April 26
INDIA:
India's Criminal Justice System Cannot Be Trusted With the Death
Penalty----Indian criminal justice system is plagued with an antiquated and
untrained structure, and reinforced with laws that are over 2-centuries old.
The Central government recently announced the promulgation of an ordinance on
sexual assaults to act as a temporary fix until laws can be amended. The
ordinance prescribes the death penalty for those guilty of raping children
under the age of 12. It has further asked for fast-tracking sexual assault
investigations - to be completed within 2 months, the trial within 2 months
thereafter and any appeals disposed of 6 months thereafter.
This is incredibly ambitious, at best, or foolishly naive, at worst.
Sexual assault is a horrific experience for the victim. Society may choose to
categorise some as worse than others and attach a death sentence to them
accordingly, but we cannot compare experiences. It is for the authorities to
diligently, impartially and scientifically investigate the crime. How any of
these criteria is met in India is a mystery.
Investigation
IPS officers cannot investigate crimes, investigating officers (IO) are from
the state cadres (on average, an IO has 450 cases at any given time) and none -
I repeat, none - are formally or systematically trained to be specialist
investigators in any type of crime.
IPS officers receive disjointed training, including being sent abroad for
courses, but none are trained in specific crimes. As a result, there are no
specialist departments. Not for terrorism, not for robbery, not for rape.
Numerous attempts at completely overhauling our policing apparatus and
rewriting the colonial-era CrPC and IPC have failed. Police impartiality, as
cold as it may seem, is key to any investigation.
The impartiality must be holistic - to the victim, their own command structures
and political interference. Cressida Dick, commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police Service (Scotland Yard) in London, recently reminded their sexual
offences investigators to maintain professionalism and impartiality after a
number of high-profile prosecutions failed when the prosecution's case was
shredded in court by the defence, which found loopholes in the victims'
statements and evidence - what we know in India as a 'false case'.
National Criminal Records Bureau data from 2015 show that 95% of perpetrators
in rape cases are known to their victims; if the yoke of death penalty was hung
around a member of the victim's family, would India's notoriously conservative
society support a victim, with death looming on the horizon for one of their
own?
Running parallel to the police investigation should be the forensic
investigation - which, quite often, can throw up evidence that is both
irrefutable and contrary to statements collected by the police. No prosecution
can stand a chance of being successful if both sets of evidence don't line up.
Once again, our police authorities fall far below international standards -
almost all police departments completely lack forensic evidence collection
officers and processing facilities. The Human DNA Profiling Bill, passed by the
UPA-II, has stalled and failed. In 2014, Delhi police allowed 1,500 DNA samples
to expire - leading to prosecutorial failures.
Prosecution
The next step in the process is launching a prosecution. In an ideal scenario,
a highly-trained specialist prosecutor will work alongside an investigation
team, ensuring high standards, adherence to the law and sufficient evidence
collection to seek a conviction. Prosecutors need to know how to translate the
straightforward criminal laws into a courtroom environment which goes by
previous rulings, precedents and open to being demolished by the defence, let
alone numerous avenues of appeal, each of which can hinge on a technicality.
What is the Indian outlook? No specialist public prosecutors (even though,
ironically, their designation is 'special public prosecutor'). In light of the
recent fugitive economic offenders, or the Jyoti Singh gangrape case, or even
the frequent political scams, it is surprising that India has not yet felt the
need for cadres of specialist public prosecutors.
Our public prosecutors remain beyond the purview of even the public - they do
not answer to anybody. If, for example, they answered to the local district
magistrate (IAS) or superintendent of police (IPS), some degree of partnership
may exist, ensuring a close working relationship - leading to stronger and more
successful prosecutions. Here, however, senior lawyers are randomly appointed
and work at their own discretion, with the bill being picked up by the public.
Juxtaposed with the US system, where prosecutors are elected by the public and
therefore easily accountable and just as easily disposed of - or legendary
success stories, such as 'Mob buster' Rudy Giuliani, who became the mayor of
New York and then a presidential candidate - ours seems Neolithic. Not
surprisingly, the prosecution rate is abysmal. In 2014 alone, of 11,000 FIRs
filed in New Delhi, 127 resulted in successful convictions; this excludes
another 4,000 FIRs filed on their app, of which three were turned into formal
FIRs, none of these went to court.
