Nov. 20
SOUTH AFRICA:
Calls for death penalty after man in court for woman's 'murder'
The National Educational, Health and Allied Workers (Nehawu) is calling for the
death penalty to be brought back to show that crimes against women will no
longer be tolerated within South African communities.
The trade union sent out a clear message as they protested outside the Pretoria
Magistrate's Court ahead of the appearance of a 34-year-old Mamelodi man
accused of murdering a 28-year-old woman.
The man allegedly murdered the victim and dumped her body in the chimney inside
the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries offices in Pretoria in
December 2017.
According to information the woman was reported missing on December 22, a day
after she was last seen during her tea break.
She was employed by a private company rendering cleaning services to the
department.
Her badly decomposed body was discovered by a security guard during the
department's Christmas break on December 28.
Sunnyside SAPS spokesperson, Captain David Mavimbela, said the investigating
officer, conducted a "meticulous investigation" which led to the arrest of the
man in Mamelodi on Friday.
"The Sunnyside police management commends the investigating officer for his
outstanding professionalism in dealing with the investigation that followed."
Lindiwe Sibeko, a Nehawu shop steward, said they were happy that progress was
realised especially ahead of activities that will be part of 16-days of
activism against women abuse.
Sibeko said workers still did not feel safe and people were afraid to work
after hours.
"We want to see this person and know that he is going to pay for his crimes.
But we wish that the death penalty can be brought back especially when the
evidence is as compelling."
"The family is crying and her children are without a mother who was the sole
parent left and yet this man will continue living in prison with our tax funds
which is not right."
The man appeared briefly in court with the matter being postponed to November
26 , for further investigation.
(source: iol.co.za)
MALAYSIA:
Keep the death penalty, says former MACC advisor Phang----Former MACC advisor
Robert Phang (centre) is running a campaign to keep the death penalty, saying
criminals should not be allowed to do as they please.
Robert Phang says Putrajaya should not have decided on the abolition of the
death penalty without consulting the public.
The former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisor said the Pakatan
Harapan government seems to have forgotten about the victims of those on death
row.
(source: themalaysianinsight.com)
**************************
Activist: Let's have more forums on death penalty
Sociologist and human rights activist Denison Jayasooria has called for a
step-up in public discussions on the proposal to abolish the death penalty.
Speaking to FMT, he said he would like to see politicians in power, as well as
the media, take the lead in encouraging such discussions.
Recently, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Liew Vui Keong said the
Cabinet had agreed to propose abolishing the death penalty for 32 offences,
including murder. 8 pieces of legislation will have to be amended and the
government is expected to table a bill for the purpose at the next Dewan Rakyat
sitting.
Liew’s announcement prompted vigorous discussions among social media users and
many have expressed opposition to the proposal.
Jayasooria said the negative reactions were to be expected because the public
had yet to get used to a strong government commitment to human rights. He said
those supporting the death penalty would change their minds if they became
victims of human rights abuses.
He noted that it had become a global human rights norm to abolish capital
punishment and he urged the government to persist in "doing the right thing".
"Political leaders must have the courage to lead and explain to the public why
the government wants to abolish the death penalty," he said.
"If 1 innocent person gets sentenced to death, that would already be too much.
In some cases, people are sentenced to death for possession of firearms or
drugs, but the items may have been planted on them. Sometimes, they just happen
to be in a room where the items are kept when the authorities raid the place."
Criminologist Geshina Ayu Mat Saat of Universiti Sains Malaysia said the
government, if it was intent on abolishing the death penalty, must ensure that
prison resources were sufficient to manage violent criminals during their
incarceration.
She said these would include human resources, infrastructure and provisions for
institutional rehabilitation and pre-release risk assessments.
"Secondly, the government and other stakeholders in support of abolition need
to guarantee public safety from current and future violent criminals," she
added.
She warned of the possibility of crime prevention becoming more difficult,
saying countries which had abolished capital punishment were experiencing high
rates of crime and overcrowding in their prisons.
