May 18
PAKISTAN----stay of execution
Zardari stays Pakistan's 1st hanging in 4 years
President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday stayed the hanging of a man convicted of
killing a lawyer, putting off the first execution scheduled since an informal
moratorium was put in place in Pakistan nearly 4 years ago.
The stay order issued by the President was received by jail officials in the
southern port city of Karachi on Thursday morning.
The execution of Behram Khan was scheduled for May 23.
DIG (Prisons) Nusrat Mangan said the stay order postponed Khan's hanging till
June 30.
An anti-terrorism court gave the death sentence to Khan nearly a decade ago
after he was found guilty of murdering lawyer Mohammad Ashraf within the Sindh
High Court complex in April 2003.
Khan's mercy petition had been rejected earlier this month, following which the
anti-terrorism court issued a black warrant for his execution at 4:30 am on May
23.
Rights groups, including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and Human
Rights Watch, had urged the Pakistan government to halt the scheduled hanging
of Khan.
The HRCP had expressed "alarm" at the scheduled hanging and called on the
government to announce a "formal moratorium on executions".
"The Pakistani government has rightly not carried out executions since 2009,"
said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch.
"Instead of resorting to this barbaric practice, the government should declare
the moratorium officially, commute all existing death sentences, and then
abolish the death penalty for all crimes".
On April 15, 2003, Khan and policeman Pir Bux entered the Sindh High Court
intending to kill Qurban Ali Chauhan, the lawyer for an accused under trial for
the killing of Khan's uncle.
Khan killed Ashraf in a case of mistaken identity.
The anti-terrorist court sentenced Khan to death on June 25, 2003 while Pir Bux
was sentenced to life imprisonment for abetting the murder.
HRW said the number of people executed every year in Pakistan under military
rule was among the highest in the world.
Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh is among those who benefited from the
Pakistan government's decision to suspend executions.
(source: PTI)
SOMALILAND:
Somaliland military court sentences 17 civilians to death
A military court in Somalia's autonomous northern region of Somaliland has
sentenced 17 civilians to death for attacking a military base, the BBC reports.
According to the report, 30 armed members of a clan attacked soldiers in a camp
on Tuesday. 7 people, including 3 soldiers, were killed in the resulting
firefight.
Following the attack, 28 people were arrested and held overnight. A military
trial followed, in which 3 people were acquitted and the trial of 3 others was
postponed.
5 minors were given life sentences, and the remaining 17 civilians were
sentenced to death, after reportedly confessing to conducting the attacks.
According to the BBC, the attackers claimed the military had built on land that
they had owned for generations. An attack on Somaliland's military carries a
mandatory death penalty for adults, the BBC says.
Somaliland, a breakaway, semi-desert territory on the coast of the Gulf of
Aden, has been spared by much of the violence plaguing Somalia, but the BBC
says land disputes are common.
(source: MSNBC News)
IRAQ:
Ex-guards testify against Iraqi vice president in death squad trial
Former bodyguards for Iraq’s fugitive vice president have testified that they
were ordered to kill security officials and plant roadside bombs as a
politically charged terror trial against the Sunni leader got under way.
Vice President Tariq Al-Hashemi, who was in Turkey but faced trial in absentia,
has denied all charges against him. If convicted, he could face the death
penalty.
The case threatens to paralyze Iraq’s government by fueling simmering Sunni and
Kurdish resentments against Shiite Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, who critics
claim is monopolizing power. Al-Hashemi is an ardent critic of Al-Maliki, whose
government issued a warrant for the vice president’s arrest the day after US
troops left Iraq last December.
Al-Hashemi has been accused of playing a role in 150 bombings, assassinations
and other attacks from 2005 to 2011, according to the judicial council. The
Iraqi government alleges that Sunni death squads were largely composed of his
bodyguards and other employees.
The charges against the vice president span the worst years of bloodshed that
followed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq as retaliatory sectarian attacks
between Sunni and Shiite militants pushed the country to the brink of civil
war. He has been in office since 2006. The testimony focused on more recent
years, when violence ebbed but insurgents continued to attack security forces
and other targets in a bid to undermine the Iraqi government in the run-up to
the US withdrawal in December.
Bodyguard Odai Ghazi Amin, who served in the Iraqi Army under Saddam Hussein,
said he joined Al-Hashemi’s staff in 2008 and was ordered by the vice
president’s son-in-law in 2009 to escort bomb-planting missions on roads across
Baghdad. In 2011, Amin said he was told to assassinate an army general and a
lawyer — orders he tried to avoid by asking for a job transfer. But he said he
was threatened by the son-in-law, who ran Al-Hashemi’s office, that he would be
killed and his family in danger if he refused the deadly missions.
Last September, Amin testified, he was summoned to meet with the vice
president. “Al-Hashemi told me that he is going to assign me to kill some
officers who work against the interests of the state and to carry out
operations on security checkpoints,” Amin said.
Amin testified that after the meeting, Al-Hashemi’s son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan,
who also faces terror charges, gave him and 2 other bodyguards silenced guns
and told them to assassinate army Brig. Gen. Talib Balaasim.
The bodyguards tracked down Balaasim in western Baghdad, and Amin testified
that he killed the general, in a Sept. 26 drive-by shooting before returning to
Al-Hashemi’s office in the heavily guarded Green Zone. “About two days after
the attack, Al-Hashemi received us (in his office) and said to us, ‘God bless
your efforts,’” Amin testified. He said the bodyguards shared a $3,000 payment.
