July 21
SRI LANKA:
President insists will go ahead with death penalty despite objections
President Maithripala Sirisena today insisted that he will go ahead with
implementing the death penalty on serious offenders on death row for drug
trafficking.
Speaking at an event in Pollonaruwa the President said that he will implement
the death penalty despite strong objections being raised against the move.
The international community, including the European Union, local civil society,
human rights groups and some Christians have raised concerns over the
President's decision.
The Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission had also written to President Maithripala
Sirisena raising concerns over moves to implement the death penalty on convicts
involved in drug trafficking.
Commission Chairperson Dr. Deepika Udagama had said in the letter that the
death penalty is a serious human rights violation.
Udagama said that the commission does not feel implementing the death penalty
can address the issue of drug trafficking.
Cabinet approval had been obtained to implement the death penalty on repeat
offenders related to large scale drug offences.
A list of 18 convicts has been compiled and the President is to sign the
documents to implement the death penalty on them.
The Government had said that there was a need to implement the death penalty to
curb the spread of crimes related to drugs.
(source: Colombo Gazette)
IRAN----execution
Prisoner Hanged in Birjand
A prisoner was executed at Birjand Central Prison on murder charges.
According to a close source, on the morning of Tuesday, July 17, a prisoner was
executed at Birjand Central Prison. Birjand is the capital of the Iranian
province of South Khorasan.
The prisoner, sentenced to death on murder charges, was from ward 103 of
Birjand Central Prison. He was identified as Baratali Shirdelan from North
Khorasan.
A close source told IHR, "Baratali had been in prison for 6 years on the charge
of murdering his wife."
The execution on this prisoner has not been announced by the state-run media so
far.
According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the
517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
PAKISTAN:
In 2001, the state announced amnesty for juveniles on death row. But I still
await freedom
I could never think of my younger brother as an adult. He was always the baby
of the family. Today, I am told that he has children the same age as me when I
was first put in jail 20 years ago.
I should have had children of my own by now. I should have had a life, a job, a
family, a home. A small one, in Mandi Bahauddin. If my family did not have to
sell off our land to keep me alive, perhaps there could have been more.
It is difficult to recount the things you could have had when you know there is
a dim possibility of you ever getting them in the future.
I have been in jail since 1999, and on death row since I was 17.
I was not good at school. I could never follow instructions properly, and my
teachers did not have the resources to dedicate the kind of attention I needed.
Frustration gave way to idleness, idleness gave way to mischief.
My inability in school made me the butt of jokes but to save myself from being
bullied, I found some people willing to accept me.
My friends and I would then skip off, and waste our time doing things that
would make us feel like we were in control. That is what you do when you feel
useless.
I was arrested a month later and taken to a secret location.
When we arrived, they tied my hands behind my back with a rope that was hung
from a hook on the roof. They hoisted me up from my wrists. It felt like my
shoulders were being ripped out from their sockets. That pain is blinding, and
there is nothing you can do to stop it.
When they undid the ropes, I thought they were done. But soon after they had
put me on the ground, they forced me on my back and placed a long, thick bamboo
rod on top of me.
Before I could even take my next breath, two police officers sat either side of
the rod, weighing it down, as two other officers rolled it down my body.
I screamed through the excruciating pain. It did not matter. It's like they're
trying to crush you into the ground and won't stop until they do.
I lost track of how long this went on for.
My elder brother, Abbas, tells me he looked for me for two whole weeks. For
half a month, I was detained without charge and tortured relentlessly. I would
have said anything to make it stop.
If they told me to say I had killed someone, I would say it. If they told me to
say I had not killed someone, I would say it.
They finally took me to a jail, and kept me there. Eventually, I was hauled
into the police station for an identification parade. But this was not the
first time that the victim's family had seen me. I was trotted out before them
several times before the parade. I knew they recognised me.
The investigation officer had approached Abbas, telling him that if he did not
pay him a bribe, he would ensure that I would be tried in the Anti-Terrorism
Court that all but guaranteed me a harsher sentence with fewer safeguards.
We had no idea what we were up against. We could not pay, and so I landed in
the ATC.
The ATC sentenced me to die. They recognised I was 17. But this did not, to
them, excuse me from the death penalty because they were no laws that would bar
the sentencing of a juvenile.
The police wrote in the First Information Report and their testimonies that I
was the one who fired the shots (a lie), and that's why I should be given a
higher sentence.
The 5 others who were co-accused with me for the same crime were given prison
sentences (which they have now served and have returned to their families
since).
I was the only one who was sentenced to death.
My lawyer argued in court that I was a juvenile and should not be sentenced to
death. The court ordered a medical board, which in turn, carried out an
ossification test that determined my age to be 17. But this evidence did not
matter.
From the ATC, all the way to the Supreme Court, my age at the time of the crime
was acknowledged - but then ignored.
In March 2016, they issued my execution warrant. In a panic, my brother reached
out to the victim's son. His desperation overcame any hubris he had.
Abbas went again. And again.The complainant's anger slowly chipped away.
And one day, in his infinite generosity, he told my brother - that God has
punished me. He said, "Allah teaches us to forgive our enemies," and that is
what he has done.
We took news of this compromise to the SC to stop my imminent execution. But
even after listening to the heir's statement, the court did not release me. It
upheld the decision. Why?
Because my case had been tried under the ATA, which means my alleged offence
was non-compoundable. My fate had been sealed by the bribe we could not pay
years and years ago.
In July last year, they forwarded the request to issue my execution warrants
again. By a miracle, through the intervention of Justice Project Pakistan and
the National Commission on Human Rights, that request was withdrawn.
Being told you will die does not get easier the 2nd time.
