Feb. 16
THAILAND:
Uighur suspects deny fatal Bangkok bombing charges
2 Uighur men accused of carrying out a bombing in the Thai capital that killed
20 people last year denied all charges at a military court Tuesday.
The Bangkok court charged Adem Karadag and Yusufu Mieraili with 10 counts of
criminal violation each, including terrorism and pre-meditated murder - both of
which carry the death penalty.
Both suspects maintained their innocence, with Karadag - also identified by
Thai police as Bilal Mohammed and as Bilal Turk - insisting that he had entered
Thailand after the Aug. 17 bombing, which also left 120 people injured.
His lawyer Choochart Khanphai told reporters outside the courthouse, "my client
since his arrest has never confessed to any charge."
Khanphai attempted to correct his previous statements in the immediate
aftermath of Karadag's arrest in September, which had accorded with those of
authorities, who said his client had confessed to the crimes.
"My previous statements were given at a time when I had no access to my
client," he said.
Police have said that both suspects have confessed to being paid by a
mastermind to build and plant the bomb at a religious shrine in central
Bangkok.
The lawyer also underlined Tuesday that he had petitioned the court on Jan. 15
on the ground that his client said he had been tortured by plainclothes men
while in military custody.
"My client was intimidated by these men, they were waterboarded, threatened
with large dogs and threatened with deportation to China."
Both Karadag and Mieraili have refused to provide their addresses in China's
northwestern Xinjiang region out of "fear of reprisal" from the government, who
the Muslim Turkic minority group accuses of curtailing their cultural and
religious rights.
The next court date is set for April 20.
Karadag has said through his lawyer that he is an ethnic-Uighur refugee from
Xinjiang Province, and claims to have been naturalized as a Turkish citizen.
While police have claimed the bombings were masterminded by human traffickers,
angry at Thai authorities for clamping down on their networks, Khanphai has
said that the bomb was connected to the controversial deportation of a Uighur
group held in Thai immigration centers to China.
Subsequent TV images of the Uighur sat on a plane blindfolded, handcuffed and
under surveillance of guards, provoked uproar among local and foreign rights
groups.
The deported Uighur were from a group of around 400 held over immigration
offenses in holding centers in Thailand at the beginning of 2014, many of whom
claim to have Turkish nationality.
In July, 85 men and 24 women from the group were deported to China, while
around 180 were sent to Turkey.
Many Turks welcome Uighur as their own, as they are among a number of Turkic
tribes that inhabit a region they call East Turkestan and consider to be part
of Central Asia, not China.
In the past year, allegations of torturing suspects to gain confessions have
been leveled at both Thai police and military.
2 Myanmar workers have claimed they were physically and mentally tortured until
they confessed to the murder of 2 British tourists on the island of Tao, while
Thai NGOs claimed in a report released earlier this month that the use of
torture by security forces to obtain confessions in the country's Muslim
majority south is "widespread and systematic".
(source: aa.com.tr)
BANGLADESH:
Retired judge quits defence
Retired High Court judge Nozrul Islam Chowdhury yesterday withdrew from the
defence of war criminal Mir Quasem Ali.
During the hearing on an appeal by Quasem challenging his death penalty,
Justice Nozrul informed the Appellate Division that he would no longer be part
of the proceedings.
Later, he told reporters on the Supreme Court Bar Association premises that he
had quit as Quasem's lawyer due to "serious adverse environment".
It is not unconstitutional and unethical for a retired HC judge to move cases
before the apex court, he said.
Nozrul retired on December 12 last year and began appearing in the Appellate
Division to move cases as a lawyer on January 3 this year.
He said he had been involved with 2 other cases, in which Attorney General
Mahbubey Alam was on the opposite side. The attorney general questioned the
legality and ethical grounds of his moving the case on behalf of Quasem but he
did not have anything to protest in those 2 cases.
"Such attitude is unexpected."
On February 10, the attorney general told the SC that the retired HC judge was
still living at a government residence and using a car and gunman provided by
the government.
Against this backdrop, Justice Nozrul would be going against ethics of judges
if he practised law in court, he added.
