Sept. 17
JAPAN:
Death-row inmate jailed for killing 4 people in 2002 dies of illness
A death-row inmate convicted of killing 4 people in 2002 has died of illness at
a Tokyo detention center, the Justice Ministry said Sunday.
Tetsuo Odajima, 74, was pronounced dead at 10:30 p.m. Saturday after losing
consciousness. He had suffered esophageal cancer and been treated at the
detention facility, the ministry said.
Odajima and an accomplice strangled the wife and daughter of Takaichi Mabuchi,
who at the time was president of Mabuchi Motors, after breaking into their home
in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, in August 2002.
After stealing hundreds of thousands of yen in cash and jewelry items, Odajima
set fire to the house.
Odajima and Katsumi Morita also killed a 71-year-old dentist in Meguro Ward,
Tokyo, in September 2002, and the wife of a discount ticket shop operator in
Abiko, Chiba Prefecture, in November of that year in murder-robbery cases.
According to the ministry, Odajima was diagnosed with esophageal cancer around
January this year. As he refused medical treatment, he had been receiving
nutritional support and administered pain relief medication.
The Chiba District Court handed down the death penalty to Odajima in March
2007. Although he once appealed to a high court, he dropped the motion in
November that year and the ruling was finalized.
The district court also sentenced Morita to death in December 2006, and the
decision was upheld by the Tokyo High Court in March 2008.
K (source: japantimes.co.jp)
VIETNAM:
Death row inmates arrested after a week on the run in Vietnam----Suspicion is
hanging over the prison guards who allowed them to escape.
Vietnamese police have arrested 2 death row convicts who escaped from a Hanoi
prison a week ago.
Nguyen Van Tinh, 28, was arrested in Hoa Binh Province which neighbors the
capital in the early hours of Sunday.
His accomplice Le Van Tho, 37, was arrested 8 hours earlier while taking a taxi
in Hai Duong Province, around an hour's drive from Hanoi.
Tinh was sentenced to death in April for heroin trafficking. Tho received the
death penalty in May for drug trafficking, murder and fraud. Both have appealed
their sentences.
They shared a cell in Thanh Oai District on the outskirts of Hanoi which they
broke out of on the night of September 10 during heavy downpours.
An investigation found they managed to unlock their cuffs, make a hole in the
wall of their cell and climb out of the prison using rope.
They took a motorbike from a relative in Hanoi and fled the city, and were
first spotted in Ha Long 3 nights later.
Vietnam's top prosecutors have ordered an investigation into the role the
prison guards played in the breakout.
(source: vnexpress.net)
IRAN----execution
Man Hanged on Murder Charges, Authorities Silent
A prisoner by the name of Abuzar Ghadami was reportedly hanged at Shiraz's Adel
Abad Prison on murder charges.
According to the human rights news agency, HRANA, the execution was carried out
on the morning of Monday September 11.
Iranian official sources, including the Judiciary and state-run media, have not
announced Abuzar Ghadami's execution.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
IRAQ:
Iraqi Prime Minister: German Teen Runaway Could Face Death Penalty
Iraq's prime minister says the teenage German girl found in Mosul last month
who ran away from home after communicating with Islamic State group extremists
online is still being held in a Baghdad prison.
Speaking to The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Saturday, Haider
Al-Abadi says Iraq's judiciary will decide if the teen will face the death
penalty.
"You know teenagers under certain laws, they are accountable for their actions
especially if the act is a criminal activity when it amounts to killing
innocent people," he said.
16-year-old Linda W. ran away last summer from her hometown of Pulsnitz in
eastern Germany. She was found in the basement of a home in Mosul's Old City by
Iraqi forces who are driving IS militants from the city.
(source: Associated Press)
EGYPT:
Criminal court set to sentence Libyan Da'ish members to death penalty
Cairo Criminal Court referred the papers of 7 defendants in the "Da'ish Libya"
case, Saturday, to Grand Mufti Shawky Allam, before sentencing them to the
death penalty.
The court set the final verdict date as October November 25 for the 20
defendants.
A referral to the mufti is required in the Egyptian court system ahead of death
sentences, even though the mufti's opinion is advisory not binding.
Prosecution referred the defendants to trial court last year for forming a
terrorist cell affiliated to the "Islamic State (IS)" faction in Libya,
alleging that a number of the defendants were involved in the beheading of 21
Egyptian Coptic Christians.
The defendants face accusations of "violence and vandalism, resisting
authorities and possession of firearms, which led to a public security threat."
