Aug. 17
JAPAN:
Man on death row dies of illness
Police said Friday that a 73-year-old man, who had been sentenced to death for
his involvement in the abduction of 3 men and the murder of 2 of them, has died
on death row.
Yasuhiro Sako was arrested on charges of robbery and murder, before being
sentenced to death in 2004 for his involvement in the kidnapping of 3 company
presidents in Iwate, Fukushima and Chiba Prefectures between 1986 and 1991, NTV
reported.
Prison authorities in Sendai, where Sako was being held, say he had been
suffering from bronchitis for several years. His health reportedly took a turn
for the worse last month, resulting in his death from acute pneumonia on
Thursday night.
Currently, there are 133 prisoners on death row in Japan.
(source: Japan Today)
SCOTLAND:
The death penalty debate
Polls suggest that support is growing for the return of the death penalty. 50
years after Scotland's last execution Stephen McGinty is disturbed at the
prospect
George Orwell taught me what it means to be hanged. I can still remember
reading his essay A Hanging in our 4th year English class and being struck by
his description of a condemned man walking to the gallows. The 1st line is
justly memorable: "It was in Burma, a sodden morning of the rains. A sickly,
light, like yellow tinfoil, was slanting over the high walls into the jail
yard."
Yet it was the latter passage when the condemned man steps aside to avoid a
puddle on route to the gallows that struck me as profoundly disturbing, more so
than if he had pleaded or begged for his life.
"And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped
slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path. It is curious, but till that
moment I had never realised what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.
When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the
unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This
man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his
body were working - bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing,
tissues forming - all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be
growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a
tenth of a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls
and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned - reasoned even about
puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing,
understanding the same world; and in two minutes with a sudden snap, one of us
would be gone - one mind less, one world less."
On Thursday, exactly 50 years ago, Henry "Harry" Burnett's bowels were
digesting food, his skin was renewing itself and his nails growing, right up
until the second when the 21-year-old fell through the trap door of the gallows
erected inside Craiginches prison in Aberdeen where he became the last person
executed in Scotland.
Centuries of capital punishment that enfolded our nation's bloody history from
the immolation of old women branded as witches to traitors being hung, drawn
and quartered had finally come to a close.
Burnett had shot dead Thomas Guyan, the estranged husband of his lover Margaret
Guyan, to whom she looked set to return. After the killing he dragged her from
the house, stole a car and proposed marriage as they drove off north towards
Peterhead. There was to be no church altar in his future, only a court dock and
a jail cell after he pulled over and gave himself up to 2 police officers.
Today, there is a not inconsiderable majority who are in favour of the return
of the death penalty. A recent poll in the Mail on Sunday carried out after the
murder of Lee Rigby found that 63 % were in favour of convicted terrorists
being sentenced to death, while a poll carried out after the murder of
Manchester police officers Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone had 48 % in favour of
the death penalty with 44 against.
Those in favour of a return to the gallows, or as currently in vogue in
America, the lethal injection, believe that there are crimes so heinous that
this remains the most suitable form of punishment. If you take the life of a
child or a police officer then your own should end with a short drop or a quick
jab.
On one side I do see the logic; there are criminals with such a violent,
homicidal nature that they will never stop and it requires all the firm efforts
of the state to keep them secure and the public safe.
To say one is against the death penalty is to say that British society is a
better place for keeping alive men such as Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire
Ripper; Robert Black, the child murderer and Peter Tobin, the multiple murderer
who killed Angelika Kluk and hid her body under the floorboards of a Catholic
Church in Anderston.
If their crimes had been committed and a conviction secured prior to 1963 there
is no doubt that each of them would have been hanged.
There would be no requirement for the taxpayer to continue to fund their bed
and board, their restricted entertainment, their access to libraries, exercise,
films and television. It does seem strange that when each of these three men
falls ill, the state will do its utmost to ensure their recovery and continued
good health.
One can see the clean, grim logic of a swift execution, not only on grounds of
natural justice but cost at a time of national austerity.
The argument against the death penalty hinges on 2 clear points. The 1st is
about the spectre of a wrongful conviction and the irreparable consequence of
the trap door swinging open. The annals of British history are littered with
cases of wrongful conviction and there simply cannot be a greater, more
disturbing miscarriage of justice than a man or woman executed for a crime they
did not commit.
The return of the death penalty means such a spectre would be unavoidable and
even if the odds were one innocent man for every 1,000 killed, could that be
justifiable? I think not. Yet others could argue that the state makes errors
that result in the loss of an innocent person's life on a regular basis.
The recent scandal in the NHS which revealed how thousands had died needlessly
is a case in point, although there is a clear difference between negligence or
lack of adequate care and compassion, and the deliberate destruction of a life
by the hangman, although once a person is on the mortuary slab these
differences of intent, or its lack, would no longer matter.
The 2nd point is that the return of the death penalty would bring a certain icy
brutality back into public life. When a judge dons his or her black hankie and
sentences an individual to death it is a grim, violent act. I want to believe
that the mechanism of the state leading a man to a place of execution and
putting him to death would somehow diminish me or you.
