April 29
EGYPT:
UN urged Egypt to halt rights violations in Ibrahim Halawa case
The United Nations urged the Egyptian government to take "all necessary interim
measures" to halt alleged violations of the human rights of Irish citizen
Ibrahim Halawa.
Mr Halawa, 20, is being prosecuted alongside 493 co-defendants in mass trial
for allegedly participating in a political protest in 2013.
He is the only Irish citizen among the group. Belfast firm KRW Law,
representing Mr Halawa, says he and hundreds of others were seeking refuge in a
Cairo mosque from violent clashes between security forces and protesters.
Mr Halawa, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, has been charged with serious
offences, all of which he strongly denies. His lawyers believe that, if
convicted, he may face the death penalty.
The UN intervention took place last year, but details have only just emerged in
a report published ahead of the 31st Session of the UN Human Rights Council.
The UN communication to Egypt states: "While awaiting a reply, we urge that all
necessary interim measures, including Mr Halawa's Bail or unconditional
release, be taken to halt the alleged violations, prevent their re-occurrence,
and in the event that the investigations support or suggest the allegations to
be correct, to ensure accountability of any person responsible for such
violations."
Solicitor Darragh Mackin of KRW Law said: "We warmly welcome the communication
by the UN to the Egyptian Government on behalf of Ibrahim Halawa.
"The communication in many ways exonerates the family's position, and the UN
should be commended in tackling the alleged breaches of human rights and
international law in Ibrahim's case.
"We now urgently call upon the Egyptian Government to take the interim measures
as stipulated by the UN, and release Ibrahim immediately."
Solicitor Gavin Booth of KRW Law added: "We welcome the representations by the
United Nations in this case. It is clear Ibrahim is being failed, as he is
subject to an unfair system of law and immediate steps need to be taken to
secure his release."
Mr Halawa will next appear in court on 29 June 2016.
(source: irishlegal.com)
INDIA:
Kundapur: In rare instance, man gets death penalty for killing girl in 2010
In a historic judgement, the Kundapur additional district and sessions court on
Thursday April 28 awarded death penalty to a man for murdering a girl 6 years
ago.
Satish Poojary, a resident of Hemmady, has been found guilty of murdering
Akkayya alias Latha Poojary in June 2010.
Latha hailed from a poor family and earned her livelihood by tying beedis. In
June 2010, she joined a private educational institution in Kundapur as an ayah.
At the time, Satish, who was 34, was running a fancy store in Hemmady. He had
also contested the gram panchayat elections twice and lost both times.
Latha and Satish were friends, but over a period of time, Satish misused her
friendship for his own benefits. Their friendship grew into an affair and
Satish took advantage of her to gratify himself. When Latha felt that the
situation was going out of hand, she began pressuring him to marry her. But
Satish used to evade the topic, and angered at his behaviour, she began
blackmailing him. Feeling mentally harassed by Latha, Satish decided to put an
end to the matter.
One day, when she was returning from work by school bus, she asked the driver
to drop her at Tallur, saying that she had to visit a friend. It was Satish
that she had come to meet. Satish came to the spot in a friend's Omni and took
her Maravante beach. He then used her churidar shawl to strangle her in the
Omni itself. By then, the time was past 3 pm. To avoid suspicion, Satish parked
the Omni, with Latha's body in it, in front of his shop till 7 pm. Thereafter,
he drove to Kolur cross at Kundabaradandi in Halkady and threw the body. Before
leaving the spot, he took away the gold ornaments she was wearing and flung
away her footwear and umbrella nearby.
The body was soon discovered and a sense of anxiety gripped the locals. A team
led by the then DySP Vishwanath Pandith, comprising Madan Gaonkar who was
serving in Kundapur police station, Gangolli inspector Gopal Naik and Sathish
Kumar carried out the investigation. The most important lead in the case was
the series of phone calls. Latha had 2 mobile phones, and the call records
showed that she was in constant touch with Satish. Moreover, on the day of the
murder, Satish received calls after 7 pm, which were traced to a mobile tower
in Aloor. During interrogation on these points, Satish admitted his guilt and
narrated the whole story. About 5 or 6 of his friends were also questioned.
