May 17
JAPAN:
After hanging, ex-citizen judge calls death penalty 'murder'
Toshiyasu Yonezawa says he committed "murder" when he was performing his civic
duty.
The 27-year-old's "victim" was Sumitoshi Tsuda, himself a convicted killer who
fatally stabbed 3 people in Kawasaki, including the landlord of an apartment.
Tsuda, then 63, was the 1st person executed under the citizen judge system that
was introduced in 2009 to allow ordinary citizens to have a say in the legal
process.
Yonezawa was 1 of the lay judges who demanded capital punishment for Tsuda 5
years ago.
"I do not want to accept the fact that he was hanged," said Yonezawa, referring
to Tsuda's execution in late 2015.
After long refusing media requests for comment on Tsuda's death, Yonezawa
agreed to be interviewed by The Asahi Shimbun.
Now an opponent of capital punishment, Tsuda explained how he came to regret
his decision and the traumatic effect of being responsible for ending a
person's life. He urged people to "have 2nd thoughts" on death sentences.
Under Japan's revised judiciary system, citizen judges hear the 1st trial of
serious felony cases, including murder and robbery resulting in death or
injury.
3 professional judges and 6 citizen judges discuss and decide on the verdict in
each case. If the judges cannot unanimously agree on a sentence for the guilty
party, the punishment is determined by a majority vote. At least 5 of the
judges, including at least 1 of the professionals, must agree before the
sentence is adopted.
Lay judges are duty-bound to keep confidential any developments in their
discussions of the trial and the results of majority votes. But they are
allowed to give their own opinions about the trials.
"For me, the death penalty used to be somebody else's problem, but it currently
is not," Yonezawa said. "It is tough for ordinary citizens to be involved in a
legal process that can claim someone's life."
Yonezawa, a resident of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, said he has tried to
forget the murder suspect, but he sometimes has flashbacks of Tsuda's face.
"His expressionless face I saw in the courtroom appears in my mind," Yonezawa
said. "I can't help but think about what he felt in the last moment of his
life."
Yonezawa was a senior at university when he and other judges sentenced Tsuda to
death on June 17, 2011, as prosecutors had demanded.
"We determined the ruling after paying due consideration to the feelings of the
bereaved families and the defendant's early background," Yonezawa said at a
news conference following the ruling. "I hope he will reflect on what he did
and sincerely accept the sentence."
At that time, Yonezawa still believed that capital punishment should continue,
and that certain criminals in the world deserve to be executed.
The following month, Tsuda dropped his appeal, and his death sentence was
finalized.
Yonezawa said he was relieved to hear that because the condemned inmate
"accepted the decision that we made after many discussions."
Shortly after the death sentence was finalized, one of Yonezawa's close friends
said, "So you killed the person."
Yonezawa was appalled. He had believed that the death penalty is the "heaviest
punishment" carried out by somebody else. He had never associated his decision
with the notion that he "killed someone" by indirectly involving himself.
But his friend's words made him think: "Was it a proper decision?" And he had
trouble trying to dispel feelings that his decision may have been wrong.
Although Yonezawa attempted to shut his mind and forget the experience, he
became nervous each time he heard reports about an execution. He did not tell
anybody, but Yonezawa felt relieved when he learned that the inmate put to
death was not Tsuda.
But on Dec. 18, Tsuda was executed at the Tokyo Detention House.
"I could not accept it as reality," Yonezawa said. "I thought if I did not
believe the execution had been carried out, I could continue believing Tsuda
was alive somewhere."
Yonezawa refused the flood of requests for media interviews, saying he had
nothing to say. He was also focused on his work at a company that he joined
after graduation.
Months after Tsuda's death, Yonezawa said he still does "not want to believe
that," although he is well aware that Tsuda is gone.
"The death penalty is no different than murder except that it is legally
authorized," he said.
After thinking about the capital punishment issue as his own problem, he now
opposes the practice.
In 2014, Yonezawa, working with about 20 former citizen judges and others,
called on the justice minister to disclose more details about the death penalty
to stimulate nationwide discussion on the practice. They also urged the
minister to suspend executions for the time being.