He would have been executed in the Queen's name, but really on behalf of us, to
ensure his heinous crimes are punished and a repeat offence rendered
impossible. I'm not quite sure how that would make me feel.
What I do know is that the state is quite willing to kill in our name and,
tragically, it is often the wrong people.
I know millions were against the war in Iraq, but the point I could never quite
square was when Tony Blair said that the war was of crucial importance to the
safety of the British people, that in order to protect us it was necessary to
embark on a course of action which would result, unfortunately, in the deaths
of thousands, tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children. Rather
than wait until we were directly struck or threatened and then deal with the
consequences it was necessary to act now. It seemed to me as if we were using
the Iraqi people or their bodies as sandbags for our own protection.
The hypocrisy reached its zenith over the British government's complaint that
the provisional government of Iraqi wished to hang Saddam Hussein. Prior to his
capture, all manner of rockets were launched to ensure his downfall in the
certain knowledge that the innocent would die along with the guilty, but now
Hussein should be allowed to live?
No political party except Ukip and the BNP believe in the return of the death
penalty and if the noose swung back, would it act as a deterrent? No. Those who
are compelled to murder by some internal, crooked mechanism will continue to do
so, while those who act in the hellish heat of the moment never did and never
will stop to think. It will also make murder convictions harder to secure as
already 25 per cent of people polled said they would be reluctant to convict on
a capital charge.
The only reason for its introduction would be to assauge that feeling that
certain people get what they believe they deserve. One thing is certain, the
media coverage and publicity surrounding a modern British execution is barely
worth contemplating in this age of Twitter and 24-hour rolling news.
While Henry Burnett died, unaware that he would be the last man in Scotland to
be executed, The Scotsman considered his death worth exactly 3 sentences, less
than 50 words:
Murderer Hanged Henry John Burnett (21) was hanged yesterday morning in
Craiginches Prison, Aberdeen for the murder of Thomas Guyan, a merchant seaman.
It was the 1st execution in the city for 106 years. A crowd of almost 500
gathered outside the prison, but there was no demonstration.
(source: Stephen McGinty, The Scotsman)
PAKISTAN:
SC moved for early hearing of plea against death penalty
An application is filed before the Supreme Court for early hearing of the
petition seeking a stay against execution of death penalty.
Barrister Zafarrullah, on behalf of Muhammad Yaqoob Bhatti, filed the petition
before Lahore Registry of the SC. He submitted that he had filed the petition
for a stay against execution of death penalty on July 13, 2013 before the SC
which, so far, could not be heard by the court. He pleaded to fix the hearing
of the petition on August 19. To prove the urgency of his petition for
fixation, Zafrullah submitted that on July 11, 2013 the new federal government
had announced to execute the all death row prisoners. He said the last
government had never executed any death row prisoner for 5 years and many mercy
petitions were accepted and in other cases, executions were stayed as well. He
said execution was not the solution but long term imprisonment was a better
option. He said the execution of death penalty closes all avenues of revival of
life while complainants could be compensated in many ways. He said
unfortunately, most of the death row prisoners all over the world were the poor
who could not hire the best lawyers and state councils did not handle their
cases properly. Zafrullah said there were 7,046 persons on death row who were
languishing for several years in jails. He said as per the law ministry, 5,378
appeals were pending with the high courts while there were 1,031 appeals in the
SC against death conviction. He said out of 7,046 prisoners, 4,081 were in
Punjab, 266 in Sindh, 102 in KPK and 29 in Balochistan whereas 532 petitions
were pending before the president.
(source: The News)
*************************************
HRW calls on Pak to end death penalties in country
Pakistan's government should revoke its decision to resume executions and renew
its moratorium on the death penalty, Human Rights Watch and the International
Commission of Jurists said in a joint letter to the Pakistani government on
Saturday.
"After a 5-year unofficial moratorium on executions, Pakistan's new government
has said it intends to resume the heinous practice of sending people to the
gallows," said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human Rights Watch. "The
government should instead declare an official moratorium, commute all existing
death sentences, and then abolish the death penalty once and for all."
The International Commission of Jurists and Human Rights Watch urged the
Pakistani government to demonstrate its commitment to international human
rights obligations by halting all executions, immediately adopting a moratorium
on the death penalty, and abolishing the death penalty permanently in domestic
law. Pakistan should also ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the abolition of the
death penalty.
"A return to executions will derail one of democratic Pakistan's most tangible
human rights successes," said Sam Zarifi, Asia-Pacific director of the
International Commission of Jurists. "Under military rule , Pakistan endured
the widespread application of the death penalty. The new government should
demonstrate its clear opposition to any use of this ghastly punishment."
Pakistan has had a moratorium on the death penalty since June 2008, with only
the execution of Muhammad Hussain in November 2012 following a court martial.
"It is absolutely essential that militants who threaten and kill people be held
accountable for their crimes," Hasan said. "However, terrorism won't be stopped
by hangings but by rights-respecting counterterrorism measures and fair
prosecutions."
According to official figures, Pakistan has more than 7,000 prisoners on death
row, one of the largest populations of prisoners facing execution in the world.
Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists oppose the death
penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible, inhumane
punishment. A majority of countries in the world have abolished the practice.
On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution
by a wide margin calling for a worldwide moratorium.
