[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 9


IRAN:

31 Ghezel Hesar prison inmates face execution


On Sunday, the authorities at Ghezel Hesar prison in the city of Karaj 
transferred a group of 31 death row prisoners to an unknown location. Their 
cellmates fear that they will face executions in the coming days.

Over 500 prisoners began a hunger strike on Monday and demanded that the death 
sentences issued against their fellow prisoners be revoked, according to 
information received.

The strikers are all those detained in Section 2 of Ghezel Hesar prison. They 
began their hunger strike when they heard that the clerical regime intends to 
execute 11 of the inmates.

Hosseini, the director of Ghezel Hesar prison, threatened that if the strike 
does not end soon, the number of people on death row could reach 200.

Striking prisoners said that until the condemnation to death verdicts issued 
against their fellow prisoners has been cancelled, they will continue their 
hunger strike.

According to another report, in other sections of Ghezel Hesar prison, inmates 
also began to protest against the killings.

(source: NCR-Iran)






EGYPT:

Final decision on 188 'Kerdasa' death sentences postponed over 'security 
concerns'----The defendants are accused of killing police officers during an 
attack on a police station in Kerdasa on the day security forces dispersed 
pro-Mohamed Morsi sit-ins on 14 August 2013


The final verdict on death sentences imposed on 188 defendants in the 'Kerdasa 
clashes' case has been delayed until 22 February over "security concerns."

Giza criminal court sentenced the defendants to death on 2 December and sent 
the verdict to the Grand Mufti for review, a requirement in Egyptian law before 
any execution can be carried out.

The Mufti's decision is non-binding, however.

The court originally set 24 January 2015 to issue its final verdict. The 
verdict can still then be appealed.

The defendants were found guilty of killing police officers after storming 
Kerdasa police station in Giza, following the dispersal of pro-Mohamed Morsi 
sit-ins in Cairo on 14 August 2013 that left hundreds dead and sparked 
nationwide unrest.

They were also found guilty of the attempted murder of 10 other police 
personnel, sabotaging the police station, torching a number of police vehicles 
and possessing heavy firearms.

Out of the 188, 151 are detained while 37 are at large and were tried in 
absentia.

This is not the only mass death sentence issued by courts this year.

In March, Minya court passed the death penalty on 529 people for killing a 
police officer and committing acts of violence. And in April, the same judge 
handed the same sentence in a separate case to another 683 people over similar 
charges.

The Grand Mufti approved the death sentences for 37 in the 1st trial and 183 in 
the 2nd, both of which the court upheld.

The 2 cases are currently being appealed.

The 2 mass death sentences were widely criticised by local and international 
rights groups and organisations as well as foreign governments.

(source: Ahram Online)

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

Egypt Sentences 4 Muslim Brotherhood Members to Death


Although Mohammed Badie was not one of those to receive the death penalty in 
this current case, he has already been sentenced to death in a previous case.

An Egyptian court has sentenced 4 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to 
death for the killings of protesters at their headquarters last year.

At least 12 people were killed and more than 90 wounded when a mob stormed the 
building in Cairo during the anti-government uprising.

Egypt's top religious official must uphold Sunday's court decision in order for 
it to be carried out.

Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Badie was among the defendants Sunday but did 
not get the death penalty. He has already been sentenced to death in a separate 
case.

Badie and ousted President Mohamed Morsi are also on trial for other alleged 
crimes, including the deaths of other protesters.

Egypt's military arrested Morsi last year after popular street protests forced 
him from office.

(source: Alaska Native News)






CHINA:

China Releases Sydney Woman Facing Death Sentence For Drug Trafficking


Sydney woman Kalynda Davis, who had been facing a possible death sentence in 
China over drug trafficking, was released. Chinese authorities did not charge 
Davis who returned to Australia.

The 22-year-old waited for a couple of weeks in China where she could have 
faced life sentence. According to her friends, Davis is brash and hot-headed. 
They said that her life had an abrupt change in a very short period of time. 
David was eventually accused of trying to smuggle 36 kg of ice out of Guangzhou 
International Airport to Australia. She was accompanied by her co-accused New 
Zealander Peter Gardiner, whom she had met through the dating app Tinder only 2 
weeks before the incident. Davis, who has her home in Penrith, is the daughter 
of a former NSW police officer. She did not inform anyone when she travelled in 
November. However, she told her friends that they should consider something 
must have gone wrong if they did not hear from her.

