Dec. 15
SOUTH AFRICA:
Death penalty won't reduce crime - Zuma
There is no credible evidence to prove that re-introducing the death penalty in
South Africa will reduce crime, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.
"I do not think there is justice in killing another human being," he said at
the official opening of the revived Gallows Memorial at the Pretoria Central
Prison.
"Quite often I hear commentators saying bring back the death penalty to combat
crime. Our Constitution prioritises the right to life and dignity, and the good
judges did well to abolish it."
He said those advocating capital punishment did not understand how it felt to
be on death row. South Africa did not need to kill people to prove crime was
wrong, he said.
"We can be tough on crime without executing people. Our police will continue to
use effective methods to make our communities safer."
He assured the families of the political prisoners who were executed that
government would make contact with them "to look at the difficulties they are
facing".
2 members from each of the slain prisoners' families had been brought to
Pretoria to take part in a two-day "cleansing" ceremony which began on
Wednesday.
Zuma said all South Africans had contributed to the attainment of freedom and
many lives had been sacrificed in the process.
52 stepsM
The gallows at the prison, now known as the C Max Correctional Centre, was
dismantled in 1996. The memorial museum was erected to honour 134 political
prisoners executed there during apartheid.
Zuma, accompanied by several government ministers and ANC leaders, walked the
52 steps leading to the execution chamber, where he was briefed by correctional
services commissioner Tom Moyane.
Moyane said 4 300 people went through the hangman's noose, the majority of them
common law criminals.
Said Zuma: "We hope this occasion contributes to bring closure and healing to
the families [of the executed prisoners]. They should remember that their
beloved ones made huge sacrifices for the country."
Prison warders
He paid tribute to the prison warders who served in the gallows, saying they
were abused by the apartheid system.
"I want to recognise the prison warders who worked in the execution room, some
of whom I'm told were recruited at tender ages of 16 and 17. We all need to
walk the path of healing together."
Zuma was happy that some of them were still employed by correctional services
and willing to share their experiences.
"Government will assist the officers in the healing process," he said.
Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said the project had to
be done despite the financial cost, which could not be disclosed.
"The TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] did not give an opportunity to
the families of those who were executed to speak out," Mapisa-Nqakula said.
"Even those who were executed did not speak for themselves, they were
silenced."
Healing
She said interactive mechanisms, including a Facebook page and a website would
soon be launched for the museum.
Mapisa-Nqakula encouraged South Africans to visit the centre to understand the
history and acknowledge how the museum played a role in the country's healing
process.
The museum would open next year.
She said the operations of the museum at the prison would not compromise
security, and the museum would have a separate entrance.
The presidential entourage visited the chapel, execution room, autopsy room and
fridge room.
(source: SAPA)
IRAN:
Iran criticised over capital punishment 'killing spree'Amnesty International
warns of 'new wave of drug offence executions' in Iran as well as public and
secret hangings
Iran has escalated its use of the capital punishment to what has been called "a
killing spree of staggering proportions" in an effort to contain drug-related
crimes amid concerns about the west's continuing support for the regime's
anti-narcotics campaign, according to a report.
Amnesty International warned of "a new wave of drug offence executions" in Iran
in a report published on Thursday, which highlights the country's extensive use
of the death penalty, especially in a series of public and secret hangings.
According to the report, at least 600 people were executed in Iran from the
beginning of 2011 up to the end of November, of which a minimum of 488
executions were carried out for alleged drug offences.
Amnesty said the figures showed a threefold increase in comparison to
drug-related executions it documented in 2009. "Members of marginalised groups
– including impoverished communities, ethnic minorities suffering
discrimination, and foreign nationals, particularly Afghans – are most at risk
of execution for drugs offences," it said.
Iran's judicial system has been criticised for holding "grossly unfair trials"
in a majority of the cases. Many trials are reported to have been held behind
closed doors without the presence of a defence lawyer and families have not
been given prior notice of the execution.
Iran is a neighbour to Afghanistan, a leading producer and supplier of the
world's drugs. As for the Afghans imprisoned in Iran for drug offences, Amnesty
said it appears they are "particularly poorly treated" and as many as 4,000 of
them are believed to be on death row.
The sharp rise in the number of drug offence executions in Iran comes at a time
when the international community, especially many European countries, including
Germany, Belgium, France, Ireland and Britain, continues to provide the Islamic
republic with financial and technical support for its anti-drug campaign.
Paradoxically, many of these countries have repeatedly condemned executions in
Iran while praising its achievements in the anti-drug field. According to
Amnesty, the EU has provided Iran with €9.5m over 3 years and the UN office for
drugs and crime (UNODC) has also given the country £14m since 2005 for its
anti-narcotics campaign.