(source: Zee News)
******************************
Pakistan: Don't Resume Executions; Renew Death Penalty Moratorium, Then Abolish
Capital Punishment
After a 5-year unofficial moratorium on executions, Pakistan's new government
has said it intends to resume the heinous practice of sending people to the
gallows. The government should instead declare an official moratorium, commute
all existing death sentences, and then abolish the death penalty once and for
all.
Pakistan's government should revoke its decision to resume executions and renew
its moratorium on the death penalty, Human Rights Watch and the International
Commission of Jurists said in a joint letter to the Pakistani government today.
"After a 5-year unofficial moratorium on executions, Pakistan's new government
has said it intends to resume the heinous practice of sending people to the
gallows," said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human Rights Watch. "The
government should instead declare an official moratorium, commute all existing
death sentences, and then abolish the death penalty once and for all."
The International Commission of Jurists and Human Rights Watch urged the
Pakistani government to demonstrate its commitment to international human
rights obligations by halting all executions, immediately adopting a moratorium
on the death penalty, and abolishing the death penalty permanently in domestic
law. Pakistan should also ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the abolition of the
death penalty.
"A return to executions will derail one of democratic Pakistan's most tangible
human rights successes," said Sam Zarifi, Asia-Pacific director of the
International Commission of Jurists. "Under military rule, Pakistan endured the
widespread application of the death penalty. The new government should
demonstrate its clear opposition to any use of this ghastly punishment."
Pakistan has had a moratorium on the death penalty since June 2008, with only
the execution of Muhammad Hussain in November 2012 following a court martial.
A counterterrorism court in Sindh province has issued "black warrants" for the
execution of 2 members of the banned sectarian and militant group
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Attaullah alias Qasim and Muhammad Azam alias Sharif. The 2
men were convicted by a counterterrorism court in July 2004 for the killing of
a Shia doctor. They are scheduled to be executed between August 20 and 22,
2013.
"It is absolutely essential that militants who threaten and kill people be held
accountable for their crimes," Hasan said. "However, terrorism won't be stopped
by hangings but by rights-respecting counterterrorism measures and fair
prosecutions."
According to official figures, Pakistan has more than 7,000 prisoners on death
row, one of the largest populations of prisoners facing execution in the world.
Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists oppose the death
penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible, inhumane
punishment. A majority of countries in the world have abolished the practice.
On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution
by a wide margin calling for a worldwide moratorium.
*************************
Joint Open Letter Regarding Resumption of Executions in Pakistan
Honorable Prime Minister Mr Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Honorable President Mr Asif Ali Zardari
Honorable Interior Minister Mr Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan
Honorable Secretary for Law, Justice and Human Rights Mr Muhammad Raza Khan
Your Excellencies,
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Human Rights Watch are deeply
concerned by your government's recently announced decision to resume executions
in Pakistan. We urge you to renew the moratorium on executions with a view to
abolishing the death penalty.
Pakistan has had a moratorium on the death penalty since June 2008, with only
the exception of Muhammad Hussain's execution in November 2012 following a
court martial.
Your government decided not to renew the moratorium when it expired in June
2013. The ICJ and Human Rights Watch understand that an anti-terrorism court in
Sindh province has issued 'black warrants' for the execution of two members of
the banned sectarian and militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Attaullah alias
Qasim and Muhammad Azam alias Sharif, who were convicted by an anti-terrorism
court in July 2004 for the killing of a Shia doctor. They are scheduled to be
executed between 20 and 22 August 2013.
The ICJ and Human Rights Watch believe that those who commit acts of terrorism
should be prosecuted before competent, independent and impartial courts that
meet international due process standards. However, we oppose the death penalty
under all circumstances as an inherently cruel and irreversible punishment that
violates the right to life.
In recent years, the debate on the abolition of the death penalty has
intensified in Pakistan. In 2008, the Pakistan Federal Cabinet adopted a
proposal to commute death sentences to life imprisonment. Before its term
expired, the Pakistan People???s Party-led government reportedly planned to
table a bill in Parliament to commute death sentences to life imprisonment.
Currently, a petition calling for the commutation of death sentences is also
being considered by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The resumption of the death penalty puts Pakistan in opposition to the global
and regional movement towards the abolition of the death penalty.
Currently, 150 countries worldwide, including 30 states in the Asia-Pacific
region, have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. The decision
not to renew the moratorium on executions and carrying out executions
constitutes a major step back for human rights in the country. This decision is
all the more alarming given that more than 7,000 people are on death row in
Pakistan.
Over the years, the United Nations has adopted various instruments in support
of the call for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. In 2007, the UN
General Assembly adopted a resolution emphasizing that 'that the use of the
death penalty undermines human dignity' and calling for the establishment of a
moratorium on the use of the death penalty 'with a view to abolishing the death
penalty.' The resolution was reaffirmed in 2008, 2010, and most recently in
December 2012, when and overwhelming majority of 110 UN member countries voted
in favor of a worldwide moratorium on executions as a step towards the death
penalty's abolition.
Death Penalty Violates Pakistan's Human Rights Obligations The ICJ and Human
Rights Watch oppose the death penalty in all cases without exception. We
believe that the use of the death penalty constitutes a violation of the right
to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading
punishment.
