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October 15 IRANexecution Man Hanged in Southern Iran for Rape Charges IA man was hanged for rape charges at Bandar Abbas prison Saturday. According to Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), a man hanged on Saturday, October 12, at the Iranian southern city of Bandar Abbas. He was arrested and sentenced to death for rape charges 5 years ago. Out of the 110 people who were executed in the 1st half of 2019, 13 were sentenced to death for rape charges. (source: iranhr.net) ** ‘Hanging judge’ hears case of outed Iranian Kurdish singer Notorious hanging judge Mohammad Moqisseh presided over the recent trial of an outed singer, according to reports from Iran. Mohsen Lorestani faced charges of ‘corruption on Earth’ stemming from a conversation on social media. The singer’s lawyer only received notification of the trial after it occurred. As yet, the verdict is unknown. The singer is a famous crooner in a mainly Kurdish western province of Iran. Despite authorities only now announcing his detention, his lawyer says it occurred in March at the singer’s mother’s home in Tehran. Kazem Hosseini said authorities also arrested three others in connection with Mohsen Lorestani’s case. The singer is charged with ‘corruption of Earth’. The charges result from a chat on social media some characterise as ‘flirting’ with another man. “Corruption on Earth’ sometimes carries the death penalty. Last year, Iran executed at least 38 people on charges of ‘waging war against God’ and ‘corruption on Earth’. Mohammad Moqisseh acts as head of a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Court which the regime uses to persecute ideological opponents. He recently sentenced three women to a combined 55 year’s jail for not wearing headscarves. Iranian lawyers describe him as ignorant of even the simplest judicial concepts. He often disposes of trials in minutes, refuses defendants access to lawyers and frequently imposes the death penalty. Moqisseh first came to attention in the 1980s when he worked in Tehran prisons. Witnesses claim he played an active role in torturing and executing political prisoners. He later took a key role in the Death Committees which massacred thousands of the regime’s opponents in 1988. “You are Sunni dogs!” He often acts as both prosecutor and judge, ignores due process and screams abuse at prisoners. When sentencing four men to death in 2014 after refusing to allow them to defend themselves he snarled, “Be quiet. You are Sunni dogs who must be hanged!” The Instagram Dancers Moqisseh will also preside over the trials of Iran’s ‘Instagram dancers’. The regime strictly forbids dancing in public and regards posting videos of dancing as an ‘enemy plot’ against the state. The clergy dominated judiciary recently ordered the arrest of three young women over social media posts and obviously intend to make an example of them by assigning their case to the notorious hanging judge. Opaque ‘justice’ system Not announcing the verdict of a trial is commonplace in Iran’s opaque ‘justice’ system. Often, relatives only become aware of a death sentence when a noose suspended from a crane in a town square is placed around their loved one’s neck. It should also come as no surprise if authorities suddenly discover Mohsen Lorestani ‘raped’ another man. For 2 decades now, when faced with outrage over the hanging of homosexuals, the Iranian regime has suddenly presented hitherto unmentioned ‘evidence’ of rape or sexual assault. This is now almost routine, especially whenever the regime feels the need to justify the execution of juveniles. (source: qnews.com.au) PAKISTAN: Court Hands Down Death Penalty To Accused For Killing 3 Persons In Lahore A sessions court on Monday handed down death penalty on 3 counts to a man on proving guilty of killing his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 300,000 on accused Ghulam Abbas. Additional District and Sessions Judge Sajeeda Akhtar announced the verdict after hearing detailed arguments of the parties and examining available evidence. The prosecution alleged that accused Ghulam Abbas killed his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law over a domestic dispute and solid evidence was available against him. However, the defence counsel argued that the accused was nominated due to personal enmity whereas the murder weapon was also not recovered from him. He pleaded with the court to acquit the accused as solid evidence was not available against him. Ghulam Abbas killed his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law over a domestic dispute in Munawan area in 2016. The police had arrested the accused after registration of a case. (source: urdupoint.com) BANGLADESH: 5 Gaibandha war criminals, including 3 of a family, get death The International Crimes Tribunal today handed down death penalty to 5 people of Gaibandha for committing
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October 14 ST. KITTS: Leanna’s Convicted Killers Could Face Death Penalty The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) wants the death penalty for 2 convicted Killers of 17-year-old Leanna ‘Tiney’ Napoleon in the May/June 2017 homicide; 1 of whom is the teen’s brother. According to the Police Public Relations Department, the application for such is expected to be submitted to the court this week. On Friday 11th October, the deceased’s brother 21-year-old Brandon Lee Wells of Buckley’s Estate and his friend 20-year-old Travien Liddie of St. Johnston Village were both convicted after a 12- member jury gave its decisions. The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts for the offences of Murder and Attempting to Pervert the Natural Course of Justice for Wells, a unanimous guilty verdict for Liddie for the offence of Attempting to Pervert the Natural Course of Justice and an 11-1 guilty verdict for the offence of Murder. Both young men had previously been charged for the incident which occurred between May 08 and June 14, 2017. The DPP indicated to the court that he intends to make an application for the death penalty for both accused persons. The judge ordered a Social Inquiry Report and Psychiatric Report be completed in preparation for sentencing. Both Wells and Liddie have been remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison. On June 24, 2019, 27-year-old Ivan Phillip of LaGuerite pleaded guilty to the offence of being an Accessory After the Fact to Murder. On Tuesday 24th September, he was sentenced to five (5) years and nine (9) months in prison commencing from that day. Notably, in June 2017 Phillip age was given as 18-year- old and was said to be a resident of Shadwell. Wanted by police back then, he reported Basseterre Police on Wednesday 21st June. On Wednesday 14th June, the missing school girl (Napoleon) was found dead and buried in a shallow grave overnight in a far out mountainous region of the Olivee’s area located beyond the Buckley’s community. Napoleon, who had been missing for over a month, was last seen on Monday 8th May in the vicinity of Buckley’s Site and Fort Street. Napoleon was a 5th form student of the Basseterre High School (BHS). (source: The Labour Spokesman) INDIA: Death Penalty In POCSO Act Imperils Child Victims Of Sexual Offences Amendment bills should fix loopholes in the original law but the amendments contained in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2019 do not improve upon the original bill of 2012, child rights activists say. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill of 2019 actually weakens the POCSO Act, Shailabh Kumar, lawyer and co-director of Haq: Centre for Child Rights, said. Including death penalty as punishment could reduce the number of cases reported and might lead to murder of the victim. Further, there has been no amendment to provide for compensation of victims, and no strong solution for reducing pendency of cases. Most members of parliament across political parties welcomed the amendments, and the bill--though debated in the house for nearly four hours--was passed without being referred to any parliamentary standing committee. In this monsoon session of the Lok Sabha, 34 other bills were passed, each receiving little attention from lawmakers. This is the fourth story in our series analysing the most significant of these 35 bills. The POCSO Act was amended with 5 new clauses, including extending punishment from 10 to 20 years for penetrative sexual assault with children below the age of 16 and death sentence for aggravated penetrative sexual assault by a person in a position of authority--which includes police officers, members of the armed forces and public servants. It also includes cases where the offender is a relative of the child, or if the assault injures the sexual organs of the child. The death penalty can also be given in case of aggravated sexual assault which results in the death of a child or for assault during a natural calamity or in any situation of violence, the amendment says, replacing the words ‘communal or sectarian violence’ in the original bill. Other provisions change the length of prison sentences for certain kinds of crimes, and would not have an impact on the rate of crime against children, activists said. Death penalty not a deterrent “Introducing death penalty was nothing but a populist move,” said Kumar. Activists are concerned, as we said, that the introduction of death penalty will reduce the number of reported cases of sexual offence against children. As many as “94% of the accused are known to the victims in cases of child sexual abuse”, said Mohd Ikram, manager, child safeguarding policy at Breakthrough, a women’s rights organisation in Delhi. “When most accused are personally known to the victims and their families, the possibility of death may deter the victims to file a
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Oct. 13 EGYPT: Egypt sentences 6 to death over attack on Haram hotel The Giza Criminal Court on Saturday sentenced 6 out of 26 defendants to the death penalty over a 2016 terrorist attack on a hotel in Giza. The court also sentenced 8 defendants to 25 years in prison, while 12 others received 10 years in prison each. The defendants, 3 of which were tried in absentia, are charged with attacking the Three Pyramids Hotel in Haram street in Giza in 2016, which was receiving a bus transporting around 40 Arab Israeli tourists. The attack left no casualties. The Interior Ministry said that the gunmen fired birdshot and fireworks at security personnel guarding the scene, and at a tourist bus present in front of the hotel at the time of the attack. The Islamic State-affiliated “Sinai Province” claimed responsibility for the attack, while also claiming the attack resulted in deaths and injuries among the security personnel. The Public Prosecutor’s Office accused the defendants of leading a group established against the law, arming themselves with firearms, vandalism, attacking the Three Pyramids Hotel, and using force against the police. The presiding judge Mohamed Nagy Shehata said that the defendants were sentenced after reviewing the opinion of the Grand Mufti, the articles of the law, and hearing the prosecution and defense. He added that the defendants terrorized the people, sought to spread terror and targeted visitors to the country, harming Egypt’s safe image and thereby damaging tourism and the economy. “The court ruled penalties commensurate with the age of some of the defendants, and the role of each of them in the attack, to punish each accused by the crime,” Shehata said. (source: Egypt Independent) SRI LANKA: Sajith not against death penalty for drug lords Presidential candidate of New Democratic Front led by the United National Party Minister Sajith Premadasa says he is not against the death penalty for drug kingpins, who continue to conduct their businesses even from prison cells. Speaking during an event in Colombo, the Presidential candidate said the proliferation of drug usage is one of the main challenges the society face and prison sentences do not make the drug traffickers to stop their trade. "What I have observed is when the major culprits are brought to book and given prison sentences, what happens is that the businesses conducted outdoors keep on flourishing indoors inside the 4 walls of the prisons. So What I am trying to elaborate is the drug trade and the drug business does not stop, it keeps getting multiplied." He stressed that women and children in the society have to be given protection and if the present system of justice is incapable of preventing the drug lords from conducting their businesses, there has to be a change in the administration of justice. "In other words, I would not hesitate to activate the death penalty against major drug business persons," Minister Premadasa stressed adding that it should be the last course of action.. "Having said that, I for one do not believe in taking life. I think the lives are sacred and we have to protect lives, so when I say that as a last resort, if all other avenues and measures are exhausted in trying to address this problem and do not achieve its particular task, I wouldn't have any hesitation in giving death penalty." However, the Minister said it has to be ensured that the judicial processes that are in place for administration of justice have to be transparent, fair, and free from any interference. Premadasa pointed out that because of personal enmities or other manipulations an innocent person can be sent to the gallows if the judicial system is not fair or transparent. "Procedure through which you administer justice has to be transparent, fair and free from interferences. Under those conditions, I have to say I agree with the death penalty as the last course of action." "We have to eradicate the drug menace, in order to protect the children, especially, the school-going children and the mothers in our society. We shall take the maximum possible steps in order to eradicate this humongous problem that our society faces," the presidential candidate pledged. (source: colombopage.com) RUSSIA: Return of Death Penalty in Russia Not on Agenda - Kremlin Spokesman on Saratov Incident The possibility of capital punishment to be restored in Russia is not currently being discussed in any way, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik on Saturday amid Russia-wide tumultuous public debate on appropriate punishment for child homicide. "This issue is not being discussed in any way at the moment," Peskov said. The issue of reinstating the death sentence in Russia has surfaced after the murder of a nine-year-old girl in the southern Russian city of Saratov. She left home for school on Wednesday morning but never got
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Oct. 12 IRAN: On World Day Against the Death Penalty, Iran Is Moving in the Wrong Direction Thursday marked the 17th annual World Day Against the Death Penalty, and thus it provided another opportunity for human rights advocates to highlight Iran’s status as the world’s second most prolific user of capital punishment. Yet the Iranian regime hold the record of execution per capita. Furthermore, the figures that have been recorded so far in 2019, especially since the appointment of a new judiciary head in March, suggest that the numbers of executions are rebounding. This came as little surprise to those who are familiar with Iran’s new top law enforcement official, whose appointment by the clerical Supreme Leader. Ebrahim Raisi is notorious for human rights violations, including but not limited to his prominent role in the interrogation and summary execution of political prisoners and members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK) in 1988. An estimated 30,000 individuals were killed as part of that massacre, with victims including young teenagers. In this way, it set the stage for a number of issues related to the death penalty which persist to the present day. Iran is one of the last countries in the world to continue carrying out capital sentences for persons who were under the age of 18 at the time of their offenses. And the judiciary has been widely and repeatedly condemned for its failure to consider any mitigating factors when sentencing prisoners to the death penalty. Mental illness, self-defense, and a history of abuse all stand alongside youth as examples of such factors. But juvenile execution is unique in being categorically outlawed by 2 international documents that Iran has signed. The Iranian regime routinely rejects such provisions, in spite of the signature, by characterizing them as cultural impositions which should not be allowed to override the clerical regime’s adherence to a hardline interpretation of sharia law. On this basis, Tehran continues to regard boys as legally mature at the age of 13, and girls at only nine. Under constant international pressure, the government did alter the law to allow judges to consider lesser sentences for youthful offenders, but in practice, this principle is rarely used. Consequently, at least 2 juvenile offenders have been executed so far this year. Human rights activists rely on independent reporters and prisoners themselves to uncover executions that might otherwise have gone unreported. Iran Human Rights Monitor has reported figures spanning the time between its annual reports on capital punishment in Iran, which are released to coincide with World Day Against the Death Penalty. Between October 2018 and September 2019, at least 273 executions were reportedly carried out across the country. Of these, eight were juvenile offenders. Ebrahim Raisi’s appointment as head of the judiciary took place just at the halfway point of the period covered by the Iran Human Rights Monitor report. And that report underscores the fact that the vast majority of the executions took place in the latter half, with Ebrahim Raisi overseeing 173 of them. The spike in executions was accompanied by a spike in overall repression, and IHRM finds that at least six of the state’s victims were political prisoners. However, a number of other previously-reported executions may also fall under this category, as Tehran frequently depends on vague charges like “spreading corruption on earth” or “enmity against God” to justify capital sentences. The public display or broadcast of female dancing is illegal in the Islamic Republic, and this is another area of social behavior that has seemingly been targeted by Raisi’s judiciary at the same time that his courts are driving up the rate of executions. On Tuesday alone, at least 3 young women were detained for posting videos of themselves dancing, and at least one reported that her family had been threatened not to speak publicly about the case. This, too, is a common phenomenon in Iran’s criminal justice system. Struggling to keep a veil of secrecy over the country’s human rights record, officials tend to insist that criminal cases will be resolved quickly and more favorably if they remain undisclosed. But in reality, secretive cases do not seem to proceed any more quickly; and in fact, silence can sometimes have fatal consequences insofar as it gives law enforcement officials an opportunity to keep detainees in isolation where they can be more easily tortured to elicit false confessions. Although a number of high profile individuals have died under these conditions in recent years, their deaths are not tallied among those who have been hanged in Iranian jails. As such, anti-death penalty activism directly addresses only a portion of the fatal problems with Iran’s judiciary and prisons. (source:
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Oct. 11 BELARUS: Yet again: EU calls on Belarus to abolish death penalty On October 10, the European and World Day against the Death Penalty, Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Marija Pejcinovic Buric, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, have made a joint statement. According to the top EU officials, 142 countries, representing 74% of the UN member states, have already stopped using the death penalty, either by removing it from their penal code or not carrying out executions for a long time. The abolitionist trend is continuing, with the number of death sentences and executions also falling. In 2018, executions were carried out in 20 countries, representing a historic low of 10% of the countries of the world, they state. The Council of Europe member states which have not yet acceded to Protocols No 6 and 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights are called upon to do so without delay, the EU representatives stress. “The Council of Europe and the EU once again urge Belarus to abolish the death penalty and join the community of nations that have chosen to replace vengeance with human dignity. They also invite those observers to the Council of Europe who have not yet abolished death penalty to engage in dialogue on the obstacles blocking their path towards abolition,” the statement reads. Christina Johannesson, Sweden’s Ambassador in Minsk, has supported the campaign: Belarus remains the only country in Europe that still applies capital punishment. The West has repeatedly called on the Belarusian authorities to join a global moratorium as a 1st step towards the abolition of death penalty. The exact number of executions in Belarus is unknown, but local human rights defenders and journalists have worked tirelessly to uncover some information about death sentences and executions. According to the Ministry of Justice of Belarus, 245 people were sentenced to death from 1994 to 2014. Human rights NGOs believe that around 400 people have been executed since the country gained its independence in 1991; president Alyaksandr Lukashenka granted a pardon to only 1 convict. (source: belsat.eu) FRANCE: United Nations - World Day against the Death Penalty (10 October 2019) On the 17th World Day against the Death Penalty, France reaffirms its opposition to the death penalty everywhere and in all circumstances and encourages all states that still apply the death penalty to establish a moratorium on it with a view to its definitive abolition. France welcomes the adoption in January of the annual UN General Assembly resolution calling for a universal moratorium on the death penalty, supported by a record 121 states. The French presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, in conjunction with the city of Strasbourg, is hosting a conference today to mobilize support for the abolition of the death penalty, the almost complete elimination of which on the European continent remains one of the Council of Europe’s greatest successes. (source: diplomatie.gouv.fr) SPAIN: Government Reiterates Opposition To Death Penalty October 10 is World Day and, since 2007, European Day Against the Death Penalty. The Government of Spain reiterated Thursday its opposition to the death penalty on this 17th World Day. There has been a global trend towards abolition for some decades now. At present, more than two thirds of countries do not enforce the death penalty, according to the Spanish government. In a statement, the Spanish government said the fight against the death penalty will remain a priority of Spanish foreign policy, in conjunction with other European Union countries and the 22 countries that make up the Support Group of the International Commission against the Death Penalty. The Government of Spain said it will continue to urge governments of retentionist States to limit cases in which it is applied and urge a moratorium with a view to its definitive abolition. And it will urge those countries that have presented draft laws to reinstate it to withdraw such draft laws and maintain abolition, thus respecting the absolute human right to life. Spain took part in the 7th World Congress against the Death Penalty, held in Brussels in February this year. In December 2018, 121 member States of the United Nations voted in favor of the resolution of the General Assembly in favour of a moratorium. The government said it will continue to promote abolition at multilateral forums, particularly in its current role as a member of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations. Spain will continue to support the International Commission against the Death Penalty, based in Madrid and founded in 2010 upon an initiative of the Government of Spain, as well as multilateral and civil society initiatives that are aimed towards universal abolition. (source:
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Oct. 11 GHANA: Re-consider constitutional review on abolishing death penalty-High Commissioner Mr Andrew Barnes, the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana has called on government to reconsider the recommendations made by the Constitutional Review Committee in 2010 to abolish the death penalty. He said death penalty was irrevocable and if the convict was later found innocent, it would be a miscarriage of justice that cannot be rectified. Mr Barnes was speaking at a stakeholder engagement on the abolition of death penalty in Ghana to mark the World Day Against Death Penalty. It was jointly organised by the Australian High Commission, French Embassy and the Amnesty International Ghana. This year’s theme was “Children: unseen victims of the death penalty”. Stakeholders including; representatives from security agencies, lawyers, government officials, Attorney General, Dr Isaac Annan, Director of Human Rights-CHRAJ, and Dr Evans Aggrey-Darkoh, Chief Director for Parliamentary Affairs. He said since no legal system is free of error and as it had not been served as a deterrent, Australia abolished it in 1985 with the last execution being 1967, adding that in 2010, the Federal Government passed a legislation prohibiting the re-establishment of capital punishment by the Australian State or territory. Since that time, he said it advocated its abolition across the world and as a member of the UN Human Rights Council for the 2018-20 term, Australians continued to support the course based on the fact that it removed possibilities of rehabilitation for the convict, brutalised society, degraded the citizenry and against human dignity. The High Commissioner said though violent criminals needed to be punished, his country did not support capital punishment as it was not effective deterrent than long term or life imprisonment. Above all, Australia considered it as unfair as it could be used against the vulnerable, the poor, as a political tool, minority groups and people with mental disabilities. It has therefore called on government, among other countries to remove it from the constitution whether it carried out executions or not, stop its imposition on juveniles, pregnant women, mentally derailed and sign the second optional protocol to ICCPR, aimed at the abolition of death penalty. Mr Samuel Agbotsey, Campaigns Coordinator, Amnesty International, Ghana said death sentence offered illusion of closure and vindication, but no act could bring back a loved one. He said it rather had negative impacts on society, especially children of those executed or on death penalty such as stigma, which may be compounded by multiple forms of discrimination. Such children are traumatised and lose self-esteem, experience stress, anxiety, lose concentration in school or drop-out and left out per the motto of the SDGs Mr Agbotsey said their rights to freedom from violence, special protection and assistance when state action caused a child to be deprived of his or her family environment and rights to adequate standard of living was not fulfilled. He cited that as at December 31, 2018, the Amnesty International Global Report statistics had 172 people sentenced to death penalty. Madam Anne Sophie Ave the French Ambassador to Ghana sharing how France abolished it 38 years ago, said Ghana would also get with daring spirit, perseverance and courage. Mr Martin Kpebu, a lawyer suggested that death penalty should be replaced by life imprisonment. He said for now, Section 46 of Act 26 (Act of Parliament) should be amended not Article 13 because that is part of the fundamental human rights and it is entrenched which would require a referendum. Participants called for extensive awareness, education, advocacy, social mobilisation, among others to drum home the topic before it would be abolished so that it would be owned by the citizenry. They said in as much as children of convicts were considered, those of the murdered should not be left out. (source: ghananewsagency.org) KENYA: Kenyan ex-death row prisoner campaigns against death penalty A former death row prisoner has spoken out against capital punishment on the 17th World Day against the death penalty, saying it deprives convicts of contrition. Pete Ouko was sentenced to death in Kenya for alleged murder in 2001. Now free, he is fighting to end the death penalty everywhere. Pete Ouko remembers the day he was sent behind bars. "21 years ago, my wife was found killed outside a police station," he told RFI on Thursday as the world gathered to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty. "I got a call about it, I went to the police station to be told what had happened. Some people decided to say I should be locked in, some people who were related to me. And that's the genesis of my being in prison," he said. Ouko was charged with murder and sentenced to death, but has always mantained his
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Oct. 10 GLOBAL: Death Penalty Day: EU/Council of Europe joint statementJoint Declaration by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on behalf of the European Union and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the occasion of the European and World Day against the Death Penalty, 10 October 2019 The European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe firmly oppose the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances. The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment contrary to the right to life. The death penalty means revenge, not justice, and its abolition contributes to the enhancement of human dignity. 142 countries, representing 74% of the UN member states, have already stopped using the death penalty, either by removing it from their penal code or not carrying out executions for a long time. The abolitionist trend is continuing, with the number of death sentences and executions also falling. In 2018, executions were carried out in 20 countries, representing a historic low of 10% of the countries of the world. The Council of Europe member states which have not yet acceded to Protocols No 6 and 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights are called upon to do so without delay. The Council of Europe and the EU once again urge Belarus to abolish the death penalty and join the community of nations that have chosen to replace vengeance with human dignity. They also invite those observers to the Council of Europe who have not yet abolished death penalty to engage in dialogue on the obstacles blocking their path towards abolition. The EU and the Council of Europe encourage all countries to join the global Alliance for Torture-Free Trade, which currently involves 62 States committed to restricting the trade in goods used to carry out torture and the death penalty. Global cooperation against the death penalty can trigger change. It will also help to fight international organised crime, since abolitionist states will often not extradite suspects to countries where they could face capital punishment. An ever-growing majority of people and leaders share the view that the death penalty is no better a deterrent to crime than other punishments, and that it does not contribute to public safety. The death penalty disproportionately affects members of vulnerable groups, who cannot afford experienced defence lawyers, and death row prisoners continue to represent the most marginalised sections of society. The impact of this cruel punishment also affects the relatives of people subjected to the death penalty, first and foremost their children. Denying children and families a burial or cremation violates their human rights, notably their right to be free from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Children who have lost parents because of executions suffer deep and lasting grief and trauma. No-one is better placed than these unseen victims to understand the impact the death penalty can have. The EU and the Council of Europe recognise the importance of a fully-informed public debate about the death penalty. It has been shown that the more people know about the execution process, the arguments for abolition and alternatives to capital punishment, the more they agree with abolition. (source: coe.int) * WORLD DAY AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY October 10th Day Against the Death Penalty: Civil Society Engagement on the rise From today, World Day for Abolition, there will be increased visits to death rows on different continents - The mobilisation of civil society is growing: since the beginning of 2019 a thousand people have asked the Community to correspond with a convicted person, furthermore, many signatures have been collected to ask for an end to executions. The Community of Sant'Egidio, for years close to those who are condemned to death on different continents, participates in the World Day against the death penalty by increasing, until the end of October, visits to death rows in the United States and several African countries. Before those who want to maintain or even, in some cases, reintroduce the death penalty, it is necessary to keep alive, at every level of society, institutions and governments, this great commitment of Civilization and Humanity that has allowed in recent years to take important steps towards the total abolition of the death penalty. Encouraging signs come from California, which has suspended all execution and dismantled the local death row. While the American Church has also mobilized for the abolitionist campaign. A delegation from Sant'Egidio is currently in Washington to draw, along with other organizations, possible paths of abolition in the states of the federation in which it is still in force. We are also encouraged by the decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia to ask Republika Srpska to remove from its laws any reference to
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Oct. 10 SINGAPORE: Plea of a Malaysian on Singapore’s death row to the republic’s president Currently, I have requested my lawyer to write to the Attorney-General’s office to help me secure a Certificate of Substantive Assistance under Section 33(b) of the Misuse of Drug Act (Cap 185) Certificate of Co-operation I will also be instructing my lawyers to refer me for psychiatrist evaluation to satisfy the requirement of Section 33b (1)(b) of the Misuse of Drug Act (Cap 185). I humbly beg to your Excellency to delay the execution of my sentence as it is pending the outcome of the ongoing Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) investigation and the psychiatrist evaluation. When I was in prison, I realized the harm and destruction drug abuse causes to families, communities, society and humanity as whole. I’ve failed to realise this truth in the years of my freedom, and had only gained this realisation when I was within a cell of 4 brick-walls for 4 years. I understand now, that nothing triumphs and matters more than the value of a life and living, love, family, freedom, moral and civic responsibility as human beings. I have learned that even in our most dire situation, we can still reach out to others, to ease their burden and lift them up so that they will be comforted with the fact that they are not alone in their sufferings and struggles that they face. We must offer help to the broken, and offer hope to the hopeless. If we, inmates in death row, were given a chance, we would share our life stories to the younger generation so that we could all stand united together with them against the abuse and misuse of drugs. Often times, the media only seeks to portray stories of positivity and successes, but chooses to side-line issues that are obviously not positive nor pleasant to hear like ours. We can write every week if we were given a small column in the newspaper, and also reach out to other various outlets such as radio, live interviews, TV, and social media. By our hands, we can disrupt the demand for drugs and remedy the cycle of addiction. These efforts could begin in prison as well. We could conduct blood donation campaigns involving the inmates. This will be surely provide a boost of positive energy to everyone, especially us inmates, as we begin to realise that we, despite of our current circumstances, are able to still contribute back to our society. We would gain a sense of responsibility towards our fellow men and society. Most of the time, many inmates, such as me, feel nothing but dread and hopelessness, which turns us back to our old, damaging habits but by positively influencing the inmates, we go through a character rehabilitation and at the same time are able to save lives. Parents, teachers, the media and public should band together in tackling drug abuse, it does not fall on the government’s hands only to tackle this. Parents should not view drugs as taboo and have conversations of their dangers over dinner. Meanwhile in schools, students should be educated on the dangers of drug misuse as early as primary level onwards. There are very few messages and warnings in the media, in TV and on the radio, on the danger of drugs. Even in Channel News Asia, there are no documentaries that shed light on the dangers of drug abuse. Meanwhile, youths, even those that are educated, expose themselves to recreational uses of these drugs, and exhibiting sensation seeking, risk-taking, impulsivity and anxiety, without realising the severity of their actions. Some even resort to such behaviour due to peer pressure or for the sake of impressing the wrong people. We have to reach out to them, in all the ways we can. The Minister in the Prime Minister’s office Ms, Indranee Rajah once said, “If you’re developing policy and programmes, you must know what’s on people mind, must know what are they feeling and every individual story gives you a deeper insight that gives you a more informed basis on which to do things to improves lives.” Also, the Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Dr. Koh Poh Koon has mentioned, “By hearing more personalised stories, I think it can help us understand how we can mitigate some of the circumstances where some people seem to fall through the cracks and then on, craft ways in which we can also help to lift them up”. The Government had, for many years, invested significantly in the prevention of drug abuse and in the treatment and rehabilitation of drugs addicts. Despite the imposition of mandatory death penalty, a sizeable number of drugs mules are still being caught yearly. The drug syndicates are clearly still able to continue with their modus operandi, despite the significant hurdles placed by the Government for them to do business. They are able to do so due because people get manipulated by them. A quick review of the profiles of these drug mules would reveal that most of them come from
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Oct. 9 INDIA: SC confirms death penalty awarded to 'tantrik' couple The Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty awarded to a 'tantrik' couple from Chhattisgarh, for killing a 2-year-old boy as a human sacrifice perform during a religious ritual. A bench of Justices R F Nariman, R Subhash Reddy and Surya Kant termed the case the rarest of the rare, wherein main accused Ishwari Lal Yadav and his wife Kiran Bai planned and committed the murder of 2-year-old child Chirag, as a sacrifice to the God. The court also noted an aggravating circumstance, that the couple was already convicted and sentenced to death for the similar murder of a six-year-old girl but the high court had commuted their punishment to the life term without remission. They were not possessed of the basic humanness, they completely lacked the psyche or mindset which can be amenable for any reformation,” the bench said, noting that the couple had 3 children of their own. On November 23, 2010, 2-year-old Chirag went missing from his home in Durg. The family members, who started looking for him, noted loud music being played in the house of Yadav. When they entered the house, they found mounds of freshly dug earth. On being questioned by the crowd, the convicts confessed that they had sacrificed Chirag, whose body and severed head were retrieved. During the investigation, the couple, who claimed to be 'tantrik', confessed to killing another child 6-7 months before the incident. The clothes and skeletal remains of the 6-year-old girl they had sacrificed were recovered after their confession. In their appeal, the same bench confirmed the high court judgment sentencing them to life imprisonment for this killing. (source: deccanherald.com) PAKISTAN: Death penalty doesn't stop child abuse. What's it for then? The call to murder is the ultimate distraction. It is the most cynical act of manipulation. The bodies of 3 young children who were raped and killed in Kasur were discovered less than one year after the execution of Imran Ali for the rape and murder of young Zainab. Imran Ali, despite calls for a public hanging, was executed inside the walls of Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore. Yet, his execution was public in the sense of it being inescapable in the national conversation, as a response to an unspeakable assault on common decency and moral fabric of the society. The cries for revenge, public hanging and the execution itself did not, however, stop the perpetrator of the next round of rape and killings. Before Imran Ali, there was Javed Iqbal, the serial killer who confessed to the murder of 100 young boys. The judge, while sentencing him to the gallows in March 2000, wrote “you will be strangled to death in front of the parents whose children you killed. Your body will then be cut into 100 pieces and put in acid, the same way you killed the children." Javed Iqbal later died in an apparent suicide while in prison. The point in the dominant discourse for Imran Ali and Javed Iqbal was not about protecting our children from the next Imran Ali or Javed Iqbal, but about looking tough as a government and a society in the face of an elementary, unconscionable failure. The death penalty is always about just that: demonstrating our willingness and capacity to inflict murder. The message is not directed to the future murderers and rapists (it demonstrably doesn’t work on them), but to the public at large. The relationship between an authoritarian state and the death was eloquently highlighted by Robert Badinter, French Minister of Justice under Francois Mitterrand in his September 1981 speech to the French parliament. “It is anti-justice…it is passion and fear prevailing over humanity.” More importantly, “in countries of freedom, abolition is almost the rule; in dictatorships, capital punishment is everywhere in use. This division of the world doesn’t result from just a coincidence. It shows a correlation. The true political signification of capital punishment is that it results from the idea that State has the right to take advantage of the citizen, till the possibility to suppress the citizen’s life.” Following the revolution in Iran, the Ziaul Haq regime began disseminating the news of executions being carried out under Ayatollah Khomeini. Archives of Pakistani newspapers following the overthrow of the Raza Shah’s regime in February 1979 have the death sentences being handed down as headline news and Khomeini doing “nashta” of “dozens” (of people). It seemed slightly odd; yet, it was deliberately aimed at creating acceptance for state-sponsored violence and setting up the stage of the biggest execution/murder of Pakistan’s history, the execution of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on April 5, 1979. In 1983, the murderer of Pappu, a young boy from Lahore, was publicly executed and the body of the killer was left hanging for an entire day as a spectacle. The
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Oct. 8 GLOBAL: All children are of worth On Thursday, the 17th World Day Against the Death Penalty will be dedicated to children whose parents have been sentenced to death or executed. The theme this year is: Children: unseen victims of the death penalty. The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty states: “Today, 142 countries... are abolitionist in law or practice. While few studies have been done to quantify the number of children who have a parent who has been sentenced to death or executed, Amnesty International’s 2019 annual report stated that at least 19,336 people were known to be under sentence of death worldwide at the end of 2018 and at least 690 were believed to have been executed in that year... “Frequently forgotten, children of parents sentenced to death or executed carry a heavy emotional and psychological burden that can amount to the violation of their human rights. This trauma can occur at any and all stages of the capital punishment of a parent: arrest, trial, sentencing, death row stays, execution dates, execution itself, and its aftermath. The repeated cycles of hope and disappointment that can accompany all of these stages can have a long-term impact, occasionally well into adulthood. “Stigmatisation from the community in which they live and the loss of a parent at the hands of a state all reinforce deep instability in the child’s day-to-day life. In line with the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (November 20, 1989), the focus of this World Day is on children and their human rights. “The experience of having a parent sentenced to death affects each child differently, including children within the same family, depending on factors like their personality and circumstances, the reactions of those around them, and the wider public response to the situation, including the scrutiny of media coverage... “In international human rights law, it is a well-established principle that the best interest of the child should be a paramount consideration in any decision that impacts a child. It is therefore necessary to consider how a parent’s death sentence will impact the child and to take this into account when deciding on sentencing, commutation and pardon... “In 2013, the UN Human Rights Council adopted resolution 24/11, in which it ‘acknowledges the negative impact of a parent’s death sentence and his or her execution on his or her children’ and urges states ‘to provide these children with the protection and assistance they may require.’ And in 2018, the Human Rights Committee’s general comment No 36 made an explicit recommendation for states not to execute parents of young and dependent children: ‘States parties...should...refrain from executing parents to very young or dependent children.’” While we stand in solidarity with the victims of crime, including their children, let us not forget that all children are of worth and reach out in solidarity to the children of offenders. In observation of World Day, CCSJ, in collaboration with the Greater Caribbean for Life, RED Initiatives, and with the support of the EU Delegation ambassador, UWI Faculty of Law, St Augustine Campus, and Amnesty International, have organised a panel discussion on Thursday from 5 pm to 7 pm at the Church of the Assumption Parish Hall, Long Circular Road, Maraval. Admission is free. The moderator is Prof Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, dean, Faculty of Law, UWI, St Augustine Campus. Panel speakers are Aad Biesebroek, EU Delegation ambassador, keynote speaker; Rhonda Gregoire-Roopchan, deputy director, care services, Children’s Authority; Gerard Wilson, Commissioner of Prisons; Alloy Youk See, PRO, Social Workers’ Association and former senior prison officer; Andrew Douglas, lifer, Maximum Security Prison, Arouca; and myself as chair of the CCSJ and member of Greater Caribbean for Life. (source: newsday.co.tt) IRAN: Iran charges famous Kurdish singer with being gay, faces execution "Well known Iranian Kurdish singer, Mohsen Lorestani was charged with ‘corruption on earth’ by a court in Tehran for posting ‘immoral’ content on social media." Iran has alleged that a prominent singer is gay and under the Islamic Republic’s anti-homosexual laws he could face the death penalty. BBC journalist Ali Hamedani tweeted on Sunday that “A famous Iranian singer from the Kurdish province of Kermanshah has been ‘accused’ of being a homosexual and could face execution. Iran executes gay men.” Volker Beck, a German Green Party politician and LGBTQ activist , told The Jerusalem Post that "It is a perversion of unjust states like Iran and Saudi Arabia that alleged or actual homosexuality is presented as an accusation that can cost you your life. It is time for the international community to outlaw states punishing homosexuals." The Kurdistan Human Rights Network tweeted that “Mohsen Lorestani, a
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Oct. 7 EUROPE: The Dark Life of a Medieval Executioner – A Cut Away from the Rest It is no surprise that the medieval period was filled with all kinds of undesirable jobs. There were leech collectors, cesspool cleaners, serfs, and gong farmers, to name a few. But one vocation that was, perhaps, one of the toughest, was the job of the medieval executioner. Theirs was one of the darkest, most taboo jobs of the Middle Ages. Whether employed in splendid royal courts or backwater petty castles, these vicious headsmen had a singular purpose – to do the job that very few could or wanted to do. Theirs was the role of taking lives, tightening the noose or decapitating those who were destined for an early grave. Their axes knew no class or creed – the sharp iron culled both king and peasant. Medieval Executioners: Masters of Dirty Jobs During much of the early medieval period, as well as the centuries that followed, crime and lawlessness were rampant throughout the world. From Europe to Asia and the Middle East, evil was an everyday occurrence. Rapes, thievery, murder, heresy, and leprosy – all manner of sin and decadence ran rampant in the unruly medieval world, under the auspices of death itself. But where there is lawlessness, there is also justice, albeit sometimes a cruel one. Mercy was not the usual approach to solving crimes, much to the disadvantage of the budding criminal of the period. This means that once dealt, justice was swift and brutal – a determined and definite retribution against the usurpation of the order of the society. In short, the death penalty was often the sentence. As the earliest epoch of the Middle Ages slowly advanced into a new, slightly more developed period, it also saw the rise of a new vocation. Someone was needed to perform the role that no one wanted - that was the executioner’s vocation. From as early as the 1200’s, the societies of Western and Central Europe were increasingly requiring an official position that would satisfy their needs for delivering capital punishment to their convicts. Prominent cities throughout France, Germany, and England required skilled executioners to act as the divine hand of justice appointed by the state and the royal court. One of the earliest documented official executioner positions dates to 1202, when a prominent headsman, Nicolas Jouhanne – nicknamed “la Justice” – was appointed the vicomte, and official executioner of the Normandy town of Caux. From then on, this official position spread through many capitals and large towns of Western Europe. But even before that period, and certainly well after it, the role of the executioner was definitely a troubled one, straddling a grey area between good and evil and between acceptance and repugnance. Executioners were very much ostracized. Death, and moreover, murder, always had a difficult position in society. When done by a mass of people, as in lynching, murder was no longer a taboo act – the group erased the perpetrator. But once an individual took the matter into their own hands, and performed a murder, the situation was different. And such was the predicament of the executioner. A person in this position, who was known to be the headsman, was seen as a troubled person, a sinner beyond redemption, and simply put – a killer. The masses could not accept the wanton taking of a life – on command – and could not comprehend the state of mind that hid behind the eyes of the headsman. One good example of this viewpoint of the masses can be observed from the many writings and memoires from the Middle Ages, and chiefly the writings of Joseph de Maistre. Here is a part of his observations of the character of an executioner: “This head, this heart, are they made like ours? Do they not have something odd or foreign to our nature? On the exterior he [the executioner] is made just as we are; he is born, like us; but he is an extraordinary being…Is he a man?” At the Edge of Society The truth is not very far – a medieval executioner had a hard time in the society around him. In many, if not most, cultures of the medieval world, an executioner was an ostracized, shunned person, who belonged to a markedly different caste of society. Even though they sometimes enjoyed financial benefits and could earn reasonable amounts from their work, these people still suffered in solitude and lived life on the margins of society – simply because of their vocation. To freely deliver death, torture, and all manner of foulness on another person was seen as reason enough for the people to look down on an executioner and shun him. In most countries, executioners and their families lived on the peripheries of cities, well away from the main residences. They also couldn’t be buried like the rest of the citizens – their graves were separated from the main graveyard, marked, and much less elaborate. The executioners had to be recognizable even
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Oct. 6 BOSNIA: Constitutional Court of BiH abolished Death Sentence Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) abolished death sentence in Republika Srpska (RS) entity! Considering the appeal of the Bosniak Club to the RS Council for the Constitutional Review of Article 11 paragraph 2 of the RS Constitution, the BiH Constitutional Court decided that such a norm could no longer exist in the RS Constitution. Namely, the Constitutional Court stated that with the entry into force of Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention, the death penalty was abolished in all circumstances, and that the said Protocol constitutes a legally binding act for all levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including its entities. In a statement to the RTRS, the President of the Constitutional Court of BiH, Zlatko Knezevic, said that the RS institutions have three months to delete that provision, which virtually ceased to exist today with the Constitutional Court’s decision. Currently, only Belarus still enforces the death penalty, and Russia has imposed a moratorium on its execution since 1999, Radio Sarajevo reports. (source: Sarajevo Times) LEBANON: Lebanon Hails Court Verdict on 1999 Killing of 4 Judges Lebanese officials hailed on Saturday a court verdict indicting the accused in the 1999 assassination of 4 judges in the southern city of Sidon. President Michel Aoun said: “Justice has been served even if it is late,” said Aoun, as he called for amendments in the Code of Criminal Procedure in order to prevent any delay in future proceedings. In 1999, four judges were assassinated inside the South Lebanon Criminal Court at the old Justice Palace in Sidon. “Justice is served even after a while. A salute to the Judicial Council which issued its verdict in the assassination case of the 4 judges. Our sincere solidarity today is with the families of the martyrs,” said Prime Minister Saad Hariri in a tweet. Justice Minister Albert Serhan said: “Justice is taking its course... the decision of the Judicial Council is good news for all, judges and citizens.” On Friday, the Judicial Council led by Judge Jean Fahed inflicted the death penalty on Ahmed Abdulkarim aka Abu Mehjen. 5 of his companions were sentenced to death in absentia for hiding in the southern Palestinian camp of Ain al-Hilweh camp, the National News Agency said. Wissam Hussein Tuhaibesh, Palestinian, was acquitted for insufficient evidence and released immediately unless convicted of another crime, NNA added. (source: naharnet.com) IRAN: New Signs of Expanded Reliance on the Death Penalty in Iran Authorities in the northern Iranian city of Rasht carried out the latest in a long line of public executions on Wednesday, hanging a man who had allegedly killed a security agent. The incident took place on the same day that four others were put to death in Rajai Shahr Prison alone, signifying a probable acceleration of the implementation of capital punishment throughout the country. The apparent increase in executions only serves to further safeguard Iran’s status as the nation with the highest per-capita rate of executions in the world. No other country exceeds the Islamic Republic in terms of the raw number of death sentences carried out each year. Iran also leads the world in terms of death sentences meted out and implemented for persons who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes. As a signatory to both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is formally barred from this practice under all circumstances, but the Iranian judiciary routinely dismisses that provision by saying that it conflicts with the religiously-based laws of the Islamic Republic. The same international agreements also technically bar Iran from other activities that nonetheless remain commonplace, including the execution of supposed criminals whose offenses do not rise to an international standard for the “most serious crimes.” Wednesday’s executions may have included at least two offenses of this type. Of the 4 men hanged at Rajai Shahr, 2 had been convicted of murder, while the other 2 had been accused of “enmity against God.” This vague, political charged was originally established so as to apply only to armed insurrection against the Iranian regime. But in practice, the charge is known in Farsi as “Mohabareh” has been applied to a wide range of individuals deemed to be a threat to the theocratic system. This includes supporters of the leading Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK) – even those whose support is limited to financial donations. It is unclear what, if any, actual activities were undertaken by the two men executed on Wednesday which justified their death sentence. And Iran’s state media is little help since it often
