March 26
EGYPT:
The world closes its eyes to the death penalty in Egypt
After June 8, 2014, when General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi came to power in Egypt,
displacing President Morsi (who was elected by popular vote), a total of 42
people were executed in Egypt. Turkey strongly condemns the practice of capital
punishment, while European countries continue not to express any concrete
position on the issue, with the exception of the individual statements of a few
Western leaders. These statements turned out to be insufficient to stop
el-Sisi’s government from resorting to capital punishment. Last week, another 6
young people were sentenced to death.
50 prisoners are currently awaiting the death penalty in Egypt. According to
Egyptian law, only the President has the authority to sign a decree to execute
defendants whose guilt has been proven, he is also the only one who can grant
amnesty or reduce the severity of punishment.
The leaders of European countries, for the most part, turn a blind eye to the
executions in Egypt, even meeting with e-Sisi at various summits and taking
pictures with him hand in hand.
Unlike the EU and much of its leadership, the UN and numerous international
human rights organizations have called for an end to the death penalty
globally.
The EU was represented at the recent EU-League of Arab States (LAS) summit in
Egypt at the highest levels – European Council President Donald Tusk, EU Head
of European Diplomacy Federica Mogherini, German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
British Prime Minister Teresa May and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte
attended the event. France and Spain were represented at the ministerial
meeting.
The president of France, a country often recognized as the “cradle of
democracy,” visited Egypt on the eve of the summit. In an informal and friendly
atmosphere, he too met with putsch leader el-Sisi.
EP Vice President Pavel Telichka, in response to a question about the EU’s
failure to comment on the 9 young people facing the death penalty, admitted:
“Yes, one can say that the EU sometimes behaves two-faced. We are not perfect.
”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who often critiques the use of the
death penalty, severely criticized European countries for their silence on this
serious problem. Discussing the summit in Egypt, Erdogan said: “Can we talk
about democracy in EU member states that took part in the summit organized by
el-Sisi, when last week he signed a decree on the death penalty for 9 young
people? Pointing out the duplicity of the EU’s position, the Turkish president
stressed: “You do not approve of the death penalty, but take pictures with
el-Sisi, who executed 42 people in Egypt.”
The Turkish President’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalyn also sharply criticized the
summit. On his Twitter account, he posted photos of the nine executed Egyptians
and wrote: “9 young people executed by the el-Sisi regime, in front of which
the countries of the West and the Persian Gulf spread the red carpet. All of
you are complicit in this crime. ”
UN: STOP THE EXECUTIONS
The UN has appealed to the Egyptian government to put an end to the death
penalty in the country. “We urge the Egyptian authorities to stop the execution
of all death penalties. Information about torture during the trial was not
properly investigated and studied, ” UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Rupert
Colville said in an address to el-Sisi’s government.
CALL FROM AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
The international non-governmental organization Amnesty International also
called for an end to the death penalty in Egypt.
Their statement notes that convicts are currently held in prisons pending
execution, some of the defendants being accused of crimes that they did not
commit and that the trials themselves are being conducted in violations of
legal norms.
In addition, the statement stresses that during the trials “torture is used
against defendants in order to force them to confess guilt”. A Social media
campaign has been launched in support of those sentenced to death in Egypt with
the hashtag #StopExecutionsInEgypt
CONFERENCE AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY
A press conference was held as part of the 7th World Congress against the Death
Penalty, organized at the EP headquarters in Brussels, which was attended by
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, EP president Pavel Telicka and
several people who were sentenced to death but acquitted.
Anadolu`s correspondent asked, “How do you assess the participation of EU
countries at the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh after the death penalty of 9
convicts in Egypt, and the refusal of European leaders to make an official
statement on this? Will this question be raised at a meeting of the Congress? ”
Reynders answered that the EP maintains contacts with the Egyptian authorities.
Reynders noted that negotiations are held with officials in Cairo not only on
the issue of the death penalty but also on the conditions of detention.
According to him, this issue is also being discussed with other international
organizations. “During negotiations with the Egyptian authorities, we condemned
the practice of the death penalty and insisted on its termination. We are
closely following the situation with the conditions of prisoners and the death
sentences of convicts, ”he said. He also spoke about a UN initiative to
confront the issue.
Telicka said that during the negotiations with the Egyptian minister, he
announced his intention to make a visit to Egypt to study the human rights
situation and prison conditions in the country, but did not get Cairo’s
consent.
“We are not international police and are not obligated to punish those
responsible,” he added.
