Oct. 29
CHINA:
Chinese criminal law amendments to take effect November 1 as death penalty
scaled back
New amendments to the criminal law in China, which abolished the death penalty
for 9 crimes and criminalised behaviour such as spreading false rumours on the
internet, will take effect from November 1.
China's Ninth Amendment to the PRC Criminal Law was adopted on August 29.
According to the National People???s Congress, the death penalty has been
removed for crimes such as smuggling weapons, counterfeiting currency, raising
funds by means of fraud, forcing another person to engage in prostitution;
obstructing a police officer, and fabricating rumors to mislead others during
wartime. Convicted offenders will now face a maximum sentence of life
imprisonment.
Under the section 291, offenders could be imprisoned up to 7 years for
disrupting social stability by posting false police notices or spreading
rumours about natural disasters on the internet. The penalty will depend on the
consequences of the rumours.
The law was a further blow to internet freedom in China, which came last -
behind both Syria and Iran - in a Freedom House survey on the topic on
Wednesday. Wu Zijun, a Chinese lawyer, told Cable News that the law was amended
to keep up with changing times and technological developments, given the speed
information could spread in the modern world.
Another new amendment added is that lawyers could be detained for "disrupting
court order" or "insulting judicial officers", which some said could affect
lawyers from actively putting forward a case in court. Section 307 was also
amended so that that those who bring a civil case based on "a distorted version
of the truth" could face 3 to 7 years in prison.
Those who cheat in exams could now face 3 to 7 years in prison, after an
amendment to section 284 of the Chinese Criminal Law Code. Professor Hong
Daode, criminal law professor at China University of Political Science and Law,
said that the regulations "purify" the examination environment and build a good
social atmosphere. He also said that the passing of these laws criminalises all
types of cheating behaviour, leaving no loopholes, and that the strict laws, if
combined with strict execution, will be a great deterrent.
School bus drivers who are caught speeding or overloading will be now
imprisoned and not just fined, whether or not the vehicle was not involved in
any accidents. The amendment came as a response to serious traffic accidents
involving school buses in recent years, Sina News reported. The new amendments
also made it an aggravating factor to abuse a senior citizen, a minor, a sick
person, or a person with disability.
(source: Hong Kong Free Press)
IRAN:
see:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/get-involved/take-action-now/iran-halt-milad-azimi-s-execution-ua-24515
(source: Amnesty International USA)
***************
Julie Ward MEP speaks out for human rights in Iran in European Parliament
Julie Ward, a Member of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom,
expressed her solidarity with the mother of Reyhaneh Jabbari, an Iranian woman
in her 20s who was executed last year by Iran's fundamentalist regime for
defending herself against an assault by a state intelligence agent.
Ms. Ward said she supports the people of Iran "in their struggle for a fair and
free democracy."
She is "particularly concerned at the violence against women in Iran under the
current regime."
"As a mother, I stand in solidarity with Reyhaneh Jabbari's mother and all the
other mothers of Iran who have lost their sons and daughters at the hands of
this cruel regime," Ms. Ward said.
Reyhaneh Jabbari's mother spoke out against the injustices in Iran by the
mullahs' regime at a gathering on Sunday at Tehran's Behesht Zahra Cemetery to
mark the 1st anniversary of her daughter's execution.
Sholeh Pakravan said there are "hundreds and hundreds" of mother's in Iran who
cannot sleep at night because their sons and daughters have been snatched away
from them by the authorities in Iran.
Iran's fundamentalist regime last year executed Ms. Pakravan's daughter,
Reyhaneh, at the age of 26.
When she was just 19 years old, Ms. Reyhaneh Jabbari was working as a decorator
when she was forced to defend herself against a rape attempt by an intelligence
agent. She was jailed for 7 years and was executed on October 25, 2014 despite
an international campaign to save her.
Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi said at the time that Ms. Jabbari's
execution had political motives and that it was unlawful even in the framework
of the mullahs' medieval laws. Mrs. Rajavi called for an independent
international probe into the execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari as an example of
arbitrary, extrajudicial and criminal death sentences in Iran that have taken
on added dimensions since Hassan Rouhani's tenure as the regime's President.
(source: NCR-Iran)
**********************
Sunni Man in Danger of Imminent Execution in Rajai Shahr Prison
A death sentence for a Sunni Muslim prisoner was reportedly confirmed by Iran's
Supreme Court. Shahram Ahmadi, who is being held in Rajai Shahr Prison, may be
executed at any moment.
