Sept. 14
IRAN:
2 killed, 4 sentenced to death in Iran
Iranian state forces have killed 2 Kurds and sentenced 4 others to death in the
last 1 week.
A Kurdish citizen, Fazil Fettahi, was tortured to death after he was taken into
custody by security forces in Tehran a couple of days ago. The Municipality of
Tehran buried the Kurdish man without informing his family about the incident.
According to the Kurdistan Press Agency Kurdpa, Iranian authorities informed
Fettahi's family, in the Pawe city in eastern Kurdistan, after his death.
One other Kurdish civilian was killed by Revolutionary Guards in the city of
Salmas on Monday. According to the reports received from the region, 35 year
old Semend Cihangir was driving from Salmas to Kabik village when he was
stopped at a control point and killed without any warning by Revolutionary
Guards.
The body of Cihangir, who was reportedly killed for allegedly being involved in
smuggling, is still being held by security forces.
Local people in Salmas say that security forces who have recently put up
control points around the village have increased the repression against the
people in the region.
Security forces of the Iranian regime have killed 6 Kurdish citizens and
wounded 5 others for alleged smuggled activities since early August.
On the other hand, Tehran Revolutionary Courts have sentenced 4 Kurds to death.
The people sentenced to die are Hamid Ehmedi, Cemsid Dehqani, Cihangir
Dehqan??? and Kemal Melayi from Salmas city.
(source: Firat News)
INDIA:
Death penalty not a deterrent: ACHR
While welcoming the judgement of the fast track court at Saket, New Delhi
sentencing all the four accused i.e. Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh
and Pawan Gupta for the Delhi gang rape case on 16 December 2012, Asian Centre
for Human Rights (ACHR) stated that death penalty does not act as a deterrent
to crimes against women, and the probability of the victims being murdered by
the criminals in order to destroy evidence must not be overlooked.
"Even though the case may fit into the "rarest of rare" case doctrine, death
penalty does not act as a deterrent. The hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee on 14
August 2004 has not reduced incidence of rape in West Bengal. In fact, in 2012
West Bengal had recorded the highest incidence of crimes against women with
2,046 cases of rape, 4,168 cases of kidnapping, 593 cases of dowry deaths and
19,865 cases of domestic cruelty as per the latest Annual Report of the
National Crime Records Bureau of the Government of India," stated Suhas Chakma,
Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.
"The judgment of the Court today reinforces that in order to address crimes
against women apart from reparation, the Government of India, among others,
needs to create special funds to support the victims and their family members
or relatives to enable them to follow up the cases to logical conclusion;
sensitive, pro-active and competent police investigation into the crimes;
development of gender-sensitive, victim-centred procedural and evidentiary
rules; filing of chargesheet within specific time frame; appointment of special
public prosecutors; and trial in the fast track courts given the judicial delay
in India," Chakma further averred.
(source: ACHR)
**************************
Britain, Amnesty slam death penalty
Amnesty International and Britain have strongly opposed the death penalty
awarded to Nirbhaya's rapists. While Amnesty International condemned the
decision to hang the 4 convicted of the crime, saying death penalty will not
end violence against women, Britain asked India to refrain from carrying out
death sentences and called on the government to establish a moratorium in order
to permanently abolish capital punishment.
Soon after the fast track court ordered the hanging on Friday, Britain's
foreign office told TOI, "We note that 4 men have been sentenced to death in
India following prosecution for rape and murder. While the UK fully respects
India's right to prosecute this awful crime, the UK is opposed to the death
penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle in India as elsewhere".
The foreign office added "We urge the Indian government to refrain from
carrying out any further executions. We also call on the government of India to
formally establish a moratorium with a view to abolition of the death penalty."
In a statement released in London, Amnesty said far-reaching procedural and
institutional reform, and not the death penalty, is needed to tackle the
endemic problem of violence against women in India.
"The rape and murder of the young woman in Delhi last year was a horrific crime
and our deepest sympathy goes out to the victim's family. Those responsible
must be punished, but the death penalty is never the answer," said Tara Rao,
director of Amnesty International India. "Sending these 4 men to the gallows
will accomplish nothing except short-term revenge. While the widespread anger
over this case is understandable, authorities must avoid using the death
penalty as a quick-fix solution."
