Sept. 18
THAILAND:
Death penalty upheld for ex-MP
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Appeals Court's death sentence for
former Democrat Party MP for Bangkok Sitthiporn Kham-art and his aide Ekasith
Yusuk for the murder in 1997 of Pattama Fuengprayoon, the mother of former
Democrat Party MP for Chanthaburi Khomkhai Polabutr.
In this case, 4 men were convicted of the murder of Pattama, who died when a
bomb demolished her car, in September 1997 in Muang district of Chanthaburi
province. They are Sitthiporn, Ekasith, Prasong Saengchan, and Nikom Chitkul.
The Chanthaburi Court initially sentenced all four to death. The death sentence
on Prasong and Nikom was commuted to life because they confessed.
The Appeals Court upheld the lower court's verdict. Sitthiporn and Ekasith then
appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence for both of them.
It was believed the real target of the attack was Sanit Fuengprayoon, Pattama's
husband. The bomb was believed to have been attached underneath Mr Sanit's car
on Sept 5, 1997, but it failed to explode.
The bomb exploded the next day when Pattama drove the car from her home in Tha
Mai district, heading for Rambhai Barni Rajabhat University in Muang district.
(source: Bangkok Post)
INDONESIA:
KPK commissioner backs death penalty for corruptors
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas
supports Nahdatul Ulama's (NU) proposals to sentence corruption convicts to
death.
"Corruption is also a human rights violation," Busyro said Tuesday as quoted by
kompas.com.
Busyro said that NU's recommendation on the death penalty was in line with the
corruption law. Article 2 section 2 of the 1999 Corruption Law stipulates that
those who found guilty of corruption can be subject to capital punishment in
cases of war, natural disasters and crises.
NU, the country's largest Muslim organization, declared the recommendation
during its national conference in Cirebon, West Java, on Saturday.
Apart from the death penalty recommendation, the organization called for
members to stop paying taxes to curb rampant corruption in the tax directorate
general. The NU also urged the government to review direct election that has
been riddled with money politics and horizontal conflicts.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised to review the recommendations.
"The government will study and follow up, although we have different
perceptions to some of the recommendations," the president said on Monday.
(source: The Jakarta Post)
SOUTH KOREA:
Life imprisonment for repeat offenders
Murderer and rapist Jose Franco de la Cruz was released from prison after
serving 21 years of his sentence. Within months of his release, he was
rearrested by the police for an alleged sexual assault of a homeless girl.
Repeat offenders should be banned from society; their sentence should be life
imprisonment.
According to a study released by Human Rights Watch, lethal injection, with
which many are condemned to capital punishment, can cause huge suffering during
one???s final moments, contrary to what death penalty guards assert.
Moreover, the U.S. and China lead the ranking of countries with more death
sentences. According to Amnesty International, over 2,000 people were executed
in 22 countries.
The death penalty doesn't seem to worry political leaders, who are censured
from this degrading practice. In the past 25 years, the number of countries who
sentenced the condemned to the death penalty has declined by 50 %. Mexico and
Liberia have recently eliminated the death penalty from their legislation.
In other countries, however, the death penalty is only applied in grave cases.
It is applicable in nearly all African states, some Arab and Oriental
countries, and Russia.
Critics assert that the death penalty is inhumane and turns the government into
an executor, preventing the repair of judicial slips that can be irreparable.
While in some developed countries the death penalty has been banned from
legislation, Japan is not only opposed to following this example, but has
revived it in recent years.
It is also argued that the death penalty used to be a sentence in all nations.
This is not a valid argument though, because slavery also existed and today its
abolition is looked upon as a social and moral achievement.
Finally, the U.N. Human Rights Commission ratified a resolution asking
countries to ban the death penalty, and to protect the dignity and inalienable
rights of every human person at every moment of his or her existence from
conception till natural death.
Clemente Ferrer ----President of the European Institute of Marketing
(source: The Korea Times)
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan court asked to end death penalty
Pakistan's Supreme Court was asked Monday to declare the death penalty
unconstitutional, a ruling that would free 8,000 people awaiting execution.
