November 16
ISRAEL:
As Knesset advances death penalty bill, Israel at UN joins calls to end
practice----Jerusalem one of 123 nations voting for resolution hailing the
‘possibility of moving away from capital punishment through domestic
decision-making’
As the Knesset advances controversial legislation calling for the death penalty
for convicted terrorists, Israel this week voted in favor of a United Nations
resolution calling for a global moratorium on capital punishment in an effort
to abolish the practice altogether.
Jerusalem on Tuesday was 1 of 123 countries that supported Resolution
A/C.3/73/L.44, which “expresses its deep concern about the continued
application of the death penalty” and “welcomes the steps taken by some states
to reduce the number of offences for which the death penalty may be imposed.”
36 countries, including the US, opposed the motion. 30 abstained.
The resolution, discussed biannually by the UN General Assembly’s Third
Committee, welcomes “initiatives and political leadership encouraging national
discussions and debates on the possibility of moving away from capital
punishment through domestic decision-making.” It also hailed the fact that an
increasing number countries decided to “apply a moratorium on executions,
followed in many cases by the abolition of the death penalty.”
The resolution calls on states to “progressively restrict the use of the death
penalty” and to decrease the number of offenses punishable by death.
At the same time, the resolution passed included an amendment reaffirming “the
sovereign right of all countries to develop their own legal systems, including
determining appropriate legal penalties.”
Israel has supported a similar resolution on the moratorium of the death
penalty in the past, but Tuesday’s vote appears to contradict efforts by its
coalition lawmakers and comes just one day after a bill was discussed in the
Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, which calls to make it easier
to impose the death penalty on convicted Palestinian killers of Israeli
civilians and soldiers.
Championed by outgoing Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and his hardline
Yisrael Beytenu party, the so-called Penal Bill passed a preliminary vote on
the Knesset in January. It is currently being prepared in committee for final
plenary votes to pass it into law.
At this point it is unclear whether the governing coalition, which may fall
apart soon due to Liberman’s resignation Wednesday, will advance the bill
before new elections are called. Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer said Thursday
that he expected the bill to be passed into law before the Knesset votes to
dissolve itself and trigger snap elections.
“It can go very quickly because it’s a very simple law. It could be passed
within 2 weeks,” he told the Knesset Channel.
On November 4, Netanyahu gave lawmakers green light to advance the legislation,
reportedly rejecting the advice of the security establishment.
Although the death penalty formally exists in Israeli law, it has only ever
been used once — in 1962 in the case of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann, one of the
architects of the Holocaust.
It is technically allowed in cases of high treason, as well as in certain
circumstances under the martial law that applies within the IDF and in the West
Bank, but currently requires a unanimous decision from a panel of three judges,
and has never been implemented.
Yisrael Beytenu’s bill would allow a simple majority of 2 to 1 judges to impose
the death penalty.
In July 2016, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack that killed 3 Israelis,
Netanyahu for the 1st time publicly supported the death penalty.
“The death penalty for terrorists — it’s time to implement it in severe cases,”
he told members of the Salomon family, who had lost three loved ones in a
brutal stabbing in the West Bank town of Halamish.
“It’s anchored in the law. You need the judges to rule unanimously on it, but
if you want to know the government’s position and my position as prime minister
— in a case like this, of a base murderer like this — he should be executed. He
should simply not smile anymore,” Netanyahu said, referring to the terrorist,
19-year-old Omar al-Abed.
During his trial, the judges seriously discussed sentencing al-Abed to death,
but ultimately handed him 4 life terms in prison.
The Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday did not respond to numerous queries as
to whether Netanyahu’s still supports the controversial bill and what his
position on capital punishment is in general.
(source: The Times of Israel)
MALAYSIA:
Malaysia says no 'U-turn' in death penalty abolition
Some 32 offences currently carry the death penalty, but government says
punishment is no deterrent to crime.
Fast Facts:
1,279 inmates on death row
710 Malaysians, 569 foreigners (118 from Nigeria)
932 for drug offences, 317 for murder
143 women
As a lawyer, Liew Vui Keong helped one of his clients appeal successfully
against a death sentence.
Now, as Malaysia's minister in charge of law, he is working to get the death
penalty abolished in its entirety.