Amnesty says there is no evidence that the death penalty is a particular
deterrent to crime, and its use will not eradicate violence against women in
India. The brutal crime on Nirbhaya highlighted "the unacceptable reality
millions of women in India are facing", it said. It said violence against women
is endemic - more than 2,20,000 cases of violent crimes against women were
reported in 2011 according to official statistics, with the actual number
likely to be much higher.
Speaking to TOI, Amnesty's death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio admitted that
"calls for death penalty, particularly when made in these highly emotional
moments, undoubtedly express people's desire to live in a safer society, free
from fear of crime" but "there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty
deters crime more than any other punishments."
(source: Associated Press)
******************
Students divided over death sentence
Students from universities in the city are divided on the quantum of punishment
given on Friday to the accused in the December 16 gang-rape case.
While several students said death penalty will not deter rape, others opined
that the brutality of the crime in this case justified the punishment. "We are
not barbarians who respond to violence through violence. The victim died after
being brutally gang-raped. Emotions are high, but the rape culture in this
country will not stop by killing the guilty," said Suhasini Rao, a 3rd-year
political science student of Delhi University.
"If everybody thinks that the severity of this punishment will be shown as a
lesson to rapists, they are wrong. Everyday, women are being raped in various
parts of the country and death penalty can never be the solution for it," said
Rao.
Some students said giving a life term will help curb rapes. Harish Nair,
research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, blamed the lack of the fear of
law. "The guilty should be punished, but the punishment cannot be death in a
civilised society. The rate of rapes can only be reduced when rapists are
pushed into jails with no bias and making it a zero tolerance crime in the
country," he said.
"Will the courts give the same punishment to our ministers and cops involved in
rape and murder cases, causing riots? What about Asaram? Will he get any
punishment at all?" asked Nair.
"The case of Dhananjay Chatterjee, who was given death penalty for the rape and
murder of 15-year-old Hetal Parekh nine-years-ago, did not change anything. Few
days back a 2-year-old was raped in Ludhiana and left to die bleeding on the
road. What the death penalty does is momentarily satisfy the mob's blood lust,"
he said.
Students who welcomed the punishment said the brutality of the crime
legitimised death penalty. "Death penalty is still part of our law. The accused
tormented that girl, think about her family. This incident could have happened
to anyone's daughter, sister, mother. The punishment in this case has to be
severe so that something as ghastly as this will not repeat," said Ambreen,
student of Jamia Millia Islamia.
Students said the juvenile accused who was given 3 years' imprisonment got away
with very little punishment.
"He inserted a rod into her body and he gets three years. He did a gory act and
should be treated like an adult. The girl is gone, the damage is done. But we
have to ensure that such incidents do not take place. For that death penalty is
apt. Even the juvenile should have got death penalty," said Mithilesh Mishra,
postgraduate Linguistics student at Delhi University.
(source: Deccan Herald)
*******************
Families of convicts in shock
A group of women stood outside Pawan's house at Ravidas Camp. They had come to
comfort his mother who had been weeping ever since the court awarded death
penalty to her son on Friday. The family members of another convict, Vinay, had
locked themselves up in their house in the same settlement soon after the court
pronounced its order.
The camp near sector-3, RK Puram, in south Delhi has been home to the 2 accused
in the Nirbhaya case as well as the one who committed suicide, Ram Singh, and
his brother, Mukesh.
A distant relative of Ram Singh and Mukesh, who refused to be identified, said
that the family - which left for its native village in Rajasthan in the wake of
Ram Singh's death after being asked to leave the camp by neighbours - was
"hoping against hope". She said: "We hoped that the judge would take the
family's condition into consideration. After Ram Singh died, we thought Mukesh
would be given a life term. Their parents are shattered but we have told them
that they can move the higher court. They have not been eating since yesterday
and were praying all day long," she said.
The family of one of the convicts, Akshay Thakur, in Patna reacted angrily when
they came to know he has been sentenced to be hanged. "This is not justice.
Injustice has been done not only to an innocent youth but his entire family -
his old parents, wife and a toddler," said Akshay's elder brother, Vinay Singh
and broke down.
When TOI visited the home of Pawan, one of his family members said that Pawan's
mother was in shock while his father had fainted a few times. "Please don't ask
us how we feel; his mother has been ill ever since she heard the news on TV,"
said Pawan's cousin.
Locals said that though justice was done to Nirbhaya, they feel sorry for the
families of the convicts. "People don't speak about them anymore, but we feel
pity for the family members of Pawan and Vinay. They are old people and are
suffering for the misdeeds of their children," Leela, a resident, said.
