[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 26



INDIA:

Oct 20 fixed for execution of Afzal----Pak trained terrorist not to move
mercy plea to President


A city court today fixed October 20 for hanging Parliament attack case
convict Mohammed Afzal, a Pakistan trained terrorist, after the Supreme
Court had upheld his death sentence in a final judgement in August last
year.

The death warrant for his execution at 6 am on October 20 was signed by
Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur today as was required under the
law after the apex court had finally decided the case.

He was found guilty of actively participating in the criminal conspiracy
that led to the well executed attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001 by
heavily armed five Pakistani terrorists.

A special POTA court had given capital punishment to him, Shaukat Hussain
Guru and Delhi College lecturer S.A.R. Geelani, but the Delhi High Court
in its October 23, 2003 judgement had let off the latter and upheld the
death sentence of the former 2.

Mohammed Afzal had not preferred any mercy petition before the President,
a last opportunity available to a capital punishment awardee under the law
for conversion of death sentence in to life imprisonment.

But the Supreme Court did not find the evidence sufficient against Shaukat
Hussain about his involvement in the conspiracy and converted his sentence
to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for hiding the plot from the police of
which he surely had a knowledge when he was running a business as a fruit
trader in Azadpur market here.

According to the prosecution, the 5 Pakistani terrorists had stayed in
Shaukats house in Delhi but the apex court was not satisfied with the
evidence produced. His wife Navjot Sandhu, alias Afsan, sentenced to
five-year imprisonment, was also let off by the high court.

The Supreme Court though had upheld the acquittal of Geelani by the high
court but had passed serious strictures against him for his conduct,
saying it was not above suspicion but a person could not be convicted
merely on the basis of "suspicion."

In one of the fastest disposal of criminal case right from the trial court
up to the Supreme Court, the POTA court had pronounced its judgement on
December 18, 2002 exactly a year after the attack on Parliament in which
all five Pakistani terrorists Mohammed, Haider, Hamza, Rana and Raja  were
gunned down by security forces. In the gun battle 8 jawans had also lost
their lives. The high court and the apex court took nearly 3 years to
dispose of the case.

In the final verdict, the apex court found sufficient evidence against
Afzal and upheld his conviction and death sentence under various
provisions of POTA (now repealed), the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act.

Afzal was found guilty of waging war against India, conspiring to cause
murders of several persons and of indulging in terrorist activities.

The Supreme Court had said there was not even a "shred of doubt about his
complicity in the hatching of the criminal plot to attack Indian
Parliament," which fell in the category of "rarest of the rare" cases
warranting punishment not less then the death sentence.

The apex court had concluded that "the collective conscience of the
society will be satisfied only if death penalty is awarded to Mohammed
Afzal."

(source: The Tribune)






BANGLADESH:

Execution of death penalty of JMB men deferred


The Supreme Court Tuesday deferred carrying out of the death penalty of
JMB kingpin Shaekh Abdur Rahman, his deputy Bangla Bhai and five other
militants.

This was disclosed by the Registrar of the Supreme Court, who said that
the deferment came as one of the convicts, Iftekhar Al Mamun, had appealed
against the verdict.

Registrar Fazlul Karim said that JMB militant Iftekhar Al Mamun had
appealed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the
verdict.

"His appeal reached the office of the Registrar through the Appellate
Division of the Supreme Court Tuesday," he added.

Fazlul Karim also said that the Supreme Court received the appeal of Mamun
and ordered the jail authorities not to carry out the death penalty right
now. Deputy Attorney General Helal Uddin Mollah, however, told
bdnews24.com Tuesday evening that he was not aware of any deferment order.

He also said that there was no scope to stay the execution process in
considering the appeal of a convict.

DIG, Prisons, Dhaka Division, Major Shamsul Haidar Siddiqi Tuesday evening
told bdnews24.com that they had not received any letter regarding the
deferment order till 7 pm Tuesday.

Fazlul Karim said that the verdict on the execution of the militants had
been deferred following an appeal by Mamun as it was impossible to split
the verdict for an individual.

The deferment order came a day after the statement of Law, Justice and
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Maudud Ahmed, that it would be impossible
to carry out the death penalty during the month of Ramadan as the jail
code did not permit it.

Advocate Anisul Haq said that there was no provision for a deferment of
any verdict on the basis of an individual's appeal.

Shaekh Rahman and Bangla Bhai have been kept at a sub-jail in Mirpur while
Shura (policy-making body) members of JMB, Ataur Rahman Sunny and Abdul
Awal, are in condemned cells in the Dhaka Central Jail.

