Jan. 14
AUSTRALIA:
Brother speaks out against death penalty at world premiere of Bali 9 member
Myuran Sukumaran's art show
The brother of executed Bail Nine member Myuran Sukumaran joined community
leaders to speak out against the death penalty at the emotional world premiere
of an art exhibition featuring his paintings in Campbelltown last night.
Chintu Sukumaran choked back tears as he told the hundreds of people who
attended the opening night of the Myuran Sukumaran: Another Day in Paradise
exhibition that he and his family felt a cross between pride and anger to see
his brother's emotive and thought-provoking artworks on display.
"We are proud that Myru???s work is being shown to the world but we are angry
that he is no longer with us," he said.
"Our family feel great sadness that his life was cut short so violently. We
miss him all the time.
"It's important to stand up against the death penalty."
Mr Sukumaran, who attended the opening night with mum Raji and sister Brintha,
said art gave his brother an outlet and the paintings showed the power of
redemption.
Myuran Sukumaran found a passion for art and painted hundreds of portraits,
including a series featuring each Bali 9 member, while incarcerated in Bali's
Kerokoban Jail and from his final incarceration on Nusa Kunbangan Island.
Sukumaran and fellow Bali 9 member Andrew Chan were executed by Indonesian
authorities on Nusa Kumbagan Island in April 215.
Chan's brother Michael also attended the opening night of the exhibition, which
is on display at Campbelltown Arts Centre as part of the Sydney Festival.
Mr Chan said the paintings were excellent and showcased what Sukumaran tried to
do.
"He made mistakes but he rehabilitated and this is what you see," he said.
Mr Chan said he and his family had their good days and bad days and he hoped
something good would come out of the situation.
Sukumaran's lawyer Julian McMahon also attended the launch and described how he
watched his client mature from a naive and angry young man to a person who
reformed and found a passion for art and tried to make life better for the
other prisoners in the jail.
Campbelltown Mayor George Brticevic offiically opened the exhibition and became
emotional as he commended the bravery of the Sukumaran family for attending the
event.
He said he had served as a police officer for 22 years and the attendance of
the family at the opening night was the bravest thing he had seen.
Macarthur Federal Labor MP Mike Freelander and Fowler Federal Labor MP Chris
Hayes, who served on the group Australian Parliamentarians against the Death
Penalty, also attended the event and spoke out against capital punishment.
The exhibition was co-curated by Sukumaran's mentor, Archibald Prize winning
artist, Ben Quilty, and Campbelltown Arts Centre director Michael Dagostino.
The series of self portraits are on display at Campbelltown Arts Centre as part
of the Sydney Festival.
One of the paintings featured in the series, The Final 72 Hours.
Quilty became emotional at the launch and thanked the arts centre and
Campbelltown Council for being brave enough to stage the exhibition.
He said he hoped the exhibition blew the "haters" out of the water.
Dagostino said he was keen for the arts centre to show thought-provoking works
and become a vessel to discuss issues.
"This exhibition is proof that art can change lives," he said.
Alongside Sukumaran's paintings, the arts centre commissioned works by 6
leading Australian artists which also explore the exhibition's themes and are
displayed alongside his work.
The exhibition is free to enter and will be on show at Campbelltown Arts Centre
until March 26.
(source: Daily Telegraph)
IRAN:
Watchdogs Urge Iran to Halt Rushed Executions of 12 Alleged Drug
Offenders----Human rights watchdogs said that Iran should immediately halt the
execution of 12 convicted drug offenders, as the decision to give the death
penalty to drug offenders does not comply with international legal standards,
and is not effective at resolving the nation's drug problem.
Iran should immediately halt the execution of 12 convicted drug offenders, as
the decision to give the death penalty to drug offenders does not comply with
international legal standards, and is not effective at resolving the nation's
drug problem, 2 human rights watchdogs said in a joint statement Friday.
"Packing prisons with drug offenders and rushing to send them to death row
without due process in highly flawed trials will just worsen Iran's justice
problem while doing nothing to solve Iran's drug problem,"
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson said in the
statement. The HRW and Amnesty International noted in their statement that some
of the convicted offenders were not even guilty of their crime, but were
nevertheless convicted due to improper court proceedings, refusal of courts to
grant legal counsel, or fear to appeal.
The Rights groups called on Iran to condemn the execution of these 12 people,
and establish an "official moratorium on executions", and focus on abolishing
the death penalty in Iran.
"[The use of the death penalty] is abhorrent in any circumstance, but carrying
out these executions would be particularly tragic given ongoing discussions in
the Iranian parliament that could lead to the abolition of the death penalty
for nonviolent drug offenses," Amnesty International research and advocacy
director Philip Luther noted in the statement. In Iran, the death penalty may
be given in the case of trafficking, possession, or trade of as little as 30
grams of drugs like heroin, morphine, or cocaine.
Between January and July 2015, Amnesty International said that some 694 people
were executed in Iran, compared to 743 executions in the previous year.
In 2016, the majority of executed Iranians were drug offenders. There are
currently 5,000 people in death row for drug related offenses in Iran, the
statement added, citing member of Iranian parliament Nassan Noroozi.
(source: sputniknews.com)
BELARUS:
4th Death Sentence Issued Before New Year (Belarus: UA 16/17)
Urgent Action
Kiryl Kazachok was sentenced to death by the Gomel Regional Court, in southeast
Belarus, on 28 December. His was the 4th death sentence to be issued in Belarus
in 2016.
Kiryl Kazachok was sentenced to death by the Gomel Regional Court, in southeast
Belarus, on 28 December. He was found guilty of killing his two children on 31
January 2016. He called the police following the incident, before trying to
kill himself.
