Feb. 21
SOUTH KOREA:
Life Sentence Could Replace Death Penalty
The Ministry of Justice Tuesday announced it is considering abolishing the
death penalty and replacing it with a non-commutable life sentence to
better protect human rights of the convicted.
The ministry also said it will overhaul capital punishment to decide
whether to abolish it or not.
The plan is part of the ministry's long-term reform roadmap to improve
human rights conditions within the nation's penal system, and strengthen
an effective criminal justice system.
"We will thoroughly examine the possibility of abolishing the death
penalty as part of efforts to set up a human rights-oriented penal
system," a ministry official said.
The ministry will review whether capital punishment is effective in
preventing crime and how society will be affected if the penalty is
abolished.
The government also plans to study changes in the frequency of violent
crime in countries that have scrapped capital punishment, including France
and Germany, as well as countries which re-adopted the system after having
already abolished it.
Whenever controversy has emerged about the death penalty, the ministry has
taken the position that it is premature for the nation to scrap it,
claiming the number of violent crimes is not decreasing.
The Supreme Court supported capital punishment in 1969 and 1987 rulings,
and in 1995 the Constitutional Court determined the penalty was
constitutional.
Civic and religious groups, however, have urged the government to scrap
the death penalty and the National Human Rights Commission last year
recommended its abolishment.
"We will review the adequacy of introducing permanent life imprisonment
which cannot be remitted by parole, as well as necessary budget and effect
of the system," the official said.
By June, public hearings will be held to discuss the issue. The authority
will assist deliberation of a bill for abolishing the death penalty, which
Rep. Yoo In-tae of the ruling Uri Party initiated in 2004 and which is
pending at the National Assembly.
The ministry will also support fact-finding projects to clarify past
state-committed human rights abuse cases and illegalities.
Besides cooperating with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it will
organize committees to reveal its own past wrongdoings if needed, and
examine the issues of extending statutes of limitations for past cases.
The government also plans considering granting voting rights to prisoners.
Current law deprives prisoners with indefinite terms of voting rights and
electoral eligibility, and prisoners with definite periods of voting
rights until their terms are over.
To secure suspects' rights to defense during investigation and trial
without detention, the authority will also come up with criteria of
detention and arrest.
(source: The Korea Times)
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Justice Ministry to reconsider death penalty
The Justice Ministry announced today it will review the possibility of
replacing capital punishment with life imprisonment without parole or
pardon to meet the rising number of calls on enhancing the protection of
human rights.
The ministry had been resisting the calls from parliament to consider
abolishing capital punishment and instead has been working on narrowing
down the death penalty statutes.
In a mid- and long-term reform road map released to the public, the
ministry said it will also improve the probation system that has been
prompting concerns of human rights violations and offer voting rights for
prisoners.
The comprehensive blueprint for reform passed through the scrutiny of
outside experts before being released.
The ministry is determined to construct a criminal justice system that is
pro-human rights and will thus closely review the possibility of
abolishing the death penalty, the plan said.
Reviews will include case studies of Germany, France and others that have
discarded capital punishment and calculate the possible repercussions an
abolishment will have on society and in preventing deadly crimes.
Korea retains the death penalty for ordinary crimes but no death sentences
have been executed since 1998 although 57 criminal convicts are on death
row.
The ministry said it will begin reviewing the feasibility of adopting an
"unconditional" life imprisonment without parole or pardon and the
required budget, human resources among others.
There are 87 clauses in 17 different laws leading to capital punishment in
Korea. Almost half of them are from the Military Criminal Law, while 15
others belong to Criminal Law, eight to the Additional Punishment Law on
Specific Crimes, and four from the National Security Law.
A public hearing will be held for the occasion within the 1st half of this
year before research is completed by June.
The outcome will determine whether the ministry will support a bill
pending at the National Assembly submitted by Uri lawmaker Yoo Ihn-tae and
signed by a total of 175 lawmakers in 2004 to replace capital punishment
with life imprisonment, the ministry said.
The ministry said it will also "enthusiastically" support and cooperate
with the government's latest move to seek the truth behind human rights
violations and corruption by past governments and repair legal tools to
extend the statute of limitations among others.
The ministry said it will also seek to improve the law on monitoring
released convicts to better prevent repetition of offense.
Other measures up for evaluation include giving voting rights to
imprisoned convicts. Under the current law, prisoners on life or death
sentence are evicted of their voting rights while others are withheld of
the right until release.
(source: The Korea Herald)
PHILIPPINES:
Arroyo favors repeal of death penalty law
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said on Tuesday that she would back
moves in Congress for the repeal of the death penalty law.
"I am all in favor of repealing death penalty," Arroyo told members of the
Foreign Correspondents of the Philippines when asked about her position on
the law.
She added that she was prepared to certify the measure urgent if Congress
had finished deliberations on it.
The President, a devout Catholic, imposed a moratorium on the death
penalty after coming to power in 2001. But after a rash of kidnappings and
murders in 2003, she lifted the moratorium.
No executions however have been carried out and Arroyo has always granted
reprieves to those scheduled for execution.
Arroyo explained that her decision to execute some convicts 3 years ago
was due to the rampant abductions. But she said "divine providence" took
its course that prevented these executions.
"There are times when we do have to do extreme measures in order to drive
home a message, but really divine providence has been very good to me,"
she said.
"By the time the death penalty was to be imposed on a kidnapper,
kidnapping had gone down to zero. In other words, you can solve
kidnappings without going to the death penalty," she said.
Arroyo dispelled speculations that she was not implementing the law on
death penalty to accommodate the Catholic Church, which has opposed
executions.
"It's not a question of accommodating the bishops. Its a question of my
Catholic belief, I was born, baptized, and raised a Catholic," she said.
The Philippines lifted a ban on executions in 1999 during the term of
deposed president Joseph Estrada.
7 inmates were put to death between 1999 and 2000 before Estrada imposed a
moratorium after pressure from the Catholic Church and rights groups.
There are about 1,280 inmates on death row. In a visit to the National
Bilibid Prison last week, Arroyo instructed the Department of Justice to
commute the sentence of 280 more death row convicts to life imprisonment.
(source: INQ7.net)
PAKISTAN:
Death penalty for 11 in Pakistan
A Pakistani court has sentenced 11 militants to death for an assassination
attempt on a Pakistani general in 2004 in which 10 people were killed.
The militants belong to Jund Allah (God's Brigade) a group accused of
having links with al-Qaeda.
Lieutenant General Ahsan Saleem Hayat, who is now a full general and
deputy chief of Pakistan's army, escaped unhurt in the attack.
Lawyers for the 11 defendants say they will appeal against the verdict.
The sentence was read out in a crowded special anti-terrorism courtroom in
Karachi, reports say.
"The prosecution has proved its charges against you and the court is
convinced," Judge Feroz Mehmood Bhatti is quoted as saying by the
Associated Press news agency.
Reports say the defendants raised their arms and chanted "Allahu Akbar"
(God is great) upon hearing the verdict.
The leader of the group, Attaur Rehman, rejected the judgement.
"That court was fake, it had no power," he is quoted as saying by Reuters.
Lucky escape
Gen Hayat escaped unhurt after the gun attack on his motorcade in the
upmarket commercial district of Clifton.
Eyewitnesses say the gunmen fired from 2 different directions as the
military convoy passed by.
6 soldiers were among the 10 people killed.
Members of Jund Allah are said to have trained at an al-Qaeda base near
Wana in the South Waziristan area of Pakistan's rugged north-west
frontier, bordering Afghanistan.
Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, has himself survived 2
assassination attempts.
(source: BBC News)
