June 18
BELARUS:
Secret Executions, Forced Labor Reports UN Expert
The UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday were told of the "systematic character
of the serious repression of all human rights in Belarus" by the expert it
appointed to investigate the former Soviet state.
Miklos Haraszti told the Geneva-based body that the government in Minsk, headed
since 1994 by President Alexander Lukashenko, is the only parliament in Europe
without opposition.
It is also the only country in Europe that retains the death penalty and
Haraszti had previously reported "as a possible positive development that no
executions had reportedly carried out during the reporting period."
"However, in April 2014, two new executions were carried out in secret," he
said. "Those facing the death penalty, and their relatives or lawyers are
neither informed of the scheduled date of execution nor where the body is
buried. In one of the cases, the mother of the executed Pavel Sialiun was not
notified of the decision to reject his plea for pardon or the date of
execution."
He also said there was increased repression before and during Belarus's recent
hosting of the World Ice Hockey Championships and that students were forced to
work on the construction of the Chizhovka Arena in Minsk and that with up to 80
% of the economy state-planned there is "severe suppression of the right of
independent labour unions to organize."
Haraszti, a Hungarian professor, journalist and human rigths advocate, held out
little hope at the end of his presentation to the 47-nation Council that next
year's presidential election would result in an improved human rights
situation.
"Chronic restriction of human rights has led to recurrence of violence over the
last 15 years, typically at times of elections and the announcement of their
preordained outcomes," he said. "During the recent local elections in March
2014, the right to elect was in practice again denied, as 88 % of
constituencies were uncontested."
(source: UN Tribune)
PHILIPPINES:
ACC proposes PH version of Alcatraz island prison
Citing the recent spate of killings, a crime watch group has asked President
Benigno Aquino III to build a high-security prison facility similar to the
defunct Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in the US.
Dante Jimenez, founding chair of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption
(VACC), wrote to Aquino on Monday, complaining about the alleged spike in
heinous crimes and suggested ways to curb it.
In the letter made available to media, Jimenez suggested that the government
"transfer the New Bilibid Prison from Muntinlupa to an island with
state-of-the-art prison for convicted felons with life sentence and enforce
strict reformatory programs."
Jimenez claimed that the number of escaped convicted felons and suspects has
been increasing. At the same time, he said there has been "special treatment
for rich and influential" detainees.
VACC's proposal could be compared to Alcatraz, an infamous US maximum
high-security federal prison off the coast of California. It gained notoriety
because of the criminals sent there and the allegedly inhumane conditions they
experienced. It closed in 1963 due to its high operational costs.
Jimenez also suggested requiring motorcycle passengers to wear vests and
helmets with the plate number of the motorcycle for easier identification and
prevention of crimes.
They said police visibility should be further increased while the three
branches of government should find a way to resolve "in the fastest way
possible all heinous crime cases under litigation."
"Lastly, revive the Death Penalty Law for Heinous Crime Felons to send a strong
signal to criminals/criminal syndicates that our State will not tolerate
heinous crimes to prosper and propagate in our country," Jimenez said in the
letter.
VACC's letter came days after the death of race car driver Ferdinand "Enzo"
Pastor and more than a week after the murders of Urbistondo Mayor Ernesto
Balolong Jr. and police inspector Rodelio Diongco.
The group claimed that heinous crimes, such as murder, rape, robbery, homicide
and illegal drug trafficking, increased by three times under the Aquino
administration.
(source: Philippine Inquirer)
EGYPT:
Egyptian court gives death penalty to 12 Morsi supporters
An Egyptian court sentenced 12 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed
Morsi to death on Wednesday on charges connected to the fatal shooting of a
police general last year, AFP reports.
The 12 were among 23 defendants charged with murder or attempted murder over
the shooting during a police raid on an Islamist stronghold in the capital on
September 19 that came amid the bloody crackdown that followed the army's
overthrow of Morsi in July.
The accused were also charged with "membership of a jihadist organisation". The
other 11 remain on the run.
