Sept. 14
JAPAN:
Pope may meet Japanese man seeking retrial over death sentence
Arrangements are being made for a meeting between Pope Francis and Iwao
Hakamada, who is seeking a retrial for his conviction in a 1966 quadruple
homicide, during the pontiff’s visit to Japan in late November, it was learned
Saturday.
The meeting may be held just before or after a Mass planned at the Tokyo Dome,
according to supporters of Hakamada, 83, whose death sentence was suspended in
2014.
It is still uncertain, however, whether the meeting will become a reality due
in part to Hakamada’s health problems, the supporters said.
The pope opposes the death penalty, and any remarks he may make about Japan’s
system of capital punishment are expected to attract attention.
According to supporters, Hakamada’s lawyers and others sent a letter to the
pope last year, expressing hope for a meeting.
Hakamada was arrested and indicted in 1966 over the murder of 4 people in the
same family in Shizuoka Prefecture. His death sentence was finalized in 1980.
In 2014, about 48 years after the arrest, he was released from prison after
Shizuoka District Court granted a retrial to him. But the Tokyo High Court
overrode the decision in 2018.
The suspension of the death sentence and imprisonment was maintained, but
Hakamada’s side has appealed to the Supreme Court.
(source: japantimes.co.jp)
VIETNAM:
Vietnamese drug trafficker arrested
Border guards of Vietnam's central Thanh Hoa province have detained a local man
for trafficking 7 cakes of heroin and 56,000 pills of synthetic drug, Vietnam
News Agency reported on Friday.
The 55-year-old man from the province's Quan Son district was caught red-handed
transporting the illicit drugs on a national road in the mountainous district
on Thursday.
According to the Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of
heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making
or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces
death penalty.
In a partial dissent, however, Judge Marsha Berzon wrote that Ramirez should be
allowed to pursue his claim that he should not receive the death penalty
because he is intellectually disabled.
Gabrielsen agreed, saying Berzon’s dissent could be the basis of a future
appeal.
“I think she hit it right on the head,” he said. “I think she was absolutely on
the money.”
(source: xinhuanet.com)
SAUDI ARABIA:
130 executed in Saudi Arabia in 2019, most of whom were bin Salman’s opponents
An international human rights organisation has revealed that the Saudi
authorities have executed more than 130 people since the beginning of this
year, most of whom were opponents of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
In a report presented at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Anti Death
Penalty Project organisation announced that six of the executed opponents were
children at the time of their arrest.
(sourceL Middle East Monitor)
IRAN:
Iran vs the 21st century: 85 children on death row
Simmering tensions in the Persian Gulf, resumed uranium enrichment programs,
and supporting proxy military operations in Syria’s civil conflict and Yemen
headline the current impasse between the West and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Add the diplomatic deadlock in the wake of the United States pulling out of the
so-called Iran nuclear Deal, and there’s serious cause for concern over
Teheran’s next moves.
Now as the UN General Assembly approaches, there’s guarded optimism over a
possible meeting between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Donald Trump on
the sidelines of the world gathering. Such an encounter could “break the ice”
for further discussions.
The U.S. has toughened economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic, including
its once lucrative petroleum sector. Yet it’s Iran’s mullahs who stand to gain
should there be some sort of revised “deal” over their proscribed nuclear
capacity. Stifling sanctions have crippled Teheran’s standing.
But beyond the geopolitical and the diplomatic assessments, there is one lens
which is rarely applied to viewing Iran: the sordid human rights situation
inside the country of 83 million people where a corrupt and loathsome regime
has instilled a reign of fear, intolerance and stupidity in the fabled land of
Persia.
A recent United Nations human rights report on the Islamic Republic of Iran
underscores a situation “marked by the ongoing targeting of human rights
lawyers and defenders, trade unionists, peaceful protesters and journalists.”
The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights “continued to receive reports of
torture, arbitrary detention and trials that failed to adhere to international
standards.”
