June 9
RUSSIA:
Stay of execution? Russian MP proposes 'delayed death penalty' for convicted
terrorists
The head of the State Duma Committee for Security has proposed allowing Russian
courts to sentence convicted terrorists to death under condition that the
execution of the sentence is delayed until the current moratorium on capital
punishment is lifted.
"We are moving towards humanization, but I would like our courts to use the
term capital punishment in the sentences passed for especially grave crimes,
with large numbers of victims killed by explosions or terrorist attacks. The
actual execution can be postponed to the moment when the general public starts
to realize that this punitive measure must be applied," MP Vasily Piskaryov
(United Russia) said in an interview with TASS.
Piskaryov also told reporters that he was not giving up his intention to bring
back the death penalty. He noted that he had discussed the idea with law
enforcement officials and though he had not received broad support, some of
those officials supported him.
The lawmaker told reporters that he was confident that European nations would
one day understand that in certain extreme cases the use of death penalty is
justified and necessary.
"In that case, persons convicted of terrorism would have their death sentences
ready," he said.
In his interview, Piskaryov emphasized that he did not consider as valid the
main argument of those who opposed death penalty for terrorism - the theory
that the threat of death penalty would not stop suicide attackers.
"Not all of them are suicide attackers; there are recruiters and organizers of
attacks. Organizers are the most dangerous link in this chain because they have
ideological and political positions."
Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on
Piskaryov's proposal on Friday, claiming that the Presidential Information had
no information about it. He, however, noted that the Kremlin position on the
issue was well known and it had not changed.
Russia imposed a moratorium on capital punishment in 1996, as it was one of
conditions for joining the Council of Europe. The last execution in the Russian
Federation took place on September 2, 1996.
Since the moratorium came into force, Russian politicians and state officials
have repeatedly proposed reintroducing the death penalty for crimes such as
terrorism, corruption, pedophilia and war crimes. Most recent proposal of this
kind came from the nationalist party LDPR in March 2016 - it promised to draft
a bill reinstating the death penalty for terrorists and foreign citizens
convicted of drug trafficking.
The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, has also repeatedly urged the
authorities to introduce the death penalty for terrorism, arguing that keeping
convicted extremists in prisons is too expensive and also that there is a
threat that terrorists serving life sentences would recruit new supporters
inside prisons.
At the same time, the Presidential Human Rights Council, along with Putin, have
repeatedly rejected calls to reinstitute executions, saying that the measure
would be both inhumane and ineffective. In late 2015, the council's chairman
Mikhail Fedotov told reporters that in 2009, Russia's Constitutional Court
prolonged the moratorium on the death penalty, with Putin voicing his strong
support for the decision.
(source: rt.com)
PAKISTAN:
Man gets death penalty in murder case
A court awarded death sentence to an accused for his involvement in a murder
case in Faisalabad on Thursday.
The judgment was announced by District and Sessions Judge Nazir Ahmed Gujana.
The prosecution told the court that accused Rana Muhammad Shakeel, resident of
Chak 120, had killed Ghulam Abbas over an old enmity in 2016.
The local police registered a case against the accused and presented the
challan before the court.
After hearing the arguments and analysing the evidence, the judge handed down
death sentence to the accused along with a fine of Rs1 million as compensation
money.
However, in case of failure to pay the fine, the convict will have to undergo
an additional imprisonment of 6 months.
(source: The Express Tribune)
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