June 16
CANADA:
T.O. police chief against death penalty
Toronto's police chief says the death penalty has no place in Canada's
justice system.
Bill Blair says that holds up even when dealing with brutal killers such
as Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.
Blair made the comment yesterday at the unveiling of a plaque
commemorating Toronto's 1st jail and "hanging yard."
He says there are more enlightened ways in which a society can protect
itself.
Homolka's impending release has put Canada's treatment of violent
offenders back on the national agenda and rekindled the debate over
capital punishment.
Death by hanging was the penalty for murder in Canada between 1892 and
1961.
In 1966, the government limited capital punishment to the killing of
on-duty police officers and prison guards.
9 years later, it was abolished by the House of Commons.
(source: National Post)
BANGLADESH:
Death sentence for child trafficker
A Bangladesh court has sentenced an Indian woman to death for attempting
to traffic a 4-year-old boy out of the country, a court official.
Anjali Devi, alias Manju Devi, 24, collapsed as the judge of a special
trafficking tribunal in western Pabna read out the court verdict on
Wednesday, the official said.
Sentencing Devi to be hanged, Judge Amirun Nesa told Devi the prosecution
proved she was part of an inter-state child-trafficking gang.
Devi, a Hindi-speaking Indian national, was handed over to police by a mob
in March 2002 after she was stopped as she boarded a bus with the child,
the official said.
Pabna is close to the border with India's West Bengal state.
An official of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka said, "We are not sure
of her identity. We're looking into it."
The verdict came as the country stepped up efforts to fight traffickers.
In the year to February 2005, the Bangladesh government prosecuted 70
cases of women and child smuggling, securing 41 convictions.
Around 20,000 women and children are trafficked from or via Bangladesh
each year, according to estimates by the US State Department.
The State Department and human rights groups say young boys are often
smuggled into the Gulf states to work as camel jockeys.
The US State Department's 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report said
Bangladesh had made "commendable progress" in combating trafficking
although further efforts were needed to root out corrupt officials who
helped traffickers.
The majority of victims are women and girls from rural areas who end up
working in the sex trade or as domestic helpers, sometimes in slave-like
conditions.
(source: Courier-Mail)
UGANDA:
Mandatory death penalty ruled unjust
The country's consti-tutional court struck down the imposition of
mandatory death sentences last week but rejected an appeal by death-row
inmates to outlaw capital punishment.
In a 3-2 decision on Friday, a 5-judge panel of the country's
second-highest court said laws that mandate the death penalty as
punishment for certain crimes are unconstitutional and must be rewritten.
The slim majority said various provisions on mandatory death sentencing
were inconsistent with the constitution and interfered with the discretion
of judges in dispensing justice.
"Courts are compelled to pass the death sentence because the law orders
them to do so [but] not all the offenses can be the same," Justice Galdino
Okello said in the majority opinion ordering parliament to amend
legislation.
"It is the duty of the judiciary to impose any sentence after due
process," Justice Amos Twinomujuni said in a concurring opinion.
All 5 justices, however, rejected the inmates' argument that the death
penalty was unconstitutional "because it is given by the laws as
punishment after due process," Justice Okello said in the majority
opinion.
Human rights lawyers representing the appellants said they were
disappointed that the death penalty had not been outlawed but expressed
satisfaction at the rejection of its mandatory application.
"Death row prisoners can now seek redress in court to reconsider their
cases, which was not possible before," Livingstone Ssewanyana of the
Uganda Human Rights Initiative told Agence France-Presse outside the
courthouse.
He added that he and his colleagues would study the ruling for an appeal.
A senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity also
welcomed the ruling and said he did not think the government should seek
the reinstitution of mandatory death sentences.
"The ruling was very good. It moves Uganda toward international standards
where death sentences are no longer administered," the official said.
More than 400 death row inmates appealed to the constitutional court in
January, arguing that capital punishment amounts to cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment that is prohibited by the constitution.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
