Oct. 7
EUROPE:
The Dark Life of a Medieval Executioner – A Cut Away from the Rest
It is no surprise that the medieval period was filled with all kinds of
undesirable jobs. There were leech collectors, cesspool cleaners, serfs, and
gong farmers, to name a few. But one vocation that was, perhaps, one of the
toughest, was the job of the medieval executioner. Theirs was one of the
darkest, most taboo jobs of the Middle Ages.
Whether employed in splendid royal courts or backwater petty castles, these
vicious headsmen had a singular purpose – to do the job that very few could or
wanted to do. Theirs was the role of taking lives, tightening the noose or
decapitating those who were destined for an early grave. Their axes knew no
class or creed – the sharp iron culled both king and peasant.
Medieval Executioners: Masters of Dirty Jobs
During much of the early medieval period, as well as the centuries that
followed, crime and lawlessness were rampant throughout the world. From Europe
to Asia and the Middle East, evil was an everyday occurrence. Rapes, thievery,
murder, heresy, and leprosy – all manner of sin and decadence ran rampant in
the unruly medieval world, under the auspices of death itself.
But where there is lawlessness, there is also justice, albeit sometimes a cruel
one. Mercy was not the usual approach to solving crimes, much to the
disadvantage of the budding criminal of the period. This means that once dealt,
justice was swift and brutal – a determined and definite retribution against
the usurpation of the order of the society. In short, the death penalty was
often the sentence.
As the earliest epoch of the Middle Ages slowly advanced into a new, slightly
more developed period, it also saw the rise of a new vocation. Someone was
needed to perform the role that no one wanted - that was the executioner’s
vocation.
From as early as the 1200’s, the societies of Western and Central Europe were
increasingly requiring an official position that would satisfy their needs for
delivering capital punishment to their convicts. Prominent cities throughout
France, Germany, and England required skilled executioners to act as the divine
hand of justice appointed by the state and the royal court.
One of the earliest documented official executioner positions dates to 1202,
when a prominent headsman, Nicolas Jouhanne – nicknamed “la Justice” – was
appointed the vicomte, and official executioner of the Normandy town of Caux.
From then on, this official position spread through many capitals and large
towns of Western Europe.
But even before that period, and certainly well after it, the role of the
executioner was definitely a troubled one, straddling a grey area between good
and evil and between acceptance and repugnance.
Executioners were very much ostracized. Death, and moreover, murder, always had
a difficult position in society. When done by a mass of people, as in lynching,
murder was no longer a taboo act – the group erased the perpetrator. But once
an individual took the matter into their own hands, and performed a murder, the
situation was different.
And such was the predicament of the executioner. A person in this position, who
was known to be the headsman, was seen as a troubled person, a sinner beyond
redemption, and simply put – a killer. The masses could not accept the wanton
taking of a life – on command – and could not comprehend the state of mind that
hid behind the eyes of the headsman.
One good example of this viewpoint of the masses can be observed from the many
writings and memoires from the Middle Ages, and chiefly the writings of Joseph
de Maistre. Here is a part of his observations of the character of an
executioner:
“This head, this heart, are they made like ours? Do they not have something odd
or foreign to our nature? On the exterior he [the executioner] is made just as
we are; he is born, like us; but he is an extraordinary being…Is he a man?”
At the Edge of Society
The truth is not very far – a medieval executioner had a hard time in the
society around him. In many, if not most, cultures of the medieval world, an
executioner was an ostracized, shunned person, who belonged to a markedly
different caste of society. Even though they sometimes enjoyed financial
benefits and could earn reasonable amounts from their work, these people still
suffered in solitude and lived life on the margins of society – simply because
of their vocation. To freely deliver death, torture, and all manner of foulness
on another person was seen as reason enough for the people to look down on an
executioner and shun him.
In most countries, executioners and their families lived on the peripheries of
cities, well away from the main residences. They also couldn’t be buried like
the rest of the citizens – their graves were separated from the main graveyard,
marked, and much less elaborate. The executioners had to be recognizable even
when off duty – much like Jews, lepers, and prostitutes during the Middle Ages,
they too had to wear a special marking on their person, at all times.
And the ostracizing was similar outside of Europe – in Japan, for example, an
executioner was extremely discriminated against and denigrated. They were
exclusively from the burakumin class – the lowest social caste of Japan.