In any event, and beyond the circumstances of the 2 present cases, the
inconsistent and disproportionate application of capital punishment breaches
the legal prohibition on the arbitrary deprivation of life.
Pakistan ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR) in 2010. Article 6 of the ICCPR guarantees the right to life and
requires that states restrict capital punishment to only the 'most serious
crimes'. Since 2006, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions has interpreted the 'most serious crimes' as limited to
those cases where there was an intention to kill, which resulted in the loss of
life.
In Pakistan, capital punishment is prescribed for 27 different offences,
including blasphemy, sexual intercourse outside of marriage, kidnapping or
abduction, rape, assault on the modesty of women and the stripping of women's
clothes, smuggling of drugs, arms trading and sabotage of the railway system.
Many of these crimes do not meet the threshold of 'most serious crimes'
stipulated by Article 6 of the ICCPR.
Death Penalty does not Deter Crime
The decision to resume executions is reportedly in reaction to the high levels
of crime and insecurity in Pakistan. However, there is no evidence that the
death penalty acts as a more effective deterrent against crime than other forms
of punishment.
A comprehensive survey conducted for the UN Committee on Crime Prevention and
Control in 1988 and later updated in 1996 and 2002 concluded that research 'has
failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent
effect than life imprisonment. Such proof is unlikely to be forthcoming. The
evidence as a whole still gives no support to the deterrent hypothesis.'
The ICJ and Human Rights Watch urge the Pakistani government to demonstrate its
commitment to its international human rights obligations and renew the
moratorium on use of the death penalty. Specifically, we call on your
government to:
- Halt all executions and immediately adopt a moratorium on the death penalty.
- Abolish the death penalty permanently in domestic law.
- Accede to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights on the abolition of the death penalty.
We would be happy to discuss these issues with you at your convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Wilder Tayler
Secretary-General, International Commission of Jurists
Ali Dayan Hasan
Pakistan Director, Human Rights Watch (source for both: Human Rights Watch)
**********************
Scheduled Pakistani terrorist executions justified, officials say ----
Authorities will execute 3 Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists next week despite
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan threats to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led
government, they say.
Pakistan's decision to execute 3 Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militants next week is
legally correct and the executions will be proof of upholding the justice
system, legal scholars say.
A student at the University of Peshawar August 13 reads a newspaper story about
Taliban threats linked to the planned execution of 3 Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
terrorists. [Ashfaq Yusufzai]
Pakistan complied with all legal procedures in convicting the militants,
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chapter President
Pir Sabir Shah told Central Asia Online.
"The PML-N won the May 11 election mostly because of its anti-militancy
stance," Pir told Central Asia Online. "How can it be expected to spare people
who were convicted in cases of murders ??? double- and triple-murder cases?"
Enforcement of the law of the land is a primary responsibility of the
government, he said.
"Our government can neither interfere in courts' decisions, nor can it change
them," Pir said. "All the convicts should tread the legal path if they wish
commutation of their sentence."
These 3 executions carry added weight
The 3 convicted terrorists, Attaullah, Mohammad Azam and Jalal, received death
sentences in 2004 for separate killings. The executions are scheduled to take
place on August 20, 21 and 22, respectively, in the Sindh Province jails where
the inmates are being held.
The executions carry an added importance because they come amid
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) threats against the PML-N should the hangings
take place.
But "we are undeterred by the militant threats and will follow the law," said
Iqbal Zafar Jaghra, a senior PML-N leader.
"The courts have already issued the black [death] warrant of the three
militants, and they have faced the law," Irshad Bukhari, a PML-N lawyer, said
in agreement.
Cases followed proper procedure
Pakistan has a process for commutation of the death penalty. The convicts can
challenge their convictions in higher courts and call for a review of their
cases if the Supreme Court of Pakistan convicted them.
"None of the militants on death row has adopted the legal way," Islamabad-based
lawyer Muhammad Haris said. "Use of force will not reverse their sentences."
There is one last resort to try to stop the executions legally, Bukhari said.
"If they [the TTP] want commutation of [the convicts'] sentences, they should
submit a mercy appeal with the president, who has the last lawful authority to
convert their death penalty to life imprisonment."
But Pakistan's political leaders remain committed to carrying out the law, he
said.
The PML-N secured 15m votes in the May election because of its promises to
defeat terrorism, Bukhari said, so "How could we spare those who killed
innocent people?"
Thus, the president is unlikely to overrule the death sentences, he said.
Federal Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid agreed, saying there is no
debate about sparing the three because "none of them approached the superior
courts for a review of their sentences, and they therefore will be executed as
per the orders of the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC)."
Response to the TTP's threats
The TTP's threats include the possible storming of jails to release other
imprisoned militants. "But we are not sitting idle. Under a comprehensive
strategy, we have deployed forces in all jails ??? particularly those where
militants are to be hanged," Jaghra said.
Likewise, authorities have taken measures to secure the jails holding the 3
killers.
"We have deployed heavy contingents of Rangers and police around Karachi
Central Prison ahead of the execution of the death sentences of the militants
to prevent a jailbreak," Manzoor Wasan, the minister for prisons in Sindh
Province, told Central Asia Online.
