June 14
BAHAMAS:
BCC president: Lethal injection is more humane than hanging
On the heels of the country’s latest homicide, President of the Bahamas
Christian Council, Bishop Delton Fernander, on Thursday expressed his stance on
capital punishment, calling for the eradication of hanging and replacing it
with lethal injection.
“As you know, the Council is divided on the conversation of hanging, however I
speak as the President that we should remove hanging and add lethal injection,”
Bishop Fernander told Eyewitness News. “It is a more humane way to deliver the
same penalty, [but] obviously it is only conversation and it’s in the States
hands, but there must be action.”
Bishop Fernander said there must be a push to ensure that there are more
serious consequences for certain crimes, which would lead to a more progressive
and proactive country and church.
“Criminals must know that when you take [the lives of] fathers or mothers or
productive citizens in our society there will be a consequence to your action,
rather than eating and having a good time in jail,” Fernander said.
“As a Council, we are being more proactive and engaging in some areas that we
have not engaged in. It lends itself to conversation, but we are willing to
have that conversation.”
The BBC president also admitted that there is division amongst him and some of
the other members of the Council when it comes to his views on capital
punishment. He noted, however, that the Council’s stance on capital punishment
will be further discussed at a march scheduled for this Saturday, held under
the theme, “Operation Restoration”.
Meanwhile Attorney General Carl Bethel declared in a recent interview that the
death penalty “remains a part of Bahamian law and the country’s position on the
penalty is not likely to change anytime soon.”
David Mitchell was the last convicted murderer to be hanged in The Bahamas in
2000.
According to an American Civil Unions online article there is no credible
evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms
of imprisonment
The death penalty is legal in 29 states in the United States, including popular
states like Georgia, Texas, California, and Florida but is illegal in 21 states
including New York, Illinois, Washington State and Iowa.
(source: Eyewitness News)
BELARUS----execution
Just Before European Games: Another prisoner executed in Belarus
Alyaksandr Zhylnikau, a convict under a sentence of death for murders, was
executed, his family told human rights defender Andrey Paluda.
On June 13, his defense lawyer was informed that the prisoner ‘had departed to
serve his sentence’, HRC Viasna reports. When she asked whether Zhylnikau had
been executed, prison officials confirmed it.
In December 2015, Vyachaslau Sukharko and Alyaksandr Zhylnikau were found
guilty of murdering 3 people. One more defendant in the case, Alina Shulhanava,
was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Sawmill workers Sukharko and Zhylnikau were accused of murdering 3 people,
robbery and stealing documents. Alina Shulhanava, a nursery school teacher and
former employee at the state-controlled youth organization BRSM, was charged
with the organisation of causing a grievous bodily harm, which resulted in
death, and preparation for abducting a person.
The charges stem from 2 episodes that took place in December 2015 in Minsk.
27-year Alina Shulhanava failed to come to terms with the fact that her
ex-boyfriend was dating another woman. Shulhanava hired Vyachaslau Sukharko and
Alyaksandr Zhylnikau to threaten and beat the couple. However, the perpetrators
went a bridge too far and killed the both. Immediately after their arrest, it
became known that Sukharko and Zhylnikau were involved in another murder in the
town of Kalodzishchy near Minsk. A 59-year-old man who let an apartment to 1 of
the defendants turned out to be another victim.
In March 2017, the Minsk City Court sentenced the 2 men to life imprisonment.
However, on July 14, the Supreme Court sent the case for retrial. In January
2018, they were sentenced to death.
The fate of Vyachaslau Sukharko is unknown at the moment. However, the record
shows that the sentences passed on the defendants in the same case are carried
out at the same point of time.
***
Belarus remains the only country in Europe that still applies capital
punishment. The West has repeatedly called on the Belarusian authorities to
join a global moratorium as a 1st step towards the abolition of death penalty.
The exact number of executions in Belarus is unknown, but local human rights
defenders and journalists have worked tirelessly to uncover some information
about death sentences and executions. According to the Ministry of Justice of
Belarus, 245 people were sentenced to death from 1994 to 2014. Human rights
NGOs believe that around 400 people have been executed since the country gained
its independence in 1991; president Alyaksandr Lukashenka granted a pardon to
only 1 convict.