(source for both: Times of India)
*****************
'Death sentence is a quick-fix option'
Angry protests following the brutal rape and murder of the Delhi paramedic saw
citizens and activists clamour for the death penalty. On Friday, when the court
awarded death sentence to the 4 convicted in the case, large sections
celebrated, as if vindicated.
But is a death sentence really cause for celebration? The Hindu spoke to
feminists, activists and academics who articulated their opposition to the
death penalty, while pointing out that handing out death sentences can hardly
help change mindsets that lie at the root of such crimes.
Subhashini Ali, founder of the All India Democratic Womens' Association
(AIDWA), says that she feels there is no reason to celebrate. She points out
that since the Delhi rape, there have been 23 incidents of rape in January in
UP alone and 3 victims were killed. "Our priority should not be bloodlust, but
finding ways to keep Indian women and girls safe from the brutality and horror
of rape. Governments should focus on ensuring speedy trials. A policy of
compensation, rehabilitation and legal aid must be implemented uniformly in the
country."
Potential misuse
Ms. Ali argues that worldwide, the efficacy of capital punishment as a
deterrent has been rejected both by criminologists and law enforcement
agencies.
Raising the issue of potential misuse, she provides the example of a Kanpur
case, where a small child was sexually assaulted, resulting in her death.
"The police responded to public outrage by arresting her neighbour, a very poor
man. In police custody, he reportedly confessed to the crime. Some weeks later,
he was released because the real culprit, who was the son of the owner of the
school in which the assault took place, was arrested. Subsequently DNA tests
confirmed his guilt. Imagine if the guilty boy had faced the possibility of
being hanged?"
Du. Saraswathi, Kannada poet and activist, also cautions against such misuse
given the deep inequalities that exist. "No social ill can be tackled that
simply by capital punishments. Rape and violence against women has its root in
historical socialisation of men in our society. Until we correct the way women
are treated, inside and outside the homes, and the patriarchal fabric of our
society, little will change," she says. Feminists of the 1980s, she adds, have
opposed capital punishment. "The changed discourse and the euphoria around the
gallows, chemical castration and such barbaric punishments, pain me."
Tara Rao, director of Amnesty International, points out that sending the 4 to
the gallows accomplishes nothing but "short-term revenge". "The widespread
anger is understandable, but authorities must avoid using the death sentence as
a quick fix."
(source: opinion, Deepa Kurup, The Hindu)
***********************
Delhi gang-rape verdict: Reformation by execution? -- Hanging a few rapists
will not make the streets safer for women, or make them more secure in their
own homes.
"Judges should never be bloodthirsty. Hanging of murderers has never been too
good for them." (Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab)
Few cases stir as much revulsion and outrage as gang-rape and murder, and fewer
still have aroused such passionate demands for the death sentence as the 16
December incident on a Delhi bus. One cannot but be horrified by the senseless
brutality of the act that took her life. But is the death sentence the only
possible legal or social response to this crime?
Judges adjudicating such cases experience greater revulsion and outrage than
the common man since they hear the testimony first hand and see the pain of the
family members on a daily basis. They are also under intense public and media
pressure to hang the perpetrators. While they may insulate themselves against
the latter, battling their own feelings and maintaining the required
objectivity is much harder. A death sentence cannot be awarded merely because
the majority of the public wants it. It can only be awarded if certain legal
criteria are met. A death sentence which does not meet these criteria, but is
awarded nonetheless to fulfil a public demand - "the collective conscience of
society" - makes the law an instrument of public vengeance.
In the Bachan Singh case (1980), 5 judges of the Supreme Court upheld the
constitutionality of the death penalty. At the same time, they severely limited
its use and held that the death sentence can only be given in the rarest of
rare case, where the alternative option of life imprisonment was
"unquestionably foreclosed", where there are no mitigating circumstances, and
where evidence on record eliminates the possibility of the convicts'
reformation. Youth, a quintessential indicator of the potential for change and
reform, was recognized as a mitigating circumstance, and the court explicitly
stipulated that "If the accused is young or old, he shall not be sentenced to
death." Poverty and the personal circumstances of the offender (childhood
abuse, abandonment, etc.) have also been held to mitigate the offence and merit
the lower punishment by subsequent judgements.
