April 15
SIERRA LEONE:
Death Penalty does not reform the prisoner- Amnesty International
The Director of Amnesty International in Sierra Leone, Solomon Moses Sogbandi,
in an interview with Awoko Newspaper on Wednesday at their Circular Road office
in Freetown, declared that the Death Penalty (D.P) does not reform the
prisoner.
He made this declaration while he was commenting on the Amnesty International
Global Report on Death Sentences and Execution 2015, which was launched last
Tuesday by the organisation.
While he was giving the statistics of D.P globally, he said the global trend is
a bit worrying as there is 54% increase in it execution as at 2015, noting that
about 1,634 people were executed that year as compared to the 573 execution of
death penalty recorded in 2014. This figure, he pointed out, does not include
China where data on the use of D.P is classified as a state secret.
Mr Sogbandi said the report shows that three countries which are notorious for
the execution of death are Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as they carry 89% of
execution recorded.
Speaking on the reasons why they want the 'Death Penalty' to be removed from
the country's law books, he said "Death Penalty is a controversial issue all
over the world. There is no part in the world where the citizens have accepted
the D.P". He added that a consultation which they did around the country shows
that majority of the people in this country are not in favour of the Death
Penalty.
He furthered that countries that have abolished the D.P largely depend on
political will.
Secondly he said the D.P does not act as a deterrent, stating that countries
that have abolished the D.P have fewer incidences of violence and crimes than
those that still have it.
The D.P, he went on, does not promote the essence of punishment. "It is final
and does not reform the prisoner," he stressed.
The 3rd issue he raised was the issue of error in judicial review or trial.
According to him, the executers are humans subject to judicial error. He argued
that it is possible that the wrong procedure is used to try an individual
leading to his execution. "If the person is executed and there is new
evidence(s), there is no way that person will come back to answer," he
contended.
The director said even though the country has not been executing the death
penalty for over a decade, his argument is that they are still in the law books
and someday a leader may come who would start executing these laws.
He suggested that life imprisonment be an option though "it is left with the
government to see which action they will take in terms of people who commit
offences liable to or that can lead to D.P."
He called on the Inter-Religious Councils and the Attorney General to see how
best they can aid in the repeal of these laws for the country's statute books.
(source: awoko.org)
PHILIPPINES:
Philippine bishop warns against death penalty proponents ---- Support
candidates who respect the right to life, prelate says
A Philippine bishop urged Catholics not to vote for candidates who advocate the
revival of the death penalty in the country.
Bishop Jose Cabantan of Malaybalay said Filipinos, who will elect national and
local leaders on May 9, should choose officials who "respect the right to
life."
The prelate said church teachings emphasize the "value and inviolability of
human life" and the focus on "restorative justice" that will deter crimes,
improve law enforcement, and the justice system.
Data from the Philippine National Police show that in 2015 crime incidents
soared by 46 percent compared to the previous year.
Authorities, however, said the increase in the statistics did not mean a
worsening crime rate but was due in part to underreporting by local police
units in the past.
Louie Tito Guia of the Commission on Elections noted the "vital role" of the
Catholic Church in educating voters.
He said the church is the "most all-encompassing institution" in the country
that plays a big role in "political and social change."
Some 55 million Filipinos are registered to vote in the May 2016 elections.
(source: UCA News)
**************
Davao del Norte Congress bet favors death penalty to curb drugs
Former Congress Rep Pantaleon Alvarez said he would favor the restoration of
death penalty?to ?help curb the problem on drugs in the province.
Alvarez, running for Congressional slot, for the 1st district of Davao del
Norte, presented a "2-pronged approach" which included the restoration of death
penalty and the increase of the budget of the Department of Social Welfare and
Development.
"One, restore death penalty against drug lords, drug pushers and corrupt public
officials. 2nd, increase the budget of DSWD to enable them to attend to
victims," he said adding that these actions need an act of Congress.
Alvarez was responding to a question duringthe Candidates Forum 2016, held at
the Aces Tagum College on Thursday, April 14. He was among the 5 candidates for
the 1st congressional district of Davao del Norte.