Public accountability forces transparency, which then provides higher
standards. The aforementioned Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) of London has a
governing body - The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), made up of members of
the community, government and opposition politicians and barristers, as well as
employing professional staff who are qualified and experienced in operation
policing, human resources, finance and so forth who act as policy auditors.
The head of every department, whether he/she is a police officer or civilian,
is subject to frequent committee interrogations, broadcast live on the MPA
website, with opposition politicians usually taking every opportunity to
chastise them for lapses. This type of public identification of those to be
credited for good work or blamed for bad work has led to the MPS being
recognised as one of the world's foremost policing bodies, with 'Scotland Yard'
being a brand label attached to policing excellence.
Conviction
The final element in the chain is conviction. A lengthy jail sentence is
beneficial to all. Once again, in nations that have specialist courses, degrees
and higher awards in criminal science and criminal psychology, jailed criminals
are a vast resource bank to be studied carefully. The knowledge extracted is
used to reduce the occurrence of serious crimes by developing early warning
markers and to fine-tune the investigation of future crimes, providing the
knowledge bank required to train specialist police and prosecutors, thus
completing the cycle.
An apt example here would be the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP)
software tool developed and used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
which is a database of minute details pertaining to all forms of violent
crimes, allowing investigators to input details of crimes and criminals and
either establish patterns and/or provide a rough profile of the type of
criminal. This is further refined by the FBI's Behavioural Analysis Unit, which
uses data from live investigations, coupled with lessons from VICAP, to provide
a clearer profile of the perpetrator.
Capital punishment advocates are mostly clustered around 2 arguments - 1,
seeking punishment and the other, believing it will be a deterrent. While the
former may ring true if based on emotion, whereas reason would dictate, the
more heinous the crime, the greater the urgency to study the criminal; the
argument for deterrence is a weak one.
Study after study has shown almost no impact on criminals who knew their crime,
if they were caught, would lead to death. As criminal science has evolved, more
people are steering away from capital punishment, firstly knowing it is being
seen as inhumane to begin with, but also knowing the study value of such
criminals to better fight crime in the future.
The Indian criminal justice system is plagued with an antiquated and untrained
structure, reinforced with laws that are over 2-centuries old, a judicial
system that is woefully under-staffed, jails full of 'under trials' who have
been behind bars for decades without ever having seen a court, low-level police
who are susceptible to bribes and thus 'false cases', political directors who
use the IPS and IAS as pawns and the ever-present cloud of corruption.
In such an atmosphere, the question is this - would you trust this system with
a human life?
(source: Anthony Khatchaturian works as a historian and opinion writer, and has
spent ten years with the Metropolitan Police Service (Scotland Yard), London.
He is based in London and Kolkata----thewire.in)
*****************
Death penalty for rape is a scapegoat for a much needed, more complex
institutional change
With the Kathua and Unnao rape and murder cases, there has been an
understandable outcry for justice. Justice, can mean different things. The
punishment should fit the crime is a standard phrase. The cabinet approved a
law that could result in the death penalty for convicted rapists of children
below the age of 12.
The cases of rape are not a new horror that India faces; the Nirbhaya case is a
stark reminder of that.
Following that case, the Justice Verma Committee was formed. The government
enacted legal reforms in the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, which added
new categories of offenses against women and girls and included the death
penalty for repeat offenders.
The Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act, 2012, provided a
framework for law enforcement and the courts to deal with victims. There is an
argument to be made that the recommendations made did not act as deterrence;
can the harshest punishment possible prove to be one?
The government has proposed fast track courts and the formation of a national
database and profile of sexual offenders. These can be good steps forward but
receive little notice.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement urged the Indian parliament to
reject the ordinance on death penalty for rape, referring to it as cruel
populism and instead urged the government to reform the justice system and
ensure protections. Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director, HRW, said in part,
"If the government is serious about dealing with violence against women and
children, it will have to do the hard work of reforming the criminal justice
system and ensure that perpetrators are not protected from prosecution by
political patronage".
The statement by HRW included data on the rising numbers of rape cases in 2016
and cited its own 2017 report which stated that "victims often suffer
humiliation at police stations and hospitals, are still subjected to degrading
tests by medical professionals".
The statement goes on to state that the government has not established
mechanisms of oversight to help prevent child sexual abuse.
