Sept. 22
IRAN:
Iran's 'moderate' Rohani intensifies executions in Balochistan and Kurdistan
8 people sentenced to death on charges of drug trafficking have reportedly been
executed in Yazd prison whereas at least 5 people have been hanged in the
central prison of Zahedan in Iranian occupied Balochistan on 21 September.
According to the Public Relations Attorney General of Yazd province, two death
sentences for those convicted of these 8 persons have been ratified by the
Attorney General's request for commutation and pardon convicts Judiciary
Committee rejected and eventually the death penalty in the morning of Thursday
19 September was carried out.
Balochistan mass executions: A group of at least five Baloch prisoners was
hanged in the central prison of Zahedan on 20 Semtember.
According to Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran after nearly three
days of waiting at least 5 Baloch prisoners in solitary confinement in Zahedan
were hanged in the central prison. The names of the victims hanged in central
prison of Zahedan are as follows:
1. Ahmed Issa Zhai about 21 years old, imprisoned under paragraph 1 in Zahedan
prison. He was jailed for more than 2 years in prison in Zahedan.
2. Mmarsh Rashid Sufi approximately 31 years, from Zahedan prison sentenced
under Section 7 for more than 3 years.
3. Khalid Reki 27 years old, imprisoned under section 7 at Zahedan prison for 4
years. He was arrested on weapons charges.
4. Hamid Reza Karimi approximately 35 years old, he was imprisoned under
Paragraph 4 of 5 in Zahedan prison for nearly 4 years in prison.
5. Ghaffar Nurzehi 27 -year-old was jailed for 3 years in the central prison of
Zahedan, according to paragraph 7.
The above named men were among many others held in solitary confinement in
quarantine at Zahedan prison. The Human Rights and Democracy termed the
execution against humanity and it further revealed that the bodies of the
victims will not be handed over the families until 30 September.
This is the 2nd wave of mass deaths during the short spam since Hassan Rohani
Akhund was appointed as the president of Iran by the Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei. Reports from Iranian occupied Balochistan further suggest that the
Moderate man of Iran has intensified crimes against humanity against Baloch,
Kurds, Arabs of Al-Ahwaz and Turks of South Azerbaijan.
The Human Rights and Democracy has urged the UN and the rest of the world to
take action against such crimes of Iranian regime. "The International Criminal
Court and civilised world must put pressure on the supreme government of Iran
to end the bloody crackdown on mass executions."
Sources reported that at least 26 Kurdish activists have also been sentenced to
death, however, it has not been confirmed yet whether the death sentences have
been carried out or the men are still in prison waiting to be executed.
(source: Balochwarna News)
PAKISTAN:
Opinion ---- The murder of Shahzeb Khan
A columnist with intellectual pretentions commented the other day that the soul
of Shahzeb Khan was not at rest. The twilight of the mid-summer monsoon evening
had given way to nightfall and the self-anointed intellectual, clutching a
glass filled with the choicest brew of the Scottish highlands, rambled on
incoherently about the 20-year-old youth's murder in Karachi by Shahrukh Jatoi,
the son of a powerful feudal lord, and his 3 accomplices last December.
He mumbled something about the popular outrage as "never before in Pakistan"
and then rounded off by recalling how Shahrukh had fled the country only to be
brought back, tried and sentenced to death.
There was a sense of relief that justice had finally triumphed and the law had
prevailed. But then came the shock - the parents and 2 sisters of the slain
youth pardoned the culprits 'in the name of Allah' under the provisions of the
qisas and diyat laws that were promulgated in 1980 by General Ziaul Haq. The
military dictator, who sought to legitimise his illegal rule under the pretext
of transforming Pakistan into a fortress of Islam, ensured that the Qisas and
Diyat Ordinance would only come into force after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had been
executed.
The pardon granted to Shahrukh Jatoi may have been in accordance with the
letter of the law but not its spirit. On September 13, during a hearing of a
2004 murder case in which a compromise had also been reached, Chief Justice
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry observed that pardoning a murderer "in the name of
God" was a travesty and amounted to a circumvention of the law. He elaborated
that the injunctions of the sacred Quran were often deliberately misinterpreted
in order to secure pardon for convicted murderers from rich and powerful
families.
