Nov. 15
PAKISTAN:
Over 80 pc of those hanged are ordinary criminals, not jet black terrorists:
Babar
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar on Tuesday called for a wide-ranging national
debate involving all stratas of society, including political parties, lawyers,
religious scholars, intellectuals, media persons and academia, on awarding
death penalty in a broken justice system and the laws heavily tilted in favor
of the rich and powerful.
Addressing a seminar on 'Trial and Terror' organised by the Justice Project of
Pakistan in a local hotel where a report was launched, he said terrorists had
refused to be deterred by death penalty. He said the rich and powerful
manipulated the Qisas law to get away with murder and only the poor were
hanged. He said 3 years since the lifting of moratorium on executions it was
time to assess the net result of application of anti-terror laws, the military
courts, Regulation in Aid of Civil Power and Guantanamo Bay type prisons for
fighting terrorism.
"Nearly 500 have been executed during the last 3 years, over 80 % of them were
ordinary criminals and not jet black terrorists as promised at the time of
(forming) military courts," he said.
He said in a security-driven state, welfare and rights of people mattered
little. "Our rush to carry out executions is a reaffirmation of the truth that
a state that does not care about people's lives is least concerned about how
they died," he said. He said recently 2 brothers were acquitted of murder by
the Supreme Court after nearly 15 years on death row but only after they had
already been executed and no one in the criminal justice chain knowing about
it.
He asked scholars how they rationalised such gross miscarriage of justice with
the insistence that moratorium on executions was against the religion. He said
that according to scholars, Islam called for death penalty in only 2 offences
but today 27 offences in Pakistan carried death penalty. "There is no reason
why we should not revisit the offences that carry death penalty," he said.
He said the implementation of Action on Aid of Civil Administration Regulation
2011 was another worrisome area. "The regulation was given back-dated effect
from 2008 to enable the security agencies to conduct open trial of those in
their custody for years in PATA (provincially administered areas) of KP," he
said.
However, Senator Farhatullah Babar said today, no one knows how many internment
centers had been set up for keeping them, how many inmates were there, what
were charges, how many had died and whether and how many were being tried for
what crimes and in which courts. He aid these internment centres had become
like little Guantanamo Bay prisons, black hole for the inmates and no-go areas
even for the judiciary and parliament.
(source: thenews.com.pk)
INDIA:
Karnataka High Court upholds death penalty imposed on 'cyanide' Mohan Kumar
The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday confirmed the death penalty imposed on
'cyanide' Mohan Kumar on the charges of murdering one Sunanda of Sulya in
Dakshina Kannada district.
The division bench of Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice John Michael Cunha
upheld the death penalty imposed by the trial court on December 21, 2013, as
the allegations had been proved.
According to the prosecution, Mohan Kumar befriended Sunanda (28), daughter of
Rathnavathi, in January 2008. After few days, he took her to Mysuru on the
pretext of marrying her and murdered her by administering cyanide at a lodge in
Mysuru.
Sunanda was found dead on February 12, 2008.
(source: New Indian Express)
NORTH KOREA:
Donald Trump 'deserves death penalty' for insulting Kim Jong-un, says North
Korean state media----President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have exchanged
increasingly personal attacks
North Korea's state media has said Donald Trump deserves the death penalty for
insulting the country's leader Kim Jong-un.
An editorial in the ruling party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, focused its anger on
US President's visit to South Korea last week, during which he denounced the
North's "cruel dictatorship" in a speech to legislators in Seoul.
The visit was part of a marathon 5-nation Asia tour by Mr Trump aimed largely
at galvanising regional opposition to North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions.
"The worst crime for which he can never be pardoned is that he dared [to]
malignantly hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership," the editorial said.
"He should know that he is just a hideous criminal sentenced to death by the
Korean people," it added.
The members of the ruling Kim dynasty - past and present - enjoy near god-like
status in North Korea, which has demonstrated extreme sensitivity to any remark
that might be seen as mocking or disrespectful of the leadership.
Since becoming president, Mr Trump has engaged in an escalating war of words
with Kim Jong-Un, trading personal insults and threats of military strikes.
The ad hominem attacks between the leaders have come amid rising tension in the
region of over the hermit state's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
North Korea has carried out a series intercontinental ballistic missile tests
in recent months and detonated what it claimed to be a hydrogen bomb earlier
this year.
Towards the end of his Asia tour, Mr Trump sent a tweet from Hanoi taunting the
North Korean leader over his height and weight.
"Why would Kim Jong-Un insult me by calling me 'old,' when I would NEVER call
him 'short and fat'?" he tweeted. In the past the President has also referred
to Mr Kim as ???little rocket man??? in his tweets.
The North Korean leader has also returned the personal invective, calling Mr
Trump, who is 40 years his senior, a "mentally deranged US dotard" last month.
The word dotard is an antiquated term defined as "an old person, especially one
who has become weak or senile".
(source: Agence France-Presse)
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