Oct. 19
THAILAND:
Is the Thai legal system good enough to justify death penalty?
Re: "Thailand moves toward abolishing death penalty", The Nation, yesterday.
I can't cite any evidence for Thailand as I don't even know where to look.
However, as a keen reader of news, I have seen several recent cases in the US
where people were convicted of a capital offence and then later exonerated,
usually by DNA evidence.
If one believes that the death penalty is a reasonable sentence (I don't), then
there has to be 100 % confidence in the legal system. Does anyone here have 100
% confidence in the Thai legal system? I didn't think so...
Samui Bodoh
--
Nor in that of any nation on the planet. In the United Kingdom, dozens of
people who would have been executed were later found to be not guilty. People
who want the death penalty tend to be low intelligence specimens who believe
the state-sponsored murder of innocents is an acceptable price until of course
it's their family member!
John Richards
--
Thailand is well and truly surrounded by countries that have the death penalty.
Cambodia is one exception while Laos is in transition. Interestingly, the
Philippines has no death penalty but President Duterte and his cronies
seemingly can execute members of the public at will without trial. He is also
attempting to reintroduce the death penalty in the legal system.
Cadbury
--
Abolishing the death penalty is a step backward. In Australia each of these
criminals costs the country about $110,000 (Bt2.8 million) per year to keep in
jail.
They get a nice room, no bills. They get ice-cream and pizzas. Why are they
rewarded for their crime?
Cancerian
(source: source: Letters to the Editor, The Nation)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi Arabia is executing teenagers for using social media - you call that
'reform'?----Some juveniles are facing the death penalty for using Whatsapp and
Facebook to organise protests.
This week, British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt used a trip to Riyadh
to reaffirm the UK's strong support for Saudi Arabia.
The visit comes amid an unprecedented jump in executions in the Kingdom. Saudi
authorities have executed over 100 people since January, setting the regime on
course to meet the record totals of executions we've seen in the last 3 years.
These terrible numbers put Saudi Arabia comfortably within the ranks of the
world's top 5 executing countries. As is so often the case, the most vulnerable
people in society end up awaiting the executioner's blade.
Since 2012, and the height of Arab Spring protests calling for democracy,
scores of people, including juveniles, have been arrested, tortured and
sentenced to death for the 'crime' of attending protests.
Some have been executed. For example, Ali al-Ribh. Ali was a juvenile and in
school when he was arrested. He was tortured into making a false confession,
and subjected to a sham trial before Saudi Arabia's notorious Specialized
Criminal Court. The Kingdom says the Court was set up to hear terrorism cases,
but it has been routinely used to convict human rights defenders, protesters
and perceived political opponents.
Burt's visit comes as the Kingdom threatens another wave of executions of
vulnerable protesters, including children. Mujtaba al-Sweikat, a talented
student who had a place at an American university to study, was arrested at an
airport en route to the US.
Sweikat was arrested for attending pro-democracy protests in the country in
2012 when he was 17.
He, like Ali, was tortured into "confessing" to various crimes, and now faces
imminent execution, along with another 13 Saudi Arabian men.
Facing death alongside him are 5 other juveniles - Ali al-Nimr, Dawood
al-Marhoon, Abdullah al-Zaher, and Abdul Kareem al-Hawaj - as well as Munir
al-Adam, a disabled young man. Some of their so-called crimes include using
Whatsapp and Facebook to organise protests.
Despite these ongoing abuses, Saudi Arabia's closest allies have been
restrained in their criticism of the Kingdom's appalling use of the death
penalty. On this week's trip to Riyadh, Burt stuck to the now-familiar mantra
that the UK government is helping the Kingdom to 'reform'. He said Britain
"work[s] closely with Saudi Arabia in some 'important areas' " and notably,
that the UK "supports the delivery of Saudi Arabia's ambitious reform
programme."
But the Kingdom's reform programme is nothing more than a fig leaf offered to
the international community. It fails to address Saudi Arabia's infamously poor
human rights record, and the political repression that has seen juveniles like
Mujtaba facing execution.
Knowing this, it is deeply questionable that the UK government lends such
strong support to the Kingdom's criminal justice system - a system that plays a
central role in abuses, and shows no signs of reform. The British government
has provided millions of pounds' worth of training to Saudi police in
investigation techniques and in cyber security. British officials have
privately acknowledged that this very training risks contributing to gross
abuses, like torture.
These risks are hardly new; Reprieve's previous research laid bare the terrible
injustices behind the country's death penalty system, such as the use of
torture to extract false confessions.
Yet British training - provided to the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees
executions - does not appear to address abuses. Moreover, few checks have been
carried out on whether Saudi police are misusing the training they receive from
Britain.
3 years into a bloody execution spree, and with juvenile protesters at once
again at risk of execution, Burt's talk of supporting Saudi Arabia's 'reform'
rings increasingly hollow.
Britain, as Burt pointed out this week, counts the Kingdom among its closest
allies, and lends its police generous UK support.
The UK government must urgently use this close relationship to call for real
and meaningful reform; that means calling on the Kingdom to ensure fair trials,
an end to torture, and the freedom to protest without fear of execution.
Otherwise, Britain risks complicity in appalling abuses.
