July 30



CANADA:

Canada should bring back the death penalty



The nationwide manhunt for 2 suspected murderers has gripped Canadians.

And while everyone is waiting to see how events will be brought to a conclusion, there are also questions to be asked about what will happen if they are captured alive, and found guilty.

In that scenario, Canadian taxpayers would be on the hook for sheltering, feeding, entertaining, clothing, and caring for those individuals in prison, just as taxpayers are on the hook for the worst of the worst within the “justice” system.

Meanwhile, many Canadian Veterans are homeless, many Canadian seniors are struggling in poverty, many Indigenous communities don’t have clean drinking water (while prisons have clean drinking water), and the hypocrisies go on and on.

Basically, we live in a country where some of the most vicious and vile killers and criminals get taken care of at taxpayer expense, while people who served our nation, people who followed the law, and people who seek a good standard of living are abandoned.

That is unacceptable.

The question then is what to do about it.

First, we need to make sure our own innocent citizens are taken care of. That means slashing foreign aid, and redirecting those billions of dollars towards Canadian Citizens in need.

Second, we need to bring back the death penalty for the worst of the worst, in cases where guilt is obvious and undeniable.

It’s simply outrageous that horrific killers can get a lifetime of taxpayer-funded service, which ends up being incredibly costly.

Additionally, the lack of the death penalty, combined with the pathetically weak laws that even give people like Mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonette the chance to apply for parole (after 40 years) revictimizes the families of those who were killed. That’s because when parole hearings take place, family members often have to go and argue against someone getting released, forcing them to deal with the brutal loss of their family member all over again.

So, instead of revictimizing families of those who are murdered, instead of spending hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars on caring for despicable killers, we should instead bring back the death penalty.

Properly applied, the death penalty sends a clear message that those who brutally take the lives of innocent people will lose their lives in return. And it sends the message that we prioritize the rights of victims of crime and the families of victims of crime ahead of killers.

Canada’s justice system has been anti-victim and weak for far too long. It’s time to bring back the death penalty.

(source: Spencer Fernando, The Post Millennial)








IRAN:

Former Iran VP Mohammad Ali Najafi gets death sentence for killing wife----He was also mayor of Tehran.



Iran's state TV says a former mayor of Tehran who also served as one of the country's vice presidents was sentenced to death for killing his wife.

Tuesday's report quotes judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili as saying that Mohammad Ali Najafi was convicted of fatally shooting his wife, Mitra Ostad.

The verdict can be appealed within 20 days.

Police detained Najafi in May, after he went to authorities and confessed to the killing. At the time, officials said Najafi and Ostad, his 2nd his wife, were having domestic problems.

Najafi resigned as mayor in 2018, after hard-liners criticized him over a video showing he attended a dance performance by young girls at a school show.

Gun violence is very rare in Iran, especially among the country's political and economic elite.

A mathematician, professor and veteran politician, Najafi has previously served as President Hassan Rouhani's economic advisor and education minister.

He was elected Tehran mayor in August 2017, but resigned the following April after facing criticism from conservatives for attending a dance performance by schoolgirls.

Najafi married Ostad without divorcing his first wife, unusual in Iran where polygamy is legal but socially frowned upon.

(source: Khaleej Times)





SAUDI ARABIA:

G20 nations urged to boycott Saudi summit over wave of executions----Human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy says Riyadh has executed 134 people already this year, with cleric Salman al-Odah among those facing the same threat

Members of the G20 should boycott next year's summit meeting in Riyadh unless Saudi Arabia immediately halts its use of the death penalty, a leading human rights lawyer and member of the British parliament said on Monday.

'People live waiting with the anxiety that it is going to happen tomorrow or the next day'---- Baroness Helena Kennedy, human rights lawyer

The report by Helena Kennedy QC, a Baroness in the House of Lords, comes with at least 24 people currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia on protest or non-violent offences at imminent risk of execution, including renowned scholar Salman al-Odah.