"I feel anger toward the fact that the government continues carrying out
hangings, even though we are demanding that it should not," Yonezawa said. "I
fear that the executions of inmates sentenced to death under the citizen judge
system may be carried out successively, with Tsuda's hanging as the start."
In addition to Tsuda's punishment, 9 death sentences under the lay judge system
have been finalized.
Yonezawa said he decided to talk to The Asahi Shimbun under his real name
because he believes he must continue speaking out so that other citizen judges
will not suffer the same feelings that he experienced.
"I would like people to have 2nd thoughts through additional discussions and
other efforts before making a decision," Yonezawa said.
Before the lay judge system was introduced, concerns arose about the
psychological impact on ordinary citizens engaged in a legal process that could
result in death.
Considering the potential emotional burden, the Supreme Court set up an office
to offer counseling and other services to citizen judges.
Yonezawa said the fact that he was involved in a judgment that claimed a life
will never disappear. He said that for the rest of his life, he will have to
come to grips with that reality.
Yonezawa spoke calmly throughout the interview. But he raised his voice when he
sharply said: "I never want to serve as a citizen judge again."
(source: The Asahi Shimbun)
INDIA:
Indo-Pak lawyers join hands for Bhagat Singh case
3 years after filing petition in Lahore high court seeking reopening of
Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh case, Pakistani lawyer Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi has
joined hands with Indian lawyer Momin Malik to expose how British government
bypassed the laid down judicial procedure in hanging Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and
Sukhdev. Now, a case will be made to seek an apology and compensation for kin
of the freedom fighters.
Momin also took up the case of Geeta who showed up in India from Pakistan.
Malik and Qureshi were in Amritsar on May 15 to celebrate the birth anniversary
of martyr Sukhdev Thapar, who was hanged along with Bhagat Singh and Rajguru in
1931.
Talking to TOI, Momin said Qureshi had given him a copy of the court's decision
awarding death sentence to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev.
"The sentence was awarded before the Indo-Pak division. However, post
Partition, several amendments were made in the penal code system of Pakistan.
Qureshi wanted an Indian lawyer well acquainted with the IPC, so I will help
him in the case," he said.
Qureshi, who is also the founding chairman of the Bhagat Singh Memorial
Foundation, Pakistan, said he filed a petition in Lahore High Court in 2013,
seeking reopening of the freedom fighter's case so that he could be declared
innocent. He said the judicial system was not followed and the decision to hang
the freedom fighters was taken in haste.
"It was a pre-determined decision taken in a hurry and this is what we want to
expose before the world," he said. He said Singh was first awarded life
imprisonment but the British government changed it into death penalty. He said
even the FIR , a copy of which he claims to have procured, didn't have Bhagat
Singh's name.
With the re-opening of the case, they would urge the British government to seek
an apology and give compensation to the family members of freedom fighters who
were hanged during their regime in India.
(source: The Times of India)
IRAN----executions
Iran regime hangs 13 people today, including 1 man in public
Iran's fundamentalist regime hanged at least 13 people, including 1 man in
public, on Tuesday.
6 men were hanged collectively in the Central Prison of Urmia (Orumieh),
north-west Iran, earlier on Tuesday, May 17. They had been serving a prison
sentence in Ward 15 of the jail on drugs-related charges.
They were identified as Naji Keywan, Nader Mohammadi, Ali Shamugardian, Aziz
Nouri-Azar, Fereydoon Rashidi and Heidar Amini.
The victim, who was not named, was hanged at 7 am in the city's Mofatteh
Square. His sentence had been upheld by the regime's Supreme Court.
Separately, the regime's Prosecutor in Yazd Province told the state-run Rokna
news agency that 6 people were hanged in the central Iranian province on
Tuesday. 3 of the victims were identified by their initials Ch. R., A. S., and
A. B.
Commenting on the hangings, Ms. Farideh Karimi, a member of the National
Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and a human rights activist, on Tuesday
said:
"At least 38 executions since the start of May, including three in public, are
of deep concern. That's to say there's been one public execution every 5 days
and 2 people hanged each day in the month of May. Sadly however what adds to
our concern is that there has not been an appropriate response by the
international community or human rights groups to the appalling state of human
rights in Iran."
