Feb. 13
ZIMBABWE:
Death Penalty Divides Upper House
The provision in the draft constitution allowing the death penalty has thrown
Senators into a quandary on how they should deal with a motion moved in the
Upper House condemning capital punishment.
This emerged yesterday during debate on a motion that implored the government
to repeal capital punishment when Chiefs Council president Fortune Charumbira
rose to tell them that it was ironic for them to denounce the death penalty
when they had unanimously acceded to the draft constitution that condoned it.
Zaka Senator Misheck Marava (MDC-T) had moved a motion condemning the use of
the death penalty saying the country should move along with international
standards as 151 countries out of 193 United Nations member states had
abolished the practice.
The motion received an overwhelming support from Senators across the political
divide with legislators taking turns to condemn it saying it was unbiblical and
against the country's cultural norms.
The Senators said the death penalty should be replaced by life imprisonment.
After several Senators had taken to the floor condemning death penalty, Chief
Charumbira then rose to tell them that the draft constitution which they
accepted provided for capital punishment.
"Senators ululated here saying the draft was okay. Chapter 4 of the draft says
death penalty can be imposed in aggravated murder. This means that it is still
there in our constitution," said Chief Charumbira.
(source: All Africa News)
INDIA:
Afzal Guru's secret hanging a human rights violation: Prosecutor
The very lawyer instrumental in securing death sentence for Afzal Guru
disapproves of the secretive manner in which he has been executed without being
given an opportunity to meet his family.
Gopal Subramanium, who was the special public prosecutor in the Parliament
attack case in the Delhi high court and the Supreme Court, said the
government's failure to inform the family and let them see Guru before his
execution was a "serious omission in the administration of human rights".
In a written response to questions sent by TOI, the former solicitor general
said that in "a civilized society" he expected the rule of law and transparency
to be followed till the execution of the death penalty.
"There can hardly be any doubt that the family ought to have been first
informed and prepared, and should have been given a special opportunity to meet
Guru before he was hanged," he added.
Subramanium pointed out that the government's stratagem to deliver a fait
accompli on the family violated its own model prison manual which stipulated
that a prisoner sentenced to death was entitled to, among other things, meet
his relatives, friends and legal advisors once a week or more often, if need
be.
As for the government's claim to have adopted secrecy for security reasons,
Gopal Subramanium said: "Even if there was likely to be any kind of uproar or
sentiment, it would have to be dealt with at a different level. By no means can
this be a ground to keep Guru's family in the dark."
Asked if the denial of an opportunity to challenge the President's decision on
Guru's mercy petition amounted to a dilution of due process, Subramanium
confirmed that he was entitled to legal remedies even at that advanced stage,
as had happened in other cases. "After sitting on his mercy petition for almost
8 years, the government should not have suddenly executed Guru without letting
him explore his legal options."
He added that it was not necessary though that "any particular length of time
be made available to a prisoner to challenge the rejection of his mercy
petition".
None of the legal deficiencies in Guru's execution however detracted from the
merits of his conviction and the death penalty imposed on him, according to
Subramanium. He denied the allegation made human rights activists that Guru had
not received a fair trial in the absence of legal representation of his choice.
He said since such an allegation had been made before it, "the Supreme Court
took pains to conduct an evaluation and was satisfied that he was not deprived
of legal assistance during the trial". Although Guru had raised an objection to
a junior lawyer appointed as amicus to defend him, the trial court recorded
that Neeraj Bansal did have sufficient experience in dealing with terror cases.
Subramanium pointed out that the counsel originally appointed by the trial
court for Guru had switched to defending another accused in the same case and
that other lawyers sought by him were not willing to appear for him.
As for Guru's counter charge that as a surrendered militant he had got involved
in the Parliament attack on the instructions of security forces in Kashmir,
Subramanium said that this claim was not taken seriously as he had come up with
it only towards the end of the trial. "Guru made no such suggestions in the
course of cross examination to any of the prosecution witnesses and in
particular to the officers of the Jammu and Kashmir police who had come to
depose before the Court," he said. "If Guru had seriously believed in this
charge, he would have brought this to the attention of the trial court at an
earlier stage and even sought a further investigation."
