[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 7


SOUTH KOREA:

Solder Gets Death Penalty


A military court of appeal upheld for a 2nd time, Wednesday, the death
penalty sentence on a soldier who killed 8 of his colleagues and senior
officers at a guard post in Yeoncheon.

In 2005, Private Kim Dong-min killed 8 and injured 4 other colleagues in a
grenade and shooting rampage at the post, located in the heavily fortified
Demilitarized Zone and only 1.5 kilometers away from a North Korean guard
post.

A lower military court imposed the death penalty on Kim in November 2005,
and his lawyer subsequently filed an appeal to the higher court. Following
the initial appeal ruling, he filed a petition with the Constitutional
Court, claiming the death sentence was unconstitutional.

The Constitutional Court ruled that capital punishment was
unconstitutional and sent the case back to the Court of Military Appeals,
which reconfirmed the earlier death sentence.

"To separate the accused from society permanently, capital punishment is
inevitable," it said in its ruling.

(source: Korea Times)






PAKISTAN:

52 Pak prisoners seek commutation citing Kashmir Singh's case


52 prisoners on death row today filed a petition in Pakistan Supreme Court
seeking commutation of their sentence to life imprisonment in the wake of
the pardon granted to Indian national Kashmir Singh.

Advocate Muhammad Siddique Khan filed the petition on behalf of the
prisoners, making the federation of Pakistan the respondent through the
Attorney General and Advocates General of the 4 provinces.

The petition said all condemned prisoners named in it as well as those not
named in it should be shifted from death row to ordinary cells in jails
across the country till the apex court decided the matter.

"It is further prayed that their cases may kindly be adjusted
expeditiously to avoid further delay," it said.

It said that prisoners "who have remained in death cells for more than 8
years (should) be acquitted or their death sentences may be commuted into
life imprisonment".

The petition noted that the government had already commuted the death
sentence of Indian "spy" Kashmir Singh.

After spending more than 3 decades on death row, Singh was freed in March
when President Pervez Musharraf pardoned him.

The petition also said that a declaration should be issued by the court to
enable condemned prisoners to avail remedy under Article 45 of the
Constitution, which empowers the President to grant a pardon or commute
any sentence handed down by a court.

This should be done "not withstanding the pendency of their cases with the
court or they should be extended the benefit of expectancy of life" by the
court, it said.

The 52 prisoners named in the petition have been on death row for periods
ranging from eight years to 15 years after the confirmation of their death
sentences.

(source: Press Trust of India)


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Stonings - Sign of Taliban Resurgence


The Taliban have confirmed that their sympathisers have executed by
stoning a runaway couple in this remote tribal region bordering
Afghanistan -- their 1st known use here of this long drawn-out death
sentence for a so-called "honour crime".

"A qazi (religious official) court run by the Taliban found the couple
guilty of adultery and sentenced them to death by stoning. The sentence
was carried out in Khwezai-Baezai area of the Mohmand Agency, about 60 km
north of the border city of Peshawar," Mohammad Asad, a Taliban spokesman,
told IPS. The execution took place on Apr 1, 2 weeks after the Taliban had
issued their ruling.

"Shano (Bibi) was a married woman living in Peshawar and her family had
filed a complaint that she had been abducted by Daulat Khan. But later it
was reported that she had eloped with him," Asad alleged.

Mohmand Agency is 1 of 7 tribal regions on the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border. The regions form part of the Federally Administered Tribal Area
(FATA), encompassing more than 6,000 square km where the Taliban have
sanctuaries.

The stonings were condemned by human rights organisations. They appeared
to be a worrying new development in the old-age tribal practice of "honour
killings" with the Taliban now adjudicating with a more cruel form of the
ultimate punishment rather than firing squads.

"We ask the government to arrest the people responsible and bring them to
justice," Kamran Arif, a member of the executive council of the
independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), told IPS.

"The government must take strict action against those responsible," added
Rahshanda Naz of the Aurat Foundation, a national NGO with offices
throughout the country.

A Peshawar lawyer, Noor Alam Khan, said that he had noted recent cases of
"honour killings" -- the execution of those who had allegedly brought
shame on their families -- which were "frequently making newspaper
headlines".

"In these rigidly patriarchal communities, wives, daughters, sisters and
mothers are killed for the least sexual indiscretion and on the slightest
suspicion of adultery," Khan explained.

Zahir Ali, a writer on the Urdu-language newspaper Aaj (Today) published
in Peshawar, said the reported incidents did not give a full picture of
what was currently happening in the region. Journalistic self-censorship
was preventing full reporting.

"There are cases occurring almost once or twice a month, but we cant
report them due to the harsh reaction that this would create in the
community," he explained to IPS.

The most recent case was on May 1 when a couple in a local village was
killed for marrying without the consent of their families, he said.

Khan said that the incidents confirmed that the recent laws to rein in the
practice had failed "to bring about the desired results". In 2005, the
Criminal Justice Act was amended to prevent courts from acquitting
offenders after they had reached their own out-of-court compromise
agreements, sometimes in return for compensation.

Since then, there have been several inconsistent rulings in the Peshawar
High Court and law enforcement authorities which appeared to run counter
to the spirit of the legal amendments.