According to close sources, in spring 2009, Ahmadi was shot and injured by
Iranian security agents in Sanandaj before he was arrested and taken to a
hospital. He was transferred to both the Ministry of Intelligence detention
centers in Sanandaj and Zanjan where he was reportedly held in solitary
confinement for more than 60 months and subjected to interrogations until he
was charged with "Having relations with Salafi groups and assassinating
Sanandaj's Sunni Friday Prayer Imam". In an unprecedented move, Iranian
authorities reportedly transferred Ahmadi's case file from Sanandaj to branch
28 of Tehran's Revolutionary Court, presided by Judge Moghiseh. In accordance
with the judicial process in Iran, the case file of defendants must be examined
or investigated where the alleged crime was committed.
Ahmadi has written and released multiple letters from prison denying the
assasination charge against him and claiming that he was arrested only because
he is a preacher of Sunni Islam.
In autumn 2012 Judge Moghiseh sentenced Ahmadi to death in a quick and closed
trial that was attended by Ahmadi's court-appointed lawyer. The death sentence
was then transferred to the Supreme Court where it was called off pending a new
trial. According to close sources, Ahmadi's case file was sent back to branch
28 of Tehran's Revolutionary Court where Judge Moghiseh sentenced him to death
again. The sentence was returned to the Supreme Court, and this time it was
confirmed. The sentence has reportedly been sent to Rajai Shahr Prison for
implementation.
On December 27, 2012 at Karaj's Ghezel Hesar Prison, Iranian authorities
executed Shahram Ahmadi's brother, Bahram, along with 9 other Sunni Muslim
prisoners. Bahram Ahmadi was reportedly under the age of 18 when he was
arrested by Iranian authorities in autumn 2009.
On March 4, 2014 6 other Sunni Muslim prisoners were executed by Iranian
authorities in Ghezel Hesar Prison: Hamed Ahmadi, Jahangir Dehghani, Jamshid
Dehghani, Kamal Molaei, Sedigh Mohammadi, and Hadi Hosseini.
At the current time there are more than 40 prisoners in Ward 4 of Rajai Shahr
Prison who are sentenced to death and in danger of execution. Most of these
prisoners were arrested in provinces in the west of Iran, yet they were
sentenced to death by branch 28 of Tehran's Revolutionary Court. One of the
prisoners is Barzan Nasrollahzadeh, who, according to an official document
obtained by Iran Human Rights, was under the age of 18 when he was arrested by
Iranian authorities. There is overwhelming evidence that the Sunni Muslim
political prisoners, who are accused of association with Salafi groups, have
been subjected to physical and psychological torture.
Iran Human Rights condemns the death penalty for any crime and urges the world
community to consider that prisoners in Iran are sentenced to death in unfair
and nontransparent trials.
"Shahram Ahmadi and the other Sunni Muslim prisoners who are on death row in
Rajai Shahr Prison must be granted fair and open trials with access to lawyers.
Iran Human Rights calls on the world community to make efforts to help stop the
execution sentences for Shahram Ahmadi and all political prisoners and
prisoners of conscience in Iran," says Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, spokesperson
for Iran Human Rights.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
Killer husband, mercenary get death
A husband who killed his wife in a bid to escape alimony payments lost an
appeal against a death penalty along with an accomplice mercenary on Wednesday.
The unemployed Indian man AQ, 23, sought the help of a Pakistani salesman RA,
28, in murdering his wife, Bushra Atif, who was in her 30s.
The incident happened inside her apartment in Al Faqaa area on the night of
March 3 of last year. AQ initially fled to India but later surrendered.
The Dubai Criminal Court unanimously sentenced them to death. They appealed for
mercy, but the Appeals Court' s jury upheld the sentence.
Records showed that following a spate of family wrangles, AQ brutally beat her
up before RA could strangle her. They packed her body in a trash bag.
They drove and dumped it at a farm in Murgham area along Dubai-Al Ain Road.
A Bangladeshi cleaner discovered it on March 11 and contacted the police.
(source: The Gulf Today)
ZIMBABWE:
Death Penalty Challenged At Concourt
The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) last week started hearing three cases in
which death row prisoners are challenging the constitutionality of the death
penalty, while those serving life imprisonments are challenging the
constitutionality of their sentences.
With the assistance of Veritas, a legal and legislative watchdog, the prisoners
want the ConCourt to rule that both the death penalty and life imprisonment are
inconsistent with the country's new Constitution as the supreme law upholds the
right to life and protection from punishment that degrades the dignity of human
life.
Currently, Zimbabwe has 95 inmates on death row.
In the 1st case, 2 applicants were convicted in separate cases of murder and
sentenced to death in July 2002 and May 2012 respectively, before the new
Constitution came into operation.
Veritas is arguing on their behalf that, although they were lawfully sentenced
to death, the penalty cannot now be carried out because the provisions of the
Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (CPEA), which authorises the imposition and
carrying out of the death penalty, are completely inconsistent with section 48
of the present Constitution.