"We have installed closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to monitor movement
in and outside the jail premises in addition to elevating the boundary wall,"
he said.
Security in Punjab has also been beefed up in view of Taliban threats, Punjab
government spokesman Rana Sanaullah said August 13. "There will be no
compromise on the issue of the death penalty," he said. "They should contact
the courts instead of hurling threats at the government."
Dealing with backlog of court cases
The government's commitment to moving court cases through the system
expeditiously is more evidence of taking a hard line on terrorism.
"There is a huge backlog of 450 cases, and we are processing them as fast as we
can," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told Dawn August 13.
The government decided to deal with all capital punishment convictions on a
case-by-case basis and was selecting those related to terrorism, he said.
Pakistan has about 8,000 prisoners sentenced to death by hanging.
Mushir Alam, chief justice of the Sindh High Court, June 3 called for the swift
executions of the three LeJ members and of the many others on death row.
"The law-and-order situation will not improve unless the convicts on death row
are executed," media reported Alam as saying. "It is the responsibility of the
government to execute the convicts who have been handed down capital punishment
by the courts."
(source: centralasianewsonline.com)
INDONESIA:
Future for Bali 4 remains uncertain as good news arrives for Corby
4 of the Bali 9 drug smugglers have been devastated by the news that their
applications for a reduction in sentence from life imprisonment to 20 years may
have been rejected.
Martin Stephens and Matthew Norman both told Fairfax Media inside Kerobokan
prison on Saturday that they had been told their application had been either
rejected or delayed for months.
But in another indication that Schapelle Corby's parole application is close,
Fairfax Media has learned that her sister, Mercedes, has been making inquiries
about the payment of the $11,000 penalty attached to the sentence.
Prison sentences in Indonesia often carry a financial penalty as well, and
failing to pay it would translate into an extra 6 months in prison for Corby.
Corby has cleared a number of other administrative barriers recently, and an
agency of the Indonesian correction system has confirmed that, after
inspection, Mercedes' Bali home is suitable for Ms Corby to live in while
serving out her sentence on parole.
Kerobokan was opened to the media to watch prisoners perform in Indonesian
National Day celebrations in Bali on Friday. After the celebration, prison
authorities confirmed that Ms Corby had been recommended for a 6-month reprieve
from her sentence for good behaviour.
A large backlog of recommendations in the Director General of Corrections in
Jakarta means the cut has not yet been confirmed, but it's expected to be
within months.
Corby did not attend the function.
A male prisoner said Corby was now so paranoid about the media that she refused
to leave her cell, even to take out the rubbish, in case a journalist was
watching or a fellow prisoner snapped a photo and tried to sell it.
She only left her cell for consular visits and visits from her sister Mercedes,
the prisoner said.
Bali 9 prisoner Renae Lawrence has been recommended for a 6-month reduction for
good behaviour and a further 2 months for being a prison leader, but is subject
to the same delay as Corby in having it confirmed.
But Bali 9 members Stephens, Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen face
spending the rest of their lives in the jail if they cannot have their
sentences reduced.
The Australian consulate in Bali has informed them that their applications have
not been approved.
It's unclear if they are the victim of the same backlog of cases in Jakarta, or
if it's an outright rejection.
Norman said he had retained lawyers to try to find out. Stephens expressed his
extreme frustration - the application has been rejected twice already.
"We've been here nine years already, you know, something has got to happen," he
said.
"Renae [Lawrence] gets her remission, Corby gets her remission, and just none
of us on life and death gets remission or reduction.
"There is a chance it will still happen. I have faith in the Indonesian
government and the Australian government, and I'm sure they're doing the best
they can. It gets difficult sometimes but you've just got to roll with the
punches, I suppose."
According to Matthew Norman: "I've tried my hardest to do everything the jail
asks. I've set up programs, organised sponsorship ... I don't get a cent out of
it or any privileges, and I'd be devastated if it was all for nothing again."
(source: The Border Mail)
INDIA:
President rejects last pending mercy plea, duo to hang
President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the mercy petition of 2 death row
convicts found guilty of raping and murdering an 18-year-old girl. With this,
Mukherjee has rejected 11 mercy petitions awarding death penalty to 17 convicts
-- the highest in the last 16 years. Shankar Dayal Sharma (1992-1997) had
rejected 14 petitions during his 5-year tenure while Mukherjee has completed 13
months in office. Sources said there no more mercy petitions were pending with
the President's office.
The latest whose mercy pleas were rejected are Karnataka duo Shivu and
Jadeswamy who brutally raped and murdered an 18-year-old girl on October 15,
2001. The high court rejected the appeal and confirmed death penalty in
November 2005. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2007. Home ministry
in April 2013 recommended rejection of their mercy petition following which 2
new mercy petitions were filed on Shivu's behalf. The petitions were filed by
the condemned prisoner's mother Chellamma and by people and members from the
Badrayyanahalli Kuratti Hosur gram panchayat. Subsequently, the case was sent
to the President in June. Mukherjee rejected the petition on the advice of the
home ministry.