The International Congress on Counteracting the Death Penalty was first held in
Strasbourg in 1991.
(source: uwidata.com)
BRUNEI:
Brunei urged to halt introduction of strict new anti-LGBT+ laws
Brunei must rowback on plans to implement changes to its penal code next month
that could see LGBT+ people whipped or stoned to death for same-sex activity,
human rights groups said on Monday.
Brunei was the first East Asian country to introduce Islamic criminal law in
2014 when it announced the first of three stages of legal changes that included
fines or jail for offences like pregnancy outside marriage or failing to pray
on Friday.
Previously homosexuality was illegal in Brunei and punishable by up to 10 years
imprisonment, but the changes would allow whipping and stoning to death for
Muslims found guilty of adultery, sodomy and rape, said human rights groups.
The country delayed implementing the final two stages of changes after an
international backlash in 2014 but now plans to go ahead with both on April 3,
said Matthew Woolfe, founder of human rights group The Brunei Project.
ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, a Manila-based human rights group, confirmed the
implementation of the remaining changes were due to take place on April 3,
citing government documents.
Manila-based OutRight Action International also confirmed Brunei was about to
implement a new stage in its sharia laws.
The Brunei Prime Minister’s Department did not respond to an emailed request
for comment.
“We are trying to get pressure placed on the government of Brunei but realize
there is a very short time frame until the laws take affect,” Woolfe told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation, calling on governments to step up diplomatic
pressure on Brunei.
“It took us by surprise that the government has now given a date and is rushing
through implementation,” said the Australia-based campaigner.
Woolfe said there had been no major public announcements on the implementation
of the penal code changes aside from a statement on attorney general’s website
late December which only came to light this week.
Socially conservative attitudes prevail across Asia with Myanmar, Malaysia,
Singapore and Brunei banning sexual relationships between men while Indonesia
has seen an increase in raids targeting LGBT+ people in recent years.
Brunei, a former British protectorate of about 400,000 nestled between 2
Malaysian states on Borneo island, is the 1st country in east Asia to adopt the
criminal component of sharia at a national level.
“The full implementation of sharia penal law will apply severe penalties
against consensual same-sex relations, including death penalty via stoning,”
Ryan Silverio, a coordinator at ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, said in an email.
Dede Oetomo, one of Indonesia’s most prominent LGBT+ activists, said it would
be a gross violation of international human rights if the changes went ahead.
“It is horrible. Brunei is imitating the most conservative Arab states,” he
said.
(source: Reuters)
PHILIPPINES:
Impose death penalty on foreign drug traffickers
The rampant smuggling of illegal drugs is inflicting very serious damage on our
nation.
The seizure last Tuesday of 166.5 kilos of “shabu” from a mall parking lot and
a house at the posh Ayala Alabang Village, plus the discovery three days later
of 276 kilos of shabu worth P1.8 billion in a plastic resins shipment at the
Manila International Container Port, are eye openers. According to the
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the confiscated drugs belong to the
Golden Triangle triad.
On March 12, a “top ecstasy supplier” in Metro Manila identified by the PDEA as
Steve Pasion was killed in Manila. His live-in partner was arrested. A total of
P6.075 million worth of liquid ecstasy and party drugs were seized from the
couple whose customers included young students, millennials and yuppies.
In Cebu province, the police says a businesswoman from an affluent family who
is known in social circles runs a 15-member drug distribution channel. Around
11 members of the ring have been arrested and are now giving the police
information. The PDEA believes the group’s drug supply came from the Sinaloa
Cartel.
PDEA director general Aaron Aquino says our country is a favorite destination
of foreign drug syndicates because they could “buy everyone” here. Aquino is
pushing for Congress to revive the death penalty but only for foreign drug
suppliers. Sadly, his agency’s 2019 budget was slashed by 40 % by our feuding
legislators.
I think it is about time we revisit the proposal to execute foreign drug
suppliers. If his numbers are correct, President Duterte says 1.6 million
Filipinos are using shabu in urban areas. Even high school students are now
couriers while more and more couples, with the knowledge of their children, are
getting involved in this illegal “cottage industry.”
The Philippines, along with Cambodia, is one of the few remaining countries in
the region that have abolished the death penalty.
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Brunei, Laos and
Singapore have executed foreign drug suppliers, thus discouraging the “open
entry” of drug cartels.
Let’s cut off the supply and cut it cleanly. We must impose the death penalty
now on foreign drug suppliers.
(source: radyo.inquirer.net)
INDONESIA:
Was Sentenced to Death, How is Mary Jane Veloso Now After Moratorium?