Why did the Supreme Court have to invoke "the collective conscience of society"
to justify the hanging of a conspirator? Subramanium said that given the
gravity of the crime, it was just the apex court's way of conveying that "the
offence did not admit of any other possible punishment as appropriate".
But then, as a member of the Verma Commission, Subramanium recently took a
liberal position against having death penalty in cases where rape was followed
by murder. So does he in retrospect regret asking for death for somebody like
Guru who was not present at the scene of crime and had not himself killed
anybody? Subramanium said that the offence of waging war against the country
was "on a somewhat different footing" as compared to a sexual crime, however
horrendous. "While it is true that he was not an overt shooter, Guru was a
central figure in the conspiracy because he provided all the logistical support
for the attack."
(source: The Times of India)
***************************
Executions as a Matter of Opinion
When Indian cops take defendants to court, they walk holding hands, as if they
were grim lovers. In photographs and video footage of Muhammad Afzal, also
known as Afzal Guru, he can be seen being led in this manner by a man in
uniform. But the state had no affection for Mr. Afzal.
He was found guilty of helping terrorists who attacked the Indian Parliament in
2001, and thus of "waging war against India," among other serious charges. His
was a long and complicated case, with gaping holes in the police investigation;
even the Supreme Court, the highest in India, found that he was implicated not
by direct evidence, but by a clutch of circumstances that pointed to his
involvement.
Though the courts found Mr. Afzal to be complicit in the attack on Parliament,
it remains unclear just how significant his role in the plot was.
Last Saturday morning, he was hanged in secrecy in the Tihar jail in New Delhi.
According to the newspaper The Hindu, the 43-year-old was informed of his fate
on the morning of the hanging, and after regaining his composure he wrote a
letter to his wife and son, which he handed to a jail official as he emerged
from his cell for the short walk to the gallows.
The hanging of Mr. Afzal, which surprised the nation and shocked his family,
led to expressions of joy from politicians of various parties, as well as
ordinary citizens. The world that Mr. Afzal was found unfit to live in was also
a world that had the capacity to celebrate a human death. But there were also
many who were disgusted, and who protested - and not merely in the Kashmir
Valley, Mr. Afzal's birthplace, where a curfew was imposed - because the
execution has raised a number of deep concerns. Taken together, they point to a
disturbing question: Is the Indian justice system competent, consistent and
fair enough to grant the state the moral authority to terminate a human life?
On Dec. 13, 2001, 5 armed men in a car drove into the outer fringes of the
Parliament compound and opened fire, killing 8 security personnel and a
civilian. All 5 attackers, about whom no substantial information has been made
public, were soon killed.
According to the police, a trail led from the dead militants to Mr. Afzal and 3
others - 2 of whom were also sentenced to death by lower courts, before the
Supreme Court, insufficiently impressed by the evidence, overturned one
conviction and commuted the other man's sentence to 10 years.
But the Supreme Court upheld Mr. Afzal's death sentence, making an observation
that would be extraordinary in any mature democracy: "The incident, which
resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation, and the collective
conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is
awarded to the offender."
The question is not whether the esteemed court is competent to gauge the
"collective conscience of the society" but whether that conscience, whatever it
might be, should influence the court's judgment in the first place. And if it
should, then it is hard to overlook a huge body of educated, patriotic and
law-abiding Indians who have been saying through all available channels that
their "conscience" will be satisfied only if their nation ends the practice of
executing people.
Also, there is the matter of inconsistency. There are people who have been
sentenced to death for assassinations or for waging war against the state who
have yet to be hanged, even though they were sentenced long before Mr. Afzal
was. There is no logic that explains why one man in India must hang before
another man. The state can, through the sheer force of technicalities, prolong
the life of a person on death row, while in a less fortunate person's case
using its discretion to rush through the formalities. In this way, political
calculations have been allowed to seep into what should be a purely judicial
process.