She said people wanting the death penalty to be maintained probably believed
that lighter punishments would not adequately reflect the degree of violence
perpetrated or the severity of the harm to their victims.
"Also, since violent offenders violate the rights of their victims to live
peacefully and safely, some see it as unfair to allow them to continue to live
after taking their victims' lives or limbs and causing trauma to their loved
ones."
She also said some would question the justice of allowing offenders to
eventually rejoin society and possibly repeat their crimes.
(source: freemalaysiatoday.com)
BANGLADESH:
Nrayanganj 7-murder: Full HC verdicts confirming death sentences of 15 released
The High Court has published the verdicts of two cases over the 2014 murders of
7 people in Narayanganj confirming death sentences of 15 convicts.
The 2 cases consist of death references and appeals of the convicts.
High Court Special Officer Saifur Rahman told the media that the verdicts with
783 and 781 pages, respectively, were published on the Supreme Court's website
on Monday.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the convicts have the full right to
challenge the High Court judgments at the Appellate Division of the Supreme
Court.
The bench of Justice Bhabani Prasad Singh and Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam
issued the verdict upholding various prison terms given to nine other convicts
on Aug 22 last year.
It also reduced to life in prison death penalties awarded by the trial court to
11 other convicts, considering "the nature of their involvement in the
murders".
"The public will lose trust in the judiciary if the convicts are let off
despite the nature of their crimes," the court observed.
Dead bodies of 7 people, including city councillor Nazrul Islam and senior
lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar, had washed up on the bank of river Shitalakhhya at
Bandar Upazila, 3 days after they were abducted from the city on Apr 27 of
2014.
The discovery sent shockwaves through the nation and made international
headlines after police found several members of the Rapid Action Battalion or
RAB involved in the murders.
The High Court has upheld death for 3 former senior officers of the local
RAB-11 unit, including its then chief, former army lieutenant colonel Tarek
Sayeed Mohammad. He is son-in-law to Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal
Hossain Chowdhury Maya.
The other 2 are former major Arif Hossain and former lieutenant commander Masud
Rana.
They had carried out the murders after being paid to do so by former
Narayanganj councillor Nur Hossain, whose death by hanging had also been
confirmed by the court.
The killers' primary target was councillor Nazrul, a rival of Nur Hossain, but
the other victims, who included Nazrul's associates, were abducted along with
him while they were returning from court.
Lawyer Chandan Sarkar and his driver were abducted and killed for having
witnessed the abduction of Nazrul and his associates at Fatulla's Lamparha on
Dhaka-Narayanganj Link road.
On Jan 16, a Narayanganj court handed the death penalty to 26 and different
prison terms to 9 others in the case.
Of the 35 accused in the murder, 25 were law-enforcement personnel.
The High Court in its observation said, "RAB, an elite force, has been playing
a pioneering role in maintaining law and order in the country.
"In the estimation of people the force is a symbol of security and trust. So,
for the acts of a few aberrated RAB-personnel like those in this case, the
glory and achievement of the force cannot be tarnished in any way.
"In the present case, the accused RAB personnel acted illegally with individual
responsibility and upon personal interest. So the 'RAB', the elite force as a
whole, did not commit the alleged offence, only some aberrated RAB Personnel
i.e. the convicted-accused RAB-Personnel," it added. (source: benews24.com)
MYANMAR:
Man Sentenced to Death Penalty for Murder of 19-year-old Student----The 3
suspects appeared at the Kyaukse Township court last week.
The Kyaukse Township court sentenced 3 men involved in the killing of a student
from the Kyaukse Government Technical Institute on Monday. 1 man received the
death penalty and 2 others received lengthy sentences.
Aung Thu Hein, who stabbed Ko Nay Min Htet to death, received the death
penalty. Min Khant Kyaw received 21 years imprisonment and Min Chit Aung
received 20 years imprisonment for involvement in the fight that led to the
killing of Ko Nay Min Htet.
