Aug. 22
TRINIDAD:
Rowley wants tough penalties for criminals
Demanding that criminals be brought to book, a tough-talking Dr Keith Rowley
says he will call on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to introduce
draconian penalties for criminals who "take out" witnesses to prevent the
prosecution of their cases. The Opposition Leader, speaking at a PNM meeting at
Hi-Lo carpark, St Augustine, on Tuesday night said he intended to put the
request to Persad-Bissessar in a meeting today which he requested to discuss
the crime spike in the Duncan Street area.
Rowley said the Opposition was now in a position to influence government
policy. He said he walked on Duncan Street last Saturday and the fear was such
that "you could have cut it with a knife." There was an escalation of violent
crime in the area over the last few weeks, including the murder of 2 teenagers.
Rowley said: "We empathise with the victims of east Port-of-Spain and we demand
that the criminality be brought to book.
"I will ask her to see whether it is possible for us to strengthen and put
serious, draconian penalties to bear upon any person who tampers with any
witness. So if you commit crime A and the penalty is 10 years,
witness-tampering must be 15 years. "Tampering with witnesses drives a wedge at
the heart of the criminal justice system. The criminals know if there is no
witness and if they are afraid to talk, in whatever they do in broad daylight
there is no prosecution."
Referring to Duncan Street, he added: "People are so afraid to even talk to you
because they are afraid that somebody might see them talking to you and he
might kill them, having accused them of 'ratting' on them. We have to protect
witnesses with serious responses." Rowley said the PNM was so serious that if
legislation to the end needed amending or strengthening in Parliament, once it
made sense and had a chance of success, the Opposition would support it.
He said the Government's "invasion and retreat" crime response was not curbing
criminality in the area. "We cannot keep having a repeat of invasion and
retreat. Every time there is a spike in murders, you invade east Port-of-Spain.
You lock down the street, you lock down the block and then you gone and the
criminality continues... the guns flow and then you come back for another
invasion some time later on."
Rowley said there had been a failure on the part of policing in the country and
he dismissed the PM's plan to go back to Parliament with death-penalty
legislation. He said: "Before you hang anybody, you have to find out who you
going to hang, who is committing the crime... if you have information which can
be turned into evidence... if you can arrest and lay a charge... if you can
tender evidence before the court, get a conviction and a sentence... only then
does hanging come into it.
"And, of course, along the way, you have to have witnesses alive and well. How
can you hang what you don't see... who you have not arrested, charged?" he
asked. He said it was against that background he had requested the meeting with
Persad-Bissessar. "We are in a position to put PNM policies and demands to the
Government," he added.
However, he said, the PM said she would "talk and agree" and, therefore, he
would not be making any demands on her, he would be making "requests."
(source: Trinidad Guardian)
VIETNAM:
Vietnam Sentences 2 Foreigners to Death for Drug Trafficking
Vietnam this week sentenced a Thai woman and a Nigerian man to death for
transporting drugs into the country, where drug trafficking is on the rise.
Chaimongkol Suracha, 31, was convicted of "illegally transporting narcotics" by
the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, according to a statement
from the Public Security Ministry. Chaimongkol was arrested at the city's
airport last October, allegedly carrying nearly 2 kilograms of cocaine in her
luggage on a flight from Brazil. She claimed to not know photos albums she was
transporting for someone were filled with cocaine.
Vietnam's drug laws are among the toughest in the world. According to its penal
code, anyone convicted of trafficking, illegally producing or transporting 100
grams or more of heroin or cocaine can be sentenced to death.
Chaimongkol told the court that she had been asked by some African people in
Brazil to bring two photo albums to the owner of a car trading company in
Vietnam where she was looking for a job, not realizing the albums contained the
heroin, according to state media reports.
The court on Monday handed a death sentence to a 31-year-old Nigerian man, who
was found guilty of bringing 3.48 kilograms of methamphetamine into Vietnam on
a flight from Qatar in June of last year. State media cited the court's
indictment as saying that Ejiogu Benjamin Ikechukwu had hidden the
methamphetamine in 16 metal cylinders and in a laptop charger.
Ejiogu said at the trial he didn't know the drug was in his luggage, reported
Hanoi Moi online newspaper.
The Ministry of Public Security said earlier this year that the situation of
drug crime in Vietnam is getting more "complicated," partly due to the
expansion of drug trafficking rings that smuggle drugs from Africa, the Middle
East and Central Asia into Southeast Asian countries.
"Drug trafficking has always been a headache in Vietnam," a former senior
official with the Public Security Ministry's anti-narcotics department told The
Wall Street Journal.
"Most of the drugs are smuggled into Vietnam via the borderlines with
neighboring countries for domestic use...but some is bound for other
countries," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The ministry said Vietnam arrested 14,178 people for drug crimes in the first
half of this year, up 22.3% from a year earlier. The amount of heroin seized by
the police in the January to June period totaled 238.8 kilograms, more than
double from the same period last year.