Indian courts are supposed to impose the death penalty only in the "rarest of
rare" cases. But this qualifier has proved to be highly subjective. Recently,
the Supreme Court spared the life of a man who had killed his wife and daughter
while out on parole; he had been in prison for raping that daughter when she
was a minor. The court believed he could be reformed. A few days later, another
Supreme Court bench sentenced a man to death for the murder of a 7-year-old
boy, having taken into account the fact that the boy was his parents' "only
male child."
There is outrage, of course, over the implication that those parents' anguish
would have been less, and therefore the crime less heinous, if the child had
been a girl.
But there are times, it appears, when the Indian justice system does not wish
to satisfy "the collective conscience of the society."
(source: Editorial; Manu Joseph is editor of the Indian newsweekly Open and
author of the novel "The Illicit Happiness of Other People."----New York Times)
***************************
17 expat bootleggers on death row walk free from UAE jail
The men were found guilty of killing Pakistani national, Misri Khan, during a
bootlegging turf war in Sharjah's industrial area.
They were handed the death penalty but later pardoned by Khan's family after a
benefactor paid Dhs3.4 million in blood money on their behalf to have their
sentences commuted for the 2009 crime.
?Yesterday they arrived home. One of the freed men, Baljeet Singh, said: "I
cannot wait to see my parents. The first thing I will do is bow down to them
and apologise for ever leaving them.
"If it wasn't to try and earn more money, I would never have come to the UAE.
But now I will find work here and always stay close to my family."
Dubai-based Indian hotelier S P Singh Oberoi helped secure their release. The
philanthropist raised the blood money and also paid Dhs17,000 to remove the
travel ban issued against the workers.
The convicts were finally deported on Monday, boarding an Air India flight to
Delhi at 12.05am, with tickets sponsored by the Indian Consulate.
"We are on our way to the Golden Temple where the men's families are waiting
for them where we will all offer prayers and give thanks together," said
Oberoi, talking to 7DAYS on the phone while en route from Delhi to Amritsar.
The men had maintained they were not involved in Khan???s murder and had been
framed. Khan died after being stabbed repeatedly.
(source: secendaysindubai.com)
******************
UK Sikh body active on raising concerns on eve of French President's visit to
India
President Francois Hollande will be visiting New Delhi on February 14-15 on his
1st trip to India since being elected in May 2012.
The Sikh Federation (UK) has been in contact with Sikhs in France to urge them
to raise French opposition to India carrying out the death penalty.
Bhai Amrik Singh, Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said:
'India has now challenged the civilised world and in particular the 27 EU
countries by carrying out 2 hangings in last 3 months. The Indian media and
politicians have now said Balwant Singh Rajoana and Professor Davinderpal Singh
Bhullar should be next.'
'We have requested Sikh representatives in France to contact President Francois
Hollande as a matter of urgency so he takes up this issue on their behalf.'
Similarly, the Sikh Federation (UK) is urging Sikhs in Punjab and those in
Delhi to raise the issue of religious discrimination against the minority Sikh
community in France when President Francois Hollande in there later this week.
Bhai Amrik Singh, Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said:
'The United Nations has in the last 12 months taken two decisions in support of
the Sikhs right to freely wear their turbans. Since President Francois Hollande
is making his 1st visit to India since being elected in May 2012 this is an
opportunity for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to directly raise the issue with
the French President.'
'The French have always given the signal that the French law introduced in 2004
has had unintended consequences for Sikh children in schools. But given the UN
rulings the French have an opportunity to find a way of allowing Sikh children
to freely wear their turbans and also not having to force Sikhs to remove their
turbans for the purposes of ID photographs. Where there is a will, there is
way.'
(source: Sikhsiyasat)
****************************
Ex-MLA's daughter, 5 others on death row in Haryana
6 convicts, including daughter of a former MLA, are on death row in Haryana.
The mercy petitions of former MLA Relu Ram Punia's daughter Sonia, 30, her
husband Sanjeev Kumar and rape-murder convict Dharam Pal are pending before the
President while appeal of other 3 convicts are pending in the Punjab and
Haryana high court.
