July 28
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan Abducts Own Citizens, Muzzles Rights Watchdog - U.N.
Pakistan must address a catalog of human rights failings including
state-sponsored abductions and a death penalty that amounts to torture, but its
national watchdog is muzzled, the U.N. Human Rights Committee said on Thursday.
Human Rights Minister Kamran Michael defended Pakistan's record before the
committee earlier this month, but members of the committee said his delegation
had given few responses to their questions and very general answers.
They were also concerned at a no-show by the chairman of Pakistan's National
Commission for Human Rights, who was allegedly barred from traveling to Geneva
to meet them and was not able to probe wrongdoing, they said.
"The Commission is prevented from fully cooperating with United Nations human
rights mechanisms, cannot inquire into the practices of the intelligence
agencies, and is not authorized to undertake full inquiries into reports of
human rights violations by members of the armed forces," the U.N. committee
report said.
Pakistani officials in Islamabad could not immediately be reached for comment
on the committee's findings.
At the top of a long list of human rights concerns were Pakistan's renewed use
of the death penalty, its blasphemy laws, and "enforced disappearances" and
extrajudicial killings.
Enforced disappearances, seen in tribal areas and Baluchistan for the past 15
years, have become widespread across Pakistan, committee member Olivier de
Frouville told reporters.
"This is an admitted fact even within the country that this is carried out by
agents of the state," he said, adding that the government's own investigations
were insufficient.
A high number of people were allegedly in secret detention in military
internment centers, the committee's report said. Killings were allegedly
perpetrated by the police, military and security forces but there was no law
explicitly against such practices.
The committee also lambasted Pakistan's widespread use of hanging since it
lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in 2014, following an attack on a
school in which more than 150 people, mainly children, were killed.
Death sentences were passed on mentally disabled people and suspects who were
minors at the time of the crime, and the method of execution amounted to
torture.
"There have been reports of botched executions, failed executions, with grave
consequences on physical integrity," de Frouville said.
Pakistan has executed 468 prisoners since 2014 and has 1,500 people on death
row, the report said.
Capital punishment was mandatory under blasphemy laws, which often led to false
accusations and "mob vengeance", the committee said, calling for those laws to
be repealed.
(source: Reuters)
CHINA:
Man gets death penalty for killing 19, including own parents, in pickaxe
massacre
A man was sentenced to death Friday for murdering 19 people, including 3
children and his own parents, according to a local court in southwest China's
Yunnan Province.
The people's court of Huize county found Yang Qingpei guilty of murdering his
parents in their home in Yema village on Sept. 28 last year after they refused
to give him money.
Fearing he would be discovered, Yang killed 17 villagers with a pickaxe and
fled to Yunnan's provincial capital Kunming.
Police arrested Yang the following day.
Yang, who was born in 1989, pleaded guilty to all charges and apologized to the
relatives of the dead when he went on trial on July 19.
He accepted the sentence and said he will not appeal.
(source: Xinhua)
IRAN:
Iran must not squander opportunity to end executions for drug-related offences
Iranian lawmakers must not miss a historic opportunity to reject the use of the
death penalty for drug-related offences and save the lives of thousands of
people across the country, said Amnesty International and Abdorrahman Boroumand
Foundation today.
In the coming weeks, Iran's parliament is expected to vote on a bill that
amends Iran's anti-narcotics law, but fails to abolish the death penalty for
non-lethal drug-related offences as is required by international law.
"Instead of abolishing the death penalty for drug-related offences, the Iranian
authorities are preparing to adopt a deeply disappointing piece of legislation,
which will continue to fuel Iran's execution machine and help maintain its
position as one of the world's top executioners," said Magdalena Mughrabi,
Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
The 2 organizations are calling on Iran's parliament to urgently amend the
proposed legislation to bring it into line with Iran's obligations under
international human rights law, which absolutely prohibits use of the death
penalty for non-lethal crimes.
Over the past 2 years, while this legislation was under discussion, numerous
senior Iranian officials publicly conceded that decades of punitive drug
policies and rampant use of the death penalty have failed to address the
country's drug addiction and trafficking problems. They have also admitted that
drug-related offences are often linked to other social problems such as
poverty, drug abuse and unemployment, none of which are solved by executions.
"There's still time to amend the bill. Iranian lawmakers must listen to the
voices of reason and abolish the use of the death penalty for drug-related
offences once and for all. A failure to do so would not only run counter to
Iran's stated plans to change course, but would also be a huge missed
opportunity to save lives and improve the country's human rights record," said
Roya Boroumand, Executive Director of Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation.
The human toll of Iran's heavy-handed approach to drug control has been
devastating. The vast majority of the hundreds of executions carried out in
Iran each year are for drug-related convictions. Most of those executed come
from the poorest and most vulnerable members of society including Afghans and
ethnic and religious minorities. A high-ranking official recently stated that
since 1988 Iran has put to death a staggering 10,000 people for drug-related
offences.