Following the rape cases in Kathua and Unnao, a couple of weeks back, union
minister Menaka Gandhi announced plans to introduce death penalty for rapists
of children below 12 years.
Some states have supported this and want to establish similar laws, including
in Jammu & Kashmir, where chief minister Mehbooba Mufti welcomed the decision
of the death penalty and stated that her government would bring a similar law
in the state.
However, there is opposition from the kin of survivors of sexual abuse and
rape. One parent recounted the experience of his child having to repeatedly
explain her experiences to officials over the course of months and the death
penalty would not constitute justice.
Parents of survivors state that often the process or trial is very long and the
conviction rates are low as some are even acquitted.
Shraddha Chaudhary, legal researcher, Centre for Child and the Law, National
Law School of India University, in a column for the Indian Express, states that
the death penalty for sexual offences against children is misconceived -
"Reactionary law reform has always been an easy way for governments to appear
tough on crime, and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 is no
different. It betrays a lack of thought on the likely impact, and only serves
to endanger the lives of future victims".
The thinking is that since the punishment for rape and the punishment for
murder are the same, the perpetrator will have no incentive to spare the
victim???s life.
Former Delhi high court Chief Justice and former chairman of Law Commission of
India, Justice A P Shah urged the government to reject the ordinance stating in
part, "Not only is the enhancement of punishment to include death penalty
futile, but it will have disastrous consequences for children".
The death penalty is only a law and order solution.
There is however, a breakdown of societal norms and values that should ensure
the safety of women and children from sexual abuse and violence.
The instances of rape and sexual violence are not just a result of the poor
functioning of the justice and police system. Legislation can only be taken so
far. By proclaiming that anyone convicted of rape and murder will face death
does not act as a deterrent.
"The government needs to invest in combating the rape culture that condones and
encourages rape - by age-appropriate sex education at all levels, by aggressive
advertisement campaigns to increase awareness and stimulate conversations about
gender bias, everyday sexism, misogyny, stereotypes, consent and equality..."
Sexual crimes are a result of ingrained societal norms in terms of the way
women and minorities are treated.
There is a need to ensure that existing laws on reporting sexual violence are
followed and amendments should be made if necessary.
Maya John, Assistant Professor at Jesus and Mary College and a women's rights
activist, in a column or the Hindu, states that the focus must be on enhancing
rape conviction rates and taking steps to rehabilitate and empower survivors -
"For those looking at it from the point of view of rape survivors and their
bitter experiences with the criminal justice system, capital punishment for
rape is the easiest and most convenient demand to raise, yet the most harmful
one also for rape survivors".
In 2016, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there were more
than 38,000 reported cases of rape by women and children.
There are still more that go unreported, largely due to social stigma,
victim-blaming, poor response by the criminal justice system and the absence of
any victim and witness protection laws. This means that they are vulnerable to
pressure and coercion from the accused and local authorities.
"India's growing rape culture is best reversed by enhancing conviction rates
through reforms in the police and judicial systems, and by augmenting measures
to rehabilitate and empower rape survivors".
A society largely overseen by men is the undercurrent here as well.
The criticism of knee-jerk solutions that aim to serve as a deterrent focus on
the sexual aspect and impact rather than the need for rehabilitation of rape
survivors and focussing on the faults of those who control the system. A system
which is often hostile to survivor's right from them reporting the crime.
(source: sify.com)
***************
Why I don't support death penalty for child rapists: A survivor----A child
sexual abuse survivor tells why capital punishment for child rapists could be
counterproductive to justice
Imagine living your whole life with not just the shame of being abused, but
also the guilt of causing someone's death. This is my primary reason for not
supporting death penalty for child rapists.
A couple of months back in Delhi, as I fielded questions after the screening of
The Little Girls We Were...And The Women We Are, a film on child sexual abuse,
someone in the audience asked me what I would like to do to the person who
abused me. While a lot of people ask me about the impact of abuse, I had never
been put in a position to decide the fate of my abuser. He was seeking to
understand something deeper: Didn't I want vengeance?
The recent spate of chilling cases of rape and murder of children has led to a
growing demand for death penalty from angry sections of society.
Such demands are not only counterproductive, but also have limited scope. The
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act doesn't differentiate
between genders, but according to a 2007 government survey, more than 1/2 the
child respondents who reported having faced sexual abuse were boys.
How many of these angry people have tried to understand the repercussions of
the death penalty?