"The court should sentence all 3 people to the death penalty to set an example.
However, we are satisfied with the severity of the penalty as is," said U Toe
Wai Phyo, the uncle of Ko Nay Min Htet.
Ko Nay Min Htet, 19, was in his final year at Kyaukse Government Technical
Institute when he was playing a game on his cell phone while traveling with a
friend in August 2018. 3 men approached the pair and grabbed Ko Nay Min Htet's
phone.
When the 2 friends asked the robbers to return the phone, they were beaten up
and U Nay Min Htet was stabbed to death.
Aung Thu Hein, Min Khant Kyaw and Min Chit Aung were arrested hours after the
incident.
They were brought to court and faced charges for theft, murder and being
accomplices to these crimes.
(source: The Irrawaddy)
INDIA:
India court hands down 1st death penalty over deadly 1984 anti-Sikh riots
The 1984 carnage erupted just hours after then prime minister Gandhi was killed
by her Sikh bodyguards.
Relatives of victims rejoiced in the capital New Delhi after the judge
announced the verdict, the 1st since a Special Investigation Team took over the
probe in 2015.
The 1984 carnage erupted just hours after then prime minister Gandhi was killed
by her Sikh bodyguards.
It lasted t3 days with Sikhs raped and murdered, their homes and businesses
torched.
The violence across the country but mostly in New Delhi saw people dragged from
their homes and burned alive.
Few have been brought to justice over the massacre, with government-appointed
commissions in the past failing to prosecute more than a handful of minor
cases.
Gandhi was shot dead after ordering Indian troops to storm the Golden Temple,
Sikhism's holiest shrine in the northern state of Punjab.
Sikh leaders say the death toll from the pogrom that followed far exceeded the
official figure of 3,000, and accuse leaders of Gandhi's Congress party of
fanning the violence.
India's top investigating agency had blamed senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar
for inciting the mobs, but he was acquitted by a court in 2013.
Sikhs in India make up around 20 million people, a little under 2 % of India's
population of 1.25 billion people. Worldwide they number around 27 million.
(source: Khaleej Times)
***************************
With the Abolition of the Death Penalty Still Elusive, SC Aims at Procedural
Reform----While hearing fresh criminal appeals from death row convicts, the
Supreme Court is increasingly adopting the approach of 'special sentencing',
wherein death penalty is commuted to life sentence without remission.
The abolition of the death penalty, with public opinion steadfastly hostile to
it, isn't likely to be an easy objective to be achieved in India in the near
future.
Yet there are many baby steps which the judiciary can take to reform procedures
involved in the confirmation of death sentences of convicts that could
eventually help erase the biases and prejudices against the abolition of
capital punishment in India.
One such reform was achieved last Monday, November 12, by the Supreme Court
bench of Justices Kurian Joseph, A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud. This was
a case where the special leave petition against the imposition of capital
punishment was dismissed in limine by a bench of the Supreme Court in 2006.
In limine dismissal of a petition means that the bench, at the threshold stage
itself, does not want to hear the petitioner as it has made up its mind even
before the hearing even starts. The bench does not give any justification for
such a decision.
That the Supreme Court has a few times in the past dismissed appeals from death
row petitioners in limine must indeed be a cause for concern. That the current
judges are inclined to reopen such cases for a fresh hearing is a hope for
reform.
In June 2017, a 2 judge bench comprising Justice Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay
Kishan Kaul, while hearing a petition by three convicts challenging summary
dismissal of appeals from death row convicts, said that the issue raised by
them is "very important and serious", and needs to be examined. While this
petition is pending for a detailed hearing, it appears the other benches have
taken the cue and are reopening such cases on their own without waiting for
formal guidelines to be framed for the purpose.
