September 30
PHILIPPINES:
Dela Rosa on senatorial bid: Death penalty is my 1st agenda
Director General of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa
said that the passage of the imposition of the death penalty will be his 1st
agenda if he will be elected as senator in the 2019 midterm elections.
Dela Rosa, who previously served as Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, has
announced earlier his senatorial bid.
He visited Cebu on Sunday (September 30) as the guest speaker of the
celebration of the 2nd anniversary of the Anti Crime and Community Emergency
Response Team at Hoopsdome in Lapu-Lapu City.
(source: Cebu Daily News)
PAKISTAN:
Ex-judge sentenced to death in murder case
An anti-terrorism court here on Saturday handed down death penalty to a former
district judge, Sikandar Lashari, in a case pertaining to the murder of his
fellow judge's son in Hyderabad.
The then district and session judge Mithi, Sikandar Lashari, was among half a
dozen accused charged with the murder of 19-year-old Aqib Shahani, son of judge
Khalid Hussain Shahani on February 19, 2014.
He was taken into custody on March 5 after the Sindh High Court suspended him
from his post.
According to the case (FIR 12/2014) lodged on a complaint of the deceased's
cousin Hunain, Aqib, alias Kashif, was driving his car when armed men in
another car intercepted him on Thandi Sarak, Hyderabad.
They took him out of his car and sprayed him with bullets. He was shot dead in
front of his mother, Shamsunissa, sisters, Komal and Nimra, and a cousin,
Hunain, near Niaz Cricket Stadium on February 19, 2014.
The FIR was registered at GOR police station under sections 302 of the Pakistan
Penal Code and Section 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
The former judge was charged with allegedly instigating the killing since the
deceased was reportedly in love with one of his daughters, according to the
prosecution.
A number of accused had been declared proclaimed offenders in the case.
(source: arynews.tv)
****************
PTI MPA seeks death penalty for corrupt
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday tabled a resolution in the Punjab
Assembly seeking death penalty for those involved in corruption.
As per the details, PTI lawmaker Nadeem Qureshi submitted the resolution in
which he said that corruption had destroyed state-institutions and crippled
economic activities.
It further said that it was the need of the hour to curb the menace of
corruption once and for all to save the country.
The resolution demands immediate legislation in this regard.
(source: pakistantoday.com.pk)
INDIA:
Death Penalty For Rapists: Hanging By a Thread----Madhya Pradesh seems to be in
a hurry to award the death penalty to rapists of minors. In the process, are
due processes of law being followed?
While justice delayed is justice denied, what happens when justice is delivered
without following the due processes of law? This is what is happening in Madhya
Pradesh, the 1st state to pass a law awarding death sentence to rapists of
minor girls. The law was passed in February 2018 and already 12 death sentences
have been handed out.
Some of the accused are in their early 20s, while there is one 19-year-old.
Most come from extremely poor socio-economic backgrounds and could not even get
lawyers to defend themselves against these charges. This could well explain why
the sentence of 24-year-old Motilal Ahirwar was passed within 4 days of the
case being admitted in the lower court. It was admitted on August 4 and the
sentence was passed on August 8.
While the trial of Rajkumar, an autorickshaw driver who was accused of raping
a 4-year-old girl on July 4, lasted 5 days, the verdict was given on July 27.
As neither he nor his family could afford a lawyer, he was allowed 1 free of
cost from the MP State Legal Services Authority. The lawyer assigned to him, BM
Rathore, revealed that because of the speed with which the trial was conducted,
he didn't even have time to speak to the accused.
Madhya Pradesh accounted for the highest number of rape cases in the country in
2016 - 4,882 out of 38,947, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. But
what is actually happening is a mockery of such trials. Activists who had
fought for more stringent punishment for rape cases are aghast at the manner in
which the rape law is being implemented.
Dr Ranjana Kumari, who heads the Centre for Social Research, believes these
verdicts are nothing more than "a mockery with the courts playing to the
political gallery. At this rate, we will soon hear of thousands of such
verdicts from across the country. In the police registry, there are 4.5 lakh
names of men accused of rape during the past decade. If this goes on, will the
state take responsibility for killing so many (rapists) in future?"
