June 17
INDIA:
Shakti Mills gang-rape case: Bombay high court to hear confirmation petition on
July 17
The high court will on July 17, hear the confirmation of the death sentences
awarded to the 3 convicts of the Shakti Mills gang rape case.
A division bench of justices VK Tahilramani and Ajey Gadkari has kept the
confirmation petition filed by the state government for hearing on July 17.
Sandeep Shinde and Poornima Kantharia represented the government before the HC.
A confirmation petition was filed in the HC by the state government on April
15, seeking that the death sentence of convicts Vijay Jadhav (19), Mohammad
Kasim Bengali (21) and Mohammad Salim Ansari (28), who are common in both the
gang rapes that took place in Shakti Mills in 2013, be confirmed.
As per the law, a death sentence awarded by the trial court has to be confirmed
by the HC.
The convicts have still not filed an appeal against their death sentence.
On April 4 this year, a sessions court convicted Jadhav, Bengali, Ansari and
Siraj Khan for raping a photojournalist on the deserted premises of the defunct
Shakti Mills in central Mumbai on August 22, 2013.
Siraj was awarded life imprisonment.
The other 3 were awarded death penalty by the sessions court under IPC Section
376 (e), which provides for the maximum sentence for a repeat offence of rape.
Jadhav, Bengali and Ansari were earlier convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment by the court for the gangrape of a telephone operator at the same
premises in July, 2013.
Since it was their second conviction in a gangrape case, the prosecution sought
death penalty for the trio by framing an additional charge of repeat offence
under section 376 (e). The section was introduced in the IPC after the December
2012 Delhi gangrape.
This is the 1st time the section has been applied.
The sessions court, while awarding the penalty, observed that the offence was a
pre-planned one, and the accused showed no mercy to the woman and had no
remorse afterwards.
"Such offences must not be tolerated and there should be zero tolerance for
such crimes. If leniency is shown, it will be misplaced sympathy and travesty
of justice," the court had said.
(source: DNA India)
BANGLADESH:
Court delays verdict over Bangla bombing
A Bangladesh court Monday delayed its verdict against a group of militants
accused of carrying out a 2001 bomb attack on the main Bengali New Year
celebrations which killed 10 people.
9 of the 14 accused were in the dock amid tight security at the court in the
capital Dhaka when Judge Ruhul Amin announced he would now hand down his
verdict next Monday, June 23, saying he "needed more time."
Prosecutors accuse the militants, including the head of the outlawed
Harkat-ul-Jihad Al-Islami (HuJI) outfit, of targeting the popular secular
celebrations in Dhaka's main park which they deemed offensive to Islam.
However defense lawyers say the accused only admitted to the attacks after
confessions were forced them during police interrogation. 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.
After eight years of investigation and another 5 years of protracted trial the
lower court last month set the case for verdict for June 16 with prosecutors
seeking death penalty for each of the 14 accused.
"We hope the court will sentence them to death," prosecutor S.M. Zahid Hossain
said ahead of Monday's hearing.
"The court must send a message that this kind of heinous act won't be tolerated
in the country," Hossain added.
5 of the accused are still at large and are believed to have fled abroad. Of
the remainder, Hannan and two 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 Commission 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 traditionally gather and sing under a Banyan
tree in the capital's historic Ramna Park and the nearby grounds of Dhaka
University.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
CHINA:
Man Sentenced to Death, Wife Given Life in Prison for Minor Rape
A man in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province was sentenced to death and his
wife to life in prison on Monday for murder, rape and robbery in the death of a
teenager who had been lured into their home.
Bai Yunjiang and his wife Tan Beibei murdered 16-year-old Hu Yixuan after Bai
failed in his attempt to rape her on July 24, 2013, according to the province's
Jiamusi Intermediate People's Court.
On that day, a pregnant Tan pretended she had belly pains and asked Hu, who was
walking by, to escort her home, the court said, in order to lure the girl into
the couple's home.
At the couple's home, Bai gave Hu yogurt that was poisoned with a drug to make
her unconscious. But the court said he failed to rape her after she fell
asleep. The couple then suffocated the girl, put her body in a suitcase and
buried it.
The couple was arrested on July 28 and the body was identified the next day.
Before the murder of Hu, Bai had raped 2 other girls last year, the court said.
