Feb. 24
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY:
Abbas 'considering death penalty' -- Mahmoud Abbas is under pressure to
crack down on crime
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is considering bringing back the use of
death sentences in a bid to keep law and order in the Gaza Strip.
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, told Reuters news
agency Mr Abbas had asked him for an Islamic legal ruling on the death
penalty.
He said Mr Abbas was responding to pressure from Palestinians to end
"security chaos" in the Gaza Strip.
Human rights groups have expressed their concern at the move.
The death penalty is also likely to be opposed by the European Union, top
donor to the Palestinian Authority, say correspondents.
Sheikh Sabri told Reuters he had been asked for Islamic legal rulings that
would pave the way for 16 death warrants, some issued years ago, to be
carried out.
'Not imminent'
"The issue is that in Gaza there is security chaos. The crime of murder
has spread there," Sheikh Sabri told Reuters.
"The people... demanded the Palestinian Authority president carry out the
death sentence on those who killed innocents to prevent future crimes and
acts of revenge."
He said he could issue a religious opinion on the issue "within weeks".
The Palestinian Authority last carried out a death sentence in 2002.
Officials say no final decision has been made on the re-introduction of
the death penalty and no executions are imminent.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has written a formal letter to Mr
Abbas urging him to abolish the death penalty, Reuters reported.
"There is nothing wrong with sending a very strong message that people
will be punished for carrying out criminal acts," said the group's Rachel
Greenspahn. "The question is how you do that."
(source: BBC News)
PHILIPPINES:
Arroyo goes easy on death penalty
President Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday hinted that the death penalty was
unlikely to be implemented under her watch even for convicted leaders of
kidnap-for-ransom gangs and drug syndicates.
"Only if absolutely required by the times," Ms Arroyo replied when asked
if there was any chance that the death penalty would be implemented under
her term.
The President also appears to have toned down her contempt against
criminals, including kidnappers. "We were able to solve the kidnapping
problem without imposing the death penalty. In fact, Tessie Ang See, I
understand, is against the death penalty," said the President.
Calls for the imposition of the death penalty specifically for kidnappers
were resurrected recently following the capture of alleged kidnapper,
former Rep. Dennis Roldan, and the Abu Sayyaf bandits behind the
Valentine's Day bombings.
The President has imposed a moratorium on the maximum penalty on criminals
since she assumed power in 2001. She later modified her position by making
an exception for kidnappers and drug lords in view of the rising number of
kidnap-for-ransom cases and widespread drug abuse a few years ago.
No kidnapper or drug lord has so far been executed, however.
Two years ago, the President stated her policy on giving pardon by saying:
"If they're not drug lords or kidnappers, and they are more than 70 years
old, just recommend it to me and I assure you [I will] grant them my
presidential pardon," the President said in previous statements.
The President had lamented the failure of the penal system to reform
criminals, noting that some kidnap leaders and drug lords continue to run
their nefarious operations even within the confines of their
maximum-security cells.
"It's as if the penal system is not rehabilitating them. (But) we have to
give them a lesson. And after that, maybe that's the time that we could go
back to the policy of no executions," the President explained in a
statement 2 years ago.
But with the police making inroads in its anti-kidnapping and anti-drug
trafficking campaign in the past few years, the President has apparently
toned down her position on the death penalty. "You know, given our
conditions in jail, that is a fate worse than death if they stay forever,"
the President said.
(source: INQ7 News)
INDIA:
Widow seeks review of SC Judgement in Niyogi murder case
Widow of Shankar Guha Niyogi, the trade union leader of Chattisgarh, has
moved the Supreme Court seeking review of its judgement convicting
assailant Paltan Mallah alone while acquitting owner of Simplex Industries
in the murder of her husband.
The review petition said the Supreme Court while reviewing its January 20
judgement should take into account facts narrated in the chargesheet filed
by CBI against the industrialists as well as the evidence collected
against others who were not even chargesheeted by the agency.
It was alleged by the prosecution that the industrialists had hatched a
conspiracy to eliminate the trade union leader who had started a major
agitation against industrialists in Bhillai demanding regularisation of
services of workers and payment of minimum wages to them.
The trial court on June 23, 1997 had convicted the hired killer Paltan
Mallah and sentenced him to death. The owners of the Simplex Industries
were also convicted by the trial court and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The apex Court, while upholding the acquittal of the industrialists, had
reversed the High Court order pertaining to Mallah and upheld the order of
conviction given by the trial Court.
Observing that the case did not fall under the category of rarest of rare
cases, it commuted the death sentence awarded by the trial court to life
imprisonment.
(source: PTI)
