July 25
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
Jealous man who killed girlfriend in 1999 seeking pardon; Murderer on death row
for slitting woman's neck
A farmer, who is on death row for killing his girlfriend out of jealousy in
1999, is seeking a reduced sentence or an early release after having obtained a
waiver.
The 40-year-old Iranian murderer, Mohammad Ali R.T., was aged 27 when he slit
his Azeri girlfriend's neck and stabbed her twice on November 17, 1999.
Records said Mohammad Ali admitted that he was outraged and decided to kill his
late girlfriend, Fareeda M., when he learnt that she cheated on him while he
was spending an imprisonment over an embezzlement case in between 1998 and
1999.
On Thursday, the killer appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance where
he is seeking a reduced punishment or a special pardon for an early release
based on the fact that he obtained a waiver from Fareeda's brother.
Mohammad Ali who is currently imprisoned in Dubai Central Jail, obtained the
notarized waiver from the brother [in his capacity as Fareeda's legal
representative] and attached it to a special plea, in which he is seeking his
release or to have his death sentence reduced.
"Why didn't you submit a doctrinal certificate clarifying who are the heirs' of
the victim? You should do so in order to verify, who the legal successors are,"
presiding judge Ali Attiyah Sa'ad told Mohammad Ali on Thursday.
"I obtained that document and handed it over to the Azeri embassy," replied the
petitioner.
"We will not hand out a decision after the petitioner submits that certificate.
We will return the case file to the Public Prosecution and the petitioner has
to submit the certificate that identifies who are the victim's inheritors.
Prosecutors will also have to notify the court about their legal opinion
concerning the defendant's petition," said presiding judge Sa'ad in courtroom
3.
In 1999, prosecutors accused Mohammad Ali of premeditatedly killing Fareeda in
a hotel room in Naif.
Records said the Iranian was having a love affair with Fareeda and they were
dating. Then when he discovered that she cheated on him, he decided to end her
life. He purchased a knife and hid it in his handbag, then when they moved in
to the hotel room, he killed her.
Court records said the defendant waited for his girlfriend until she went to
sleep, before he jumped on her over the bed and slit her neck several times. He
also hushed her mouth so that she doesn't cry and stabbed her twice in her
chest.
An Emirati police lieutenant testified that he was on duty when Mohammad Ali
stormed into Naif Police Station. The killer confessed that he killed his
girlfriend because she betrayed him.
Records said the defendant disposed the murder weapon in Dubai Creek.
Dubai Police's divers recovered the knife from the creek shortly after the
incident.
One of the hotel receptionists testified that when the defendant checked in at
the hotel he claimed that Fareeda was his wife.
He failed to hand them her passport as he had earlier promised.
Records said Mohammad Ali broke up with Fareeda when he was jailed over
embezzling money from his brother-in-law. When he was released from prison, he
learnt that Fareeda started working in prostitution and betrayed him and that
was when he decided to kill her.
Mohammad Ali's petition has now been referred to the prosecution until he
provides the court with the requested documents.
(source: Gulf News)
INDONESIA:
Minor Reprieve for Inmates 'Wrongly' Given Death Sentence
A rights group says it has succeeded in winning a stay of execution for a
father and son who were scheduled to face the firing squad next month but who
insist they are innocent of the crime for which they were condemned.
Andi Arif, the coordinator of the East Java office of the Commission for
Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said in Malang on Wednesday
that recent talks with the Attorney General's Office and the Supreme Court had
gone some way toward preventing an execution that supporters of Ruben Pata
Sambo, 72, and Markus Pata Sambo, 38, had warned would be a gross miscarriage
of justice.
"One of the outcomes of our discussions with the Supreme Court and the AGO last
month was the removal of Ruben and Markus's names from the list of death row
inmates scheduled for immediate execution," Andi said. "There has been no time
limit specified on the stay on execution for the pair."
The decision by the authorities marks a key step in the campaign by the Sambo
family and their supporters, among them Kontras, to ensure justice for Ruben
and Markus, who were convicted and sentenced to death by a court in Tanah
Toraja, South Sulawesi, in 2006 for the murder of 4 members of a local family.
