The next news to this listserve will be posted on Sunday, July 2
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June 29
INDIA:
HC commutes death sentence of man, guilty of killing 5 persons
The Delhi High Court today commuted to life term, the capital punishment
awarded to a 31- year-old man in a case relating to the murder of 5 persons
including 2 children in 2004 in Chhattisgarh.
"We commute the sentence imposed upon the petitioner and substitute it to a
sentence of imprisonment for life in place of death sentence awarded to
petitioner," a bench of Justices G S Sistani and Vinod Goel said.
The high court made it clear that "life imprisonment means (till the) end of
ones life".
The court pointed out that there were "numerous discrepancies and falsities" in
the affidavits filed by the Chhattisgarh government.
"Despite the same, we have proceeded to decide the matter in the interests of
justice. At the same time, such practice is deprecated and should be taken note
of by the higher authorities," it added.
The High Court had on March 2, 2015 stayed the execution of Sonu Sardar after
which the Chhattisgarh government had approached the Supreme Court challenging
Delhi High Courts jurisdiction to hear the matter. The apex court had asked the
high court to decide the states application in this regard.
The High Court had dismissed the state governments plea and said it could hear
and grant stay on the execution, as the decision rejecting his mercy plea was
taken here by the President of India.
Sardar, along with his brother and accomplices, had killed five persons of a
family, including a woman and two children, during a dacoity bid in
Chhattisgarhs Cher village on November 26, 2004.
The trial court had slapped death penalty on him and the Chhattisgarh High
Court had upheld it.
The Supreme Court in February 2012 had concurred with the findings of two
courts below and affirmed the punishment. His mercy petition was also dismissed
by both the state Governor and the President of India. In February 2015, the
apex court had also rejected his review plea.
The convict then moved the high court seeking quashing of the orders of the
President and the Governor rejecting the mercy petition. He had also sought to
commute the death sentence into life imprisonment on account of delay, improper
exercise of power and illegal solitary confinement.
Allowing his appeal, the high court observed that the "supervening circumstance
of solitary confinement coupled with the non-placement of relevant
considerations and considering of extraneous considerations has vitiated the
decision of the Governor and the President.
"Further, the incarceration of the petitioner in solitary confinement without
any judicial order has run awry of the Fundamental Rights and this court, being
the sentinel of the Constitution, is bound to intervene and give relief to the
petitioner," it added.
The Delhi High Court in its 95-page judgement noted that the mercy petition was
processed in "an extremely cavalier and casual fashion" by the state government
at all stages, right up to placing the note for the Governor.
"It was all along treated as a petition seeking premature release under an
inapplicable rule of the Jail Manual. The Governor was informed that the
petition is for premature release and not commutation of sentence," it said.
(source: indiatoday.com)
NORTH KOREA:
N Korea sentences Park Geun-hye to death, demands her extradition----DPRK
accuses former President and ex-NIS chief of plotting to kill Kim Jong Un
North Korea on Wednesday announced that it has sentenced former South Korean
President Park Geun-hye and former director of the National Intelligence
Service (NIS) Lee Byung-ho to be executed for allegedly ordering the
assassination of Kim Jong Un.
In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the joint
statement by the Ministry of People's Security and the Central Public
Prosecutors Office called on the government of South Korea to hand over the 2
former officials so their sentence may be carried out. A failure to do so, it
said, would negatively impact inter-Korean relations.
The statement is a response to what North Korea claims was a failed U.S.-ROK
assassination plot against current leader Kim Jong Un in April.
"We declare at home and abroad that we will impose death penalty on traitor
Park Geun Hye and ex-Director of the puppet Intelligence Service Ri Pyong Ho
(Lee Byung-ho) and their groups, criminals of hideous state-sponsored terrorism
who hatched and pressed for the heinous plot to hurt the supreme leadership of
the DPRK," the statement read.
South Korea will "have to hand over" Park and Lee "under international
convention" for committing what it called state-sponsored terrorism, the
statement said, threatening a military response on both the U.S. and South
Korea should they repeat their attempt on Kim Jong Un's life.
"We declare that in case the U.S. and the south Korean puppet forces again
attempt at hideous state-sponsored terrorism targeting the supreme leadership
of the DPRK, we will impose summary punishment without advance notice on those
who organized, took part in or pursued the plot, under wartime law," it said.
North Korean authorities said in May that they had uncovered evidence that the
CIA and the NIS had bribed a former North Korean laborer in Russia to
assassinate Kim by using a bioweapon or a "poisonous substance."
State media claims the plot was meant to be carried out on April 15, the
birthday of North Korea's founding President Kim Il Sung and the date of a
major annual military parade in Pyongyang.
While several North Korean outlets carried allegation related to the plot in
May, in June Uriminzokkiri published a video including further details as well
as revealing the alleged assassin - named in footage as Kim Song Il.
Despite previous reports on the alleged assassination plot blaming South Korean
and U.S. intelligence services, it appears that Wednesday's statement is the
first to blame former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who is now awaiting
trial on corruption charges, for being involved in the plot.
The statement may have been sparked by a report in Japanese newspaper the Asahi
Shimbun, which on Monday, citing unnamed sources, reported that Park had signed
off on a plot to overthrow Kim and even execute him while she was in office.
"After a meeting of officials from the 2 Koreas ended on a negative note in
December 2015, Park signed a document that gave the green light for a
"leadership change" in North Korea," the report claimed. "The National
Intelligence Service (NIS) was put in charge of the policy."
"The plotters apparently considered staging an 'accident' on the road or over
water to eliminate Kim, but tight security prevented any mission from being
carried out, the source said," it continued, adding that caution would have to
be taken to distance the South Korean government from the plan to avoid
provoking military action from the North.
These precise details were included in Wednesday's KCNA statement.
"It was disclosed that Park had pushed forward the 'operation to replace the
supreme leadership of the north' in secrecy since the end of 2015 and even the
'assassination' plot was included in the secret operational plan that was
spearheaded by IS (Intelligence Service)," the statement read.
"The villains even thought about disguising the operation as car or train
accident, while calling for paying special attention so that their involvement
would not be revealed, as they worried that the successful operation may spill
over into armed conflict," it added.
North Korea's allegations that a biochemical weapons attack was plotted against
its leader have drawn parallels with the February murder of Kim Jong Un's
estranged half-brother Kim Jong Nam in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - a crime that
has been widely blamed on the DPRK.
Malaysian authorities later revealed that Kim had been killed by exposure to
VX, a deadly sarin gas and weapon of mass destruction.
(source: nknews.org)
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DPRK to give death penalty to those involved in plotting assassination against
Kim Jong Un
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Wednesday it would give
death penalty to those involved in an assassination plot against its top leader
Kim Jong Un.
State-sponsored terrorism of the enemies targeting the supreme leadership of
the DPRK has been revealed, the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of
People's Security and the Central Public Prosecutors Office of the DPRK said in
a joint statement.
(source: xinhuanet.com)
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