June 16
KENYA/UNITED KINGDOM:
UK Government 'needs more time' to explain Kenya torture role
Lawyers for the Home Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Metropolitan
Police exceeded their deadline to respond to pre-action letters from legal
charity Reprieve and law firm Leigh Day. The letters relate to the UK's
involvement in the death sentence handed to Ali Babitu Kololo, a father of 2
from a village in Lamu, Kenya.
Mr Kololo was sentenced to death for robbery with violence by a Kenyan court in
August 2013 after he was tortured by local police into 'confessing' to leading
kidnappers to the camp where the 2011 kidnapping of British tourist Judith
Tebbutt, and the murder of her husband David took place.
Following the sentencing, British officials from the Metropolitan Police and
Foreign Office praised the "great skill and tenacity" of the British police
team, calling the outcome "welcome" and a "positive development".
Reprieve and Leigh Day are seeking a judicial review of the official UK support
for the Kenyan investigation. A letter sent to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, head of
the Metropolitan Police, says: "The support provided by the British authorities
to the prosecution in Mr Kololo's case was unlawful [...] The unfairness is
particularly acute in a context where it entails a real risk to an individual's
life, as it did in the present case."
This week, lawyers for the Metropolitan Police declined to respond to the
allegations by their own deadline of 9 June, while the Home Office and Foreign
Office has asked for a further 3 weeks.
Maya Foa, head of Reprieve's death penalty team, said: "There is strong
evidence that Mr Kololo is innocent of this crime. The fact that the British
government supported his unfair trial and sentencing to death is alarming
enough - but the government's failure to respond to questions in a timely
manner suggests a dangerous reluctance to be held accountable for its actions,
all while Ali Kololo languishes on death row. The Home Office, FCO and the Met
must respond to these very serious allegations without delay."
(source: ekklesia)
BANGLADESH:
Top Bangladesh Islamists face death penalty over festival attack
A Bangladesh court was expected Monday to deliver its verdict against 14
Islamic militants who face the death penalty for bomb blasts targeting Bengali
New Year celebrations that killed 10 people.
Prosecutors accuse the Islamists, including head of the outlawed
Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HuJI) outfit, of targeting the popular secular
celebrations in Dhaka's main park in 2001, which they deemed offensive to
Islam.
The bombings were allegedly among a series carried out by HuJI head Mufti Abdul
Hannan and his group, who also attempted to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
when she was opposition leader in 2004.
A court in Dhaka was set to hand down its verdict and sentence later Monday,
following a trial that started in 2009.
"We've been able to prove the case against all 14 and we hope the court will
sentence them to death," prosecutor S.M. Zahid Hossain told AFP ahead of the
judgement.
"The court must send a message that this kind of heinous act won't be tolerated
in the country," Hossain said.
5 of the accused are still at large and are believed to have fled overseas. Of
the remainder, Hannan and 2 others have confessed their involvement in the plot
in statements made to magistrates.
Hannan has already been sentenced to death for a 2004 grenade attack targetting
the British High Commissioner in the northeastern city of Sylhet that killed 3
people.
The Bengali New Year, celebrated on April 14, is the most important secular
festival for the 155 million ethnic Bengalis in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Hundreds of thousands of people, including Muslims, traditionally gather and
sing under a Banyan tree in the capital's historic Ramna Park and the nearby
grounds of Dhaka University.
Hossain said the Islamists targetted the celebration because they considered it
"un-Islamic and against Sharia" law, and viewed the traditional singing and
dancing performed as "obscene".
They also wanted to undermine the secular government of then-prime minister
Hasina, who later that year lost elections to her main rival Khaleda Zia, he
said.
Police also accuse the group of trying to blow up courts and other secular
institutions, as well as Sufi shrines and a church.
Hannan, who fought with the Taliban in the 1990s, was arrested in 2005 after
the government banned the HuJI comprising of Afghan-trained militants,
following other deadly bomb attacks.