A petition requesting the abolition of the death penalty was filed by an
attorney identified only as Zafarullah, Dawn News reported.
The lawyer asked the court to act on a petition he filed in July 2011 in which
he argued that because of the high levels of corruption in Pakistan society,
the chances were high that many innocent people had been declared guilty.
He said all depth sentences should be commuted to life in prison.
Under the constitution, Zafarullah contended, the right to life was a natural
right guaranteed by the constitution and that the unnatural ending of life was
inconsistent with that right.
(source: United Press International)
*******************
SC moved to transform death penalty into life imprisonment
A petition has been moved in Supreme Court (SC) Lahore registry to turn death
penalty into life time imprisonment.
The petitioner Barrister Zafarullah said on Monday that President of Pakistan
has again directed to not implement the death sentence of the prisoners
involved in various heinous crimes. He said that several prisoners were present
in death cells of various jails waiting for execution of their punishment.
Barrister Zafarullah prayed that death penalty of all such prisoners should be
converted into life time imprisonment so that they are no longer kept in the
death cells.
(source: Pakistan Observer)
INDIA:
Death penalty for BPO staff's murderers
The Bombay High Court Monday upheld the death sentence to 2 people in the 2007
case of rape and murder of a Pune BPO employee, Jyotikumari Chaudhari.
Chaudhari, 22, was raped and killed in November 2007 by her office cab driver
Purshottam Borate and his friend Pradip Kokate while they picked her up for a
late night shift.
"Considering all the circumstances, we feel that constraint regarding their
punishment is not an option. The death penalty has been confirmed after giving
it a lot of thought," said a division bench of Justice V M Kanade and Justice P
D Kode.
The bench had on September 13 upheld the conviction by a Pune sessions court of
the two accused. The Pune court had held that the rape and killing was
"pre-planned" and termed it as "the rarest of rare cases".
Even as the prosecution sought severe punishment for the 2, stating that there
was no chance of reformation, defence lawyers sought leniency urging that the
accused had no criminal history.
"We are confirming the death sentence awarded to the duo by the (Pune) sessions
court. The manner in which the offence was committed and the deep impact it has
had on the society have been considered by us. Any woman will now think twice
before taking a cab alone," the bench observed.
The victim, who hailed from Uttar Pradesh, was a science graduate from the
University of Pune. She had joined Wipro BPO as an associate in December 2006
and was staying with her sister and brother-in-law.
After Chaudhari was kidnapped, raped and killed on her way to work, the duo had
dumped her body off the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Her body was found at Wadgaon a
day later.
The men worked for a logistics company.
(source: Khaleej Times)
********************************
Kasab seeks mercy
Condemned Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab has addressed a mercy
plea to the President, nearly 3 weeks after the Supreme Court upheld his death
penalty for the Mumbai terror attack, an official said here on Tuesday.
"His mercy petition, addressed to the president, has been received from the
Arthur Road Central Jail authorities and is lying with the state home
department," said an official from the Maharashtra home department.
The exact date when Kasab filed the mercy plea or its contents are not yet
clear, nor is it known when it will be forwarded to the union home ministry by
the state government.
On Aug 29, the Supreme Court dismissed Kasab's plea challenging his conviction
and death sentence awarded in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case.
A copy of the apex court verdict was handed over to Kasab in the jail last
week.
Ten Pakistani gunmen, including Kasab, had created mayhem in south Mumbai for
60 hours from Nov 26, 2008 and left 166 people, including foreigners, dead.
While Kasab was nabbed alive by police, his nine associates were shot dead at
various locations by the combined security forces.
(source: IANS)
*********************
Punjab villager awarded death sentence for burning sons to death
A sessions court on Tuesday awarded death sentence to Jasvir Singh, a resident
of Kallowal village in the district, who had burnt alive his two minor sons and
left his wife seriously injured.
Terming it a rarest-of-the-rare case, the court of additional sessions judge JS
Bhinder on Tuesday pronounced the death sentence on Jasvir Singh (37), a
resident of Kallowal village in the district, after holding him guilty of
burning his 2 minor sons to death and attempting to murder his wife in January.