Earlier, on July 22, he had acted on similar advice by the government to reject
the mercy petition of Madhya Pradesh's Maganlal who was found guilty of
murdering 5 of his daughters on June 11, 2010. Maganlal was handed death
sentence by the district court which was upheld by both the high court and the
SC. The MP governor rejected the mercy petition in 2012 which was confirmed by
the home ministry. The hanging has been stayed by the Supreme Court.
President's powers to grant pardon arise from Article 72 of the Constitution
that empowers him/her to pardon, grant reprieve or suspend, remit, commute
sentence of person convicted of any offence. The President is guided by the
home minister and the council of ministers.
Among the first mercy petitions to be disposed of by Mukherjee included Mumbai
26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab's. He was executed in November 2012 which was the
1st hanging after 2004 and marked a sharp departure in India's policy towards
death penalty. Mukherjee has since rejected the mercy petitions of Saibanna
Ningappa Natikar on January 4, 2013 and that of Parliament attack convict Afzal
Guru on February 3. He commuted the death sentence for Atbir who was found
guilty of murdering 3 relatives over a property dispute on November 15, 2012.
Between February and March 2013, Mukherjee rejected the mercy petitions of
Veerappan aides Simon, Gnanaprakash, Madaiah and Bilavandran who killed 22
people by blasting a land mine, mass murderers including Suresh and Ramji,
Gurmeet Singh and Jafar Ali. Rapist-murderer Dharampal was also sentenced to
death penalty by the President besides rejecting the mercy petition of Sonia
and Sanjeev. Sonia, daughter of a former Haryana MLA, and her husband Sanjeev,
drugged and killed 8 of her family in Hisar in 2001 including her parents.
These cases have now been appealed in the Supreme Court by human rights
activists.
(source: The Morung Express)
************************
Rapist-killers may be hanged next week
The spotlight is on Hindalga Jail again after President Pranab Mukherjee
rejected the mercy plea of 2 of its convicts, Shivu Munishetty and Jadeswamy
Rangashetty. According to reliable sources, jail authorities have gone to the
Chamarajanagar session court to get the execution warrant, also called a black
warrant.
The duo is likely to be hanged on or before August 22. The last hanging at this
jail was in 1983.
Shivu, 34, and Jadeswamy, 36, raped and murdered an 18-year-old girl at
Bhadrayana village of Kollegal taluk in Chamarajanagar district on October 15,
2001. The duo were booked under Sections 376 and 302 on the Indian Penal Code.
On July 30, 2005, the Chamarajanagar session court gave a death sentence to the
duo who approached the high court. The high court rejected their appeal and
confirmed the death penalty in November 2005 and they were brought to Hindalga
Jail on November 19, 2005.
The duo went to the Supreme Court but it too confirmed the death sentence in
2007. They then applied for presidential mercy on February 28, 2007 but the
President rejected the appeal on August 13, 2013.
(source: The Times of India)
**************************
BS Sikh Groups Condemn Indian Court's Rejection Of Death-Row Convict Professor
Devender Pal Singh's Plea
On Wednesday, several Gurdwara Societies and Sikh Organizations gathered to
collectively condemn the Indian court's rejection of Professor Devender Pal
Singh's plea and against the upholding of the illegal death sentencing given to
him.
The Societies said in a statement: "Professor Bhullar's 18 year-long case has
accumulated to 2 decades of illegal detainment (including 10 years of solitary
confinement), physical torture, arbitrary evidence, no witnesses, one supreme
court judge's acquittal of the case, while 2 others sentenced death based
solely on a court retracted confessional statement, a fragmented and fumbling
procession of court procedures and today, the sentencing of a man that has been
tortured to the point of mental unsoundness and ill physical health. As per a
statement released by Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), Dr. Nimesh G. Desai, who heads
the team of doctors looking after Bhullar at the Institute of Human Behaviour
and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), stated "As a human being and as death-row convict
Devender Pal Singh Bhullar's doctor, my conscience does not allow me to clear
this person to be hanged. He is not mentally fit to be medically cleared for
hanging."
International Human Rights Organization, Amnesty International has this to say
in regards to the use of the death penalty:
"The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the
premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state. This
cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is done in the name of justice and it
violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights." In calling itself a democracy, the Indian Union falls considerably
short time and time again when dealing with human rights issues pertaining to
minorities within its enforced borders.
The Societies say with the continuous denial of justice to the victims of the
Sikh Genocide within the Indian state, promotion of its instigators to
high-level political and governmental posts, and ongoing confinement/illegal
detention of Sikh political prisoners it is time for the Sikh nation to define
what "Justice" truly is and whether any hope of it remains 30 years on within
India's corrupt judicial system. Until the Sikh nation is secure within an
independent Punjab and can handle its internal affairs without the constant
meddling of the central government, the oppression of human rights, suppression
of information and propaganda against the Sikh nation will continue.
Moninder Singh of the Canadian Sikh Coalition (a representative body of many
Gurdwara Societies across Canada) stated "On a day when India celebrates its
independence, the Sikh nation is again left wondering where it all went wrong
as Professor Bhullar's plea has been rejected. Since 1947 the Sikhs and other
minorities within the Indian Union have been victimized and demonized by the
state and its agencies. From partition (1947) to the Punjabi Suba movement
(1950s & 60s) to the Anandpur Sahib Resolution (1973-1984)to the Dharam Yudh
morcha (1980s)to Operation Bluestar (June 1984) to the Sikh genocide (November
1984) to the demand for an independant Punjab (1980s-Present) and up until
today...the Sikh nation has left no stone unturned in its demand for the rights
of Punjab and its people. It is imperative that minority communities across
India come together and in solidarity work to end the conditions of slavery
from which they are subject to."
