May 13
SINGAPORE----impending execution
Kho Jabing to be hanged next Friday----Family of Sarawakian convicted of murder
in Singapore told to make arrangements for his body to be flown back to Miri
after execution.
Sarawakian Kho Jabing is set to be executed by Singapore's prison authorities
next Friday.
According to Malay Mail Online today, the convicted killer's sister, Jumai Kho
said that they received a letter 2 days ago from Singapore, notifying them of
the scheduled execution.
She said the letter, which was addressed to her mother Lenduk Baling, asked the
family to make preparations to take Jabing's body back to Miri after the
execution. Lenduk is in shock and unable to accept the news.
Jumai said the family was working with NGO "We Believe in 2nd Chances", to fly
to Singapore, and are also assessing the options available.
She told the portal that the family had been under the impression that Kho
would be spared the noose, pending a fresh clemency petition they had intended
to push through last month.
Kho's 1st plea for clemency was rejected in October last year.
Kho, 31, from Ulu Baram, Sarawak, was found guilty of killing a Chinese
construction worker with a tree branch in 2008 during a robbery attempt. He was
sentenced to death in 2010.
In 2013, the Singapore government amended the mandatory death penalty that gave
judges the discretion to choose between death and life imprisonment with caning
for murder, as well as certain cases of drug trafficking.
In August 2013, following revisions to the mandatory death penalty laws, the
High Court sentenced him to life and 24 strokes of the cane instead. It was
then again revised to the death penalty after the prosecution challenged the
decision before the Court of Appeal.
Kho was scheduled to be executed on Nov 6, but received a stay the day before
after his lawyer filed a motion raising points of law about the case's
handling.
(source: freemalaysiatoday.com)
*******************
Halt Kho Jabing's Execution
http://www.amnestyusa.org/get-involved/take-action-now/singapore-halt-kho-jabing-s-execution-ua-10315
(source: Amnesty International USA)
BANGLADESH:
Turkey, Pakistan Protest Nizami Execution
Diplomatic fallout from Bangladesh's execution of the chief of the country's
largest faith-based party grew Thursday when Turkey summoned home its
ambassador to Dhaka after condemning the hanging.
The "Turkish Foreign Ministry has asked Turkey's ambassador to Bangladesh to
report to Ankara for consultations in the aftermath of hanging of a senior
Jamaat-e-Islami party leader in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka," Turkey's
state-run Anatolia News Agency reported Thursday, citing an unnamed diplomatic
source.
Meanwhile, a diplomatic row between Bangladesh and Pakistan escalated over
Wednesday's hanging of Motiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes allegedly committed
during the Bangladeshi war of independence in 1971, when the country was known
as East Pakistan.
On Thursday Turkish ambassador Devrim Ozturk boarded a homeward flight, a day
after Turkey's foreign ministry issued a statement condemning the execution of
Nizami, the chief of the opposition Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) party,
Bangladeshi officials said.
"The Turkish ambassador left Dhaka at 6:20 a.m. Thursday on a Turkish airlines
flight," Kazi Imtiaz Mashroor, the officer-in-charge of immigration at the
Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, told BenarNews.
However, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam told reporters that
the Turkish government had not officially informed Dhaka about a recall of its
ambassador.
"He [Ozturk] has informed us that he would be out of the country from May 12.
And he also informed us who would be serving as ambassador in his absence,"
Alam said, without naming who would assume that role.
The statement from the Turkish foreign ministry pointed out that Turkey had
abolished capital punishment.
"We strongly condemn the execution, since we do not believe that Nizami
deserved such a punishment and wish God's mercy upon the deceased," the
statement said.
"For the protection of social harmony and peace in Bangladesh, we have in the
last three years repeatedly called upon the leaders of Bangladesh at the
highest level to suspend the execution of death sentences and conveyed our
concerns that the practice of capital punishment may cause new tension in the
society due to its unjust nature," the ministry added.
Elsewhere, Pakistan on Thursday summoned Bangladesh's acting high commissioner
in Islamabad, Nazmul Huda, to deliver a "strong protest" letter. Hours later,
Bangladesh summoned Pakistan's envoy to Dhaka, Shuja Alam, and delivered its
own protest letter.
"The attempts by the government of Bangladesh to malign Pakistan, despite our
keen desire to develop brotherly relations with it, are regrettable,"
Pakistan's foreign ministry said a statement.
On Wednesday, the Pakistani parliament adopted a resolution denouncing Nizami's
execution.