During the hearing, the outcome of an exhaustive study was presented before the
three-member bench of the Supreme Court. It showed that in the 28 years between
1978 and 2006 every single homicide case involving compromise that had been
heard by the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court, the laws had been
misapplied in 'the cause of religion'. The heart of the problem was that murder
was looked upon as a crime against an individual rather than the state. This
was what needed to be rectified.
The chief justice, accordingly, asked the attorney general, Munir A Malik, the
4 provincial prosecutor generals and advocate Shahid Hamid - who was appointed
amicus curiae by the court - for their opinions within 10 days. The deadline
expires tomorrow. All that needs be said for now is that the laws of Islam are
derived exclusively from the Quran and it is the commandments of the scared
scripture that determine the authenticity of the reported traditions (hadith
and sunnah) which, along with the consensus among the learned divines,
constitute the secondary source of Islamic jurisprudence.
Whatever the findings of the legal experts, the central element has to be built
around an understanding of what the Quran has to say about qisas, and, from it,
the law pertaining to diyat. Only then can an accurate determination be made
about the extent to which the injunctions of the scripture have been misused.
The starting point for such an examination must necessarily be the first part
of the Quranic verse on the subject. This pertains to qisas and begins with the
exhortation: "O you who have attained to faith! Just retribution is ordained
for you in cases of killing: the free for the free, and the slave for the
slave, and the woman for the woman..." (2: 178).
All the classical commentators agree that the term 'qisas' which occurs at the
beginning of the passage is synonymous with 'musawah' which means 'making a
thing equal (to another thing)', and, in the context in which it has been used,
the implication is that the punishment must be proportionate to the crime. The
correct rendition of 'qisas' is, therefore, 'just retribution' and not
'retaliation' which features in some of the translations of the Quran.
This becomes clear from the text which pertains to "cases of killing" and is,
as such, applicable to all categories of homicide including premeditated
murder, killing under extreme provocation, culpable homicide, accidental
manslaughter, etc. The implication of 'retaliation' is the taking of 'a life
for a life' and is, therefore, not in accord with the norms of equity as
envisaged in the principle of qisas.
Terrorist outfits such as Al-Qaeda and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan interpret
the formulation "the free for the free, and the slave for the slave, and the
woman for the woman" in the literal, restrictive sense in order to justify the
indiscriminate slaughter of innocent men, women and children in 'retaliation'
for drone strikes or military operations against them. This hideous distortion
becomes obvious because the injunction is qualified by the introductory
exhortation for "just retribution." All that the passage implies is that
whatever the social status or gender of the guilty person, he or she alone is
to be punished for the crime.
The 2nd part of the same verse deals with diyah (plural diyat) - the indemnity
that is to be paid to the relatives of the victim by the guilty party. This is
applicable to instances of murder where mitigating circumstances are
established in which event the death penalty is waived. It also applies to
accidental manslaughter which does not entail capital punishment. The wording
of the Quran is: "And if something (of his guilt) is remitted to a guilty
person by his brother, this (remission) shall be adhered to in fairness, and
restitution to his fellow-man shall be made in a goodly manner."
It is the misinterpretation of this injunction that has resulted in the
distortion of the law in Pakistan. As a consequence, murderers have been
pardoned 'in the name of Allah', as in the Shahrukh Jatoi case, by the family
members of the victim. The confusion arises because the word 'his' in the
phrase "...remitted to a guilty person by his brother" is wrongly attributed by
several commentators to the victim, and, consequently the expression 'his
brother' is taken to mean the victim's family or blood relations. But a closer
reading of the Quranic formulation leaves no doubt that 'his' refers to the
guilty person and the word 'brother' implies 'his brother in faith' ie, the
community as a whole or the state.
