Oct. 25
THAILAND:
Death penalty upheld for ex-senator
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the sentencing of 2 lower courts,
confirming the death penalty for former Bangkok senator Sukhum Cherdchuen.
Sukhum was sentenced to death by the Criminal Court on July 6, 2004 for
masterminding the murder of a Chulalongkorn Hospital female physician in 1996.
3 co-defendants - Thanasak Yimdee, Sarawuth Chaising and Wichian Kittithanakorn
- who were hitmen hired by Sukhum to murder anaesthetist Nitcharee Makarasarn
were sentenced to life.
A 4th co-defendant, Chatchapat Kittithanakorn, died before the Criminal Court
handed down its verdict.
The Criminal Court's verdict was later upheld by the Appeals Court. The 4 then
took their case to the Supreme Court.
The court today rejected their appeals and confirmed their sentences.
(source: Bangkok Post)
GAMBIA:
Gambia drops sedition charges against journalists
Criminal charges levelled against 2 Gambian journalists by the authoritarian
state have been dropped. The journalists, Baboucarr Ceesay and Abubacarr
Saidykhan had been charged with seditious intention, conspiracy to commit
felony and incitement to violence after they planned to lead a demonstration
against the executions of death-row Gambians.
The withdrawal of the charges was announced by the Attorney General and the
Justice minister at a meeting in Banjul Tuesday. Both journalists were present
at the meeting which included high ranking security and state legal officers.
They were accompanied by the editor-in-chief of The Daily News which had
arbitrarily been ordered to close down by men who claimed to be from the Office
of the President.
According to the AG, President Yahya Jammeh had ordered the dropping of the
charges but did not say why.
The state officials questioned the journalists' demonstration agenda which had
led to their being held last month before they were released on bail. In
defence, the two said the constitution allowed them to demonstrate peacefully
and exercise their fundamental human rights.
They further told the authorities that they had the intention to move a court
motion that would have led to the National Assembly reviewing the desirability
or otherwise of the total abolition of death penalty in The Gambia.
Mr Ceesay and Mr Saidykhan were arrested on September 6 after they delivered a
letter to the office of the Inspector General of police to lead a demonstration
against the execution of the nine death row inmates carried out in August.
They were detained for four days without access to family members, lawyer and
colleagues. Their arrest was widely condemned by international human rights
groups Amnesty International, Article 19, Media Foundation for West Africa,
International Federation of Journalists, and Media Foundation.
The British Parliament also moved a motion in October in the house calling on
the British Government to take action, while The Gambia Press Union also
pressed for the dismissal of the charges against the journalists.
Mr Baboucarr, who is the current first vice president of Gambia Press union and
a correspondent for the Africa Review was slapped with three charges, namely
conspiracy to commit felony, incitement to violence and seditious intention.
Mr Saidykhan, an independent freelance journalist, was charged with conspiracy
to commit felony and incitement to violence.
(source: Africa Review)
PAKISTAN:
Karachi violence: Police more loyal to politicians than force, says SC; Says
failure to execute orders causing increase in crime.
On day 2 of the Supreme Court's hearings into the implementation of its
recommendations in the Karachi violence suo motu case, it was the police that
bore the brunt of the bench's ire.
Resuming the hearing on Wednesday, the apex court bench observed that the
politicisation of Sindh's police force amounted to its failure to carry out its
primary duty - that of maintaining law and order. It also went on to say that
police officers are now more loyal to politicians than the force itself.
Karachi police chief Fayyaz Leghari tried to defend the force's performance,
saying that they were studying the records to verify the character, political
affiliations and criminal records of officers.
The lack of implementation of the court's orders came up again on Wednesday,
with the SC warning of the repercussions of not heeding orders. The bench said
that the failure of government functionaries to execute court orders was the
main reason for an increase in crimes. If the government legislates to protect
criminals, how can courts be blamed for their release, it questioned, adding
that all of this is being done in a systematic way.
When the issue of the death penalty was raised during the proceedings, Justice
Anwar Zaheer Jamali said the courts had sentenced to death hundreds of convicts
whose mercy pleas were also turned down. "No execution has taken place during
the last 4 years," he said, questioning that, if the death penalty was not
required, why had parliament not legislated to end it.
Home Secretary Waseem Ahmed contended that Lahore and Karachi had an equal
average rate of 8.5 killings per day, which was lower than big cities of the
world such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangkok and Mexico.
Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany rubbished this comparison, saying Lahore had no
ethnic or religious issues.
"You're making it out to be like a 20/20 match," remarked Justice Khilji Arif
Hussain. "The way you are counting human lives in this way."
(source: The Tribune)
INDIA:
India pushes for Mumbai gunman to face death penalty
The Indian government is pushing for the death penalty to be carried out on the
only surviving gunman from the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Lawyers for
Ajmal Qasab have appealed to India's president Pranab Mukherjee to grant the
convicted terrorist clemency for his role in the Mumbai attack.
But India's home ministry has recommended the president reject the plea.
The president is not bound by the home ministry's advice, but experts say he is
unlikely to go against it.
The November 2008 attacks claimed 166 lives, as heavily-armed terrorists held
security forces at bay for almost 3 days.
Qasab was convicted in 2010 and the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence
earlier this year.
