Feb. 20
NIGERIA:
Labour Leader Calls For Stiffer Penalties For 'Pension Funds Thieves'
Yemisi Bamgbose, President, Radio, Television Theatre and Arts Workers
Union(RATTAWU) has called for stiffer penalties for those who tampered with
pension funds to serve as a deterrent to others.
The union leader told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja that
the issues of pension fund scam had taken a dangerous dimension.
Bamgbose told NAN that "the China option" of handling corruption should be
adopted in such crime.
According to him, the Chinese method of imposing the death penalty on any
corrupt public and political official should be adopted to nip corruption in
the bud in Nigeria.
"I support the 'China option' of dealing with corruption. Although some people
are saying it is too harsh, but that is the only option to stop this
criminality and the monumental theft going on.
"Countries such as Singapore, the People's Republic of China, Vietnam and
Taiwan are exploring the death penalty option to curb corruption," Bamgbose
said.
He said corruption would reduce drastically in Nigeria when those entrusted
with public funds were constantly reminded of the penalties they had to face if
found guilty of corrupt charges.
Similarly, Mr Sunday Alhassan, National President, National Union of
Communication Technology Employees (NUCTE), advised the Federal Government to
pay pensioners as at when due to curb corruption.
"Government should respect those people that have spent their useful years for
the country by paying them at the right time.
"The people entrusted with the fund won't be able to spend the money if you pay
the owners of the money at the right time, as there won't be any money to
embezzle.
"It is obvious that in Nigeria, a lot of people are corrupt. So, do not keep
this money in a place where those who superintend over it can embezzle it,"
Alhassan said.
(source: Leadershiop)
INDIA:
'Afzal's hanging barbaric'
The hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was an "abomination" and a
"barbaric" violation of human rights, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
member Satyabrata Pal said here yesterday.
However, he said these were his personal views and did not represent the
commission.
"Death penalty is an abomination in a democracy and Afzal Guru's hanging is a
barbaric violation of human rights. It is also a violation of the rights of his
family which did not get the right to grieve," Pal said.
Lamenting at the manner in which Guru was executed, he said: "The family had
the right to grieve, meet Afzal Guru and conduct the last rites."
Guru, 43, was hanged inside the Tihar Central Jail in the capital and buried
near his solitary cell on February 9. The hanging triggered a debate across the
country.
On Monday, officials said Guru's body is not likely to be handed over to his
family.
"The (home) ministry has decided not to give the body to his family and the
Jammu and Kashmir government will be informed about it soon," a ministry source
said.
The family had demanded his body and had written to the government. The source
said the decision not to give his family the body has been taken in view of the
law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
The family had earlier wanted to perform his last rites inside the jail, but
they later decided against it and instead demanded that the body be handed over
to them. They have even refused to take back his belongings which are with the
jail authorities. Guru's cousin Yasin said: "They executed someone without
informing his family members."
He said the family was expecting "some positive response" from the government.
Last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde
that Guru's family should have been informed before his execution.
Meanwhile, Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah yesterday briefed Governor N N
Vohra on the situation in the state following Guru's execution.
According to sources, Abdullah held an hour-long meeting with Vohra and gave
him details on how the situation was handled. He also explained how the police
were asked to exercise restraint to deal with protesters.
(source: Gulf-Times)
**************************
House of Commons to Debate Human Rights Violations in India
The Kesri Lehar petition has secured a debate in the House of Commons. The
success of the people's petition enabled UK MPs to propose backbench business
committee for the parliamentary time to stage a debate. The debate has now been
listed to take place in the Main Chamber on Thursday, February 28 at 11.30am.
The call for the parliamentary debate was supported by a cross-party group of
68 Members of Parliament, through their support of the Kesri Lehar EDM 296. On
June 28 last year, Rt Hon John McDonnell primarily sponsored and supported the
Early Day Motion (EDM) which will be used as the basis for the debate.
The full text of the motion to be debated states:
"That this House welcomes the national petition launched by the Kesri Lehar
campaign urging the UK Government to press the Indian government to sign and
ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the UN
Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, which encompasses the death penalty, with the result that India
would abolish the death penalty and lift this threat from Balwant Singh Rajoana
and others."
The petition originated after a public gathering in Parliament Square in April
2012, to appeal for the release of Balwant Singh Rajoana. The petition which
has accrued over 118,000 signatures was formally presented to Prime Minster
David Cameron on 10th December 2012 by a large delegation of Kesri Lehar
campaigners, which included representatives of Amnesty International,
Federation and the Asian Chriastian Fellowship. A greater momentum has since
gathered for a Parliamentary debate to discuss the ongoing Human Rights
atrocities that are being systematically being perpetrated by the Union of
States Government of India within various states and upon certain minority
groups.
Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams, one of the supporters, commenting on the
petition said:
"I pay tribute to the work done by both Kesri Lehar and to Amnesty
International (which I am a member of) as they have continued to expose the
Indian Government's failure to address human rights abuses effectively. I abhor
the death penalty and I do not think it has a place in any modern criminal
justice system. I strongly believe that it is not an effective deterrent and
simply demonstrates contempt for human life."
Recent Secret Hangings in India
The secrecy in which recent executions were carried out in India has evoked
both shock and surprise in the civilized world. Human rights bodies and
activist have renewed calls for India to end capital punishment.
India is among a minority of countries which continue to use the death penalty.
In total, 140 countries, more than 2/3 of the world's countries, are
abolitionist in law or in practice. In 2011, only 21 states in the world
executed, meaning that 90 % of the world was execution-free.
The campaigners and supporters of Kesri Lehar (Wave for Justice) feel that the
scheduled debate on Human Rights violations in the Union of States Government
of India will be "a timely debate as India seeks to send many others currently
on death row, including Balwant Singh Rajoana and Professor Bhullar who have
amassed immense grassroots support."
UK campaigned to save Afzal Guru - EDM 1330, 23 April 2007
Labour MP John McDonnell also campaigned in the UK to save Afzal Guru. The EDM
1330 was moved asking the Indian President to intervene urgently to use his
prerogative of mercy to revoke the death sentence and call an inquiry into
Afzal Guru's conviction. Afzal Guru was hanged secretly on Saturday, February
9, 2013 after his final clemency plea was rejected. Guru had always denied
plotting the attack, which left 14 dead in India. Guru's secret hanging was the
2nd in the last 3 months in India.
(source: sikh24.com)
******************************************
SC stays Veerappan aides' hanging for 6 months
Hanging of 4 aides of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan has been further delayed
with the Supreme Court on Wednesday extending its interim order staying the
execution of death sentence imposed on them for killing 22 police personnel in
a landmine blast in Karnataka in 1993.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir said it was keeping the
matter pending since another bench, which has heard an identical plea, has
reserved its judgement.
"In our view, the proper course of action is to adjourn the matter until
another bench renders its judgement on similar matters. Therefore, accordingly
we adjourn the hearing of this matter for 6 months to enable another bench to
deliver the judgement in another pending matter.
"As a consequence, the interim order staying the execution of petitioners
(Veerappan aides) passed on February 18 shall continue" until further orders,
the bench also comprising justices A R Dave and Vikramajit Sen said.
The bench noted that the subject matter of the petition was relating to the
right of the death row convicts to get their sentence commuted to life
imprisonment on account of delay of execution of their death sentence.
"This is the main question involved when this matter was taken by us. It was
brought to our notice that other writ petitions involving the same issue were
heard by a bench of 2 judges in which senior advocates Ram Jethmalani and T R
Andhyarujina were requested as amicus curiae," the bench said.
Veerappan's elder brother Gnanaprakash and his aides Simon, Meesekar Madaiah
and Bilavendran were awarded death sentence in 2004 in connection with a
landmine blast at Palar in Karnataka in 1993 in which 22 police personnel were
killed.
Their mercy petition was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on February 13
and they are presently lodged in a jail in Belgaum in Karnataka.
A TADA court in Mysore had in 2001 sentenced them to life term which was
enhanced to death sentence by the apex court.
Gang leader Veerappan was killed in an encounter with the Tamil Nadu Police in
October 2004.
The apex court also noted that the judgement in the writ petition heard by
another bench on the issue was reserved on April 19, 2012.
The bench said it has been informed by Additional Solicitor General Haren Raval
that while considering the 2 writ petitions, of Devender Pal Singh Bhullar and
M N Das, the other bench had the occasion to consider similar matters in which
the mercy petitions were pending before the President.
The CJI said that since another bench has already heard and reserved its
judgement on the issue, there is a possibility that the pleas of Veerappan
aides can be heard by the same bench also.
The court is hearing two petitions, out of which one was filed by the 4
convicts and the other by advocate Samik Narain, on their behalf.
Urging the apex court to intervene, the 4 death convicts pleaded that a
decision on their mercy petition has been delayed by 9 years and as per its
earlier order they are entitled to seek remedy for undue long delay in the
execution of the sentence of death.
"9 years delay in disposal of the petitioners' mercy petitions has given them a
right to approach this Court or the High Court to seek a commutation of the
sentence of death," the petition said.
On the last date of hearing, the court gave Narain the liberty to amend and
rectify the petition after objections were raised on its maintainability by
Attorney General G E Vahanvati who was asked to assist the court.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the 4 convicts, had said their
execution should be stayed as another apex court bench had reserved its order
on a plea for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground of
delay in deciding mercy plea.