'Very tough'
Former Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury described Ankara's
apparent decision to recall its ambassador as an act of protest over Nizami's
execution as extreme.
"Pakistan has not recalled its ambassador, but Turkey has. So, the events show
that they are very tough on this issue," he told BenarNews.
He said Turkey also reacted angrily when Bangladesh executed its 1st convicted
war criminal in December 2013.
"The current President [then Prime Minister] Recep Tayyip Erdogan telephoned
our prime minister and expressed his frustration about the execution of Abdul
Kader Molla," Chowdhury said.
The United States, where the death penalty is enforced, was among countries and
organizations voicing concern about whether Nizami and other convicted war
criminals like him had received a fair trial by the International Crimes
Tribunal (ICT), the Bangladeshi court that has been trying and sentencing to
death suspected war criminals from 1971.
Hours before Nizami's execution, the U.S. State Department on Tuesday called
for improving the judicial process in Bangladesh while expressing misgivings
about executions there.
"While we have seen limited progress in some cases, we still believe that
further improvements to the ICT process could ensure these proceedings meet
domestic and international obligations. Until these obligations can be
consistently met, we have concerns about proceeding with executions," State
Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said.
"Again, we support bringing to justice those who committed crimes during the
war of independence, but we also have remaining concerns about proceeding with
executions under these conditions which we will raise with the Government of
Bangladesh."
War crimes
JeI opposed the war of independence in 1971. The party sided with the Pakistan
army even as civilians, including minority Hindus, were killed.
Bangladesh claims that 3 million people, including 300,000 women, were killed
between March and December 1971, a figure rejected by Pakistan.
JeI formed armed auxiliary units to stop efforts for Bangladeshi independence.
Nizami was the head of 1 such armed group, al-Badr that was held responsible
for the extermination of leading Bengali intellectuals on Dec. 14, 1971 - 2
days before the Pakistani army surrendered in Dhaka.
Nizami was hanged in Dhaka for the killings of intellectuals and "genocide" in
his hometown Pabna. The JeI student front, Islami Chhatra Shibir, on Wednesday
clashed with police in the cities of Chittagong and Rajshahi over holding of a
gayebana janaza (funeral prayer in absentia).
JeI called for a countrywide general strike on Thursday, which passed without
incident, according to authorities.
(source: BenarNews)
PHILIPPINES:
Rodrigo Duterte on crime and punishment
As mayor of the Philippines southern city of Davao, Rodrigo Duterte was known
as "the punisher", whose profanity-packed speeches and death threats to drug
gangs helped propel him to the Philippines presidency in the May 9 election.
Here are some of the things he's had to say about how he would deal with
criminals.
"Forget the laws on human rights. If I make it to the presidential palace, I
will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and
do-nothings, you better go out. Because I'd kill you."
"I'll dump all of you (criminals) into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish
there."
- Final campaign rally on May 7 in Manila
"You talk about summary killings? I'm sorry, bad guys were killed. But what
about the people who were abused? Who takes care of them?"
- Remarks to Reuters in Davao during the campaign.
"I say let's kill f5 criminals every week, so they will be eliminated."
- Vowing to revive the death penalty.
"Stop or leave. If you can not or will not, you will not survive. You can
either leave vertically or horizontally."
- Telling criminals to avoid coming to Davao when he was mayor.
"If you are accusing me of killing people, then sue me and I will kill you as
well."
- Remarks during the campaign.
(source: Reuters)
INDONESIA:
Death-Row Inmates Without the World Noticing
15 inmates will face the firing squad in Indonesia's next round of executions.
5 are Indonesians. The rest, according to local media, are foreign - 4 Chinese,
1 Pakistani, 2 Nigerians, 2 Senegalese and 1 Zimbabwean. The composition of
execution lineup suggests an attempt to avoid the intense international
attention and outcry that happened when Jakarta executed a total of 14 drug
convicts last year - all but 2 of them foreign citizens. Then, there were
rallies and social-media campaigns for the Australian Bali 9 ringleaders Andrew
Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Filipina migrant worker Mary Jane Veloso and
Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, urging President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to pardon the
condemned.
There is unlikely to be the same kind of uproar when the prison authorities in
the penal island of Nusakambangan conduct the next round of executions,
however.
7 of the 10 foreigners set to be executed came from countries that implement
the death penalty (China, Pakistan and Nigeria). The remaining 3 foreign
citizens came from poor African countries: Zimbabwe, which is moving toward
eliminating capital punishment, and Senegal, which abolished death penalty more
than a decade ago.
