Dec. 14
SRI LANKA:
Sri Lanka Prepares for Return of Execution
The country's 25-year-old executioner has no experience. The hanging ropes
have rotted. The bolts on the gallows have rusted.
This island nation hasn't had an execution in 28 years. But after the
murder of a prominent judge a few weeks ago, the president lifted a
moratorium on capital punishment. Now, prison officials are waiting for
their first hanging order.
It's not just the condemned who are worried.
"I am a sitting duck," the executioner, Suramimala Wijetunge, told The
Island newspaper in an interview, terrified that media attention had made
him a target for reprisal from criminal gangs. After years of collecting a
salary for doing little more than occasionally helping with prison
deliveries, he fears for his life and has asked for police protection.
The 1st execution could come any day.
"The pressure on me is tremendous to see that all goes well," said Rumy
Marzook, the prison chief, sitting in his office in the country's main
Welikada Prison.
An outspoken critic of corruption in the prison system, he doesn't eat or
drink anything in the 36 prisons he oversees, fearing poisonings. He also
has an armed bodyguard, changes his travel routes and avoids visiting
prison wards that hold condemned men, fearing he could be taken hostage.
Capital punishment remains on the books in Sri Lanka, and courts have
continued to issue the death penalty, though no one has been executed here
since 1976.
As many countries around the world began to abolish the death penalty -
more than 80 have banned it so far - Sri Lanka followed the trend by
simply halting executions.
"Sri Lanka did maintain standards with the world," said Radhika
Coomaraswamy, chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission.
Regionally, South Asia is divided on the issue, with India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh carrying out executions and Nepal and Bhutan abolishing the
death penalty.
Religion, said Rohan Ediresinghe, of the good governance organization the
Centre for Policy Alternatives, played a large role in Sri Lanka's
decision. The nation, he notes, is largely Buddhist, a religion with a
strong strain of non-violence.
"But a time comes when political leaders feel they should revive it to
counter a greater threat," said Ediresinghe, who called the policy change
as a "knee-jerk" reaction to the judge's killing.
The threat today is crime, spawned by a civil war that is now largely
calmed by a 2002 cease-fire. The war has torn at the country since 1983,
killed some 65,000 people and resulted in thousands of military
desertions.
"Right now we have 30,000 deserters," said Rienzie Perera, the police
spokesman. "This is one of the main reasons for the crime chart to rise,"
he said. Contract killings can be easily arranged, and weapons - from the
smallest pistol to the largest machine gun - are readily available.
The final straw came Nov. 21, when High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya,
known for tough verdicts against gangsters and drug dealers, was gunned
down with his bodyguard. The next day, President Chandrika Kumaratunga
lifted the death penalty moratorium.
Today, 49 condemned prisoners with rejected clemency appeals await
execution on this island of 19 million people, and 152 others sentenced to
death have pending appeals.
Amnesty International said it is "gravely concerned" over the decision to
bring back the death penalty.
"Given the significant failings within the Sri Lankan justice system,
including frequent reports of torture in custody to extract confessions,
the chances of innocent people being executed are high," the rights group
said in a report.
But there appears to be little sympathy for the condemned in Sri Lanka,
where the history of capital punishment stretches back to the late 19th
century and British colonial rule.
"To hell with human rights: hang killer," said the headline of one letter
to the editor in The Island newspaper.
Others are more eloquent.
The government "has finally realized that the death penalty should be
given," said defense attorney Hemantha Warnakulasuriya. He was unconcerned
about the prison system's ill-preparedness. "Those matters can be
tackled," he said.
In the prisons, though, the preparations are stumbling along, with
officials now unable to find any hanging rope.
India and China have been approached to sell some of the specially made
cord, but officials have heard nothing back.
And at the 2 prisons with gallows, there is no one experienced to do the
job.
Wijetunge has the title of executioner in Welikada Prison, but he got the
job in 2000 when his father - who never performed an execution either -
retired.
But despite it all, Marzook insists he will be ready.