According to parliamentarians, there are currently an estimated 5,000 people on
death row for such offences across the country. About 90% of them are 1st-time
offenders aged between 20 and 30 years old.
An earlier version of the bill, approved by the Judicial and Legal
Parliamentary Commission on 23 April 2017, had vastly reduced the scope of the
death penalty for drug-related offences. Between April and June, members of the
commission tried to repeatedly schedule the bill for a vote but said they
failed to do so due to opposition from security bodies overseeing Iran's
anti-narcotics programmes.
Eventually, in July, they introduced multiple regressive amendments to the
bill. Some members of parliament said in media interviews that they made these
amendments after immense pressure from Iran's judicial and law enforcement
officials as well as the country's Drug Control Headquarters.
The latest version of the bill, like Iran???s current anti-narcotics law,
maintains the death penalty for a wide range of drug trafficking offences based
on the quantity and type of drugs seized. However, it proposes to increase the
quantities of drugs required for imposing the death penalty.
Under Iran's current laws, the death penalty is imposed for trafficking more
than 30g of heroin, morphine, cocaine or their chemical derivatives or more
than 5kg of bhang, cannabis or opium. The proposed law increases this quantity
to 2kg for heroin, morphine, cocaine or their chemical derivatives and more
than 50 kg for bhang, cannabis or opium.
"Though this law, if implemented properly, may contribute to a drop in the
number of executions, it will still condemn scores of people every year to the
gallows for offences that must never attract the death penalty under
international law," said Magdalena Mughrabi.
"The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and its use is
abhorrent in any situation. The choice between life or death should not come
down to a crude mathematical calculation based on a quantity of drugs seized
from an individual," said Roya Boroumand.
Amnesty International and Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation call on the
international community, particularly the EU, to urge Iran to amend the bill to
abolish the death penalty for all drug-related offences. The Iranian
authorities must move towards a criminal justice system that is focused on
rehabilitation and treats prisoners humanely.
Background:
Amnesty International has collaborated with Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation to
record Iran's execution figures. As of 26 July 2017, Amnesty International and
Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation have recorded 319 executions, including 183
for drug-relatedoffences. In 2016, at least 567 people were executed, of which
328 were for drug-related offences.
Efforts to amend Iran's anti-Narcotics law first began in 2015, when 70 members
of parliament proposed a bill to abolish the death penalty for all drug-related
offences except those involving armed trafficking. This bill was halted after
it was deemed unconstitutional. In 2016, efforts to amend the legislation were
renewed. These culminated in a draft bill finalized in April 2017, which
proposed replacing the death penalty with up to 30 years' imprisonment for all
drug-related offences, except those that: involved the use of arms; involved
the recruitment of under 18-year-olds; or were committed by the leader of an
organized criminal network or an individual who had been previously sentenced
to death, or more than 15 years in prison.
Although this version of the bill still fell short of Iran's international
human rights obligations, it raised great hopes that the number of people
sentenced to death and executed every year for drug-related offences would be
significantly reduced.
(source: Amnesty International)
INDONESIA:
Indonesia ombudsman finds rights violations in execution of Nigerian
The office of Indonesia's ombudsman has unearthed evidence of rights violations
in the execution of a Nigerian drug convict in 2016, an official said on
Friday.
Humphrey Jefferson was still seeking clemency from President Joko Widodo at the
time of his execution, which meant he still had a chance of being pardoned,
said Ninik Rahayu, an official of the ombudsman's office who is overseeing the
case.
Mr. Jefferson, sentenced to death in 2004, had also sought a second judicial
review of his case by the Supreme Court, but his request was denied by the
Central Jakarta court without proper explanation, Rahayu said, in what she
called maladministration.
If the court had taken on Mr. Jefferson's case, his execution would have had to
be delayed until its final verdict.
"When one is given the death penalty, all of the procedures must be done
according to the laws," Rahayu told reporters at her office.
"The rights of the person must be fully met before his sentence is carried out.
You can't bring back the dead to life."
Rahayu also said the Attorney General's office, responsible for conducting the
execution, had not followed rules requiring it to give Mr. Jefferson and his
family 72 hours' notice of the event.
The execution was done according to law, said Muhammad Rum, a spokesman for the
Attorney General's office.
Telephone calls to the Central Jakarta court to seek comment were not answered.
A Supreme Court spokesman, Judge Suhadi, who goes by one name like many
Indonesians, did not comment on the specific case but said the court did not
generally grant a 2nd review.
Mr. Jefferson, 2 other Nigerians and an Indonesian were the only prisoners to
face the firing squad on July 29 last year, from a group of 14 picked
initially.
