Dec. 7
PAKISTAN---re: death penalty for juveniles
Pak province revives capital punishment for children
Children as young as seven can be hanged in Pakistan's most populous
province after a court overruled a federal law, which had abolished the
death penalty for under-18s, a rights lawyer said on Tuesday.
Capital punishment for minors was banned 4 years ago under legislation
brought in by the military government of President Pervez Musharraf, which
also created separate courts for juveniles.
But Punjab province's Lahore High Court annulled the law in a judgement
issued late on Monday, saying it encouraged young people to commit serious
crimes such as murder and gang rape.
"Any child of 7-12 years of age, if commits a serious crime like murder,
now can be given death penalty by a court under the Pakistan Penal Code in
Punjab province," Islamabad-based lawyer and child rights activist Anees
Jillani said.
Under the penal code brought back into force in Punjab, children over
seven can be executed for murder, gang rape and drug trafficking, although
judges can make exceptions up to the age of 12.
However the Lahore court's decision could be challenged in the Supreme
Court, Jillani added.
The judgement blamed the 2000 law for a rise in crime involving young
people, saying it provided them immunity from capital punishment and
release on probation after conviction.
The law had "the tendency of not only encouraging persons below 18 to
commit heinous crimes like murder, gang rape, terrorism and trafficking in
narcotics etc but prompting the older people to incite their young ones to
commit crimes," the judgment added.
Special courts established for juvenile offenders in Punjab province would
also be abolished.
Jillani said the Lahore court had reopened a "settled" question as
Pakistan had already ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child, which defines a child as a person less than 18 years of age.
The judgement may lead Pakistan's other three provinces to follow suit, he
said.
(source: Agence France Presse)
******************************
Death sentence immunity to minors erased
A full bench of the Lahore High Court revoked the Juvenile Justice System
Ordinance, 2000, after finding it "unconstitutional." The immunity from
death sentence for the accused of the criminal cases below the age of 18
years was also disappeared through the annulment of the ordinance.
The bench comprised Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif, Justice Mian Muhammad
Najum-uz-Zaman and Justice Asif Saeed Khosa told in a verdict on the
petitions filed against the ordinance. As a consequence, the Juvenile
Courts established under the ordinance shall stand abolished.
The court found the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000 "unreasonable,
unconstitutional and impracticable." Besides, all the cases pending before
the dissolved courts shall be transferred to the ordinary courts of
competent jurisdiction, the verdict added. The bench made it clear that
the accused below the age of 18 years involved in criminal cases had
enjoyed immunity from death sentence but now through the annulment of the
said ordinance that immunity had disappeared.
After hearing the arguments, the bench decided that the ordinances
language and contents were defective. The bench ruled the ordinance did
nothing except to create confusion as other laws already provided for
giving sympathetic and concessionary treatment of a minor accused.
The parliament can renew the legislation in the light of the points raised
in the court verdict, the court said.
Manzoor Ahmed Malik, Abid Hassan Manto and Asima Jahangir advocates
assisted the court in the case. The petitioner was represented by Syed
Farooq Hassan Naqvi, Deputy Attorney General Mohammed Nawaz Bhatti was
appeared on behalf of the central government, while Assistant Advocate
General Yasmeen Sehgal represented the Punjab government.
(source: GEO World)
BULGARIA/LIBYA:
Bulgaria Won't Pay Libya Over HIV Case
A senior Bulgarian official ruled out paying any compensation to get Libya
to reconsider the death sentences of 5 Bulgarian nurses accused of
infecting children with HIV.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gergana Grancharova said her government believes
the nurses are innocent and that such a payment could be seen as buying
their freedom and an admission of guilt.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalqam said on Sunday that his
country might reconsider the death sentences for the 5 Bulgarians if
compensation was paid to the families of the HIV-infected children.
"The Libyan side's readiness to reconsider the death sentences makes us
happy," Grancharova told Bulgarian national radio on Monday. But "the
issue about compensation as a way of buying off the freedom of the
Bulgarian medics is not Bulgaria's agenda, considering the fact that
compensations mean recognition of guilt in principle."
The 5 Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were convicted in May of
infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV, and 23 have reportedly
died. The 6 were sentenced to death.
Western leaders have urged the Libyan government to reverse the verdicts,
and human rights groups have charged that Libya concocted the story to
cover up unsafe practices in its hospitals.
During the trial, Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French co-discoverer of the AIDS
virus, testified that he believed the children were infected in 1997 --
more than a year before the Bulgarians were hired. He said the probable
cause was poor hygiene at the Benghazi hospital.
(source: Associated Press)
IRAN----re: executing jevenile offenders
Young Iranian criminals fear execution day
Instead of celebrating his 18th birthday at home with friends and family
this month, Ali Torabi will be wondering if it will be his last.
Torabi is one of at least 12 juvenile offenders sentenced to death by
Iran's hardline courts and held in detention centres until they are deemed
old enough to be executed without attracting international criticism,
human rights activists say.
