June 1
INDIA:
Man sentenced to death for rape and murder
The Mavelikara Additional District and Sessions Court-II on Thursday sentenced
to death Viswarajan, 22, of Oachira who was found guilty of the rape and murder
of a 34-year-old widow and the mother of a teenaged girl. Pronouncing the
sentence, the Judge A.Badarudheen said the court was awarding death penalty as
it was the ‘rarest of rare cases.' The Court also asked the accused,
Viswarajan, alias ‘Karumadi' of Santhosh Bhavan in Vayanakam in Oachira to pay
a penalty of Rs.1 lakh to the victim's daughter. If the convicted person failed
to pay the penalty, he would have to undergo additional Rigorous Imprisonment
(RI) of 6 months.
Special Public Prosecutor S. Remanan Pillai said Viswarajan had also been
sentenced to six months Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) under Section 342 of the
Indian Penal Code (IPC) (wrongful confinement) and five years RI under Section
376 read with 511 (attempt to rape). The sentences will, however, run
concurrently.
Habitual offender
The judge observed that the accused was a habitual offender and was a threat to
the community. Mr. Pillai said the accused had two charges of rape and assault
against him in the Ochira police station pending trial and another case of
abducting a minor girl and sexually exploiting her. The death sentence was
based on ‘circumstantial evidence,' he said.
A large crowd of people were present when the verdict was pronounced at 11 a.m.
The accused was brought out of the court nearly three hours later, at 2 p.m.,
and taken in a police vehicle to Thiruvananthapuram Central Jail at Poojapura.
A heavy deployment of police under Kayamkulam Deputy Superintendent of Police
S. Devamanohar, who also supervised the investigation, was present at the
court.
The incident occurred at 7 p.m. on October 24, 2011 when the victim was
returning home. The accused who was hiding in the dark grabbed the victim and
beat her unconscious before sexually assaulting her. He later pushed her into a
paddy field. The police and local people rushed her to a hospital. However, she
died while being shifted to the Alappuzha Medical College Hospital. The
investigation was led by Kayamkulam Circle Inspector A.N.Shanihan, who
submitted the report to the court.
(source: The Hindu)
EGYPT:
In Egypt, Mubarak Verdict Could Send Message to Assad
In the most significant trial since the start of the Arab Spring, an Egyptian
court will decide this weekend whether former dictator Hosni Mubarak is guilty
of ordering police to open fire on demonstrators during protests that led to
his ouster last year.
A guilty verdict could carry the death penalty, a sentence that could
reverberate across the region and send a warning to other dictators, including
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Among Arab leaders toppled in the past 18
months, Mubarak is the only one who stayed behind after his fall from power and
appeared at his own trial.
Though Mubarak is widely loathed in Egypt, analysts say they expect a much more
lenient punishment, raising the specter of fresh protests by Egyptians, many of
whom already feel that the gains of their revolution are slipping.
The 3-judge panel will also rule on corruption charges against Mubarak, his two
sons and a bevy of aides in a trial that has been marked by disarray, secret
testimony and a sudden decision last January to cut the proceedings short and
move to closing arguments. Human-rights groups have already raised doubts about
its fairness.
“I would say [the punishment] would be symbolic more than real,” says Ahmed
Kamal Aboulmagd, a high-profile lawyer and the former vice president of the
Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights. “Execution is not in the mood of
Egyptians. We’re not the Iraqis.”
The trial got underway last August, 7 months after the protests in Cairo and
across the country forced an end to decades of one-man rule in Egypt. At least
800 people were killed during the 18 days of demonstrations, mostly by police
and other security agencies. Some of the policemen have since been indicted for
their heavy-handed response.
Egyptians were initially captivated by the trial, especially footage from the
first hearing last August, when Mubarak was rolled into the courtroom on a bed
and listened to proceedings from a caged-off defendant’s box. But technical
procedures soon delayed the process, including a drawn-out motion to dismiss
one of the judges. Like the presidential election currently underway in the
country, the trial has failed to meet the huge expectations many Egyptians had
after the revolution.
