May 5
PAKISTAN:
Convicted kidnapper: Man sentenced to death
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday handed down death sentence to a man
for kidnapping a jeweller, and taking ransom before releasing him.
Special Judge ATC-II Asif Majeed Awan convicted Amir alias "Teddy" for
kidnapping Saleem Iqbal and obtaining Rs100,000 as ransom for his safe release.
The court also ordered confiscation of moveable and immovable assets of the
convict.
Iqbal said that Amir kidnapped him at gunpoint and asked his brother for
Rs100,000 as ransom.
He said his brother paid the ransom for his release.
The court handed down the death penalty on counts of kidnapping for ransom and
terrorism.
(source: The Express Tribune)
INDONESIA:
Fate of foreign death row inmates unknown as Indonesia prepares for new round
of executions
Despite having drawn heavy condemnation from governments and human rights
groups, Indonesia is gearing up for another round of executions, but the fate
of the foreign death row inmates remains uncertain.
A police official said Indonesian authorities were preparing the location of
the sentencing and the firing squad at Nusakambangan Island. This was taking
place a year after foreign nationals were executed for drug-related offences.
"We have had a warning since last month to prepare the place," Central Java
provincial police spokesman Aloysius Lilik Darmanto told Reuters on Wednesday.
"We carried out some rehabilitation of the location like painting and repairs
because there will probably be more people who will be executed."
Darmanto also said members of the firing squad were currently receiving
training and counselling.
However, it was still uncertain how many would receive the death sentence in
the impending round of executions and whether it involved any foreign
nationals.
On April 29 last year, Indonesia executed 7 foreigners and one Indonesian for
drug crimes amid intense international pressure to stop the executions.
Filipina mother-of-2 Mary Jane Voloso, who was part of the group, was given a
late reprieve.
Among the 8 were Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. The other
foreigners were 3 Nigerian men, 1 Ghanian and 1 Brazilian. Last year, 14
executions were carried out, inciting protests from the international
community.
Veloso is also reported to be spared from the coming round of executions
pending her testimony in a Filipino court against against Maria Kristina
Sergio, who is accused of duping her into smuggling 2.6 kilogrammes of heroin
into Indonesia, Coconuts Jakarta reported.
A British grandmother convicted of smuggling $2.5 million worth of cocaine into
the resort island of Bali in 2012 is also among those currently on death row.
57-year-old Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced by a district court to face a
firing squad after she was found guilty of the charges.
During the trial, she said she was forced to carry the drugs by a gang that
threatened to hurt her children. She lost an appeal 3 months later after the
Bali High Court upheld the lower court???s ruling.
Last month, Indonesian president Joko Widodo said his administration was firm
on use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses, calling drug trafficking
a "national emergency".
According to a report published by Amenesty International last month, at least
367 executions were carried out in 12 Asia-Pacific countries. The figure was a
huge increase on the 32 executions in nine countries recorded in 2014, almost
exclusively due to the rise in Pakistan.
Meanwhile in Singapore, the family of a Malaysian man on death-row for killing
a construction worker in a botched robbery attempt has launched a petition
urging for clemency.
The petition comes after the 31-year-old Kho Jabing exhausted all legal avenues
following an appeal by prosecutors to overturn the 2013 sentence to life
imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane last year.
Last month, the appeals court in Singapore threw out his 11th-hour bid to quash
the death sentence.
Kho and his friend reportedly killed Chinese national Cao Ruyin during a
robbery attempt in Geylang Drive in 2010.
(source: asiancorrespondent.com)
****************
Police: Indonesia set to resume executions----Indonesian President Joko Widodo
has repeatedly insisted that drug traffickers must face the firing squad to
stem rising narcotics use.
Indonesia is preparing for a new round of executions, police said Wednesday,
around a year after Jakarta sparked global outrage by putting seven foreign
drug convicts to death by firing squad.
Officials recently started getting ready after an order from the
attorney-general's office, which oversees executions, said Central Java police
spokesman Aloysius Lilik Darmanto.
He said no date had been set for the executions, which will take place on the
prison island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, and he did not know who would
face the firing squad.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has repeatedly insisted that drug traffickers
must face the firing squad to stem rising narcotics use. There are scores of
drug convicts on death row in the country, including Indonesians and
foreigners. "We have been making preparations," Darmanto told AFP. "We are
ready whenever the order comes."
There has been growing speculation in recent weeks that executions were set to
resume after a year-long hiatus, but high-ranking officials in Jakarta have so
far said little. There was no immediate comment Wednesday from the
attorney-general's office.
The execution in April last year of 7 foreigners - 2 Australians, a Brazilian
and 4 Nigerians - and an Indonesian for drug offences sparked international
fury.
