Sept. 1
INDIA:
'We want hanging': Family of Delhi gang rape victim demand death penalty as
guilty teenager is sentenced to 3 years in juvenile institution; Ruling is 1st
for 5 males standing trial for the assault of the 23-year-old student
India is in the grip of a debate over what should happen to a teenager
convicted over his role in the rape and murder of a Delhi student and who was
subsequently sentenced to 3 years in a juvenile institution.
In the 1st ruling relating to 5 males standing trial for the assault last year
on the 23-year-old physiotherapy student, a juvenile court in Delhi found the
18-year-old guilty, having delayed announcing its decision several times.
Anil Sharma, the chief investigating officer in the case, told the media that
the juvenile had been "held guilty for rape and murder and sentenced to 3
years, subject to review".
Many in India believe the sentence handed down is too lenient and that he
should face the death penalty, given the brutality of the assault. Led by the
family of the young woman, they have called for Indian law to be changed so
that he can be treated as an adult and face the death penalty.
On Saturday, the family of the young woman, who cannot named for legal reasons,
were present to hear the announcement. Even though the sentence was the maximum
available under Indian law, the young woman's family emerged to tearfully
demand a tougher sentence.
"We are not accepting this. This is not true justice," said Gaurav Singh, the
brother of the young woman. "We want hanging."
According to the Associated Press, the mother of the student, Asha Devi, said:
"He should be hanged irrespective of whether he is a juvenile or not. He should
be punished for what he did to my daughter."
The attack last December on the 23-year-old medical student sparked outrage
across the world and an unprecedented debate within India about the position of
women. The government hastily enacted new laws that increased the punishments
for sex offenders.
In the aftermath of the attack, Delhi police arrested 6 males, including one
man who was found hanging in his prison cell earlier this year. In addition to
the teenager who was convicted on Saturday today, 4 men are still being tried
for gang-rape and murder. Like the juvenile, the 4 men have denied the charges.
The inquiry by the Delhi juvenile justice board was completed three weeks ago
but an announcement was deferred because of legal efforts being made by a
senior opposition politician to have the teenager tried as an adult.
As the 2 parallel hearing were going ahead, the family of the physiotherapy
student said the teenager should not be treated any differently to the adults
if he was convicted. 2 weeks ago, the family told the Independent on Sunday
that only by securing the death penalty would they feel they had received
justice.
The role of the juvenile and the punishment he should receive has been among
the most controversial aspects of the gang-rape case. The public mood was
fuelled by anonymous leaks from the police to the Indian media that claimed the
teenager was one of the most brutal of the attackers and had led the assault.
Whether or not this is true remains unclear. Evidence collated by the police
and handed to prosecutor made no mention of this and the trial of the juvenile
has been held behind closed doors.
Yet child rights activists say the Indian authorities must ensure the
18-year-old, who is the eldest of 5 children and is from an impoverished
labouring family in rural Uttar Pradesh, has a chance at rehabilitation.
"No doubt, this was a horrendous attack. But we are being driven by the desire
for retribution when we should be looking to rehabilitate," said Meenakshi
Ganguly of Human Rights Watch.
Shireen Vakil Miller, of Save the Children India, said most youngsters who came
into conflict with the law were from a background of "neglect, abuse and
deprivation".
"The most important step is to ensure that there is a comprehensive
rehabilitation package for the juvenile which includes counselling, and a
provision for vocational training," she added. "This would help the juvenile
reintegrate into society."
The 23-year-old physiotherapy student died of internal injuries 2 weeks after
being raped and assaulted with an iron bar on a bus as she and a male friend
tried to find their way home after a visit to a cinema in the south of Delhi.
Her friend was also beaten up before both were stripped naked and thrown from
the vehicle.
While the media has been reporting more cases of sexual assault, activists say
the authorities have done very little to protect women. They say they there are
countless thousands of rapes and assaults across India that get little
attention.
(source: The Independent)
THAILAND:
Thai police arrest man wanted in India for alleged arms dealings with rebels
Police in Thailand have arrested a Thai man wanted in India for alleged
involvement in international arms deals with an Indian insurgent group worth
nearly $2 million, authorities said Saturday.
Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich, also known as Willy, was arrested Friday at his home
in Bangkok, said Police Col. Charoen Sisasalak. Willy, 57, is accused of buying
weapons, including nearly 1,000 rifles and an unspecified number of
rocket-propelled grenades, to be sold to Naga rebels in northeastern India,
Charoen said.
During initial questioning, Willy told police that he was a restaurant owner in
Bangkok and denied any involvement in arms deals, Charoen said.
Prosecutors next week will try to convince a judge to send Willy to India,
where he's being tried in absentia.
India's National Investigation Agency charged Willy and three others in 2011
with criminal conspiracy to wage a war against the Indian government. If
convicted, he could face the death penalty or life imprisonment.
The Nagas are a conglomeration of several tribes inhabiting parts of northeast
India and northwest Myanmar. The Naga rebels have been operating one of India's
longest-running insurgencies, fighting for more than 50 years, though a
cease-fire with the government has held since it was signed in 1997.