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Oct. 5 BOSNIA: Court Orders Bosnian Serb Entity to Outlaw Death Penalty Bosnia's Constitutional Court has given the Serb-led entity, Republika Srpska, a deadline to remove mention of the death penalty from its laws and constitution – although the ruling is largely symbolic, as the entity does not use it. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has upheld an appeal filed by a group of Bosniak delegates in the parliament of Bosnia’s Serb-led entity, ordering the Republika Srpska to remove references to the death penalty from its laws and constitution. Friday’s ruling is mainly symbolic, as the entity does not use the death penalty in practice, even though it remains in certain statues. The constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia’s other entity, does not mention the death penalty. Presiding Judge Zlatko Knezevic gave the RS a deadline of three months to change its laws. The ruling comes after a group of Bosniak delegates in the RS assembly filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court in June. Bosnia abolished the death penalty in 1994, a decision formalised in 1998. The last death sentence in Bosnia was issued by the Sarajevo District Military Court in March 1993, which sentenced Borislav Herak and Sretko Damjanovic to death for genocide. The penalty was not carried out. The RS has a history of ignoring rulings from the state constitutional court. It has taken no notice of a March 29 ruling outlawing celebration of January 9 as Day of Republika Srpska, as BIRN has previously reported. Belarus is the only European state still using the death penalty, and carried out two executions in 2018. Russian law still allows for its use, but it has been suspended there since the late-1990s. The Council of Europe long ago made abolition of the death penalty a prerequisite for membership, while the European Union not only prohibits it among its members but actively campaigns against its use worldwide. (source: balkaninsight.com) INDIA: President commutes 20 death sentences in 9 years These commutations were based on the President’s exercise of powers under Article 72 of the Constitution after the convicts filed mercy petitions. The President commuted death sentences to life imprisonment in at least 20 cases over the past nine years, based on the recommendations received from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). These commutations were based on the President’s exercise of powers under Article 72 of the Constitution after the convicts filed mercy petitions. Separately, last week the MHA took a decision to commute the death sentence of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted over the assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, as a “humanitarian gesture” ahead of the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Sikh founder Guru Nanak. It also decided to release 8 other prisoners convicted for life for their involvement in Sikh militancy as a ‘token of goodwill’. Beant Singh and at least 16 others were killed in an explosion outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh in 1995. Rajoana was sentenced to death in 2007 by a special court and he refused to file a mercy petition. The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex body of the Sikhs, filed a petition on his behalf in 2014. BJP ally and NDA member, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), had been pressing the Centre to commute Rajoana’s death sentence. “Rajoana never engaged a lawyer when the case was being heard in the court,” said Manjinder Singh Sirsa, an SAD leader who had recently met Home Minister Amit Shah regarding Rajoana’s case — the only Sikh prisoner on death row in a militancy related case. “To highlight the atrocities against the Sikhs, he refused legal assistance. After he was sentenced to death, the SGPC decided to file a mercy petition on his behalf,” added the SAD leader. The ministry’s decision to release the 8 Sikh prisoners convicted under the repealed Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) is seen as a one-off gesture as it is not in consonance with the guidelines regarding the 2018 “Cabinet decision to grant special remission to prisoners on the occasion of 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.” As per the guidelines: “special remission will not be given to prisoners who have been convicted for an offence for which the sentence is sentence of death or where death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment; cases of convicts involved in serious and heinous crimes like dowry death, rape, human trafficking and convicted under POTA, UAPA, TADA, FICN, POCSO Act, money laundering, FEMA, NDPS, Prevention of Corruption Act, etc.” A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “This was in response to the long pending demands on release of Sikh prisoners raised by various sections of the Sikh community.” Process on to commute Rajoana sentence: MHA
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Oct. 4 IRANexecutions Iranian authorities execute 6 prisoners, including 1 in public Iranian authorities executed 4 prisoners on Wednesday, October 2, at Raja’i Shahr Prison in the city of Karaj, near the capital, Tehran. 2 of the victimes identified as Hossein Roshan and Mohsen Kounani were sentenced to death on charges related to moharebeh (“enmity against God”), while Mohammad Reza Ghanbari and Hamid Sheikhi were hanged on murder charges. As a consequence of the clerical regime’s failure to categorize murders according to their degrees, anyone committing murder is sentenced to death, regardless of their motives. On Wednesday, October 2, the Iranian regime executed a man in public in the northern ciry of Rasht. He was hanged for killing a security agent. Another prisoner identified as 24-year-old Razgar Zandi was executed on Tuseday, October 1, in Sanandaj Prison. He was charged with killing a man during a group fight. The clerical regime also executed at least 12 prisoners including 2 women on September 24 and 25, 2019. The news of these executions has not been announced by any of the state media in Iran. The unidentified woman hanged with 7 men on September 25, 2019, in Gohardasht Prison was accused of deliberately murdering her husband. An eye-witness said she had been taken for implementation of her death verdict to Gohardasht from either Shahr-e Ray (Qarchak) or Kachouii Prison. The woman has not been identified yet as this news is being posted. Taking into account the execution that took place on September 25, the number of women executed during Rouhani’s tenure reaches 96. Eight of these women have been hanged in a period of slightly over 3 months. One of these women was Leila Zarafshan who was executed on Thursday, September 26, 2019, in the Central Prison of Sanandaj. This should be compared to the 9 women executed during the entire year 2016, ten women in 2017, and 6 women in 2018. The Iranian regime is the world’s top record holder of per capita executions. At least 3800 persons have been executed during Rouhani’s terms in office. (source: Iran Human Rights) SAUDI ARABIA: Verdict in Saudi dissident case expected October 10 A Saudi court will issue a verdict in the case of dissident Sheikh Salman al-Awda on October 10, the prominent cleric’s son said today, amid concerns he will be sentenced to death. “Today, my father, Salman al-Awda, was present in a Riyadh court,” Abdullah al-Awda tweeted. “Next Thursday (October 10) will be the sentencing hearing.” Awda was among 20 people, including writers and journalists, arrested in September 2017 as part of a crackdown on dissent in the ultra-conservative kingdom. Awda’s family and Saudi media have said prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. The charge sheet has not been made public. Human rights groups have said the trial is a political reprisal against Awda, a leading figure in a 1990s Islamist movement associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. In the past 2 weeks, at least 7 sessions in the cleric’s case were convened, according to his son. In one of the hearings, the prosecution presented “what it called evidence against (Awda), which was about 2,000 tweets posted to his Twitter account”, he added. The cleric’s family have said Saudi authorities had demanded that Awda and other prominent figures publicly back the kingdom in a dispute with neighbouring Qatar, but he refused. Riyadh and several allies cut off all diplomatic and economic ties with Doha in June 2017, accusing it of links to Islamist extremists, a charge Qatar has denied. (source: malaymail.com) INDIA: SC commutes man’s death penalty to life imprisonment 8 years after awarding sentence The Supreme Court commuted a man’s death penalty to life imprisonment more than 8 years after the apex court awarded the sentence. The man had been found guilty of killing his wife and 4 kids including 10-month-old baby in Maharashtra. The Supreme Court has now found fault in its verdict for coming to the conclusion about the severity of the offence to justify the extreme punishment and commuted his sentence to imprisonment for the entire life. (source: indiatimes.com) ** 2-year-old baby's rape and murder: India Supreme Court confirms death sentenceHe kidnapped, apparently kept on assaulting her over 4-5 hours till she breathed her last The Supreme Court on Thursday confirmed the death penalty to a man convicted of murder and rape of a 2-year-old girl. The sentence was confirmed by 2:1 majority by a three-judge bench of Justices R. F. Nariman, Surya Kant and R.Subhash Reddy. The top court was hearing convict Ravi's plea challenging a Bombay High Court order which has confirmed the death penalty after holding him guilty of murder and rape. Justices Nariman and Kant observed that the victim was barely a two-year old baby whom the convict
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Oct. 3 IRAN: Death decrees finalized for 2 women in Khoy and Isfahan Death decrees were finalized for 2 women in the cities of Khoy and Isfahan while two women were executed in late September in the cities of Sanandaj and Tehran. The death decree for Zahra Derakhshan was recently upheld and finalized by the Criminal Court of Urmia. Zahra Derakhshan has been detained in Khoy Prison since November 2016. The first time she received the death decree was in November 2018, but she objected to the court ruling. Khoy is the second largest city of West Azerbaijan Province, in northwestern Iran, after the capital city of Urmia. Another woman by the name of Fariba was also sentenced to death for killing a police officer while trying to help a prisoner escape. Mohammad Reza Habibi, general director of Isfahan’s Department of Justice, announced that the death decree had been objected by the lawyer of this case, but the ruling was finally upheld by the supreme court on September 3, 2019. (The state-run ROKNA news agency – September 23, 2019) Leila Zarafshan was hanged in the Central Prison of Sanandaj on September 26, 2019, and another unidentified woman was hanged in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, on September 25, 2019. Ninety-six (96) women have been executed in Iran under Rouhani. The actual number of execution victims and other victims of the clerical regime’s Judiciary are far above the data and information published in the state-run press. One of the signs of stepped up pressure and crackdown on women in Iran and the accelerating pace of executions is the number of women hanged in recent months. Eight (8) Iranian women have been executed in a period of slightly over 3 months, while in a year-long period from 2016 to 2018, the number of women executed by the Iranian regime in the whole year ranged between 6 and 10. (source: ncr-iran.org) ** 4, including 2 Iranians, told to enter defence for drug chargeJudge Datuk Akhtar Tahir made the decision at the end of the prosecution case against J. Balakrishnan, 61, B. Lacheme Devi, 56, Mohammad Abbasi Younes, 27, and Syedmohsen Namazikivaj Seyedreza, 31. 4 accused, including 2 Iranian men, were told to enter their defence by the High Court here today for drug charges in 2015. Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir made the decision at the end of the prosecution case against J. Balakrishnan, 61, B. Lacheme Devi, 56, Mohammad Abbasi Younes, 27, and Syedmohsen Namazikivaj Seyedreza, 31. An amended charge was read out to all the accused – in Tamil for Balakrishnan and Lacheme Devi, and in Persian for the Iranians. In the amended charge, all 4 were accused of trafficking by the way of manufacturing methamphetamine at a house at Taman Sri Rambai in Seberang Perai Tengah district on Aug 20, 2015 about 10.10pm. It is an offence under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which is punishable under Section 39B(2) of the same Act read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code which carries the death penalty or lifetime imprisonment. If not sentenced to death then the accused must be whipped not less than 15 times. All 4 pleaded not guilty and claimed trial after the charge was read to them. Balakrishnan was represented by A. Ashok, Lacheme Devi by RSN Rayer and the 2 Iranians were represented by Kitson Foong. Deputy Public Prosecutor Farah Aimy Zainul Anwar prosecuted. "I hereby order the accused to enter defence against the charges," said the judge. He then explained the 3 options that are available to enter defence; to remain silent, give testimony from the dock, or sworn testimony from the witness stand. "They can speak with their counsels, but the decision must be made by them," he added. All 4 then agreed to give sworn testimony and the court fixed Nov 11 to 14 for hearing. (source: indiatimes.com) SRI LANKA: Mother and son sentenced to death over murder A mother and a son of the same family have been sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court over a case of murder. The order was issued by High Court Judge Pradeep Hettiarachchi when the case was taken up today (03). The convicted mother and son had murdered the wife of the son by setting on fire back in 2007. The incident which had taken place in 2007 had, reportedly, been the result of a family issue. Following an extensive hearing, the 75-year-old mother and the 35-year-old son were issued capital punishment today. (source: adaderana.lk) INDIA: Prime Accused In Radha Kumari Murder Case Sentenced To Death The prime accused in the Radha Kumari rape and murder case has been awarded the death penalty by the District and Sessions Judge, Sivasagar, SK Poddar on Thursday, October 3. The court gave the accused, Bikas Das, 30 days to appeal before the High Court. 21-year-old Radha Kumari was raped and strangled to death inside a passenger train travelling from Tinsukia to Rangia on
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Oct. 2 INDIA: Mumbai: Prosecution seeks death for 29-year-old in physiotherapist rape, murder case Special Public Prosecutor Raja Thakare submitted before the court that the manner in which the crime was committed showed the “total depravity” of Debashish Dhara, who was found guilty last week of charges including murder, rape and unnatural offences. The prosecutor added that the victim had a bright future and academic aspirations for herself as well as her younger sister. A week after a special court in Dindoshi found a 29-year-old man guilty of raping and murdering a 24-year-old physiotherapist, the prosecution on Tuesday sought the death penalty for him, citing the brutality of the offence. Special Judge A D Deo will decide on the quantum of punishment on October 4. Special Public Prosecutor Raja Thakare submitted before the court that the manner in which the crime was committed showed the “total depravity” of Debashish Dhara, who was found guilty last week of charges including murder, rape and unnatural offences. Thakare said that the crime was so brutal that it had shocked the conscience of the society. Dhara had entered the victim’s home on the intervening night of December 5 and 6, 2016, while she was sleeping. He then strangled her with a pair of jeans and raped her. Before leaving, he kept books and clothes on the victim and set her on fire to destroy evidence. Thakare told the court that the brutality of the crime could be seen by the fact that a witness, who was part of the inquest panchnama, could not even describe the injuries of the deceased when she came to depose. He further said that it could not be looked at as a case of murder alone as the accused has also been found guilty under Section 376 A (punishment for causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of victim) of the Indian Penal Code, which like the murder charge also carries the maximum punishment of death. The prosecutor added that the victim had a bright future and academic aspirations for herself as well as her younger sister. Thakare also sought compensation for the victim’s family. Dhara, who was brought before the court on Tuesday, claimed that he was assaulted by other inmates after he returned to prison following his conviction last week. He sought leniency, stating that he is the only breadwinner of the family and had unmarried sisters to look after. Dhara also sought that he should be transferred to a prison in his native village in West Bengal, so that he could remain in touch with his family. *** Beant Singh’s kin to move SC if Centre commutes death penalty A special court had in July 2007 awarded the death sentence to Rajoana, along with another terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara, in the Beant Singh assassination case. The family of slain Punjab chief minister Beant Singh will challenge in the Supreme Court any decision by Centre to commute his assassin Balwant Singh Rajoana’s death sentence to life imprisonment, the leader’s grandson and Punjab MLA Gurkirat Singh Kotli Tuesday said. The Union Home Ministry is yet to officially confirm if Rajoana’s death sentence is being commuted, even as politics has heated up in Punjab over reports on such a move. “We will challenge the Centre’s decision in Supreme court,” Kotli said. “We are taking legal opinion on what grounds it will be challenged. One of the main grounds for challenging the Centre’s decision will be that Rajoana himself had never apologised and had never moved any mercy petition for commuting his death sentence,” he added. Kotli, who is an All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary and an MLA from Punjab’s Khanna, termed the Centre’s decision unfortunate and politically motivated. “The Modi government should make it clear whether it is with peace-loving people or with those who want to vitiate the atmosphere,” he said. Kotli alleged that the Centre took the decision as Rajoana had appealed for votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Shiromani Akali Dal during the last Lok Sabha elections. He claimed that Rajoana’s sister Kamaldeep Kaur had posted this appeal on her Facebook page. Another grandson of the assassinated leader and Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, who had earlier warned that “Centre was playing with fire”. Tuesday said he has sought time from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss matter. “Why this double standard by the PM? On one hand, he talks about fight against terrorism and on the other, he is all set to release the most dreaded terrorist. If a sitting chief minister’s killers can be set free, how can a common man expect justice,” Bittu said in Ludhiana. He said he will be writing individually to all the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs and “tell them about the BJP’s stand on terrorism”. “If they are thinking of gaining Sikh votes, they are living in a fools’ paradise,” he added.
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Oct. 1 GLOBAL: How states are trying to slowly kill off the death penalty Switzerland and other countries last week managed to push through a resolution against the death penalty at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Over the past decade the small alpine nation has strongly opposed capital punishment, which has seen a slow decline. While critics have accused Switzerland of keeping a low human rights profile since Ignazio Cassis took over as head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in 2017, the country has continued its strong commitment to abolish the death penaltyexternal link and keep the issue at the top of the international agenda. “Switzerland strongly deplores the fact that in 2019 the international community has again witnessed mass executions and those of minors,” Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Valentin Zellweger told the councilexternal link, which concluded its 42nd session last Friday. In his speech, the Swiss diplomat urged the 10 countries with the highest total number of executions - China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Iraq, Egypt, the United States, Japan, Pakistan and Singapore – to abolish or suspend capital punishment. But according to Amnesty International’s most recent report on the death penalty covering 2018external link, these countries are not all exactly in the same position. “Overall, the total number of executions recorded fell by more than 30% [between 2018 and 2017], mainly due to sharp decreases seen in some of the countries that use it most, such as Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Somalia,” it noted. But Amnesty noted reversals: “For the 1st time since 2009, Thailand has carried out an execution, and several other countries reported an increase in the total number of executions recorded during the year, including Belarus, the United States, Japan, Singapore and South Sudan.” There were also significant increases in the number of death sentences handed down in countries such as Egypt and Iraq, the NGO said. The few statistics made public by the Vietnamese authorities indicate that Vietnam has made extensive use of the death penalty. In China, the use of the capital punishment is still surrounded by secrecy, but Amnesty believes that the country continues to condemn and execute thousands of people. Successful resolution It was not surprising, therefore, that some of these states tried to weaken a human rights resolution on the death penalty, via amendments or by voting against it last Friday. In the end the resolution, which was co-sponsored by Switzerland, was adopted by 26 states, 14 were against and there were 6 abstentions. Hilary Power, a representative of Amnesty International at the UN in Geneva, welcomed the result and stressed the continuing positive momentum for the abolition of the death penalty. But she added: “We are concerned about the possible resumption of executions in Sri Lanka and the possible reintroduction of the death penalty in the Philippines". In the resolution approved last week, the council decided that the upcoming biennial high-level panel discussion to be held at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council will address human rights violations related to the use of the death penalty, in particular with respect to whether the use of the death penalty has a deterrent effect on crime rate. It also requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a summary report on the panel discussion and to submit it to the Human Rights Council at its 48th session. Long-term programme What is exact purpose of such a resolution? Presented every 2 years, it examines human rights violations caused by capital punishment legislation when it targets, for example, homosexuals, minors or ethnic minorities. The resolution does not directly aim to abolish the death penalty or call for a moratorium, which is the subject of a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It simply tries to encourage countries where the death penalty is still in force to reduce its scope. Iran, for example, has abandoned the death penalty for drug cases, which led to a sharp drop in the number of executions last year. Friday’s resolution is part of a Swiss foreign ministry’s 2017-2019 action plan for the universal abolition of the death penaltyexternal link, which was drawn up a decade ago and renewed. The strategy involves different channels and approaches, with support from an ?ad hoc coalition of external NGOsexternal link. A similar strategy was pursued in the case of the 1997 Ottowa landmine ban treaty. (source: swissinfo.ch) IRAN: Iran sentences 1 person to death for spying for the US and jails another for 10 years for spying for Britain Iran has sentenced an alleged US spy to death and imprisoned 3 others including an alleged British agent. 3 people face 10-year prison sentences, one of them accused of spying for
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Sept. 30 CHINA: Fears for Yang Hengjun's health amid reports he is being shackled in Chinese detention There are fears Australian writer Yang Hengjun is being shackled with chains to his legs and hands during interrogations at a Beijing detention centre. A family friend has raised concerns over the detention conditions faced by Australian citizen Yang Hengjun in Beijing amid reports the writer is being shackled during interrogations. The 53-year-old Australian citizen has been accused by Chinese authorities of spying since being detained after landing at Guangzhou airport with his family in January. Now a family friend of Dr Yang has shed light on his detention conditions telling the Australian he “wears chains” and is being “tied to a chair” during questioning. “His health condition is not good as a result of seven months of solitude from being under house arrest without access to any other people but interrogators,” the friend said. “He suffers from weakened memory, blood pressure and kidney issues. But he has not collapsed and continues to insist his innocence.” It comes after The Guardian revealed multiple sources describing the same account of Mr Yang’s conditions inside the ministry of state security detention centre. Investigators have reportedly told Mr Hung he is being chained because of the gravity of his alleged crimes and that he could face the death penalty. His interrogations are reportedly lasting up to four hours at a time. Foreign Minister Marise Payne has previously described the conditions faced by Dr Yang as “harsh” raising concerns over a failure to provide him access to lawyers or family visits. “We have serious concerns for Dr Yang’s welfare, and about the conditions under which he is being held,” Ms Payne said last month. Chinese officials have said national security concerns are behind not providing the writer to access to his legal team. But Australian consular officials have still been permitted to make half-hour visits to Dr Yang once a month. In his account of Dr Yang’s detention, the family friend provides an insight into the conditions faced by the Australian writer. The friend said Dr Yang is not being held in solitary confinement. “He doesn’t have to live in total loneliness. He is allowed to walk out of the cell twice a day in the morning and the afternoon, each time for 45 minutes,” he told the Australian. “Police keep asking him the same questions as … before he was transferred to the detention centre." “The interrogations have been reduced from every day when he was under house arrest to once a week, which indicates the police have found no breakthrough in evidence." The Guardian has reported he is able to drink water and purchase additional food supplies including “fruit, biscuits, and chocolate.” He had initially been held under “residential surveillance” before being placed in detention in July and was formally charged on 23 August. Prior to this, Dr Yang ran a popular blog, had written a series of spy novels and had long pushed for democratic reforms in China. He was once a diplomat for China’s ministry of foreign affairs before moving to Australia and becoming an Australian citizen in 2002. Since then he had spent time in the United States as a visiting scholar at Columbia University. China has previously defended its detention of Dr Yang and spoken out against Australia’s criticisms. "China deplores the Australian statement on this case," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a press conference in August. "Australia should respect China's judicial sovereignty and not interfere in any way in China's lawful handling of the case." (source: sbs.com.au) PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Govt team to get views on death penalty A government team will consult further with the people regarding the law on the death penalty, in particular the method of execution to be used, Justice Minister and Attorney-General Davis Steven says. Steven told The National that Justice Secretary Dr Eric Kwa would lead the team. He also said 12 people were currently on death row. “I’ve been working on the death penalty submission mainly because it’s my duty as the attorney-general to reflect the position of the law, especially in this case where the courts have already imposed the penalty,” he said. “I have gone to NEC to approve the method of execution (so) that the implementing agency can implement the court decisions.” The 5 methods recommended by officials tasked to advise the Government are hanging, electrocution (electric chair), lethal injection, beheading and shooting. Steven said Cabinet wanted to move on the issue given the social and community interest in the subject and the history of the law inherited and maintained since independence. “Given the international concern on the subject, whether the death penalty is a deterrent or not, the NEC directed
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Sept. 29 PAKISTAN: 2 sentenced to death in child kidnap, murder case An antiterrorism court on Saturday awarded death sentence to 2 men for kidnapping and killing a child over non-payment of ransom. 4 accused — Abdul Ghaffar Brohi, Abdullah Magsi, Ali Magsi alias Ali Dino and Zahid Hussain Gopang — were charged with kidnapping 4 1/2-year-old Ammar Hussain Jatoi within the remit of the Waleed police station, Larkana in 2012. On Saturday, the ATC-II judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, pronounced his verdict reserved after recording evidence and final arguments. The ATC hands down life imprisonment to 2 more accused The judge noted that the prosecution successfully proved the allegations of kidnapping for ransom against the accused Abdul Ghaffar Brohi and Abdullah Magsi and handed down capital punishment to them. The judge awarded life imprisonment to accused Ali Magsi and Zahid Hussain and also ordered them to pay Rs500,000 each to the legal heirs of the victim as compensation. The judge further sentenced them to four-year imprisonment for possessing illicit arms and ammunition. However, all the sentences shall run concurrently. According to the prosecution, the accused abducted the child, a student of nursery class, when he was playing outside his house in the Sheikh Zayed Colony on March 9, 2012 and drove him away in a car. Later, they demanded a ransom of Rs5 million for his safe release. But, his body was found from an abandoned house as the family failed to pay the ransom, the prosecution added. The accused were arrested and led the police to the recovery of the child’s body. Trial transferred due to political interference On April 25, 2012 the Sindh High Court (SHC) had ordered transfer of the case from ATC Larkana to an ATC in Karachi after complainant Asfar Hussain Jatoi moved an application alleging that then ministers belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party were influencing the investigation to favour the accused persons. “All the prosecution witnesses (were) examined; (they) supported that on Feb 13, 2012 the dead body of the child was recovered at the pointation of accused persons, mashirnama was prepared as per direction of Assistant Superintendent of Police, but nothing was brought on record,” the judge wrote in the order. He added: “In such circumstances the case was transferred to Karachi due to involvement of three Ministers of political party.” The verdict added that “the mashirnama of the (victim’s) body was prepared, but it was destroyed on political grounds and that record is available in his report under the Section 168 of the Criminal Procedure Code”. Earlier, special public prosecutor Nazeer Ahmed Bhangwar submitted that from the very beginning of the investigation the police were favouring the accused persons and had tried to hide the facts. He added that two brothers-in-law of the complainant had seen the four accused persons with arms in the car, as they were taking away the child and had informed the complainant about the incident. The prosecutor argued that accused Abdullah Magsi had made a phone call to the complainant demanding Rs5m ransom for the safe release of his kidnapped son, but agreed on Rs3.5m. While the complainant was arranging the money the same accused called him the next day and asked him to pick the body of his kidnapped son from a house in Yar Mohammad Colony on March 13, 2013, he added. He contended that the accused persons were arrested on March 13, 2013 and on their information the police had recovered the body, but the police showed their arrest on March 15 to create doubts and favour the accused. He argued that the evidence fully corroborated the prosecution’s case and pleaded to the court to convict them in accordance with the law. Advocate Altaf Hussain for the complainant said that the accused persons were influential and politically involved, therefore, under their influence the police did not investigate the case honestly. He added that the complainant had to move an application for re-investigation, which was conducted after great difficulty. On the other hand, defence counsel Wazeer Hussain Khoso and Safdar Ali Bhutto argued that their clients were innocent, but the police framed them in a false and fabricated case with mala fide intentions. 5 cases under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 365-A (kidnapping for ransom), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offenders) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and Section 13-E of the Arms Ordinance were registered at the Waleed police station. (source: dawn.com) ** 7-judge bench to decide span of life sentence A 7-judge bench of the Supreme Court (SC) – led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif
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Sept. 28 PAKISTAN: Pakistani court overturns blasphemy conviction of Muslim man Pakistan's Supreme Court acquitted a man Wednesday who was sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2002, saying there was a lack of evidence against him. Wajih-ul-Hassan was exonerated Sept. 25, with the court deciding that prosecutors hadn't proven that letters which were the basis of the accusation had in fact been written by him. Pakistan's state religion is Islam, and around 97 percent of the population is Muslim. The country's blasphemy laws impose strict punishment on those who desecrate the Quran or who defame or insult Muhammad. Although the government has never executed a person under the blasphemy laws, accusations alone have inspired mob and vigilante violence. The allegations against Hassan arose from letters he allegedly wrote to a lawyer, according to Dawn, a Karachi-based daily. The lawyer, Ismail Qureshi, had sought amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code, saying that blasphemy should be punished only by capital punishment; the PPC also allows life imprisonment as a sentence for the crime. Hassan allegedly wrote letters to Qureshi in 1998 which the lawyer deemed blasphemous; Qureshi went to the police and filed a petition against Hassan the following year. Mohammad Amjad Rafiq, additional prosecutor general of Punjab, told Dawn that in 2001 Hassan confessed before a manager at his place of work; the manager then took Hassan to a police station, where he was arrested. The next week, a handwriting expert said that Hassan's writing matched the blasphemous letters. Hassan was convicted and sentenced, a decision which was subsequently upheld by the Lahore High Court. But the Supreme Court overturned Hassan's conviction this week, saying Hassan's “extra-judicial confession” and the testimony of the handwriting expert were not strong enough evidence of his guilt, and there were no witnesses to the supposed crime. “Presumption of innocence remains throughout the case until such time the prosecution on the evidence satisfies the court beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of the offence alleged against him,” the Supreme Court's decision reads. “There cannot be a fair trial, which is itself the primary purpose of criminal jurisprudence, if the judges have not been able to clearly elucidate the rudimentary concept of the standard of proof that prosecution must meet in order to obtain a conviction,” it continued. Pakistan's blasphemy laws are reportedly used to settle scores or to persecute religious minorities; while non-Muslims constitute only 3 % of the Pakistani population, 14 % of blasphemy cases have been levied against them. Many of those accused of blasphemy are murdered, and advocates of changing the law are also targeted by violence. The blasphemy laws were introduced between 1980 and 1986. The National Commission for Justice and Peace said more than 1,300 people were accused under this law from 1987 until 2014. The Centre for Research and Security Studies reported that at least 65 people have been killed by vigilantes since 1990. More than 40 people are serving a life sentence or face execution for blasphemy in the country. Last year, the Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned the blasphemy conviction of Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman who was accused in 2009. Her initial conviction had also been upheld by the Lahore High Court. (source: Catholic News Agency) Innocence after 18 years on death row The Supreme Court’s decision to acquit a man falsely charged with blasphemy is more than a verdict about the innocence of an individual: it speaks volumes about our justice delivery system. Wajihul Hasan was sentenced to death in a blasphemy case in 2002 and he spent 18 years on death row until September 25, when a 3-judge bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah exonerated him of the charges under Section 295-C (use of derogatory remarks, etc, in respect of the Holy Prophet [Peace Be Upon Him]) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) over the lack of concrete evidence against him. He was arrested when the complainant, a lawyer, accused him of writing letters full of objectionable content. The case was based on 5 letters written to the complainant in 1998. Later, another letter received by the complainant revealed the identity of the earlier writer – Wajihul Hasan. The police showed reluctance to go ahead but a Lahore High Court decree ordered the Lahore police to register the case involving the blasphemy charge. Wajih’s ‘confession’ of the charge has a twist too: He confessed before Mohammad Waseem, the manager of a steel/iron factory where he worked, of having committed the crime. The manager got Wajih’s ‘extrajudicial confession’ on a paper and handed him over to the police in 2001. The Supreme Court overturned the death penalty handed down by the sessions court and later upheld by the high
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Sept. 27 GHANA: Waiting To Die: 180 On Death Row, No Executions Since 1993 Some 180 condemned prisoners are languishing on death row at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison because successive Presidents had, since 1993, refused to sign their death warrants. The condemned prisoners include 174 men and 6 women, with many of them being sentenced to death by hanging for murder. The Nsawam Medium Prison is the only prison in the country with a condemned block that can hold 200 prisoners. Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra last Wednesday, the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service, Superintendent Vitalis Aiyeh, said he was not in a position to explain why Ghana’s Presidents would not sign death warrants. “Of course, we are in a democratic dispensation and all over the world people are clamouring for the abolition of the death sentence, so that could be a reason,” he, nonetheless, said. The laws The Criminal Code lists crimes punishable by death as murder, treason, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and smuggling The Constitution states that individuals who commit treason against the constitutional order “shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to suffer death”. Genocide includes acts committed with the intent of destroying in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group: killing or causing serious mental or bodily harm to members of the group, inflicting conditions intended to destroy the group and imposing measures to end births in the group. For smuggling, the law says any individual concealing or carrying away from Ghana any gold or diamond without lawful authority or with the intent to evade any enactment concerning the export of gold or diamond “shall be liable on conviction to a sentence of death”. After the conviction, the President will have to append his signature to a death warrant before the death penalty will be carried out. Mental torture Supt Aiyeh said condemned prisoners went through a lot of psychological torture “because the man is there and he wouldn’t know when he will be killed”. ”So when you are there, it is between you and your God, unlike the normal prisoner who knows one day he will go home,” he added. He explained that one relief for condemned prisoners was that they could have their sentences commuted to life sentences after serving 10 years or more in prison, saying, however, that that would have to be done through the process of amnesty. The last time such amnesty was granted in Ghana was in 2016 when three people had their sentences commuted to life. Lawyers clash Speaking to the issue, 2 lawyers, Nana Obiri Boahen and Mr Francis-Xavier Sosu, gave divergent views on the death sentence. Nana Boahen, who is based in Sunyani, faulted Presidents of the Fourth Republic for failing to sign death warrants when nothing stopped them from doing so. “Rawlings, Kufuor, Prof. Mills, Mahama, Nana Akufo-Addo — none of them signed the death warrant, why?” he asked. He said there was brazen impunity in the country, with people committing murder, sometimes in public places and in broad daylight, adding that he believed the death sentence, when carried out, would help check the killings. He said failure to carry out the death sentence had emboldened criminals to go out to kill, without any fear. The legal practitioner said there were four ways in which the death sentence could be carried out — hanging, firing squad, electrocution or lethal injection. “In all these cases, the pronouncement must be made by the judge,” he said. Human Rights lawyer But Mr Sosu, a human rights lawyer, said no one had the right to take another person’s life. He said there had been many instances of people who were alleged to have killed being later found to be innocent. According to him, the reason Presidents had not signed death warrants could be that they were sensitive to the provision concerning the right to life. He also argued that the international community had moved away from killing people who had killed others. “Punishment has revolved over the time. It used to be retributive, but now it is more of corrective,” he explained. Touching on how the country should deal with people who had been condemned to death, he said their sentences should be communed to life sentences. “Keeping them in condemned cells is different from keeping them as life prisoners. In the condemned cells, you sometimes don’t have the right to sunshine; they are kept in dark rooms for many years and that affects their health in general,” he said. Mr Sosu posited that to keep people in condemned cells without signing their death warrants and not make them lifers was a clear violation of the dignity of those people. He said if Presidents were not ready to sign the death warrants of prisoners on death row, then the courts must begin to move away from giving death sentences, providing the
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Sept. 25 PHILIPPINES: CHR: Not all crime victims seek revenge via death penalty Not all victims of heinous or drug-related crimes are out for revenge by seeking the death penalty for those who have wronged them, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said. CHR Commissioner Karen Dumpit made the position during the first hearing on bills restoring the death penalty before the House Committee on Justice. Dumpit cited the case of actress Cherry Pie Picache, who was able to forgive the person who murdered her mother, as well as Clara Sarmenta, who prefers that former Calauan Mayor Antonio Sanchez—the one who, along with six cohorts, raped and killed her daughter Eileen—pays for his crime by languishing in prison. “Not all victims want revenge, and not all of them are for death penalty,” Dumpit said. Likewise, Dumpit also cited the results of a March 2018 poll by the Social Weather Stations that surveyed 2,000 respondents aged 15 and above. It showed that only 3 out of every 10 Filipinos are in favor of imposing the death penalty for drug-related crimes such as: • importation of illegal drugs, • maintenance of drug dens, • manufacture of illegal drugs, • murder under the influence of drugs, • rape under the influence of drugs, • sale of illegal drugs, and • working in drug dens. “Our legislators and government can curb crimes and hold the perpetrators accountable without the death penalty. If we are going to use the assertion of revenge as motivation, we will only perpetuate a culture of violence,” Dumpit added. The CHR, however, stands alone among government agencies opposed to the death penalty. The Philippine National Police, the Department of Justice and the Public Attorney’s Office are all in favor of death penalty, although they have yet to submit a written position paper before the House Committee on Justice. The House of Representatives approved the reimposition of the death penalty for drug-related crimes during the last 17th Congress. The death penalty measure, however, was not acted upon by the Senate despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s support of the measure. Under the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty provided by the United Nations Human Rights office, the imposition of death penalty must be “carried out so as to inflict the minimum possible suffering." (source: gmanetwork.com) *** House panel tackles death penalty bills The House Committee on Justice on Tuesday launched its deliberation on bills seeking to reinstate death penalty on heinous crimes in the country. At least 11 House bills are pending under the justice panel, all seeking to repeal Republic Act 9346 or the law prohibiting the imposition of death penalty and to impose higher penalties to designate death by legal injection among other penal laws. Among these measures are House Bill (HB) 1380 filed by Capiz Second District Rep. Fredenil Castro, which seeks to highlight the imposition of death penalty on drug-related crimes, with the execution ranging from hanging, through a firing squad or through lethal injection under the authority of the Bureau of Corrections director. HB 1588, filed by Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr., a pastor and a self-proclaimed “life” advocate, seeks the same methods of execution of death sentence, but prefers carrying them out in a public place except for lethal injection. Witnesses may include the media and children 9 years old and above who are accompanied by their parents or guardians. Abante justified the imposition of death penalty by citing Bible verses in his explanatory note. “If God did not see death penalty as a deterrent, if He did not consider death penalty as right for the good of men and society, He would not have instituted it. If God saw it right, who is man to consider it otherwise?” a portion of Abante’s explanatory note read. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil,” the lawmaker said, citing Ecclesiastes 8:9. Sarangani Rep. Rogelio Pacquiao, the brother of evangelical Sen. Emmanuel Pacquiao who is a known death penalty advocate himself, also filed House bills imposing the death penalty, focusing on the heinous crime of kidnapping and illegal detention, drug use and rape under HBs 1800, 1806 and 1807, respectively. Meanwhile, Muntinlupa City Rep. Rozzano Biazon zeroed in on the imposition of capital punishment on illegal drug traffickers and their cohorts. “There have been instances where the convicted trafficker continues to deal in the illegal drug trade even behind bars. They continue to profit from the misery of others, to the detriment of society, under a very secure base of operations — our prisons,” Biazon said. His stand was opposed by representatives from different government agencies, who sat as resource
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Sept. 24 PAKISTAN: Hospital employee gets death sentence for murdering colleague A model court on Monday sentenced a man to death for killing a fellow employee at a private hospital in Gulshan-e-Hadeed 2 years ago. The Malir district’s additional sessions judge awarded capital punishment to Rajesh alias Raju after he was found guilty of the murder charge. According to the prosecution, 25-year-old Nawab Din Channa, who worked as a receptionist at Saima Hospital in Gulshan-e-Hadeed, was stabbed to death by Rajesh, who had hidden his identity to avert arrest, on September 26, 2017. Police said that Nawab was sleeping on a bench when Rajesh attacked him with a dagger, stabbing him multiple times. The receptionist died due to excessive loss of blood. His body was later moved to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. His post mortem report stated that the victim was attacked with a sharp object and wounds were seen on his neck and chest. 7 hospital staffers were detained for interrogation and a CCTV footage of the murder also appeared on social media, showing a man attacking the receptionist while he was asleep. The accused was arrested after he withdrew cash from an ATM using the deceased’s bank account. According to the police, he took out Rs21,000. The suspect during interrogation confessed to the murder, saying that he was had personal enmity with the victim. (source: thenews.com.pk) ** Supreme Court Acquits 2 Life Sentence Convicts On Benefit Of Doubt The Supreme Court on Monday acquitted 2 life sentence convicts Faqir Ullah and Muhammad Ashraf, on benefit of doubt. The trial court had awarded capital punishment to Faqir Ullah and Muhammad Ashraf over murder of Sohail Aamir in Multan's area of Makhdoom Rashhed in 2002. The high court converted the death penalty into life imprisonment. A 3-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and comprising Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Faisal Arab heard the murder case in dispute of 2 parties through video link from the SC Lahore Registry. During the course of proceedings, the state prosecutor said that accused Faqir Ullah and Muhammad Ashraf had killed Sohail Aamir and threw his dead body into canal after packing it in a bag. Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa remarked that investigation officers informed court about joint recovery but they did not know that there was zero status of joint recovery before the courts. He observed that the investigation officers had less understanding about the law. He also observed that the witnesses recorded contradictory statements. He remarked that the case would have been stronger if police took finger prints of the deceased and motorcyclist. No record of the case has been disclosed and the prosecution failed to prove the case, he added. The court after hearing arguments suspended the decision of theLahore High Court and acquitted Faqir Ullah and Muhammad Ashrafon benefit of doubt. (source: urdupoint.com) IRAN: 3 Prisoners Transferred to Solitary Confinement for Execution At least 3 prisoners have been transferred to the solitary confinement of Rajai-Shahr prison in the Iranian city of Karaj for execution. According to IHR sources, At least three prisoners have been transferred to the solitary confinement of Rajai-Shahr in the Iranian city of Karaj for execution. IHR identified the prisoners as Ali Dravari, Mostafa Bakhti and Mojtaba Soleimani. All of them have been sentenced to death for murder. If they fail to win the consent of the plaintiffs, they would be executed. According to the Iranian Islamic Penal Code (IPC) murder is punishable by qisas which means “retribution in kind” or retaliation. In qisas cases, the plaintiff has the possibility to forgive or demand diya (blood money). In this way, the State effectively puts the responsibility of the death sentence for murder on the shoulders of the victim’s family. In many cases, the victim's family are encouraged to put the rope is around the prisoner's neck and even carry out the actual execution by pulling off the chair the prisoner is standing on. Executions are usually carried out on Wednesdays at Rajai-Shahr prison. (source: Iran Human Rights) IRAQ: Iraq to hang 9 convicted terrorists for deadly 2013 bombing of justice ministry An Iraqi court on Monday sentenced to death 9 people convicted of involvement in the bombing of the Justice Ministry 6 years ago. The so-called Islamic State had previously claimed responsibility for the March 2013 bombing that killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens. The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement that the “terrorists admitted during the trial that the attack was organized to target the largest number of victims and sabotage state institutions.” “The court sentenced those convicted to death by hanging in accordance with the provisions of Article
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Sept. 23 BANGLADESH: Bangladesh trying to bring back founder’s killerAfter 35 years of the murder, Bangladesh’s Apex court served capital punishment against 12 convicts A top Bangladeshi official claimed that a Canadian court’s verdict has cleared the way of dialogue between the two states over bringing back of a convicted killer of country’s founder from Canada as he has been reportedly absconding there for many years. “The verdict of the Canadian Federal Court is one step progress in the way of bringing back Nur Chowdhury [self-confessed and convicted killer of Bangladesh’s founding leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman],” Bangladesh’s Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq told in an exclusive interview with the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency on late Saturday. Canadian government earlier refused to return Chowdhury to Bangladesh as the Bangladeshi Apex court had already awarded capital punishment to him in his absence. Mujib was killed along with his wife and 3 sons including 10-year-old Sheikh Russell on Aug. 15, 1975 while his 2 daughters, incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, survived the carnage as they were then in abroad. After 35 years of the killing, 5 self-confessed killers — all former top army officials — were hanged to death in 2010 while one died of natural causes. The rest six convicts are still at large and Nur is 1 of them. Bangladesh government is trying to bring them home to execute the capital punishment. The ruling Awami League party also committed to hold trial of Mujib’s killers in its electoral manifesto in 2008. The minister said: “It [Canadian court’s verdict] also allowed disclosing Nur’s immigration status in Canada which was, earlier, closed by the Canadian government, saying that it was a shut case.'' “We can now exchange information with the Canadian government and give correct documents if Nur had given any wrong information to the Canadian authorities. We will try to utilize this opportunity to expedite the extradition process of Nur,'' the report quoted Huq as saying. Citing Nur’s latest situation in Canada, the minister added: “The Canadian government, earlier, used to tell us ‘There is capital punishment in your country. And you have already awarded him (Nur) that punishment. So, we will not handover him to you’. But we came to know that Nur was not given political asylum there rather his deportation was also postponed.” (source: aa.com.tr) INDONESIA: Police thwart attempt to smuggle 6,000 detonators in Indonesia Parepare Police in South Sulawesi have reportedly foiled an attempt to smuggle roughly 6,000 detonators out of South Sulawesi through Nusantara Port and arrested 3 individuals during the operation conducted on Friday. Those arrested have been identified only as AM, 39, from Boya Baliase village in Sigi regency in Central Sulawesi and AM, 59, and NA, 57, both from Kampoti village in Bone regency in South Sulawesi. The detonators were hidden under milk packages in 6 different sacks, Parepare Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Pria Budi explained, adding that the police were investigating where the detonators were to be sent and what for purpose. "We have yet to discover the real owner of the detonators, as the 3 arrested individuals are refusing to give up any information," Pria said as quoted by Antara. He said the 3 men could be charged under the 1951 Emergency Law on illegal firearm possession with a maximum punishment of the death penalty. (source: asiaone.com) KUWAIT: Hoshiarpur man gets death penalty in Kuwait<>P> Rajinder Singh, a resident of Taragarh village at Jalandhar Road, has been sentenced to death in Kuwait for drug trafficking. Rajinder’s family, calling him innocent, has requested the state as well as the Central Government to take up the matter with Kuwait to get him released. Rajinder had gone to Kuwait in 2016. He has been lodged in a jail since January. His father Baldev Singh said Rajinder (30), his only son, first went to Dubai in 2014 and returned soon. He left for Gulf again and landed in Doha Qatar. In January 2016, he once again shifted, this time to Kuwait where he worked in Savi. His visa was to expire in February 2019 so he was about to return. Here, his family was engaged in preparations for his marriage. In January, he went to Kuwait’s Kharbania town to stay with Sonu who too hails from Taragarh village. A few days later, the family received a call regarding Rajinder’s arrest. The family said Rajinder phoned them from jail to inform that on January 15, 2019, he was waiting at a station for his firm’s bus, along with his over 20 colleagues, to go to work when another man gave him his bag to handle for a while, claiming that he had forgotten something in his room. Assuring that he would return soon, he left and then police turned up and
