Nov. 4
ZIMBABWE:
Mugabe wants return of death penalty to cure rising murder cases
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has made a case for the return of death
sentence onto the law books.
Mugabe cited the increasing rate of murder cases in the southern Africa country
as justification for a return of the law. He also expressed worry at how people
killed others because of trivial and ritual purposes.
The 93-year-old was speaking at the funeral of a political ally, Don Muvuti, in
the capital Harare on Wednesday. "Let's restore the death penalty. People are
playing with death by killing each other.
"Is this why we liberated this country? We want this country to be a peaceful
and happy nation, not a country with people who kill each other," he added.
The AFP news agency reports that the last execution in the country happened 12
years ago after which the hangman retired. But a justice ministry official is
said to have disclosed that that over 50 people have since applied for the
vacant post of the executioner.
Reports indicate that the country currently has over 90 prisoners on death row.
Rights groups have increasingly called for the death penalty to be scrapped
from the law books across the world.
Most African countries only have them sitting on the books but hardly implement
them. Nigeria's Lagos State recently mooted death sentence for kidnappers after
a spike in the crime.
In Tanzania, however, President Magufuli was quoted as saying even though it
was on the books, he will not be in a position to sign death warrant of
convicts.
"I know there are people who convicted of murder and waiting for death penalty,
but please don't bring the list to me for decision because I know how difficult
it is to execute," he said.
Tanzania's Penal Code, Cap 16 stipulates the death penalty for serious offenses
like murder and treason.
(source: africanews.com)
EGYPT:
ourist 'faces death penalty in Egypt' for carrying painkillers----Laura Plummer
remains in custody and her family says they were told she could face execution
A British woman has been detained in Egypt after flying into the country with
painkillers for her husband's sore back.
Laura Plummer, 33, from Hull, was arrested when she was found to be carrying
tramadol and Naproxen in her suitcase.
The newspaper said she signed a 38-page statement in Arabic which she thought
would result in her being able to leave the airport, but she has been held in a
15ft by 15ft cell with 25 other women for nearly a month.
Her brother James Plummer, 31, said the family has been told she could face up
to 25 years in jail, with one lawyer even mentioning the death penalty, The Sun
reported.
Irish citizen released from prison in Egypt after 4-year detention
Mr Plummer said his sister had been arrested for what he thinks the authorities
in Egypt call "drug trafficking", but said she had only brought a small amount
of medication for her Egyptian husband who she visits 2 to 4 times a year.
The Sun said she took 29 strips of tramadol, each containing ten tablets, plus
some Naproxen, adding that her husband suffers back pain due to an accident.
Mr Plummer said: "It's just blown out of proportion completely."
He said his sister just thought she was doing a "good deed" by bringing the
medication over to her husband, and said she will be "completely out of her
comfort zone" in jail.
"She's so by the book, so routine, she just likes her own home comforts,
watches Emmerdale every night or things like that, going to bed at 9 o'clock
every night," he said.
Mr Plummer said his mother and sisters have travelled to Egypt to visit Laura
following her arrest on 9 October, adding: "They say she's unrecognisable. When
they seen her, she's like a zombie, they said."
He said her hair is starting to fall out due to stress and he voiced concerns
about how she will cope.
"I don't think she's tough enough to survive it," he said, adding: "She has a
phobia of using anybody else's toilet, so let alone sharing a toilet and a
floor with everybody else. That will be awful for her, it'll be traumatising."
Mr Plummer said the family feel "helpless" due to being in a different country,
and said of his sister: "It's awful for Laura ... she's not a tough person at
all. She's only small."
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are supporting a British woman and her
family following her detention in Egypt."
(source: The Independent)
IRAN:
Thousands of Iranian Death Row Inmates to Receive Sentence Reviews Under
Amended Drug Law
Thousands of Iranians currently on death row for low-level drug crimes will
receive sentence reviews under a newly amended law, announced Tehran Prosecutor
Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi on October 31, 2017.
"The judges presiding over these cases have to be ready to implement the newly
amended Law Against Drug Trafficking," he said. "The law will become mandatory
15 days after its publication in the official newspaper [of the Islamic
Republic of Iran] www.rrk.ir."
"The judges have to review the death penalties and issue new sentences based on
the new law," he added.
On October 14, the Guardian Council, which vets laws for conformity with
Islamic principles, approved the amendment after it was passed in Parliament,
giving hope to an estimated 4,000 prisoners on death row in Iran for petty
drug-related crimes.
Iran maintains one of the highest per-capita execution rates in the world. At
least 567 people were executed in 2016, down 42 % from the 977 who were in
executed in 2015. The vast majority of executions were for petty
drug-trafficking crimes, including for carrying small amounts of illegal drugs.
Under the new law, the death penalty can only be issued in convictions
involving:
Armed trafficking
Playing a leading role in organizing and financing drug trafficking, including
with the use of child trafficking
In cases involving previous death sentences, life sentences, or sentences of
more than 15 years
Possession or transportation of more than 50 kilos of opium and other
"traditional drugs," 2 kilos of heroin, or 3 kilos of methamphetamine
The initial version of the law mandated capital punishment for possession or
transportation of more than 5 kilos of opium or 30 grams of heroin or
industrial narcotics.
"Most of the people who have been executed in the country were mainly
small-time traffickers, while the profits went to gang leaders living
comfortably abroad," said the deputy chairman of the parliamentary Legal and
Judicial Affairs Committee, Mohammad Kazemi, on October 18.
