[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 23


UGANDA:

Uganda blocks bid to revive anti-gay bill


Uganda’s cabinet has blocked an attempt by some legislators to reintroduce a 
bill that called for the death penalty for gays who are considered “repeat 
offenders”.

The small but vocal anti-gay movement in Uganda, spearheaded by several MPs and 
a group of bishops, won notoriety when the legislation was originally 
introduced in 2009.

US President Barack Obama denounced it as “odious” and Secretary of State 
Hillary Clinton called on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to reject it.

“We discussed that bill in cabinet last week and after views from everyone were 
heard and debated, a decision was unanimously taken to drop that proposed law,” 
Ugandan Attorney General Peter Nyombi told Reuters on Tuesday.

“The position of the cabinet is that there's already sufficient law to take 
care of all crimes envisaged by the proposed anti-homosexuality bill.”

The legislation was not passed during the east African country's last 
parliamentary session but a group of government MPs had vowed to reintroduce 
it. Political analysts in Uganda say the decision by the cabinet to come out 
publicly against it should mean it cannot be passed in the near future.

The bill had been quietly shelved under pressure from foreign governments and 
gay rights groups before, but activists feared it would end up being passed 
after President Yoweri Museveni's February election victory.

(source: Reuters)






IRAN:

Iranian ‘spy’ pleads guilty to murder of scientist


An Iranian man pleaded guilty Tuesday to the murder of a scientist that 
prosecutors said was an assassination ordered by Israel to halt Tehran’s race 
for nuclear technology.

Majid Jamali-Fashi, a man who looked in his mid-20s, appeared in court to 
confess the murder of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi in January 2010, the first of 
several attacks on scientists which Iran has blamed on foreign agents, state 
television said. Ali-Mohammadi, an elementary-particle physicist, was leaving 
his Tehran home to go to work on Jan. 12, 2010, when a bomb hidden in a 
motorcycle exploded and killed him.

2 similar attacks on one morning in November killed nuclear scientist Majid 
Shahriyari and wounded another, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who has since become 
Iran’s atomic energy chief.

Iran blamed Israel and the United States for the attacks, saying the aim was to 
derail its nuclear program. Tehran denies Western accusations it is seeking 
nuclear weapons.

Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi told state television the prosecution was 
a blow to Israel, which has not ruled out military action against Iran to stop 
it getting the bomb. “We managed to make a good penetration into Mossad’s 
intelligence system which bore very good results for us,” he said, referring to 
the Israeli spy service.

“We will soon have good news to inform the public in connection to the large 
number of [Iranian] Mossad spies whose covers have been blown.”

Tehran’s chief prosecutor told reporters earlier this week that Jamali-Fashi 
had been trained and paid by Israel. “The defendant had travelled to Israel to 
receive training from Mossad and had agreed to assassinate Dr. Ali-Mohammadi in 
return for $120,000,” Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told a news conference, according 
to the Tehran Times daily.

Some people have expressed doubt over Tehran’s version of events. Shortly after 
his death, an Iranian opposition website said Ali-Mohammadi, was an opposition 
supporter who backed moderate candidate Mirhossein Mousavi in the disputed June 
2009 presidential election, suggesting there may be other possible motives for 
his murder.

Western analysts said the 50-year-old Tehran University professor had little, 
if any, role in Iran’s sensitive nuclear work. A spokesman for Iran’s Atomic 
Energy Organization, said at the time he had not played a role in the body’s 
activities.

Jamali-Fashi could face the death penalty as he has been charged with “war 
against God” as well as cooperating with Israel and possession of drugs, the 
semi-official Fars news agency reported.

He told the court he was supposed to kill five other people but did not because 
“I was by nature not a criminal person.”

(source: The Daily Star)






INDIA:

SC to examine delay in Bhullar plea decision


The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine the logic behind the eight long 
years taken by the government to reject the mercy plea of alleged Khalistan 
Liberation Front militant Devender Singh Pal Bhullar, sentenced to death for 
masterminding a bomb blast in Delhi in 1993.

President Pratibha Patil, on the advice of the UPA government, had rejected 
Bhullar's mercy plea just after he approached the apex court seeking 
commutation of the death sentence on grounds of delay.

On Tuesday, senior advocate K T S Tulsi informed a bench of Justices G S 
Singhvi and H L Dattu that the Delhi government had given its views favouring 
rejecting of the mercy petition as far back as 2003 but the Centre sat on it 
for 8 years forcing the man, awaiting death, to develop psychotic disorder.

"A man who is not in sound health cannot be executed," he said while arguing 
for Bhullar's wife Navneet Kaur, who has sought commutation of the death 
sentence on grounds of delay.

The bench expressed surprise over the long delay on the government's part to 
decide a mercy plea and suggested that the issue be adjudicated in deciding the 
petition filed by Bhullar rather than the one filed by his wife. Tulsi agreed 
and the bench posted the matter for hearing in the first week of September.

Bhullar had filed the mercy petition on January 14, 2003, with the President. 
The Delhi government had sent its recommendation to the Union home ministry on 
May 27, 2003, favouring rejecting of the plea saying it did not see any ground 
to interfere with the penalty imposed by the judiciary.

In the September 11, 1993, bomb blast on Raisina Road, then Indian Youth 
Congress president Maninderjit Singh Bitta was serious injured and nine persons 
were killed.