Talking to reporters at his office yesterday, Mahbubey Alam thanked Justice
Nozrul for his move. He added that there was no pressure from the government on
Nozrul to do so.
Meanwhile, SC lawyer Eunus Ali Akond filed a writ petition with the HC, seeking
orders forbidding retired HC judges to practise law.
In the petition, he prayed to the HC to scrap the constitutional provision that
permits retired HC judges to practise law in the Appellate Division.
Eunus told The Daily Star that the 15th amendment of the constitution was said
to have restored the original constitution of 1972.
The 1972 constitution did not allow retired HC judges to practise law in the
apex court, he said, adding that former president Ziaur Rahman had amended the
constitution in 1978 lifting the bar.
However, under section 33 of the 15th amendment, retired HC judges are
permitted to practise law, which is contradictory to the original constitution,
Eunus said.
2 retired HC judges -- Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Shahidul
Islam -- are practising law in the SC although they are enjoying the state
facilities and that goes against the 1972 constitution, he added.
Eunus said he would move the petition before the HC for hearing next week.
A 5-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra
Kumar Sinha yesterday held the hearing on the appeal of Quasem for the 3rd day.
The hearing will resume today.
The International Crimes Tribunal in November 2014 sentenced the
Jamaat-e-Islami leader to death, as he was found guilty of abducting, confining
and torturing people during the Liberation War.
Around 4 weeks later, Quasem filed the appeal with the SC, challenging the
verdict.
(source: The Daily Star)
SYRIA:
ISIS extremists publicly behead Syrian man for 'insulting the Caliphate'
Extremists of the Islamic State (ISIS) executed on Monday a man in the city of
Shaddadi in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province, after accusing him of
"insulting the Caliphate".
Saleh al-Rahim, 48, was publicly beheaded in central Shaddadi.
"ISIS claimed that al-Rahim has refused to pay taxes to the al-Hisba (taxation)
department, which the group considered a violation to its rules and an act of
insult to the ISIS self-declared Caliphate," rights activist Ahmed Hussaini
told ARA News in Shaddadi.
The man was arrested at an ISIS security checkpoint near the village of Sarb in
the vicinity of Shaddadi while trying to escape the ISIS-held area towards
Hasakah city.
The victim was brutally beheaded in front of hundreds of people in Shaddadi's
central square, after one of the militants read a statement accusing him of
insulting the Caliphate and deserving the death penalty, according to local
sources.
The city of Shaddadi is deemed the main bastion for ISIS jihadis in Hasakah
province - where the group has recently lost large territories to the
western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
(soruce: ARA news)
VIETNAM:
Vietnam inmate avoids death penalty by getting pregnant; four guards suspended
4 prison guards in northern Vietnam have been suspended for alleged negligence
after a female inmate, on death row for drug trafficking, became pregnant,
which means her death sentence will be commuted to life in prison once her
child is born, state media reported Tuesday.
The Thanh Nien newspaper said Nguyen Thi Hue, 42, was arrested in 2012 for drug
trafficking and sentenced to death in 2014. A court rejected her appeal the
same year.
The paper reported that while in prison Hue paid $2,300 to a male inmate to
help her get pregnant.
It said the 27 year-old male inmate twice put his sperm in a plastic bag with a
syringe in a mutually agreed place and Hue inseminated herself. She became
pregnant and is expected to give birth in about 2 months. Under Vietnamese law,
Hue will have her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment for having a
child under 3 years of age.
Police in Quang Ninh province were not available for comment Tuesday.
In 2007, 2 prison guards in northern province of Hoa Binh were sentenced for up
to 5 years in prison for abuse of power for allowing a female inmate to get
pregnant with a male inmate.
(source: firstpost.com)
KENYA:
Mombasa man to hang for raping and killing 5-year-old
A man yesterday was sentenced to death for defiling and strangling a 5-year-old
girl.
John Mwanzo, 42, defiled and killed the girl on December 30, 2012, at his home
in Kizingo, Mombasa county.
Judge Martin Muya sent Mwanzo to the hangman after he found the 42-year-old man
guilty of murder. He was convicted last Tuesday.
Muya said Mwanzo does not deserve mercy.
"The crime you committed deserves a death penalty," he said.