The journey through the country's courts has been long, expensive and
back-breaking for my family. Legal fees, commuting back and forth between
court, home and the police station, caused us to lose everything we had. Our
home was destroyed and we have nothing left.
My father died of grief after years of struggling with my case. I was not able
to go to his funeral.
Whole lives have been lived and lost during my time in jail.
When the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance was passed in 2000, the president
announced amnesty for all juvenile offenders on death row one year later.
Here I was, a proven juvenile but somehow unable to access the relief that I
was entitled to and have been entitled to for 17 years.
Since then, they keep bouncing me from the sessions courts to the Presidency to
the Home Department. They know they cannot execute me but they treat me like a
file, not a human being.
A life sentence in Pakistan is 25 years. Most prisoners are out in 15. I have
served 20 years in jail, and all the while, I was entitled to a remission. I
could have been out, putting my life back together. But all I do is wait.
They concluded the age determination inquiry only this year. But I'm still
waiting, lost for 20 years in the black hole of Pakistan's bureaucracy.
Muhammad Iqbal told this story from his prison cell in District Jail, Gujrat to
Muhammad Shoaib, who wrote it in the form of an article.
In March 2018, the Lahore High Court directed the provincial Home Department to
conduct and conclude the investigation into Iqbal's case within 2 weeks.
While this took place within the deadline, and the inquiry found him to be a
juvenile at the time of the crime, the government of Pakistan is yet to provide
him the relief that he has been entitled to for 17 years.
(source: dawn.com)
INDIA:
Rajasthan: 19-yr-old gets death penalty for raping 7-month-old under new
law----Public prosecutor said that the case was fast-tracked and trial was
completed after 13 hearings.
In the 1st death sentence under new rape law, a 19-year-old has been ordered
death penalty for raping 7-month-old baby in Rajasthan in 2018. In March, state
assembly passed the law that allows death penalty in rape of minors under 12
years of age.
After Madhya Pradesh which passed the law, Rajasthan is the 2nd state to bring
such law in force.
A special court hearing cases of SC/ST Act and POCSO Act in Alwar sentenced to
death Pintu, who was found guilty of raping the infant in Laxmangarh area in
Alwar on May 9.
Special Judge Jagendra Agrawal, who had conducted daily hearings in the case,
found the youth guilty on July 18 and announced the quantum of punishment on
Saturday.
Pintu was convicted under IPC sections 363, 366 A (related to abduction of
minor) and 376 AB (for rape on woman under 12 years of age) and 5(M)/6 of POCSO
Act.
The death penalty was awarded under the IPC section 376 AB, SHO of the
Laxmangarh police station Prahlad Sahay said.
The incident happened on May 9 when the accused took the baby from a relative
who was babysitting the child. When parents questioned about the whereabouts of
the child, relative told them that the neighbour had taken her away. About a
kilometre away from their home, she was found crying in a football field.
The baby was admitted in Alwar hospital and medical reports confirmed rape
after which the accused was arrested.
Kuldeep Singh, public prosecutor said, "This is the 1st such case in Rajasthan
and the 3rd in the country. In the first 2 cases, the accused was given death
sentence."
He also said that the case was fast-tracked and trial was completed after 13
hearings.
(source: Deccan Chronicle)
********************
Death row convict Rajoana ends hunger strike after meeting with SGPC chief
Patiala, Jul 20 Balwant Singh Rajoana, the death row convict in the then Punjab
chief minister Beant Singh assassination case, today ended his hunger strike in
the Patiala central jail following a meeting with the SGPC chief today.
Rajoana had recently written to the Patiala jail superintendent that the
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had moved a mercy petition
seeking commutation of his death penalty into life imprisonment in 2012 before
the then President Pratibha Patil without taking his consent.
According to media reports, Rajoana had accused the SPGC of failing to pursue
his mercy petition.
He had claimed that until the SGPC does not withdraw the mercy petition -- if
they do not get any results -- or the Union Home Ministry does not conclude on
it he would remain on hunger strike.
The SGPC, in a statement today, said that its chief Gobind Singh Longowal met
Rajoana in the Patiala central jail here, following which he ended his hunger
strike.
Jail Superintendent Rajan Kapoor confirmed that Rajoana has ended his hunger
strike.
Rajoana, who began his fast unto death from Monday last, had earlier turned
down the SGPC's request to end it.
Longowal, alongwith Akali Dal MPs, had recently met Union minister Rajnath
Singh regarding Rajoana's mercy petition.
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court had in July 2007 awarded
the death sentence to Rajoana, along with another terrorist Jagtar Singh
Hawara, in the Beant Singh assassination case.
Rajoana was scheduled to be hanged on March 31, 2012.
However, the execution was stayed on March 28, 2012, by Patil after the SPGC
filed the mercy petition. The President had forwarded the application to the
Home Ministry but the later is yet to take any decision on it.
Rajoana is currently lodged in execution cell of the Patiala central jail.
The former chief minister, Beant Singh, who was largely credited with wiping
out terrorism from Punjab, was assassinated by Dilawar Singh, a human bomb, at
the high security Punjab civil secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995.
While Hawara was the mastermind of the assassination, Rajoana was the 2nd human
bomb to be used in case the 1st assassin failed. Rajoana, during the trial, had
admitted that he alone was responsible for the killing.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had in October 2010 upheld the death sentence
for Rajoana, but changed the capital punishment given to Hawara to life
imprisonment.
Rajoana had refused to challenge the death sentence awarded to him.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in 2012 had said that it would go to any extent
to save Rajoana and asked the SGPC "to take all possible legal and other steps"
to secure clemency for him.
(source: outlookindia.com)
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