Sept. 29
LEBANON:
Lebanon's Military Tribunal Sentences Terrorist Ahmad Assir to Death
The Permanent Military Tribunal, chaired by Major General Hussein Abdullah, on
Thursday sentenced in absentia death penalty against the terrorist Ahmad
al-Assir in the Abra incidents' case.
The Military Tribunal also sentenced Assir's assistant Fadel Shaker to 15 years
of hard labor and stripped him of his civil rights with an 800,000 lira fine.
In 2013, Ahmad Assir led a terrorist group to launch attacks on the civilians
and the Lebanese army in the southern city of Sidon, causing the martyrdom of
18 army soldiers.
(sources: Al-Manar Website and NNA)
NIGERIA:
Senate recommends death penalty for kidnappers
The Senate on Thursday passed a Bill for a law against abduction, wrongful
restraint or wrongful confinement for a ransom.
This came after a clause-by-clause consideration of a Report on the issue by
Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters at plenary.
The Bill was sponsored by Senator Isa Misau (APC-Bauchi) and Senator Chukwuka
Utazi (PDP-Enugu), who presented the report on behalf of the Chairman of the
committee, Senator David Umaru.
While presenting it, Utazi said the Bill sought to prescribe stiff punishment
for the offence of abduction, wrongful restraint and wrongful confinement for
ransom.
He said the bill sought to combat and prevent any form of kidnapping in Nigeria
and gave wider powers to the Inspector-General of Police to ensure adequate
combating of crime.
Clause 1 (3) of the Bill states: "Whoever is guilty of the offence and then
results in the death of the victim shall be liable on conviction to be
sentenced to death."
Clause 5 (2): "Anyone who fails to produce any book, account, receipts,
vouchers or other documents which is in his possession or control shall be
guilty of an offence.
"The person shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N100, 000 or
to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both fine and
imprisonment."
Clause 3 provides a 30-year jail term to anyone who colludes with abductor to
receive any ransom for the release of any person who has been wrongfully
confined.
The report was unanimously accepted by the lawmakers after a voice vote put by
the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki.
The Senate also passed the Bill for the Prohibition and Protection of Persons
from Lynching.
However, the report of the Committee on Trade and Investment on Counterfeit
Goods Bill was stepped down due to technical irregularities.
Saraki, thereafter, referred the report to Legal Department of the National
Assembly and urged chairmen of all committees to ensure that their reports
passed through the legal department before consideration by the Senate.
(source: theeagleonline.ng)
KENYA:
3 face death penalty for Del Monte Kenya pineapple theft, report says
Kenya's Court of Appeal has reportedly upheld the death sentence handed to
three men who allegedly stole 30 pineapples from a Del Monte farm, according to
local publication Standard Media.
Julius Mugambi, Edward Mburu and Francis Maina lost their case after the court
found they were positively identified as part of a gang of 7 intruders, the
story said.
They are now reported to be on death row even though they never got away with
the fruits worth Sh1,500 from a facility belonging to Del Monte Kenya, which is
owned by Fresh Del Monte.
The 3 were charged with threatening security guards using machetes before
stealing the pineapples and also with unlawfully injuring an animal, the story
said.
They were reportedly first arraigned in the magistrate's court in Thika on
November 1, 2008, where they were tried and sentenced to death.
They filed an appeal at the High Court, arguing there was a mistake in the
identification of intruders at the farm on the day, according to Standard
Media.
At the time of writing, Fresh Del Monte had not replied to Fresh Fruit Portal's
request for comment on the matter.
(source: freshfruitportal.com)
EGYPT:
NCHR annual report recommends restriction of military trials, denies systematic
torture
The Egyptian National Council of Human Rights [NCHR] released on Wednesday its
annual report on the period from April 2016 to June 2017, which highlighted the
conditions of human rights in Egypt and the state's efforts in combating
terrorism.
The report asserted that there is no systematic torture performed against
prisoners inside Egyptian prisons as rumored, noting that the monitored torture
cases are 'individual' and all its perpetrators are tried on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, the report mentioned that NCHR's head Mohamed Fayek met with
delegations from the US congress and stressed to them that all reports issued
by the Congress on the presence of sectarian strife in Egypt between Copts and
Muslims have no relation to reality.