(source: Associated Press)
NIGERIA:
You can't occupy an office and refuse some of its responsibilities - Paul
Though many know him as a cleric, not many know that Pastor Femi Paul is a
lawyer. In this interview with Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare, the senior pastor of
Grace Assembly in Lagos, speaks on death penalty and other issues. Excerpts:
The budget had always been a sore point between the executive and legislative
arms of government. How can this be stopped?
For many of us, we know that when issues that are important are on the table,
we expect our parents to go into their room and discuss the matter particularly
when it affects the welfare of the family and the children, I am using the
family as an example of the nation. Very serious matters are not what you start
throwing all over the place like the children going back to school, like
provision of food in the kitchen, these are not something that you discuss in
the open, these are issues that requires you to go into your room, discuss and
then you come out with a proposal. So, I think the presidency and the Senate
arguing about budgetary things, more or less in the public is worrisome. There
has to be a certain level of dialogue that is not exactly necessarily in the
open, because there are fundamental needs to be met. Without the budget, the
country doesn't run. And I think because of the welfare of the whole nation,
all the businessmen now will tell you that business is not good because
government is the biggest spender. So, for that reason of mass suffering and
the economy not moving, there has to be a take-a-little, give-a-little to get
the nation moving.
Generally when there is an issue of disagreement, if both parties are willing
to trade off a little bit of their positions, you find out it is more easier to
find a middle line that will actually take care of the bigger picture, which is
the well-being of the people in the nation. That is what I really recommend
between the leadership of the executives and the legislative arms of
government. Dialogue are not necessarily in the open but you look at the
greater cause of moving the nation forward and the people not being static and
let that drive the agreement that is necessary now.
As a lawyer and a pastor, what is your take on the issue of death penalty?
Let me ask a question here. If the governor did not sign the death warrant, who
else will sign? Does the constitution confer a secondary responsibility on
someone else? The answer is no. A majority of the prisoners are on death row
and the governors have refused to sign. First of all, the law of responsibility
goes with position. You can't occupy an office or take up a position and you
don't want to carry out some of the responsibility of that office because you
had a choice. Nobody forced you to take up that position. So, the governors are
enjoying a lot of honour, a lot of access to power and wealth etc and that is
good because they won the election. But should they be allowed to shed some of
their responsibilities? The answer is no. It comes with the office.
It is pretty much like a father in the house, you marry a wife, you have
children. You want to enjoy the headship and authority of being the man of the
house, then some aspect you don't want to carry out. The answer is no. It goes
together. So, I agree that the president can say to the governors, 'do your
job, whatever the job may be'. It doesn't have to be signing of death warrants
alone. Any job that goes with your office, you should carry out. Now it doesn't
now mean that I was speaking for the church in support of capital punishment.
You have to realize that I am a man of God and the law of God is superior to
the law of man. Let me recommend a book to you here The Jurisprudence of the
Living Oracles by Dr. Tunji Braithwaite. In tracing every human law, every
human law that we have evolves from the word of God. And that is very true,
every human law derives from the living oracles of the word of God, whether the
law of Moses, ten commandments etc. the question now is, where did we get
capital punishment? I know you are going to say something like the Bible says
that it is from God. But the law of God sanctifies human life.
Nobody is really allowed to take human life, except in times of war and that is
really a different thing entirely. I cannot say to you at least talking about
the New Testament which is better testament that supersedes the Old Testament
that taking life is beyond the human being. So, if you are to ask me, I will
say that from the word of God, you cannot justify capital punishment. A life
you cannot create, you cannot destroy. The value of a human life is
immeasurable. I can tell you for sure that life imprisonment is okay but I
struggle honestly with capital punishment. If the governors don't want to sign,
I am sure you know the reason why they don't want to do that. They struggle
with taking the responsibility to have somebody executed and I am sure a lot of
us here if you are governor, and you can avoid signing the warrant, you will
avoid it. It doesn't mean somebody who kills somebody else; say okay if you
kill somebody, that person should be killed. The question again is, who wants
to kill that person? If they give you a gun and say kill this man because he
has killed somebody, you will struggle to do that except maybe when your
passion is very high. When you think about it and also I think also for the
reason that there could be miscarriage of justice, there is no way to change
the fact if you kill somebody for an offence and evidence now show later on and
you now find the real killer, yet somebody had been killed for an offence he
knows nothing about. That doesn't leave room for any correction. I think the
church will continue to struggle with capital punishment.
Despite the proliferation of churches in the country, there is still widespread
corruption. Do you think this is due to misplaced priority by the church?
It is an honest question though one that will make all of us feel really
uncomfortable. But it has been said that Nigeria is the most religious nation
in the world and yet corruption continues to grow. We have a question we have
to address. I can't tell you I have all the answers but I agree that if
churches are increasing, corruption should be reducing and the moral values
should be increasing. I think that perhaps the church should preach and teach
more about values not necessarily for prosperity because if you have prosperity
and you have no values, it is not really worth it. I think the churches will
need to go back to some fundamentals, by that I am not saying every church is
not doing that.