"They are therefore invalid by virtue of section 2 of the Constitution, hence
there is no law that authorises the death penalty to be carried out on the
applicants. The provisions of the CPEA, under which the condemned were tried
and sentenced, are now invalid. The carrying out of sentences imposed by courts
is a procedural matter governed by the law existing at the time the sentences
are carried out. The applicants' sentences must therefore be commuted to life
imprisonment," Veritas argues on behalf of the condemned inmates.
This week, the ConCourt will hear an identical case in which 15 death row
prisoners are making a similar challenge.
In a parallel case, Veritas is also seeking to get life imprisonment declared
unconstitutional because under the CPEA and the Prisons Act, prisoners serving
sentences of life imprisonment are not entitled to be considered for parole or
early release. They are released from prison only by death.
"This, violates section 51 of the Constitution, which guarantees human dignity,
and section 53, which protects against cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
Giving prisoners no hope of release, however, good their behaviour in prison
and, however, much they may have reformed, robs them of hope and crushes their
dignity," Veritas argues on behalf of the prisoners.
Vice President, Emmerson Mnangagwa -- who himself escaped the death penalty by
the skin of a tooth in 1965 by a legal technicality that he was underage after
the colonial regime convicted him on terrorism charges in a case in which his
co-accused were hanged -- has openly campaigned against capital punishment.
As recent as this month, Mnangagwa, who is also Justice Minister, told
Parliament that he would not lend his support to current efforts to
re-introduce the death penalty through the realignment of old laws to the new
Constitution.
Apart from cases of premeditated murder or murder in aggravated circumstances,
the death penalty can be imposed for treason and for the crimes of insurgency,
banditry, sabotage or terrorism as well as for attempted murder or incitement
or conspiracy to commit murder.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and former Movement for Democratic Change
secretary general, Tendai Biti, have in the past been charged with treason, a
serious crime that carries the death penalty.
Tsvangirai's neck was only saved by veteran South African lawyer, George Bizos,
the same legal mind that saved Nelson Mandela and his co-accused from the
hangman in the historical Rivonia Trial of 1963/4.
Biti's case, which he insisted was part of the "persecution by prosecution"
strategy employed by ZANU-PF, fizzled out after his party became part of the
2009-2013 coalition government.
(source: Financial Gazette)
INDIA:
Anuhya case prosecutor argues for death to convict
The public prosecutor who is arguing for the State in the Esther Anuhya rape
and murder case has said he is hoping to convince the court that the case meets
the 'rarest of rare' criterion laid down by the Supreme Court and that the
convicted rapist Chandrakant Sudam Sanap deserves to be given the death
penalty.
Special judge Vrushali Joshi of the Women Court in Mumbai, who held the man
guilty of raping and killing Machilipatnam native Esther Anuhya, on Wednesday
put off her pronouncement of the sentence to October 30. Software engineer
Anuhya, a TCS employee, was abducted, assaulted and murdered by Sanap in
January 2014. He had tricked her into hiring his motorcycle as a taxi after she
got down at a railway station and needed to go to her hostel in South Mumbai.
Speaking to The Hindu on the telephone after Wednesday's proceedings in court,
special public prosecutor Raja Thakare said, "I have argued for the death
penalty as this case meets the criterion of rarest of the rare as per
guidelines given by the apex court guidelines in 2013."
Sanap has been convicted under Section 376 (A) of the Indian Penal Code, Mr.
Thakare said. "Several recent judgements will serve as precedents for the
severest sentence in the Anuhya case."
Anuhya's father, S. Jonathan Prasad said the punishment should be such that it
deters anyone from committing heinous acts such as rape. The family is being
represented by Prof. Prasad's brother Arun Kumar at the hearings in Mumbai.
Prof. Prasad says he has been unable to bring himself to go to the court
himself. "The sorrow of losing my daughter and memories of the tragic incident
will haunt me forever. I have been trying to avoid the thoughts of the dreadful
incident since the day I saw her half-burnt body," he said.
The retired professor has seen Sanap in the flesh. It was when the accused was
produced before him during the investigation.
Prof Prasad said he was too benumbed by the loss of his daughter to even summon
up anger at Sanap. "I was speechless to see the person who killed my daughter,"
he said on Wednesday. Asked how he has coped since the murder, Prof Prasad
said, "I visit the places she loved in Machilipatnam and sing the songs she
loved to sing in our Noble Church. I see her in those songs."
