Oct. 15
NIGERIA:
Freed from hangman's noose after 13 years, 2 ex-prisoners start afresh
As a teenager, his dream was to play professional football. Williams Owodo,
then 16, knew he had the skills and therefore needed to maintain his training
routine daily to acutalise his passion. Little did he know that fate had a
different plan for him.
On February 1, 1995, in one of his usual evening trainings in Ajegunle area of
Lagos, a fight broke out around the neighbourhood where the football field he
trains is located. And someone died in the fracas and the Police apprehended
him on his way home from football training.
That was the beginning of his travails that culminated in a death sentence. He
waited 18 years of harrowing experience for the hangman before he was freed
through the providential intervention of the Legal Defence Assistance Project
(LEDAP).
Accused of murder, Owodo was tortured, tried, convicted and sentenced to death
by hanging. But LEDAP launched an appeal against his conviction, which
exonerated the condemned 'criminal' and validated his innocence.
He reminisced: "I spent 9 years in Ikoyi Prison and was later transferred to
Kirikiri Maximum-Security Prison, where I spent another n9 years. In total, I
spent 18 years in prison for an offence I didn't commit.
"Before the incident happened, my daily routine was to play football every
evening in the field with my friends. While playing, a fight occurred and
someone got killed. The Police arrested me and asked me to come and make
statement at their station.
"I got there and made a statement, but the Police tore it and forced me to sign
an already written confessional statement that I conspired to murder the man.
"When the torture became unbearable, without even reading the content of the
statement, I signed it."
It was on account of that statement that the Judge convicted him. Following the
nullification of his conviction, Owodo was finally discharged from prison on
November 13, 2013 after wasting 18 years of his youthful and productive life in
wrongful incarceration.
Owodo is not alone. Ganiyu Wahab, 53, then a businessman, was 40 when he had
similar experience. He told The Guardian that he spent 13 years in condemned
prisoners cell for an offence of murder he did not commit.
He said: "I sell drinks, like beer and others, in cartons. Every year, I
organised a party as a carnival for the people that patronised my business in
that area. I had done that for about 5 or 6 years before then.
"In that particular year, a musician came to perform. Area boys and girls, as
well as my customers also came to enjoy themselves, because it held every
December.
"There was this girl in my area that had an issue with her boyfriends.
Suddenly, 2 guys began to fight over her and I was inside my shop when someone
informed me that people were fighting outside.
"Before I got outside, 1 of the girl's boyfriends had stabbed the another one
with a small knife. I wasn't even at the scene. "When the injured guy was
shouting for help, I decided to take him to the hospital for treatment. I just
helped him. I don't know him because he was not from my neighbourhood.
"After I took him to the hospital, some hours, they treated him and the next
day, the guy died. So, the doctor said I was the one who brought the boy to the
hospital and took me to the Police station."
Wahab said he was offered bail, but because he could not afford the amount of
money demanded from him, he was later tortured and made to sign a confessional
statement upon which the court convicted and condemned him to death.
He said regarding the day he was condemned to death: "I ran mad! For about 2 to
3 months, I wasn't myself. My children will come to the prison to plead and
preach to me, so I could get myself back.
"We didn't have influential people. Assuming I came from a wealthy family, it
would not have been like that. The law of this country deals with poor people."
The issue of the poor being victims of Nigeria's death penalty laws formed the
fulcrum of the statement issued by the National Coordinator of LEDAP, Mr.
Chinonye Obiagwu, as the world marked the World Day Against the use of the
Death Penalty, with the theme, 'Poverty and the death penalty.'
LEDAP used the opportunity to reaffirm its position that the abolition of death
penalty in law and practice should be the firm desire of the Nigerian
government, describing death penalty as cruel and inhumane treatment, which has
no place in modern society.
"The application of death penalty is discriminatory in Nigeria, as it has
become a punishment exclusive to the poor in society," Obiagwu stated, adding
that LEDAP was continually in legal battles with the federal and state
governments in its quest to ensure that fundamental rights of citizens are
safe-guarded and death penalty is abolished.
He stated further: "Currently, LEDAP has at least 3 actions in court
challenging the imposition of death sentences and the proposal of the federal
and state governments to execute death row inmates.
"LEDAP urges state governors not to sign any death warrant, as it constitutes
state murder. With high number of criminal convictions overturned on appeal,
continued execution is risky, as innocent people may be wrongfully killed.
"LEDAP strongly believes that in its practical application, death penalty is
discriminatory, as there is hardly any rich or influential person in society
who is sentenced to death, because the rich have the resources to settle the
Police or afford the best lawyers to ensure they are not convicted."
(source: guardian.ng)
INDONESIA:
Why Indonesia Delays Execution of Death Row Convicts
A total of 153 convicted death row inmates are yet to be executed in Indonesia,
facing undetermined execution timeline. Even Attorney General M Prasetyo could
not tell when these convicts people will go to the gallows.
