August 13
JAPAN:
Hanged spree killer still provoking human rights debate
Half a century since his arrest in 1969, and 22 years since his execution,
Norio Nagayama, a repentant juvenile spree killer who became a prolific writer
behind bars, is still provoking debate on issues surrounding capital
punishment, poverty and the rights of children.
The most concrete legacy left by Nagayama, who was just 19 when he carried out
his 4 killings over a period of several weeks, is a fund set up to donate the
royalties from his books to poor children in Peru, with the hope that none
follow the path he did from a broken family and crushing poverty to crime.
But events held around the anniversary each year of his execution on Aug. 1,
1997, by the Nagayama Children Fund to raise further money for Peruvian
children have also become a forum for discussions surrounding how society
should treat juvenile offenders, drawing lawyers, psychiatrists and others
involved in the debate.
According to the Tokyo Bar Association, which recently bestowed a human rights
award on the fund, it has, through its activities, "raised issues concerning
how the judiciary should face juvenile crimes and if the death penalty should
be maintained" given the circumstances of Nagayama's case.
Born into an extremely poor family in a rural northeastern town, Nagayama was
abandoned by his mother at age 5 and also had to overcome both an abusive
brother and the death of his gambling-addict father whose life ended in
destitution.
In 1965, Nagayama moved to Tokyo at a time when Japan was experiencing an era
of high economic growth. His killings took place between mid-October and early
November of 1968, with Nagayama robbing his last 2 victims of money. When he
was arrested the following year, he was still 19 and thus considered a minor
under Japanese law.
Initially given the death penalty, the Tokyo High Court commuted the sentence
to a life term, arguing the government had failed to rescue him from his
deprived surroundings and that it would be "unfair to ignore the lack of proper
welfare policies and lay all the responsibilities on the defendant."
The Supreme Court, however, finalized the death sentence in 1990.
At this year's event organized by the fund in Tokyo in late July, with some 200
people attending, the guest speaker was Tadaari Katayama, who lost his
8-year-old son in a traffic accident in 1997.
"We have rather taken the side of the perpetrator, while Mr. Katayama has
worked on the side of victims," said Kyoko Otani, Nagayama's former defense
lawyer who also heads the fund. "I wanted his participation in our event to
promote mutual understanding, so each of us could expand the capacities of our
activities."
A believer, despite his own bereavement, in the need to rehabilitate criminals
rather than punish them, Katayama visits prisons and juvenile reformatories
across Japan to talk with inmates in his capacity as a victim's family member.
"(Criminals) should have opportunities to feel someone's pain, and they should
be imprisoned only if they must be isolated in the process of their
rehabilitation," he said during the event.
"I have been involved in educational programs at detention facilities, with
expectations that the inmates will be able to become happy (as a result of
rehabilitation)," he said. "It will make me happy, too, if they could lead
happy lives."
Katayama received the human rights award of the association together with the
children's fund, and the lawyer's group praised his effort to promote
"restorative justice," which aims to rehabilitate criminals and bring closure
to victims through dialogue between them as well as with communities.
Those he meets at juvenile reformatories are often the less fortunate, just
like Nagayama, he said, adding that he "wonders what society and the older
people around them have done for them...I think they must feel lonely."
His disavowal of retribution in criminal justice also makes him a firm opponent
of the death penalty. "It should not be accepted that the power of the state
can be used to forcibly take someone's life...We need to end the cycle of
retribution," he said.
His stance on rehabilitation, however, particularly as someone representing
victims, stands in contrast to growing voices calling for tougher punishments
of crimes.
While more than 2/3 of states around the world have abolished the death
penalty, Japan has been reluctant to follow suit, partly because of high public
support for it. A 2014 opinion poll by the Cabinet Office showed only 9.7 %
believed the death penalty "should be abolished" while 80.3 % said its
existence "cannot be helped".
The latest executions came this month, bringing the number carried out under
the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office in 2012, to 38.
Some proponents of abolishing capital punishment have suggested replacing it
with a life sentence without parole, but Katayama is against such a move,
seeing it as in conflict with rehabilitation.
Introducing a punishment "that does not allow convicts to look toward the
future" makes no sense, he said.
Encouraged by his comments, Otani told the audience that she felt a renewed
conviction that "a person can change."
Meanwhile, in Peru, her former client Nagayama "lives on," she said, through
the work of the fund in donating royalties from the several books he wrote
behind bars prior to his death at 48, including his best-selling autobiography
"Tears of Ignorance" and an award-winning novel.
