May 12
IRAN:
Lawyer: Dervish Bus Driver Could be Executed in "3 or 4 Days" Despite Innocence
Plea
Mohammad Salas, a Sufi bus driver convicted in Iran of running over 3 policemen
in the capital city of Tehran, could be hanged in a "few days" despite arguing
that he caused the deaths by accident.
"News that the execution has been carried out is completely false but the order
to carry out his sentence has been issued and ... he could be executed in the
next 3 or 4 days," his attorney Saeed Ashrafzadeh told the state-funded Iranian
Students News Agency (ISNA) on May 9, 2018.
The report added that Salas told his son during a 3-minute phone conversation
that he is "innocent" and had run over the policemen by accident.
"They should pay attention to this in the judicial review," said Salas
according to ISNA. "I didn't do it on purpose. I wasn't myself.'"
On April 24, Iran's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against the
51-year-old bus driver for driving a public bus through a narrow street during
clashes between security forces and members of the Sufi Gonabadi Order in
Tehran on February 19. 3 policemen died as a result of their injuries after
they were run over by the bus.
Salas pled not guilty to the charge of "disturbing public order" and argued
that the policemen's deaths were accidental.
"I got into the bus to drive it toward the police station," he said in his last
defense on March 19. "I drove slowly so that the police could move aside. I
flashed my headlights and honked the horn as I went forward. My foot was on the
accelerator."
Media outlets affiliated with the state, including the Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting (IRIB), have only reported portions of his defense.
Before his trial, Tehran Police Chief Gen. Hossein Rahimi publicly stated that
Salas would be swiftly hanged for causing the policemen's deaths.
"With the coordination that has taken place with the judiciary, the bus driver
that drove over the policemen will be punished by hanging before the end of the
[Iranian] year [March 20, 2018]," he said on March 1.
Iranian law enforcement and security agencies reportedly opened fire on the
February protests by the Gonabadi Dervishes, a religious minority in Iran that
has suffered discrimination and persecution under the Islamic Republic because
of its alternative belief system.
Some 170 dervishes were hospitalized and several arrested after police forces
tried to shut down a demonstration in Tehran by the dervishes between February
19 and 20. The protesters were demanding the release of one of their faith's
followers from police detention.
At least one dervish died after being arrested. Mohammad Raji, a former
commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and an Iran-Iraq war
veteran, passed away sometime between February 20 when he was detained, and
March 4 when his body was identified by a relative.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
PAKISTAN:
Death Penalty Awarded In Murder Case Faisalabad
Additional District and Sessions Judge Khalid Saeed Watto on Friday awarded
death penalty to an accused involved in a murder case of Jhang Bazaar police
station.
According to the prosecution, the police had booked Ali Haidar of Partab Nagar
for killing Imran over a minor dispute in 2015. After observing evidences and
witnesses, the judge awarded capital punishment to the accused and directed him
to pay Rs 500,000 as compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased.
(source: urdupoint.com)
INDIA:
Indore man gets death penalty after 3-week trial for raping, killing
infant----Sunil Bheel was arrested on April 21 for allegedly assaulting the
6-month child after an argument with her mother.
A court in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday sentenced to death a man who 3 weeks ago
was arrested for raping and killing a baby girl in Indore.
Sunil Bheel was arrested on April 21 for allegedly assaulting the 6-month child
after an argument with her mother. Police had used security camera footage to
track down Bheel, 21, who was seen carrying the child to the basement of a
building near Rajwada fort.
Bheel and the child's parents sold balloons on streets and knew each other.
Some media reports said the child was 4 months old.
(source: Hindustan Times)
MALAYSIA/AUSTRALIA:
Will new PH govt reopen Altantuya case?
The Pakatan Harapan government may reopen the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case,
says an expert on Malaysian law at Western Australia's Murdoch University, The
Guardian reported.
Lecturer Greg Lopez said this was because there were still many questions left
unanswered despite the conviction of 2 policeman - Sirul Azhar Umar and Azilah
Hadri - for the murder of the Mongolian model in 2006.
