February 25
CAMEROON:
Cameroon opposition leader faces death sentence
CAMEROON’S main opposition leader and more than 100 supporters face the death
penalty following their arraignment for allegedly plotting to overthrow the
government.
Maurice Kamto, leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, and the 130
followers, were arbitrarily arrested last month and charged by a military
court.
The arrest is part of a crackdown on critics of the October 2018 elections that
the opposition believes President Paul Biya rigged.
A judge is to rule on the charges they face, including “rebellion, hostility
against the homeland, incitement to insurrection, offence against the president
of the republic and destruction of public buildings and goods.”
Human rights organisations said it was horrifying that the government
considered sentencing Kamto and others to death for participating in a peaceful
protest.
“As well as having their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly
crushed, many of Cameroon’s opposition members are now facing unfair trials by
military courts,” said rights advocate, Marie-Evelyne Petrus Barry.
“We are calling on authorities to end this ruthless assault on dissenting
voices. Civilians should not be tried by military courts and should not face
the death penalty for exercising their human rights.”
Some 12 opposition members also arrested in January appeared before an ordinary
court earlier this week.
Prosecutors charged them with attempting to participate in a banned
demonstration. The hearing was postponed until Monday.
Biya (86), Africa’s oldest sitting president, has been power since 1982.
Critics accuse him of rigging polls to sustain his reign.
(source: cajnewafrica.com)
EGYPT:
Egypt Judges’ club condemns UN rights agency for criticising executions
Egypt’s Judges Club, an informal association whose current leadership is known
for its support of Sisi’s regime, criticised the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for its statements condemning the
recent executions of nine death row inmates in Egypt.
The Judges Club’s spokesperson Reda Mahmoud Al-Sayed said that the association
“followed with much sorry” the OHCHR statements on the sentences handed down
after the 2015 killing of Egypt’s Prosecutor-General.
The statements constitute an “unacceptable intervention in the work of the
esteemed and independent Egyptian judiciary,” Sayed said.
The Judges Club also described the OHCHR’s statements as an attack on the
Egyptian state’s sovereignty and a breach of international measures and
treaties that seek to preserve the judiciary’s independence.
“The Judges Club stresses on the independence of the Egyptian judiciary and its
rejection, throughout its history, of any intervention from any internal of a
foreign entity.”
It also noted that Egyptian laws include the death penalty and allow for it to
be issued in cases that relate to the most serious crimes.
In its statement, the club defended the recent hangings, noting that the
Egyptian legal system guarantees for defendants fair trial before a just an
independent judiciary, in addition to the right to appeal sentences in higher
courts up to the Court of Cassation.
Last Friday OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville criticised the death sentences
handed down and carried out in Egypt against defendants in the prosecutor
general’s assassination case.
“They are all killings for which the death penalty is permissible under
international law although we urge, as you know, our common position at the UN
is to advocate the abolition of the death penalty. But the issue here is a fair
trial, use of torture, forced confessions and so on,” he said.
The execution of nine Egyptians on Wednesday over their alleged involvement in
killing the country’s top prosecutor in 2015 has sparked a major outcry in
Egypt and internationally. Videos of the trial went viral on social media
featuring the defendants telling the judge that they were innocent and that
they confessed to the crime under torture. The judge ignored the defendants’
plea and sentenced 9 of them to death.
(source: Middle East Monitor)
*******************
Egypt executions 'unacceptable' says Erdogan----Turkish president says Egyptian
executions justify his bitter relationship with Egypt's Sisi
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the UN have both criticised a surge
in executions in Egypt marked by the deaths of 9 men last week.
Erdogan said on Saturday that the executions and arrests of political
opponents, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, which was ousted in a 2013 coup
by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, explain why the Turkish president refuses to
speak to Sisi.
"They killed n9 young people recently. This is not something we can accept,"
Erdogan said in an interview with Turkish TV channels CNN-Turk and Kanal D,
referring to the men who were executed on Wednesday.
"Of course, we are going to be told that it is a decision of the judiciary, but
there, justice, elections, all that, are codswallop. There is an authoritarian
system, even totalitarian," he said, as quoted by AFP.
During the trial for the 9 men accused of killing Egypt's former prosecutor
general Hisham Barakat, several of the defendants claimed they had signed
confessions after being tortured.
"I was blindfolded, hung on the door upside down for seven consecutive hours
and electrocuted in sensitive areas of my body," said 25-year-old Abulqasim
Youssef.
Erdogan also called on Egypt to grant an amnesty to political prisoners
arrested after the 2013 coup that overthrew former leader Mohammed Morsi, who
had been a close ally of Erdogan's.
Erdogan slammed Western countries which, according to him, "roll out the red
carpet" for Sisi and turn a blind eye to the latest executions in Egypt.