*************************
Council of Europe condemns execution of death sentence in Belarus
The Council of Europe has reacted to the reports about the recent execution of
Belarusian Alyaksandr Zhylnikau, who was sentenced to death in January, 2018.
“We condemn another execution in Belarus, as reported by rights defenders.
Death is no justice. We reiterate our call on the authorities to impose a
moratorium on the application of death penalty as the first step towards its
abolition,” Daniel Holtgen, Spokespeson of CoE Secretary General. said on
Twitter."
(source for both belsat.eu)
FRANCE/IRAQ:
France denies Iraq has yet asked for money to try jihadist fighters
France’s foreign ministry denied on Thursday a report that it had been asked by
Iraqi authorities to pay up to $2 million per fighter for Baghdad to deal with
French jihadists transferred from Syria to Iraq.
The ministry added that it respected Baghdad’s sovereignty in judging foreign
fighters.
Citing several unidentified sources, French daily newspaper Le Figaro reported
on June 7 that Iraq had asked Paris for $1 million for each foreign jihadist
sentenced to death and $2 million for those given long-term sentences.
The article echoed other media reports that Baghdad has been seeking some $2
billion in compensation for dealing with hundreds of suspected Islamic State
fighters held by Kurds in northeastern Syria, where there is no legal framework
to deal with them.
“We have not received any request to this effect,” French foreign ministry
spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said when asked about the Figaro report.
“We respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi state, including its judicial
institutions that have declared themselves competent to try French Islamic
State fighters.”
While the ministry denied the report, a French official briefing reporters
after a visit by Iraq’s prime minister in May said Paris expected Baghdad to
make an official request, including financially, on what it needed to handle
large number of Islamist fighters.
Iraq is conducting trials of thousands of suspected Islamic State fighters,
including hundreds of foreigners, with many arrested as the group’s strongholds
crumbled throughout Iraq.
France, which has ruled out repatriating its Islamist fighters, is facing
criticism at home from some lawmakers and human rights groups after 11 French
nationals were sentenced to death in Iraq over the last 2 weeks. Paris opposes
the death penalty and has asked Baghdad not to carry out the executions.
“The Iraqi authorities know that we oppose it (the death penalty) in all places
and in all circumstances,” said Von der Muhll.
There are some 450 French nationals still held in Kurdish camps, including
about 200 adults.
(source: Reuters)
IRAN----executions
5 prisoners hanged in Iran
The Iranian regime hanged 5 prisoners in Karaj, Ardabil and Gorgan.
Three inmates were hanged in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj on Wednesday, June 12,
2019. Two of the men have been identified as Amir Tahmaseb and Samad Basideh.
The prisoners were accused of rape which is punishable by death according to
the Iranian regime’s punishment laws. These executions have not been announced
by the regime’s state media, yet.
Also on Wednesday, June 12, the head of the Justice Department of Ardabil,
Nasser Atabati, announced that they had executed an inmate in the Prison of
Ardabil. He said the convict was a smuggler of antiques accused of killing two
State Security Force officers and 2 civilians in a shoot-out with the police,
for which he was sentenced to Qesas or retribution in kind. (The state-run
Mizan Online – June 12, 2019)
On Sunday, June 9, 2019, Hashem Amiri, married with 3 children, was hanged in
the Prison of Gorgan, capital of the northern Province of Golestan. The
execution has not been announced by the regime’s media.
In the past 4 decades, Iran has gone through numerous social crises perpetrated
by the regime either deliberately or due to its mismanagement. These social
crises are the source of many crimes. Rather than curing the social problems
and healing the wounds, the regime’s response to these crimes has been inhumane
punishments.
The death penalty has served as a tool for the Iranian regime to hold its grab
on power. The Iranian regime uses executions to silence a disgruntled public
the majority of whom live under the poverty line, are unemployed and deprived
of freedom of expression.
