August 20
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan to hang paraplegic convict 'from his wheelchair'----Wheelchair-bound
Abdul Basit, 43, will be hanged despite appeals from human rights groups
A paraplegic man is facing the prospect of being hanged by prison officials in
Pakistan from his wheelchair as he is unable to mount the scaffold.
Abdul Basit, 43, was convicted of murder in 2009 but developed tuberculosis one
year later, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.
A "Black Warrant" was issued for his execution on July 29 but appeals from
Basit's legal team led to a stay of execution.
They now await a final hearing on August 25 which will decide whether to go
ahead with the procedure.
It means that prison officials are grappling with the conundrum of how much
rope is required to hang a man who cannot support his own body weight.
Basit's lawyers at Justice Project Pakistan have issued an urgent mercy appeal
to Pakistan's president, Mamnoon Hussain, claiming that hanging a
wheelchair-bound person is in breach of its own prison regulations.
"Given that the condemned prisoner is unable to use his lower body to support
his own weight and unable to stand, it is not possible to accurately measure
the length of rope required for his hanging," they wrote.
"Consequently, no provision can be safely made for the accurate measurement of
the rope that would hang him and to proceed with an inaccurately-measured
length of rope would place him at risk of an appalling death."
Extracts from a prison handbook, seen by The Telegraph, stipulate that
prisoners must be able to "stand" on the scaffold.
One extract reads: "The drop is the length of the rope from a point on the rope
outside the angle of the lower jaw of the condemned prisoner as he stands on
the scaffold, to the point where the lope is embraced in the noose after
allowing for the constriction of the neck that takes place in hanging.
"The condemned prisoner shall mount the scaffold and shall be placed directly
under the beam to which the rope is attached, the warders still holding him by
the arms."
As Basit would be unable to "mount" the scaffold or "stand" beneath the noose,
and there are no legal provisions in place for hanging disabled people, the
execution should be called off, his lawyers said.
Pakistan has carried out a spate of executions after it lifted a moratorium in
response to last year's Peshawar massacre, which saw Taliban soldiers gun down
around 130 schoolboys.
Nearly 200 convicts have been hanged since the December 2014 attack, ostensibly
in a bid to crack down on terrorism - though critics note that many of those
executed are not convicted of terror-related offences.
Maya Foa, the head of legal charity Reprieve's death penalty team, warned
Basit's hanging would be a "cruel and violent spectacle".
"The decision to go ahead with the hanging of a severely disabled man would
mark a new low for the Pakistani justice system," she said.
"Abdul Basit contracted tubercular meningitis while imprisoned; authorities
failed to provide proper medical assistance and as a result, his illness
worsened, leaving him entirely paralysed from the waist down.
"Abdul's hanging would be a cruel and violent spectacle, unlawful under both
Pakistani and international law, and an affront to justice and humanity.
Abdul's execution should be stayed, and the moratorium reinstated, before more
lives are senselessly lost."
A medical report seen by The Telegraph describes Basit's paraplegia as a
"complication of tuberculous meningitis."
"At this moment, he is having 0/5 power in lower limbs and 4/5 power in upper
limbs," Dr Javaid Iqbal and Dr Anjum Mehdi wrote in the report.
"In our opinion, patients with this condition are usually permanently disabled
and there is almost no chance of any recovery. He is likely to remain bed bound
for his life," they added.
Earlier this month Pakistan hanged Shafqat Hussain, a young man whose murder
confession was extracted through torture when he was just 14 years old,
according to his legal team and human rights groups.
United Nations rights experts said his trial "fell short of international
standards" and had urged Pakistan to investigate claims he confessed under
torture, as well as his age.
Should Basit's hanging go ahead, it is understood to be the 1st case in
Pakistan's history of a state execution of a wheelchair-bound convict.
A similar incident occurred in 1993 in the United States where an "extremely
disabled" killer was put to death in a Virginia prison.
Charles Stamper, 39, who suffered spinal injuries after a fight in prison, used
leg braces and a walker to take his final steps to the electric chair.
(source: The Telegraph)
*******************
Pakistan police arrest 3 Christians over poster
Pakistani police have arrested 3 Christian men under terrorism laws for using
the word "prophet" to describe a dead pastor on a poster, officials said
Thursday. The men were arrested in the town of Gujrat, in the eastern province
of Punjab, after police spotted posters marking the 20th anniversary of the
death of priest Fazal Masih that referred to him using the Urdu word for
prophet.
In Pakistan, the word is used only for Islamic prophets and anyone claiming to
be one is liable to be charged under blasphemy laws, which can carry the death
penalty.
"We have arrested 3 men, including the son of the priest, because they used the
word prophet for the late Fazal Masih," local police station chief Shahid
Tanveer told AFP.
He said officers had summoned local Muslim clerics and elders of the Christian
community to the police station to consult them on the matter.
The Christians organising the event apologised and asked forgiveness, saying
they had used the word to celebrate Masih's services to religion, but the
Muslim clerics refused to accept the apology, he added.
Tanveer said that a case under anti-terrorism law had been registered against
the organiser and three men had been arrested while 11 others were at large.
He did not explain why terrorism charges were brought, though the legislation
is often used in sensitive and high profile cases as it gives access to a
fast-track trial process.
