Aug. 17
PAKISTAN:
Zardari blocks execution of 2 death row convicts
President Asif Ali Zardari has blocked execution of 2 death row prisoners,
according to jail officers.
Geo News report said a death row inmate Behram Khan was to be hanged on August
21 at the Karachi Central Jail while the other prisoner Munir Hussain was to be
executed on August 22 at Punjab's Vehari prison.
According to the report, both the prisoners were involved in several murders.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government has decided to carry on executions
after a 5 year old moratorium on the capital punishment ended in June.
(source: The News)
*********************
Zardari to discuss executions with Sharif
Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari wants to discuss the next week hanging of
2 militants with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif amidst calls to cancel their
planned execution, his spokesman said on Saturday.
The PML-N government has completed formalities to send the convicted militants
to gallows on Tuesday. The executions, if carried out, will end a 5-year
moratorium imposed by Zardari.
"President has referred the case of 2 convicts to PM and desired to discuss the
issue with PM," Farhatullah Babar said.
He also said that the "president has neither stayed any execution nor ordered
any." It is not clear as yet how Sharif will respond to the proposal by Zardari
to discuss it.
After an open letter to the government yesterday by Human Rights Watch and
International Committee of Jurists asking to renew its moratorium on the death
penalty, Zardari is expected to convince the PML-N leadership to delay the
move.
A counter-terrorism court in Sindh province has issued 'black warrants' for the
execution of two members of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Attaullah alias Qasim
and Muhammad Azam alias Sharif.
The 2 men were convicted by a counter-terrorism court in July 2004 for killing
a Shia doctor and are scheduled to be executed on Tuesday.
So far government was determined to go ahead despite threats from the Taliban
to target the PML-N government if militants are hanged.
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.
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.
(source: Zee News)
CHINA:
China puts husband of Tibetan self immolator on death row
An Intermediate court in Tibet's Ngaba region has sentenced a Tibetan man to
death for allegedly killing his wife who the exile Tibetans say had died 5
months back after setting herself on fire in protest Chinese rule.
The Chinese state run media cited a court ruling that says Dolma Kyab, 32, from
Zoege County had strangled his wife, Kunchok Wangmo to death on March 11 this
year following an argument over "drinking problem". However, reports published
earlier in March on this site indicate that Kunchok Wangmo, 31, set herself on
fire on the eve of Xi Jinping's formal selection as the new President of China
to protest Chinese rule in Tibet and to call for the return of the exiled
Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama to Tibet.
Following her self-immolation protest, the local Chinese authorities arrested
Wangmo's husband Dolma Kyab after he refused to comply with their orders to
declare internal family feuds as the reason for her self-immolation.
According to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, China has made
aggressive overtures, mainly in the form of hush money, to silence family
members of self-immolation protesters.
Similarly, in November last year, by Chinese security personnel secretly
detained Dhonue, the husband of Dolkar Tso, who died of self-immolation on 7
August 2012 near Tsoe Gaden Choeling Monastery in Tsoe city in Kanlho Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province. The husband refused to accept bribe
money offered by the authorities to sign a document that says his wife set
herself on fire due to family disputes and not in protest against China's rule.
Another self immolation protester Sangay Gyatso's family members from the same
region were offered a bribe of one million yuan to sign a document stating that
his self-immolation was not targeted against China's rule over Tibet.
Mr. Kyab is the sole bread earner in his family which consists of his
8-year-old daughter and his aged mother.
Interestingly, Chinese official media quoted Kyab's lawyer Su Haijun as saying
that Kunchok Wangmo's parents would not believe that their son-in-law killed
their daughter as the couple "were generally on good terms with each other."
Kyab is the 1st Tibetan sentenced to death in connection with self-immolation
protests.
"The latest death penalty indicates that the authorities have hardened their
stance on the issue of self-immolation, by making an example out of a few
defiant relatives to scare and intimidate other family members and relatives of
self-immolation protesters into toeing the official line," said Tsering Tsomo,
the executive director of TCHRD.
Tsering further noted that the confessions made by Kyab regarding his
involvement in the so-called murder of his wife is questionable as China "uses
torture extensively to extract confessions in politically-motivated cases."
"China's lack of transparency in handing death penalty, in addition to its
frequent failure to comply with international legal standards raises important
questions over the lawfulness of the latest death sentence passed on Dolma
Kyab."