According to investigations, the 20 defendants received military training at IS
camps in Syria and Libya.
The defendants made an agreement with Libyan IS leaders to establish a group in
Egypt's Matrouh governorate, which would embrace the ideas of ISIS, according
to the investigations.
The group had planned to target the head of security in Matrouh, governorate
police officers and sheikhs, who disapproved of Takfiri fundamentalist ideas.
Egypt listed the IS groups and their affiliates as "terrorist organizations"
per a court ruling in November 2014.
(source: Egypt Independent)
INDIA:
HC commutes mans death penalty to life term in double murder
The Madras High Court has commuted the death sentence awarded by a Tirupur
court to 1 of the 5 accused in a double murder case to life imprisonment.
A division bench of justices PN Prakash and CV Karthikeyan yesterday commuted
the death sentence awarded by the Tirupur Mahila Court to Selvam alias Koolai
Selvam to life term.
It also slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 on the convict and said if he failed to pay
the amount, he would have to undergo another year of rigorous imprisonment.
The 2 prison terms would run consecutively and not concurrently, the court
said.
The court said there was no evidence against another accused, Rangaraj, who too
was awarded death penalty by the lower court, and acquitted him of all the
charges.
The court, which also set free 2 other accused in the case -- Nagaraj and
Anandan -- however, upheld the life sentence of another accused, Deivasigamani.
According to the prosecution, a dispute had arisen between Selvam and one
Thangavelu over a financial transaction in 2015 and subsequently, the latter
was killed by a gang, led by the former.
Investigations revealed that both Thangavelu and his daughter, Mahalakshmi,
were burnt to death at different places under the Mangalam police station
limits in Tirupur and Vadavalli police station limits in Coimbatore, by the
gang.
Reducing the sentence, the bench said, "Insofar as Selvam (A1) is concerned,
the sentencing must address his concerns in relation to judicial discretion and
there must be an equal treatment of similarly situated convicts."
It observed that though it held Selvam guilty of the murders of Thangavelu and
Mahalakshmi, the question which had to be addressed was, whether his act
warranted capital punishment or whether life imprisonment, "which would act not
only as a retribution for his crime, but also, to some extent, hopefully reform
him", would be sufficient.
"However, had this motive been removed or had this entire incident not surfaced
in the life of Selvam, the court should also ask the question whether he would
still have pushed himself to commit a grisly crime of murder.
"If the answer is yes, then certainly, he would deserve capital punishment,
but, if there is a doubt that he might not have exhibited the same conduct,
then it is only just that the court also recognises the fact and awards him
life imprisonment," it said.
(source: Press Trust of India)
SAINT LUCIA:
Francis: Death penalty will not solve 'murder crisis'
Attorney at Law, Mary Francis, has dismissed a statement Thursday by National
Security Minister, Hermangild Francis, in support of capital punishment,
asserting that implementing the death penalty will not solve the 'murder
crisis' in Saint Lucia and the Caribbean.
"If the issue of the death penalty was not such a serious matter, I would say
that his comments are laughable to me," Mary Francis told Saint Lucia Times.
The National Security Minister had complained that criminals were being given a
slap on the wrist by the courts, and announced plans to visit the gallows at
Bordelais Correctional Facility (BCF) to ensure that the mechanisms were in
working order.
But Mary Francis has declared that she cannot not see how, in this 21st
century, implementing the death penalty will address the problem of murder.
Saint Lucia has so far recorded 37 homicides.
"We are fooling ourselves into believing that if you send people to the
gallows, automatically it is going to be a deterrent," the outspoken Human
Rights Activist asserted.
She said there is no factual basis to prove that executions deter violent
crime.
The Coordinator of the National Centre for Legal Aid and Human Rights recalled
that there was a recommendation some years ago that Saint Lucia abolish the
death penalty because it is a barbaric, inhuman measure which goes against the
right to life - the most important human right.
"If you take away that right, what other human rights are there?" The Attorney
at Law remarked.
"If the state is saying killing is wrong, the state cannot commit a wrong. 2
wrongs don't make a right," Mary Francis argued.
She explained that the issue of gang violence and murders is rooted in the
drugs trade and socio-economic problems including improper parenting.
While making it clear that she does not condone crime, Francis explained that
the problem of criminal behaviour is multi-faceted.
"You just cannot simply talk about visiting the gallows and the death penalty.
In this day and age these things sound almost laughable," she told St Lucia
Times.
(source: Saint Lucia Times)
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