The latest hangings bring to at least 89 the number of people executed in Iran
since April 10. 3 of those executed were women and 1 is believed to have been a
juvenile offender.
Iran's fundamentalist regime last week amputated the fingers of a man in his
30s in Mashhad, the latest in a line of draconian punishments handed down and
carried out in recent weeks.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement on April
13 that the increasing trend of executions "aimed at intensifying the climate
of terror to rein in expanding protests by various strata of the society,
especially at a time of visits by high-ranking European officials, demonstrates
that the claim of moderation is nothing but an illusion for this medieval
regime."
Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the
2015 period wrote: "Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to
at least 743 the year before."
"Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East
and North Africa, the human rights group said.
There have been more than 2,300 executions during Hassan Rouhani's tenure as
President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation
in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was
greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the
executions as examples of "God's commandments" and "laws of the parliament that
belong to the people."
******************
2 Prisoners with Drug Charges and a Prisoner Charged with Adultery Hanged in
Northern Iran
On the morning of Saturday May 14 3 prisoners were reportedly hanged at Lakan,
Rasht's central prison (in the province of Gilan, northern Iran). A report by
the press department of the Judiciary in Gilan has identified the prisoners as:
"A.A.", 22 years old, charged with possession and trafficking of 2 kilograms
and 450 grams of crystal meth; "A.Sh.", 26 years old, charged with possession
of 458 grams of crystal meth and 637 grams of heroin; and "H.P.", 31 years old,
charged with adultery.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
SAUDI ARABIA----execution
Saudi executes Pakistani drug smuggler
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday put to death a Pakistani man convicted of drug
smuggling, bringing to 93 the number of executions in the kingdom this year.
Mohammed Ishaq Thawab Gul had been found guilty of trafficking heroin into the
kingdom, the interior ministry said.
Most people put to death in the Gulf country are beheaded with a sword.
According to rights group Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia had the
3rd-highest number of executions last year -- at least 158
Murder and drug trafficking cases account for the majority of Saudi executions,
although 47 people were put to death for "terrorism" on a single day in
January.
According to rights group Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia had the
3rd-highest number of executions last year -- at least 158.
That was far behind Pakistan which executed 326, and Saudi Arabia's regional
rival Iran, which executed at least 977, said Amnesty whose figures exclude
secretive China.
Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in Saudi
Arabia and say the death penalty should not be applied in drugs cases.
The interior ministry, however, said the government "is keen on fighting drugs
of all kinds due to their serious damage to individuals and the society".
(source: Daily Mail)
************************
S. Arabia's Iran Spying Trial 'Mockery of Justice': HRW
Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced that Saudi Arabia's trial of 32 men for
allegedly spying on behalf of Iran is a "mockery of justice" because it "has
violated the basic due process rights of the defendants."
Saudi prosecutors are seeking death penalty against 25 of the 32 people the
kingdom has detained since 2013, Press TV reported.
The men are accused of spying for Iran but the charge sheet, which Human Rights
Watch said it had reviewed, contains numerous allegations that do not resemble
recognizable crimes.
According to the New York-based rights group, the defendants are accused of
"supporting demonstrations," "harming the reputation of the kingdom," and
attempting to spread the Shiite confession."
The kingdom began trying the men in February 2016 at the Specialized Criminal
Court in Riyadh.
According to Human Rights Watch, Saudi authorities have not permitted the
defendants to meet with lawyers or provided all of the court documents
necessary to prepare a defense after more than 3 years of detention and
investigation.
"This trial is shaping up as another stain on Saudi Arabia's grossly unfair
criminal justice system," said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director.
"Criminal trials should not be merely legal 'window-dressing' where the verdict
has been decided beforehand," she said.
According to the charge sheet, the defendants include 30 Saudis, 1 Iranian and
1 Afghan citizen.
An individual with direct knowledge of the case has told Human Rights Watch
that all but one of the Saudi defendants are Shiite Muslims.
Local Saudi media outlets reported in March that some of the defense lawyers
refused to participate in court proceedings.