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Sept. 22 CANADA: T.W. Paterson column: McLean brothers’ murderous rampage ended quietly “Shoot! you son of a ——-, shoot! I’m not afraid of an ounce of lead.”—condemned murderer Allen McLean. For those who are familiar with provincial criminal history, this summer’s murderous but, happily, brief rampage by 2 Island teenagers was an eerie echo of a similar outrage that dates back all of 140 years. That’s when the three McLean brothers, Allen, Charlie and Archie, and their friend Alex Hare, sought for stealing a prized stallion, cold bloodedly murdered Provincial Police Constable John Tannatt Ussher and an inoffensive shepherd then terrorized local ranchers before being captured after a dramatic shootout with a posse. It’s a story so oft-told I won’t go into further detail here; rather, I want to explore their final days in the B.C. Penitentiary, the tragic conclusion of their almost senseless crimes that could have had only one conclusion in that age of capital punishment. To do so I must introduce the anti-heroes of our tale: 25-year-old Allen McLean, leader, younger brothers Charlie, 17, Archie, 15, and friend Alex Hare, 17. All were the products of mixed-race marriages, the McLeans’ father having been a notorious firebrand who committed a murder of his own, and who, deadly with rifle, revolver and hunting knife, were said to be “the true product of a wild frontier existence”. They also have been described as being “of a wild, reckless disposition, and being good horsemen and capital shots [who] preferred enjoying a roving life to any settled employment.” But their roving life of horse and cattle rustling came to an abrupt end with their murders of Constable Ussher and shepherd Kelly, subsequent arrest, trial, conviction and sentence of death. The fact that Archie was only 15 cut no ice with the judicial system which, no doubt, was influenced by eyewitness testimony that it was he who’d delivered the coup de grace to the wounded Ussher. An appeal, based not on evidence of their guilt but on a legalistic and egotistical administrative joust between Attorney-General George Walkem and Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew Begbie (who hadn’t presided at their trial) caused a second trial and a year-long delay. Again, the verdict was guilty and, while awaiting their fate in the penitentiary beside the Fraser River, in New Westminster, they were anything but model prisoners. Their behaviour, until a month before execution, was described as “bad — characterized by one continued resistance to authority and defiance of discipline interspersed with small plots to escape, and exhibitions of a disposition to gratify a splenetic vein”. When Warden Moresby detected a knife up Allan’s sleeve, he had to disarm him at gunpoint. On another occasion when Moresby drew his revolver, Allan snarled, “Shoot! you son of a ——-, shoot! I’m not afraid of an ounce of lead.” The gang constantly upset prison quiet and routine with their whistling, cursing, shouting and dancing, behaviour that was dismissed by one journalist as an unseemly exhibition of bravado — “like that of little boys whistling in the dark to scare away the rats”. Further searches of their cells turned up knives, nails sharpened to fine points and the handle of a tin cup which had been flattened and ground to a sharp edge. These had been stowed away in rat holes. The possession of these weapons and Archie’s threatening to strike a guard with a bucket led to Moresby seeking special permission to chain them to the walls which finally succeeded in “cooling them down”. Why they didn’t just break out quietly is a mystery considering the pathetic state of the prison where, the Colonist complained, “Safety forms no prominent feature of [the] cells. The walls for seven inches from their bases are rotten — in fact they are nothing more or less than ‘plank’ and can be pulled to pieces with the fingers. Had the prisoners desired it they could have emerged from their confinement within a few hours by simply using the heels of their boots. One of the doors, it is said, fell off its hinges, the wood being too much decayed to sustain the strain[!]” Perhaps they were relying upon a plot they’d hatched to make their escape at almost the last minute — while being led to the scaffold. John Henry Makai, a “half breed” [sic] Kanaka serving two months for selling liquor to Indians, had volunteered to serve as executioner, a duty often performed by non-professionals. Makai’s “frequent importunities” for the unpleasant job made Moresby suspicious. Through an inmate informant he learned that Makai had arranged with the McLeans and Hare that, should he act as executioner, he’d “by some means secure possession of a knife and while pinioning [them] prior to their taking their position on the scaffold [he’d] cut the ropes almost through, leaving a few threads sufficient to maintain the ropes in their place
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Sept. 21 GREAT BRITAIN: An A-Z guide to the history of executionsFor centuries, capital punishment was part of everyday life, as shown by this alphabetical guide to a very British way of death. Writing for BBC History Revealed, historian Gavin Mortimer explores… A … is for ASPHYXIATION Hanging was the preferred method of execution in England from early Anglo- Saxon times, but it was neither efficient nor painless. Deaths were drawn out, with the condemned hanging until they suffocated. Over time, the method evolved, and in 1783 ‘new drop’ gallows were first used at London’s Newgate Prison, whereby the condemned – often many at a time – fell through a trapdoor. Around a century later came the ‘long drop’, where the prisoner’s height and weight were used to determine the length and rate of drop, to ensure a swift death from a broken neck rather than asphyxiation. B … is for BODY SNATCHERS A lucrative profession for criminals in 17th- and 18th-century Britain was body snatching. Freshly interred corpses would be dug up from cemeteries and sold, in most cases, to medical schools for anatomical study. Oddly, the snatching itself was not illegal, but dissecting a body was. That changed with the Anatomy Act of 1832, prompted by the trial of William Burke and his execution in 1829. He and his partner, William Hare, progressed from removing corpses to committing murder in their attempt to ensure a supply to sell to Edinburgh physician Robert Knox. Burke was hanged in front of 25,000 people. His corpse, fittingly, was dissected. C … is for CODE By the 19th century, some 222 crimes were defined as capital offences, including murder, robbery and impersonating a Chelsea pensioner. Even maiming a cow or being out at night with a blackened face was punishable by death, with the age, sex and mental health of the offender being deemed an irrelevance. So harsh was the penal code that it became known as the ‘Bloody Code’, and it wasn’t until 1861 that Parliament passed a bill de-capitalising minor crimes. After then, only four offences carried the death penalty: murder, arson in a royal dockyard, high treason and piracy with violence. D… is for DORCHESTER The English town takes an unexpectedly prominent part in the history of executions. It was there that Elizabeth Martha Brown became the last woman publicly executed in Dorset when she met her end in 1856. Her husband John had struck out at her and she retaliated by burying an axe in his head. Brown was hanged on 9 August in front of a few thousand onlookers. In the crowd was the 16-year-old Thomas Hardy, who drew on the experience when writing his classic novel, Tess of the d’Urbervilles. He later recalled: “I saw they had put a cloth over the face [and] how, as the cloth got wet, her features came through it. That was extraordinary.” Brown’s remains are believed to be among those of 50 executed prisoners found under the former Dorchester Prison, and which may be reinterred in Poundbury Cemetery. E… is for EXECUTIONER The pioneer of the ‘long drop’ in the 1870s was William Marwood, an executioner who was far more humane than his predecessor. The notorious William Calcraft had executed more than 450 people over the course of 45 years in the job and was reputed to enjoy seeing them suffer, sometimes prolonging their death throes to excite the crowd. The most prolific British executioner of the 20th century was Albert Pierrepoint, whose father and uncle were also hangmen. As many as 600 were despatched by him, including hundreds convicted of war crimes. He considered his work as “sacred” and the “supreme mercy”. F… is for FINAL WORDS Facing imminent death affected the condemned in different. ways. Some confessed their sins and asked for forgiveness; others maintained their innocence. James MacLaine, the ‘gentleman highwayman’, murmured only “Oh, Jesus” as he stood on the gallows in 1750. Others may have been eager for the end to be as swift as possible, such as the famous Elizabethan explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, who urged the executioner wielding the axe to “Strike, man, strike!”. As for the highwayman Isaac Atkinson, hanged in 1640, he addressed the crowd: “Gentlemen, there’s nothing like a merry life, and a short one.” G … is for GIBBETING While a gibbet can refer to the actual scaffold used for an execution, gibbeting was the grisly act of publicly displaying. the dead in human-shaped cages to serve as a warning. Even more gruesomely, prisoners could be encased alive in an iron gibbet and suspended from a beam to die of starvation and/or exposure. Gibbeting, also known as ‘hanging in chains’, was around since medieval times, but reached a peak in the mid-18th century. It was a fate that befell the pirate Captain William Kidd, whose body was displayed over the !ames at Tilbury Point in 1701 to make sailors think twice about turning to piracy. H … is for HEART THROB A native of
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Sept. 20 SUDAN: Sudan's sovereign council decides to drop death penalty against 8 militants Sudan's Sovereign Council on Thursday decided to drop the death penalty against 8 members of an armed group in Darfur. "The council decided to drop the death penalty against 8 members of Sudan's Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdul-Wahid Nur," Mohamed Al-Faki Suleiman, spokesman of the council, told reporters. According to him, the council also decided to release 18 prisoners of armed groups. He added that a committee assigned by the Sovereign Council has been in contact with the armed movements from Sudan's Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions to implement the agreement reached prior to a round of peace talks. On Sept. 11, Sudan's government and the armed groups signed a declaration of principle and agreed to hold peace talks on Oct. 14 to address the war issues in the country. The declaration was reached after talks held in South Sudan's capital Juba between representatives of the Sudan government and the armed groups, under a mediation initiative by South Sudan's president. The 2 sides also agreed to form specialized committees to arrange for the peace negotiations, follow up procedures of releasing the prisoners of war, as well as supervise measures of cessation of hostilities. (source: xinhuanet.com) PHILIPPINES: Reform or execution I have been wanting to write about the Bucor (Bureau of Corrections) controversy. There are questions in my mind that I have been meaning to ask because what I read in newspapers or online articles are never that complete. What I know for a fact is that controversy or scandal is a recurring event in New Bilibid Prison. The very place where criminals are imprisoned, both as a punishment and a way to protect the public from them – ironically appears to be a major headquarters for ongoing criminality around the country. It can even seem that there are no bigger organized crime organizations than the ones being run from the NBP. Reviewing historical events that have marked Bilibid as a persistent source of controversy or scandal, it is inevitable that we reach one conclusion. If major criminals can run their organizations from prison, then prison officials have either been neglectful or complicit. The latter is more probable. Constant neglect is easier to correct than systemic corruption – anywhere. The mess in Bilibid has not been corrected, but its corruption has been quite effective. If I had more time and inclination, I would do more detailed research of the thread of controversies and scandals that have accompanied the New Bilibid Prison in its long history. Fortunately, I have neither more time or inclination. What I remember is enough. And not so much about the details, but more of the bitter aftertaste. Somehow, when the gory details of corruption are momentarily forgotten, the filth sticks to the soul. What does one do when something has become an uncontrollable menace to society? Well, many leaders in government that are mandated to address the menace, like illegal drugs, simplify matters and push for the return of the death penalty. Even before the reinstatement of the death penalty, the official war on drugs by the national government is already very bloody. Like the New Bilibid Prison history, I do not have the time or inclination to research on the body count. Whether it is 10,000 or 30,000, is it really more important than the fact that people are killed? When the details are forgotten, the stink of blood is retained by the nostrils. My thoughts simply associate a solution that is copied from the official recommendation of the Executive Branch – the death penalty. Why not apply the death penalty to the New Bilibid Prison. If the corruption is more powerful than any appointee, why not execute the New Bilibid Prison? If no administration has the fortitude of waging a relentless and winnable war against an establishment and system that has become a monster, why not sentence it to death? If reform has become an impossibility, what other option is there? It is important to choose between reform or execution. Whichever direction we take will demand its own pathway, very different pathway. History, however, favors the death penalty in the case of the New Bilibid Prison. The rate of failure of reform is not only dismal, it is total. The monster has not been tamed, it has grown stronger and more innovative in corrupting the appointed reformers. It can even be speculated, from the long line of failed reformers, that the monster influences even the many layers of appointing powers. Reform is not impossible, but it is improbable considering everything. It is difficult to bring a crucial part of our society’s security on a path of improbability. Organized crime is supposed to be dismantled, not nurtured. Let us look at how it has been over the last several decades,
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Sept. 18 INDIA: Odisha: Death penalty for Salipur rape & murder accused A POCSO court today awarded death penalty to accused youth convicted in 2018 Salipur minor girl rape and murder case. Yesterday, the special POCSO Court, Cuttack, had convicted accused Mohammed Mustaque under sections 302, 363, 376 a-b of IPC and section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The accused had raped a 6-year-old girl near a school under Salipur police limits on April 21, 2018. He had crushed her head with a stone following rape. The girl was rushed to the SCB Medical College & Hospital in critical condition, where she succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment on April 29 last year. This is the 5th case in Odisha where the accused persons were sentenced to death for the heinous crime. (source: Odisha Sun Times) MALAYSIA: Nov 27 death penalty appeal for Banting man who sold medicinal cannabis The Court of Appeal has set November 27 to hear the appeal by a 30-year-old father who was sentenced to death for trafficking cannabis which he claimed was used for medicinal purposes. A 3-man panel comprising Justices Datuk Yaacob Md Sam, Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Datuk Lau Bee Lan fixed the hearing date when the matter came up before the court today. Earlier, Justice Yaacob granted an application by Muhammad Lukman Mohamad’s lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik to include two additional grounds in the petition of appeal. Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Nazran Mohd Sham did not object to the application. On August 30 last year, the Shah Alam High Court found Muhammad Lukman guilty on 3 charges of trafficking 3,010mm of delta 9 Tetrahydrocannabinol (cannabis extract), 1,422g of delta 9 Tetrahydrocannabinol and 279.81g of cannabis. He was accused of committing the offences at a house in Bandar Mahkota, Banting at 6.45pm on December 7, 2015. (source: malaymail.com) SRI LANKA: 2 Indian drug peddlers sentenced to life term in Sri Lanka 2 Indian nationals have been sentenced to life terms in Sri Lanka for drug peddling, police said on Wednesday. The 2 named Dhanivel Mani and Lebbai Jalaluddin Mohifeen Mohadeem have been held in Sri Lanka since 2016. They were sentenced by the Negombo High Court on Tuesday after they admitted to pedaling heroin, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said. They were arrested by the Sri Lanka Customs and handed over to the Police Narcotics Bureau. The sentencing came as President Maithripala Sirisena was contemplating action to renew the capital punishment for a drug-related crime. Sirisena's move was halted by the apex court in response to a petition filed by public interest activists. The President had signed 4 death warrants when the Supreme Court stayed the executions till October 30. Sirisena's decision came in spite of a UN moratorium on the death penalty which Sri Lanka has been a part of. All Sirisena's presidential predecessors since 1978 had declined to sign death warrants for capital punishment. The death sentence is commuted to life terms. Sirisena said he was compelled to reintroduce the death penalty related to drug crimes due to the growing menace of drugs. (source: Press Trust of India) PAKISTAN: SC converts death sentence of 7 accused into imprisonment The Supreme Court on Wednesday converted the death sentence of 7 murder accused into 10-year imprisonment. A trial court awarded capital punishment to 7 accused while 6 accused were awarded life sentence over murder of 2 brothers in Sialkot in 2010. The high court also maintained the trial court verdict. The incident took place in Sialkot in 2010 where an angry mob shot and killed 2 brothers Hafiz Muneeb and Hafiz Mughez by terming them bandits. The apex court also took suo moto notice over the incident. A 3-member Bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa comprising Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmad heard the case through video link from SC Lahore Registry. During the course of proceedings, the Chief Justice said that two stories were made in this case and 2 FIRs were registered. In first FIR injured persons were mentioned but in the second FIR no injured person was mentioned, he added. He said that these are disadvantages of the suo moto notices. He said that the State had the power to punish in case of any crime. If people had captured the robbers, they did not have authority to punish them, he added. He said that violence could not be allowed at all in society. If courts released accused, people would get a licence to torture, he added. The court after hearing the arguments converted death sentence of 7 accused and life imprisonment of 5 to 10 years imprisonment. Detailed judgment of the case will be issued later. (source: nation.com.pk) Shahid Afridi calls for public hanging of rapists Former
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Sept. 18 SOUTH AFRICA: Online petition calling for death penalty surges to over 580k in 2 weeks SIGNATURES on an online petition calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty now number nearly 600 000, despite Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola describing the campaign as flawed. The petition on Change.Org was started by Agent of Change and is addressed to the government of South Africa and President Cyril Ramaphosa. It was started 3 weeks ago following the murders of University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana; female karate and boxing champion Leighandre “Baby Lee” Jegels; Mitchell’s Plain pupil Janika Mallo; Pinetown Girls’ High School pupil Ayakha Jiyani; and her Lyndhurst Primary siblings Siphesihle, Khwezi and Kuhlekonke Mpungose. Lamola said last week the Constitution stated that everyone has the right to life following the Constitutional Court’s landmark judgment in the 1995 case of convicted killers Themba Makwanyane and Mvuso Mchunu. However, 2 weeks after the petition was started there were already 400 000 signatures and by last Saturday 580 000 people had registered their support, with the goal of getting 1 million signatures. A link to the petition has also been doing the rounds on local WhatsApp groups. While a constitutional law expert and Emeritus Professor at UKZN said he was personally opposed to the reinstatement of the death penalty, people in favour of its reinstatement had every right to be heard. “We are a democracy; they are entitled to organise, petition and lobby Members of Parliament to support them and help them persuade the ANC, which is strongly against the death penalty. “Every year under apartheid executions increased, but the number of homicides went up,” said Professor George Devenish, who was chairman of the local chapter for the abolition of the death penalty. Last Tuesday the IFP re-tabled its motion to debate in Parliament reinstating the death penalty. IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said yesterday they expected the debate to be held as and when the schedule allowed as outlined by the National Assembly’s programming committee. “We hope the signatures (on the petition) increase so that they can be a stamp of approval as a voice of the nation, because this is not just a political party thing but a societal thing,” he said. Oshnee Singh from Pietermaritzburg shared a link to the petition, which she had already signed, in a local crime discussion group. “Many of us are bearing the brunt of serious crimes with too relaxed punitive measures and these serious offences are increasing at an alarming rate. There is so much fear among citizens and that means no peace and harmony prevails any more,” she said. (source: iol.co.za) INDIA: Bengal lynching bill under governor scrutinyThe Congress and the Left bring the ‘grave irregularities’ to governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s notice The Mamata Banerjee government’s plan to pass a bill to prevent lynching in Bengal has come under the scanner of Raj Bhavan with the Congress and the Left bringing to governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s notice the “grave irregularities” and “legislative improprieties” in the procedure. The West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019, which has the provision of the death penalty, was passed in the Assembly on August 30. It is now awaiting the governor’s seal of approval. On Tuesday, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Congress MLA Abdul Mannan, and Left Legislature Party leader Sujan Chakraborty met the governor and sought his intervention. “It was indicated by them (the Opposition representatives) that the bill placed in the House on 30.8.2019 was different than the draft copy of the bill that was circulated amongst the members of the Assembly on 26 August, 2019, and the one to which the governor had recommended introduction,” a Raj Bhavan media release said. Senior bureaucrats said they could not recall an earlier instance of Raj Bhavan issuing a media release following a representation from the Opposition over a bill. The fact that the bill will face the scrutiny of Raj Bhavan was clear in the language of the release. “The governor, after hearing them, indicated that he would look into the available records and if required, would go through the proceedings of the Assembly, even thereafter, if a situation is occasioned, he would seek inputs from the Hon’ble Speaker and the advocate general,” said the release. Raj Bhavan sources said Dhankhar, a senior Supreme Court advocate, had expressed surprise when he was informed about the manner in which the bill was passed. “The government inserted the provision of the death penalty in the final bill, but the bill that had been circulated among the members had life imprisonment as the highest penalty. These changes were made without bringing in any amendment,” Chakraborty said. Mannan said that as the two
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Sept. 17 JAMAICA: Jamaican senator suggests resumption of death penalty by hanging, but is quickly shot down A Government senator has nudged the Andrew Holness administration to make changes to the law that will allow Jamaica to resume hanging, but that suggestion was quickly shot down by Justice Minister Delroy Chuck. Though the death penalty remains on the books, there have been no hangings in Jamaica since 1988. Hanging was halted in Jamaica following the 1993 landmark Pratt and Morgan ruling by the United Kingdom Privy Council that it is cruel and inhumane to hang an inmate who has been on death row for more than 5 years. Charles Sinclair, one of 13 government senators in the Upper House, made it clear on Friday that he is ready to support legislative amendments that would allow Jamaica “to fit within the UK Privy Council decision in Pratt and Morgan”. “If we have to establish special courts to fast-track and ensure that the hearings go through and persons are given justice, so be it,” he said during a debate in the Senate on a bill that provides significantly higher fines for offences contained in 40 laws that fall under the justice ministry. “Whatever the amendments that need to be made, I will support it,” declared Sinclair, a prominent criminal defence attorney, to applause from his colleagues. But his suggestion appears to be a non-starter with Chuck, who acknowledged that he is personally “against hanging”. “It is unlikely that Jamaica will resume it. That’s the present status, which we are unlikely to disturb”, the justice minister told The Gleaner yesterday. Asked if he saw any merit in Sinclair’s proposal, Chuck was blunt. “No,” he responded. But Sinclair, in revisiting the hot-button issue, recounted that the last time capital punishment was put to a conscience vote in Parliament, a majority of lawmakers supported it. “When you listen to the commentary across Jamaica, a lot of persons support it … but it is not being used at all.” (source: stabroeknews.com) BELARUS: Parliament hopes for Belarus' PACE special guest status restoration The Belarusian parliament may have its special guest status at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in the nearest future, Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus Vladimir Andreichenko said in an interview to the Belarus 1 TV channel on 16 September, BelTA has learned. In January 1997, Belarus lost its special guest status at the PACE. Its absence, however, does not hinder the country to develop cooperation with this international organization, the speaker of the House of Representatives said. “I would say it restraints to some extent but does not hinder. The main issue is the abolition of death penalty. This, however, does not mean we do not cooperate with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. I think we will have our status in this parliamentary organization restored in the near future,” Vladimir Andreichenko said. In his words, Belarusian MPs are regularly invited to attend meetings of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy. The committee is expected to sit in early October to discuss the elections in Belarus. The Council of Europe is a European intergovernmental organization comprising 47 states. It was established on 5 May 1949 and is headquartered in Strasbourg. The Belarusian delegation received a so-called special guest status at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in September 1992. In March 1993 Belarus applied for membership to the Council of Europe. In January 1997 the status was suspended. Nevertheless, cooperation with the Council of Europe continues in a number of areas. According to representatives of the organization, the main obstacle towards the restoration of the special guest status is the issue of death penalty. (source: belta.by) TUNISIA: Tunisia election: Outsider in lead stuns after most votes countedWith 2/3 votes in presidential race counted, conservative constitutional law professor Kais Saied takes the lead. Law professor and political outsider Kais Saied is leading Tunisia's presidential polls with 2/3 of the votes counted, the electoral commission said, after the country's 2nd free vote for head of state since the 2011 Arab Spring. Saied was on 18.9 % on Monday night, ahead of imprisoned media magnate Nabil Karoui, who was on 15.5 %, according to the electoral commission, ISIE. Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, a presidential hopeful whose popularity has been tarnished by a sluggish economy and the rising cost of living, could well turn out to be the election's biggest loser. ISIE figures showed him in 5th place with 7.4 % of the vote, trailing both Ennahdha party candidate Abdelfattah Mourou and former defence minister Abdelkarim Zbidi. "The anti-system strategy has won," ISIE member Adil Brinsi told
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Sept. 16 JAMAICA: Fix law to resume hanging – Sinclair A Government senator has nudged the Andrew Holness administration to make changes to the law that will allow Jamaica to resume hanging, but that suggestion was quickly shot down by Justice Minister Delroy Chuck. Though the death penalty remains on the books, there have been no hangings in Jamaica since 1988. Hanging was halted in Jamaica following the 1993 landmark Pratt and Morgan ruling by the United Kingdom Privy Council that it is cruel and inhumane to hang an inmate who has been on death row for more than 5 years. Charles Sinclair, one of 13 government senators in the Upper House, made it clear on Friday that he is ready to support legislative amendments that would allow Jamaica “to fit within the UK Privy Council decision in Pratt and Morgan”. “If we have to establish special courts to fast-track and ensure that the hearings go through and persons are given justice, so be it,” he said during a debate in the Senate on a bill that provides significantly higher fines for offences contained in 40 laws that fall under the justice ministry. “Whatever the amendments that need to be made, I will support it,” declared Sinclair, a prominent criminal defence attorney, to applause from his colleagues. But his suggestion appears to be a non-starter with Chuck, who acknowledged that he is personally “against hanging”. “It is unlikely that Jamaica will resume it. That’s the present status, which we are unlikely to disturb”, the justice minister told The Gleaner yesterday. Asked if he saw any merit in Sinclair’s proposal, Chuck was blunt. “No,” he responded. But Sinclair, in revisiting the hot-button issue, recounted that the last time capital punishment was put to a conscience vote in Parliament, a majority of lawmakers supported it. “When you listen to the commentary across Jamaica, a lot of persons support it ... but it is not being used at all.” (source: Jamaica Gleaner) SWITZERLAND: How a Montreux bank heist led to calls for the death penalty A deadly bank robbery carried out by two Russians in Montreux in 1907 resulted in public outcry and heavy prison sentences In the early 1900s Switzerland was rocked by a wave of terror incidents by anarchists. A bank heist carried out by 2 Russians in Montreux in 1907, in which a bank clerk was shot dead, led to public calls for the death penalty. On the morning of September 18, 1907, the town of Montreux on Lake Geneva was the scene of dramatic incidents straight out of a gangster movie. Two men sprint down Avenue du Kursaal. “Stop them, stop them!” cry passers-by. A postal employee, Auguste Vuilliamoz, manages to throw one of them down to the ground; the other takes off “like a rabbit”, according to an eyewitness. Shots ring out Jules Favre, a notary, courageously blocks the fugitive’s way. But the man takes out a gun and shoots Favre in the leg, then sprints off again. A hairdresser, Georges Bär, who comes out of his shop meets the same fate – he too is shot. In Schopfergasse, a coachman, Octave Pittet, tries to stop the man. Another shot rings out followed by a scream. Pittet falls to the ground with a bullet in his stomach. The locksmith Alfred Nicklès fearlessly takes up the pursuit. He is more fortunate, as a bullet only grazes him. Finally, the police arrive. The fugitive has run out of bullets and he is arrested in Mrs Terribilini’s henhouse. At the police station, the two detainees refuse to talk. However, the police are convinced that they are Russian anarchists. Meanwhile, at the Banque de Montreux, Oskar Gudel, a cashier, is lying dead in a pool of blood. An eyewitness recounts how the robbers entered the bank to change money. While Gudel was counting the money, one of the robbers shot him in the head, the other one rushed to the open safe and stuffed cash into a cloth bag hanging from his neck. Then they took off. The bank director, who was informed by telephone, is outraged: “Poor man!” he says, with tears in his eyes. “Poor Gudel! He was such a decent young man!” Narrowly escaped lynching That evening, the police transfer the criminals to Lausanne to be identified. They have a hard time protecting the men from a crowd of several hundred Montreux locals threatening to lynch them. In Lausanne, anger is brewing too, and the officers protecting the prisoners are assaulted. “Like in Russia,” says the La Liberté newspaper on its front page the next day. As well as giving the details of the Montreux drama, the paper runs an interview with the postal worker, who helped catch one of the criminals. “A dodgy looking individual with a gangster-like face was running towards me on the other side of the road. Without hesitation, I threw myself at him and was able to stop him. The witnesses who told me what had happened arrived shortly afterwards. One of them – a worker carrying an iron pole – was so outraged
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Sept. 15 IRAQ: They Left to Join ISIS. Now Europe Is Leaving Their Citizens to Die in Iraq.A Belgian fighter captured in Syria was transported to Iraq to face trial. He's now on death row. There was no other way out. After months under siege in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the Belgian Islamic State member Bilal al-Marchohi decided to escape. He fled his post as a religious police officer at the break of dawn on August 29, 2017, and ran with his wife and son to the closest enemy checkpoint. With his arms up, he handed himself over to the Kurdish militants in the hope of eventually being repatriated to Belgium. The family was immediately separated, and his spouse and child were transferred to a nearby Islamic State relatives camp. Along with other jihadi comrades, al-Marchohi was driven to a prison near the city of Tabqa, where he was interrogated by U.S. officials on his role in the organization, his closest companions, and on weaponry manufacturing. The 23-year-old jihadi told them he used to attend the Friday prayers at De Koepel mosque in Antwerp, whose imam, Youssef, ended up joining the fight in Syria. Al-Marchohi waited until he turned 18 to cross the Turkish-Syrian border with his girlfriend and other acquaintances, first joining the Nusra Front and later deserting to the Islamic State, after internal clashes erupted within the armed opposition brigades. U.S. soldiers took him to Kobani in northern Syria and from there to Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan by helicopter, he recalls. “I was alone. I stayed there for 2 months and I went crazy. It was very hard. … Because of the strong lights, I was not able to sleep,” al-Marchohi told Foreign Policy in an exclusive interview. The Belgian was one of the first jihadis transferred by the U.S. army from Syria to Iraq after the liberation of Raqqa, as part of a series of renditions, during which at least 3 other European citizens were handed over to the Iraqi judiciary. The Belgian was one of the first jihadis transferred by the U.S. army from Syria to Iraq after the liberation of Raqqa, as part of a series of renditions, during which at least three other European citizens were handed over to the Iraqi judiciary, possibly in contravention of international law. “I even met the Belgians there and I cooperated with them,” he said, referring to Belgian intelligence agents. “They told me: ‘We will take you to the local government now, and you will wait to see the judge and maybe you go back to Belgium, maybe not.’” But al-Marchohi wasn’t repatriated; instead he was escorted from Erbil to Baghdad, where he was delivered to Iraqi counterterrorism forces and subjected to a new, harsher round of interrogations. Western governments are generally reluctant to facilitate the repatriation of Islamic State militants. After the departure of more than 5,000 European citizens, European countries don’t wan’t to deal with the returnees file. “Except Germany, no other European country is interested in the return of their citizens accused of being Daesh members,” claimed Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi researcher who briefs officials on jihadi group dynamics. “Western countries don’t have a policy for jihadi returnees, they are not ready for their arrival. … And if they get a death penalty in Iraq, they will be thankful,” he says. The issue of repatriation would also require consensus across the European Union from a security perspective. If a returnee enters the Schengen Area, all of that territory would be at risk because of free movement. A returned Belgian could strike in Spain. Bringing Islamic State members back also exposes a judicial weakness; a lack of evidence could lead to short prison sentences, and jihadis might only serve three- to five-year jail terms before they are back on the streets. If a terrorist attack were perpetrated by a repatriated fighter in coming years, the political party that approved their return would face devastating consequences. Al-Marchohi has become a pawn in this international political chess match—rejected by his own nation and subject to the judicial system of one where he has never lived. He claims Iraqi officers fabricated a confession to show he could therefore be tried under Iraqi jurisdiction. “They wrote that I got arrested in Mosul, and forced me to put my fingerprints on it,” he explains, despite the fact that he surrendered in Raqqa. An investigative judge examined this evidence and passed his case on to a criminal court. It was not until a year later that al-Marchohi attended his first hearing, at Rusafa court in Baghdad. In front of three magistrates, confined in a wooden cage, the Belgian got a court-appointed defense lawyer with whom he couldn’t communicate before the trial. During the third hearing, with Belgian consular officials in attendance, he was sentenced to death by hanging for “belonging to a terrorist organization and his involvement
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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
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Sept. 13 UGANDA: Museveni orders death penalty for convicted murderers in Uganda after brutal killing of nephew President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda wants the death penalty activated in cases of crime following the killing of his nephew There is a proposition from the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, for the courts of the land to mete out equal measures of punishments to persons who have perpetrated crimes, especially convicted murderers. In a statement made on his official Twitter page, the president laid the blame at the feet of the country’s law enforcement agencies for what he described as their unprofessionalism at tackling crimes in the country. The president made the statement in reference to the recent rise in violent crimes in the country, one of which claimed the life of his nephew, Joshua Rushegyera, reports Reuters. In 2015, while attending a Judges’ Conference in the capital, Entebbe, the president called on the judges implement the death penalty instead of the unnecessarily lenient judgments they pass on murderers. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that today, he is calling for the same punishments to be handed out to people who kill others. The Reuters reports that crimes have soared, from killings to violent robberies and kidnappings for ransom, and these have stoked widespread public anger. The most recent cases have prompted the president to rehash his call for the death penalty to be activated in cases of crimes. In Uganda, death is the maximum penalty for a range of crimes, including murder, treason and defilement, however, executions have been rare. Last week, the nephew of the president was found lying on his back on the tarmac on an expressway near the capital, dead from gunshot wounds. His body was found near his parked vehicle where a woman, also dead from gunshot wounds, was in the back seat. In the other recent case, the bodies of a woman working for a local non-governmental organization and her driver were found dumped in a swamp just east of the capital, Kampala. Their bodies were found two days after they were kidnapped in their own vehicle outside the gate of the woman’s home. On that particular case, President Museveni laid the blame at the feet of police officers, accusing them of negligence and for not acting swiftly in using a recently installed CCTV system to trace and save them. He has accordingly directed the arrest and trial of the officers on that case who were found to be negligent, pending their dismissal if found guilty. “You may commit a crime, carelessly taking away the lives of others; however, you will also lose your own life,” Museveni said in a statement. “It must be an eye for eye”, reports Bloomberg. According to the president, the country will introduce measures such as digital registration of all vehicles and motorcycles so that their movements are electronically tracked. “We need to work on the courts,” Museveni said in his statement. President Museveni attended the 2015 Judges’ Conference in Kampala where he also advocated for the death penalty to be implemented The Ugandan police, who have also denied corruption claims levelled against them by the public, have said that murders in the country have mainly been conducted by people riding motorcycles. “Those people who willfully kill others should be sentenced to death and hanged under the law,” President Museveni stated in 2015 while speaking with judges in the country. (source: face2faceafrica.com) THAILAND: Thai man convicted of murdering family, sentenced to die A Thai provincial court yesterday convicted and sentenced a 37-year-old man for murdering 5 family members – including his pregnant wife. An Uttaradit court on Wednesday condemned Weerapol Pin-amorn to die for murdering his wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law and cousins. He can appeal his case to the Supreme Court. Weerapol was arrested in January while attempting to flee the country following the brutal incident. Upon his capture, police said he confessed to the five murders. Prior to the murders, the gunman said he had been fighting with Kanyarat Kingkaew, his pregnant wife, and her family over possessions after they’d broken up that day. Chilling CCTV footage emerged to show the moment Weerapol shot his wife and father-in-law. The 2 victims, lying on the ground, could be seen crawling towards one another before dying in each other’s arms. Last year Thailand carried out its 1st execution since 2009, prompting criticism by rights groups who had hoped the country was moving toward abolishing the practice. Debates around capital punishment started again last month when two Myanmar migrant workers sentenced to death for the brutal murder of a pair of British backpackers in Thailand lost their final appeal. (source: coconuts.co) MALAYSIA: 2013 cosplay killer has death sentence reversed on appeal Poon Wai Hong
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Sept. 12 SCOTLAND: Over 41 % of Scots would like return of death penalty A poll for the Times has found that 1.8 million Scots would support the reintroduction of death penalties for murderers. According to a YouGov poll for The Times questioning 1,059 Scots, 41 % of the population, or 1.8 million people, would support the death penalty for murderers being reintroduced. A marginally higher percentage of the population, 44 % of Scots, would continue to oppose the death penalty, whilst 15 % of voters were unsure. The poll indicated that those who were more likely to back state execution were people who voted Leave in the 2016 EU referendum and older people, by 65 % and 54 % respectively. A previous poll by YouGov from 2017 showed that 53 % of Leave voters UK-wide wanted to revive the death penalty, which is 12 % less than Leave voters in Scotland this year. Scottish citizens who backed Yes in the 2014 Independence referendum and Unionist were slightly less supportive, with the former polling at 44 % and the latter voting 42 %. Although Scotland tops European rates of imprisonment, several reforms have been put in place to support reintegration and rehabilitation, including the vote against ineffective short prison sentences of 12 months or less which MSPs voted on in June this year, which aims to increase more effective methods of both addressing offending and rehabilitation, like Community Payback Orders (CPOs). The last man hanged in Scotland was Henry John Burnett, who was sentenced to death by the high court in Aberdeen for the murder of merchant seaman Thomas Guyanat and was executed in 1963 at HM Prison in Aberdeen, aged 21. (source: The Scotsman) MALAYSIA: Malaysian man escapes gallows over death of teenage girl A 29-year-old man has escaped the gallows over the death of a teenage girl after his murder charge was reduced by the Malaysian Court of Appeal on Thursday (Sep 12). Poon Wai Hong was sentenced to death by a High Court in April last year for causing the death of 15-year-old Ms Ng Yuk Tim, a cosplay enthusiast. The Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that Poon should instead be sentenced to 22 years' jail after his murder charge was reduced to one of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. His jail term will start from the date of his arrest on Oct 22, 2013, the court added. Justice Kamardin Hashim, chairing a three-member bench, said the court found merits in Poon's appeal and set aside the death sentence. He was convicted of causing Ms Ng's death at a house at Kampung Cempaka in Kelana Jaya between 3pm and 4pm on Oct 21, 2013. Poon’s lawyer Rajpal Singh told the High Court in April last year that Ms Ng had gone to the house to get help with some cosplay costumes. He said that Poon had intended to have sex with Ms Ng but a friend had interrupted the duo, causing him to leave the house. When Poon returned, Ms Ng did not want to have sex anymore, which sparked a fight. Mr Singh said that Poon had tried to stop Ms Ng from shouting during the altercation. After she bit his hand, Poon pushed her away to prevent her from attacking him with a stun gun, the lawyer claimed. Poon said that after retrieving his spectacles that had fallen to the ground, he saw Ms Ng lying motionless on the floor after falling and hitting her head on a dumbbell. Mr Singh said Poon panicked and stuffed Ms Ng's body in a luggage bag instead of calling the authorities. DNA evidence showed that Ms Ng’s blood was found on the ring of the dumbbell but the handle of the dumbbell did not have Poon's DNA, Mr Singh added. During mitigation for a lower jail sentence, the lawyer told the court that his client was remorseful and had apologised to Ms Ng’s family. Deputy public prosecutor Nurshafini Mustafha argued that there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence that Poon had murdered Ms Ng. She said the deceased was 15 years old at the time, and she urged the court to consider that there was a loss of life as well as the way her body was disposed of. Ms Nurshafini told reporters that the prosecution would be appealing to the Federal Court. (source: channelnewsasia.com) * Bill to abolish mandatory death penalty tabled at next meeting The bill to abolish the mandatory death penalty will tentatively be tabled at the next parliamentary meeting, which begins on October 7 and runs until December 5, said Liew Vui Keong. The de facto law minister said it is in line with Pakatan Harapan’s election promise to do away with mandatory death penalty. (source: themalaysianinsight.com) INDIA: Gadkari cites death penalty for rape to defend new traffic rules, says fines aimed to save lives A day after a BJP-ruled state -- Gujarat -- itself slashed the traffic fines under the amended Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said that states
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Sept. 11 IRANexecution Prisoner Hanged in Borujerd CityThe execution has not been announced by the Iranian authorities or media so far. A prisoner was executed almost a month ago at a prison in Lorestan province, Iran. The execution has not been announced by the Iranian authorities or media so far. According to IHR sources, on the morning of August 7, 2019, a prisoner hanged at the central prison of the Iranian city of Borujerd, Lorestan province. His name was revealed as Toranj Feizi, 37. He was arrested four years ago and sentenced to death for a murder charge. 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. (source: Iran Human Rights) SINGAPORE: Man gets death penalty for trafficking heroin A 59-year-old man was sentenced to death in the High Court after being found in possession of 52.75 g of diamorphine, also known as heroin, for the purpose of drug trafficking. Justice Aedit Abdullah, in judgment grounds issued on Monday, held that the case against Sulaiman Jumari had been proven beyond reasonable doubt. He found that Sulaiman had control over the room where he had been arrested and no one else would have had access to it, and the elements of the charge had been made out by the prosecution. Sulaiman had been nabbed by Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) officers while alone in a rented room in Lorong 39 Geylang on June 23, 2016. The drugs, contained in 22 packets, were recovered from a wardrobe, a bedside table and a bed in the room. At issue were three packets containing 49.86g of heroin inside a wardrobe drawer that did not have his DNA on them, unlike other exhibits. Sulaiman did not dispute possession of the other packets containing 2.89g of heroin recovered from the bedside table. But he claimed he did not know the three packets with 49.86g of heroin were in his room. The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for the death penalty if the amount trafficked exceeds 15g. He said other people had access to the room, including on the day he was arrested, and the packets could have been placed in the wardrobe drawer without his knowledge. His defence lawyers, led by Mr Anand Nalachandran, further argued that the statement he gave at the time of his arrest should not be admitted, or it should be given minimal weight, alleging that Sulaiman had been induced to give it. But the prosecution led by Deputy Public Prosecutor April Phang said Sulaiman had admitted clearly, in the statement he gave shortly after the drugs were discovered in his room, that the drugs in the three packets belonged to him, and he knew they contained heroin and were meant both for smoking and for sale. Among other things, when asked by CNB officers if he had anything to surrender as he was placed under arrest, Sulaiman said "three" and gestured at the wardrobe. A search revealed the 3 packets. The prosecution noted the drug trafficking paraphernalia found together with the quantity of drugs showed he meant to sell drugs. Justice Aedit said no evidence was presented during the 11-day trial to support Sulaiman's version that the packets had been put in the wardrobe by someone else. "For someone to have left the (3 packets) there without his knowing of it was beyond any reasonable belief," said the judge. He also found that Sulaiman's statement at the time of arrest was not given as a result of any inducement or any adverse conditions. Sulaiman, having been convicted, faces the death penalty unless he was a courier who had given substantive help to the authorities or was found to have mental abnormalities. "As the accused was found to have had the drugs for sale, he did not qualify for the alternative sentencing regime, and accordingly the death sentence was passed against him," said Justice Aedit. (source: straitstimes.com) PHILIPPINES/SYRIA: Manila hails conviction of Filipina’s murderer in Syria Filipino authorities said on Tuesday that justice has finally been served in the case of an overseas worker after her Syrian employer was found guilty of her murder in Kuwait last year. The body of 29-year-old Joanna Demafelis was found stuffed in a freezer at an abandoned apartment. The Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that a Syrian district criminal court had found Mouna Ali Hassoun guilty of her murder, with a prison sentence ranging from 8-15 years expected. “We welcome the news, which means that
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Sept. 10 INDIA: Odisha man gets death sentence for rape & murder A POCSO court in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district today awarded death penalty to a person for raping and murdering a minor girl, last year. The convict has been identified as Kalia Manna alias Laba. According to reports, Laba had raped and murdered a minor girl in Gadaharishpur village under Erasama police limits in the district on March 21, last year. Acting on a complaint lodged by the family members of the deceased, police had arrested Laba and forwarded him to court. Adjudicating the case, the court today pronounced capital punishment for him. (source: Odisha Sunt Times) VIETNAM: Mass killings in Vietnam ‘a cancer of the soul’ Inequality, poverty and a cultural normalization of violence are major factors behind increasing incidence of mass killings in Vietnam, experts say. On September 1, the nation was appalled and aghast as a middle-aged man coolly and remorselessly hacked four people to death in public view. The atrocity occurred in the capital city’s Dan Phuong District and its perpetrator was a 53-year-old man driven to murder by a dispute over 0.5 square meters of land. After spending a sleepless night brooding over the dispute regarding land that he had inherited with his younger brother, Dong took a knife and went on a stabbing spree. Younger brother Nguyen Van Hai and his daughter were killed on the spot. His wife and 1-year-old granddaughter were taken to the hospital and died there. His daughter-in-law is in critical condition at present. Only Hai’s son, who had met Dong the night before, managed to run away, unscathed physically. Lieutenant-Colonel Dao Trung Hieu, an expert in criminal psychology at the Ministry of Public Security, said Dong’s behavior was driven by his own violent temper as well as negative social influences. In several interviews given to the local media, Hieu said the murders were rooted in greed and self-interest in an increasingly materialistic society, which is also destroying traditional family values and ties. Serious degeneration Massacres, murders and violence of different degrees are occurring in Vietnamese society because social ethics is degenerating seriously, he said, adding, "Some call it cancer of the soul." Last year, 31-year-old Ly Dinh Khanh, who had earlier served 3 years in prison for child rape, again attempted to rape a neighbor, failed, and went on to kill her and 3 other people related to her in northern Cao Bang Province. In the same year, 18-year-old Nguyen Huu Tinh on February 13 killed 5 people in his employer’s family to avenge a scolding he had received. Hieu laid the blame at a materialistic approach to life that was exacerbated by socio-economic issues stemming from it. The gap between the rich and the poor, unemployment and other social problems make many people feel frustrated and stuck, and they are easily influenced by gangs and other negativities, especially through the Internet, he said. "A person with a good job and income is unlikely to use violence to solve conflicts, or kill and rob others," he said. Robberies and murders (robbers have killed whole families when caught in the act) account for many serious killings in the country. Other major causes include family and romantic conflicts, road rage, mental problems and drugs. On May 25, in Lam Dong Province, 48-year-old Nghiem Thi Nhi killed 3 people (an old woman and her 2 grandchildren) for revenge. On the 15th, 16th and 17th of the same month, in Hanoi and Vinh Phuc Province, 38-year-old Do Van Binh killed 2 men in a fit of road rage, and went on to kill an ex-girlfriend and injured another because of perceived hurt feelings. Many perpetrators of multiple killings are young people. Hieu said that even youth without previous criminal records have acted viciously, showing that they are unstable, imbalanced and insecure in life. Young people can also easily absorb toxic influences, play violent games and develop the habit of using violence to deal with ordinary conflicts. For this, Hieu said, the educational system and the family as an institution are to blame. At school, children are crammed with academic knowledge, but barely taught living skills. At home, parents are too wrapped up with making a living, and don’t pay attention to their children, and set bad examples of indifference and selfishness which children internalize. The massacres in recent years have happened across the country, from remote mountainous provinces in the north such as Lao Cai and Yen Bai, to southern metropolises like HCMC and Binh Duong Province, which have "complex growing populations" with significant immigration. Hieu said that financial distress was a particularly important factor in poor remote areas where people can feel deeply frustrated and even trivial conflicts in daily life may break out into full-blown violence.