According to one report, there have been at least nine cases since 2004 in
which the Supreme Court has passed such orders, containing just three words,
while dismissing the plea of convicts, and leaving them no grounds to challenge
the order to seek remedy through review petitions. Surely, if there are just 3
words - "delay condoned. dismissed" - a convict cannot seek a review of the
decision on the only permissible ground of "error apparent on the face of the
record".
In the instant case, Dnyaneshwar Suresh Borkar v The State of Maharashtra, the
appeal of the death row convict against the Bombay high court's confirmation of
his death sentence [SLP (Crl) 3323 of 2006) was dismissed in limini on July 21,
2006 by a two judge bench comprising Justice B.P. Singh and Justice Altamas
Kabir, with the following words: "Upon hearing counsel, the Court made the
following ORDER: 'The Special Leave Petition is dismissed'." Subsequently, a
review petition filed by the convict was also dismissed in circulation among
the judges.
On November 12, the 3 judge bench of the Supreme Court recorded this
unfortunate decision of the 2 judge bench in 2006, and added:
"We have heard Anand Grover, learned senior counsel appearing for the review
petitioner/applicant and Nishant R. Katneshwarkar, learned counsel appearing
for the state, who has graciously submitted that the State has no objection if
the order of dismissal in limine is recalled, leave is granted in the special
leave petition and the matter being heard on merits."
The bench thus recalled the 2006 decisions dismissing the convict's appeal and
the review petitions. Although the current petition is an application for
reopening of the review petition, the bench disposed of it by taking on board
the convict's original special leave petition for rehearing.
Taking note of the fact that the convict has been in custody for over 17 years,
the bench directed the registry to post his appeal for hearing in the 1st week
of February 2019, giving sufficient time for calling for the records from the
high court/trial court, in connection with the conviction and sentencing of the
convict. The bench made it clear that the order on suspension of his death
sentence will continue to operate till the disposal of the appeal.
In this case, the convict was found guilty of the of the offence of kidnapping
and murder of a teenage boy. While the Bombay high court confirmed his death
sentence because it found no hope of his reformation, the Supreme Court bench,
on October 31, directed the counsel for Maharashtra to get specific instruction
from the jail authorities on the conduct of the convict in jail; whether he is
involved in any other case; whether he has acquired any education in jail; his
health condition, and medical records, if any; and any other relevant
information. It is significant that the bench, on November 12, decided to hear
his SLP afresh, after this feedback from the state government.
Slew of petitions from death row convicts on November 20
On Tuesday, November 20, a slew of similar appeals from death row convicts have
been listed for hearing before 4 3-judge benches of the Supreme Court. In one
such case on October 31, Ambadas Laxman Shinde and others versus State of
Maharashtra, the same bench of 3 judges (Justices Kurian Joseph, Khanwilkar and
Chandrachud) recalled an order passed by another bench in 2009, awarding death
sentence to 3 accused, because the previous bench did not afford an opportunity
to them to be heard before it accepted the appeals filed by the state
government for enhancement of their sentences from life to death.
The accused were deprived of an opportunity of engaging counsel and of urging
such submissions as they may have been advised to urge in defence to the
appeals filed by the state for enhancement, the bench had reasoned. While doing
so, the bench extended the relief to other 3 accused in the same case, whose
death sentences had earlier been confirmed by the Bombay high court, and
recalled the Supreme Court's confirmation of their death sentences too, as the
evidence is common and the offences related to the same incident, in which the
6 accused were found guilty.
The Supreme Court is currently hearing a slew of petitions from death row
convicts in conformity with the 2014 constitution bench judgment in Mohd. Arif
case making it mandatory for 3 judge benches to hear review petitions from
death row convicts in open court.
While hearing fresh criminal appeals from death row convicts, the Supreme Court
is increasingly adopting the approach of 'special sentencing', wherein death
penalty is commuted to life sentence without remission. On November 15, another
bench of the Supreme Court adopted special sentencing to save a convict from
gallows, saying its reasoning will be given later. In such cases, the human
rights defenders have expressed concern that death row convicts cannot be
deprived of their right to remission, if their conduct in the jails suggests
potential for reformation.