Saudi Arabia's Shiite citizens face systematic discrimination in public
education, government employment, and permission to build houses of worship in
the majority-Sunni country.
Riyadh has long been under fire at the international level for its grim human
rights record.
Human Rights Watch said it had obtained and analyzed 7 Specialized Criminal
Court judgments from 2013 and 2014 against men and children accused of
protest-related crimes following demonstrations by members of the Shiite
minority.
"In all 7 trials, detainees alleged that confessions were extracted through
torture, but judges quickly dismissed these allegations, admitted the
confessions as evidence, and then convicted the detainees."
(source: Tasnim News Agency)
THAILAND:
Burmese men to appeal conviction in Koh Tao murders of British backpackers
The disputed DNA evidence that led to the conviction of 2 Burmese men for the
British backpacker murders on a Thai holiday island will be at the centre of an
appeal against the verdicts.
Lawyers for the 2 men announced on Tuesday that they will file their 200-page
appeal on Monday at the courthouse in Koh Samui, accompanied by the mothers of
the convicted migrant workers.
The next stage in the legal battle will put the spotlight back on the
controversy about the police investigation and prosecutions following the
killings of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, on the holiday island
of Koh Tao.
The appeal process by Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, both 22, is expected to drag on for
years, extending the anguish for the families of the 2 victims.
It will also again focus attention on the contentious roles of British
detectives dispatched by David Cameron to observe the investigation by their
Thai counterparts in a death penalty case.
"Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo both repeated their sorrow and sympathy for Hannah and
David's families, but they insist they had nothing to do with their deaths,"
Andy Hall, a Bangkok-based British migrant rights activist, told the Telegraph
after visiting the men at the high-security death row prison in Bangkok.
"They remain hopeful that that justice will be done and their names will be
cleared."
Ms Witheridge was raped and she and Mr Miller were savagely bludgeoned to death
with a wooden hoe as they walked back to their hotel rooms late at night along
a beach in Sept 2014.
The investigation was dogged by mis-steps amid deepening questions about
Thailand's reputation as a safe tourist idyll.
With the Thai junta making the case a priority, the two Burmese bar workers
were arrested in early October.
The pair initially confessed to the killings but quickly retracted their
statements, saying they were tortured.
The 3 judges who handed down the guilty verdicts and death penalties concluded
that the prosecution proved its case with forensic evidence that met
"international standards" linking the 2 men to the murders.
However, Jane Taupin, a renowned Australian forensic scientist who has been
advising the defence on its appeal, told the Telegraph that documents
explaining how Thai investigators matched the 2 men's DNA to the victims were
not submitted and other paperwork had hand-written changes.
Ms Taupin noted that the highly complex standards for DNA matching based on
statistical probability were not provided. And she also pointed out that there
were serious questions about the chain of custody of the DNA samples.
There have also been persistent questions about the accreditation of the
laboratory that handled the forensic evidence.
"The scientific records were lacking and so it is impossible to determine
whether they meet international standards," Ms Taupin said. "I certainly do not
see that the court could conclude that the forensic evidence met those
international standards."
Pornthip Rojanasunand, Thailand's best-known forensic scientist, testified for
the defence that the crime scene was not protected and the collection of
evidence "contradicted the principles of forensic science".
She also told the court that her own laboratory's testing of the hoe that was
the murder weapon recovered DNA samples, but none that matched the accused men.
The prosecution said that DNA taken from the accused men matched samples
recovered from the body of Miss Witheridge.
The convictions apparently split the families of the victims. Mr Miller's
parents and brother issued a powerful statement saying that justice had been
done with the Christmas Day verdicts after sitting through much of the trial.
Ms Witheridge's family have not made a formal comment. But her sister Laura
later issued a blistering attack on the Thai police for its "bungled"
investigation into the killings.
She claimed that she had received death threats, said that her family was
offered money to keep quiet after the murders and accused the Thai authorities
of "covering-up" the killings of other Western tourists on Koh Tao.
(source: telegraph.co.uk)
************
Bangkok bombing suspect: 'I am no animal'---- Uighur suspected in last year's
fatal bombing dragged into military court after trying to plead with media
1 of 2 ethnic Uighur facing trial for a bombing that killed 20 people in
Bangkok last year was dragged into a Thai military court by guards after trying
to plead with media Tuesday.