The UN on Friday said that 15 people had been executed in Egypt in February
alone and that there were concerns about whether the defendants had been given
fair trials.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a
statement that Egypt should suspend the death penalty and review all cases in
which the sentence had been handed down.
Reacting to news of the executions, Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, a UK-based
anti-death penalty rights group, said in a statement that the executions showed
that the use of the death penalty by Egypt's president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi "is
now a full-blown human rights crisis".
"Executions have spiked - bringing the total number to 15 in just 2 weeks -
amid widespread abuses including gross due process violations, torture, false
confessions and the repeated use of mass trials", Foa said. "It is shocking
that these abuses continue unabated while the international community remains
silent."
On Tuesday, Amnesty International urged Egyptian authorities to halt the
executions that were handed down based on forced confessions under torture.
“There is no doubt that those involved in deadly attacks must be prosecuted and
held accountable for their actions but executing prisoners or convicting people
based on confessions extracted through torture is not justice,” said Najia
Bounaim, Amnesty International’s North Africa campaigns director.
Egypt responded on Sunday, saying it rejected both the allegations that torture
was used on the prisoners and "any infringement upon the Egyptian judiciary",
according to Reuters.
Egyptian civil and military courts have sentenced more than 1,400 people to
death since General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who led the 2013 military coup,
became president in 2014.
(source: middleeasteye.net)
SRI LANKA:
Police reiterate President’s plans to reinstate death penalty
With the detection of the country’s largest-ever heroin haul amounting to 294.4
kilograms on Saturday from Colombo, the Police yesterday reiterated the
Government’s plans to reinstate the death penalty for notorious drug smugglers
in the country.
“The Government intends to activate the death penalty for the mass-scale drug
smugglers who are being convicted by both courts - the High Court and the
Appeal Court,” Police Media Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara told reporters
yesterday.
Valued at over Rs. 2.945 billion, the parcels which were stored in 10 suitcases
were to be transported in 2 vans at the time of the detection. The two vans had
five suitcases, each having 163.356 kilograms and 131.137 kilograms
respectively.
“The PNB and STF officials, who carried out the detection on a tip off, had
taken the massive haul of heroin on Saturday evening at a car park of a
supermarket in Kollupitiya,” SP Gunasekera said.
The PNB and the STF had taken total of 317 kilograms of heroin in 2017 and the
highest haul of 211 kilograms was detected from Chilaw in that year. The
largest haul of heroin (287 kilograms) was detected in 2018, in which the total
detection amounted to 732 kilograms.
“The PNB and STF had detected large hauls of heroin during the past few years
mainly due to the support and commitment given by President Maithripala
Sirisena to carry out islandwide raids to bust the well-organised drug
smuggling network,” Gunasekara said.
Reiterating his strong commitment and support to control drug smuggling into
the country, President Sirisena commended the efforts taken by the PNB and STF
officials to detect the largest ever haul of heroin in Sri Lanka.
The President, who had inspected the seized heroin stocks at the PNB yesterday
morning, has said in his Twitter account: “My congratulations to the PNB and
STF who have successfully seized the largest consignment of illicit drugs in
our history.”
Extending his gratitude to all the officials involved, he has assured his
fullest support for apprehending illicit drug smuggling in the country.
The STF Commandant Senior DIG M. R. Latiff and the PNB Director T.C.A.
Dhanapala also joined President Sirisena’s inspection tour at the PNB.
A top STF official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Daily FT that
the PNB had commenced questioning the two suspects Wasim Mohammed (43) and
Mohammed Ahamed (32) from Keselwatte, Panadura to find whether they have any
links to the notorious underworld criminal and drug smuggler Makandure Madush,
who is now in Dubai Police custody with 31 others.
He said that the suspects were to transport the stocks in the 2 vans to a safer
location and the stocks had been smuggled into the country by fishing trawlers.
“We have commenced a full probe into this case and are now questioning the two
suspects on how they received the drugs, the transport routes, their other
links and distribution network in Sri Lanka,” the Police media spokesman
confirmed.
The Acting Magistrate Lochana Abeywickrama had issued a detention order till 1
March when the two suspects were produced before Courts yesterday.
(source: ft.lk)
**********************
Sri Lanka to recruit a foreign executioner
The Department of Prisons is considering recruiting a foreign national for the
post of executioner. A high ranking officer at the department noted that they
have not received the desired number of applications for the position.
Accordingly, the department noted that steps are underway to recruit a foreign
national to the post as a result of the prevailing situation.
Meanwhile, Prisons media spokesperson, Thushara Unpuldeniya said the deadline
for the submission of applications for the post of executioner will conclude at
12 noon today.