At 4, a relative started sexually abusing me. At 8, after a friend heard me
talk about my relative's penis size, my mother called me in for 'questioning'.
I was so terrified, I thought I would vomit my heart out. Why? Because fear,
guilt, self-blame and shame are common emotions that children who have been
sexually abused suffer from. I managed a meek "yes' when she asked whether the
family member in question had been touching my vagina, and her response, like
that of so many parents when confronted with child sexual abuse by a trusted
adult in the family, was to silence me. "Don't tell your father, or he will be
very angry," she said. I never discussed it again, and the abuse continued well
into my teens.
If I knew that my relative would be put to death for what he had done, would I
have answered my mother at all? Imagine living your whole life with not just
the shame of being abused, but also the guilt of having caused someone's death.
This is my primary reason for not supporting the death penalty for sexual
abusers of minors.
According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, almost 95% of sexual
crimes against children are by people known to the child. Child sexual abuse is
not a 1-time incident. Apart from me, my relative abused my cousins too, and
the family was aware. At 19, when I told my elders that I wanted to file a case
against my abuser, they refused to support me. Having neither been to a police
station before, nor being financially independent, I felt isolated. Would my
case hold in court if the elders claimed that I was lying? That's how the man
who abused my cousins and me went scot-free.
With the death penalty as punishment for abuse, instances of reporting will
plunge, victims will turn hostile owing to familial pressure and the judicial
process of appeals and increased weightage on evidence - which rightly mark all
death penalty cases - will prolong the case for years, adding to the survivor's
trauma. As fewer children speak up, abusers will get more emboldened. The cycle
of abuse will continue.
So, to answer the question the audience member posed: yes, I want retribution.
But the death penalty will not offer that. What is needed is an environment
which encourages children to report sexual abuse, an efficient criminal
judicial system and sensitised police officers.
Adults need to learn how to respond to children in distress. Make body safety
and sexual health part of school curriculum. Shift the shame from the victim to
the abuser, so that children feel more comfortable disclosing abuse. Currently,
conviction rates under POCSO are abysmal, and the backlog of cases is immense.
The law provides for special courts, educators, translators, and a
child-friendly court environment, where the survivor is not exposed to the
accused, but the implementation of all this is lacking. At the same time,
methods of investigation and evidence gathering need to be improved.
As a society, we have every right to feel outraged when a child, whatever their
gender, is violated. But laws need to be reformative, not vengeful.
(source: Ishita Manek co-runs Rubaroo, a Mumbai-based organisation which
focuses on prevention of child sexual abuse
The views expressed are personal
The writer has offered Hindustan Times this piece with her name)
MALAYSIA:
Chinese drug mule facing death penalty in Malaysia trial could be latest victim
of trafficking ring----Defendant's story that she was duped into carrying meth
by gang operating out of Guangdong province mirrors that of 20 other young
women
Zhao Han, 27, from Sichuan province, was arrested at Kuala Lumpur airport in
August 2015 carrying a suitcase that was allegedly filled with 3.3 kilograms
(7lb) of methamphetamine in a hidden layer of the suitcase, Beijing News
reported.
Zhao insists she is innocent and says she was duped into carrying what she
thought was a suitcase full of clothes that she had collected in the southern
province of Guangdong before catching a flight from Hong Kong.
She also took police to the place where the case was to be delivered, but the
contact had apparently received a tip-off and had disappeared.
Statistics quoted in the report from the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA)
said that more than 20 Chinese women have been arrested or convicted for
bringing drugs into Malaysia between 2013 and 2015 - all of whom claimed to
have been duped by a smuggling ring operating in Guangdong.
Several women - all aged between 20 and 24 years old with limited education -
said they had been asked to deliver a suitcase of clothing samples that they
collected in Guangzhou city by a man they met online.
The man claimed to be from Nigeria and promised a romantic relationship with
them.
The man, who said he ran a clothing export business, provided air tickets and
promised some financial reward, but cut off contact after their arrests,
according to the report. None of the women met the man in person and had
collected the case from a proxy.
3 of the woman have been sentenced to death and are currently appealing. The
report also cited the case of another woman who had pleaded guilty to avoid a
death sentence and was jailed for 14 years. Those that plead not guilty can
face a protracted 6 to 10-year legal process before the case is resolved.