Do you still remember Mary Jane Veloso? The Philippines girl who sentenced to
death for drug dealing several years ago and got moratorium on capital
punishment enacted by the president at the time after the Philippines
ambassador for Indonesia together with the human rights activist opposed
against it? Well, its how she is now.
As TIMES Indonesia visit her at her room at the Wirogunan women's prison
Yogjakarta, Veloso was in a very good condition.
She was so cooperative and attending all activities they got there. One of them
is the motivation class, sharing with Dr Aqua Dwipayana at the Lembaga
Pemasyarakatan Perempuan (LPP) or women's prison Wirogunan Yogyakarta, Monday
(25/3/2019).
After staying there for several years, it seems that Veloso have been managed
to speak in Bahasa Indonesia fluenty. She even spoke on the class using Bahasa
Indonesia and told her story abour her "trip" to Nusa Kambangan.
"Pada malam 28 April 2015, perasaan saya damai, saya sudah siap. Semua sudah
saya serahkan kepada Tuhan (that night April 28, 2015, I surrendered everything
to God. I was ready to die, and let everything go and already felt peace in
me)," she said in a very fluent Bahasa Indonesia.
The hall became so silence when Veloso told her story. Everyone paid attention
and feel her pain with them. As an appreciation to her brave Aqua Dwipayana
showed his compassion by helping her with some money (IDR 1 M) to her account.
“Mary Jane Veloso, she is one strong woman, shes a raw model for us. Her
fortitude and belief to the God led her to this situation we have in this hall
now, which is peace. God gave her a 2nd chance, and she grateful for it," Aqua
Dwipayana said. (*)
(source: timesindonesia.co.id)
CANADA:
Remember This? Eugène Larment: The last man hanged in Ottawa----Looking back at
the life of the last man to ever be hanged in Ottawa, and the circumstances
which lead to his death.
OttawaMatters.com, in partnership with the Historical Society of Ottawa, brings
you this weekly feature by Director James Powell, highlighting a moment in the
city's history.
Shortly after midnight on March 27, 1946, after playing checkers with his
guards, a composed Eugène Larment, 24, was led from the condemned cell in the
Carleton County jail on Nicholas Street to the gallows.
Hopes for a last minute reprieve had been dashed when his lawyer's request for
an appeal was refused by the Office of the Secretary of State.
After Pastor Gordon Porter of the Salvation Army gave the young man spiritual
consolation, Larment was hanged by the neck until he was dead. It was 12:32
a.m. This was the third and last judicial execution carried out in Ottawa's
historic jail.
The first was the famous hanging in 1869 of Patrick Whelan, convicted for the
murder of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, the father of Confederation struck down by an
assassin's bullet on Sparks Street the previous year. The 2nd was that of
William Seabrooke who was executed in early 1933 for slaying Paul-Émile
Lavigne, a service-station attendant.
To paraphrase the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, Larment's death marked the end of
a life that was poor, nasty, brutish and short.
Born into an impoverished family, Larment's first brushes with the law came
when he was but a child.
A frequent truant from public school, Larment was sent to an industrial school
in Alfred, Ontario at the tender age of twelve. Most likely it was the St
Joseph's Training School for delinquent boys run by the Christian Brothers from
1933 to the mid-1970s. Like the residential schools for indigenous children,
such training schools, including St Joseph's, became notorious for the
physical, sexual and emotional abuse of their young charges. During the three
years he was confined there, Larment apparently received no visitors and no
mail from home.
He escaped and made his way to Ottawa. Picked up by the authorities, someone
reportedly told him that if he confessed to purse snatching, he wouldn't be
returned to the industrial school. Desperate to avoid going back, he did so,
and was instead sent to a government reformatory.
After he got out on parole, he attended the Kent Street Public School for a
short time.
With his family described as being "in a bad fix," he sold junk to scrap
dealers to earn a pittance. He also worked as a delivery boy. In 1938, at age
16, he was charged with vagrancy and breaking and entering, and was returned to
the reformatory.
Shortly after being released in early 1940, the now 18-year-old Larment and
four friends stole a taxi on McLaren Street in downtown Ottawa and drove to
Preston where they tied up and robbed two men at gun point at a service
station. They netted a meagre $27.
Spotted later that night on their return to Ottawa, the young men led police on
a wild chase down Bronson Street into LeBreton Flats. Gunshots were exchanged.
