Aug. 25
PAPUA NEW GUINEA:
Disturbing violence in poverty-stricken PNG
Papua New Guinea continues to grapple with high levels of violence against
women and children, despite the government introducing the death sentence to
try and curb it.
A new report shows a quarter of those seeking help after being raped, are under
the age of 12.
ONE News Pacific Correspondent Barbara Dreaver says an overwhelming number of
women and children in PNG are the victims of violence and it's so endemic most
cases aren't even reported.
Barry Coates from Oxfam says virtually all women in by the age of 25 are likely
to have suffered at least some incident of domestic violence in their lives.
Violent crime is particularly common in the capital Port Moresby and the
Highlands, and the Government recently introduced the death penalty for murder,
aggravated rape and armed robbery.
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill believes there has been a remarkable decline in
the number of cases they are experiencing. "That is one indication that people
are taking these new changes and the new laws very seriously," he said.
But non-government organisations are yet to see the benefits and a Childfund
Australia report has found that half of the people who seek medical help after
being raped are younger than 16, with 1/4 under 12.
There are 6 safe houses around Port Moresby but there's a desperate need for
more. An Oxfam-funded shelter helps women and children who have survived abuse
piece their lives back together but getting hospital reports and the police to
act is a serious issue.
"When we refer them it takes too long," Mary Ngeri from Lifeline said.
But the shelters offer survivors hope, which is more than the victims had
before.
(source: BBC News)
IRAN----executions
27 prisoners hanged on one day, not counting secret executions
On Thursday, Aug. 21, 2013, the total number of inmates hanged in 6 prisons
throughout Iran reached 27, but the number might even be higher. Official
reports indicate that 27 prisoners were hanged on Thursday in Arak, Mashhad,
Urmia, Karaj, Hendijan and Ardabil. Among those hanged were 5 prisoners who
were executed at the Central Prison in Arak for a total amount of 5 kg of
narcotics. Meanwhile, 11 inmates were executed secretly in Karaj and 5 in
Urmai.
According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), early
Thursday morning, 5 inmates convicted of drug trafficking were hanged at the
Central Prison in Arak. The Deputy Prosecutor of Arak announced that 5
prisoners were sentenced to death on charges of distributing narcotics and
possession of five kg of heroin, crack and crystal meth. "The death sentences
were confirmed by the Attorney General," he said. "At last, after all criminal
procedures and due process were met, the prisoners were hanged."
The Deputy Prosecutor of Arak identified the inmates by their first initials
and described the charges as follows:
-- A.K., 25 years old, tried and convicted at the 2nd branch of the
Revolutionary Court for the possession of 598.50 g of crack.
-- P.E., 24 years old, tried and convicted at the 2nd branch of the
Revolutionary Court for the distribution and possession of 890 g of crystal
meth.
-- A.A., 37 years old, tried and convicted at the 1st branch of the
Revolutionary Court for the distribution of 1.8 kg of crack.
-- A.T., 35 years old, and M.A., 29 years old, were respectively tried and
convicted at the 1st and 2nd branches of the Revolutionary Courts for the
distribution and possession of 2.3 kg of crack in total.
(source: HRANA)
EGYPT:
Mubarak to appear in court today
Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak, who left prison for house arrest this
week, is due in court on Sunday for a hearing, as are several recently arrested
top Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
Mubarak is to have a hearing in his retrial on charges of complicity in the
deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ousted him.
The case is one of several against Mubarak, who was granted pre-trial release
this week but placed under house arrest by interim Prime Minister Hazem El
Beblawi.
The 85-year-old former president is being held at a military hospital in Cairo
and it was not immediately clear if he would attend the hearing at the Police
Academy.
Mubarak was convicted last June and sentenced to life in prison, but a retrial
was ordered in January after he appealed.
He could face the death penalty in that case, and is also facing charges in
several corruption cases.
At the same time, but in a different court, Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed
Badie and 2 deputies - Rashad Bayoumi and Khairat Al Shater - are to make their
1st appearance on charges of inciting the murder of protesters.
Another 3 Brotherhood members will stand trial with them, accused of carrying
out the murder of the demonstratorst.
Separately, Egypt is to shorten its night-time curfew by 2 hours, pushing back
the start time to 9pm except on Fridays, the premier's office said.
"To lessen the burden on citizens and respond to popular request, the length of
the curfew will be shortened and will begin at 9pm instead of 7pm," it said.