Satish was then jailed, but was soon out on conditional bail. Confident that
the case would be closed, he attended the hearing on Thursday.
After the hearing ended, judge Rajshekar V Patil convicted Satish and sentenced
him to death. As soon as the verdict was pronounced, Satish broke down.
There were 28 witnesses in the case. Advocate Srinivas Hegde was the public
prosecutor.
(source: daijiworld.com)
KENYA:
Abolish death penalty charge, former CIC commissioner Kamotho Waiganjo urges
A former commissioner at the defunct CIC Kamotho Waiganjo has called for the
abolishing of the death penalty charge for crimes.
"Death penalty has not been practised since 1987. This shows that it only
exists in the Kenyan Constitution on paper.
Therefore it does not apply," the former constitution implementation
commissioner said.
Waiganjo asserts that the death penalty charge is ineffective and irrelevant.
He spoke at a time 2 Somalis in Mandera were sentenced to death by hanging
after being found guilty of robbery with violence and murder.
According to the Commissioner for Prisons, the number of inmates who are on
death row in Kenya stands at 1,582.
Kenya national Commission of Human Rights holds a strong position that death
penalty amounts to "cruel, inhumane and degrading.
The rights lobby also contends that enhancement of human dignity and protection
of human entitlements will be reinforced if the death penalty is abolished.
In the pre-colonial Kenya, death penalty was applied on serious crimes such as
witchcraft, sorcery and murder especially among the Kisii, Turkana and Luo
communities.
(source: The Star)
PHILIPPINES/INDONESIA:
Mary Jane Veloso: what happened to the woman who escaped execution in
Indonesia? ---- Filipina who was temporarily spared at 11th hour, as the Bali 9
pair and 6 others were killed, remains on death row amid uncertain future
A woman who was temporarily spared death by firing squad last year remains on
death row in Indonesia with her life precariously wagered on an slow-moving
court case.
Mary Jane Veloso won sympathy in her home country of the Philippines, as well
as within Indonesia, after she said she was duped into smuggling drugs. And in
a shock turnaround, Indonesian president Joko Widodo - known as Jokowi -
delayed her killing with a temporary reprieve just hours before she was due to
be executed in April 2015.
Indonesia shot dead 8 others that night, including 2 Australians, Andrew Chan
and Myuran Sukumaran, who fought a years-long campaign for clemency and were
part of the Bali 9 heroin-smuggling ring. 4 Nigerians, a Brazilian and an
Indonesian were also killed.
Sparing the domestic worker and mother-of-2 was unexpected and several Filipino
newspapers wrongly reported on their front pages the next day that she had been
killed. The Philippine Daily Inquirer ran the headline: "Death came before
Dawn."
But in the year that has passed, the outburst of joy and relief has given way
to a lengthy human trafficking trial in the Philippines and no guarantees that
Veloso will be taken off death row even if she can prove she was tricked.
Migrante International, a group that promotes the rights of overseas Filipino
workers, says Veloso's life depends of the speedy trial and conviction of her
accused traffickers, Maria Kristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao.
But the group complains that the defence has employed delaying tactics by
filing motion after motion to keep the case in the early stages of legal
proceedings.
"Mary Jane is still facing the threat of execution," Migrante International
vice-chair Rina Anastacio told the Guardian. "Unfortunately the trial is going
very slowly."
Hours before Veloso was due to be killed last year, Sergio handed herself in to
police in Manila, and the Philippines president, Benigno Aquino, made an appeal
to his Indonesian counterpart on the basis that Veloso would be needed as a
witness in the case against her alleged recruiter.
Key to the last-minute reprieve was that the Philippines invoked a regional
treaty (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations mutual legal assistance
treaty, or Asean MLAT) signed to fight transnational crimes in south-east Asia,
which obliges Indonesia to help provide Veloso as a witness to the human
trafficking court case.
Filipino officials have travelled to Indonesia to discuss the case that they
hope can save her life.
