Aug. 18
VIETNAM:
Vietnam court overturns death penalty for Nigerian drug mule
A court in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday reduced a death sentence previously
handed to a Nigerian man for bringing methamphetamine into Vietnam to life
imprisonment, local media report.
The indictment said Ejiogu Benjamin Ikechukwu had nearly 3.3 kilograms of the
drug in metal tubes and a laptop charger in his luggage as he flew to Tan Son
Nhat in June 2012.
He had transited in Qatar.
The 33-year-old said he only planned to go to Vietnam to buy clothes to resell
them in Nigeria and had no idea about the drug in his luggage.
He said a man asked him to carry the tubes and the charger to Vietnam and
someone would pick them up.
A Ho Chi Minh court in August 2013 sentenced him to death, but he appealed the
verdict.
The People's Supreme Court then canceled the verdict, ordering a new
investigation.
Investigators could not track down the people who had used him as a drug mule.
Those convicted of smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5
kilograms of methamphetamine in Vietnam face the death penalty.
The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal
narcotics is also punishable by death.
(source: Thanh Nien News)
INDIA:
MHA recommends rejection of mercy pleas of 2 death row convicts
President Pranab Mukherjee has been reportedly recommended by the Ministry of
Home Affairs to reject the petitions of 2 death row convicts.
The death sentence for the convicts, Mohan Anna Chavan and Jitendra Gehlot,
currently lodged in Maharashtra jails, was upheld by the Supreme Court and
their mercy petitions were rejected by the Maharashtra Governor.
Mohan Anna Chavan was awarded death sentence by the Bombay High Court in 2002
for the rape and murder of two minor girls in Kolhapur district, Maharashtra
and Supreme Court upheld it in 2008.
Jithendra Nayansingh Gehlot killed 7 persons (5 women and 2 children) in Pune,
Maharashtra in 1994. Death penalty was awarded to him by a trial court and the
same was upheld by Bombay High Court in 1999 and Supreme Court in 2000.
A senior ministry official was quoted as saying, "We have given our opinion to
the President explaining our stand. The decision has been reached after going
through all the relevant documents as well as the opinion given by the
Maharashtra government on the subject."
Under Article 72 of the Constitution, the President can grant pardon, and
suspend, remit or commute a sentence of death. The President is bound by the
recommendation of the Council of Ministers in deciding the mercy petitions.
President Mukherjee has rejected 22 mercy petitions so far and has commuted
only 1 death sentence of Man Bahadur Dewan from Assam convicted for killing his
wife, 2 sons and neighbor.
MHA data reportedly shows that Presidents, with the exceptions of Narayanan and
Pratibha Patil, have dealt with mercy petitions largely without mercy.
According to information released by the government under the RTI Act, of the
77 mercy pleas decided by Presidents between 1991 and 2010, 69 were rejected.
Only 8 - about 10% - of those who sought mercy were spared the gallows. R
Venkataraman (1987-1992) rejected 44 mercy pleas, the most by any President.
(source: livelaw.in)
******************
Yaqub Memon's 'strong role' paved way for 10 men in commutation of their death
sentences
Every coin has 2 sides and visibly these sides will always remain completely
contrasting to each other. Incidentally this standard applies to Yaqub Memon's
'strong involvement' in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, upholding of his death
sentence by Supreme Court and his subsequent hanging.
One side of his strong role played in the serial blasts is that he earned death
penalty and was hanged in Nagpur prison on July 30 this year; the other
contrasting side is that his same purported strong role helped other 10 men in
the case who were also sentenced to death by TADA court in commutation of their
sentences by Supreme Court.
The 1st side of Memon's strong role proved him a 'Terrorist' and became reason
for his execution but the other side of his same role proved a pivotal
criterion for Supreme Court to distinguish the quantity of punishment to the
convicts and there by converting death sentence of remaining 10 into life
imprisonment.
On March 12, 1993, the commercial hub of the country witnessed an unprecedented
terrorist act sending shock waves throughout the world. In a span of about 2
hours i.e., between 13:33 to 15:40 hours, a series of 12 bomb explosions took
place one after the other at the following 12 places in Mumbai.
