March 22
JAPAN:
Death penalty for ex-caregiver for killing elderly
A court in Japan has sentenced a former care worker to death for killing 3
elderly residents at a nursing home in Kawasaki, near Tokyo.
Yokohama District Court on Thursday found 25-year-old Hayato Imai guilty of
murdering the 3 victims by pushing them from the balconies of their rooms.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty in the trial.
The 3 residents all died in 2014. They were an 87-year-old man and 2 women,
aged 86 and 96.
The judges in the trial ruled that the victims would have been physically
incapable of climbing over the balcony railings by themselves. They ruled out
the possibility that the deaths were suicides or accidents.
The ruling also rejected the possibility that other staff members had committed
the crimes.
The judges added that Imai's confession during police interrogation, in which
he admitted to killing the 3 people, was credible.
Imai's lawyer had maintained that he was not guilty, pointing out the lack of
objective evidence, and arguing that the deaths could have been suicides or
accidents.
The lawyer also claimed that Imai's confession was coerced, and has filed an
appeal against the ruling to a higher court.
(source: nhk.or.jp)
BANGLADESH:
HC bench assigned to hear appeals in 10-truck arms haul case
Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain has recently assigned a High Court bench to
hear and dispose of the death reference and appeals in sensational 10-truck
arms haul case in which 14 people, including former ministers were sentenced to
death.
The bench of Justice Bhabani Prasad Singha and Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam may
fix a date on Sunday for starting hearing on the death reference and appeals,
court sources said.
If a lower court sentences any person to death in a case, its judgment is
examined by the HC through hearing arguments for confirmation of the death
sentence. The case documents and judgment reaches as death reference to the HC
from the lower court in 7 days after the latter delivers the verdict.
12 death-row convicts out of total 14 in the 10 truck-arms haul case have filed
separate appeals with the HC challenging the trial court verdict against them.
In the appeals, they prayed to the HC to acquit them of the charges, according
to the sources.
On January 30, 2014, the Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1 handed down
the death penalty to 14 people, former minister and Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Motiur
Rahman Nizami and former BNP state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar for
smuggling 10 truckloads of firearms in 2004.
The 14 convicts were also given life term imprisonment in another case filed
for possessing illegal firearms.
Nizami was executed on May 11, 2016 after the Supreme Court upheld his death
penalty for committing crimes against humanity during the country???s
Liberation War in 1971.
Meanwhile, another HC bench of Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim and Justice Md
Jahangir Hossain is set on Sunday to start hearing the death reference and
appeals in another sensational case filed for attempting to assassinate Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina by planting a bomb weighing 76kg in Gopalganj's
Kotalipara in July 2000.
A Dhaka court on August 20 last year sentenced 10 leaders and activists of
Harkatul Jihad al-Islami to death, 1 to life imprisonment and 3 to 14 years'
imprisonment in the case.
7 of the convicts have filed separate appeals with the HC challenging the trial
court verdict on them, court sources said.
(source: The Daily Star)
ZIMBABWE:
Zimbabwe President ED Mnangagwa Releases Thousands From Prison
ED Mnangagwa is commuting death sentences for some prisoners and releasing
thousands of people from prison, including most women and everyone under age
18.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa's announcement Wednesday is an effort to ease
overcrowded prisons. He has said he is against the death penalty because he
once survived hanging when the southern African nation was still colonial
Rhodesia.
Nearly 100 people are on death row in the country of 13 million. Those on it
for at least a decade are having their sentences commuted to life in prison.
Zimbabwe's last execution was in 2005, partly because no one was willing to be
the hangman.
All women except those serving life sentences are being freed. Also freed are
prisoners who are disabled or terminally ill and those sentenced to life before
Feb. 28, 1998.
About 3,000 prisoners are expected to benefit, said prison deputy
commissioner-general Alford Mashango Dube. He said the current prison
population is about 20,000 and capacity is 17,000.
Zimbabwe's former leader Robert Mugabe in November said he was considering
resuming executions. But weeks later Mnangagwa took power with the military's
assistance after factional fighting within the ruling party.
(source: pazimbabwe.com)
INDONESIA/SAUDI ARABIA:
20 Indonesians on Saudi Death Row, 5 Charged with Witchcraft
The Indonesian Foreign Ministry's civil protection director, Lalu Muhammad
Iqbal, revealed that there are at least 20 Indonesians that face the death
penalty in Saudi Arabia for various allegations.
Reports state that 15 of them are accused of murder charges while the other 5
are charged with sorcery accusations under Saudi Arabia's witchcraft law.
"[The witchcraft law] does not exist in our Constitution, but suspects of this
type of case have a chance to be pardoned by the King. We have accompanied the
Indonesians accused of murder charges since the beginning and we have acquired
all of their records," said Muhammad Iqbal on Wednesday, March 21.
Furthermore, Iqbal explained that 2 people that are charged with murder have
entered their legal proceeding's critical phase. It involves 2 Indonesian
citizens Tuty Tursilawati and Eti binti Toyib, both who were indicted in 2011
before the government's citizen protection was still weak which presented
difficulties for the Indonesian government to provide assistance.
The House of Representatives (DPR) Indonesian workers (TKI) supervisory team
leader Fahri Hamzah urges the government to establish a stronger national data
system that can thoroughly protect Indonesian workers overseas.
Meanwhile, Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri said that the Indonesian government
has conducted several diplomatic and non-diplomatic approaches towards the
Saudi Arabian government in an attempt to free the Indonesians that are
currently on death row.