"Execution of any of these 24 people would amount to a flagrant violation of international human rights norms and must be prevented at all costs," Kennedy said at the report's launch on Monday.

Kennedy was commissioned by the London-based Arab Organisation of Human Rights in the UK to investigate the kingdom's use of the death penalty and offer her legal opinion.

According to her report, 134 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia this year, a figure which she said could be higher given the lack of transparency around the use of the death penalty in the kingdom.

She said the death penalty is "particularly directed" at political opponents of the state as a way of silencing dissent, including towards religious figures and intellectuals swept up in a wave of arrests in September 2017 shortly after Mohammed bin Salman became crown prince.

"The kingdom’s authorities are threatening to exercise the death penalty and people live waiting with the anxiety that it is going to happen tomorrow or the next day," Kennedy said.

A "significant portion" of those killed this year were political dissidents, including 37 who were killed in a mass execution in April following lengthy periods in solitary confinement, torture and "grossly unfair trials", Kennedy wrote.

Many of those killed were members of the kingdom's Shia minority who were arrested and killed for participating in protests in the Eastern Province, including six who were children at the time of their alleged offences, according to the report.

One of the 37 was Haidar al-Leif, a man in his 40s, whose case had been taken up by a United Nations Special Rapporteur in July 2017.

In a December 2017 letter to the UN, the Saudi government said Leif had been sentenced to serve eight years in a final judgement. The UN rapporteur then designated him as "no longer at risk" in a report released last June. He was executed less than a year later.

“So peoples' public utterances seem to have no meaning,” Kennedy said of al-Leif's case.

In addition to Odah, a scholar known for his liberal views, the 24 at imminent risk of execution include clerics and scholars Awad al-Qarni and Hassan Farhan al-Maliki, and Ali al-Omari, a popular broadcaster who has supported women’s rights.

Odah has yet to stand trial after being arrested in September 2017 and charged with offences including 37 counts of terrorism for which the state prosecutor is seeking the death penalty.

Other charges Odah faces include allegations of exposing “injustices towards prisoners” and of “expressing cynicism and sarcasm about the government’s achievements”.

On Sunday, Odah's son said his father's trial had been postponed for several months, with his next court appearance scheduled for December.

Kennedy said the mode of execution was also "shocking". Most of those killed are beheaded, frequently in a group. "In some cases, mutilated bodies are left on display for extended periods, rather than being disposed of quickly and with dignity," she said.

The remains of the deceased, she added, are routinely not returned to families who frequently are not told where their loved one has been buried.

The rate of executions in Saudi Arabia has increased substantially since the Arab uprisings that began in 2011. "Should executions continue at this rate, the 2019 death toll will far exceed all previous recorded totals," she wrote.

In addition to halting the use of the death penalty, she recommends that the kingdom publish comprehensive information about who is on death row and explain why they are there.

She also said an international fact-finding mission by a politically neutral organisation should investigate concerns raised by her report and ensure the safety of those identified as at risk within it.

If the kingdom fails to comply with her recommendations, all G20 members should refuse to participate in the summit scheduled for November 2020.

"Once the rule of rule of law has been undermined...then I’m afraid the rule of law becomes meaningless. And that is dangerous for all of us," she said. "We cannot simply in the name of trading turn a blind eye to this."

Middle East Eye contacted the Saudi embassy in London for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

(source: middleeasteye.net)








BAHRAIN:

Bahrain Follows U.S. Lead on Executions



Citing the existence of the death penalty in the United States as justification, Bahrain’s government executed political prisoners Ali al-Arab and Ahmed al-Malali by firing squad on the morning of Saturday, July 27. Another man was also executed in a separate, non-political case.

The killings came 2 days after the Trump administration announced it was reinstating the federal death penalty after an absence of nearly 2 decades.

The two political prisoners had been convicted of killing a police officer in 2017 in a trial that involved over 50 defendants. I’ve been in Bahraini courtrooms and seen how these mass, sham political trials work, how defendants’ claims of tortured confessions are dismissed, and fabricated evidence permitted. The process doesn’t much resemble anything recognisable as a fair hearing that would meet international legal standards.

