[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 20



BELARUS:

Death penalty in Belarus


The use of death penalty in Belarus is condemned in another resolution 
highlighting the death sentences handed down to Dzmitry Kanavalau and 
Uladzislau Kavalyou by the Supreme Court on 30 November 2011. It urges 
Alyaksandr Lukashenka to pardon both men and to impose a moratorium on all 
death sentences and executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty from 
the penal system. The two men were sentenced for allegedly committing terrorist 
attacks in 2005, 2008 and 2011 in Vitebsk and Minsk, but according to reports 
by human rights organisations (FIDH, Human Rights Watch), there are arguments 
showing that the trial was unfair and that the investigation was marred by 
serious human rights abuses.The executions of the two may be carried out very 
soon.

Underlining that this "irreversible, cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment, 
which violates the right to life", is unacceptable, MEPs deplore the continuing 
failure of the Belarusian authorities to take any tangible steps towards 
abolishing the death penalty or imposing an immediate moratorium on it. They 
reiterate that the European Union and other international institutions have 
repeatedly urged the Belarusian authorities to abolish the death penalty.

Finally, they condemn the continuous persecution of human rights defenders and 
members of the democratic opposition and the harassment of civil society 
activists and the independent media in Belarus for political reasons and demand 
the unconditional immediate release of all political prisoners.

Belarus remains the only country in Europe that imposes the death penalty and 
still carries out executions.

(source: egovmonitor.com)






JAPAN:

Death penalty in Japan


In a resolution on the death penalty in Japan, MEPs urgently call on the 
Japanese Minister of Justice, Toshio Ogawa, not to approve any execution order 
in the future. According to press reports, Ogawa had announced that he did not 
wish to continue his predecessor's policy of "caution".

MEPs also call on Japan to sustain its efforts towards returning to the de 
facto moratorium in place from November 1989 to March 1993 and to encourage to 
a public debate on the use of capital punishment in the country.

2011 was the 1st year without any execution in Japan since 1992. Some 130 
persons sentenced to death in Japan are currently on death row.

(source: egovmonitor.com

*********

Death penalty to stand for man over 1999 murders of 2 as minor


The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday by a 30-year-old man who was given 
the death penalty for the murders of a woman and her baby girl in 
Hikari,Yamaguchi Prefecture, in 1999 when he was 18.

The decision by the country's top court marks the 1st time the death penalty 
has effectively been finalized for the murders of 2 people for a person under 
20 at the time of the crimes since court guidelines on capital crimes committed 
by minors were issued in 1983.

The man could still ask the highest court for an amendment over technicalities 
such as an error in the wording of the ruling within 10 days. But such a 
request has never led the court to review a ruling.

Death sentences have previously been given to 5 people who committed murders as 
minors, but in each of the three cases involved, the number of victims was 4.

The ruling by the top court's first petty bench presided over by Justice Seishi 
Kanetsuki, branded the crime "very evil" and said there was no room for 
leniency and that the death penalty was "inevitable" despite the man being a 
minor at the time of the murders.

It also said, "Despite a severe sense of victimization by the bereaved family, 
sincere remorse is not seen as the defendant made irrational pleas" over the 
matter of whether he had intention to kill the victims and the way he committed 
the murders.

Under the Juvenile Act, which defines juveniles as those under the age of 20, 
the death penalty can be applied to defendants aged 18 at the time of the 
crime. The law prohibits reporting of the names of suspects or defendants in 
juvenile crime cases.

The top court supported the Hiroshima High Court's ruling in 2008 that handed 
down a penalty of capital punishment on the man, overturning the Yamaguchi 
District Court's ruling that found him guilty but sentenced him to life in 
prison. The defense had appealed the high court ruling of capital punishment.

Koji Miyakawa, a justice on the court's panel, expressed a dissenting view, 
saying the man's mentality appeared to be immature compared with his real age 
and that capital punishment should be avoided.

Hiroshi Motomura, the 35-year-old husband of the murdered woman, said at a 
press conference, "A death sentence was given. That's what I wanted. Even at 
the age of 18, a death penalty can be handed down on a criminal who does not 
repent of his act."

Motomura also said he wants the man to face the sentence in a sincere manner.

According to the high court ruling, the man broke into the Motomuras' apartment 
in the western Japanese city on April 14, 1999, while Motomura was away and 
strangled his 23-year-old wife Yayoi and their 11-month-old daughter Yuka. He 
also raped the wife. The man lived near the family.

In 2002, the high court had upheld the ruling of life imprisonment by the lower 
court but the top court ordered the high court in 2006 to review the ruling, 
saying his age at the time of the crime was not a sufficient reason for 
avoiding the death penalty.