Or take the case of Irfan Mewati, 20, and Asif Mewati, 24, who were accused of
raping and killing a 6-year-old girl in Mandsaur on June 26. The local bar
association passed a resolution not to defend them and the lawyer provided by
the state said that because of the strong public sentiment against them, they
could not produce a single witness. The death sentence was passed on them on
August 21.
Then there was the case of Jitendra Kushwah, 25, who was accused of raping and
killing a six-year-old girl on June 20. He was sentenced to death on July 27.
Again, no lawyer was willing to defend him.
Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana too passed a similar law earlier this
year whereby men convicted for raping a child below 12 years will be served the
death sentence. The 1st sentence under the new law in Rajasthan was awarded to
Pintu, 19, who had raped a 7-month-old child in Laxmangarh area on May 9. A
special court in Alwar conducted daily hearings and he was sentenced to death
on July 18.
While Kumari said that in no case was she condoning the crime, the guilty must
be punished but through due process of law. "In all such cases, the accused
have the right to appeal to higher courts and the prosecution will have to see
the evidence before such a sentence is executed," she said.
Compare these fast-track trials to what happened between 2004 and 2018, when
only 4 death sentences were carried out in India, she said. Three were
terrorists, while the fourth was Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who had reportedly raped
and murdered a 14-year-old girl.
Senior advocate Rebecca John also expressed concern at the string of such
judgments issued by lower courts in Madhya Pradesh. "This is nothing but a
gimmick in this election year. Women's safety should be a top priority for any
government, but this is hardly the way to show that they mean business. These
verdicts are nothing but an abdication of the principles of natural justice.
Every individual has the right to a fair trial," she said.
Swetashree Majumdar, a young lawyer who had worked on preparing the Justice
Verma Committee report that made recommendations on rape, police reforms,
providing quicker trials and increased punishment for those who commit crimes
against women, believes the government has not collated any evidence on whether
the death penalty acts as a deterrent in cases of rape. "We have no statistics
to show that the death sentence helps reduce rape. Even if we take the examples
of our neighbours - Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan - all of whom hand out
the death penalty for rape, we find that it has not acted as a deterrent, with
the system desisting from handing out these convictions," said Majumdar. "To
create a credible legal justice system, we need expeditious trials with proper
evidence collection systems in place. The biggest loophole for evidence
collection remains the unprofessional manner in which it is gathered. We cannot
focus on speed at the cost of content. The evidence gathering process must be
done in a scientific manner."
The cabinet had cleared an ordinance in April 2018 providing lengthy jail terms
and even the death penalty for sex offenders convicted for raping girls below
12 years. The ordinance sets out life sentences for the entire natural life of
a convict and rules out anticipatory bail for rape or gangrape of a girl less
than 16 years. But the key question experts are asking is what has been done to
beef up the system.
"The cops are the same. The infrastructure is the same," said Majumdar. "The
government has not increased the numbers in our judiciary nor trained the
police force to create any meaningful change. This speed of conviction has not
come about because of any organic change. It sounds contrived and is therefore
dangerous. All this is being done only for optics. Unfortunately, we have
become a generation that wants instant gratification."
This has obviously not worked in other countries. Experts working on this issue
in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, find that the enforcement agencies
there, including the judiciary, are wary of handing out the death sentence
except in the most heinous cases.
But in India, it seems to have worked the other way - handing out summary
justice instead of following due processes of law.
(source: indialegallive.com)
IRAN:
3 corrupt individuals in Iran handed death penalty: Judiciary
Iran's Judiciary spokesman announced on Sunday that the special courts on
fighting economic corruption have in recent days convicted 35 individuals of
corruption, among whom 3 were handed death penalty.
The verdicts were issued by the primary court and will be referred to the
Supreme Court for final verdict, IRNA quoted Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i as
saying.