Iran’s use and abuse of the death penalty causes particular concern among human
rights monitors. The High Commissioner received information “that at least 253
people were executed in 2018, a significant decrease from estimated figures in
2017, when there were at least 437.”
Significantly at least 38 of these executions were for the offenses of
“spreading corruption on earth,” and “waging war against God.”
Equally, “The Secretary-General continues to be deeply concerned by the
continued sentencing to death of children and alleged child offenders in Iran.”
At least 85 children were on death row as of May 2019, “with some at risk of
imminent execution.” The survey laments the regime’s prohibition of free trade
unions; “the creation of trade unions is prohibited, with the exception of
Government-sanctioned Islamic labour councils.”
Media freedoms in Iran are virtually nonexistent. The independent media monitor
group Reporters Without Borders ranks Iran near the bottom of the list as 170
out of 179 countries.
The State Supreme Council of Cyberspace (talk about an Orwellian term!)
monitors the Internet. The UN report adds moreover that the “High Commission on
Human Rights has continued to receive reports of the arbitrary arrest,
detention and harassment of journalists, writers and media workers. In 2018, 28
journalists were reportedly detained.”
Naturally the status of women and minorities remains troubling. The report
cites deep concern “over the ongoing repression of women human rights defenders
who object to compulsory veiling and by the response of the authorities to
protests against compulsory veiling.”
Discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities in law and practice
continues whether they be Christian converts, Sunni Moslems or members of the
Bahai faith.
What the report illustrates is a clear and consistent pattern of oppression
which has characterized the Islamic Republic since 1979. This should come as no
surprise for a government whose civil, political and religious rights are often
framed through a narrow theocratic lens.
Naturally the West Europeans (especially Britain, France and Germany) not to
mention Russia, want a diplomatic fig leaf behind which they can resume
lucrative business deals with Iran.
Let’s be frank, it’s all about trade and that goes for the USA too, which
during the Obama Administration was poised to sell Teheran over $20 billion of
Boeing commercial aircraft.
And left-wing solons throughout Europe and the USA moreover continue to
rationalize the Iranian ruler’s behavior as having “matured” since the 1979
revolution.
Teheran’s brazenly arrogant but corrupt regime still has not squared the
circle; namely how to get away with circumventing the nuclear “deal” reached
with the Obama Administration in 2015, but nevertheless, beat the crippling
economic sanctions which both Obama and Trump slapped on the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s continuing geopolitical danger extends beyond its shadowy nuclear
program; primarily threats to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Arab Gulf sheikdoms. It
fuels conflict in Syria and Yemen.
As the Wall Street Journal opined, “If Iran really wants sanctions lifted, then
it will have to act like a normal nation, not a revolutionary state.”
(source: John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic
and defense issues----World Tribune)
SUDAN:
Sudan junta drops death penalty against rebel leaders
Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) has cancelled the death
penalty that was issued against Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North
(SPLM-N) leader Malik Agar, his deputy Yasir Arman, and 15 others in 2014.
The TMC said in a statement on Thursday that the decision to abolish the death
penalty came as part of measures to achieve peace in Sudan, confirmed by the
Constitutional Declaration agreed on by the junta and the Forces for Freedom
and Change a week ago.
In March 2014, after a 9-months trial, a special court in Singa, capital of
Sennar, sentenced 17 members of the SPLM-N to death by hanging in absentia.
Forty-six other detainees were sentenced to life imprisonment, while 31 were
acquitted.
Those sentenced were among about 100 detainees who faced trial for their
alleged involvement in the outbreak of the war in Blue Nile state in September
2011.
Following the ousting of President Omar Al Bashir in a military coup on April
11, the SPLM-N faction under the leadership of Malik Agar, decided to send a
delegation to Khartoum. On May 26, Yasir Arman arrived in the Sudanese capital.
The stated goal of his visit was “to go to Khartoum, reach a just peace,
linking between peace, democracy, and citizenship without discrimination and
social justice”.
