March 15
INDONESIA----execution
Bali inmate executed
Indonesia on Friday executed its first death row prisoner in 5 years, when 7
ordinary prisoners bookended the deaths of the Bali bombers.
The news will cause dismay to Australian Bali 9 drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran
and Andrew Chan, and their lawyers, who lodged applications for clemency nine
months ago with the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The surprise execution, which was announced publicly late on Friday, hours
after the event, shattered the hope that public sentiment in Indonesia would
prevent more deaths.
Until now, anti-death penalty advocates had hoped that the break since 2008
between executions indicated that Indonesia was now pursuing an unofficial
moratorium on capital punishment.
But at dawn on Friday, a Nigerian drug smuggler, Adami Wilson Bin Adam, aka
Abu, was taken to one of the “thousand islands” off the coast of Jakarta, had a
target hung around his neck, and was killed by firing squad.
An Attorney-General’s office spokesperson Setia Untung Arimuladi said Adam was
a former police intelligence officer from Nigeria who had been caught in 2003
transporting 1kg of heroin.
Sukumaran and Chan were arrested and jailed in 2005 after helping organise a
shipment of 8.3kg of heroin.
Supporters of the death penalty in Indonesia, led by Attorney-General Basrief
Arief, began 2013 with strong statements that 10 prisoners would be executed
this year because they had exhausted all legal avenues of appeal, including
failing in their bid for clemency with Mr
Yudhoyono.
Another 111 prisoners in Indonesia are, like the Australians, on death row, but
with legal or political appeals pending.
The anti-death penalty lobby in Indonesia believed it had made some inroads
last year when news emerged that Mr Yudhoyono had quietly granted clemency to
five people on death row since 2004, including drug traffickers.
When that news came out about those grants of clemency, Indonesia’s urbane
foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, commented pointedly that most of the world
had now abolished capital punishment and Indonesia was now in a minority.
But the constituency for the death penalty in Indonesia, particularly among its
police and security forces, as well as among Muslim groups, remains strong.
Masdar Farid Mas’udi, the deputy chairman of the 30 million strong Islamic
organisation Nahdlatul Ulama, wrote last year that, in the absence of remorse,
“capital punishment is the best for [the criminal], for the people and for the
state”.
(source: Sydney Morning Herald)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi Executions Infuriate International Rights Community--7 men, between 16
and 20 at the time of their arrest, were killed by firing squad Wednesday
The execution of seven Saudi men on Wednesday in connection with 2006 charges
for armed robbery and the organization of a criminal group has sparked the
outrage across the international human rights community.
U.N. High Commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay said today that the charges
against the men failed to meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” specified
as permissible by the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
“In this particularly case,” Pillay said, “no crime of murder or intentional
killing was committed. Thus, the use of the death penalty in these seven cases
constitutes violations of the international safeguards in the use of the death
penalty.”
The age of the men at the time of their arrest – between 16 and 20 – has also
been of concern to outside observers.
Eric Goldstein, the deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said
earlier this month that the execution of children in violation of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) would be a “outrageous” offense,
and he called on Saudi Arabia to, “start observing their obligations under
international human rights law.”
After making repeated appeals for judicial restraint over the past months,
Human Rights Watch last reported that it had made telephone contact with one of
the men on Tuesday, and that the man relayed he was scheduled to be killed the
following day.
The United Nations recently repeated its call for a universal ban on the death
penalty last month, after a General Assembly vote in December to end the use of
capital punishment was rejected by 41 countries, including Saudi Arabia and the
United States.
(source: Talk Radio News Service)
ZIMBABWE:
Key points in Zim's draft constitution
Zimbabweans will on Saturday vote on a new constitution designed to underpin
democratic reforms.
Here are a few of the key points of the text:
- Limits presidents to two five-year terms.
- Strips away presidential immunity from prosecution after leaving office.
- Bolsters the power of parliament, which will consist of 210 elected members
and an additional 60 women lawmakers to be picked initially through a system of
proportional representation.
- Partially abolishes death penalty for males aged below 21 and over 70 and for
all females.
- Sets up a peace and reconciliation commission to take care of post-conflict
justice and healing.
- Creates, for the first time, a Consitutional Court that would deal with
governance abuse.
- Binds the police and the military to be impartial and forbids them from
meddling in electoral issues.
- Reins in presidential influence on the appointment of members of the
judiciary.
- Introduces devolution and decentralisation of power to enhance participation
in decision making by citizens at local levels and ensure equitable sharing of
national and local resources.
- Introduces a national prosecution authority that is de-linked from the
attorney general who now becomes government's chief legal advisor.
- Compels a president to consult parliament in the event of military deployment
to prevent undercover operations that may be linked to rights abuses.
- Introduces redress for victims of violence and intimidation to seek and get
protection.
- Protects people against malicious arrests and prosecution.
- Compels courts to deal with electoral disputes within 14 days.
- Guarantees separation of powers between the executive, legislature and the
judiciary.
- Guarantees free, fair and regular elections; and for citizens to freely make
political choices.
- States that farmland seized from whites and handed to black farmers under a
controversial land reform cannot be legally contested.
- Recognises 16 languages spoken in the country, including sign language.
- Outlaws same sex marriages.
(source: News24)
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