Strongly condemning the use of death penalty, the Tibetan right group said it
violates the fundamental right to life and the right not to be subjected to
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. "The persistent use of
death penalty demonstrates China's rejection of the United Nations Global
Moratorium on the Death Penalty, adopted in 2007, which establishes a
suspension on executions with the view to abolish the death penalty."
On August 2, Chinese state run media claimed that Chinese police in Qinghai
have busted a "fabicated case of self immolation" by a Tibetan herdsman on May
27 this year, and arrested a 25 year old Tibetan monk named Cerzha (Sertha) for
sending pictures of the charred remains taken from his cellphone to a monk in
India.
(source: phayul.com)
INDIA:
Hindalga jail authorities prepare for executions
While the authorities at the Hindalga Central Prison prepare to take death row
convicts Shiv and Jadeswamy to the gallows, following the rejection of their
mercy petitions by President Pranab Mukherjee, the convicts' lawyers are
preparing to move the Supreme Court seeking commutation of the death sentence
to life imprisonment.
A senior official at the jail told The Hindu that an advocate had already
obtained signatures of the duo on Friday and he could file a writ petition
before the apex court for commutation of the death penalty.
For their part, the authorities have deputed a jailer to obtain death warrant
from the District and Sessions Court, Chamarajanagar, which had convicted the
duo for rape and murder. As per the procedure, the letter of rejection of mercy
petition would be submitted to the court following which the date and time
would be fixed for execution of the death penalty. The family members of both
convicts have been informed about the rejection of the mercy petition through
the police official concerned in Chamarajanagar district, officials said.
No word yet
But, official sources in the District and Sessions Court told The Hindu over
the telephone that so far (till evening on Saturday) no official from the
Hindalga jail had come there. The President had rejected the clemency petitions
of Shivu, son of Munishetty, and Jadeswamy, son of Rangashetty, who were
convicted for the rape and murder of an 18-year-old girl in Bhadrayanahalli,
their native village, in Kollegal taluk on October 15, 2001.
Veerappan's associates
It may be mentioned here that the President had also rejected the mercy
petitions of 4 persons - Simon, Gnanaprakash, Meesakara Madaiah and Bilavendra
- associates of slain forest brigand Veerappan, who were convicted for killing
21 persons in a landmine blast in Palar, and incarcerated in the Hindalga jail
since February 10, 2004.
However, the Supreme Court, on February 18 this year, granted a stay on
execution on a writ petition challenging the President's rejection and seeking
commutation of death sentence into life imprisonment.
Sources said that as of now, the Hindalga jail, the only one in the State with
facility for hanging, houses 36 convicts facing death penalty. The last
execution carried out there was of Hanumant Malla, who was convicted of 5
murders, in 1983.
No official hangman
However, as there was no hangman at the jail, four of the jail staff had been
trained to carry out executions, Assistant Superintendent of the prison C.R.
Tallur said. He added that they were yet to get the death warrant (as of
Saturday evening).
Veerabhadra Swamy, Chief Superintendent of Hindalga prison, declined to share
any information following a direction from the government.
(source: The Hindu)
TRINIDAD:
DOMA: Death penalty useless without detection
The Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) yesterday issued a
statement in response to the explosion of violence in Port of Spain, and Prime
Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's comment on Thursday that Government would be
revisiting the death penalty as a deterrent to murders.
DOMA said that while it understood the pressure which the government of the day
must feel facing so many horrific murders that take place in the full glare of
daylight "until and unless the failure to make arrests is recognised as the
central cause of this gruesome state of affairs, then we regret to prophesize
that announcements regarding the death penalty or hanging will have little or
no effect on the vicious state of affairs in our beloved Trinidad and Tobago."
DOMA added, "It seems obvious to us that the death penalty can have no effect
unless we are able to threaten convicted murderers with such punishment, but
how can we make anyone fearful of hanging when we are unable to solve less than
10 % of murder cases. If there are no arrests, how can we contemplate
prosecution, conviction and then hanging?"
DOMA went on to say, "Pronouncements about the introduction of the death
penalty may tragically be interpreted as desperation at best or worse, as a
lack of respect for the common-sense of the citizens.
"We feel obligated to once again bring to the attention of the national
community the issue that is receiving no attention, which is the abysmal
detection rate and the total failure to make any arrests or to provide any
convictions for the most heinous of crimes, that of taking the life of another
human being."
(source: Trinidad Express)
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