March 24
SOUTH AFRICA:
South Africa exhumes political prisoners hanged during apartheid
South Africa on Wednesday commenced the exhumation of 83 political prisoners
hanged at Pretoria Central Prison during the apartheid era, Justice Minister,
Michael Masutha, said.
The minister said the remains would be identified and returned to their
families.
Report says some 130 political prisoners were hanged on the gallows of the
correctional centre between 1960 and 1990.
The remains of 47 of mainly members of the Pan Africanist Congress and United
Democratic Front anti-apartheid organisations had been exhumed, while 83 of
them remain buried in unmarked graves.
The apartheid government was widely criticised for its mass executions of
anti-apartheid activists, most of them black South Africans.
The last execution carried out at the prison was of Solomon Ngobeni in November
1989, who was convicted of robbing a taxi driver.
The last woman executed was Sandra Smith, convicted for murder in June of the
same year.
In February 1990, President Frederik Willem de Klerk declared a moratorium on
executions in the country, while the death penalty was abolished in 1995.
However, many South Africans called for the death penalty to be reinstated
after a surge in violent crimes and murders in the country.
A survey conducted in 2015 by the South African research group Pondering Panda
found that over 3/4 of young South Africans wanted the death penalty back.
(source: Premium Times)
SOMALIA:
Killers of female Somali journalist sentenced to death
2 Al Shabaab members who have been convicted of murdering a female Somali
journalist have been sentenced to death by the military tribunal of Somalia
last Sunday.
Liban Ali Yarow, the chief of Somali military court said evidence brought in
support of the case showed that they had execution role of Hinda Hajji Mohamed,
female journalist killed in car bomb on December 3, 2015.
Hinda who worked for the state media has been killed in a bomb attached under
the seat of her private car which exploded out Turkish embassy building in
Mogadishu's KM4 area.
Abdirisack Mohamed Barrow, 28, and Hassan Nur Ali Farah, 37, were sentenced to
death penalty, after the court has found them guilty of all charges against
them, according to Judge Yarow who announced the verdict.
4 other co-conspirators have been sentenced to jail terms, 2 of them life in
imprisonment by the Somali military tribunal for their role of the journalist
murdering.
Early this month, the court has sentenced Hassan Hanafi, Al Shabaab journalist
to death for planning the deaths of 5 media workers who were killed in
Mogadishu between 2007 and 2011. Mandera quarry terror attack that left 14
dead.
On July 7, 2015, workers at the quarry were killed by fighters of the al
Qaeda-linked terror group as they slept. Dubow is "armed and dangerous", read a
poster the National Police Service circulated on social media on Friday. He is
believed to have returned to Kenya from Somalia.
On February 26, Kenyan security agencies placed a Sh8 million bounty on 4
terror suspects believed to have been behind attacks on a bus and a quarry in
Mandera.
Abdullahi Issak, Idriss Issack, Ahmed Uweys and Mohamed Shide allegedly planned
the November 2014 ambush on Makkah Bus that left 28 dead. They have also been
linked to the December 2014 killing of 36 quarry workers in the county.
Mandera county ordered all quarries closed immediately to save workers from
terror attacks. More than 3,000 people, mostly non-residents, rely on the mines
for upkeep.
Quarry workers started leaving Mandera town after the order.
(source: ippmedia.com)
BANGLADESH:
HRW wants new trial for Mir Quasem
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Bangladesh authorities to set aside the
death penalty against Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali and order a new trial that
it says would meet international fair trial standards.
"Convictions can only be upheld when there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt,
yet in this case there are grave doubts about the evidence after the court so
strongly criticised the prosecution," Brad Adams, Asia director at the HRW,
said in a press release yesterday.
In death penalty cases, the authorities must adhere to the highest standards.
"Human Rights Watch has long supported justice and accountability for the
horrific crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 war. But this must be done
through trials which meet international standards, particularly since the death
penalty is at stake," he said.
"Bangladesh owes the victims of 1971 a fair and proper accountability process."
Mir Quasem Ali was convicted and sentenced to death in November 2014, by the
International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on charges of abduction, torture, and
confinement as crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971, said
the release.