As public pressure is being applied all over the world in regards to the case
of Professor Bhullar, the local groups are urging Sikhs everywhere to continue
writing to your government representatives, meeting Foreign Affairs Ministries
in your respective nations and peacefully protesting this denial of basic human
rights and doing everything in your power to help save an innocent man from an
unlawful death.
(source: The Link)
SOMALIA:
Radio technician assassinated in Mogadishu soon after killer of another
journalist executed
A radio technician working for the state run radio Mogadishu was shot and
killed in Mogadishu's Shibis neighborhood early morning on Saturday,
eyewitnesses and relatives said.
Ahmed Sharif Hussein, a long time radio technician was shot by 3 men armed with
pistols in front of his home in Shibis early morning, eyewitnesses said. He was
shot 4 times at the chest, heart and stomach.
Sharif's injuries was rushed to Kaysaney hospital but unfortunately he died at
the hospital.
Radio Mogadishu's director Abdirahim Isse Addow said that the men who shot the
radio technician disgusted as school students and soon escaped from the crime
scene.
The assassination occurred half an hour later after Somali military court
executed death penalty against a man who was convicted of the killing against
radio journalist late Hassan Yusuf Absuge who was assassinated on September
2012 in Mogadishu's Yaaqshiid neighborhood.
The man convicted by the military court who was identified Adam Sheikh Abdi
Hussein was a member of Al Shabab and was arrested last year.
(source: raxanreeb.com)
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO:
Al-Rawi responds to PM: Death penalty already law in T&T
The People's Partnership has been in Government for 4 years and has not hanged
one single human being, when existing law says it can be done, and has not
given any explanation. Furthermore, if the Government wants to know how to do
it, it can get advice from former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj who
hanged 11 people under the present law.
This was the response of PNM PRO Senator Faris Al-Rawi when asked if the
Opposition will support Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's plan to take
death penalty legislation to Parliament again. The PM told the media at Duncan
Street on Thursday that the implementation of the death penalty can be a
deterrent to crime. Al Rawi said that was just mamaguy. He said there is no
need to amend any legislation to enforce the death penalty which is already
law.
"The Government's statements about taking death penalty legislation to
Parliament stands in a vacuum of logic because the existing law makes hanging
lawful for murder and treason." He said there's a simple way to get past the
Privy Council judgment from the Pratt and Morgan case which convicted death row
prisoners often use to get off.
The judgment in this case states a person cannot be hanged 5 years after his
conviction. Al-Rawi said to escape the Pratt and Morgan bite, all the
Government has to do is take a convicted man from the High Court to the gallows
in under 5 years. He said with sufficient resources, it can be done. The
Government had brought an amendment to the Capital Offences Bill in 2011
seeking to categorise murders so that the heinous ones would attract the death
penalty.
The Opposition argued against it saying it would get the Privy Council involved
which would then be in a position to scrap the death penalty completely.
Commenting on the Government's anti-crime plans for Duncan Street, Al Rawi
said: "The PNM is warmed that the Government has finally condescended to treat
with the crime situation in T&T.
"But it is a habit of the government to announce new crime plans when it has
never indicated what the old plans are. The country is yet to be regaled with
the specifics of any crime plan after the implementation of the state of
emergency in 2011." He said the government dismantled the anti-gang unit when
it dismantled the Special Anti-crime Unit of T&T (Sautt), set up under the
former PNM administration.
The unit had full implementation with proven results on Nelson Street,
Port-of-Spain, a crime hot spot, he said. He said 69 gang members were arrested
and are, at present, in prison awaiting trial. Al-Rawi said there is problem in
the former Sautt officers coming to give evidence against them because they
were all fired.
Doma: Hangings not the way to go
Until crime is solved, the death penalty will do little or have no effect on
crime in the country, the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (Doma)
says. In a press release yesterday, Doma said: "Until and unless the failure to
make arrests is recognised as the central cause of this gruesome state of
affairs, then we regret to prophesise that announcements regarding the death
penalty or hanging will have little or no effect on the vicious state of
affairs in our beloved Trinidad & Tobago."
The association said the subject of the death penalty was raised by successive
governments with little effect on the country's crime problem. It said while it
sympathised with government ministers, including Prime Minister Kamla
Persad-Bissessar, "we consider it unwise to allow the occasional invocation of
a new wave of hanging to be discussed as if somehow this will bring an end to
the blood in the street that is flowing so freely."
The statement came the day after Persad-Bissessar announced that the government
intended to discuss the issue of hanging with the Opposition PNM once again,
saying she believed it could possibly act as a deterrent to murders. The PM
made the comment during a tour of Duncan Street, Port-of-Spain, on Thursday.
