Jan. 17
SAUDI ARABIA----execution
Saudi carries out first death sentence of 2017 ---- Kingdom puts prisoner to
death for shooting dead another Saudi in 1st of year by one of world's most
prolific executioners.
Saudi Arabia, one of the world's most prolific executioners, on Tuesday carried
out its 1st death sentence of the year, after more than 150 in 2016.
Authorities put Mamdouh al Anzi to death following his conviction for shooting
dead another Saudi in a dispute, the interior ministry said.
He was executed in Arar, a city near Iraq.
Beheading with a sword is the most common form of execution in the kingdom.
According to an AFP tally based on official announcements, Saudi Arabia
executed 153 locals and foreigners last year under its Islamic legal code, down
slightly from the previous year.
Rights group Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia carried out at least 158
death sentences in 2015, coming 3rd after Iran and Pakistan.
Amnesty's figures do not include secretive China.
Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom
but the government says the death penalty is a deterrent.
(source: middle-east-online.com)
UNITED KINGDOM/BAHRAIN:
3 executed in Bahrain - Boris Johnson's Bahrain response 'woefully inadequate'
International human rights organization Reprieve has criticised the response of
the UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, to Bahrain's execution this morning of
3 men.
The 3 men, Ali Al-Singace (21), Abbas Al-Samea (27) and Sami Mushaima (42),
were executed by firing squad after being convicted on the basis of forced
'confessions'.
A statement from the Foreign Secretary did not confirm whether the Government
took steps to prevent the executions. The statement also did not address
concerns, raised by Reprieve, over the risk of UK complicity in the executions
and other abuses such as torture.
Mr Johnson said: "The UK is firmly opposed to the death penalty, and it is our
longstanding position to oppose capital sentences in all circumstances. The
Bahraini authorities are fully aware of our position and I have raised the
issue with the Bahraini Government."
The UK Foreign Office has spent over 5 million pounds in aid money on reforming
Bahrain's human rights record since protests swept the Gulf kingdom in 2011.
Reprieve has gathered information that suggests the assistance programme failed
to protect the 3 men from torture.
Documents obtained by Reprieve, and reported in the Observer today, reveal that
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons helped plan inspections of custody
facilities in Bahrain; including the police station where all 3 men were
tortured. Their abuse continued after inspections took place. The 6-page
inspection report failed to mention their allegations of torture.
The FCO has also funded a UK state-owned body, NI-CO, to train 2 oversight
institutions in Bahrain, an Ombudsman and a Special Investigations Unit. Both
bodies rejected Mr al-Samea's complaint about his torture, without conducting a
proper investigation.
The 3 men are the first people executed in Bahrain since 2010, and the 1st
Bahrainis executed since 1996.
There are now concerns about 2 other men on Bahrain's death row who are also at
imminent risk of execution, Mohammed Ramadan and Husain Moosa. Both say they
were tortured into providing false confessions at the same police station as
the 3 men who were executed today.
Commenting, Maya Foa, a director of Reprieve, said:
"The UK is one of Bahrain's biggest backers - last year Boris Johnson's
Department oversaw 2m pounds of support to the Kingdom's prisons and wider
criminal justice system. Unfortunately, the Bahraini bodies trained by the UK
repeatedly failed to properly investigate appalling torture allegations lodged
by the men who were executed today. Given this fact - and the grave
miscarriages of justice that have taken place today - the Foreign Secretary's
statement is woefully inadequate. It fails even to confirm whether HMG had
opposed the imminent executions during recent high level meetings with Bahraini
officials.
"The Government should immediately suspend its involvement with Bahrain's
criminal justice system and Ministry of Interior, and make clear to the
Kingdom's leaders that the UK unequivocally condemns its actions."
(source: reprieve.org.uk)
PHILIPPINES:
Some Duterte allies also against death penalty: Lagman
Not everyone in President Rodrigo Duterte's camp is backing his proposal to
revive the death penalty.