Defence lawyers said some of their clients were charged based on disputed
confessions.
"My clients are only named in the case because Mufti Hannan mentioned their
names in his confessional statements," defence lawyer Idi Amin told AFP.
"But he himself later retracted his confessional statement, saying it was taken
by coercion."
(source: The Sun Daily)
JAPAN:
Seizing the momentum
Hakamada Iwao spent 46 years on death row before his release in March. For
Wakabayashi Hideki, Director of Amnesty International Japan, it was an
incredible moment, but the fight isn't over yet.
Wakabayashi Hideki remembers the exact moment when he heard the news of
Hakamada Iwao's release.
"I was at a press conference," he says. "It was the launch of Amnesty's 2013
report on the death penalty - the afternoon of 27 March 2014."
He was in Japan's houses of parliament, surrounded by a crowd of journalists.
"Then, one reporter raised her hand and asked a question," recalls Hideki.
While doing so, she mentioned that Hakamada had just been released.
Hideki was caught off guard: "I was astonished - it was so beyond our
expectations that I couldn't believe what she was saying."
Later, he saw Hakamada on the television news. "He was walking, unaided, out of
the detention centre," he says. "I just could not believe what I was seeing. It
was like a dream."
Hakamada had been on death row for 46 years before the local court finally
granted him a re-trial because of flaws in his original trial. Sentenced to
death in 1968, he is believed to be the longest-serving death row inmate in the
world.
Inspired to act
Hideki has been campaigning on Hakamada's behalf since he became Director of
Amnesty International Japan in 2011.
"When I found out how he had been wrongly treated by the police, the
prosecutors and the courts, I was shocked and angered," he says. "I trusted
those officials before I came to work for Amnesty. But I felt almost betrayed
when I realised what had happened. Betrayed, because those police and
prosecutors are supposed to search for the truth for the people of Japan."
It was through his admiration for Hakamada's sister, Hideko, that Hideki became
personally involved in the case.
"Hideko is such a quiet and strong leader," he says. "She can move people. But
she, too, is a victim of this situation. It took 10 years for her to begin to
get even a little support. For the past 48 years, she supported her brother.
She supported him her entire life."
"Because Hideko appreciates Amnesty's work, I am able to speak to her," he
continues, "even though she is very busy and elderly. We have mutual respect
for each other."
46 years in solitary
In May, Hideki met Hakamada for the 1st time when the former boxer, now aged
78, was given an honorary world champion boxing belt.
"Before the ceremony, I tried to talk to him, but I could not communicate with
him at all," says Hideki. "He has suffered severe psychological hardship,
because he has lived under the threat of execution for 46 years in solitary
confinement. I was shocked to see what this had done to him physically and
mentally."
While in prison, Hakamada was not allowed outside. He could exercise only in a
small area within the detention building itself. Hideki has seen these spaces
first hand.
"I was able to view a solitary confinement room and places of exercise," he
says. "The exercise 'room' was on the roof. It was 5m long by 2m wide. The
prisoner would go back and forth, watched by a guard, like an animal in a zoo."
Such was the impact of decades in isolation that even when he finally met his
sister, Hideko, Hakamada didn't recognize her.
6 boxes of letters
Among the possessions that went home with Hakamada were 6 boxes of letters,
many from Amnesty supporters. But being on death row, Hakamada was not allowed
to receive them.
Overwhelmed by his release, he has still not read them. But for his sister,
Hideko, these letters are a source of great encouragement.
Without Hideko, now aged 80, Hakamada's campaign would never have reached the
public eye. But, says his sister, without Amnesty, Hakamada's case would never
have been disseminated across the globe, and the decision to grant him the
re-trial that led to his conditional release would not have happened without
the efforts of Amnesty supporters.
For Hideki, who has led the campaign for Hakamada within Amnesty, the letters
mean a lot.
"This kind of solidarity is vital," he says, "not just for the victims, but
those who support them. Letters from all over the world arrived at the
detention centre where Hakamada was held every day. It's a sign that he has
global support."