In the Ottoman Empire, no citizen could be an executioner – this vocation was
reserved exclusively for the Roma gypsies . This fact alone separated them in
the Ottoman society, and they were looked down upon due to their cruelty and
unflinching approach to all the gruesome tasks. These Roma caravans and throngs
were an essential part of the baggage trains of Ottoman armies – they were
tasked with the cruelest tortures and executions against the subjugated peoples
of the empire.
The Ottoman Roma executioners were widely feared for their cruel methods such
as impalement on a stake. This was the execution method used against brigands,
thieves, and captured freedom fighters in occupied lands.
The medieval executioner, especially in the early periods, was actually much
more than just an executioner. Once could hardly expect to have a fresh head to
chop off every day, and thus different means of earning money had to be found.
That is why the executioner was tasked with many more jobs – none of them
decent.
In fact, an executioner never had a singular vocation in the early medieval
period. An executioner earned his daily bread by doing many unsavory tasks,
which were shunned by the rest of society. In France, they were known as maitre
des hautes et basses oeuvres – masters of high and low works.
For example they would tax the prostitutes and lepers of the town, especially
those that were illegally there. An executioner that found an illegal leper
begging on the streets had the right to confiscate all the belongings and money
of the leper, and to fine him an additional amount.
They were also well-known as knackers – people tasked with collecting animal
carcasses around town, as well as killing sick, dying, and old animals. The
carcasses would then be rendered to gather anything usable – fat, hides,
tallow, or bone meal. This was a shunned and foul job – but very lucrative. In
many areas knackers were also exclusively executioners.
An executioner was also employed to oversee the town’s prostitutes – another
task that was seen as disreputable and decadent. These men were tasked with
exacting a tribute from the prostitutes – a fixed sum, several times per year.
Curiously, the medieval executioner, particularly in France and Western Europe,
was tasked with managing the town’s stray dogs (in what way, you can guess), as
well as farm animals kept illegally in town premises. For example, in Dijon,
France, the law declared that no citizen may keep any sort of pigs in the town
premises. It was the job of the executioner to kill any pig that was found in
town. He was in his rights to cut off the head and keep it for himself, as
payment.
Another shunned job was related to gong farming, cesspits, latrines, and
similar foul fecal aspects of the medieval society. While these jobs were
highly degrading, unsanitary, filthy, and ostracized, they were nonetheless
lucrative – and executioners were often in charge of them.
The Real Addams Families – Executioner Dynasties
But even when they had a range of tasks that were in a sense critical to the
functioning of the town, the executioners were still ostracized. They were not
allowed to come into contact with the upstanding, well-off citizens of the
town, and were thus put into the corner with the same social outcasts they had
authority over.
This shunning throughout the medieval period slowly drove executioner families
to endogamy –the practice of marrying people that belong to the same background
and social caste. Executioners almost exclusively married women who came from
executioner families themselves, and in that way they almost created small
separate executioner-communities.
In time, those headsmen that were employed in the royal courts, their sons, and
their grandsons, all were in the family “business”. This saw the rise of many
prominent, hereditary executioner dynasties, which were often well-off,
(in)famous, tasked with relieving some highly important individuals.
In France, there was the Guillaume dynasty of Paris executioners, which was
prominent in the business for more than a century. They were succeeded by the
even more famous Sanson family, whose offspring – Charles Henri Sanson – would
execute Louis XVI with a guillotine. Then there was the Desmorest dynasty – an
offshoot of the Guillaumes – which gave France of the period more than 50
prominent executioners.
In Western Europe, there was the prominent Dalembourg dynasty of executioners,
who performed their role across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the
Netherlands.
Methods of the Executioner
Execution methods were many, and most notably they were done by the axe, the
sword, the noose, or garrote. It wasn’t always easy to complete the task.
History remembers many notable cases of clumsy executioners, which resulted in
some botched and prolonged capital punishments . One example is the execution
of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, in 1685. He was
executed by the infamous Jack Ketch, the executioner employed in the court of
King Charles II. Ketch was infamous for his botched executions, which could
have been done on purpose out of a sadistic nature.
When the Duke of Monmouth was on the chopping block, he specifically implored
Ketch, in front of many gathered witnesses, to grant him a swift death – unlike
the ones before. He gave Jack Ketch 6 guineas, and vouched that his servants
would give more gold to the executioner if the death was swift. Nonetheless,
the execution was botched and extremely unpleasant. It took Ketch 8 hacks to
finally sever the head. The gathered masses were enraged and attempted to lynch
the executioner – without success.
