August 14
SAUDI ARABIA:
Death sentences of Shiites point to limits of Saudi reforms
Saudi Arabia's new crown prince hopes to transform the kingdom and modernize
society, but the planned execution of 14 Shiite protesters charged with
violence against security forces suggests the government's handling of
sectarian tensions and unrest remains unchanged.
The country's supreme court recently upheld the death penalty in the case,
raising concerns among rights activists that the group could be executed at any
moment.
Human rights groups allege the trial was unfair, saying the defendants'
confessions were extracted under duress and that some did not have lawyers
present in court. 3 of the defendants were 17 years old when the alleged crimes
were committed.
A defense lawyer contacted by The Associated Press declined to speak, saying he
is officially barred from talking about the case with the media.
The mother of one of the defendants said her son's lawyer was pressured to quit
his defense and so withdrew from the trial, leaving her son to represent
himself.
"He had to defend himself and answer his own questions in court," said Zahra
Abdullah, the mother of defendant Munir al-Adam. "I am demanding either a just
trial or their release," she added. "To issue the death penalty for protests
isn't right."
Also facing execution is Mujtaba al-Sweikat, a young Saudi man who had been
accepted to attend Western Michigan University before his arrest. The American
Federation of Teachers, which says it represents 1.6 million members
nationwide, is urging President Donald Trump to demand that Saudi Arabia halt
the executions.
In response to the outcry, the Saudi Justice Ministry issued a rare statement
defending its judicial process and the verdicts. It said the 14 were convicted
of "terrorist crimes" that included killing civilians and security officers.
The ministry said the group received a fair trial, and that three different
courts and a total of 13 judges examined the case. The ministry said severe
punishment is handed down only in cases where the most dangerous crimes are
committed. Iranian protesters hold portraits of Nimr al-Nimr at a demonstration
against his execution by Saudi authorities, outside the Saudi embassy in
Tehran.
Abdullah says her son took part in protests to demand equality and greater
rights. Among the charges he faced were throwing rocks at police and firing on
a police checkpoint. She says her son denies the charge of firing on police.
Scholars of Islamic law, or Shariah, hold vastly different views on the
application of the death penalty. Under the kingdom's interpretation of
Shariah, judges have wide discretion to rule and hand down death sentences for
lethal as well as non-lethal offenses.
The kingdom has one of the highest rates of execution in the world. Last year,
47 people were executed on one day, including a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric
convicted for his role in violent protests. The cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, denied
the charges of sedition. His supporters say he was punished for being an
outspoken government critic and a key leader of the Shiite protests in eastern
Saudi Arabia in 2011 and 2012.
The group of 14 were charged for their role in those same protests.
Reprieve, an advocacy group that opposes the death penalty, said it has
established that at least one of the defendants was never permitted to see a
lawyer. In al-Adam's case, no evidence against him was presented at trial, said
Reprieve.
Activists say there is growing cause for concern after the kingdom executed
four Shiites in July convicted on charges of terrorism for their role in the
same protests and violence with security forces.
On Friday, 10 Nobel Peace Prize winners appealed to King Salman and his son,
the crown prince, to halt the executions.
Human Rights Watch says that if Saudi Arabia's new leadership is serious about
reform, "they should immediately step in to stop these executions." In a joint
statement, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said the rise in death
sentences against Shiites in Saudi Arabia "is alarming and suggests that the
authorities are using the death penalty to settle scores and crush dissent
under the guise of combating 'terrorism.'"
Underpinning much of these tensions is a region-wide rivalry between Sunni-led
Saudi Arabia and Shiite-led Iran. Al-Nimr's execution led to a severing of
ties.
In sermons and on Twitter, Saudi Arabia's ultraconservative clerics refer to
Shiites as "rafida," an Arabic slur for "rejectionists." They condemn Shiite
rituals, like praying at the tombs of revered figures, as an aberration of
Islam and accuse Shiites of being faithful to hard-line clerics in theocratic
Iran.
Saudi Shiites, who are a minority in the kingdom but make up the bulk of the
population in the kingdom's eastern region, have been targeted by extremists in
recent years. A number of bombings have struck Shiites mosques in the east.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was elevated as heir to the throne
in late June, has fashioned himself as a modernizer. He's set out lofty goals
for the kingdom to achieve by 2030, promising a dramatic shake-up, but has
given no indication he is willing to address Shiite grievances.
