August 17
MEXICO:
Mexico does not want El Paso shooter executed
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday that Mexico does not want the
El Paso shooter who killed 22 people, including eight Mexicans, to be executed,
and may seek to extradite him from the United States.
The confessed shooter in the mass killing in the Texas border city, 21-year-old
Patrick Crusius, potentially faces the death penalty in the US.
Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist, said that while Mexico condemns
Crusius's "reprehensible, abominable" crimes, it does not want to see him put
to death.
"Our constitution does not allow the death penalty. We do not want the death
penalty, as a matter of conviction. Life imprisonment does not exist (in
Mexico), either," he told a press conference.
"I have given instructions to explore the possibility of requesting this
person's extradition," he added.
"We do not want impunity. We want the punishment to serve as an example....
Given that this was a premeditated crime, and all the aggravating factors, he
would face a long time in prison in Mexico... more than 50 years."
Mexico has said it considers the August 3 shooting at a packed Walmart store a
"terrorist attack."
Crusius published an online manifesto before the shooting in which he vowed to
fight a "Hispanic invasion" of the US. He later told police he had been
targeting "Mexicans."
The shooting came at a time of already strained ties between the United States
and Mexico, a frequent target of President Donald Trump's attacks.
Trump critics accuse him of stoking white nationalist hatred in the US with
anti-immigrant rhetoric, including comments referring to Mexican immigrants as
criminals and rapists.
The Mexican foreign ministry convened a meeting of Latin American diplomats
Friday to seek a joint response to what it called the threat of "white
supremacism" to Spanish speakers in the United States.
"What happened in El Paso represents an inflection point in protecting Hispanic
communities in the United States, given that it was a domestic terror attack,
sustained by xenophobic rhetoric," Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told
the meeting.
Mexico has called on the United States to reject the "rhetoric of hate" in the
wake of the shooting.
(soruce: Agence France-Presse)
JAPAN:
Mental illness issues could make death penalty impossible for Kyoto Animation
arsonist
Immediately following the deadly arson attack on anime production company Kyoto
Animation last month, police apprehended 41-year-old Shinji Aoba, who was taken
into custody near the scene of the crime while saying “They stole my novel” and
“I spread the gasoline and lit it with a lighter.”
Aoba, who also suffered burns in the incident, has been hospitalized, and is
yet to be formally arraigned. The circumstances under which he was taken into
custody, though, as well as security footage of him pushing a cart with two
canisters of gasoline in the vicinity of Kyoto Animation’s Fushimi studio prior
to the attack, leave little room in which he could plausibly deny being the
arsonist. However, his culpability, in a legal sense, could be limited.
In a press conference held the day after the attack, Ryoji Nishiyama, head of
the Kyoto Prefectural Police’s First Investigation Department, said “We have
information indicating [Aoba] has a mental illness.”
The exact nature of the purported illness has yet to be disclosed, but Japanese
news organization Daily Shincho spoke with several psychological and legal
experts as to how Aoba’s mental health could affect what legal repercussions he
could face.
Masaru Wakasa, a lawyer who previously served as vice-director of the Public
Prosecutors Office’s Tokyo’s Special Investigation Department, says that if
Aoba is found t have been acting under a diminished mental capacity while
carrying out the attack, there’s a chance he could be found not guilty, in
accordance of Article 39 of the Japanese penal code.
Prominent psychiatrist Tamami Katada said that Aoba exhibited signs of what
could be schizophrenia or castrophrenia, also known as “thought withdrawal,” in
which a person believes that ideas are being forcefully taken from the their
mind by outside forces. Katada goes on to say that such a delusion could have
fed into a persecution complex and fueled a desire for violent revenge,
culminating in the attack. It’s not clear, though, if Katada’s comments were
made before or after Kyoto Animation confirmed that it had received a
submission from Aoba in one of its regularly held novel-writing competitions.
However, Konan University law professor Osamu Watanabe holds that Aoba’s
actions are consistent with someone who was well aware of the lethal effects
they would have, and went through with them anyway. He cites the premeditated
nature of the attack, which required the purchase and transportation of a large
quantity of gasoline, the bag of other tools of destruction, hammers and bladed
instruments that Aoba was carrying, and that he was heard by witnesses shouting
“Die” during the attack. “It would be strange to say he was even slightly
incapable of understanding his actions, and I believe there is ample
justification to pursue the death penalty.”
