March 18
THAILAND:
Johor-born 'Mr T' could face death penalty in Thai court
A Johor-born man, famously known by the Malaysian media as "Mr T" or the
"Malaysian Iceman", could be staring at the death penalty over his alleged role
in an attempt to smuggle 282kg of crystal methamphetamine into Malaysia 2 years
ago.
Tan Hun Seong and 3 of his accomplices have been formally charged in Thai court
under the country's Act on Measures for the Suppression of Offenders Relating
to Narcotics 1991 and Narcotics Act 1979 which, besides the death penalty, also
provide life imprisonment upon conviction.
According to court documents obtained by Bernama, the grey-haired "Mr T", who
is in his mid-60, a 69-year old Taiwanese man known as "Jimmy" and 2 Thai women
would be making an appearance at the Bangkok Criminal Court for their trial
beginning May.
The arrest of Tan by a group of heavily armed police officers at the busy
Hatyai Airport in April last year received wide media coverage in Thailand and
Malaysia.
(source: thestar.com.my)
JAPAN:
Japan cult spinoffs persist 2 decades after deadly sarin attack
More than 2 decades after Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult plunged Tokyo into terror
by releasing a nerve agent on rush-hour subway trains, its spinoffs continue to
attract new followers.
Cult head Shoko Asahara is on death row, along with 12 of his disciples, for
crimes including the subway attack, which killed 13 people and injured
thousands.
He was arrested in 1995 in the wake of the sarin attack, but the Aum cult
survived the crackdown, renaming itself Aleph and drawing new recruits into its
fold.
Aleph officially renounced ties to Asahara in 2000, but the doomsday guru
retains significant influence, according to Japan's Public Security
Intelligence Agency.
"It (Aleph) is a group that firmly instructs its followers to see Asahara as
the supreme being," an agency investigator told AFP, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
"If someone says 'guru Asahara wants to bring down Japan', there would be
followers who would act. The group poses such a potential danger," he said.
Raids on Aleph facilities have found recordings of his teachings as well as a
device used by the Aum cult known as a "Perfect Salvation Initiation", a type
of headgear that emits weak electric currents which members believe connects
them to Asahara's brainwaves.
Aleph and other splinter groups, which deny links to Asahara despite the claims
of authorities, have 1,650 members in Japan and hundreds more in Russia,
according to the Public Security Intelligence Agency.
It says the groups attract around 100 new followers annually via yoga classes,
fortune-telling and other activities that do not mention the cult's name, often
targeting young people who do not remember the 1995 subway attack.
"Young female followers go to 'training' places with their children... We are
worried there is an increasing number of children who have been inculcated by
the Aum since they were very young," the investigator said.
Horrendous ordeals
Asahara and his wife Tomoko had 4 daughters and 2 sons, and most of the family
remains within the cult.
1 daughter who left in 2006, aged 16, has described horrifying ordeals during
her childhood, including being forced to eat food with ceramic shards in it and
being left in the cold in little clothing.
"It was an environment unthinkable in modern-day Japan. I was afraid I would be
killed if I rebelled, so I felt tense, as if I were on a battleground, for 16
years," she said in a statement last year.
"I strongly hope no more children will grow up in the Aum's successor groups."
In early March, on Asahara's 63rd birthday, investigators were keeping their
usual close eye on the headquarters of an Aum splinter group in a quiet Tokyo
residential area.
"We are not marking the day in any way," said Akitoshi Hirosue, deputy head of
the Hikarinowa (The Circle of Rainbow Light) group.
"We actually think Asahara should be executed," he told AFP at the group's
headquarters.
Hikarinowa split from Aleph in 2007 under the leadership of flamboyant former
Aum spokesman Fumihiro Joyu, and now has around 100-150 members.
"As long as the death penalty is not implemented against him, Asahara is the
'saviour exempt from execution' and helps Aleph win more followers," Joyu
recently said in arguing for the death of his former guru.
Aleph training halls are closed to media and the group did not respond to
enquiries by AFP.
A new 'guru'?
Taro Takimoto, a lawyer who has helped relatives of cultists for decades,
supports capital punishment for Asahara but not the 12 other members on death
row, who he says only acted as "limbs" of the guru.
He fears the 12 members will "become martyrs" if executed, only boosting cult
recruitment.
Seven of those on death row were moved to different prison facilities in recent
days, prompting speculation that they could soon be executed. It was not clear
if Asahara was among them.
"We should have them talk until they die a natural death so that they help
prevent a recurrence," Takimoto told AFP.
And he said they deserve some understanding, describing them as "good people"
who were brainwashed by Asahara.
"Asahara was more than God to them, the person who knew the entire universe and
all its reincarnations. Orders from Asahara were orders from the universe," he
said.
