March 28
INDONESIA:
MP calls for immediate execution of drug convicts on death row
A lawmaker has called for immediate execution of drug convicts on death row to
help combat the spread of illicit drug trafficking.
"We ask the Indonesian president to implement the decision on the execution of
drug convicts on death row soon to stop drug trafficking in this country," MH
Said Abdullah of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) faction at
the House of Representatives (DPR) said here on Sunday.
Abdullah was responding to pressure from ulemas in Madura island who are
grouped in the forum of ulemas from Islamic boarding schools in Madura island.
He believed that jailed drug dealers have masterminded part of illicit drug
trafficking in the country from behind bars.
If the drug offenders are not executed immediately, illicit drug trafficking
will fearfully spread due to the fact that part of the illicit drug trafficking
is controlled from behind bars, he said.
"Indonesia is a sovereign state and that it does not need to listen to pressure
from other countries with regard to the delayed execution of drug convicts on
death row," he said.
He said the ulemas' call for immediate execution of drug convicts on death row
is realistic idea.
"Politically, we, the legislative body, will convey it to the Indonesian
president," he said.
Many drug convicts on death row are waiting for their execution.
The National Narcotic Agency (BNN) said recently 55 drug convicts had been
sentenced to death, 14 of whom were now awaiting their execution.
Last year Indonesia put to death 14 drug convicts, including 2 Australians, who
were part of the so-called Bali Nine group, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has declared that the nation is in a state of
emergency over drugs.
(source: republika.co.id)
IRAQ:
Indian Catholic Priest Crucified by Islamic State on Good Friday
In a gruesome act of violence, the Islamic State crucified a Catholic priest
according to a report in a foreign leading daily
According to reports an Indian Salesian priest Reverent Thomas Uzhunnalil was
abducted in Yemen when a nursing home was raided in March.
The execution of the priest is said to have been carried out by the Islamist
sect in the same treatment the Romans carried out on Jesus, to mark Good
Friday.
Rev. Thomas Uzhunnalil initiated diplomatic efforts since the killing of 16
Christian nuns and nurses by gunmen on March 4. The gunmen had entered the
nursing home after killing the Yemeni guard and fired at 15 other employees
before abducting Uzhunnalil to an undisclosed place.
Bishop Paul Hinder, the head of Catholic Church in Yemen stated that the
missionary home was subjected to innumerable threats in the past, but they
refused to vacate.
The slained nuns were already honored as martyrs by Pope Francis.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday stated that the government
was taking desperate steps to rescue the priest.
(source: newindianexpress.com)
TAIWAN:
Murder of 4-year-old girl stirs death penalty debate
The brutal beheading of a 4-year-old girl in an apparent random attack in
Taipei on Monday has renewed debate over the death penalty, which is still
carried out in Taiwan, with advocates asking opponents if they still favored
abolishing it.
A 33-year-old man has been detained in connection with the gruesome killing of
the girl as she and her mother were on their way to a subway station in Neihu
District in northern Taipei late Monday morning.
The suspect grabbed the child from behind and decapitated her with a cleaver.
The girl died on the spot, according to police.
The tragedy sparked a heated debate in the Internet community, with Lin
Hsin-yi, the executive director of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death
Penalty, saying that she was "very, very, very sad" about the tragedy on a
Facebook post.
She wrote that she really wanted to find a solution on how to stop such
incidents.
Some netizens argued, however, that people found guilty of "felony murder"
should be directly executed and others said those found guilty of killing
others should pay for what they have done.
Kuomintang Legislator Wang Yu-min said the attack was simply unacceptable, and
she called for public support for her proposal that would stipulate automatic
death penalties, or life sentences under specific circumstances, for people who
murder children under the age of 12.
Asked whether the incident would affect his support for abolishing the death
penalty, New Power Party Legislator Freddy Lim said he has pushed for reforms
of the country's penal system, which includes protecting the rights of children
and the families of victims.
Lin, who has served as the head of Amnesty International's Taiwan branch, said
it was time for Taiwan to make improvements in these areas to avoid the
repetition of similar incidents in the future.