The legislation could be introduced in parliament before the house finishes its
current sitting in the middle of next month.
"We have made a decision and I don't think we are going to make a U-turn,"
Liew, the de facto law minister, told Al Jazeera. He said studies showed that
capital punishment was not an effective deterrent.
"The [only] question is whether we can do it in this session [of parliament] or
the next."
Abolition of the death penalty was part of the election manifesto of the
coalition that took power in May, the country's 1st change in government in 6
decades.
With the repeal, it joins only a handful of countries in the Asia-Pacific that
have abolished the death penalty for all crimes and hands a reprieve to the
1,281 people who were on death row as of October 29.
A moratorium on all executions - Malaysia hangs those found guilty of capital
crimes - is already in force.
Death row inmates are held in solitary confinement from the time of their
conviction and allowed out of their cells for just an hour each day, according
to those allowed to visit them.
Many have been there for years as their appeals make their way through the
courts, a process lawyers say can take at least a decade.
About 1/4 have been found guilty of murder.
Balancing feelings
Some families, including relatives of murdered activist Bill Kayong and deputy
public prosecutor Kevin Morais, have already said they don't support the
abolition.
Last week's death of an 11-month-old baby, suspected of being abused in the
care of a babysitter, has also prompted calls to maintain the death penalty for
the most serious crimes.
"This is where I have to balance the feelings of the family of the victims who
were murdered," Liew told Al Jazeera. "The Pardons Board can sit now to decide
whether they want to commute that particular person to either life imprisonment
or imprisonment for life."
The start of that sentence should also date from the time the board makes its
decision on the offender, rather than the date at which they were originally
convicted, he added.
"The government must not take a blanket approach to deal with death row inmates
upon abolition," the Anti-Death Penalty Coalition of Malaysia, a civil society
group formed last month, said in a statement. "The government must review each
case individually as some of these crimes do not deserve the death penalty in
the first place."
It's a view echoed by the Malaysian Bar. Sentences should be proportionate to
the severity of the offence committed, its president George Varughese said.
Nearly 3/4 of those facing execution are people who have been found guilty of
contravening Malaysia's harsh drug laws.
Until earlier this year, anyone found with a certain amount of drugs - 200
grams for cannabis and 15 grams for heroin - was considered a trafficker and
faced a mandatory death sentence.
But recent amendments to Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act gave judges the
option to sentence an offender to life in prison and 15 strokes of the cane,
providing certain conditions were met.
'I prayed'
Restaurant worker Shahrul Izani Suparman liked to play football and hang out
with his friends in his village in Selangor, a state on Malaysia's west coast.
But when he was 19 he was stopped at a police roadblock and arrested after
officers found 622 grams of cannabis hidden in the motorbike he'd borrowed from
a friend.
Six years later he was sentenced to death - at that time the only option
available to the judge - and transferred to death row where he found himself in
a cell close to the "bilik akhir" - the final room - where inmates are taken
the night before their execution.
"I prayed," Sapenah Nawawi, Shahrul Izani's mother, recalls in an interview
through a translator. "I thought if this is what is fated then I accept it. But
if my son has a chance to live I hope he does."
Many of the prisoners had been abandoned by their families who couldn't handle
the social stigma of having a relative convicted to death, Shahrul Izani told
her.
He thanked his mother for sticking by him.
In December 2016, with Shahrul Izani's appeals exhausted, prison officials
called the family and asked them to come - all of them - for a special meeting.
Sapenah remembers the tense drive to the jail. Everyone was worried it might be
the last time they would see Shahrul Izani.
But when they sat down with the officials, it turned out the Sultan of
Selangor, following a global campaign, had decided to commute his sentence to
life in prison.
"When we heard the news we were so happy," she said. Everyone was in tears.
Sapenah supports the government's decision to abolish the death penalty.
"A life sentence is good enough," she said. "It gives people a chance to repent
and come out of prison a better person."
Miscarriages of justice
A year ago, South Korean student Kim Yun-soung was facing the death penalty on
a charge of drug trafficking after being found with 219 grams of marijuana in a
house south of Kuala Lumpur.
But the aircraft engineering student was freed after the main witness - the
arresting officer - admitted lying about who was in the house at the time of
the raid.
