June 23
INDIA:
Indian rights groups denounce death penalty as hanging approaches
Rights activists and intellectuals are campaigning to halt capital
punishment in India ahead of this week's scheduled execution of a man
convicted of raping and murdering a teenager.
The death penalty is rare in this country. Friday's scheduled execution of
Dhananjay Chatterjee, 39, will be West Bengal state's 1st in 13 years. Two
people were hanged in the eastern state in 1991. Chatterjee was arrested
and charged with raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl in the state's
capital, Calcutta, in 1990.
He'd been working as a security guard at the building where she lived, and
was found guilty of raping and then smothering her.
He pleaded innocent after his 1994 conviction and challenged the ruling
all the way to the Supreme Court, which rejected his appeal.
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam then turned down Chatterjee's clemency plea,
clearing the way for Friday's hanging in a Calcutta prison.
Leading Bengali intellectuals are protesting the death sentence, and
saying they hope the president will rethink his decision.
"Some of us had appealed to the president against capital punishment and
had appealed for his clemency for the death row convict," said filmmaker
Mrinal Sen.
"The fact remains that the crime was very serious and I've nothing but
contempt for such a crime. However, punishment by death is no answer," he
said.
"The man should be given the severest punishment, other than death," said
director and former actress Aparna Sen.
"I'm against capital punishment because violence cannot be met with
violence," she said Wednesday.
"My view is that capital punishment should be abolished because it's
barbaric," said popular Bengali writer Sunil Ganguly. "The law should find
out some other strong punishment for this kind of crime."
The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, a Calcutta human
rights group, had also appealed to the president to commute Chatterjee's
punishment.
"Death punishment is nothing but violence in return for violence. Capital
punishment has been abolished in many countries around the world," said
the group's leader, lawyer Sujato Bhadra.
No Indian government has spoken of dropping capital punishment, but
proposals were made last year to abandon hanging for a supposedly more
humane execution method, such as lethal injection. No decision has been
made on that issue.
(source: Associated Press)