The newly elected chairwoman of the KMT, Hung Hsiu-chu, questioned those
opposed to capital punishment, asking "Are you still in favor of abolishing the
death penalty?" while expressing her support for the bill proposed by Wang.
President-elect Tsai Ing-wen expressed her sadness over the brutal killing
through Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Wang Min-sheng.
Tsai said the country should stem these types of tragic crimes by strengthening
education, improving the economy and mental health for individuals and striving
to maintain social order, according to Wang.
Monday's incident was the 3rd case of a random child murder in Taiwan in the
last 5 years.
In December 2012, a 29-year-old unemployed man named Tseng Wen-chin murdered a
10-year-old boy in Tainan and allegedly said he killed him because he wanted to
be imprisoned. Tseng was given a life sentence by the Tainan District Court the
next year.
Tseng also reportedly suggested that he would not receive a death sentence
because he only killed 1 person, a comment that drew a public outcry and
sparked a debate over the death penalty at that time.
In June 2015, an 8-year-old girl died of multiple organ failure after she had
her throat slit by 29-year-old Kung Chung-an, who claimed to be looking for a
random target at her school in Beitou District in Taipei.
The killer said he murdered the girl because prisoners get better food than he
was getting in his daily life. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and the
case also reinforced support for the death penalty and led people to question
those who oppose it.
(source: CNA)
********************
Legislator pushes for harsher death penalty law
Former head of the Child Welfare League and Kuomintang (KMT) legislator Wang
Yu-min on Monday, March 28 called for a revision of Criminal Law, to sentence
murderers of children younger than 12 either to death or to life imprisonment.
Wang's statement came following public outrage over the death of a 4-year-old
girl, who was decapitated by a man in Taipei earlier on Monday.
Similar cases in the past have often resulted in disagreement from people
regarding the use of the death penalty, but any passing of laws should take
public opinion into account, said Wang.
"This is too unfair for the child. There is no way anybody who cares about
children could accept anything like this," said Wang. "I hope the Legislature
can soon add this to the review agenda."
New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Freddy Lim, who previously advocated against
capital punishment, said to local media that he felt great sadness and anger
about the murder, but also that a nation's criminal system must be assessed
with care.
Society is now overwhelmed with rage and grief, so it will be better to discuss
the issue at a later time, emphasized Lim.
Also, the Child Welfare League urged the government to force mental illness
patients that refuse to seek treatment to receive medical help, in order to
prevent "ticking time bombs from existing in communities."
Not Mental Illness, but Drug Use: MOHW
The man suspected of decapitating a 4-year-old girl appeared to be on drugs,
murdering the child due to hallucination from Amphetamine intake, said the
Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), after preliminary investigations.
People with mental illness rarely commit acts of violence, stressed the
ministry.
Head of the division of Mental and Oral Health Shen Lih-jong said to the
Central News Agency that he had just reached out to the Taipei City Hospital's
Songde Branch to get more information about the suspect.
The suspect was once detained for using Amphetamine in 2014, said Shen.
However, Shen said the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), is
required to protect personal privacy, so specifics about the suspect's drug use
cannot be released to the public.
In the past, mental illness patients would be forced to stay in hospitals with
diagnosis from two physicians, said the official.
The Legislature passed the Mental Health Act in 1990, which stipulates that
patients may only be forced into treatment after a commission reviews the case
or when patients are believed to be likely to hurt themselves or others, said
Shen.
Last year, of the 747 applications for treatment by force, only 634 were
approved.
(source: China Post)
***********************
Bill on death penalty for child killers to be discussed Thursday
The horrifying beheading of a young girl in Taipei has prompted lawmakers to
quickly consider a Criminal Code amendment that would require random killers of
children to be sentenced to death.
The bill was proposed by indignant legislators echoing public anger at a
33-year-old suspect who brutally murdered a 4-year-old girl by decapitating her
in broad daylight in Neihu.
Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Lin Wei-chou, one of the conveners of the
Legislature's Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, said some
committee members wanted to put off the bill's review until people had time to
calm down.
But the committee concluded that the issue in fact warranted a thorough debate,
so he decided to put the amendment on the committee's agenda on March 31.