Wakasa is inclined to agree with Watanabe, pointing to how Aoba verbally
admitted to setting the fire while he was being apprehended, though the
possibility remains that even if Aoba is found guilty, a psychiatric evaluation
could make the maximum enforceable punishment life in prison.
(source: japantoday.com)
UGANDA:
MPs reject removal of death penalty
Members of Parliament have rejected a proposal to scrap the death penalty from
the laws, saying it does not provide justification for the move.
A report of the Sectoral Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on the
law revision (penalties in criminal matters) miscellaneous (amendment) Bill,
2015, indicates that the proposal is in conflict with the title of the Bill.
“The intention of the Bill, is among others, to remove the mandatory death
penalty prescribed by the Penal Code Act, the UPDF Act as well as the
Anti-Terrorism Act as well as to restrict the death penalty to certain
specified serious crimes by converting other provisions prescribing a death
penalty in these enactments into imprisonment for life,” the report reads in
part.
The legislators say the proposal is contrary to best international practice
because it removes the death penalty from some of the most serious crimes for
which the death sentence is ordinarily prescribed.
According to the report, the matters that the Bill sets out to address have
been addressed under the Sentencing Guidelines for Courts of Judicature
(Practice) Directions 2013 issued by the Chief Justice.
The proposal on the Law Revision seeks to restrict the application of the death
penalty to ‘the most serious crimes’ and remove the restriction on mitigation
in case of convictions that carry a death penalty and related matters.
The Bill was necessitated by the cases of Attorney General versus Susan Kigula
& 417 others, Supreme Court Constitutional Appeal No. 3 of 2006, Tigo Stephen
Versus Uganda, Supreme Court Criminal Appeal No 8 of 2009 and international
instruments where Uganda is a signatory to the International Convention on
Civil and Political Rights.
However, Dr Livingstone Sewanyana, the executive director of the Foundation for
Human Rights Initiative, yesterday said the purpose of the Bill was to the
effect that the Supreme Court decision in regard to mandatory death penalty are
unconstitutional and also reduce the number of offences that attract death from
28 to one which is murder.
“No way does the Bill seek to amend the Constitution and I am not aware of any
legislative measures to effect the provisions of the Bill. Neither does it
conflict with other legislation,” Dr Sewanyana said.
Ms Doreen Kyazze, the country manager of Penal Reform International, said the
report seems to have missed key issues in the Kigula court decision where the
Supreme Court recommended that Parliament enact a law effecting its decision.
(source: Daily Monitor)
**************************
Ending death penalty in Uganda: Yes and no----MPs divided over the death
penalty
Members of Parliament have differing opinions on the proposal to have the
application of the death penalty to the most serious crimes converted into life
imprisonment.
This was noted during debate on the Law Revision (Penalties in Criminal
Matters) Miscellaneous (Amendment) Bill, 2015 moved by Busiro East MP, Medard
Ssegona.
The private member’s bill seeks to amend the Penal Code Act, the Anti-terrorism
Act, 2002, the UPDF Act, 2005 and the Trial on Indictments Act to remove all
references to the mandatory death penalty.
The bill also seeks to remove the restriction on mitigation in the case of
convictions that carry a death penalty and to define life imprisonment or
imprisonment for life.
The Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee in its report recommends that
capital punishment should be the maximum sentence for extremely serious crimes
including murder.
“It should be in the discretion of the Courts of Law to decide whether a
conviction on the above crimes should deserve the maximum penalty of death or
life imprisonment,” reads the report in part.
It also recommends that the subject of the death penalty ought to be regularly
reviewed through national and public debate to discover whether public opinion
on it has changed to abolition or not.
A section of MPs during the sitting on Wednesday, 14 August 2019 opposed the
removal of the death penalty saying it would keep criminals at bay.
“I remembered how my senior colleague the late Hon. Abiriga was murdered. Why
should his killers be given a lenient punishment if they are convicted with
strong evidence? If we remove the death penalty, criminals will feel like they
have got a leeway.” said Hon. James Waluswaka (NRM, Bunyole West County).
Ngora County MP, Hon. David Abala said the death penalty ought to be maintained
and handed down to a criminal depending on the circumstances under which a
crime was committed.
“Some people should not be left to go free because they deliberately committed
the same crime over and over. We should not be lenient if we want to protect
the lives of our people,” Abala said.