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Sept. 9 SOUTH AFRICA: Death penalty no deterrent to crime, says expert Bringing back the death penalty would be the same as recreating past injustices and targeting predominantly poor people. This is according to rape and violence law expert Lisa Vetten, who told the Pretoria News that reinstating the death penalty would be hard from a legal point of view due to the fact that it was unconstitutional. Calls for the death penalty multiplied last week following increased reports of femicide in the country, with the most recent outcry coming after UCT student Uyinene Mrwetyana was sexually assaulted and brutally murdered. “There is no research to substantiate or support the idea that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime or violence. If we want to do it for vengeful or retributory reasons we have to really ask ourselves if that kind of stance isn’t part of the reason why we have a problem of violence and crime in SA anyway.” She said using violence to address the scourge of crime in the country was not the way to go. “We already have a problem of violence in the country, and in this instance even if it is legally state-sanctioned murder, it is still violence. (source: Pretoria News) ** Serjeant at the Bar: Can the death penalty assist in reducing the current levels of violent crime? With a generally incompetent police force, and very limited detective and DNA capacity, the death penalty will do little to protect those who live in this country, writes Serjeant at the Bar. It is hardly surprising that calls have been made for the reinstatement of the death penalty in the wake of the recent horrendous murders of young women. Indeed, it is understandable that the public is desperate for any possible solution to the ever-increasing violence, particularly against women and children. The criminal justice system has failed the country abysmally at the very time that any scintilla of social cohesion has disappeared. While no justification for the gross inhumanity perpetrated on a daily basis, in these latest cases against young women with their lives full of promise cut short so savagely, we are truly reaping the harvest of more than 300 years of violence which manifested itself systemically on the basis of race and gender. Twenty-five years into constitutional democracy, and the violence has only intensified. It should not be forgotten that unemployment, even on a conservative estimate is 29%. The geography of our cities have hardly transformed from their apartheid formats and millions live in the same squalor and despair as characterised life before 1994. Patriarchy is still dominant and populist forms of politics seek to divide between us and them – vide the xenophobia engulfing Johannesburg at present. The past 10 years have eviscerated the competence of key institutions, including the National Prosecuting Authority and the police service, which has never been able to transform itself from its repressive past into the key guardian of the safety of 58 million people. I mention all of this, albeit briefly, to focus attention on the key question – can the reinstatement of the death penalty serve the purpose claimed for it by those who now wish it to return? In other words, can the death penalty assist in reducing the current levels of violent crime? Comparative research on this issue is not particularly helpful. In 2012, the National Research Council in the USA published a report on the available research at that time. Of particular relevance was the following passage: "The relevant question about the deterrent effect of capital punishment is the differential or marginal deterrent effect of execution over the deterrent effect of other available or commonly used penalties, specifically, a lengthy prison sentence or one of life without the possibility of parole. One major deficiency in all the existing studies is that none specify the non-capital sanction components of the sanction regime for the punishment of homicide. Another major deficiency is the use of incomplete or implausible models of potential murderers' perceptions of and response to the capital punishment component of a sanction regime. Without this basic information, it is impossible to draw credible findings about the effect of the death penalty on homicide." In 2014, Franklin Zimring - a famous criminologist - took the debate further by analysing the effect of the death penalty in Singapore and Hong Kong. He and his co-researchers found that Singapore had an execution rate close to 1 per million per year until an explosive twentyfold increase in 1994-95 and 96 to a level that we show was probably the highest in the world. Then over the next 11 years, Singapore executions dropped by about 95%. Hong Kong, by contrast, has no executions during the last generation and abolished capital punishment in 1993. Homicide levels and trends are
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Sept. 8 IRAN: 38 People Executed in August 2019The actual number of executions may be even higher than reported. At least 38 people were executed in August 2019 in Iran. In sum, between January 1 and August 31, 2019, at least 185 people have been executed in the country. The number shows an increase compared to the same period last year. According to the Iran Human Rights statistic department, at least 38 people were executed in August 2019 in Iran, including 2 public hangings and 36 executions inside prisons. Most of those executed (30), were sentenced to qisas (retribution in kind) for murder charges. 6 others were executed for drug-related charges and 2 for Moharebeh (waging war against God). Iranian officials or media have only announced 13 executions in August 2019. The rest were confirmed by Iran Human Rights (IHR). Only unannounced executions confirmed by two independent sources are included in our reports. Therefore, the actual number of executions may be even higher than reported. The number of executions in August 2019 shows a rise compared with the same period last year. In August 2018, at least 20 people were executed in Iran. Moreover, 185 people have been executed between January 1 and August 31, 2019. This figure also shows a rise compare to the same period last year which 165 executions were recorded. (source: Iran Human Rights) SOUTH AFRICA: The state has no business administering the death penalty Neither the death penalty, nor a state of emergency can curb the savage violence that society appears to have licensed. Only a restoration of values and an effective state can, writes Ebrahim Fakir. The past few days have seen renewed calls for the reintroduction of capital punishment and the imposition of a "state of emergency" in response to the wanton brutality, criminality and impunity of the recurrently xenophobic, but more properly, generalised criminal violence and theft. The long scourge of brutal rape of and violence against women, which culminated this past week in the rape and murder of Uyinene Mrwetyana have intensified these calls. The death penalty and a state of emergency are considered by some of its proponents locally as an antidote to the inability of authorities to effectively police recurrent outbreaks of criminal looting and xenophobic violence and the seemingly constant savage criminality that South Africans have to live with. Those who want the imposition of capital punishment or the declaration of a state of emergency believe that it will also serve to curb the scourges that society's public morality and civic ethics have failed to contain and miraculously restore them. Surprisingly, calls for both feign ignorance of South Africa's horrendous apartheid past, which eroded all sense of public ethics but worse, when these were used - not as instruments of effective policing and social control, but - as instruments of political oppression and socio-economic marginalisation and exclusion. My concern here is two-fold. Apart from being inhumane and ineffective, capital punishment is premised on a society anchored in unmediated vengeance, victimisation and retribution rather than reconciliatory rehabilitation. Apart from the moral problematic, the administration of capital punishment and its utility as a deterrent is entirely dependent on capable and effective policing and the efficient administration of justice. States of emergencies extend the power of the repressive instruments of the state in extraordinary ways, which, to be a means for the restoration of social order, requires reasonable levels of state capacity, especially in the criminal justice cluster. This can't be said of South Africa at present, which would render both these measures moot, except to entrench the well-known impunity with which an incapable, inept and corrupted security establishment behaves and further license the impudent unaccountability of the political class in charge of them. For good reason, capital punishment was scrapped in 1995. Instrumentally, the re-imposition of capital punishment will require a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly and the support of six of the nine provinces in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). This implies that six of the nine provinces will need to resolve in favour of capital punishment at provincial level and instruct their delegations to the NCOP to support a resolution in favour of it. This is an unlikely prospect. But the elaborate and practical legislative process impediment ought to be less serious a consideration. The values of society and the use of these instruments as effective modes of deterring criminal barbarism and social control are. On this score, the evidence is that in South Africa this is unlikely to be prudent, or effective. Globally, there is no proof that capital punishment is effective as a deterrent to abhorrent violent
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Sept. 7 IRELAND: Irish Legal Heritage: The Manchester Martyrs On 18 September 1867, Police Sergeant Charles Brett was shot dead while transporting prisoners, including 2 members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), from Manchester police court to Bell Vue Gaol. Thomas Kelly and Timothy Deasy had been arrested when police observed them “loitering about the streets in a suspicious manner” in the middle of the night, and presumed they were plotting a robbery. They were found to have loaded revolvers in their pockets, and were charged under the Vagrancy Act. However, communications with the Irish police led them to be identified as “notorious Fenians” who were key members of the IRB (M McDonnell Bodkin, Famous Irish Trials (1918)). Sergeant Brett was killed when a group of between 30 and 40 men encircled the horse-drawn police van carrying the prisoners, and ordered Sergeant Brett to open the door. After he refused, one of the men fired his revolver into the lock to break it open – just as Sergeant Brett was looking through it to see what was happening outside. Sergeant Brett died instantly from a bullet wound to the brain, and his keys were used to release the prisoners. Immediately afterwards, a reward of £300 was offered for the arrest of Kelly and Deasy, and a reward of £200 was offered for “information which would lead to the apprehension and conviction of the parties implicated in the rescue”. Kelly and Deasy evaded capture, but the investigation led to the arrest of 26 men. The first 5 men to be put on trial were William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, Michael O’Brien, Edward O’Meagher Condon (otherwise known as Edward Shore), and Thomas Maguire (M McDonnell Bodkin, Famous Irish Trials (1918)). The jury found all 5 of the accused to be guilty of murder. The men were sentenced to death by hanging, to which they cried from the dock “God save Ireland!”. Edward O’Meagher Condon and Thomas Maguire were ultimately saved from the death penalty. The Home Secretary recommended that Thomas Maguire should be pardoned after it was accepted that he was not present at the rescue and that the witness testimony, upon which he and the other accused were convicted, was false. The Crown also granted reprieve to Edward O’Meagher Condon, as “he was unarmed when apprehended and was not proved to be armed during the fatal affray”. On 23 November 1867, William Allen, Michael O’Brien, and Michael Larkin were publicly executed in Manchester to a jeering crowd of thousands of people. It was widely believed that none of the men had fired the fatal shot, and that a miscarriage of justice had occurred. Their cries of “God save Ireland” were ever memorialised in a song written by Timothy Daniel Sullivan that served as an unofficial Irish national anthem for years after their deaths: “God save Ireland” said the heroes, “God save Ireland” said they all. Whether on the scaffold high, Or the battlefield we die, Oh, what matter when for Erin dear we fall! (source: Irish Legal News) JAPAN: Father of killed son on crusade for abolition of death penalty Once filled with hatred and anger toward a truck driver who killed his son, Tadaari Katayama now is an unlikely anti-death penalty advocate. Katayama, 63, has jointly set up a citizens group seeking to end capital punishment after engaging in activities to support crime victims and interacting with inmates. He said he has come to believe that criminals can reform. “I do not want the lives of anyone to be ended anymore,” said Katayama. In November 1997, Katayama's 8-year-old son Shun, a 2nd-grade elementary school student, was hit by a dump truck while on his way to school and killed. Questioning why the perpetrator was not prosecuted, Katayama sought eyewitnesses to the accident and waged a petition campaign calling for the case to be reopened. The public efforts forced prosecutors to admit their failing and indict the driver, who was eventually convicted of professional negligence resulting in death. The case also provided a good opportunity to review the way crime victims are treated. At that time, Katayama felt not only hatred and sadness but also fear toward the perpetrator. As the motorist did not visit him to apologize and just sent perfunctory letters, Katayama thought the driver “may be a monster-like individual.” But when meeting with the perpetrator on the recommendation of the lawyer, Katayama was surprised that the small, pale-faced man was just a young father at a loss over what to do about the accident. Although they could not find common ground, Katayama felt at ease to learn that the driver is “a normal person.” Katayama in 2000 started speaking of “the viewpoint of victims” at prisons and juvenile training schools at the request of the Justice Ministry. He has since had a dialogue with convicts eight times a month. Inmates who had killed others sometimes
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Sept. 6 IRAN: Juvenile Offender Mehdi Khazaeian in Imminent Danger of ExecutionBased on his identity documents, Mehdi was born on November 20, 1999. The alleged murder took place when he was 16 years old, in Gorgan on March 13, 2016. Unofficial sources have informed Mehdi Khazaeian’s family that his execution will be carried out soon. Mehdi Khazaeian is a juvenile offender whose death sentence has been upheld by the Supreme Court and can be implemented at any time. According to close sources, Mehdi Khazaeian’s family have been informed that he will be executed soon. Mehdi Khazaeian is charged for a murder allegedly committed at the age of 16. He is currently being held at the Correction and Rehabilitation Center of Gorgan. Based on his identity documents, Mehdi was born on November 20, 1999. The alleged murder took place when he was 16 years old, in Gorgan on March 13, 2016. The relatives of the juvenile offender stated that he was in a gang fight leading to the murder of Amir Hossein B., 19, and it is not clear who delivered the fatal blow. The verdict, a copy of which was received by IHR, mentions, “The forensic report indicates that “currently there’s no sign of mental disorder in the defendant and considering his statements about the incident and his total awareness of the situation, it seems that he was in a good mental health and wasn’t under the influence of alcohol and was mentally mature as of March 14, 2016 “ Eventually, Mehdi Khazaeian was sentenced to 80 lashes for the drinking of alcohol, 3 years in prison for participation in a gang fight, and qisas (retribution) death penalty for murder. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court. Based on Article 91 of the new Islamic Penal Code, approved in 2013, judges can potentially deny issuing a death sentence for juveniles who do not understand the nature of their crime. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Iran has ratified, clearly bans execution and life imprisonment of juveniles. It’s worth mentioning that currently a sum of money is being collected in order to win the consent of the plaintiffs. Since the juvenile offender couldn’t choose a lawyer during his arrest and the proceeding of his case, Iran Human Rights invites human rights lawyers who are willing to voluntarily handle the cases of juvenile offenders to help this death-row prisoner. Since the beginning of 2019, at least 2 juvenile offenders have been executed in Iran. (source: Iran Human Rights) ENGLAND: To Gene, on death row For almost 20 years, the charity Human Writes has fostered connection between American death row inmates and British pen pals. One of the most vivid memories from my childhood is a small, slightly time-worn and sun-faded polaroid of a a mixed-raced man in his mid-20s, handsome and healthy, with the first signs of five o’clock shadow and a cautious smile that hints at an imperceptible private amusement. It sat on a bookcase in the living room of the flat where I was raised by my aunt and grandmother, and would hardly catch your eye unless you were looking for it. I've never met the man. Neither has anyone in my family. His name is Gene* and he was on Death Row in Texas, having been convicted before his 18th birthday, sometime in the late 1990s. He was part of our life many thousands of miles away in both London, then Scotland, because my aunt wrote to him for years, even after his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment following a Supreme Court ruling. She, like many others, was a volunteer writer for Human Writes, a UK-based charity that links American Death Row prisoners with correspondents — or “writers” in the charity’s parlance — from across the pond. For almost 20 years, the charity has have worked towards the same, unwavering goal: an offer of friendship to those living within a particularly inhuman method of incarceration. Human Writes is not unique, nor is it the first British organization of its kind. The civil-rights charity LifeLines formed in 1988 after its founder, Jan Arriens, found himself intensely moved by the BBC Documentary 14 Days In May, which charts the aftermath of one young man’s execution in Mississippi. In 2000, controversy erupted when Sue Fenwick, a senior member of LifeLines, married her pen pal, Bobby “Tenessee” Lusk, which caused a schism in the small world of prison writing. Fenwick joined Human Writes soon after and remains a key figure in its work to this day. The charity is entirely self-funded, with membership fees covering its essential operating costs, while all of the key office holders are volunteers, including the “state coordinators” who act as the liaison between Human Writes and each U.S. state with the death penalty. They are also the main point of contact for writers in the UK, there to provide support to both sides of the pen-pal relationship. My aunt had seen Human Writes advertised
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Sept. 5 SOUTH AFRICA: The death of capital punishment in SA The Constitutional Court abolished the death sentence in 1995, with a unanimous landmark judgment penned by then-ConCourt president Arthur Chaskalson. Everyone has the right to life. That’s the full text of chapter 2, section 11 of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution – and the phrases “capital punishment” and “death penalty” do not occur in the document. According to a 2016 study by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR), Is there a case for South Africa to reintroduce the death penalty?, between 1910 and 1975, about 2 740 people were executed and another 1 100 between 1981 and 1989. The charge for the return of the death penalty began with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) last year and was brought back to life last week by the African Transformation Movement (ATM). “The last hanging took place in 1989, following which the then state president, FW de Klerk, put a stop to them pending a decision on capital punishment by the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa),” the IRR study stated. “Although Codesa adopted a comprehensive Bill of Rights as part of the 1993 constitution, it did not outlaw capital punishment, leaving that matter to the court. When it issued its prohibition on further executions in 1995, possibly as many as 400 people were waiting on death row.” Until it was abolished, capital punishment had been implemented not only for murder but also for rape, housebreaking and robbery or attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances, sabotage, training abroad to further the aims of communism, kidnapping, terrorism and treason. The Constitutional Court abolished the death sentence in 1995, with a unanimous landmark judgment penned by then president of the Constitutional Court Arthur Chaskalson. The judge was deciding on the futures of 2 accused convicted on four counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of robbery with aggravating circumstances in S v Makwanyane and Another. “Retribution cannot be accorded the same weight under our Constitution as the rights to life and dignity, which are the most important of all the rights in chapter three,” Chaskalson said before banishing capital punishment. *** The EFF does not support the death penalty – Malema Despite SA’s current wave of violence, the EFF leader says ‘our brothers and sisters will be the ones that are hanged’ if capital punishment returns. Addressing the media at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema disagreed with the death penalty as a way of dealing with the scourge of violence against women and children in South Africa. “We don’t support death penalty. Anyone who suggests death penalty must give scientific evidence of where death penalty has succeeded in reducing crime,” he said. “The legal system in SA is very expensive, you may be wrongfully accused and because you can’t afford proper legal representation, you will be hanged. In a system that hates black people, our brothers and sisters will be the ones that are hanged. “We need a biting criminal justice system. The laws are there, our police are the ones that are failing us,” he continued. This followed Malema addressing the recent murders of women Uyinene Mrwetyana, Leighandre “Baby Lee” Jegels, Janika Mallo, as well as Ayakha Jiyani and her siblings. “The reality is that these are not unique cases, but a reflection of the daily experiences of women and children who face the threat of rape, abuse, and death in both private and public spaces,” he said. “The solution to these problems must lie in fixing our public institutions of law enforcement; the police stations, prosecutors, and judges who care. “Perpetrators of sexual crimes in our country know that women never get any help from the system and thus they perpetrate their crimes on them with impunity. “Our criminal justice system is most toothless when it comes to dealing with rape, detecting psychopaths and unearthing violent domestic spaces. “The power of the law must precisely be so effective that it is observed by all in public and domestic spaces because they know there are consequences. “It is, therefore, the police and the criminal justice system that must take full responsibility for why rape and murder of women and children has become part of our daily lives. “We call on a national emergency on police stations to be radically and urgently reconfigured as safe spaces for the report of sexual crimes. We call on investigative capacity to be immediately developed to detect sexual violence in domestic and private spaces,” the EFF leader said. “We need caring judges; who are welcoming and sensitive, not those who seem to perpetuate the intimidating nature of court,” he added later in his address. (source for both: The Citizen)
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Sept. 4 SRI LANKA: 3 sentenced to death for hacking to death another at Egoda Uyana The Panadura high court today sentenced to death 3 persons found guilty of hacking to death another at the Egoda Uyana junction in Moratuwa on February 1, 2009. While 7 suspects were accused of this incident, the high court judge Weeraman Serasinghe acquitted and discharged 4 of the 7 suspects when the case was taken up before the Panadura high court today (Sept. 2). Panadura high court judge Weeraman Serasinghe imposed the death penalty on the other 3 suspects found guilty of the offence. (source: sundaytimes.lk) PAKISTAN: Christian mother Asia Bibi demands justice for blasphemy law victims: 'The world should listen' Christian mother Asia Bibi condemned Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws and issued an urgent call for reform in her 1st interview since being released from prison after spending 8 years on death row on a false blasphemy charge. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Bibi thanked Pakistan’s supreme court for acquitting her but said others also need fair trials. “There are many other cases where the accused are lying in jail for years and their decision should also be done on merit. The world should listen to them,” she said. “I request the whole world to pay attention to this issue,” Bibi continued. “The way any person is alleged of blasphemy without any proper investigation without any proper proof, that should be noticed. This blasphemy law should be reviewed and there should be proper investigation mechanisms while applying this law. We should not consider anyone sinful for this act without any proof.” Bibi’s ordeal began nearly 10 years ago when 2 Muslim farm laborers accused her of drinking from the same container as them and refused to drink after her because she's a Christian. Bibi, also known as Asya Noureen and a mother of 5, was subsequently accused of insulting the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. In Pakistan, where 97 percent of its 180 million inhabitants are Muslim, being charged with committing blasphemy against Islam is punishable by death or life in prison. After spending 8 years on death row, Bibi was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which ultimately said there were many inconsistencies in the testimonies against her. However, she was kept in custody for another seven months as the government struggled with how to free her without angering hardline Islamist groups. Speaking about her time in a Pakistani jail, Bibi told The Telegraph that her Christian faith had never faltered and also said she never cried in front of her daughters when they visited her in jail. “I used to cry alone filled with pain and grief,” she said. Still, Bibi said she feared for her future. “Sometimes I was so disappointed and losing courage I used to wonder whether I was coming out of jail or not, what would happen next, whether I would remain here all my life,” she said. “My whole life suffered, my children suffered and this had a huge impact on my life.” In May, Bibi was finally brought to Canada, through mediation by the European’s Union special envoy on religious freedom, Jan Figel. Due to security concerns, she was unable to say goodbye to her father or her homeland. The University of Findlay was one of 159 schools named in the “Best in the Midwest” college listing. Overall, The Princeton Review recognized 656 regional colleges in 5 zones for its “2020 Best Colleges: Region by Region” accolades. “My heart was broken when I left that way without meeting my family. Pakistan is my country, Pakistan is my homeland, I love my country, I love my soil,” she said. Now 54, Bibi said that while she hopes to move to Europe with her family in the coming months. They are currently living in Canada. Figel told the Telegraph that Bibi is “an admirably brave woman and loving mother” whose story “can serve as a base for reforms in Pakistan, which has very outdated system of blasphemy legislation easily misused against neighbors and innocent people.” The U.S. State Department reports that there are an estimated 77 others in prison in Pakistan under blasphemy laws. But Shaan Taseer, the son of late Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, believes there are over 200 people jailed for blasphemy. Lawyers and rights groups say blasphemy accusations are often false and made to settle scores or silence rivals. Over the years, thousands of Pakistani Christians, who make up just 2% of the country's population, have fled to nations like Thailand, Sri Lanka and Malaysia in hopes of being given asylum in a safer country. Following Bibi’s case, the U.S. called on Pakistan to release more than 40 members of the religious minorities facing blasphemy charges. It also urged Pakistani leadership to appoint an envoy to address the various religious freedom concerns in the country. Pakistan was listed in January as No. 5 on Open Doors USA's
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Sept. 3 SOUTH AFRICA: South Africans are calling for the death penalty to be reinstated – here’s what government says Over 300,000 South Africans have signed a petition calling for the death penalty to be reinstated, in the wake of several high profile murders and acts of violence against women in the country. The petition was established after the public learned that missing UCT student, Uyinene Mrwetyana, was raped and murdered at a Post Office in Claremont, Cape Town. Citing Mrewtyana’s murder, as well as the murders of Aneen Booysen, Karabo Mokoena, Reeva Steenkamp and “many, many more”, the petitioner said that “we as a movement must find our voice to bring back the death sentence for crimes against women and children in the hope of saving this great country”. Despite evidence that capital punishment does not deter crime, calls for the death penalty are regularly revived, particularly following a spike in violent crimes. Crime statistics showed that there were 20,336 murders in South Africa between April 2017 and March 2018, a 7% increase from the previous year. This puts the country’s murder rate at close to 36 people murdered per 100,000 population – and 57 murders each day. What government says Earlier in 2019, president Cyril Ramaphosa answered voters’ questions ahead of the National Elections, one of which questioned the plausibility of the death penalty being reinstated to combat high levels of crime in South Africa. The president said quite plainly that it is not the state’s place to take life. “Our constitution has enshrined the right to life. This means that the state should not be the one to terminate a life. The surge in criminality should be addressed in other ways rather than ending people’s lives,” Ramaphosa said. This sentiment has been expressed by many Constitutional law experts, who say that the state acts on behalf of the people, and by perpetrating brutal acts such as capital punishment, the entire country is implicated in that. “To endorse the death penalty is to endorse state violence and the brutality that necessarily forms part of premeditating killing,” said Constitutional law expert, Pierre De Vos. “The death penalty thus brutalises the whole of society and implicates us all in the kind of violence that we wish perpetrators to be punished for.” However, not all political leaders are opposed to the death penalty. In its 2019 election manifesto, the IFP said that it wants harsher punishment for criminals, which includes prison terms with hard labour, as well as re-opening the debate on bringing back the death penalty in South Africa. History of the death penalty in South Africa The abolishment of the death penalty in South Africa is not simply a government decision – it is rooted in law, and follows a dark past of using the punishment in the country. At one stage, South Africa had one of the highest execution rates globally. Between 1959 and 1989, South Africa executed almost 3,000 people by hanging, with over 1,200 in the 1980s alone. Solomon Ngobeni was the last person to be officially executed in South Africa in November 1989. Following a 5 year moratorium on the death penalty between 1990 – 1995, the issue was finally dealt with in the constitutional case of S vs Makwanyane. The judgement was unanimous with all 10 judges giving different reasons as to why the death penalty should be abolished. These included issues such as possible mistakes made during the investigation process, as well as the right to life under the Constitution. Notably, the judgement also recognised that while the death penalty may be popular among members of the public, it was counter to the country’s Constitution. The president of the Constitutional Court at the time, Arthur Chaskalson, said that it was disputed whether public opinion, properly informed of the different considerations, would in fact favour the death penalty. He said that, even though the majority of South Africans might believe that the proper sentence for murder should be death, it is not a question of public will, but whether the Constitution allows such a sentence. And it does not. Death penalty around the world According to Amnesty International, to reinstate the death penalty would be going against the global trends, where cases of the death penalty being used as punishment for crimes are decreasing. In its latest report on the death penalty, looking at available data for 2018, the group said that figures show that the death penalty is firmly in decline, and that effective steps are being taken across the world to end the use of this cruel and inhuman punishment. It recorded at least 690 executions in 20 countries in 2018, a decrease of 31% compared to 2017 (at least 993). This figure excludes executions in China, which are believed to number in the thousands. During the United Nations General Assembly in December, 121
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Sept. 2 PHILIPPINES: Eileen Sarmenta's mom now for life imprisonment over death penalty The mother of Eileen Sarmenta on Monday said she now prefers life imprisonment over death penalty for heinous criminals. Maria Clara Sarmenta, in a previous news report, said she supports the revival of the capital punishment following the possible release of Antonio Sanchez, who was convicted in 1995 of raping and killing her daughter. "At the spur of the moment I said I agreed to restoring the death penalty. But then when I thought it over, being a Christian I would rather have the life sentence because in death penalty, it's only one injection, tapos na (then it's done)," Sarmenta said during a joint hearing of the Senate justice and Blue Ribbon committees. "In the life sentence, the prisoner would be given the chance to be reformed and also the mere fact that he suffers, he should be suffering for the crime he did." Sanchez was sentenced to 7 reclusion perpetua terms (40 years each) for the 1993 rape-slay of Eileen and the torture-killing of her companion Allan Gomez. His supposed release due to a new law increasing the good conduct time allowance for inmates and a Supreme Court decision applying this law retroactively was met with public outrage. (source: ABS-CBN News) *** Group backs Manny Pacquiao’s death penalty proposal An anti-crime and corruption group supported yesterday Sen. Manny Pacquiao’s proposal to restore the death penalty. “The death penalty should be implemented by firing squad as proposed by Pacquaio,” said lawyer Jose Malvar Villegas Jr., founder and chairman of the Katipunan Kontra Krimen at Korapsyon (KKK), during a forum in Pasig City. Malvar said large-scale online investment scams and economic sabotage should be considered heinous crimes. Thousands of Filipino investors are being victimized online because of the absence of a “tough law that will protect them,” KKK director general Melchor Chavez said. The group has asked Senators Bong Go, Ronald dela Rosa and Pacquiao as well as House Pro Tempore Luis Raymond Villafuerte to approve the death penalty bill and include other crimes such as plunder, election fraud, vote-buying, land-grabbing and planting of evidence. Meanwhile, the KKK will hold a crime prevention summit in Batangas next month to coincide with the celebration of the 154th birth anniversary of Gen. Miguel Malvar. Batangas Gov. Hermilando Mandanas will be the guest of honor and speaker. Bernardo Villegas, co-founder of the CRC-University of Asia and the Pacific, and Go were invited as resource speakers. (source: Philippine Star) SAUDI ARABIA: He Helped Usher in the Saudi Awakening — Now He's Facing Death On a hot September night in 1994, hundreds of people gathered in a city in northern Saudi Arabia to listen to a 37-year-old cleric. Wearing a traditional ankle-length white tunic, he called for reform in the Gulf kingdom, criticizing the ruling family for betraying the laws of Islam and refusing to share power. When he was done, the crowd followed him into the streets of Buraydah, the heartland of Wahhabism. The House of Saud was on notice that Salman al-Awda had become a fervent voice of dissent, unafraid to issue a direct challenge. At the time, authorities preferred to pacify, co-opt or buy off opponents rather than persecute them — unless they were jihadis. But such a brazen act of defiance resulted in al-Awda’s immediate arrest, along with those of more than a thousand of his supporters. “The Saudi state didn’t practice the kind of heavy-handed, blind repression that other countries in the region practiced. It wasn’t used to putting 1,000 people in jail,” says Stéphane Lacroix, a scholar of politics and religion in the Gulf and the author of Awakening Islam. The crackdown in Buraydah was unprecedented, and an early foreshadowing of how the young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (aka MBS) rules the kingdom today. Al-Awda was released after five years, but 23 years later, MBS had the sheikh arrested after he tweeted in September 2017 to millions of his followers that he hoped Saudi Arabia and Qatar could reconcile their differences. Al-Awda, now 62, is facing the death penalty while being held in solitary confinement, his health deteriorating. Human rights groups see al-Awda’s recent arrest as part of a larger campaign by the crown prince to silence dissent and any perceived rival. But the outspoken cleric may have also been targeted for a very specific reason: He serves as the face of a rebellious generation known as the Sahwa, or Awakening. Sahwa was inspired by the tenets of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose members took refuge in Saudi Arabia in the 1950s and ’60s after fleeing persecution in Egypt and Syria. Hundreds of these exiles were hired by government ministries and given prominent posts in universities. Over time, they cultivated a
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September 1 INDIA: Delhi Police urges court to prosecute Tharoor for murder of Sunanda Pushkar The former Union minister, who is currently on bail in the case, was charged by Delhi Police under Sections 498-A and 306 of the Indian Penal Code Delhi Police on Saturday urged a city court to prosecute Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for abetment to suicide or "in alternative" on murder charge in the case of death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar in 2014. "Please frame sections 498-A(husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty), 306 (abetment of suicide) or in alternative 302 (murder) IPC against the accused (Tharoor)," the probe agency told special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar. Senior public prosecutor Atul Srivastava made the submissions during arguments on framing of charges in the case. The former Union minister, who is currently on bail in the case, was charged by Delhi Police under Sections 498-A and 306 of the Indian Penal Code. Reading out a statement of the couple's domestics help, who is one of the witnesses in the case, the prosecutor said that the couple had fight over a girl named 'Katy' and some Blackberry messages. The prosecutor said that before her death, Pushkar wanted to address a press conference on the IPL issue and had said "I will not leave him (Tharoor)". The witness had told police that 1 year prior to the demise, the couple used to fight a lot. The agency told the court that Pushkar was "distressed" and "felt betrayed" in her marital life. Police told the court that Pushkar was suffering from mental agony due to a strained relationship with her husband. She had a scuffle with her husband and had various injury marks few days before her death, they said. Police accused Tharoor of torturing his wife which abetted her to commit suicide. The probe agency told the court that according to the post-mortem report, the cause of Pushkar's death was poisoning and 15 injury marks were found on various parts of her body, including in forearm, arms and legs. The prosecutor further told the court that Tharoor's relation with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar also added to Pushkar's mental agony. The prosecutor also apprised the court about Pushkar's friend and journalist Nalini Singh's statement, which is part of the charge sheet, that the relation between the couple was tense and bad. "She (Pushkar) told she helped Tharoor a lot in IPL matter. She had found some messages between Tarar and Tharoor. She refused to go to their house and instead went to Leela hotel. The relation between the couple was very bad," Singh had said in her statement. Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, refuted the submissions, saying the arguments made by the prosecutor were contrary to the bare reading of the charge sheet and the charges pressed by him were "absurd and preposterous". The case is now listed for the next hearing on October 17. The case was earlier sent to the sessions court for further proceedings. The maximum punishment for the offence listed in the charge sheet is 10 years of imprisonment. However, if convicted for 302 (murder), the maximum punishment is death penalty while the minimum is life imprisonment. Pushkar's death had created a sensation as it came shortly after a bitter spat between the couple on Twitter over his alleged affair with Tarar. Pushkar, 51, was found dead in a suite of luxury hotel Leela in Delhi's Chanakyapuri on the night of January 17, 2014. The couple was staying at the hotel as the official bungalow of Tharoor was being renovated at that time. (source: business-standard.com) CHINA: Yang Hengjun: A Diplomatic Hostage Diplomatic relations between Australia and China have become increasingly antagonistic as Australian writer and political commentator, Yang Hengjun, continues to be held by Chinese authorities. Earlier this week, attempts by the Australian government to return Yang home failed as China formally charged the pro-democracy advocate with “espionage.” In response, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne has been uncharacteristically frank in her remarks that Yang is not only being held in “harsh” conditions but implied the grounds of the allegations were also unfounded; “There is no basis for any allegation Dr Yang was spying for the Australian government.” Senator Payne went on to state: “Most importantly that if he is to be detained, that he is detained in accordance with the expectations accorded to him through conventions in international law, and they include access to lawyers, they include appropriate conditions of detention.” Beijing’s response was equally strong-worded, with China’s Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang rebuking that, “China deplores the Australian statement on this case. I would like to reiterate that China is a country with rule of law.” In China, being found guilty of espionage can carry penalties anywhere from 3
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August 31 CHINAexecution Former Didi driver executed for rape, murder Zhong Yuan, a Didi driver who raped and killed a 19-year-old female passenger in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, last year, was executed by a court on Friday after China's top court approved his death penalty. The Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court announced the decision made by the Supreme People's Court on Zhong's case and then executed him under the supervision of prosecutors. Before the execution, Zhong was allowed by the court to meet his family members. The 28-year-old native of Sichuan province had debts from online gambling and planned on robbing his female taxi passengers, the court said. Zhong, who worked as a driver for Didi, the country's largest ride-hailing company, had prepared tools for the robberies including knives, masks and adhesive tape. On Aug 23, last year, he unsuccessfully tried to rob a female passenger surnamed Lin. The next day, he raped and stabbed to death a 19-year-old female passenger surnamed Zhao in Yueqing county, Wenzhou. He dumped her body on the slope of a cliff near the highway. The case stirred a public outcry and triggered a nationwide safety check of drivers working in the online ride-hailing industry. It also prompted the Ministry of Transport to announce plans to tighten regulation of the industry. On Feb 1, Zhong was handed the death penalty and fined 25,000 yuan ($3,500) by the Wenzhou court after being found guilty of robbery, rape and intentional homicide. The Zhejiang High People's Court later upheld the judgment. Under the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law, any death penalty made by a lower court must be submitted to the SPC for review before execution. On Friday, the top court said in a statement that Zhong should be heavily penalized, as his behavior was extremely cruel. "The ruling made by the court in Wenzhou was based on sufficient evidence and clear facts," it said. "The application of the law and the sentence given by the court were also correct and reasonable." (source: China Daily) SRI LANKA: EU asks Sri Lanka to maintain moratorium on executions The European Union (EU) on Friday asked Sri Lanka to maintain the moratorium on executions, saying that it is resolutely opposed to the death penalty. “The EU reiterated its opposition to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances and encouraged Sri Lanka to maintain its moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty,” a Joint Statement issued after the fourth meeting of the Working Group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights under the European Union-Sri Lanka Joint Commission was held in Colombo. The expression of concern by the EU in this matter is important because the President of Sri Lanka, Maitrhipala Sirisena, is determined to re-introduce executions on which there has been a moratorium since 1975. In his view, the death penalty and executions are necessary to control the drug trade menace. The EU welomed Sri Lanka’s efforts in strengthening institutions, policies and legislation to fight corruption. The meeting took place in the context of regular bilateral exchanges between the European Union and Sri Lanka, and readmission to the EU GSP+ scheme, in light of Sri Lanka’s commitment to implement the international conventions ratified by Sri Lanka on human rights, labour rights, the protection of the environment and good governance. By opposing executions the EU has sent a signal that Sri Lanka loose the General System of Preferences Plus duty waivers which were given back to it in 2017. The EU, along with the US, is the main market for Sri Lankan exports. Minority Rights and Counter-Terrorism Discussed The EU welcomed progress made in protecting and promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country, and called for continuation and consolidation of these achievements in the future. Furthermore, advancing the rights of women and children, enforcing non-discrimination on any grounds, addressing the rights of persons belonging to minorities, finalising the return of land, were discussed. Progress on implementation of the zero-tolerance of torture was reviewed. The meeting took place in the context of regular bilateral exchanges between the European Union and Sri Lanka, and readmission to the EU GSP+ scheme, in light of Sri Lanka’s commitment to implement the international conventions ratified by Sri Lanka on human rights, labour rights, the protection of the environment and good governance. The Joint Working Group discussed matters related to minorities and measures to address hate speech, as well as, radicalization and violent extremism. In the context of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, EU and Sri Lanka have agreed to strengthen cooperation and dialogue on counter-terrorism in the aftermath of the attacks. The need for new counter-terrorism legislation in line with
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August 29 THAILAND: Myanmar workers facing death penalty for British tourist murders to seek Thai pardon 2 migrant workers from Myanmar will seek a royal pardon from Thailand’s king after its Supreme Court on Thursday upheld their death sentences for the murder of 2 British backpackers that drew world attention to the tourist island of Koh Tao. The defense lawyer said he would seek a royal pardon in the Sept. 2014 case, which sparked outrage among rights groups who say the men were scapegoated and coerced into confessing by police seeking a quick arrest. “We will petition for royal pardon within 60 days so they would not be executed,” Nakhon Chompuchart told reporters. Thai law allows 60 days for those sentenced to death to seek a pardon, but if the request is dismissed an execution can go ahead. The workers, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, were sentenced to death for the murder of David Miller, 24, and the murder and rape of Hannah Witheridge, 23, whose bodies were discovered on a beach in the diving haven of Koh Tao. Police said Witheridge had been raped and bludgeoned to death and Miller had suffered blows to his head. Tourism accounts for about 1/10 of the Thai economy. Earlier, a panel of 2 Supreme Court judges upheld decisions by lower courts, saying the men had been found guilty of murder and rape on the basis of evidence and forensic results. The men displayed no emotion as they listened intently to a translator while the verdict was read at a court in the province of Nonthaburi, just north of Bangkok, the capital. “Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun said afterwards that they are sad and worried by the verdict, because they said they did not commit the crime,” the court translator, Aye Mar Cho, told Reuters. The men were convicted and sentenced to death in 2015, a verdict upheld by an appeal court in 2017. A pro-bono legal team defending the men has said evidence collected by police was substandard. The lawyers have also said they were tortured and coerced into making confessions they later retracted. “DNA and forensics evidence ... was in my opinion fundamentally flawed and should always have been considered unreliable, when considered against international standards,” said labour activist Andy Hall. The Supreme Court rejected accusations of torture and ruled that DNA evidence linked the workers to the crime. All death sentences in Thailand had been commuted by royal pardon for the 9 years before a murder convict was executed in June last year by lethal injection. (source: Reuters) PHILIPPINES: Thelma Chiong: Chiong 7, who were on death row, should not be eligible for GCTA “What has happened to our justice system?” This was the question of Thelma Chiong who was reacting to the possibility that the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA), which provides for the early release for prisoners based on their attitude inside penitentiaries, might also aid in the freeing of the seven men convicted of abducting, raping and the killing of her two daughters in July 1997. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra earlier confirmed that the seven persons convicted in the abduction, rape-slay of sisters Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong might benefit from the increased GCTA. “We feel so much injustice right now. It is as if my daughters died again. It has been 22 years, but how can we move on when the accused in their death may be freed soon?” Chiong said. Chiong granted an interview on Thursday, August 29, in front of Marijoy’s tomb at the columbary of the Alliance of Two Hearts Parish in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City. The body believed to be that of Marijoy’s was found dumped at a cliff in Carcar City days after they went missing on July 16, 1997. Jaqueline’s body was never found. Convicted in the abduction and alleged rape-slay of the sisters were Francisco Juan “Paco” Larrañaga, Jozman Aznar, Rowen Wesley Adlawan, Alberto Allan “Pahak” Caño, Ariel Balansag, James Andrew “MM” Uy and James Anthony Uy, collectively known as the Chiong 7. The Chiong 7 was earlier sentenced to death through lethal injection by the Supreme Court in 2004 but were saved when the death penalty was abolished in 2006 upon the signing of Republic Act 9346. Mrs. Chiong told CDN Digital that the Chiong 7 should not benefit from the GCTA as assured in the provision of the law abolishing capital punishment. “(A) Person convicted of offenses punished with Reclusion Perpetua, or whose sentences will be reduced to Reclusion Perpetua, by reason of this Act, shall not be eligible for parole under Act No. 4180, otherwise known as the Indeterminate Sentence Law, as amended,” reads Section 3 of RA 9346 or An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines. “That was made clear that they (Chiong 7) should not be given parole. Only a presidential pardon can release them,” Mrs. Chiong said. Mrs. Chiong said she would be willing to write or
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August 28 BELARUS: Belarusian authorities consider death penalty moratorium The Belarusian authorities, together with representatives of the Council of Europe, plan to develop a road map of this process. 4 people last year, and already 2 this year, were shot in the name of the state through the death penalty. The number of those executed is not made public, nor is the an exact figure given to the public. Belarus allows for possible moratorium on the use of the death penalty or even its abolition, said the other day a representative of the Directorate General of Human Rights and the rule of law of the Council of Europe, Tatiana Termacic. “So far, it’s been a question of working out a joint roadmap with the Belarusian authorities on the abolition of the death penalty. We’ll see whether this will be transformed into a specific media campaign later on,” said Termacic. The conference “Public Opinion and the Death Penalty” has brought together representatives of Europe, government agencies and civil society in Minsk. “The main goal is not to campaign but to inform citizens on this topic. But what I can say for sure is that the number of supporters of the death penalty has decreased in our country. Since 1996, 23 years have passed,” says Alyaksandr Markevich of the House of Representatives Commission on Legislation. In 1996, a referendum was held which left the death penalty in force. During these 23 years, 2 generations have changed, and the state has carried out 199 sentences. The company “Satio” conducted a survey in April in the middle-populated Belarusian cities. It was held at the request of the local human rights organizations: 31% of respondents are “firmly for” the death penalty, while another 40% – “rather for it”. Against are only 27%. “Some questions can and should be put to the referendum, but the death penalty is not one of such areas, as public opinion on this matter is very volatile and emotional,” said the Chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Aleh Hulak. It depends on the sources through which compatriots hear about the death penalty. Instead of showing “death sentences” in the style of “for what”, representatives of the European community urge the media to mention the inhumanity and ineffectiveness of this type of punishment, which should be removed from the law. “If this step is taken, it will improve relations and remove many claims, which the European Community has against Belarus,” adds Hulak. The application of the death penalty does not allow Belarus to claim membership in the Council of Europe, spoiling the political and investment climate of the country. (source: belsat.eu) IRAQ: Iraqi court sentences 11 ISIS members to death for terrorist acts in Babil Iraq’s Babil Criminal Court on Wednesday announced it had sentenced 11 members of the Islamic State to death for their involvement in exploding a strategic bridge in the Iraqi province. The members confessed their membership to the jihadist group and participating in a terrorist act in Babil (Babylon) Province, the Court’s press office stated.P> “The terrorists confessed to carrying out an attack they called ‘Invading Fadhliya,’ on a strategic bridge in the area of ??Jurf al-Nasr, north of the province, in 2014, which ended with a full explosion and led to the death of three people, wounding 19 security members stationed nearby,” read the statement. It also mentioned that experts had estimated the cost and value of the destroyed bridge at about 18 billion Iraqi dinars (US $15 million). In addition to Babil, the Islamic State members admitted to committing other terrorist acts in other locations at different times. “The sentence for the convicts is handed down in accordance with the provisions of Article IV/1 of the Anti-Terrorism Law,” the statement added. Since 2017, the Iraqi judiciary had issued death sentences and life in prison for hundreds of alleged Islamic State members, among them, foreign nationals. The country has been highly criticized for its implementation of capital punishment in recent years. The death penalty in Iraq was suspended on June 10, 2003, but was reinstated the following year. International groups and human rights organizations, including the United Nations and Human Rights Watch, say efforts by Iraqi authorities to accelerate the implementation of death sentences could lead to the execution of innocent people, pointing to major flaws endemic to the nation’s deficient criminal justice system. (source: kurdistan24.net) IRANexecution Hamid Reza Derakhshandeh hanged in public in Kazerun A man who killed the notorious Friday Prayer leader (Imam) of the city of Kazeroun, southern Iran, was hanged in public this morning, August 28, 2019. Hamid Reza Derakhshandeh had stabbed to death Mohammad Khorsand on May 29 as he was returning from a religious ceremony at 3:30 in the morning. The