KMT Legislator Wang Yu-min said the attack was simply unacceptable, and she and
other KMT lawmakers like Hsu Chih-jung called for public support for their
proposal that would stipulate automatic death penalties, or life sentences
under specific circumstances, for people who murder children under the age of
12.
The lawmakers said the inhuman murder of a child was no different from killing
one's own parents and represented an act that they said deserved capital
punishment.
Lin said officials from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health and
Welfare, the Ministry of the Interior and the Judicial Yuan will be invited to
present their views on the subject at the committee meeting on March 31.
The death penalty is legal in Taiwan, and polls indicate it still has
widespread support, though calls for abolishing capital punishment have grown
louder.
Monday's tragedy prompted a civic group to call for 10,000 people to take to
the streets on April 9 to demand that the government abide by the law and hand
down a death sentence to anyone who deserves one.
"Execute those who should be executed," said a Facebook post by the White Rose
Social Concerns Association, which called for death sentences for mass drug
dealers and random killers, whom they said should not be seen in the same light
as the mentally challenged.
"When safety is not provided, what is the government for? When the government
does not abide by the law, what do the people expect from the law?" it
contended.
(source: focustaiwan.tw)
IRELAND:
The man who lived: How one convicted murderer escaped Ireland's death
penalty----Patrick Aylward, 63, was accused of burning a young child to death.
IRISH REPUBLICANISM HAS a bitter history with the death penalty. Padraig
Pearse, Robert Emmet and Kevin Barry are among our patriot dead, executed by
the British government.
It is not surprising then the original draft of the constitution contained no
reference to capital punishment.
The bloody and divisive Civil War soon changed minds, however. The last-minute
decision to reinstate the ultimate deterrent would cost 29 ordinary Irish
citizens their lives after they were convicted of murder.
Dozens more would have the penalty imposed on them only to receive last-minute
commutations.
Patrick Aylward was one such individual.
In an increasingly urbanised society, it can be difficult for the modern Irish
person to comprehend the vicious feuds between rural farming families.
Sadly, in the Ireland of 1922 these fights were all too common.
The story of the walking dead
Patrick Aylward was 63 years old and a farmer from Mullinavat, south Kilkenny.
He had returned to Ireland in 1921 after 39 years in Connecticut in order to
nurse his elderly brother on their 25-acre holding.
50 yards away lived the Holden family which included Patrick, Mary and their 8
children. Relations between the 2 households had soured shortly after Patrick's
return.
He complained about the alleged trespassing on his land by animals belonging to
the Holden family, even setting his dog on a goat belonging to Mrs. Holden.
On another occasion, a missing fowl belonging to the Holdens was found dead in
Aylward's shed.
Mary described her neighbour as a violent and unpredictable man who had twice
struck her with a stick. Aylward disagreed, asserting that she was the
aggressor and had attacked him several times.
Her children also constantly annoyed his animals and used his well as a toilet,
he claimed.
What started out as a minor disagreement was about to take a far more sinister
turn.
That fateful day
On Saturday 21 April 1923, Patrick Holden was out working while his wife was
minding the children. At 5pm, Mary put her 18-month-old son William to bed and
departed the house to buy an outfit for another son's confirmation.
Despite the lawless nature of the times, Mary saw fit to place 8-year-old
Patrick in charge of the house in her absence. She told him to lock the door
and stay inside.
His younger sister Mary and brother Michael were also present. William, the 2nd
youngest of the Holden family, suffered from rickets and was not able to crawl
or walk but was sleeping peacefully when his mother left.
Some minutes afterwards, Patrick Aylward allegedly knocked at the Holden's
front door. The children reluctantly opened the door and Aylward burst in
shouting that he "would put an end to the trespassing".
Aylward lifted William, who was still sleeping, and walked over to the fire.
He then proceeded to hold the infant down over the burning grate.
Patrick Holden endeavoured to intervene but was powerless against the older
man's strength. Aylward stayed watching the crying infant as he burned on the
fire, all the while using a stick to hold off the other children.
Just as William's clothes caught fire, Aylward said "Don't let them goats into
my haggard anymore" before striding out the door.