He added that the other 32 individuals were sentenced to imprisonment.
Mohseni-Eje'i also thanked the people for their constructive cooperation with
the Judiciary.
(source: tehrantimes.com)
**********************
Iran Regime Threatens Striking Truckers to Execution
The nationwide strike of the truckers, which has entered its 2nd week, has
intensified the crisis inside the clerical regime whose leaders have been
horrified from its continuation and spread. In this regard, Khamenei sent Chief
Prosecutor General Montazeri to the scene to threaten the strikers to
execution. Montazeri said:
"According to the information we have, in some routes, some of the cities,
there are elements who are provoking some of the truckers, or possibly blocking
them and creating problems for them. They are subject to the rules and
regulations of banditry and the punishment of the bandits according to the law
is very severe, sometimes resulting in the death penalty. "(News Network TV
News - September 29).
At the same time, Ali al-Qasimehr, the chief justice of the Fars province,
accused the strikers of "corruption on earth," and IRGC Brigadier General
Mohammad Sharafi, one of the commanders of State Security Forces, threatens the
protesters with harsh action. (State TV - September 29).
However, 2 days earlier, the Fars Province Transportation Director General had
called the strike of truck drivers as rumors and said: "It's been a few days
that rumors about truck drivers’ strike have been circulating in the media and
cyberspace. This misuse of the opponents from the needs of the truck drivers to
create crisis in the country is clear for every Iranian (FARS, Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps news agency, September 27).
IRGC Colonel Kavos Mohammadi, a deputy of the Fars provincial police force,
described the strikers as "disrupters of the order," and said: "Following the
disrupting acts of some of these people on the roads of Fars ... After the
visible and invisible patrol of officers, 22 thugs and disrupters of public
order on the roads were arrested and, after filing a case, they were sent to
the judiciary authorities and through them to the prisons. Police will deal
with sensitivity and vigilance with the smallest insecurity factors in
coordination with the judiciary, and the process of confronting with the
disrupters of order and security of the roads and axes of Fars province will
continue on a daily basis. The police monitor and control all the roads in this
province, visibly and invisibly, and resolutely deal with all elements of
disrupters of order and security in these areas "(IRNA news agency - September
26).
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, saluted the
strikers throughout Iran, describing the vindictive threats of the clerics
against the dignified and hardworking drivers as a reflection of the growing
crisis of the clerical regime, and said that the ruling mullahs were the
biggest bandits in the history of Iran, and that they neither want nor can
respond to legitimate demands of striking drivers. She called on all human
rights organizations to take action to release the arrested and urged the
general public, especially the youth, to support the strikers. She added that
realization of these demands is only possible with the establishment of
democracy and people's sovereignty. A regime that threatens to execute its
working people due to a strike must be rejected by the international community.
(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)
JAPAN:
Few question the death penalty for heinous crimes
Should murderers be put to death? Yes, says Japan. No, says (increasingly) much
of the rest of the world. Japan swims against the current.
The execution of criminals - not just murderers - was formerly, in Japan as
elsewhere, a matter of course. The social order was sacred, no quarter given to
the disorderly - a broad swath that might include thieves, adulterers, abettors
of adultery, Christians, even persons found lacking in Confucian filial piety.
Beheading, as befits a sword-wielding nation, was the preferred method of
dispatch, but crucifixion and burning at the stake were alternate
possibilities. Executions were public. They were entertainment; they were
deterrent. Severed heads were displayed for public gawking on specially
constructed gibbets.
We congratulate ourselves today on living in more humane times. Amnesty
International in its charter expresses the broad current of world opinion: "The
death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated
and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state. This cruel, inhuman and
degrading punishment is done in the name of justice."
Counterarguments, and countersentiments, seem to resonate more forcefully in
Japan than in other democratic countries that value human rights. "Cruel,
inhuman and degrading" - all punishment is that. Deprivation of liberty is
degrading, yet few advocate the abolition of prisons.
