April 2
SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi Arabia 'on course to double number of beheadings this year'
This would be more than double the 158 executions carried out by the Kingdom
last year.This would be more than double the 158 executions carried out by the
Kingdom last year.
Saudi Arabia has already executed 82 people this year and is on course to
behead twice as many prisoners as it did in 2015, according to new statistics
compiled by a leading human rights organisation likely to raise fresh concerns
about the UK's close ties to the Kingdom.
The British government has been urged to do more to put pressure on its Gulf
allies to halt the bloodshed in light of the figures, which would see the total
death toll in Saudi Arabia reach a record high of more than 320 by the end of
the year if the current rate is maintained.
This would be more than double the 158 executions carried out by the Kingdom
last year, which was in itself a dramatic rise on the 88 people it beheaded in
2014. The figures were compiled by the UK organisation Reprieve using a
combination of official statements from the Saudi government and reliable local
media reports.
Earlier this week, the defence secretary Michael Fallon paid a low-key visit to
Saudi Arabia to "help strengthen the UK-Saudi defence relationship", meeting
Crown Prince Muhammad bin Naif bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the minister of interior
who is in charge of ordering executions. Days later, at least two more
prisoners were beheaded.
During his trip Fallon also met Saudi defence minister Mohammed bin Salman bin
Abdul Aziz and other members of the Saudi Royal family. The Ministry of Defence
(MoD) said he had "reiterated the importance of working together to deal with
global threats, including countering the poisonous ideology of Daesh and
regional instability".
However, it did not say whether Mr Fallon had raised the subject of executions
with the interior minister. Human rights groups are increasingly concerned
about the fates of Ali al Nimr, Dawoud al Marhoon and Abdullah al Zaher, who
have all been sentenced to death by the Saudis despite being children at the
time of their alleged crimes. All three were convicted for alleged offences
connected to protests calling for reform in the Kingdom and could be executed
at any time without warning.
"As Saudi Arabia looks set for yet another record breaking year of beheadings,
it is more important than ever that its allies in the UK, Europe and the US
call for it to stop," said Harriet McCulloch, deputy director of the death
penalty team at Reprieve.
"The deep injustices of the Saudi system mean that those being sent to the
swordsman's blade are in many cases tortured into 'confessing', guilty of
nothing more than calling peacefully for reform, or even sentenced to death as
children. The UK and US must immediately call for Ali, Dawoud and Abdullah's
sentences to be commuted before it is too late - given the rising tide of
beheadings, vague reassurances are not enough."
A government spokesperson said: "The Defence Secretary visited Saudi Arabia to
discuss a range of regional issues. The UK is opposed to the death penalty in
all circumstances and we make our views well known to Saudi Arabia. We have
raised these particular cases at the highest levels and will continue to do so.
Our expectation remains that the 3 individuals will not be executed."
(source: The Times of India)
SINGAPORE:
Standoff in Ang Mo Kio amid CNB operation; A 48-year-old chopper-wielding man
refused to open the door to authorities and threatened to burn himself.
Heroin and "Ice", with an estimated street value of S$57,000, have been seized
by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB). 3 suspects have also been arrested.
According to a press release on Friday (Apr 1), CNB said it mounted the
operation to dismantle the activities of a suspected drug trafficking
syndicate. The syndicate was suspected of trafficking in different types of
controlled drugs.
The operation started on Thursday after CNB officers were deployed to observe a
suspected drug trafficker in the vicinity of Ang Mo Kio. The 39-year-old
Singaporean woman, who was believed to be receiving a fresh consignment of
drugs, was seen meeting up with a 62-year-old Singaporean man near Ang Mo Kio
Avenue 10. Both were subsequently arrested.
About 48g of heroin was seized from the woman, while about 160g of heroin was
recovered from the man.
A search of the woman's hideout at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 uncovered about 480g of
heroin and 25g of "Ice". About 40g of heroin was seized from the 62-year-old's
hideout.
Investigations also led officers to a unit in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, belonging to
a suspected drug associate of the woman.
At the scene, the suspected drug offender, a 48-year-old Singaporean man,
refused to open the door and threatened to burn himself. He was also seen
holding a chopper. CNB said that for safety reasons, the police and the
Singapore Civil Defence Force were activated. Residents from neighbouring units
were also evacuated.
At about 10am on Friday, the 48-year-old was arrested. A small amount of "Ice"
and heroin were recovered from his unit.