(source: Voice of Russia)
INDIA:
Rajnath Singh rejects mercy petitions of 6 death row convicts including Nithari
serial killer Surinder Koli
The Union home ministry has advised President Pranab Mukherjee to reject the
mercy petitions of 6 death row convicts, including Nithari serial killer
Surinder Koli.
The file carrying the Union home ministry's recommendation for rejection of
mercy pleas filed in 5 cases - 2 relating to Maharashtra, and one each to Uttar
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam was signed by Union home minister Rajnath
Singh and sent to the President on Wednesday.
The rejection of the 5 mercy petitions was earlier recommended to the President
by former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde in April this year. However,
the files were sent back to the home ministry recently for a fresh opinion
following the change in regime at the Centre and taking over of a new home
minister.
The home ministry has now decided to stick to its original recommendation in
all the 5 cases.
The list of death row convicts for whom rejection of clemency has been
recommended includes Renukabai and Seema, sentenced to death for kidnapping and
murdering several children in Maharashtra and Surendra Koli of UP who was
awarded capital punishment in the bone-chilling case involving abduction and
murder of several young girls in the Noida village of Nithari.
Others denied a recommendation for clemency include Rajendra Prahladrao Wasnik
of Maharashtra, convicted of rape and murder of a minor girl and Jagdish of
Madhya Pradesh, awarded death sentence for killing his wife and 5 children. The
home ministry also endorsed capital punishment for Holiram Bordolai of Assam,
convicted of murdering 3 people.
The death sentence of all the above convicts has been confirmed by the Supreme
Court and their mercy pleas rejected by relevant state governors.
(source: The Times of India)
TRINIDAD:
Death sentence for wife killer
10 years after stabbing his wife to death at a maxi-stand in Princes Town,
Shawn Marcelline was yesterday found guilty of her killing.
Marcelline, 44, showed no emotion when the death penalty was read to him by
Justice Norton Jack who presided at the trial in the San Fernando Second
Criminal Court.
The 12-member jury deliberated for 2 1/2 hours before returning the guilty
verdict.
Marcelline had been on trial for the murder of babysitter Juliet Victoria
Cummings, the mother of his four children, on August 2, 2003.
Cummings was seated in a maxi-taxi en route to her home at Branch Trace, Monkey
Town, New Grant, when she was stabbed 19 times.
She was wounded on her face, neck, scalp, jaw, hands and arms.
State attorney Trevor Jones had called 16 witnesses, including the maxi-taxi
driver and pathologist Dr Hughvon Des Vignes, police officers, and Cummings's
mother, Simone Mendoza.
Among the police officers who gave evidence was Sgt Steven Maynard, who
testified that he was present for an interview with Marcelline at the Princes
Town Police Station.
The 3-page-long statement, which was not signed by Marcelline, was read to the
jury.
Statements from nine other witnesses were admitted into evidence.
Last week, Marcelline in his defence claimed he could not remember killing his
wife.
He said he recalled confronting Cummings in the maxi-taxi, after she told him
not to go to New Grant to visit his children. He testified that she said she
"had put him in court for maintenance".
Marcelline said she slapped and fought with him as he tried to evade her. He
said she started quarrelling and he decided to leave but was slapped and there
was a scuffle.
He said he did not remember how he reached home, but a police officer met him
at his sister's house the next day and he was taken into police custody.
(source: Trinidad Express)
SUDAN:
Sudan's death row 'apostate' mother unchained
Sudanese jailers removed the chains from a Christian woman, sentenced to death
for apostasy, after she gave birth in prison last month, one of her lawyers
said Tuesday.
The case of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag sparked an outcry from Western
governments and rights groups after a judge sentenced her on May 15 to hang.
Born to a Muslim father, she was convicted under Islamic sharia law that has
been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.
12 days after the verdict, Ishag gave birth to a daughter at the women's prison
in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman.
"They removed the chains" after she delivered, one of her lawyers, Mohanad
Mustafa, told AFP.
"This is on order by the doctor."