Yesterday, Doma said the death penalty can have no effect unless it is able to
threaten convicted murders with that punishment. But it asked how could the
country make anyone fearful of hanging if, "we are unable to solve less than 10
% of murder cases?" It said the discussion of the reintroduction of the death
penalty may be interpreted as desperation, or worse, "a lack of respect for the
common sense of citizens."
The association said it wished to bring to the country's attention the "abysmal
detection rate" and the "total failure to make any arrests or to provide any
convictions for the most heinous of crimes." It said as a consequence of
"allowing criminals to go free repeatedly," a cycle of violence is being
created, since families and friends of victims seek their own justice through
revenge, which has "accelerated the multiple daily murders that are becoming so
common."
So bad is the significance of this failed justice, that we know of other
jurisdictions where whole families are sometimes assassinated and/or an entire
community is attacked and the residents are forced to barricade the streets in
order to protect themselves from outsiders seeking vengeance," it said.
"The possibility of this type of state of affairs, given our low detection
rates, is very real in the circumstances that exist in Trinidad and Tobago. The
firebombing of houses and apartments is evidence of the likelihood of this type
of scenario becoming a common reality in the not distant future."
(source: Trinidad Guardian)
BANGLADESH:
Fugitive Killers of Bangabandhu----Govt moves to confiscate property; Tk 50cr
land traced so far
The government has traced land, worth around Tk 50 crore, owned by some
fugitive killers of Bangabandhu and their families in 7 districts of the
country, sources in the Directorate of Registration said.
The Directorate of Registration under law ministry identified the property to
help the government confiscate those in line with the law, since the killers
did not return to the country to face the trial.
The killers now absconding are Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim,
Nur Chowdhury, Rashed Chowdhury, Abdul Mazed and Moslehuddin Khan.
2 of them are now in the US and Canada while the government has no clue to the
whereabouts of the rest 4.
Law Minister Shafique Ahmed told The Daily Star that the taskforce, which was
formed to bring the fugitives back, in its forthcoming meeting, would examine
how much property the killers and their families own and then confiscate those
in accordance with relevant law.
He said such confiscation would be a punishment to the killers and bring
satisfaction to the people.
The government had been trying its best to bring the absconding killers back to
the country through diplomatic channel and Interpol, the law minister said.
Seeking anonymity, an official at the Directorate of Registration told The
Daily Star that some of the property were still in the possession of a few
absconding killers of Bangabandhu.
He, however, refused to disclose the names of the killers, who are still
enjoying the property, saying that they might either sell or transfer the
pieces of land if their names were made public.
The official hoped that they would be able find more land property of the
convicted killers and their family members.
Contacted, Inspector General of Registration Khan Md Abdul Mannan refused to
comment on the property of the killers and their relatives.
The Directorate of Registration has identified land property of 144 decimals at
Gheor in Manikganj, 15.75 decimals at Srinagar in Munshiganj, 258.50 decimals
at Bhairab, 292 decimals at Kuliarchar in Kishoreganj, 772.75 decimals at
Chandina in Comilla, 74.5 decimals at Begumganj in Noakhali, 10 decimals at
Kushtia Sadar upazila, 636 decimals at Borhanuddin in Bhola and 812 decimals at
Sutrapur in Dhaka belonging to the killers and their families.
On November 21, 2012, the taskforce led by the law minister decided in a
meeting to confiscate the property of the 6 fugitive convicted killers of
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
In 2009, the Supreme Court had upheld the death penalty for 12 killers,
including the six absconding. Of the 12, Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar
Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Mohiuddin Ahmed were executed
on January 27, 2010. Another convict Aziz Pasha died in Zimbabwe in 2001.
The trial of Bangabandhu killing commenced in Dhaka in 1997.
On August 15, 1975, disgruntled army personnel had killed the Father of the
Nation and most of his family members.
(source: The Daily Star)
CHINA:
China Won't Harvest Organs From Dead Inmates Anymore
China has announced that it will phase out its ethically-questionable practice
of harvesting organs from recently executed prisoners, and instead institute a
voluntary organ donor system for the country's 1.3 billion inhabitants.
In 2012, 64 percent of organ transplants in China came from prisoners. Reuters
claims that "Chinese view the practice as a way for criminals to redeem
themselves," but it's gained widespread international criticism for, in the
words of Chinese officials, "tarnishing the image of China."
165 Chinese hospitals are licensed to carry out organ transplants; Huang Jiefu,
who heads the country's organ transplant office, said that the first batch of
these hospitals will stop using organs from dead inmates by November (he didn't
specify how many were in this "1st batch").
"I am confident that before long all accredited hospitals will forfeit the use
of prisoner organs," he said. The trend lines are certainly running in that
direction: The number of voluntarily donated and transplanted organs rose from
just 63 in 2010 to over 900 this year.
There's a significant shortage of organ donors in China: 300,000 people are
wait-listed for organ transplants every year, and only 1 out of 30 ultimately
receive a transplant.
The issue here has as much to do with China's capital punishment policy as it
does organ transplants. The country doesn't reveal how often it carries out the
death penalty, but most outside peg the number at around several thousand
prisoners per year. Human rights groups have accused the country's leadership
of both denying fair trials to the accused and issuing death sentences to those
convicted of non-violent crimes, primarily drug-related.
(source: Bustle)
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