The 5 Indonesian inmates have been transferred to the Nusakambangan in the past
month - 3 of them last Sunday - raising speculation that executions are
imminent. The government hasn't announced the execution date and convicts'
identities, however.
"The executions can take place any time, but there will not be a 'soap opera'
about it this time," Chief Security Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told journalists
recently.
Todung Mulya Lubis, human-rights lawyer and anti-death-penalty advocate,
believes there will be some public outcry over the executions. "But it won't be
as much as last year," Todung, who represented Australian drug convicts Chan
and Sukumaran, tells TIME.
Chan and Sukumaran were executed in April 2015, along with the mentally ill
Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte and 5 other men. But, the government suspended
Veloso's and Atlaoui's executions, pending their separate legal cases. The
Filipina and the Frenchman are not among the inmates slated to be executed
soon.
Several countries, including Australia, the Netherlands and Brazil, recalled
their ambassadors in protest of the 2015 executions. German Chancellor Angela
Merkel told Jokowi, who visited Berlin last month, of her opposition to capital
punishment, but the Indonesian leader defended its use. "There are between 30
and 50 people in Indonesia dying per day because of drugs," Jokowi said, once
again quoting figures that are questioned by public-health experts.
Following public condemnation of a rape-murder of a schoolgirl last month, the
government is also weighing the death penalty for rape offenders.
Indonesian Attorney-General H.M. Prasetyo said that the present inmates to be
put of death are all drug offenders "so they know we are really at war with
drugs." But many rights activists say capital punishment does little to deter
drug crime, with the number of drug convicts rising despite the executions last
year.
(source: TIME magazine)
MALAYSIA:
2 soldiers, 3 others face death penalty over snooker parlour murder
2 soldiers and 3 others found themselves in the dock over the alleged murder of
their friend at a snooker centre in Kuala Lumpur.
Mohamad Hairul Abdullah, Lawrance Anak Masing, and the 3 - security guard M.
Yogesvaran, shop assistant Zaidi Zainal, and jewelry shop supervisor Chong Kai
Weng - were calm when charged at the Magistrate's Court today.
Hairul, 33, Lawrance, 32, Yogesvaran, 23, Zaidi, 31, and Chong, 31, indicated
they understood the charge read to them involving victim Mohd Yusof Abd Khalib,
26. No plea was recorded.
The5 friends were accused of being part of an illegal gathering that led to
Yusof's murder at the snooker centre at Taman Intan Baiduri here, between
8.30pm and 11pm on May 1.
Police detained them on separate occasions after the incident: Yogesvaran on
May 4; Hairul and Lawrance on May 5; and Zaidi and Chong on May 8.
The5 men face the death penalty if convicted under Section 149 of the
Penal Code, read with Section 302 of the same law.
Magistrate Siti Radziah Kamarudin did not grant bail and fixed July 22 for
mention.
Deputy public prosecutor Nor Diana Nor Azwa prosecuted while counsel Afifuddin
Ahmad Hafifi acted for Chong. The other four accused were unrepresented.
(source: New Straits Times)
TAIWAN:
Supreme Prosecutors' Office defends swift execution of Taipei metro killer
The judiciary followed proper procedure and defense lawyers filing an
extraordinary appeal cannot be the basis for suspending procedures to carry out
a death sentence, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office said yesterday in response to
controversy surrounding the execution of convicted Taipei MRT killer Cheng
Chieh. Cheng's lawyers, Liang Chia-ying, Huang Chih-hao and Lin Chun-hung,
tried to win a last-minute reprieve for their client by submitting an
extraordinary appeal to the prosecutor-general on Tuesday night, seeking a stay
of execution.
However, the document arrived at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office at 9pm, 13
minutes after Cheng's execution, with the 1st gunshot fired by the executioner
at 8:47pm.
The defense lawyers said in a statement that the judiciary had violated
judicial procedure throughout the case and kept the decision to order Cheng's
execution secret, adding that they were in the process of filing for an
extraordinary appeal, seeking a retrial and wanted a constitutional
interpretation by the Council of Grand Justices.
"The Ministry of Justice carried out the execution swiftly and did not contact
the family of the accused or defense lawyers. This resulted in the accused not
having sufficient time to allow the defense to initiate 'criminal special aid
procedures,' and this is a deprivation of the accused right to life. It has
violated international human rights conventions, and we regret what has taken
place," the lawyers said.
The Supreme Prosecutors' Office said the proper judicial procedures for
carrying out capital punishment had been followed and cited a need to maintain
secrecy upon approval of an execution order.