Although it is a signatory of U.N. conventions which forbid the execution
of young offenders, Iran continues to sentence them to death and carry out
the verdict when they reach 18.
"Ali is my only son, my life. I want to see him grow old. He is too young
to die," sobbed his father, Mohammad Torabi.
A human rights lawyer said Iran has executed some under-age offenders in
the past. A 1998 U.N. report said 4 juveniles aged between 16 and 17, were
executed in Iran from 1990 to 1992.
"I can not reveal the number but there were boys aged under 18 who were
executed inside prison," said the lawyer, who asked not to be named. "But
the last one took place almost 5 years ago. It has stopped due to
heightened international pressure."
Nevertheless death sentences have continued to be imposed on young
offenders, convicted of murder, rape or drug smuggling, in direct
contravention of the international Treaty on Civil and Political Rights,
the lawyer said.
The judiciary recently announced plans to outlaw the death penalty for
offenders of less than 18 years. Lawyers say the planned reform does not
go far enough as it still gives the judge discretionary powers to over
rule it if he deems a young offender to have been "mature" at the time of
the crime.
"The bill should clearly ban juvenile execution. A judge should not be
authorised to choose," said Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace
Prize for her human rights work in Iran. "The bill needs changes."
Ebadi said changing the law was difficult because of Islamic Sharia law
which is the most important influence on Iran's legal system. Under Sharia
adulthood in men is thought to start at the age of 15 and in girls at 9.
A planned rally to denounce juvenile death sentences was banned by the
Interior Ministry last month, said Ebadi, who is representing another
young offender sentenced to death.
Iran's judiciary has shown some flexibility on such issues before. Under
pressure from the European Union, Tehran has stopped sentencing women
adulterers to death by stoning and this year issued a new directive
banning the use of torture to obtain confessions.
The EU parliament condemned Iran in October for passing death sentences on
child offenders. The parliament hoped that judicial reform would bring an
end to such "inhumane" practice.
In November, Canada voiced its concern over the violation of human rights
in Iran by tabling a resolution, backed by 33 countries, at the United
Nations General Assembly.
"We believe Iran needs to hear from the global community that change is
necessary," the resolution said.
Iran's reformist government has repeatedly voiced concern over the impact
such issues have on the Islamic state.
"Such sentences directly affect our international image. It should be
stopped," said a government official who asked not to be named.
It is not clear whether the planned legal reform of juvenile sentences
will come in time to save Ali Torabi, whose sentence was confirmed by the
Supreme Court in October.
Ali was convicted and sentenced to death after he killed a classmate
during a school fight when he was 15. Police said he carried out the
killing intentionally.
His father said Ali, a keen sportsman and good student, lacked the
maturity to stand up for himself under police questioning.
"He was scared to death and he said things to ease the pressure," Mohammad
Torabi said. "He is just a boy who is even afraid of the dark."
Ali's family has pleaded in vain with the parents of the victim numerous
times over the last 3 years to show clemency and drop their complaint.
"They are angry. I understand their sorrow and pain. There is no love like
a parent's love," Torabi said.
He still hopes for a last-minute reprieve.
"Ali has been punished enough by imagining his execution day for the past
3 years."
(source: Reuters)
SOUTH AFRICA:
Ex-death row inmate continues bid for damages
A former death row prisoner whose sentence was converted to an effective
22 years should be awarded damages from Correctional Services for being
unlawfully incarcerated, the Pretoria High Court heard on Monday.
Casper Kruger claims he suffered from trauma after he was subjected to
1210 days of incarceration in Pretoria's C-Max Prison. He is claiming
R500,000 from the department for emotional trauma.
Kruger was sentenced to death in the early 1990s for killing 3 people at
the Botanical Gardens in Emmarentia, Johannesburg.
Counsel for Kruger, advocate Hennie Joubert, told the court that Kruger
was subjected to cruel and inhuman conditions in C-Max for 40 months.
He was only released after he successfully approached the Supreme Court of
Appeal in this regard.
Joubert said although the department claimed Kruger was an escape risk, no
steps were taken by them to again incarcerate him in C-Max after his
relocation to Leeuwkop Prison.
"This was indicative that there was no basis for his incarceration in
C-Max initially," Joubert said.
The department said Kruger was a security risk after he twice escaped from
custody. Kruger said he was already punished for this by spending a month
in solitary confinement, before being relocated to C-Max. A psychologist
said he would have to undergo five years of counselling before he would be
able to forget his ordeal in C-Max.
Joubert argued that correctional services had an obligation to ensure the
well-being of its prisoners.
The department, however, claimed Kruger was a difficult prisoner who
needed to be in C-Max. Advocate E Moosa argued that inmates in C-Max were
in any event better off than other inmates.
They had access to professional assistance on a daily basis.
He said Kruger was not entitled to damages because he in any event
suffered from a mental condition before he was incarcerated in C-Max.
Kruger is currently serving a 22 year sentence for murder in Leeuwkop
Prison in Midrand.
Judgment was reserved.
(source: South African Press Agency)
