May 16
AFGHANISTAN:
The Taliban Is Publicly Executing Women Again
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they would shoot women for so-called "moral
crimes" in front of stadium crowds. Activists fear that the terrorist group is
going back to the bad old days of public executions.
The Taliban has publicly executed 2 women in northern Afghanistan, with graphic
video of 1 of the brutal killings circulating on social media in early May.
According to Afghan officials, the women were both shot in Jowzjan Province in
recent months.
The executions came to light after a video of the 1st killing emerged online,
and officials soon uncovered evidence of the 2nd. "Such executions of women by
the Taliban is unfortunately a the dark reality," says Samira Hamidi, a board
member of the advocacy group coalition Afghan Women's Network.
"It is clear that militant groups like the Taliban have no pity on human
beings, particularly women. The execution shows how powerless the Afghan
government is, whilst significantly increasing the vulnerability of women."
In the past, the Afghan government condemned similar killings that were
captured on mobile phones and then streamed online. But this time, the
executions have been overshadowed by the hanging of 6 Taliban prisoners on May
8. It is the 1st time Afghan president Ashraf Ghani has used the death penalty
since going into office in 2014.
"The execution of these 2 women can't be overlooked because of other events;
there has already been 2 other executions of women by the Taliban earlier this
year," Women for Afghan Women director Manizha Naderi tells Broadly. "Nobody is
asking where and how the group is getting money to continue committing these
acts. Neighboring Pakistan are funding the Taliban; this is a serious issue
that needs to be dealt with."
The New York Times named 1 of the victims as Rabia, a 22-year-old pregnant
woman with 2 young children. Her husband had accused her of adultery; the
Taliban tried and convicted her before shooting her 3 times. Relatives said
that her husband had fabricated the claim because he wanted to inherit her land
interests.
"They buried her without even allowing her family to participate in her
funeral," Shakera, her aunt, told the Times. "I know she was a very innocent
woman. She did not have the heart to be unfaithful."
Rabia's 6-month-old son and his three-year-old sister now live with their
father, but the family cannot even afford to buy powdered baby formula for her
youngest child. "In situations like this, the victim's family are also
vulnerable and can even be at risk for raising their voice," Hamidi says. "The
Afghan government must provide them necessary protection in order to prevent
any form of harm to them."
The video of the 2nd Jowzjan killing showed the execution of an unknown woman
in northern Afghanistan.
In a country where the law bars relatives of the accused from testifying
against them, Naderi of Women for Afghan Women knows too well the fear that
women have of honor killings. "I have never seen a man being stoned. You can't
commit adultery on your own, yet why is it always women who have to pay the
price?" she says in despair. "Every year more and more women are coming to the
32 shelters our organisation runs across the country. It isn't the culture of
honour-killings, but because more women are aware of their own rights and are
coming forward to seek help."
Rabia's aunt says that the Taliban also had a politically motivated reason for
killing Rabia: 2 of her uncles are militia commanders loyal to Abdul Rashid
Dostum, a Uzbek leader who is also 1st vice president of Afghanistan. "The
Taliban do what they do, to show their strength at the expense of other women,"
Naderi says. According to the district governor of Faizabad, a Taliban shadow
governor had personally executed the woman himself.
The video of the 2nd Jowzjan killing surfaced earlier this May. In the footage,
a woman in a pale blue burqa sits on the ground outside as she is convicted by
a Taliban court of killing her husband. The people surrounding her - including
members of her husband's family - shout for her to be executed. A gunman then
steps forward from the crowd and shoots her in the head.
Local authorities say that the execution took place four months ago; the
victim's identity remains unknown. The deputy police chief of Jowzjan Province,
Col. Abdul Hafeez, believes that the executioner, who had his face covered, was
the district's Taliban commander.
The Taliban have not commented on the executions. But the Times notes that the
killings are similar to executions between 1996 and 2001 when the Taliban were
in power. In the past, women were publicly executed at the National Stadium in
Kabul for so-called "moral crimes" like adultery.
"Enough people die from the ongoing violence, but the executions by the Taliban
show their strength at the expense of women."
Although Afghan women have since won basic rights in education, voting and work
- rights that the Taliban deem as un-Islamic for women - executions by the
terrorist group still continue, many of which are never made public.
"Except for major cities in the country, the Afghan military cannot get to
rural areas where the Taliban still have a stronghold," Naderi explains.
"Enough people die from the ongoing violence, but the executions by the Taliban
show their strength at the expense of women. Unless something like this happens
in Kabul, there is no outrage from the locals."
For many Afghan women, the 2015 murder of Fakhunda Malikzada in Kabul by a mob
of men is a stark reminder of the realities they still face. The then
27-year-old was falsely accused of burning the Quran before being lynched. Her
body was set on fire and left on a riverbed. Despite the mass protests and
international condemnation of her death, the attackers initially sentenced to
death had their sentences overturned or shortened, while others were set free.
"This shows the lack of access to justice and failure for women in
Afghanistan," Hamidi says. "When an official justice system is not supportive
enough of women, local communities and other informants become judges. The
international pressure is therefore a requirement and women in Afghanistan will
need it for many years."
Unlike Farkhunda's case, there hasn't been any public condemnation nor protests
in response to women executed by the Taliban. "Farkhunda was killed by a mob,
not by the Taliban. It also happened during daylight, in the capital city,
where many of the women's rights activists live," Naderi points out. "Although
what happened to Farkhunda is terrible, her case lends itself for people to
mobilize. But when the Taliban murder women, there is more risk in speaking
out."
When NATO wrapped up its combat mission in the country at the end of 2014, the
military withdrawal was supposed to mark a new era of peace and stability. But
the issue of women's rights remains sidelined as the Afghan government continue
to pursue peace talks with an unreceptive Taliban.
