[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 10



UGANDA:

Abolish the death penalty; it undermines human dignity


Right now in Uganda, there are more than 470 prisoners on death row. In 2010 in 
Uganda, 5 death sentences were handed out.

Today is World Day against the Death Penalty. People, governments and countries 
unite to oppose the death penalty. It undermines human dignity and there is no 
firm evidence that it has any value as a deterrent.

The UK nationally, and as a member state of the European Union, opposes the 
death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle and believes that 
it should be abolished. And we are not alone. 138 countries, including 16 
African Union members, have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. In 
December 2010 more UN Member states than ever before supported the UN General 
Assembly resolution on stopping the use of the death penalty.

Now you may disagree. In Uganda, there are currently 16 offences that carry the 
death penalty and these include crimes such as rape, murder and espionage. You 
may believe that people found guilty of these crimes deserve such a punishment.

However, regardless of your views on the death penalty, there are still 
important reasons to ensure that its use meets minimum standards. No one would 
argue that it should be used for anything but the most serious crimes. It is 
important that those charged are given a fair trial: if an innocent person is 
convicted and wrongly executed, you cannot make it up to them. It is important 
that people on death row are treated humanely. These minimum standards should 
be met to protect human dignity.

The Constitutional Court of Uganda agrees. In 2009, it made three landmark 
rulings on how the death penalty is used. Firstly, it declared that it is 
cruel, inhuman and degrading for a convict to be on death row for longer than 3 
years. It ruled that these convicts should have their cases reviewed and, if 
appropriate, their death penalties commuted to life imprisonment.

Secondly, the court declared it is unconstitutional for crimes to automatically 
result in a death penalty. Mandatory death penalties do not allow for the 
individual facts of the case to be considered. Finally, the court ruled that it 
is unlawful for civilians to be given a death penalty in a military court. The 
Ugandan People’s Defence Force has since said that it will pass civilian cases 
to the High Court.

These 3 rulings significantly improve how the death penalty is used in Uganda. 
Unfortunately however, they have not been fully implemented. For example, there 
are individuals in Uganda who have been on death row for 18 years. People 
facing the death penalty often do not routinely have good access to lawyers or 
even legal advice.

This is why the UK is supporting Ugandan civil societies’ efforts led by the 
Foundation for Human Rights Initiative to promote the implementation of the 
Constitutional Court rulings and ensure minimum standards are met. Firstly, the 
initiative will help prevent innocent people being wrongly convicted by 
providing legal support for a fair trial.

Secondly, it is working to have death penalty sentences changed to life 
imprisonment when prisoners have spent more than three years on death row. 
Thirdly, it is helping to ensure that judges and magistrates are fully informed 
about the sentencing guidelines.

Lastly, it is supporting the amendment of laws that carry a mandatory death 
penalty. The UK hopes that Uganda will abolish the death penalty. But in the 
meantime, it is important that minimum standards on its use are met. We applaud 
the rulings of Uganda’s Constitutional Court on the death penalty and look 
forward to their full implementation.

(source: Commentary; Mr Martin Shearman it the British high commissioner to 
Uganda----The Daily Monitor)






INDIA:

India Court Stays Mumbai Gunman's Death Penalty


India's Supreme Court on Monday stayed the death sentence of Mohammed Ajmal 
Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist convicted for his role in a 3-day-long 
attack on several places in Mumbai in November 2008 that left more than 160 
people dead.

The court ruling came after Mr. Kasab filed a special leave petition pleading 
for the suspension of his death sentence, his lawyer Gaurav Agrawal said. The 
Supreme Court will start a hearing on the petition from Jan. 31, Mr. Agrawal 
added.

Raju Ramachandran, a senior advocate who is advising the Supreme Court on the 
case, said the court was obliged by India's judicial system to hear the 
petition. He said both the petitioner and the respondent - the western state of 
Maharashtra where a court had passed the death sentence for Mr. Kasab in May 
last year - agreed that the case should be dealt with quickly.

Ujjwal Nikam, public prosecutor in the case, said the apex court's staying of 
the death sentence was a "routine procedure." "We are not disappointed; we 
believe in law," he said.

Mr. Kasab was convicted by a special Mumbai court for his role in the November 
2008 attacks. After allegedly training in Pakistan, he and nine others traveled 
to Mumbai by sea, armed with AK-47 rifles and explosives. The group raided and 
killed people at two luxury hotels, a hospital, a restaurant popular with 
foreigners, a Jewish center and the city's main train station. The attacks led 
to increased hostility between India and Pakistan, with India alleging that the 
group it saw as masterminding the attacks, Lashkar-e-Taiba, had the support of 
the Pakistani state.

Mr. Kasab was the only gunmen to be captured; the others were killed by Indian 
security forces.

(source: Wall Street Journal)






NEW ZEALAND:

Help the Pacific rise above the Death Penalty


Today is World Day Against the Death Penalty and Amnesty International Aotearoa 
New Zealand is calling on the people of this country to step up and help the 
Pacific rise against the death penalty.