Is an execution delay good or bad? Regardless, some in the public had
repetitively questioned such long execution delay faced by these prisoners. On
the other hand, human rights groups had ceaselessly sought support from the
international community for the abolishment of capital punishment in Indonesia
while the government had adamantly defended its use of the death penalty.
Prasetyo said on Wednesday, "On the delay of their execution, I also cannot
explain about it now. I can only say that there are still so many problems
currently faced by this nation, which should be given a priority. So many
things," Prasetyo said in a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday (11/10) as
reported by Detik.com.
The attorney general said the solution of existing economic, social and
political problems as well as social gap issues should be given top priority.
Prasetyo said the current law on clemency for death row prisoners had also
caused a delay in their execution. Such group of prisoners included former drug
dealers.
Indonesia reportedly executed 39 death row convicts, including foreign
nationals, in the past 10 years. Out of this total number, 18 went to the
gallows under the government of President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo who took up his
post in October 2014.
(source: globalindonesianvoices.com)
*****************
A Total of 11 Indonesian Citizens Threatened with Death Penalty in Sabah
A total of 11 Indonesian citizens working in the State of Sabah, Malaysia are
threatened with death penalty related to criminal cases they have committed.
Indonesian Consul General of Kota Kinabalu Akhmad DH Irfan in Kota Kinabalu via
a written message, Friday (10/13/2017), confirmed that dozens of Indonesian
citizens who committed criminal acts in his territory in the State of Sabah are
threatened with the death penalty.
However, the Indonesian Consulate General of Kota Kinabalu has defended by
hiring lawyers in the neighboring country to set them free from the death
penalty demand.
This step is not inseparable from the protection efforts by the Indonesian
government through the representative office in the country against citizens
who are caught by criminal cases.
Of the 11 Indonesian citizens who are threatened with death penalty, three of
them have been legally binding and are awaiting the pardon from the Sabah Head
of State.
Later, 4 other Indonesians were undergoing trials at the High Court of Appeal
of Sabah State and 4 others still under investigation process.
Akhmad DH Irfan asserted the consulate continues to save Indonesian citizens
from the threat of capital punishment. "We are committed to provide defense
against citizens who are threaten with the death penalty to be reduced," he
said.
(source: netralnews.com)
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan's angel of death
Malak al-Maut (the angel of death) was once, it is said by Islamic theologists,
one of God's favoured angels; a loyal servant who was entrusted with separating
people's souls from their bodies, when their time came.
To the righteous, it is said, the angel of death appears in a friendly form, a
companion come to ease one's passage to the other side.
For those who have sinned, however, the angel appears as a terrifying beast, a
demon come to wreak divine judgment and wrench their souls away to eternal
damnation.
For most prisoners on Pakistan's death row, he appears as Sabir Masih.
Since 2006, Masih has been 1 of 3 executioners in Pakistan's eastern city of
Lahore, the capital of Punjab, the country's most populous province. Although
he says that he does not keep track, he claims to have hanged more than 250
people since he started work.
Masih comes from a family of executioners. His father, Sadiq, hanged prisoners
for 40 years before retiring in 2000. Masih's grandfather and his brothers all
did the same work, too. Indeed his granduncle, Tara Masih, hanged Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto, Pakistan's 1st elected prime minister, in 1979.
Tara had to be flown from Bahawalpur to Lahore because the executioner at
Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail - Sabir's father Sadiq - refused to hang the popular
leader.
As a child, Sabir Masih always knew he would end up in the family business.
"I knew that this was a family profession," the 33-year-old explains, sitting
cross-legged in his maternal uncle's simple home, about 25km outside of Lahore.
He was 22 the first time that he killed a man, a convicted murderer whose name
he cannot recall.
"I didn't know anything at that time. I had just seen a man hanged once in
front of me," he says. "I saw [my teacher] tie a noose once, the 2nd time I did
it myself.
"When I pull the lever, I don't really think about it. You pull the lever, the
man falls," he says. "My focus is on the sign, from the jail superintendent."
It was his 1st day on the job.
I am killing people based on the law. The murderer has killed by their choice,
but I am not killing by my own choice... I have not picked the convict to kill.
Sabir Masih, executioner
Within 8 months, he says proudly, he had already executed 100 men, "completing
his century", as he puts it.
In 2008, however, Masih's work came to an abrupt halt, as the newly elected
Pakistan People's Party government placed an unofficial moratorium on
executions. That measure remained in place until December 2014, when armed men
stormed a Peshawar school, killing more than 150 people, most of them children.
The attack shocked the nation, and the government quickly lifted the
moratorium, as a warning to members of armed groups such as the Pakistan
Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, and others who had attacked both state and
civilian targets in a war that has lasted since 2007.
Within a matter of hours, Masih was en route to Faisalabad from his native
Lahore, to keep an appointment with two men convicted of "terrorism".
"There were news reporters everywhere," he says, recalling the crowd outside
his home when the moratorium was lifted. "I sent a friend twice to go out and
check ??? then I slipped out and went to Faisalabad."
