Sept. 16
SINGAPORE:
S'pore mum 'kills autistic child'
A Singaporean woman was charged Monday with the murder of her autistic
7-year-old son who was found at the foot of their high-rise public housing
apartment block, officials and the local media said.
Police said 42-year-old Koh Sook Hoon appeared in court to be charged with the
offence that is punishable by death.
The Straits Times newspaper said she was remanded for psychiatric treatment.
The newspaper and other local media said the boy was found dead at the foot of
a residential block in an eastern suburb on Saturday afternoon, with injuries
consistent with falling.
Eyewitnesses told the Straits Times the boy is believed to be autistic and had
lived on the ninth floor of the apartment block with his parents, grandmother
and 12-year-old brother for over 5 years.
The case has elicited strong reactions among Singaporeans, many of them
sympathetic to the mother and calling for her to be spared the death penalty if
found guilty.
"I think she needs mental evaluation, counselling and long-term treatment but
not the death penalty," wrote Felix Clarice on the Straits Times Facebook page.
"It's never easy to be a mum and the task is made almost impossible when one
has a special needs child," wrote another social media user, Mabell Ong.
More than 31,000 people have autism in Singapore, according to non-profit group
the Autism Resource Centre.
(source: Bangkok Post)
IRAN:
3 Pastors in Iran Could Face Death Penalty
3 pastors in Iran are facing charges that could lead to the death penalty for
activities in the house-church movement in an unprecedented crackdown on
converts from Islam, according to human rights groups.
Iranian authorities recently filed charges against Silas Rabbani, assistant
pastor in a Church of Iran group in Karaj, for "Mofsed-fel-arz" or "spreading
corruption on Earth," according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
Authorities previously charged Behnam Irani, lead pastor of the church, with
the same offense. The exact date when each pastor was charged is not publicly
known, but information about each pastor leaked out of Iran the 1st week of
this month and was reported by CSW, a freedom of religion advocacy group based
in London.
Prior to charges being filed against Irani and Rabbani, the Sixth Branch of the
Revolutionary Tribunal on Aug. 3 charged Abdolreza Ali-Haghnejad, another a
leader in the Church of Iran movement in Karaj, with "Moharebeh," or "warring
against God." A court has now changed the charge to "spreading corruption on
Earth."
The charges are "a clear escalation in Iran's campaign against Persian
Christians" and "an attempt to gain an apostasy conviction by other means," CSW
Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said in a press statement.
(source: Morning Star News)
EGYPT:
Egypt sentences Muslim Brotherhood leader Badie to life in jail
Mohamed Badie, top leader of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, was sentenced
to life in jail along with 14 others on Monday on charges of murder and
inciting violence during clashes near Cairo last year.
The session had been summoned for witness statements but the judge surprised
journalists and others present by issuing a verdict. Badie, 71, is among
hundreds of Brotherhood members already sentenced to death in mass trials that
have drawn criticism from Western governments and human rights groups.
The death sentences are subject to appeal.
In what is known as the Bahr al-Azam case, Badie and the other defendants were
convicted of the murder of 5 people and the attempted murder of 100 others
during violence that broke out in Giza on July 15, 2013.
Then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the
Muslim Brotherhood on July 3, 2013 after protests against his rule.
Egyptian authorities have since arrested thousands of Brotherhood supporters,
sentencing hundreds to death or long prison sentences, while Egypt's oldest
Islamist movement has been banned and designated a terrorist organisation.
Sisi, who went on to win a presidential election, vowed in his campaign that
the Brotherhood, once among Egypt's most formidable political movements, would
cease to exist under him.
Mursi, freely elected in 2012, is also on trial on a variety of charges
including inciting violence and conspiring with a foreign power, and could face
the death penalty if convicted.
Egypt's Brotherhood renounced violence as a means of political change decades
ago and argues that it has been robbed of political power won fairly at the
ballot box.
Badie and 182 Muslim brotherhood supporters were sentenced to death in a mass
trial last June over violence that erupted in Minya governorate which led to
the killing of a police officer.
A court sentenced Badie to life in prison in a separate case in July for
inciting violence and blocking a major road north of Cairo during protests that
followed Mursi's ouster. He received another life sentence last month, on
separate counts of inciting violence in clashes near a mosque in Giza.