(soruce: The New Nation)






IRAQ:

Saddam, co-defendants ejected from genocide trial


Saddam Hussein was ejected from his genocide trial for the 3rd day running
on Tuesday, and this time his 6 co-defendants were all sent out after him,
as chaos reigned after last week's sacking of the chief judge.

Iraqis were treated to the rare televised spectacle of their former rulers
shouting and gesturing as new chief judge Mohammed al-Ureybi failed to
silence the defendants.

International legal rights groups have said the sacking of the former
chief judge -- removed by the government last week for saying Saddam was
"not a dictator" -- could hurt the trial's credibility.

Ureybi, who had thrown Saddam out of both previous hearings he chaired
since taking over last week, opened Tuesday's hearing with a lecture to
Saddam to behave.

He let him read a 20-minute statement, with microphones off so those in
the glass-enclosed press gallery could not hear.

But after listening to 2 Kurdish witnesses, Saddam again began to argue
and the judge lost his patience.

"You are a defendant and I'm a judge," Ureybi said. "Shut up, no one talk
... The court has decided to eject Saddam Hussein from court."

As Saddam left, smiling, his 6 co-defendants -- top commanders under
Saddam -- stood and tried to follow him out, demanding they leave too. The
judge shouted back: "Get Saddam out and put the others back in their
seats."

Several co-defendants started shouting and pointing fingers at the judge.
Unusually, the sound was left on for television broadcasts, allowing all
Iraqis to watch and listen during several minutes of courtroom
pandemonium.

Ureybi ejected one co-defendant, ordered a recess and switched off the
sound. A source close to the court said he then ejected the others. When
the hearing resumed, it was the first time the trial proceeded with none
of the defendants in court.

The defense lawyers have been boycotting the trial since the new chief
judge took over last week, so the defendants were represented only by
court-appointed back-up lawyers.

PREVIOUS JUDGE FIRED

Saddam and the 6 others could face hanging over the deaths of an estimated
180,000 Kurdish villagers in 1988, including thousands killed by poison
gas.

He and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid -- dubbed "Chemical Ali" by Iraqis
-- face genocide charges. 5 others face charges of mass murder and crimes
against humanity.

International legal rights groups have said the sacking of the judge could
damage the legitimacy of the trial, considered an historic event
especially among Iraqi Kurds.

But prosecutors said he had been too lenient, allowing Saddam to threaten
fearful witnesses. He told accusers earlier this month in court that he
would "crush their heads."

The trial has featured moving testimony from villagers recounting their
suffering during the Anfal -- "Spoils of War" -- campaign, when Saddam's
forces attacked Kurds he accused of helping Iran during the Iran-Iraq war
of the 1980s.

Before Saddam was ejected on Tuesday, the court heard from Aasi Mustafa
Ahmed, a villager in his 50s who said he had been an Iraqi army conscript
and prisoner of war in Iran. When he returned home in 1990 he found his
house destroyed and his wife and four children missing, never to be seen
again.

Asked if he sought compensation, he said: "If you gave me the whole world,
it wouldn't make up for one of my children's fingernails."

At the end of the day's hearings, Ureybi adjourned the trial until October
9, giving the defendants time to communicate with their lawyers or find
new ones.

A verdict is due next month in an earlier trial which began last October,
over the deaths of 148 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail. The first
chief judge in that trial quit, citing political interference, but was not
sacked as in the Anfal case.

(source: Reuters)






MALAYSIA:

Kim And Mat: Between Life And Death


Kim (not his real name) is 28 years old, fair-skinned, well built and
highly confident of himself. It is hard to imagine that this young man is
actually a death-row inmate.

He was handed down the capital punishment in 2005 under Section 39(B) of
the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.

Mat, 40, bespectacled and looking despondent is meanwhile serving a life
term. He was sentenced on Nov 16, 1990 under Section 4 of the Firearms
(Increased Penalties) Act 1971 and incarcerated for 16 years now.

While Kim looks confident that he will escape the gallows, Mat more or
less has resigned to the fact that he will be spending the rest of his
life behind bars.

Kim spoke confidently of him being not guilty and that he was going to
appeal, while Mat spoke in a low voice, pondering how he was going to
spend the rest of his life in prison.

KIM'S STORY

As a death-row convict or in short a BA (Blok Abadi inmate), Kim has a
cell to himself. He is one of the 10-odd death-row inmates in the 24 to 28
years age group.

Kim was tried on the 1st charge of possessing 71 small packets of dried
leaves suspected to be cannabis.

"The trial lasted for about two years eight months. I lost the case on the
1st charge and was sentenced by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court to 10
years' jail and whipped 10 times. The whipping had been carried out and my
jail sentence is expected to end in September 2007," said Kim.

