April 22
SOUTH AFRICA:
Death penalty bunk
Glen Henick makes a strange case for reintroducing the death penalty (SA needs
deterrent to rein in shockingly high murder rate, April 19). While he does not
actually appear to accept the effectiveness of the death penalty as a
deterrent, despite your heading, he makes a spurious suggestion that it should
be supported in part because it is popular - in other words because some other
people may support it. Not a good reason to support anything!
He makes an "economic" argument - that it could be cheaper than imprisonment if
we do away with appeal processes. Apart from the fact that appeals could help
in ensuring that innocent people are not hanged by mistake (which has often
happened in the US), this smacks of some kind of summary justice.
He also makes a "historical" argument - essentially because many people are
poor and illiterate, we cannot afford the "luxury" of not having the death
penalty.
Henick suggests that if the death penalty is in place, we might have less "mob
justice". My sense is this is more to do with a lack of confidence in the
police in dealing with crime, rather than perceived inadequate sentences
imposed by the courts and absence of the death penalty.
Mark Turpin, via email)
(source: Letter to the Editor, belive.co.za)
INDONESIA:
Suspect Could Face Death in Tangerang Mutilation Murder Case
The suspected murderer of a 34-year-old pregnant woman whose body was found
mutilated in Tangerang, Banten, could face the death penalty as he stands
accused of premeditated murder, a police official said on Friday (22/04).
Agus, 31-years-old, was arrested on Wednesday in Surabaya, East Java, after
being on the run since the murder of Nur Atikah on Sunday. He has been brought
to Jakarta.
Police said the suspect, a married father of 1, claimed during interrogations
that he had killed his girlfriend Atikah in the heat of the moment during an
altercation. But witnesses dispute the claim.
"The suspect once asked the witnesses if committing murder is a sin," Jakarta
Police general crimes director, Sr. Comr. Krishna Murti, told reporters. "Thus,
the plan to kill has come across his mind beforehand."
Investigators said Atikah was a 7 months pregnant widow mother of 2 and had
repeatedly asked the suspect to marry her. He is alleged to have strangled her
and mutilated her body.
"The mutilation was indeed planned as he needed a tool to do that," Krishna
added. "The suspect took a machete from his rented house and also bought a saw
from a nearby market."
Atikah's body was discovered 3 days later at a rented house in Cikupa. Her arms
were found the following day in a nearby river, but her legs are yet to be
located.
Investigations revealed that Agus and Atikah had been living together for the
past 2 months, while his wife and children lived in Bogor, West Java. The 2 had
once worked at the same restaurant in Cikupa, but at different times, police
said.
(source: Jakarta Globe)
*****************
Indonesia defends death penalty for drugs
Indonesia has defended its use of the death penalty for drug traffickers.It
comes just days after its representative was jeered at a UN narcotics
conference, citing a steep rise in demand and consumption in Southeast Asia's
most populous country.
Indonesia has faced widespread international criticism for its use of capital
punishment, most recently for the high-profile executions of foreign drug
traffickers, despite repeated pleas for mercy from governments and
international activists.
'Indonesia and like-minded countries ... face diverse challenges in handling
drugs and the death penalty is one of the options based on sovereignty of the
law in each country,' the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Indonesia's representative at the UN conference drew criticism when he defended
the use of capital punishment for drug offences, saying it was for individual
countries to decide for themselves.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has declared a 'drug emergency' in the country
of 250 million, calling the rising flow of narcotics as serious a security
threat as militancy.
Indonesia's attorney-general announced earlier this month executions would
resume this year following a brief hiatus after last year's executions of 14
mainly foreign drug traffickers.
(source: skynews.com.au)
TAIWAN:
Taiwan Supreme Court Upholds Subway Killer Death Sentence
Taiwan's supreme court on Friday upheld the death sentence given to a
university student over a random May 2014 knife attack in a subway car in the
capital Taipei that left 4 people dead and 22 injured.
The denial of Cheng Chieh's third and final appeal draws a line under one of
the most shocking crimes to strike the island's prosperous and generally
non-violent society in years.
Before the attack, Cheng posted a message on his Facebook page saying he
"wanted to do something big." During sentencing by a lower court, he was quoted
as saying that he would not mind receiving a death sentence.
Memories of the case were revived last month with an apparently random knife
attack and decapitation of a 3-year-old girl in front of her mother in Taipei.
A 33-year-old man with a history of drug use and mental illness has been
arrested in that case.
Some social scientists have questioned whether social alienation, joblessness
and a loss of hope in the future were fueling such actions among young men.
Despite a legal push to abolish the death penalty, it continues to receive
strong support among the public. Executions are carried out by a single gunshot
to the head.