The Pacific is the only region in the world that does not practice the death 
penalty and for 3 decades has been death penalty free.

Yet 4 Pacific countries still retain the death penalty in law - Tonga, Papua 
New Guinea*, Nauru and Fiji.

“Today, as we mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty, there is no better 
time to show the international community that not only is a world free of the 
death penalty possible, but that the Pacific can lead the way towards realising 
it,” says Margaret Taylor, Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand 
spokesperson.

New Zealand has historically taken a strong anti-death penalty stance and is 
well placed to encourage the four Pacific countries to end this brutal act. 
Amnesty International is calling on the people of New Zealand to send letters 
and e-actions to the leaders of these countries at www.amnesty.org.nz.

“With the execution of Troy Davis still fresh in our minds, let’s mark this day 
by taking action to ensure this ultimate denial of human rights is brought to 
an end” says Taylor.

“As long as the death penalty exists, the risk of executing the innocent can 
never be eliminated.”

Troy Davis, who had been on death row since 1991, was executed by lethal 
injection at the Georgian state prison in Jackson on 21 September, despite 
serious doubts surrounding his conviction.

On the same day, Iran publicly hanged a 17-year old boy convicted of killing a 
popular athlete despite international prohibitions against executing juveniles, 
while China executed a Pakistani national convicted of drug smuggling even 
though drug offences do not meet the threshold for “most serious” crimes in 
international law.

Troy Davis left a message with Amnesty International before he was executed. 
“The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the 
Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me, I’m in 
good spirits and I’m prayerful and at peace.”

Amnesty International reported thousands of executions in 23 countries in 2010.

At the end of 2010, at least 17,800 people were under sentence of death around 
the world, waiting for governments to kill them.

The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The 
inhumanity of its application is evident in cases from all around the world.

People describe their appalling living conditions on death row, the anguish of 
waiting for their execution to happen, often because they had "confessed" after 
torture to a crime they maintain they did not commit.

Amnesty International will also mark the World Day by looking towards Belarus, 
the only European state that still kills people.

As many as 400 people may have been executed in Belarus since 1991 – the true 
number is unknown because of the secrecy surrounding executions.

Prisoners are usually told they will be executed, with a bullet to the back of 
the head, just moments before their death sentence is carried out.

“When Amnesty International was founded in 1961, only 9 countries had abolished 
the death penalty for all crimes and capital punishment was barely considered a 
human rights issue. 50 years on, the worldwide trend towards abolition of the 
death penalty is unstoppable, and the fight continues,” says Taylor.

Event

Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand supporters in Auckland will mark the 
International day to end the Death Penalty by asking people in Vulcan Lane to 
sign a letter to all 4 leaders of the Pacific countries asking them to abolish 
the death penalty in law as well as practice.

A balloon tied to a prisoner will match every signature collected and with 
enough signatures the prisoner will rise above the death penalty, which is 
Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand’s aspiration for the Pacific.

When: Monday 10 October, 12.00-2.00pm

Where: Vulcan Lane, Auckland 
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?q=Vulcan+Lane&hl=en&sll=-41.244772,172.617188&sspn=40.339399,93.076172&vpsrc=1&hnear=Vulcan+Ln,+Auckland+1010&t=m&z=16

Background

*Earlier this year Papua New Guinea sentenced 5 men to death. Amnesty 
International is taking a watching brief on this case as there is no current 
information available as to when their sentences will be carried out.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception 
regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or 
the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The organisation believes 
the death penalty violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman 
and degrading punishment, and has been campaigning for the global abolition of 
the death penalty since 1977.

On 10 October 2011 anti-death penalty organisations and activists will 
celebrate the 9th World Day Against the Death Penalty. The initiative was 
launched in 2003 by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, of which 
Amnesty International is a founding member.

(source: Amnesty International)






PAKISTAN:

HRCP calls for abolishing death penalty


The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called upon the government 
to follow through the commitment it made three years ago to abolish the death 
penalty and demanded that in the meanwhile the informal moratorium on 
executions should immediately be made formal in the country.

A statement issued by the commission on Sunday said: “On World Day against 
Death Penalty (Oct 10), the HRCP reiterates its opposition to the death penalty 
and its belief that this punishment allows for a very high probability of 
miscarriage of justice on account of critical deficiencies in the law, 
administration of justice, police investigation, chronic corruption and 
cultural prejudices affecting women and religious minorities in the country. 
This is unacceptable in any civilised society, particularly so when the 
punishment is irreversible.”

Welcoming the government’s persistence with the stay on executions since 
December 2008, the commission expressed concern that capital punishment remains 
on statute books for over two dozen offences and courts continue to give death 
penalty more or less on the pre-moratorium scale. The moratorium also remains 
both informal and incremental, lapsing every few months.