Iran Human Rights Monitor calls on the UN Human Rights Council and the UN
Security Council to send a delegation to visit Iranian prisons and inspect the
conditions of prisoners and particularly political prisoners who are being
persecuted for exercising their freedom of speech.
*******************
4 People Sentenced to Death for Killing a Man
4 prisoners have been sentenced to death for murdering a man.
According to IHR sources, a court in the Iranian city of Maragheh sentenced
four men to qisas (retribution in kind) for murdering a man. The incident
happened t2years ago when Jalal Partowi, Sasan Zahrabi, Mohammadali Naghipour
and Saeed (?) went to take back an amount of money given by Jalal to a man as a
loan. The 4 beat him and the victim died.
Due to the lack of transparency in the Iranian judicial system, there is no
other information about their case and the process of their trial.
There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results
in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and
intent.
According to the Iran Human Rights statistic department, at least 273 people
were executed in Iran in 2018. At least 188 of them executed for murder
charges.
(source for both: Iran Human Rights)
SOUTH KOREA:
S. Korea rejects recommendation to join int'l protocol renouncing death penalty
The South Korean government has rejected a recommendation by its National Human
Rights Commission to accede to an international protocol renouncing the use of
the death penalty, according to the commission on Thursday.
Last year, the commission made the recommendation that South Korea join the
Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which aims to abolish the death penalty.
The government notified the commission in February this year that the
recommendation needs to be reviewed in the mid and long-term because it should
take into account public opinion and conditions at home and abroad, according
to commission officials.
The commission plans to again recommend South Korea join the protocol after
implementing appropriate procedures, a commission official said.
South Korea has a de facto moratorium on capital punishment. The country still
issues the death penalty but has not carried out an execution since 1998, nor
has it officially declared its discontinuance.
Still, South Korea is 1 of 4 members of the 36-nation Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) that have not yet acceded to the protocol,
along with the United States, Israel and Japan.
(source: yna.co.kr)
INDIA:
Rajasthan: Death sentence for man who raped, murdered 4-year-old child
In a landmark judgement, the Alwar District Court on Thursday awarded death
sentence to a man for raping and killing a four-year-old girl. The convict,
identified as Rajkumar alias Dharmendra, had committed the crime in Rajasthan’s
Behror in 2015.
The decision is being seen as a big deterrent to potential predators as the
court made it clear that such heinous crime against children were indeed rarest
of the rare, deserving the harshest punishment possible. Earlier in the week,
seven men accused of rape and murder of a minor girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s
Kathua were sentenced and three were given life imprisonment. The case in
Kathua had created a nationwide outrage with citizens expressing their anger
against such horrific crimes against children.
(source: timesnownews.com)
CHINA:
Man gets death penalty for fatal shopping mall attack
A man who killed 1 person and injured 14 others in a frenzied knife attack at a
shopping mall last year, was sentenced to death by a Beijing court on Thursday.
Zhu Jiye went into a restaurant in Joy City shopping mall on Feb 1 around 11 pm
and began attacking customers, according to the Beijing No 2 Intermediate
People's Court.
Zhu, who took one restaurant staff member as a hostage when police arrived at
the scene, was later captured by officers.
The court said in a statement that Zhu planned the armed attack, targeting
innocent people in a bustling public place ahead of Chinese New Year in order
to vent his personal grievances. Xinhua reported that a witness saw Zhu
suddenly take a knife out of his bag and begin attacking people
indiscriminately.
"He committed the crime of intentional homicide through his actions and it is
extremely serious. Thus, Zhu should be severely punished according to the law,"
the court said, adding his political rights had been taken away.
Police said Zhu, from Xihua, Henan province, had dropped out of middle school
and left home at a young age. He traveled to many provinces, including Henan,
Jiangsu and Hebei to make a living and was obsessed with video games.
Due to his struggles in life and at work, Zhu was involved in many disputes
with his employers and began holding grudges against society. This made him
think about taking revenge, police said, adding that he had been unemployed
since the end of 2017.
(source: chinadaily.com.cn)
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