Moreover, the report said that Fayek asserted in a meeting with the Philippines
ambassador to Cairo that the Egyptian Armed Forces are controlling the
situation in North Sinai, noting that the problem there is present in the
smuggling of weapons from Gaza strip and Libya to North Sinai.
In the report, the NCHR called on the government to hold a national conference
to develop a law in the Egyptian constitution for the sake of limiting the
death penalty for certain crimes and to expand pardons issued for prisoners who
suffer from health troubles.
Group calls for establishing ministry to defend Egypt's human rights situation
In addition to restricting military trials for those who committed assaults
against any person or facility affiliated to the Egyptian Armed Forces, and to
afford comprehensive data base for those who are detained and the future of
their trials.
The NCHR also called for the pardoning of prisoners by the President Abdel
Fattah Al-Sisi for young people, and recommended it especially for young people
who are detained and have been proved to be not perpetrators of 'terrorist
attacks'.
(source: Egypt Independent)
VIETNAM:
Former energy exec gets death sentence as Vietnam's massive graft trial
delivers verdict
A court in Hanoi sentenced a former chairman of state fuel giant PetroVietnam
to death and his counterpart at OceanBank to life imprisonment on Friday for
their roles in a multi-million-dollar graft case that has riveted the nation.
Nguyen Xuan Son, who served as chairman of the board at the oil and gas group
from 2014 until his arrest in 2015, received the death penalty for
appropriating VND246 billion ($13.6 million) from the bank.
PetroVietnam had bought a 20 % stake in OceanBank, which meant Son had stolen
VND49 billion in government money, prosecutors said. The 55-year-old was
charged with embezzlement, abuse of power and deliberately violating state
regulations on economic management.
Ha Van Tham, former chairman of the board at OceanBank, was sentenced to life
in jail on charges of embezzlement, deliberately violating state regulations on
economic management and breaking regulations on lending activities at credit
institutions.
Tham is accused of offering deposit rates above those set by the central bank
to various customers including PetroVietnam between 2010 and 2014, causing
losses of nearly VND1.6 trillion ($70.4 million).
Although the defendants said that the excessive interest rates were just a
business strategy aimed at saving the bank and actually resulted in a healthy
profit, the indictment said the crime "seriously affected the monetary market."
Other bankers received up to 22 years in jail.
Tham, a U.S.-educated banker who was Vietnam's 8th richest man in 2013 based on
stock holdings, had won several national awards for outstanding
entrepreneurship before his arrest in October 2014.
He is also accused of approving a VND500 billion ($23.5 million) loan for Pham
Cong Danh, former chairman of Vietnam Construction Bank, via a real estate firm
without properly securing collateral in 2012. The Ho Chi Minh City-based
company later defaulted on the loan.
Danh was sentenced to 14 years. He is already serving a 30-year jail term after
being found guilty last year of illegally withdrawing more than VND9 trillion
($404 million) from the bank.
On Monday, in his closing statement, Tham asked the judges to be lenient with
his employees.
"You used to sit with me on a boat when I was captain. I fell and many of you
had to fall with me," Tham said, addressing his former employees who account
for a large number of the defendants.
"I am sorry for implicating you in this," he said.
Also on that day, Son called the death penalty proposed against him "an unjust
verdict." Reuters on Friday quoted his lawyer, Le Minh Tam, as saying that he
would appeal against the verdict.
OceanBank was founded in 1993 with a 20 % stake from the Ocean Group, which
also invests in hospitality, securities, media and retail. It was taken over by
the central bank in April 2015 after the scandal broke out.
The high-profile trial, with 51 bankers and businessmen in the dock, lasted a
month, and the heaviest sentences followed the recommendations made by the
country's top prosecutors 2 weeks earlier.
It could go down as the biggest fraud trial in Vietnam's history.
The Ministry of Public Security has launched a separate investigation into who
else benefited from the illegal money.
According to the indictment, more than 50,000 individuals and nearly 400
organizations and businesses received preferential deposit interest payments
from the bank, including many state-owned units besides PetroVietnam. But only
19 businesses have admitted to having received a combined VND3 billion, while
124 denied taking any money and the rest remained silent.
At least 3 PetroVietnam units were put under investigation earlier this month
for colluding with OceanBank execs to appropriate $5.2 million.