It is believed that Nagayama, as a neglected child himself, was inspired to
request that his book royalties go to Peruvian children after reading a
newspaper story shortly before his execution about child workers in the
country.
The total amount the group has generated to put into a scholarship fund has
exceeded 22 million yen, including money raised by the charitable events, which
the fund has held since 2004.
Some recipients sent messages on the occasion of the latest charity event,
where a documentary about Peruvian child laborers was also shown.
Annie Olivares, a 20-year-old college student in Lima, said she used the money
to achieve her goal of becoming an English teacher.
"I'm deeply thankful to the donors, who are confident that I will be able to
meet their expectations," she said. "I promise I will return what I have
received by providing supports to others in the future."
Jesus Fernandez, also a 20-year-old Lima resident, said the scholarship had
allowed him to resume his engineering studies at college, which he once had to
suspend due to economic hardship. "I hope the donors will continue providing
economic and psychological supports to generations to come," he said.
(source: kyodonews.net)
VIETNAM:
Senegalese man caught in Saigon with 1.6 kg of cocaine in stomach
A Senegalese man was arrested at HCMC’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport with
77 pellets of compressed cocaine in his digestive system.
Following his arrival on a flight from Thailand, customs officers and anti-drug
police forces on duty at the airport spotted the 39-year-old man acting
suspiciously last Saturday.
When he was stopped for inspection, he made a ruckus and refused to cooperate
with the police.
Later, he was restrained and his body screened. Images showed that a strange
object in his stomach that officials suspected was narcotics.
The suspect was taken to the hospital where doctors used medical measures to
take the cocaine pellets weighing around 1.6 kilograms (3 pounds) worth VND10
billion ($431,000) out of his stomach.
Initial investigations show that he flew from Nigeria to Ethiopia, and then
transited through Thailand before arriving in Vietnam. He is believed to have
swallowed the cocaine pellets and passed security screenings in all 3 countries
before being caught at Tan Son Nhat.
Customs officers are cooperating with the Ministry of Public Security in
investigating the case further.
Phan Anh Minh, deputy director of the HCMC Police Department, is on record as
saying the city has become an increasingly used transit point for drugs because
of its well connected roads, marine and air transport services.
Furthermore, drug trafficking and drug abuse has continued to flourish in
Vietnam despite the country having some of the world’s toughest drug laws.
Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or
more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine face the death penalty.
The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal
narcotics is also punishable by death.
(source: vnexpress.net)
PAKISTAN:
Civil society organisations urge Pakistan’s PM to end blasphemy laws
The Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) Roundtable Brussels, a civil society
initiative who gathers regularly to exchange ideas with the EU institutions to
discuss the religious freedoms, sent a letter to Pakistan’s Prime Minister
Imran Khan on 23 July expressing their grave concern about the South Asian
country’s blasphemy laws which impose strict punishments on those who desecrate
the Quran or who defame or insult the Muslim Prophet Mohammad.
Around 98% of Pakistan’s 218 million people are members of the official state
religion, Islam, making it the second-most populous Muslim country in the
world. Although the government has never executed a person under the laws,
public accusations, alone, have inspired numerous acts of reprisal violence
against those who have been mentioned as potential blasphemers.
In the FoRB’s letter to Khan, which was signed by multiple organisations and
individuals, the organisation demanded that increased efforts be made to
improve inter-religious cooperation in Pakistan and to provide citizens who are
not Muslims with guarantees that their rights will be protected by the courts
and that they will no longer subject to reprisals by certain sectors of society
or from members of the country’s law enforcement agencies.
"It is our view that blasphemy laws - including both their clauses and
references - should be repealed and replaced by laws that call for respecting
all religions and place proportionate legal penalties on hate speech or any
intent to cause physical harm or commit acts of violence against an individual
based on a disagreement with another’s belief,” the FoRB’s letter reads.
Offences relating to religion were first codified during the height of the
British Raj in 1860 and were later expanded in 1927. Pakistan inherited these
laws after India became independent from the British Empire in 1947 and added
to the existing laws after the partition of India in the same year.
Between 1980 and 1986, a number of clauses were added to the laws by the
military government of General Zia-ul Haq as he wanted to Islamise the country
and legally isolate Pakistan’s tiny non-Muslim population.
During Zia’s years of heavy-handed rule, the blasphemy laws were created and
expanded in several instalments. In 1980, making derogatory remarks against
Islamic personages was made an offence, carrying a maximum punishment of 3
years in jail.