"Drug crimes lead to other social evils, causing serious consequences for
[Vietnam's] economy and the community," the ministry said. Vietnam's penal code
allows the death penalty for 29 crimes, from murder and terrorism to receiving
bribes of 300 million dong ($14,300) or more. But the vast majority of those on
death row are there for drug offenses.
The country departed from firing squads in 2011 to lethal injections for the
execution of its rising number of condemned prisoners, though the first
execution by lethal injection in the country took place only earlier this
month.
The number of death-row prisoners in Vietnam was more than 560 at the end of
June, state media said last month, citing data from the Supreme People's
Procuracy.
In some rare cases, death-row prisoners in Vietnam may have their sentences
commuted to life imprisonment for good behavior and other mitigating
circumstances.
(source: The Wall Street Journal)
**********************
Death penalty upheld for Vietnamese carrying 6kg of heroin
An appeals court in central Vietnam upheld Thursday a death sentence given last
year to a local man for illegally carrying 6 kilograms of heroin and 12,000
ecstasy pills from Laos to Vietnam.
Vietnamese border soldiers arrested Mua Ba Tu, 28, on July 18 last year when he
was transporting the drugs across the Laos-Vietnam frontier to his hometown
Nghe An Province, according to the indictment.
Tu fiercely fought back but could neither escape to Laos nor get rid of all the
exhibits as he wanted.
Investigators have confirmed that the man was hired by a Laotian to bring the
drugs into Vietnam but they have yet to find out the mastermind.
Earlier a first instance court in the same province imposed the capital
punishment on Tu on December 26, 2012. He then submitted an appeal for a
commutation to life imprisonment.
But Tu was unable to put forward any mitigating factor so the appeals court
decided to dismiss his petition, given the enormous volume of drugs.
(source: Tuoi Tren News)
PAKISTAN:
Renew Death Penalty Moratorium, Then Abolish Capital Punishment----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.
Pakistan's government should revoke its decision to resume executions and renew
its moratorium on the death penalty, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com
said in a letter to the Pakistani government today. Human Rights Ambassador
William Nicholas Gomes 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.
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.
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 Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes 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.
--
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,
I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com.
I am deeply concerned by your government's recently announced decision to
resume executions in Pakistan. I 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. I understand that an anti-terrorism 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, 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.
I believe that those who commit acts of terrorism should be prosecuted before
competent, independent and impartial courts that meet international due process
standards. However, I 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
I oppose the death penalty in all cases without exception. I 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.'
I 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, I 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,
William Nicholas Gomes
Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com
Twitter@wnicholasgomes
(source: Salem-News)
********************
Burney thanks president, PM for commuting death sentences
Chairman of Ansar Burney Trust International and former federal minister for
human rights, Ansar Burney Advocate has thanked the president and prime
minister for considering the request of Ansar Burney Trust International and
other human rights NGOs to convert death sentences into life in the country, as
majority of condemned prisoners in the death cells waiting to be hanged are
innocents or prisoners of circumstances, says a press release.
"We have no sympathy with hardened criminals, rapists, killers of humanity and
terrorists but how can we allow to hang innocents. I am very much aware that 35
to 40 % death sentence prisoners are criminals even some hardened criminals and
terrorists but only because of them how Ansar Burney Trust can allow government
to hang 60 to 65 % innocents?"
Burney said that many among them have already spent more than 2 to 3 decades in
death cells and that prolonged detention in worst and inhuman circumstances on
death row is at the very least cruel treatment and worst kind of human rights
violations. He said Pakistan voted against a United Nation General Assembly
resolution for a moratorium on the death penalty in December 2007.
"Pakistan ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in
April 2010, which was signed by the president in June. While these steps are
welcome, the Ansar Burney Trust believes that it is imperative for the
government to also take immediate steps to ratify the Second Optional Protocol
to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the
abolition of the death penalty." Burney added.
(source: The News)
IRAN----execution
A prisoner hanged in public in Khuzistan province
The Iranian regime's judiciary in the southeastern province of Khuzistan
declared on Thursday that a prisoner has been hanged in public.
The execution was carried out in public in the historical city of Hendijan. No
information was given about the victim.
The Iranian regime also hanged two prisoners on Wednesday in public in the
cities of Tabriz in north-west Iran and Johrom in southern Iran.
The prisoner hanged in Tabriz was 33 years old. The prisoner hanged in Jahrom
was identified by his 1st name, Mehdi.
*************************
Death row Sunnis in Iran appeal to UN for their lives
6 Sunni Muslims sentenced to death for their beliefs by the Iranian regime have
pleaded with United Nations Secretary general ban Ki-moon to intervene to save
their lives.