"While the Afghan government claims to be pro-women, they must be watched,
monitored, and questioned regularly," Hamidi says. "There is always a need for
international support and condemnation on brutal violence against women."
"Of course there is more work to be done on women's rights in the country. But
I have hope in our government,'" Naderi concludes. "The Taliban need to be
destroyed and Pakistan needs to stop funding them. Until then, we can't even
begin to improve and strengthen rights for our women."
(source: vice.com)
PHILIPPINES:
Death penalty
The Philippines abolished capital punishment in June 2006 when then President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Republic Act No. 9346, also known as An Act
Prohibiting the Imposition of the Death Penalty in the Philippines.
Arroyo said the death penalty should be abolished because it had not proven to
be a deterrent to crime and had become a dead-letter law. RA 9346 downgraded
the death penalty to life imprisonment.
The Philippines has had a history of invoking and scrapping capital punishment
since the end of World War II.
Between 1946 and 1965 - the year Ferdinand Marcos became the President - 35
people were executed, mainly convicted of particularly savage crimes marked by
"senseless depravity" or "extreme criminal perversity."
Following the Edsa People Power Revolution that toppled Marcos from power, then
President Corazon Aquino promulgated the 1987 Constitution, which abolished the
death penalty "unless for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, Congress
hereafter provides for it."
In 1993, Congress passed RA 7659, or the Death Penalty Law, which reimposed
capital punishment.
Under RA 7659, crimes punishable by death included murder, rape, big-time drug
trafficking, kidnapping for ransom, treason, piracy, qualified bribery,
parricide, infanticide, plunder, kidnapping and serious illegal detention,
robbery with violence or intimidation, qualified vehicle theft and arson.
In March 1996, through RA 8177, the law was amended prescribing death by lethal
injection for offenders convicted of heinous crimes.
But opposition from human rights groups held up executions until 1999.
Between 1999 and 2000, during the term of deposed President Joseph Estrada, 7
inmates were put to death.
The 1st to be executed was Leo Echegaray, on Feb. 9, 1999, and the last was
Alex Bartolome, on Jan. 4, 2000. Echegaray was convicted of raping his
stepdaughter. Bartolome was convicted also of raping his daughter more than 100
times over 2 years, starting when she was 16.
*************
De Lima vows to fight return of death penalty
Senatorial candidate Leila de Lima on Monday vowed to continue opposing any
move to re-impose death penalty.
A nemesis of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, De Lima, however,
softened her stance in Duterte's presidency, saying she would "watch him
first."
"I do believe that that is not the solution. The solution is to fix the justice
system. The new executive should start with the strict and faithful enforcement
of laws," De Lima told reporters when asked about the issue of death penalty on
the sideline of the book launch of former Immigration commissioner Siegfred
Mison on Monday.
In his 1st public appearance since the May 9 elections, Duterte announced he
wanted criminals committing heinous crimes including robbery and rape to suffer
morbid death like a public hanging.
De Lima, former chief of the Commission on Human Rights, said the government,
with the help of Congress, should fix the justice system, instead of jumping
into a death penalty legislation.
She said that even if reviving death penalty was a popular move, the issue
would undergo thorough and heated debates in the Congress.
De Lima is at the 12th place in partial and unofficial quick count of votes for
the Senate by the poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting
(PPCRV).
Asked where she will stand under a Duterte presidency, "Let us observe the new
leadership first. Let's see and find out what his domestic and foreign
policies. Let's see. I just hope that he would always at all times uphold the
Constitution, the rule of law and human rights."
De Lima and Duterte prior and during the campaign period traded barbs. Duterte
at one occasion called her bugoksi (stupid) for linking him to extrajudicial
killings in Davao.
The erstwhile Davao mayor, who is known for his off-color language and cussing
repeatedly, implied his links to the vigilante group Davao Death Squad.
De Lima in previous interviews warned the public about a Duterte presidency,
calling him a monster.
"We have to observe and be vigilant. As far as I know, a sitting president has
immunity from suits. But there is no such thing as immunity from
investigation," De Lima said.
(source for both: Philippine Inquirer)
INDIA:
Bizman killer awarded gallows under Arms Act
In a rare instance, a Buxar court on Monday invoked the Arms Act to award
capital punishment to gangster Sheru Singh in the case of killing of a
businessman in Buxar in 2011. The court of district and sessions judge Pradeep
Kumar Malik ordered that Sheru alias Onkar Nath Singh be hanged till death for
murdering Rajendra Keshri at his hardware shop at Namak Gola Chowk in the
district HQ town on August 21, 2011. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh
on him.
According to additional public prosecutor Anand Mohan Upadhyay, the punishment
is rare because it was given under the provisions of Arms Act, and not Section
302 of the IPC under which death penalty is generally awarded.
"Section 27 (3) of the Arms Act provides for capital punishment in a case of
murder if the prosecution establishes that the murder is caused by a prohibited
weapon," Upadhyay told TOI and added the autopsy report confirmed that Keshri
was shot by a 9mm pistol, a weapon which is legally allowed to be used only by
security forces. Police had also recovered blank cartridges of 9mm pistol from
the place of crime.
After the killing, Sheru had fled to Kolkata from where he was arrested on
September 7, 2011.
Sheru's accomplices -- Chandan Mishra, Raushan Pandey and Deenbandhu Singh --
were awarded life imprisonment in the case in March 2013. Sheru had to be put
on trial separately as he escaped from custody on December 17, 2012.
One policeman was injured in the firing resorted to by Sheru while escaping. He
was re-arrested by the Bhojpur police and has been lodged in the Buxar central
jail since then.
(source: The Times of India)
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