Panelist Aurora Lozada, a local veteran broadcaster, threw the question on
their strategy to address the problem on drugs.
"The children and the youth sector is the most volatile and the most crucial
among the sectors. Given the widespread threat on illegal drugs and
criminality, what will be your strategy in making the sector drug free and
crime free, developing them to responsible and contributing members of our
society?" Lozada said.
'Make rehabilitation accessible'
Former Tagum City Councilor Nicandro Suaybaguio,would disagree and ?blamed
corruption for the proliferation of drugs, wanting rehabilitation center to be
more accessible.
"We have the (Philippine National Police), the (Philippine Drug Enforcement
Agency), and all other agencies, However if there is corruption, there will
always be that problem," he said.
Suaybaguio said education among the youth on the effects of drugs should be
intensified.
Suaybaguio added that the province only have 1 rehabilitation center.
"Even if they have the will to change but the rehabilitation is not accessible,
nothing will happen," he said.
Another Congressional candidate, Atty. Emmanuel Mahipus, said there should be a
"convergent approach" between the public and private sector to address the
needs of the youth sector.
He will also push for the strengthening of families as basic unit of the
society.
"Drug is just a manifestation of a bigger problem and that problem is the lack
of family. And even the society and government could take care of the needs of
the youth. They were disregarded because of hunger, poverty," he said.
Former Tagum barangay Kagawad, Dexter Welborn said the youth should be elevated
from their situation of poverty and will provide help through cooperative
system.
Parents attention
Former Rep. Arrel Olano said the youth should be given attention by their
parents and the out of school youth should be "motivated to go to school."
"We will expand the function of (Technical Education and Skills Development
Authority) to reach all the youth who need further education and to enable them
look for jobs. If they have jobs they will be distracted from activities like
using illegal drugs," he said.
The Candidates Forum 2016 was organized by the Philippine Information Agency
and the Commission on Elections in Davao del Norte.
(source: davaotoday.com)
SINGAPORE:
$177k worth of drugs seized in CNB operations
More than $177,000 worth of drugs have been seized in multiple operations by
the Central Narcotics Board (CNB) this week.
The drug haul comprised more than 1.5kg of heroin, 329g of 'Ice', 80g of
cannabis, 153 ecstasy tablets, 26 Erimin-5 tablets and ketamine.
Some 103 suspected drug offenders were also arrested in one 4-day operation,
which started on Monday and ended on Friday (April 15).
This operation was supported by officers from the Singapore Police Force, and
spanned areas including Tampines, Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio, Clementi, Punggol,
Sembawang, Woodlands and Yishun.
In one of the the cases during the 4-day operation, 570g of heroin worth over
$40,000 and more than $2,000 in cash were seized by officers.
The 1st arrest in this case was made on Wednesday in the vicinity of Upper Boon
Keng Road, where a 52-year-old Singaporean man was caught with Erimin-5 tablets
and drug paraphernalia.
Nearby, officers noticed a 60-year-old Singaporean man behaving suspiciously,
and seized over 80g of heroin, seven Erimin-5 tablets and cash from him.
Follow-up investigations led to the capture of a 28-year-old Malaysian man the
next day, who was found with 450g of heroin in the vicinity of Somerset and is
believed to have been a supplier.
The CNB is continuing its investigations into all of the suspects.
It reminded the public that the Misuse of Drugs Act allows for the death
penalty if the amount of diamorphine (or pure heroin) trafficked exceeds 15g.
(source: Straits Times)
INDONESIA:
Indonesia's drug obsession is only making things worse
When Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, was elected as President of
Indonesia in late 2014, the world was enthralled. He was expected to be
different - the 1st President in the nation's history not connected to the old
power order. In fact, he came from a surprisingly humble background; he was a
former small-scale furniture salesman who rose to power by fighting corruption
and getting things done. Here was a young, populist leader at the head of one
of the world's largest countries and most populous Muslim nation.
Just a few months later, this goodwill disappeared when Jokowi made the
ill-advised decision to execute a dozen foreign nationals, including, most
notably, 2 citizens from neighboring Australia, for drug-related crimes. It was
the largest single use of the death penalty in Indonesia in nearly a decade and
created an international crisis.