Mwanzo pleaded with the court to grant him a non-custodial sentence, saying he
has 4 children who solely depend on him.
He told the court he was remorseful.
Mwanzo also urged the court to consider that he has been in remand since 2013
when the case started.
(source: The Star)
CANADA:
Canada to fight for lives of citizens sentenced to death in all countries,
including the U.S.
It's not exactly a pardon from the governor, but the Liberal government says it
will automatically plead for the lives of Canadians sentenced to death in the
United States and any other country abroad.
Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion announced the change on Monday as he met
with the United Nations' top human rights official. The move effectively
reverses 1 of the previous Conservative government's earliest and most
contentious foreign policies.
Dion also revealed plans to travel to Geneva at the end of the month to address
the UN Human Rights Council, as Canada looks to re-engage with - and, some
hope, help reform - its troubled human rights system.
Successive Canadian governments had automatically sought clemency for Canadians
sentenced to death by a foreign court. But that came to an end in 2007, when
the Conservative government said it would begin asking for clemency on a
case-by-case basis.
The Conservatives said Canadians who commit crimes such as murder in a
democratic country that adheres to the rule of law should not count on the
government to help. Human rights groups and opposition parties said the
Conservatives were effectively condoning the death penalty, which Canada
abolished in 1976.
In an interview Monday, Dion accused the Conservatives of "sending the message
that Canada was not very sure we were against the death penalty, because we
were ready to accept the death penalty under some circumstances. We were
picking and choosing."
In order to be able to maximize the possibility that you will get clemency for
some, you need to ask for clemency for all.
. Aside from running contrary to domestic policy in Canada, Dion said the
Conservatives' position made it more difficult to successfully advocate for
clemency in those situations when the government decided to act.
"Our credibility to be able to get clemency was negatively affected," he said.
"In order to be able to maximize the possibility that you will get clemency for
some, you need to ask for clemency for all."
Dion was extremely critical of capital punishment during the interview. Aside
from the risk of innocent people being mistakenly sentenced to die, he said the
death penalty "is not something that should be done in a civilized society,
because a civilized society is looking for justice and not vengeance."
Some will interpret that as criticism of the U.S. But Dion defended his
comment, noting that "many Americans will agree with me." He added that the
majority of states don't execute inmates. While the death penalty is legal in
31 states, moratoriums are in place in 20.
Alex Neve, the head of Amnesty International Canada, applauded the government's
move, calling it a "renewal" of Canada's commitment to human rights abroad. He
said the 1st beneficiary should be Ronald Smith, an Alberta man on death row in
Montana whose case was directly affected by the Tories' policy.
Dion also announced that Canada will be redoubling its support for the UN's
controversial human rights system, as he hosted UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. It was the 1st such visit by the UN's top human
rights official since 2006.
The United Nations is not a perfect institution ... But in order to improve the
situation, Canada must be there.
Canada will contribute $15 million over 3 years to help UN Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, which Al Hussein heads, investigate and
report on human rights violations abroad. That is about double what Canada has
given each year since 2013.
Dion also said he plans to travel to Geneva at the end of the month to address
the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR), which has been steeped in controversy
since it was established in 2006.
Ostensibly the UN's leading organization for advancing human rights abroad, the
council came under fire in September after members elected Saudi Arabia as its
chair. The council has also spent a disproportionate amount of time and energy
condemning Israel, while ignoring human rights violations elsewhere.
"The United Nations is not a perfect institution," Dion acknowledged. "There
are shortcomings everywhere, including with this human rights institution. But
in order to improve the situation, Canada must be there. This idea that if it's
not what we want, we'll pull out, has been a mistake that we need to stop."
Shimon Fogel, head of the Centre for Jewish and Israel Affairs, said his
organization remains deeply concerned about the council's "skewed and
politicized character." He urged the government to adopt an "aggressive
initiative," with Canada leading efforts to reform the UN's entire human right
system.
"We would hope and expect that (Dion) would set out the necessary steps to
bring the UNHCR to a new, credible level of contributing to international peace
and universal respect for human rights," Fogel said, "thereby earning the
confidence of those who truly care about the protection of those rights."
(source: National Post)
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