"When I get the order to go ahead, I will ensure that all systems are go."
(source: Associated Press)
ENGLAND:
We, On Death Row, Opens
The Boiler House at Brick Lane presents Oliviero Toscani in We, On Death
Row, through December 18th. Arguably the most controversial issue of
contemporary society and morality - capital punishment - will be addressed
by one of worlds most controversial photographers, Oliviero Toscani.
We, On Death Row will be used specifically to launch a campaign on 13th
December - initiated by the anti-capital punishment pressure group Hands
Off Cain, and supported by the European Commission - to eliminate the
death penalty world-wide. The event will see the culmination of a European
tour to present The 2005 Campaign for a UN Moratorium on Executions, and
intends to gather British support for the presentation of the resolution
pro-moratorium at the UN General Assembly next year.
We, On Death Row will feature a series of 26 huge 1.5m x 2m panels
depicting evocative images of inmates on death rows in the US, taken by
Toscani between 1998 and 1999. Dispersed amongst these portraits equally
vast panels will display chosen statements and interviews with some of the
accused, to drive home the powerful message behind the show.
Extraordinarily, the work in this exhibition itself stems from one of
Toscanis most controversial advertising campaigns for the Italian fashion
house Benetton in 2000. The campaign met with international uproar and
cost the label their $100 million contract with long-term client Sears,
Roebuck & Co. It also brought an end to the 18 year partnership between
Toscani and the international brand.
(source: Art Daily)
SENEGAL:
Church Glad as Senegal Moves to Ban Death Penalty
The Church in Senegal expressed satisfaction over the Dakar Parliament's
approval of a law abolishing the death penalty.
"I am happy to see that Senegalese society has at last understood that the
death penalty does not necessarily resolve social deviations nor is it
above all a good method to fight against insecurity," said Father Alfred
Wally Sarr, the secretary-general of the Senegalese bishops' conference.
"The Church cannot but rejoice over this. This decision reminds us of our
faith, according to which life is a gift of God," he told the Missionary
Service News Agency.
Father Sarr said he shared the affirmations of a Muslim deputy who said
during a radio broadcast that "the abolition of the death penalty is
consistent with Islam, a religion of forgiveness and mercy." About 94% of
the Senegal's 10.8 million people profess Islam.
The bill still awaits the signature of President Abdoulaye Wade, who
previously promised to abolish the death penalty.
Senegal has carried out 2 death sentences in its 44 years of independence.
Elsewhere in western Africa, the death penalty has been formally abolished
in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Ivory Coast.
(source: Zenit News)
JAPAN:
Top court upholds death penalty for killer of 2 Filipino women
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a death sentence for a 51-year-old
former construction worker for murdering 2 Filipino women in a robbery
case 6 years ago.
The Tsu District Court had sentenced Nobuyuki Sawamoto to death in March
2000. Sawamoto who was debt-ridden, was convicted of strangling the women,
both 24-year-old bar hostesses, in their apartment in Mie Prefecture on
Dec 25, 1998, and stealing about 13,000 yen in cash and some jewelry from
them in conspiracy with 2 men.
(source: Kyodo News)
NIGERIA:
Shariah Court Nullifies Death Penalty for Nigerian Woman
A Shariah court in the central eastern Nigerian state of Bauchi has
overturned a death sentence imposed on a 29-year-old woman who gave birth
after a divorce and was convicted of adultery.
A Shariah court in the central eastern Nigerian state of Bauchi has
overturned a death sentence imposed on a 29-year-old woman who gave birth
after a divorce and was convicted of adultery, her lawyer said Friday.
According to local new agencies, Daso Adamu was acquitted by the Upper
Sharia court in Ningi on Thursday, Dec. 10, after the judge, Yusuf
Suleiman, ruled that her being pregnant was not enough evidence to warrant
a sentence that she be stoned to death.