Gonsalves had referred to the petitions filed by the 2 condemned prisoners,
Bhullar and Das, on whose plea for commutation of capital punishment to life
term on the ground of delay, the apex court reserved its verdict in April last
year.
The bench earlier had said that hearing this matter may also have a bearing on
the petitions filed by the death row convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination
case against the rejection of their mercy petition.
The apex court had on May 1 last year had decided to adjudicate itself the
pleas of Rajiv Gandhi killers -- Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan alias Arivu
-- against their death penalty due to the delay of over 11 years in deciding
their mercy petitions by the President.
The Madras High Court had earlier stayed their hanging and had issued notices
to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government.
(source: Zee News)
**********************************
The smiling assassins
As I munched into my sandwich on a chilly Sunday morning, my mind just started
wandering and I thought about the first citizen of our country, Pranab
Mukherjee, what would he be doing on a Sunday morning? Before I could delve
deep into this question, an image of his blazed before my eyes: it was him
sitting in his office, sipping a cup of coffee and rejecting one 'mercy plea'
after the other.
This seems to be a season where 'rejection of mercy pleas' is in vogue. The
latest addition in the list are Veerapan's aides. The legal position with
regard to the 'rejection of mercy pleas' and the procedure to be followed
thereafter needs clarification and a uniform approach. When we talk about
people on 'death row', we need to start with a basic premise that all of them
are on the same plane and have been found to be equally guilty by the Highest
Court of the land. One cannot argue that the killers of a former Prime-Minister
are differently placed than any other convict on death-row, they all are one in
the eyes of law, having been found guilty of having committed a crime that
falls within the 'rarest of rare' category as per the highest court of the
country. Therefore, when we look to discuss and debate this topic, we need to
start with the basic premise that none of the convicts on death-row is less
guilty than the other.
The question that has me in a tangle is with regard to the procedure that
should be followed when the 'mercy plea' of any such convict is rejected by the
President of India. I will elucidate my dilemma by mentioning two recent cases.
The three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, who are on death row
were duly informed that their mercy plea had been rejected by the President of
India and they were further put on notice about the date of their execution a
month in advance. They chose to challenge the decision of the President of
India and even succeeded in getting their execution 'stayed' as a result of
which they continue to breathe even today, months after they were scheduled to
be hanged. The whole process of getting the execution stayed is baffling. The
last recourse that the Constitution mandates to a convict who has been awarded
a death penalty by the Supreme Court is to opt for a mercy petition before the
President of India. If we let a convict challenge the President's decision as
well, then were does the process actually end? The judiciary decides, then one
appeals to the President; the President decides and we move back to the
judiciary, however baffling and illogical this may seem, this is what has
happened.
As I tried to come to terms with this baffling procedure and my mind was
struggling to find an answer to the question 'How would a mercy petition ever
be decided if such a procedure is to be followed', came along another case,
that of the Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru. This man's mercy plea
was rejected by the President, his family was informed through 'speed post' and
he was hanged a couple of days before the postman knocked at his residence in
Kashmir. Unlike the previous case where the family was informed about a month
in advance and then they chose to challenge the President's decision, the
communication sent to the family in this case was a piece of paper that
informed them about a fact that was the 'talk of the nation' for the last 2
days. Ironically, the letter ended with a note saying 'this is for your
information and further necessary action'. The Superintendent of Tihar jail
really needs to help me out and explain as to what did he means by 'further
necessary action'? What 'further necessary action' could the family take after
Afzal Guru had been buried? Does the Government really want us to believe that
sending a 'speed post' was a genuine effort to inform the family and enable
them to take 'further necessary action'?
We need to have one clear policy in dealing with such cases. There has to be
one rule, one procedure and one approach in dealing with all the convicts on
death row. We can ill-afford a situation where the culprits in one such case
are informed a month in advance and are provided an 'escape route' while the
issue is settled in an 'under wraps' operation within a matter of hours in
another.
While the country is getting used to waking-up to a 'mercy petition' being
rejected every morning, there are a couple of cases that are particularly under
the scanner (as they bear a political colour as well). The pressure is mounting
from certain quarters to see those 2 cases in particular being fast-tracked and
in the midst of it all we get the news of Veerapan's aides being readied for
the gallows. Well, with this news coming-in, dare I say, I can see a notorious
smile on the faces of Rajoana, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan.
(source: Wasim Beg, Kashmir Times)
UNITED KINGDOM:
How Britain's Last Hangman Did His Job
Albert Pierrepoint was an unlikely mid-century celebrity. When he wasn't
managing a pub in Manchester, he earned his keep as Britain's last official
hangman.