House opposition leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman today revealed some
administration stalwarts are among those opposed to the death penalty bill,
with as many as 50 lawmakers ready to debate the bill.
"The debates will be very extensive particularly from those who are going to
interpellate. I think we can produce even 50 interpellators. Matagal yun pero
you know the leadership can always find ways under the rules of the House to
stop the lengthy interpellation but were going to oppose that," Lagman said.
Lagman named Duterte's own allies, Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles and PBA
party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles, as among those opposing the bill.
"Yesterday Koko Nograles approached me and told me that he is against the
reimposition of the death penalty and he has very good arguments why it should
not be reimposed," he said.
Jericho Nograles confirmed this in a text to message.
"I am pro-admin. However, I am also pro-life. I cannot support the death
penalty bill," he said.
Lagman said former president and now House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal is
also opposed to the death penalty. Arroyo abolished the death penalty when she
was president.
"She has made her announcement already that she is against the reimposition of
the death penalty. It was former president Arroyo who signed the bill which
became law abolishing the death penalty," he said.
Arroyo has said she remains steadfast against the death penalty but would not
debate with the administration on the measure.
Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat, another opposition leader, said the Makabayan bloc,
which is also supportive of the Duterte administration, is opposed to the death
penalty.
Baguilat added long debates can test the existence of a quorum during the
plenary session.
ROUGH SAILING AHEAD
Lagman believes the bill faces rough sailing at the Senate.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, president of Duterte's PDP-Laban party,
admitted on Monday that the upper chamber is divided on the issue.
Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House Justice Committee
which is tasked to handle the bill, said the Lower House will work on passing
the bill regardless of the developments at the Senate.
Lagman said that, based on his experience fighting for the equally
controversial reproductive health bill, debates for a single interpellator can
drag on for weeks.
With some House lawmakers belonging to the supermajority showing opposition to
the death penalty, Lagman urged the ruling PDP-Laban party and other major
political parties to allow a conscience vote.
"If there would be a conscience vote then definitely it will not pass. But the
Speaker wants a party vote which is a pressure vote so that is where some
members of the House who are at present against the death penalty maybe
pressured not anymore to attend the session in order to deny a negative vote,"
he said.
(source: abs-cbn.com)
*******************
Pimentel: Senators divided over death penalty revival
Senators are split over the proposed restoration of the death penalty, a
"non-negotiable" issue for those who are opposing it, Senate President Aquilino
"Koko" Pimentel III said on Monday.
Pimentel said he himself is against the revival of the capital punishment but
he would keep an open mind just to show his support for President Rodrigo
Duterte.
"It's split," he told reporters when asked about the senators' sentiments on
the issue, which is now considered a priority measure in the House of
Representatives. "What's good about the Senate is that for some, it's
non-negotiable. You can't sway their stand against death penalty so it would be
a very interesting discussion here in the Senate," he said.
The House was reportedly considering the passage of a measure, seeking the
revival of the capital punishment, before the adjournment of the 1st regular
session of the 17th Congress in June.
Pimentel said the House's target was "realistic," saying it would be enough
time for the Senate to also come up with its own recommendation. "We have 41
session days. I think that's good enough time for us to discuss the death
penalty and also come up with a decision by June. I think that's a realistic
timetable," he said.
The Senate leader said the Senate committee on justice chaired by Senator
Richard Gordon has already started its deliberations on various bills on the
revival of the death penalty.
(source: newsinfo.inquirer.net)
INDONESIA:
Veloso family visits Mary Jane in Indonesian jail on her birthday
With high hopes that their loved one would be freed soon and spared from
execution, the family of Filipino drug convict Mary Jane Veloso paid a visit to
her last week at the Wirongunan Lembaga prison in Jogjakarta, Indonesia to
celebrate her 32nd birthday.
In a statement, Migrante International said Veloso's parents Cesar and Celia
and her 2 children, Mark Daniel and Mark Darren, flew to Indonesia last
Thursday for a 4-day visit coordinated by the group, the Department of Foreign
Affairs, and Philippine Embassy officials. Mark Daniel was only 1 year old
while Mark Darren was 3 months old when Mary Jane was arrested in 2010.