(source: Nigerian Tribune)
INDONESIA:
'No-one told me final plea had failed': British grandmother on death row in
Indonesia for drug smuggling waited 8 hours for news
The British grandmother facing a firing squad for smuggling drugs into Bali did
not learn of her fate until 8 hours after the decision was made public, in a
message from one of her sons in England who had seen the news on TV.
Lindsay Sandiford, 57, was told the Supreme Court had thrown out her final
appeal. She told The Mail on Sunday: 'The media found out at midday on
Thursday, but I didn't know until the evening.
'It beggars belief. The British consulate didn't let me know. My lawyer didn't
tell me. Nobody thought to tell me.'
Lindsay Sandiford, 57, was told the Supreme Court had thrown out her final
appeal. She told The Mail on Sunday: 'The media found out at midday on
Thursday, but I didn't know until the evening'.
Sandiford, sentenced to death in January after being caught smuggling cocaine
worth 1.6 million pounds into Bali last year, has now exhausted the appeal
process and can be spared by only a presidential pardon.
In messages relayed from her prison cell in Bali's Kerobokan jail, Sandiford
said: 'I was expecting the Supreme Court appeal to fail. Even so, it is very
harsh for me to deal with. We're all going to die, it's just that I know it
won't be old age or illness that kills me. Mine will be legal murder.
'I'm not sure if I'm frightened. I just hope my death is painless. My biggest
regret is for my family - my sister, my 2 sons and my baby granddaughter, who I
will probably never have the chance to know.'
Asked how she coped with the prospect of the death penalty, she said: 'It's a
weird feeling - like looking at myself from a distance...sometimes I forget,
and sometimes I feel very down. There are extremes of all emotions.'
Sandiford's death penalty has been heavily criticised by human rights
advocates, including former Director of Public Prosecutions Lord Macdonald, who
pointed out that Sandiford insists she carried drugs only because of threats to
the lives of her 2 sons.
3 other Britons suspected of being higher up in the drug smuggling operation -
Julian Ponder, Paul Beales and Rachel Dougall - were given sentences of 6
years, 4 years and 1 year respectively.
Sandiford, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, said she had been constantly taunted
in jail by Ponder, who is serving his sentence in the same prison. He sneered
at her when she walked past him with a prison official on Friday after learning
her death penalty had been upheld, she said.
But she added: 'There is the other side where people have been incredibly kind
in the most surprising and unlooked for ways. I've been very touched by the
care I've had from strangers here and the generosity of the British public in
funding my appeals.'
Well-wishers donated nearly 11,000 pounds through a JustGiving appeal for
Sandiford's Supreme Court hearing after the British government refused funds.
Her family is now investigating whether more fundraising is needed for her plea
for a pardon.
(source: Daily Mail)
SINGAPORE:
Movie on M'sian on death row in Singapore in the offing
A local filmmaker will produce a movie based on the life of Yong Vui Kong, a
Malaysian who is facing the death penalty in Singapore for drug trafficking.
To be called Letters From Death Row, the movie was inspired by Sabah-born Yong
who was caught trafficking 47.27g of heroin in the republic when he was 19.
Yong was apparently working as a mule for an unidentified criminal boss when he
was arrested in 2007. He was barely 18 at the time, but the prosecution
declined to reduce the charge against him, and hence, Yong faces mandatory
death.
According to independent film producer Kit Lim, he was personally touched that
a 19-year-old faced his own mortality with dignity, even as he is remorseful.
"I hope this film will be able to highlight the problems that arise from the
mandatory death penalty, whereby young, poor and illiterate drug mules are
executed while those responsible go unpunished.
"We have condemned young drug mules to death instead of going after the
culprits producing these substances and putting them in the hands of children,"
the 28-year-old said in an interview.
Lim said the film, in the style of a docudrama, will feature actual letters
written by Yong from prison in Singapore.
Due to limited funds, Lim said he and his crew have started collecting
donations online for the venture that should be completed within 2 years.
Shooting will take place in Yong's hometown in Sandakan, Sabah, as well as
Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
"Our target is to raise US$15,000 (RM49,300), but we will proceed with this
movie no matter how much we get," he said.
Yong, now 25, may stand a chance at having his original sentence commuted to
life sentence following some legal reforms in Singapore pertaining to the death
sentence in certain drug trafficking and murder cases.
(source: The Star)
PAKISTAN:
Hardcore criminals should be given death sentence: SHC CJ
Sindh High Court (SHC) Chief Justice Justice Mushir Alam on Saturday said that
peace in Karachi cannot be restored without the implementation of the Supreme
Court's verdict on the city's law and order situation in letter and spirit.
"The government should do away with the ban on the death penalty and hardened
criminals on death row should be given capital punishment," Justice Mushir Alam
said, while talking to journalists after the oath-taking ceremony of newly
appointed judges of the high court.
(source: The News)
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