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August 27 IRANfemale execution 94th woman executed in Iran under Rouhani On Sunday morning, August 25, 2019, a woman was executed in Mashhad Central Prison. This is the 94th woman executed during 6 years of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency. The Iranian regime has executed at least 4 women in July, alone. Including Maliheh Salehian from Miandoab who was hanged on July 16, 2019, on charges of murder in the central prison of Mahabad. On July 17, 2019, another female prisoner, Zahra Safari Moghadam, 43, was hanged in the Prison of Nowshahr, in northern Iran. 2 women identified as Arasteh Ranjbar and Nazdar Vatankhah who had already spent 15 years in prison on the charge of murder and complicity in murder, were hanged at the Central Prison of Urmia at dawn on Tuesday, July 23, 2019. More than 3,700 people have been executed in Iran in the past six years under Rouhani’s presidency. The woman executed in Mashhad Central Prison is the 94th victim of the clerical regime’s death penalties. The Iranian regime is the world’s top record holder of per capita executions. It deploys the death penalty as a tool for maintaining its grab on power and for silencing a disgruntled populace the majority of whom live under the poverty line, while unemployment is rampant in the country and there is no freedom of speech. Rule 61 of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) reads, “When sentencing women offenders, courts shall have the power to consider mitigating factors such as lack of criminal history and relative non-severity and nature of the criminal conduct, in the light of women’s caretaking responsibilities and typical backgrounds.” The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran condemns the execution of the 94th woman hanged Sunday morning by the mullahs’ regime in Mashhad since she was a victim of misogynist laws and policies of the clerical regime and their destruction of the economy. The NCRI Women’s Committee urges the international organization defending human rights and women’s rights to intervene and stop the death penalties in Iran. (source: women-ncr-iran.org) ** Iran Executes Woman In Northeastern City of Mashhad A woman was hanged at dawn on Sunday, August 25, 2019 in the Central Prison of Mashhad, the state-run ROKNA news agency reported today. The victim who has not been identified by the state media had been found guilty of murder. This is the 94th woman executed in Iran during Hassan Rouhani’s term in office since 2013. The execution of women is higher in Iran than in any other place in the world and the Iranian regime is a record holder by executing 94 women during 6 years of Rouhani’s tenure. Last month Iran unprecedentedly executed 4 wemen in just 8 days. Maliheh Salehian from Miandoab was hanged on July 16, 2019, in the Central Prison of Mahabad, in the western Iranian province of Kurdistan. Zahra Safari Moghaddam, 43, was hanged in the Prison of Nowshahr, northern Iran, on July 17, 2019. Arasteh Ranjbar and Nazdar Vatankhah, 2 in-laws who had already spent 15 years in prison, were hanged in the Central Prison of Urmia, northwestern Iran, on July 23, 2019. The U.N. expert on human rights in Iran said in a report to the General Assembly circulated August 16, last year saw continuing violations of the right to life, liberty and a fair trial in the Islamic Republic, including 253 reported executions of adults and children. Javaid Rehman said while the number of executions was the lowest since 2007, “the number of executions remains one of the highest in the world.” (source: iran-hrm.org) CZECH REPUBIC: Letters bring to life prison experience of Alice Masaryk facing execution for treason during WWI T.G. Masaryk’s daughter Alice was imprisoned in 1915 for treason, a charge that carried the death penalty. Her time in a grim jail in Vienna is the focus of Charlotte and Alice, a freshly published and highly illuminating collection of over 200 letters between her and her US-born mother, Charlotte Masaryk. The book is the work of Anne Johnson, an American editor and translator who lives in Brno. She explained its genesis when we spoke recently in the city. “She got sick and I said, You’re in Montana, I’m here, what can I do to cheer you up or distract you? “And she said, Find out something about Charlotte. “So I went to the Masaryk Archives and said, Hi, what have you got? “I expected that they would have shelves, or a book, or something. “They had seven boxes and they hauled them up from the cellar and just sort of handed them to me. “So I went through these boxes: her diaries, birthday cards that people had sent her and things like that. “And in hunting through her things I found this collection of letters between her and her daughter Alice, when Alice had been in
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August 26 INDIA: Death sentence can’t be imposed except in rarest of rare cases: SCIn one of the case before the Supreme Court bench, the petitioner-convict was given a death sentence imposed under Section 302 IPC by the trial court for killing a minor girl after raping her. Death sentence cannot be imposed except in the rarest of rare cases. It is not just the crime which the Court is to take into consideration, but also the criminal, the state of his mind, his socio-economic background and so on. Awarding death sentence is an exception, and life imprisonment is the rule. Before imposing the extreme penalty of death sentence, the Court would have to satisfy itself that the death sentence is imperative, as otherwise, the convict would be a threat to society, and that there is no possibility of reform or rehabilitation of the convict, after giving latter an effective, meaningful, real opportunity of hearing on question of sentence, by producing materials. In one of the case before the Supreme Court bench, the petitioner-convict was given a death sentence imposed under Section 302 IPC by the trial court for killing a minor girl after raping her. The conviction of the petitioner is based on circumstantial evidence and the alleged extra-judicial confession made by him to the police in the course of the investigation, on the basis of which certain recoveries were made. The trial court proceeded on the basis of the submission of the public prosecutor that the charges had been proved beyond reasonable doubt. The trial court found that the crime committed was barbarous. Even the HC upheld the death penalty. When the matter came up for hearing before the Apex Court, the bench, after perusing the trial court order, said that there can be no doubt that rape and murder of a minor girl shocks the conscience, and is barbaric. There is, however, no evidence to support the finding that the murder was pre-meditated. The trial court did not make any attempt to elicit materials relevant to the imposition of death sentence. Moreover, the trial court has not considered whether the crime is rarest of rare crimes as mandated by the Supreme Court in Bachan Singh’s case. In deciding whether a case falls within the category of the rarest of rare, the brutality or the gruesome or heinous nature of the crime is not the sole criterion, but also the criminal, the state of his mind, his socio-economic background and so on. Before imposing death sentence, the court has to satisfy itself that the sentence is imperative, the bench noted. It said that in the present case, the mental health of the petitioner-convict at the time of execution must be taken into consideration. The medical report says that the petitioner is not mentally sound. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to affirm death sentence awarded to the convict. Opportunity should have been given to him to bring on record mitigating circumstances for reduction of the sentence and a balance struck between the aggravating and the mitigating circumstance. Special reasons have to be recorded before imposing death sentence in rarest of rare cases as mandated under CrPC. Besides, there is no forensic evidence against the petitioner. There is also no material to establish that the petitioner was incapable of being reformed, the bench pointed out. Citing the SC judgment in Lehna’s case and Shatrughan Chauhan’s case, the bench said that the court held that mental illness is one of the supervening circumstances in commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment. There can be no doubt that the crime is abhorrent, but it is doubtful as to whether the crime committed by the petitioner can be termed as “rarest of the rare”, the bench observed. The bench concluded that mental illness is a relevant factor which warrants commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment. Even though life imprisonment means imprisonment for entire life, convicts are often granted reprieve /or remission of sentence after imprisonment of not less than 14 years. “In this case, considering heinous, revolting, abhorrent and despicable nature of crime committed by petitioner, we feel that petitioner should undergo imprisonment for life, till his natural death and no remission of sentence be granted to him”, bench noted. Bench disposed of the case by commuting the death sentence in this case to life imprisonment, till his natural death, without reprieve or remission. (source: The New Indian Express) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
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August 25 GREECE: August 25, 1972: The Last Execution in Greece Before Abolition of Death Penalty On this day in 1972, 27-year-old Cretan electrician Vassilis Lymberis was executed by a firing squad for murdering his mother-in-law, his wife, and his 2 children by burning down the family house in January of that year. It was August 25, 1972, with Greece still under military rule, when the last execution in the country took place before the abolition of the death penalty. Lymberis, who had three accomplices in his crime, claimed he didn’t know that his children were in the house at the time he set fire to it. He said he only wanted to hurt his mother-in-law because she was driving him insane with her behavior. Lymberis’ heinous crime Vassilis Lymberis and Vassiliki Markou were married in December 1967 and set up their home together in Metamorphosi, a northern suburb of Athens. He was 22 years of age and she was only 19. After a time, the couple began to have arguments and were known to not be getting along. Lymberis claimed he asked his wife for a divorce before they had children, but that she had refused because she loved him too much. The couple had their first child, Panagiota, in June of 1969, but that was not enough to bring the two closer. The fighting, which took place mostly between Lymberis and his mother in law, escalated when Vassiliki was pregnant with their 2nd child. 2 years after Panagiota, little Giorgos was born into the world, but the relationship between the couple was at its lowest ebb at that time. Lymberis left his home and rented an apartment in the center of Athens. Relatives and friends of the family accused him of living a life of depravity, drinking and womanizing and squandering away the family’s money. During Christmas of 1971, Lymberis met three young men, 20-year-old Athanasios Stamatis, 25-year-old Theodoros Kapretsos and 17-year-old Pavlos Angelopoulos, who lived in the same apartment building as himself. One night, when Lymberis was drunk, he told his new friends of his plan to kill his mother-in-law and asked for their help, promising that they would not get caught for the crime. He promised money and a new car to Angelopoulos, the youngster in the group. One night Lymberis and Angelopoulos bought gasoline and went to the house in Metamorphosi but they discovered that the children were in the house and that there was not enough gasoline to set fire to the entire building, so they left. But on the night of January 5, 1972, Lymberis, Angelopoulos and Kapretsos bought three large containers of gasoline and went to the family home. Kapretsos would act as the lookout while Lymberis and Angelopoulos went into the house to set fire to it. Angelopoulos and Lymberis had one can of gasoline each, leaving the third at the door. The 18-year-old went into the room where Lymberis’ mother-in-law and the infant boy were sleeping. Lymberis then entered the bedroom where his wife and daughter were sleeping. Angelopoulos poured the gasoline into the room first, and Lymberis followed suit in his wife Vassiliki’s bedroom. They lit matches and set the place ablaze, amidst the screams of the two women and the children. Vassiliki jumped out of bed and attempted to call the police and the fire service. Lymberis then grabbed her by the hair and threw her into the flames, then stomped on her chest so she wouldn’t get up while he screamed “Now you’re gonna pay!” Upon hearing the screams of the women and children, Angelopoulos suddenly experienced pangs of conscience, and he then took the third gasoline container and tried to pour the contents on Lymberis, who hid behind a door and avoided getting burned. Then he locked the burning house and fled. Angelopoulos later claimed he helped commit the crime because Lymberis had lied to them about the children being at home. Lymberis, Angelopoulos and Kapretsos then returned to Vathi Square where they lived. Lymberis, who had several burns on his face and body, threatened the others to keep their mouths shut about the deadly arson attack. Stamatis, who had played had no part in the actual crime, was asked to burn the clothes used by Lymberis and Angelopoulos so they could not be used as evidence in case they were arrested. Arrest and trial Vassiliki Markou’s brother in law, Antonis Stroggyloudis, just happened to pass by the house after the attack and saw smoke pouring out the windows. He rushed in and found his mother-in-law and the two children already dead, but Markou, despite suffering severe burns, was still alive. Stroggyloudis called the fire service and police. Markou was taken to the hospital, where she died that same day. But before she passed, she was able to tell a relative that the man who set the house on fire was her husband. Socrates Kapsaskis, the chief of Greece’s forensic department at the time, declared after performing the autopsies
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August 25 GREECE: August 25, 1972: The Last Execution in Greece Before Abolition of Death Penalty On this day in 1972, 27-year-old Cretan electrician Vassilis Lymberis was executed by a firing squad for murdering his mother-in-law, his wife, and his 2 children by burning down the family house in January of that year. It was August 25, 1972, with Greece still under military rule, when the last execution in the country took place before the abolition of the death penalty. Lymberis, who had three accomplices in his crime, claimed he didn’t know that his children were in the house at the time he set fire to it. He said he only wanted to hurt his mother-in-law because she was driving him insane with her behavior. Lymberis’ heinous crime Vassilis Lymberis and Vassiliki Markou were married in December 1967 and set up their home together in Metamorphosi, a northern suburb of Athens. He was 22 years of age and she was only 19. After a time, the couple began to have arguments and were known to not be getting along. Lymberis claimed he asked his wife for a divorce before they had children, but that she had refused because she loved him too much. The couple had their first child, Panagiota, in June of 1969, but that was not enough to bring the two closer. The fighting, which took place mostly between Lymberis and his mother in law, escalated when Vassiliki was pregnant with their 2nd child. 2 years after Panagiota, little Giorgos was born into the world, but the relationship between the couple was at its lowest ebb at that time. Lymberis left his home and rented an apartment in the center of Athens. Relatives and friends of the family accused him of living a life of depravity, drinking and womanizing and squandering away the family’s money. During Christmas of 1971, Lymberis met three young men, 20-year-old Athanasios Stamatis, 25-year-old Theodoros Kapretsos and 17-year-old Pavlos Angelopoulos, who lived in the same apartment building as himself. One night, when Lymberis was drunk, he told his new friends of his plan to kill his mother-in-law and asked for their help, promising that they would not get caught for the crime. He promised money and a new car to Angelopoulos, the youngster in the group. One night Lymberis and Angelopoulos bought gasoline and went to the house in Metamorphosi but they discovered that the children were in the house and that there was not enough gasoline to set fire to the entire building, so they left. But on the night of January 5, 1972, Lymberis, Angelopoulos and Kapretsos bought three large containers of gasoline and went to the family home. Kapretsos would act as the lookout while Lymberis and Angelopoulos went into the house to set fire to it. Angelopoulos and Lymberis had one can of gasoline each, leaving the third at the door. The 18-year-old went into the room where Lymberis’ mother-in-law and the infant boy were sleeping. Lymberis then entered the bedroom where his wife and daughter were sleeping. Angelopoulos poured the gasoline into the room first, and Lymberis followed suit in his wife Vassiliki’s bedroom. They lit matches and set the place ablaze, amidst the screams of the two women and the children. Vassiliki jumped out of bed and attempted to call the police and the fire service. Lymberis then grabbed her by the hair and threw her into the flames, then stomped on her chest so she wouldn’t get up while he screamed “Now you’re gonna pay!” Upon hearing the screams of the women and children, Angelopoulos suddenly experienced pangs of conscience, and he then took the third gasoline container and tried to pour the contents on Lymberis, who hid behind a door and avoided getting burned. Then he locked the burning house and fled. Angelopoulos later claimed he helped commit the crime because Lymberis had lied to them about the children being at home. Lymberis, Angelopoulos and Kapretsos then returned to Vathi Square where they lived. Lymberis, who had several burns on his face and body, threatened the others to keep their mouths shut about the deadly arson attack. Stamatis, who had played had no part in the actual crime, was asked to burn the clothes used by Lymberis and Angelopoulos so they could not be used as evidence in case they were arrested. Arrest and trial Vassiliki Markou’s brother in law, Antonis Stroggyloudis, just happened to pass by the house after the attack and saw smoke pouring out the windows. He rushed in and found his mother-in-law and the two children already dead, but Markou, despite suffering severe burns, was still alive. Stroggyloudis called the fire service and police. Markou was taken to the hospital, where she died that same day. But before she passed, she was able to tell a relative that the man who set the house on fire was her husband. Socrates Kapsaskis, the chief of Greece’s forensic department at the time, declared after performing the autopsies
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August 24 CANADA: New exhibit explores history of the death penalty in Quebec A new exhibit in Quebec City aims to educate people about the history of the death penalty in Quebec. An immersive experience at the Morrin Centre transports visitors back in time and into the middle of a real trial. The Morrin Centre is now Quebec City’s English cultural hub, but it has a much darker history. “Public executions have long been linked with this building,” said Barry McCullough, the executive director of the Morrin Centre. “The Quebec Common Jail was housed in the Morrin Centre from 1812 until 1867 and during that time there were 16 hangings, 8 of which were for theft and the other 8 of which were for murder,” he explained. The new exhibit explores this history through the real life story of one convicted murderer, William Pounden. “It takes us through the crime, the accusation, the trial, and ultimately the hanging,” McCullough said. Pounden, an Irishman who worked as a labourer in Quebec City was accused of violently killing his mother-in-law. He spent 133 days imprisoned in the Quebec common jail. After lengthy deliberation, the jury found him guilty and he was hanged on October 18, 1823. “As many as 8000 people came to watch that,” said Philippe Martin, the Morrin Centre heritage coordinator. As surprising as it might seem, Martin said public executions always drew big crowds. He explained that executions began after the British Conquest and 300 people, including eight women were given the death penalty in Quebec. “The last execution in Canada was in 1962 and the last in the province of Quebec was in 1960,” he said. Capital punishment was officially abolished in Canada in 1976. (source: globalnews.ca) SCOTLAND: Scottish Conservatives want to bring in the ‘death penalty’ THE Scottish Tories have been accused of trying to bring in the death penalty in all but name. Plans to keep Scotland’s worst offenders in jail for the whole of their lives have been described as regressive and problematic by two of the country’s leading criminologists. Dr Hannah Graham and Professor Fergus McNeill from the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research say Liam Kerr’s Whole Life Custody (Scotland) Bill risks undermining the distinction between justice and vengeance. Holyrood is currently holding a consultation into the proposed legislation. Kerr says it will bring the law into line with England and Wales, as well as making sure the punishment fits the crime, guarantee public safety, and bolster public confidence in criminal justice. While Scottish courts can sentence offenders to life, all prisoners are automatically eligible for parole once the “punishment part” of their sentence has passed. The proposal is to bring in lifelong jail terms for the very worst murderers, including those convicted of killing two or more persons, or a child, or a police or prison officer in the course of their duty. Kerr’s consultation also floats the possibility of bringing in whole-life sentences for people who have raped two or more persons or a young child. In their response, Graham and McNeill say existing arrangements in Scotland “for dealing with those convicted of very serious and harmful crimes are more than adequate”. The National: They say the Parole Board for Scotland and Scottish Ministers are “already empowered to prevent the release – until death if necessary – of life sentence prisoners considered to be a continuing risk to the public, and to recall to custody anyone who has been released under lifelong conditions whose behaviour or even attitude causes concern”. The academics cite experts in the UK and US who categorise whole-life sentences as equivalent to the death penalty. Graham and McNeill write: “Like other forms of killing, sentencing people to die in custody denies and ultimately extinguishes human dignity. “Upholding the principle of human dignity – for everyone, for all human life – even and especially in the wake of profound wrongs, harms and tragedies, is integral to justice and what it means to be a progressive, rights-respecting nation. “It is part of what distinguishes justice from vengeance. Liam Kerr’s whole-life custody proposal risks undermining that principle and that distinction. “The worst act of an individual should not bring out the worst in us as a nation. McNeill continued: “Escalations of vengeance in the wake of distressing crimes with tragic consequences won’t produce fairness nor bring back what was lost. Kerr said the status quo was letting victims down: “This bill gives judges the power to keep the very worst offenders in prison for the rest of their lives. “Too often victims tell us about their frustration and confusion over short sentences, early release and parole hearings that fail to take their suffering into account. “The worst offenders should be in no doubt that they
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August 23 INDONESIA: Australian convicted of cooking up his own cocaine could now face death penalty in BaliRyan Willaims was already jailed for 5 years. But a bizarre legal loophole could see him face the death penalty. An Australian man sentenced to a shock 5 years in a Bali jail for cooking up his own cocaine and who decided not to appeal and risk the death penalty has now been told the death penalty is back on the table. Bizarrely it comes as Sydney man Ryan Scott Williams finds himself with an unlikely ally wielding a double-edged sword. His accusers, whose actions in appealing for a lighter sentence for him have again opened the door to the very thing he hoped to avoid by not appealing himself - the death penalty or a higher sentence. This is because, on appeals, it is open to the High Court to increase sentences, not just decrease them. Prosecutors have decided to lodge an appeal against the 5-year sentence handed down to Williams on the basis, they argue, that the law used against him was not appropriate to his crime. The 45-year-old was convicted in Denpasar District Court earlier this month of producing 38.72 grams of cocaine and jailed for 5 years. Ryan Scott Williams has apologised to a Bali court after being arrested earlier this year for allegedly cooking up his own cocaine. He had faced court on the more severe charge of producing a narcotic, which carries the death penalty as its maximum, andthe alternative charge of using the drugs for himself, which carries a four-year maximum and the possibility of rehabilitation rather than jail. During the trial prosecutors recommended that Williams only be convicted of the lesser offence, personal use, and sentenced to just 15 months in jail. Prosecutor’s sentence demands are not binding on judges, who can deliver whatever sentence they deem is appropriate but are usually a good guide to the eventual sentence - except in Williams’ case. Ryan Scott Williams, 45, was arrested in Bali in March this year. The acting spokesperson at the Bali Prosecutor’s office, Ketut Sudiarta, confirmed the appeal to 7NEWS.com.au. “We confirm that related to the drug case of the defendant Ryan Scott Williams, the prosecutor has decided to appeal the Judge’s verdict. "Prosecutors can appeal for many reasons, including because the prosecutor disagrees with the article (law) used by the Judge,” Mr Ketut said today. “We feel convinced the defendant (Williams) has violated Article 127 of drugs laws (for personal use)." The court had found him guilty of Article 113 of drug laws, for producing cocaine. “We have lodged the appeal because we are yet to accept the verdict,” Mr Ketut said, adding that prosecutors believed the more serious charge had not been proven in court. “It’s not about the length of the sentence. It’s about the article used to charge the defendant.” Williams and his legal team were shocked when the 5 year sentence was handed down, describing it as illogical but later decided not to appeal because the risk of the death penalty from a higher court was too great. But the very thing they hoped to avoid, by accepting five years, is now very much back on the table with the latest news that prosecutors will appeal. Prosecutors seeking death penalty The rationale for the appeal is that the prosecution is bound to stand by its own case and sentence demand and therefore needs to take it to appeal in the same way they are bound to appeal if a sentence is much lower than what they demanded. The prosecution appeal now opens up a whole new nightmare for Williams, a father of three, who faces an anxious wait in Bali’s Kerobokan jail for his appeal to be heard. It’s a situation other Australians and foreigners have become mired in with disastrous results. In 2006 four members of the Bali Nine heroin gang - Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen - who had all initially been sentenced to life in jail, had their sentences increased to death on appeal to the Supreme Court, Indonesia’s highest court. They eventually all won a reprieve and got life sentences after winning judicial reviews of their cases. And Sierra Leone national, Emanual Otchejirika, also then jailed in Bali on drugs charges, appealed his life sentence, only to be handed a death sentence. He remains on death row. Indonesia runs a harsh anti-drugs regime and it was for this reason that Williams had decided not to risk all with an appeal. '5 years is lenient' His lawyer, Edward Pangkahila, said at the time of his sentence that an appeal was too risky. “If we appeal the risk is way too much. So, it is better for him to serve the sentence ... especially because the charge carries a maximum death sentence. "5 years is actually lenient. "If we appeal the result is uncertain, it could be heavier. Our State has declared an emergency on drugs.” (source: 7news.com.au)
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August 22 SRI LANKA: EU repeats opposition to Sri Lanka resuming executions The European Union has said it is opposed to Sri Lanka reviving executions of convicts and called on the government to maintain its moratorium on implementing the death penalty. The EU’s position was conveyed during a meeting with a group of parliamentarians of the United National Party, the major partner in the coalition government. “During the meeting, the Heads of Missions restated the strong and unequivocal opposition of the EU and its Member States to capital punishment in all circumstances and in all cases,” a statement said. “The HoMs reiterated their call to Sri Lanka to maintain its moratorium on the death penalty with a view towards complete abolition.” The EU delegation in the island issued the statement in agreement with the embassies of France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Romania and the UK High Commission. The revival of the death penalty was mooted by President Maithripala Sirisena, who is from a different party, and says executions could be a deterrent against drug trafficking. (source: economynext.com) *** Death sentence imposed on drug trafficker A man accused of being involved in the trafficking and possession of heroin, was today sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court. The accused from Mattakkuliya had been arrested with 22.54 grams of heroin. (source: Colombo Gazette) MALAYSIA: Man charged with murder over Bangi road rage incident The 41-year-old man involved in a road rage incident near Bandar Baru Bangi earlier this month which led to the death of Syed Muhammad Danial Syed Syakir was charged with murder at the Kajang Magistrate’s Court here today. The charge against IT consultant Yew Wei Liang was made under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which carries the death penalty. No bail was allowed. Defence counsel S Selvam argued that his client should instead be charged under Section 41 of the Road Transport Act 1987, which deals with death during road accidents. The defence also claimed that Yew was abused during remand and had to be taken to Kajang Hospital on Aug 13, adding that he had been forced into giving a confession. Defence lawyer Varghese Onny also said the evidence could have been tampered with as calls were made from the phone of Yew’s wife, who was also remanded. “The phone should be under police possession during the probe,” he said. The court fixed Sept 27 for mention and to hear complaints by the defence lawyers. Magistrate Nor Afidah Idris also ordered for Yew to be remanded at the Sungai Buloh prison. In the incident on Aug 10, Syed Danial, 29, died following an altercation with the driver of another car over a minor accident just after the Sungai Besi toll plaza. The 2 drivers got involved in a car chase and a scuffle ensued between them at the Bandar Baru Bangi interchange. Witnesses at the scene broke up the fight and the 2 drivers returned to their vehicles. The younger man then got out of his vehicle with a baseball bat and smashed the other car’s bonnet. The older driver was believed to have suddenly lurched his vehicle forward, hitting the victim. Syed Danial was pinned between the car and the road divider. He was rushed to the Nilai Medical Centre but died while receiving treatment (source: freemalaysiatoday.com) INDIA: Tripura court sentences man to death for rape and murder of minor The case was registered at Kadamtala police station in North Tripura on September 27, 2018 and a chargesheet was submitted to the court on March 24 this year. After 5 months of trial, the accused has been found guilty A Tripura court sentenced a 26-year old youth to death for the rape and murder of a minor in North Tripura district. Special Judge Goutam Sarkar convicted Sanju Tanti, alias Sanju, and sentenced him to death, in the first-ever case of capital punishment for crimes tried under POSCO Act in Tripura, Tripura POSCO Act, rape and murder of minor, tripura minor raped and murder, agartala city news. The amended law now has provisions for strict punishment for other crimes committed against minors too. A Tripura court sentenced a 26-year old youth to death for the rape and murder of a minor in North Tripura district. Special Judge Goutam Sarkar convicted Sanju Tanti, alias Sanju, and sentenced him to death, in the 1st-ever case of capital punishment for crimes tried under POSCO Act in Tripura since the central government approved amendments to strengthen it in July this year by including death penalty for aggravated sexual assaults on children. The amended law now has provisions for strict punishment for other crimes committed against minors too. North Tripura Superintendent of Police Bhanupada Chakraborty, in a press statement, said: “On 21-08-2019, the Ld. Special Judge, North Tripura, Dharmanagar (Sri Goutam Sarkar) convicted one accused
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August 21 UGANDA: Uganda abolishes mandatory death penalty Parliament in Uganda has passed a law that abolishes the mandatory death penalty for certain crimes, amending four different laws that had earlier prescribed capital punishment, including the Anti-Terrorism Act. If approved by President Yoweri Museveni, the amendments will restrict the death penalty to just the most serious of crimes, only at the judge's discretion. Legislators say it is a step towards the complete abolition of capital punishment, something for which courts have previously voiced support. There are 133 inmates on death row and no-one has been executed in the last 20 years. There has been a campaign to end capital punishment, following a 2009 court ruling in favour of then death row inmate Susan Kigula, who had argued that the death sentence was unconstitutional. The court then ruled that the death penalty should not be mandatory in cases of murder, and that a condemned person should not be kept on death row indefinitely - if a convict was not executed within 3 years, the sentence be automatically turned into life imprisonment. (source: theeastafrican.co.ke) BANGLADESH: Aug 21 attack: AL will go to Supreme Court for death to Tarique Rahman Awami League will go to the top court to seek BNP acting chief Tarique Rahman’s maximum punishment in connection with Aug 21 grenade attack case. “He is the mastermind of the attack. We’ll definitely submit a writ petition to the Supreme Court to seek highest punishment for him,” said Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader responding to a question at an event in Dhaka on Wednesday. The event was organised to mark the 15th anniversary of August 21 grenade attack at the meeting venue of Awami League. A total of 24 people were killed and many others injured when a series of grenades ripped through the meeting of the party, then in opposition, on Bangabandhu Avenue on Aug 21, 2004. “Harkatul Jihad chief Mufti Abdul Hannan in a confessional statement said that they carried out the attack under the direction of Tarique Rahman. So, the mastermind behind the attack should get the capital punishment.” Quader added that the political relationship between BNP-Jamaat and the ruling party has been ruined forever after the Aug 15, 1975 assassination of Bangabandhu and the Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack. Expressing hope that the Aug 21 killings will be tried like Aug 15, he said, “The killings have been tried in the court. But we’re preparing the paper-book for the August 21 grenade attack cases and the hearings on death references will begin.” On Oct 10, 2018, a Dhaka court sentenced 19 people to death and Tarique Rahman along with 18 others to life imprisonment in two cases over the grenade attack. (source: bdnews24.com) PHILIPPINES: Lacson pushes treaty to help Filipino convicts abroad‘Transfer of Sentenced Persons’ to give convicts option to serve time in their home country Senator Panfilo Lacson on Monday, August 19, called for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to pursue more Transfer of Sentenced Persons agreements with other countries, pointing out the efforts of the government to help Filipino drug convicts abroad while it is “killing people” in the Philippines. “How do you reconcile [the fact that] here in our country we’re killing people and then we’re saving drug convicts detained in another country. I’m just curious,” Lacson asked Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. during the hearing of the Senate foreign affairs relations committee. “Going back to the repatriation of Filipino convicts, maybe you should pursue more Transfer of Sentenced Persons treaties, just like what we have with Spain. I’m just wondering if they would agree to be transferred to Muntinlupa [that is, the New Bilibid Prison] from where they are being detained abroad,” he added. According to the Treaty on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, individuals tried and convicted in a foreign country would have the option to serve their time remaining their sentence in their home country. Lacson’s statement came following the data released by the DFA during the meeting that showed that most Filipinos overseas were detained due to drug charges. Normally, the DFA offers financial and legal aid to Filipinos abroad through the assistance to nationals (ATN) or the legal assistance fund (LAF). DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola said P1 billion is allotted for the ATN while the LAF has a P200 million budget. She added that the DFA has spent P483 million, or 48%, of its ATN fund and P81 million, 41%, of its LAF from January to July 2019. Arriola also noted that overseas Filipinos on death row due to conviction in drug cases had been provided with lawyers “since the inception of the case.” “It’s just that many of them are drug mules or some of them, like in the case in
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August 20 SRI LANKA: SC informs Parliament petitions on death penalty rejected The Supreme Court (SC) has informed Parliament that 3 petitions submitted against the implementation of the death penalty have been rejected. Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri informed Parliament today about the ruling of the Supreme Court. (source: menafn.com) MALAYSIA: Biggest drug bust in Malaysian history: Almost 4 tonnes seized worth over half a billion ringgit More than a half a billion ringgit worth of ketamine and cocaine have been seized in a joint operation between Bukit Aman and the Customs Department at Pusat Perdagangan Alam Jaya, Puncak Alam. Said to be the biggest drug bust to date, over three tonnes of cocaine and half a ton of ketamine were seized during the joint raid. Facebook page Kuala Selangor Official uploaded a post at around 6pm on Monday (Aug 19), saying that authorities found 500kg of ketamine and over 3.23 tons of cocaine worth more than RM676mil. It is learnt that a team of Customs Department enforcement division and Federal Narcotic Crime Investigation Department personnel arrested four local and nine foreign men after raiding a shoplot at Jalan PPAJ 1/1, Pusat Perdangan Alam Jaya, at around 4.30pm on Sunday (Aug 18). The raiding party discovered 11 gunny sacks containing over 500kg of white powder, believed to be ketamine. Several hours later, the team was then led by two of the suspects to another shoplot at Jalan Musytari U5/AN, Subang Pelangi, U5 Shah Alam, where they discovered over three tons of compressed bricks, believed to be cocaine. It is also learnt that all the suspects and the seized items have been taken to the Bukit Aman NCID headquarters for further action. The case is being investigated as drug trafficking under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction. As of 2019, one kilogramme of ketamine has a street value of RM60,000, while a kilogramme of cocaine is worth at least RM200,000. Customs director-general Datuk Seri Paddy Abd Halim confirmed the case, calling it the biggest drug bust in history. "It is a collaboration between Customs and the police. "Our target is to rid the country of the drug menace," he told The Star. He saluted his personnel, as well as NCID personnel, in successfully carrying out this major operation. "We expect to divulge further details during a press conference on Friday (Aug 23)," he said. (source: thestar.com.my) IRAQ: Iraq has executed 100 since January, 8,000 on death row: official More than 100 individuals have been executed in Iraq since January, with a staggering 8,000 more on death row, according to Iraq's UN-approved human rights body. The execution figures came from Iraqi Ministry of Justice data that was reviewed by the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, according to one commission member. "According to the data of the Iraqi Justice Ministry that have been reviewed by the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, over 100 people have been executed in Iraq," Hemin Bajalan told Rudaw English on Sunday. "There are 8,022 prisoners in Iraq convicted with execution." Iraq has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, and is ranked in the top four along with Iran, Saudi Arabia and China, according to Human Rights Watch's 2019 report, which documented the year prior. Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s government has not made public the number of executions it carried out this year, according to the watchdog. "Iraqi authorities handed down hundreds of death sentences to those convicted under counterterrorism legislation and carried out executions without publicizing any official numbers or sharing this information with international actors," Human Rights Watch report read. The trials were also rushed and were sometimes based on a single confession or missing victims' testimonies, according to the report. The 100 plus figure marks a big increase in Iraqi executions. In 2018, more than 52 recorded executions took place in Iraq, according to a report from Amnesty International. The more than 8,000 people with death sentences is also a striking increase from 2018. At the end of that year, Amnesty reported that there were more than 285 people with death sentence. Iraqi security forces captured Mosul from the Islamic State (ISIS) in late 2017, and subsequently put its alleged members and affiliates on trial. The US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria have also transferred hundreds of ISIS fighters into Iraqi custody. Iraq is known to have conducted fast trials for ISIS members, often without sufficient evidence. One member of parliament said Iraq is asking Western countries to take back their citizens who joined ISIS. "There are many foreign ISIS fighters in Iraqi prisons, and Iraq is frequently demanding the western countries
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August 19 SINGAPORE: Notes from inside death row in Singapore I was sentenced to death on May 2, 2017. The judge said that even though my involvement was just as a courier, he has no any other choice because the DPP of Singapore did not want to issue the certificate of co-operation. I saw my family break down with my very own eyes, they couldn’t believe what was happening. At that moment, the lowest point of my life, I mustered the strength to stay strong for my family and consoled them by saying, “I can still appeal, there is hope.” It hurts to see our loved one in this sort of situation. Words can’t describe the burden which I had placed in their hearts. All my family ever did was love me for who I am and be there for me and all I have given them is burden and pain that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. This realisation hurts more than the sentence could ever itself. I was transferred from B2 TO A1 SHU (Special Housing Unit), the death row. Once I arrived here, the first thing the officer did was to shave my head bald and give me a white T-shirt and shorts to wear. They then led me to cell No. 26 and told me that I have to remain in this cell for 2 more months at least, before they can transfer me to different cell which has a TV. I was given soap, brush, a small white towel, toothpaste and a bucket. I stumbled into the cell and my mind was just blank, I hadn’t recovered yet at that point. Everything happened so fast that I couldn’t collect my thoughts. The cell was quite creepy and I felt unsettled, to say the very least. It wasn’t even 5 minutes yet but I already felt alone. I guess that is the point of this place. It’s a very a dark and gloomy place and you can almost see all the sadness, disappointment and loneliness the place bears. It feels like it could even devour you alive. For someone who’s not on this side of the bar, like the officers or counsellors, they probably don’t really understand how we death row inmates feel; some of them think they do understand or that they know but I beg to differ. In here you are only for yourself and only God is your solace if you are a religious person. If you’re not a believer, it’s going to take an immense amount of mental strength and fortitude to find the light of hope in this darkness. The next day, I was informed that the state will provide a lawyer to do my appeal if I can’t afford one, and if the appeal doesn’t go in my favour, then I can send a petition of clemency and if that too doesn’t go well, then I would be hanged, an estimate of 14-15 months. Great! Could any news make me feel "better" than this one? I don’t think so. It makes me feel so much "better" until I can’t sleep at night. To think what lies ahead for us (death row inmates) is not something encouraging to do, for you will be torn apart in the war between hope and reality. For the first 2 weeks, I was locked down in cell No. 26 with no access to the one-hour yard time. This meant that I stayed inside the cell 24/7, for 2 weeks, with the lights turned on the whole time 24/7. It was very hot and I couldn’t sleep, if you use the floor mat given, you would feel hotter, so I just slept on the floor with the lights on. Most of the time I slept not because I wanted to, but because my eyes were too tired to be open any longer. I would wake every 1 or 2 hours after I had fallen asleep. I don’t know why they would give this form of psychological torture to someone who is already sentenced to death, who is already suffering mentally and emotionally. I don’t know what joy they take in watching their fellow human being been treated in such a way. Reminds me of the stories I’ve read of the Nazi concentration camps, although the prisoners there would have suffered far, far worse than I have. After 1 week, I got access to newspapers, but still no yard time. Only after 2 weeks was I allowed to go to the yard. I was allowed to keep books which were taken from the yard library. The food is better than before and there are slices of bread available every evening that you can take as much as you can eat. The food menu is mostly chicken, egg, sardine, some vegetables, fish and sometimes anchovies. The menu rotates every day. The cell is consisted of a toilet and a big iron bar door with four iron rods in between for the air to come in. The cell is just 6 or 7 normal footsteps in length and in width. Each cell has a CCTV that runs 24/7 at the top corner of the ceiling where the toilet is. It is not something new, I was living my life for the past five years like this. Doesn’t matter if you’re taking bath or a dump, there were always people watching you. Even in B2, as a remand, you would have to strip and get naked five days a week whenever we entered the yard. There will be two officers at the yard’s gate entrance to see your bare body and genitalia twice — in and out — and you
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August 18 NIGERIA: Islamic cleric advocates death penalty for corrupt practices, kidnapping An Ibadan-based Islamic cleric, Alhaji Abubakar Umar-Erubu, has advocated death penalty for anyone found culpable of corrupt practices and kidnapping in the country. The cleric said that the call became imperative due to the rising cases of corruption and kidnapping in the country. Umar-Erubu also prescribed death sentence for anyone constituting a security threat to the country. “Government should also regulate the sewing and sales of uniforms of officers,” he said. The cleric further urged the legislative arm at every level of government to enact a law compelling successive administrations to complete capital projects inherited by previous governments. This, he said, was to check wastage of resources and project abandonment. He also advised government to encourage and train illegal producers of arms to boost local manufacturing of weapons through regulated procedures rather than criminalising the practice (source: vanguardngr.com) SRI LANKA: Pres. candidates must pledge to impose death penalty on drug dealers - President According to President Maithripala Sirisena, the candidates contesting at the upcoming Presidential election must pledge to eliminate narcotics. The candidates must also pledge to implement the death penalty upon the drug dealers, stated the President. President Sirisena expressed these views addressing a gathering in Polonnaruwa, today. (source: adaderana.lk) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
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August 17 MEXICO: Mexico does not want El Paso shooter executed President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday that Mexico does not want the El Paso shooter who killed 22 people, including eight Mexicans, to be executed, and may seek to extradite him from the United States. The confessed shooter in the mass killing in the Texas border city, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, potentially faces the death penalty in the US. Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist, said that while Mexico condemns Crusius's "reprehensible, abominable" crimes, it does not want to see him put to death. "Our constitution does not allow the death penalty. We do not want the death penalty, as a matter of conviction. Life imprisonment does not exist (in Mexico), either," he told a press conference. "I have given instructions to explore the possibility of requesting this person's extradition," he added. "We do not want impunity. We want the punishment to serve as an example Given that this was a premeditated crime, and all the aggravating factors, he would face a long time in prison in Mexico... more than 50 years." Mexico has said it considers the August 3 shooting at a packed Walmart store a "terrorist attack." Crusius published an online manifesto before the shooting in which he vowed to fight a "Hispanic invasion" of the US. He later told police he had been targeting "Mexicans." The shooting came at a time of already strained ties between the United States and Mexico, a frequent target of President Donald Trump's attacks. Trump critics accuse him of stoking white nationalist hatred in the US with anti-immigrant rhetoric, including comments referring to Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists. The Mexican foreign ministry convened a meeting of Latin American diplomats Friday to seek a joint response to what it called the threat of "white supremacism" to Spanish speakers in the United States. "What happened in El Paso represents an inflection point in protecting Hispanic communities in the United States, given that it was a domestic terror attack, sustained by xenophobic rhetoric," Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told the meeting. Mexico has called on the United States to reject the "rhetoric of hate" in the wake of the shooting. (soruce: Agence France-Presse) JAPAN: Mental illness issues could make death penalty impossible for Kyoto Animation arsonist Immediately following the deadly arson attack on anime production company Kyoto Animation last month, police apprehended 41-year-old Shinji Aoba, who was taken into custody near the scene of the crime while saying “They stole my novel” and “I spread the gasoline and lit it with a lighter.” Aoba, who also suffered burns in the incident, has been hospitalized, and is yet to be formally arraigned. The circumstances under which he was taken into custody, though, as well as security footage of him pushing a cart with two canisters of gasoline in the vicinity of Kyoto Animation’s Fushimi studio prior to the attack, leave little room in which he could plausibly deny being the arsonist. However, his culpability, in a legal sense, could be limited. In a press conference held the day after the attack, Ryoji Nishiyama, head of the Kyoto Prefectural Police’s First Investigation Department, said “We have information indicating [Aoba] has a mental illness.” The exact nature of the purported illness has yet to be disclosed, but Japanese news organization Daily Shincho spoke with several psychological and legal experts as to how Aoba’s mental health could affect what legal repercussions he could face. Masaru Wakasa, a lawyer who previously served as vice-director of the Public Prosecutors Office’s Tokyo’s Special Investigation Department, says that if Aoba is found t have been acting under a diminished mental capacity while carrying out the attack, there’s a chance he could be found not guilty, in accordance of Article 39 of the Japanese penal code. Prominent psychiatrist Tamami Katada said that Aoba exhibited signs of what could be schizophrenia or castrophrenia, also known as “thought withdrawal,” in which a person believes that ideas are being forcefully taken from the their mind by outside forces. Katada goes on to say that such a delusion could have fed into a persecution complex and fueled a desire for violent revenge, culminating in the attack. It’s not clear, though, if Katada’s comments were made before or after Kyoto Animation confirmed that it had received a submission from Aoba in one of its regularly held novel-writing competitions. However, Konan University law professor Osamu Watanabe holds that Aoba’s actions are consistent with someone who was well aware of the lethal effects they would have, and went through with them anyway. He cites the premeditated nature of the attack, which required the purchase and transportation of a large quantity of gasoline,
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August 16 KENYA: Life and Times of Kenya's Last Hangman His name was Kirugumi wa Wanjuki, not known to many but those who are keen on history, and those who were unlucky enough to go through his hands. He lived in a cold village at the foot of the Aberdares, a poor and desolate man surviving on a meagre pension and a decayed mud house, a reward for his service to the state. Kirugumi joined the Prison Service in 1937, where he was stationed at Kangumbiri Work Camps for seven years before he was moved to Kamiti Prison. There, he replaced a retiring Indian hangman and served in that capacity for 11 years. After that, he had a short stint at the King'ong'o maximum prison, where he served as the official hangman for 4 years before calling it quits in 1974. Before he joined the Prisons' Service, Kirugumi was a tracker and a professional game hunter. He was among the men who helped the Askari track the Mau Mau freedom fighters during the struggle for independence. The last executions to take place in Kenya was in 1987, with the last victims being the alleged masterminds of the 1982 coup, Hezekiah Ochuka, and Pancras Oteyo. Kirugumi wa Wanjiku admitted to being the one who hanged them. "I got so used to hanging people that at some moment I thought that killing people was as simple as slaughtering a chicken," he said in a KTN interview a few months before his death. The death penalty was repealed in 2016 when President Uhuru Kenyatta invoked article 133 of the constitution, officially commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment. This was not the first time this act was done. Mwai Kibaki had invoked the Prerogative of Mercy and issued a directive to commute the death penalty to life in prison on August 4, 2009, but President Uhuru made it official. The declaration in 2009 sent Kirugumi wa Wanjiku into a frenzy, and he even offered to hang the prisoners for Kibaki if he would let him. His opinion was that the death penalty was a deterrent to serious crime, but life imprisonment will dilute the purpose of punishment for a serious crime. In an interview conducted by The Standard in 2009, he recounted the last moments of prisoners before they headed to the gallows. "Inmates had to be clean before they went to the gallows. We had to ensure that their nails were well-trimmed, their hair clean-shaven and bodies clean," he said. The convicted prisoner was woken up before 5am and led to the gallows, his legs and his hands bound. "Some walked in silence, others prayed, some cried and some just went wild," he added. Kirugumi expressed the fact that he had no regrets over the prisoners who had lost their lives through his hands, for all he was doing was delivering justice as it had been prescribed. His biggest regret, he said, was having to hang a young person full of potential. He died on November 2nd, 2009, a desolate and abandoned man, ironically, at 0230hrs, more or less the time he prepared prisoners for their execution. He did not go out the way he had lived. Instead, he succumbed to pneumonia in the loneliness of his crumbling house. His death did not stir excitement in his neighbourhood. His only son Ngung'u Wanjuki was the one that mourned him, with the villagers giving his compound a wide berth. The stigma that came with his job trailed him to the last days of his existence, even as demons tortured him in the night and forced him to drink heavily just to gather some sanity. Not many knew about him when he lived, and not many will know about him long after his death. His name has been plastered in the halls of infamy, to be remembered as the Last Hangman that this country had. (source: kenyans.co.ke.) BANGLADESH: Bangabandhu’s killer Rashed Chy to be brought back: Law minister Law Minister Anisul Huq today said that Rashed Chowdhury, a fugitive killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, will be brought back to the country from the US. The minister said this while addressing a programme organised to mark the National Mourning Day at Akhaura Railway Station premises in Brahmanbaria this morning. “2 of the 6 fugitive killers of Bangabandhu are residing in the US and Canada. We would bring back the one living in the US. Legal steps are on to bring back the one in Canada as well,” Anisul Huq said. “Steps are on to trace the whereabouts of the four other fugitive killers,” he said. “No matter where they are hiding, they would be extradited to the country and would be brought to justice,” the minister also said. “After the assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975, conspiration was on to turn Bangladesh into a mini Pakistan,” Anisul Huq said, adding “the plot was almost implemented.” “It was after the Awami League government under leadership of Sheikh Hasina took power in 1996 that the fate of the country began to change for the better,” he added. Akhaura upazila unit of Awami League organised the