Things did go wrong for Davis who was intercepted by Chinese authorities at the 
airport. According to the authorities, Gardiner was recruited by an organised 
crime syndicate in Sydney. Daily Telegraph reported that the drug, which the 
pair had tried to smuggle had a street value of around $80 million. Gardiner, 
who also has an Australian passport, did not have any prior criminal records 
Down Under just like Davis who was also declared to be "clean skin" before 
this. Davis is a student of Penrith Christian School while she studied at 
Penrith Anglican College earlier. A talented athlete, Davis worked part-time in 
retail.

ABC News earlier reported that the pair was not likely to appear in China court 
at least for a few months. The prospects of the Davis and Gardiner getting away 
with what they did was "very slim," if similar cases in recent times were taken 
into consideration. A Chinese customs officer said that there was a possibility 
that some other people had also been involved in the smuggling. China has 
extremely strict laws against drug trafficking as there is possible death 
penalty or a lengthy jail term.

(source: IB Times)






CAMEROON:

Cameroon Moves to Legalize Capital Punishment for Convicted Terrorists


Human rights groups and opposition lawmakers in Cameroon are protesting a new 
draft law which makes terrorism punishable by death. The government says the 
move is necessary to deter collaboration with militant groups like Boko Haram - 
which has been recruiting and terrorizing communities along Cameroon's border 
with Nigeria.

The draft law was passed the 1st week of December.

Critics say the law could lead to abuse and threatens human rights.

Forbi Nchinda of the opposition's Social Democratic Front called the law 
outdated, coming at a time when many countries are abolishing capital 
punishment.

"The whole world is moving away from the death penalty. Now they are using the 
death penalty for people who are accused of terrorism. That is unacceptable the 
world over. Even in Cameroon, I don't think for the past 20 years anybody has 
been executed because the tendency has been to move away from the death 
penalty," said Nchinda.

Capital punishment was already legal in Cameroon for cases of treason or 
murder, but there has not been an execution since 1997 according to Amnesty 
International.

So what really concerns opponents is the wording of the new law, which they say 
is too broad and could be used to stifle political dissent of President Paul 
Biya's 3-decade rule.

The legislation defines acts of terrorism as threats which cause death, 
physical harm, material damage, intimidation of the population, provoking fear 
or disturbing public peace.

Ndi Richard Tantoh, of the non-governmental organization Ecumenical Service for 
Peace, is one of the worried critics.

"From every indication, the liberty of individuals to express their frustration 
with government action will be reprimanded with a heavy hand and accusing 
people of crimes against the state and capital punishment," said Tantoh.

Cameroon has a history of squelching opposition. In 2013 Transparency 
International cited Cameroon for using the criminal justice system to harass 
and silence political critics. Presently, President Biya has jailed a dozen 
former ministers.

Some critics see this law as perhaps a reaction to what happened in Burkina 
Faso in October, when a popular uprising ousted President Blaise Compaore. 
Compaore fled the country after 27 years in power.

Ndansi Elvis, youth president of the opposition political party National Union 
for Democracy and Progress, sees parallels.

"Of course it is clear. The people of Burkina Faso stood against their leader 
and they said we don't want Blaise Compaore because he wants to change the 
constitution and stay in power and they succeeded. So our own leader who has 
been in power for over 32 years wants to make sure that such a thing never 
happens in his country and this is just a psychological way to discourage 
people from going to the streets," said Elvis.

Media in Cameroon - already under pressure - are also expressing concern about 
specific provisions in the bill - which criminalize reporting on terrorism in 
certain cases with up to 15 years in jail. More than half a dozen journalists 
in recent months have been banned from reporting by the government due to 
allegations that they possessed sensitive information or that their work could 
destabilize the country. That is why some reporters, like Ben Collins 
Nyuyberiwo, see this new terrorism law as another tool to intimidate government 
critics.

"I don't believe they are handling terrorism in this aspect. For example, they 
are talking about Boko Haram. Boko Haram is not a Cameroonian issue. I think 
they should be targeting foreigners who are trying to infiltrate our system to 
destabilize Cameroon and not journalists I believe have nothing to do with this 
aspect. They have to do their job. They have to report, they have to inform the 
citizens," said Nyuyberiwo.