Every murder is brutal, and most murders are heinous. The commission of murder
in howsoever brutal or heinous a manner does not ipso facto attract the death
sentence as it does not rule out the possibility of reformation, especially not
when this is the first such offence committed by the convict. In the Delhi gang
rape-murder, some of the mitigating circumstances favouring the convicts are
youth, absence of similar criminal antecedents, the possibility of reform, and
an impoverished family background. In the face of these mitigating
circumstances, the death penalty should not have been invoked and is not
legally justified.
What purpose does the death penalty serve? There is no evidence that it deters
murder more than imprisonment for life. In fact, the evidence shows the
contrary. Hanging a few rapists will not make the streets safer for women, or
make them more secure in their own homes. It will, however, camouflage
governmental apathy and provide a much needed distraction from the core issues
of women???s safety. It will allow politicians to say that they are tough on
crime against women and get away without doing anything at all to address the
causes of such crime. It will also allow us to vent out righteous indignation,
and then rest content with the misogyny around us. It is not surprising
therefore that most feminists oppose the death penalty for crimes against
women.
Both law and morality privilege reformation over the taking of life.
Reformation is difficult and expensive. The taking of life is easy and cheap.
But if compassion, mercy and faith in humanity are still virtues that we prize
highly, it behooves us to invest in reforming convicts instead of taking the
easy way out by hanging them from their necks till they are dead. Once we
abandon reformation, punishment becomes synonymous with revenge and puts us on
the same moral plane as the murderer. To become a more humane and compassionate
society, and leave a better, less bloodthirsty world behind for our children,
we must curtail our instinct for bloody retribution. State sanctioned violence
does not eliminate or reduce violence. It just perpetuates it. In the Bachan
Singh case, the Supreme Court sounded a note of caution: "Judges should never
be bloodthirsty. Hanging of murderers has never been too good for them."
Neither is it for society.
(source: Yug Mohit Chaudhry is a human rights lawyer, leading the death row
abolitionist movement in India; Live Mint)
****************************
Widening gap between death sentences, actual executions
Friday's long-awaited verdict in the 16/12 case has proved what an outraged
nation had long felt. The gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedical
student on a cold December night was the "rarest of rare" crimes that must be
punished with death.
But not all convicts awarded death penalty are executed in India. Data reveals
a growing gap between death sentences pronounced and actual executions. The
bottom line: The 4 guilty may still get a long rope to hang.
According to an Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) report based on National
Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, there have been several death sentences
between 2001 and 2011, but only a few of these have actually been carried out.
To hang or not to hang -- the legal dilemma continues
Indian courts awarded death penalty to 1,455 convicts from 2001-11, an average
of around 132 convicts per year. But an overwhelming number of death sentences
were commuted to life imprisonment during this period.
The only convict to be executed during this period was Dhananjoy Chatterjee who
was hanged for the murder and rape of a 14-year old girl in Kolkata. This was
the country's 1st execution since April 27, 1995, when Auto Shankar, a serial
killer, was executed in Salem, Tamil Nadu.
The number of death sentences pronounced has been very high despite the "rarest
of rare" doctrine propounded by the Supreme Court that limits the scope of
awarding capital punishment.
According to the ACHR report - The State of Death Penalty in India 2013 - Uttar
Pradesh topped the list with 370 death sentences, followed by Bihar (132). But
sentences for 4,321 convicts were commuted from death penalty to life
imprisonment during this period. This, of course, included many convicts who
were given death penalty before 2001.
The highest number of commutation - 2,462 - happened in Delhi, followed by
Uttar Pradesh (458). But thousands of convicts still remain on the death row.
ACHR director and coordinator of the National Campaign for Abolition of Death
Penalty in India, Suhas Chakma, said: "The sanctity of the rarest of rare
doctrine has considerably been eroded and awarding death penalty has become
routine for courts in India."
Notwithstanding this criticism, the fact remains that most of the death
sentences are commuted to life imprisonment.
The president and governors are exercising the power "to grant pardons, etc.,
and to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases", given to them,
under Articles 72 and 161, to save a fairly large number of convicts from the
gallows.
It's understandable that the president rejected the mercy pleas of 2008 Mumbai
terror attack case convict Ajmal Kasab and 2001 Parliament attack case convict
Afzal Guru who were executed in November 2012 and February 2013 respectively.
(source: Hindustan Times)
***********************
'The death penalty is not the solution'----An Indian court has sentenced 4 men
to death for a fatal gang rape last year in New Delhi. But UN Women's
representative Rebecca Tavares believes capital punishment is not the right way
to deal with these crimes.