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Aug. 15 IRAN: Iranian Regime Continues to Use the Death Penalty The Iranian regime’s use of the death penalty as a punishment is something that concerns human rights organisations all over the world. Despite constant calls for the Iranian regime to stop resorting to the use of execution, the practice still continues on a regular basis. It was reported that 2 prisoners were hanged on Saturday 10th August. The prisoners were not named in state media, but they were incarcerated in the central prison of Mashhad. Last week, five prisoners in the Raja’i Shahr (Gohardasht) Prison in the city of Karaj were hanged. They were transferred to solitary confinement before their executions took place. They have been identified as Mohammad-Reza Shekari, Yousof Zakeri, Majid Arabali, Hossein Panjeh-Maryam and Bahram Tork. Iran Human Rights Monitor has reported that there have been 39 executions during the month of July. Four of these were women and one was done in public. The human rights organisation said that executions took place in a number of prisons across the country. The organisation’s annual report for 2018 said that there were almost three hundred executions that year alone. At least 4 of these were women and 10 were political prisoners. Furthermore, a handful of these executions were on prisoners who were minors at the time of the alleged crime. The Iranian regime uses execution as a means of supressing the people and trying to threaten them into silence. However, the people of Iran have been so badly mistreated by the regime for so many years that they are risking everything – arrest, torture, imprisonment and execution – to make sure that their voices are heard. The human rights situation in the country is deplorable and the most basic of freedoms are denied to the people. Minorities face harsh discrimination, especially religious and ethnic minorities. Human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, women and many more sectors of society are targeted by the regime that is unable to cope with the high levels of discontent and dissent. The people have been calling for regime change because they know that the only way they will ever have their human rights respected is if the regime falls and is replaced by an alternative that will not discriminate. Human rights organisations have drawn attention to the Iranian regime’s use of violence against protesters. Amnesty International highlighted the mistreatment of the people of Iran in its annual human rights report. It said that during the major nationwide protests in which tens of thousands of Iranian men and women protested about their situation, thousands were arrested. Iranians across the country took to the streets to protest against the repression, poverty and corruption that they face. During the protests, the security forces were seen beating protesters, using water cannons and tear gas, and firing on them. No one has been held responsible for the brutality against the protesters. Amnesty International said that Iran is one of “the world’s most prolific users of the death penalty” and deplored its practice of executing individuals that were under the age of 18 at the time the alleged crime was committed. (source: irannewsupdate.com) FRANCE: France Clashes With UN Human Rights Expert Over ISIS Suspects' Trials in Iraq The French government is pushing back on criticism from a U.N. human rights expert over the fact French citizens who joined ISIS are standing trial in Iraq, a country with a death penalty. Agnès Callamard, the U.N. “special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions,” urged Paris this week to repatriate seven French jihadists who have been sentenced to death in Iraq. Public opinion in France remains opposed to the repatriation of French jihadists. ISIS has carried out several deadly attacks in France, including those in late 2015, when terrorists killed 130 people over 3 hours at a concert hall, sports stadium and restaurants in the French capital. Callamard, who met with the jihadists in prison, sent a letter to the French government criticizing the suspects’ transfer early this year from Syria – where they had been held by Kurdish forces – to Iraq. “France and the [anti-ISIS] coalition organized and sponsored this,” she charged, adding that the Syrian Kurds who had been holding them had opposed the transfer, favoring instead the establishment of an international tribunal in northeastern Syria, to deal with captured jihadists. According to media accounts, the Kurds had little choice but to comply, as they lacked the resources to put the suspects on trial themselves – and in any case, France and other countries refused to allow Kurdish courts to try their nationals, since the Kurdish administration is not internationally recognized. “There are serious allegations that the sentences were handed down following unfair
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August 14 IRAQ: Captured ISIS commander admits beheading 3 Kurds: ministry Iraqi forces on Monday night announced the capture of an Islamic State (ISIS) commander and 6 other militants in southwest Kirkuk province who are alleged to have committed "heinous crimes" against civilians. The 7 unnamed ISIS suspects were arrested by Iraqi troops, the defense ministry announced via social media, without describing the circumstances of their capture. Among the prisoners is an alleged ISIS commander who managed the Hawija Grain Mill when the group controlled the area from mid-2014 to October 2017. In a video published on Facebook by the Iraqi defense ministry, the unnamed ISIS commander, whose face is blurred, is showed confessing to the murder of 3 Kurds and 2 other individuals from Diyala province. "Members of our group kidnapped 3 Kurdish nationals and brought them to Hawija. Our leader ordered me to behead them. Together with 2 other persons who were from Diyala, we executed the order," he said, without identifying their leader. Iraqi and Kurdish security forces regularly publish videos of their captives making confessions [ a format often seen in jihadist propaganda films. Human rights groups regularly accuse Iraqi courts of using confessions obtained by duress. The defense ministry condemned the "barbaric" group, accusing them of "heinous crimes against humanity killing innocent people" without providing details. The group allegedly confessed to plotting attacks inside Kirkuk using the families of slain ISIS militants, the ministry claimed. Iraqi troops recently launched a string of operations across several provinces to quell the ISIS resurgence, including a one-day sweep of the southern Kirkuk region on August 4 dubbed "New Dawn." The 3rd phase of operation "Will of Victory" was launched in Diyala and Nineveh provinces on August 5 by Iraqi Security Forces backed up by Iraqi and coalition airpower. During the 3rd phase, Iraqi forces searched 25 villages over a 1,702 square kilometer area in Diyala for ISIS remnants, arms caches, bomb workshops, and hideouts. They detained 18 ISIS fighters and killed 4 others, according to Iraq’s Security Media Cell. They also destroyed 12 tunnels and 24 hideouts and seized 42 explosive devices and 6 mortar rounds, it added. ISIS seized vast areas of Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014. Although Iraqi’s former prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared the group defeated in Iraq in December 2017, ISIS remnants and sleeper cells remain active, returning to their earlier insurgency tactics. Their resurgence has been particularly apparent in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, where contention over control of territory has created security vacuums open to exploitation. According to a US Department of Defense report to the US Congress published in early August, ISIS are "working to rebuild their capabilities" in Iraq and Syria. "ISIS is rebuilding in remote territory, which is hard for Iraqi forces to secure," the report said, and is "able to recruit in these areas [Iraq’s northern and western provinces] using family and tribal connections." On Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi said Iraqi forces have yet to encounter "real resistance" from ISIS militants in recent operations. (source: rudaw.net) IRANexecutions Iran Regime Hangs 7 Prisoners Iran's regime has hanged at least 7 prisoners in recent days, according to a group monitoring the human rights situation inside the country. Iran Human Rights Monitor reported on Tuesday 2 prisoners were hanged on Saturday, August 10, in the central prison of Mashhad, according to a report in the state-run Khorasan daily on Sunday. The state media did not identify the victims by name but said it would publish a full report in following days. In another development last Wednesday, 5 prisoners were hanged in the notorious Raja’i Shahr (Gohardasht) Prison, in the city of Karaj, northwest of Tehran, Iran HRM said. The names of those executed were announced as Mohammad-Reza Shekari, Yousof Zakeri, Majid Arabali, Hossein Panjeh-Maryam, and Bahram Tork. These prisoners, along with several others, had been moved to solitary confinement prior to their execution. The regime usually moves prisoners who are listed to be hanged soon to solitary confinement where they have to count the minutes and hours to have a hangman take them to the gallows. The Iranian regime hanged 39 prisoners in July alone. 4 were women, and there was 1 public hanging. The executions took place in the prisons of Birjand, Ghohardasht, Karaj, Kashan, Khondab, Mahshahr, Kelardasht, Orumieh (Urmia), Noor, Mashhad, Mahabad, Zanjan, Minab, Bandar-Abbas, Borujerd, Shiraz, Tabriz, Gorgan, Dezful, Rasht and Kermanshah. Iran’s regime is the world’s top record holder in executions per capita. More than 3,800 people have been executed in Iran since Hassan
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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
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August 12 IRAN: Campaign Pressuring Tehran to Release 8 Environmentalists Social media users have interacted regarding the issue of 8 environmentalists facing security charges in Iran, 1 week after they started a hunger strike. 2 hashtags were launched to pressure Iran to release the activists. Kaveh Madani, water management expert, tweeted that 564 days have passed since arresting the activists, and 8 days since the hunger strike. He stressed that their only demand is to work based on justice. Human Rights Watch said last week that the authorities should immediately release all eight environmentalist experts detained for over 18 months without being provided with the evidence concerning their alleged crimes. "Members of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation have languished behind bars for over 550 days while Iranian authorities have blatantly failed to provide a shred of evidence about their alleged crime," said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities should take the long-overdue step of releasing these defenders of Iran’s endangered wildlife and end this injustice against them," Page added. HRW quoted a reliable source as saying that the environmentalists on hunger strike are demanding that authorities end their legal limbo and either release them on bail until a verdict is issued against them or transfer them to the public ward of Evin prison. They are inward 2-Alef of Evin prison, which is under the supervision of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization, the source added. Their trial in Branch 15 of Tehran’s revolutionary court was halted before March, then resumed at the beginning of August. The court reportedly did not allow lawyers to review the evidence before the trial opened on January 30. Article 48 of Iran’s 2014 criminal procedure law says that detainees charged with various offenses, including national or international security crimes, political, and media crimes, must select their lawyer from a pre-approved pool selected by Iran’s judiciary during the investigation. Defendants had been under psycho-social torture and were coerced into making false confessions, experts said. On February 10, 2018, a few weeks after their arrests, family members of Kavous Seyed Emami, a Canadian-Iranian professor and environmentalist arrested with the other members of the group, reported that he had died in detention under suspicious circumstances. Iranian authorities claimed that he committed suicide, but they have not conducted an impartial investigation into his death. Several senior Iranian government officials have said that they did not find any evidence to suggest that the detained activists are spies. On May 22, 2018, Issa Kalantari, the head of Iran’s Environmental institution, said that the government had formed a committee consisting of the ministers of intelligence, interior, and justice and the president’s legal deputy, and that they had concluded there was no evidence to suggest those detained are spies. Kalantari added that the committee said the environmentalists should be released. On February 3, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of parliament from Tehran, tweeted that according to the information he has received, the National Security Council headed by President Hassan Rouhani also did not deem the activities of their detained conservation activists to be spying. On October 24, 2018, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, said that the prosecutor’s office had elevated the charges against four of the detainees to "sowing corruption on earth," which includes the risk of the death penalty. Dolatabadi claimed that the activists were "seeking proximity to military sites with the cover of environmental projects and obtaining military information from them." (source: aawsat.com) CHINA: China Clarifies Inmate Rights in Death Penalty Cases In an effort to improve the protection of death row inmates’ rights and welfare, China’s Supreme People’s Court released a new guideline on August 9 to clarify and control capital punishment "review and execution procedures," according to China Daily. Set to take effect on September 1, the guideline is composed of 13 articles and states, among other things, that inmates nearing the date of their execution are only able to meet with close family members - including spouses and children. More distant relatives, as well as friends, are also allowed to meet with a death row inmate ":subject to reason." The guideline goes on to state that courts are responsible for informing convicts on death row that they have the right to meet with family, and, if a person refuses an invitation to visit an inmate, the incarcerated individual must also be notified. Meetings with children or family members under 18 years of age require parental approval; video calls can be arranged after review if it is concluded that an in-person
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August 11 MALAYSIA: SPAN wants stiffer jail terms, fines over death penalty for water pollutersSPAN chairman Charles Santiago says no death penalty has been imposed because no deaths have occurred as a result of water contamination. The National Water Services Commission (SPAN) says the death sentence for those who purposely contaminate water sources is not practical and has proposed stiff jail sentences and fines for offenders instead. The Water Services Industry Act (WSIA) 2006 provides for the death penalty to be imposed for pollution of rivers, streams and creeks, seas, lakes, groundwater, dams, reservoirs, ditches and drains, or imprisonment of up to 20 years. If death is not caused, whipping can be imposed. SPAN chairman Charles Santiago acknowledged that the death penalty was not the solution, and proposed life imprisonment instead, given the debate in the country over whether the death penalty should be abolished. (source: Free Malaysia Today) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
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August 10 NIGERIA: Ekiti court sentences 2 robbers to death by hanging An Ekiti State High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti yesterday sentenced 2 people to death hanging for robbery and illegal possession of firearms. The convicts, Adewa Sunday and Adedayo Amos, robbed Mrs. Abosede Oyeyemi Malomo at Ilogbo Ekiti in Ido-Osi Local Government Area of the state on June 4, 2015, during a night robbery. The offence, according to the charge sheet, is contrary to Section 1(2) (a) of the Robbery and Firearm Special Provisions Act, 2004. They robbed Malomo with guns, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons, thereby inflicting bodily injuries on her. The Chief Judge of Ekiti State, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, convicted the 2 men. He said: “I found the accused persons guilty of armed robbery as laid down before me and they should face the supreme punishment for the offence. “Therefore, the sentence of the court upon you is that you be hanged by the neck until you are dead. "May the good Lord have mercy on your souls." The hearing into the case began on March 27, 2017 with 2 -count charge bordering on robbery and illegal possession of firearms. During hearing, the prosecution counsel, Mr. Gbemiga Adaramola, from the Ministry of Justice, called 2 witnesses and also tendered a cut-to-size pistol, iPad and the victim’s statement on oath, as exhibits. The lawyer to the defendants, Mr. Adeyinka Opaleke, didn’t call any witness. The victim was said to be reading at night when they broke into her apartment and robbed her at gunpoint. During the operation, one of the convicts was said to have made a mistake of calling the actual name of his colleague, which served as a veritable lead for the police to carry out their investigations. (source: newtelegraphng.com) SOMALIAexecutions 2 Al-Shabab Members Executed By Government The Federal Government of Somalia has executed 2 members of Al-Shabab for their role in multiple attacks in Mogadishu. The 2 were found guilty for activities carried in 2017/18 and were executed through the firing squad. Anshour O. Abukar (in green) 23, Mohamed A. Borow, 25 were convicted for role in multiple attacks including attacks which resulted death of journalist Awil Dahir Salad and General Sec. of Somali women Anab A Hashi. Meanwhile 2 Al-Shabaab militias surrender to Govt forces in Dinsor, Bay region, according to officials. One of the men once served as a driver to Moallim Geeddow, AS's shadow Governor for Bay and Bakool regions. (source: allafrica.com) GAMBIA: Gambia’s Former Justice Minister Defended Execution Of Death Row Prisoners A former Gambian Attorney General and minister of Justice, Lamin Jobarteh, has justified the enforcement of the controversial death penalty by then APRC government of Yahya Jammeh. 9 death row prisoners including Dawda Bojang, Malang Sonko, Ex-Lieutenant Lamin Jarjou, Ex-SGT Alieu Bah, Ex-SGT Lamin F Jammeh, Tabara Samba, Buba yarboe, Lamin BS Darboe and Gebe Bah were in August 2012 removed from the State Central Prisons in Banjul and suffocated with plastic bags before their bodies were dumped in a disused well by members of former President Yahya Jammeh’s hit squad, The Jungulars. The Jammeh regime had told Gambians that said the prisoners were executed by a ‘firing squad’ on Sunday 26th August 2012 after they were tried by the Gambian courts of ‘competent jurisdiction’ and have exhausted all their legal rights of appeal as provided by the law. But a group of soldiers who admitted carrying out the executive directives said none of the prisoners were shot nor did they hear the sound of gunshots from the time the prisoners were picked up at Mile Two Prisons until they were killed Addressing a delegation of elders from the West Coast Region, who had called on the Vice President, Isatou Njie-Saidy, to appeal to the government to spare the remaining death row inmates, Jobarteh -who was reportedly present when the prisoners were dragged out their prison cells to be killed and was also at the military firing range in Brikama where the dead bodies were counted before being taken for disposal- said it was legal and in line with the laws of the Gambia. Tabara Samba is among the executed prisoners "Yahya Jammeh is not carrying out the death sentence because he wants to do it but he is under an obligation to do it according to the laws of the land," Jobarteh told the delegation. He said the executed inmates had committed heinous crimes and were tried and found guilty by the courts. Citing the case of the Senegalese woman, Tabara Samba, as an example, Jobarteh said the executed woman ‘poured hot oil in the ear of her husband whose body was burnt and scorched by the substance’. "What country will allow people to commit such crimes with impunity?” he asked. "Anyone with a capacious mind would know that what the government has done is what should be done. You
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August 9 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. 46 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: dabangdasudan.org) BOTSWANA: Botswana’s capital punishment debate rages on The alarming rise of murder cases in Botswana has led to calls for a moratorium on the death penalty because it appears to have failed to stem the tide. However, another school of thought insists that the death penalty is still necessary in order to deter would-be murderers. According to statistics released by the the Botswana Police Service last year, a total of 194 murder cases had been recorded between January and mid-September 2018. Out of these, 87 involved women killed by their lovers. On the contrary, only one male victim was killed by his female lover. The debate on the death penalty was ignited by human rights group Ditshwanelo and prominent lawyer Kgosi Ngakaagae who continue to argue that the death penalty should be abolished. "Ditshwanelo condemns and remains opposed to the use of the death penalty as a means of punishment," the group's executive director Alice Mogwe said. She called on the Botswana government to "take the lead in condemning the use of fatal force, which leads to the loss of life." "It should instead strive to protect life, including that of the offender," she said. According to Mogwe the Botswana authorities "should look for alternatives to addressing crimes which lead to capital offences by dealing decisively with their causes." "This approach will contribute to the reduction of such crimes. We regard this as crucial as a nation which prides itself on being peaceful and non-violent." Ngakaagae said there are currently 2 men on death row in Botswana. "Sometimes you don’t understand these old men and how they reason. Many have died because of the Court of Appeals errors of judgment,” he said, citing alleged trial errors noted in the cases of murder convicts Gwara Brown and Thabologo Mauwe more than 20 years ago. Brown and Mauwe's hanging was halted hours before they were to meet with the hangman after human rights attorney Kgafela Kgafela intervened and won them freedom in 1998. Veteran journalist Pamela Dube is of the view that the debate of whether death penalty is a deterrent to murder is not as fierce as before. "In the face of anger, opponents of capital punishment choose not to speak out," Dube said. She called on the Botswana parliament should repeal the death penalty. "And the chance to engage on the matter is now, in the period of electioneering,” said Dube. Botswana goes for general elections in October. Other Botswana took to social media to express their views on the debate. Keboh Motjhibameleh said: "But are you guys (Ditshwanelo) aware of heinous murders by accused persons on bail? Should we wait for them to exterminate us before we (that's if we will be there) eliminate them? I'll tell you the most effective alternative to capital punishment. Send them killers to live with aliens in another planet." Bokamoso Xavier said: "You (Ditshwanelo) won’t stop the nation. We are united on this: whoever kills must die by the sword; we hang in Botswana." The European
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August 8 KENYA: Addicts are patients, it's drug peddlers who are criminals Branding them criminals makes rehabilitation efforts difficult, if not impossible The society has a habit of treating drug addicts more like criminals than the patients they really are. But leaders are now pushing for reforms that could change perceptions. Pastor Jacob Muroki of the Jesus the Exalted Centre Church says the fact that the society has branded addicts criminals makes any efforts to rehabilitate them difficult, if not impossible. At the coastal region, addicts have a nickname, a famous one. They are called ‘Mateja’, a street name meaning a thief who uses hard drugs. "We live in a society that doesn’t see the silent plight of such individuals," Muroki says. "Many are stigmatised while they can actually be helped to turn their lives around. You mention the word Teja and people begin looking over their shoulders because they expect to see a thief or a con. That mindset needs to change." Speaking when he officially launched the Lamu rehab facility earlier this year, Chief Justice David Maraga said the real criminals in the war on drugs are the smugglers and peddlers, whom he said are frustrating the reform process. "I want to let magistrates and judges know that those drug users brought to your courts daily aren’t actually criminals but patients. They need help and condemning them to prison isn’t that helpful," he said. "Let’s send them to rehab facilities like this one so they get to recover and live better lives and, as the judiciary, we support that approach. Those peddling drugs are the real criminals." PARADIGM SHIFT Speaking in Lamu during the Lamu Justice Week, DPP Noordin Hajji said he is consulting the DCI and the IG to have petty criminals sent to rehab instead of prison. He said many of the petty crimes are committed by addicts who want to buy drugs. "We are talking of those stealing goats, chicken and so on. We want to give rehab a chance, rather than putting them on trial directly. That will, however, heavily depend on the level and nature of crimes committed. Our objective is to get the big fish in all this," Hajji said. During the same week, High Court judge Roselyn Korir, who is based in Garsen, proposed alternative strategies of dealing with the drug menace. These include offering addicts training and skills that will enable them to turn away from the vice. Korir said in as much as criminal litigations are necessary, the community should embrace addicts and all those affected to enable them to see and pursue a positive and more productive life away from drugs. She said prison officers should be specially trained in rehab skills so they can help rehabilitate some of the addicts arriving at their various prison stations. Korir said the country has very few drug rehabilitation centres compared to the demand of addicts. The facilities are also out of reach for many due to their high cost. "All in all, it’s high time we changed the approach used to fight drugs, from arresting and prosecuting to actually issuing alternative skills and training to drug convicts so they can better their lives once out there," Korir said. "The coastal region is still marred with increased drug-related cases, and we need to think about how best to bring the figures down. That's why we are pushing to have prison officers trained on matters rehab so they can instil the same in the addicts before they are finally released back into society." Lamu woman representative Ruweida Obbo proposed the death penalty for those found guilty of drug peddling. "We want drug peddlers given the same treatment as criminal gangs in Mombasa like Wakali Kwanza. That toughness is what we need. Let such people be shot dead. The society will be better without them," she said. According to a 2017 national survey by Nacada, 18.2 % of Kenyans have used 1 form of drugs or the other, a figure that translates to 3.2 million people, with the most abused substance being alcohol. (source: thestar.co.ke) IRANexecutions At Least 38 People Executed in July At least 38 prisoners have been executed in Iran in July 2019. This is the highest number of executions in a month in the country during the past 20 months. According to the IHR statistic department, at least 37 prisoners have been executed in different Iranian prisons and one hanged in public. Most of the executions are recorded at Urmia prison (also called Darya prison) with 8 prisoners who have been hanged in the Iranian northwestern city’s prison. 2nd in a row was the Karaj city’s Rajai-Shahr prison near Tehran with 6 executions. Officials in Iran have announced only 14 of the 38 executions. The rest was recorded and confirmed by IHR. 34 of the executed people were charged with murder, 3 with drug-related charges and one was charged with rape. 4 of the executed people were women. Since
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August 7 IRANexecutions 5 Prisoners Executed at 1 Prison in 1 Day3 of them were identified by IHR sources as Mohammadreza Shokri, Yousef Zakeri and Hossein Panjeh-Maryam. 5 prisoners were hanged for murder charges at the Iranian city of Karaj’s Rajai-Shahr prison Wednesday. According to IHR sources, on the morning of Wednesday, August 7, at least 5 prisoners were hanged at Karaj city’s Rajai-Shahr prison, near Tehran. All were sentenced to death for murder charges. 3 of them were identified by IHR sources as Mohammadreza Shokri, Yousef Zakeri and Hossein Panjeh-Maryam. None of the above-mentioned execution has been announced by Iranian media or officials so far. At least 110 people were executed in Iran in the 1st 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: Iran Human Rights) SRI LANKA: Petition filed on legality of Bandulal’s motion on death penalty A petition has been filed at the Supreme Court seeking a ruling that the Private Member’s Bill presented to the parliament by MP Bandulal Banadarigoda on the abolishment of the death penalty is not unconstitutional. The Attorney General has been named the respondent of this petition file by Prof. C. Gunaratne from Nugegoda. On August 01, MP Bandulal Bandarigoda tabled a Private Member’s Motion at the parliament containing provisions to abolish the death penalty. The petitioner pointed out that no clause in the proposal would violate the Constitution of Sri Lanka. Accordingly, the petitioner has requested the Supreme Court to grant a ruling that the motion could be passed by an ordinary majority in Parliament. (soure: Adaderana.lk) PHILIPPINES: British accountant, 47, faces death penalty in the Philippines ‘after being caught with meth' A British accountant is facing the death penalty in the Philippines after allegedly being caught with meth in a drugs raid. Philip Joseph, 47, was in a flat with two locals when police burst through the door in Manila on May 13 at around 5pm. Officers said they found Joseph with a woman, Josephine Olayao, 38, and Rodolfo del Rosario, 42, a tuk tuk rider, preparing sachets of methamphetamine, or shabu, as it is known locally. Police said that Joseph, who owns the apartment, has been held in custody while prosecutors prepare a case against him. He faces charges of possession and dealing, which carries a maximum punishment of the death sentence or a life sentence in one of the country‘s hellish overcrowded prisons. A police report from the Malate district station said four pieces of heat-sealed transparent sachets containing suspected methamphetamine were seized in the raid. It said: ‘Police identified the suspects as being involved in anti-criminality operations and found four sachets of shabu. ? ‘The 3 suspected were brought to the Malate police station for proper disposition and filing of charges. ‘They will be charged with the violation of Section 5 and section 11 Art. II of R.A. 9165 or the illegal Distribution and Possession of Dangerous Drugs.‘ If found guilty of possession, Joseph faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum life term. Joseph had moved to the Philippines and was working in the financial sector as an accountant and legal collections manager. (source: eastoncaller.com) SINGAPORE: Singapore’s execution of drug offenders tripled in 5 years --Total number of executions from 2014 to 2019 is 32. --Executions for drug offence stand at 84 percent of the total executions till date since 2014. --A noticeable spike in execution numbers for drug offence occurred in 2017 and 2018. The number of executions (for drug offences) in the past 5 years (2014-2018) represented a 3-fold jump from the previous 5 year period (2007-2011) before the laws on mandatory death penalty for both drug and murder offences were reviewed in 2012-2013. In terms of total executions, the 2014-2019 period exhibits 1.8 times more executions compared to the 2007-2011 period. It is tragic that Singapore’s amended legislative framework for drug trafficking offences has elicited an increase in the number death sentences carried out. The majority, if not all, of those executed on drug offences since 2014 were due to the failure of the Attorney General Chambers (AGC) to issue a "certificate of cooperation". Without this certificate, an accused still faces the mandatory death sentence. Otherwise the judge could exercise the option
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August 4 IRAN: Jailed Iranian-Swedish Dual National Pressured To Accept New Charges In a telephone conversation with his family, the Iranian-Swedish scientist and disaster medicine expert, Dr. Ahmad Reza Jalali (Djalali) has revealed that he has been under pressure to admit new charges and participate in another "forced confession" in front of cameras. Speaking to Radio Farda on Saturday, August 3, Jalali's wife, Vida Mehran Nia disclosed that her husband had been taken to solitary confinement outside Tehran's notorious prison, Evin. "My husband told me on the phone that he had been under heavy pressure to submit to a forced confession," Ms. Mehran Nia said, adding, "They (intelligence agents) have threatened him to either admit new accusations or be prepared for the execution of death penalty issued against him." In an unexpected move last Monday, Ahmad-Reza Jalali was mysteriously transferred to an unknown place of detention. While on an official academic visit hosted by Tehran University, Jalali 47 was accused of “collaboration with a hostile government” and arrested on April 2016. Since then, he has been kept behind bars at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. He was later shown on state TV in December 2017, confessing to providing information to Israel's Mossad spy agency about Iranian military and nuclear scientists, including two who were assassinated in 2010. In a voice recording that was published on YouTube on 22 October, Ahmad-Reza Jalali is heard saying that, while in solitary confinement, he was twice forced to make “confessions” in front of a video camera by reading out statements pre-written by his interrogators. Amnesty International and other rights groups have condemned Jalali's detention, saying it follows a pattern of Iran detaining dual nationals and expatriates indefinitely without due process. Immediately after the Islamic Republic's Supreme Court upheld Jalali's death sentence, Sweden granted him citizenship, soliciting a protest from Iran. Iran does not recognize dual nationality (source: radiofarda.com) CANADA: Canadian resident escapes Iran after 11 years of detentionSaeed Malekpour says he was beaten in prison and was sentenced to death in 2010 An Iranian-born Canadian resident has escaped to return to Canada after being detained in Iran for 11 years. Saeed Malekpour, a web programmer from Victoria who had permanent resident status in Canada, was arrested in Iran in 2008 and accused of setting up a website that was used to post pornography. Malekpour maintained his innocence and said he was tortured in prison to force a confession to crimes against Islam. He was sentenced to death in 2010. Payam Akhavan, an expert in international law at McGill University and a former United Nations prosecutor who has been involved in the case for years, said that the Iranian government released Malekpour on furlough a few days ago after coming under intense pressure. Malekpour then escaped Iran through a 3rd country that is not being revealed. He is now in Vancouver. 'It was dangerous' Akhavan said that no one in Iran, including his family members and lawyer, was aware of Malekpour's plan to leave the country. "It was far from certain that the plan to bring him to Canada would succeed. So we are all very relieved," Akhavan said in a phone interview. "It was dangerous. Really, until he set foot in Canada we were not sure that everything would go according to plan." "[He is] once again living as a free man." Husband of jailed British-Iranian woman stages hunger strike outside embassy in U.K. The news of his release first broke on Friday, when Malekpour's sister, Maryam, who has long advocated for his release, tweeted that he had landed in Canada. "The nightmare is finally over!" she wrote. "Together we prevailed." Akhavan, who witnessed the reunion between Maryam and her brother after more than a decade apart, said it was "a beautiful sight to behold, but also heartbreaking." "To think that this innocent man who was just 33 years old when he was arrested ... has lost a decade of his life." In a written statement, a spokesperson for Global Affairs wrote that "Canada welcomes the news that Saeed Malekpour has been reunited with his family in Canada. We have advocated for Mr. Malekpour's release and are pleased that he is now in Canada." Global Affairs declined to comment further on the case, citing privacy concerns. Akhavan said the Canadian government was "exceptionally helpful" in the case, and provided Malekpour with the proper paperwork to re-enter the country after over a decade away. U.S. joins Freeland in condemning 'arbitrary detention' of Canadians and calls for 'immediate release' According to a written statement from Amnesty International written prior to his release, Malekpour had travelled to Iran in 2008 to visit his ailing father. While detained, Malekpour
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August 3 SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan Prime Minister proposes to end death penalty Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty in the lead up to the execution of 4 drug convicts. The proposed bill would abolish the death sentence in the future and commute the sentences of those already on death row to life imprisonment. The bill was introduced to parliament on Thursday and will take a vote in 14 days if no one challenges it will pass. This, however, is unlikely as President Sirisena is a vocal opponent claiming that those who oppose executions oppose building a decent county. The Washington Post further reports that Sirisena has described narcotics as “the root cause of all other major crimes” and he views the decision to execute prisoners “for the betterment of future generations”. Sirisena has claimed that his position was influenced by what he views as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's successful “war on drugs”. Sri Lanka’s stance on the death penalty has been widely panned by the international community. The European Union has stated that if Sri Lanka moves towards implementing the death penalty it will be in contradiction with its commitments to the UN General Assembly to maintain a 43-year moratorium on the death penalty. The EU has warned this may send the wrong signals to the international community and investors. Sri Lanka is currently a beneficiary of the GSP+ agreement with the EU which enables a preferential trade scheme but is dependent upon Sri Lanka fulfilling its commitments to human rights. Wickremesinghe has stated that he opposes the death penalty and the under the coalition government Sri Lanka supported a UN resolution for a moratorium on the death penalty in 2016 and 2018. The Sri Lanka government has not had formally hanged a prisoner since 1976 even though courts routinely pass death sentences. (source: Tamil Guardian) SINGAPORE: Drug trafficking on the rise despite increased awareness of death penalty in Singapore Despite Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam’s claim that drug traffickers are aware of the mandatory death penalty sentence in Singapore, there has been a spike in the number of attempts related to drug trafficking into the Republic, he told Reuters on Wed (31 Jul). While Mr Shanmugam told the 2nd Asia-Pacific Forum Against Drugs in Oct last year that the death penalty for drug traffickers cannot serve as a panacea for all drug-related issues plaguing Singapore society, the Minister maintained that the government, albeit reluctantly, must retain the death penalty “for the greater good of society”, as it “saves more lives”, referring to those who will be spared from falling into drug addiction. Stating that drug traffickers are fully aware of the risks of being arrested, prosecuted, and - in most cases - sentenced to death, Mr Shanmugam said that the prospect of facing the gallows "has a very powerful influence on those who seek to traffic drugs into Singapore", as "the stakes are made very clear upfront". "You have to focus on reducing supply, and the death penalty comes within the context of trying to reduce the supply by making it clear to traffickers that if they get caught, they will face the death penalty," he said at the opening of the forum. Mr Shanmugam told Reuters on Wed that Singapore is adamant on keeping the death penalty because crime rates have 'gone up' in countries where marijuana has been legalised, adding that "medical costs and hospitalization costs" in such places "have gone up significantly, much more than the tax dollars that the state had hoped to receive". Additionally, he said that Singaporeans have continued to demonstrate "very strong support for the government’s current position" on the war against drug-related crimes in spite of neighbouring countries’ move to slightly relax their drug laws. 13 executions took place in Singapore last year, 11 of which were for drug-related offences. Mr Shanmugam said that the Singapore government’s decision to pause judicial executions for several years was behind the high number of such executions last year, adding that the break in executions was in line with the government’s review of the death penalty. The Law Minister has frequently reiterated the government’s stance on the use of recreational drugs, and has criticised the way certain States and human rights groups have framed the discourse on such drugs only from the perspective of public health and personal freedoms. "Human rights is ‘my individual freedom to consume drugs’ - that is how it was put forward. What about the impact on society? If you take that argument, then you would have the human right to do almost anything you like," Shanmugam was quoted by TODAY as saying in late May this year. He added that the financial backing of lobbyists has compelled legislators to amend
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August 2 SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia executes its own citizens with impunity. It is abhorrent that the UK will not label it a pariah stateThe next G20 summit is in Riyadh in 2020. The international community must end its indifference to Saudi’s flagrant abuse of human rights and refuse to attend On Sunday 28 July, the day before releasing a report on the illegal use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, the prominent progressive Saudi cleric Salman Al-Awdah was due to appear in a secret court with no legal team, to hear the judgement about the death penalty in his case. He was detained in 2017 after tweeting that he hoped the standoff between Saudi Arabia and Qatar would be resolved peacefully. He has been held in appalling conditions ever since. Among the 37 charges being brought against him is "mocking the government’s achievements" - whether or not this is even true, it is certainly not a crime punishable by death. Although his hearing has now been postponed until November, the systematic abuse of his human rights, including his right to a fair trial, continues unabated. If the Saudi authorities end up executing him, his case would be an alarming example of how the death penalty is used to silence any criticism in Saudi Arabia. It is unfortunately not the exception but rather the norm. Mujtaba al-Sweikat, who was executed earlier this year, was only a teenager when Saudi secret police arrested him for protest-related offences. For three years he was held without charge. He was denied any legal assistance and was regularly beaten, burnt with cigarettes, and flogged on the soles of his feet. As a result of this prolonged torture, Mujtaba eventually confessed to vague "terror charges". It was this confession - extracted through torture - which formed the basis of his conviction. He was beheaded in a mass execution on 23 April 2019. Despite the international outcry, he was not the only person killed that day who had been a child at the time of the alleged offences. The families of those that were killed received no warning that they were to be executed. Even in death, Saudi Arabia denies its victims dignity. The mutilated bodies of those killed are often left on public display for extended periods or are not returned to grieving family members. The horror stories of torture and solitary confinement were repeated by the families of many of those executed that day. It isn’t news that Saudi Arabia is one of the most heavy-handed proponents of the death penalty. What is shocking however, is the alarming increase in its use and, as with the cases of Al-Awdah and Al-Sweikat, the completely arbitrary way in which it is used. In 2010 there were 27 confirmed executions. In 2015 there were 158 confirmed executions, most of whom were people who had participated in Arab Spring protests in 2013. In the first months of this year there have already been 134 confirmed executions, with at least another 24 people currently believed to be at imminent risk of being executed. 6 Saudi Arabia’s recent excessive use of the death penalty has not happened in a vacuum. It comes in the midst of a concerted campaign against human rights defenders and political activists. Since Mohammed bin Salman came to power in 2017, there has been a significant increase in the pressure exerted on critics of the regime. Some 17 political dissidents were arrested in the first half of 2018, many of whom were notable women’s rights campaigners. In April of this year, at least 14 journalists, academics, and family members of women’s rights campaigners were detained. These arrests are sadly accompanied by the all-too-familiar allegations of torture, and the violation of due process norms. All of this is without even mentioning the brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi. I accompanied the UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard to Turkey during the investigation of his murder to review the available evidence, including the grotesque recordings of his killing. Whatever the Saudi authorities might try to say about his murder being the work of rogue actors, their actions show it is part of a systematic abuse and indeed, total disregard for human rights. It has become clear that international outrage is not enough to stop this illegal and wanton use of the death penalty in the Saudi kingdom. Despite the world’s lens being fully focused on human rights abuses there, very little progress has been made in stopping their arbitrary nature. It is for this reason that I am calling for more concrete action. The Saudi authorities must declare an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty and allow an international fact-finding mission to go to the kingdom and investigate my findings, get access to those on death row, as well as help prevent prospective rights violations. Should Saudi Arabia fail to address this growing stain on its human rights record, I also call on
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August 1 UNITED KINGDOM: Families of IS suspects fear death penalty risk from evidence given to US Mother of captured Islamic State member calls for son and accomplice to be tried in UK jurisdiction A human rights group has warned the UK against providing evidence to the US in the case of two British Islamic State (IS) suspects without receiving assurances that the men would not receive the death penalty. In evidence given on the second day of a hearing at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the human rights organisation Reprieve warned that failing to receive assurances on the death penalty would set a dangerous precedent. Elsheikh and Kotey, accused of belonging to a 4-strong IS cell responsible for killing western captives in Syria, are currently being held in the north of the country by the Syrian Democratic Force (SDF). They have been accused of involvement in the deaths of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning. “By abandoning its abolitionist stance, the UK government is undermining its own efforts to prevent the use of the death penalty across the world," said Reprieve director Maya Foa. "Left as it is, this decision will have devastating impacts for people - including British people - facing execution around the world. Principles can’t be jettisoned when they become politically inconvenient.” Lawyers for Maha Elgizouli, the mother of one of the men, El Shafee Elsheikh, told the UK Supreme Court on Tuesday that they had been informed by prosecution chiefs that - contrary to what they previously thought - there was enough evidence for Elsheikh and another detained British IS member, Alexander Kotey, to be tried in Britain. Their arrest last year provoked controversy about whether the 2 should be tried in the UK or abroad - a controversy further compounded when it was revealed that then Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he would share evidence with US authorities without receiving reassurance that the men would not receive the death penalty. A letter leaked to UK media in July 2018 revealed that Javid told US Attorney General Jeff Sessions that Britain had "strong reasons for not requiring a death penalty assurance in this specific case". Speaking in court yesterday, a lawyer for Elgizouli argued that the decision by Javid - which they were challenging - would undermine the UK's previously stated policy of opposing the death penalty. “Mrs Elgizouli is solely concerned to protect her son from the death penalty," said Edward Fitzgerald QC. "She recognises the enormity of the crimes alleged against her son.” The High Court ruled in January that the British government had not acted unlawfully by providing evidence to US authorities in Elsheikh's case. "There is no general, common law duty on Her Majesty's Government to take positive steps to protect an individual's life from the actions of a 3rd party and that includes requiring particular undertakings before complying with the [mutual legal assistance request]," said Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett at the time. It also dismissed claims that Javid had acted unlawfully by providing information which might facilitate the death penalty or substantially contribute to the risk of its imposition. (source: middleeasteye.net) INDIA: Death penalty sought for Unnao rape accused Members of the local women’s wing of the Congress staged a protest at Samrala Chowk, demanding death sentence for Unnao rape case accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar. City Congress wing president Leena Tapariya demanded that the hearing in the case should be held in Delhi under the supervision of Supreme Court rather than Lucknow. She blamed the UP Government for creating “Jungle Raj” and poor law and order situation in the state. The car crash in Uttar Pradesh had left the rape survivor critically wounded and 2 of her relatives dead. Leena Tapariya said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come forward to support the victim so that death sentence be awarded to the accused. (source: tribuneindia.com) PAKISTAN: Pakistan to grant consular access to Jadhav on Friday Pakistan has decided to grant consular access to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav in accordance with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, according to the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson. Jadhav will be granted consular access on Friday, Dunya News quoted the spokesperson as saying. Pakistan has informed the Indian High Commission and is awaiting a formal response, it said. The ICJ in its ruling in July put on continued stay the death sentence to Jadhav by a Pakistani military court for alleged espionage. The court had asked Pakistan to inform Jadhav of his rights under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention and grant India consular access. The ICJ in its ruling asked Pakistan to ensure "effective review and reconsideration of his
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July 31 BELARUS: Belarus Condemns Second Man To Death This Year A man was sentenced to death in Belarus for double murder on July 31, despite repeated calls by the European Union for the abolition of capital punishment in the only European country that still carries out executions. The Minsk-based Vyasna (Spring) human rights group says a court in the eastern city of Vitsebsk found the defendant, Viktar Paulau, guilty of murdering 2 elderly women in late December and sentenced him to death. The court established that Paulau beat to death the 2 retired sisters in a village near Vitsebsk and stole cash and alcoholic beverages from their house. Paulau, 50, told the court he regretted his deed and begged for his life to be spared. He is the 2nd Belarusian sentenced to death this year after 36-year-old Alyaksandr Asipovich received the death penalty in January for killing 2 girls in 2018. For years, the EU has urged Belarus to join other countries in declaring a moratorium on capital punishment. According to rights organizations, some 400 people have been sentenced to death in Belarus since it gained independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Human rights groups say Belarus carried out 1 execution in January, 1 in November, and 2 executions in May 2018. (source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty) *** EU warns Belarus to abolish death penalty Despite the European Union’s repeated calls for the abolition of capital punishment in the only European country that still carries out executions, a man was sentenced to death in Belarus for double murder on 31 July. The EU reiterated its opposition to the death penalty in a statement, in which it expressed its sincere sympathy to the families and friends of the victims. “Tangible steps taken by Belarus to respect universal human rights, including on the death penalty, remain key for shaping the EU’s future policy towards Belarus.”, the statement reads. (source: neweurope.eu) UNITED KINGDOM: Activists warn UK against risking death penalty for ISIL suspectsThe UK failed to assure that 2 ISIL suspects would not face execution in US, angering legal experts and rights groups. The United Kingdom's decision to share evidence with the United States about two suspected British ISIL members without seeking assurances they would not face the death penalty if extradited sets a dangerous precedent, international human rights lawyers and groups have said. A letter leaked to the media in July last year, revealed that the UK's former Home Secretary Sajid Javid told US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in consultation with the then-foreign secretary Boris Johnson, that the UK had "strong reasons for not requiring a death penalty assurance in this specific case". Maha Elgizouli, the mother of one of the two suspects, El-Shafee Elsheikh, has challenged the UK's decision to share 600 witness statements gathered about her son and the other suspected member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group, Alexanda Kotey, with US authorities under a mutual legal assistance (MLA) agreement. Elgizouli lodged a claim against the decision at the High Court, but two judges ruled in January it was not unlawful. She now hopes that after hearings which opened in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, judges will rule to review the decision. Internationally, we are moving away from a rule-based system to a power-based system. That effectively means is that the international law rubric isn't being adhered to.Tasnime Akunjee, criminal defence solicitor If extradited to the US without those assurances, Elsheikh and Kotey, both of whom are accused of belonging to the so-called "ISIL Beatles", could be executed or sent to Guantanamo Bay where detainees have been held for years without trial. "To proceed without the provision of an enforceable written assurance as to the death penalty, torture and fair trial guarantees would set a very dangerous precedent," Toby Cadman, an international human rights lawyer and barrister, told Al Jazeera. "It would send a message that we are prepared to disregard human rights concerns for political expediency," added Cadman, who specialises in war crimes, extradition and human rights law. Legal exception Elsheikh and Kotey were allegedly responsible for killing several people, including journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines. What should Europe do with families of ISIL fighters? Both suspects were stripped of their British citizenship after they were captured by Syrian Kurdish forces last January. The move stirred debate over whether they should be returned to the UK for trial or face justice elsewhere. MLA requests between the UK and US are subject to rules in the Overseas Security and Justice Assistance Guidance, which states that
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July 30 CANADA: Canada should bring back the death penalty The nationwide manhunt for 2 suspected murderers has gripped Canadians. And while everyone is waiting to see how events will be brought to a conclusion, there are also questions to be asked about what will happen if they are captured alive, and found guilty. In that scenario, Canadian taxpayers would be on the hook for sheltering, feeding, entertaining, clothing, and caring for those individuals in prison, just as taxpayers are on the hook for the worst of the worst within the “justice” system. Meanwhile, many Canadian Veterans are homeless, many Canadian seniors are struggling in poverty, many Indigenous communities don’t have clean drinking water (while prisons have clean drinking water), and the hypocrisies go on and on. Basically, we live in a country where some of the most vicious and vile killers and criminals get taken care of at taxpayer expense, while people who served our nation, people who followed the law, and people who seek a good standard of living are abandoned. That is unacceptable. The question then is what to do about it. First, we need to make sure our own innocent citizens are taken care of. That means slashing foreign aid, and redirecting those billions of dollars towards Canadian Citizens in need. Second, we need to bring back the death penalty for the worst of the worst, in cases where guilt is obvious and undeniable. It’s simply outrageous that horrific killers can get a lifetime of taxpayer-funded service, which ends up being incredibly costly. Additionally, the lack of the death penalty, combined with the pathetically weak laws that even give people like Mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonette the chance to apply for parole (after 40 years) revictimizes the families of those who were killed. That’s because when parole hearings take place, family members often have to go and argue against someone getting released, forcing them to deal with the brutal loss of their family member all over again. So, instead of revictimizing families of those who are murdered, instead of spending hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars on caring for despicable killers, we should instead bring back the death penalty. Properly applied, the death penalty sends a clear message that those who brutally take the lives of innocent people will lose their lives in return. And it sends the message that we prioritize the rights of victims of crime and the families of victims of crime ahead of killers. Canada’s justice system has been anti-victim and weak for far too long. It’s time to bring back the death penalty. (source: Spencer Fernando, The Post Millennial) IRAN: Former Iran VP Mohammad Ali Najafi gets death sentence for killing wifeHe was also mayor of Tehran. Iran's state TV says a former mayor of Tehran who also served as one of the country's vice presidents was sentenced to death for killing his wife. Tuesday's report quotes judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili as saying that Mohammad Ali Najafi was convicted of fatally shooting his wife, Mitra Ostad. The verdict can be appealed within 20 days. Police detained Najafi in May, after he went to authorities and confessed to the killing. At the time, officials said Najafi and Ostad, his 2nd his wife, were having domestic problems. Najafi resigned as mayor in 2018, after hard-liners criticized him over a video showing he attended a dance performance by young girls at a school show. Gun violence is very rare in Iran, especially among the country's political and economic elite. A mathematician, professor and veteran politician, Najafi has previously served as President Hassan Rouhani's economic advisor and education minister. He was elected Tehran mayor in August 2017, but resigned the following April after facing criticism from conservatives for attending a dance performance by schoolgirls. Najafi married Ostad without divorcing his first wife, unusual in Iran where polygamy is legal but socially frowned upon. (source: Khaleej Times) SAUDI ARABIA: G20 nations urged to boycott Saudi summit over wave of executionsHuman rights lawyer Helena Kennedy says Riyadh has executed 134 people already this year, with cleric Salman al-Odah among those facing the same threat Members of the G20 should boycott next year's summit meeting in Riyadh unless Saudi Arabia immediately halts its use of the death penalty, a leading human rights lawyer and member of the British parliament said on Monday. 'People live waiting with the anxiety that it is going to happen tomorrow or the next day' Baroness Helena Kennedy, human rights lawyer The report by Helena Kennedy QC, a Baroness in the House of Lords, comes with at least 24 people currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia on protest or non-violent offences at imminent risk of execution, including renowned scholar Salman al-Odah.