The police officer insisted in court there had been no one else at the scene of
the arrest, but CCTV footage obtained by the defence clearly showed a 2nd
person in handcuffs.
"I am so happy and relieved and cannot describe my feelings," Kim's grandmother
told the local media through tears of joy after he was acquitted.
Research from the Penang Institute, a think-tank, examining 289 capital cases
found "inconsistency and a high judicial error rate" when it came to the death
penalty in Malaysia.
Using legal publication databases, the institute found on average more than 1/4
of High Court judgements and half of Court of Appeal decisions were overturned
by the immediate higher courts, mostly in relation to evidence.
"Decisions made by the high court have more than a 1-in-4 chance of being
overturned," the October 30 report noted.
The type of offence, the accused's ethnicity, nationality and even the location
of the offence were all found to contribute to the errors, while women were far
less likely to be acquitted in drug trafficking cases than men.
Lim Chee Han, one of the report's authors, said its findings were further
evidence of the need for the death penalty's abolition.
"It's quite big considering this is a life and death matter," he told Al
Jazeera.
'A new era'
About 44 % of death row inmates in Malaysia are foreign nationals; the largest
group is from Nigeria, followed by Indonesia and Iran.
The Philippines is still reconciling the number of its nationals on death row.
The embassy said there are "at least 50", including a group of nine who were
sentenced to death for their part in the armed incursion into a settlement in
southern Sabah.
It would like to see the commutation of sentences take into account each
individual's crime.
"We are hoping the law will be more nuanced in terms of the severity of the
crime," Ambassador Charles Jose told Al Jazeera.
Liew said the priority now is to secure cross-party support to ensure the
abolition's smooth passage through parliament. The cabinet has already directed
all ministries to get feedback on the repeal.
At least 32 offences across eight different pieces of legislation currently
carry the death penalty, and in some cases the sentence is mandatory.
All will need to be amended for the abolition to become a reality.
Liew and his staff look queasy as they recall a recent visit to prison where
officers explained how executions are carried out.
The inmate gets 48 hours notice and is moved to "the final room" the night
before.
"It's just 15 seconds," Liew said of the time it takes from the hood being
placed over the prisoner's head to their death on the gallows.
Exclusive interview: Malaysia PM Mahathir Mohamad
(source: Al Jazeera)
INDIA:
Madhya Pradesh HC upholds man's death sentence for raping, killing minor--
He had kidnapped the victim in the evening of December 15, 2017 and later raped
her in a pit at a secluded place in Manawar town in the district.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court Thursday upheld the death sentence awarded to a
19-year-old man for raping and killing a 4-year-old girl in Dhar district here.
The sentence was upheld by a division bench of Justices S K Awasthi and P K
Jaiswal, which had earlier reserved its judgement after hearing both parties on
July 30.
"The high court, after agreeing with the prosecution's points, ratified the
capital punishment awarded to the convict, Karan, by the lower court, and
dismissed the petition filed by him (Karan)," government advocate Bhuvan Gautam
said.
Karan was awarded capital punishment by the lower court on May 17 for raping
and killing the minor girl.
He had kidnapped the victim in the evening of December 15, 2017 and later raped
her in a pit at a secluded place in Manawar town in the district.
He then bludgeoned her to death with a stone.
(source: New Indian Express)
SAUDI ARABIA:
Saudi national executed for shooting man to death
Saudi enforces the death penalty for several offences including murder,
drug-related crimes and terrorism
A Saudi national has been executed in the country for shooting to death another
citizen, the interior ministry announced on Thursday.
Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Asiri was allegedly found guilty of killing Musa
bin Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Roqi, another Saudi national, by shooting a
firearm due to a disagreement between them, the official Saudi Press Agency
reported.
Security authorities arrested the accused after the incident, and following an
investigation, he was charged with the crime and brought before the criminal
court.
The weapon he used was also produced in court as evidence and, after he was
found guilty of the charges, he was sentenced to death, the report said.
The verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, and an
order was issued to enforce the death sentence.
Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Asiri was executed on Thursday in the Khamis
Mushait governorate in Asir province, SPA reported.
The interior ministry asserted the keenness of the government “to maintain
security and achieve justice” and punish violators of such heinous crimes.