The HRCP noted with dismay that no concrete steps had been taken to realise the 
government’s commitment of 2008 to end the death penalty for all but the most 
serious offences.

“The high incidence of crime in the country despite Pakistan being among 
countries with one of the highest rate of conviction to capital punishment in 
the world demonstrates that capital punishment has no special deterrent effect.

“The HRCP calls upon the government to consistently publicise its reasons for 
putting in place the moratorium on executions, take effective measures to 
address the objectives of the people who oppose the abolition of the death 
penalty and mobilise public support for its abolitionist policy through a 
sustained awareness campaign.

“The HRCP reiterates its demand that the government must take urgent steps to 
remove the impression that the death penalty in the litany of offences on the 
statute books is sanctioned by Islam as it has already been held by the Council 
of Islamic Ideology that Islamic law mandates capital punishment only for a 
couple of offences.

“The HRCP calls upon the government to take definite steps towards abolition of 
capital punishment in Pakistan. As a first step, the informal stay on 
executions should be made formal and the number of offences that carry the 
death penalty should be reduced. We also urge the government to sign the 
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 
aiming at the abolition of the death penalty,” the statement added.

(source: Dawn)






IRAN:

Case of Iranian Pastor Facing Death Penalty Reportedly in Hands of Supreme 
Leader


The case of an Iranian pastor facing a possible death sentence for apostasy has 
reportedly been referred to Iran's supreme leader, a move some say shows the 
Islamic republic is feeling pressure in the face of growing international 
support.

Attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told AFP on Monday that an Iranian court has 
decided to seek the opinion of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- the Islamic republic's 
spiritual leader and highest authority -- in the case of Youcef Nadarkhani, a 
32-year-old pastor who was arrested in October 2009 and later sentenced to 
death for converting to Christianity.

Messages seeking comment from Dadkhah were not immediately returned early 
Monday.

Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, 
a Washington-based organization that is monitoring Nadarkhani's case, told 
FoxNews.com that the move was unusual and is part of the "secretive process" 
within the Iranian judicial system.

"Based on these reports, Pastor Youcef is alive and we have reached the highest 
level of Iranian government," Sekulow said on Monday. "I don't believe this 
would've ever reached the level of Khamenei without the media attention and 
outpouring of support we've seen."

Sekulow said the move to involve Khamenei in a case before a regional court is 
uncommon and indicates that "Iran is feeling the pressure" of the growing 
international community in support of Nadarkhani.

As of Friday, at least 39 members of Congress had signed a letter calling on 
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to put pressure on Iranian authorities to 
release Nadarkhani, who, according to reports last week from Iranian 
state-funded Press TV, is now considered a security threat and previously 
operated a brothel. Judiciary Chief Mohammad-Javad Heshmati of Iran's Gilan 
Province told the station on Wednesday that no verdict had been reached and 
that an execution order had not yet been issued.

Documents obtained by the American Center for Law and Justice, however, 
indicate that apostasy is the only charge against Nadarkhani.

"There was an indication that this would go to one of [Iran's] top leaders," 
Sekulow said of Nadarkhani's case. "It looks like everything we believed would 
happen has now happened. This is the time where the international pressure, the 
media attention, has to increase tenfold."

Sekulow also asked Clinton to call for Nadarkhani's "unconditional release" and 
said more than 125,000 people have signed a petition in support of the father 
of two. Calls seeking comment from the U.S. State Department were not 
immediately returned on Monday.

The White House condemned the conviction and possible death sentence for 
Nadarkhani late last month, saying the execution would further demonstrate 
Iranian authorities' "utter disregard" for religious freedom.

"Pastor Nadarkhani has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which 
is a universal right for all people," the statement released by the White House 
on Sept. 29 read. "That the Iranian authorities would try to force him to 
renounce that faith violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses 
all bounds of decency, and breaches Iran's own international obligations. A 
decision to impose the death penalty would further demonstrate the Iranian 
authorities' utter disregard for religious freedom, and highlight Iran's 
continuing violation of the universal rights of its citizens. We call upon the 
Iranian authorities to release Pastor Nadarkhani, and demonstrate a commitment 
to basic, universal human rights, including freedom of religion."

Nadarkhani is the latest Christian cleric to be imprisoned in Iran for his 
religious beliefs. According to Elam Ministries, a United Kingdom-based 
organization that serves Christian churches in Iran, there was a significant 
increase in the number of Christians arrested solely for practicing their faith 
between June 2010 and January 2011. A total of 202 arrests occurred during that 
six-month period, including 33 people who remained in prison as of January, 
Elam reported.

Nadarkhani, a pastor in the 400-member Church of Iran, has been held in that 
country's Gilan Province since October 2009, after he protested to local 
education authorities that his son was forced to read from the Koran at school. 
His wife, Fatemeh Pasandideh, was also arrested in June 2010 in an apparent 
attempt to pressure him to renounce his faith. She was released in October 
2010, according to Amnesty International.

(source: Fox News)