URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
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For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa33712.pdf
Further information on UA: 337/12 (26 November 2012) and update (14 January
2013)
Issue Date: 21 February 2013
Country: India
Note: Please write on behalf of these persons even though you may not have
received the original UA
when issued on November 26, 2012. Thanks!
NINE PRISONERS AT RISK OF EXECUTION
Following two recent secret executions in India, there is fear that the Indian
authorities may
execute nine other prisoners whose petitions for mercy have not yet been ruled
on.
The mercy petitions of eight men and one woman are pending with either the
Union Home Ministry or
the President: Gurmeet Singh, Dharampal, Suresh, Ramji, Praveen Kumar, Jafar
Ali, Sonia (f),
Sanjeev, and Sundar Singh. Ministers have publicly stated that decisions on
some of these petitions
will be made soon, putting the nine in imminent danger of execution.
The manner in which the Indian authorities have dealt with executions recently
raises serious
concerns and increases the risk of executions. Mercy petitions are generally
considered in the order
in which they are filed. However, the authorities have started to consider
cases out of turn, making
it difficult to determine which case is being considered when. The two recent
executions were
announced to the public after being carried out; this is in violation of
international standards on
the use of the death penalty and makes timely interventions before executions
impossible. This means
we can no longer know which mercy petitions are being considered, when
decisions are be made, and
whether these decisions would be public.
The Indian government executed Pakistani national Ajmal Kasab on 21 November
2012, for involvement
in the 2008 Mumbai multiple attacks. This was the first execution in India in
eight years. On 9
February, they executed Afzal Guru, convicted for the attack on India’s
parliament in December 2001.
These two executions were considered out of turn and were not announced to the
public until they had
been carried out. The relevant government minister publicly stated that no
prior announcement was
made in Ajmal Kasab’s case in order to avoid intervention from human rights
activists. In Afzal
Guru’s case, the family only received notification of the execution after it
had been carried out,
and the body was not returned to them for burial.
Please write immediately in English or your own language:
-Urging Indian authorities to stop plans to execute Gurmeet Singh, Dharampal,
Suresh, Ramji, Praveen
Kumar, Jafar Ali, Sonia, Sanjeev, and Sundar Singh, and all other executions;
-Urging Indian authorities to commute all death sentences to terms of
imprisonment;
-Reminding Indian Authorities that the UN General Assembly has called
repeatedly for a moratorium on
executions, with a view to abolishing the death penalty, and pointing out that
India's decision to
resume executions has set it against the global trend towards abolition.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 4 APRIL 2013 TO:
President
President Pranab Mukherjee
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi 110 004, India
Fax: 01191 11 23017290 -OR- 011 91 11 23017824
Email: (via website) http://www.helpline.rb.nic.in/
Salutation: Dear President Mukherjee
Prime Minister
Dr. Manmohan Singh
South Block, Raisina Hill
New Delhi 110 001, India
Email: (via website) http://pmindia.gov.in/feedback.php
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister
And copies to:
Minister of Home Affairs
Sushilkumar Shinde
104, North Block,
Central Secretariat
New Delhi 110001, India
Fax: 011 91 11 23094221
Email: [email protected]
Salutation: Dear Minister
Ambassador
Nirupama Rao
Embassy of India
2107 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington DC 20008
Tel: 1 202 939 7000
Fax: 1 202 265 4351
Email: [email protected] -OR- [email protected]
Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Network office if sending appeals
after the above date.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Since taking office in July 2012, India’s President Pranab Mukherjee, has
rejected the mercy
petitions of seven people on death row and commuted the death sentence of one
prisoner, after which
the two secret executions took place. The five remaining prisoners whose mercy
petitions have now
been rejected are: Saibanna Ningappa Natikar, Gnanprakasham, Simon, Meesekar
Madaiah, and
Bilavendran.
Before the two executions in 2012, the last execution in India had been that of
Dhananjoy Chatterjee
in August 2004. This move to resume executions has set the country against the
regional and global
trend towards abolition of the death penalty. The authorities used to make
information about the
rejection of mercy petitions and dates of execution available to the public
before any executions.
In resolution 2005/59 the UN Commission on Human Rights called upon all states
that still maintain
the death penalty "to make available to the public information with regard to
the imposition of the
death penalty and to any scheduled execution".
In total, 140 countries are abolitionist in law or in practice. In 2011, only
21 states in the world
executed, meaning that 90 per cent of the world was execution-free. Out of 41
countries in the
Asia-Pacific region, 17 have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, 10 are
abolitionist in
practice and one – Fiji – uses the death penalty only for exceptional military
crimes. Over the past
10 years, four Asia-Pacific countries abolished the death penalty for all
crimes: Bhutan and Samoa
in 2004, the Philippines in 2006 and the Cook Islands in 2007. In 2012,
Mongolia became a State
Party to the Second Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition
of the death penalty.
UN bodies and mechanisms have repeatedly called upon member states to establish
a moratorium on
executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, including through the
adoption of four UN
General Assembly resolutions, in December 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. India
voted against all four
resolutions. In a general comment on Article 6 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political
Rights, to which India is a State Party, the UN Human Rights Committee stated
that Article 6 "refers
generally to abolition [of the death penalty] in terms which strongly suggest
... that abolition is
desirable. The Committee concludes that all measures of abolition should be
considered as progress
in the enjoyment of the right to life."
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases as a violation of
the right to life and
the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, regardless of the nature
of the crime; guilt,
innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the
state to carry out
the execution.
Names: Gurmeet Singh (m), Dharampal (m), Suresh (m), Ramji (m), Praveen Kumar
(m), Jafar Ali (m),
Sonia (f), Sanjeev (m), and Sundar Singh (m)
Issues: Legal concern, Death penalty
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This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact
information and stop action
date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: [email protected]
http://www.amnestyusa.org/uan
Phone: 202.509.8193
Fax: 202.675.8566
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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