The crime took place last December when a 23-year-old female physiotherapy
student and her male companion were attacked upon boarding a private bus they
thought would take them home after watching a movie at a shopping mall in New
Delhi. 6 attackers savagely beat the man and repeatedly raped the woman,
inflicting massive internal injuries with an iron rod, according to police
reports. The woman died from her injuries 2 weeks later in a Singapore
hospital.
Some 9 months later, four of the adult suspects were sentenced to death by
hanging. The presiding judge stated that "in these times, when crime against
women is on the rise, the courts cannot turn a blind eye toward such gruesome
crimes." But in a DW interview, UN Women's representative for India, Rebecca
Reichmann Tavares, says that while perpetrators of crimes against women must be
brought to justice, there is no evidence that the death penalty has a greater
deterrent effect than life imprisonment.
DW: Indian fast-track court judge Yogesh Khanna said the December gang rape in
New Delhi was "an extreme case of brutality" and a "beastly crime" that shocked
the collective conscience of society. Despite the nature of the crime, do you
think the death sentence is the right kind of punishment in this case?
Rebecca Tavares: No, I don't. The official position of the United Nations is
that the death penalty is a human rights violation. There is no evidence that
capital punishment has a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment. While
UN Women recognizes the brutality of the crime, we cannot condone that type of
punishment for any human.
Tavares says there is no evidence that capital punishment has a greater
deterrent effect than life imprisonment
We believe this ghastly crime deserves the maximum sentence of life
imprisonment and that all perpetrators of crimes against women should be
brought to justice. But we are also of the opinion that higher conviction rates
will serve as a deterrent to those willing to commit acts of violence against
women. We therefore call on the government of India to ensure speedy justice to
the survivors of the violence and to facilitate the rehabilitation of the
perpetrators.
India must reform its judiciary, work with the police to enforce the laws that
have been brought forward. The country is a leader in terms of making
progressive and positive laws for women, but the problem lies in the
enforcement, along with prevailing attitudes and long-standing positions that
violate women's human rights.
What signal do you believe the Indian judiciary is sending out with this
ruling?
It is sending a very clear message to the public at large that this type of
crime cannot be tolerated. In India and across the world there have been very
low conviction rates for rape and other forms of violence against women. It's
time for that to change. The Indian people have demanded an end to the culture
of rape. Since the incident took place in December last year, there has been an
uptick in the number of crimes against women being reported. More women and
more families are now willing to come forward and report cases these cases.
The ghastly attack has also led to many progressive reforms and changes such as
the approval by Parliament of the Criminal Amendment Act 2013, which called for
an end to impunity, and recognized a broad range of sexual crimes against
women. The law acknowledges that lesser crimes often escalate to graver ones
and that deterrence is important.
Based on anonymous interviews with more than 10,000 men in Bangladesh, China,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea, a UN study found that
about 1 in 10 men had raped a woman who was not his partner. When their wife or
girlfriend was included, that figure increased to nearly 1/4. What are the
reasons behind such a high prevalence of rape?
One of the interesting aspects of the study is the way the questions were
phrased. Instead of asking the participants whether they had ever raped a
woman, the researchers asked if they had ever had sex with a woman against her
will, which resulted in a positive response in many cases.
The men who took part in the survey thought that they had a right to women???s
sexual services automatically. There seems to be a culture of entitlement. This
is why we need to work to change men's attitudes towards women, gender
relations and long-standing patriarchal structures. But we also need to focus
on other aspects such as education, women's economic empowerment and the
justice system.
International media mostly focuses on rapes, dowry deaths and forced marriages
when reporting about the situation of women in Asia. But what positive changes
have taken place in Asian countries?
More and more governments recognize the importance of women and are taking
measures to empower them economically. There are many programs involving
housing, land distribution and cash transfer especially designed for women.
Furthermore, progressive legislation aimed at incorporating prevention,
education and a comprehensive approach to addressing violence and
discrimination against women is currently being passed in many countries.
Dr. Rebecca Reichmann Tavares is the UN Women's representative for India,
Maldives, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
The interview was conducted by Gabriel Dominguez.
(source: Deutsche Welle)
***********************
Many Doubt Death Sentences Will Stem India Sexual Attacks
There was no mistaking the whoop of joy that rose outside Saket District Court
on Friday, when word got out that four men convicted in last December???s
horrific gang rape and murder had been sentenced to death by hanging. People
burst into applause. They hugged whoever was beside them. They pumped the air
with their fists.