Many activists have raised concerns in recent years about the west's support
for Iran. Fazel Hawramy, the editor of Kurdishblogger.com, who has campaigned
on the issue, said Iran has received "body scanners, drug detecting kits, drug
catalysts, sniffer dogs, vehicles, night-vision devices and radio communication
equipment" as part of the west's support despite international sanctions.
"It cannot be ruled out that some of this equipment was used by the police to
crush the pro-democracy demonstrations in 2009," wrote Hawramy in an article
published by the Guardian earlier this month.
"All countries and international organisations helping the Iranian authorities
arrest more people for alleged drugs offences need to take a long hard look at
the potential impact of that assistance and what they could do to stop this
surge of executions," said Ann Harrison of Amnesty. "They cannot simply look
the other way while hundreds of impoverished people are killed each year
without fair trials, many only learning their fates a few hours before their
deaths."
Activists fear that Iran might have executed political prisoners and activists
among those killed secretly for drug offences. In one example in the city of
Mashhad, at Vakilabad prison, Amnesty has received reports of secret mass
execution involving 89 individuals in August 2010.
In recent years, many Iranian activists and lawyers have fallen foul of the
Iranian regime for highlighting Iran's high rate of executions. Nasrin
Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer, is currently kept in Tehran's
notorious Evin prison after being arrested in September 2010 for speaking out
on the execution of juvenile offenders in Iran.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The UK has contributed to the UN's Iran
country programme, with the majority of funding in recent years being given in
2007. Work funded included a variety of projects including a project to reduce
demand for drugs and a project to improve capacity to tackle money-laundering.
"We take the human rights implications of our counternarcotics work very
seriously and human rights are a central consideration in all decisions. We are
opposed to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances including for
drugs offences, and have made our views on this matter absolutely clear. We
have regularly raised our concerns with the Iranian regime about its human
rights record including its appalling use of the death penalty as evidenced in
this Amnesty report.
"More broadly, the illegal drugs trade causes huge damage to the UK and to
countries all around the world. The UK's overseas work in tackling this threat
involves a range of activities including improving policing and law-enforcement
standards and promoting best practice."
(source: The Guardian)
JAPAN:
Woman evades death penalty in murder of 7 due to brutal abuse by mastermind of
crimes
The Supreme Court stopped short of handing down the death sentence to a woman
involved in the murder of 7 people in Kitakyushu as an accomplice after taking
into consideration that she was subjected to brutal abuse by the mastermind of
the crimes.
Focusing on the master-subordinate relationship between Futoshi Matsunaga, 50,
and Junko Ogata, 49, the top court's No. 1 Petty Bench upheld a high court
ruling that sentenced Matsunaga to death and Ogata to life imprisonment.
It is extremely rare that a defendant involved in the murder of such a large
number of people evades the death penalty even in light of the top court's
standards for choosing the ultimate punishment.
The ruling suggests that there was heated debate between five justices in the
Supreme Court's No. 1 Petty Bench that tried the case.
Lawyer-turned Presiding Justice Koji Miyagawa said in his supplementary
comment, "It is necessary to clarify the darkness of the mind and actions of
Ogata that are incomprehensible and unreasonable in considering the degree of
sentencing in this case."
He then expressed support for the decision that the high court made from a
psychiatric viewpoint.
Justice Tomoyuki Yokota, who previously served as a prosecutor, voiced stiff
opposition to Miyagawa's idea in his supplementary comment. "Sentencing a
defendant involved in the murder of many people to only a life prison term
would cause the fair balance of punishment to be lost."
The Supreme Court clarified the standards for whether to choose the death
penalty in 1983 when it overturned a life prison sentence that a high court
handed down on Norio Nagayama, who was charged with fatally shooting four
people. Nagayama was subsequently sentenced to death and hanged.
The standards require courts to take into consideration nine points with
particular emphasis on the cruelty in the way the victims were murdered and the
number of victims. Courts across the country have since applied these standards
to cases where prosecutors demanded the death penalty for defendants.
However, one of the AUM Shinrikyo cult members who carried out sarin gas
attacks on Tokyo subway trains, leaving 12 people dead, was sentenced to life
imprisonment on the grounds that his cooperation contributed to efforts to get
to the bottom of the incident.
As is shown by the fact that the five justices who tried the Kitakyushu case
were divided, judges tend to pay close attention to circumstances surrounding
individual cases and the defendants' mental conditions in deciding whether to
avoid the death penalty.
There are certain tendencies in judging whether to avoid the death penalty
based on the number of victims, but no clear line has been drawn.
The top court's latest judgment that "the death penalty can be avoided if a
defendant was in a mental condition in which it was difficult to disobey the
mastermind's order at the time of the crime" will certainly have an influence
on discussions on whether to choose the ultimate penalty under the lay-judge
system.
(source: Mainichi Daily News)
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