Additional director general of state prisons department Yash Pal Singal said
the six death row convicts are lodged in different jails in the state. The last
execution in Haryana was in 1989, when Gulab Singh, a murderer, was hanged at
the central jail in Ambala.
The death penalty of Sonia and her husband was upheld by the apex court in 2007
for the gruesome murder of 8 members of her family, including her father and
former MLA Relu Ram Punia, in 2001 over property dispute. The couple is lodged
in Ambala jail at present. Sonia's father, an affluent businessman, had won the
assembly election from Barwala constituency as an independent candidate in
1996. Sonia, a taekwondo champion, chose her 19th birthday (August 23, 2001) to
commit the crime at her father's farmhouse in Hisar district.
Those bludgeoned to death included her mother Krishna, sister Priyanka,
stepbrother Sunil, his wife Shakuntala and their 3 children - Lokesh, 4,
Shivani, 2, and 45-day-old Preeti. Dharam Pal, another convict on death row in
Haryana, had murdered 5 members of the family of a girl he had raped in 1993.
The trial court awarded death penalty and the Punjab and Haryana HC upheld the
decision. In March 1999, the apex court upheld Dharam Pal's death sentence. In
another case, a Jhajjar district court in 2011 awarded death sentence to 2
persons -- Ajay Veer alias Toni, a resident of Jasaur Kheri village, and Jairam
alias Baba from Mundka village -- and life imprisonment to 8 others in a triple
murder case over a land dispute in Jasaur Kheri village.
Both are in Ambala jail now. In 2012, a local court had awarded death sentence
to a youth, Nikka Singh, 23, for the rape and murder of a 75-year-old woman at
Sawantkhera village in Sirsa in 2011. The youth had confronted the victim when
she had gone for a stroll after lunch. He had strangulated her with her
'salwar' after raping her. His parents have approached the Punjab and Haryana
high court.
(source: India Times)
*******************************************
Executions put focus on trio awaiting the noose
In the shadow of the execution of Afzal Guru, hanged for his role in a 2001
terrorist attack on parliament, India's most high-profile death-row inmates
await an uncertain fate.
AG Perarivalan, Murugan and Santhan - the latter 2 of whom use only 1 name -
are lodged in a prison in Vellore, in the state of Tamil Nadu. In 1998, they
were convicted of helping to plan the assassination of Indian prime minister
Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
Their case, however, is problematic for the Congress-led central government
because it goes to the heart of a political tussle between it and Tamil Nadu.
The death sentence for all three men was confirmed by the Supreme Court in
1999. But when a date for their hanging was formally fixed in August 2011, the
Madras High Court stayed the execution, accepting their plea that the 11-year
period taken to reject their mercy petitions was unconstitutional.
Along with a handful of cases involving similar delays, their future is now in
the hands of the Supreme Court, which will decide whether the men will be
executed or not. Although the arguments on either side have been heard, no date
has been set for a decision to be announced.
"Ideally, what should happen is for their execution to be set aside, on the
grounds that the inordinate delay justifies a commutation of the sentence to
life imprisonment," said Colin Gonsalves, a lawyer who represented Mr
Perarivalan in the Madras High Court in 2011.
Such delays are only too common. India has more than 400 convicts on death row,
lodged in various prisons around the country, according to data from the
National Crime Records Bureau.
But the executions of Guru last Saturday and of Ajmal Kasab - who was hanged in
November for participating in the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai - were the 1st
in India in more than 8 years.
Before these cases, the previous execution in India was in August 2004, when a
convicted rapist, Dhananjoy Chatterjee, was hanged in Kolkata.
But in the high-profile case of Gandhi's assassination, the Congress Party
risks losing ground in Tamil Nadu if it executes Perarivalan, Murugan and
Santhan.
The assassination was carried out under the orders of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant outfit in Sri Lanka that was
agitating for an independent state.