Christians, who make up around 2 % of Pakistan's mostly Muslim population of
180 million, have been increasingly targeted in recent years, often over
allegations of profanity regarding the Quran or the Prophet Mohammed.
Pakistan's Supreme Court agreed last month to hear an appeal by a Christian
woman against her death sentence for blasphemy, lawyers said, in a case that
has drawn criticism from rights campaigners.
Asia Bibi, a mother of 5, has been on death row since 2010 after being
convicted of insulting the Islamic Prophet Mohammed during a row over drinking
water with Muslim women with whom she was working in a field.
Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan, with even unproven
allegations often prompting mob violence, and acquittals in court are rare.
(source: asiaone.com)
INDIA:
Judge who gave death penalty to Kasab retires
Justice M L Tahilyani, who had sentenced Pakistan terrorist Mohamed Ajmal Kasab
to death for his role in 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, retires tomorrow as the
Bombay High Court Judge after 28 years of distinguished judicial service.
Justice Tahilyani is slated to take up a new assignment as the Lok Ayukta of
Maharashtra on August 24.
Justice Tahilyani was given a fond farewell by lawyers affiliated to the
Advocates Association of Western India (AAWI) in the Bombay High Court today.
During his tenure as a sessions judge in Mumbai, Judge Tahilyani had tried many
sensational cases, including the murder cases of music baron Gulshan Kumar and
trade union leader-MP Datta Samant and also the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case
in which Kasab was executed.
Tahaliyani began his career in 1987 as a metropolitan magistrate in a Bandra
court. He was appointed as Additional Sessions judge in Mumbai Sessions Court
in 1997.
He was promoted as Principal Judge in the city's civil and Sessions Court in
early 2000 prior to taking up the assignment in the HC as Registrar
(inspection). He was appointed as a judge in the 26/11 trial in 2009. He was
also posted as a special judge to handle CBI cases.
The Supreme Court, in its judgement confirming the Bombay High Court order on
Kasab's death sentence, praised Justice Tahilyani for exemplary handling of
records.
The SC observed that "in the course of hearing of appeal (of Kasab), we also
came to know the trial Judge M L Tahilyani. From the records of the case, he
appears to be stern, no-nonsense person. But he is a true flag-bearer of the
rule of law in this country. The manner in which he conducted the trial and
maintained the record is exemplary."
In 2010, Justice Tahilyani was promoted as a Judge of the Bombay HC.
Felicitating Justice Tahilyani at a function organised by AAWI, senior lawyer S
R Chitnis described him as an "outspoken Judge." Apart from listening to
advocates' arguments, he (Tahilyani) would directly ask questions to the
litigants to find out the truth, Chitnis said.
In his court, many couples had opted for compromise in domestic violence cases
instead of moving on with litigations.
"He always kept the court atmosphere tension-free, which benefitted junior
lawyers. He disposed of a large number of appeals under Prevention of
Corruption Act," said another senior lawyer Ashok Mundargi.
(source: Press Trust of India)
UNITED KINGDOM/IRAN:
Lord Carlile: We must speak up against sharp rise of executions in
Iran----Co-chair of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom Lord
Carlile of Berriew calls on the international community to condemn the human
rights situation in Iran with nearly 700 executions since January 2015.
The alarming recent rise in executions in Iran, especially during the weeks
following the nuclear deal between Iran and world's 6 major powers, is a matter
of great concern.
"The Iranian authorities are believed to have executed an astonishing 694
people between 1 January and 15 July 2015", Amnesty International said in a
statement published on its website on July 23.
According to reliable reports from Iran, the regime's authorities have carried
out more than 60 executions, some of them through public hangings, in addition
to barbaric punishments such as amputation of limbs and eye gouging, in various
Iranian cities since the nuclear deal was announced on 14 July 2015.
Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of the Amnesty International's Middle East and
North Africa Programme, warned: "If Iran's authorities maintain this horrifying
execution rate we are likely to see more than 1,000 state-sanctioned deaths by
the year's end."
Today, many more are reported to be on death row, including juveniles, facing
immediate execution, sometimes for ambiguous and invented charges like
"Corruption on Earth" and "Waging war against God".
One such case is the execution of juvenile offender Salar Shadizadi, planned
for August 10, who according to Amnesty International was jailed and sentenced
to death for a crime committed when he was just 15 years old. The death
sentence against Salar Shadizadi is a serious violation of the international
human rights law that strictly prohibits the use of death penalty for crimes
committed by persons under the age of 18.
Another case causing shock and protests was highlighted by the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on August 5, as he
expressed alarm at the imposition of the death penalty on Mohammad Ali Taheri,
an Iranian writer and founder of a spiritual movement. The U.S. State
Department has also expressed deep concern about the death sentence handed down
to Mohammad Ali Taheri.
The International Community must strongly condemn the Iranian authorities' use
of capital punishment as a political tool, designed to create an atmosphere of
fear. UK can play a vital role in this regard and HM Government should join the
international community in condemning and demanding a halt to the planned
executions of Salar Shadizadi and Mohammad Ali Taheri.
Furthermore, the government should make any future economic relations between
UK and Iran conditional on substantive and tangible improvements in the human
rights situation in that country.
(source: Lord Carlile of Berriew CBE QC, is a Liberal Democrat member of the
House of Lords and co-chair of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran
Freedom (BPCIF). He was the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation in
the United Kingdom (2001-11); theparliamentmagazine.eu)
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