A month ago, the Peshawar High Court overturned a death sentence passed
against Gul Zaman for murdering his wife and 3 daughters, allegedly for
venturing out of their house without his permission. The judge made his
ruling after hearing that the surviving 3 sons and daughter had forgiven
their father.

The original death sentence had been passed on Jan 31, 2005 by a local
court.

But in March last year, the Peshawar High Court issued a firm ruling in
accordance with the new legal amendments to curb the practice of "honour
killings".

The court confirmed the 10-year prison sentence against Gul Zameen for
murdering his mother in the upper Dir district of NWFP in Feb last year.

The presiding judge, Dost Muhammad Khan, then said: "In some backward
areas women are being treated as 2nd-class citizens and such inhuman
practices as honour-related killings are still in vogue. This is against
Islam as well as the law of the land."

6 months later, the Peshawar High Court annulled a compromise agreement
that would have set free a father who was convicted of murdering his
daughter with the help of his son and nephew after she married without his
permission. Justice Tariq Pervez sentenced each of them to 10 years
imprisonment.

Local police have sometimes shown reluctance to act on reports of "honour
killings".

Last year, in Mardan, 60 km from Peshawar, the police arrested, but then
released without pressing charges, the relatives of a couple killed for
allegedly bringing discredit on the family.

Recently, also in Mardan, the police did not even bother with an initial
report on allegations that a powerful local landlord had shot his daughter
and driver after they eloped, Sajjad Ali, an NGO activist, told IPS.

In the past three years, defence lawyers had developed skills in
"hoodwinking" courts to circumvent the amendments to curbing the practice
of reaching family compromises to head off prosecution charges, according
to Khan.

The effect of the new laws against "honour killings" was also being
blunted by a continuing readiness of the courts to consider mitigating
circumstances.

"Often courts adopt a lenient view towards the accused on the grounds of
"grave and sudden provocation" which nowhere exists in the law," Naz said.

Human rights organisations are now calling on the government to take
firmer action on all fronts to bring to a halt "honour killings".

Up to now, the authorities had "utterly failed to apply the brakes" on the
practice, Jamila Bibi of the HRCP said.

"Drastic changes are needed," Naz insisted.

"It is un-Islamic to kill a woman or a man in the name of honour. We will
fight this outrageous tradition," Sitara Imran, minister for womens
development in the NWFP parliament, told IPS.

Between 1998 and 2002, HRCP registered 1,339 cases of "honour killings".
About half of the victims were married women. HRCP believes most such
murders go unreported.

HRCP has issued no recent statistics on "honour killings". But the
continuing high number of husbands killing their wives in Pakistan
suggests that the number has not been falling. In 2006, 355 husbands were
accused of this offence, compared to 296 in 2005, HRCP has reported.

(source: IPS News)





LIBERIA:

Death Sentence Awaits Armed Robbers


The House of Representatives Tuesday passed into law an Act seeking to
make Armed Robbery, Terrorism and Hijacking non-bailable crimes and
punishable by death. Prior to the passage of the Act sponsored by
Representative Edward Forh, and co-sponsored by Representatives Rufus
Neufville of Monrtserrado County and Elijah Seah of River Gee County, some
lawmakers argued that there are laws already on the books making armed
robbery a non-bailable offence, and as such, there was no need to come out
with a new law.

The lawmakers said it is important to ensure that laws on armed robbery be
enforced to curtail the commission of the crime, which has resulted in
several deaths and the loss of properties.

Some lawmakers blamed the Judiciary Committee for its failure to research
as to whether there exists a law on armed robbery, terrorism and hijacking
before passing a new law.

Section 14.54, 15.32 and 15.33 of the proposed Act provides that
individuals convicted of terrorist act, armed robbery and hijacking will
be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than 15 years with possibility
of parole after 8 years or after serving 3/4 of the sentence in the case
of higher sentence.

The Act also provides for a longer penalty on peculiar facts and
circumstances of case, and where there is no death, rape, property damage
or personal injury as a result of any of the offenders.

The drafters of the Act also recommended that anyone who is convicted of
armed robbery; terrorism and hijacking shall be sentenced to life
imprisonment with possibility of parole at the age of 90 years.

According to the Act, in the event of death during the commission of armed
robbery, terrorism and hijacking, the accused convicted under section
14.54 and 15.32 and 15.33 shall be sentenced to death by hanging in public
place designated by trial court or life imprisonment without parole.

(source: All Africa News)






IRAN:

Iran postpones execution of young man


Following a protest by the European Union, the Iranian judiciary has
postponed the execution of a young man sentenced to death for having
killed another man in a street brawl in Tehran.

The EU presidency had voiced its deep concern over the proposed execution
of Behnoud Shojaee, which was to have taken place on Wednesday.

The EU has asked for the verdict to be revised and has argued that Shojaee
was a minor at the time of the crime and the death sentence issued by Iran
was a contravention of international rights.

The postponement order came from the head of the judiciary, Hashemi
Shahroudi, who is reportedly seeking a settlement with the victim's family
to avoid the death sentence.

According to prevailing laws in Iran, victims' families can either demand
the implementation of the death sentence or receive blood money instead.

(source: Australia News Net)