While there was definitely some hypocrisy at play (where was the global outrage
when Saudi Arabia executed Indonesians in 2011?) the situation ended up being a
lose-lose for Indonesia. The global outcry tainted Jokowi and the country's
international standing. Moreover, and importantly, the impact on the country's
drug problem was, not surprisingly, pretty much nil.
Part of it was because the death penalty, as a tool of fighting crime, just
does not work. "We oppose the death penalty as a matter of principle," says
Andreas Harsono, Indonesia Researcher with Human Rights Watch (HRW). "Moreover,
the death penalty does not deter drug trafficking." HRW also strongly believes
the death penalty will do nothing to stop drugs from entering countries like
Indonesia.
This shouldn't come as any surprise. Amnesty International, HRW, and other
civil society organizations believe that the death penalty is discriminatory,
prone to misuse by skewed justice systems, and does nothing to deter crime.
According to Amnesty, you are more likely to be sentenced to death if you are
poor or belong to a racial, ethnic or religious minority because of
discrimination in the justice system. Moreover, poor and marginalized groups
have less access to the legal resources needed to defend themselves.
This goes beyond the death penalty, which is just the most harsh tool in the
plethora of heavy-handed, police and military focused anti-drug tactics. And on
this, President Jokowi is, amazingly, doubling down. This past February, he
stated in a speech that drugs were Indonesia's top problem, calling for more a
aggressive, punishment heavy, anti-drug push.
Perpetuating bad policy
Think about that for a second. This is a country with rampant corruption,
severely lacking infrastructure, where tens of millions still don't have
Internet, 1 out of 2 Indonesians lack reliable clean water, and the education
system is ranked near the bottom of an survey by the Economist Intelligence
Unit. Those are all problems worth tackling, and each could be called the
country's top challenge. But drugs?
Certainly a problem, though many dispute the Government's figures of 4 million
addicts nationwide, with 30 dying each day. Just not the biggest one.
It's not just the diagnosis that's worrisome - so too is the prescription.
Indonesia's use of the death penalty was just one sign of a policy focused on
imprisonment and police tactics. As experiences from other countries shows,
such a "war on drugs" not only won't work, but can make things worse.
Jokowi's policies harken back to the experiences of countries like the United
States in the 1960s, when the so-called "War on Drugs" began. Heavy-handed
police tactics and a court system focused on imprisonment rather than
rehabilitation has left the country with the largest prison population in the
world, and no discernible reduction in drug use, as the recent heroin epidemic
attests.
The impacts on America's neighbor, Mexico - which economically more resembles
Indonesia than the United States - are even worse. There, in certain regions,
the war on drugs has become a literal war, with 27,000 killed, many civilians,
in 2011 alone. For comparison's sake, Indonesia estimates that 8,000 people die
from drugs in the country every year - a number that could probably be reduced
through better healthcare rather than more arrests and death penalty
convictions.
Jailing addicts alongside traffickers
Frighteningly, the country is already heading down the path of mass
incarceration - and seeing the impacts. Harsh new laws are being considered
that would increase punishment for drug offenses, potentially including
draconian penalties such as force-feeding drug traffickers their own narcotics
until they die. In fact, many of these drug laws are inspired by the U.S.
approach to drugs, which were promulgated in Indonesia through the United
Nations' failed narcotics policy. These laws, as they currently stand, do not
distinguish between drug traffickers and addicts, putting far too many addicts
into overcrowded prisons.
"Criminalising the consumption of even small amounts of drugs has led to a
massive increase in the number of prison inmates," said Michael Buehler, a
lecturer at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies,
to Al Jazeera. "Around 60 % of the 12,000 people locked up in the capital
Jakarta alone are imprisoned for substance abuse."
Focusing on improving social services such as health care could actually have
more impact on reducing drug usage in Indonesia than greater use of the death
penalty or putting more drug users in jail. In fact, the country estimates that
1.2 million drug addicts need immediate medical care, yet there are only 22,000
beds across the country. Expanding this system, and ensuing that addicts get
care, would be one step towards actually solving the problem.