Ringleaders of billion-dollar transpacific cocaine gang held in mainland China
There have been no reported arrests in connection with the drug ring since
2015.
The families of several women said they had contacted Chinese police to try to
prove their daughters' innocence but they had no follow-up.
The newspaper reported one family that said they had given the police photos
and telephone numbers of their daughters' contacts 3 years ago but had heard
nothing since.
However, lawyers involved in the cases said evidence collected in China was not
necessarily admissible in Malaysian courts and warned that unless the women
could prove they had been deceived it would not help their defences.
Beijing News quoted Guangzhou customs as saying they wanted to strengthen
international cooperation to eradicate the smuggling ring.
Guangzhou police told the newspaper on Wednesday that the cases had been
recorded and they would release relevant information when they had it.
(source: South China Morning Post)
INDONESIA:
Indonesia sentences 8 Taiwanese drug smugglers to death
8 Taiwanese drug smugglers were sentenced to death by an Indonesian court
Thursday (April 26) after being nabbed with around a tonne of crystal
methamphetamine in a country that has some of the world's toughest anti-drug
laws.
The men were arrested during raids last July, when the drug network's suspected
leader was killed in a shootout with Indonesian police.
"The defendants have been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of colluding
and smuggling narcotics," presiding judge Haruno Patriadi said as he passed
sentence at the South Jakarta District Court.
Tipped off by their Taiwanese counterparts, Indonesian police said they
discovered some 1,000 kilograms of crystal meth - shipped by boat from China -
packed inside about 50 boxes. The haul was reportedly worth some US$144 million
(S$191 million).
Some of the suspects were arrested at a beach where the drugs were delivered
some 125 kilometres west of Jakarta, while others were apprehended in the
suspected drug boat near Singaporean waters.
The sentence passed on the men - Liao Guan-Yu, Chen Wei-Cyuan, Hsu Yung-Li,
Juang Jin Sheng, Sun Kuo Tai, Sun Chih-Feng, Kuo Chun Yuan, and Tsai Chih Hung
- comes after 11 other Taiwanese drug smugglers were executed in Indonesia in
recent years.
Indonesia has some of the world's toughest anti-drug laws, with sentences
including the death penalty for smugglers who carry 5 or more grammes.
Several foreign and Indonesian nationals have been executed by firing squad in
recent years for drug trafficking, including Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran in 2015, a case that sparked diplomatic outrage and a call to abolish
the death penalty.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
*********************
3 Taiwanese get death for smuggling 1 ton of crystal meth
A panel of judges at the South Jakarta District court handed down the death
penalty on Thursday to 3 Taiwanese standing trial for their roles in smuggling
crystal methamphetamine in July last year.
The 3 were identified as Liao Guan Yu, Chen Wei Cyuan and Hsu Yung Li.
"The defendants have been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," presiding
judge Efendi Mukhtar read out the verdict.
While there was no mitigating factor to hand down a lighter sentence, the judge
said the crime had contravened government efforts to fight illegal drugs and
could harm the country's future generations.
According to a statement in the previous hearing, the three men were waiting in
Anyer Beach in the province of Banten for the 5 other suspects to offload the
amphetamines from a Taiwanese yacht. The police said the drugs weighed 1 metric
ton and were worth Rp 2 trillion (US$143.9 million).
The 3 remained silent when a translator delivered the judge's verdict.
The court will issue another verdict to the other 5 in a separate hearing on
Thursday.
(source: The Jakarta Post)
SOUTH AFRICA:
The death penalty and judges who had to apply it
Andrew Sibusiso Zondo called out just 1 word after he was sentenced to death:
"Mama".
The court scribe was not certain though. It may have been "Amandla".
The year was 1986. He was 19 years old. He had, according to the court
transcript, already seen children on the streets of his township being gunned
down by the police. He had already been arrested once - for nothing, the court
said. He had already, at 16, left South Africa to get military training from
Umkhonto weSizwe in Angola and had come back, a trained soldier. His commander
was known as "Tall Man" and he was trained in weapon making.
Simultaneously, in an altogether different world to the streets of Zondo's home
in KwaMashu, there was an ongoing debate among South Africa's small community
of liberal to left-leaning advocates: to be a judge or not to be a judge.