Pierrepoint was born in Yorkshire in 1905. His father and uncle were hangmen,
part of a small class of state-appointed "official executioners," and young
Albert aimed to take up their trade. As a schoolchild, he wrote in an essay,
"When I leave school I should like to be the Official Executioner."
After some early trouble finding a position, Pierrepoint earned a reputation as
an artful and efficient hangman, and his career blossomed. By the 1940s, the
British Crown was flying him far and wide to hang criminals throughout the
empire and beyond. He is said to have executed some 200 Nazis after World War
II.
In the document on the left below, from 1950, Pierrepoint describes his
technique to a Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, which was set up by the
Home Secretary in 1949 to consider whether "capital punishment for murder
should be limited or modified."
"We have a dummy execution, a rehearsal, on that afternoon when we arrive [at a
prison.] In the evening...we see the prisoner, probably at exercise or in his
cell. Then we ask for his age, height and weight and in the evening we make out
his drop. Every person has a different drop." In 1956, Pierrepoint resigned
after a disagreement with the Home Office over fees. In 1969, British MPs voted
to abolish the death penalty.
In his 1974 autobiography, Executioner: Pierrepoint, Albert revealed his own
misgivings about capital punishment:
"It is said to be a deterrent. I cannot agree....I do not now believe that any
one of the hundreds of executions I carried out has in any way acted as a
deterrent against future murder. Capital punishment, in my view, achieved
nothing except revenge."
(source: Slate.com)
TANZANIA:
Former Warrnambool man murdered in Tanzania
Tributes are flowing in from around the world for a former Warrnambool man
murdered in Tanzania.
Brian Gunnulson was found dead in his home in the Tanzanian capital Dar es
Salaam on January 22.
The 53-year-old had been working and living in Tanzania for 25 years, teaching
Swahili and English.
Tanzanian newspaper The Citizen reported Mr Gunnulson suffered 2 bottle blows
to the head before a thief or thieves made off with about $A4000 worth of
Tanzanian shillings, his laptop, a solar lamp and his stereo.
His sister, Leanne Gunnulson, said Brian had been planning to return to
Warrnambool in about 6 months to spend more time with their parents, who have
lived in Warrnambool all their lives.
Ms Gunnulson said the stolen money had been set aside for his return ticket to
Australia.
The police investigation into Mr Gunnulson's death caused initial angst among
friends and relatives, who were dismayed to learn the prime suspect had been
taken into custody but then released soon after.
An outcry from the victim's friends and family led to intervention from
high-ranking police officials and the suspect was returned to custody, Ms
Gunnulson said.
The investigation is ongoing. The suspect is believed to be a local man who was
a close friend of Mr Gunnulson.
If the suspect pleads guilty or is found guilty, he will face the death
penalty.
Ms Gunnulson travelled to Tanzania for her brother's cremation and funeral
service, which she said was a truly international affair.
"There were a large number of Tanzanians, but also people from Japan, Germany,
Holland, England, Australia, India," she said. "There were people he's known
for 20 years. For a lot of people coming to live or work in Tanzania, Brian was
their introduction to Tanzania.
"He lived near Coco Beach and that's where he used to have a lot of his
language lessons where he'd teach English to the locals and Swahili to the
ex-pats."
Brian's friends plan to build a wooden bench at Coco Beach with the inscription
"In memory of Brian/Shabani" - the latter being his African name. Ms Gunnulson
said one man spoke at Brian's funeral about sending his children to learn
Swahili from Brian because the former Warrnambool man's grasp of the language
was so good.
Another spoke of meeting her husband through Brian's language classes, while
another said she'd been very lonely until Brian had helped her be able to
communicate and get by in Tanzania.
"I've received about 70 or 80 emails and my parents have got about 80 cards
from people sending their respects," she told The Standard yesterday.
"Brian had a massive impact over there.
"I couldn't believe it.
"I didn't realise the impact he'd had.
"I've been getting emails from people all around the world remembering him. He
will be so terribly missed."
She said her brother was very trusting and chose to live in a "local house", as
opposed to the many expats who had guards or who lived in compounds.
"But the thing is that Tanzania is a beautiful country and some of the people
are the nicest you would ever meet."
Mr Gunnelson was cremated and his ashes spread at some of his favourite spots,
including the 1st school he taught at in Tanzania 25 years ago.
In a touching tribute, his neighbours planted a tree in front of his house in
his memory.
Ms Gunnulson said the Warrnambool community had been "phenomenal" in their
support of her parents.
"They've had so many visitors - so many people are there for them," she said.
"It's really wonderful. It's a credit to the community."
A memorial service for Mr Gunnulson will be held at St Joseph's Church in
Warrnambool on March 1 at 11am.
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