"If the Indonesian government were really serious about protecting the
wellbeing of its citizens, it would pursue harm-reduction strategies aimed at
Indonesian drug users instead of executing drug traffickers," said Buehler.
Chief among these would be fighting corruption, as, according to World Press,
it is closely connected to the drug issue.
Understanding drug problems in Indonesia is complicated by the open secret that
drug dealing is tied to politics and the security forces. Many police and
soldiers test positive for drugs in their urine (usually Ecstasy, amphetamines,
or low-grade heroin).
There is still time for Jokowi to change his mind, and focus on the real
problems facing Indonesia. If he does, the world will stand behind him, because
even though he lost his goodwill last year, we're still eager for a Democratic,
populist hero in Southeast Asia. Shifting his priorities away from drugs and
focusing on Indonesia's social challenges, such as corruption, education,
health, or even gender inequality, would be a boon not only for the country's
240 million citizens, but for the world. These initiatives would likely have
the side effect of reducing drug use as well.
Let's hope that he comes to his senses soon, before it's too late.
(source: Nithin Coca, Global Comment)
CHINA:
Tomb raiding ringleader gets death penalty
China on Thursday sentenced the head of the country's most prolific tomb
raiding gang to death with a 2-year reprieve, a rare severe punishment which
analysts hope will serve as a warning to the unbridled tomb raiding industry in
China.
Ringleader Yao Yuzhong, from Chifeng in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,
was found guilty of several offenses including tomb raiding, looting and
selling stolen antiquities. His gang was highly organized, and would source
fund, explore, loot and trade relics, said the Chaoyang City Intermediate
People's Court of Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Thursday.
Altogether, 22 gang members received prison terms of varying lengths. Three
gang members received life sentences.
Under China's Criminal Law, tomb raiders can be sentenced up to over 10 years'
imprisonment or to a life sentence for the most serious violations.
Among 32 artifacts retrieved by police, 16 were under grade-one State cultural
protection. Another 77 relics still in the possession of the gang members were
ordered returned.
The gang's arrest was one of the biggest busts of its kind supervised by the
Ministry of Public Security since 1949. It was among 12 organized gangs
implicated in illegal excavations at Niuheliang, a Neolithic site in
northeastern Liaoning. Police apprehended 225 people and retrieved a total of
2,063 artifacts, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
This heavy punishment can serve as a deterrent to the unrestrained tomb raiding
industry in China, which has grown into a mature business in the underground
market, Ni Fangliu, a Nanjing-based expert on archeology and the history of
tomb raiding, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Busier than archaeologists
Observers noted that more excavations may have been made by tomb raiders than
official archaeologists in China, and that the antiquities recovered are
usually sold either overseas for a better price or purchased by some private or
even public museums.
Citing anonymous insiders, the Legal Weekly reported in 2010 that the number of
tomb raiders in China may have reached 100,000 in 6 provinces, including Hebei,
Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hunan and Gansu.
Tomb raiders are usually familiar with history to help them better locate the
tombs, such as historical rituals or traditional feng shui, as emperors' tombs
usually sit near mountains and rivers. Different dynasties had different
funeral practices, Ni said.
"Tomb raiding gangs sometimes make better use of new technologies, such as
directional explosion excavating equipment. They don't care that the ancient
tombs are damaged, all they want are the relics to make a profit," Liu Yang, a
Beijing-based lawyer specializing in cultural relics, told the Global Times.
Liu, who has been working to retrieve Chinese relics overseas, estimated that a
large proportion of the millions of relics in foreign countries could have
originated from tomb raiding.
Some 100,000 individual relics could be sent annually to distribution centers
in the Chinese mainland before being sent to Hong Kong and Taiwan before they
then reach the UK as the axis of the international hub for relic smuggling, the
Legal Weekly reported.
"Museums in China are also willing to pay for the raided relics. They can't
track the origin after they've changed hands dozens of times, and they also
stimulate the development and prosperity of tomb raiding," Ni said.