Since then, no one else has been put to death, but officials had continued to
insist publicly that it was the country's right to use capital punishment.
Among the foreigners on death row are Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and Filipina Mary
Jane Veloso, who were both pulled from the last round of executions.
A British grandmother, Lindsay Sandiford, is on death row in Bali after she was
caught smuggling a huge stash of cocaine into the resort island.
Darmanto said preparations included ensuring locations where the executions
would take place were ready. For last year's executions, the drug convicts were
taken to a jungle clearing on the island, which houses several high-security
prisons, and tied to stakes before being shot.
"We have also prepared the facility for the bodies," he said.
"Each death row convict will face a group of 10 shooters and one group
commander. We have selected and trained the personnel."
The executions last year of Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran in particular caused tensions, with Indonesia's neighbour Australia
temporarily recalling its ambassador from Jakarta.
(source: Free Malaysia Today)
BANGLADESH:
Bangladesh court rejects Islamist leader's final death sentence appeal ----
Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of Jamaat-e-Islami party, could face hanging at
any time
Bangladesh's supreme court has rejected a final appeal by the leader of the top
Islamist party against a death sentence for atrocities committed during the
1971 war of independence, lawyers say, meaning he could be hanged at any time.
The supreme court in January upheld the death penalty for Motiur Rahman Nizami,
head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, for genocide, rape and orchestrating the
massacre of top intellectuals during the 1971 war.
Nizami, 73, a former legislator and minister under Khaleda Zia when she was
prime minister, has been in jail since 2010, when he was charged with war
crimes by a tribunal set up by the current prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, that
year.
The war crimes tribunal has sparked violence and drawn criticism from
opposition politicians, including leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, that it is
victimising Hasina's political opponents.
"All the legal battles are over," Nizami's lawyer, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain,
told reporters on Thursday. "Now it is up to him whether he will seek clemency
from the president or not."
Hundreds of people flooded the streets of the capital, Dhaka, to cheer the
verdict, but there has been no report of violence, although Jamaat called a
nationwide strike for Sunday in protest.
Authorities have deployed additional security forces in Dhaka and elsewhere as
similar previous judgments triggered violence that killed around 200, mainly
Jamaat activists and police.
No Peace Without Justice, a non-profit body based in Italy, has called the
tribunal's proceedings "a weapon of politically influenced revenge whose real
aim is to target the political opposition".
The government denies the accusations.
The verdict comes as the Muslim-majority nation suffers a surge in militant
violence in which atheist bloggers, academics, religious minorities and foreign
aid workers have been killed.
In the last month alone, 5 people, including a university teacher, two gay
activists and a Hindu have been hacked to death by suspected Islamist
militants.
The government has blamed the increase in Islamist violence on Jamaat-e-Islami,
but the group denies any link to the attacks.
4 opposition politicians, including three Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, have been
convicted by the war crimes tribunal and executed since late 2013.
About 3 million people were killed, official figures show, and thousands of
women were raped, during the 9-month war, in which some factions, including the
Jamaat-e-Islami, opposed the break from what was then called West Pakistan. But
the party denies that its leaders committed any atrocities.
(source: The Guardian)
****************
Noose tightens on Nizami for war crimes as Bangladesh Jamaat chief loses last
legal battle
Bangladesh's highest court of appeals has thrown out top war criminal Motiur
Rahman Nizami's last-ditch appeal to review his death penalty for atrocities
during the 1971 War of Independence.
The Supreme Court's decision clears the final legal hurdle for the government
to hang the Jamaat-e-Islami chief for directing rapes, mass murders, and
massacre of intellectuals to stop Bangladesh emerge out of Pakistan as an
independent nation.
But the former Al-Badr militia chief can beg President Md Abdul Hamid to save
his neck, but he will have to repent of his crimes.
In the event he decides that he will not seek mercy, or if the president turns
down a clemency petition from him, the government will execute the death
sentence.
The 4-strong Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar
Sinha pronounced single-word judgment on Thursday.
The top judge took his seat in a tense court room and only uttered,
"Dismissed".
The other members of the bench were justices Nazmun Ara Sultana, Syed AB Mahmud
Husain and Hasan Foez Siddique.
On Mar 16, the death warrant issued by the International Crimes Tribunal was
read out to Nizami after the Supreme Court published the full copy of his
verdict the day before.
He moved the chief justice-led court on Mar 29 to review his death penalty,
well before the 15-day time limit for the last legal recourse. The court heard
arguments for some 2 1/2 hours on Tuesday.