(source: Associated Press)
MAURITANIA:
Mauritanian court upholds death sentence for 'blasphemous' blogger
An appeal court in the west African state of Mauritania has upheld the death
sentence of a blogger accused of blasphemy, a judicial source told AFP on
Thursday.
Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkheitir, who has also been named as Mohamed Cheikh
Ould Mohamed, was initially handed the death sentence in 2014 on charges of
"apostasy".
The appeal court on Thursday upheld the sentence but downgraded the charge from
apostasy to the lesser charge of being an "infidel" after the blogger repented,
the source said.
The source added that Mkheitir could still be pardoned by the Supreme Court "if
they find that his repentance is sincere".
The accused, aged in his thirties, was arrested in 2014 after uploading an
article onto the internet that authorities considered blasphemous.
The original announcement of the death penalty was met with public celebrations
in two Mauritanian cities.
Rights watchdog Amnesty International has designated Mkheitir "a prisoner of
conscience".
"He wrote a post on a blog criticising people who use religion as a means of
discrimination and injustice," said Gaetan Mootoo, a west African specialist at
Amnesty International.
He was "jailed for having exercised his right to free speech in a peaceful
manner," Mootoo added.
(source: Agence France-Presse)
IRELAND:
Easter Rising leader executed in 1916: John MacBride
April 24 is the historic anniversary of the start of the Easter Rising, which
took place over the course of five days in Dublin in 1916 and forever changed
the course of Irish history. To commemorate this anniversary, writer and
historian Dermot McEvoy has produced 16 profiles of the Irish Rebel leaders who
were executed one hundred years ago and who, gradually, have come to be seen as
heroes.
Between May 3 and 14, 1916 15 leaders of the Rising were court-martialed by the
British Army under General John Maxwell and convicted. Over 2 weeks
IrishCentral will look at the leaders from James Connolly to Joseph Mary
Plunkett and share their stories.
John MacBride
John MacBride was born in County Mayo in 1865, became interested in Irish
Republican politics, then left for South Africa to make his fortune in the gold
mines. He fought against the British during the Boer War - a point not lost on
British General John Maxwell of Easter Rising fame/infamy who was also a
participant in the Boer War on the British side - then fled to France because
he feared returning to Ireland at that time. In Paris he met Maud Gonne, whom
he married, and they had a son, Sean.
The marriage was a tumultuous one and MacBride eventually returned to Ireland.
At this point he was impoverished and having trouble with alcohol until he
secured a position with the Dublin Corporation. He was not a member of the
Irish Volunteers or intimately involved with the leadership of the IRB,
although he knew many of the players. In an iconic photograph, he can be viewed
between Pearse and Clarke at the O'Donovan Rossa funeral oration at Glasnevin
Cemetery in 1915.
His involvement in the Rising, it seems, was serendipitous. According to his
statement at his trial, he just kind of stumbled upon the revolution: "On the
morning of Easter Monday I left my home at Glengeary with the intention of
going to meet my brother who was coming to Dublin to get married. In waiting
round town I went up as far as Stephen's Green and there I saw a band of Irish
Volunteers. I knew some of the members personally and the Commander [MacDonagh]
told me that an Irish Republic was virtually proclaimed. As I knew my rather
advanced opinions and although I had no previous connection with the Irish
Volunteers I considered it my duty to join them. I knew there was no chance of
success, and I never advised nor influenced any other person to join. I did not
even know the positions they were about to take up. I marched with them to
Jacob's Factory. After being a few hours there I was appointed 2nd in command
and I felt it my duty to occupy that position. I could have escaped from
Jacob's Factory before the surrender had I so desired but I considered it a
dishonorable thing to do. I do not say this with the idea of mitigating any
penalty they may impose but in order [to] make clear my position in the
matter."
According to William T. Cosgrave, who succeeded Arthur Griffith as the
President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State in 1922 and was the
father of the future Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave: "John MacBride told me...that
his life-long prayer had been answered. He said 3 Hail Marys every day that he
should not die until he had fought the British in Ireland."
According to Father Augustine, who heard his confession and gave him communion,
MacBride was "quiet and natural" and "knew no fear." When they came to take him
away he requested that he not be blindfolded or handcuffed, but these things
were denied him. As he stood before the firing squad he said: "Fire away. I
have been looking down the barrels of rifles all my life." He died at 3:47 a.m.
Maud Gonne.
