Sept. 13
PHILIPPINES:
SC recalls death sentence due to question of quorum
The Supreme Court has recalled its decision affirming the death sentence
on a rape convict after the defendant pointed out that only 7 of the 14
high court justices signed the ruling affirming his conviction.
In a three-page resolution dated Sept. 7, the tribunal set the case of
convict Gerry H. Ebio for re-deliberation after it noted that the
Constitution was silent on whether having only 7 justice present in an en
banc session constitutes a quorum.
"Considering that the life of the accused is at stake, we deem it wise to
resubmit the case to the Court en banc for re-deliberation," the high
court said.
The Sorsogon Regional Trial Court had convicted Ebio for raping his
11-year-old daughter. On Oct. 14, 2002, the Supreme Court affirmed his
conviction and his death sentence.
(source: Philippine Daily Inquirer)
JAPAN:
Top court upholds death sentences for 2 convicts
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed appeals by a former gang member and
an investment adviser as it upheld lower courts' rulings which sentenced
the two to death for the murder of 2 men in Osaka in 1988.
The top court's No. 2 Petty Bench upheld the death sentences for Keizo
Okamoto, 46, a former member of a gang affiliated with the nationwide
crime syndicate Yamaguchi-gumi, and Hiroya Suemori, 52, an investment
adviser.
(source: Kyodo News)
RWANDA:
No Death Penalty for Indictees of UN Court, President Says
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said he would support abolishing the
death penalty for genocide suspects held by the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, if the prisoners were to be
transferred to Rwandan national jurisdiction.
"My position has always been to have these people tried from where they
committed the crime; then survivals of the genocide would see justice
being delivered," he told reporters on Saturday in Kigali, the Rwandan
capital. "If it means doing way with the death penalty, I will support
it."
The tribunal's prosecutor, Hassan Jallow, is under pressure to meet the UN
Security Council's deadline of ending his investigations in 2004 and
completing all trials by 2008. That would require reducing the number of
cases.
But the death penalty has been a sticking point in transferring cases to
Rwanda. The highest sentence a UN tribunal can issue is prison for life.
Relations between Kigali and the tribunal had been strained with the
former prosecutor, Carl Del Ponte, expressing her intention to arrest
Tutsi army officers aligned with Rwanda's current government. So far, the
only officers the tribunal has indicted were members of the former Hutu
government, which has been blamed for the genocide.
The tribunal's relations with the government in Kigali seem to have
improved since Jallow took over from Ponte in 2003. Jallow told the
council in June that he would, early in 2005, be willing to transfer up to
40 suspects of the 1994 genocide. He said some of the prisoners already
convicted by the court should serve their sentences in Rwandan.
Defense lawyers have protested the proposed transfer to Rwanda's court
system, saying their clients would not receive a fair trial.
Since its inception in 1995, the UN tribunal has indicated 81 suspects. 20
have been convicted and 3 acquitted.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed 4 extra judges in September to
ease the tribunal's workload.
(source: All Africa News)
PAKISTAN:
Juvenile prisoners in adult jails
Hundreds of juvenile prisoners are suffering in adults' jails in NWFP,
Sindh and Balochistan due to the failure of the provincial governments to
implement Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) under which the
juvenile prisoners must be kept in separate borstal institutes.
The last research report by the NGO SPARC says that there are only two
juvenile institutions in Pakistan, Juvenile Jail Bahawalpur and Juvenile
Jail Faisalabad. There is no juvenile jail in Sindh, Balochistan or NWFP
although there is one certified school for juvenile prisoners in Karachi.
Narrating the distressing story of juvenile prisoners, the report says
that both males and females who come in conflict with the law fail to
benefit from the JJSO and are treated like adults not only by the police
but also by the judiciary and prison staff.
According to the jail manual, juvenile offenders including females cannot
be kept in prison alongside adult offenders under any circumstances. The
only respite for these children is the presence of separate sections
called 'Munda Khana' or juvenile section in jails in the smaller
provinces. However, these are for male prisoners only.
A parliamentary human rights commission recently pledged to review the
jail manuals and prison laws so that it could recommend necessary
amendments in them.
Section 15 of the JJSO prohibits the detention of female juvenile
offenders in police lock-ups or in women's prisons. JJSO emphasises the
presence of separate enclosures for girls in borstal institutions.
The report says that the police, apart from being unaware of children's
rights, often declare a child an adult in the FIR to avoid informing the
child's guardians and carrying out medical tests. Children are brought to
court in handcuffs though their use is prohibited by the JJSO. They are
also kept under illegal preventive detention.
Under Section 10(1)(a) of the JJSO, the guardians of an arrested juvenile
must be informed as soon as possible and the time, date and name of the
juvenile court before which the child would be produced should also be
conveyed.
SPARC adds that courts generally accept ages recorded arbitrarily by the
police even when documents challenging the police assessment have been
produced. In a case last year, 13-year old Maqbool was entered in the
police record as being 19 years old.
Article 37 of the UN children rights committee forbids the imposition of
capital punishment for offences committed by individuals under 18 years of
age.
The JJSO also prohibits courts from administering the death sentence to
juvenile offenders (under 18 years of age) yet children remain on death
row in the country because their ages are not properly recorded at the
time of trial.
"Although the government introduced JJSO to protect and promote the rights
of all under 18 children in Pakistan who come into conflict with the law,
children living in Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA),
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Kashmir and northern areas are
denied relief and protection because the JJSO does not extend to those
areas."
Quoting Amnesty International, the report says that at each stage of
arrest, trial and imprisonment there is wide-scale failure to implement
the provisions of the JJSO. Children accused of petty crimes are often
held for several months without trial; have no access to bail and are
deprived of legal representation.
The report claims that over 80 % child prisoners in Pakistan are under
trial even when eligible for bail and remain so for long periods.
Sometimes longer than the sentence they would face if found guilty.
In the smaller provinces there are no psychologists or counsellors
available to treat children behind bars. Lack of health, education and
recreational facilities in almost all the prisons in the country, adds to
the misery of the children.
Statistics show that till December 31, 2003, there were 3,061 under-trial
and convicted juvenile prisoners in jails. Out of them 3,034 juvenile
prisoners were male and the remaining 27 were female.
(source: Daily Times)
