April 26
AFGHANISTAN:
News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International
AI Index: ASA 11/005/2005 26 April 2005
Afghanistan: Stoning to death -- human rights scandal
Discrimination against women in Afghanistan will continue to have grave
consequences until the government takes concrete steps to end it, said
Amnesty International following the killing by stoning of a 29 year-old
woman accused of adultery.
The killing, committed last week, is alleged to be the 1st incident of the
execution of a woman for committing adultery since the removal of the
Taleban regime in late 2001.
According to eyewitnesses, the 29-year old, named only as Amina, was
dragged out of her parent's house in Urgu District, Badakhan province by
her husband and local officials before being publicly stoned to death. The
man accused of committing adultery with her is alleged to have been
whipped a hundred times and freed.
According to reports, Amina was condemned to death by local court and then
killed within approximately 48 hours.
"The case of Amina demonstrates the failure of the Afghan government to
protect, ensure and dispense justice, particularly for women," said
Amnesty International.
"Religious and customary practices cannot be used as an excuse for
violating the fundamental human rights of women."
"The Afghan government has the responsibility of protecting women from
violence, committed not only by the state but also by private individuals
and groups."
Amnesty International welcomes the promised investigation by the Afghan
government into Amina's unlawful death and to bring all those responsible
to justice.
The organization calls on the death penalty to be abolished. The case of
Amina illustrates the irredeemable injustice of the application of the
death penalty.
Background
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all circumstances on
the grounds that it represents the ultimate cruel inhuman and degrading
punishment and violates the right to life.
This is especially pertinent with regards to Afghanistan where the central
criminal justice system is unable to provide adequate safeguards against
local court decisions and similarly cannot, as of yet, ensure the minimum
standards of a fair trial with due process.
Amnesty International calls upon the Afghan government to uphold its
international obligations to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), which under Article 7 clearly states that "No
one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment." Under international human rights law, states
must exercise due diligence to secure women's rights to equality, life,
liberty and security, and freedom from discrimination, torture and cruel
and inhuman and degrading treatment.
View all documents on Afghanistan at
http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maadrVdabgoBObb0havb/
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(source: Amnesty International)
SINGAPORE:
Singapore rejects death row appeal
Singapore's president has rejected an appeal by the teenage children of a
38-year-old man on death row, saying he would not receive clemency and
underlining the country's tough stand on drugs trafficking.
Twins Gopalan and Krishnan Murugesu, on the advice of their father's
lawyer, had handed out flyers in shopping districts seeking support for a
petition against the execution, saying their father's death would make
them orphans.
Shanmugam Murugesu was convicted of trafficking about 1 kg of cannabis
after his arrest at Singapore's border with Malaysia in August 2003. He
lost a high court appeal and his lawyer was seeking presidential clemency.
In a letter obtained by Reuters, Singapore's President S.R. Nathan said he
had decided "after due consideration of the petitions and on the advice of
the Cabinet...that the sentence of death should stand". The letter was
dated April 22.
Singapore does not set dates for executions, although they are usually
carried out on Fridays at dawn.
The case underlines Singapore's strict enforcement of some of the world's
toughest drug laws. Anyone aged 18 or over convicted of carrying more than
500 grammes (17.6 ounces) of cannabis faces mandatory execution by
hanging.
In a 2004 report, rights group Amnesty International said about 400 people
have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drug trafficking,
giving the wealthy city-state of 4.2 million people possibly the highest
execution rate in the world relative to its population.
Amnesty has said only 6 people sentenced to death in Singapore have been
spared execution.
After exhausting all legal avenues, the family of Murugesu had made
desperate pleas to the public to help save the man from being executed by
the end of April.
This month, Shanmugam's mother broke down at a public forum organised by
rights activists and wept openly as she appealed for public help to save
her son.
Singapore has staunchly defended its use of the death penalty and
maintained that capital punishment has deterred major drug syndicates from
establishing themselves in Singapore.
(source: OneNews)
KENYA:
Kenya frees Ugandans on death row
The Kenyan government has released 4 Ugandans who have been on death row
for 10 years in Kenya over rebellion allegations.
The Malaba police officer in charge of Criminal Investigation Department,
Godfrey Walimbwa, told Xinhua by telephone on Tuesday that the four were
handed over to the Ugandan authorities on Monday at Malaba on the border
of Uganda and Kenya.
The 4 include James Sikala Mbuyuni, Ali Tiava Walukano, FredWanda Wataka
and Olema Ambasi.
Walimbwa said that the 4 were arrested and sentenced in 1995on allegations
that they were behind a rebellion to fight Kenya's former president Arap
Moi.
It is alleged that they formed the February Eighteenth Movement, a rebel
group to fight the then Kenya African National Union government.
However, they appealed to Kakamega High Court which discovered that they
were innocently arrested.
Walimbwa said the 4 have now been handed over to Mbale police in eastern
Uganda to help them locate their villages and homes.
(source: Xinhua News)
LIBYA:
Libya delays trial on torture of Bulgarian medics
A Libyan court delayed until early May the trial of 9 Libyan policemen and
a doctor charged with torturing 5 Bulgarian nurses to extract confessions,
a Bulgarian official said on Tuesday.
The defendants are charged with torturing the nurses to force them into
confessing that they deliberately infected hundreds of Libyan children
with the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
"The Libyan court postponed the trial for May 10 after many of the
defendants' lawyers were not ready with their pleas after 15-minute
hearing," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Donska said. "This would
likely be the last delay."
The confessions convinced a Libyan court last May to find the 5 Bulgarian
nurses and a Palestinian doctor guilty of deliberately infecting 426
children in a hospital in the eastern town of Benghazi. They were
sentenced to death by firing squad.
The Bulgarians, who have beee imprisoned since 1999, say they are innocent
and that they were forced to confess. Libya's supreme court will rule on
their appeal on May 31.
AIDS experts testified to a lower court last year that an AIDS epidemic
started before the nurses arrived in the hospital.
The United States and the European Union denounced the verdicts, which
have cast a shadow over Tripoli as it emerges from decades of diplomatic
isolation.
Libya has suggested that it might release the nurses in exchange for
financial compensation. Bulgaria has refused, saying the nurses are not
guilty of the crime for which they have been convicted and that the only
evidence against them was extracted under torture.
Libyan authorities were not immediately available for comment.
(source: Reuters)
INDIA:
Death penalty for killing wives
The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence awarded by lower courts to
a person who killed his 2 wives.
Saibanna was convicted for murdering his 1st wife Malakawwa and was
sentenced to life imprisonment. As an under-trial prisoner, he came in
contact with another under-trial prisoner Dattu and persuaded him to give
his 20-year-old daughter Nagamma in marriage to him.
While on bail in the 1st murder case, he married Nagamma and had a
daughter named Vijaylakshmi from her. However, he was taken back to prison
after being convicted by the trial court for the murder of Malakawwa.
While serving the sentence of life imprisonment, Saibanna was released on
parole for a period of 1 month on August 19, 1994. He took Nagamma and his
child to Bhosga village in Karnataka on September 12, 1994 where his
father-in-law lived.
During the night on that day, suspecting Nagamma's fidelity, Saibanna
attacked her and the child with a sharp weapon and killed them.
Agreeing with the trial court and the high court that the case fell within
the purview of the 'rarest of rare category', a Supreme Court Bench
comprising Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice B N Srikrishna said it was
fit case for the imposition of death penalty.
(source: Rediff)
