July 31
MALAYSIA:
Property agent sent to the gallows for drug trafficking
A woman could not hold back her tears at the High Court here today when her son
Hari Singh Kanda was sentenced to the gallows for trafficking 32.3 gramme of
heroin and 18.1 gramme of monoacetylmorphine last year.
The mother, who sat at the court's public gallery was calm when Judicial
Commissioner Datuk Mohamad Shariff Abu Samah read out his judgement after
hearing submissions from both defendant and prosecution team today.
However, the woman in her 50s, burst into tear after Shariff meted out the
sentence against the 25-year-old property agent after reading the 131-pages of
judgement sheet.
Hari Singh, clad in a grey shirt, put up a calm demeanor and several people,
believed to be his family members and friends, got up and hugged him after the
proceeding.
He was charged under Section 39(B)(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which
carries the death penalty upon conviction.
Shariff said the defendant had failed to raise reasonable doubt in the
prosecution's case.
"I am satisfied that the testimonies from 10 prosecution's witnesses were true.
"I do not believe that the accused was a victim or that he was framed by the
police," he said.
Shariff said the accused had indeed held a red plastic bag which contained the
contraband item (drugs).
"The police seized the red plastic bag from his right hand," he added.
The accused represented by lawyers Datuk Geethan Ram Vincent and Datuk Rajpal
Singh when pleaded for lenience sentence said it was the 1st offence committed
by their client.
The court then allowed a stay of execution pending an appeal at the Court of
Appeal.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ahmad Nazneen Zulkifli prosecuted.
(source: New Straits Times)
JAPAN:
Efforts continue to achieve hanged killer's final wish
Efforts to achieve the final wish of a serial killer continue even 20 years
after his execution, with around 200 people gathering for a charity event on
Saturday in Tokyo to raise money for underprivileged children.
The main speaker of the event commemorating Norio Nagayama, who was hanged on
Aug. 1, 1997, for the murder of 4 people in 1968 at the age of 19, was
Yoshihiro Ishikawa, a psychiatrist.
Based on his experience of performing mental evaluations on Nagayama, Ishikawa
said, "He could not develop his personality in the face of multiple
posttraumatic stress disorders."
Born into an extremely poor family, Nagayama was abandoned by his mother at age
5, left in a bleak house in the middle of winter. He also had to overcome both
an abusive brother and the death of his gambling-addict father whose life ended
in destitution.
Despite a patchy school record, he completed his junior high school studies in
a rural northeastern town and in 1965 moved to Tokyo at a time when Japan was
experiencing an era of high economic growth.
"Nagayama worked hard to change from a miserable boy into someone else,"
Ishikawa said. "But he could not make friends and fell into loneliness, while
his PTSD left him exhausted."
Following his arrest for the serial murders, Nagayama published several books,
including a best-selling autobiography "Tears of Ignorance" and an
award-winning novel.
He donated his book royalties to some of his victims' bereaved families, and he
asked before his death that the royalties would also be used to support poor
children around the world.
Responding to the request, his lawyers and volunteers established the Nagayama
Children Fund to manage the money and organize a charity event every year
around the anniversary of his execution to raise even more money. The first
charity event was held in 2004.
Up to 2016, the group had collected more than 21 million yen and distributed it
mainly to fund scholarships for children in Peru.
"Nagayama wanted to know why he had been driven to commit the crime through a
psychiatric examination so similar crimes would not be repeated, and he was
aware of the necessity of providing sufficient education to children," Ishikawa
said at the 14th edition of the event. "His last words reflect this wish."
Nagayama was initially sentenced to death, but the Tokyo High Court commuted
the ruling to a life sentence, arguing the government should also take some
blame for its failure to rescue him from his desperate situation.
Kyoko Otani, his defense lawyer who heads the Nagayama Children Fund, told the
event, "I think the high court decision depended on the findings of the
psychiatric evaluation by Mr. Ishikawa."
The Supreme Court, however, ordered a retrial, which eventually led the high
court to reverse the life imprisonment decision and reinstate the death
sentence which was finalized in 1990.
The event was held at a time when debates over Japan's use of the death penalty
has drawn public attention, with the hanging of two death-row inmates on July
13 bringing further focus.
1 inmate was seeking a retrial while the other withdrew an appeal, filed by his
defense lawyers following the 1st trial.
On the latest executions, Yoshihiro Yasuda, a lawyer leading the campaign
against the death penalty, said that the hanging of an inmate seeking a retrial
breaches Article 32 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right of access
to the court.
"Some former death row inmates were exonerated in postwar Japan after their
pleas for retrial had been rejected several times," Yasuda told a recent public
gathering in Tokyo. "Executions terminate such a development."
He also emphasized the need to introduce a system under which capital cases are
automatically and thoroughly examined at three levels -- lower, high and top
courts -- even if the accused no longer wants to fight.
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has called for the abolition of
capital punishment by 2020, given that more than 2/3 of the world's nations
have abolished the death penalty by law or in practice.
(source: Japan Today)
SOMALIA:
Military court sentences Somali Minister's killer to death again
The High Court of Somali military has sentenced a government soldier to death
for killing Minister of Public Works, Abas Siraji in Mogadishu on last May,
Garowe Online reports.
The convicted soldier identified as Ahmed Abdullahi Abdi (Aideed), 29, has
appealed against the a death penalty sentence he had been given by the first
degree court in June 19.
Abdi who was a bodyguard for former Auditor General Nur Farah Jimale has been
accused of killing the country's youngest Minister at a security checkpoint
near the Presidential Palace in Mogadishu.
Lawyers representing the soldier say he mistook the Minister, who was in his
vehicle, for a militant Islamist trying to kill Jimale in drive-by shooting,
after he found the movements of the car to be suspicious.
Speaking to reporters in Mogadishu, Liban Ali Yarow, the Chief Judge of
Somalia's Military Court has announced the verdict, saying the soldier has
pleaded guilty after evidence and sentenced to death.
At 31, Abas became Somalia's youngest-ever member of Parliament last November,
before becoming the Minister of Public Works and Reconstruction earlier this
year. The Minister's death caused shock and anger at the time.
(source: garoweonline.com)
IRAN:
Iranian parliament receive law meant to spare 5,000 drug smugglers
A bill making its way through the Iranian parliament could spare 5,000
convicted drug smugglers from the death penalty, the ILNA news agency reported
on Monday.
"As soon as the new drug law is passed, the death sentence of more than 5,000
prisoners could be converted into prison sentences," said Hassan Norouzi, a
spokesman for parliament.
Mr. Norouzi said lawmakers are still reviewing the draft legislation, and it
will not be in its final form until after they return from summer recess.
Scepticism has grown in Iran over the effectiveness of the death penalty in
deterring drug smuggling, with government reports showing it has had no impact
on reducing the volume and variety of drugs in Iran.
Instead, many are calling for long prison sentences combined with forced
labour.
Iran has one of the highest execution rates in the world. Amnesty International
says 319 people have been put to death this year, including 183 for
drug-related offences.
The human rights group said the legislation does not go far enough in reducing
the scope of crimes eligible for the death penalty.
"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," said Magdalena Mughrabi.
(source: premiumtimesng.com)
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