Amin’s account was later contradicted by testimony from another bodyguard,
Yassir Saadi Hassoun. Hassoun said he and his brother opened fire on Balaasim,
not Amin.
A 3rd bodyguard, Ahmed Al-Jubouri, described a November 2011 shooting that
killed national security official Ibrahim Saleh Mahdi and his wife. Al-Jubouri
said Mahdi was ordered killed because he had become “a source of annoyance” to
Al-Hashemi.
Al-Hashemi is in Turkey, where he has said he is receiving medical treatment.
His spokesman, Fahad Al-Turki, said Al-Hashemi was not available to comment on
Tuesday’s proceedings. Ahmed Qahtan also is in Turkey. He has hotly denied the
charges, and accuses the government of torturing his bodyguards to obtain
confessions from them. The Iraqi judiciary last month investigated and
dismissed his claims.
The vice president believes he will not get a fair trial in Baghdad’s criminal
court, and has asked that the case be heard by a special tribunal appointed by
parliament.
His allies see the trial as another political power battle in Iraq.
“As far as I’m concerned, the issue of Al-Hashemi is more political than a
legal one,” said Sunni lawmaker Hamid Al-Mutlaq of the Iraqiya political bloc
that opposes Al-Maliki.
The trial was scheduled to resume on Sunday.
SINGAPORE:
OPEN LETTER: CLEMENCY FOR YONG VUI KONG
Mr. K. Shanmugam
Law Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs
The Treasury,
100 High Street, #08-02
Singapore 179434
Dear Minister
OPEN LETTER: CLEMENCY FOR YONG VUI KONG URGENTLY REQUESTED
Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) urge
Singapore’s Cabinet to advise the President to grant clemency to Yong Vui Kong,
a young Malaysian who faces imminent execution for drug trafficking. Clemency
granted by the President, following advice from the Cabinet, is Yong’s last
hope.
On 4 April, Singapore’s Supreme Court rejected Yong Vui Kong’s third and final
appeal submitted by his lawyer, M. Ravi. The appeal argued that Yong Vui Kong
was subjected to unequal treatment before the law when the Attorney-General’s
Chamber decided not to prosecute the alleged mastermind of the drug operation,
a Singaporean who was Yong Vui Kong’s former boss. He remains free from
prosecution now that all 26 charges against him were withdrawn by the
Attorney-General’s office. Yet his former employee, Yong Vui Kong, has spent
almost four years on death row and now faces imminent execution.
Yong Vui Kong was 19 when first arrested in 2007 for possessing 47g of heroin.
In 2008 Singapore’s High Court sentenced him to death under the Misuse of Drugs
Act – which provides a mandatory death sentence for anyone caught with over 15g
of heroin. The law strips the judiciary of discretion to pass a lesser
sentence, or to individualize the sentence in conformity with the degree of
culpability of the accused.
In 2005 the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions said that Singapore’s execution of another prisoner sentenced to
death for trafficking heroin, Nguyen Tuong Van, would violate international
legal standards relating to the imposition of the death penalty. “No
international human rights tribunal anywhere in the world has ever found a
mandatory death penalty regime compatible with international human rights
norms,” the Special Rapporteur stated.
In resolution 2005/59, adopted on 20 April 2005, the UN Commission on Human
Rights urged all states that still maintain the death penalty “to ensure- that
the death penalty is not imposed- as a mandatory sentence”.
Amnesty International and ADPAN urge Singapore to follow the worldwide trend
among common-law countries to ban the use of the mandatory death penalty. The
US Supreme Court struck down mandatory penalty in 1976, ruling in Woodson v.
North Carolina that “fundamental respect for humanity - requires consideration
of the character and record of the individual offender and the circumstances of
the particular offense.” In 1983, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the
penalty was unconstitutional in Mithu v. Punjab, stating that ““[t]he
legislature cannot make relevant circumstances irrelevant, deprive the courts
of their legitimate jurisdiction to exercise their discretion.” More recently,
in Attorney-General vs Kagula, the Supreme Court of Uganda in 2009 struck down
the mandatory death penalty because it prevented courts from considering all
specific circumstances of the defendant and of the crime.
Yong Vui Kong’s case has sparked widespread concern around the world. In his
own country, Malaysia, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and Malaysian legislators
requested the Singaporean authorities to grant clemency in 2010.
The President of Singapore can only grant a presidential pardon upon the advice
of the Cabinet. Clemency for a death sentence has only been granted 6 times
since independence in 1965. Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty
Asia Network call on you and other members of the Cabinet to ensure respect for
international legal standards by recommending the commutation of Yong Vui
Kong’s death sentence.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and without
reservation. ADPAN is an independent regional network comprising lawyers, NGOs
and civil society groups from 24 countries including Singapore. It campaigns
for an end to the death penalty across the Asia-Pacific region.
More than 2/3 of states have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.
Death sentences and executions are decreasing globally and in Asia. Out of 41
countries in the Asia-Pacific, 28 have abolished it in law or in practice. 5
out of the 10 ASEAN-member states have also abolished the death penalty in law
or in practice. Singapore is one of the few remaining countries in the region
that still carries out executions.
Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network are appealing to
the Singapore authorities to stop the execution of Yong Vui Kong, to establish
a moratorium on the death penalty and to suspend executions.
Sincerely yours,
Donna Guest
Asia Deputy Director International Secretariat
Amnesty International
M. Ravi
Counsel for Yong Vui Kong
ADPAN member
(source: The Online Citizen)
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