The curfew will continue to end at 6am, the statement said, adding that the
changes would go into effect immediately but would not apply on Fridays.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
INDIA:
International Commission of Jurists want India to immediately halt Professor
Bhullar's imminent execution
It is learnt that the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) called upon the
Indian Government to halt the imminent execution of Professor Devinderpal Singh
Bhullar.
ICJ press release, that reflects its understanding on the issue, reads as
follows:
ICJ called upon the Indian Government to halt the imminent execution of
Professor Devinderpal Singh Bhullar.
In August 2001, Professor Bhullar was sentenced to death under the Terrorist
and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act following his conviction on charges
related to the bombing of the All Indian Youth Congress in New Delhi in 1993.
"Those who commit acts of terrorism should be prosecuted before competent,
independent and impartial courts that meet international due process
standards", said Ben Schonveld, ICJ's South Asia Director.
"However, while those responsible for such acts must be held to account, the
ICJ opposes the death penalty in all circumstances, without exception as it is
an inherently cruel and irreversible punishment that violates the right to
life."
"Furthermore, there are serious questions about whether Professor Bhullar's
trial was in accordance with the requirements of international law", Schonveld
added. "His conviction and death sentence are based solely upon an alleged
confession he made in police custody, which he later retracted, claiming it was
extracted under torture."
The ICJ says that the execution of an individual in these circumstances would
violate India's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights to respect the right to life, the right to a fair trial and
the absolute prohibition of torture.
In May 2011, President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Professor Bhullar's petition
for clemency. The Supreme Court rejected his earlier plea on 12 April 2013 to
commute the sentence to life imprisonment, and upheld its decision on 14 August
2013.
India ended an 8-year moratorium on the death penalty with the executions of
Ajmal Kasab on 21 November 2012 and Mohammad Afzal Guru on 9 February 2013.
"The resumption of the death penalty by India is contrary to the global and
regional movement towards the abolition of the death penalty", said Schonveld.
The ICJ reminds that 150 countries worldwide, including 30 states in the
Asia-Pacific region, have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.
The ICJ urges the Indian Government to immediately reinstate the moratorium on
the death penalty, with a view to abolishing the death penalty permanently and
acceding to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights on the abolition of the death penalty.
Over the years, the member states of the United Nations have 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 States voted in favor of
a worldwide moratorium on executions as a step towards abolition of the death
penalty.
(source: sikhsiyasat.net)
***************
Sushma Swaraj demands death sentence for Mumbai rapists
The leader of opposition in Lok Sabha told media persons here that she favoured
stringent punishment for those guilty of rape.
BJP leader Sushma Swaraj Saturday demanded death penalty for the 5 men accused
of gang-raping a photojournalist in Mumbai.
The leader of opposition in Lok Sabha told media persons here that she favoured
stringent punishment for those guilty of rape.
She said that she was of the firm view that if the guilty in Dec 16 Delhi
gang-rape case get a death sentence, then such crimes against women would stop
somewhere.
A woman photo-journalist with an English magazine and her colleague, on an
assignment to the Shakti Mills Compound at Mahalaxmi in central Mumbai late
Thursday, were accosted by 5 men, who assaulted the man and gang-raped the
woman in thick undergrowth in the sprawling compound.
(source: Daily News & Analysis)
*******************
Captial punishment for rapists
After the inhuman December 16 gangrape in Delhi, the gangrape of a
photojournalist in Mumbai has again brought shame. Rape is not new to society
and the loopholes in the law have always helped those accused of rape escape.
It has emboldened anti-social elements, leading to a hike in the number of
cases. After the Delhi case, a demand was made to for convicted rapists to get
the death penalty. The Centre formed the Justice Verma Committee and said it
would apply most of its recommendations. However, this hasn't proved to be a
sufficient remedy. Section 376 provides imprisonment for not less than 7 years,
normally 10 years and maximum life imprisonment depending upon the gravity of
the offence.
The law provides death penalty for rape only if the victim has been murdered.
Dhananjay Chatterjee was the last person executed for rape.In the Mumbai case,
rape was committed but not murder. This will help the accused as they will not
get the death penalty but may get life imprisonment. The government promises to
send certain cases to fast track courts, but there are only 1,562 such courts
in the entire country. The Supreme Court in Bachan Singh v/s State of Punjab
case of 1980 held that capital punishment should be awarded only in the rarest
of the rare case. Unfortunately, rape is no more a rare case as it has become a
daily occurrence in some part of the country or another. The law needs to be
amended so rapists get the death penalty as it will deter others. But the
procedure for amendments has always been difficult in India. The
parliamentarians, law minister and law commission should take cognisance of the
situation and make the necessary changes for the larger interest of women and
society.