His estranged wife, Maud Gonne, when she heard the news of his death in Paris,
said: "He made a fine heroic end which has atoned for all. It was a death he
had always desired." In Dublin, the Archpoet Yeats - who had unsuccessfully
battled MacBride for Gonne's affections - cast a more jaundiced eye on
MacBride. However, by the end of the summer he too had found some greatness in
his erstwhile rival. In "Easter 1916" he wrote about MacBride:
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vain-glorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
There is one more footnote to the legacy of John MacBride. The son he had with
Gonne, Sean MacBride, first followed in his father's footsteps and was
Chief-of-Staff of the IRA in the 1930s. After that he turned politician, was
elected TD, and as Minister for External Affairs in the John Costello coalition
government which declared the Irish Republic in 1949. He went on to be a
founding member of Amnesty International and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974
for his work on behalf of human rights. And in what might have made both his
lefty-leaning parents smile, he added the Lenin Peace Prize in 1975. He died in
Dublin in 1988.
(source: Dermot McEvoy is the author of the "The 13th Apostle: A Novel of a
Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising and Irish Miscellany"
(Skyhorse Publishing)----irishcentral.com)
SAUDI ARABIA----execution
Saudi regime carries out 86th beheading in 2016
Saudi Arabia has decapitated a Pakistani national after sentencing him to death
for smuggling drugs, bringing to 86 the number of such executions in the
kingdom since the start of this year.
The convicted Pakistani man, identified as Shah Zaman Khan Sayyed, was beheaded
in the Riyadh region, the Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement on
Thursday.
The man was found guilty of attempting to smuggle heroin and amphetamines into
the kingdom, the interior ministry added.
Beheading with a sword is the most common form of execution in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials execute convicts by sword and then dangle their corpses from a
helicopter for the public to see.
The latest beheading occurred as US President Barack Obama is on a 2-day visit
to the oppressive kingdom.
Before Obama left for Riyadh to meet with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud,
the Britain-based international right group Amnesty International wrote a
letter, urging him to consider the country's human rights issues.
In the most stunning case this year, Saudi Arabia executed on January 2
prominent cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr along 46 other people in defiance of
international calls for the release of the prominent Shia cleric and other
jailed political dissidents in the kingdom.
Riyadh executed Sheikh al-Nimr in defiance of international calls for the
release of the prominent cleric and other jailed political dissidents in the
kingdom.
Saudi authorities have beheaded several opposition figures and dissidents in
recent years.
Saudi authorities carry out beheading of a convicted man in public.
Saudi Arabia carried out 153 executions, including 71 foreign nationals, in
2015. This number of executions in terms of annual basis in Saudi Arabia has
been unseen since 1995.
Riyadh has been under fire for having one of the world's highest execution
rates.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has called on the Saudi regime to abolish
its "ghastly" beheadings.
Under the Saudi law, apostasy, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape and murder
carry the death penalty. Most Saudi executions are carried out by beheading
with a sword.
In summer 2015, Saudi Arabia, with an appalling human rights record, was
appointed to head an important panel at the United Nations Human Rights
Council.
(source: presstv.ir)
IRAN----executions
5 Men and 2 Women Executed in Birjand
5 men and 2 women were executed in connection with drug crimes in the central
prison of Birjand on Thursday.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA),
seven prisoners who had been charged with drug related crimes were hanged in
the central prison of Birjand in the early morning of Thursday 14th April.
Mohammad Niazi from Golestan province and Moheb Rahmati, are identified as 2 of
those executed by HRANA so far. State media and relevant institutions have not
released any information about these executions yet.
It is noteworthy that, 3 prisoners with drug related crimes and homicide also
were hanged, in Rasht prison.
(source: HRA News Agency)
PAKISTAN:
Has Pakistan gone too far?----Islam teaches us killing an innocent person is
like killing the entire humanity, would it also not be hanging one innocent
person would mean sending the entire humanity to the gallows?
In its "Death Sentences and Executions Report 2015", the Amnesty International
ranked Pakistan as the 3rd most prolific executioner in the world. The country
stood right after China (the extent of whose executions are not known) and
Iran. Moreover, Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia together accounted for almost
90 % of all the global executions recorded. While the Amnesty's data was only
for the year 2015, it is noteworthy that Pakistan has since 2014 hanged at
least 394 death row inmates. Lifting the 6-year de facto moratorium on death
penalty, 1st in terror-related cases and, in March 2015, in all capital cases,
the government seemed quite convinced that capital punishment was the only
effective way to deal with the scourge of terrorism. Therefore, when the
moratorium was lifted, it was almost evident that the government of Pakistan
earnestly wanted to go after terrorists in a bid to deter them from militancy.
After following this policy for almost a year and a half now, a quick glance at
the data of executions carried out in Pakistan would show whether this target
was actually achieved.