Sign Reprieve's petition calling for a halt to Saudi executions----see:
https://act.reprieve.org.uk/page/s/SaudiProtestExecutions
(source: Maya Foa is the director of Reprieve's Death Penalty
team----ibtimes.co.uk)
NIGERIA:
Reps recommend death penalty for extra-judicial, jungle justice
Members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously expressed
support for the bill which seeks to outlaw all forms of extra-judicial killing
and mob action across Nigeria.
The bill is coming on the backdrop of recent rising cases of mob action against
suspected criminals across the country.
Recall that 4 young men were burnt to death during the Alu killing through mob
action, while six young Nigerians were also murdered by some policemen in the
case of Apo 6 killing scandal.
According to section 6(1 & 2) of the Senate bill which was transmitted to the
House for concurrence, "any person who is a primary agitator in the lynching or
unlawful killing by mob action or riotous assemblage or extra-judicial killing,
either as a party or parties to the lawful acts, shall be guilty of an offence
and liable upon conviction to death.
Femi Gbajabiamila, Majority Leader who led the debate on the Senate bill which
passed through 3rd reading on Thursday, 28th September, 2017 emphasized the
need to criminalise all forms of unlawful killings without subjecting the
suspects to justice.
According to sections 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the bill provide that: "it shall be a
criminal offence for any a security officer or any other paramilitary
organization to deprive any person of his life or engage in the extra-judicial
killings of any person within the Federal Republic of Nigeria without lawful
authority.
"A state or Local Government shall be responsible for the protection of lives
of every person within its jurisdiction and shall exercise such powers so as to
prevent loss of lives of persons through lynching or unlawful killings by mob
action, riotous assemblage or by extra-judicial killings.
"Any State or Local Government thereof that fails, or refuses to provide and
maintain protection to the life of any person within its jurisdiction against a
mob or riotous assemblage, such State or Local Government shall by reason of
such failure, neglect, or refusal, be said to have denied to such person the
equal protection of the laws of the State as guaranteed by the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
"Any person or persons who is or are identified as the primary agitator for
lynching or unlawful killings by mob action, riotous assemblage or by
extra-judicial killings, which results in the death of a person is said to have
committees an offence," the bill read.
Section 6(2) further stipulates 15 years imprisonment for the party/parties
involved in any mob action that does not result in the death of a person.
Section 6(3) also provides that: "any security officer acting under the
authority of the law, having in his custody or control, a suspect, who
conspires with any person to out such suspect to death without authority of the
law, as a punishment for some alleged offence, shall be guilty of an offence
and upon conviction be sentenced to death."
Similarly, any security officer who aided and abetted the release of such
suspect from the custody for the purpose of being killed or out to death for
alleged offence shall on conviction to sentenced to death.
Meanwhile, the bill proposed between N2 million and N10 million compensation as
criminal liability payable by State or Local Government or security
organization in which a person is killed unlawfully.
Following the support of the bill, Speaker Yakubu Dogara who presided over the
plenary session, referred the bill to the House Committee on Justice for
further legislative action.
(source: nigeriatoday.ng)
*****************
Death penalty would reduce kidnapping-IGP
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris has said death sentence for
convicted kidnappers would drastically reduce the menace of kidnapping in the
country.
He made this known on Wednesday in Abuja during the monthly conference with
Commissioners of Police (CPs) and other senior police officers held at the
Nicon Luxury Hotel.
He endorsed the bill passed by the National Assembly that included death
sentence as punishment for convicted kidnapping suspects.
He said the CP in charge of the legal department would constitute a team to
strategize toward the successful prosecution of about 3,000 kidnapping
suspects.
He also ordered the CPs to within 2 weeks conduct physical checks on all mobile
and special units in every state.
He said all illegal deployments should be reversed and redeployed to address
the issue of kidnapping and other crimes.
He expressed outrage over the recent kidnapping of police officers especially
the kidnap of a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Niger State.
He warned all CPs to ensure that police officers under their command are
conscious of their movements so as to avoid the embarrassment of being
kidnapped.
He emphasized that officers have to be serious about personal safety, adding
that the CPs would be held responsible for none-compliance.
He also said the Police would deploy special units from all police formations
to assist in security during the November 18th gubernatorial elections in
Anambra state.
Earlier, He began distribution of cheques to 1,285 beneficiaries of the police
group assurance scheme ranging from N6 million to 1 million naira.
10 symbolic cheques were presented to beneficiaries of deceased police men
under the scheme.
(source: dailytrust.com.ng)
PAKISTAN:
LHC acquits 6 in triple murder case
The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday acquitted 6 condemned prisoners,
including 4 brothers, convicted of a triple murder case.
The convicts, including Muhammad Hussain, Ahmad Din, Munir Ahmad, Rehmat Ali,
Sarja and Soja, challenged their death penalty before the court. A trial court
of Kasur had the awarded death penalty to each appellant on murder charges.
Advocate Usman Naseem argued on behalf of the appellants that there were major
discrepancies in the statements of the prosecution witnesses and medical
reports. He said no one could be convicted on the basis of mere police
investigation and recovery.
The counsel pointed out that suspects nominated by those injured in the
incident had already been acquitted by the trial court.
He said the prosecution had failed to present any irrefutable evidence against
the appellants. However, he said, the trial court convicted the appellants
beyond reasons and on the grounds of investigations.
He asked the court to set aside the death penalty of the appellants and acquit
them of the charges.
A division bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Qazi Ameen, allowed the appeal and
acquitted the appellants, thus striking down the trial court's decision.
(source: tribune.com.pk)
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