The case hinges on whether Mubarak expressly ordered his law enforcement
agencies to fire on the demonstrators. The former president denies it, but
regime insiders have said such an order could only come from the top. The
evidence entered in the trial includes taped conversations between Mubarak and
his top lieutenants during 18 days of protests, but they have not been detailed
publicly.
Among the corruption charges, Mubarak is suspected of improperly authorizing a
natural-gas deal with Israel at below-market prices and accepting a bribe in
exchange for helping a land developer.
How the Mubaraks have coped over the past 16 months remains largely unknown.
Few friends and relatives are in direct contact with the family, and no public
statements have been issued on their behalf in more than a year. Several
sources generally familiar with their situation painted a picture for the Daily
Beast that was not exactly cheerful—but not as grim as one might possibly
expect.
Hosni Mubarak remains hospitalized at one of the most luxurious medical
facilities in Egypt, a plush complex of glass and concrete buildings about an
hour east of Cairo erected in part with American money. Mubarak’s wife,
Suzanne, spends most of her time at the hospital, sleeping at an on-site hotel,
the sources said. One of them described her as “all right but deeply
depressed.”
Their 2 sons, Gamal and Alaa, are held at Tora prison, where opponents of the
old regime were once incarcerated. But the sources said the 2 enjoyed
relatively good conditions, including a television and refrigerator in their
cells and regular courtyard breaks where they can play basketball and
volleyball. The brothers are allowed to use their own money to order food from
restaurants outside the prison, according to the sources.
“I heard that they are treated well,” says Amin Mubarak, a member of the
extended family and a former lawmaker from Mubarak’s National Democratic Party.
In a conversation recently at his home in El Shorouk City, Amin said Mubarak
still feels he did nothing wrong during his nearly three decades in power.
“I believe that President Mubarak feels that he has done good for his country
and that he doesn’t deserve this.”
He said that Mubarak’s mistake was to surround himself with corrupt aides but
that he himself was “a good person”—a line commonly heard these days among
defenders of the old regime.
“Personally he was trying to be fair. And he’s a modest person. But later on,
with his son coming back from England and his wife so long in power, things
changed.”
(source: The Daily Beast)
******************
Mubarak Egypt trial verdict to be aired live
Egyptian state television will broadcast live the verdict and sentencing on
Saturday of ex-president Hosni Mubarak, his sons and security chiefs in a
murder and corruption trial, official media reported.
State television will charge foreign media between $7,000 and $10,000 to buy
the coverage, the official MENA news agency quoted the head the of the state's
Egyptian Radio and Television Union, Tharwat al-Mekki, as saying.
The first several hearings in the trial, which started in August, were
broadcast live, but chief judge Rifaat Said then ordered cameras out before
witnesses began to take the stand.
Mubarak and his security chiefs are charged with murder over the killings of
protesters during the 18-day revolt that overthrew him on February 11, 2011.
He shares corruption charges with his sons Alaa and Gamal.
The trial is taking place in the police academy that was once named after
Mubarak on Cairo's outskirts.
In the opening hearing, dramatically aired live to millions in Egypt and
abroad, Mubarak made his 1st public appearance since his ouster arriving on a
stretcher.
A camera zoomed in on him as he fidgeted with his nose but mostly lay prone
while his 2 sons Alaa and Gamal tried to obscure him from view.
Security officials said 5,000 policemen and 2,000 soldiers will secure
Saturday's session and Mubarak's transport from a military hospital where he is
detained. He will arrive in the academy on board a medical helicopter.
The 84-year-old former strongman, who receives treatment for a heart condition,
was wheeled into the defendants' cage on a stretcher in past hearings, usually
covered in a blanket.
His 2 sons Alaa and Gamal, both in white prison uniforms, stood by him,
sometimes whispering to him when he apparently could not make out what the
judge or witnesses said.