(source: euronews.com)
PAKISTAN:
Stop 1st civilian execution in 6 years ---- The last civilian execution in
Pakistan took place in late 2008.
Pakistan should immediately scrap apparent plans to carry out the 1st civilian
execution in almost 6 years and instead impose a moratorium on the use of the
death penalty as a 1st step towards abolition, Amnesty International said.
Shoaib Sarwar, a death row prisoner convicted on murder charges in 1998, is
reportedly set to be hanged in a Rawalpindi jail on 18 September 2014. If
carried out, it would be the 1st civilian execution in Pakistan since 2008 and
the 1st execution in the country since 2012.
"This execution should be halted immediately," said David Griffiths, Amnesty
International's Deputy Asia-Pacific Director.
"The suspension in executions which we have seen in recent years is one of few
human rights areas in which Pakistan can point to a positive record. The
country has committed itself to making progress on human rights - as a
beneficiary of the EU's GSP+ preferential trading status, for example - and the
resumption of executions would be a seriously regressive step. Instead of
moving to resume executions, authorities should formalise a moratorium on the
death penalty as a 1st step towards full abolition."
Shoaib Sarwar has exhausted his appeal process, with the Lahore High Court and
the Supreme Court rejecting his appeals against the death penalty in 2003 and
2006 respectively.
The last civilian execution in Pakistan took place in late 2008, but a soldier
was executed by military authorities in November 2012. The execution of a
civilian, Behram Khan, had been scheduled for 30 July 2012 but was later
suspended.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government threatened to resume executions after
coming to power in 2013, but backed-down after pressure from human rights
groups and others.
There are more than 8,000 prisoners on death row in Pakistan - 1 of the highest
death row populations in the world - most of whom have exhausted the appeals
process and could be facing execution.
There are serious concerns around the lack of fairness of the trials in which
people continue to be sentenced to death. Defendants are often without adequate
legal representation, and some prisoners currently under sentence of death were
reportedly under the age of 18 when the crimes were committed, against
Pakistan's obligations under international law.
"As long as the death penalty is in place, the risk of executing innocent
people can never be ruled out. The systemic fair trials violations in Pakistan
not only exacerbate this risk, but also put Pakistan in breach of its
international obligations," said David Griffiths.
"There is no conclusive evidence that the threat of execution acts as a
particular deterrent to crime. The death penalty violates the right to life,
pure and simple, and has no place in any human rights-respecting society.
Pakistan should join the majority of countries in the world and abolish it
completely."
Background
Any move by Pakistan to resume executions would buck the worldwide trend that
is moving steadily away from the death penalty. In 2013, only 22 countries in
the world carried out executions - down from 25 in 2004 and 37 in 1994. In
1945, when the UN was created, only 8 countries had abolished the death penalty
for all crimes - today 140 nations are abolitionist in law or practice. Over
the past decade, 18 countries have abolished the death penalty fully in law.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception,
regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or
other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to
carry out the execution. The death penalty violates the right to life and is
the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
(source: Amnesty International)
CHINA:
China sees surge in protested criminal cases
The number of criminal cases being contested by procuratorates following
erroneous judgments by courts has increased by almost 20 % since 2011.
A total of 6,234 criminal cases were protested in 2013, an increase of 17 %
from 2011, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Tuesday. Among the
protested cases, 2,433 were reversed.
The SPP released the data following the publishing of 3 amended criminal cases
on its official website for the 1st time. They have published corrected
judgments on non-criminal cases since Oct. 31, 2010.
The contested criminal cases published involve crimes of robbery, theft and
homicide.
In one case, Guo Mingxian had been sentenced to death with 2 years' suspension
by the Intermediate People's Court of Mianyang city in Sichuan for murder and
mafia-style gang activity.
The Higher People's Court of Sichuan Province recalled the original verdict and
decided for immediate death penalty after the people's procuratorate of
Mianyang protested the case.
"The publicity of such cases aims at setting an example for procuratorates to
fulfill the duty of legal supervision, protect human rights and increase the
public's confidence in justice," said an unidentified official with the SPP.
(source: Xinhua News)
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