Urbanization threat
Apart from tomb raiding, Chinese cultural relics are threatened by urbanization
efforts, according to Xu Changqing, head of the institute of cultural relics
and archaeology of Jiangxi Province, who called for a balanced relationship
between infrastructure construction and cultural relic excavation and
protection.
"Some officials think they can protect the relics after economic development,
after building high-rises, but they actually begin at the wrong end, because
the heritage of thousands of years can be damaged in one day," Xu told the
Global Times, explaining that exploration, assessment and investigation of
relic resources are sometimes deemed as a delaying factor in urban development.
(source: ecns.com)
IRAN----female executed
Woman Prisoner Hanged in Northeastern Iran on Drug Charges----A woman sentenced
to death on drug charges was reportedly hanged in northeastern Iran on Thursday
morning Tehran time.
On the morning of Thursday April 14, a woman was reportedly hanged at Kashmar
Prison (located in the Razavi Khorasan province, northeastern Iran) on drug
charges. A report by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network identifies the prisoner
as Ameneh Rezaian, a 43-year-old woman who was arrested 2 years ago by Iranian
authorities on charges of possession and trafficking of narcotics.
The report makes mention of another woman at Kashmar Prison, Khavar B., who is
sentenced to death on drug charges and is currently on death row.
Iranian official sources, including state media and the Judiciary, have been
silent about Ameneh Rezaian's execution.
(source: iranhr.net)
*****************
UN rights chief calls for end to executions for drug offences
The United Nations human rights chief today appealed to Iran to halt executions
for drug offences until the new Parliament debates a proposed law that would
remove the mandatory death penalty for drug crimes.
"Given the broadening recognition in Iran that death penalty does not deter
drug crime and that anti-narcotics laws need to be reformed, I call on Iran to
take the important 1st step of instituting a moratorium on the use of death
penalty," said High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.
Last year, at least 966 people were executed in Iran - the highest rate in more
than 2 decades - the majority for drug offences. At least 4 of those executed
in 2015 were juveniles. So far this year, 60 executions have reportedly been
carried out in Iran, less than the number in the same period last year.
He, however, noted that 5 men were hanged last weekend, 3 of them on charges of
narcotics trafficking. The other 2 men were convicted of murder.
In at least 1 of the cases, that of Rashid Kouhi, there were serious concerns
about the fairness of the trial and the denial of his right to appeal. Kouhi
was sentenced to death in 2012 after he was found in possession of 800 grams of
crystal meth. He was executed last Saturday in Gilan province in northern Iran.
In December last year, 70 parliamentarians presented a bill to amend the
existing mandatory death penalty for drug offences. The bill provides for life
imprisonment in such cases. It remains to be seen whether it will be taken
forward in the new Parliament.
"There have been encouraging signs from within Iran towards reform of the law,
from the judiciary, the executive and the legislature and I hope the new
Parliament will adopt these changes," Mr. Zeid said. "But it is unfortunate
that executions for drug-related offences - crimes that clearly do not meet the
threshold under international human rights law for application of the death
penalty - continue to be carried out in the meantime."
He also expressed serious concerns about the large number of juvenile offenders
reported to be on death row in Iran. He urged the authorities to ensure that no
one is executed for offences committed under the age of 18, stressing that
there is a strict prohibition against the execution of juvenile offenders in
international human rights law, including in the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, which Iran ratified in 1975 and the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, which it ratified in 1994.
(source: UN News Centre)
************
5 prisoners transferred to solitary confinement for their execution
According to reports from Iran, 5 death-row prisoners from different wards in
Isfahan Prison, central Iran, have been transferred to solitary confinement in
preparation for their execution.
Iran's fundamentalist regime executed 8 prisoners on April 13 in Gohardasht
Prison, northwest of Tehran. The prisoners had been transferred to solitary
confinement earlier in the week.
These executions are taking place while Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
visited Iran in recent days to established trade relations between the Iranian
regime and Italy. The EU High Representative is expected to visit Iran soon.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement on
Wednesday that the Iranian regime executed 14 prisoners in various prisons
across the country within a 5-day period.
Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the
2015 period wrote: "Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to
at least 743 the year before."
"Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East
and North Africa, the human rights group said.
There have been more than 2,300 executions during Hassan Rouhani's tenure as
President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation
in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was
greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the
executions as examples of "God's commandments" and "laws of the parliament that
belong to the people."
(source: NCR-Iran)
PAKISTAN----executions
Another 4 Convicts Hanged in Pakistan
Murderers executed in Multan, Jhang, Sialkot and Larkana.
Pakistan on Wednesday hanged 4 more prisoners convicted of murder despite
international criticism over its surging use of the death penalty.
Amnesty International last week described Pakistan as the world's 3rd most
prolific executioner after China and Iran, with 326 hangings last year.
Wednesday's executions took place in Multan, Jhang and Sialkot in Punjab
province and in Larkana in Sindh province.
Anwarul Haq was executed in Multan for murdering his brother over a land
dispute in 2000, senior prisons official Chaudhry Arshad Saeed Arain told AFP.
Ghulam Farooq was hanged in Sialkot prison for murdering 2 women and a man due
to a family feud in 1999. Muhammad Irfan was hanged in Jhang for killing a
woman while robbing her home in 2006, Arain said, adding that 8 more prisoners
were likely to be hanged in Punjab on Thursday.
In Larkana, Waris Mir Bahr was hanged for the 1995 murder of a Pakistan
International Airlines employee during an attack on an airlines van carrying
cash, prison officials said.
Pakistan ended a 6-year moratorium on the death penalty after Taliban attackers
gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at a school in
Peshawar in December 2014. Hangings were initially reinstated only for those
convicted of terrorism, but later extended to all capital offences.
(source: newsweekpakistan.com)
*****************
Murder convict hanged at Central Prison Haripur
A convict on death row was hanged at Central Prison Haripur Thursday morning
while another inmate's was postponed after the complainant forgave him a few
hours before his execution.
A prison official told The Express Tribune Imtiaz Ahmed, a resident of Khaki
village in Mansehra, had been convicted by a district court for murdering a van
driver while attempting to kidnap him in 2005. He was awarded the death
penalty.
Subsequently, Ahmed's appeal was turned down by the Peshawar High Court and
Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The home department issued a black warrant against him 3 days before his
execution. "His mercy petition was rejected by the president last week," the
official said. "The last meeting between Ahmed and his family was arranged on
Wednesday. He was hanged at 5:30am in the presence of the magistrate, doctor
and jail administration officials."
On hold
The execution of another convict was postponed after the complainant decided to
forgive him.
The home department issued a black warrant against Muhammad Humayun Jamal, a
resident of Mardan, and he was going to be executed on Thursday at Central
Prison Haripur. Jamal was awarded capital punishment for murdering his father
in 2006. However, his brother, who had filed a complaint against him, decided
to forgive him and struck a deal through a district court in Mardan.
The deal was sent to the home department and jail authorities and will be
scrutinised. Until then, Jamal's execution has been postponed.
According to officials, there are 114 inmates at the facility who are on death
row. The appeals of over 30 of them have been rejected.
***************
Who are we hanging? 'State policies fuelled terrorism'
Panelists at a discussion organised on Wednesday at the Lahore University of
Management Sciences (LUMS) highlighted major limitations of counter-terrorism
measures, legal problems in anti-terrorism legislation, social and moral
implications of death penalty and regular use of torture.
The event was moderated by journalist Rashed Rehman. Social scientist Ayesha
Siddiqa, Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) director Sarah Belal and lawyer Saroop
Ijaz spoke on the occasion. Ijaz highlighted problems with anti-terrorism
legislation like the difference between the academic and the state-derived
definitions of terrorism. He said no efforts had been made to date to reform
anti-terror legislation.
Siddiqa questioned the use of death penalty under the Anti-Terrorism Act and
its social and moral implications, especially with regard to law enforcement
agencies such as police. "The police in the Punjab are cognisant of every
single crime and criminal in the deepest corners of gali mohallas. Even with
that amount of information there is no control over crime as police are not
allowed to take any legitimate legal action," she said.