In 1982, another clause prescribed life imprisonment for desecrating the Koran.
In 1986, a separate clause was inserted to punish blasphemy against the Prophet
Mohammad with "death or imprisonment for life."
Prime Minister Khan vowed to defend the country’s strict blasphemy laws in the
run-up to his general election win last year, but he advised Pakistan’s
Ministry of Law and Justice to suggest penalties for misuse of this law.
This move, however, has not satisfied those who want more guarantees for
Pakistan’s religious minorities. The signatories of the FoRB letter want the
government of Pakistan to revoke the death penalty and revise the country’s
existing capital punishment laws for offences, whether proven or otherwise,
that are perceived as "insults to Islam."
Copies of the letter were also sent to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur
on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the European Unions’ Special Envoy for
Freedom of Religion or Belief.
(source: neweurope.eu)
IRAN----executions
2 Prisoners Hanged in Mashhad
2 prisoners were hanged at the Central Prison of the Iranian city of Mashhad
(also known as Vakil-Abad Prison) Saturday.
According to Khorasan Daily, on the morning of Saturday, August 10, two
prisoners were hanged in Mashhad Central Prison. The newspaper has not
mentioned their name, however, IHR could independently identify them through
its sources as Ghodrat Alipanah and Yasser. The latter’s last name is unknown
so far.
"Yasser was transferred from another prison to Mashhad Central Prison for the
execution," a well-informed source told IHR.
At least 110 people were executed in Iran in the first half of 2019; Only 37 of
the executions have been announced by authorities or Iranian media. Iran Human
Rights (IHR) could confirm 73 more through its sources. IHR only reports the
unannounced executions if it could confirm those with two separate credible
sources. Therefore, the actual number of executions may be even higher than
reported.
There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results
in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and
intent.
*****************
Man Executed in Northern Iran
A man was hanged for murder charges at a prison in the Iranian northern city of
Babol on Saturday.
According to the Iranian Rokna website, on the morning of Saturday, August 10,
a man was executed at Babol prison. His name was mentioned as S.E on the
website.
He had spent 5 years in jail before his execution.
At least 110 people were executed in Iran in the first half of 2019; Only 37 of
the executions have been announced by authorities or Iranian media. Iran Human
Rights (IHR) could confirm 73 more through its sources. IHR only reports the
unannounced executions if it could confirm those with 2 separate credible
sources. Therefore, the actual number of executions may be even higher than
reported.
There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results
in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and
intent.
(source for both: Iran Human Rights)
NIGERIA:
Wanted: consular assistance for Nigerians on death row
Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS) Senior Programme Officer, Collins Okeke, in
this piece urges the Federal Government to show more interest in Nigerians on
death row abroad.
On April 5, 2018, Peter Nielson, a Danish National was arrested by the Nigerian
Police for allegedly killing his Nigerian wife, Zainab and their 3-year-old
daughter, Petra at their home in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State. His arrest was
communicated to the Danish Embassy in Nigeria after which the Embassy was given
access to him.
Officials of the Danish Embassy visited him at the police station and in
prison, ensured he had legal representation and observed his trial at the Lagos
State High Court. The Danish Ambassador was in court on some of Peter Nielson’s
trial dates.
Contrast Mr Nielson’s case with the case of Kudirat Afolabi, the Nigerian lady
executed by the Saudi Government for drug trafficking. As I write, there is
still nothing in the public domain on the role played by the Nigerian Consulate
in Saudi Arabia from the point she was arrested up until she was executed by
the Saudi Government.
The official reaction of the Federal Government has been to admonish Nigerians
living abroad to be law abiding and avoid committing crimes in their host
country.
More troubling is the reaction of Nigerians, especially on social media. Rather
than demand answers from the Federal Government, they have instead engaged in
stereotyping the ethnicity of Ms Afolabi and other Nigerians on death row in
prisons abroad.
The consular courtesies and assistance accorded Mr Nielson by the Nigerian
Government and the Danish Embassy in Nigeria is not restricted to Danish
citizens. It is available to every country and their nationals and is
guaranteed by Article36 of the Vienna Convention 1963.
Article 36 (1)(c) of the Vienna Convention provides: "Consular officers shall
have the right to visit a national of the sending State who is in prison,
custody or detention, to converse and correspond with him and to arrange for
his legal representation. They shall also have the right to visit any national
of the sending State who is in prison, custody or detention in their district
in pursuance of a judgment."