On March 8 this year, the Appellate Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court
set aside three of the abduction and torture convictions. However, it upheld
the conviction and death penalty sentence against Mir Quasem for the murder of
Jashim Uddin during the war, it added.
The HRW reiterated its call for Bangladesh to impose an immediate moratorium on
the death penalty and join the growing number of states that have abolished the
use of capital punishment.
(source: The Daily Star)
**************
Bangladesh SC Confirms Islamist's Death Sentence
Bangladesh Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty of a top Islamist
militant for carrying out a bomb attack in 2005 that had left 8 secular
activists dead, authorities said today.
"The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday confirmed the death
penalty of JMB (Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh) operative Asaduzzaman
Chowdhury, upholding the trial court and the subsequent High Court judgments,"
a spokesman of the attorney general's office told PTI.
8 people had died and 40 others injured in the 2005 attack on the offices of 2
secular groups that organised cultural events.
JMB was banned after a series of bombings across the country in 2005.
A special Dhaka court in 2008 had handed down Chowdhury and 2 other fellow JMB
members the death penalty. His other 2 accomplices were tried in absentia and
are still on the run.
JMB's founder Shaikh Abdur Rahman and 5 of his key associates were hanged in
March 2007 and hundreds of JMB men were hunted down as Bangladesh launched a
massive anti- militancy campaign.
(source: outlookindia.com)
MALAYSIA:
Bar urges hold on executions pending death penalty review
The Malaysian Bar has urged the government to declare a moratorium on any
executions, in light of an impending review of the mandatory death penalty.
Its president Steven Thiru said that all death sentences should be stayed
pending the results of the review.
"It is unfair and unjust to carry out the death sentence when there is
currently a possibility of reform which, if put into effect, should apply
retrospectively," he said in a statement on Thursday in response to reports
that convicts P. Gunasegar, J. Ramesh and J. Sasivarnam would be executed as
early as Friday.
Since 2010, the Malaysian Government has announced its willingness to review
the mandatory death penalty, with a view to its possible abolition or the
reintroduction of a discretionary death penalty especially for drug-related
offences.
Steven however said that the death penalty should be abolished as it has no
place in a society that values human life, justice and mercy.
The 3 are on death row for the murder of B. Venukumar, then 24, on April 4,
2005.
In court documents sighted by The Star, Gunasegar was charged, together with J.
Ramesh and J. Sasivarnam, with murdering Venukumar at a playground in Taman Ria
Raya, Sungai Petani, Kedah.
Though the trio claimed during the trial that they had been attacked by a
group, which included Venukumar and only defended themselves, the High Court
found them guilty in 2011.
The decision was later affirmed by the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.
(source: The Star)
RUSSIA:
'Capital crime!' Nationalist lawmaker seeks return of death penalty for
terrorists
MP Nikolay Nosov, representing populist nationalist party LDPR, promises to
draft a bill that, if passed, will reinstate the death penalty in Russia, but
only for terrorists and foreign citizens convicted of drug trafficking.
"I am currently drafting a law that would introduce the death penalty for
terrorists. I think we should use methods employed by the USSR and Israel - no
negotiations and only death for terrorists," the lawmaker has told RIA Novosti.
He added that in his view terrorism was an evil that could not be justified and
therefore the authorities should not use compromise in dealing with extremists.
"The world has turned into a minefield. The horrible events that have sent
tremors through Europe are a logical consequence of European policies. We
should stop flirting with terrorists, label them as opposition or fighters for
independence, everyone must stop using them for any political purposes," Nosov
noted.
However, he emphasized that capital punishment could be applied only when the
convict's guilt is completely proven and only for very few categories of
criminals - terrorists, recruiters of terrorists and foreign citizens
repeatedly convicted of drug trafficking.
The moratorium on capital punishment was introduced in 1996 in connection with
Russia's entry into the Council of Europe. The last execution in the Russian
Federation took place on September 2, 1996.