"We are the winners now," said a woman holding a placard. Sweat had dried into
white rivulets on her face, but she had the look of a woman who had, finally,
gotten what she wanted. And it was true: A wave of protests after the December
rape have set remarkable changes in motion in India, a country where for
decades vicious sexual harassment has been dismissed indulgently, called
"eve-teasing."
But some of India's most ardent women's rights advocates hung back from
Friday's celebration, skeptical that 4 hangings would do anything to stem
violence against women, a problem whose proportions are gradually coming into
focus.
"I think a lot of people were hugging each other because they thought this evil
is localized, and it will be wiped out, and that is not the case," said Karuna
Nundy, a litigator who has argued before India???s Supreme Court. "The sad
truth is that it is not a deterrent."
From the moment it broke, the story of the 23-year-old woman who became known
as "Nirbhaya," or "fearless," awoke real rage in the population.
Hoping for a ride home from a movie theater, she and a male companion boarded a
private bus, not realizing that the 6 men aboard had been cruising Delhi in
search of a victim. After knocking her friend unconscious, they took her to the
back of the bus and raped her, then penetrated her with a metal rod, inflicting
grave internal injuries. An hour later, they dumped the pair out on the road,
bleeding and naked. She died 2 weeks later of her injuries.
Young men and women, mobilized through social media, joined protests that
spread across India, demanding tougher laws and more effective policing.
"As a woman, and mother, I understand how protesters feel," Sonia Gandhi,
India's most powerful female politician and the president of the governing
Congress Party, said at the time. "Today we pledge that the victim will get
justice."
After intensive public discussion of the case, some changes followed with
extraordinary speed. Reports of rape have skyrocketed; in the first 8 months of
this year, Delhi???s police force registered 1,121 cases, more than double the
number from the same period in 2011 and the highest number since 2000. The
number of reported molestations has increased sixfold in the same period.
The government created a fast-track court for rape cases and introduced new
laws, criminalizing acts like voyeurism and stalking and making especially
brutal rapes into a capital crime. Scholars have delved into the social changes
that may be contributing to the problem, as new arrivals in India's huge cities
find themselves unemployed and hopeless, stuck in "the space below the working
class," as the writer Rajrishi Singhal recently put it in an editorial in The
Hindu.
But many were thinking of something more basic - punishing the 6 (1, a
juvenile, got a 3-year sentence in August, and the driver was found dead in his
cell in March) who attacked the woman in the bus. It was those people who found
their way to the Saket courthouse on Friday. Many came like pilgrims, hoping to
find closure in a case that had haunted them.
Kiran Khullar arrived in a wheelchair, accompanied by her daughter, 17. "I have
come here as a mother," she said. "I came here only to see these men get the
death penalty." Rosy John, 62, a homemaker watching the furor outside the
courtroom, said her only objection to the death sentence was that it was too
humane a punishment.
"After death, they will get freedom," she said. "They should be tortured and
given shocks their whole life."
In fact, it is unlikely the four men will be executed swiftly. The order must
be confirmed by India's High Court, and all four defendants may appeal to the
High Court, the Supreme Court and the president for clemency. Some 477 people
are on death row, inching through a process that often drags on for 5 or 6
years. 3 people have been executed since 2004, and there were no executions for
8 years before that.
Sadashiv Gupta, who defended one of the men, a fruit seller named Pawan Gupta,
said he had assured his client that the sentence was likely to be commuted to
life in prison, as most are.
"I told him: 'You are going to get the death penalty. Take it in stride, and
don't panic,'" said Mr. Gupta, sweating in his stiff white collar outside the
courthouse. "I think he shall not be hanged."
Polls show that Indians remain ambivalent about using the death penalty, with
40 % saying it should be abolished, according to a survey by CNN, IBN and The
Hindu, a respected daily newspaper.
For many months already, advocates for women have questioned whether death
sentences in the December case would distract people from the more difficult
question of why Indian girls and women are so vulnerable to sexual violence.
"A base but very human part of me would like them to suffer as much as they
made that woman suffer," wrote Nilanjana S. Roy in The Hindu, noting that most
rapists are not strangers. She went on to envision the result if convicted
rapists were hanged consistently for a year: 10,000 neighbors, shopkeepers,
tutors, grandfathers, fathers and brothers.