Turning onto the Chaudière Bridge heading for Hull, the joyriders hit an
oncoming car and crashed into a guard rail. Dazed but uninjured, Larment and
his companions were taken into custody. They received six-year terms in the
Kingston Penitentiary for armed robbery.
Larment was released from jail in late September 1945.
Less than 2 months after his release Larment, with Albert Henderson and Wilfrid
D'Amour staged a daring robbery of the Canadian War Museum on Sussex Street
(now Drive).
At about 9 p.m. on Monday, October 22, 1945, the trio smashed the plate glass
of the front door of the museum within a few hundred feet of passersby on the
sidewalk, and just a laneway away from the Government of Canada's Laurentian
Terrace girls' hostel. The bandits made off in a stolen car with 3 Thompson
submachine guns used in World War II, 2 automatic pistols and 4 World War I
revolvers.
The following night, a janitor at an O'Connor Street apartment building called
the police to report some men acting suspiciously.
A "prowler" car manned by Detective Thomas Stoneman and Constable Russell
Berndt was dispatched to investigate.
The officers found 3 men loitering outside of the Bytown Inn. The trio split
up, with 2, later identified as D'Amour and Henderson, walking in opposite
directions along O'Connor Street. Detective Stoneman approached the middle man
who had remained between the 2 canopied entrances of the Inn.
"I want to talk to you," the officer said after he got out of the driver's side
of the car.
"What do you want?" replied a man in a khaki trench coat.
Without warning, the man pulled a gun from his pocket and fired at Stoneman
from a distance of only six feet. Stoneman was struck in the chest and fell to
the ground grievously wounded.
His partner, Constable Berndt, who had just returned to the police force after
3 ½ years in the navy, ducked when the gunman subsequently aimed at him.
Trading shots, the bandit fled through a maze of laneways and alleys, pursued
by Berndt who disconcerting found himself followed by D'Amour. Fortunately,
another police cruiser arrived on the scene. Constables Thomas Walsh and John
Hardon joined the chase for Stoneman’s assailant, while Flight Lieutenant
Appleby, a decorated pilot who had accompanied the police officers, tackled
D'Amour. Meanwhile, the shooter, Eugène Larment, who had run out of ammunition,
was chased into the arms of beat policeman, Constable René Grenville, at the
corner of Metcalfe and Slater Streets. The third man of the trio, Albert
Henderson, managed to evade immediate capture but was picked up at his home on
Albert Street a few hours later.
Back at Larment's family home on Wellington Street and in an abandoned building
next door, police discovered the missing weapons stolen from the War Museum.
Initially, the men were charged with attempted murder. But the charges were
upgraded to murder when Detective Stoneman died a few days later.
The 15-year veteran policeman with the Ottawa Police Force, aged 37, born in
Mortlach, Saskatchewan, left a wife Lois (Cleary) and 1-year old twins, Richard
Thomas and Jill Lois. Stoneman was accorded a civic funeral. Uniformed
policemen from the Ottawa and Hull municipal police, the RCMP, the Ontario and
Quebec Provincial Police Forces, the RCAF service police and the naval shore
patrol marched in the funeral cortege. The slain policeman was buried in the
Beechwood Cemetery.
Even while in jail, the charges against Larment, D'Amour and Henderson
continued to mount.
In early January, the threesome tried to break out of the country jail. Before
being recaptured, they brutally beat up Percy Hyndman, a prison guard. A blow
to the head from a heavy broom opened a nasty gash in Hyndman’s scalp requiring
5 stiches to close.
The trial of the trio for the murder of Detective Stoneman began in mid-January
1946 in front of Justice F. H. Barlow of the Ontario High Court.
Deputy Attorney General Cecil L. Snyder, who had an outstanding record of 37
convictions in 38 murder cases, was the special Crown prosecutor.
For the defence was lawyer W. Edward Haughton, K.C. who represented the trio
pro bono; there was no legal aid at this time.
The trial lasted roughly a week. Throughout the proceedings the courtroom's
hard wooden benches were packed with people eager to witness the unfolding
drama.
Snyder, the Crown prosecutor, quickly established that the gun that fired the
fatal bullet was a revolver stolen in the War Museum heist.
There was also no doubt that Larment was the shooter.
Larment admitted to firing the weapon "from the hip" in 2 statements that he
made to the police, the first, hours after being apprehended, and the second, a
couple of days later.
One of the jurors, Thomas Bradley, worried about police procedures in obtaining
these statements, was permitted by Justice Barlow to question the police
witness. Bradley enquired whether Larment had been asked if he wanted a lawyer
before he made his statements. The detective answered no, though he added that
Larment had been free to ask for one. Apparently, the detective had pursued
standard Canadian police procedures of the time. Justice Barlow ruled that the
statements were admissible in court, saying he was satisfied they had been
obtained "in the proper manner."