Since the moratorium came into force, Russian politicians and state officials
have repeatedly proposed reintroducing the death penalty for crimes like
terrorism, corruption, pedophilia and war crimes. The LDPR party has been among
those who urged to return capital punishment for corrupt officials who aid
terrorists.
The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, has also repeatedly urged the
authorities to introduce the death penalty for terrorism, arguing that keeping
convicted extremists in prisons is too expensive and also that there was a
threat that terrorists serving life sentences would recruit new supporters
inside prisons.
The poll conducted by the privately owned center Public Opinion Foundation in
mid-2015 showed that 60 % of Russian citizens would not object to the
reintroduction of the death penalty. This was down from the 2014 figure of 66
%, while the highest recorded figure was 80 % back in 2001.
However, the Human Rights Council, along with the Russian president, has
repeatedly unanimously rejected calls to reinstitute executions for terrorist
crimes, saying that the measure would be both inhumane and ineffective. In late
2015, the body's Chairman Mikhail Fedotov told reporters that in 2009, Russia's
Constitutional Court prolonged the moratorium on the death penalty, with
President Vladimir Putin voicing his strong support for the decision.
Members of the parliamentary majority United Russia party have also refused to
support the return of capital punishment.
"At the present moment the issue of introducing the death penalty, including
the death penalty for terrorism, is not being considered in Russia," Raphael
Mardanshin (United Russia) said in a televised interview in October.
The MP added that he agreed additional counter-terrorist measures were needed,
but the death penalty was not the best choice for this.
"For terrorists it is often an honor to die while carrying out an attack.
Therefore they can actually consider execution as a good thing," Mardashin
said.
(source: rt.com)
JAMAICA:
People, politicians and 'Pontius Pilatitis'
Today is Holy Thursday on the Christian calendar. Holy Thursday is commemorated
as the anniversary of the Lord's Supper, the washing of the feet, and as the
day before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday.
This year, Holy Thursday coincides with the 46th anniversary of former Prime
Minister P J Patterson's election to the House of Representatives in a
by-election in what was then Westmoreland South Eastern.
I recall my June 10 1999 column in the Jamaica Observer, headlined 'Patterson
playing Pontius Pilate'. Perhaps a fortnight before that column, 9 convicted
murderers had been hanged in Trinidad. Most Jamaicans were in favour of the
death penalty for convicted murderers; as may still be the case today. On that
occasion, P J Patterson, as prime minister, sent a letter of congratulation to
the Government of Trinidad with the statement that Jamaica was soon to follow.
That was the context in which the column was written nearly 17 years ago.
Jamaica was not "soon to follow", as written in Patterson's 1999 letter, since
Jamaica never resumed hanging - although it is still on the books. But this has
more to do with the signing of certain international conventions as well as
certain borrowing and trade agreements more than anything else.
Whether P J Patterson knew then that Jamaica would be so obliged later to avoid
carrying out the death penalty, or face the most inconvenient alternatives, I
cannot say. But the letter of congratulation to the Government of Trinidad was
politically expedient. The more the local anti-death penalty activists
criticised the letter, the more he would gain favour among the electorate.
Incidentally, Jesus Christ was also put to his death (in his case by
crucifixion) out of political expediency, which is important to bear in mind on
Holy Thursday. And this is why I call Patterson's 1999 letter to the Government
of Trinidad and Tobago a case of 'Pontius Pilatitis'. Indeed this is part of
the great political astuteness that Patterson has been known for - although he
had a few defeats, such as in 1980 when he lost his seat to long-time rival
Euphemia Williams.
Yes, I coined the term "Pontius Pilatitis". The synonym in my unpublished
thesaurus is the word 'dilemma'. And dilemma is defined by the Oxford
Dictionary as "a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between 2
or more alternatives, especially ones that are equally undesirable".
To quote my June 10, 1999 column, "But which politician in the circumstances
would resist the temptation to play Pontius Pilate? There are politicians in
both the PNP [People's National Party] and JLP [Jamaica Labour Party] who have
come out against the death penalty. But what would any of them do if they were
either prime minister or minister of national security?"