"I wish I could believe that this sort of mass public execution - if we agreed
that this was the way forward - would do more than slake our collective need
for vengeance," Ms. Roy wrote. "But I don't believe in fairy tales."
Ms. Nundy, the Supreme Court litigator, said the real challenge lies in shaking
up the criminal justice system, which is desperately short of judges and mired
in outdated thinking about violence against women. Upon receiving a report of
rape, she said, police investigators still routinely use a "2-finger test" to
determine whether the victim has a prior sexual history; if the answer is yes,
she said, the likelihood of a conviction plummets.
"Rape is not just something that is localized - you find these people, you wipe
them out, you're done," she said.
Still, there were some people whose satisfaction on Friday could not be
punctured. Among them was Gaurav Singh, 20, a brother of the victim in the
December gang rape.
She was the firstborn and the star of the family, which had left a village of
thatched-roof huts for the dizzying sprawl of Delhi, 600 miles away. To pay for
her tuition, her father had sold most of his land in the village, borrowed
money from family members and worked 16-hour shifts handling luggage at the
airport. She had promised to return the favor by paying for her younger
brothers' schooling once she became a physiotherapist.
Mr. Singh, who plans to become a pilot, pondered the question of mercy on
Friday night.
"They never gave my sister a chance," he said in a telephone interview.
He noted that she had managed to make her own wishes known, telling a court
official, who visited her in a hospital before she died, that her assailants
should be "burned alive." He said the family would wait for the day they are
hanged, and, in the meantime, "keep the fight going that my sister has
ignited."
"We know she can't come back," he said. "But there is a satisfaction that these
men will be eliminated. We get some peace from that."
(source: New York Times)
*******************
Death penalty to achieve short term revenge: Amnesty
Death penalty to Delhi gangrape case convicts will only achieve short term
revenge, human rights body Amnesty International today said suggesting that
procedural, institutional reform were needed to tackle violence against women.
In a statement issued after a court awarded death sentence to the 4 men who had
been held guilty of the crime, Amnesty said it was opposed to death penalty in
all cases regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime.
"The rape and murder of the young woman in Delhi last year was a horrific crime
and our deepest sympathy goes out to the victim's family. Those responsible
must be punished, but the death penalty is never the answer," said Tara Rao,
Director of Amnesty International India.
"Sending these 4 men to the gallows will accomplish nothing except short-term
revenge. While the widespread anger over this case is understandable,
authorities must avoid using the death penalty as a quick-fix solution.
"There is no evidence that the death penalty is a particular deterrent to
crime, and its use will not eradicate violence against women in India," she
added.
The organisation said that addressing the issue requires legal reform and
sustained commitment by the authorities to ensure that justice system responds
effectively at all levels to reports of rape and other forms of sexual
violence.
She also said the attention that authorities gave to this case must extend to
the thousands of other pending cases of sexual violence in India. Cimes against
women are in India under-reported, Rao said and added that many recommendations
of Justice Verma Committee had not been fully implemented.
"There must be concerted efforts to change the discriminatory attitudes towards
women and girls which lie at the root of the violence. These measures will take
hard work, but will be more effective in the long run in making India safer for
women," said Rao.
(source: Business-Standard)
MALAYSIA:
German sentenced to death in Malaysia for drug trafficking
A German man has been sentenced to death by a Malaysian court after being found
guilty of possession of methamphetamine. He was arrested in 2011 with 1.5
kilograms (3.3 pounds) of the drug on his person.
The high court outside Kuala Lumpur rejected defense for German national Bebou
A.B., his lawyer said Friday. He'd claimed he only had possession of the drugs
after they were handed to him by an acquaintance in Syria 5 days prior for
delivery to a 3rd party.
"[The judge] didn't believe his story ... that his bag was intended for his
girlfriend," Karpal Singh told the AFP news agency, adding that the ruling
would face an appeal.
Bebou A.B., 40, was arrested on January 11, 2011 at Kuala Lumpur International
Airport in possession of the drugs. Under Malaysian law, anyone with more than
50 grams of methamphetamine is considered a trafficker.
The man is being looked after by the German embassy, according to a spokeswoman
for the German foreign office, who added that Germany has for many years been
against the death penalty and reiterates that position in this case "with
complete emphasis."
2 other German nationals were acquitted in May for drug smuggling in a separate
case. Along with another man, they had been accused of bringing methamphetamine
into Malaysia in 2012.
The 3rd man from Morocco was sentenced to death.
(source: Deutsche Welle)
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