On November 14, the court had convicted Singh and Naresh Sherawat for killing 2
men during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots - the 1st conviction in the cases reopened
by the SIT.
The Delhi Police had closed the case in 1994 for want of evidence. However, a
Special Investigation Team on the riots reopened it.
(source: thewire.in)
ISRAEL:
Bill expanding death penalty off the agenda now that Liberman's out
The coalition froze legislation that would make it easier for courts to
sentence terrorists to death after Yisrael Beytenu, the party that proposed it,
left the coalition.
Yisrael Beytenu MKs expressed outrage Tuesday, when Knesset Law, Constitution
and Justice Committee chairman Nissan Slomiansky (Bayit Yehudi) said votes on
the bill would be delayed indefinitely because of disagreements within the
coalition.
But the timing of the announcement, the 1st meeting about the bill after
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman's resignation from the Knesset,
suggested to him that the reasoning was related to those events.
"We were shocked to hear in the discussion of the death penalty for terrorists
bill that it won't go to a vote because of instructions from above, from the
heads of the coalition," Liberman said. "Yisrael Beytenu sees this as clearly
breaking a promise to the public and to bereaved families. This is another
reason why Yisrael Beytenu decided to leave the government and the current
coalition. Yisrael Beytenu wants a right-wing government in actions and not in
talk."
Slomiansky took issue with Liberman's characterization of there being
"instructions from above," saying that there are ongoing talks within the
coalition about the matter.
Stopping the death penalty bill will likely impact other legislation. A source
in Yisrael Beytenu said the party will no longer support Culture and Sport
Minister Miri Regev's "cultural loyalty bill," which seeks to cut state funding
to cultural works or institutions that, among other things, harm or disrespect
the symbols of the State of Israel; refer to Independence Day as a day of
mourning; or incite to violence or terrorism. In the immediate aftermath of
Liberman's resignation last week, Regev had said he told her his party would
still vote in favor of her bill.
The death penalty bill would change the current law so that a majority of
judges on a military court can sentence a terrorist to death, rather than only
a unanimous panel of judges.
(source: Jerusalem Post)
SYRIA:
Inmates go on hunger strike at Syria 'slaughterhouse' prison
Dozens of inmates in a prison in central Syria have begun a hunger strike to
protest against a raft of death sentences, two of them and rights groups said
Monday.
Hama central prison holds hundreds of inmates, most of them men who were
detained in connection with the anti-regime protests t hat broke out in 2011
and the subsequent conflict.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and two inmates reached by
AFP inside the prison, the hunger strike was launched on November 12.
It was a reaction to a decision to transfer 11 inmates to Saydnaya, a prison
near Damascus which Amnesty International has described as "a human
slaughterhouse".
"We started the hunger strike to protest against the death sentences against 11
inmates, and the decision to transfer them to Saydnaya," said one prisoner AFP
contacted by phone.
The hunger strikers are demanding the death sentences be overturned and also
want guarantees that other Hama inmates whose cases are still pending not be
sent to death row.
Another inmate, who also requested anonymity, was reached by AFP and confirmed
the hunger strike.
Riots had broken out twice in Hama central prison in 2016, resulting in its
director and the local police chief being taken hostage and later released
following a negotiation.
Many inmates were subsequently freed or saw their sentences commuted. Those who
remained have retained some level of control over the facility.
The Hama inmates' access to mobile phones has helped them bring public
attention to their plight.
"This has allowed them to pressure the regime more easily," said Rami Abdel
Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A video was posted on social media recently showing the hunger strikers holding
banners that demand an amnesty and an end to "arbitrary sentences".
"The detainees' ongoing hunger strike is a stark reminder of the flawed
judicial processes in Syria," Human Rights Watch wrote in a statement on
Monday.
Tens of thousands of Syria are believed to have died in Syrian prisons since
the start of the conflict more tha 7 years ago.
(source: al-monitor.com)
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