Deciding the case in a record five hearings spanning 23 days after the first
hearing was held on August 27, the court said, "If the sentence lesser than the
capital punishment is awarded, the convict, after serving out the same, may
turn out to be a menace for society...He will remain a continuous threat to
society. His attack on family members to kill them was cold-blooded and hence
calls for deterrent punishment for this morality reprehensible or abominable
crime," the court ruled.
"Death sentence will only meet the ends of justice, as it will also be an eye
opener for other not to indulge in akin activities. I, therefore, sentence
Jasvir Singh to death under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and
direct that he be hanged by the neck till he is dead," the judge pronounced.
After the judgment, Jasvir's wife Narinder Kaur (28) said, "I tried my best to
save my sons Lovepreet Singh (5) and Lakhwinder Singh (4) from getting engulfed
in the fire that was engineered by my husband at our house on January 27, but I
failed to do so. The killer (Jasvir) should be hanged immediately so that the
innocent souls can rest in peace," she said, her eyes filled with tears.
The court also sentenced Jasvir to undergo seven years' rigorous imprisonment
for attempting to murder his wife, 5 years' rigorous imprisonment under section
436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house) of
the IPC and 1-year rigorous imprisonment under section 342 (punishment for
wrongful confinement) of the IPC. All sentences would run concurrently.
According to Jasvir Singh's wife Narinder Kaur, had earlier mentioned that the
Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) officials disconnected power
supply of her house for non-payment of Rs. 2,000 bill.
A drunken Jasvir returned home in the evening while he also brought liquor with
him. Upon getting to know about power disconnection, he exchanged heated
arguments with Narinder Kaur. He ordered her to borrow money from her parents
so as to pay the bill. She, however, told him that her parents had already paid
last bill worth Rs. 2000 and she would not abide by his dictates. But he
instead started beating her up with an iron rod and hurled abuses on her for
not acceding to his demand. He threatened to set all of them on fire.
Later, she along with 2 kids went to bed at 7 pm. Firstly, her husband with the
help of candle set the quilt on fire and shut the door from outside. She tried
to put off the fire but her cloths caught the fire. She raised the alarm and
neighbourers rushed to the spot and opened the door. She also cried for safety
of her children but her husband didn't care for them and run away from the
spot. "After receiving severe burn injuries, I managed to reach house of my
father-in-law's brother, who arranged an ambulance to shift all of us to civil
hospital," she said, adding that she later came to know that both her sons
succumbed to their injuries. The entire house was gutted in the fire.
(source: Hindustan Times)
*******************
BPO girl's killer to hang
Bombay High Court today confirmed the death penalty for a pool-car driver and
an accomplice who had raped and murdered a call centre employee, citing their
lack of remorse and the case's importance to working women's safety.
After raping 22-year-old Jyotikumari Chaudhary on a November night in Pune 5
years ago, the duo had slashed her wrists, strangled her and smashed her head
with a stone before dumping the body at the spot.
"This case (raised) the question of safety of women. Any woman who will take a
cab will be afraid whether she will reach the destination???. The case will
have a deep impact," the bench of Justices V.M. Kanade and P.D. Kode said.
Defence lawyer Rahul Kate had argued for a life term saying Purshottam Borate,
28, and Pradeep Kokade, 23, were young enough to reform and had widowed mothers
to take care of.
But the court said the convicts' failure to show remorse after the act
indicated they were beyond reformation, echoing a British judge's remarks on
the killer of Pune boy Anuj Bidve in Manchester last year.
Borate was to drive Jyoti and a few of her colleagues to their office for the
night shift. After picking up Jyoti first and murdering her, he picked up the
rest, drove them to the Wipro BPO and blamed the delay on a flat tyre.
"Within a few minutes of the crime, the duo cooked up a story and showed no
remorse," prosecutor Revati Dhere argued.
She added: "The case had a tremendous impact on working women and women working
on night shifts. Due to the impact of this case and a similar one in Bangalore,
women stopped going to work. In the era of equal opportunities, women???s
security was jeopardised. This has to be considered while awarding the death
sentence."
