[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 6


GUYANA:

Mercy Council sitting again after 2 years


2 years after it had expired the Advisory Council on the Prerogative of
Mercy was recently reconstituted and members yesterday held their 1st
meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

It has been over a decade now since any inmate on death row has been
hanged. Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon told this
newspaper in June that the administration was committed to carrying out
capital punishment, but had to find ways around the constitutional and
other hurdles that have dogged the application of the law for almost a
decade now. It is not clear whether the reconstitution of the council is
an indication that government might be moving to apply the law.

Stabroek News could not ascertain whether the body reviewed any mercy
applications at the meeting yesterday, but its Chairman, Minister of Home
Affairs Clement Rohee noted that there was a significant number of persons
on death row and this would no doubt impact on the council's workload. The
constitutional body is required to get a written report of the case from
the trial judge, together with any other information derived from the
record of the case or elsewhere as may be required to be taken into
consideration.

After obtaining the advice of the council, a designated minister is to
express his own deliberate opinion to the President as to whether he
should exercise any of his power in relation to the person. The body was
last set up in 2002, under the chairmanship of then minister within the
Ministry of Local Government Clinton Collymore. During its tenure, there
were no recommendations on the implementation of the death penalty.

The new body comprises Rohee, Attorney-General Doodnauth Singh, Lieutenant
Colonel of the Guyana Defence Force Jaswick Williams, Social workers
Ronald Harsawack and Bhagmattie Veerasammy, Cheryl Rodrigues of the
Ministry of Home Affairs and Raghunandan Singh an overseer of Good
Success.

Luncheon had said that the administration had to work aggressively to
address the problems preventing those on death row from receiving their
sentence. He noted back then that the law of Guyana recognizes capital
punishment. He said however that in trying to implement the law,
government had to act in accordance with all of the standard legal
counsels and procedures.

Recently there have been quite a few additions to the list of persons
waiting on death row at the Georgetown Prison. Prison authorities have
complained in the past about overcrowding at the facility. At the
Georgetown Prison, the inmates on death row are housed in a separate
cellblock, which can accommodate a maximum capacity of 30. The current
total is 31. Each inmate is housed in a separate cell and is isolated from
the general prison population under the strictest security regime at the
facility.

Among the inmates up to May this year were: Muntaz Ally, Terrence Sahadeo
and Shireen Khan, who have been in prison for almost 22 years for the 1985
murder of Roshanana Kassim. After their appeal was heard, the Guyana Court
of Appeal affirmed their sentences and dismissed their appeal in 1996.
They approached the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) that
same year and it recommended that Sahadeo's sentence be commuted to life
imprisonment, but the government has not acted. Khan is one of the two
female inmates on death row.

Lallman and Bharatraj Mulai have been on death row since July 1994, when
they were sentenced to hang for the 1992 murder of Doodnauth Seeram. The
Court of Appeal set aside the death sentence and ordered a retrial in
1995, but the Mulais were convicted and sentenced to death a year later.
The Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence on appeal. After several
requests to the government for information on the case in April 1998,
December, 1998, December, 2000, August, 2001 and March, 2003 went
unanswered; the UNHRC concluded in August 2004 that the brothers' trial
had been unfair and recommended "an effective remedy, including
commutation of their death sentences."

In 2002, Joseph Craig was sentenced to death for the murder of Nellis
Hope, a female security guard in February, 1998.

Shawn St Hillaire was sentenced to death in April 2004 after he was found
guilty of murdering his aunt, Norma Sandiford in 2002.

In the same month, Odinga Green was sentenced to death after a jury
unanimously found him guilty of the murder of Sandra Harvey at Wisroc,
Linden in December 1999.

In November 2005, Niranjan Rattan, also known as 'Engine,' was sentenced
to death for the 2003 stabbing murder of Lalbahadur Singh also called
'Petromax.'

In July 2006, Brian Vandeyar was sentenced to hang after a jury found him
guilty of the murder of Haimnauth Ramnarine in 2003. Vandeyar stabbed
Haimnauth several times to his body at Governor Light, Mahaicony River.

In September the same year, Devanand Tilaknauth, called 'Fine Boy', was
found guilty by a jury for the 2004 murder of his wife, Chandrawattie
Ramnarine, at Hampshire Village Coren-tyne, Berbice.

(source: Starbroek News)






INDIA:

Dharmapuri bus burning: 3 accused get death penalty


Madras High Court on Thursday confirmed death sentence awarded to three
accused in the Dharmapuri bus burning case.

3 students of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University were charred to death and
18 injured when irate AIADMK activists set a bus on fire at Dharmapuri on
February 3, 2000, following the conviction of party supremo Jayalalithaa
in the Pleasant Stay hotel case.

Besides giving 7 years imprisonment to 25 people, Salem Additional
Sessions Judge D Krishnaraja had awarded death penalty to three persons
responsible for the gruesome incident.

(source: Times of India)

*******************

5 naxals get death sentence for killing cops


5 CPI (Maoist) guerrillas were on Thursday awarded death sentence for
killing 3 policemen in Bihar's Banka district 2 years ago.

Additional district and sessions judge of a fast track court, Gangotri Ram
Tripathi, awarded capital punishment to Ashok Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Naresh
Yadav, Dhaneshwar Yadav and Suresh Yadav for killing 3 policemen and
injuring as many at a temple at Gaura village in the Chanan police station
area on November 3, 2005

. The convicts, along with 7 other naxalites of the banned outfit, had
shot and hacked to death sub-inspector Bhagwan singh, in-charge of
Anandpur police outpost, and 2 constables Nityanand Kumar and Brajbhushan
Prasad and injured three policemen.

They had also looted four rifles, a revolver and 80 rounds of ammunition
from them.

The police had chargesheeted 12 persons in the case, but seven are still
absconding.

(source: The Hindu)






IRAN----execution

Iranian hanged despite court order quashing sentence


An Iranian youth was hanged for rape in the city of Kermanshah despite his
victims withdrawing their complaint and a judicial decree quashing his
death sentence, a newspaper reported on Thursday. The 20-year-old man,
identified only as Makouan, was executed in the Kermanshah prison on
Wednesday morning, the report in Etemad Melli said, quoting his lawyer.

"On November 11 ... the head of the justice administration of Kermanshah
received an order from the judiciary head, Ayatollah (Mahmoud) Hashemi
Shahroudi, to stop the implementation of the verdict," Saeed Eqbali was
quoted as saying.

"But the case, which was supposed to be reviewed in Tehran, was sent back
from there to Kermanshah and the execution was carried out quickly
(without any revision)," the lawyer said.

Makouan had spent 7 years in jail after he was arrested at 13 for raping
three teenagers, who later withdrew their complaint.

The young man's case was reminiscent of the stoning to death of Jafar
Kiani for adultery in July in a village in the northwestern province of
Qazvin despite a 2002 directive to suspend the practice.

The latest execution brings to at least 280 the number of people hanged in
Iran this year, according to an AFP count compiled from local press
reports. Many are hanged in public.

Iran executed at least 177 people in 2006, according to Amnesty
International. The Islamic republic is the most prolific applier of the
death penalty in the world after China.

Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, serious drug
trafficking and adultery.

(source: Middle Eastern Times)