The children quickly removed their infant brother from the fire and put him in
a bucket of water to quench the flames. The severely-burned baby was then put
back into his bed and the door was locked.
Horrific death
Patrick Holden Snr. arrived home within the next few minutes to be met with
several hysterical children and a baby suffering from life-threatening burns.
There were no gardai in the area at that turbulent point in Irish history, so
Holden instead sent for a doctor from Waterford. He duly arrived and found the
baby in a state of collapse. William was charred black all over his body and
died from toxaemia 24 hours later.
The coroner's inquest took place just days after the death. Aylward appeared
and denied having any knowledge of the burning.
The coroner referred the case to the gardai nonetheless but also had harsh
words for the bereaved Holdens, telling them that he did not know whether to
sympathise with them because they had abandoned their young children at home.
Aylward was arrested on 8 May. He replied: "I did not do it."
Trial
The murder trial began on the 26 November 1923. The prosecutor stated that the
prisoner was "charged with a crime which, if proved against him, was as
terrible and hideous a crime as anyone described as a human being could
commit".
Aylward maintained a cool demeanour throughout despite the gravity of the
charges against him. He pleaded not guilty.
Dr. Matthew Coghlan appeared on the stand and told the court that the injuries
to William Holden could not have occurred accidentally. When asked about the
defendant, he described him as a "degenerate" who lived in squalor, referring
to the Aylward homestead as a "manure heap and cesspool".
He did insist that Aylward was sane and capable of distinguishing right from
wrong, however.
Child's testimony
Patrick Holden also took the stand and was described as an intelligent witness,
despite never attending school and being unable to write his name.
He described letting Aylward in and witnessing his neighbour grabbing William
and putting him across the fire. Patrick attempted to aid his brother but was
unable to do so.
Michael Holden also recounted Aylward raising a stick at them and telling them
as he left the house, "Don't tell your mother or I'll kill you."
Patrick Aylward admitted that he had poor relations with his neighbours but
insisted that he had not been in their house for 5 months before the incident
when he had complained to Mrs. Holden about her children chasing his sow and
swimming in his spring well.
Her response was to hit him with a scrubbing brush. He retaliated by giving her
a whack with his walking stick.
He denied harming the children however, pleading:
Don't you think I have a soul to save as well as everyone else, or what do you
think I am?
Aylward insisted that the Holdens had told their children to lie about him. 2
witnesses, Aylward's brother and a friend, also vouched that the prisoner had
been tending a sick cow all day and had not visited his neighbours.
Quick verdict
The trial took just 1 day and despite the contentious and contradictory
evidence, the all-male jury needed just 10 minutes deliberation before passing
a guilty verdict, with a recommendation to mercy.
The judge announced his agreement and sentenced the prisoner to death.
Aylward responded:
I am not guilty at all. I have not been in that house for 5 months. May God
forgive the woman who put the lie on me and God forgive the jury.
His pleas fell on deaf ears and his execution was set for the 27 December,
putting him among 5 convicted murderers to be sentenced to death in that month.
Getting off
3 of the men would indeed be hanged. Aylward, however, was fortunate to receive
petitions from numerous luminaries, including the Bishop of Ossory. His Grace
petitioned government minister Kevin O'Higgins, questioning the guilt of the
elderly man.
He mentioned the Holden family's "bad moral character," and alluded to a
previous incident when another Holden child had burned to death in suspicious
circumstances in 1910.
It was announced just hours before the execution that Aylward's death sentence
was to be commuted to one of penal servitude for life. The minister was not
obligated to give a reason for this sudden commutation but a reasonable doubt
was surely present.
The government may also have been reluctant to execute a man solely on the
evidence of children. Patrick Aylward served 10 years in prison before being
released in 1932.
He died 3 years later, still maintaining that he had taken no part in the
burning of William Holden.
The death penalty remained in the Irish Constitution until 1990 and 28 men and
1 woman would meet their death at the end of an Irish rope.
Harry Gleeson was hanged for murder in 1941 for a murder he did not commit. Did
Patrick Aylward come within hours of suffering a similar injustice 20 years
before him?
The truth may never be known.