The delay was due to a "comprehensive review", said Attorney General H.
Muhammad Prasetyo.
The executions were the 2nd round under Widodo, whose predecessor, Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, imposed a moratorium on the death penalty.
Many international bodies and foreign governments have urged Indonesia to
pardon those on death row. They have also called on Indonesia to abolish
capital punishment, but the calls have gone unheeded.
Widodo has told law enforcement officers not to hesitate in shooting drug
traffickers who resist arrest in the war on drugs.
The ombudsman's office has given government bodies 60 days to respond to its
findings. But its limited powers mean it can only take its recommendations to
Widodo in cases of failure to respond.
Mr. Jefferson's lawyer, Ricky Gunawan, said he planned to use the ombudsman's
findings to file a civil lawsuit against the office of the attorney-general,
seeking compensation for his client.
"We call on the Attorney General's office to stop the preparation of any future
death execution ... and treat the convicts with respect and have their rights
fulfilled," Gunawan said.
(sources: Reuters/NAN)
JAPAN:
Death penalty to stand for woman convicted of murdering 2 men
The death sentence given to a woman convicted of murdering 2 men in the western
Japan prefecture of Tottori in 2009 is set to be finalized after the Supreme
Court upheld lower court rulings Thursday.
The top court said in its ruling that the defendant carried out the
premeditated and "cruel crimes based on firm intentions to kill" and she bears
"grave criminal responsibility."
According to the lower court rulings, Miyuki Ueta, a 43-year-old former bar
worker, drugged truck driver Kazumi Yabe, 47, and drowned him in the sea in
April 2009 and she drugged and drowned in a river electronics store owner
Hideki Maruyama, 57, in October of the same year.
Ueta, who owed money to both victims, maintained her innocence and the verdicts
were based mainly on circumstantial evidence, including that Ueta was the last
person to meet with the men before they went missing and she obtained sleeping
pills beforehand.
(source: Japan Today)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi Arabia's top court upholds 14 Shias' death penalty
Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences handed down to 14
Shia nationals amid the Riyadh regime's heavy-handed crackdown on pro-democracy
activists from the minority population, a report says.
The Saudi Okaz newspaper reported on Thursday that the 14 men were among 24
people convicted last year of carrying out attacks on police stations in the
town of Awamiyah and the city of Seihat, both situated in the Qatif region of
the Shia-dominated Eastern Province.
9 other members of the so-called "Awamiyah Cell" were also sentenced to prison
terms ranging from 3 to 15 years and 1 was cleared of the charges.
The ruling by the top court is final and will be carried out after it is
approved by King Salman.
The Okaz newspaper also reported that the Specialist Penal Appeals Court had
upheld the death sentences against 15 people convicted of allegedly spying for
Iran.
The case would be referred to the Supreme Court for a last decision.
Saudi Justice Ministry and court officials have not commented on the rulings.
Earlier this week, rights activists and family members of the so-called
"Awamiyah Cell" said the defendants had been transferred to the Saudi capital
Riyadh, a sign that they would face imminent execution.
"The sentences were based on confessions that the accused had retracted in
court, because they were taken by pressure and torture," a Saudi rights
activist, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
On Monday, Amnesty International urged the Saudi king not to ratify the death
sentences of the 14 Shia Muslims, saying, "King Salman's signature is now all
that stands between them and their execution."
Amnesty's director of campaigns for the Middle-East, Samah Hadid, said the
death penalties were the result of "sham court proceedings that brazenly flout
international fair trial standards."
"By confirming these sentences Saudi Arabia's authorities have displayed their
ruthless commitment to the use of the death penalty as a weapon to crush
dissent and neutralize political opponents," she added.
At least 66 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of
2017, including 26 in the past three weeks alone.
Since February 2011, Saudi Arabia has stepped up security measures in Eastern
Province, which has been rocked by anti-regime demonstrations, with protesters
demanding free speech, the release of political prisoners, and an end to
economic and religious discrimination.
The government has suppressed pro-democracy movements, but they have
intensified since January 2016 when Saudi Arabia executed respected Shia
cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
(source: presstv.ir)
ISRAEL:
Netanyahu seeks death penalty for settler attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling for the death penalty for
a Palestinian man who sneaked into a West Bank settlement home last week and
killed 3 Israelis.
Netanyahu on Thursday visited the family of the 3 Israelis stabbed to death and
said that "the time has come for the death penalty for terrorists in extreme
cases."
Though Israeli law permits the death penalty, the Israeli government has only
put one person to death: Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, in 1962.
Netanyahu says his position in the case of the 19-year-old Palestinian
attacker, who was wounded by an off-duty soldier during Friday night's attack,
"is that he needs to be put to death."
Several members of Netanyahu's cabinet issued similar calls in the week since
the attack.
(source: Associated Press)
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