Preliminary screening showed that he tested positive for the consumption of
controlled drugs. Another occupant who was in the unit was unharmed, said CNB.
Investigations into the drug activities of the suspects are ongoing. They face
the death penalty, under the Misuse of Drugs Act, if the amount of pure heroin
trafficked exceeds 15g.
(source: channelnewsasia.com)
ISRAEL:
Executing Palestinians, a sign of Israel's strength?
There was no military necessity for last week's slaying of Abdel Fattah
Al-Sharif in Hebron. He was clearly wound, incapacitated and posed no imminent
threat to the Israeli soldier who shot him. Even by Israel's standards it was a
callous act of murder. The Israeli daily Haaretz newspaper rightly described it
as a "cold-blooded execution"; one that can and must, therefore, reinforce
calls for an international investigation into Israel's policy of extrajudicial
executions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
When Sweden's foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom called for such an
investigation back in January the Israeli foreign ministry dismissed her
intervention as "irresponsible and delusional". The shooting of 21-year-old
Al-Sharif, which was recorded on video and has since gone viral on the
internet, will now revive and add a greater sense of urgency to her call.
Despite its cruelty the murder of Al-Sharif was by no means an isolated act.
The grim reality is that almost every day young Palestinians are killed in
almost similar circumstances. All it takes is for a fanatic settler or
trigger-happy soldier to suspect him, or her, of being a "terrorist".
Admittedly, Israel's political and religious establishments have both
encouraged this culture of impunity. In mid-March the chief Sephardi Rabbi
Israel Yitzhak issued an edict stating that it was a religious imperative to
kill Palestinians armed with knives, and urged soldiers not to worry about the
courts or the army on the matter.
For several years now Israeli politicians have been toying with the idea of
writing into law the death penalty for Palestinians. In 2006, the leader of the
Yisrael Beiteinu party, Avigdor Lieberman, argued during a parliamentary debate
that Arab parliamentarians who talk to Hamas should be executed.
Last year the Israeli news website Mako reported Lieberman as saying: "Anyone
who's with us should be given everything - up to 1/2 the kingdom. Anyone who's
against us, there's nothing to do - we should raise an axe and cut off his
head; otherwise we won't survive here."
In the wake of the current intifada in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem,
Israeli politicians have revived, yet again, the debate on capital punishment.
They have been egged on by an out pouring of public support for Elor Azarya,
the soldier who "executed" Al-Sharif. More than 50,000 Israelis signed an
online petition demanding he be awarded a medal; others have staged public
rallies in support of the offending soldier.
Despite these pressures it is unlikely that even the Israeli establishment will
accede to calls for the death penalty or even exonerate Azarya completely. The
international fallout from the execution is yet to run its course. Philip
Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty
International said: "The shooting of a wounded and incapacitated person, even
if they have been involved in an attack, has absolutely no justification and
must be prosecuted as a potential war crime." Similar concerns have been raised
even from within the normally subservient US Congress.
A recent decision to defer a ministerial discussion on the death penalty does
not mean that it has been taken off the agenda. The Israeli establishment has
only done so for now because of the damage the execution of Al-Sharif has done
to its claim of being a liberal democracy and bastion of civilised values.
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu???s oft repeated mantra that the Israeli army
is the most "moral" army in the world has been exposed as a shameless canard.
To the Palestinians, it hardly matters if Israel legislates to adopt capital
punishment. It is, after all, a postscript of a practice that has long been in
effect, all be it without due process in courts of law. For them, life under
military occupation is no longer an option.
Clearly, the Netanyahu government wants its people to believe that executions,
house demolitions and deportations are all signs of strength. They are not. At
best, they reflect the weakness and ineffectiveness of a government that is
politically bankrupt and incapable of finding a solution to the current
uprising. If he is to withstand the challenge posed by opposition figures like
Lieberman and his fellow travelers, Netanyahu must continue to give a free hand
to his "moral" army and extremist settlers to act with impunity. Ultimately,
for the Palestinians it is only through self-defence that they will ensure
self-preservation.
(source: Commentary, Dr. Daud Abdullah----Middle East Monitor)
BARBADOS:
Don't set them free!
He has been the overseer of the last executions to take place in Barbados. And
ironically he has been a fierce opponent of the death penalty.
But former superintendent of prisons Carl Harewood is vigorously opposed to
convicted murderers being released on humanitarian grounds.
