[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

Tue Sep 13 17:48:05 CDT 2011

Sept. 13

TAIWAN:

Executed Taiwan airman Chiang Kuo-ching innocent

A Taiwanese air force private executed 14 years ago for the rape and murder of 
a 5-year-old girl was innocent after all, a military court has ruled.

The court found there was no evidence linking the airman, Chiang Kuo-ching, to 
the crime.

The case has reignited debate in Taiwan over its use of the death penalty.

Mr Chiang was arrested in 1996 and executed in 1997. The case was reopened last 
year after a campaign by his parents.

A fresh investigation later found no evidence of Mr Chiang's presence at the 
scene of the crime and established that he was tortured into making a 
confession.

Since then, another man with a record of sexual abuse has been identified as a 
suspect.

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and the Ministry of National Defence have 
apologised to Mr Chiang's family.

But the officials who handled the original investigation will not be 
prosecuted. They are protected by a statute of limitations for public 
employees.

The ministry issued a statement regarding the court ruling on Tuesday, saying 
it has learned a lesson and will not allow similar miscarriages of justice to 
happen again.

Taiwan reintroduced the death penalty last year after a 4-year moratorium. 
Since then, nine people on death row have been executed.

(source: BBC News)

PHILIPPINES:

Policy on ‘blood money’ for OFWs out soon, says Binay

There will be a new policy that will be implemented soon on the use of “blood 
money” for convicted overseas Filipino workers (OFW), Vice President Jejomar 
Binay was quoted as saying over 990AM.

Binay said that the technical group he headed was finalizing the recommendation 
to be submitted to President Benigno Aquino III, according to a report by 
990AM’s Ruel Perez. The criteria has been discussed although no details were 
given, the report said.

Vice President Jejomar Binay said that the new policy on “blood money” fund for 
convicted Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) will soon be implemented, Ruel Perez 
of 990AM reported Tuesday.

“Blood money” is given to the family of the OFW’s supposed victim to cancel out 
the corresponding death penalty for the crime the OFW has allegedly committed 
and the family’s acceptance is a sign that they have forgiven the suspect, the 
report said.

Militant labor group MIGRANTE (International Alliance of Filipino Migrant 
Organizations)-Middle East sector urged the fast-track implementation of the 
distribution of “blood money” to Filipinos in death row abroad, including 
jailed OFW Rogelio Dondon Lanuza who was convicted for the alleged murder of a 
Saudi national.

Lanuza has been jail in the eastern Saudi city of Dammam since August 2000 for 
the murder of a Saudi national whose family finally agreed to forgive him in 
exchange for “blood money”.

(source: Philippine Inquirer)

INDIA:

Prashant differs with Anna on death penalty for Kasab

Differing with Anna Hazare’s prescription of ‘public hanging’ for Mumbai terror 
attack convict Ajmal Kasab, one of his colleagues, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, 
maintains he is against death penalty.

“Anna Hazare has expressed his individual opinion. In fact, he too is against 
death penalty. But perhaps in this case there is a strong feeling that Kasab be 
hanged. He has aired his opinion and he is entitled to it. Of course, I do not 
agree with it. My own view is that there should not be any death penalty at 
all,” Bhushan told The Indian Express.

Bhushan, who has been arguing forcefully for abolishing death penalty in the 
country, said every member of Team Anna did not have to necessarily agree on 
every point. “There would probably be many people in our group who would differ 
with Anna on this issue. Everyone doesn’t have to hold the same opinion on 
everything,” he added. Following the Delhi High Court blast last week, Hazare 
had demanded that terrorists like Kasab be hanged in public.

(source: Indian Express)

*******************************

Death upheld for man who killed family

The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a “hot tempered” and 
“dictatorial” husband who set ablaze his wife and their 3 children after a 
domestic row.

A bench of justices Markandeya Katju and C. K. Prasad agreed with the 
concurrent findings of the sessions court and the Bombay High Court that the 
convict Ajitsingh Harnamsingh Gujral, a businessman, deserved death penalty as 
his offence fell under the “rarest of rare” crime category warranting the 
extreme punishment.

The apex court rejected the plea of defence counsel Jaspal Singh that since no 
motive was established and as there was no eye witness, the conviction cannot 
be sustained.

“From their testimony (witnesses), it is evident that the appellant was a 
dictatorial personality who wanted to dominate over his family and was also hot 
tempered. He would even beat his wife (deceased) with a leather belt.

“As to what motivated the appellant to commit this gruesome and ghastly act is 
impossible for us to say because the court cannot enter into the mind of a 
human being and find out his motive. We can only speculate,” Justice Katju, 
writing the judgement, said.

On the night of April 10, 2003, Gujral had poured kerosene on his wife 
Kanwaljeet Kaur, son Amandeep Singh (20) and daughters Neetia (22) and Taniya 
(13) and set them ablaze after a row with Kaur.

