May 22
MALAYSIA:
Hundreds on death row in Malaysia----An Australian man may be facing the death
penalty in Malaysia, but there are hundreds of others already waiting on death
row - with an estimated 108 sentenced to death last year alone.
Just this week, 5 men received the death sentence for drug trafficking - an
offence that carries the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia.
Presenter: Bill Bainbridge
Speaker: Charles Hector, lawyer, Malaysians Against Death Penalty & Torture
HECTOR: No at present, as of February 28th this year the number that was given
to us by the government is 860 people are waiting on death row.
BAINBRIDGE: And can they all expect to finally be executed or do people remain
on death row in Malaysia for many years without ever meeting their ultimate
fate?
HECTOR: At the present moment I think for the past few years the Malaysian
government has been slow on executions, so a lot of people actually stay on
death row for quite some time, because even the 860 who are actually on death
row they've still not gone through all the processes, they're pending appeal or
they're waiting for a pardon at the present moment.
BAINBRIDGE: As we heard in that earlier report just 50 grams of drugs can be
enough to earn the death penalty in Malaysia, that's in most jurisdictions
that's a fairly small amount of drugs. What other kind of criminal offences
carry the death penalty in Malaysia?
HECTOR: I think in regards to the other criminal offences murder is one, then
also in terms of the unlawful possession of firearms if you're judged under the
Internal Security Act, and the discharging of firearms with the intent of
extortion, robbery, preventing or resisting arrest, abduction, kidnapping,
house-breaking or house trespass. In this case just discharging of firearms,
there's no question of anybody actually getting shot or injured, so these are
the things. But the main thing is still drug trafficking.
BAINBRIDGE: And is drug trafficking, is it mostly foreigners who get caught up
in drug trafficking, or are the majority Malaysians?
HECTOR: I think still the majority is Malaysians who are actually arrested and
convicted and even executed, because for the reason of drug trafficking.
BAINBRIDGE: And so how difficult is it for lawyers in Malaysia to actually get
somebody off death row?
HECTOR: It's quite difficult because the thing is as far as drug trafficking is
concerned the presumption comes into play. So as long as you're arrested with a
certain amount of drugs, the first presumption is that the presumption is that
you are the owner, the person in possession of the drugs, and the second
presumption is that you are guilty of drug trafficking. So the difficulty is in
terms of actually overturning this presumption, which is not exactly very easy.
So it's very rare that people actually manage to overturn the presumption.
BAINBRIDGE: And so therefore is there a very high risk of executing people in
Malaysia who turn out to actually be innocent?
HECTOR: Yes there is because the thing is how do you actually disprove the fact
that somebody places drugs in your car for example? How do you disprove and say
it's not my drugs?
BAINBRIDGE: And are there cases like that, are there examples you can give us
where somebody has been executed and later found to be innocent of the crime?
HECTOR: At present there is no such cases kind of thing based on fact or
admission by the authority, but this is the story with regards to a lot of
people who are actually been convicted or executed, that the drugs were not
theirs or they did not know it was drugs. They're not actually involved in any
form of drug trafficking, but it doesn't matter, because the thing is that is
why in terms of there's indication that actually Malaysia might be actually
moving towards abolishing, especially with regards to drug trafficking. More so
that since there has been quite a number of Malaysians who have been actually
arrested and charged for drug trafficking in China, in Singapore, who are
facing execution and that somehow has actually opened the eyes of the
government in a way to realise that these people could be innocent mules.
BAINBRIDGE: So you say Malaysia is moving towards abolition, do you see that
there's actually support within the government and within the population there
to have abolition sometime in the near future?
HECTOR: I think within the government actually we have the minister coming out
actually two or three times, and personally stating that he is actually for
abolition, but he says that is his personal opinion and he hopes that more
people will actually come forward and express that intention. And as far as the
Malaysian Bar, we have actually passed a resolution several years ago calling
for abolition, and recently about 12-thousand lawyers, multiracial,
multi-religious, reflective of the citizenry in the country, in this year,
2012. What is interesting the similar abolition for death penalty resolution
was passed, but this time it was unanimous. And so I think the trend it seems
to be that it's actually moving towards abolition rather than the other way
around.
*****************
Australian man facing death penalty in Malaysia
A court hearing in Malaysia has confirmed that an Australian man on drug
trafficking charges will face the death penalty if convicted.