(source: tempo.co)
SINGAPORE:
Singapore's Claim That the Death Penalty Works for Drug Offences Is Fake News
Singapore claims to have nearly eliminated drug use and crime thanks to capital
punishment - but the data tells a very different story.
Speaking before the country's parliament, Singapore's minister for home
affairs, K. Shanmugam, extolled the country's success in fighting drugs. He
attributed these results to Singapore's harsh drug laws, which include the use
of capital punishment.
It may seem surprising to the uninitiated that Singapore has the death penalty
for drug crimes. But, as the minister said: "Our penalties are severe because
we want to deter such offences".
Singapore is one of a tiny number of countries classified by Harm Reduction
International (HRI) as "high application" states in the use of capital
punishment for drugs. This means that death sentences and executions are a
regular part of the criminal justice system. Indeed, there have been 2
executions for drug offences just this month, killings which were condemned by
UN human rights officials.
The idea that harsh drug laws such as the death penalty are effective is one
actively promoted by Singapore. And it is a belief now allegedly being adopted
by US president Donald Trump. Given Trump's notorious concern with what he
considers "fake news", it is somewhat surprising he has embraced one of the
more dubious claims in global drug control - the myth that Singapore's harsh
penalties have nearly eliminated drug use and drug crime.
The Singapore myth
Singapore consistently claims that it has one of the lowest rates of drug use
in the world. Yet the government does not publish reliable data on drug use,
making this statement impossible to independently verify.
As far back as 2008, the reference group to the United Nations on HIV and
injecting drug use found Singapore to be one of the only countries in Asia
without reliable data on rates of drug injecting. More recently in 2016, HRI
published its global state of harm reduction, which similarly found almost no
reliable data on levels of drug use in Singapore.
Instead, the government typically cites information from the world drug report,
published annually by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). However, rather
than being independently produced, this report reflects data provided by
governments.
This practice - which I have long referred to as data laundering - puts a UN
seal of legitimacy on Singaporean government data that is at best unverified,
and at worst politically expedient. UNODC admits that the vast disparity in
data quality and collection methods between countries "affect the reliability,
quality and comparability" of the data in the report, making comparisons
between countries of little value.
Even the Singaporean minister's recent speech did not offer any figures on
drug-related crime, sticking instead to a few emotive stories about the
"dangers of drugs". The government's failure to provide transparent data
creates huge doubts about any claims of effectiveness, and raises the question
of whether their statements represent anything more than political "spin" to
justify controversial drug policies.
Missing data
The only data Singapore does publish on drug use are figures on what it terms
"drug abusers" - people who come into contact with the health or criminal
justice system for drug treatment. Given that UNODC estimates the number of
people who require treatment globally is only 10% of all people who use drugs,
we can see how these government figures (even if accurate) are a dramatic
under-representation of levels of drug use in a country.
What about Singapore's success in reducing drug-related crime? As with data on
drug use, published figures on drug-related crime are neither robust nor
transparent, again making such claims impossible to independently verify. The
annual statistical crime brief published by the Singapore police force does not
provide any data on drug-related offences. Nor does the annual report of
Singapore's central narcotics bureau - an odd omission given the bureau's
practice of regularly reporting major trafficking arrests on its website.
This lack of data certainly does not reflect a lack of crime. The government
admits 80% of people in prison are drug offenders. This, coupled with the fact
that Singapore has the 7th highest rate of incarceration per capita in Asia,
does not mesh easily with the government's claims of low levels of drug-related
crime either.
Interestingly, what the narcotics bureau's 2016 report does show is that
seizures of both methamphetamine and cannabis increased by approximately 20%
over the previous year, while heroin seizures remain basically level. Hardly
indicators of a shrinking drug market.
The ConversationClearly the statistics used to promote the Singapore myth
either do not exist, or fall apart under scrutiny. As a result, any attempt to
use the Singapore model as evidence of the effectiveness of the death penalty
for drug offences is ludicrous. Given the unprecedented overdose crisis in the
US, Americans deserve an evidence-based response. Pursuing myth-based drug
policies will only make the problem worse.
(source: Rick Lines, Visiting Professor, Centre for Criminology, The University
of South Wales----thewire.com)
IRAQ:
Alarming reports of more than 3,000 people facing death over terror-related
offences
Responding to an Associated Press report that Iraqi authorities have detained
or imprisoned at least 19,000 people accused of links to the armed group
calling itself the Islamic State (IS) or other terror-related offences, and
sentenced more than 3,000 of them to death, Lynn Maalouf, Middle East Research
Director at Amnesty International, said:
"We are deeply alarmed by this report and the Iraqi authorities' mass use of
the death penalty and the courts' reliance on torture-tainted "confessions" to
secure convictions.
"Amnesty International has documented the flawed screening process by Iraqi
forces to which men and boys fleeing areas of conflict have been subjected.
Thousands of them have been arbitrarily arrested, forcibly disappeared, and
routinely subjected to torture and horrific conditions in detention. It is
vital therefore that all those detained are held in officially recognized and
supervised detention facilities. "The Iraqi authorities must immediately
address serious flaws in the criminal justice system and institute effective
safeguards against torture and enforced disappearance, and ensure all
defendants are given a fair trial, including the right to legal representation.
They must implement an immediate moratorium on executions as a first step
towards total abolition of the death penalty."
Background
The Associated Press (AP) said its count was based partially on an analysis of
a spreadsheet listing all 27,849 people imprisoned in Iraq as of late January,
provided by an official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized
to speak to the media.
AP said thousands more people were believed to be held in detention by other
bodies, including the Federal Police, military intelligence and Kurdish forces.
(source: Amnesty International)
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