The victims were charred to death on the spot. The couple were married for 27 
years and according to the prosecution Gujral was prone to frequently lose his 
temper and beat his wife with a leather belt.

The apex court said though there was no eyewitness, the fact that Gujaral was 
last seen with his family four hours before the incident clearly established 
his involvement.

The bench rejected the contention of Gujral that he had gone by car to Delhi 
from Mumbai to meet his his sister who was in a serious condition owing to 
cancer.

“In our opinion, since the accused was last seen with his wife and the fire 
broke out about 4 hours thereafter, it was for him to properly explain how this 
incident happened, which he has not done. Hence, this is one of the strong 
links in the chain connecting the accused with the crime.

“When a person living in Mumbai receives a message that his relative is 
critical in Delhi, he would have ordinarily take a flight from Mumbai to Delhi 
and would not go by car, which journey would take several days.

“A flight from Mumbai to Delhi takes two hours. There was no shortage of money 
with the appellant as he was found with cash of Rs.7,68,080,” the apex court 
said.

The bench said Gujral, who was bound to protect his family, had resorted to the 
savage act and hence deserved no mercy.

“In our opinion, a person like the appellant who, instead of doing his duty of 
protecting his family, kills them in such a cruel and barbaric manner cannot be 
reformed or rehabilitated. The balance sheet is heavily against him and 
accordingly we uphold the death sentence awarded to him,” the bench said.

The apex court said the convict did not act on spur of the moment or under any 
provocation as he had brought a large quantity of petrol into his residential 
apartment, which shows that he had pre—planned the diabolical and gruesome 
murder in a dastardly manner.

“In our opinion, a distinction has to be drawn between ordinary murders and 
murders which are gruesome, ghastly or horrendous. While life sentence should 
be given in the former, the latter belongs to the category of rarest of rare 
cases and hence death sentence should be given.

Only legislature can abolish

“It is only the legislature which can abolish the death penalty and not the 
courts. As long as death penalty exists in the statute book, it has to be 
imposed in some cases, otherwise it will tantamount to repeal of the death 
penalty by the judiciary. It is not for the judiciary to repeal or amend the 
law as that is in the domain of the legislature,” the bench added.

(source: The Hindu)

IRAN----executions

Iran hangs 5 for murder, drug smuggling crimes

Iran hanged 5 people on Tuesday, 3 of them for drug trafficking and 2 in public 
for murder, local media reported.

In the capital, a 25-year-old convicted of murder after he confessed to 
stabbing a fellow student to death in broad daylight in early July was sent to 
the gallows near the scene of the crime, a bridge in northwest Tehran, the 
state television website reported.

The man, who was identified only by his 1st name Kousha, had carried out the 
crime after the victim spurned him, the website added.

In the southern town of Dashtestan, a man was hanged in public after being 
found guilty of murdering four members of a family a year ago, the Fars news 
agency reported.

In the central shrine city of Qom, Fars said that 3 convicted drug smugglers it 
identified by the initials of M.M., A.B. and M.D. were hanged. It did not 
specify whether the execution was carried out in public or in prison.

The latest hangings bring to 197 the number of executions reported in Iran so 
far this year, according to an AFP tally based on media and official reports.

Iranian media reported 179 hangings last year but international human rights 
groups say the actual number was much higher, ranking the Islamic republic 
second only to China in the number of people it executed in 2010.

Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order, and that 
it is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.

Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are among the crimes 
punishable by death in Iran.

(source: Yahoo News)

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:

Indians on death row 'to return home from UAE'

An Emirati court has commuted the death sentences handed down against 17 
Indians last year to 2 years in prison, paving the way for their return home 
soon, one of their lawyers said on Tuesday.

"The Sharjah Court of Appeals has commuted the death sentence to 2 years in 
prison followed by deportation," Abdullah Salman told AFP.

The 17 men, who were arrested in 2009, will be released on time served and 
"return back to their country in the coming days," he added.

A Sharjah court of first instance in March 2010 sentenced the 17 to die after 
convicting them of beating to death a Pakistani man identified as Masri Khan in 
what was said to be a dispute between rival bootleg liquor gangs.

But the convicts avoided execution after Indian charities and businessmen in 
Dubai and India paid the victim's family around three million dirhams 
($817,000) in blood money, said Salman.

Under sharia, or Islamic law, the family of a murder victim can waive the death 
penalty for the perpetrator. This is often done in exchange for money, known as 
"blood money."

State-owned Abu Dhabi newspaper The National reported last year that the 
convicts had "denied any knowledge of the deceased and denied being involved in 
a bootlegging operation that allegedly led to the man's death."

They said that "they had never spoken to a public prosecutor, and all the 
confessions were extracted by police after severe beatings," the paper added.

Indians form the largest expatriate community in the United Arab Emirates, 
estimated at around 1.75 million people out of a total population of nearly 8 
million people.

(source: Yahoo News)