Sudanese law requires anyone sentenced to death to be shackled but Mustafa said
he did not think they would be put back on again.
After the delivery, Ishag was moved to the prison clinic from a cell she shared
with other women.
"After she gave birth the conditions got better," Mustafa said.
"She has air conditioning. She has a good bed," he said after he and Ishag's
Catholic husband, Daniel Wani, visited her.
"She's fine. Usually her husband brings the food, and he gives her money" to
buy any other items she needs.
The couple's 20-month-old son is also incarcerated with Ishag and their
daughter.
Mustafa said that despite the relative improvement in Ishag's conditions, "a
prison is a prison."
Last week, European Union leaders called for revocation of the "inhumane
verdict," while US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Khartoum to repeal its
laws banning Muslims from converting.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said the way she has been treated "is
barbaric and has no place in today's world."
Mustafa and 4 other human rights lawyers handling her case for free have
appealed the verdict.
"We're still waiting," and there is no word on when the higher court's decision
may come, Mustafa said.
'Never a Muslim'
A church source was optimistic Ishag would be freed because of international
pressure on Sudan.
"I am hopeful that she will be released," said the source, asking for
anonymity.
But Muslim extremist groups have been lobbying the Islamist government over
Ishag's case, prominent newspaper editor Khalid Tigani has said.
Ishag, born in eastern Sudan's Gedaref state on November 3, 1987, is the
daughter of a Sudanese Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian
mother, a statement obtained by AFP on Tuesday from the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Khartoum says.
Her father abandoned the family when Ishag was 5, and she was raised according
to her mother's faith, it says.
"She has never been a Muslim in her life," said the statement signed by Father
Mussa Timothy Kacho, episcopal vicar for Khartoum.
Ishag joined the Catholic church shortly before she married the Khartoum-born
Wani in December 2011, the vicar said.
Wani is a United States citizen, the US embassy confirmed to AFP on Tuesday.
The case against Ishag dates from 2013 when "a group of men who claim to be
Meriam's relatives" filed an initial legal action, the vicar's statement said.
In fact, she had never seen those men before, the statement added, in comments
confirmed by the lawyer Mustafa.
Ishag and her husband own a barber shop, a mini-mart and an agricultural
project in Gedaref, the vicar said.
Mustafa did not know if there is a link between the businesses and the case
against Ishag but he said: "Surely there is something behind this".
The Ishag case is the latest problem facing Sudan, an impoverished nation
battling rebellions in its west and south, while more than 6 million people
need humanitarian aid.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
KENYA:
Eyes on Supreme Court as death penalty case set to kick off
The Supreme Court will Thursday be the focus of the country when a case
challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty starts.
Death row convicts Wilson Thirimbu Mwangi and Francis Karioko Muruatetu, who
have been in jail since 2003, have petitioned Kenya's highest court for a
retrial and also want the court to do away with the mandatory death penalty.
The case will be mentioned Wednesday.
The Supreme Court case that challenges the constitutionality of the mandatory
death penalty coincides with global efforts to put pressure on Kenya to abolish
the death penalty.
Out of 197 UN jurisdictions, 139 countries had abolished the death penalty in
law or practice by December 2010.
The landmark case could conceivably change the legal landscape and tear down
barriers that have remained in place for over 121 years since the colonial
government introduced the death penalty in Kenya.
Mwangi and Muruatetu have been awaiting execution after being sentenced to
death alongside 5 other suspects including the wife of the former Lands
Commissioner Wilson Gachanja for the grisly murder of businessman Lawrence
Githinji Magondu.
According to the 2014 Economic Survey Report released in April, 2013 Kenyan
courts are responsible for 32 % of all death sentences in the world.
Majority of the remandees in Kenyan prisons are capital offence suspects either
awaiting trials or appeals.
"Such high numbers are characteristics of a failed judicial system that does
not care about who it sends to hang," said lawyer John Sakwa of the Christian
Lawyers of Kenya, an organisation that handles capital offences.
(source: Standard Media)
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