In May, 5 United Nations experts called for the executions to be stopped “amid serious concerns that [the two men] were coerced into making confessions through torture and did not receive a fair trial.” The day before the executions, Agnes Callamard, UN Special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, urged that the men be spared. “I remind Bahrain that the only thing that distinguishes capital punishment from an arbitrary execution is full respect for the most stringent due process and fair trial guarantees,” she said.

Members of Congress tried to intervene too, with Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chairs of the Congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, urging, on the eve of the executions, that they not be killed. Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Senator Bob Menendez, (D-NJ) tweeted a similar appeal.

But the executions went ahead anyway, deepening the island kingdom’s long-simmering political crisis. Hours after the executions, protests broke out across Bahrain, and a demonstrator died from inhaling police tear gas fired in the Manama suburb of Bilad al-Qadeem, according to locals. News of the prisoners’ deaths was also met with jubilation amongst government loyalists, who posted congratulatory messages on Twitter. One local bakery made cakes celebrating the executions.

Bahrain is still reeling from its mass protests for reform in 2011, when the government crushed huge demonstrations with widespread violence, including torture. The crackdown has silenced most protests, but the tension remains, and it’s hard to see that time will heal the country’s wounds. If anything, the kingdom is more divided than it was a decade ago.

Local civil society has been virtually eliminated, with an increasing emphasis and responsibility on those based outside the country to press for reform. Protestor Moosa Mohamed, in a desperate attempt to stop the executions, climbed onto Bahrain’s embassy in London. Police eventually stormed the building when it appeared he was being attacked by embassy staff.

Bahrain isn’t headed towards safety, but for more unrest. It’s just a matter of time until widespread upheaval breaks out again. A failure to address the grievances that prompted the 2011 uprising, plus a policy of wholesale fear and intimidation, is not a recipe for sustainable security.

The ruling family has increased repression in recent years, banning opposition groups from existing and forbidding former members from taking part in last year’s cosmetic parliamentary elections. The country’s only independent newspaper, Al Wasat, was forced to close down by the authorities 2 years ago.

Prominent opposition figures and human rights leaders—including Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, Nabeel Rajab and Naji Fateel—remain in prison. Others have been forced into exile. Government promises of an inclusive “national dialogue”, once enthusiastically swallowed by gullible officials in Washington and London, have long disappeared.

Rising tensions between Iran and the U.S. play into the hands of Bahrain’s repressive regime, as Trump administration officials are happy enough to stay silent on the killings and other human rights abuses in exchange for Manama’s loyalty in the fight against Tehran. Local activists pleaded unsuccessfully with the U.S. embassy in Bahrain to say something publicly to halt the executions, and there appears little prospect of any meaningful censure from the Trump administration (or from a UK government headed by Boris Johnson) to force Bahrain’s regime to change.

Over the years, most foreign government officials with whom I’ve discussed Bahrain understand the fundamentals very well. They even agree, privately, that its ruling family is steering the kingdom to disaster and that its repression will eventually backfire, with damaging consequences not only for Bahrain but for its allies.

I’ve never met anyone from the State Department, or from U.S. intelligence agencies, or from the UK or various other foreign ministries, who actually think the Bahraini ruling family is anything but a time bomb. But because they don’t think it’s about to explode immediately, they advocate the path of least resistance, of preserving the status quo, hoping that by the time the trouble comes it will be one of their successors’ responsibility to resolve it.

Western government failure on Bahrain is as much about myopia as ideology. It makes it easier, in the short term, to stay silent about executions rather than to cause a diplomatic fuss. But ignoring the problems won’t make them go away. More executions on Bahrain are expected—8 prisoners are now on death row having exhausted all legal remedies, and 2 more are waiting for a final appeal against their death sentences.

We’ve seen what happens when U.S. officials turn a blind eye to abuses in Bahrain, and in the neighbouring countries of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It encourages greater state violence. What happened last weekend will eventually be part of the payback for years of repression, and when that happens the U.S. and Bahrain’s other western allies will regret not confronting the problem now.