Now, in-court tests on drugs allegedly seized from him showed that the amount
exceeded the legal threshold that attracts the mandatory death penalty.
But as Southeast Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel reports, lawyers for Mr Bird say
they do have a defence plan.
Correspondent: Zoe Daniel
Speaker: Muhammad Shafoo, barrister
ZOE DANIEL: Dominic Bird was brought in quietly to the Magistrates Court in
Kuala Lumpur and kept clear of the cameras. The former Perth resident has been
in jail since he was charged in March for allegedly attempting to sell
methamphetamine to undercover Malaysian police.
Today those charges were confirmed. Drug trafficking under section 39B of the
dangerous drugs Act. Lawyers say the original amount of the drug he's alleged
to have been carrying has been reduced slightly, but not enough to avoid the
mandatory death sentence if convicted.
MUHAMMAD SHAFOO, BARRISTER: No doubt there's a reduction but it's still within
the trigger of trafficking. So in terms of implication, there's not much. It is
still a death penalty we're looking at. That's to be very direct with you.
ZOE DANIEL: How do you even prepare to defend that when you're facing that?
MUHAMMAD SHAFOO: Well, the factual circumstances do not change, it's just the
amount. We've got our own preparation in relation to the factual circumstances,
and we're pretty confident that we have got a case that is defensible.
Dominic Bird appeared to be in relatively good spirits when he entered the
court waving to his lawyers, members of his family, and representatives from
the Australian High Commission. His father though, who happened to be sitting
next to me, fought back tears when he saw his son brought into the court
shackled to 10 other prisoners.
The court was told that tests on the drugs that were allegedly seized from Mr
Bird recorded a weight of 168.7 grams. Now the threshold for a mandatory death
penalty in Malaysia for drug trafficking is 50 grams, so clearly that weight
well exceeds that.
Mr Bird's lawyers, though, believe that they do have a good chance of defending
him. They're questioning the credibility of the police that conducted the
undercover sting and they say that there are doubts that can be raised about
who actually had possession of the drugs.
Early concerns about access to the accused and his treatment in prison appear
to have been resolved.
TANIA SCIVETTI, AUSTRALIAN LAWYER: He's fine. Um ... basically like I said, he
just - you know, he has accepted the fact that he's going to be in there until
probably November, and he knows we're doing everything to help him, to move the
case as fast as possible. So that's keeping him content and also the visitation
by me and the embassy every week is good as well.
ZOE DANIEL: The case has been referred to the High Court and Mr Bird's lawyers
are seeking a date for trial as soon as possible.
(source for both: Radio Australia)
IRAN----executions
Three prisoners were executed in Iran today- 58 executions in 7 days in Iran
3 prisoners were executed in Shiraz (southern Iran) today.
According to the official site of the Iranian judiciary in Fars Province (where
Shiraz is the capital), 3 prisoners identified as "Z.R.", A.A." and "H.A." were
hanged in the Adelabad prison of Shiraz early this morning. The prisoners were
convicted of keeping and carrying 2 kilograms of heroin, carrying 32 kilograms
and 309 grams of heroin and keeping and carrying 4 kilograms and 900 grams of
crack, respectivly, said the report.
Together with today’s executions, Iranian authorities have executed 58 people
since Monday May 15.
35 of these executions have been confirmed by the official Iranian sources
while 23 executions (16 in Yazd and 7 in Rasht) have been reported by
unofficial sources.
In a statement published yesterday, IHR urged the international community to
condemn the execution wave going on in Iran. The spokesperson of IHR Mahmood
Amiry-Moghaddam said: "We are puzzled by the silence of the international
community despite the fact that about 50 people have been executed in Iran in
just one week".
*********************
The case of Kurdish Iranian death row prisoner Behruz Alakhani
The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) has learned from an informed
source close to the case of Kurdish Iranian death row prisoner Behruz Alakhani
that Alakhani's arrest, prosecution and sentencing leave numerous evidentiary
questions unanswered. The source has also expressed concern for Alakhani's
psychological state. Alakhani endured 19 months of solitary confinement without
access to visitation in the detention centers of several local Intelligence
Ministry offices prior to his transfer to Orumiyeh Prison, where he is
currently held. IHRDC has also obtained an exclusive copy of the judgment
rendered against Alakhani—both the Farsi original and English translation of
this judgment are appended to this report.