The fight isn't over yet, though. Hakamada could go back to jail if his
re-trial is unsuccessful. And then there is the question of whether Hakamada's
case has turned the public against the death penalty.
"Everybody says that miscarriages of justice are awfully wrong and we should
prevent them," says Hideki. "But I have not seen any upsurge in the debate
against the death penalty. We have to do our best to seize the momentum created
by Hakamada's case to talk about the death penalty, and move public opinion
towards abolition."
see: http://www.amnesty.or.jp/get-involved/action/hakamada_2014.html
(source: Amnesty International)
CHINA:
Death penalty for Tiananmen crash The crash killed 5 people and left another 38
injured
3 people have been given death sentences over a fatal car crash in Tiananmen
Square last October.
Chinese state media said the men were convicted at the court in Xinjiang
province of a "violent terror attack".
A car ploughed into tourists before catching fire, leaving 5 people dead and 38
others injured.
Reports said at least 2 of the men appeared to be from the Muslim Uighur
population, which Beijing accuses of waging a violent separatist campaign.
Xinhua reported that the 3 men - Husanjan Wuxur, Yusup Umarniyaz and Yusup
Ahmat - were found guilty of "organising and leading a terrorist group and
endangering public security with dangerous methods".
5 others were given jail sentences for "participating in a terrorist group" and
endangering security.
Uighurs have been blamed this year for a string of attacks around China.
Uighur leaders accuse the authorities in Beijing of repression, but deny that
they are co-ordinating a terrorist campaign.
The car crashed into a crowd and burst into flames, killing 2 tourists - 1
Chinese and 1 from the Philippines - and injuring 38 other people.
3 people who were in the car also died.
Some reports at the time quoted officials as saying it was a deliberate suicide
attack.
But other police officials said the authorities had been chasing the car at the
time of the crash.
Chinese media also reported that 3 men wielding knives burst into a gaming hall
in Hotan, Xinjiang, and attacked a group of people playing chess on Sunday
afternoon. 4 people were hurt.
2 of the attackers died when confronted by armed patrolmen while the 3rd was
captured.
Beijing has blamed a series of violent incidents on Uighur separatists. These
include attacks at railway stations in Urumqi and Kunming.
At least 31 people were killed and more than 90 suffered injuries in May when 2
cars crashed through an Urumqi market and explosives were tossed into the
crowd.
It followed a bomb and knife attack at Urumqi's south railway station in April,
which killed 3 and injured 79 others.
The authorities have since tightened security in Xinjiang and launched what
they call an "anti-terrorism campaign". Xinhua said the police in Xinjiang is
offering cash rewards of up to 30,000 yuan (2,840 pounds) to citizens who "turn
over guns, explosives or provide tips".
Agencies have reported that officials have so far received more than 300 tips
from the public and detained 60 people as a result of the information.
(source: BBC news)
SINGAPORE:
2 charged in Singapore legless body case
2 Pakistani men have been charged in the State Courts for the murder of
59-year-old Pakistani Muhammad Noor, whose dismembered body was found earlier
this week.
Rasheed Muhammad, 43, and Ramzan Rizwan, 25, appeared in court yesterday
looking solemn.
On Wednesday evening, a rag-and-bone man found a bloodied suitcase that
contained the upper body of Muhammad Noor at Syed Alwi Road. His legs were
found the next day in a piece of luggage at a Muslim cemetery at Jalan Kubor, a
short distance from Syed Alwi Road.
According to court documents, the 2 men are alleged to have committed the
murder between Tuesday about 12.01am and Wednesday about 6.04pm at 6B Rowell
Road, Room 44.
The 2 were arrested about 3pm at Rowell Road on Thursday, 2 streets from the
gruesome find.
Both men have been remanded for further police investigations and will be back
in court on Friday.
If found guilty of murder, they face the death penalty.
(source: Malay Mail Online)
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