Recently, another bench of the Supreme Court had sought the response of the 
Union home ministry on a PIL seeking a direction to the Union government to 
frame guidelines for time-bound decisions on condemned prisoners' mercy pleas 
before the President.

(source: The Times of India)






MALAYSIA:

Malaysian charged with killing French tourist


Malaysian prosecutors have charged a man with murder in connection with the 
death of a French woman whose remains were found in a cave on a tourist island.

Stephanie Foray was reported missing in May while she was traveling alone on 
Malaysia’s eastern Tioman Island.

Police found human remains buried in a cave on August 8 and reportedly 
confirmed through DNA tests that they were hers.

Prosecutors charged a Malaysian businessman in a district court in eastern 
Pahang state on Tuesday with Foray’s death. A conviction carries a mandatory 
penalty of death by hanging.

Malaysia’s national news agency Bernama identified the suspect as Asni Omar. 
The trial is expected to be transferred to a higher court, but no date was 
immediately scheduled for a hearing.

(source: Associated Press)






NIGERIA:

I Have No Regret As a Retired Judge - Justice James Ogebe


Justice James Ogebe (Rtd) was born on March 22, 1940 and went through primary 
school in Igumale and Katsina-Ala in present day Benue State between 1946 and 
1955. Thereafter, the quest for secondary education took him to the famous 
Government College, Keffi and thereafter to the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria 
between 1963 and 1967. He was called to the Nigerian Bar on June 28, 1968. He 
joined the civil service as a Pupil State Counsel in the Ministry of Justice of 
the former Benue-Plateau State on July 17, 1968 and thus began the long and 
steady progression through the ranks until he became the Acting Director of 
Public Prosecutions in 1971.

He eventually transferred to the Judicial arm of government in April 1974 and 
held several positions, including the position of Acting Chief Judge of Benue 
State in September, 1987. On October 31, 1991, he was further elevated in the 
judicial hierarchy when he was appointed a Justice of the Court of Appeal, and 
sworn in on December 3, 1991 to that higher Bench. He was eventually elevated 
to the Supreme Court in 2008. He speaks on same sex marriage, capital 
punishment and other topical issues. By Adelanwa Bamgboye.

What is your opinion on same sex marriage?

It is totally unbiblical and unnatural. If you allow same sex marriage how do 
we reproduce ourselves? Do you want human population to die off? If we allow 
that kind of marriage.

Gradually, single sex marriage is going on around the globe, how do we stop 
that sort of development in the country?

We have to insist on our own values. We do not have to be a copy cat to copy 
other people. These human rights the way they are going now is like saying 
human beings should be going on whatever way they can even if it is right or 
wrong. But Nigeria is a God-fearing country and we should insist on godly 
values not things that we import whole sale from the West.

Even after your retirement from the apex court you still look very strong. 
Would you subscribe to the extension of the retirement age for judges as is 
been advocated for in some quarters?

The conditions of work in Nigeria are not congenial to staying too long. In 
other countries, you have access to accessories and all sorts of things that 
help them. But in Nigeria for instance, I did not have a legal assistant and in 
England or America, my colleagues would have several legal assistants who would 
do the research for them. But here we have to do it ourselves. I think 70 years 
is a good time so that younger ones can come up.

Do you think that Nigeria is ripe enough for abolition of capital punishment?

Nigeria is certainly not ripe enough for the abolition of capital punishment, 
like death penalty. You see, people who deliberately plan and kill human beings 
do not deserve to be left free. They should go because if we allow that kind of 
thing then nobody is safe. Outright murderers, terrorists could kill thousands 
and if they have a way of killing millions they would. Then you say that we 
should spare their lives. How is their life better than the lives of all those 
people they have destroyed? With the Catholic and strong Islamic background 
here it will take a very long time for the abolition of the capital punishment 
in Nigeria.

Are you satisfied with the disciplinary mechanism within the Judiciary today?

I would not like to comment on this. It is still a burning issue. I had rather 
not comment.

How do you spend your day now that you are retired?

I am involved in church planting. I am a preacher. That side of me had been 
kept low. But now that I am free, I am a preacher, I go round where I am 
invited. We have a group of churches in Kogi State and Benue State which I 
visit and try to encourage them in the Christian faith.

Is it possible to mix the legal profession with religion?

Yes, it is very possible. Paul the Apostle was a lawyer, Martin Luther and 
Kelvin were all lawyers so lawyers make great preachers too.

Looking back at your days at the apex court and the court of Appeal, which of 
your judgments is unique to you?

It is easily the Ladoja's case in Ibadan where a gang of rascals from the House 
of Assembly went and met in a hotel room and say that they were impeaching a 
governor. In the past, the courts had been shying away from such matters but I 
considered it along with my colleagues. There were five of us and I said we 
can't allow this utter lawlessness, and we restored him. So that to me is a 
practical case that restored democracy in our country but for that many other 
governors would have been impeached and we there would have been a collapse of 
this our experiment in a democracy.

So how well has the Judiciary been able to sustain our fledging democracy?

By giving land mark judgments that would uphold the democratic institutions. In 
other words, most of the political conflicts end up in the court. The decision 
of the court can either impair democracy or enhance our democracy so the courts 
have taken decisions that have helped in deepening the present democracy.

Do you have any regrets as a judge?

I have none at all. None at all.

(source: All Africa News)