"The fact no motive for the murder has ever been established leaves open the
question that it was a state-sponsored killing and that needs to be thoroughly
investigated.
"Najib could find himself in a very precarious situation," Lopez was quoted as
saying by the UK daily.
He added that new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad might also look into
commuting Sirul's death sentence in order to get him back to Malaysia.
In 2009, the Shah Alam High Court found Sirul and Azilah guilty of murdering
Altantuya and sentenced them to death by hanging. However, the Court of Appeal,
on Aug 23, 2013, freed them, causing the government to take the case to the
Federal Court.
Sirul then fled to Australia in late 2014. However, in January 2015, following
the Federal Court ruling that upheld the original conviction and death sentence
on him and Azilah, Australian police arrested Sirul in Queensland after an
Interpol alert.
He was later detained by Australian immigration authorities for having
overstayed his visa and sent to the Villawood Centre.
The former Barisan Nasional government were reported to have initiated moves
seeking Sirul's extradition since early last year but no progress had been
made.
In March this year, former home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the Dewan
Rakyat that the government was still looking at the best way to bring Sirul
back from Australia.
He said that the issue needs careful handling as it involves another country's
laws and policies, as the Australian government does not approve of the death
penalty.
Hence, if the death sentence is commuted, there would no longer be any reason
for Australia to deny Malaysian authorities the extradition request.
The case has dogged Najib since 2008 but there has not been any direct link
established between him and the murder.
Najib has always denied any involvement nor ever knowing Altantuya.
Former political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, a former aide to Najib, was
originally charged with abetting Azilah and Sirul over the murder but was
acquitted by the High Court on Oct 31, 2008. The prosecution did not appeal
against his acquittal.
'Don't say anything'
Meanwhile, according to The Guardian, 2 weeks prior to the 14th general
election, former Johor Umno Youth deputy chief Khairul Anwar Rahmat met with
Sirul at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney.
Quoting a source from the centre, the report said that Khairul was sent to
deliver a message: "Don't say anything".
The sudden interest in Sirul is believed to be because his application for a
protection visa is due to be heard within the next few months.
He is said to be under pressure from Australian authorities to prove he did not
mastermind the killing of former Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu if he is
to be deemed not a threat to the Australian community and granted a protection
visa.
So questions remain over whether he will be willing to implicate others in
order to secure freedom in Australia for himself.
(source: freemalaysiatoday.com)
SCOTLAND:
Dumfries: The site of Scotland's last public hanging
The final day of Robert Smith's life in Dumfries "broke grey and dull".
The 19-year-old had been convicted of murder, rape, robbery and attempted
murder near the village of Cummertrees and sentenced to hang.
The laws of the land were about to be changed but on 12 May 1868 the scaffold
was set up for him next to the junction of St David Street - now Irish Street -
and Buccleuch Street in Dumfries.
He was about to become the last man to be publicly hanged in Scotland.
The story of his crimes - dubbed the Annandale Murder - had gone around the
world in the Victorian era.
"Crimes of the magnitude of Smith's are fortunately rare in this district,"
reported the Dumfries and Galloway Standard at the time.
However, Dumfries had seen another execution at the same spot 6 years before
when Mary Timney became the last woman to be publicly hanged in Scotland.
The cases, however, had few similarities.
"Our readers must still have a keen recollection of the vast amount of sympathy
exhibited by the public in the case of Mary Timney, and the strenuous exertions
that were made to obtain a commutation of her sentence," the newspaper
reported.
"But no such feeling has been manifested, and no such steps have been taken, on
behalf of the convict Smith.
"Even the sincerest advocates of the abolition of capital punishment seem to
have been confounded by the singular atrocity of his crimes."
Kathleen Cronie, of Mostly Ghostly Tours, has researched Smith's story closely
with a talk planned at Annan Museum later this month.
"It is a very grim case, very macabre," she said.
"On 1 February 1868 he committed an atrocious murder in the Crofthead Wood area
near Cummertrees.