(source: The Hindu)
******************
4 get death in 11-year-old triple murder case
A special court in Ghaziabad on Wednesday sentenced 4 men to death for the
gruesome murder of a woman, her son and another person in Shalimar Garden in
2004. The 4 were convicted in the case on October 20.
Terming it as a rarest of the rare case, special judge Arun Chander Shrivastav
pronounced death penalty for the 4 men - Vinod, Dwarka, Pawan and Chanderdev -
convicted under Section 302 (murder) and Section 201 (destruction of evidence)
of the IPC in the case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on all of
them.
"Apart from awarding the death penalty, the court has also sentenced the 4 men
to 5 years in jail, along with a fine of Rs 10000 each, for destruction of
evidence, as they had hid the bodies of the victims after killing them," Rajiv
Singh, public prosecutor, told TOI.
The case dates back to January 11, 2004, when headless bodies of 3 persons were
found in a garbage bin in Shalimar Garden. Their severed heads were later
discovered by police nearby.
The victims were identified as Kaila Devi, her son Hari and another person,
Keshav. The police arrested Vinod, Dwarka, Pawan and Chanderdev in connection
with the murders.
Investigation revealed that the trio was murdered over a flat in Shalimar
Garden area, which was in the possession of Kaila Devi and her son. On January
10, 2004, the 4 accused went to the flat on the pretext of talking and then
killed them. They then severed the heads of their victims and dumped the bodies
in a garbage bin in Shalimar Garden and their heads a little distance away, in
the middle of the night.
Kaila Devi and Hari ran a roadside eatery in Shalimar Garden and hailed from
Girdih district of Jharkhand. Pawan and Vinod are brothers and also came from
Jharkhand. Both the families were on friendly terms. But problem started
between them over a 'Janta Flat' where Kaila Devi lived with her son, on which
Pawan and Vinod laid claim.
But Kaila was not ready to vacate the flat and so Pawan and Vinod conspired to
eliminate them. On January 10, 2004 Pawan and Vinod with the help of 2 of their
friends, Dwarka and Chanderdev, killed them. The 3rd victim was killed as he
was present in the flat at the time of the murder of the mother-son duo.
**********
Sendhwa bus burning: Plea to commute death rejected
Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh high court on Wednesday rejected a plea to
commute death penalties awarded by a Barwani court to 3 persons for setting on
fire a bus in Sendhwa district of Madhya Pradesh that killed over 15 passengers
over a petty dispute in 2011.
Bench, comprising Justice P K Jaiswal and J K Jain, however, acquitted bus
owner, Naresh Doshi, who was earlier awarded life imprisonment and a fine of Rs
62 lakh.
The horrifying incident took place on August 22, 2011, when the driver, Tarun
Sharma, picked up an argument with driver of another bus over carrying
passengers. When the bus owned by Sai Kripa Travels left with passengers whom
Sharma claimed were his, he along with the conductor Dilip Soni, and cleaner,
Rajkumar Kushwaha, followed the bus, stopped it, and poured gasoline over it
before setting it on fire. The Sai Kripa bus was full with passengers and many
didn't get an opportunity to escape as fire spread fast.
While 20 passengers managed to get out of the bus with severe burns and other
injuries after smashing the windows and jumping out, 15 were charred to death,
some of them beyond recognition.
After hearing 58 witnesses, a Barwani court, on September 13, 2013, had found
Tarun, Dilip and Rajkumar guilty under sections 435 (burning), 307 (attempt to
murder), 302 (murder) and 120 (conspiracy) of IPC and awarded them death
penalty while bus-owner Naresh was pronounced guilty under sections 302 and
120.
Accused had moved the high court against the lower court order with a plea to
commute their sentences. Naresh had also got bail from Supreme Court.
The division bench heard the final arguments on October 5 and had reserved its
order.
HC found that direct involvement of Naresh in setting afire the bus was not
established and thus acquitted him.
Public prosecutor Deepak Rawal told TOI court found crime committed by driver,
conductor and cleaner fell in the rarest of rare category and upheld the lower
court's award of death sentence.
(source for both: The Times of India)
SINGAPORE:
Belgian charged with son's murder to be assessed by psychiatrists
41-year-old Philippe Graffart, the Belgian citizen charged with murdering his
son (5 years old) at their Singapore home, will stay in police custody for 4
more weeks so he can be assessed by psychiatrists, reports the local press.
Philippe Graffart was found wandering in the vicinity of the police station
near his home in the early hours of the morning at the beginning of October. He
had physically harmed himself. The police found the body of his son Keryan in
his flat an hour later. The boy was showing signs of strangulation.
Graffart was charged with murder and remanded in custody on October 7th. He and
his former wife had been fighting over custody of their son. Philippe Graffart
will appear before the court on November 25th and faces the death penalty if he
is found guilty.
(source: Brussels Times)
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