March 22
MALAYSIA: To kill or not to kill That is the question reopened by the Bar Council over this country's continuing inclusion on the steadily diminishing list of nations with the death penalty. That list now stands at 76, of which 25 or so have not executed anyone for at least 10 years and may be moving towards joining the 122 countries without the death penalty. Some 40 of these have done away with capital punishment in the past 15 years alone, a global trend that has left just four countries accounting for 97 % of all judicial executions - China, Iran, Vietnam and the United States. In the process, the death penalty has become tainted as an indicator of a certain social primitivism; an institutionalised savagery that does not speak well of a mature or advancing society. In Malaysia, proponents of the noose continue to draw from deep, dark wells: the death penalty is upheld as pure eye-for-eye justice for murderers; due retribution for rapists, kidnappers and traitors; a deterrent to prospective bad hats; or simply as an awful punitive weapon to keep at hand, to help maintain discipline and order in class, as it were. A strong case could be made for the death penalty for illegal firearms possession having helped spare this country the civil-war zone perils faced by so many others, but death for drug trafficking has done little to stanch the dadah scourge. Different mindsets are involved; the nihilism inherent in drug abuse gives the prospect of death a different flavour. Opponents of the death penalty tend to be few and far between in this country. Their arguments for compassion and respect for human rights and the sanctity of life butt the hard heads of a polity preferring simple and straightforward solutions over delicate philosophical conundrums. If there is a middle path on the way forward, it could be in reviewing the crimes meriting mandatory death sentences or, preferably, restoring judicial discretion, especially as regards the dadah-related offences that account for most executions here. Declaring a mandatory death sentence for dadah was a statement of national disgust, but it has had the effect of tying the system's hands while doing little to solve the problem. It may therefore be too high a price to pay. Such is the cost-benefit analysis that should inform this debate - especially if the death penalty is to be regarded as a measure of a society's respect for life. (source: Editorial, New Straits Times) BANGLADESH: Blasts since Aug 17----22 awarded death penalty so far 22 people have been awarded death sentence, seven others life imprisonment, and another person 15 years in jail in the verdicts of 5 cases filed for militant bomb attacks since August 17 last year. Sources in the police headquarters said 229 cases have been filed so far for bomb attacks since the countrywide bombing. Of those, 154 were filed for 459 bomb blasts in 63 districts on August 17 and the rest were filed for bomb attacks that took place later. Law enforcers have so far arrested 631 people and submitted charge sheets of 125 cases. The investigators pressed charges against Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Abdur Rahman in 52 of the 125 cases, Rahman's closest aide and JMB 2nd-in-command Bangla Bhai in 48 cases and Rahman's brother and JMB's military wing chief Ataur Rahman Sunny in 28 cases. Death penalties have been handed down to 21 for bomb attacks in Jhenidah, the highest punishment given in any such case so far. A Sylhet court sentenced to death suicide bomber Akhteruzzaman for the Sylhet blasts. Meantime, 8 including Rahman, Bangla Bhai, Sunny, Rahman's son-in-law and Majlish-e-Shura member Abdul Awal Sarker and suicide bomber Mamun were awarded life term imprisonment in a case filed under Explosive Substances Act after the suicide bomb attack in Jhalakathi that killed judges Jagannath Pandey and Sohel Ahmed. Charge sheet in the other case filed for murder of the 2 judges was submitted Tuesday. A court in Pirojpur awarded life term imprisonment to absconding militant Faruk Hossain and five year more in failure to pay Tk 50,000 fine. A Kishoreganj court awarded 15-year imprisonment to one for bombing at Nikli. (source: The Daily Star)