(source: Brian Dooley is a senior advisor with Human Rights First----lobelog.com)





VIETNAM:

Australian woman sentenced to death for leading cross-border drug ring



A HCMC court Monday sentenced a Vietnamese Australian woman to death for running a drug trafficking operation between Cambodia and neighboring Vietnam.

Lam Kim Phung, 55, was arrested in late 2016 and identified as the leader of a gang that trafficked heroin and methamphetamine from Cambodia into Ho Chi Minh City.

She was charged with "illegal trading of narcotic substances." 3 of her henchmen, including Le Quang Cuong, Nguyen Duy Thach Thao and Tran Quynh Linh, got death sentences for the same charge at the trial court.

3 others were given life sentences while four, including Phung’s brother, also a Vietnamese Australian citizen, were jailed between 3 years and 6 months to 20 years in connection with the drug ring.

According to the indictment, Phung returned to Vietnam from Australia in 2005 and run restaurant and casino businesses in Cambodia. Due to business losses, she came up with idea of trafficking drugs.

From July 2016, Phung bought drugs from Cambodia and hired her accomplices to deliver them from Tay Ninh, Dong Thap and An Giang border gates in southern Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh City.

The court heard that she had sold a total of 5.5 kilograms (12lb) of methamphetamine at the price of VND380 million ($16,370) per kilogram and 16.5 grams of heroin worth VND1.1 billion ($47,400) to Thao.

On November 28, 2016, police raided a house on To Hien Thanh Street in District 10 and arrested Thao and Phung’s accomplices while they were doing a transaction. Officers seized a plastic nylon containing 3 kg of meth. Upon searching Thao’s house, police also discovered nearly 2 kg of meth and heroin.

One day later, police detained Phung’s brother and his wife for illegally possessing heroin at a hotel on Pham Hong Thai Street in District 1.

Based on testimonies of the detained, police captured Phung and other accomplices in the drug ring.

Vietnam has some of the world’s toughest drug laws. Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine face the death penalty.

The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is also punishable by death.

Although the laws are strictly enforced with capital punishment handed down regularly, drug running continues in border areas.

(source: vnexpress.net)








BANGLADESH:

2 sentenced to death, 6 get life term for murder



A Kushtia court on Monday sentenced 2 persons to death and 6 others to life term imprisonment in a murder case filed in 2011.

The convicts who got death penalty are Jahed Ibne Sahid alias Rana, son of Sahidul Islam, a resident of the Chourhas Phultala colony area of the district town and Mostafijur Rahman Sajib, son of Golam Mustafa of the Phulchhari village under the Shailkupa upazila in the Jhenaidah district.

The lifers are Sohel Ahamed, Sohel Rana, Sahin Uddin, M Jony, M Ripon and M Sumin, all being residents of the Chourhas Phultala colony area of the district town.

The court also fined them Tk50,000 each.

Judge of Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunals Munshi M Mosiar Rahman handed down the verdict in present of the convicts around 11am.

The convicts hacked Lalchand, son of Nur Islam, a resident of the area, to death over previous enmity in March, 2011, said Kushtia Judge Court PP Anup Kumar Nandi.

After the incident, Lalchand’s father filed a case with the Kushtia Model police station.

Police, after investigation, submitted the charge sheet before the court against them on December 31 of the year.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)






INDIA:

Guwahati: Court convicts 3 in Shweta Agarwalla murder case----Court convicts victim's boyfriend Govind Singhal, his mother Kamla Devi and sister Bhawani in the murder case



The District & Sessions Court of Kamrup (M) on Tuesday pronounced the judgement on the Shweta Agarwalla murder case, which took place in Guwahati on December 4, 2017.

The court convicted accused Govind Singhal, his mother Kamla Devi and sister Bhawani in the murder case under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC.

The judgement was announced on the basis of evidences and statements given by 20 witnesses before the court.

In favour of the accused 3 witnesses had given statements.