In spite of the death penalty, Arman was not subjected to any harassment at his
arrival at Khartoum airport. Yet, he soon received 6 letters; 5 by Lt Gen
Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’, Deputy chairman of the TMC, and one by the chairman of
the junta, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, demanding he leave Sudan.
The rebel leader was detained on June 5. 5 days later, he was deported to the
South Sudanese capital of Juba, together with SPLM-N secretary-general Ismail
Khamis and spokesman Mubarak Ardol.
(source: dabangasudan.org)
NIGERIA:
2,742 Inmates Awaiting Execution As Govs Decline To Sign Warrants
The controller general, Nigeria Correctional Service ( NCS), Ahmed Jafa’aru
yesterday revealed that Nigeria now has 2,742 inmates on death row.
Jafa’aru made the revelation while briefing newsmen about the key provisions of
the Nigeria Correctional Service Act which was recently assented to by
President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said, “As of Monday, September 2, the service had 2,742 inmates on death
row. We are compiling their list and I am sure a good number of them have
exhausted their appeal and are waiting for the approving authority to either
approve their execution or commute them to life sentence. The law also talks
about rejection of lunatics. Right now, we have 13 lunatics in our Enugu
facility.”
While stating that the new Act has brought succour and hope to inmates on death
row the CG explained that previously, this category of inmates live under the
suspense and mental torture of death which the appropriate authorities would
neither sign nor easily commute to life imprisonment.
He said, “ Section 12 subsection 2 (c) of the NCS Act now provides that where
an inmate sentenced to death has exhausted all legal procedures for appeal and
a period of 10 years has elapsed without the execution of the sentence, the
Chief Judge may commute the sentence of death to life imprisonment.”
The CG who expressed optimism that the approving authorities are working to
either approve their execution or to commute them to life sentence noted that
the Nigeria Correctional Service Act was more than a mere change of
nomenclature.
While also revealing that there are at present 13 lunatics in its Correctional
facility in Enugu, the Nigeria Correctional Service boss said that with the new
law, the service now has the power to reject mentally unstable suspects.
He said the new bill also has provision for the building of new facilities to
cater for female inmates as opposed to the present situation where a section of
a given facility is carved out to serve as women wing.
Speaking on overcrowding, he said the new Act now provides a statutory
procedure for rejecting inmates on account of lack of space.
He said, “ Sect. 12 (4) of the Act states; where the Custodial Centre has
exceeded its capacity, the State Controller shall within a period not exceeding
1 week, notify the: Chief Judge of the State; the Attorney General of the
State; Prerogative of Mercy Committee; State Criminal Justice Committee; and
any other relevant body.”
According to him, “To further humanize incarceration, the NCS Act, 2019 now
forbids the use of correctional facilities for indiscriminate dumping of
persons without due regard to their state of health or age. Section 13
subsection (3) states; ‘A Superintendent shall refuse to admit persons brought
in: with severe bodily injury; Who is: mentally unstable, or in an unconscious
state of mind, or underage.”
He said, “Subsection (5) of the Act has addressed the age long challenge of
stigmatization as trained offenders who demonstrate high level of penitence can
now be issued with a certificate by the chairman of the Board on the
recommendation of the CGC. This enables him to engage and compete for social
recognition without the toga of ‘ex-convict’.”
Recall that the Nigerian Correctional Service has repeatedly blamed state
governors for the high number of condemned inmates in prisons across the
country.
It said that the governors were unwilling to sign the death warrants for the
execution of the inmates on death row in various prison formations , hence, the
hike in the number.
The NCS Controller General, Ahmed Jafa’aru has consistently said, “The problem
of condemned prisoners is still a very big challenge to NPS and we have been
appealing to the relevant authorities expecially to the state Chief Executives
(governors).
“As you know, when someone gets to his last bus stop and is condemned to death
and he has exhausted his appeal to the Supreme Court, the only opportunity he
has to escape death is the governor commuting his death sentence to a term of
imprisonment or sign the death warrant for this person to take his last
breath.”
(source: leadership.ng)
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