Black lawyers were not faced with the same conundrum: they were never going to
be judges under an apartheid government, no matter how brilliant they were. Nor
was it an issue for the majority of white lawyers, who had no qualms in
applying apartheid laws; once appointed, some did so with apparent relish.
But for this small group, it was a real, and tormenting, moral dilemma. For any
lawyer, to be appointed a judge is considered the pinnacle of an illustrious
career. But in South Africa, in the late 1970s and 1980s, it meant becoming the
instrument of a racist, brutal and unjust legal system. It could mean sending
people to the gallows.
The other side of the debate was that, for the hundreds of political detainees
brought before the courts at the time, drawing a liberal or left-leaning judge
was a godsend: it could mean the difference between a conviction or an
acquittal, between 5 years or 7 years, a life sentence or a noose around your
neck.
Some, such as the first head of South Africa's Constitutional Court, Arthur
Chaskalson, would not be judges. Judge John Didcott, also a justice of the
Constitutional Court's first Bench, became a judge and, somehow, avoided death
penalty cases. Others, like Judge Ramon Leon, tried as hard as they could to
avoid imposing the death penalty, but sometimes did so, albeit with great
anguish.
Leon died last week and, in the days that followed, was wrongly reported,
including by the Mail & Guardian, as having played a role in the hanging of the
more famous struggle hero, Solomon Mahlangu - 1st as the trial judge and then
in an appellate capacity. In truth he had nothing to do with Mahlangu's case -
he never sat, even as an acting judge, on the Appellate Division, said 2 senior
judges.
But Leon was the judge that 5 times sentenced Zondo to death.
It was Judge CDJ Theron who, in 1978, sentenced Mahlangu to "be hanged by his
neck until he is dead".
Theron did not fall into the group of lawyers who agonised over being an
apartheid-era judge. 2 petitions to the Appellate Division listed numerous
grounds for appealing Theron's judgment: Mahlangu had not shot anyone, yet was
convicted under the doctrine of common purpose - a doctrine that allows a court
to convict everyone in a group who together commit a crime if they acted in
terms of a common purpose, when the person who actually dealt the fatal blow
cannot be identified.
But, said one of the petitions, the way Theron had applied the doctrine
extended its para-meters "to limits which are logically indefensible,
juridically dangerous and ... inconsistent with established judicial
precedent".
Mahlangu's attorney Priscilla Jana described it more vividly in her book
Fighting for Mandela, saying junior counsel Clifford Mailer had argued "that
the doctrine of common purpose was being totally distorted and misused".
"He fought against the appointment of the notorious Judge Theron and his 2
assessors, the whole team having a reputation for toughness, cruelty and
outright racism. He sought to have the judge recused, but failed."
Jana describes how Mailer said "there was mob hysteria, with whites choosing to
believe that terrorists were on the loose in Johannesburg city centre. It was
clear that Solomon had had no intention to kill. The circumstances were clear.
I had questioned him closely and all the evidence pointed to his truth ... His
conviction for murder was a travesty."
When Zondo was sentenced, 8 years later, it was a different era of the ANC's
armed struggle - the era of People's War. Thula Simpson, a2uthor of Umkhonto we
Sizwe: The ANC's Armed Struggle, quotes ANC publication Sechaba as saying: "The
time has come to take the war to the white areas. White South Africa cannot be
at peace while the black townships are in flames."
In his book Simpson says that, when this was expanded on by Sechaba, what it
meant in practice was a "restrained' response: strengthening labour
organisations, expanding consumer boycotts, attacking military structures and
government institutions and holding demonstrations in white areas. It did not
mean attacking civilians.
But the regime's killers were getting worse and people were angry. Inside the
country, the townships were on fire and the prisons were full. Assassinations,
torture and extended periods of solitary confinement were the norm. Outside the
country, the apartheid regime was running 2 civil wars - in Angola and
Mozambique, with untold numbers killed or maimed - and conducting raids and
massacres in neighbouring countries.
In December 1985, there was another massacre. In Maseru, nine ANC cadres were
gunned down in a raid, leaving a nine-month-old baby an orphan. This was the
story Zondo read in the newspaper on the morning that he was looking for a
place to plant a limpet mine, after being instructed to launch a retaliatory
attack.
2 days after the Maseru attack, Zondo put a bomb into a dustbin at the Sanlam
Centre in Amanzimtoti. It was a few days before Christmas, at 11am. The mall
was bustling with white South Africans doing their last-minute Christmas
shopping. The dustbin was near an SAA accredited travel agent, which Zondo
associated with the government.