Over the 36 hearings, journalists, some relatives of the alleged victims and
their lawyers were banned from bringing in cell phones to the court room.
Most of the benches in the lecture hall that serves as a court room were filled
by often napping riot police conscripts in civilian clothes, while a few
Mubarak supporters managed to gain entry as well.
Mubarak, his interior minister Habib al-Adly and 6 police commanders face the
death penalty if convicted on the murder charges. Some 850 people died in the
uprising.
Observers say the verdict may have an impact on a presidential election run off
on June 16-17 between the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Mursi and Mubarak's
last premier Ahmed Shafiq, who pledges he will not revive the dictator's era.
(The Daily Star)
JAPAN:
Public release of death penalty paperwork answers some questions on process
The administrative procedures that take place between a death sentence and
execution in Japan have been revealed through a freedom-of-information request
filed by the Mainichi.
The Ministry of Justice handed the Mainichi 282 pages of documents relating to
the execution of 12 inmates since 2009, marking the first time that the steps
surrounding an execution have been made public. However, 147 of the pages --
more than 1/2 -- were completely blacked out.
The signing of an execution order by the justice minister is a concept that the
public has come to understand as protocol through media reports, but according
to the newly disclosed information, the justice minister does not sign
execution orders. Rather, he or she signs another type of document titled
"assessment results of the execution case."
The actual execution order bears the name of the justice minister, with the
minister's official seal affixed next to it. However, it is not the job of the
justice minister to affix the seal.
"Generally, someone affixes the minister's official seal at the orders of the
head of the administrative division," a ministry official said.
There are 2 execution approval routes that must be taken after an inmate is
sentenced to death, that involve a total 13 people. One, called the "criminal
route," consists of obtaining the signatures of the justice minister and vice
justice minister on the aforementioned "assessment results of the execution
case," as well as the seals of 5 justice ministry bureaucrats.
The other is the "correction and rehabilitation route," which requires the
seals of 6 officials -- including that of a senior official at the ministry's
Correction Bureau that oversees the detention center in which the inmate is
held, and an official at the ministry's Rehabilitation Bureau that handles
requests for pardons -- on a document that effectively serves as the execution
proposal.
The Mainichi found that in the case of every execution, the documents covering
the execution proposal, assessment, approval, and order were dated on the same
day, with the execution itself taking place 2 to 4 days later.
The most recently disclosed documents involve 7 former death-row inmates from
2009, 2 from 2010, and 3 from 2012. The Mainichi lodged a request in early
April this year for access to the papers including the execution proposals,
orders and instructions pertaining to the 3 people who had been executed the
previous month, in addition to paperwork surrounding the executions that took
place between 2009 and 2011. The decision was made to grant access to the
information by early May.
Because no executions took place in 2011 -- for the 1st time in 19 years --
there is no information from that year. The total number of pages released came
to 282, with full disclosure on 58 pages, and partial disclosure on 77.
Meanwhile, 147 pages had been completely blacked out.
Previous attempts have been made to shed light on the procedures following a
death sentence. In 2005, a Tokyo lawyer, among others, filed a lawsuit against
the justice ministry after their requests for access to paperwork for
executions in 2003 and prior resulted in mostly blacked-out documents; the
courts ruled against the plaintiffs in 2009. That same year, the operator of a
website published online an execution order from 2008 said to have been
released by the ministry.
**********
Experts seek transparency in decisions to enforce death penalty
Details about how Japan's death penalty is carried out have been kept
confidential for many years. Death penalty drafts and execution orders recently
released by the Justice Ministry in response to a freedom-of-information
request from the Mainichi are stamped "secret."
Takeshi Tsuchimoto, a former prosecutor and now a professor emeritus of
criminal law at the University of Tsukuba, hailed the Justice Ministry for
disclosing nine kinds of documents on death penalties meted out to 12 people
since 2009, saying the ministry understood the broad scope of administrative
documents subject to public disclosure and responded to the public's right to
know.