(source: Colm Wallace has written a book Sentenced to Death: Saved from the
Gallows about 30 Irish men and women who had the death penalty imposed on them
between 1922 and 1985. It is being launched on 17 June and is available for
pre-order on Amazon.com----The Journal)
MALTA:
The boy who killed a girl... and other women's murders
Kim Dalli takes another look at a new book about the murder of Maltese women
and highlights more of these heinous crimes from history: a teenager shot dead
by a child, a prostitute who had her throat slit and a rape victim strangled
and thrown down a well.
It was 1867 and Mosta dome had just been built. 16-year-old Vittorja Vella was
playing beads with another girl her age in the streets of the town when an
argument erupted over the game.
The incident was witnessed by Guzeppi Sammut, 13, the brother of Vittorja's
playmate.
On seeing his sister being beaten up, Guzeppi ran as fast as he could to his
father's farm, grabbed a shotgun and returned to shoot Vittorja.
The girl is the youngest victim in crime historian Eddie Attard's newly
published book, Il-Femicidju: Qtil ta' Nisa f'Malta (from BDL), which documents
all the femicides of the last 2 centuries.
Despite the boy himself being even younger, he underwent a trial by jury, was
found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison with hard labour.
35 years earlier, Malta witnessed the 1st killing of a prostitute that century:
Grazzja Grech, known as Zol-in-Zol, was found dead in her Senglea home in April
1832.
Prostitution was not illegal at the time, although over the years certain
restrictions had been introduced dictating where prostitutes could live. They
were forbidden from occupying the ground floor but allowed to live in
maisonettes on the first floor.
Grazzja's absence had aroused the suspicions of her neighbours. After their
knocks at her door went unanswered, one of them peeked through a window to see
her lying on the floor in a pool of blood that oozed from her slit throat.
Grazzja was known to host a number of men at her home and many hailed from
localities outside Senglea. Among these men, there were 2 youths in particular
who were often seen in her company.
The night before the victim was found dead, the pair had been spotted buying
bread, cheese and a bottle of rum from a Senglea shop.
Their appearance was described to the police, who identified the 2 as
18-year-old Giovanni Fedele from Sliema and 21-year-old Pawlu Laus from
Valletta.
Both goldsmiths, they had known the victim for a while. Grazzja was rumoured to
have declared the 2 as her favourite clients, and they had even presented her
with a gold ring they had forged themselves.
On the day of the crime, Giovanni and Pawlu, armed with a penknife, paid a
visit to Grazzja. As Pawlu held her down, Giovanni slit her throat.
A month later they were sentenced to death in a trial by jury. Despite a plea
by governor Sir Patrick Ponsomby to mitigate the sentence, they were hanged.
Giovanni was the youngest man in Malta to receive the death penalty.
Yet the tragedy continued to unfold.
Giovanni's mother, who knew of her son's waywardness, had often warned him that
he would one day end up on the gallows. Pawlu's father, who kept hoping until
the end that the sentence would be changed, committed suicide.
The final victim in this case appears to have been the fishmonger, who received
a savage beating and later died of his injuries.
Another murder involving sex was that of 18-year-old Duminka Galea, dubbed
Malta's Maria Goretti, after the 11-year-old saint who was stabbed to death
after resisting rape.
Duminka was working in her father's fields in Naxxar in 1869, together with her
siblings.
As her brothers and sisters were about to leave, she asked them for a sip of
water, but their jug was empty.
They suggested she draw some water from the well in the nearby fields belonging
to the Schembri family.
That evening, Duminka failed to turn up for dinner. Her frantic family visited
the Schembri farm and asked after her but to no avail. Cikku Schembri, 24,
denied having set eyes on her.
The next day, one of the victim's siblings suggested searching the well,
fearing his sister might have fallen in. There they ran into Cikku again, who
seemed very evasive and would not answer their questions.
The family filed a police report and a search of the Schembri farm yielded
clothes smeared with blood.
Duminka's body was found in a well. An autopsy revealed that she had been raped
and then strangled.
Although most of the evidence was circumstantial, Cikku was found guilty by a
count of 6-3. As a result he could not be handed the death penalty and was
sentenced to life imprisonment.
(source: timesofmalta.com)
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