5 people were killed by the bomb, including Cornio Smit, who was 8 years old,
and Willem van Wyk, who was only 2. Many more were badly injured.
In an interview shortly after the Amanzimtoti blast, then ANC president Oliver
Tambo said: "Massacres have been perpetrated against civilians: Mamelodi, a
massacre. Uitenhage, a massacre. Botswana, a massacre. Queenstown, a massacre
... certainly, we are beginning see South Africans of all races [burying] their
loved ones ... The whole of South Africa is beginning to bleed.
"If I had been approached by an ANC unit and asked whether they should go and
plant a bomb at a supermarket I would have said, 'Of course not'. But when our
units are faced with what is happening all around them, it is understandable
that some of them should say: 'Well, I may have to face being disciplined, but
I am [still] going to do this.'"
Tracking down the court records of the Mahlangu and Zondo cases meant a trip to
the general office of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, which
formerly housed the Appellate Division.
The Zondo judgment of Leon is unreported, as is the refusal by the Appellate
Division to hear his appeal. Also unreported is the judgment of the trial court
in Mahlangu's case and both petitions to appeal.
To the compilers of the law reports it seems that these cases were just 2 of
dozens each year in which the death penalty was imposed.
The full trial record in Zondo's case is not contained in the appeal petition
file. But people who attended or followed the trial say it would have been hard
for Leon to come to a different verdict, because the accused admitted to most
of the facts. It would be unfair, they say - a travesty even - to call Leon a
hanging judge. In his entire stint on the bench he sent perhaps seven people to
the gallows, said his son Tony in a tribute.
In finding Zondo guilty on all counts, Leon rejected his version that he had
meant to call in a bomb scare that would clear the mall and so avoid loss of
life. Zondo was a "lying witness", said the judge, whereas the evidence of his
accomplice, turned state witness, was "excellent".
The clincher was that the accomplice had said that, after the attack, Zondo had
lamented that only 5 people had been killed, instead of 9 - a number equal to
the Maseru victims.
"The accused, even on his own evidence, disregarding orders which he had from a
higher authority, deliberately selected a target in a crowded shopping centre 2
days before Christmas, well knowing that the limpet mine, which had been put
into operation, would explode within 25-30 minutes and would thereby kill
indiscriminately any member of the population who happened to be in the
vicinity; black or white, innocent or guilty, young or old. This was a
deliberate, indiscriminate attack on the civilian population."
Nor were there any extenuating circumstances to warrant sparing him the death
sentence, the judge found. Zondo's age was "a factor" but not a "compelling
one". His socioeconomic status was acknowledged, with Leon saying: "The
monopoly of political power and its fruits is in the hands of the white section
of the population, while the black section in general is less affluent, less
well-off and has few amenities of life." Acknowledged also was his life
experience (witnessing the killing of children by the police in 1982 and his
own arrest "for no valid grounds"). But they were not persuasive to the judge.
Nor was his remorse for the loss of life and his apology.
"On Count 1 you are sentenced to death. On Count 2 you are sentenced to death.
On Count 3 you are sentenced to death. On Count 4 you are sentenced to death,
and on Count 5 you are sentenced to death. May the Lord have mercy on your
soul."
Neither Leon nor Theron gave more than a brief reason for refusing leave to
appeal. But most striking in both cases was the apparent nonchalance with which
the Appellate Division rejected their petitions for appeal. On June 26 1986 -
less than 3 months after his sentence - a terse notification from the registrar
of the highest court refused Zondo leave to appeal and thereby sealed his fate.
It said only: "I am directed by the Honourable the Chief Justice to inform you
that leave to appeal against extenuating circumstances is refused."
An almost identical order of refusal came - twice - in Mahlangu's case.
In neither of the cases were reasons given and in neither were any judges named
- standard practice at the time. We will never know, from the publicly
available records at least, who on the Appellate Division saw fit to send a
19-year-old to the gallows. Nor a 23-year-old, convicted for the murder of
people whom he had not killed.
(source: Mail & Guardian)
NIGERIA:
Man bags death sentence for armed robbery in Ekiti
An Ado-Ekiti High Court has sentenced a man, Kingsley Okorowande, to death by
hanging after being found guilty of armed robbery.