Prince Mohammed raised eyebrows during an interview in May when he framed his
country's rivalry with Iran in sectarian terms, saying there could be no
dialogue with Iran because it is trying to spread a messianic Shiite doctrine.
Nowhere are sectarian tensions in Saudi Arabia more visible than in the eastern
town of al-Awamiya, the hometown of al-Nimr, the executed cleric.
Around 2 dozen people, including security forces and local militants, have been
killed there this year there. Violence spiked in May after the government began
demolishing the city's historic center, including hundreds of homes. The
government says the area was being used to provide cover for wanted criminals.
Among those killed in the unrest is a three year-old boy who died last week.
Residents in al-Awamiya say he was shot by Saudi security forces while in the
backseat of a car.
Abdullah says her son was 18 years old at the time of his arrest. He'd found
work at a factory outside al-Awamiya and had dropped out of school because the
family was struggling financially. He complained there were no jobs, even for
college graduates.
"As Shiites we have been targeted for a long time. There is no equality. All
the government posts and influential positions are not for us," she said.
(source: cnbc.com)
PAKISTAN:
Mercy petition
Sir, last week the Presidency of Pakistan has accepted the 2nd mercy petition
of death row convict Muhammad Iqbal who was a juvenile at the commission of an
offence. For the time being his execution has been stayed until the final
disposal of the mercy petition. His trial was concluded in 1999 and his appeal
to Lahore High Court was dismissed in 2002. He has been languishing in jail for
18 years. The President of Pakistan has sent his 2nd mercy petition to the
Ministry of Interior for further action. It is not out of place to mention that
his 1st mercy petition was dismissed by the President some months. This is the
1st that the President of Pakistan has accepted the 2nd mercy petition sent by
a 3rd party who was neither his counsel nor his relative. His 2nd mercy
petition was sent by a citizen of Pakistan by virtue of Article 45 of the
Constitution of Pakistan, 1973. Article 45 of the Constitution doesn't debar
filing of a 2nd mercy petition. The President of Pakistan has accepted the
mercy petition on humanitarian grounds however; the 1st mercy petition was
dismissed on merits by the office of President. His death warrants were issued
this year 30th June and Iqbal was set to send to gallows.
When Iqbal stood trial in 1999 his age was less than 18 years and this fact was
determined through ossification test but then there was no legislation in
Pakistan that debarred awarding of death sentence. However Pakistan was a party
to UN Convention on Child Rights that directed its signatory countries not to
award death sentence to juveniles. Juvenile Justice System 2000 was promulgated
after the conclusion of Iqbal's trial that prohibited awarding of death
sentence to juveniles. In 2001 the then President of Pakistan issued a
notification directing to the courts of Pakistan not to award death sentence to
juveniles subject to determination of their age.
The accepted of Iqbal's 2nd mercy petition has enhanced the image of Pakistan
around the world in a positive manner. Pakistan had already executed 2
juveniles in 2014 and 2015 because of Pakistan had to save immense level of
criticism. As we know that the death penalty is medieval times punishment that
has no space in modern era because it undermines human dignity. This punishment
must be abolished for all sorts of offences. Pakistan cannot afford to have
this punishment in her criminal justice system.
SARMAD ALI
Lahore
(source: Letter to the Editor, Daily Times)
CHINA:
Chinese police act against illicit meat trade
A suspected illegal meat distribution in the northern suburban Changping
District of Beijing was raided by the police over the weekend. A total of 34
dogs of various breeds were confiscated, including 1 with an identification
chip.
Yangfang Township police worked with local animal welfare groups to rescue
animals and took them to a municipal shelter.
According to surveys and media reports over the past two years, the dog and cat
meat trade has developed into a well-segmented industry that consists of
stealing, collecting, shipping, slaughtering and selling of the final products
such as meat and fur.
As public concerns grew over the whereabouts of the unquarantined animal
products and its potential threat to food safety, China's law enforcement has
been battling against the illicit dog and cat meat trade nationwide.
NATIONWIDE EFFORT TO END ILLEGAL TRADE CHAIN
Earlier this month, the police closed down a holding site for stolen pet dogs
in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China. More than 30
dogs were handed over to Qiming Animal Protection Center - a local charity -
where they were reunited with their owners or adopted.