His lawyer will appeal the death sentence. If the sentence is upheld by the
Supreme Court, Kiryl Kazachok will appeal directly to the President for
clemency. It is highly probable that the sentence will be upheld and his
clemency denied, leaving him at risk of execution shortly afterwards.
No warning is given of the date or time of execution and no final meeting with
relatives is granted. Death row inmates are executed with a shot to the back of
the head. In accordance with Belarusian law, their bodies are not returned to
their families for burial, nor is the location of the burial site disclosed.
Belarus is the only country in Europe and Central Asia which continues to use
the death penalty.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception.
It violates the right to life, as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
TAKE ACTION
Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:
-- Urging President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to commute the death sentence of
Kiryl Kazachok and all those on death row in Belarus;
-- Calling on the President to establish an immediate moratorium on executions
with a view to abolishing the death penalty;
-- Stress that whilst we are not seeking to downplay the seriousness of the
crime, research shows that the death penalty does not deter crime more than
other forms of imprisonment and is the ultimate denial of human rights.
Contact these 2 officials by 24 February, 2017:
President
Alyaksandr Lukashenka
Vul. Karla Marksa 38
220016 Minsk, Belarus
Fax: +375 17 226 06 10
+375 17 222 38 72
Email: cont...@president.gov.by
Salutation: Dear President Lukashenka
Charge d'Affaires Mr. Pavel Shidlovsky
Embassy of Belarus
1619 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington DC 20009
Fax: 1 202 986 1805 -- Phone: 1 202 986 1606 -OR- 1 202 986 9420
Email: u...@mfa.gov.by
Salutation: Dear Mr. Shidlovsky
(source: Amnesty International USA)
PHILIPPINES:
VACC sees IS-style executions If death penalty not passed
Anti-crime advocates on Friday warned that without the death penalty, heinous
crimes would continue and get worse, to the point that criminals would start
Islamic State-style executions.
Dante Jimenez, founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption
(VACC), claimed criminals have become ruthless - beheading, mutilating and
burning their victims.
"Criminals eliminate victims through beheading or burning the bodies to use the
legal principle of 'corpus delicti' or no crime, no case," Jimenez said in an
interview.
Jimenez again called on Congress to prioritize the passage of the death penalty
bill to deter heinous crimes.
Congress, particularly the Senate, appears to be not interested in expediting
the passage of the bill, one of the priority legislative measures of the
President, Jimenez said.
The House Committee on Justice passed House Bill 1 restoring the death penalty
last month. The Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, headed by Sen.
Richard Gordon, has yet to start discussions on the measure.
In the Senate, there are at least seven proposals calling for the revival of
the death penalty for heinous crimes and drug-related crimes, filed by Majority
Leader Vicente Sotto 3rd and Senators Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sherwin
Gatchalian, Panfilo Lacson and Emmanuel Pacquiao.
"Why is the Senate taking so long to begin discussion on the bill? Do they want
vigilantism to continue instead of having a state-sanctioned penalty of death
for heinous crime cases?" Jimenez said.
Jimenez pointed out that Duterte got 16 million votes after promising to
eliminate illegal drugs, crime and corruption as well as restore the death
penalty.
Several senators including those from the Liberal Party (LP) are against the
revival of the death penalty, unconvinced that it would deter heinous crimes.
Jimenez pointed out that death penalty failed to deter crimes in the past
because of the failure of previous administrations to implement it properly and
continuously.
Previous presidents gave in to pressure from the Church and other groups who
are against capital punishment, he claimed.
Not a priority
Sotto, in a separate interview, said the passage of the death penalty bill was
not among the measures expected to pass the Senate by March.
The majority leader said senators, during a caucus Wednesday night, agreed to
focus on the passage of their pet bills during the 2-month legislative session
and tackle the remaining bills in May. "But we will also tackle [the death
penalty]. We expect a long debate on the bill, that is why we are not
optimistic that we can pass it by March," he explained.
(source: Manila Times)
SINGAPORE:
Urgent Action: Malaysian National Faces Imminent Execution (Singapore:UA 12/17)
Urgent Action
MALAYSIAN NATIONAL FACES IMMINENT EXECUTION
Prabagaran Srivijayan, a Malaysian national, was convicted and sentenced to the
mandatory death penalty on 22 July 2012 in Singapore. The execution could take
place as early as next week.
Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:
* Urging the President to immediately halt any plans to carry out Prabagaran
Srivijayan's execution and grant him clemency;
* Calling on the authorities to immediately re-impose an official moratorium on
all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, and commute all
existing death sentences;
* Reminding the authorities that drug-related offences do not meet the
threshold of the "most serious crimes" to which the use of the death penalty
must be restricted under international law, and that the imposition of the
death penalty as a mandatory punishment is also prohibited.
Contact these 2 officials by 24 February, 2017:
Important note: Please do not forward this Urgent Action email directly to
these officials. Instead of forwarding this email that you have received,
please open up a new email message in which to write your appeals to each
official. This will help ensure that your emails are not rejected. Thank you
for your deeply valued activism!
President of Singapore
His Excellency Tony Tan Keng Yam
Office of the President of the Republic of Singapore
Orchard Road,
238823 Singapore
Fax: +65 6735 3135
Email: istana_feedb...@istana.gov.sg
Twitter: @govsingapore
Salutation: Your Excellency
Ambassador HE Ashok Kumar Mirpuri
Embassy of Singapore
3501 International Place NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 537 0876 -- Phone: 1 202 537 3100
Email: singemb_...@mfa.sg
Salutation: Dear Ambassador
(source: Amnesty International)
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