They, along with Ruben's other son, Martinus Pata Sambo, and Ruben's cousin,
Benedictus Budi Sopia'an, had been implicated in the case by Agustinus Sambo,
the main suspect in the murder who was also sentenced to death that year. Ruben
and his family denied knowing Agustinus, with whom they are not related, and
their convictions came under question when Benedictus, who was also convicted,
provided CCTV footage showing he was at work at the time of the murders,
prompting an appeals court to free him.
In light of this move, Agustinus recanted his accusations against Ruben, Markus
and Martinus, but only Martinus was freed as a result. A series of appeals
mounted by Ruben and Markus - once to the Makassar High Court and twice to the
Supreme Court - were turned down.
With all avenues of appeal exhausted, they were scheduled to be executed in
August, until the recent stay was granted.
Andi said Kontras would continue to lobby on behalf of the men by requesting
guidance from the Supreme Court on legal avenues to pursue to get the death
sentences commuted or even quashed.
He acknowledged that one option was for Ruben and Markus to apply for a
remission ahead of Independence Day next month, when the government hands out
sentence cuts to eligible inmates.
However, he said the pair had refused to do so because it would imply that they
were guilty, Andi said. Yulianni Ani, Ruben's youngest daughter, confirmed that
her father and brother would not seek a remission or plead for clemency to the
president.
"Never. My father refuses to assume any guilt," she said.
She insists her father and Martinus were at home with her at the time of the
murder, while Markus was at church with a priest, but she was barred from
testifying in their trials.
While a remission or a clemency would likely see the death sentence commuted,
it would not overturn the conviction. The family's cause has drawn the support
of legislators, who were involved in the discussions with the AGO to win a stay
of execution for Ruben and Markus.
Gede Pasek Suardika, the chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission
III, which oversees legal affairs, promised earlier this month to uncover all
the facts to see if there was any misconduct by police or prosecutors handling
the case.
"It was the police that arrested them and gathered the evidence against them,"
he said. "The law works on evidence, and if there was no evidence against these
men, then the police shouldn't have forced the issue just to meet their case
quota."
(source: Jakarta Globe)
MALDIVES:
"Murder has to be punished with murder": Yameen calls for death penalty to be
put into practice
Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) Presidential Candidate Abdulla Yameen
has called for the death penalty to be put into practice in the Maldives, a day
after vowing to reform the judiciary.
The MP, half brother of former autocratic ruler Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, made the
comments while speaking on the program Voice of Maldives on Monday night (July
22).
Yameen explained that although he was not previously an advocate of the death
penalty, he now believed it must be implemented to save Maldivian society from
murders that have become too commonplace, according to local media reports.
Yameen noted that as a result of the "recent spate of killings" in the Maldives
he has had a "change of heart" and now believes "murder has to be punished with
murder."
"It is something that has to be done. We cannot move forward without making our
streets safe," Yameen said.
Yameen explained that a death penalty sentence should only be implemented if
upheld by the Supreme Court.
"I now believe, if it can be proven in trial so that the country accepts, if it
is proven to a degree accepted by judicial principles, if all the steps are
followed, and if the Maldivian people believe, I believe that the death penalty
is necessary to save society," he said.
He also noted that because detailed legislation is necessary to implement the
death penalty, the current government recently proposed a death penalty bill in
parliament.
Regarding whether he would implement Islamic Sharia law, Yameen's response to a
caller was that "justice is currently delivered in the Maldives through Islamic
principles" and that he would act "in accordance with what is laid out by the
constitution."
He pledged that under a PPM government he would "do whatever has to be done" to
make the Maldives a peaceful place.
Yameen also denied financing or having links with gangs, claiming these
allegations "do not have any basis" and politicians perpetuating such rumors
"lack sincerity".
Such rumors that Yameen has gang ties have "been around a long time", according
to CNM.
During the PPM presidential primary, former candidate and PPM Vice President
Umar Naseer publicly accused Yameen of involvement with gangs and the illegal
drug trade. However, Yameen denied the "defamatory accusations" calling them
"baseless and untrue".
Yameen further noted during the Voice of Maldives program that a "major part"
of the government budget would be spent on youth, including a special
rehabilitation program for drug addicts, with more than 900 placements
available, if he is elected president.
Last month, Yameen also announced that PPM intended to transform Hulhumale'
into a "Youth City" where enough apartments to accommodate young people would
be constructed.
Judicial reform pledge
Meanwhile, a day prior to Yameen's comments in favor of implementing the death
penalty to quell violent crime in the Maldives, the PPM presidential candidate
pledged to reform the judiciary, even if it required amending the constitution.