PetroVietnam and the banking sector are at the center of Vietnam's sweeping
corruption crackdown that has ensnared scores of high-ranking officials,
including Dinh La Thang, a former member of the Communist Party's
decision-making Politburo who headed PetroVietnam from 2005 to 2011.
The country's Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, who is spearheading the country's
anti-corruption campaign, said in July that the fight against corruption is no
longer being handled slowly or on a case-by case basis.
"It has become a movement," he said.
(source: vnexpress.net)
SINGAPORE:
Drug trafficker granted certificate of substantive assistance but still
sentenced to death
During a 16-day joint trial held for 3 men convicted of trafficking 26.29g of
heroin into Singapore, 2 have been sentenced to death, and 1 to the life
sentence.
According to The Straits Times, Hamzah Ibrahim, 54, was certified by the Public
Prosecutor (PP) to have "substantively assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau
(CNB) in disrupting drug trafficking activities within or outside Singapore".
Nonetheless, he still given the death penalty.
Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the court has the discretion not to impose the
death penalty if the convicted offender is a courier and has been issued a
certificate by the PP stating that he had cooperated with authorities.
Defended by lawyers Luke Lee and Sukdave Singh, Hamzah had asserted that he was
merely a courier.
However, Judicial Commissioner Hoo Sheau Peng ruled that Hamzah's role "went
beyond that of a courier".
"It was evident that Hamzah's purpose after taking delivery of the drugs was to
sell the drugs," she said, referring to him bringing along smaller empty
plastic packets to repack the drugs for sale.
"Hence, although the PP issued a certificate of substantive assistance, the
alternative sentencing regime was not available," she stated.
Another man in the joint trial, Muhammad Farid Sudi, was also certified by the
PP.
The Straits Times reported that Farid, who delivered the drugs to Hamzah and
acted as no more than a courier, left the trial with a life sentence and 15
strokes of the cane.
The last accomplice, Tika Pesik, was not certified as a courier and hence
sentenced to death.
Farid and Tika had arranged for the former to deliver 2 packets of heroin to
Hamzah on Dec 20, 2013.
The judge found that Tika could "not in any way be described as a courier", as
she had coordinated the supply of drugs and gotten Farid to deliver the drugs
to Hamzah.
"Moreover, the PP did not issue Tika with a certificate of substantive
assistance," the judge added.
Court ruling contradicts issuance of certificate by PP
On Hamzah's situation, international human rights lawyer M Ravi noted that the
pre-requisites for the issuance of the Certificate of Cooperation includes
establishing the role of the trafficker as a courier, as well as gaining
substantial assistance from the trafficker for CNB to disrupt drug trafficking
activities within or outside Singapore.
This means that the PP already had to determine the fact that Hamzah was only a
courier before issuing him the certificate. Despite this, the court later
contradicted this pre-requisite and ruled that he was more than just a courier.
Mr Ravi told The Independent:
"This situation is so contradictory that it defeats the whole point of the
Certificate of Cooperation. This sort of situation opens itself for a potential
miscarriage of justice, and a bystander looking at this will come to a
conclusion that there is a serious flaw in the administration of justice."
"It's basically a very superfluous exercise, given the fact that the
Attorney-General (AG) already had to consider this requirement," he said,
adding that it would be more appropriate for the decision of the trafficker's
role to rest solely on the AG's shoulders.
(source: The Independent)
IRAN----execution
1 Prisoner Executed in Western Iran
A prisoner was executed at Yasuj Central Prison on murder charges.
According to IRIB News Agency, on the morning of Tuesday September 26, the
execution of a prisoner who was charged with murder was carried out at Yasuj
Central Prison.
The prisoner was identified as M., 27 years old, who had run over a person with
his car over a tribal dispute.
The chief of police of Choram County said, "After the execution was implemented
by the judicial authorities of the province, some members of the murderer's
clan tried to cause chaos which was averted by the police and the security
forces".
Rahimi added, "Currently the tension in the city has calmed down and law
enforcement forces are sent to the main areas of the city".
According to the annual report on the death penalty report by Iran Human
Rights, 142 of the 530 execution sentences in 2016 were implemented due to
murder charges. There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran
which results in issuing death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of
intensity and intent.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
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