[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 26



PAKISTAN:

HRCP for moratorium on death penalty


The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called upon the
government to adopt a moratorium on death penalties, citing serious
shortcomings vis--vis guarantees regarding due legal procedures in
criminal cases.

Launching a report on death penalty in Pakistan  titled Slow march to
gallows  HRCP chairperson Asma Jehangir said on Thursday this could be
done through a decision by President Gen Pervez Musharraf to
systematically commute death sentences.

The report has been released at a time when, according to the HRCP, more
than 7,400 prisoners are on the death row  6,985 in Punjab alone as of
October. The report has jointly been compiled by the Paris-based
International Federation of Human Rights (IFDH) and the HRCP on the basis
of the findings of a joint fact-finding mission on death penalty in
Pakistan.

HRCP director I.A. Rahman, its vice-chairperson Kamran Arif and researcher
for IFDH Dr Christine Habberd also spoke at the briefing on the report.
Asma Jehangir asked the government to seriously consider moving towards
the abolition of death penalty.

The report suggests that as a first step, the number of offences carrying
the death sentence be restricted to the most serious crimes and the
authorities should refrain from adopting new crimes entailing capital
punishment. These amendments should be applied retrospectively to
prisoners who were condemned to death on the basis of prior legislation,
in conformity with the UN Safeguards Guaranteeing the Protection of the
Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty.

The report seeks to put an immediate end to sentencing and execution of
minors, and commute all death sentences pronounced against persons who
were below 18 at the time of offence. It also urges the government to
appoint a committee of high level jurists to report on the application and
conditions of death penalty in the country.

According to the report, Pakistan ranks among the countries in the world
which issues death sentences. About 1,029 executions have reportedly taken
place in Punjab from 1975 to 2002 at an average of 37 executions per year.
The figure is 66 in 2005 and 54 for the first half of 2006 alone. Around
30 people were executed in the country in the sole months of June and July
2006.

Concern has been expressed in the report over the fact that Pakistan has
in recent years witnessed a significant increase in convictions to death
penalty. According to the HRCP, 361 persons were condemned to death in
2005.

The report said the increase of convictions to death has to be viewed in
the context of a 2003 Supreme Court ruling: "In the cases of murder, the
normal penalty of death should be awarded and leniency in any case should
not be shown, except when strong mitigating circumstances for lesser
sentence could be gathered."

The HRCP and the IFDH said it was alarming that over the years Pakistan
has witnessed an inflation of the charges which carry death penalty. At
the time of independence in 1947, only homicide and treason carried death
penalty. Today there are 27 different charges which carry death penalty,
including blasphemy, stripping a woman of her clothes in public and
sabotage of the railway system. Many of these changes were introduced
during the 1977-88 reign of Ziaul Haq, which also represented an all-time
high for executions  and an all-time low for human rights.

The report said former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was executed on
April 4, 1979 on the charge of conspiring to murder a political opponent,
after what was widely held to be an unfair and politicized trial. Bhuttos
appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected by 4 judges out of 7. One of the
four stated in hindsight that the death penalty should not have been
awarded, and that he regretted his decision to condemn Bhutto to death,
which was due mainly to the massive pressure he had been subjected to.

The report said on top of the low standard of police investigations and
the lack of judicial independence, other factors have further contributed
to lowering the integrity of the rule of law and of the judicial process.
The report said under the Qisas and Diyat law, the defendant who pays
blood money is immediately released adding that the law had paved way for
privatization of justice.

The report rejected the argument that death penalty serves as a deterrent
and said systematic studies undertaken in a number of different countries
show that imposition of the death penalty does not contribute to a
reduction in crime rate.

(source: Dawn Newspapers)






SINGAPORE----execution

Singapore executes 2 Africans on drug charges despite international
clemency appeals


Singapore executed 2 Africans on drug trafficking charges Friday despite
pleas for clemency by Nigeria's president, the United Nations and human
rights groups.

Nigerian Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, 21, was hanged at dawn in the city-state
after being convicted of trafficking 727 grams (26 ounces) of heroin
nearly 50 times the 15 grams (0.53 ounces) of the drug that draws a
mandatory death penalty in Singapore, the Central Narcotics Bureau said in
a statement.

A stateless African named Okeke Nelson Malachy, 35, who was convicted as
the person to whom Iwuchukwu was supposed to deliver the drugs, was also
executed Friday, the statement said.

About a dozen activists held an overnight vigil outside maximum-security
Changi Prison, where the execution was carried out. Just before the
hanging, they stood or sat with their heads bowed, holding roses in the
flickering glow of candles on the ground around photos of Iwuchukwu and a
red-and-white soccer jersey said to belong to him.

Rain began to fall on the silent group.

Prominent Singapore-based art critic Lee Weng Choy, 43, said he disagreed
with Singapore's mandatory death sentence regulation, which he said takes
away the discretionary power of the judiciary.

"I also disagree with its justification as a deterrent. The reality is
that drug trafficking has not been reduced to zero, neither has drug use,"
he said at the vigil.

The execution was carried out despite an appeal by Nigerian President
Olesegun Obasanjo, who asked Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
earlier this week to commute the death sentence.

Lee replied Thursday that Iwuchukwu had committed a serious offense under
Singapore law and had exhausted all legal options.

"We did not take the decision lightly," Lee wrote in a letter. "I realize
that Mr. Tochi's family will find Singapore's position difficult to
accept, but we have a duty to safeguard the interests of Singaporeans, and
protect the many lives that would otherwise be ruined by the drug
syndicates."

Singapore's strict drug laws made international headlines  and triggered
an outcry in Australia  in December 2005 when the city-state executed a
25-year-old Australian heroin trafficker despite numerous appeals from the
Canberra government.

Singapore has said its tough penalties for drug trafficking are an
effective deterrent against a crime that ruins lives, and that foreigners
and Singaporeans must be treated alike.

Human rights group Amnesty International says Singapore has the world's
highest per capita execution rate. Last week it urged its members to push
Singapore's government to grant Iwuchukwu clemency and for a moratorium on
all executions in the country.

The United Nations also urged Singapore on Thursday not to execute
Iwuchukwu because it would violate international legal standards on the
use of the death penalty.

"The standard accepted by the international community is that capital
punishment may be imposed only when the guilt of the person charged is
based upon clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an
alternative explanation of the facts," said a statement by Philip Alston,
the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions.

Iwuchukwu, a footballer, was arrested in November 2004 at Singapore's
Changi Airport after arriving from Dubai with 100 capsules containing
heroin that authorities estimated to be worth 1.5 million Singapore
dollars (US$970,000; 795,930).

At the time of his arrest, Iwuchukwu told narcotics officers the pills
were African herbs that he was supposed to give to a sick friend. He also
told officers that he came to try out for soccer teams playing in the
Singapore League.

Iwuchukwu's family, who live in Nigeria, could not afford to travel to
Singapore to see him while he was on death row, said Princewill Akpakpan,
a lawyer with the Civil Liberties Organization, Nigeria's largest human
rights group.

"The execution will place Singapore in a negative spotlight among
civilized nations of the world," Akpakpan said by telephone on Thursday.

(source: International Herald Tribune)