The investigation began and CBI arrested 123 accused including Yaqub Memon and
tried them before a special TADA court in Mumbai.
On July 27, 2007 the TADA Court Judge P D Kode convicted 100 accused; 12 of
them were sentenced death penalty. 1 of these 12 died in the prison before his
appeal could be heard by Supreme Court.
The remaining 11 appealed before Supreme Court against their conviction by TADA
court. These 11 were - Yaqub Memon, Kasam Ghansar, Asgar Yusuf Mukadam, Abdul
Gani Ismail Turk , Parvez Nazir Ahmed Shaikh, Mohd. Farooq Mohammed Yusuf,
Shahnawaz Abdul Kadar Qureshi, Zakir Hussain Noor Mohd. Shaikh, Abdul Khan @
Yakub Khan Akhtar, Firoz @ Akram Amani Malik and Mohammed Mushtaq Moosa Tarani.
All these had played active role in orchestrating blasts and the main charge
due to which they were sentenced to death by TADA court was that all had
planted bombs.
No one would have ever imagined that bomb planters of such a huge devastation
would be shown leniency by the Supreme Court but it did so as it had to
discriminate Yaqub Memon and other masterminds of the blasts from other
convicts who merely acted without full knowledge of the conspiracy.
On March 21, 2013 Justice P Sathashivam and Justice B S Chauhan of Supreme
Court found only Yaqub Memon as deserving to go to the gallows and commuted
death penalty of 10 other into life imprisonment.
While providing reasoning in commuting death sentences of 10 convicts the 2
judge bench said, "If we say it in a metaphoric style, Yaqub Memon and all the
absconding accused were the archers whereas rest of the appellants were the
arrows in their hands."
On the same line if one thinks of the case of 26/11 carnage where Ajmal Kasab
was sentenced to death by Supreme Court one can imagine the gravity of crime
committed by Kasab would have been lowered if his masters in Pakistan would
have been tried along with him. He too was only one of the arrows but to see
him as arrow detailed role of his archers was not before the Supreme Court.
Further, the reasoning of the Apex Court continued and it said, "They were the
architects of the blasts, without whom the plan would have never seen the
daylight", adding at another place, " ... it is not hyperbole to state that,
Yaqub Memon was one of the 'driving spirit' behind the plan of the 1993 blasts,
whereas the other appellants played a far lesser role and thus a lesser
contribution to the crimes resulting from this plan."
One can easily make out from above reasoning of the Supreme Court that if it
would not have been for Yaqub Memon's role in the mind of the Supreme Court,
perhaps role of bomb planters would have appeared to the court as the chief
reason for the deaths of scores of people in 1993 blasts, similar to what it
perceived in Kasab's case.
Supreme Court judged Yaqub Memon and other absconding as the real conspirators
and agreed that they were the men who hatched the plan and, "the other 10
appellants were mere subservient subordinates whose knowledge and acquaintance
might have been restricted to their counterparts".
Even if it was cautious in commuting their sentences, it specified clearly,
"This may not help in complete exoneration of the liability of these 10
appellants but the degree of punishment must necessarily reflect this
difference. It is vital to remember that 'but for' the masterminds, this blast
should have never seen the daylight."
After explaining interpretation minutely, Supreme Court declared," ...it can
safely be concluded that no offence might have taken place at all but for the
instigation by the absconding accused and Yaqub memon".
Accordingly, it proclaimed, "to differentiate the degree of punishment to Yaqub
Memon and other 10 appellants, we contemplate that the ends of justice would be
served if the death sentence of these 10 appellants be commuted to imprisonment
for life".
There remains no doubt it was because of Yaqub Memon's strong role in the case
which was before the eyes of Supreme Court that helped other 10 convicts to
live even after hanging of him.
As said earlier, Yaqub Memon's involvement in the case and his joint trial with
other accused proved life surviving, especially for the 10 who were in the same
line of death penalty as that of him. If not publicly, but in private these 10
men surely must have supplicated for Yaqub Memon "Rest In Peace ... RIP" when
he was executed on the morning of July 30, 2015.