On September 10, committee member Yahya Kamalipour said the amended law would
be applied retroactively.
The UN, other international rights-monitoring groups, and human rights
activists inside the country have heavily criticized Iran's high execution
rate.
Several anti-death-penalty activists have been imprisoned in part for their
stance on the issue, including human rights defender Narges Mohammadi and
political activist Arash Sadeghi.
(source: Center for Human Rights in Iran (formerly known as International
Campaign for Human Rights in Iran)
MALAYSIA:
Death penalty reforms must be an opportunity for positive human rights change -
Amnesty International Malaysia
Amnesty International Malaysia welcomes the statement by the Malaysian
government outlining its efforts to amend Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs
Act 1952 and to provide courts with the discretion to spare lives when imposing
the death penalty. The organisation encourages the Government of Malaysia to
ensure that the proposed amendments will fully remove the mandatory death
penalty and establish a moratorium on all executions as first critical steps
towards abolition of the death penalty.
The announcement comes after a parliamentary reply by Law Minister Datuk Seri
Azalina Othman Said on 30 October 2017, stating that the 1st draft of the
amendment has been completed by the Attorney General's Chambers and is awaiting
the approval of the cabinet.
The organisation also welcomes the support of the Attorney General, Tan Sri
Mohamed Apandi Ali in giving the discretionary power to the judiciary in
drug-related offences in a statement made on 31 October.
While Amnesty International believes that these amendments is a step in the
right direction, the organisation hopes that these amendments will be
implemented in a manner that is effective and far-reaching.
The organisation renews its call on the Malaysian authorities to abolish the
mandatory death penalty for all offences and restrict the scope of the death
penalty to the "most serious crimes", which do not include drug-related
offences. International law prohibits the use of the mandatory death penalty
and restricts the use of the ultimate punishment, in countries where it has not
yet been abolished, to intentional killing.
Amnesty International Malaysia is in fact concerned that the statement of the
Attorney General suggested that the death penalty legislative amendments, as
currently drafted, would introduce limited sentencing discretion only for those
found guilty of transporting prohibited substances. Amnesty International's
analysis of the impact of similar reforms implemented in Singapore since 2013
indicate that the introduction of limited sentencing discretion that fell short
of fully abolishing the mandatory death penalty has done little to improve the
protection of human rights.
In its report Cooperate or Die; Singapore's Flawed Reforms to the Mandatory
Death Penalty, Amnesty International found that the mandatory death penalty
continues to be extensively imposed in Singapore, and that drug trafficking
continues to involve the great majority of the death sentences imposed in the
country. In cases where information is available, the burden of the death
penalty once again appears to fall on those with less advantaged socioeconomic
backgrounds and convicted of importing relatively small amounts of controlled
substances.
The amendments also introduced a new section in the Singaporean Misuse of Drugs
Act, giving courts discretion to sentence persons to life imprisonment, if
found guilty of drug trafficking or importing prohibited substances over
certain amounts if they can prove their involvement in the offence was
restricted to that of a "courier"; and if the Public Prosecutor issues a
"certificate of substantive assistance", confirming that the convicted person
has substantively assisted in disrupting drug trafficking activities.
This not only narrows the court's discretionary powers considerably, it
violates the right to a fair trial as it places life and death decisions in the
hands of an official who is neither a judge nor a neutral party in the trial
and should not have such powers.
It is our hope that the Malaysian authorities will make the ongoing legislative
reforms on the death penalty a meaningful opportunity to improve the protection
of human rights and adopt a comprehensive approach on its policies on the death
penalty.
Pending abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International Malaysia renews
our call on the authorities to establish a moratorium on all executions. The
government had stated that as of April 30, 2016, 1,042 people comprising 629
Malaysians and 413 foreign nationals were sentenced to death due to murder,
drug trafficking, firearms trafficking or kidnapping; Sixteen (16) death row
inmates have been executed since 2010 in Malaysia.
Even with plans to amend laws and rulers granting pardon to death row inmates,
Amnesty International Malaysia still calls for the total abolition of the death
penalty as it is proven multiple times not to have a unique deterrent effect on
crimes, and violates the Universal Declaration of Human rights, including the
right to life and the right to live free from torture.
It is in this context that Amnesty International Malaysia welcomes the pardon
by the Sultan of Perak on November 1 of 2 prisoners, who have been imprisoned
for more than 16 years. Death row prisoners are usually kept in solitary
confinement once their sentence has been imposed.
In a country where information on the use of the death penalty is not publicly
available, the announcement of the pardon is a positive development which the
organisation hopes it can be replicated to allow for greater transparency and
more commutations of death sentences.
Background
Mandatory death sentences leave courts no option but to condemn drug offenders
and those convicted of murder to the gallows. Drug trafficking does not meet
the threshold of the "most serious crimes" to which the use of the death
penalty must be restricted under international human rights law.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and under any
circumstances, regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of
the offender, or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The
organisation considers the death penalty a violation of the right to life as
recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ultimate cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishment.
Pending full abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International calls for
the government's urgent intervention to halt all executions and to broaden the
scope of the proposed reforms to encompass all capital offences; and to abolish
the automatic presumptions of drug possession and trafficking allowed under
Section 37 of the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1952 as initial steps.
Amnesty International has ranked Malaysia 10th in the use of the death penalty
among 23 countries that carried out capital punishment last year.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not
necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
(source: themalaymailonline.com)
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