Jan. 14
INDIA:
President rejects mercy plea of death row convict
President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the mercy plea of death row convict
Saibanna Ningappa Natikar, who had murdered his wife and daughter.
This is the 2nd mercy petition that Mukherjee has rejected after assuming
office.
The President had in November last year rejected the mercy petition of Mumbai
terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab, who was then hanged in Yerwada jail in Pune,
Maharashtra.
According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement, the President's secretariat
rejected Natikar mercy plea on January 04.Natikar is presently lodged in
central prison at Belgaum in Karnataka.
Mukherjee has returned nine petitions including that of Mohammed Afzal Guru to
the Home Ministry for further consideration.
Guru has been given death sentence for attacking Parliament in 2001 in which
nine persons were killed and 16 were injured.
Article 72 of the Constitution empowers the President to pardon, grant reprieve
or suspend, remit, commute sentence of a person convicted for any offence.
The Home Ministry acts as a nodal agency for the President Secretariat for
deciding on mercy petitions.
The President had in November last year commuted death sentence of convict,
Atbir, to life imprisonment.
Atbir was sentenced to death by a sessions court here in 2004 for the murder of
his step mother, step sister and step brother over a property dispute in 1996.
The decision was upheld by the High Court and Supreme Court in August 2010.
The President has disposed of the petition on November 15 commuting the death
sentence given to him to life imprisonment.
(source: Zee News)
BANGLADESH:
2 get death sentence for rape and murder
A Dhaka court has sentenced 2 persons to death for raping 2 garments workers
and killing 1 of them in Dhaka's Mirpur area.
Acting Judge of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-5
delivered the verdict on Monday.
Mohammad Nazrul Islam, owner of S Nahar Garments in Mirpur, and his accomplice
Mohammed Mostafa are both absconding and have been tried in absentia.
The court also fined them Tk 2 million each.
In October 2006 Mostafa is said to have lured 2 women to Islam's Paikpara home
and both of them were raped. Both the women worked in a garment factory.
Later, Mostafa and Islam killed 1 of the women who was called 'Beauty' after
she had threatened to go public on the rapes.
Mostofa and Islam cut her into 7 pieces and dumped the parts in various places
across Mirpur. After the murder, police recovered a leg.
Sub-Inspector of Mirpur Police Station, Mohammad Hamidul Haq filed a case
against Islam and Mostofa.
Police had detained both the accused after the case was filed but they secured
bail from the High Court and have now gone into hiding.
(source: Bangldesh News)
BOTSWANA:
Death row inmate prays for custodial sentence
Phillip Gorosang wants the Court of Appeal to give him a custodial sentence
after Francistown High Court judge, Tshepo Motswagole, condemned him to death
for brutally murdering his girlfriend, Tshepo Badiyi, in Tutume in 2008.
Making submissions on behalf of the death row inmate, Attorney Unoda Mack said
there was no evidence on record indicating that Gorosang pre-planned the
killing of his fiance on that fateful day. The trial judge had found that
Gorosang pre-planned murdering Badiyi in that he waited for her in the dark
before crushing her head with a chisel and finished her off by slitting her
throat with a knife.Mack argued that when sentencing the convict, the court
erred and misdirected itself in finding that Gorosang pre-planned the killing,
as there was no evidence to support the findings. He further submitted that the
trial judge erred when he found that there were no extenuating
circumstances.Mack stressed that the only evidence available shows that the
deceased was assaulted as a result of sudden provocation.
He also argued that in dealing with Gorosang's evidence, the trial court stated
that the appellant's story is "more problematic and by his admission, he made
inconsistent statements". He added that the judge went further to state that
because Gorosang did not mention being insulted and pulled by private parts in
the confession statement, then his testimony in court was false and an
afterthought." It is submitted that the appellant's testimony is not
inconsistent with his confession but goes further than what is in the
confession. Further, the appellant never admitted that his testimony was
inconsistent with his confession statement. He explained why his confession
statement is not as detailed as his testimony," Mack argued. He stressed that
his client omitted mentioning some things because he forgot, and was frightened
after seeing some of the deceased's relatives.
Mack said the failure by Gorosang to mention the insults and pulling of his
private parts by the deceased does not mean that these incidents did not take
place. In any event, Mack submitted, Gorosang was the only person who knows
what happened immediately before he assaulted the deceased, and as such, his
testimony cannot just be dismissed as false or afterthought.Mack argued that
the provocation by the deceased, as described in the appellant's testimony, was
unlawful. He added that the act that caused the death was done in the heat of
passion as a result of the sudden provocation, and was reasonably
proportionate.
Mack urged judges of the Court of Appeal to temper with the sentence and give
his client a custodial one. He said the death sentence was unjustifiable in all
circumstances as such was not safe and ought to be overturned. He agreed with
judges that the murder was a brutal one, and as such, a stiffer custodial
sentence will suffice.State prosecutor, Chimbisana Sechele, conceded that even
though the murder was a brutal one, capital punishment was not appropriate.
Sechele argued that it was clear that provocation played a part at the time the
crime was committed. Judgment has been reserved until February 1, 2013. Judge
President Ian Kirby and Justices Isaac Lesetedi and Lord Alistair Abernethy
heard the case.
(source: Mmegi News)
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