Thus in murder cases, it is the state, and not the victim's immediate
relatives, that can waive the death penalty. This is corroborated by some of
the world's finest Quran commentators, notably the Austro-Hungarian born
Muhammad Asad (1900-1992), who also has the distinction of being given the 1st
Pakistani passport after the emergence of the country.
Asad commented with the refreshing perspicacity of an enthused convert that
"the expression 'if something is remitted to a guilty person by his brother'
(ie, by the community or its legal organs) may refer to the establishment of
mitigating circumstances in a case of murder...in which case no capital
punishment is exacted and restitution is to be made by payment of an indemnity
called diyah to the relatives of the victim."
Reason, and not emotion, is the central emphasis of the Quran. It recognises
the rights and obligations of individuals in the Islamic community and this is
the purpose of its legal injunctions. The Quran thus explains the rationale for
its commandments on qisas: "For in (the law of) just retribution, O you who are
endowed with insight, there is life for you, so that you may remain conscious
of God!" (2: 179). The purport of Islamic law in respect of murder is,
therefore, the protection of the entire community.
When the murdered victim's immediate family is given the exclusive right to
pardon the crime in return for compensation then justice is put on sale.
Consequently, there will be many more Shahrukh Jatois on the prowl and perhaps
this is what that emotional columnist meant when he said the other night that
the soul of Shahzeb Khan is not at rest.
(source: S Iftikhar Murshed; The writer is the publisher of Criterion
Quarterly--The News)
INDIA:
Delhi gangrape case: HC to hear trial court reference tomorrow
The Delhi High Court will hear tomorrow the trial court's reference for
confirmation of the death penalty awarded by it to 4 men in the December 16
gangrape-cum-murder case.
The matter will be heard by a bench headed by Justice Reva Khetrapa.
On September 13 while awarding capital punishment to Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur
(28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20), Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh
Khanna had referred the case to the high court for confirmation of the
sentence.
The trial court has to refer each death penalty case to the high court for
confirmation of the punishment. The 4 convicts were awarded death sentence in
the brutal gangrape case by the sessions court which said it fell in the rarest
of rare category as the crime was committed against a 23-year-old girl in a
"beastly" and "hair-raising" manner.
"Accordingly, the convicts be hanged by neck till they are dead," the trial
court had said after noting that the inhuman and ghastly acts of the convicts
shocked the collective conscience of the nation and deserves exemplary
punishment.
Key accused Ram Singh (34) was found dead in the cell in Tihar Jail here in
March and proceedings against him were abated. The juvenile accused was on
August 31 convicted and sentenced to a maximum of 3 years in a reformation
home.
On the night of December 16, last year, the paramedic student was gangraped in
a moving bus in south Delhi after the convicts luring her and her 28-year-old
male friend, who was also assaulted, on board the vehicle, which was later
found to be plying illegally on the national capital's roads.
The victim's friend, a software engineer, suffered fractures in his limbs. The
girl succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 in a Singapore hospital.
(source: Hindu Business Line)
*******
HC upholds death for killer of 6
Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday upheld the death sentence of a man who
had killed his 6 relatives by pushing them into Bhakra Canal.
The accused Khuswinder Singh had killed his 6 relatives by pushing them into
Bhakra canal in June 2012 for money, which the deceased family had obtained
from sale of their property.
Division bench comprising Justice S S Saron and Justice S P Banger of the HC
has passed these orders while deciding on the murder reference sent by district
and sessions judge Fatehagarh Sahib.
In March this year, the district and sessions judge Fatehagarh Sahib had
awarded death sentence to Khuswinder Singh holding him guilty of pushing 2
children among 6 members of a family, into Bhakra Canal.
40 years old accused Khuswinder Singh, a native of Suhavi village of district
Fatehagarh Sahib was a typist outside a local court and had planned to
eliminate the family of his relatives for Rs 37 lakh, which they had got on
sale of their property. He had taken the victim family to the Bhakra Canal near
village Mukandpur in pretext of performing a religious ceremony.