"I am no animal," said a shackled Adem Karadag, who wore an orange prison
uniform and had his head shaven.
Karadag, 31, and Yusuf Mieraili, 29, have been charged with ten counts of
criminal violation each, including pre-meditated murder -- which carries the
death penalty -- possession of explosives, and legal entry into Thailand.
The Aug. 17 bombing at a Hindu shrine in downtown Bangkok left 20 people dead
and 125 others injured.
Karadag, who has also been identified by Thai police as Bilal Mohammed and
Bilal Turk, and Mieraili were arrested around two weeks after the explosion.
At a February hearing, they denied all charges, with the exception of Karadag
admitting to illegal entry.
Police have said that both suspects have confessed to being paid by a
mastermind to build and plant the bomb, but Karadag's lawyer Choochart Khanphai
has petitioned the Bangkok court on the ground that his client said he had been
tortured by plainclothes men while in military custody.
"My client was intimidated by these men, they were waterboarded, threatened
with large dogs and threatened with deportation to China," he told reporters
after the February hearing.
Thai courts had issued arrest warrants for 17 suspects in connection with the
bombing, but only Karadag and Mieraili were captured.
Both were detained at a prison within a Bangkok military facility where the
deaths of 2 lese-majeste suspects since October has raised questions.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva
called in November 2015 for the closure of the facility.
In the past year, allegations of torturing suspects to gain confessions have
been leveled at both Thai police and military.
Both Karadag and Mieraili have refused to provide their addresses in China's
northwestern Xinjiang region out of "fear of reprisal" from the government, who
the Muslim minority group accuses of curtailing their cultural and religious
rights.
While police have claimed the bombing was masterminded by human traffickers,
angry at Thai authorities for clamping down on their networks, Khanphai has
said that the bomb was connected to the controversial deportation of a Uighur
group held in Thai immigration centers to China.
(source: aa.com.tr)
BELARUS:
Miklos Haraszti is appalled by reports of the recent execution by the
Belarusian authoritie
Miklos Haraszti is appalled by reports of the recent execution by the
Belarusian authorities He condemned Belarus' continued use of death penalty
after reports that a man whose complaint was before the UN HRC had been
executed, despite a specific request from the HRC for a stay of execution.
"I am appalled by reports of the recent execution of Siarhei Ivanou by the
Belarusian authorities," said Miklos Haraszti, the UN Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in Belarus.
Reports indicate that Siarhei Ivanou, who was found guilty of murder and
sentenced to death in 2015, was executed on around 18 April this year.
Ivanou's brother had petitioned the Committee, arguing that Ivanou's trial had
been unfair. During the trial, he remained handcuffed and was obliged to wear
special clothes with the label "capital punishment" on them. It was also
alleged that he was not brought promptly before a judge upon arrest and had
limited access to a lawyer.
Ivanou's execution means Belarus, since 2010, has executed eight people whose
cases were registered for examination by the Committee under the Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
to which Belarus is a State party.
Belarus remains the only country in Europe and Central Asia that applies the
death penalty, despite repeated calls for its abolition from many in the
international community, including the members of the European Union and the
Council of Europe.
Haraszti once again urged the Belarusian authorities to adopt a moratorium on
the death penalty, as an interim legal step towards it full abolition, UN press
service informs.
The human rights expert also voiced grave concern at news that another
defendant, Siarhei Hmialeuski, was sentenced to death by a court on 6 May. "The
news testifies to the lack of progress on the human rights situation in
Belarus," he said.
The Human Rights Committee had requested the Belarusian authorities not to
carry out the sentence, pending the examination of Ivanou's case.
Non-compliance with the Committee's request for interim measures constitutes a
violation, by Belarus, of its obligations under the Optional Protocol to ICCPR.
"The decision to proceed with the execution of the death penalty amounts to
both a callous disdain for and a grave breach of Belarus' international human
rights obligations," said Nigel Rodley, Special Rapporteur on new
communications and interim measures.
Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based
Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a
specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not
UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
(source: eurobelarus.info)
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