But he says making public the names of ministry officials involved in approving
executions could have consequences. He also says there is also room for debate
on the extent to which ministry should disclose information in response to
requests without public purpose.
A senior Justice Ministry official said the scope of information disclosure
noticeably broadened after then Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama started
releasing the names of death-row inmates to be executed.
Hatoyama, who ordered 13 death-row inmates to be hanged during a roughly
yearlong tenure as justice minister, recalled that he signed death penalty
documents after carefully reading records on the 13 people and being convinced
that justice could not be fulfilled unless the perpetrators of such heinous
crimes were executed.
Hatoyama also said he released the names of the death-row inmates because "I
felt it was necessary for the Japanese public to recognize that justice
prevailed." He added that it was an afterthought that institutional information
disclosure has further progressed since his time as justice minister.
But Seiken Sugiura, who did not issue any execution orders during about 11
months in office as justice minister between 2005 and 2006, says the current
state of information disclosure concerning the death penalty is too closed. In
order for Japan to hold full-scale debate on capital punishment, he says, the
nation should emulate some states in the United States, where crime victims and
media personnel can watch executions, thereby achieving greater transparency.
Lawyer Kei Shinya, who in 2004 sought information disclosure in a trial over
death penalty documents prior to 2003 but was unsuccessful, points to the
reality that lay judges are now required to make judgments on the pros and cons
of the death penalty.
"It is the state's responsibility to fully provide data such as execution
procedures to people whom the state entrusts to make grave decisions," he says,
adding that the central government should further disclose information to help
the public judge if death by hanging does not really constitute a "cruel"
punishment as forbidden by Article 36 of the postwar Japanese Constitution.
Hidemichi Morosawa, a professor of criminology at Tokiwa University, says many
victims wonder why the death sentence is not meted out to death-row inmates
even six months after a death sentence is finalized, as stipulated by the Code
of Criminal Procedure. He says there should be documents to explain why the
death penalty is not carried out after six months and the government should
explain the reasons to victims.
(source for both: The Mainichi)
SUDAN:
Sentence Shows Urgent Need for Legal Reforms
The sentencing of a young Sudanese woman to death by stoning for adultery
presents numerous grave violations of domestic and international law, Human
Rights Watch said today. The sentence also underscores the urgent need for
Sudan to reform its legal system in accordance with its human rights
obligations, Human Rights Watch said.
Intisar Sharif Abdallah, whose age has not been determined but is believed to
be under the age of 18, was sentenced by a judge on April 22, 2012, in the city
of Omdurman, near Khartoum. Since her sentencing, she been held in Omdurman
prison with her 5-month-old baby, with her legs shackled.
“No one should be stoned to death – and imposing this punishment on someone who
may be a child is especially shocking,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at
Human Rights Watch. “Sudan should immediately reform discriminatory laws and
abolish both the death penalty and all corporal punishments that violate the
international treaty obligations it has promised to respect.”
Abdallah was sentenced under article 146 of Sudan’s Criminal Act of 1991, which
provides that the penalty for adultery by a married person is execution by
stoning, and the penalty for an unmarried person is 100 lashes.
She initially denied the charge of adultery but later confessed after she was
allegedly beaten by a family member. The court relied solely on her coerced
confession to convict and sentence her in a single court session, while the man
alleged to have committed adultery with her denied the charges and was
released, a lawyer working with the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn
of Africa, a women’s rights group following the case, told Human Rights Watch.
Abdallah did not have a lawyer or interpreter in the courtroom, though Arabic
is not her first language, and her age was never assessed by the court even
though she appears to be under 18, lawyers who visited her told Human Rights
Watch.
Sudanese law provides that those accused of serious crimes have the right to
legal representation and that the death penalty may not be imposed on
juveniles. In mid-May, pro bono lawyers lodged an appeal in the case and expect
a response within two months. Meanwhile, Abdallah remains in prison.
“Abdallah did not even receive the benefit of protections in Sudan’s own laws,”
Bekele said. “Authorities should drop the charges and free her immediately.”