As per the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), as many as 394 death row
convicts have been hanged to date. Out of these, 49 were tried by the
Anti-Terrorist Courts (ATCs) and 12 by the military courts. If this data is
anything to go by, only around 10 % of those executed in Pakistan have been
associated with terrorism, while 73 % were ordinary murderers. All others
remaining were involved in murder after rape, murder after robbery or murder
after kidnapping. Thus, the Pakistani government's assertion that the
moratorium on death penalty was lifted to tackle terrorism loses ground here.
Then again, it is a very unfortunate reality that juveniles and people with
disabilities were also amongst those executed. Controversies came to the fore
due to the trials of non-terrorism related cases in ATCs and the condemnation
of alleged juveniles to death - a case in point being Shafqat Hussain's who was
allegedly sentenced to death when he was 15 years old and was hanged in August
2015. The Amnesty International also claimed that a juvenile was among those
executed earlier by the courts. Aftab Bahadur Masih was hanged in June 2015
despite pleas from international human rights groups that he was a juvenile
when convicted of murder.
Apart from this, there have been cases where the court-appointed lawyer does
not even once meet the convict outside of court, present evidence in his
defence or properly challenge witness statements. Submerged in their financial
woes, the families cannot hire a private lawyer, and very often lose the battle
of life against poverty. A paraplegic death row prisoner received a last-minute
stay of execution in September 2015 to the relief of many human rights
activists in the country. However, the news that the officials were uncertain
of how to hang a man incapable of standing up unsupported was sickening and
painful, to say the least.
When we talk about the national public narrative on the issue, according to a
Gilani Research Foundation Survey carried out by the Gallup Pakistan in
February 2016, almost 92 % of Pakistanis said they supported the rule of
hanging terrorists. Out of those who were in its favour, 64 % opined that they
supported it "a lot", while 28 % said they approved it "to some extent."
However, one must observe that the primary question that this survey asked was
whether people were for or against "the rule of hanging terrorists." Like the
government, perhaps the Pakistani public also believes that more and more
executions can deter terrorists. But is it true? Can people who know that they
would ultimately be blowing themselves up one day be really deterred by capital
punishment? Of course not, as either way they would consider themselves to be
'martyrs'. In their study titled "The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment:
Evidence from a Judicial Experiment", Professors Hashem Dezhbakhsh, Paul R
Rubin and Joanna M Shepherd of Emory University concluded that each execution
resulted in 18 fewer murders in the US between 1977 and 1996. However, Shepherd
revealed in another paper that shorter waits on death row increased deterrence.
In Pakistan, however, the judicial system is notoriously slow, with cases
frequently dragging on for years before even being given the chance of hearing.
Resultantly, these longer waits exhaust the chances of any deterrent effect
that the executions might have after all.
Furthermore, the broad definition attributed to 'terrorism' in Pakistan is also
part of the problem. Subsection (b) of Section 6(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act
1997, as amended in 2013, spells out terrorism as the use or threat of action
where it is "...to coerce and intimidate or overawe the Government or the
public..." or "...create a sense of fear or insecurity in society." It is very
obvious that any murder can be deemed to 'intimidate' the public and 'create a
sense of fear' in the neighbourhood. No wonder, as per reports, more than 1 in
10 of every death row prisoner in Pakistan is tried as a 'terrorist.'
One would really want to ask at this juncture whether the Pakistani society has
developed a post-traumatic syndrome. Perhaps the excessive killings that we
have witnessed as a result of terrorism in our country have made us alien to
the very concept of humanity? Let us not forget that a person never dies alone.
While Islam teaches us that killing an innocent person is like killing the
entire humanity, would it also not be that hanging one innocent person would
mean sending the entire humanity to the gallows? Do we trust the fairness of
our police and the judicial processes so blindly that we cannot even raise
doubt over them?
Also, there is too much at stake here. Let us not forget that though we might
have been lucky with the EU's 1st compliance report on Pakistan's Generalised
System of Preferences-Plus (GSP+) status, there will be a reassessment in 2017.
Government simply cannot take the implementation of the 27 international
conventions non-seriously if it wants to avail the GSP+ benefits beyond that
date. With Pakistan's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) due in 2017 too, will it
is not be a wise decision to start putting our house in order now? Death
penalty is sure to feature as a main issue in the review process as are the
hangings of the allegedly juvenile death row convicts. Pakistan has ratified
the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and has, hence, committed not to impose
death penalty on anyone who was a juvenile at the time of the crime. It is
vitally important that we start respecting our commitments and rethinking our
policies now rather than later making apologetic defenses of our position.
Pakistan has indeed gone too far in its policy of executions and it is time we
start doing more (or perhaps less) on the issue.
(source: Opinion--Madiha Batool; The writer is Adviser on Political and
Economic Affairs in a diplomatic mission in Pakistan----The Daily Times)
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