BPOs had announced a series of safety checks for women travelling in office
pool cars at night after a driver raped and murdered call centre worker Srikant
Pratibha Murthy in Bangalore in December 2005. But Jyoti's murder in November
2007 suggested the measures had mostly remained on paper.
Many times during the arguments, the court consulted the prosecution and
defence lawyers on the possible mitigating and aggravating factors, the
circumstances of the convicts and their possible reformation, as prescribed by
the apex court.
It commented on the abolition of the death penalty in 129 countries and on the
debate over whether India should do so. In the end, it said: "We have been
considering this for the past 2-3 weeks but found no other option but to
confirm the sentence."
A Pune court had awarded the death sentences on March 20, terming the case a
"rarest of the rare" crime and "a pre-conceived one committed to satisfy lust."
Jyoti's brother-in-law Gaur Sunder lauded today's judgment. "Jyoti cannot
return but her death is bringing security to other women. That is a big
solace," he said.
The prosecution requested the court to issue guidelines for the safety of women
but the bench advised it to approach the chief justice and ask that their
request be treated as a public interest litigation.
(source: The (Calcutta) Telegraph)
EGYPT:
7 Egyptians, U.S. pastor face death sentence in Cairo over anti-Islam film
Egypt's general prosecutor has issued arrest warrants for seven Egyptian Coptic
Christians and a Florida-based American pastor and referred them to trial on
charges linked to an anti-Islam film that has sparked riots across the Muslim
world.
The prosecutor's office says the 7 men and 1 woman, all of whom are believed to
be outside of Egypt, are charged with harming national unity, insulting and
publicly attacking Islam and spreading false information. The office says they
could face the death penalty.
A statement from the prosecutor on Tuesday says Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an
Egyptian Copt living in southern California and believed to be behind the film,
is among those charged. So is Florida-based Pastor Terry Jones, who has said he
was contacted by the filmmaker to promote the video.
(source: Associated Press)
TAIWAN:
Lawmakers, rights group urge retrial of death row man
Lawmakers and rights groups yesterday called for a retrial or an extraordinary
appeal for death row inmate Cheng Hsin-tze, who was convicted of murdering a
police officer in a case activists called "an obvious miscarriage of justice."
"No clear evidence proved that Cheng shot a police officer in Fongyuan
District, Greater Taichung, on Jan. 5, 2002, but he was still given the death
penalty," Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chiun told a
press conference.
There were numerous flaws in the handling of the crime scene and the
interrogation, and the judges presiding over the case were ignorant of evidence
favoring the defendant, lawyer Law Bing-ching said.
Cheng was accused of killing police officer Su Hsian-pi with a Glock handgun in
a shootout at a KTV, where Cheng, Luo Wu-hsiung and 4 other men were partying.
Luo also died in the shootout.
Cheng's conviction was based on a confession, allegedly extracted through
torture, and the testimony of witnesses, Law said.
Police investigators failed to take photographs of the crime scene, note the
positions of the guns involved, collect fingerprints from the guns or perform
ballistic analysis, the lawyer added.
However, throughout the 21 court proceedings relating to the case, the judges
failed to recognize these errors, he said.
Citing the "Hsichih Trio" case, in which three former death row inmates were
cleared of murder charges on Sept. 1, but only after 21 years of trials and
appeals, Law said Cheng's case "was simpler" and "it did not take a genius to
know there were many things wrong in the investigation."
A ballistic analysis would be enough to prove that Cheng did not fire one shot
and a blood splatter analysis would also show that Cheng could not possibly
have changed his position after being shot in the leg and fired at Su as the
police investigators claimed, Law said.
"But those reports, along with the police department's video recordings, have
been missing from start to finish," the lawyer said.
That was why legislators and rights groups demanded that the police submit all
available information and a retrial be held, Law said.
DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu appealed to Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming, saying
Huang "would not be comfortable with signing Cheng's execution order."
"If the Hsichih Trio could be proved innocent after 21 years in a case which
was much more complicated than Cheng's, I don't understand why Cheng does not
at least deserve a retrial," DPP Legislator Wu Yi-chen said.
(source: Taipei Times)
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