With the identity of the shooter determined, Snyder focused on whether Larment,
D'Amour and Henderson had "a common intent to commit crime," the test necessary
to convict all 3 for murder.
He argued that the 3 men had robbed the Museum together and had armed
themselves with weapons the night that Stoneman died, even though Larment's
weapon was the only 1 loaded (with 3 bullets). He also noted evidence from
D'Amour that the trio had tried to steal a car shortly before the shooting.
Although the accused men had been drinking heavily before the shooting, a
pathologist at the Ottawa Civic Hospital testified that a blood sample taken
from Larment shortly after his arrest showed a "fair indication that the person
was sober when it was taken."
The trio's lawyer stressed the deprived backgrounds of the accused.
He argued that "society might very well be indicted for the death of Detective
Stoneman in addition to Eugène Larment."
He also noted that the trio's ability to reason had been impaired by alcohol.
By one account, Larment had drunk as many as 50 beers (most likely the small
draft glasses of beer popular in taverns at that time) at the Belmont Hotel in
Ottawa and at the Avalon Club in Hull through the afternoon and evening prior
to the shooting. The 3 had also reportedly consumed a bottle of liquor at
Larment's home. Haughton also contended that Larment was unaware that Stoneman
was a policeman when Stoneman approached him. Fearing for his life, Larment had
fired in self-defence. The killing was neither premeditated nor deliberate but
rather was caused by a "misunderstanding" and a "genuine misconception of
Stoneman's intention."
He concluded that Larment should be acquitted of murder, or at worst found
guilty of manslaughter.
Finally, he asked for the acquittal of D'Amour and Henderson on the grounds
that a "common intent" had not been proven. There was no evidence that they
knew that Larment's gun was loaded, they were drunk, and during the evening
there had been no joint criminal venture.
In his instructions to the jury, Justice Barlow made it very clear that he
thought all three defendants were guilty of murder.
He rubbished the idea that Larment fired in self-defence and thought the degree
of Larment's drunkenness was "most exaggerated."
He said to the jury, "Gentlemen, in my opinion you ought to find Larment guilty
without reasonable doubt, and in which you ought to find D'Amour and Henderson
guilty beyond reasonable doubt as parties to a common design with Larment who
resisted arrest by violence."
After deliberating for 3 hours and 55 minutes, the jury returned with their
verdict.
Larment was found guilty of murder as charged.
Notwithstanding the judge's opinions, D'Amour and Henderson were found
innocent.
Some of the jury members broke down.
William Bradley, the juror who asked questions during the trial, tearfully said
that given the evidence he had no choice but to find Larment guilty even though
he opposed the death penalty. He planned to donate his juror fees to the Ottawa
Boys' Club that worked with troubled youth. The Ottawa Journal had little
sympathy for jurors' tears, describing them as "maudlin." If tears were to be
shed "they should be shed for the widow and family of Detective Stoneman,
ruthlessly murdered."
Although Henderson and D'Amour were found innocent of murder, they were not
free men.
They were subsequently found guilty in Magistrates' Court on a range of charges
related to the assault of the prison guard in their abortive jail break, the
theft of weapons from the War Museum, car theft and other crimes.
Henderson received a 29-year sentence, while D'Amour received 27 years in the
Kingston Penitentiary. These were the longest sentences ever handed down in
Magistrates' Court history.
Did the men receive a fair trial? They probably did by 1940's standards. They
were also fortunate to have been represented by an experienced trial lawyer who
somehow managed to get two of them acquitted on the murder charge.
But by today's standards, the statements made by Larment and his companions
would likely have been inadmissible in court.
Under Section 10b of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, every person has
the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay, and to be informed of
that right when they are arrested or detained. Also, the expressed opinion of
the presiding judge that Larment (as well as D'Amour and Henderson) were guilty
of murder would represent probable grounds for an appeal today.
After his execution, Eugène Larment's body was turned over to his family for
burial. It is reported that he was interred in an unmarked pauper's grave in
Beechwood Cemetery, the same cemetery where the remains of Thomas Stoneman were
laid to rest.
The last judicial executions in Canada occurred in December 1962 when Arthur
Lucas and Ronald Turpin were hanged for separate murders in the Don Jail in
Toronto.
Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976.