The second charge, possession of two kilos of cannabis, was heard at the
Kuala Lumpur High Court from January 2001 to November 2005 where he was
found guilty and sentenced to death.

When the sentence was read out, Kim said his only thoughts were on his
family.

"Why were you involved in drugs?" asked the writer at the Kajang Prison
recently. Kim whose right hand was handcuffed to a prison officer
throughout the meeting replied: "I'm innocent. I've never used drugs and I
don't have any record of drug abuse.

"I'm still hopeful. I'm waiting to be called to the Court of Appeal," said
Kim who worked in a factory after failing his PMR.

Kim claimed that he was framed and the drugs found by police actually
belonged to 2 of his friends.

CONFIDENT OF ESCAPING GALLOWS

Though the prospects of dying at the gallows is terrifying, Kim remains
unfazed as he is confident that the death penalty will be quashed.

When asked how he felt about his predicament, he said: "I don't now what
to say, but being a BA we have to remain cheerful."

Kim related that while waiting to be hanged, the death-row convicts lived
as a family.

"When we chat we never touch on any sad subjects. We also avoid fighting,
we don't want enemies, we want friends. Though we know the background of
most of the death-row convicts as they were involved in high-profile
cases, we want to be friends with everybody or else we will be more
stressed up," he said.

"I'm still new here. Some have spent years at the Abadi Block. Some even
forgotten by their families.

"At times negative thoughts do cross my mind but I seek strength through
prayers. I cannot blame fate, I'll continue my life until all avenues for
appeal is exhausted. I simply cannot give up hope now," he continued.

On being whipped 10 times, Kim said the punishment was carried out in
2005.

He said the pain was unbearable and indescribable. It took a month for the
wounds to heal, and his father and sister who came to visit him cried when
they saw the wounds.

MAT'S STORY

Mat wears a prison T-shirt with the letters "HSH" on the front which
distinguish him as a life-term inmate but Mat told the writer in jest that
the acronym stood for "Home Sweet Home".

Mat, the 3rd of 6 siblings, was jailed at the age of 24. His parents were
divorced when he was 12. Mat and his older sister stayed with their mother
who set up business in a canteen to support them after the divorce.

"Money was no problem. Sometimes I stole my mother's money as I was too
lazy to work. My mother and sister would leave the house early and return
very late. I had all the time in the world to enjoy.

"I spent the money on friends who knew how to flatter me. Sometimes when
people flatter you, you forget yourself and think you're the best," said
Mat.

Upon hearing this, the writer remarked it sounded similar to P. Ramlee's
movie "Anakku Sazali" and Mat just smiled.

ARMED ROBBERY

Mat did not blame anyone including his friends for his fate.

When asked why he stole motorcycles and committed armed robbery, he
replied plainly, "when you can't think straight, this is what happens".

"Can't say that I regretted my actions, have to admit that I did it
because I just wanted to enjoy. I once worked as a contract labourer at a
petrol kiosk and stall. I worked long hours but the pay was pittance. I
wanted to have a good life too," he said.

According to Mat, he committed robberies at various places with the last
in Petaling Jaya. He was arrested after police detained his accomplice.

He was charged with two counts of armed robbery using a pistol. Before
being charged, he was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for
60 days.

WHEN MOTHER IS GONE

Like Kim, Mat also has a cell to himself at the Ehsan Block (one of the
blocks that house working convicts).

While under remand, his mother visited him each week until she breathed
her last on July 27, 1990. "When she died, I had all kinds of feeling,
even angry at myself," said Mat in a sad note.

Now only his siblings visit him once every six to eight months. His father
died 2 months after he visited Mat for the 1st and last time in prison.

Does Mat think that he is slowly being forgotten? "I know it's costly to
come and visit me. The price of fuel has gone up, everything costs money,"
he lamented.

"When I was first arrested, I used to write to them because I knew their
addresses. Now they have moved and I didn't ask for their addresses. They
used to write to me, but now none of them do so. If they want to come,
they can, if they don't, it's alright with me," he said.

LEARNING PATIENCE

Mat seemed to have accepted the fact that he might be spending the rest of
his life in prison, as he put it: "If I'm fated to be here, then let it
be. I don't know what tomorrow will bring.

"After 16 years, I'm still holding on. Some became mentally ill even
though they were jailed for only three years."

Mat said in the event he is freed he would be able to work out his life.
He would probably take up tailoring, a trade he learned in prison.

To the stubborn Mat who had been whipped 12 times, prison has taught him
what patience is all about.

"Well, I don't have much of a choice but to learn to be patient and to
know myself and other people's character better.

"We have common sense, we can judge what's good or bad. Wherever we are
today is the result of our doing yesterday," he said, sounding remorseful.

(source: Bernama)