Assisted by SM Shahjahan, Khandker Mahbub Hossain argued for Nizami at the
court hearings on his review appeal filed.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the State and he was aided by
Additional Attorney General Md Momtaz Uddin Fakir and Assistant Attorney
General Bashir Ahmed.
An official of the Supreme Court Registrar's Office said a certified copy of
the full verdict on the review petition will soon be sent via the tribunal to
Dhaka Central jail.
Nizami, a close confidante of Jamaat ideologue and another war criminal Ghulam
Azam, who had died in prison, is now lodged in Kashimpur prison in Gazipur.
His counsels said that Nizami and his family will decide whether to go for
presidential clemency.
"All the legal battles are over," said lawyer SM Shajahan, who assisted chief
defence counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain at the court hearings on the review
plea.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said that the whole nation was
relieved over the verdict.
"It finally secured justice for the killings of intellectuals. Nizami inspired
the Al-Badr and was responsible for the massacre of the intellectuals."
The highest appeals court's decision was greeted with celebrations and
handshakes outside the courtroom and enlivened by full-throated slogans in the
streets.
It elicited jubilation and relief among war veterans and supporters of war
crimes trial who had pushed for maximum penalty, including the Ganajagaran
Mancha.
Mancha activists and supporters brought at a procession at Dhaka's Shahbagh
intersection as soon as the verdict was pronounced.
"The scrapping of review plea concludes all the legal proceedings. This is a
major victory for the people of Bangladesh.
"The nation has waited long for the notorious war criminal's punishment," said
Mancha spokesperson Imran H Sarker.
The Jamaat supremo is the fifth war criminal to carry a verdict for maximum
punishment that is at the final stages of execution. He is the second
politician after his deputy Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid to have served as
minister and going to be hanged for war-time atrocities.
On Jan 6 this year, this appellate court rejected a plea to overturn his
conviction and the death sentence given by a special war tribunal's verdict.
In its verdict on Nizami's appeal, the apex court had said nothing short of a
death sentence can be the apt punishment given the gravity of the horrific
crimes he had committed.
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), in Oct 29, 2014 verdict, found the
former influential minister in BNP chief Khaleda Zia's government guilty of 8
out of the 16 charges.
The 72-year old divisive figure from Pabna was the chief of Islami Chhatra
Sangha, then the student wing of Jamaat. He commanded the Al-Badr militia
created by the Pakistan Army that was notorious for its ruthlessness.
He was also instrumental in the formation and running of the Razakar and Peace
Committee, forces to help the Pakistan generals.
The Al-Badr brigade had gone on a genocidal rampage to cleanse the Bengali
nation-in-the-making. Its loyalists killed some of the best brains who formed
the spine of secular nationalism that undermined Pakistan's race-based founding
principles.
Most of them were killed just a few days before the final victory on Dec 16.
The Jamaat linchpin already carries death penalty handed down in 2014 for his
role in arms trafficking related to Chittagong 10-truck arms haul case.
The 5 appeals verdicts of war crimes cases handed down so far are of Jamaat
assistant secretaries general Quader Molla and Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, secretary
general Mujahid, the party's Nayeb-e-Amir Delwar Hossain Sayedee, and BNP
leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
Sayedee's death sentence was commuted to prison term until death.
The 4 others' death sentences were upheld and they have been executed.
Ghulam Azam, who led the party during the war, and former BNP minister Abdul
Alim died while waiting for the hearing of their appeals.
From killing grounds to the Cabinet
Born on Mar 31, 1943 in Monmothpur village of Pabna's Santhia Upazila, Nizami
succeeded his guru at the helm in 2000.
He was chosen for the top job after he led the party's Dhaka City unit for 4
years until 1982.
A year later, he was made assistant secretary general before being promoted to
secretary general in 1988.
He got his Kamil degree in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) from Dhaka's
Madrasa-e-Alia in 1963.
Nizami later graduated from the Dhaka University in 1967.
Inspired by the political preaching of Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi, who founded
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in Lahore in 1941, Nizami joined its student wing Chhatra
Sangha.
He swiftly rose through the ranks of the political outfit, operating in the
then West and East Pakistan, and became Chhatra Sangha president in 1966.
Nizami retained the post for the following 5 years and throughout Bangladesh's
struggle for independence from Pakistan.
After the war, Nizami fled with Ghulam Azam to the UK.
In 1978, Bangladesh's 1st military dictator Gen Ziaur Rahman repatriated them
and brought Jamaat back into politics.
Nizami was elected to Parliament in 1991 and again in 2001 on a BNP-led
coalition ticket.
He served as the agriculture minister until 2003 and thereafter as industries
minister until 2006.
(source: bdnews24.xom)
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