The ethnic and linguistic ties between the Tamils in Sri Lanka and those in
India have often led Tamil Nadu's political parties to support the LTTE and its
nationalist goals.
The LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan army in 2009 but its influence on the
political process in Tamil Nadu is perceived to continue.
In 2011, even as the high court was hearing petitions from Murugan, Santhan and
Perarivalan, the Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa's legislature passed
a resolution pressing for a reconsideration of their mercy petitions.
Peer Mohamed, a Chennai-based political analyst, said that Ms Jayalalithaa, as
well as her rival party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), are opposed to
the execution of these three death-row convicts, and have lobbied to have their
sentences commuted. These stances are, he noted, politically based.
"The Tamil nationalists are a minority in the state's electorate, but they are
a vocal minority, and their opinions can spiral down fast," Mr Mohamed said.
"Jayalalithaa was not known for such gestures [like the 2011 resolution]
earlier, but she has realised the electoral potential of this vocal minority
and jumped on the bandwagon."
But TKS Elangovan, the organisation secretary of the DMK, said his party was
opposed to the death penalty.
"Not only for this case, but for all cases, we think the maximum punishment
should be life imprisonment."
Rajiv Gandhi was a leader of the Congress Party, which heads the coalition
governing India. But the party's weakening political presence in Tamil Nadu was
another reason that the executions had been delayed, said Mr Mohamed.
In state-assembly elections in 2011, the Congress earned only 9.3 % of votes in
Tamil Nadu, down from its usual range of between 13 and 17 %.
"So the Congress knows it will lose further ground in the state if these
executions happen," Mr Mohamed said.
(source: The National)
************************************************
No compromise with terrorism: Punjab BJP on Rajoana
Breaking its silence on the impending death sentence to Babbar Khalsa terrorist
Balwant Singh Rajaona, the Punjab BJP on TUesday said there should be no
"compromise" with terrorism.
Speaking to The Indian Express, party national vice president and in-charge of
Punjab affairs, Shanta Kumar, said BJP's stand on terrorism was clear. "There
should not be any compromise with terror and law should take its own course in
such cases," he added. Asked about its ally SAD having pleaded for pardon for
the terrorist with the Centre, Kumar said: "There should be no attempt to
interfere with the process of law."
Rajoana is facing death for planning the assassination of former Punjab chief
minister Beant Singh. His mercy petition filed by SGPC is pending with
President Pranab Mukherjee. The BJP's stand has brought the differences between
the BJP and the SAD on the issue again to the fore. Senior SAD leader Prem
Singh Chandumajra had already stated that the Akalis were against Rajoana's
death sentence. "As a party, we are opposed to death penalty. For SAD, it is a
matter of principle that no one should be hanged for a crime. We believe that
it is for God to give life and take life," he said.
With BJP leaders clearly stating they were against any softness towards
terrorists, the SAD leadership is now faced with a piquant situation. Backed by
SAD, the SGPC had filed a clemency appeal before the President for Rajoana in
March 2012 and the state BJP had maintained a stoic silence over the move.
However, the then state BJP president Ashwani Kumar and Health Minister Madan
Mohan Mittal had made it clear that no terrorist should be spared.
"In case of Rajoana, the party is clear that it did the right thing in
appealing for his pardon. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had met the Prime
Minister and later the Union Home Minister last year over the issue. In case,
it is needed, we will meet them again," said Chandumajra.
He added: "We have been living in peace and communal harmony for two decades
and executing Rajoana or any other Punjab terrorist will only lead to fuelling
the sentiments of the people. It can threaten to become a law and order issue."
Last week, following the execution of Afzal Guru, Punjab Congress had asked the
SAD-BJP combine to clear its stand on Rajoana. State Congress General Secretary
Arvind Khanna, while saying that the government should tell the people their
views about Rajoana, had questioned the saffron party's silence on the issue.
"The BJP does not want to annoy its alliance partner. It wants to remain in
power while compromising its self proclaimed nationalism," he had said.
(source: Indian Express)
LEBANON:
Prosecutor recommends terrorism charges
Lebanon's former information minister and a Syrian general should be tried on
terrorism charges, a military prosecutor recommended Tuesday.