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July 29 PAKISTAN: SC forms larger bench to determine the span of life imprisonment sentence The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the formation of a larger bench to determine the exact length for a life sentence. A 3-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, took notice of the issue while hearing a petition to reduce a convict's life sentence into half. Haroonul Rashid was sentenced to life imprisonment 12 times in 12 different cases of murder. He has been in jail since 1997 and has served a 22-year sentence, Rashid's lawyer told the court while adding that the court had allowed for the 12 sentences to be served concurrently. "Is it not a misconception that a life sentence spans over 25 years?" the chief justice asked. "When we don't know how long a person is going to live, how can we halve a life sentence," he added. "I had been waiting for a long time for a case where we could determine the span of a life sentence. In a jail sentence, days and nights are both counted. In this manner, a convict comes out within 5 years. "It is time that we clear up these major misconceptions and figure out the span of a life sentence. It is a matter of public interest." The court issued notices to the attorney general, provincial advocate generals and prosecutor general. The court also ordered for the registrar office to fix the matter for hearing in the 1st week of October. Last month, the chief justice had showed his intent reexamining the life imprisonment law "at an appropriate time". This is not the 1st time that the judiciary has made such observations. In 2004, a 5-member bench heard as many as 62 appeals that urged the apex court to reinstate death penalty for convicts whose capital punishments were commuted into life imprisonment leading to their release on the basis of remission in their imprisonment periods. Section 57 of the Pakistan Penal Code, Fractions of terms of punishment, says: "In calculating fractions of terms of punishment, imprisonment for life shall be reckoned as equivalent to imprisonment for 25 years." The Supreme Court, however, had observed in 2004 that the provisions of the aforementioned section, which reckon 25-year imprisonment as transportation for life, only stipulate the calculation of the punishment term which is necessary because certain offences are a fraction of the term of imprisonment prescribed for other offences. (source: dawn.com) INDIA: Pune BPO employee rape and murder case: Bombay HC commutes death penalty of 2 convicts to life imprisonment The Bombay High Court on Monday commuted the death penalty of 2 convicts in the 2007 Pune BPO gang-rape and murder case to life imprisonment on the ground that there had been an inordinate delay in executing them. The convicts, Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokade, were to be executed on 24 June, but the high court had said on 21 June that the execution should not take place as scheduled until further orders. A division bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and Swapna Joshi allowed the petitions filed by the convicts seeking a stay on the execution of their death warrant. "Their sentences are commuted," the court said. The lawyer for the convicts, Yug Chaudhary, told reporters the court had said in the judgement that the duo should be in prison for a period of 35 years after taking into account the time already spent and remission. The 2 were convicted and awarded the death penalty by a trial court in 2012 for kidnapping, raping and murdering a BPO employee in Pune in 2007. In the petitions filed in May, the duo sought a stay on the ground that there had been an inordinate delay in deciding their mercy petitions by the Maharashtra governor and the President, and also in the issuance of the warrants for the execution of the death penalty. They also sought the death penalty to be commuted to life imprisonment. (source: firstpost.com) INDONESIA: 2 Ways Corruption Convicts Can be Sentenced to Death: KPK Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Deputy Basaria Panjaitan recalled the 2 reasons a corruption convict could be charged with the 2 most severe punishment regulated under the Corruption Law; life sentence and death penalty. According to him, corruptors are eligible to be handed the punishments for corruption in a time of a natural disaster or committing repeated acts of corruption. “In the situation of a natural disaster for instance, and then when the act was committed repeatedly,” said Basaria in South Jakarta on Sunday. A recent case considered eligible is a case of corruption KPK is currently handling, which involves a repeated act of corruption by Kudus Regent M. Tamzil. Back in 2004, the regent was also involved in a graft on an education fund for the district and was found guilty in February 2015 punished to 22 months in prison. Tamzil was named a suspect once again by the KPK for a graft case
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July 28 SAUDI ARABIA: Amnesty: Saudi cleric Ouda faces possible death penalty for peaceful activism Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia to drop plans to seek the execution of cleric Salman Al-Ouda and release him without condition. In a press release issued yesterday, Amnesty International revealed that Al-Ouda will probably be handed a death sentence tomorrow. Reporting CNN, Amnesty International said Sheikh Al-Ouda once advised the country’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman on possible reforms in Saudi Arabia. The 61-year-old was subsequently arrested in 2017 and is currently facing numerous charges connected to his peaceful activism, Amnesty said. Amnesty added: “He is on trial at Saudi Arabia’s notorious anti-terrorism Specialised Criminal Court, and the Saudi Public Prosecutor recently called for the cleric to be sentenced to death.” Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director, said: “We are gravely concerned that Sheikh Salman al-Awda could be sentenced to death and executed.” “Since his arrest almost 2 years ago, Sheikh al-Awda has gone through a terrible ordeal, including prolonged pre-trial detention, months of solitary confinement, incommunicado detention and other ill-treatment – all flagrant violations to his right to a fair trial.” “The Saudi authorities continue to claim that they are fighting ‘terrorism’ when this trial – as well as those of other activists, including the 37 men who were executed in April – are clearly politically-motivated and meant to silence independent voices in the country.” “Sheikh al-Awda has been calling for a more inclusive society that would end the marginalisation of Saudi Shia citizens. For this, he is being punished.” “Instead of moving ahead with this sham trial, they must immediately and unconditionally release Sheikh al-Awda and drop all charges against him.” (source: Middle East Monitor) BAHRAINexecutions Bahrain executes 3 men the day after US reinstates federal death penaltyHuman rights groups have condemned the execution of 3 men in Bahrain on Saturday. 3 men were executed by firing squad in Bahrain on Saturday morning, according to the kingdom's state news agency. The move came days after the United States announced it would be reinstating the federal death penalty for the 1st time in nearly 2 decades. The executions were confirmed by Bahrain's Advocate General and chief of anti-crime prosecution, Ahmed al Hammadi, Bahrain News Agency (BNA) said. The men were convicted in 2 separate cases by the High Criminal Court after each investigation from Bahrain's Public Prosecutor called for them to receive the maximum sentence, BNA said. Bahrain's Public Prosecutor said that 2 of the executed men were convicted of "joining a terrorist group, committing murders, and possessing explosives and firearms to carry out terror acts." There were 58 other individuals accused in the case, 19 of whom were sentenced to life in prison, according to BNA. 2 were acquitted, it said. 2 of the men, Ali al-Arab and Ahmed al-Malali were sentenced to death by the court and the rulings were upheld by the Court of Appeals and the Court of Cessation. In February 2017, the pair were arrested and sentenced "in a mass trial marred by allegations of torture and serious due process violations," according to a Human Rights Watch report. For months, human rights groups have called for an examination of the circumstances around the men's sentencing and for the Bahrain government to halt al-Arab and al-Malali's executions. In May, a group of United Nations human rights experts said there were "serious concerns" that the pair were "coerced into making confessions through torture and did not receive a fair trial." During the arrest, al-Malali was reportedly shot in his hand. Two bullets were allegedly only removed from his hand 23 days later, according to the UN statement. Before the conviction, al-Arab was "reportedly forcibly disappeared for a month," the UN statement said. Al-Malali was charged with "possession of firearms, membership in a terrorist cell and the alleged killing of a security officer," according to the UN statement. Al-Arab was charged with "killing a police officer, firing on a security patrol and injuring one of its officers, assisting in an attempted prison escape, and possession of firearms," the UN statement said. The men were "allegedly prevented from attending their trial, sentenced to the death penalty in absentia and stripped of their nationality, which was later reinstated," according to the UN statement. They were both were reportedly tortured and forced to sign confessions of their crimes it said. "The 2 individuals should have never been convicted on the basis of what appears to be seriously flawed trials. Executions in these conditions would amount to arbitrary executions," the UN experts said.
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July 27 INDIA: 90 % Indian states want to retain death penalty: Kishan ReddyIn August 2015, the Law Commission had recommended abolition of death penalties except in cases of terrorism and waging war against India. 90 % of the states have supported retaining death penalty in the country, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Friday where a private member's bill seeking abolition of capital punishment came up for consideration. Responding to the debate, Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said the government is examining the issue and is yet to take a final call. In August 2015, the Law Commission had recommended abolition of death penalties except in cases of terrorism and waging war against India. Since, the matter falls within the concurrent list of the constitution, the centre had sought the opinion of states in October 2015. After several reminders, 14 states and 5 Union Territories responded. "90 % want to retain death penalty except one state," Reddy said. No society wants to kill a person, but on the other side there are some heinous crimes like Nirbhaya also within the same society, the minister said. "The government is seized of the matter and is examining this issue. It may take a view on the report after reaching a broad consensus on this matter," said Reddy. Over concerns that in some cases innocent and poor people could be wrongly convicted, the minister told the Members said that the country's constitution has provided several tiers of steps to safeguard the innocents. "If a trial court awards capital punishment, then it could be appealed before the High Court and then to the governor of state. If governor also rejects, then he can appeal before the Supreme Court and finally before the President of India," Reddy said. He further said: "Death penalty is given only in exceptional and unavoidable situations." Citing the Nation Crime Records Bureau, the minister said that capital punishment was given to only one person each in 2012 and 2013 respectively, while it was zero in 2014 and one in 2015. "The President of India has received 135 mercy petitions, in which 34 was dismissed, 91 were allowed and one file is still pending," he added. The minister further said that two days ago, the same House had passed The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which had provisions of death penalty for aggravated sexual assault on children. There is also demand of capital punishments across the country, the minister said, while referring to Nirbhaya case. Reddy further said Afzal Guru, who was hanged, had planned to attack on the same parliament in which we are sitting today. To protect the Parliament, nine people were martyred and the families of those people also had "fundamental rights." The Abolition of Capital Punishment bill was moved by Congress member Pradeep Tamta. Tamta called for proper investigation and police reforms apart from ensuring time-bound compensation to the victims. He said the government should examine the Law Commission's report, and observed that globally, sentiments were against capital punishment. While participating in the debate, Ashok Bajpai said the society needs capital punishment as it acts as deterrent against the serious and heinous crimes. Although, very few people are given capital punishment, as execution of Afzal Guru was 53rd since independence, but it has fear and pressure on the criminals. P L Punia said that 140 countries have no provisions of capital punishment and 33 countries have not awarded capital punishment in the last 10 years. Ram Gopal Yadav of SP said capital punishment does not act as a deterrent against crime. Prasanna Acharya of BJD, Manoj Kumar Jha of RJD, Satyanarayan Jatiya of BJP, Amar Patnaik of BJD and L Hanumanthaiah of INC also participated in the debate. (source: economictimes.indiatimes.com) PHILIPPINES: Church in Philippines rejects president's call to revive death penalty Catholic leaders in the Philippines are calling on Catholics and lawmakers to resist President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to revive the death penalty. The president called for its reinstatement during a lengthy State of the Nation Address in Manila July 22, while activists, clergy, seminarians, and nuns protested the president in the rainy streets, according to UCA News. Church leaders have said that despite his claims of success, Duterte has helped bring about “the most trying period in the nation’s history.” "A vision of a country where peace and justice reigns, sovereignty is cherished and human rights are upheld ... has been sliding into oblivion," an ecumenical group said in a statement, according to UCA News. The country, the group noted, is undergoing a crisis that is not only social and political, but moral and spiritual as well. "The regression of our country’s democracy, the emboldenment of a tyrannical
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July 26 BAHAMAS: Former BCC president comes out against capital punishment Former Bahamas Christian Council (BCC) President Bishop Simeon Hall said yesterday that he is no longer a supporter of the death penalty. “I am no longer a supporter of that kind of dealing with our crime problem,” he told Eyewitness News Online. “If government feels it’s best to go forward and ask the Bahamian people, then that’s their right. “The majority of the Bahamian people are pro-capital punishment, but I am not.” Amid calls from domestic and international organizations for an abolishment of capital punishment in The Bahamas, Attorney General Carl Bethel said in March that capital punishment is not going anywhere. The issue of capital punishment in The Bahamas has repeatedly been the subject of widespread public debate over the years. Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis reiterated support for the measure a year ago. At the time, however, Minnis said he was bound by the law. He said the matter will be discussed in Cabinet. In July 2018, Attorney General Carl Bethel said the government was considering enacting constitutional changes to preserve capital punishment as an effective penalty under the law, noting that several decisions of the Privy Council had rendered the penalty to be essentially ineffective. At the time, Bethel noted that the move might require a referendum. “A standard has been set by the Privy Council as it relates to the worst of the worst when it comes to certain crimes,” he said at the time. “Now, I’ve said it before, but I will say it again; there is always something worse than the worst; so, it’s a standard that might not be able to ever be met. “So, we feel that there has to be some intervention by statute or by constitutional amendment to settle this issue. “That is what we are going to look at.” Bethel did not provide a timeline on when the government could hold a referendum on capital punishment. There have been few public announcements on the government’s plans on the issue since then. Meanwhile, prominent attorney Fred Smith said yesterday that as a human rights activist he is completely opposed to the death penalty. But he agreed that if the government chose to amend laws related to capital punishment, it should conduct a referendum. “They (proposed amendments) should be properly debated,” Smith said. “Everybody’s view is deserving of respect. “I can understand the reactions on both sides of the fence, but I think as we progress to trying to be a respectful society this is a very difficult question.” In 2011, the Privy Council said the death penalty would only be reserved for the worst of the worst. Despite the issuance of the death sentence over the last decade, there has not been an execution in The Bahamas since David Mitchell was executed on January 6, 2000. (source: Eyewitness News) PHILIPPINES: Duterte warned vs ‘political cost’ of reviving death penalty President Rodrigo Duterte’s renewed push to restore capital punishment may come at a huge political cost compromising his government’s ability to appeal for Filipino workers on death row abroad, an international human rights group warned Friday. In Malaysia alone, at least 48 Filipinos were facing the death penalty as of March this year. A Filipino woman was arrested earlier this week for allegedly trafficking illegal drugs in Kota Kinabalu. “Ultimately, the Philippines is going to pay a very, very high political price around the world if it decides” to revive the death penalty, said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division. The Philippine government’s ability to negotiate for its citizens on death row, he said, would be “significantly diminished” because other countries could now argue that “you guys kill people, too.” “They would be accused of being hypocrites,” he told ANC. A foreign affairs department report for 2016 showed 130 Filipinos were awaiting execution abroad, mostly due to illegal drugs. Domestic worker Mary Jane Veloso was earlier convicted of smuggling heroin in Indonesia, but was granted reprieve in 2015. A Philippine court is still hearing a criminal case against her recruiters, who allegedly duped her into working as a drug mule. MORAL ASCENDANCY Previous requests by the Philippine government to save its citizens on death row were granted partly because other countries knew that Manila had abolished capital punishment, said former human rights chief Loretta Ann Rosales. “We will now lose our moral ascendancy,” she told ABS-CBN News. “This is what our senators and congressmen should remember.” Duterte wants to restore death penalty at a time when at least 142 countries have already abolished it “in law or practice” as of 2017, according to human rights group Amnesty International. “Is (The Philippines) going to be one of the nations in the world to turn its back and buck
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July 24 CHINA: China's top court vows death penalty to child sex offenders of serious cases China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) announced Wednesday that criminals committing sexual assault against children that are "extremely vile in nature" and cause "extremely severe consequences" will be sentenced to death with no leniency. The SPC published 4 typical cases concerning sex offenses against children, including the case of Wei Minghui who was recently executed for raping and killing a young girl. The 3 criminals involved in the other 3 cases have been given heavy punishments. The crimes of sexual assault against children gravely damage the physical and mental health of children and seriously violate social ethics and morals, to which the SPC has always maintained a hard-line stance of zero tolerance, the SPC said. Child sex offenders will be sentenced to heavier punishments within the limits of the prescribed punishments, according to the SPC. Courts across the country concluded 8,332 cases of sex offenses against children from 2017 to June 2019, according to the SPC, adding that recent years have seen an increasing number of such cases due to the public's strengthened awareness of child protection and reporting cases immediately. The Intermediate People's Court of Linyi in Shandong Province on Wednesday morning executed He Long, a criminal who raped young girls under the age of 14 and forced them into prostitution, upon verification and approval of the SPC. (source: xinhuanet.com) SRI LANKA: IBAHRI voices concern over potential reinstatement of the death penalty in Sri Lanka The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has sent an open letter to the President of the Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena, to express serious distress over the intention to reinstate the death penalty and seek the execution of four individuals currently on death row for drug-related offences. Any execution would contravene a moratorium on the death penalty in Sri Lanka that has been maintained since 1976. IBAHRI Co-Chair, the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, commented, ‘I am deeply saddened by President Sirisena’s decision to reverse on the 43-year long moratorium on the death penalty upheld by previous office-holders despite ample empirical evidence that the imposition of capital punishment has no deterrent effect on drug offenders. To proceed with the execution of those four individuals would stand in direct contravention with Sri Lanka’s international commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The imposition of the death penalty in cases other than those arising from the most serious of crimes is a violation of Article 6 (2) of the ICCPR, and as the United Nations Human Rights Committee has made clear, drug offences do not meet this threshold.’ Anne Ramberg Dr jur hc, IBAHRI Co-Chair, stated, ‘The death penalty constitutes a cruel, inhumane and degrading form of punishment, and it is regrettable that the Sri Lankan President has chosen to undermine the country’s long-standing commitment towards an abolitionist stance. I am also deeply troubled by the apparent arbitrariness in choosing the 4 individuals concerned, as reviving the death penalty would deprive them of their right to life and to equality before the law as guaranteed by the Constitution and in international law. The respect for both rights is a vital prerequisite for the maintenance of the rule of law in Sri Lanka – a value that should be specially protected by politicians in a country that has only recently emerged from internal conflict.’ The IBAHRI urges the President of Sri Lanka to refrain from reinstating the death penalty and, instead, to continue the long-standing moratorium and commute the penalties to a life sentence, thereby strengthening Sri Lanka’s commitment to the protection and fulfilment of all human rights, including the right to life and equality before the law. (source: colombogazette.com) INDIA: Death Penalty for Rape of Kids is No Solution Introducing the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences ,POCSO (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Rajya Sabha yesterday Smriti Irani the Minister for Women and Child Development initiated a process that had been left unfinished in the last Parliament. This Bill had been introduced in the 16th Lok Sabha but lapsed when its term got over.With an increasing number of cases being reported recently the Union Cabinet has now approved amendments to POCSO allowing death penalty for all cases of 'aggravated penetrative sexual assault' against children. But high-lighting this aspect in every press release shows that the government is only pandering to the populist mood to satisfy public anger on a very sensitive issue. But when this was introduced initially as well child rights activists had called it counter productive. They
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July 23 NIGERIA: Why rapists must be sentenced to death by hanging– FIDA The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), has called on Kaduna State government to change the punishment for rape and defilement from 14 years to death penalty by hanging. Mrs. Zainab Atoba, President, FIDA, Kaduna branch, made the call on Monday during a courtesy visit to Alhaji Aminu Shagali, the Speaker Kaduna State House of Assembly. She said this had become imperative because the rate of violence against women and children in the society was getting out of hand. Atoba said the daily report of violence, which includes sexual assault, battery, rape, defilement, trafficking, forced marriage, abuse and host of other vices against women and children must be tamed. She said one in every three women had suffered some form of gender-based violence in her lifetime. According to her, the statistics translates to a staggering one billion women globally who have been abused, beaten or sexually violated because of their gender. Atoba said it was so unfortunate that gender-based violence continued to be a global epidemic with dire consequences for women, their families and communities. She said it usually led to negative mental and physical health consequences for women and limited their decision-making ability and mobility, thereby reducing productivity and earnings. The FIDA President noted that the time had come to ensure that women were capable of fully enjoying their rights and achieving their full potential. “Legal protection from violence is crucial but it must be backed up with sensitisation,’’ she stated. Atoba said lack of awareness in different local languages of such an issue had led to poor awareness about women’s rights among the general public and refusal of the government to consider such issue. She, therefore, suggested implementing a project on sensitising the women and children in the remote areas by creating sustainable public awareness and translating some of the laws into the local languages in the state. “We must all realise that laws alone are not sufficient, rather concerted action is needed to end violence against women and girls. Atoba said the move was within the mandate of FIDA, as its primary objective “is the promotion, protection and preservation of the rights of women and children which also include their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Responding, Alhaji Shagali, Speaker Kaduna State House of Assembly also advocated capital punishment for anyone convicted of rape and other forms of violence. He said this had become imperative following the outrage on rape, kidnapping, armed robbery and violence against women which had become major crimes now in the country, NAN reports. (source: dailypost.ng) SINGAPORE: Lawyer: Singapore acting like N. Korea in treatment of Malaysian death row inmate with mental disability Lawyers for Liberty legal adviser N. Surendran today likened Singapore to North Korea in its treatment of mentally challenged inmate on death row, Nagaenthran Dharmalingam. Surendran said executing a mentally challenged man was against international law and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Singapore had ratified. “It is beyond dispute that he suffers from mental disability and the evaluation was made by an independent psychiatrist and the evidence has been submitted to court,” he told a press conference here today. “Singapore is putting itself in the same category as Iran or North Korea in sentencing to death or putting on death row a mentally challenged individual. This is a matter of grave seriousness” he said. Surendran said Nagaenthran or Naga, 31 was found to have an IQ of 69. "This means he has an “extremely low range of functioning” and has borderline intellectual functions," he said. Naga’s condition was also assessed by an independent and prominent psychiatrist, Dr Ken Ung Eng Khean, who diagnosed him with mental and intellectual impairment. The Singapore courts hired 3 psychiatrists of their own and two of them concurred that Naga suffers from a mild form of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) of the inattentive type where his executive functioning skills are impaired. The 3rd psychiatrist Dr Koh Wun Wu’s expert evidence was made without further independent medical examination of Naga, but was made from reading the reports of the other 2 state psychiatrists. “In considering the views of psychiatrists, the State (Singapore) has been shown to be inherently biased in its attitude towards independent psychiatrists. This is highly prejudicial to the accused persons and accordingly breaches their rights to a fair trial. “The very fact they rejected the report and condemned Naga’s mental disability is indicative of the state of Singapore and their judicial attitude towards drug offenders and
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July 22 JAPAN: Death wish: Portrait of an arsonistFrom the ashes of the murderous Kyoto Animation arson, troubling questions and frightening patterns emergeKyoto police are piecing together the evidence behind Thursday’s deadly arson attack that claimed 34 lives and injured dozens of others. After the attack on Japan’s beloved Kyoto Animation studio, an arrest warrant was issued for the man thought responsible, Shinji Aoba, 41, a resident of Saitama Prefecture, on charges of arson and murder. The suspect’s motives remain murky. Who is Aoba and why did he commit this horrendous crime? What has emerged is that neither his neighbors nor the authorities were surprised he was involved in an apparently senseless act of violence. Could, then, the tragedy have been averted? That is something the police, the fire department, the company, the victims’ family members and wider society will be asking in the days and weeks ahead. A killer strikes According to NHK, other Japanese media, the police and other sources, two days before the attack, multiple sightings of Aoba were confirmed. On Monday last week he was seen loitering around the parking lot of a convenience store 200 meters from the building. Seemingly agitated, he was playing with his smartphone. He had two containers with him – possibly, these were later filled with gasoline. On Wednesday, a teenager spotted a man in a red T-shirt and blue jeans sleeping on a park bench about 500 meters from the studio at 8 or 9pm. He had a cart parked next to him. The description matches the clothing Aoba was wearing when he was arrested after the attack. On Thursday morning, Aoba bought gasoline from a nearby gas station and was seen carrying the two 20-liter cans towards the studio on a cart. Allegedly, he burst into the studio building screaming “Die!” as he doused the floors with gasoline from a bucket. He also is suspected of pouring the gasoline in front of all available exits and entrances to the building. He then ignited the gasoline with a lighter – setting fire to himself in the process. Although he escaped from the building on bare, bloody feet, he was apprehended by police. In the early stages of questioning, while still conscious, Aoba told police that Kyoto Animation had “stolen his novel.” Revenge for alleged plagiarism appears to have been his motive. However, in media interviews, Kyoto Animation President Hideaki Hatta said he had knowledge of Aoba, did not take outside submissions and did not believe there was any merit to the claim. Troubled child, troubled man Over the weekend, a clearer picture began to emerge. According to an article in Weekly Bunshun, he was a middle child, with an older brother and younger sister. His parents were divorced and he lived with his father, in poverty. In elementary school, he joined the judo club, but had few friends. He was bullied in middle school and started to spend an increasing amount of time alone at home – a so-called hikikomori, or “shut-in.” In Japan, Japan’s hikikomori are increasingly mythologized as people who can turn into violent criminals in a flash. Aoba may fuel this belief. He attended high school at night, did odd-jobs, worked for the prefectural government, delivered newspapers and worked at convenience stores. His father passed away some time before 2005. In 2006, Aoba was allegedly brought in for questioning by police for stealing underwear. Worse was to follow. In June 2012, he robbed a convenience store, stealing 20,000 yen (US$185). He was jailed and released in January 2016. He was subsequently placed in a government welfare program for ex-convicts needing special assistance and lived in a partially government-managed facility, but eventually moved into his own apartment. His neighbors found him alarming. A 27-year-old neighbor, who asked not to be named, said Aoba accused him of making loud noises at night. Aoba grabbed the neighbor by the collar and hair and threatened to kill him. Local police confirmed that last August there was a complaint against Aoba for playing loud music at night and police had to enter his apartment via the balcony when he refused to open the door. In the fire he allegedly set, Aoba was severely burned on his face, chest and legs. He is now in a specialist burns unit in Osaka. Police are waiting for him to recover before conducting a more in-depth interrogation. There are questions about his mental state, but he appears to have been fully capable of planning the attack and waiting for the opportune time. Mass murderers’ minds Were there warning signs that should have been heeded? Anonymous death threats were made to the studio, via their website, up to one year before the attack, but police had not identified the person making the threats. It was not known if they came from Aoba. In March 2013, a Ministry of Justice-affiliated institute published
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July 21 IRANexecutions 4 Prisoners Hanged in One Day at 1 Prison 4 prisoners were hanged in 1 day at the Iranian city of Karaj’s Rajai-Shahr prison. According to IHR sources, on the morning of Wednesday, July 17, 4 prisoners were executed at Rajai-Shahr prison. One of them, Ali (Known as Ali Lavashak) was sentenced to death for rape charges. 3 others who were sentenced to death for murder charges are identified as Yousef Gholizadeh, Hadi Asef and Akbar Sabbaghzadeh. From July 14 to July 17, in 3 days, at least 10 prisoners were hanged in different Iranian prisons or in Public. At least 110 people were executed in Iran in the 1st 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. ** 3 Men Hanged at Minab Prison 3 men were hanged for murder charges at the southern Iranian city of Minab last Sunday. According to IHR sources, on Sunday, June 14, three men were hanged at Minab prison for murder charges. IHR could identify them as Ali Karimi, Mohammad Parvaei and Amirali Shadabi. “Amirali Shadabi killed a person during a gang fight. 2 others committed murder during fights for financial reasons,” a well-informed source told IHR. None of the aforementioned executions was announced by the Iranian authorities so far. (source for both: Iran Human Rights) THAILAND: Thai murderer is sentenced to death for killing a German backpacker after raping her A Thai man who raped and murdered a German backpacker has been sentenced to death. Ronnakorn Romruen, 24, attacked Miriam Beelte, 26, as she visited a historic stone monument on the island of Koh Si Chang, eastern Thailand, on April 7. He then raped her before battering her head with a rock to kill her and stop her reporting the attack. Ronnakorn then concealed her body below leaves on a secluded hillside. Locals found her body that same day. Later that evening police arrested the local beach cleaner and he subsequently admitted to raping and killing the woman from Hildesheim, Germany. Ronnakorn has been in custody since the murder took place 3 months ago. He pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to death on Wednesday because the ‘crime was so severe a reduced sentence was not possible’. The judgment released from Chonburi Provincial Court read: ‘Ronnakorn Romruen was guilty of raping (14 years in jail), murdering to conceal the crime (death penalty), drug taking and driving (eight months in jail), concealing the death of a person (1 year in jail). It said because he confessed during the arrest, the court would mitigate the penalty by half for the charges related to rape, taking of methamphetamine, drunk driving and concealing the death of a person. ‘But the overall crime is so severe that the defendant deserves to die and the punishment of the death penalty will stay in place for the charge of murdering to conceal a crime for which there is no mitigation.’ CCTV showed how Ronnakorn had followed Ms Beelte up the hill of the ancient stone monument while pestering her to sleep with him. When she rejected his advances, the drug-crazed killer pinned her to the ground and raped her. He later told police that after she struggled free, he chased after her and battered her face with a rock until she was dead because he didn’t want her to report the attack. Ronnakorn then hid her body behind rocks and covered it with leaves. Officers said that Ronnakorn confessed to murder after 4 hours of interrogation and he was taken back to his shabby wooden home in the early hours of the morning to re-enact parts of the crime. After killing the single holidaymaker, he calmly watched TV while smoking cigarettes and drinking beer. Ronnakorn’s mother, Nongluck Phosang, 43, had previously called on prosecutors to hand down the death penalty to her son. She said: ‘My son and I didn’t live together, so I didn’t know much about what he usually did in the day. I only knew that he worked on a boat and collected rubbish from the beaches. ‘He is a quiet guy who doesn’t talk much. He likes to stay alone at home watching TV and listening to music, just like most of the guys. ‘I deeply apologise to the girl’s family on behalf of my son. I never thought that he could do anything like this. ‘He deserves the full lawful punishment and I am willing to accept the judge’s decision.’ Ronnakorn has one month in which to appeal the sentence before he is put on death row. (source: brinkwire.com) INDIA: Family members of Sonbhadra victims demand money, land and death sentence for perpetrators of massacre Ahead of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's visit to
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July 20 MALAYSIA: Human rights advocate applauds govt effort to end mandatory death sentences The cabinet has drawn praise from a human rights advocate for its move to handle the proposed abolition of the death penalty early by affirming in March that it plans to do away with mandatory capital punishment. National Human Rights Society (Hakam) treasurer Ngeow Chow Ying singled out the move to do away with mandatory death sentence as one of the earliest promises of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) election manifesto to be addressed. She said that Hakam was caught a bit by surprise by the swiftness of the promise made by the cabinet. “But we know that such a decision would need time to materialize as there are many areas which need attention and public awareness.” She said that first stage would be to impose a moratorium where no death sentences would be carried out. And the reduction in capital punishments should be done in stages. Ngeow said that Hakam and the Bar Council would do their part to provide alternatives to mandatory capital punishment. She said that the premise to totally abolish the death sentence remains the aim for certain quarters, and hoped that the government can engage the various stakeholders on this matter. This includes the police, who have a huge interest due to their need to enforce the laws and regulations, as well as crime prevention. “We stand ready to hold dialogues with the police and any party who may continue to harbor reservations about abolishing the death penalty.” The death sentence is widely practiced within the Asean region, except in Cambodia and the Philippines, the latter of which is now mulling bringing it back. She said this after attending a talk with the title “Dealth Penalty Deserves A Quick Death.” The privately organised event had four legal specialists including Ngeow address concerns from an audience of mostly young lawyers. Also present was Batu Kawan MP Kasthuriraani Patto. Besides Ngeow, the other speakers were Louis Liew Vern Xien, Farhana Abdul Halim and Vince Tan Hoo Seh. It was announced that the mandatory death penalty for 11 criminal offences will be repealed, but ultimately the court will have the discretionary powers to decide if a death sentence is merited based on the severity of the crime. Among the offences where mandatory death sentences are dropped are committing acts of terrorism, murder and hostage-taking. (source: thesundaily.my) SINGAPORE: Singapore High Court dismisses procedural application by Pannir Selvam who got last-minute stay of execution The High Court yesterday dismissed a procedural application by convicted Malaysian drug mule Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, who was granted an 11th-hour stay of execution 2 months ago. His lawyers had applied for discovery and leave to serve interrogatories, in a hearing behind closed doors on Friday morning before Justice See Kee Oon. Discovery refers to a legal procedure where parties reveal to each other documentary evidence that has a bearing upon issues in the case. They can do so through interrogatories, which are a formal set of written questions served on the other party to clarify matters of fact. The questions can also help to determine in advance what facts will be presented, should a trial be held over the matter. But Pannir failed in this application. The Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) said in a press release that Pannir’s other application, for leave to commence a judicial review against the Government on various matters, was adjourned to a later date. He has 1 week to file an application if he wishes to seek leave to appeal Friday’s decision, the AGC added. Deputy Chief Prosecutor Francis Ng appeared on behalf of the AGC on Friday. Pannir is represented by Mr Too Xing Ji and Mr Lee Ji En from BMS Law LLC. The case The 31-year-old Malaysian was convicted in 2017 of trafficking 51.84g of diamorphine, also known as heroin, into Singapore through Woodlands Checkpoint in September 2014. He was sentenced to the mandatory death penalty after the public prosecutor did not issue him a certificate of substantial assistance. On May 23 this year, a day before he was due to hang, the Court of Appeal granted Pannir’s appear for a stay of his execution. Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, who heard the case with Judges of Appeal Judith Prakash and Steven Chong, noted that Pannir was told of his date of execution and President Halimah Yacob’s rejection of his clemency petition only a week in advance. This left him with little time to get legal advice on his options, and he should be given the chance to do so, the judges said. His lawyers said then that they intend to challenge the rejection of the clemency petition, by way of judicial review. (source: malaymail.com) JAPAN: Death penalty finalized for man over 1998 murder of Aichi couple Japan's top court rejected Friday an
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July 19 MOROCCO: Moroccan court orders death penalty for jihadists who beheaded tourists3 men who killed Scandinavian women hiking in High Atlas face death sentence A Moroccan court has condemned 3 Islamic State group supporters to death for the murder of 2 Scandinavian women who were beheaded while on a hiking trip in the High Atlas mountains. The suspected ringleader, Abdessamad Ejjoud, and 2 companions received the maximum penalty for the murders in December of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, a 24-year-old Danish tourist, and her 28-year-old Norwegian companion, Maren Ueland. The anti-terrorist court in Sale, near the Moroccan capital, Rabat, issued verdict on Thursday following an 11-week trial in a case that has shocked the north African country. The 3 admitted to killing the women and said they had been Isis supporters, although the group itself has never claimed responsibility for the murders. Ejjoud, a 25-year-old street vendor and underground imam, had confessed at a previous hearing to beheading one of the women. Younes Ouaziyad, a 27-year-old carpenter, confessed to the other murder, while Rachid Afatti, 33, had videoed the murders on his mobile phone. Prosecutors had called for the death penalty despite Morocco having a de facto freeze on executions since 1993. “We expect sentences that match the cruelty of the crime,” said Khaled El Fataoui, a lawyer speaking for the family of Jespersen, told AFP. Helle Petersen, her mother, said in a letter read out in court last week: “The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve.” The prosecution labelled all 3 “bloodthirsty monsters”, pointing out that an autopsy report had found 23 injuries on Jespersen’s decapitated body and 7 on that of Ueland. The defence lawyers argued there were “mitigating circumstances on account of their precarious social conditions and psychological disequilibrium”. Coming from modest backgrounds, with a “very low” level of education, the defendants lived for the most part in poor areas of Marrakesh, a tourist hotspot. However, the court ordered the three men to pay 2m dirhams (£170,000) in compensation to Ueland’s parents. Jespersen’s lawyers accused the authorities of failing to monitor the activities of some of the suspects before the murders. But the court rejected the Jespersen family’s request for 10m dirhams in compensation from the Moroccan state for its “moral responsibility”. The prosecution has called for prison terms of between 15 years and life for the 21 other defendants on trial since 2 May. (source: The Guardian) IRANfemale execution 91st woman executed in Iran during Rouhani’s presidency A Kurdish woman named Maliheh Salehian was executed in the central prison of Mahabad. She is the 91st woman to be executed in Iran during Rouhani’s term in office since 2013. Maliheh Salehian from Miandoab was hanged on Tuesday, July 16, 2019, on charges of murder in the central prison of Mahabad. In the last 2 days, 13 people have been executed in different cities of Iran. On Wednesday, July 17, 2019, another female prisoner, Zahra Safari Moghadam, 43, was hanged in the Prison of Nowshahr, in northern Iran. Zahra Safari Moghaddam was in prison since July 2016. Less than a month ago, on June 19, a woman identified as Fatemeh Nassiri was hanged in Gohardasht (Rajaii-Shahr) Prison of Karaj. She had been imprisoned since 11 years ago in Qarchak prison. She was said to have undertaken the crime committed by her son. There are unconfirmed reports of the hanging another woman by the name of Fariba, along with Fatemeh Nassiri on June 19. Maliheh Salehian is the 91st woman to be executed during 6 years of Rouhani’s presidency. Iran is the world’s record holder in per capita executions. More than 3700 persons have so far been executed during 6 years of Rouhani’s terms in office. The Iranian regime deploys execution and the death penalty as a tool for maintaining its grab on power and for silencing a disgruntled populace the majority of whom live under the poverty line, while unemployment is rampant in the country and there is no freedom of speech. Rule 61 of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) reads, “When sentencing women offenders, courts shall have the power to consider mitigating factors such as lack of criminal history and relative non-severity and nature of the criminal conduct, in the light of women’s caretaking responsibilities and typical backgrounds.” Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, has consistently emphasized the need for abolition of the death penalty in Iran. (source: ncr-iran.org) ** Man Hanged at Mahshahr Prison A man was hanged at the southern Iranian city of Mahshahr’s Central prison
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July 18 SRI LANKA: EU reiterates call for moratorium on death penalty The European Union has once again called on Sri Lanka to stop the implementation of capital punishment. Ambassadors of EU countries in Sri Lanka had reiterated their request when they met with a group of UNP parliamentarians this morning. According to a joint statement issued by the EU heads of Missions in Sri Lanka, they had restated the strong and unequivocal opposition of the EU and its member states to capital punishment in all circumstances and in all cases. The Heads of Missions also reiterated their call to Sri Lanka to maintain its moratorium on the death penalty with a view towards complete abolition. (source: newsfirst.lk) INDIA: Kathua rape case: HC issues notices to J, 6 convicts; girl's father seeks enhanced punishmentIn the petition filed on July 10, the girl's father had sought enhancement of the convicts' sentence to capital punishment and life imprisonment, and also challenged the acquittal of one accused. The Punjab and Haryana High Court Thursday issued notices to the Jammu and Kashmir government and 6 men convicted in the case of rape and murder of an 8-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua on a plea by her father seeking enhanced punishment for them. The court also issued a notice to the accused who was acquitted in the case by a lower court. In the petition filed on July 10, the girl's father had sought enhancement of the convicts' sentence to capital punishment and life imprisonment, and also challenged the acquittal of one accused. "The court Thursday issued notices to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and all the accused in the matter," petitioner's counsel Utsav Bains said. The division bench of Justices Rajiv Sharma and Harinder Singh Sidhu fixed August 7 as next date of hearing, the counsel said. The father had prayed that the sentence of Sanji Ram, the mastermind of the crime, Deepak Khajuria, a special police officer, and Parvesh Kumar should be enhanced from life imprisonment to capital punishment. The petitioner had also prayed that the sentence of special police officer Surendra Verma, head constable Tilak Raj and sub-inspector Anand Dutta be enhanced from 5 years to life imprisonment. The acquittal of Vishal Jangotra has also been challenged by the petitioner. Last month, a court in Pathankot had awarded life imprisonment till the last breath to Sanji Ram, Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar. They were convicted under sections of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) relating to criminal conspiracy, murder, kidnapping, gangrape, destruction of evidence, drugging the victim and common intention. The court, while acquitting Vishal Jangotra, son of Sanji Ram, had sentenced 3 other accused--Anand Dutta, Tilak Raj and Surender Verma - to 5-year jail. As per charge sheet filed in April last year, the girl was kidnapped on January 10 and was raped in captivity in a small village temple, whose caretaker was Sanjhi Ram, after keeping her sedated for 4 days. She was later bludgeoned to death, it said. (source: indiatoday.in) *** Bill on death penalty for child sex abuse introduced in Rajya Sabha In a bid to combat rising cases of child sex abuse, a Bill for enhancing punishment, including a provision for death penalty, for committing sexual crimes against children was introduced in Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The bill also puts curbs on child pornography by making provisions for imprisonment up to seven years as well as fine. Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani introduced the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 2019, that seeks to amend the existing POCSO law of 2012. "...as there is a strong need to take stringent measures to deter the rising trend of child sex abuse in the country, the proposed amendments make provisions for enhancement of punishments for various offences so as to deter the perpetrators and ensure safety, security and dignified childhood for a child," the amendment bill said. It empowers Centre to make rules "for the manner of deleting or destroying or reporting about pornographic material in any form involving a child to the designated authority". According to the amendment bill, those committing penetrative sexual assaults on a child below 16 years of age would be punished with imprisonment up to 20 years, which might extend to life imprisonment as well as fine. "Whoever commits aggravated penetrative sexual assault shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall be not less than 20 years, but which may extend to imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of natural life of that person and shall also be liable to fine or with death," the bill said. To curb child pornography, the Bill provides that those who uses a child for pornographic purposes should be punished with imprisonment for
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July 17 ZAMBIA: Lusaka woman gets death sentence for poisoning her 2 sons The Lusaka High Court has sentenced to death by hanging a 29-year-old woman of Lusaka for killing her children by administering Doom, a pesticide, to them. This is in a matter where Miriam Mulenga on January 24, 2017 murdered her 5-year old and 1-year-old children, Mwiche and Dawson. Mulenga had administered the pesticide to 3 of her children and attempted to commit suicide due following allegations that her husband was having an affair with another woman as a result of which she was traumatised owing to certain characteristics of their marriage. Fortunately, one of the children and Mulenga survived as the pesticide did not have a big impact on them due to their age. The police had discovered a bottle of Doom insecticide in Mulenga’s room. Mulenga and her firstborn child were admitted to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH). When Mulenga gained consciousness, she began to act strangely after seeing the lifeless bodies of her children in the mortuary. During trial, the convict’s niece, a grade ten pupil at Matero Girls Secondary School told High Court judge Getrude Chawatama that on the material day, after a power outage in the evening, Mirriam asked her children to follow her to the bedroom. The juvenile had testified that she proceeded to the kitchen to wash dishes and whilst in the kitchen, two women visited Mirriam and asked her to accompany them to a funeral within the neighbourhood but Mirriam refused, claiming that she had a headache. The juvenile said that after some time, she heard one of her cousins calling for help. She narrated that her cousin’s crying was unusual and she rushed to the bedroom. The 17-year-old told court that when she entered the bedroom, she found Mirriam and her 3 children crying. She said upon asking Mirriam what transpired, she responded that she administered doom to her children and that she equally consumed the pesticide. The juvenile testified that Mirriam asked her to call her friend Sabina but unfortunately Sabina was not home. She added that she decided to go to Sabina’s sister’s house and told her about the incident. The girl said that when she rushed back home, she noticed that one of her cousin was bleeding from the nose and she rushed the child who was bleeding to a near by shop and bought him some milk but the efforts to save her cousin proved futile as he was bleeding excessively. The juvenile further told court that Mirriam’s surviving child disclosed that the mother had administered poison to them. Delivering judgment yesterday, justice Chawatama found that the convict had the knowledge that administering Doom to her children would result to their death. Justice Chatwama refused the suggestion by a medical specialist that the convict’s sanity be ascertained as she was normal when she committed the offense. She said that although Mulenga showed remorse or was emotional for killing her children, she blamed her husband for being the cause of her actions. The court found that the evidence of the prosecution was not challenged by Mulenga as she opted to remain silent in her defence. Judge Chawatama also found that Mulenga had a chance to confide in her friend that she had marital disputes but she only decided to do so after she had administered the poisonous substance to her 3 children. “There is no doubt that the accused not only endangered the life of Mwiche Nakazwe and Dawson Sikazwe but also caused their death. I find that the accused did not suffer from insanity at the time. I find the accused guilty of the offence of murder and I sentence her to death by hanging,” she said. And Mulenga’s husband, Coaster Sikazwe, said that Mulenga deserved the death penalty. “She deserves the judgment, though I have forgiven her. The matter is in the hands of state but the judgment will not bring back my children, she deserves the judgment,” said Sikazwe (source: themastonline.com) SRI LANKA: “If you hang 100 guilty but 1 innocent, the system is a failure”: Ex-Prisons Chief A retired senior Prisons Department official who has witnessed 7 judicial executions says he is against the capital punishment as no judicial system in the world is infallible and there is a chance that a wrong person can be sent to the gallows. “You can hang 100 guilty men but if you hang 1 innocent man, the system is a failure,” said H.G. Dharmadasa, a former Commissioner of Prisons, who officiated at seven judicial hangings including the controversial one of D.J. Siripala better known as Maru Sira in 1975. Judges and juries, he says, can make mistakes and the manner in which crimes are sensationalised in the media which often blur the line between fact and fiction can influence judgments. “World over there have been several instances of the wrong person being hanged which is why I am opposed to the death