Behruz Alakhani was arrested 28 months ago and taken to the Ministry of
Intelligence detention center in Salmas. Thereafter his family had no knowledge
of his whereabouts. However suspicions that Alakhani had been arrested were
raised when several plainclothes agents from the local branch of the
Intelligence Ministry along with uniformed members of the Islamic Revolutionary
Guards Corps (IRGC), and the local police raided the Alakhani family home
without a search warrant three days after his disappearance, on January 30,
2010. At that point, a member of Alakhani's family asked why he had been
arrested, to which one agent replied that he had not been arrested. Other
agents involved in the raid confirmed his arrest, but stated that the charges
were theft or the possession of alcohol.
Only after Behruz Alakhani's transfer to the drug offenders’ ward of Orumiyeh
Central Prison after 19 months in the custody of the Ministry of Intelligence
were charges brought against him. He was charged with muharibih [waging war
against God] and ifsad-i fil arz [sowing corruption on earth]. These charges
were made on the grounds that Alakhani had collaborated with PJAK (Partiya
Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê)—an armed Kurdish group—by procuring and transporting
illegal firearms and a bomb, and that he had also participated in the
assassination of the prosecutor of the county of Khoy, Valiollah Hajj
Gholizadeh.
The day after the shooting, a local official, Fakhrali Nikbakht, alleged that
PJAK was behind the assassination of Hajj Gholizadeh. Mehr News Agency later
claimed that PJAK had claimed responsibility for the attack. This was never
confirmed, and no public record of an acceptance of responsibility for the
assassination by PJAK exists. Until its declaration of a unilateral ceasefire
in September 2011, PJAK regularly claimed responsibility for the deaths of IRGC
members.
At the time of his death, the Iranian government stated that Valiollah Hajj
Gholizadeh died of two gunshot wounds sustained on the front doorstep of his
home at 8PM on January 18, 2010. The next day, on January 19, 2010, the local
governor stated that two “suspicious” automobiles had been found and the
semi-official Mehr News Agency announced that four suspects had been arrested,
though the news article did not provide names. Further, IHRDC’s source confirms
that Behruz Alakhani was arrested the day after the assassination of Hajj
Gholizadeh.
On the same day Mehr News Agency also quoted Ebrahim Mohammadlou, the governor
of Western Azerbaijan province as claiming no suspects had yet been arrested,
but that agents were on the case. Whether this belies miscommunication between
the local Intelligence Office that was already detaining Alakhani and the
governor's office, or whether Alakhani was indeed not charged with any crime
related to the assassination of Hajj Gholizadeh at the time of his arrest and
early detention as the agents searching his house also stated is unclear at
this time.
IHRDC’s source also avers that Alakhani's codefendants, Kamel Shablouee, Bashir
Chartagh and Akbar Ali Akbarlou, were all his paternal relatives and that he
had no connection with PJAK.
In the court opinion rendered in Alakhani’s case, Judge Chabak of Branch 1 of
the Revolutionary Court of Orumiyeh sentenced Alakhani to 10 years'
imprisonment including time served and subsequent execution.
According to the opinion, Alakhani's alleged guilt is based in part on a claim
that his phone lines were deactivated for one week after the
assassination—purportedly he then received a call from an alleged PJAK agent
designated only as 'Khalil', who congratulated Alakhani on assassinating Mr.
Hajj Gholizadeh. However if Alakhani was arrested the day after the
assassination of Mr. Hajj Gholizadeh, as IHRDC's source has stated and the
January 19, 2010 Mehr News article seems to confirm, then the evidence about
the congratulatory telephone call does not accord with that narrative. Further
evidence mentioned in the judgment base Alakhani’s guilt on a codefendant’s
claim that he did not eat very much on the night of the assassination,
allegedly indicating a nervous mental state. Alakhani’s verdict is also based
in part on what is designated a ‘speedy confession’ on his part and testimony
from local agents of the Ministry Intelligence and IRGC.
IHRDC’s source states that Alakhani has suffered greatly as a result of his 19
months of solitary confinement. The source further indicates that Alakhani's
psychological state has deteriorated, adding "he does not speak with you
anymore. He is like a mentally ill person now."
(source for both: Iran Human Rights)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