What is the appropriate punishment for crimes that practically all humanity
unites in calling heinous? The July executions of 13 Aum Shinrikyo cultists
aroused little domestic outrage. The roughly 80 % support for capital
punishment - "passive" though critics say that support is - remains intact, as
an August survey by the Asahi Shimbun shows.
A junior high school girl who responded to the Asahi poll fresh from a
discussion of the issue in her social science class said: "Someone who has
killed many people does not atone for the crime simply by being in jail. In
jail you eat, you bathe, you sleep in a futon. I don’t understand why a person
who has killed should go on living normally." Being in prison is not quite, of
course, "living normally." But it's close enough in the eyes of many. Still,
only the "worst cases," the girl added, should be punishable by death.
"Worst cases," yes, but what are they? The ones that make us shudder most?
Shukan Kinyobi magazine invites us to consider the following.
It concerns death row inmate Kazuya Tsuchiya, convicted of stabbing to death 2
elderly people in November and December 2014. His 1st victim was 93, his 2nd
81.
Shukan Kinyobi's report was written by journalist Chizuru Kawauchi, who made
contact with Tsuchiya, as she has with other death row inmates in an effort to
understand them better. Are they evil? Ill? Victims of an unjust society? There
are no easy generalizations. Even narrowing the questions down to one
individual at a time yields no answer that will satisfy everyone - or anyone,
perhaps.
Tsuchiya was 26 at the time of his crimes. If ever blind circumstances
conspired to blight a person's life from birth, they did Tsuchiya's. He was
born into poverty, placed in a children's home at the age of 1, managed to
graduate senior high school but thereafter drifted from job to job before
finally drifting out of work altogether. He lived on welfare for a time but
drifted out of that, too. Dealing with people - in this case welfare officials
- was simply too painful. He retreated into his room, playing computer games,
sinking deeper and deeper into debt. Rent unpaid, electricity cut off,
starving, he took to the streets. One November night in 2014 he slipped into a
house in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, intending to steal food. Surprised by the
93-year-old householder, he lashed out at her with a knife. A month later it
was almost the same story, played out this time against a couple. He killed the
husband, wounded the wife. A week later he was arrested after breaking into a
ramen restaurant. He confessed to the murders and began his journey to death
row.
He was starving, desperate. He suffered besides, two psychiatrists testified at
his trial, from personality disorders that were a kind of barrier between him
and his fellow humans. Unable to communicate, he lost contact with the world,
and when the world confronted him, in the form of elderly people shocked at
finding him in their homes, he simply lashed out, damn the consequences.
The court that pronounced him guilty acknowledged the personality disorders but
found them not materially relevant to the crimes.
In her report, Kawauchi portrays Tsuchiya as a kind of Japan in microcosm. She
sees social ties weakening everywhere, communication shriveling to
monosyllables, and family members, colleagues and friends reduced to near if
not total strangers. Feelings dammed up potentially burst forth as action -
bullying, suicide, murder. "I see criminals in embryo," nourished, she writes,
by "an inability to connect with society - the more so as youth poverty grows
more acute, as it has been in recent years."
Some of the death row inmates she has corresponded with have been open and more
or less friendly, more or less eager to explain or apologize. Not Tsuchiya. He
didn't ignore her overtures, but he didn't welcome them either. In court, she
says, he was similarly uncommunicative. Only once, she says, did he give a
clear and unequivocal answer to a question. The question, from one of the lay
judges hearing the case, was, "If your childhood had been different, do you
think you would have been able to lead a different life?"
"Yes," said Tsuchiya.
Is this one of the "worst cases"? For the victims, every case is a worst case.
One morning, then, barring fresh developments - maybe tomorrow morning, maybe
next year, or in 5 years, 10, 30, there’s simply no knowing - a guard will
visit Tsuchiya's tiny cell and indicate his life is over. He will be hanged
shortly thereafter. After it's done - not before - family members, if any, and
the media will be informed. To journalists who inquire, "Why him? Why now? How
was the decision made?" - the answer will be, in effect, "No comment."
(source: Japan Times)
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