"I've read about it but I could not believe it. It's unbelievable. Any person
who has committed murder should spend the rest of their life in prison - and
without any chance of coming out at all," Harewood told the SATURDAY SUN
yesterday.
His comments followed the release of a number of convicted murderers by the
Barbados Mercy Committee, whose membership includes the Governor General, Prime
Minister, Opposition Leader and head of the Anglican Diocese.
(source: nationnews.com)
BAHAMAS:
Death Penalty Decision On Men Convicted Of American Sailor's Murder Deferred
A judge has deferred her decision on whether she will impose the death penalty
on 3 men convicted of murdering an American sailor as he tried to prevent 2
women visitors being robbed.
Justice Indra Charles adjourned her decision to May 5 after she heard the last
submissions yesterday from counsel for Anton Bastian, 21, and 23-year-old
Marcellus Williams concerning their role in the events that led to Kyle
Bruner's fatal shooting on May 13, 2013.
Roberto Reckley and Walton Bain, respective lawyers for Bastian and Williams,
argued that the circumstances of the case did not warrant the imposition of the
discretionary death penalty when balanced against their clients' ages, lack of
antecedents, reasonable prospects for reform and other factors outlined in
probation and psychiatric reports that were presented to the court.
At an earlier hearing on March 8, Nathan Smith, lawyer for 22-year-old Craig
Johnson, made similar arguments to the court. He further noted that that the
"right to life" was one of many factors the Privy Council - the country's
highest court of appeal - had set out for judges to consider, the others being,
but not limited to, the extremity of the murder, the question of the convict's
ability to be reformed, and whether or not justice could only be met through
death of the convict.
Johnson, Bain, Williams and 30-year-old Jamaal Dorfevil denied having any
involvement in the armed robbery and the killing of Bruner, who was shot in the
neck as he tried to help two women who were being mugged by 2 armed men.
At trial in November last year, they testified that they were at home on the
early morning in question and had been lied on and assaulted by the police, who
produced videotaped interviews of Johnson, Williams and Dorfevil taking
officers through the crime scene.
The jury heard evidence from Sean William Cannon, a first mate aboard the
Liberty Chipper sailboat, who witnessed the shooting and later identified
Johnson during an identification parade.
The Crown also submitted the police statement of another witness, Delano Smith,
which implicated the remaining accused men concerning the crimes.
The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts for Johnson, Bastian and Williams
for Bruner's murder. The 3 men were further convicted with Dorfevil on 2 counts
of armed robbery as they were alleged to have accosted 2 women while armed with
a firearm, robbing one of $150 cash, her $3,000 handbag and the other of cash,
a handbag and an iPhone.
Dorfevil was represented by Sonia Timothy who yesterday asked the court to
impose no more than 6 years imprisonment for his minimal involvement in the
matter based on the evidence.
A 5th accused, 21-year-old Leo Bethel, had all charges discontinued against him
by way of a nolle prosequi within moments of Justice Charles concluding her
summation of the evidence. Ian Cargill represented him.
(source: tribune242.com)
BELARUS:
The regime hopes to sell the death penalty moratorium for the highest possible
price
The regime hopes to sell the death penalty moratorium for the highest possible
price Though the EU lifted its sanctions against Belarus in early 2016, the
authorities seem to remain reluctant to address a moratorium on capital
punishment, Lizaveta Kasmach writes.
On 10 March 2016, Minsk hosted an international conference titled The Death
Penalty: Transcending the Divide.
According to Stavros Lambrinidis, the EU Special Representative for Human
Rights, a moratorium on the death penalty would send a positive signal for
relations between Belarus and the EU and improve the international image of
Belarus.
The existence of the death penalty has contributed to the pariah image of
Belarus - it lost its guest status at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) after the 1996 referendum, when more than 80 % of the
population voted in favour of maintaining capital punishment.
Currently, Belarus remains the only European state in which the authorities
continue to execute criminals convicted of serious offences.
The EU's recent lifting of sanctions has created a window of opportunity for
the improvement of relations with the EU in all spheres. The introduction of a
moratorium on the death penalty appears to be an easy yet important symbolic
step for sealing rapprochement with the EU and demonstrating Belarusian good
will. Yet while public opinion shifts more towards accepting the moratorium,
the government appears to be treating the death penalty issue as a bargaining
chip.