It may be mentioned that Govind Singhal had allegedly killed his girlfriend Sweta Agarwalla, a meritorious student of KC Das Commerce College, on December 4, 2017 in his rented house at Bharalumukh area in Guwahati.

The house belonged to lawyer J. P. Mazumdar near Shantipur.

Later, the charred body of 20-year-old Shweta Agarwalla, who hailed from Paltan Bazaar area, was recovered in the bathroom of Govind Singhal at Bharalumukh area.

He was assisted by his mother and sister in the crime.

A case was registered at Bharalumukh Police Station and investigation was started.

Within a short period, the police arrested Govind Agarwalla, his mother and sister.

After the announcement of the judgement, Shweta Agarwalla’s father Om Prakash Agarwalla demanded that the accused be hanged.

Shweta’s father while expressing happiness at the judegment, thanked the judiciary.

While seeking death penalty for all the 3 accused, the victim’s father talking to the media before the court, said, “I will get peace if they are hanged.”

The court is likely to announce the punishment for all the convicts on Wednesday.

Shweta Agarwalla, who was among toppers in Higher Secondary (Commerce) Examination 2015, was a 5th semester student at the time of the incident.

(source: nenow.com)








PHILIPPINES:

Death penalty may lead to abuses – Atienza



Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza raised concerns that bringing back capital punishment might lead to “horrific abuses.”

“Once Congress revives the death penalty, these police crooks will surely brandish the death penalty as the ‘sword of Damocles’ to hang over the heads of their potential victims of kidnapping, extortion and evidence-planting,” Atienza said in a statement.

The former Manila mayor, a member of the House minority, said corrupt officers might come up with “false or fabricated evidence” against supposed perpetrators to protect themselves from certain anomalies.

“There are many corrupt officers everywhere. In fact, no less than President Duterte, himself, at one point tagged the police as ‘rotten to the core’ and reckoned that 4 out of 10 officers are engaged in all sorts of criminal activities,” Atienza said.

He cited the kidnapping-for-extortion and murder of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-Joo by anti-narcotics agents, and the case of a police officer in Manila, who raped a 15-year-old girl in exchange for the freedom of her parents who were nabbed for alleged drug offenses.

To curb illegal drug trafficking, Atienza urged the Duterte administration to first address rampant corruption at the Bureau of Customs.

“Besides capturing, prosecuting and locking up big-time traffickers, the government should also target devious officers, who are recycling back into the market illegal drugs seized from raids and arrests,” he said.

House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano had said the House of Representatives would hear the stand of those who oppose or favor the reimposition of death penalty.

Four death penalty bills filed by Representatives Bienvenido Abante Jr., Robert Barber, Victor Yap and Rozzano Biazon have been scheduled for first reading.

In 2017, the House approved on third and final reading a measure that sought to impose death penalty for heinous and drug crimes, but senators rejected it.

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(source: Manila Times)

************************

Walang plunder! Sotto: Bill to revive death penalty could be rushed if for drug-related crimes only



Senate President Vicente Sotto III believes proposals to revive the death penalty would move faster in the Senate if its coverage is limited to drug-related crimes.

Sotto said longer debates at the Senate committee level will ensue if the scope of crimes punishable by death penalty were to be expanded.

“So far, many senators support the idea of re-imposing death penalty for high-level drug traffickers,” he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte asked Congress to reinstate the death penalty for crimes related to illegal drugs and plunder in his fourth State of the Nation Address on Monday (July 22).

Sotto expressed optimism that the bill to bring back the death penalty could be passed within Duterte’s term.

“This measure is expected to hurdle a lot of debates but I strongly believe that it can be passed during the 18th Congress,” he said.

(source: politics.com.ph)








SINGAPORE:

Brothel owner successfully appeals against death sentence for murdering pimp



A brothel owner who was sentenced to death 2 years ago for murdering a pimp over money was spared the noose and given life imprisonment instead on Tuesday (Jul 30).