The list of names of the inmates who are sentenced to death over drug-related
charges was handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena on January 25th. The
Ministry of Law and Order and Prison Reforms said the list was submitted
following the approval of the Attorney General. According to the list, 17
inmates have been sentenced to death.
The capital punishment was last imposed in Sri Lanka in 1976 at the Welikada
prison, on an individual by the name “Chandradasa”.
(source: newsfirst.lk)
MALAYSIA:
Death penalty a great deterrent to crime, argues panel speaker
The federal government ought to retain the death penalty as its ‘last line of
defence’ in terms of being a deterrent to crime.
Moreover, Malaysia has yet to reach the level of maturity – be it in social,
educational or economic aspects – when it comes to considering the abolishment
of the death penalty.
This was pointed out by chartered accountant Tay Chze Cheng during a talk on
‘Controversy on Abolishing the Death Penalty’ at a restaurant here yesterday,
organised by the Federation of Chinese Associations of Kuching, Samarahan and
Serian Divisions.
The session was moderated by Teo Kwang Hock, while the other speaker was former
Repok assemblyman Datuk David Teng, who is a lawyer by profession.
In his argument, Tay concurred with Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA)
president and former federal minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, who recently
said that the government should not make its move to abolish the death penalty
without enlightening Malaysians on the need to do so.
“It appears that Wee Ka Siong plays a more effective role as the opposition. He
has queried that if the death penalty could not serve as a deterrent to crime,
how Malaysia is going to reduce crimes if the death penalty were to be
abolished,” he said.
Citing recent news reports, Tay said the estimated cost in managing those
placed on death row was RM40 per inmate per day. It is stated that there are
1,281 individuals on death row in Malaysia. Of the total, 300 are convicted for
murder.
He said the Malaysian government would have to spend around RM430,000 per death
row inmate per year.
“This is calculated based on a period of 30 years, which brings the total
expenditure to over RM500 million (for 1,281 death row inmates). Such cost is
much higher than the execution, which costs about RM2,800 per inmate.
“As an accountant, I’d tell you that going for execution is more beneficial,”
he said.
Nevertheless, Tay also said the federal government should let Malaysians decide
whether to retain the death penalty or have it abolished.
“It is more imperative for the government to work on practising discretionary
death penalty, and give full independence to the judiciary system.”
Later, the organiser carried out a voting session during the talk, involving
146 members of the floor. The outcome of the voting showed that 130 voted
against the abolishment of the death penalty, while 14 supported the move. 2
were considered spoilt votes.
(source: The Borneo Post)
INDIA:
In the cause of peace, Kulbhushan Jadhav must not die----His hanging will not
serve any end of justice. But such an act will definitely mutilate the ends of
peace
This is, of course, an anti-death sentence position.
But it is also more. It is a pro-normal life and pro-safe life proposition.
Let it be noted, for a start, that the charges against Kulbhushan Jadhav do not
include murder. His alleged crime is espionage. Like reportage in journalism,
espionage in international relations is not carried out only by persons
appointed to do so. Ordinary people, regular folk who speak to media, are also
in a sense reporters. The same goes for borderers, travellers, visitors. They
speak about what they experience, not as spies, but as observers. And can very
conveniently get picked up for doing what any traveller does, that is, to see ,
hear and share what has been seen, heard.
Jadhav was not even travelling in the wrong place. He was abducted from a third
place, which makes the prototype many times more vulnerable. And if he does
hang, tragically and unfairly, a most dangerous precedent, easy to replicate,
would have been established.
What the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is examining is not just one
man’s innocence or culpability but the vulnerability of completely ingenuous,
unworldly, wide-eyed, naïve, trustful people to the brutality of suspicion — a
phenomenon that haunts the Indian subcontinent. If Jadhav hangs, not only will
someone whose crime is unproved have been hanged but uncountable Indians and
Pakistanis, Kashmiris among them, and Bangladeshis, whose sole, so-called crime
is being in the wrong place at a tragically unfortunate moment, will be at risk
— the risk of being prosecuted for something of which they are totally
innocent: espionage . This is not just about border people but Indians and
Pakistanis travelling with valid visas or with visas that have got expired.
The enraged will advocate rope-for-rope. No responsible government may be
expected to turn lawless but the atmospherics will be incendiary. And just as
fireworks blaze at night, fiery demands sizzle across terror-traumatised skies.
On the other hand, if Jadhav does not hang, not only will someone whose crime
was not proven be saved from death but a highly dangerous precedent will have
been averted. And the prospect for safe justice to a huge number of
undertrials, brightened.
We have 2 examples, contradictory and contrastive.
First, Sarabjit Singh’s heart-wrenching example of having been given the death
sentence on charges of espionage and , despite demarches and appeals, kept in
suspense for over 20 years only to be killed in what was called an attack by
other inmates of the Lahore jail in 2013.