(source: Indian Expres)
CHINA:
Chinese toddler's killer asks for death penalty: Report
A Chinese man who threw a toddler to death during a row with her mother over
parking space has sought death penalty for his appalling crime.
Han Lei, 39, told prosecutors that he felt so guilty and distressed that he
wanted to die.
"I caused such a calamity for the child...Please make sure that I am sentenced
to death. I don't want to live any more," Han was quoted as saying by the
Beijing News.
Han, who was earlier imprisoned for theft, took the nearly 3-year-old child
from her pram and threw her to the ground near a bus stop in Beijing last month
after her mother refused to give space to park his car.
He drove away in huff with his friend after throwing down baby and was later
traced and arrested.
Virtually brain dead, the baby struggled in the ICU for two days before
succumbing to her grievous injuries.
Also in an identical case a "drunk" policeman in Linzhou city picked up a baby
from pram and threw it down.
While he was arrested later, a number of top security officials of the city
were suspended for not taking timely action against him.
(source: Zee News)
PAKISTAN:
Death penalty under the microscope
As the Pakistani government determines the future of the death penalty, its
usage has been suspended, continuing a moratorium passed in 2008. The decision
to stop executions for an interim period has raised much ire, with some
asserting that the policy is an attempt to placate militants. However, equating
all opponents of the death penalty as Taliban sympathisers is irresponsible and
logically flawed. A worthier endeavour would be to critically examine the
defences of the death penalty.
The death penalty discussion in Pakistan is coloured by the exploding terrorist
threat that the nation is experiencing. Death penalty proponents argue that
terrorists are like mad dogs that must be 'put down', due to their incapability
of acting peacefully in society. However, euthanising human beings is something
governments have moved away from, in favour of an approach that values the
sanctity of life, regardless of whose life. Under international law, agreements
decrying the death penalty have been signed or accepted by most countries. The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights treaties emphasise
the importance of the right to life. More specifically, the UN General Assembly
passed a resolution in 2008 to prohibit the use of capital punishment. Though
105 countries agreed to this resolution, Pakistan voted against its adoption.
Death penalty proponents would argue that Pakistan is in a unique position and
the nations prohibiting capital punishment have not experienced the level of
violence that Pakistan has. However, this belies the point that almost all
South and Central American countries agreed to prohibiting the use of capital
punishment, even though they continue to deal with a narco-terrorism problem
that has left thousands dead.
The argument could be made that the use of the death penalty in Pakistan is a
method of deterring the growing tide of young people joining extremist
organisations and killing fellow citizens. The problem with this assumption is
that the death penalty has not proven to be successful in reducing crime. This
is true for the mindset of some terrorists, which views death as a rite of
passage to be welcomed, rather than a fate to avoid at all costs.
The UN Committee on Crime Prevention and Control has stated that research has
failed to prove that executions deter crime more effectively than life
imprisonment. However, in a country like Pakistan, where jailbreaks seem to
have become the norm, capital punishment proponents would argue that the state
is incapable of keeping these dangerous people in prison to serve their full
sentences. However, killing prisoners because the state can't keep them in jail
seems to be like burning down the barn to slaughter one cow. There is also the
issue of wrongfully accused individuals on death row. It seems counterintuitive
to vest the expansive power of determining whether a suspect lives or dies to a
state that cannot perform the basic task of securing its jails.
Still, one could argue that a nation strapped for resources could prefer
killing prisoners through the death penalty as a cost-effective alternative to
imprisoning the individual for life. However, it is, in fact, cheaper to
imprison an individual for life than place them on death row because of the
legal costs associated with the multiple levels of appeal a suspect has to
access before the state decides to take his/her life. This is important in
Pakistan, where there are nearly 8,000 individuals on death row.
Some cite the psychic healing that capital punishment provides, as it satisfies
the desire for revenge. This should not be taken lightly and one hopes that the
state can provide some kind of remedy to those who have lost a loved one to a
brutal crime. While the remedy could satisfy base desires for revenge, it could
alternatively seek to provide justice through other means like life
imprisonment. South African social rights activist Desmond Tutu once said that
"to take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice". Perhaps,
Pakistan has seen more than its fair share of vengeful pursuits. Perhaps, it is
time to recognise what differentiates the people and their state from
extremists, who wantonly disregard the value of human life. Perhaps, not.
(source: The writer, Waris Husain, is an adjunct professor at the Howard
University School of Law and holds a Juris Doctorate and LL.M specialising in
international law. He tweets @warishusainThe Tribune)
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