"It was a happy reunion for Mary Jane and her family who last saw each other in
January 2016. The children clung to their mother making up for all the time
that they were separated from their mother not wanting the moment to end,"
Migrante said.
"Mary Jane cheerfully shared her experiences and skills she learned in prison
and will use these in the future to help her family. She professed her
innocence from the charges against her, and that in her heart, she has already
forgiven her recruiters but fervently wished that the recruiters will admit
what they did to her.... She became emotional as the end of the visiting hours
came nearer. The visit, cum birthday celebration, was capped by a simple
lunch," it added.
Migrante said Mark Darren rendered a song for her mother, and Mary Jane also
delivered a translated version of "Hatiku Perkaya" or "My Heart Believes" and
the Philippine National Anthem. The visit ended at around 11:30 a.m. with a
closing prayer.
"She (Mary Jane) was asked to read the gospel taken from John 15: 4-7, and gave
a brief reflection. She said the message of the gospel reading gave her hope
and inspiration. She also led in reciting the Lord's Prayer and the Rosary.
While she still can converse in Filipino, she is now much fluent in Bahasa,"
the group said.
"As she bade goodbye to her family, she wished that she can soon enjoy their
company outside the prison walls and without prison guards hovering around
them. She longingly told her expectant children that she is praying hard for
her to come home by December to celebrate Christmas with them," Migrante added.
Veloso was spared the firing squad in April 2015 after her alleged trafficker
surfaced back home and admitted duping her into smuggling drugs.
In September last year, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said President Rodrigo
Duterte gave the "go ahead" for Veloso's execution, during the Philippine
leader's working visit to Jakarta. Duterte said he told Widodo that "we will
respect the judgment of your courts," but added that "it would have been a bad
taste in the mouth to be talking about having a strong posture against drugs,
and here you are begging for something."
(source: globalnation.inquirer.net)
BANGLADESH:
Elite Bangladesh police among 26 sentenced to death for 2014 murders
A Bangladeshi court on Monday sentenced 26 people, including 16 members of the
country's elite anti-terrorism force, to death, after a former member of the
ruling Awami League party hired them to kill political rivals.
The ruling was the 1st time that members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)
had been handed the death penalty, Shakhawat Hossain Khan, a lawyer for the
victims, told reporters.
RAB commander Tarek Sayeed, son-in-law of a minister in Bangladesh Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, was among those sentenced to hang for the
abduction and murder of seven people in 2014 in the city of Narayanganj.
"We are happy with the verdict," Hossain said outside the court in Narayanganj,
following a trial that shocked the nation of 160 million people.
Lawyers for the defendants said they would appeal the verdict in the high
court.
International human rights groups have accused Bangladeshi security forces of
carrying out extra-judicial killings, abductions and detentions of suspects
without charge. RAB denies the allegations, saying it follows the law.
Opposition parties also say hundreds of their activists have disappeared during
Hasina's 8-year rule. The government says it was not behind the disappearances,
and denies that security forces were involved.
The court found all 35 defendants in the trial guilty of involvement in the
murder of 7 people after they were kidnapped outside a cricket stadium in
Narayanganj in April, 2014. 9 of the 35 were given prison sentences.
Witnesses reported seeing the victims being bundled into an unmarked van. The
victims' bodies, their bellies slashed, were later found floating in a river.
According to the court, politician Nur Hossain, at the time a member of
Hasina's Awami League, paid RAB members to kill a political rival and 4 of his
aides.
A lawyer who filmed the abductions and his driver were also kidnapped and then
killed.
23 of those convicted were in court, while 12 remain at large.
The bitter rift between the Awami League and mainly Islamist opposition in
Bangladesh is widely seen as contributing to militant violence that has
targeted foreigners, free thinkers and members of religious minorities.
The authorities lay most of the blame on local insurgents, although Islamic
State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for some of the deadly attacks
carried out over the last 2 years.
(source: Reuters)
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