Some MPs, however, termed the death penalty as unconstitutional, saying that it
would unjustly punish individuals who get convicted by court albeit being
innocent of the crime.
“In this era where corruption is the order of the day, I fear that if we
legislate this way, so many people will suffer when they are innocent,” said
Hon. Santa Alum (UPC, Oyam).
Igara West MP, Hon. Raphael Magyezi, suggested that the options be explored to
make the death penalty optional, in a bid to uphold the right to life, which he
said should not be compromised.
“I want to challenge that statistics indicating that the death penalty deters
crime are presented. This penalty should be removed because it puts a stain on
the hand of the nation,” Magyezi said.
The Speaker, Rebecca Kadaga, observed that the trend of debate indicated that
MPs needed more time to fully comprehend the bill.
“We have not come together on the intention of this bill. I want Members to
refresh themselves with the amendments, and it is important that we internalize
the six clauses,” Kadaga said.
(source: Uganda Christian News)
IRAN:
UN expert: Executions in Iran among the world's highest
The U.N. expert on human rights in Iran says last year saw increasing
restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and continuing violations of
the right to life, liberty and a fair trial in the Islamic Republic, including
253 reported executions of adults and children.
Javaid Rehman said in a report to the General Assembly circulated Friday that
while the number of executions was the lowest since 2007, "the number of
executions remains one of the highest in the world."
The significant decline, he said, is attributed to enforcement of a 2017
amendment to Iran's anti-narcotics law that saw the number of executions for
drug-related offenses drop from 231 in 2017 to at least 24 in 2018.
Rehman expressed concern that Iran has more than 80 offenses punishable by the
death penalty, including adultery, homosexuality, drug possession, "waging war
against God, corruption on Earth, blasphemy and insult of the Prophet"
Muhammad. He said many of the offenses are not considered serious crimes under
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Among the 7 child offenders reported to have been executed in 2018 were two
17-year-olds in April for alleged rape and robbery, Rehman said. "The two were
reportedly forced to confess under torture."
Rehman reiterated U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet's statement that
the execution of child offenders "is absolutely prohibited and must end
immediately."
He expressed deep concern at arbitrary arrest, detention, ill-treatment and
denial of medical care for dual and foreign nationals, estimating there are at
least 30 such cases, including Iranian-Austrian Kamran Ghaderi, who has been
detained since January 2016 and is suffering "from a tumor in his leg."
"There has been no progress made in the cases of arbitrarily detained foreign
or dual nationals" aside from Iran's release in June of Lebanese businessman
Nizar Zakka, who has U.S. residency, Rehman said.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has subjected these individuals to sham trials,
which have failed to meet basic fair trial standards, and convicted them of
offenses on the basis of fabricated evidence or, in some cases, no evidence at
all, and has attempted to use them as diplomatic leverage," he said.
He also said human rights defenders, members of minority communities, lawyers,
journalists including from the BBC's Persian service, labor and trade union
activists and women protesting a law requiring them to wear veils know as a
hijab "have continued to be intimidated, harassed, arrested and detained."
Rehman, who is the U.N. special investigator on human rights in Iran, cited the
case of human rights defender and lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh who was sentenced in
March to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes "in relation to her work defending
women charged for protesting against the compulsory hijab."
He said Iranian authorities have also stepped up pressure on trade unionists,
truck drivers, teachers, factory workers and others protesting for their labor
rights. They have been intimidated, arrested and charged with offenses ranging
from "spreading propaganda against the state" to "disrupting public order and
peace by participating in illegal gatherings," resulting in prison sentences
and flogging, he said.
Rehman pointed to human rights abuses against ethnic and religious minorities,
saying the estimated 350,000 Bahai'is, considered to be the largest non-Muslim
and unrecognized religious minority in Iran, "have suffered from the most
egregious forms of repression, persecution and victimization."
He said the Sunni minority in Iran constitutes an estimated 10% of the
population but the constitution bars them from holding senior religious
positions, and they have reportedly been refused permission to construct a
mosque in the capital of Tehran since 1979. He noted that Christian converts
are considered "apostates" and therefore don't have access to officially
recognized churches and must gather clandestinely in informal "house churches."
Ethnic minorities including Arab Ahwazis, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis and Kurds
also suffer from denial of their human rights, he said. Rehman said Kurdish
political prisoners charged with national security offenses represent almost
half the total number of political prisoners in Iran.
(source: Associated Press)
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