(source: twocircles.net)
BANGLADESH:
Man to die for killing wife
A court here yesterday sentenced a man to death for killing his wife in
Kalmakanda upazila of the district in 2005.
The death penalty awardee is Bashar Ali, 55, son of late Shamsher Ali of
Gobindapur village in the upazila.
According to the prosecution, Bashar Ali and his wife Halima Khatun locked in
an altercation over a family feud on November 2, 2005.
At one stage, Bashar hit Halima with an axe, leaving her dead on the spot.
On the day, Moti Mia, son of the deceased, filed a case with Kalmakanda Police
Station against his father.
Police submitted charge sheet against Bashar on December 31, 2005.
After examining 11 witnesses and all the records, Additional District and
Sessions Judge Abdul Hamid handed down the verdict.
(source: The Daily Star)
**************************
State gets 2 weeks to submit Mir Kashem appeal summary
The top appeals court has given the state 2 weeks to submit the summary of its
appeal in the case of death-row war crimes convict Mir Kashem Ali.
A 4-strong Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha
set the deadline on Tuesday accepting an appeal from Attorney General Mahbubey
Alam for more time.
Last year, on Nov 2, the International Crimes Tribunal found the
Jamaat-e-Islami executive council member guilty of war crimes and sentenced him
to death.
Mir Kashem appealed against the verdict on Nov 30 with a 150-page application
and 1,750-pages of relevant documents. The appeal calls for his release and
scrapping of the death penalty.
On May 28, the Appellate Division had set the deadline for submitting appeal
summaries.
(source: bdnews24.com)
IRAN----executions
11 Inmates Hanged by Gallows
11 prisoners who were accused of drug-related and felony crimes executed in
Bandar Abbas and Minab prisons.
The offenders who had been reportedly sentenced to the death penalty on the
charge of posing 398 K.G drugs including more than 70 K.G Heroin, 200 K.G
opium, 105 K.G Crack Cocaine (the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked),
4 K.G Hashish (Marijuana), 19 K.G Morphine, hanged by gallows in the prisons of
Bandar Abbas and Minab on 17 Aug 2015.
The Islamic Revolutionary Court of Bandar Abbass, Branch 2, had held its
charges against 6 offenders, and the other 4 of the criminals had received
their sentence as the death penalty by the Revolutionary Court of Minab County
that the verdicts finally confirmed and validated by Iran's regime prosecutor,
rights groups said.
The inmates were taken to isolation in Bandar Abbas prison to execution on 15
Aug 2015.
The prisoners name who were hanged in Bandar Abbas prison are as follows;
1. Hussain Karimi, 25, from Bandar Abbas city, accused of drug-related crimes.
2. Siyamak Fadai, 24, from Ahwaz city, accused of drug-related crimes.
3. Zaher Omredin, 24, son of Abdul-Nazer, from Afghanistan, who is kept about 6
years in prison.
4. Vazir Ahmad Omredin, 22, son of Abdul-Nazer from Afghanistan, who is kept
about 6 years in prison.
5. Amir-Hussain Abdul-Khalegh, 22, son of Haj Mohammad Khan, who is kept about
5 years in prison.
6. Mansour Mehdizadeh, 68, son of Ali Mohammad, from Miyaneh County, who is
kept about 4 years in prison.
7. Gholam Fayezi, 28, from Tabriz city, who is kept about 4 years in prison.
HRANA also reported that Sa'adat Shah-Karam Zehi (Rigi), Eisa Omar Zehi,
Shahnavazi and Jadgal were hanged in Minab prison.
(source: iranian.com)
**************
10 prisoners hanged in Iran
Iran's fundamentalist regime hanged 10 prisoners, including at least 2 Afghan
citizens, on Monday in the south of the country.
6 prisoners were hanged on Monday in Bandar Abbas Prison, southern Iran. They
were identified as Siamak Fadaii, 24; Zaher Amroddin, 24 (an Afghan citizen);
Vazirahmad Amroddin, 22 (Afghan); Amir-Hossein Abdol-Khaleq, 22; Mansour
Mehdizadeh, 68; and Gholam Fayezi, 28.