The men - who are all being held in Tehran's Ghezel Hessar prison - wrote to Mr
Ban and Ahmed Shaheed, the UN's Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, to
appeal for urgent action to have their sentences overturned.
In their letter of August 17, the wrote: "In 2011, the Iranian regime condemned
twelve Sunni religious activists to death. 6 of whom, Bahram Ahmadi (under 18
years old at the time of arrest), Kayvan Zand Karimi, Houshiar Mohammadi,
Mohammad Zaher Bahmani, Asghar Rahimi and Behnam Rahimi have been executed and
their bodies were not even returned to their families.
"At the same time, the Iranian regime and its security apparatus also condemned
us to death since Sunnis in Iran have always been oppressed in politics,
religion, science, economy and culture, and have never been permitted to live
in peace. The Iranian regime has executed, sent into exile, or imprisoned both
senior Sunnis and youths alike.
"We therefore call on you to take urgent action to condemn this inhumane policy
by the regime. Our sentences may be carried out at any time. In the past 8
years, over 200 Sunni religious-political activists from western Iran have been
arrested and most of them have been condemned to long-term prison sentences.
150 of them are in Rajaei prison in Karaj, with another 20 condemned to death.
This situation deserves urgent action by international and human rights
organizations."
(source for both: NCR-Iran)
INDIA:
Court Clears Way for Delhi Gang-Rape Verdict
India's Supreme Court Thursday cleared the way for a juvenile court to give a
verdict on the teenager accused of participating in the gang rape of a woman on
a bus in Delhi in December.
The juvenile court has delayed giving a verdict on four occasions as it awaited
a decision from the Supreme Court on a petition calling for a review of the
juvenile law.
The petition, filed by opposition leader Subramanian Swamy, said the mental and
intellectual maturity of juveniles, not just their age, should be taken into
account for criminal proceedings. The Supreme Court hasn???t made a decision on
the petition, but said the juvenile court can pass an order on the teenager
accused in the gang rape.
"The juvenile justice board is free to decide on the case," Chief Justice P.
Sathasivam said.
The juvenile was 17 at the time of the crime, but is 18 now.
"My petition has been allowed and will be regularly heard. It will take 3 or 4
months," Mr. Swamy said.
"It is against the spirit of justice to prevent the juvenile court from giving
a verdict. So the court said the juvenile court is free to give its order," he
added.
The juvenile court Monday set Aug. 31 as the date for its verdict. The verdict
was initially due on July 11, but it was postponed then, as well as on July 25,
Aug. 5 and Monday.
The juvenile is 1 of 6 people accused of taking part in the Dec. 16 gang rape.
The attack was so brutal that the woman, a 23-year-old student, died 2 weeks
later from her injuries. The crime prompted protests and vigils in India and
overseas.
4 others accused are being tried in an adult court. A 5th was found dead in his
cell in Tihar Jail in March. Closing arguments in the trial of the 4 men are
expected to begin Thursday, a lawyer for 2 of the accused said.
Like the adult defendants in the case, the juvenile faces charges that include
kidnapping, rape and murder. They have all pleaded not guilty.
Under the current law, if the juvenile is found guilty, he faces a maximum 3
years in a protective home. The maximum punishment for the adults is the death
penalty.
(source: Wall Street Journal)
******************
SC stays execution of 2 rape-cum-murder convicts
The Supreme Court today stayed the execution of 2 death row convicts in
Karnataka scheduled for tomorrrow even as one of them allegedly attempted to
commit suicide in jail.
Shivu Munishetti and Jadeswamy Rangashetti, who had been sentenced to death for
brutally raping and murdering a teenaged girl in 2001, had moved the apex court
after their mercy petitions were rejected by the President this month. A bench
headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam issued notice to the Karnataka government,
seeking its reponse on duo???s plea.
The bench tagged their plea with other cases in which the apex court had stayed
the execution of other death row convicts.
Earlier in the day, Shivu allegedly attempted suicide in Hindalga jail in
Belgaum in Karnataka amid preparations by prison authorities to hang him along
with the other convict. Shivu slashed his private parts and a hand with a
blade, prison officials said. He was being treated in the jail and might be
shifted to a district hospital, they said. Shivu and Jadeswamy were arrested by
Chamarajnagar police in connection with rape and murder of an 18-year-old girl
on October 15, 2001.
The 2 were sentenced to death by a trial court in July 2005. The Karnataka High
Court rejected their appeal and confirmed their death penalty in October 2005.
The Supreme Court had upheld the High Court verdict in 2007. President Pranab
Mukherjee had rejected their mercy plea early this month.
On August 8, the apex court had stayed the execution of Maganlal Barela who was
to be hanged the same morning for beheading his five daughters in Sehore
district of Madhya Pradesh.
Barela was found guilty of beheading his daughters Leela (6), Savita (5), Arti
(4), Phool Kanwar (2) and Jamuna (1), to death with an axe following a dispute
over property with his two wives on June 11, 2010.