(source: ottawamatters.com)
IRAQ:
Iraq sentences Yezidi man to death for joining ISIS, committing crimes against
minority group
An Iraqi court on Monday sentenced a Yezidi (Ezidi) man to death for joining
the Islamic State and participating in crimes against his own religious
minority group in the town of Sinjar (Shingal) in 2014.
The convicted man is originally Ezidi but converted to Islam before joining the
jihadist organization and participating in the mass killing of his fellow
Ezidis, according to Iraqi judicial authorities.
The Nineveh Criminal Court “ruled to apply the death sentence on the terrorist
for several crimes committed against the Ezidis,” Iraq’s Supreme Judicial
Council said in a statement.
The sentence was in accordance with the provisions of Article IV of the
anti-terrorism law.
“The convicted man confessed to taking up arms [against the state] and
threatening Ezidis into converting to Islam,” the statement added, without
identifying the person’s name or age.
The Iraqi judiciary asserted the man had participated in the Aug. 15, 2014
occupation of the Ezidi-majority village of Kojo alongside Islamic State
members. The person also confessed to having gathered Ezidis in the village’s
school, isolating women and children from the men who were then executed.
He was also responsible for stealing money from detained Ezidi women as a
member of the terrorist group, the court said.
The convicted man is believed to be the 1st Ezidi sentenced to death by Iraqi
courts for belonging to the Islamic State, almost five years since the
emergence of the jihadist group in the country.
The emergence of the Islamic State and its violent assault on Shingal in 2014
led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of members of the Ezidi
religious minority, who the extremist group considered were heretics. Most of
them fled to the Kurdistan Region, while others resettled in neighboring
countries in the region or Western states.
Others were not as lucky and remained stranded in the war zone, where they
experienced atrocities and mass executions at the hands of the Islamic State
for years. Militants subjected women and girls to sexual slavery, kidnapped
children, forced religious conversions, executed scores of men, and abused,
sold, and trafficked women across areas they controlled in Iraq and Syria.
Before the 2014 attack, there were roughly 550,000 Ezidis in the Kurdistan
Region and Iraq. As the terrorist group took over large swaths of territory in
Nineveh, 360,000 Ezidis escaped and found refuge elsewhere, according to the
Kurdistan Region’s Ezidi Rescue Office.
So far, over 69 mass graves which contain the remains of Ezidis have been
discovered, along with untold numbers of individual graves.
As of now, over 3,300 Ezidis have been rescued from an estimated total of 6,417
kidnapped people, according to the rescue office.
(soruce: kurdistan24.net)
INDIA:
HC begins hearing of acid attack convict's death penalty confirmation
The Bombay High Court Monday began hearing the Maharashtra government's plea
seeking confirmation of the death sentence given to Ankur Panwar, the convict
in the Preeti Rathi acid attack case.
Panwar (25) was sentenced to death by a special court, the 1st instance of
death penalty being awarded by a court in the country in a case of acid attack.
Rathi, a 23-year-old nurse, who was to join the Indian Navy hospital in the
city, succumbed to injuries following an acid attack in May 2015 by Panwar, who
was stalking her.
On May 2, 2015, as Rathi got off at Bandra Terminus here from a train coming
from Delhi, Panwar flung a bottle containing sulphuric acid on her face.
Rathi lost her vision and sustained severe injuries in the attack and died on
June 1 due to multiple organ failure in the Bombay Hospital.
On Monday, Panwar argued, through his counsels, in the high court that he
should not have been given the death penalty since the prosecution in the case
did not have a reliable case.
He argued that while the prosecution relied mainly on the statements of eye
witnesses and some relatives of the victim, it was apparent that some of these
statements were incorrect and had been "tailor made" to suit the prosecution's
case.
The defence team alleged that police had also failed to take any fingerprints
from the bottle which held the acid, and therefore, had no forensic evidence
linking Panwar to the crime.
The arguments in the case are likely to continue Tuesday.
As per the prosecution, Panwar, who had followed Rathi to Mumbai from Delhi on
the same train, had attacked her as he was jealous of her success, and because
she had rejected his marriage proposal.
Police had initially arrested one Pawan Kumar Gahalon, Rathi's neighbour in
Delhi, but he was let off as evidence against him could not be found.
The case was transferred to the Mumbai Crime Branch following an order of the
Bombay High Court.
The Crime Branch arrested Panear relying primarily on statements of eye
witnesses, including those of Rathi's father, her uncle, and 2 other
passengers.
All 4 witnesses had also sustained injuries in the attack.
(source: outlookindia.com)
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