Dark secrets of death row
Currently, 14 articles of the Belarusian Criminal Code foresee capital
punishment as one of the available penalty options. These include war crimes,
genocide, international terrorism, use of weapons of mass destruction and
various categories of serious crimes, including murder. The Belarusian Interior
Ministry has also pointed out that those Belarusians who signed up as
mercenaries in Ukraine could be accused of committing crimes against the
humanity and potentially face the death penalty.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Belarusian courts have handed down death
sentences to over 300 people since 1990. Yet the transparency and availability
of information leave a lot to be desired.
For instance, official statistical information on the website of the Interior
Ministry is not up-to-date, reflecting only the numbers of death penalties
carried out between 1998 and 2010. According to officially released
information, over the last decade the average number of executions ranged from
between 2 to 9 people per year.
The government keeps all procedures secret and neither society nor the families
of the convicted know what has happened to them after they hear their verdict.
One of the few sources of information available to the public is the book The
Death Squad by the former chief of the Minsk detention centre Aleh Alkaeu, who
used to be in charge of executions.
The most infamous case in recent years featured Uladzislau Kavaliou and Dzmitry
Kanavalau, found guilty of organising explosions in the Minsk subway on 11
April 2011. Both were promptly tried and convicted before the year was out.
Resonance of the case and the haste with which the trail was organised resulted
in the 1st serious instance of public debate on capital punishment, exacerbated
by growing distrust of the judicial system.
Lukashenka and public opinion: pros and cons
With regard to the issue of the death penalty, President Alexander Lukashenka
persistently refers to the results of the notorious 1996 November referendum,
when 80 % of voters refused to abolish the death penalty. Therefore, the
president has typically maintained that as "a servant of the people, who knows
the popular mood" he has no power to force society to accept a moratorium.
Yet his recent statements on the death penalty indicate some potential for a
change of heart. On 9 March 2016, the president noted that Belarus has
developed "its own interpretation of humanitarian issues, including on the
question of human rights." He tied progress in the sphere of human rights to
the economic situation, hinting that changes in public opinion depended on the
material well-being of the people. In other words, the death penalty would be
abolished if the EU provided an economic incentive.
According to a 2013 survey carried out by Penal Reform International, 37 % of
Belarusians did not know that Belarus still employed the death penalty.
Belarusian civil society actors, including the Helsinki Committee and the human
rights organisation Viasna with the support of the EU institutions, engage in
information campaigns to raise public awareness on the issue.
Gradually, these efforts are creating a potential shift in public opinion. The
president's reminders that 80 % of the population is in favour of the death
penalty sound less and less credible. According to a sociological survey
conducted by the consulting company SATIO in cooperation with Penal Reform
International and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee in 2014, the number of
death penalty opponents for the 1st time exceeded those supporting it, with
43.3 % against versus 41.9 % in favour.
Opponents are convinced that the death penalty is not an effective means of
punishment. According to IISEPS opinion polls, these people are more social
responsible, are tolerant towards minorities and tend to oppose the current
political regime. On the contrary, supporters of the death penalty are more
likely to trust the police and state authorities.
Capitalizing on the death penalty moratorium?
On 5 January 2016, the Minsk Regional Court handed down the 1st death sentence
of the new year. Genadz' Jakavitski from Vileika was tried and convicted for
the cruel murder of his girlfriend. On 15 February another verdict of a certain
"Kh." followed.
The EU promptly expressed its concerns, urging the Belarusian authorities to
introduce a moratorium on the death penalty and to encourage public debate on
the issue. Since the EU lifted its sanctions against Belarus in February 2016,
governing circles have started to show some willingness to co-operate with
their EU counterparts.
On 10 March 2016, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry together with the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) hosted an international conference titled
The Death Penalty: Transcending the Divide. Despite acknowledging the need to
launch a broad dialogue about capital punishment, Belarusian organizers
requested that journalists be removed from the conference venue following the
official opening ceremony. The unregistered human rights organisation Viasna,
known for its active position on the issue of the death penalty, was not
invited to participate.
These circumstances throw a shadow of doubt over the government's commitment to
a genuine dialogue. The authorities remain reluctant to address a moratorium on
capital punishment. It is also likely that the president is unwilling to
relinquish the absolute symbolic power he holds over the lives and deaths of
Belarusian citizens.
However, the main issue appears to be in the practical realm of politics.
Recent statements by Lukashenka specifically point to the connection between
human rights issues and the economic well-being of the population. For now, the
Belarusian regime is attempting to raise the stakes in what it perceives to be
a trade process with the EU. It hopes to sell the death penalty moratorium for
the highest possible price.
(source: eurobelarus.info)
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