He was awarded capital punishment on February 3, 2011. The President had
rejected Barela's plea for clemency on July 22, this year after dismissal of
his petition for converting capital punishment into life imprisonment by Madhya
Pradesh High Court (Jabalpur bench) on February 3, 2011 and the Supreme Court
on January 9, 2012.
(source: India TV News)
************************
India asked to renew moratorium on capital punishment
An eminent human rights body today asked India to immediately stop impending
executions and renew its moratorium on capital punishment.
"In the past year, India has made a full-scale retreat from its previous
principled rejection of the death penalty," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia
director at Human Rights Watch.
"The government should instead declare an official moratorium, commute all
existing death sentences to life in prison, and then work towards abolishing
the death penalty once and for all," she said.
In its statement, Human Rights Watch urged the Indian government to demonstrate
its commitment to international human rights obligations by halting all
executions starting with Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, who was sentenced to death
in 2001 for a 1993 bomb attack that killed 9 people.
The Supreme Court on August 14 dismissed Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF)
terrorist Bhullar's plea seeking a review of its verdict refusing to commute
his death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground of delay in deciding his
mercy plea by the government.
(source: India Times)
******************
India: Stop Executions--In the past year, India has made a full-scale retreat
from its previous principled rejection of the death penalty. The government
should instead declare an official moratorium, commute all existing death
sentences to life in prison, and then work towards abolishing the death penalty
once and for all.
The Indian government should stop impending executions and renew its moratorium
on capital punishment, Human Rights Watch said today. On August 14, 2013, the
Supreme Court of India rejected the appeal for clemency of Devinderpal Singh
Bhullar, who was sentenced to death in 2001 for a 1993 bomb attack that killed
nine people. The ruling puts him at risk of imminent execution.
"In the past year, India has made a full-scale retreat from its previous
principled rejection of the death penalty," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia
director. "The government should instead declare an official moratorium,
commute all existing death sentences to life in prison, and then work towards
abolishing the death penalty once and for all."
An 8 year unofficial moratorium on executions in India ended with the hangings
on November 21, 2012, of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani convicted of
multiple murders in the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, and on February 9,
2013, of Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted for the December 2001 attack on the
Indian parliament. The Indian president, Pranab Mukherjee, has rejected 11
clemency pleas since he took office, confirming the death penalty for 17
people.
Bhullar was convicted on the basis of a confession under the Terrorist and
Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), for the bombing attack in New
Delhi targeting politician Maninder Singh Bitta, a critic of the militant
separatist movement in Punjab. The government later did not renew TADA because
it violated basic human rights. Bhullar retracted his confession, but his
subsequent appeals were rejected by the Supreme Court. President Mukherjee
rejected his appeal for clemency. Bhullar is presently receiving medical
treatment at the Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences for a
psychotic disorder. The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, in an
open letter to the Indian government, expressed its concern that executing an
inmate who is mentally incapacitated is contrary to international law.
In 1983, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the death penalty should be
imposed only in "the rarest of rare cases." The lack of legal safeguards to
prevent the execution of individuals whose crimes do not meet this standard is
a serious concern. In July 2012, 14 retired Supreme Court and High Court judges
asked President Mukherjee to commute the death sentences of 13 inmates they
said were erroneously upheld by the Supreme Court over the previous 9 years.
This followed the court's admission that some of these death sentences were
rendered per incuriam (out of error or ignorance). In November the Supreme
Court ruled that the "rarest of rare" standard for capital punishment had not
been applied uniformly over the years and the norms on the death penalty needed
"a fresh look."
Human Rights Watch urged the Indian government to demonstrate its commitment to
international human rights obligations by halting all executions starting with
Bhullar, immediately adopting a moratorium on the death penalty, and abolishing
the death penalty permanently in domestic law. On December 18, 2007, the United
Nations General Assembly passed a resolution by a wide margin calling for a
worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.
Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an
inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment.
"Those who commit violent crimes should be held accountable and fairly
punished," Ganguly said. "As long as capital punishment remains in the statute
books, there is always the danger that people will be sent to the gallows
because their crime is deemed 'rarest of rare.' India can instead demonstrate
to the world that it is committed to justice by joining with those nations that
have decided to abolish the death penalty."
(source: Human Rights Watch)
***********************
BC Sikh Societies & Organizations Condemn the Rejection of Prof Devender Pal
Singh's Plea
On Wednesday August 14th 2013, several Gurdwara Societies and Sikh
Organizations gathered to collectively condemn the rejection of Professor
Devender Pal Singh's plea and against the upholding of the illegal death
sentence given to him.
Professor Bhullar's 18 year-long case has accumulated to two 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 to death based solely on a court retracted
confessional statement. Also 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.
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 and the 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 the 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, we ask 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: sikh24.com)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