The Vienna Convention gives consular officers the right to visit their
nationals in trouble with the law abroad and provide them with legal
assistance. Nigerian consulates appear to either not know about the Vienna
Convention, which is unlikely or appear not to care about their nationals. It
may also be that they are embarrassed by the criminal activities of some
Nigerians abroad.
Crime by any Nigerian is bad. It is even worse when the crime is committed
abroad. Criminal activities by Nigerians abroad have done enormous damage to
the image of the country.
Nonetheless, it is important to point out that a person accused of a crime
abroad is at a great disadvantage. It is worse when the person is accused of a
crime that attracts the death penalty.
These persons are extremely vulnerable-they are far from their families and
loved ones and often are not accorded basic human rights protection like the
presumption of innocence, the rights to legal representation and fair trial.
Zainab Aliyu’s case aptly illustrates how this could happen to anyone. A
routine religious pilgrimage, vacation or business trip can suddenly become
deadly. It is gratifying to see that the Federal Government has successfully
rescued Zainab Aliyu from the executioner’s sword in Saudi Arabia.
Perhaps, this is an opportunity for the Nigerian Government through the Foreign
Affairs Ministry to begin an inquiry into the cases of other Nigerians on death
row in prisons around the world. According to Legal Defence and Assistance
Project (LEDAP), there are over 600 Nigerians on death row in South East Asia
alone. These cases need to be reviewed.
This is also a good opportunity for Nigeria’s Federal and state governments to
rethink their position on the death penalty. It makes no sense to appeal for
leniency on behalf of Nigerians on death row in other countries and at the same
time retain and support the death penalty. Nigeria must first purge itself of
the barbarism of the death penalty.
(source: The Nation)
*********************
Gov Abiodun proposes death penalty for kidnappers
The Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun is considering the death penalty for
anyone convicted on charges of kidnapping in the state.
Abiodun said this in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle
Somorin on Tuesday.
The governor was reported to have said hard times await kidnappers in the
state, adding that the government was considering sending a bill in which
kidnapping would attract capital punishment to the State House of Assembly for
legislative action.
According to Somorin, Abiodun gave the indication when he played host to Remo
League of Imams who paid him a Sallah homage at his Iperu home describing
kidnapping as an economic crime that must be stopped by all means.
He said most of the kidnappers were foreigners who disguise as herdsmen. He
said that it would not augur well if criminals are allowed to operate unchecked
as it would affect the State which is regarded as the industrial hub of the
nation.
“We do not want criminals to cause problems for us. The state hosts a lot of
companies and industries. It will not augur well to hear that criminality is
prevalent in our State.
"I have asked that those who were caught in the recent kidnappings in the State
be brought to me. I will warn them because government will not spare anyone
caught in kidnapping henceforth", he warned.
(source: punchng.com)
FRANCE/IRAQ:
France Urged to Try Nationals on Iraq Death Row
A United Nations human rights expert on Monday called on the French government
to repatriate and try 7 French nationals sentenced to death on terror charges
in Iraq.
In a statement, Agnes Callamard, a U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial,
summary or arbitrary executions, expressed "serious concerns" over the men’s
fate.
"There are serious allegations that the sentences were handed down following
unfair trials, with the accused having no adequate legal representation or
effective consular assistance," Callamard said.
She said Iraq’s legal system was "marred by very serious structural problems."
Hundreds of foreigners have been sentenced to death or life imprisonment in
Iraq for belonging to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
European governments have long debated whether and how to take back former
fighters and their supporters amid a host of security, political and legal
issues.
The 7 French nationals were arrested by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and
subsequently transferred to Iraq in February, allegedly at the request of the
French government or with its suspected involvement, Callamard said.
Once in Iraq, they were reportedly subject to torture or other ill-treatment,
she added.
"In these circumstances, the transfer of persons to Iraq for prosecution is
illegal. I am particularly disturbed by allegations that France may have had a
role in this transfer, given the risk involved of torture and unfair trials and
that they would likely face the death penalty,"
Callamard added.
She has written to French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe with her concerns.
Callamard named the men as Fodil Tahar Aouidate, Mourad Delhomme, Karam El
Harchaoui, Bilel Kabaoui, Leonard Lopez, Brahim Nejara and Vianney Ouraghi.
Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi declared that his government
was not empowered to reduce the sentences of foreign jihadists facing death.
Iraqi law stipulates the death penalty for anyone joining a "terrorist group" -
even those who did not take up arms.
France and other European countries have strongly resisted the repatriation of
their nationals suspected of joining IS. But France is also staunchly opposed
to capital punishment.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
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