'It's nothing'
Since then, Pakistan has executed at least 471 people, according to the
independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
Last year, it ranked 5th on Amnesty International's list of worldwide
executioners, putting at least 87 people to death. Almost all of those cases
were in Punjab province, with Masih carrying out many of them.
"Why should I keep track? The jail keeps records. They have books to keep track
of the black warrants," he says.
Masih takes an uncomplicated approach to the question of whether the death
penalty is justified.
"This is the law of our country, what am I meant to feel about it?" he asks.
"It is nothing, it is just a job."
Further probing on the subject seems to elicit annoyance, a mild irritation at
questions he thinks miss the point of what he does for a living.
"It's nothing. Only that minute or half a minute is urgent, when they are
bringing the convict to be hanged. Other than that, it's simple," he says,
detailing how he measures out the length of rope and ties the knot based on the
height and weight of the convict.
Sometimes, he concedes, he gets it wrong.
"You'll see a person's body torn apart. I've done it many times."
Masih speaks at an odd rhythm, as if just slightly out of time with the world
around him. As he picks at his yellowing teeth with a matchstick, he complains
that people seem to make more of his job than is warranted.
"For the person who is observing it being done, it seems a huge thing to do ...
but it's easy, it's not a big deal for me."
"It's nothing," he repeats throughout our conversation.
Fair trial concerns, however, have dogged Pakistan's justice system, and
specifically its use of the death penalty, for years.
Last year, the Supreme Court of Pakistan acquitted 1 brothers, Ghulam Qadir and
Ghulam Sarwar, of murder, after they had spent more than 10 years on death row.
The only problem? Qadir and Sarwar had both been executed at Bahawalpur's
central jail in October 2015.
Masih had pulled the lever.
"I didn't feel anything," he says, of when he heard the news of the acquittals.
"If anyone is going to feel tension about it, it would be the jail
superintendent, or the deputy, or the chief minister. I didn't issue the black
warrants, did I?
"It's nothing."
'They're finished from the inside'
In a sense, Masih concedes, he sees prisoners at their most intimate, in a
moment where there are no longer any pretences.
"Yes, I see a face of theirs [that others do not]," he says. "At that time,
they are crying. Either from the inside or the outside."
Some, he says, ask for forgiveness - from him, from the jail superintendent,
from anyone who will listen.
"They're finished, from the inside. The convict who has done it, they know that
they have to accept their fate."
Others, however, exult in their deeds.
1 execution that Masih says will always stay with him was that of 2 men
convicted for facilitating a suicide attack on then Pakistani President General
Pervez Musharraf in 2004. They were hanged in December 2014.
"They came to me 12 minutes before their hanging. They were raising slogans,
and greeting each other happily as if they were at Eid prayers. They said that
they were bound for heaven," he says.
"They accepted that they had done everything that they had been accused of.
They were happy about it."
What, then, does Masih see as the difference between himself and those men? Or,
rather, between himself and all of the murderers that he has executed over the
years? Is there one?
"What I do, it is different," he says, emphatically. "I am killing people based
on the law. The murderer has killed by their choice, but I am not killing by my
own choice. On my side, I have the whole state, all the way to the president. I
have not picked the convict to kill.
"It's nothing."
(source: Al Jazeera News)
PHILIPPINES:
On the death-penalty revival, priest asks: 'What message are we sending the
youth?'
The revival of the death penalty would risk sending the wrong message to
society, especially the young people, a Catholic priest said.
Jesuit priest Fr. Silvino Borres Jr., president of the Coalition Against the
Death Penalty (CADP), said that to have a civil society, the country must
respect life, not demand death.
"What kind of message are we telling our young people?" Borres said in his
homily during a Mass to mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty at the
Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Chapel in Manila on
Tuesday.
He said the government should not be in the business of killing its people,
adding that the poor and minorities are more likely to receive a death
sentence.
The priest said the poor would always be at greater risk for execution because
most of them are deprived of adequate and competent legal counsel during their
trial.
"Capital punishment is reprehensive precisely because the government uses all
its resources to kill a person. That's what makes this scandalous and
atrocious," Borres said. No doubt, according to him, about the necessity for
punishment of crimes and the demands for justice. However, he added, "we are
questioning whether it [extreme penalty of death] leads to any good."
"We urge our lawmakers to take an enlightened action. Let us show the world
that pursuit of justice is not incompatible with mercy and compassion," he
said.
The bishops' prison ministry also affirmed its "option for life and justice"
that moves beyond punishment.
"We consider the move to restore capital punishment as unenlightened,
counterproductive and counterprogressive," said Rodolfo Diamante, executive
secretary of the CBCP Commission on Prison Pastoral Care.
"The stance against the death penalty is in no way a posture to let criminal
offenders go scot-free. We believe in justice and it is ranked high in its
hierarchy of values," he said.
Bills to reinstate the capital punishment are pending before the Senate.
Despite the Philippines being a signatory to a global treaty against the death
penalty, the House of Representatives have adopted measures contrary to this.
The House of Representatives and the Senate must agree on the provisions of the
proposed law before it is sent to President Duterte for approval.
(source: businessmirror.com.ph)
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