"He was subsequently found in Dumfries. He didn't really try to cover his trail
too well and he did assault another lady who he thought could implicate him in
the crime."
The killing of Thomasina Scott - the young girl he murdered - generated
significant interest.
"When you do have a scan through online you find newspapers from all over the
world reporting on it," said Ms Cronie.
"It must have been a huge case at the time given its significance in terms of
the fact that Robert Smith would be the last person publicly hanged in Scotland
- it really must have gripped the public's attention."
It was on a rainy Tuesday morning when the "sun sought shelter from sight
behind a veil of clouds" that the teenager from Eaglesfield went to meet his
fate.
He was said to have walked with "unfaltering step and a steady countenance"
towards the spot outside the Dumfries prison where he would be hanged.
A crowd which was "at no time large" - estimated at about 600 at its peak - had
gathered to watch.
"It was mostly composed of young people of the working class and contained more
females than was at all creditable to the sex; few persons were present from
the country," commented the Standard.
"The crowd was very orderly and decorous."
"Robert Smith was partially screened from view - they wouldn't have been able
to see much at all," added Ms Cronie.
"This was just before the law changed and meant that they had to execute
criminals behind closed doors."
However, around the appointed hour of 08:00 as Smith met his fate, the crowd
let out a "fearful cry" and many were reported to have turned their backs on
the "terrible spectacle" and some ran from the scene.
By 08:15 it was all over and afterwards a cast of the criminal's head was taken
- it remains in Dumfries Museum to this day.
But the tide of public opinion - and the law - was turning against this form of
justice.
As the executioner, Thomas Askern, left town after the hanging, he was accosted
by a man on the station platform who told him: "I hope we shan't see you again
for a long time to come."
Indeed, the law would soon be passed to ensure executions could only take place
in prisons.
"There had been some efforts made, not to gain a reprieve for Smith, but
because the bill was going to be passed they wanted to try and hurry it along a
little bit so that his execution would be carried out in private but that just
became impossible," said Ms Cronie.
"So Dumfries does have that very dubious honour of hosting that last public
execution."
(source: BBC News)
SOUTH AFRICA:
'Bring back death penalty', says IFP Women's Brigade
THE IFP Women's Brigade has called on government to bring back the death
penalty for those who kill women, national chairperson Thembeni
Madlopha-Mthethwa said.
"Women die every day in South Africa and the culprits are given lenient
sentences which do not send a strong message to would-be perpetrators," she
said.
Madlopha-Mthethwa's comments come after university student Zolile Khumalo's
killing at a Durban student residence. Khumalo was allegedly shot dead by her
ex-lover Thabani Mzolo.
Madlopha-Mthethwa spoke to the Sunday Tribune after she attended Mzolo's court
appearance at the Durban Magistrate Court on Thursday.
"The people who continue to kill women must get death penalty so that no one
would dare lay his hands on any woman."
She cited the 13 years jail sentence meted out against convicted murderer and
former Olympian Oscar Pistorius, who shot dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp
in 2013.
And while convicted murderer Sandile Mantsoe was serving the second week of a
32 year sentence for murdering Karabo Mokoena, Madlopha-Mthethwa said he should
rot in jail.
"The same thing applies to the person who [allegedly] killed Zolile. We will
make sure he gets a harsh sentence," she said.
Madlopha-Mthethwa lauded the ANC women's league in KZN, IFP women's brigade and
DA women's network for working together in mobilizing support for Khumalo.
"We can't be politicking on such a serious issue of femicide. We must be united
as women organisations in fighting the scourge."
The death penalty was abolished in 1995, a year after the democratic government
led by former President Nelson Mandela took over.
President of the ANC Women's League, Bathabile Dlamini said: "The abuse of
women is linked to patriarchy and human rights. It happens to all women."
Like Madlopha-Mthethwa, Dlamini, who is the Minister of Women and Children in
the Presidency urged political parties to put aside their political differences
and fight violence that is directed to women.
Dlamini was among the scores of people who attended the court proceedings on
Thursday.
(source: iol.co.za)
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