Pontius Pilate did not want Jesus Christ to be crucified. He 'passed the buck'
by sending him to King Herod. But the Jews had no death penalty, so Herod sent
him back to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. So Pilate tried to appease the
crowd by having Jesus lashed 39 times, but to no avail.
To further quote my June 10 1999 column: "But Pilate allowed the crucifixion,
notwithstanding the public washing of his hands because it was politically
correct. One of the alternatives Pilate faced was to crucify an innocent man
and keep his job. The other was to face the possibility of being arrested for
not keeping the peace and ordered back to Rome in chains to serve a term in
prison.
"Now, if Pilate would order the crucifixion of an innocent man who he had come
to believe was the Messiah, then what can we expect from politicians when
dealing with convicted murderers if the crowds are shouting for them to be
hanged?"
In a real way, we are all politicians. Who among us will risk his life as a
crowd mobs an innocent man accused of stealing? Today, I would have written,
"We all suffer from Pontius Pilatitis", but I had not yet coined the term.
In 1979, some 20 years before my June 10, 1999 column, the first conscience
vote on the death penalty took place in Parliament. Then prime minister,
Michael Manley, voted against; while his brother Douglas voted for the death
penalty.
Was then Opposition Leader Edward Seaga's absence due to a case of "Pontius
Pilatitis"? How could an Member of Parliament (MP) for a constituency not
unknown for crime vote in favour of the death penalty? How could such an MP
vote against it when most Jamaicans want the death penalty? What would we have
done were we in Seaga's position at the time?
In the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan, the Jews and the Samaritans
were not on speaking terms. Yet a Samaritan helped the supposedly Jewish man
who was badly beaten by robbers on the road Jericho. The Samaritan was
righteously correct, but politically incorrect.
When Norman Manley called a referendum to decide whether Jamaica should still
be a part of the West Indies Federation, and called a general election months
after, both of which he lost, he was morally correct, but politically
incorrect.
Still, expediency is not always a bad thing. I have been very expedient today
in 3 ways. First, I have used P J Patterson's 1999 letter to the Government of
Trinidad and Tobago to explain a part of the Good Friday story. Second, in so
doing I have rubbished the accusations that I write in favour of politicians on
1 side only. And 3rd, I have indirectly pointed out that "is long time me a
write fi dis newspaypa". Actually, my 1st column in the Jamaica Observer was
published on April 23 1998, nearly 18 years ago, and come July it will be 28
years in all as a newspaper columnist.
Have a Holy Easter!
(source: Michael Burke, Jamaica Observer)
MALDIVES:
Maldives prosecutors defend another high profile death sentence
Prosecutors defended Thursday the death sentence issued in a high profile
murder case.
Criminal Court sentenced Mohamed Nabeel, 22, a resident of Reef in Galolhu ward
of capital Male, to death on October 22, 2010 after he was found guilty of
stabbing to death 18-year-old Abdulla Farhad from Hulhudhoo ward of Addu city.
High Court had upheld the sentence.
The Supreme Court began final proceedings over Nabeel's death sentence on
Thursday where his lawyer's request for more time to respond to the charges was
granted.
In the hearing, the state prosecutor stressed that Nabeel had confessed to the
murder during the investigation, the trial and the appeal proceedings at the
High Court. All the evidence was obtained through legal channels, he added.
Regulations on death penalty that came into effect in 2014 require the
prosecution to exhaust the appeal process -- the High Court and Supreme Court
-- even if the convict wishes to not file for appeal.
There are around 10 people on death row at present, but none of whom has
exhausted the appeal process thus far. If Nabeel's sentence is upheld by the
apex court, he would be among the 1st of the inmates on death row to have
completed all the 2 stages of appeal.
Authorities had pledged to implement the death penalty after the exhaustion of
the appeal process.
Prosecutors had sought the Supreme Court's confirmation of 2 other death
sentences, including the sentence handed to Ahmed Murrath over the murder of
prominent lawyer Ahmed Najeeb and the sentence given to Hussain Humam over the
brutal murder of former Ungoofaru MP Dr Afrasheem Ali. The court had this week
begun the appeal proceedings in both the cases.
(source: haveeru.com)
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