"The court faulted the lower court's judgment, saying that since Daso
became pregnant within two years of her divorce it was wrong to assume the
pregnancy was illegal because there is the possibility that the pregnancy
was from her former husband", defense counsel Abdulkadir Suleiman said, as
reported by the Lagos-based Vanguard newspaper.
"The court further argued that her trial in court was improper because she
didn't present herself to court but was dragged and tried against her
wish," Suleiman added.
Adamu, who was sentenced to death by stoning last July by a lower Sharia
court after she gave birth to her daughter, had challenged the sentence
with the help of a women's rights group, Baobab, which paid for the legal
services of the defense counsel.
While pregnancy is considered sufficient evidence to convict women of
adultery under Shariah law, men can only be convicted on the basis of
witness statements. Sources say in all but 1 case, men have been cleared,
as Shariah courts found there was insufficient evidence to prove they had
sex with the women. Tests to determine children's paternity have not been
conducted by the courts.
"It is worrying that women are held to a different standard of evidence to
men and that Shariah courts continue to hand down sentences that violate
Nigeria's constitutional and international obligations," said Mervyn
Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
In a statement made by the UK-based human rights charity organization in
October, Thomas said that it would "continue to do all it can to support
religious freedom in Nigeria and continues to call on the Nigerian
authorities to ensure that the countrys secular constitution is adhered to
even in those states where Shariah law is the de facto state law."
Adamu's acquittal comes one month after 18-year-old Hajara Ibrahim also
escaped a death sentence when the Dass Upper Sharia court, also in Bauchi,
acquitted her of having had sex outside marriage.
According to CSW, Adamu and Ibrahim were the 3rd and 4th persons to be
sentenced to death in Bauchi under the Shariah penal code. No one has so
far been stoned to death under Shariah in Nigeria. 2 other women have
previously been sentenced to death for adultery, but both sentences were
overturned on appeal. However, CSW reported that 20 others were awaiting
amputations.
(source: The Christian Post)
INDONESIA:
Indonesia defends death penalty
Indonesia's attorney general on Tuesday defended the country's death
penalty, saying it deterred crime and that abolishing it would send the
"wrong message."
Jakarta recently executed by firing squad an Indian and 2 Thai nationals
for smuggling drugs into the country. The killings, the 1st since 2001,
triggered criticism by the European Union and human rights groups.
"We believe the death penalty has a deterrent effect," Abdurahman Saleh
told The Associated Press on the sidelines of an EU-sponsored seminar on
state killings. "If we abolish it, I'm afraid we will send a wrong message
to the drug traffickers."
Indonesia has seen a surge in illegal drug use since the late 1980s.
Corrupt police and a weak legal system have also attracted international
manufacturers of Ecstasy and methamphetamine hydrochloride, known locally
as shabu.
The death penalty for drug dealers isn't unpopular in Indonesia, where
addiction to illegal drugs has ruined thousands of lives in poor
communities.
There are currently about 65 people awaiting execution in Indonesian
jails, most of them for drug offenses. Many are from Africa and other
Asian countries sentenced for smuggling heroin into the country.
(source: Associated Press)
MALAYSIA:
Malaysian court sentences two Indonesians to death for drug trafficking
A Malaysian court on Tuesday sentenced two Indonesian men to death by
hanging for trafficking marijuana, the national news agency reported.
Nasaruddin Daud, 23, and Azhar Nordin, 26, both illegal immigrants from
the war-torn Indonesian province of Aceh, were convicted of trying to
distribute 2.3 kilograms (5.1 pounds) of marijuana on June 15, 2001, in
downtown Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia has tough anti-drug laws. More than 200 people have been hanged
in this Southeast Asian country since the mandatory death penalty was
introduced in 1975 for drug trafficking.
Judge Heliliah Mohd Yusof imposed Tuesday's sentence, saying the
prosecution had proven the men's guilt beyond reasonable doubt, the
Bernama news agency reported.
No other details were immediately available. It was not clear if the men
would appeal the decision, as their lawyers were absent in court without
explanation.
(source: Associated Press)