Saudi Arabia uses the death penalty for several offences including murder,
drug-related crimes and terrorism.
In September, another Saudi national was executed in the kingdom for shooting
and killing a man in the region of Asir.
Last month, 3 Saudi nationals were executed in the kingdom’s Qatif region for
robbing and killing five Indian nationals.
(source: gulfbusiness.com)
GLOBAL:
Religious-Freedom Advocates Call for End to Blasphemy Laws Across the
Globe----Although many of the world’s blasphemy laws are enforced in largely
Muslim countries, they exist in every region of the world.
While the world awaits the fate of Asia Bibi, who remains in hiding in Pakistan
following the acquittal of her death sentence for blasphemy, religious-freedom
advocates are calling for an end to blasphemy laws across the globe.
“Blasphemy laws are a way for governments to deny their citizens — and
particularly those of minority religions — the basic human rights to freedom of
religion or belief and freedom of expression,” Tenzin Dorjee, chairman of the
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said in the
statement in October.
However, Dorjee’s statement was not directed at Pakistan, but Ireland.
Irish citizens voted to remove a provision criminalizing blasphemy from the
Irish Constitution on Oct. 26, although the law had not been enforced in recent
years.
The Irish Bishops’ Conference said that the blasphemy reference, although
“largely obsolete,” could raise concern because of how it could be used “to
justify violence and oppression against minorities in other parts of the
world.”
More than 1/3 of the world’s countries maintain laws that criminalize
blasphemy, defined as “the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of
reverence for God.” Punishments for blasphemy across the 68 countries range
widely from fines to imprisonment and death.
In Sudan and Saudi Arabia, corporal punishment, such as whipping, has been used
in blasphemy cases. Recently, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1,000
public lashes, given in installments of 50 lashes every week, in addition to 10
years in prison separated from his wife and children and a 10-year travel ban
after his prison sentence.
Compulsory and correctional labor are the prescribed punishments in the
blasphemy laws in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Iran has the world’s most severe blasphemy laws, followed closely by Pakistan,
according to the U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom. Both
countries’ laws enforce the death penalty for an insult to the prophet
Muhammad. In 2015 alone, Iran executed 20 people for “enmity against God.”
In addition to Iran and Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Qatar and Egypt have among
the world’s worst blasphemy laws, the USCIRF study found in 2017.
Although many of the world’s blasphemy laws are enforced in largely Muslim
countries, they exist in every region of the world.
Some Western nations, such as Malta and Denmark, have repealed their national
blasphemy laws in recent years, while other countries still enforce them.
In Spain, an actor was prosecuted in September for explicit comments insulting
God and the Virgin Mary in Facebook posts that supported the procession of a
giant model of female genitalia through the streets of Seville, mocking
Catholic tradition.
Spain’s penal code requires monetary fines for “publicly disparaging dogmas,
beliefs, rites or ceremonies” of a religion and include similar penalties for
those who publicly disparage people without religious faith.
Greek law maintains that “anyone who publicly and maliciously and by any means
blasphemes the Greek Orthodox Church or any religion tolerable in Greece shall
be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years.”
The Italian criminal code also includes provisions for “insulting the state
religion”; however, the government does not generally enforce the law against
blasphemy.
In Thailand, the constitution calls for the state to “implement measures to
prevent any forms of harm or threat against Buddhism,” with potential
punishment from two to seven years’ imprisonment.
In Pakistan, Catholic mother of five Asia Bibi was recently acquitted after
spending eight years on death row. However, her life is still in danger, as the
ruling is under government review as part of a deal to appease groups that were
leading riots in the streets. And the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
reports that at least 40 other people in Pakistan are either on death row or
currently serving life sentences for blasphemy.
Nearly 1/2 of those facing the death penalty under Pakistan’s blasphemy law
have been Christians in a country that is almost entirely Muslim.
“Bibi’s case illustrates how blasphemy laws are used to persecute the weakest
of the weak among Pakistan's religious minorities,” Religious Freedom Institute
fellow Farahnaz Ispahani wrote earlier this year.
“As a poor Christian from a low caste, Bibi was among the most vulnerable and
susceptible to discrimination. And the legal system — which, in theory, should
be designed to protect the innocent — failed her in every way.”
(source: National Catholic Reporter)
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