To gain investors' confidence and bring foreign investments to the Maldives,
reforming the judiciary to ensure swift justice and confidence in the
institution is necessary, Yameen explained.
"We see the many challenges ahead from every direction. So we are not only
competing with other candidates. We are competing against the flailing economy
and fading culture and values," he said.
Yameen told local media that Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz Hussain had also noted
the judiciary has "problems".
Faiz has meanwhile urged the public and media to refrain from making statements
that would give a negative image of the judiciary, and called for
constitutional amendments.
His comments follow the Maldives Bar Association (MBA) calling for the
suspension of Supreme Court Justice Ali Hameed pending an investigation into
his alleged sexual misconduct. Hameed is under investigation by both the police
and Judicial Service Commission (JSC) over the circulation of at least 3 sex
videos apparently depicting him fornicating with unidentified foreign women.
Earlier this year, Faiz said that the current 7-member bench of the Supreme
Court cannot be abolished and will continue to remain as the highest court of
the country as long as the Maldives remains a democracy. In July 2012, the
Chief Justice also said the death penalty can be executed within the existing
justice system of the Maldives.
Death penalty controversy
While the Maldives still issues death sentences, these have traditionally been
commuted to life sentences by presidential decree since the execution of Hakim
Didi in 1954, for the crime of practicing black magic.
Death penalty legislation was presented to parliament in June by
government-aligned Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) MP Riyaz Rasheed to implement the
death penalty by hanging if the Supreme Court upheld a death sentence passed by
a lower court. The legislation was put to a vote to decide whether or not to
proceed with the bill at committee stage and was ultimately rejected 26-18 with
no abstentions.
The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP said at the time that the party's
parliamentary group had opted to throw out the bill on the grounds that it
would be "irresponsible" to approve such measures with ongoing concerns held by
itself and international experts over the functioning of the country's
judiciary.
The party additionally criticised the proposed bill as being irrelevant,
arguing that the country's draft penal code - a recent issue of contention
between MPs and certain political parties - already included provisions for the
death sentence as outlined under Islamic Sharia.
Recent calls for presidential clemency to be blocked led Attorney General (AG)
Azima Shukoor to draft a bill favouring the implementation of the penalty via
lethal injection. It was met with opposition by several religious groups such
as the NGO Jamiyyathul Salaf, which called for the draft to be amended in
favour of beheadings or firing squads.
Minivan News understands that the bill submitted by the AG remains open for
comments on potential amendments.
More recently, the state called for a High Court verdict on whether the
practice of presidential clemency can be annulled.
Eariler this year, the UN country team in the Maldives issued a statement
calling for the abolition of both corporal punishment and the death penalty in
the Maldives.
Additionally, the state's stance to review implementation of death sentences
has led to strong criticism from certain human rights-focused NGOs this year.
Speaking to Minivan News immediately following a visit to the Maldives in April
2013, Amnesty International's South Asia Director Polly Truscott raised
concerns about the recent drafting of new bills outlining implementation for
executions.
She argued that even in practice, such bills would be deemed as a human rights
violation, with the NGO maintaining that there remained no research to support
the assertion that executing criminals served as an effective deterrent for
serious crimes.
She noted this was a particular concern considering the recent findings of
various international experts such as UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence
of Judges and Judiciary, Gabriela Knaul, regarding the politicised nature of
the country's judicial system.
"To leave Sharia law to the discretion of individual judges is something we
believe would be a bad idea,": she said at the time.
In May this year, Amnesty International condemned the sentencing of 2 18
year-olds to death for a murder committed while they were minors, and called on
Maldivian government authorities to commute the sentence.
Meanwhile, a survey of the leading criminologists in the United States
conducted in 2009 found that 88 % of the country's top criminologists "did not
believe" that the death penalty is a "proven deterrent to homicide".
The study, Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates? The Views of Leading
Criminologists published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, also
found that 87 % of the expert criminologists believe that abolition of the
death penalty would not have any significant effect on murder rates.
(source: Minivan News)
PHILIPPINES/SAUDI ARABIA:
OFW in Saudi death row a step closer to release
A Filipino sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia due to murder is one step closer
to freedom.
The Foreign Affairs Department confirmed the signing of the court decision that
will help secure the release of Filipino Rodelio "Dondon" Lanuza. The aggrieved
family and judges in Saudi Arabia signed the document.
