August 19
SOUTH AFRICA:
State fails to set aside death row sentences
CONSTITUTIONAL Court judges expressed their disappointment yesterday at
governments failure to present a report on what it had done to set aside
sentences of 59 prisoners still on death row.
This followed governments failure to respect a May court order that it
should report by August 15 on what steps it had taken to convert all death
sentences.
The requested report was to set out in full why the remaining death
sentences had not been set aside and the steps that had been be taken to
ensure this happened.
The state yesterday applied for, and was granted, an extension until
September 15 to supply the court with the report.
"This is unacceptable. Had they properly applied their minds, they could
have taken steps to comply with the order timeously," Judge Sandile Ngcobo
told state advocate Vas Soni.
Judge Dikgang Moseneke asked if the extension the state had requested was
enough, given the delay so far in resolving the status of death-row
prisoners.
"We are dealing with people who are sitting on death row 11 years after
Mokonyane (the 1995 Constitutional Court judgment abolishing the death
penalty as a form of punishment)," Moseneke said.
Adv Frank Snyckers, for three death row prisoners who brought the
application, said the problem facing prisoners on death row was that they
were not classified with those serving life and did not get credits to
qualify for parole.
Human Rights Commission commissioner Karthy Govender said he was not sure
the justice department would be able to convert all sentences in a months
time.
(source: Business Day)
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The 49 prisoners who remain in death's shadow
49 South Africans remain on death row - despite the fact that capital
punishment has long been abolished.
The state was granted an extension of time on Thursday in which to compile
a comprehensive report of progress made in converting death sentences to
more appropriate sentences.
This follows a Constitutional Court ruling in May, ordering the state to
convert the 63 remaining death sentences to life sentences and to report
back on the progress made by August 15. In that period, 14 death-row
inmates were given alternative sentences.
However, last Friday the state hastily applied to court for an extension
of time in which to complete the reports.
Advocate Vas Soni argued on Thursday that the state did not realise that
it would not have all the information required to present a thorough
report.
"Of the 49 prisoners on death row, 29 are still awaiting the signature of
the president and 20 others are awaiting the appeal court order to
convert," Soni said. He added that some files of prisoners were also
missing.
The court said the state's affidavit was "deficient" in that it did not
sufficiently state why they needed more time.
Despite this, the court extended the deadline to September 15 for the
department to commute the sentences.
(source: The Mercury)
PAKISTAN:
Pak SC upholds death sentence of alleged
Pakistan's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence awarded by an
Anti-Terrorism Court to one Manjeet Singh, in 5 bomb blast cases in
Pakistan, while taking him to be an agent of India's intelligence agency -
Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
According to the Dawn, a 2-member SC bench dismissed appeals by Manjeet
Singh, even as his counsel maintained his plea that the original name of
his client was Surjeet Singh, and he was, at the most, a smuggler of
Indian liquor into Pakistan.
On the other hand, the prosecution claimed that Manjeet had admitted to
his involvement in bomb blasts in Anarkali and Bhati Gate in Lahore,
Bhawana Bazar in Faisalabad, in Multan and an explosion on a bus going
from Lahore to Ghazi in 1990.
According to the paper,the convict was born in Uttar Paradesh and grew up
in Agra, before leaving the city in 1972 to settle in Amritsar. In 1987 he
joined Indian Military Intelligence, and was assigned tasks in Pakistan.
Soon he became a permanent agent of RAW and in that capacity he visited
Pakistan at least 14 times in different years.
He reportedly received special training of bomb-making by RAW, and got a
fake ID card of Pakistan under fake name of Khushi Muhammad in 1990. He
was arrested by Pakistan Security Forces at Kasur Border on August 30,
1990, when he was leaving Pakistan after having carried out bomb blasts,
said the paper.
(source: ANI)