Payday Was a Chop Away
Today we are shown the slightly romanticized, perhaps inaccurate image of the
medieval executioner as a hooded, secretive and mysterious death dealer – while
the reality could have been very different. It was difficult for an executioner
to remain anonymous, his post and his vocation was known by all, and thus a
hood and a mask would have been pointless.
And we can now understand that the position of an executioner was almost always
discriminated against. Taking lives, no matter how lowly or sinful they are,
has never been an easy task – and it plunged the medieval executioners into the
realm of social outcasts, forcing them to earn their money by doing all the
gruesome and degrading jobs that were on offer – from collecting carcasses and
burying bodies, to managing stray dogs and overseeing the clearance of
cesspools.
Such was the hard life of the headsman. And if their lives of solitude and
despair drove them to crime and murder, they could end up on the other side of
the axe.
All necks were the same to the sharp iron of the executioner’s blade.
(source: ancient-origins.net)
ANGOLA:
EU welcomes Angola’s accession to key human rights conventions
The European Union welcomed on 4 October Angola’s alignment with 3 important
international treaties on human rights.
On 2 October, Angola became party to the Optional Protocol aiming to the
abolition of the death penalty, to the Convention against Torture and other
cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to the Convention on the
elimination of all forms of racial discrimination.
In this context, the Union reaffirmed in a statement its commitment to the
universal abolition of the death penalty, to combating torture and all forms of
racism:
“These accessions by Angola should encourage other countries to follow this
example”, the statement reads.
(source: neweurope.eu)
PAKISTAN:
Death row prisoners acquitted in murder of NAB chairperson’s parents
The Lahore High Court has acquitted 3 death row prisoners in the murder case of
NAB Chairperson Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal’s parents.
The prisoners, including Javed Iqbal’s step-brother Naveed Iqbal, were
acquitted because of a lack of evidence.
Parents of the NAB chairperson–father Abdul Majeed (a retired DIG) and mother
Zareena – were found dead at their residence near Cavalry Ground in Lahore in
2011.
Following the murder, police had arrested 3 suspects, Naveed Iqbal, Abbas
Shakir and Ameen Ali, over suspicion. In January 2016, a trial court had
convicted and sentenced them to death. A fine of Rs550,000 was also imposed.
They had challenged the conviction in the Lahore High Court. In their
application, their lawyer claimed that his clients were arrested on suspicion.
No solid evidence was presented before the trial court and the accused were
awarded capital punishment on mere suspicion, he said.
A 2-member bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday set aside the punishment
and released the 3.
(source: samaa.tv)
*********************
End Ordeal for ‘Blasphemy’ Defendants----Repeal Law Used Against Religious
Minorities, Vulnerable Communities
The Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision to quash the conviction of a man who had
spent almost 18 years in prison for blasphemy spotlighted abuses inherent in
the law, Human Rights Watch said today. On September 25, 2019, the court ruled
that the prosecution failed to provide substantial evidence against
Wajih-ul-Hassan, who had been sentenced to death in 2002 for writing allegedly
blasphemous letters.
Pakistan’s government should drop the charges, order the release of all
detainees held for blasphemy, and revise the blasphemy law with the ultimate
aim of repealing it.
“The overturned conviction of a man imprisoned for 18 years highlights just one
of many miscarriages of justice stemming from Pakistan’s vaguely worded
blasphemy law,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “Typically, it’s members of
religious minorities or other vulnerable communities who are wrongly accused
and left unable to defend themselves.”
Section 295-C of Pakistan’s penal code, known as the blasphemy law, carries
what is effectively a mandatory death sentence. According to the Center for
Social Justice, a Pakistani advocacy group, at least 1,472 people were charged
under the blasphemy provisions from 1987 to 2016. Although there have been no
executions, at least 17 people convicted of blasphemy are currently on death
row, while many others are serving life sentences for related offenses.
A mere accusation of blasphemy can put the security of the accused at risk.
Since 1990, at least 65 people have been killed in Pakistan over claims of
blasphemy, based on media reports.
Among the most egregious blasphemy cases is that of Junaid Hafeez, a
33-year-old university lecturer who was arrested for blasphemy on March 13,
2013, in Multan, Punjab province. Hafeez has been in solitary confinement since
June 2014. His trial has had numerous delays and is now before the eighth judge
since it began in 2013.