(source: The Mainichi Daily News)

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

Japan court upholds death penalty for baby killer


Japan's Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence for a man who killed 
a young mother and her baby daughter when he was a juvenile, ending years of 
campaigning by the victim's husband.

The decision closes a case that captured the public's imagination as the 
distraught father and husband Hiroshi Motomura fought for years to bring the 
killer to justice.

Presiding judge Seishi Kanetsuki said the death penalty was inevitable for 
Takayuki Otsuki, who was 18 when he raped and killed 23-year-old Yayoi Motomura 
before strangling to death her 11-month-old daughter Yuka in 1999 in Yamaguchi, 
western Japan.

Otsuki, who is now 30, was found guilty in 2000 and initially jailed for life 
by a district court, with judges citing the fact that he was a juvenile -- 
deemed as anyone below 20 under the Juvenile Act -- for their leniency.

The sentence was upheld by Hiroshima High Court in 2002 following an appeal by 
the prosecution.

The decisions led Motomura to tell media that he would wait for Otsuki's 
release and kill him.

However, following a long campaign by Motomura, the case was finally heard in 
2006 by the Supreme Court, which asked the high court to review the sentence.

It said the original high court decision failed to offer clear rationale to 
avoid the death penalty.

Two years later the high court changed its decision and passed the death 
sentence on Otsuki.

Upholding that decision on Monday, Kanetsuki said hanging was inevitable.

"His criminal responsibility is so significant that we must approve death 
penalty, even though he was a juvenile at the time of the crime," he said.

After the announcement Motomura said he hoped Otsuki would accept his penalty.

"Is it social justice to give a person an opportunity to return to the society 
when someone younger than 20 years old kills? Or is it social justice to have 
the person to pay for the crime with death?" he said.

"I thought very hard. Perhaps, there is no right answer."

The death penalty will be confirmed after an administrative review period of 10 
days.

While Japanese law provides some protection from the death penalty for 
juveniles, it does allow for those above the age of 18 to face the gallows in 
certain circumstances.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






KUWAIT:

Kuwait couple get death penalty for murder of Filipina maid


A court has sentenced a Kuwaiti couple to death for beating and then murdering 
their Filipina domestic helper, newspapers in the Gulf state reported today.

Topic KuwaitThe criminal court found the disabled husband and his wife guilty 
of "premeditated murder" after throwing the maid from their car and driving 
over her, Al Rai and Al Anbaa daily newspapers reported, citing the verdict.

No names were published in the reports, for the couple or the maid.

Newspapers said that based on testimony by one of the couple's sons, the wife 
beat the maid for days until her health deteriorated.

The son told interrogators that his parents had said they were taking the maid 
to hospital for treatment, but he never saw her again.

According to the ruling, the couple took the maid, who was "unconscious" at the 
time, to a remote area in the desert where they threw her from the back seat of 
the car and then drove over her until she died.

An estimated 73,000 Filipinos - 60,000 of them women working mostly as maids - 
live in Kuwait, where some 600,000 domestic helpers, mostly south-east Asians, 
are employed.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






EGYPT:

Egypt prosecution: Mubarak deserves death penalty


The chief prosecutor in the trial of ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak has 
said in his closing remarks that the former president should be given the death 
penalty for the killings of protesters in last year's uprising.

Mustafa Suleiman says Mubarak clearly authorized use of live ammunition and a 
shoot-to-kill policy against peaceful protesters. Over 800 were killed in the 
crackdown from Jan. 25 to Feb. 11, 2011.

For this, Suleiman said on Monday, Mubarak and 5 co-defendants, including his 
longtime Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, should receive the maximum sentence.

The defense team of the former president, who ruled Egypt for nearly 30 years, 
is expected to present its closing arguments later this week.

(source: Associated Press)






IRAQ:

Death sentence for Baghdad bombers


3 brothers and a 4th man are to hang for a March 2007 car bombing in Baghdad 
that killed 6 people and wounded 7, a statement released on Monday by the 
Higher Judicial Council said.

Iraq has executed at least 65 people so far this year, close to the total of 68 
for all of 2011.

“The central criminal court of Iraq issued sentences of death by hanging for 3 
brothers and another defendant involved with them in blowing up a car bomb in 
the Bayaa area,” the statement said.

The defendants, who were identified only by their initials, admitted to 
belonging to al-Qaeda and carrying out the Bayaa bombing, in addition to being 
involved in other attacks, it said.

On February 7, Iraq hanged 14 people in a mass execution, many of them al-Qaeda 
extremists.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has expressed shock at the 
number of executions in Iraq, criticising the lack of transparency in court 
proceedings and calling for an immediate suspension of the death penalty.

(source: Agence France-Presse)