It said that there are no legal requirements to contact the prisoner's family,
or defense lawyers prior to an execution.
"Even if the extraordinary appeal was submitted before carrying out the
execution, according to The Code of Criminal Procedure, it cannot serve as the
basis to suspend the said procedure," it said.
Cheng left a will for his family, written after the Supreme Court's final
verdict on April 22 upholding 4 death sentences.
He also reportedly wrote a short apology to his family.
The EU yesterday issued a statement urging the government to introduce an
immediate moratorium on the death penalty following Cheng's execution. Saying
that it recognizes the serious nature of the crimes and expresses sympathy to
all those who suffered, it added that the "death penalty can never be justified
as it has no deterrent effect ... [the EU] calls for its universal abolition."
(source: Taipei Times)
EGYPT:
Egyptian court rules death sentence for 2 Al-Jazeera journalists; Mohamed
Mursi's verdict postponed
An Egyptian court on Saturday, May 7 ruled a death sentence for 6 individuals
including 2 Al Jazeera journalists on charges of endangering national security
by passing over important documents to Qatar during the administration of
ousted president Mohamed Mursi.
According to Reuters, the 2 Al Jazeera journalists facing death penalty are
Jordanian national news producer, Alaa Omar Sablan, and former director of Al
Jazeera's Arabic channel, Ibrahim Mohammed Helal. The 2 were tried in absentia
and so have the legal rights to appeal the verdict.
Al Jazeera posted on its website that it categorically denies allegations that
it was collaborating with Mursi's elected government. The satellite channel
describes the court's ruling as "an unprecedented assault on freedom of
expression."
The 3rd individual who can also appeal after being tried in absentia and facing
the same ruling is Asmaa Mohamed al-Khatib, a reporter for pro-Muslim
Brotherhood Rassd news outlet.
Judge Mohammed Shireen Famy announced Saturday's ruling and said that a final
decision including that of Mursi's verdict would have to wait until the Grand
Mufti, the country's top religious authority, make their non-binding opinion on
June 18.
Mursi, overthrown in 2013 by then army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was already
sentenced to death and life imprisonment in 3 other cases. He is now in jail
together with thousands of Brotherhood members who are also facing death
sentence in different cases. Sisi believes Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, which
was what used to be the country's most organized political group, still poses a
serious threat to the national security. Relations between Egypt and the Gulf
Arab state of Qatar have turned sour since the ouster.
"I believe that this is a weak point in the Egyptian system, which might bring
catastrophes to the whole country, especially when it comes to freedoms and
human rights," Al Jazeera's Middle East analyst Yahia Ghanem said about the
court ruling.
"The case's documents are devoid of any type of espionage or participation in
it," a defense lawyer told Reuters.
(source: Christian Times)
BAHAMAS:
Woman Could Face Death Penalty If Convicted Of Killing
A woman who maintains she had no involvement in the murder of a web shop
employee could be facing the discretionary death penalty if convicted by the
Supreme Court jury.
Daphne Knowles, of Cartwright's, Long Island, was called on to answer to
charges of murder, conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery moments before jury
selection took place in her trial yesterday concerning the death of Andrea
Carroll in November 2014.
Knowles answered "not guilty" to all 3 allegations before a jury of 10 women
and 2 men who were selected to hear evidence in the matter.
The accused is charged with murder under Section 291 (1) (a) of the Penal Code,
Chapter 84, a charge that attracts the discretionary death penalty of the court
if a conviction is reached.
In 2011, after a ruling from the London-based Privy Council, the Ingraham
administration amended the death penalty law to specify the "worst of the
worst" murders that would warrant execution.
Under the amended law, a person who kills a police or defence force officer,
member of the Departments of Customs or Immigration, judiciary or prison
services would be eligible for a death sentence. A person would also be
eligible for death once convicted of murdering someone during a rape, robbery,
kidnapping or act of terrorism.
The jury was asked to return to court on Tuesday, May 17, for evidence to be
taken.
Knowles is alleged to have killed Carroll between November 28 and 29, 2014.
Carroll was found lifeless with a head injury and her hands and feet bound.
It is further alleged that Knowles conspired with others for some 58 days to
commit robbery and actually robbed Carroll of cash belonging to Bowe's Web
Games Ltd.
The accused remains remanded to the Department of Correctional Services.
Knowles, who was previously unrepresented up until Monday, is now defended by
attorney Sonia Timothy.
Cephia Pinder-Moss and Basil Cumberbatch are prosecuting the case.
Justice Bernard Turner is presiding over the trial.
(source: Bahamas Tribune)
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