(source: ABC News)
*************************
The death row
As with so many other things we stand betwixt and between on the matter of the
death penalty. While there are thousands of prisoners in the penal system who
have been sentenced to death in all the provinces, details of the situation in
Punjab have recently been released. There is a conflict between the federal and
provincial governments over the repealing of the capital punishment. There are
600 prisoners on death row in Punjab but they cannot be executed because of a
general stay order on executions issued by the president, the most recent of
which expires on December 31, 2012. The bigger picture is even darker. There
are over 6,000 prisoners who have been sentenced to death in Punjab prisons,
out of which 600 were sentenced by the superior courts, and they have filed
mercy petitions with the president. Yet there are about 5,500 who have been
sentenced to death by the lower courts with appeals pending to the higher
courts - all are in a kind of limbo, not knowing what their fate will
eventually be. The vast majority of those sentenced have been found guilty of
murder, with only 2 % guilty of other charges, or convicted under the
Anti-Terrorism Act.
In 2009 the federal Law Minister, Farooq H. Naek, drafted a bill proposing the
repeal of the death sentence. All the provinces except Sindh disagreed. The
Punjab government argued that abolition would be unconstitutional since it is
clearly stated that no law 'contrary to Islam' can be enacted. There is a need
for consensus at the federal and provincial levels because as long as the
confusion continues, the population of sentenced-to-death prisoners will also
continue to grow.
(source: Editorial, The News)
INDONESIA:
Sampang suspect dossier handed over to prosecutors
The East Java Police handed over the dossier of Rois Al Hukama, a suspect in
the Sampang clash between local Sunni and Shia Muslims, which killed 2 Shiites,
to the East Java Prosecutors' Office on Thursday.
The dossier had been declared complete.
East Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Hilman Thayib said that the police charged
Rois with multiple articles of the Criminal Code, including Article 340 on
premeditated murder, Article 338 on murder, Article 170 on group assault and
Article 187 on arson, which carries a maximum sentence of the death penalty.
"Rois has been proven to be involved in arson, vandalism and assaults, which
resulted in the deaths of other people," Hilman said Thursday in his office as
quoted by tempo.co.
In August, dozens of Shiites' homes in Nangkernang village, Sampang, East Java,
were destroyed and set ablaze by an anti-Shia mob, forcing hundreds of Shiites
to take shelter at a sports center.
The police named 6 other suspects in the case: Saripin, Muhsin, Saniwan,
Syahwi, Hadiri and Mat Safi, all of whom are local residents of Omben district,
Sampang.
(source: The Jakarta Post)
*****************
Indonesia puts alleged terrorist hacker on trial; The case is significant as
Indonesia works to "connect the dots" on terrorism funding.
The trial of alleged hacker Cahya Fitriyanta currently under way in Jakarta
represents the 1st time a suspect accused of stealing money online to finance
terrorism has been prosecuted in Indonesia.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the 26-year-old cell phone
technician, who has been charged with premeditated murder, money laundering and
hacking an electronic system. His trial opened at West Jakarta District Court
on October 8th.
According to the indictment obtained by Khabar Southeast Asia, Santoso, the
leader of the Qoid Asykari Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) Poso branch, ordered
Cahya and Rizki Gunawan, another alleged hacker, to collect money to finance
military trainings, weapons purchases and the support of terrorists' wives.
Together they stole a total of Rp 960.3m ($100,200) by hacking an online
investment website from July to November 2011.
Prosecutor Bambang Haryadi, who has handled many terrorism cases, told Khabar
that Cahya's case is the first connected with online terrorism financing to go
on trial. But it will be a challenge for prosecutors to present all the
necessary evidence, especially regarding fund movements and bank transactions,
he said.
"Up to now, we already had hardware evidence such as the computer processor
unit for money laundering and also electronic-system hacking charges," he said.
"We also need to present the funds movement and bank transactions. Therefore,
we have to ask the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) to
provide us the transaction analysis for the evidence.
"It will take some time. However, we will try our best with the evidence that
we have obtained."
Noor Huda Ismail, a terrorism expert and founder of the Institute for
International Peacebuilding, told Khabar that the legal system has not been
able to connect all the dots on terrorism funding.
"One of the challenges for the Indonesian courts is to prove these
circumstances. Since the 2002 Bali bombing, the court has not found any
evidence, such as bank transfer receipts, to prove where the funding came
from," he said.
Cahya is being prosecuted under the 2010 Anti-Money Laundering Law because
Indonesia does not have a law that specifically regulates terrorism financing,
he said.
"Unfortunately we do not have specific regulation for terrorism financing. But
the government is now working on the anti-terrorism financing law. The draft
has been submitted to the House of Representatives (DPR)."
Between July and September 2011, Cahya and Rizki hacked speedline.com, an
online investment website, and stole approximately Rp 500m ($52,200). Cahya
again hacked the site and stole another Rp 460,286,000 ($48,000) between
September and November of last year.
According to the indictment, Cahya provided up to Rp 10m ($1,050) in financial
support to the wives of terrorists in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, through Jipo, a
terrorist suspect who is at large. Cahya also gave up to Rp 150m ($15,650) for
jihad preparation, also through Jipo.
Rizki gave financial support up to Rp 220m ($23,000) for jihadists in Poso and
Rp 250,000 ($25) for operational funding of the church bombing in Solo in
September 2011.
Cahya and Rizki attended military-style training in Poso and Malino, both in
Sulawesi, for 9 days in the 2nd quarter of 2011, along with 20 other people
from Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and West Nusa Tenggara province, the indictment
said.
During the session, they got physical training, assembled homemade bombs, shot
guns and practiced archery and basic military tactics.
The purpose of the training was to prepare for Jihad Fisabililah, or violent
attacks on nonbelievers, including Christians in Poso and the Indonesian
government, because it has not implemented Sharia Law.
(source: khabarsoutheastasia.com)
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