The presiding judge, Justice Lekan Ogunmoye, held that the convict's offence
contradicted Section 1(2)(a) of Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act
Cap R11 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2014.
Delivering the judgment on Wednesday the judge held that the prosecution had
proved the case against the convict beyond reasonable doubt.
The charge sheet said the incident occurred on or about the 6th day of
November, 2013 at Ori Apata Natha area of Basiri, Ado-Ekiti.
Okorowande robbed one Mrs. Medinat Babatunde of her laptops, handsets, jewelry,
wristwatches and a sum of N210,000.00 while armed with offensive weapons such
as guns and cutlasses.
The convict had pleaded not guilty when he was first arraigned on 21st
February, 2017 when the charge was read to him.
4 of the 6 suspects who were initially arraigned for the offence escaped during
the Ado-Ekiti prison jailbreak. They were Eze Stephen, Toyin Faturoti, Ojo
Gboyega and Alomaja Sunkanmi.
The 5th accused person, Sulaimon Sunday, who was on bail, jumped bail. The
charges were later split to give room for the speedy trial of the convict.
Prosecution counsel, Mr. Ayodeji Jayeoba, called 4 witnesses including 2 police
officers and the complainant but the defence counsel, Mr. Lekan Olatawura, did
not call any witness during the trial.
Dangerous weapons such as a hammer, a saw-blade, a live cartridge, cut-to-size
pistol and a statement of the accused were tendered as exhibits.
Justice Ogunmoye ruled: "From the evidence before me, the prosecutor definitely
had an upper hand in proclamation of his gospel before me that he had succeeded
in convincing me.
"The prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against the
defendant. In all, the sole issue for determination is resolved in favour of
the prosecution. The defendant is guilty as charged for armed robbery.
"The mandatory sentence in a case of the defendant convicted for armed robbery
is death penalty."
"The defendant is hereby sentenced to death by hanging. May God have mercy on
your soul."
(source: Daily Trust)
ENGLAND:
Conservatives suspend candidate who called for gay people to face the death
penalty
Just a week before the local elections, the Conservatives have been forced to
suspend a candidate over homophobic blog posts that called for gay people to
face the death penalty.
Matthew Clarke is the Conservative candidate for the Lib Dem-held Manor ward
seat on Stevenage Council in the local elections set to take place on May 3. ?
But Clarke, who has run as a local Conservative candidate on at least 2
previous occasions, was suspended by the party this week after it was revealed
he had penned blog posts calling for gay people to face the death penalty.
The candidate, who has described himself as a "fundamentalist Christian," made
the remarks in a 2005 blog post exposed this week by Labour activist Jo
Phillips.
Published under the name Matthew Celestine, he wrote: "When such behaviour is
tolerated in a land it can only expect to see God's judgment."
He added: "In my experience, most people believe that such behaviour is wrong
and disgusting. They would be ashamed for their children to behave in that way,
but they would never admit it for fear of being accused of bigotry.
"Why should we tolerate such behaviour? If these people think that what they do
is decent and good, they are either insane or utterly corrupt morally.
"If a man would do the awful things that homosexuals do, we can only expect
that he would steal, take drugs or murder people.
"There is only one penalty in the Bible for such deeds. Death."
The Stevenage Conservatives confirmed to local newspaper The Comet that Clarke
has now been suspended pending investigation.
As it is too late to officially alter the party's candidates, however, he will
still appear on the ballot paper for the local elections next week.
Clarke told the newspaper: "I would like to express deep regret for the
offensive comments I made 13 years ago.
"I offer my unreserved apologies for any hurt caused by that blog post and I
would like to stress that I have moved on and am no longer the angry and bitter
person that I was in 2005."
The row comes days after a Labour candidate in Milton Keynes was forced to
apologise for sharing a video from a Muslim preacher criticising homosexuality.
The candidate came under fire from his Conservative rivals over a video in
which a preacher warns: "These are the days your Prophet warned you about...
when intoxicants are consumed in the most despicable way, and illegal sexuality
becomes okay."
Labour candidate Kashif Raza apologised for sharing a video, saying: "As we do
too often today, I shared the video without watching the full content of it and
I do not agree with it. I have learnt from this experience and will make sure
to apply due level of scrutiny before sharing things on social media in the
future."
(source: pinknews.co.uk)
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