Activists fear that Veloso, who has already been convicted in an Indonesian
court, could yet be executed if the trial is overly delayed, as she is being
kept alive only to give testimony. Her supporters want the Indonesian
government to allow Veloso to fly home so she can testify in person in court.
They hope a swift conviction in the Philippines will show that Veloso was a
pawn and might persuade Indonesia to spare her life.
The plan is far from certain. Indonesian officials suggest executions could
restart again this year after a short hiatus, and the attorney general said in
January the country was "ready" to execute Veloso.
Attorney general Prasetyo told Rappler: "We will look at the verdict, perhaps
the verdict can be new evidence to appeal for clemency from the president. But
surely Mary Jane will not be free from punishment. The fact is that she
smuggled drugs to Indonesia."
Veloso's lawyer Edre Olalia lamented the slow pace of the human trafficking
case. "After 1 year, we have unfortunately only presented her sister as
prosecution witness so far. This week, we are calling her mother to the witness
stand," he said.
Olalia said Veloso was given a reprieve following what he described as bold
legal tactics and an overwhelming local and international campaign - "and her
peculiar circumstance of being a credible victim of human trafficking plus the
human side of her being a young, poor mother of little boys forced by poverty
to work abroad".
Veloso, who fled Dubai after an attempted rape and moved to Indonesia via
Malaysia to find work, says she was tricked by a trafficking gang to smuggle
2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin 6 years ago. The drugs were found in the lining of her
suitcase at Yogyakarta airport.
Olalia joined Veloso';s parents and children during a prison visit in January
to celebrate her 31st birthday. He said: "Her family communicates with her by
phone from time to time."
Yohanes Sulaiman, a lecturer and political analyst at Indonesia's Universitas
Jenderal Achmad Yan, said Veloso's story resonated with Indonesians who, like
Filipinos, have a large emigrant population, some of whom are exploited. "Lots
of people here in Indonesia were against her execution because her story was so
close to home ... it's not unlike Indonesians in the Middle East."
With the potential for public anger following her still-planned execution,
Sulaiman said: "The Indonesian government had to be really sure that Mary Jane
is what they consider as a big dealer. Not just a mule."
He suggested that if a new date was set for her death by firing squad, there
might be "uproar again", but added: "The wheels of justice grind very slowly
here in Indonesia, so people tend to get distracted. It is hard to maintain
pressure over Mary Jane."
Indonesia has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws in the world and the
president says the nation is facing a "drug emergency", calling for a stronger
fight, including rejecting clemency.
Since Widodo took office, 14 drug convicts have been executed. Most of them
were foreigners. Close to 90 convicted drug traffickers are currently on death
row in Indonesia.
Capital punishment was outlawed in the Philippines in 2006.
(source: The Guardian)
************************
Death by firing squad is barbaric. I know, I saw it.----An Australian pastor
was the last person to see Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran alive. Here, she
reveals what really happened in the last few minutes of their lives.
On the 12th of January this year, Christie Buckingham crawled into a ball on
the sofa and sobbed.
It should have been the 32nd birthday of her friend, convicted drug trafficker
Andrew Chan, but he was dead.
She didn't want to speak with anyone, she didn't want any consolation.
It was the 1st time she'd allowed herself a moment to cry since witnessing the
brutal execution of Andrew and fellow "Bali 9 ringleader" Myuran Sukumaran last
April, and she hoped this outpouring of tears would wash away some of the
grief.
"I wept for the waste," she says. "I wept for the total senselessness of it and
the overwhelming feeling of injustice. It's just too awful."
Christie was the last person to see the young Australians alive.
The mother of 3, a minister at Melbourne's Bayside Church, had been one of the
pastoral carers to the convicted drug traffickers while they were on death row
at Bali's notorious Kerobokan Prison.
When their final appeal for clemency was rejected in January last year, Myuran
asked her to be his official witness at the execution.
As the first anniversary of their deaths approaches, Christie has agreed to
share intensely painful memories of that night to fulfil a pledge she made to
Andrew and Myuran that she'd never give up fighting against the death penalty.