The case also points to the urgent need for Sudan to revise laws in line with
international standards, Human Rights Watch said. The penalty of death by
stoning violates international human rights standards, including prohibitions
on torture and cruel and unusual treatment, and should be abolished.
Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of
its inherent cruelty.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allows countries that
continue to impose the death penalty – a dwindling minority – to do so only for
the most serious offenses, which would preclude such a sentence for adultery.
Sudan is a party to this treaty and to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, which prohibits imposing either capital punishment or a life sentence
without the prospect of release on a person under the age of 18.
Sudan is 1 of only 7 countries that provide death by stoning as a punishment.
Sudanese judges have sentenced several women to death by stoning in recent
years, but courts have overturned all the sentences on appeal. The vast
majority of adultery cases and stoning sentences have been imposed on women,
pointing to the disproportionate and unequal application of this law. The crime
of adultery, or zina, also violates guarantees of a woman’s right to have
control over and decide freely and responsibly matters related to sexual
autonomy.
Sudan should also reform other laws that unfairly punish women and girls and
impose corporal punishment, often justified as part of Sharia law, Human Rights
Watch said. Under Sudan’s public order regime, women and girls may also face
arrest and flogging, up to 40 lashes, if they violate article 152 of the
Criminal Act prohibiting vaguely defined “indecent and immoral acts.” Women
have been sentenced to flogging for wearing trousers and knee-length skirts,
among other acts.
The Protocol to the Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women
in Africa explicitly prohibits all forms of cruel, degrading, and inhuman
treatment of women. The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights has
declared that flogging violates article 5 of the charter, which prohibits
“cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment.”
Sudan is reviewing its constitution following the separation of South Sudan in
July 2011, which marked the end of the six-year interim period in the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005.
“Sudan should uphold international and African standards,” Bekele said. “It
should ban death by stoning and other corporal punishment, and revise laws that
discriminate against women and girls.”
(source: Human Rights Watch)
DR CONGO:
Death penalty for Congo mutineers
Another 8 officers, present in court, were handed life sentences, and 3 others
prison terms between 2 to 20 years.
The mutineers confessed to taking part in a meeting with General Bosco Ntaganda
to plan the mutiny, a judge told the BBC.
General Ntaganda, wanted for war crimes, denies masterminding the mutiny.
5 officers were acquitted of multiple offences including insurrection and
desertion, after a trial that lasted more than 2 weeks in the town of Uvira, in
South Kivu province.
April’s mutiny was led by former CNDP rebels who were integrated into the
Congolese national army in 2009 as part of a peace deal.
Thousands of people have fled their homes as a result of heavy fighting – which
has stopped in South Kivu province but continues in neighbouring North Kivu.
The BBC’s Thomas Hubert in Kinshasa said Wednesday’s heavy sentences –
including life for Colonel Bernard Byamungu who led the South Kivu mutiny –
seems to be a sign that the Congolese authorities are determined to crack down
on the renegade soldiers – despite recent offers of negotiations from the M23
rebels.
During the trial, it emerged that the mutiny was planned during a meeting that
was held in March in Goma, the main town in eastern Congo, and chaired by
General Ntaganda, Colonel Freddy Mukendi told the BBC.
The general, also known as the “Terminator” ordered those in the meeting to
delay payments to the troops in an attempt to create discontent and encourage a
mutiny, before taking to the bush with weapons stolen from army barracks,
according to Colonel Mukendi.
In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, General Ntaganda, who is wanted for
war crimes by the International Criminal Court, denied any links with the
mutineers.
He also rejected an internal United Nations report seen by the BBC quoting
demobilised M23 fighters who said they had been recruited and armed in Rwanda.
Kigali has also denied the allegations – and on Wednesday a United Nations
spokesman in Kinshasa told reporters the fighters’ testimonies were not proof
that Rwanda had a direct role in the renewed fighting in eastern Congo.
(source: spyghana.com)
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