The Court of Appeal granted Chan Lie Sian, 54, his appeal against the death sentence for bludgeoning 35-year-old William Tiah Hung Wai with a dumbbell rod on Jan 14, 2014, over S$6,500 that he believed the victim had stolen from his pocket.

The pimp suffered multiple skull fractures and had bone fragments embedded in his brain from the onslaught, and died later in hospital.

Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon on Tuesday said he and Appeal Judges Judith Prakash and Andrew Phang found that Chan did not have the specific intention to kill the victim.

He had been convicted of murder with the intention of causing death, which draws the death penalty.

The court amended his conviction to murder with the intention to cause bodily injury likely to cause death, which can be punished either with death or life imprisonment and caning.

Chan cannot be caned as he is over 50.

HE HAD EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO KILL VICTIM, BUT HE DID NOT: CHIEF JUSTICE

Explaining the court's decision, Chief Justice Menon said it is well established that an accused person has to have the specific intention to kill the victim in order to be convicted of murder with intention of causing death.

"In our judgment, he didn't have the specific intention to kill the victim," said the chief justice.

"With no witnesses around and with the victim lying helpless on the bed, the appellant had every opportunity to bring any such intention to kill to fruition. Yet, he did not do so even though the victim was clearly alive."

The death penalty is warranted when the actions of the accused exhibit "viciousness or a blatant disregard for human life", said Chief Justice Menon.

? "The court was not satisfied that the manner in which the appellant acted evinced that blatant disregard for human life," he said.

"First, the court found that the appellant was not aware at the time of the attack or in its immediate aftermath, of the fatal nature of the victim’s injuries. Indeed, the appellant’s unchallenged testimony was that he did not know that the injuries were so severe as to be likely to cause the victim’s death."

Chan had left the victim unconscious on the floor of an illegal brothel in Geylang after hitting him several times on his head and body with a metal rod.

Chan's lawyer Wendell Wong had told the Court of Appeal that his client had wanted to teach the victim, whom he viewed as a "brother", a lesson for stealing money from him.

Chan told other witnesses about what had happened and splashed a pail of water on the victim, shouting vulgarities at him and accusing him of pretending to be dead.

If Chan had attacked the victim to kill him, his attempts to revive him and accuse him of feigning death would make no sense, said Chief Justice Menon.

CONVICTED OF MURDER UNDER DIFFERENT LIMB

The judges were satisfied that Chan fulfilled all 3 ingredients of murder with the intention to cause bodily injury likely to cause death.

They rejected Chan's defence, argued by Mr Wong, of sudden fight.

This was because there are 3 elements for the defence of sudden fight to stand: That there was a sudden fight in the heat of passion, an absence of premeditation, and an absence of undue advantage or cruel or unusual acts.

In Chan's case, he had undue advantage over the victim, given that he was armed with a weapon, and had an advantage over him in his physique, said the judges.

Chan was not aware of the fatal nature of the victim's injuries, said Chief Justice Menon, and his testimony that he did not know the injuries were so severe was unchallenged and consistent with his conduct at the time.

He said he would attack the victim again when he came to, and surrendered to the police as he thought it had not been fatal.

Indeed, he had initially been charged with voluntarily causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon before his charge was switched to one of murder following the pimp's death in hospital.

For the court to impose the death penalty, the prosecution has to establish that the actions of the offender have outraged the feelings of the community, and this would be the case where these actions exhibit viciousness or a blatant disregard for human life, the court heard.

"Having reviewed the evidence, we are not satisfied that the prosecution has established that additional element," said Chief Justice Menon.

"We therefore allow the appeal and set aside the death penalty and impose a sentence of life imprisonment instead."

(source: channelnewsasia.com)








SRI LANKA:

President insists most Sri Lankans support death penalty



President Maithripala Sirisena insists most Sri Lankans support implementing the death penalty.

Speaking at a ceremony held in Ratnapura today the President said that he wanted to implement the death penalty on some convicts to control the drug menace.

However, he said some politicians protested against it and the convicts are now celebrating.

The President said that he is certain 90 % of the population support implementing the death penalty.

(source: menafn.com)
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