Belal presented an analysis on the increasing pattern of executions and how
extra-judicial methods such as torture were regularly utilised in order to
extract confessions from prisoners. "Of the 380 convicts hanged since December,
2014, only 39 had committed a terrorism offence or had links with terrorist
organisations. This brings it to 1 in 10 out of all those executed," she said.
Belal further elucidated on fundamental rights and due process challenges faced
by lawyers in defending clients set to be executed.
"Terrorism has not come to Pakistan out of the blue. It's the cumulative result
and the unintended consequence of policies implemented by our state
institutions and evil civil reprieves in projecting themselves through proxies
in the region, whether westward or eastward," Rehman said while concluding the
organisation.
The discussion was attended by people from all walks of life including
students, professionals and journalists. The initiative was taken by the JPP to
reexamine and raise awareness about reforming the Anti-Terrorism Act and
counterterrorism strategies. The JPP had earlier researched and released
Torture on death row, a report in 2014, which brought to the fore statistics
related to terrorism charges. The discussion was organised in collaboration
with the LUMS Model United Nations Society.
(source for both: The Express Tribune)
*************
Are executions a deterrence?
In the wake of an ongoing execution spree in Pakistan, 4 more murder convicts
were hanged on Wednesday in different jails of Punjab and Sindh. The hanging of
convicts has become almost an everyday occurrence across the country. Amnesty
International's recent report described Pakistan as the world's 3rd most
prolific executioner after China and Iran, with 326 hangings last year.
Reportedly, among the 4 convicts, Anwarul Haq was executed in Multan for
murdering his brother over a land dispute in 2000. Ghulam Farooq was hanged in
Sialkot prison for murdering 2 women and a man due to a family feud in 1999.
Muhammad Irfan was hanged in Jhang for killing a woman while robbing her home
in 2006. In Larkana, Waris Mir Bahr was hanged for the 1995 murder of a
Pakistan International Airlines employee during an attack on an airlines van
carrying cash.
These cases bring to the forefront the sorry state of affairs of the justice
system in Pakistan where prisoners on death row remain languishing in jails for
years to eventually face the merciless procedure of hanging. There are no
studies on the agony those convicts and their families go through, living in
the limbo of not knowing. This becomes an additional punishment for those
convicts who become a victim of the faulty justice system, as not all who are
served the death penalty are actually guilty of committing the crime of 1st
degree murder. The existing jail system in Pakistan raises multiple questions
about zero respect for basic human rights. The ineffectiveness of police FIRs,
fabrication of cases through torture, a weak legal mechanism, and unfair trials
make the judicial system a murky phenomenon, entangling many innocent people in
a lifelong internment - literally and otherwise - of pain and endless wait.
Pakistan ended a 7-year moratorium on death penalty after Taliban attackers
gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at the Army Public
School in Peshawar in December 2014. Hangings were initially reinstated only
for those convicted of terrorism, but in March 2015, they were extended to all
capital offences. At a time when the death penalty is being abolished in most
countries, Pakistan is using this centuries old punishment as deterrence
against crimes. In reality, the death penalty has failed to prove a deterrent
against crime and terrorism. Pakistan needs to have solid reforms in its legal
and judicial system, and instead of relying on capital punishment that is
considered an inhuman act there is a need to introduce a reform culture in
which criminals would be treated as human beings. No society can succeed
without justice and fair play. In our country, for most, only the law of jungle
prevails. The law has 2 different definitions for the rich and the poor. If a
poor person even commits suicide, he cannot escape punishment, while a
well-to-do accused literally gets away with murder. Hanging offenders will not
bring peace to a terrorism-riddled Pakistan, or solace to those who lost their
loved ones to an act of brutality - be it the act of an individual or
terror-related. Pakistan must have a reform system based on human values of
repentance, rehabilitation, compassion and forgiveness. That would be the best
antidote to pain of victims while Pakistan fights a war to rid Pakistan of all
who inflict pain on human beings making them nameless statistics of terrorism.
(source: Daily Express)
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