Another four prisoners were hanged on Monday in Minab, 80 kilometers east of
Bandar Abbas. They were identified as Saadat Shah Karam Zahi (Rigi), Issa Omar
Zehi and two others identified only by their last names Shahnavazi and Jedgal.
They were accused of drug related charges.
Following the executions, Ms. Farideh Karimi, a member of the National Council
of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and a human rights activist, on Tuesday said: "The
fundamentalist regime in Iran is increasingly resorting to group executions to
terrorize the population and prevent any popular protests demanding change. The
international community should not tolerate such mass killings and should make
its ties to Iran conditional upon an end to executions and torture."
A statement by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on August 5 said: "Iran has reportedly executed
more than 600 individuals so far this year. Last year, at least 753 people were
executed in the country."
(source: NCR-Iran)
**************************
Escalating rate of executions in Iran
Human rights violations are escalating in Iran and the regime is pursuing a
"policy of death" despite a nuclear deal with the major world powers, Hamid
Yazdan Panah, an Iranian-American attorney, writer and human rights activist,
wrote on Monday in Reuters' The Great Debate.
"The nuclear deal between Iran, the United States and other major world players
has garnered significant praise and fanfare. The agreement has been hailed as a
victory for peace and a turning point for Iran. Some have even claimed that the
agreement will usher in a new era of moderation and the development of Iranian
civil society."
"The facts on the ground paint a very different picture, especially as they
relate to human rights. Currently, the Iranian regime leads the world in per
capita executions and it continues to escalate the rate of executions and mass
repression."
"Since the election of President Hassan Rouhani in 2013, all talk of the
opposition movement and human rights has been swept under the rug while human
rights reports from inside the country confirm the true nature of this regime.
Earlier this year a report by UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Ahmad
Shaheed noted that 'the overall situation has worsened' with respect to human
rights."
"Just weeks after signing the 'historic' deal and more than 8 months after
signing an interim agreement, Iran is in the midst of what Amnesty
International has referred to as an 'unprecedented spike' in executions.
Currently, Iran's new 'moderate' administration is on pace to hit a new 12-year
high in executions. And Amnesty International has noted that while the regime
officially claims that only 246 executions have taken place in 2015, this
number is closer to 700 in reality."
"Said Boumedouha, Deputy Middle East Director at Amnesty International, has
decried Iran's 'theatre of cruelty,' stating; 'Iran's staggering execution toll
for the 1st half of this year paints a sinister picture of the machinery of the
State carrying out premeditated, judicially-sanctioned killings on a mass
scale.'"
"Dissidents and human rights groups have noted that many executions in Iran
occur with little or no due process. Trials that do take place are often deeply
politicized and flawed, prisoners are often not allowed access to legal
counsel, and denied the procedural remedies of appeal. Political prisoners who
are sentenced to death usually see their fates sealed in court proceedings that
occur in a matter of minutes."
"The mass killings not only take human lives, but they have also traumatized
and terrorized a population. Public executions are commonplace in Iran and the
horrific spectacle is a constant reminder to those who dare defy this regime."
"Those executed are often individuals who are marginalized in Iranian society.
This includes undocumented migrants and refugees from neighboring Afghanistan,
as well as ethnic and religious minorities who face disenfranchisement in Iran.
In 2014, Iran hanged an Afghan juvenile, 17-year-old Jannat Mir for an alleged
drug offense, despite the fact that he was a minor. Iran remains one of the
only countries in the world to execute juvenile offenders."
"The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has given more than $15 million
to Iran since 1998 in order to fight the 'war on drugs' and most of this money
comes from European nations, despite their own opposition to the death penalty.
Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team for the human rights NGO Reprieve
has called for a change to this policy, stating, 'Even as Iran's execution rate
skyrockets, European nations like France and Germany continue to fund brutal
raids by the Iranian police which routinely send people to death row for
non-violent offenses.'"
"Those who claim that a nuclear deal with Iran presents hope for human rights
never identify a mechanism through which this supposed change will occur," he
added.
(source: NCR-Iran)
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