In both of these cases, Tan lured them into the couple's home and gave them
sedatives, after which the couple robbed them of their jewelry and Bai raped
them, according to the court.
The convicts pled guilty and apologized to Hu's family during a court hearing
last week.
In the judgment, the court said that the couple deserved such extreme
punishments, as their motives were despicable, the murder was brutal and the
case brought great negative influence.
Because Tan was pregnant during her detention and court hearing, the court did
not give her the death penalty under the current Chinese Criminal Law.
The convicts were also asked to pay 374,499 yuan ($60,840) to Hu's family.
Bai said he will appeal to a higher court, while Tan accepted the punishment.
Sun Hongbo, Hu's mother, was absent when the judgment was announced. The
43-year-old mother said on Monday that she was afraid to hear the case in court
and that she could not accept Tan's life sentence.
The Jiamusi government is providing Sun with basic living allowances and a job,
which can bring up to 1,200 yuan monthly, because her family lost their only
child.
"I'm poor and old, so I don't want to have another kid," said Sun, who added
that she will speak with her lawyer about whether the compensation is
reasonable.
Wu Ming'an, a criminal law professor at the China University of Political
Science and Law, approved the court's verdict, saying a woman cannot be
sentenced to death if she is pregnant.
"So the judgment is reasonable, although the woman's behavior was harsh," he
said.
Bao Yunhe, the mother of a 2-year-old girl in Jiamusi, said she has followed
the case. She said Tan did not respect life, including her unborn baby, at that
time.
"I'll tell my kid to take her own safety as priority, even though helping
strangers should be encouraged," she added.
The convicted couple married in 2012, but fell out of love in May 2013 when Bai
found out Tan had extramarital affairs with other men. The court said Tan felt
sorry for her affairs and started luring girls home to Bai, the statement
added.
Tan gave birth to a boy on August 6, 2013. No one from Tan or Bai's families
will take care of the baby, but police said they have received phone calls from
across China with offers to adopt the child because "he is innocent".
(source: China Daily)
LEBANON:
Death Penalty Demanded for Palestinian over Terrorism Charges
Military Tribunal Judge Imad al-Zein demanded on Tuesday the death penalty for
a Palestinian national for belonging to a "terrorist group," the state-run
National News Agency reported.
According to NNA, al-Zein demanded the death penalty for the suspect, who was
identified by his initials B. H., for belonging to Fatah al-Islam and
monitoring the movement of Fatah Movement official Talal al-Balaghi to
assassinate him.
Balaghi is also known as Talal al-Ordoni.
The judge also issued an arrest warrant against him and referred him to the
permanent military court.
Other investigation and research warrants were issued against 7 suspects, who
weren't identified.
The Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon was almost
totally destroyed in 2007 during a months-long conflict between the Lebanese
army and the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah al-Islam.
The fighting killed some 400 people, including 168 soldiers.
Later, Government commissioner to the military court Judge Saq Saqr charged a
detained Syrian and 4 other fugitives with belonging to Ziad al Jarrah
Battalion.
The 5 men were charged with attempts to carry out terrorist acts, establish a
factory to develop arms and explosives.
(source: Neharnet.com)
IRAN:
Daughter of death row prisoner pleads for his life
The daughter of Iranian death row political prisoner Hamed Ahmadi has written
an open letter begging for public support to save her father's life.
Mr Ahmadi is one1 of 4 Sunni political prisoners who have been recently
notified that their death sentences will soon be carried out.
Amnesty international called on the Iranian regime to halt the executions of
Ahangir and Jamshid Dehghani, Hamed Ahmadi and Kamal Mowlaei, all charged with
'propaganda against the regime through attending political and religious
classes, the sale of Sunni religious books and CDs of lectures and Sunni
religious practices'.
The 4 are all sentenced to death for 'propaganda against the regime, Moharebeh
(waging war against God) and corruption on earth'.
Mr Ahmadi's daughter Mahsa has now written: "I want the world to know my father
is innocent.
"They want to execute my father. All my life I was deprived of seeing my
father, with his love and kindness. And now all all these difficulties we hoped
to live in peace and living rough we wanted to live in calm but now they want
to execute him.
"People of the world, I want my father back. I urge you to help me and our
family to prevent my father and his friends from being executed."
(source: NCR-Iran)
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