Second, Mumbai software engineer Hamid Ansari’s example of being released last
December from the same Lahore jail, following interventions and appeals from
India and elsewhere, and minister of external affairs, Sushma Swaraj’s
unremitting perseverance.
If Jadhav were to hang, Hamid Ansari’s return will be completely lost in the
outrage that India will feel, express and demand retribution for.
Post Pulwama, the urge for retribution animates our political imagination.
Faith in peace talks, or any talks, has evaporated from the political discourse
at least for the moment. And suspicion, hatred and vengeance have taken its
place. And, yes, it is about politics, medieval politics. Not alleged
espionage, not illegal strayings, not consular technicalities but the hard
brutality of the subcontinent’s mutual suspicion is what is now playing out.
The climate between the 2 countries is at such a low that Jadhav’s hanging will
hang not just a person and tighten the noose around others who are in the wrong
place at the wrong time. It will fling oil of the most inflammatory kind on the
smouldering fires of antagonism between India and Pakistan. And not just
between India and Pakistan but , infinitely worse, but between the majority and
minority communities in both countries.
Jadhav is, today, a human being who all those who believe the death penalty to
be barbaric, misguided and futile in terms of penology, should not. He is also
much more. He has become, unbeknownst to him, a tragic hostage to the
subcontinent’s legacy of mutual antipathy, contention and discord. If hanged,
he will turn those into an even greater swirl of enmity and will, to put it
plainly, imperil peace. Not just between the countries concerned but between
communities.
The ICJ will, doubtless, excavate the legal quotient of the case. But being
born of the Charter of the United Nations , the ICJ must not forget the peace
quotient of this case. I do not believe his hanging will serve any end of
justice. But it will mutilate the ends of peace.
I will not appeal to the Prime Minister of Pakistan to show a cricketer’s
gentlemanliness. But I will say to him: In the name of humanity, Jadhav must
not die. In the cause of peace, yours and ours, he must live.
(source: Gopalkrishna Gandhi is distinguished professor of history and
politics, Ashoka University----Hindustan Times)
******************
Supreme Court commutes man's death penalty to life term in murder case----In
its verdict, the apex court said that Madhya Pradesh government has given no
explanation for the delay of over 4 years in forwarding the mercy petition to
the home ministry.
The Supreme Court has commuted to life term the death sentence awarded to a man
for killing his wife and five children on the ground of "unexplained delay" of
four years by the Madhya Pradesh government in forwarding the mercy petition of
the convict to the Union Home Ministry.
The apex court said there was a delay of almost 5 years in deciding the mercy
petition as the state authorities kept sitting on it and did not forwarded it
to the home ministry for 4 years.
Observing that a mercy petition is the "last hope" of a person on death row, a
bench headed by Justice N V Ramana said that convict Jagdish had filed a mercy
petition before the jail authorities on October 13, 2009, but his plea was
forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs on October 15, 2013.
"The mercy petition is the last hope of a person on death row. Every dawn will
give rise to a new hope that his mercy petition may be accepted. By night fall
this hope also dies," the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and
Indira Banerjee said.
"Keeping in view all the circumstances of the case, including the un-explained
delay of four years in forwarding the mercy petition by the state of Madhya
Pradesh leading to delay of almost five years in deciding the mercy petition
and the fact that the petitioner has been incarcerated for almost 14 years, we
are of view that regardless of the brutal nature of crime this is not a fit
case where death sentence should be executed and we, accordingly commute the
death sentence to that of life," the court said.
However, the bench directed that life imprisonment in the case would mean that
convict will not be released from jail till his natural death.
Jagdish had killed his wife and five children in August 2005 and the trial
court had awarded him death penalty in April 2006.
In June 2006, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had confirmed the death sentence
awarded to him and later in September 2009 the apex court had dismissed his
appeal.
Thereafter, he had filed a mercy petition addressed to the President of India
and the governor of Madhya Pradesh through the jail authorities on October 13,
2009.
His mercy petition was rejected by the President on July 16, 2014. Jagdish had
then moved the apex court challenging the rejection of his mercy petition on
the ground that there was a delay of almost 5 years in deciding the mercy
petition and his death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment.
In its verdict, the apex court said that Madhya Pradesh government has given no
explanation for the delay of over 4 years in forwarding the mercy petition to
the home ministry.
"As far as the Government of India or the Secretariat of the President of India
is concerned, there is no delay in dealing with the mercy petition and the same
has been dealt with expeditiously," the bench said.
"The delay in forwarding the (mercy) petition is totally unexplained and this
court cannot countenance an unexplained delay of more than four years. We are
dealing here with the case of a person who has been sentenced to death," it
said.
(source: indiatoday.com)
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