On May 7, 2014, Rashid Rehman, who had been Hafeez’s lawyer, was fatally shot
in his office in Multan, in apparent reprisal for representing Hafeez and
others charged under the blasphemy law. Rehman had been threatened with “dire
consequences” for defending Hafeez.
On October 31, 2018, Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned the conviction of
Aasia Bibi, who had spent 8 years on death row. She was convicted under
Pakistan’s blasphemy law after a June 2009 altercation with fellow farm workers
who had refused to drink water she had touched, contending it was “unclean”
because she was Christian. When pro-blasphemy law clerics threatened violence
after the Supreme Court decision, Prime Minister Imran Khan in a televised
speech said that the clerics were “inciting [people] for their own political
gain,” and were “doing no service to Islam.”
Killings of people who have criticized the blasphemy law have had a chilling
effect on efforts to reform the law. On January 4, 2011, Salmaan Taseer, the
governor of Punjab province, was killed by his own security guard because
Taseer had sought to repeal the blasphemy law. And on March 2, 2011,
unidentified assailants killed the federal minorities affairs minister, Shahbaz
Bhatti, an outspoken critic of the law.
The law has been increasingly used to jail and prosecute people for social
media comments. In September 2017, Nadeem James, a 35-year-old Christian, was
sentenced to death for forwarding a poem that was deemed insulting to Islam to
a friend. In April 2014, a Christian couple was sentenced to death for sending
an allegedly blasphemous text message to a local cleric.
The blasphemy law is often brought against members of religious minorities,
frequently to settle personal disputes. But the government rarely brings
charges against those responsible for physical attacks on people accused of
blasphemy. In May, riots erupted in Mirpurkhas, Sindh, after a Hindu
veterinarian was accused of committing blasphemy for allegedly providing
medicines wrapped in a paper with Islamic verses printed on it. In an unusual
law enforcement response, he was taken into protective custody and 6 people
were charged with rioting.
Pakistan’s government should repeal sections 295 and 298 of the penal code,
which includes the blasphemy law and the law discriminating against the
Ahmadiyya religious community. The government should also promptly and
appropriately prosecute those responsible for planning and carrying out attacks
against religious minorities.
“The Supreme Court took an important step by ending Hassan’s horrific ordeal,
though many more charged with blasphemy are languishing in Pakistani prisons,”
Adams said. “Repealing the blasphemy law is necessary to ensure that all
Pakistanis can live free from fear of unjust punishment and discrimination.”
(source: Human Rights Watch)
MALAYSIA:
Malaysian parliament to decide on abolishing death penalty
Malaysia's parliament convened on Monday after a 2-month adjournment with the
proposed abolition of the death penalty and the Defense White Paper among other
matters high on the agenda between Oct. 7 and Dec. 5.
Currently, the law provides for a mandatory death sentence for 11 offences
under the country's laws including murder, armed robbery, waging war against
the King, as well as for the illegal possession and use of firearms.
The abolition of the death sentence was one of the several election promises
made by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration led by Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad, which won power during the national polls in May last year.
The National Defense White Paper, meant to shape the direction of Malaysia's
defense policies and systems for the next 10 years, will also be tabled for
parliament to review for the 1st time.
Deputy Defense Minister Liew Chin Tong had previously said the government would
apply the whole-of-government and the whole-of-society approach in formulating
the DWP so that all levels of society will understand their importance, and
take joint responsibility.
Also to be tabled will be the national budget for 2020, detailing the 314.5
billion ringgit (US$75.14 billion) earmarked for next year's expenditure.
On the political balance, former ruling United Malays's National Organization
inked a formal pact for cooperation with Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party in
September, ending decades of political rivalry and posing a potential challenge
to the incumbent government.
Azmi Hassan from University of Technology Malaysia said the pact would not have
a significance on the balance of power in parliament as the two parties had
already cooperated in several by-elections since the national polls.
However, Azmi said UMNO-PAS partnership could have an impact on the expected
transition of power from Mahathir to his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim, who has
said he expected to take over next year.
"Anwar Ibrahim has already openly said next year will be his time to take over
as the prime minister and with PAS openly said they prefer Mahathir for the
full term. It should be interesting to observe UMNO stand since as a political
party they never put out who they prefer," he said.
(source: shine.cn)
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