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July 16 CZECH REPUBLIC/CHINA: MOFA lauds Czech Republic's protection of 8 Taiwanese wanted by China The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Tuesday lauded the Czech government's decision to provide "subsidiary protection" to eight Taiwanese fraud suspects detained in its capital Prague rather than extradite them to China as requested by Beijing. Subsidiary protection is an international protection given to a non-EU national or a stateless person who does not qualify as a refugee and would face the risk of suffering serious harm if returned to his or her country of origin, according to the website of European Union (EU). "We commend and appreciate the position of the Czech government, which showed moral courage and pragmatism in protecting the human rights of these Taiwanese and refusing China's request (for extradition)," MOFA spokesman Andrew Lee said at a press conference Tuesday. It is MOFA's obligation to protect the basic human and legal rights of Taiwanese when they get in trouble outside the country, and the government will do all it can to help the eight Taiwanese and have them deported back to Taiwan for legal proceedings. The eight Taiwanese were arrested in Prague by police in that country in January 2018 on the basis of a red alert notice issued by Interpol. They were accused by the Chinese government of posing as Chinese police officers and prosecutors to defraud Chinese nationals in their home country by phone. A court in the Czech Republic agreed to extradite these Taiwanese to China in autumn 2018, believing China's claim that they would be entitled to a fair trial and not be given the death penalty. Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacek announced via twitter on Monday, however, that the eight Taiwanese will receive subsidiary protection, although he did not provide any further details, citing administrative reasons. According to a report by the Czech News Agency (CTK), the Czech government feared for the safety of the Taiwanese because of concerns they could face inhumane treatment and even capital punishment if they were extradited to China. The EU is a strong advocate of abolishing of death penalty. Beijing has for many years requested countries in which Taiwanese fraud suspects were apprehended in cases with Chinese nationals as victims to extradite them to China, citing investigative and judicial procedures because the victims were in China. Some also see the requests as Beijing's way of enforcing its so-called "one China principle" to diminish Taiwan's sovereignty. According to the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), at least 650 Taiwanese crime suspects apprehended in a third country have been deported or extradited to China by host governments since 2016. Such cases have happened as far back as 2011, however, when 14 Taiwanese were deported to China from the Philippines. (source: focustaiwan.tw) VIETNAM: Vietnamese heroin trafficker arrested Police of Vietnam's northern Dien Bien province on Monday arrested a local drug trafficker, confiscating 3.4 kg of heroin, the Vietnam News Agency reported. Phan Van Pao, a 33-year-old man from northern Lai Chau province, was detained when transporting 10 cakes of heroin weighing 3.4 kg in Dien Bien's Muong Nhe district. 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. (source: xinhuanet.com) INDIA: Church opposes execution of India's child sex offendersLife is 'a gift from God' and should be protected, says bishop as death sentence is introduced for most heinous crimes Catholic leaders say the Church cannot support the Indian government’s decision to amend its child protection law and include the option of imposing the death sentence for child sex offenders. The federal cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 10 approved amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) legislation that will allow courts to hand down stricter sentences for a range of child sex offences. The amendments, described by the cabinet as an “historic decision,” are aimed at deterring “the trend of child sexual abuse” and to ensure the “safety and dignity” of children. It also “aimed to establish clarity regarding the aspects of child abuse and punishment,” the official statement said. The gender-neutral POCSO Act 2012 sought to protect children below the age of 12 from all sexual crimes and to ensure their healthy physical, emotional, intellectual and social development. The latest move follows India’s introduction of a criminal law in July 2018 allowing for the death penalty for rapes against girls under 12 in a bid to curb increased sexual violence against young girls across the country. That law replaced an
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July 15 SAUDI ARABIA: They were convicted of minor crimes as teens and now face beheading and 'crucifixion' in Saudi Arabia When Ali al-Nimr was 17, he says he was suddenly rammed by a Saudi Arabian government vehicle while riding his motorcycle through the eastern district of Qatif. What happened next would change his life forever. Al-Nimr was taken to a local police station, where he was beaten so badly he had to be transferred to a hospital, his lawyer said. Initially, al-Nimr was hit with relatively minor charges related to his participation in the widespread 2011 to 2012 Arab Spring demonstrations against Shia repression in the eastern part of the country, where most of the population resides. But when his uncle, the reformist Shia cleric and protest leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was arrested, prosecutors ramped up their case. Instead of minor infractions related to the protests, al-Nimr now stood accused of joining a terrorist organization, throwing Molotov cocktails and arson. After being moved to an adult prison at the age of 18, he confessed to a string of crimes under extreme torture, according to his lawyer, Taha al-Hajji. At trial, al-Nimr rescinded his confession, but this was ignored by the presiding judge, according to al-Hajji. Then, in May 2014, al-Nimr was sentenced to death by "crucifixion," contrary to Article 37 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that no individual should be sentenced to death for crimes committed under the age of 18. Saudi Arabia is one of the 196 countries that has ratified the CRC. Al-Nimr, now 24, is not alone. In fact, he is 1 of 3 Saudi Arabian men known to be on death row who were arrested and charged with crimes allegedly committed when they were minors. The cases of al-Nimr, Abdullah al-Zaher, 23, and Dawood al-Marhoon, 24, follow the brutally familiar pattern of arrest, torture and then, once they could be tried as adults, being sentenced to death for crimes against the state committed before they turned 18, according to Reprieve, the human rights advocates campaigning for their release. The U.N.'s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, an independent body that investigates "cases of deprivation of liberty," stated in 2017 that the Arab Spring protests were "recognized by the international community as peaceful" and that the trio "did not engage in any violent or hostile acts." The men were not arrested during the protests -- only after -- and no warrants were presented at the time of their arrests. The Saudi Ministry of Justice has not responded to ABC News' request for comment for this story. According to Reprieve case files, al-Zaher and al-Marhoon underwent an ordeal nearly identical to al-Nimr. Reprieve said that on March 3, 2012, 15-year-old al-Zaher was arrested, beaten, shot at and held in solitary confinement in Dammam after allegedly participating in protests. "In prison, Saudi police tortured Abdullah -- including beating him with wire iron rods -- and forced him to sign a paper that he had not read, without allowing him to speak to his family or a lawyer," Reprieve wrote. In May of that year, at 16, after refusing to "spy" on protesters, al-Marhoon was arrested in Dammam Central Hospital, where he was receiving treatment for injuries sustained in a traffic accident, Reprieve said. "The Saudi authorities tortured him for weeks and refused to allow him to communicate with anyone on the outside world," the organization said. "For two weeks, Dawood's family had no idea where Saudi authorities were holding him, and he was prevented from speaking to a lawyer." Both were transferred to adult prison at the age of 18 and allegedly tortured into confessing to the crime of "herabah," meaning banditry, according to the U.N. and Reprieve. The men were tried jointly and sentenced to death by crucifixion on Oct. 21, 2014, according to Reprieve case files. Inhumane treatment of 3 young men in government custody, as reported by an unnamed source, was relayed in a report by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2017, in which the men are referred to as "Minors A, B and C," but their birth dates match those of al-Nimr, al-Marhoon and al-Zaher. The Working Group concluded that their detentions were "arbitrary," and that "the adequate remedy would be to release all 3 minors immediately and to accord them an enforceable right to reparations, in accordance with international law." Their appeals were rejected in 2015. In its response to the Working Group, the Saudi government denied the allegations of torture, unfair trial and trumped-up charges and said "its criminal justice system provided all the guarantees of fair trial and fair procedures that were consistent with its international obligations in the field of human rights under the general principles of an independent judiciary." The government also said that the men were "fully
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July 14 CANADA/IRAN: Canada refuses to help secure justice for murdered Toronto man The man wanted for hacking a Toronto father to death last year with a machete sits in an Iranian prison — but not for much longer. Hair stylist Sepehr Yeganehfathollah, 26, fled back to his Iranian homeland just hours after he allegedly killed construction worker Nader Fadaei at a Yonge St. Tim Hortons south of Steeles Ave. in what the victim’s friends insist was an unprovoked attack. On the evening of Sept. 19, 2018, as on many evenings, Fadaei, 44, had gone to have coffee with his friends. But this time would be tragically different. An altercation broke out in the parking lot at about 8 p.m. when Fadaei was confronted by a man who accused him of insulting his mother. According to witnesses, Yeganehfathollah’s mother had wrongly identified Fadaei as someone who had done her wrong. “It was a case of mistaken identity,” says Shawn, the family’s spokesman who is too fearful to have his last name used. “The last thing Nader said was ‘I don’t know your mother.’” Fadaei, a father of two and sole breadwinner of the family, was first allegedly punched by Yeganehfathollah. When he threw his coffee to defend himself, his attacker drew a 72-cm machete from his pants and slashed Fadaei from his shoulder through to his rib cage in a gruesome blow. He died shortly after arriving in hospital. Before Toronto Police could put out a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest with a warning that he was armed and dangerous, Yeganehfathollah was already on a plane bound for Turkey and then Iran. Toronto Police told them their hands were tied. They passed the information on to Interpol, which issued a red notice for his arrest on charges of 1st-degree murder. This past February, a homicide officer contacted them with wonderful news: Yeganehfathollah had been picked up in Iran. Fadaei’s family and friends were thrilled. They believed justice was at hand. They were wrong. Yeganehfathollah was denying any part in Fadaei’s death. There’s no extradition treaty with Iran, but authorities there were prepared to prosecute him if they received the evidence gathered by Toronto Police, including the security video that had captured the killing. The homicide detectives were happy to hand it over, but this was above their pay grade. They’d have to get authorization from the attorney general — authorization that was ultimately denied. “I know that this situation is frustrating. We have been working many hours on this case. We have really done everything possible at our level to secure some form of justice for Nader and his family,” Det. Const. Charles Crangle wrote Shawn in a March email. “Please understand that the decision to send or not send documents and our evidentiary files does not rest with us (police.) This decision rests with the Attorney General and the Department of Justice. They decide on these types of political matters.” Shawn believes the Canadian government is refusing to send the evidence because Yeganehfathollah could face the death penalty if convicted. But Shawn insists that sentence would be commuted to life because the family has agreed to accept compensation from him in return. “His widow is in dire straits. She needs the money,” he explained. But Canada appears to be more worried about an accused killer, Shawn argues. “We have to save an alleged murderer who ran away from our justice system? Canada wants to go the extra mile to save the life of an accused killer rather than help a widow left with two kids?” he demands. The family’s lawyer Rocco Achampong has just learned that Iranian police will only hold Yeganehfathollah for one more week unless they receive the Toronto evidence. He can file a freedom of information request but that will take months. “I don’t have that time. I need help to get these documents to Iran,” the lawyer says. “I need to send it as soon as possible to assist them in holding this man accountable – or else an alleged killer is going to walk free and disappear.” (source: Toronto Sun) Ex-Tehran mayor goes on trial over wife’s murder The high-profile trial opened Saturday of a former Tehran mayor charged with murdering his wife, Iranian media reported. Prominent reformist Mohammad Ali Najafi appeared in a Tehran criminal court, accused of shooting his second wife Mitra Ostad at their home in the Iranian capital. The charge sheet read out in court included murder, assault, battery and illegal possession of a weapon. The prosecutor also read out a statement from the former mayor, who claimed his wife once threatened him with a knife during one of their frequent arguments. Ostad’s body was found in the bathtub after Najafi turned himself in and confessed to killing her on May 28, according to Iranian media. Her family has appealed for the Islamic law of retribution to be
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July 13 IRANexecution Man Hanged at Mahabad Prison “In an extraordinary event, Veis’s execution was carried out at the prison’s courtyard. Prisoners could see and hear everything,” the source told IHR. A prisoner was hanged at Mahabad Prison’s courtyard this morning. Other prisoners could watch the execution scene from their cells’ windows. Mahabad city is located in northwestern Iran. According to the IHR sources, on the early morning of Tuesday, July 9, a prisoner was hanged at Mahabad prison. The execution took place at the prison’s courtyard and other prisoners were able to watch the scene. IHR can confirm the identity of the executed prisoner as Veis Alipour, a resident of Shamat village. “In an extraordinary event, Veis’s execution was carried out at the prison’s courtyard. Prisoners could see and hear everything,” the source told IHR. His execution is not announced by Iranian media or authorities so far. According to the Iran Human Rights statistic department, at least 273 people were executed in Iran in 2018. At least 188 of them executed for murder charges. (source: Iran Human Rights) *** This gay teen lost his asylum appeal & will be sent back to Iran where ‘they will execute me’Immigration officials say there's no "proof" that he's gay beyond living together with his boyfriend and testimony on his behalf from LGBTQ organizations. A gay teen from Iran was told he has three weeks to leave Sweden after his asylum claim was rejected. Mehdi Shokr Khoda, 19, is Christian and said that he fears for his life if he is forced to go back to Iran. “I cannot live open as a gay in Iran,” Khoda told Gay Star News. “They won’t understand something about you. They will just kill you first. Last year, the Migration Board in Sweden rejected Khoda’s asylum claim, saying that he there wasn’t enough evidence that he is gay and Christian. In appealing the decision, Khoda’s boyfriend of 18 months Carlo Rapisarda, 22, appeared before the board. “We live together, we love each other, we’ve known each other a long time. Isn’t that evidence enough?” Rapisarda asked. Related: Austria tells a teenager that he’s not stereotypically gay enough to get asylum But apparently that wasn’t enough, since, he said, there’s no foolproof test for whether someone is gay. “There’s not a scientific way. You can’t hook him up to cables and check.” The Swedish Federation for LGBT Rights also wrote a letter on Khoda’s behalf. “There’s no doubt,” the letter said. “Mehdi is gay and in need of protection.” The Migration Board rejected Khoda’s appeal, saying that he was unable to explain his coming out process. Khoda signed a paper saying that he had three weeks to leave the country. Even though he will not be forcibly put on a plane, he will have to live as an undocumented person in Sweden if he stays. Now that his case has gotten international media attention, he is sure that Iranian authorities will figure out that he’s gay. Authorities in Iran “will absolutely figure it out,” Khoda said. “They’ll ask questions.” “If they find out I’m Christian or I’m gay or I tried to seek asylum, they will not understand that,” he said. “They will execute me.” While he and Rapisarda could get married, they can’t organize a marriage in such a short time in Sweden. There are an estimated 300,000 Christians in Iran and there have been Christians in Iran for almost 2,000 years. Recently, though, the government has cracked down on converts to Christianity, which can be punished with ten years in prison. Khoda was baptized in Sweden, and the Migration Board said that his “thoughts and reflections” on Christianity weren’t good enough to prove that he is really Christian. They are planning to appeal this decision, saying that international media attention will make it impossible for Khoda to return to Iran. They have started a GoFundMe to help with legal fees. (source: lgbtqnation.com) EGYPT: In the Name of the People: The Annual Report on the Death Penalty in EgyptA report on death sentences issued in 2018 and an analysis of the application of the death penalty in Egyptian courts. Today the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the Adalah Center for Rights and Freedoms issued a joint report titled “In the Name of the People,” the second annual report on the death penalty in Egypt, covering the period from January to December 2018. The report reviews and documents death sentences issued in Egypt throughout 2018 and attempts to analyze patterns of handing down death sentences verdicts by Egyptian courts, tracking quantitative and qualitative shifts in the application of the death penalty—the maximum penalty in criminal law and the only irreversible penalty. The report is divided into two parts: the first part reviews death sentence verdicts issued in 2018; the second part details rights violations of
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July 12 YEMEN: UN 'alarmed' at death sentences given by Yemen rebel court The United Nations said Friday it was "alarmed" at death sentences given by a court run by Yemen's Huthi rebels to 30 academics, trade unionists and preachers for alleged spying. "The UN Human Rights Office has received credible information suggesting that many of those convicted were subjected to arbitrary or unlawful detention, as well as torture," rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters. Those condemned were accused of spying for the Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in Yemen in March 2015, shortly after the Iran-backed Huthis seized the capital Sanaa. Shamdasani noted the group will likely appeal to a higher court, which is also under Huthi control. The rights office urged the appeals court to consider "the serious allegations of torture and other ill-treatment, and of violations of the fair trial and due process rights of the convicted people," Shamdasani said. The Huthis have been accused by rights groups of using Sanaa's courts to target opponents and critics. Yemen's conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, relief agencies say, and left millions displaced and in need of aid. (source:al-monitor.com) IRANexecution Man Hanged at Zanjan Prison A man hanged at Zanjan prison for murder charges last Monday. According to IHR sources, on the morning of Monday, July 8, a man was hanged at Zanjan prison. He is identified by IHR sources as Mostafa Shiri, 42, a resident of the Iranian city of Marand. Mr Shiri was sentenced to death for murder charges and spent 5 years in prison before his execution. His execution is not announced by Iranian media or authorities so far. According to the Iran Human Rights statistic department, at least 273 people were executed in Iran in 2018. At least 188 of them executed for murder charges. (source: Iran Human Rights) MOROCCO: Imlil murders : The trial adjourned until a final hearing on July 18th The trial of the 24 suspects involved in the murder of 2 Scandinavian tourists in the Atlas Mountains, Imlil, was adjourned until a final hearing on July 18. The Court decided to devote the next hearing to the final say of the suspects and the closing of the proceedings. The suspects, including a man with Swiss and Spanish nationalities, are standing trial over the charges of "setting up a gang to prepare and commit terrorist acts, deliberately putting the life of people in danger, possession of firearms and attempted manufacture of explosives in violation of the law, as part of a collective project aimed at seriously undermining public order." As part of investigations carried out following the discovery of the dead bodies of 2 foreign tourists in the town of Imlil, the central Bureau for judicial investigations (BCIJ), under the directorate general for national territory surveillance, announced that it had arrested several suspects, in collaboration with the Royal Gendarmerie and the National Police. During the hearing held Thursday in Sale, the mother of 1 of the 2 victims Helle Petersen said in a letter read by her lawyer that "was destroyed the moment that 2 policemen came to [her] door on December 17th to announce [her] daughter's death." In her letter, the mother said that "the most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve, I ask that of you", AFP reports. During the last hearing, Moroccan prosecutor in the Sale Appeal court sought death sentence for the three main suspects, accused of murdering 2 Scandinavian tourists. The prosecutor demanded life imprisonment for the fourth suspect, who said that he was not with the 3 men on the day of the attack. He also demanded sentences ranging from 10 to 30 years in prison 20 other suspects tried in the case. For the record, 2 of the main suspects admitted in a previous hearing that they beheaded Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway while a 3rd one said that he filmed the act. (source: en.yabiladi.com) PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Papua New Guinea Massacre Doesn’t Justify Death PenaltyThorough, Impartial Investigation into Killings Needed On July 8, gunmen in Papua New Guinea (PNG) killed at least 16 people during tribal fighting in Munima and Karia villages in the country’s Hela province. Reports indicate at least 8 women and 5 children were among the victims. Health workers told local media that “it was difficult to identify the bodies because they were all chopped to pieces.” PNG police said the massacre was in retaliation for the killing of 6 people in an ambush on July 6. The killings occurred in the electorate of newly appointed Prime Minister James Marape. In an emotional Facebook post, Marape threatened to “come after” the perpetrators with the death penalty. He expressed frustration at the inadequate
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July 11 PAKISTAN: Children on death row: Why Pakistan must stop hanging juvenile offendersDespite the prohibition, cases of juvenile offenders' executions are far from the exception. The following is an excerpt from Justice Project Pakistan’s (JPP) book, The Death Penalty in Pakistan: A Critical Review, to be launched on July 11, 2019 in Islamabad. A culmination of 10 years of JPP’s work, the book documents the many ways in which Pakistan's application of the death penalty intersects with legal, social and political realities. It focuses on how capital punishment impacts some of the most vulnerable populations: juveniles, the mentally ill, persons with physical disabilities, low-wage migrant workers imprisoned in foreign jails and the working class. Relying on public records for multiple JPP clients sentenced to death, nearly a decade of experience in the field, as well as extensive experience with legislation and advocacy, this book tracks the many junctures at which violations occur, from arrest to sentencing to execution. Aftab Bahadur was arrested at the age of 15 for the murder of a woman and her two children. Aftab protested his innocence to the very end. The only eyewitness who testified against Aftab recanted his statement by claiming that he had been coerced by the police to provide his damning testimony. In fact, he admitted, that Aftab had not even been present at the scene of the crime. The Supreme Court of Pakistan, however, refused to consider the exculpatory evidence stating that a fresh appeal was untimely. Aftab Bahadur therefore, marched to the gallows at the age of 38 after having spent over 22 years on Pakistan’s death row. He was executed on 10 June 2015. Like 160 countries in the world, Pakistan has enacted legislation prohibiting the sentencing and imposition of the death penalty against juvenile offenders — persons who commit crimes before turning 18 years old. The Government of Pakistan is, additionally, a party to both the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which categorically prohibits capital punishment for juvenile offenders. However, despite the explicit bar, cases of juvenile offenders such as Aftab Bahadur are far from the exception. As a result of a criminal justice system that violates international human rights standards at each stage of the judicial system, arrest, investigation, trial, sentencing, and punishment, the death penalty is disproportionately applied to the most vulnerable of Pakistan’s population — the mentally ill, physically disabled, and juvenile offenders. Since the moratorium was lifted, at least 6 juvenile offenders have been executed despite credible evidence in support of their juvenility. Pakistan’s failure to protect juvenile offenders from the death penalty since the resumption of executions drew sharp criticism from international actors. In June 2015, 4United Nations experts, whilst urging the Government of Pakistan to halt the execution of juvenile offenders, condemned the existence of 'several hundred' juvenile offenders on death row as a violation of its international law obligations. Similarly, in June 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the Government of Pakistan to stay the executions of all juvenile offenders and reopen all cases where there was even the slightest indication of the minority of the accused at the time of the commission of the alleged offence. Pakistan enacted the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) in 2000 in order to bring its criminal justice system in conformity with its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In 2018, the JJSO was repealed and replaced by Juvenile Justice System Act (JJSA). The law prohibits executions of juveniles and makes provisions regarding separate courts, trials, and detention centres from judges and lawyers. However, in the 18 years that had passed since the JJSO came into force, it remained virtually ignored in practice. Firstly, the law was enacted without retrospective force – thereby denying its protection to juvenile offenders sentenced to death prior to its enactment in 2000. A Presidential Notification granted a 'special remission' for all juvenile offenders whose death sentences were confirmed prior to the JJSO on the basis of an inquiry into their juvenility. However, such inquiries were seldom conducted and when they were the investigation was replete with incompetence, inefficiency, and violations of human rights standards. Pakistan has also consistently failed to set up juvenile courts, borstal institutions and provisions for effective legal aid for juveniles as provided under, first the JJSO and now JJSA. In a context marred with low birth registration and a lack of sensitisation of law enforcement and judiciary to juvenile delinquency,
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July 10 LUXEMBOURG: Asselborn pursues universal abolition of the death penalty The Minister of Foreign Affairs maintains anti-death penalty stance in response to Christian Social People's Party MP Laurent Mosar. Foreign Affairs Minister Asselborn reaffirmed his ambition concerning the abolition of the death penalty beyond European borders. The issue came up in relation to the fate of Murtaja Qureiris, imprisoned since the age of 13 in Saudi Arabia. "The youngest prisoner in Saudi Arabia" had been facing the death penalty but was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison for taking part in an anti-government demonstration. However, as deputy Laurent Mosar pointed out, even if Murtaja Qureiris’ life was no longer technically in danger, the problem remained as relevant as ever, with initiatives such as the United Nations Children's Fund regularly denouncing Saudi Arabia’s continued execution of minors. How then, asked Mosar, was the Luxembourgish government going to react? And how, he continued, would they address the case on both European (EU) and international (UN) levels? Jean Asselborn maintained that Luxembourg seized every possible opportunity to underline its unequivocal opposition to the death penalty, especially when in relation to minors. Going beyond the issue at hand, the minister called for the suspension of "all executions" in order to achieve "a complete and universal abolition of the application of the death penalty". Returning to the case of Saudi Arabia, Mr. Asselborn assured that the European Union would not hesitate to raise the subject with the Saudi representatives and insisted that Luxembourg would continue to commit in favour of universal abolition of the death penalty in every way possible. We can only hope that despite a clear risk of a global regression on the issue, Mr Asselborn's appeal will be heard. If the Qureiris case has taught us anything, it is that international pressure can change things. (source: rtl.lu) PAKISTAN: Death penalty in Pakistan: A colonial residueCapital punishment was used extensively in colonial India by the British Empire to control its colonial subjects. The following is an excerpt from Justice Project Pakistan’s (JPP) book, The Death Penalty in Pakistan: A Critical Review, to be launched on July 11, 2019 in Islamabad. A culmination of 10 years of JPP’s work, the book documents the many ways in which Pakistan's application of the death penalty intersects with legal, social and political realities. It focuses on how capital punishment impacts some of the most vulnerable populations: juveniles, the mentally ill, persons with physical disabilities, low-wage migrant workers imprisoned in foreign jails and the working class. Relying on public records for multiple JPP clients sentenced to death, nearly a decade of experience in the field, as well as extensive experience with legislation and advocacy, this book tracks the many junctures at which violations occur, from arrest to sentencing to execution. *** Colonial India (1858-1945) As the Mughal Empire fell, the British took control and established the Indian subcontinent as its colony until both Pakistan and India gained independence in 1947. Most of the laws and structures currently in place in Pakistan including those related to criminal justice and the legal system date to colonial times. While the British altered the modes of carrying out death sentences and made hanging the norm,19 they also made it so that capital punishment was administered more readily and frequently. Whereas the Mughals did not have many formal prison systems, the building of new and improved prisons marked the entry of the British into the Indian subcontinent.20 In her book Prisoner Voices from Death Row, Reena Mary George indicates, ‘Prisons continue to be located and structured more or less as they were in colonial times. Any change that has been made has been incorporated somewhat clumsily into the old system that basically served the triple colonial aims of order, economy and efficiency’.21 The first formal placing of capital punishment in the legal system, though, came when the Governor-General of the India Council enacted the Indian Penal Code in 1860.22 The law, drafted by a group of Britishers making up the Law Commission, did not attempt to integrate any traditional Indian legal systems and instead, as the historian David Skuy notes, ‘the entire codification practice represented the transplantation of English law to India, complete with lawyers and judges’.23 Since English law at the time was not itself uniform, this was a first attempt to create such a standard body of law. The current Code of Criminal Procedure was introduced in 1898 but draws from the very first code of 1861 that followed the 1857 Indian rebellion.24 Its intent was to control Indians. Some of the provisions in these laws are termed as ‘draconian
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July 9 NEW ZEALAND: Give paedophiles 'involuntary euthanasia': Adviser for Hannah Tamaki's Coalition NZ Party A campaign manager for Hannah Tamaki's Coalition New Zealand Party has called for the Government to introduce involuntary euthanasia for paedophiles who are repeat offenders. Jevan Goulter, who told the Herald his personal views don't necessarily represent the political party's stance, says its time for New Zealand to discuss the death penalty and involuntary euthanasia, alongside David Seymour's End of Life Bill after passing its 2nd reading. The campaign manager originally took to social media stating he wanted the euthanasia bill killed and the reintroduction of the death penalty for paedophiles who are repeat offenders. "Kill the Euthanasia Bill, reintroduce the 1961 death penalty for third time offenders," he said in a video. "If we're already talking about euthanasia, something that's going to threaten our most vulnerable people in this country, the elderly, people with Alzheimer's, dementia patients, people with disabilities, people that suffer from depression and mental illnesses, then should we not just throw a few of these paedophiles who commit heinous crimes against our children? "We should save $100,000 of taxpayers money that it cost us to hold them in jail and just damn well euthanise the bastards! If we're going to talk about human life, they're the ones who deserve it." Following Goulter's strong stance the Herald contacted Destiny Church, run by Hannah and Brian Tamaki, who said the church is currently undertaking its own research on euthanasia and don't yet have a formal position regarding the debate. During the launch of the Coalition NZ Party in May, Hannah Tamaki highlighted potential issues surrounding euthanasia, marijuana and late-term abortions. However, in an interview with the Herald, Goulter, who works for Coalition NZ, said the party is yet to formalise any stance on euthanasia but says it will be a topic raised between party members. Keen to elaborate on his own views, Goulter says if the country is "intelligent enough" to discuss euthanasia then a debate around the death penalty needs to be had. He told the Herald the term euthanasia is just an "umbrella" term for many forms of death, including "involuntary euthanasia", and believes New Zealanders need to have a more in-depth discussion around the topic before making a final decision. "As a country, if we believe ourselves to be intelligent enough to have a discussion around euthanasia, why not open the door and put other things on the table at the same time. "One of the reasons they got rid of the death penalty is because it was inhumane. But we're in 2019 now and it wouldn't be inhumane because you wouldn't be giving voluntary euthanasia to people if it was inhumane. "You'd be giving them the same thing as the death penalty. So it's no longer inhumane. "When it comes to children I'm calling for 3 strikes and you're out. if our justice system gets it wrong 3 times then there is something wrong with that. "People say euthanasia is completely different to the death penalty because you're aiding those who suffer from terminal or incurable illness, but my argument is when you look at the definition of euthanasia it's an umbrella word for voluntary euthanasia, involuntary euthanasia and non-voluntary euthanasia. "If we're going to debate euthanasia, we are also really debating involuntary euthanasia which is similar to the death penalty. "We have a lot of problems in New Zealand, such as poverty, a lack of homes. What makes it okay to spend $90,000-$100,000 a year to home paedophiles in jail, then let them out to potentially reoffend again. "At what point do we say it's not our job to take human life. But then we decide we're going to allow euthanasia anyway, so I'm saying why the hell would you allow a paedophile out to go and screw with a child's innocence just for the sake you want to take the moral high ground on human life. "It's hypocrisy from people who support voluntary euthanasia but don't support involuntary euthanasia." The last person to be executed was Walter James Bolton, for poisoning his wife, on 18 February 1957. Walter maintained his innocence right until his last breath, which raised questions about whether capital punishment was inhumane. The death penalty in New Zealand was abolished in 1961. END OF LIFE BILL David Seymour's End of Life Bill allows people with less than 6 months to live or with a grievous and irremediable medical condition to have a lethal dose of medication to cause death, although Seymour has said he will put up an amendment to ensure it applies only to people to people with 6 months to live. To be eligible, the patient must meet the above conditions and be in an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability and experiencing unbearable suffering, be aged at
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July 8 TUNISIA: Gay Tunisian politician Mounir Baatour is running for President A gay politician has announced he is running to become President of Tunisia, where homosexuality is still illegal. Mounir Baatour, the head of the country’s fringe Liberal Party and a well-known campaigner for LGBT rights, has announced he will contest the country’s Presidential elections on November 10. The move is a bold step in Tunisia, where where gay sex is still illegal and LGBT+ people face routine discrimination and even forced anal probes. Mounir Baatour is running for President of Tunisia The 48-year-old lawyer, who has faced arrest himself previously, has led efforts to challenge the law via Tunisian LGBT+ group Association Shams. Baatour says he would stand for a progressive and modern Tunisia that defends the rights of all people and fights against corruption. He said: “Tunisia needs a democratic programme that can include the different identities, cultures, beliefs, and languages of this country. “Our programme aims to democratise power, strengthen the Parliament and give more weight to local institutions.” Incumbent president Beji Caid Essebsi is not seeking reelection in November. However, Baatour faces a steep climb to ever gain power, with many in the country rejecting the prospect of a gay leader. If elected, he would be the first out leader in the Arab world. Decriminalising homosexuality needs ‘political will’ Speaking to International Policy Digest, Baatour added: “Political will is needed to reduce homophobia in society. “When in 1956 President Bourguiba banned polygamy, allowed abortion and adoption and banned the repudiation of women, at that time the Tunisian people were very conservative but there was enough of political will to impose these reforms. “Today too, political will is needed to decriminalise homosexuality and fight homophobia. “Even though the people are conservative, they will adapt to the reforms.” The candidate would also delete provisions that prohibit non-Muslims from running for high office. He said: “Tunisia has more than three million years of history, many civilisations have passed through it. “Tunisian Identity is plural and all the cultures and beliefs that make up the current Tunisian civilisation must be respected.” Tunisia was the birthplace of the so-called Arab Spring, with protests dubbed the Jasmine Revolution managing to overthrow dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. A democratic system of representation has since been established in the country. While democratic rights have been slow to affect the LGBT+ community, an increasing number of political figures have been advocating for lifting the ban on homosexual acts. In 2018, a commission called for the decriminalisation of homosexuality as well as the removal of the death penalty and equal rights for women. (source: pinknews.co.uk) RUSSIA/TOGO: Russia to Deport Togolese National Facing Death Penalty at Home A former presidential guard from the West African nation of Togo who faces the death penalty for helping his country’s opposition will be deported from Russia, Moscow-based activists have said. Russia has for the past 5 years denied refugee status to Bozobeyidou Batoma, 42, a former member of the Togolese commando guard force, Russia’s Civic Assistance Committee said. A Russian court ruled last month to deport Batoma back to Togo, which he had escaped after allegedly being imprisoned and tortured and where he faced the threat of extrajudicial execution. He could be sent back to Togo on a Monday morning flight via Casablanca, Morocco, the Civic Assistance Committee, a primary point of contact for refugees in Russia, wrote on Facebook Sunday. The NGO said it appealed the court’s decision last week and a new court date has been set for July 22, but police in the Bryansk region near the Belarussian border had reportedly taken him to Moscow ahead of his deportation. “Bozobeyidou Batoma can’t be put on a plane and forced to return to Togo, death awaits him there!” the activists warned. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in 2018 had recognized Batoma as a person in need of international protection, the Civic Assistance Committee added. Russia has called the charges against him in Togo "speculation" when denying him asylum, the MBKh Media news website cited authorities as saying. A flight had departed toward Casablanca from Domodedovo Airport earlier on Monday and is scheduled to arrive in Lome, Togo, early Tuesday. (source: TheMoscow Times) GREECE: Greek elections: Conservatives win power from Syriza Conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to become the next Greek Prime Minister after voters gave his New Democracy party a parliamentary majority on Sunday. It was the sixth time in just a decade — and the first time since the country successfully exited its bailout programme in August 2018
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July 7 IRAQ: The Iraqi judges fighting to reform the system from withinAfter heavy criticism of trials of suspected Islamic State members, judges tell MEE about the difficulties they face and how they are trying to improve the situation Last month's decision by a Baghdad court to sentence to death 2 more French nationals for belonging to the Islamic State group (IS), leaving all 11 Frenchmen transferred from Syria facing the gallows, has again brought international attention to Iraq's judicial system. Iraq has also tried thousands of its own nationals arrested on home soil for joining IS, including women, and begun trial proceedings for nearly 900 Iraqis repatriated from Syria. The country remains in the top 5 "executioner" nations in the world, according to an Amnesty International report in April. The number of death sentences issued by Iraqi courts more than quadrupled between 2017 and 2018, to at least 271. But only 52 were actually carried out in 2018, according to Amnesty, compared with 125 the year before. Judges in Mosul and Baghdad have repeatedly come under attack over their rulings, from so-called 10-minute trials to long prison sentences for the wives of IS members. While it is undeniable that many flaws persist in a mostly corrupt and excessively bureaucratic system, improvements and attempts to reform the process also need to be acknowledged. Several judges have spoken out against the country's counter-terrorism laws, especially the use of the death penalty, and some have travelled to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to gain valuable knowledge. The Babylonian code of law On a small shelf beside his desk, Salem Nuri, chief judge of the Appeal Court in Mosul and one of the judges trying to make a change, keeps a small sculpture of the Code of Hammurabi, the Babylonian code of law of Ancient Mesopotamia. "This is the history of Iraq," he told Middle East Eye, taking it from the shelf and placing it on the stack of papers on his desk. "The first codes of law in the world were born in this land. We believe in justice and the rule of law, and this is why judges in Mosul were the first target of the Islamic State in 2014 and before. "We are now trying to work to restore our society." Nuri left the city in 2014, together with his family, and moved to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government. The Iraqi army retook Mosul in 2017, after a nearly 9-month-long offensive against IS. Nuri's house was bombed and destroyed, along with it "all its memories," during the battle for Mosul. Today, he can work again in his city, but every afternoon after finishing work he travels Erbil This is something Chief Investigative Judge Raed al-Maslah, another reforming judge, cannot do. Maslah's family is in Baghdad, and every night he sleeps in a small room next to the office of the Special Court for Terrorism Cases in Tal Kayf, Nineveh's counter-terrorism court, 12km north of Mosul. "I have to read all the files of the cases," he said, pointing to piles of papers. "I have to see the newly arrested, to check the procedures. I go to visit some prisoners. But also for some security reasons, I don't move too much. Only every 40 days I travel to visit my family for a weekend." '10-minute trials' Following the battle for Mosul and the "defeat" of IS, Iraq's criminal justice system had to carry a heavy burden, having to investigate and prosecute the large numbers of IS detainees. It quickly became the target of criticism from international human rights organisations for flaws in the trial of suspected IS members. Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented and denounced harsh sentences given to several hundred people, including death sentences handed out under the number 13 counter-terrorism law of 2005. So-called 10-minute trials by the Central Criminal Court in Rusafa, Baghdad - where critics said defendants were briskly dealt with without due procedure - especially drew the ire of the international media last year. What went largely unnoticed were the investigations behind these hearings. Recently, a HRW report recorded improvements in the procedures, detailing the work done in Tal Kayf, mostly under the guidance of Maslah. "Our investigation work is based on documentary evidence and not only on confessions: we have witnesses' accounts of victims and survivors, but also videos, social media and forensic materials, and all the kinds of evidence supporting the investigation," Maslah told MEE. "The media sometimes ruins our investigative work. On the contrary, we need international support because terrorism is a danger for all the countries in the world." David Marshall, a former team leader of the accountability and administration of justice section of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), told MEE last November that merely criticising the Iraqi justice system was "a
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July 6 IRANexecution Man Hanged at Birjand Prison A man hanged at the Iranian northeastern city of Birjand’s prison. According to IRIB News, a man was executed for murder charges at Birjand prison. Neither exact date of the execution, nor the identity of the prisoner, were revealed by the authorities. According to the Iran Human Rights statistic department, at least 273 people were executed in Iran in 2018. At least 188 of them executed for murder charges. (source: Iran Human Rights) BANGLADESH: Madrassa principal held for raping kids, says he's 'possessed by Satan'The mother of one of the victims came to know after the child watched a TV show that depicted sexual assault and told her the principal "did the same to her." Bangladeshi police have arrested the principal of Baitul Huda Cadet Madrasa for raping at least a dozen girls since 2018 at Fatulla region outside Dhaka. The accused claimed he was 'possessed by Satan', and said he was innocent. Al Amin was arrested on Thursday by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) for sexually assaulting children studying in his institution. His criminal acts came to light after the mother of a 10-year-old girl victim filed a case of rape against him. Chief of RAB Lieutenant Colonel Kazi Samser Uddin said the mother came to know about his acts after the child watched a TV show that depicted sexual assault and told her that the principal "did the same to her," reported AFP. Uddin also said the investigation revealed that the principal raped 10 to 12 girls since 2018 and tried to violate many others. They also found videos of forced sexual intercourse in his cellphone and his personal computer. Officials said that when his wife wouldn't be at their house or after the Madrassa would be 'closed,' the teacher used to threaten girls of beating, giving poor marks in exams and failing them in exams to force the girls into his house, reported The Daily Star. Amin who is also an imam of a local mosque, later confessed that he forcibly raped several of his students. He is reportedly charged under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act and the Digital Security Act. The incident sparked protests across the town as demonstrators demanded justice and punishment for the heinous acts by the religious figure. In April, a 19-year-old-girl, Nusrat Jahan Rafi, was burnt to death by attackers under the orders of a Madrassa principal after she refused to withdraw a sexual assault case against him. The incident received widespread media attention. Police probe found 16 men guilty and are facing the death penalty. Their case is presently on trial. Data reveal, in Bangladesh, rape against minors increased 41 % in 2019 as compared to 2018, according to a recent report by Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum. (source: ibtimes.co.in) SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka court suspends executions until October 30Supreme Court issues injunction temporarily barring capital punishment. Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has issued a temporary injunction against the execution of 4 people, suspending President Maithripala Sirisena's move to end a 43-year-old moratorium on capital punishment by hanging the drug convicts. The court on Friday banned any executions until October 30, by when it is expected to have ruled on a petition seeking a declaration that hanging breaches the country's constitution. "The court will take up hearing the case on October 29 and in the meantime, the prisons department was asked not to implement any order by the president to carry out the death penalty," a court official said. MA Sumanthiran, a Sri Lankan legislator and a lawyer representing a condemned prisoner, said death by hanging was a "cruel and degrading punishment". "It is the fundamental right of any individual not to be subjected to cruel and degrading treatment," said Sumanthiran. "It is on that basis we want courts to hold that execution of capital punishment is a violation of the Constitution." The challenge added to several other cases filed in lower courts. Drugs a 'menace' The court's decision came after Sirisena announced last week he had signed death warrants for 4 people, whose names were not disclosed, amid alarm over drug-related crime in the country. He said the dates of the executions have been decided, but they have not yet been announced, and added that the hangings should be a deterrent to the illegal drugs trade. He claimed there were 200,000 drug addicts in the country, and 60 percent of the 24,000-strong prison population were drug offenders. Last week, prison authorities recruited 2 new hangmen to carry out the execution orders after the 2 previous hangmen quit, in 2014 and last year, without executing anyone. Human rights groups, the UK, Canada, the European Union and United Nations have all raised concerns about the restoration of capital punishment on the Indian Ocean island,