The charity's executives told Xinhua that the site was well-known as a
depository for stolen pets before killing the animals and selling the meat.
In July, a truckload of 200 cats and more than 100 dogs was intercepted by the
police in Zhuzhou, in the central province of Hunan. The driver was fined 2,000
yuan (300 dollars).
On August 7, a group of 24 suspected dog thieves were prosecuted in Anhui
Province, eastern China for producing and selling toxic or hazardous food,
theft and hiding or concealing the proceeds, said the prosecutor's statement.
According to Chinese law, those producing and selling toxic or hazardous food
can face the death penalty. Stealing pets and working animals, as well as
unlicensed keeping of dogs of unknown origins are felonies.
Unlawful practices involved in the meat trade such as trading, transporting,
butchering unquarantined animals and processing and commercializing of the
meat, are being tackled by various law enforcement departments including
husbandry quarantine, food safety supervision and market regulators.
STRENGTHENING LAWS AND REGULATIONS
From food safety to social stability, every link in the illegal meat trade
chain breaks the law, said An Xiang, co-founder of Beijing Dexiang Law Firm.
In 2015, a new Food Safety Law came into force, establishing higher standards
for ensuring public health and safety.
Consuming illegal dog and cat meat could bring severe health risks, said Dr.
Liu Lang, of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Association of Veterinarians
of China.
In June, the Ministry of Agriculture decided to improve quarantine provisions
regarding dogs and cats and tighten certification to combat the undocumented
transport of unquarantined animals.
The Ministry said it will improve quarantine in response to a national
legislator's suggestion on ending this kind of meat trade.
(source: xinhuanet.com)
THAILAND:
Capital punishment not an effective deterrent, say experts
WITH increasing public concern regarding repeat criminal offenders, critics and
experts have been divided as to what approach would deter former convicts from
committing crimes again after being released from jail.
Many public members - often angry with perpetrators of high-profile crimes
including rape-murder or mass killing - have called for execution of convicted
offenders, instead of life imprisonment or lengthy jail sentences.
However, there is a consensus among experts in criminology and the justice
system that harsh penalties like life imprisonment and capital punishment have
been proven ineffective at deterring repeat crimes, a recent seminar heard.
The seminar, entitled "The role of probation in tackling the problem of repeat
criminal offences", was organised by the Department of Probation earlier this
month.
Law professor Prathan Watanavanich, an expert in criminology and justice
procedures, citing findings of a research study, said that imprisonment was not
an effective deterrent to prevent crimes.
Severe penalties had "only a little deterring effect" on criminals, Prathan
noted.
"Also, there has been no proof that capital punishment can deter prospective
perpetrators of murders," Prathan said, citing statistics collected over the
past 5 decades.
He said the study found that the certainty of getting arrested was "very
effective" in deterring people from committing crimes.
"The certainty of getting arrested is a deterrent that is even more powerful
than getting punished," the law professor concluded.
Prathan said this finding could be applied to a current problem: Many convicts
on probation or parole have not been punished for breaking the conditions of
their early release. The problem, he said, is parole officers have no power to
arrest people for breaking parole conditions.
The expert suggested that parole officers should be empowered to make arrests
in such cases.
"Importantly, we need to make people know that they will get arrested for
committing offences, and they will be rearrested for breaking the conditions
for their early release," Prathan said.
"If that can be put into practice, we will see a decline in repeat crime
offenders."
Public Prosecutor Uthai Athivej said the idea of getting rid of repeat crime
offenders from society was "too harsh", and that in practice capital punishment
had been unable to deter repeat offences.
Judge Supakit Yaempracha suggested that criminal offenders should be properly
classified and dealt with, both while they served their time in jail and after
their release. This approach should help prevent repeat crimes, he said.
Central Investigation Bureau commander Pol Lt-General Thitiraj Nongharnpitak
said Thailand has no effective measures to prevent former convicts from
committing crimes again.
"Over the past 3 years, about 300,000 inmates have been released - some 7,000
of them sex-related offenders. Thai society still has no effective measures to
monitor this group of people," he said.
The police officer suggested a system to screen convicts before their release
so that authorities could determine who should be monitored for possible repeat
offences.
(source: nationmultimedia.com)
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