In a text message, Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Raul Hernandez said Philippine
Ambassador to Riyadh Ezzedin Tago informed the Department about the signing of
the document.
The court decision comes with the notation that the blood money for Lanuza was
received and the victim's family "signified its forgiveness."
"The next procedure is for the court to transmit the file to the Office of the
Emir. Then, the office of the Emir will decide if it will issue the order for
release or seek confirmation from the Ministry of Interior," said Hernandez.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, presidential adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers
affairs, also confirmed the report.
"I learned from Ambassador Tago that Lanuza's case file will no longer be sent
to the Court of Appeals and will be forwarded to the Emir's office once the
judge in charge signs the endorsement," Binay said in a statement Thursday.
Lanuza was jailed in Saudi Arabia for killing a Saudi national in 2000. He
claimed he acted in self-defense after the victim allegedly tried to sexually
abuse him.
Saudi's highest court affirmed his death penalty in 2001 but Lanuza was
pardoned after the family asked for blood money.
The Saudi government shouldered 2.3-M Saudi riyal in blood money (about
P24.9-M) because Lanuza's family, the Philippine government and private groups
and individuals were only able to raise 7000,000 Saudi riyal or P7.5-M in
February
(source: rappler.com)
VIETNAM:
Vietnam May Return to Firing Squads Amid Shortage of Lethal Chemicals
Vietnam may return to using firing squads to execute its growing number of
condemned criminals after a planned switch to lethal injections last month ran
into a shortage of the needed chemicals, state media and people familiar with
the situation said.
The Ministry of Public Security, which runs the prison system, is seeking
approval from the legislature to reinstate firing squads while awaiting
production of lethal chemicals, a person familiar with the situation said
Thursday. The ministry wasn't reachable for comment, but the Phap Luat Vietnam
newspaper, which is close to the ministry, reported earlier this week about the
request before the legislature.
"We don't know yet when the chemicals can be produced domestically, so using
the firing squads for the time being is necessary given that the number of
death-row inmates is rising," the person said.
Vietnam planned to start lethal injections in November 2011 using imported
chemicals, but state media reported in May citing Health Ministry officials
that European countries had refused to export the chemicals after learning they
would be used for executions.
The government ordered the Health Ministry to sufficiently supply the chemicals
by June 27, but the goals haven't been met. The chemicals include sodium
thiopental to stop the nerve system, pancuronium bromide to stop the muscular
system and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Meanwhile, the number of death row inmates has been rising. There are now 568
condemned prisoners, state media said Thursday, citing data from the Supreme
People's Procuracy. That's around 40% more than 2 years ago.
Nguyen Viet Hung, chief of the office of the Supreme People's Procuracy, told
local media Wednesday that lawmakers haven't made any decision on the proposal
to reinstate firing squads. They next meet in October.
Vietnam's penal code allows the death penalty for 29 crimes, from murder and
terrorism to receiving bribes of 300 million dong (US$14,300) or more, but the
vast majority of those on death row are there for drug offenses. Producing,
smuggling or transporting 100 grams or more of heroin or cocaine is punishable
by death.
An official with the Ministry of Public Security said Thursday that
domestically produced lethal drugs have so far been "successfully tested on
animals" in the country's labs. The communist country is also considering
importing the chemicals made in Thailand, which changed its method of execution
from firing squads to lethal injection in 2003.
"Keeping the prisoners waiting for the execution longer will put more mental
pressure on them, causing difficulties for prison management," Pham Quoc Anh,
president of the Vietnam Lawyers Association, was quoted by Giao Thong Van Tai
newspaper as saying Thursday. Condemned inmates are locked in solitary
confinement for years before they are executed.
Amnesty International, in a statement posted on its website last month, called
on Vietnamese authorities to immediately halt any plans to resume executions,
commute all death sentences and reduce the number of offenses punishable by the
death penalty. It said execution is the "ultimate form of cruel, inhuman or
degrading punishment and a violation on the right to life."
At least 38 executions were reported to have been carried out in the
Asia-Pacific region last year, including in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India,
Japan, North Korea and Taiwan, according to Amnesty. The figures don't include
thousands of executions believed to have occurred in China, Amnesty said,
adding that it was impossible to obtain an accurate data on capital punishment
in China due to secrecy.
(source: Wall Street Journal)
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