convicted of various major offenses, according to figures released by the
Philippine Embassy.
The 7 men and the 3 women on death row, who were convicted of crimes punishable
with death penalty here, are among a total of 31 Filipinos criminally charged
in Saudi Arabia for allegedly committing such serious crimes as murder.
The Philippine Embassy said the 10 Filipinos failed to settle private rights or
blood-money payments but there has been no immediate information if their
execution would be carried out anytime soon or if the appeal has been going on.
8 of the 31 accused of committing crimes punishable by death are currently
facing trial by courts here that were notorious for handing down the guilty
verdict not only to foreigners but on Arabs as well.
It is not immediately known if President Rodrigo Duterte, who will be meeting
with Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud on Tuesday, will attempt to
ask for consideration or would be able to secure one, especially in the case of
one Filipino who had been charged in connection with illegal drugs.
Even Saudi Arabia's own, Prince Turki bin Saud al-Kabir, known to be an inner
adviser to the king, Abdulaziz, did not get mercy for shooting a man during a
traffic brawl in 2012 and was beheaded in October 2016.
Such was Saudi Arabia's justice system, based on qisas - the act of retribution
- that being spared from the gallows was seemingly not possible.
The Philippine Embassy said it has provided lawyers to at least 15 of those
charged here. There are separate lawyers for those charged in Jeddah, who face
such charges as murder and illegal drugs.
There were varied reasons why Filipinos ended up being charged with murders in
Sharia courts in Saudi Arabia, including maltreatment, physical abuse, sexual
advances by employers and others, Embassy data showed.
The Philippine Embassy meanwhile said that there were also other issues facing
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) such as being "forced to work beyond agreed
working hours and not given rest days."
There are also massive reports of delayed payment of salaries and non-payment
of benefits by employers, aside from poor accommodation facilities and "lack of
proper food."
It said that OFWs were also prone to abuses with the visa sponsorship system,
especially when they exit or secure transfer sponsorship.
There is also the problem hounding some 11,200 Filipinos, who have illegally
entered the Kingdom.
They form part of the 399,054 Filipinos in Saudi Arabia to work in various
companies and families, providing such services as health and household care
and manual labor.
globalnation.inquirer.net)
INDONESIA:
Indonesia urged to heed UN call to abolish death penalty
The government has been encouraged to heed the United Nations' call to abolish
the death penalty from the country's judicial system.
Jakarta-based human rights watchdog Imparsial said it expected the government
to finally adopt the recommendation during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
slated for next month, when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
will review Indonesia's human rights record along with that of other UN member
states.
"The government must no longer avoid the recommendation regarding the death
penalty, as it is clear the policy is questionable," Imparsial deputy director
Muhammad Gufron told the press on Sunday.
Gufron suggested the government comprehensively review the last 3 rounds of
executions in order to identify alleged corrupt practices in the process.
The upcoming UPR will be the 3rd session held to evaluate the human rights
record of each of UN member. The quadrennial gathering has always seen the
UNHRC suggest that Indonesia abolish the death penalty, a recommendation
Indonesia has consistently rejected.
(source: The Jakarta Post)
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