"Every day, Myu made me promise I would speak up and even in his final minutes,
when he was chained to the pole waiting to be shot, he made me reiterate my
vow. Death by firing squad is so utterly barbaric and it achieves absolutely
nothing.
"I was told on the night that if Myu didn't die instantly, I would have to
witness them shooting him in the head. I didn't know this beforehand; it was my
worst nightmare. As a mother, it was so important to me how the family received
him back. I couldn't let them see their son with a bullet in his head and I
didn't want him to have any pain."
There are 2 distinct memories that will haunt the petite Irish-born cleric
forever: the sound of the shackles rattling as the guards chained the prisoners
onto makeshift wooden crucifixes to be shot and the thunderous noise of the
200-strong firing squad leaving the killing fields after the execution (4
Nigerians, an Indonesian and a Brazilian were also executed at the time).
"The shooters had 60 seconds to leave the area after firing and I hadn't given
any thought to what that sound would be like, it was terrifying," she says.
"The total silence after they'd gone was something of a strange relief because
I knew then that Myu had died instantly."
How she became involved with the Bali 9
Christie Buckingham had no intention of becoming involved with the so-called
Bali 9.
In fact, she had zero sympathy for the 9 young Australians who were arrested in
Bali in April 2005 for attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from
Indonesia into Australia.
She even wrote in her journal at the time, "how dumb can you get and still
breathe, nevertheless God, still show your mercy".
One of Christie's closest friends from Bible college, Gayle Bonnet-Dwjie had
established a church in Bali helping prisoners and the poor.
They had cut their missionary teeth together helping drug addicts on the
streets of St Kilda in Melbourne.
Gayle's church was supporting Australian Schapelle Corby, who was arrested in
2004 for bringing cannabis into Bali, and she asked Christie's congregation to
pray for her, too.
When Christie and her husband, fellow minister Rob, visited Bali for a
conference, Gayle invited them to Kerobokan to meet the young Australian
prisoners.
"I was reluctant because there was such a media circus around Schapelle,"
Christie says, "but niggling me in the back of my mind was the scripture, 'I
was in prison and you visited me'."
Christie says she instantly knew the boys were rehabilitated.
By that stage, Andrew had established a church inside Kerobokan and Myuran had
found his calling teaching English, computer skills and art to others on death
row.
As she was leaving, Christie invited them to contact her if there was anything
they needed and within two weeks of returning to Australia, a letter arrived
from Andrew asking for first-aid supplies, books, pens, pencils and computer
equipment, so they could teach the other prisoners English.
"I've worked with people in this field for 30 years and I can spot a fake a
mile off, and I could see that these 2 boys were totally reformed and not only
did they want to rehabilitate themselves, but others, too," she says.
Never did Christie imagine, though, that she would be with them the moment they
died.
Each of the 8 prisoners executed was allowed a spiritual advisor to accompany
them, administer last rites, witness their death and sign their death
certificates.
When the boys' final legal appeal was rejected and their death warrant signed,
Andrew asked his long-time friend, Salvation Army chaplain, David Soper, to be
his witness and Myuran asked Christie to take on that role.
"I could not leave him in his darkest hour," she says. "I constantly thought
about how I would want my son or daughter to be treated and I fixed my mind on
that. I had a steely determination that no matter what happened, they were
going to be treated with dignity, despite the horrendous situation around
them."
The final farewell
At dusk on the evening of April 29, 2015, Christie and the other witnesses
farewelled the prisoner's families and legal teams at the port of Cilacap,
Indonesia, and boarded a small boat to Nusa Kambangan or "execution island" as
it is known.
The island of the damned houses 1500 death-row inmates in medieval concrete
cells dotted among dense rainforest, rubber plantations and fields of the
graves of those who???d already faced their fate.
It is at best inhospitable, at worst utterly gruesome.
Greeted by intense humidity and a haze of mosquitoes, Christie was taken to
Myuran's cell, where she faced the daunting task of calming his mind and soul,
while the minutes cruelly ticked down on his life.
The 1st thing he did was offer her the last of the chocolate he had been given
as a final treat.
They prayed, sang, joked and talked until just after midnight, when the guards
arrived to take them to the killing field.