The victims included 70 years old Gurmail Singh (a retired Punjab police
constable), his wife Paramjit Kaur (60), their son Gurinder Singh (35), their
son-in-law Rupinder Singh (34) and Rupinder Singh's son Jaskirat (7) and
daughter Prabhsimran (6).Gurmail's son Gurinder Singh was an alcoholic and the
accused Khuswinder Singh had taken Gurmail and his family to canal on the
pretext that he knew a Godman who can cure their son by some prayers. Accused's
wife was niece of the deceased Gurmail Singh. The matter came to the knowledge
of the police only when deceased Gurmail's daughter Jasmine (33) managed to
survive and informed the police about the incident.
(source: The Times of India)
*****************
Only the unthinking, emotional Indian sees value in death penalty
In India, the demand for death to convicts ensues from a desire for vengeance
not justice. This is a sign of a primitive society, and we must accept that
educated Indians are not exempt from the feeling. It would not be incorrect to
say that some of the more savage solutions for curbing crime originate from
them.
In our parts, lynching is not uncommon and, like the awful incidents with
Blacks in the United States a century ago, it is acceptable by the public to
wound or kill those who offend by stealing or by misbehaviour. This is also a
product of that same desire for vengeance, and the emotion is felt strongly and
collectively.
The crowd takes offense even when it is not the victim, and feels entitled to
join in handing out punishment. Mobs form dangerously quickly on the
subcontinent and carry with them a primitive like-mindedness which makes them
lethal.
This attitude extends to politicians and political parties who legislate law
against such behaviour, but are helpless before their emotions.
An example is the incident in 2005 when a former minister, the Bharatiya Janata
Party's Ravishankar Prasad, was shot in the arm by a man, Munna Rai, on a stage
during a rally.
The BJP men on the stage battered Rai, who died from his injuries.
The BJP is generally a good representative of India's unthinking and angry
middle class. It believes in and reflects the position of the mob and its
leaders from LK Advani to Sushma Swaraj have long insisted on the death penalty
for rapists. Crime can be solved by the state's killing of as many criminals as
possible in this view, and the desire to want criminals killed comes from that
sense of feeling personally wounded.
A parallel phenomenon is the coming together of middle-class groups who show up
at protests against violent crime. These are not identified as being mobs,
because they are immediately less violent, but actually remain equally savage
in their intent. Their demands are for such things as hanging and castration.
After the conviction of those accused in the infamous case of rape and murder
in Delhi, CNN reported: "The same crowd outside the courthouse that cheered
Friday's death sentence for the 4 adults turned their ire on the juvenile. The
crowd chanted, 'Hang the juvenile.'"
My beat as reporter was sessions court and I can say from experience that
judges are drawn from society and feel its prejudices and emotions. We have a
strange qualifier for the death penalty. It is only to be invoked in cases that
are "rarest of rare." But it is difficult to explain or understand what this
means and why one murder is different from another.
Writing in Mint, my friend the abolitionist Yug Mohit Chaudhry wrote: "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 offense and merit the
lower punishment by subsequent judgements."
He continues: "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 ownhomes.
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."
This is true. It is the unthinking and emotional Indian who sees a solution in
death.
(source: FirstPost India)
SOUTH AFRICA:
Residents want death penalty
The residents of Lenasia say they want the death penalty reinstated in South
Africa so that criminals can stop targeting them.
They have told Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane they don't feel safe in their
homes.
This follows the murder of 2 elderly sisters in their home on Monday.
Julie and Hawa Gora were murdered during a robbery.
A 24-year-old man who lives just opposite the home was arrested yesterday in
connection with the double murder.
Residents say that over the past 10 years, Lenasia has been riddled with crime
and that the elderly sisters were not the first to be killed.
Aziza Suthra said her 2 year old grandson was held at gunpoint during a house
robbery a few years ago.
"When my grandson was a baby they held a gun to him and told my daughter-in-law
'if you move or scream I'm going to shoot him."
Residents have also told the premier that they want government to train them to
fight crime because they've lost confidence in the police service.
(source: iafrica.com)
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