Prosecutor Saqr Saqr said former Information minister Michel Samaha and Syrian
Gen. Ali Mamlouk are accused of transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon
to carry out terrorist attacks, The (Beirut) Daily Star reported.
The explosives were intended "to kill clergymen, politicians, lawmakers and
citizens," Saqr said.
Samaha was also accused of working with foreign intelligence against his
country. He was arrested last month.
A warrant for Mamlouk's arrest was issued earlier this month.
If found guilty of the charges, the 2 could face the death penalty.
Saqr's recommendations were referred to Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu
Ghayda who will issue the final indictment in the case.
(source: United Press International)
MALAYSIA:
Perth man's drug trial adjourned From: AAP
The drugs trial of Perth man Dominic Bird in a Malaysian court has been
adjourned after the prosecutor took ill.
The 32-year-old's trial in Kuala Lumpur's High Court was to have continued on
Wednesday with the cross-examination of the undercover police officer who set
up a meeting for a drug deal that led to Bird's arrest in the Malaysian capital
in March last year.
The hearing was adjourned for a day on Wednesday when the court was told the
prosecutor had fallen ill.
Bird was arrested at a cafe near his apartment in Kuala Lumpur as he allegedly
handed over a package containing 167 grams of methamphetamine to Inspector
Luther Nurjib, who had been posing as a drug dealer.
He faces a mandatory death penalty if convicted on the charges of drug dealing.
The credibility of Insp Nurjib, whose testimony in a hearing late last year
raised serious allegations of corruption, is expected to come under scrutiny
again when the trial resumes on Thursday.
Insp Nurjib admitted in court last year to having passed on a sample of drugs
allegedly obtained from Bird weeks before his arrest to another dealer.
The drug squad detective, who has faced disciplinary action in the past for
taking a Rolex watch from a suspect in another case, also admitted he used
money given to him from the same drug dealer to allegedly buy the sample of
drugs from Bird.
Insp Nurjib had not reported any of his actions to his superiors, which the
defence maintains raises further questions about the police officer's
credibility.
The revelations could have implications for Bird's chances of winning an
acquittal.
(source: News.com)
UGANDA:
Uganda deports British gay play producer
Uganda has deported a British theatre producer who last year staged a play
about homosexuality, which is illegal in Uganda, the British High Commission
said Tuesday.
David Cecil was arrested in September on charges of disobeying orders to cancel
the staging of a play whose main character was a gay man. He was briefly jailed
before being granted bail.
In January a court dropped the charges for lack of proof.
"We have confirmation of deportation," High Commission spokesman Chris Ward
told AFP.
"We are quite concerned that he has not had the opportunity for due process
under the Ugandan system," he added.
Cecil's partner Florence Kebirungi, who has 2 children with him, said he was
likely "already back in the UK."
She said he was taken on Monday evening from the police station where he was
being held to the capital's main airport, where he was put on a flight for
Britain.
"He called me from the airport, he didn't sound OK," she said, adding that
immigration officials told her that Cecil was being deported because he was an
"undesirable" person.
"It is a big surprise as we did not have a chance to make a legal challenge,"
she told AFP.
The groundbreaking play "The River and The Mountain" was performed at several
venues around Kampala in August despite an injunction by Uganda's
government-run media council. It had issued a temporary ban on the play pending
review of the script.
The play examines the plight of a man coming out as a homosexual and the
motivations of Uganda's vociferous anti-gay lobby.
Written by British playwright Beau Hopkins, it was directed and performed by
Ugandans.
Homosexuality is already a crime in Uganda but proposed legislation currently
before parliament would see the death penalty introduced for certain homosexual
acts.
Although legislators have said the bill could be changed, in its current form,
anyone caught engaging in homosexual acts for the 2nd time, or engaging in gay
sex where 1 partner is a minor or has HIV, would be sentenced to death.
Public discussion promoting homosexuality -- including by rights groups --
would be punished by up to 7 years in jail.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
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