As they were marched out of their cells, Andrew led the prisoners in a chorus
of Amazing Grace.
It was pitch black, but armed guards held a lantern at her feet so Christie
could see where she was going.
"We were down to the last few minutes and with every step I thought to myself,
'I'm still standing, I'm still breathing, keep going ... God, let me be what I
need to be for these boys'. Then I heard Andrew in his very ocker Australian
accent belt out, "Saviour he can move mountains, my God is mighty to save", and
we all sang back with him and the atmosphere changed instantly."
Christie was the last chaplain to leave the field.
She refused to go even though she could hear the marksmen lining up their
rifles behind her.
She placed her hand on Myuran's heart and asked if he felt any unforgiveness.
When he said, "No", she asked if he had any final words. He said, "I want to
forgive the people who have to do this."
The guards tapped Christie on the shoulder, but she refused to go. Behind her
the firing squad was lining up the prisoners' hearts with target lasers.
"I was aware of what was happening behind me, but I hadn't got Myuran into the
spiritual place where I'd promised I'd let him go. I put my hand up and said,
'1 more minute'." He was chained to the pole on an angle slightly higher than
her, so she stood on tippy toes and raised her arm high to block the line of
sight so he could not see the lasers dotting his chest.
"We started singing Bless the Lord and I said, 'Is there anything else you want
to say?' He said, 'I trust you, Jesus', and we kept on singing. The guard took
me by the arm then, so I said to My very calmly, 'I'm just going to take one
step back, My. Can you still hear me?' and he said, 'Yeah, I can hear you'.
Then I said, 'I'm going to take a few steps to the side, My. Can you still hear
me?' and he said, 'Yeah I can hear you', and we kept singing. Then I said, 'I
love you. I'll see you on the other side'."
As she was walking off, Andrew called to her.
"I rushed to Andrew and put my hand on his heart, and I said, 'Bless you,
Andrew, I love you and I'll see you on the other side', and he said, 'I love
you, too, Mrs B. Keep being God's woman', which is what he'd always said to me.
That moment will stay with me forever.
"I said to them, 'Keep singing', so Andrew started to sing again and as I
walked off to the side of the field where the other witnesses were, the guard
put up a plastic sheet to block our view and they fired. It was an ethereal
experience. I felt like I was watching it from the outside, but I was in it.
Whilst there was nothing right about their dying, they did everything with such
courage.
"I'm reluctant to talk about my grief because mine was not the biggest grief.
Their families were so incredibly courageous, under such duress, but equally,
they also carried so many people with their courage and spirit."
The executions that made headlines
The executions and the intense last-minute fight to stave them made headlines
around the word.
Thousands rallied against the death penalty and candlelight vigils were held in
Australia and overseas. Yet Christie says she was shocked by the level of
vitriol pitched towards Andrew and Myuran, and those wanting them to be freed.
"People I've never met wrote letters to me, rang me, tweeted me, dropped
horrible parcels at my door, like pictures of drug-addicted kids. That stupid
line 'They've done the crime, they should do the time' drives me crazy because
that's exactly what we wanted, that they pay time, not with their life."
Last May, A few days after returning from Nusa Kambangan, Christie stood at her
kitchen bench to light the candles on her youngest daughter's birthday cake.
She was struck by the surreality of the 2 worlds she'd been navigating. She
paused and stared at the 3 girls standing in front of her, aged 17, 14 and 7.
Her eldest, Gigi, is nearly the same age as the 2 youngest Bali Nine drug
mules, Scott Rush and Matthew Norman, were when they were arrested.
"It really hit me when I saw my own girls that, at that age, you make good
decisions and bad, that comes with being a teenager.
It shouldn't cost you your life. People deserve 2nd chances. Without 2nd
chances, there is no hope. In the words of Andrew Chan, we must keep hope
alive."
(source: The Australian Women's Weekly)
******************
Police have 30 days to make case against Jessica
The Jakarta Police have extended the detention of Jessica Kumala Wongso for
another 30 days. As the final extension of her detention period, the police
must present sufficient evidence against her in that time, or set her free.