Asahara's execution may draw a line under the Aum's crimes for some Japanese,
but Takimoto warns it could also trigger suicides among his followers and lead
to the appointment of a successor guru.
A leading candidate is Asahara's 2nd son, according to Takimoto.
"If the second son, bearing Asahara's ashes, declares himself 'guru', he would
gain serious religious authority," opening a new chapter on the cult, Takimoto
said.
(source: timeslive.co.za)
INDIA:
Rajasthan introduces death penalty for rape of minors: Child rights experts say
move uncalled for, will endanger survivors
The Rajasthan government in a legislation passed last week has introduced the
death penalty for rape of girls below 12 years of age. Through this law, the
government is attempting to portray itself as taking a tough stand on crimes
against women and girls. Ironically, the same state government had, only
recently, vociferously supported centuries-old patriarchal ideas of community
honour, in which it was considered better for women to kill themselves rather
than be captured by an enemy army.
The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, 2018, is to an extent rooted in
the same concept. By introducing capital punishment for rape of minors, it
suggests that victims of the crime suffer a fate similar to death. However, the
provision for death penalty completely sidesteps important changes needed to
make the justice system sensitive to survivors of sexual assault and to avoid
victim shaming.
Systemic changes needed
For instance, a Human Rights Watch report from December 2017 points out that
the standard form used in hospitals in Rajasthan still has a column which seeks
information on the status of the hymen, and that doctors continue to practice
the 2-finger test in rape cases.
The 2-finger test attempts to ascertain whether a girl or woman has a sexual
history, with the assumption that if she consented to sex at some point
earlier, her claim that she was raped is suspect. The Supreme Court in 2013 had
held that the 2-finger test on a rape survivor violates her right to privacy,
and asked the government to provide better medical procedures to confirm sexual
assault.
In any case, as is well documented, there is no connection between the status
of the hymen or the width of the vagina with sexual history, neither can the
tests prove whether sexual abuse took place.
A social worker who has guided several minor survivors of sexual abuse through
legal procedures points out that the criminal justice system often ends up
further traumatising them in many ways. "During medical examinations, survivors
sometimes have to wait for hours outside the room where the examination is to
take place. The room is clearly marked out as such, and thus passers-by
identify the girl or woman as having suffered sexual abuse." She recounts
another instance where the examination-in-chief of a child in court was
repeatedly delayed as the judge was reluctant to hold an in-camera hearing, as
is mandated by the law in such cases.
Thus, the child was made to remember and recount her ordeal several times over,
which is against the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual
Offences Act, 2012.
"A large number of people continue to associate an incident of sexual assault
with stigma for the victim," the social worker remarks. "They may fear that she
may be socially ostracised or that no one would marry her. Additional
victimisation by authorities during the investigation of a rape only heightens
these fears. Several cases of sexual assault go unreported for this reason."
Perpetrators are known to survivors in most cases
Rajasthan's decision to make a legislative provision for death penalty for rape
of minors may also have an effect on reporting of cases to the police. A study
conducted in 2007 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development is instructive
in this regard. According to this study, in 31 % of cases where children faced
sexual assault, the perpetrators were uncles or neighbours. In 29 % cases, the
perpetrators were friends or classmates, 10 % were cousins and 9 % were
employers.
Thus, in most of the cases, offenders are known to the child???s family. One
has to keep in mind that a child below 12 years of age would ordinarily not be
able to approach the police on her own and would need her family's help. In
many cases where the offender is known, families may find it difficult to file
a complaint with the police given the possibility that he may be sentenced to
death.
A more recent study conducted by the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law
University of India-Bengaluru in 5 states on the POCSO Act has also shown
similar findings. According to it, the percentage of cases where the
perpetrator was known to the child was above 70 % in all the 5 states surveyed.
Swagata Raha, one of the researchers, says, "A high percentage of children in
all states turned hostile when the accused was their father, step-father,
brother, or otherwise known to them. Therefore, the conviction rate in such
cases was also extremely low."
Raha adds, "Introduction of the death penalty for rape of children will
invariably have the effect of silencing victims as they will be burdened with
the guilt of sending someone they know well or are related to, to the gallows.
Such punishment will also endanger victims as the perpetrator may not want the
child to testify in court or disclose the abuse."
Advocate and child rights activist Maharukh Adenwalla says, "Rather than
introduce the death penalty, measures in the POCSO Act intended for the
protection of children who have faced sexual assault need to be implemented.
Also, preventive measures should be taken so that such incidents do not occur
in the first place."
In sum, several child rights experts agree that putting in place the death
penalty for rape of minors is not likely to make any contribution towards
making children safer. All it will do is to give expression to the instinct to
pin the blame for a larger social problem on some individuals.
(source: firstpost.com)
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