Jessica, 27, who is suspected of murdering her friend Wayan Mirna Salihin, has
been in detention since Jan. 31. The Jakarta Police have extended her detention
until May 28, Jakarta Police general crimes division head Sr. Cmr. Krishna
Murti said on Thursday as reported by kompas.com.
Investigators have asked for the district court's permission for the detention
extension, he said.
Jessica was detained after the Jakarta Police named her as the sole suspect for
the murder of Mirna, who died after drinking a cyanide-tainted coffee at a cafe
in the Grand Indonesia mall in early January.
Police investigators are allowed to detain a suspect for a maximum 120 days
under the Criminal Law Procedures Code ( KUHAP ). However, if the police cannot
complete the dossiers before her detention period ends, then Jessica must be
released from detention, according to the KUHAP.
For the 90 days that Jessica has been in detention, the police's case dossier
has 2 times been rejected by the prosecutor's office as incomplete. The police
submitted the dossier to the prosecutor's office for the 3rd time on Friday.
The police seek to charge Jessica with pre-meditated murder. If she is found
guilty, she could face the death penalty.
Hidayat Bostam, one of Jessica's lawyers, said he came to the Jakarta Police
headquarters on Thursday to sign the detention extension and check on his
client's condition.
Jessica was unwell, and had complained of difficulty breathing, Bostam said,
adding that he would ask permission from the police to have a doctor check her
lungs.
(source: Jakarta Post)
****************
Fight goes on after Myuran and Andrew
When Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan faced their certain death last year,
pastor Christie Buckingham remembers how they sang Bless the Lord until the
end.
"(I remember) their kindness, their courage ... the way that they smiled at
those about to take their lives."
She also recalls the promise she made to continue their fight against the death
penalty.
Friday marks 1 year since the 2 men were executed by firing squad just after
midnight or 3.25am (AEST) on the island of Nusakambangan - 10 years after being
found guilty of smuggling 8.3kg of heroin out of Indonesia.
Sukumaran and Chan were among 14 drug traffickers executed in Indonesia last
year, amid intensifying condemnation from human rights activists and
international governments.
The pressure continues with German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressing her
country's wish for Indonesia to put an end to capital punishment, during
Indonesian President Joko Widodo's recent visit to Europe.
Despite this, Security Minister Luhut Panjaitan and Attorney General Muhammad
Prasetyo have flagged executions are likely to resume this year.
Head of Central Java's Corrections Division Molyanto said they were currently
building more isolation cells - where those awaiting execution are kept - at
Nusakambangan prison.
But he denied reports that the "execution field" is being extended.
Sukumaran and Chan's Australian barrister Julian McMahon said it was
"surprising" further executions were back on Indonesia's agenda.
"The fact is after the international dismay in April 2015 executions have now
stopped for 12 months. The reason has not been publicly identified, except by
reference to economic priorities. But most commentators think that
international reaction would be very relevant," he told AAP.
Indonesian lawyer Dr Todung Mulya Lubis - who tweeted "I failed. I lost" after
his clients' executions last year - has been campaigning against capital
punishment in the country since 1979.
Since then he feels they have made "small progress".
"We have made people aware of the death penalty ... I believe over time we will
be able to score some wins."
While he cannot see the abolition of the death penalty happening in Indonesia
"any time soon", he hopes a bill tabled before parliament last year might prove
a "middle way".
Under the proposed changes, if people show they have rehabilitated themselves,
they could see their execution commuted to a life sentence.
He also noted "the international campaign must also be more tactful not to
embarrass Indonesia".
According to the Commission for Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS)
in Indonesia, more than 100 people are on death row in the country. Just over
half of these are for murder while two face capital punishment for terrorism
offences.
The rest are due to be executed for drug offences.
Mr McMahon said "this week was proving very difficult for the families as they
come to grips with their own grief and the loss of Andrew and Myuran."
In their last few years, he said the pair had "uplifted, educated and improved
many prisoners."
"If they had lived that example would have so easily multiplied out for the
benefit of more and more prisoners."
(source: The Mercury)
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