While Boko Haram may technically be a foreign issue, the Nigerian militant 
group has been increasingly terrorizing Cameroonian towns along the Nigerian 
border, which stretches for hundreds miles. Boko Haram - which is fighting to 
create a caliphate in northern Nigeria - has been using Cameroon as a staging 
ground, stealing supplies and kidnapping and murdering residents. Even more 
worrying to Cameroonian authorities are Boko Haram's new attempts to recruit 
young people to fight for them.

Enwi Francis, a lawmaker with the ruling CPDM political party, said the law is 
meant to be a powerful deterrent.

"If you see what Boko Haram is doing, kidnapping children. If you imagine your 
own daughter being kidnapped and taken to another destination and you don't 
know what is happening to her. Your own wife being picked up in that way. Those 
are threats to the nation. People coming into schools and start shooting 
children. They deserve something. You can't kill and go free," said Francis.

All 148 lawmakers in President Biya's ruling CPDM in the 200 member national 
assembly voted in favor of the bill while 86 of the 100 CPDM senators also 
voted to pass the legislation. It will become law when the president signs the 
bill, which is expected in the coming days.

(source: Voice of America News)



SAUDI ARABIA----execution

Saudi Arabia carries out 77th execution of 2014


Saudi Arabia beheaded on Tuesday a convicted drug trafficker, the 77th state 
execution in the oil-rich kingdom this year despite international concerns.

Nasser bin Amiq Ali al-Inzi was convicted of trying to smuggle "a large amount" 
of amphetamines into the country, the interior ministry said in a statement 
carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

He was beheaded in the northern Jawf region.

Last Friday authorities carried out the death sentence on another Saudi, also 
found guilty of amphetamine smuggling.

The Saudi authorities often announce the seizure of drugs in a country where 
people convicted of smuggling narcotics are beheaded by the sword.

At the end of November, the interior ministry said that more than 41 million 
amphetamine pills had been seized over the previous 12 months.

The oil-rich Gulf state saw the third highest number of executions in the world 
last year, according to Amnesty International.

Non-lethal crimes including "adultery," armed robbery, "apostasy," drug-related 
offenses, rape, "witchcraft" and "sorcery" are all punishable by death under 
the kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

Political activism can also be penalized by death, as Riyadh has taken a zero 
tolerance approach to all attempts at protest or dissent in the kingdom, 
including by liberal rights activists, Islamists, and members of the Shia 
minority.

Saudi judges have this year passed death sentences down to 5 pro-democracy 
advocates, including prominent activist and cleric Nimr al-Nimr, for their part 
in protests.

In September, 2 independent human rights experts working on behalf of the 
United Nations expressed concern about the judicial process in Saudi Arabia and 
called for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty.

"Despite several calls by human rights bodies, Saudi Arabia continues to 
execute individuals with appalling regularity and in flagrant disregard of 
international law standards," said Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on 
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

(source: Al-Akhbar.com)






INDONESIA:

Bali drug accused Antony de Malmanche taken to hospital


A Kiwi facing drugs charges in Bali has been taken to a police hospital for 
treatment.

Antony Glen de Malmanche, 52, from Wanganui, was arrested at the international 
airport in Denpasar last week. He had travelled to Hong Kong to meet his 
internet girlfriend, "Jessie", and then went on to Bali.

It is alleged he was travelling with 1.7kg of methamphetamine in his backpack.

Methamphetamine is in the most serious drug class in Indonesia and anyone 
convicted of trafficking it faces the death penalty.

Today, de Malmanche was escorted by Indonesian police to a police hospital in 
Bali due to apparent back pain. His family have said he suffers from back pain 
and have expressed concerns about his health in prison.

Prisoners at both the Denpasar police station, where de Malmanche is being 
detained, and the notorious Kerobokan Jail, where he will inevitably be 
transferred to await trial, are given little in the way of food and other 
necessities.

De Malmanche takes painkillers for serious permanent injuries he suffered in a 
tree-felling accident while at work in 2002.

He was targeted by Indonesian police on his arrival in Bali as part of 
international drugs ring, according to Indonesian police.

When he was arrested, he was tagged as a member of an international drugs 
syndicate, One News reported. "He's been a target of the narcotic 
drug-smuggling division a long time before he was arrested," Bali Police 
Commissioner Henry Wiyanto told One News.

His cousin, Tina de Malmanche, said yesterday de Malmanche was not bright 
enough to smuggle drugs. "I wouldn't trust him with that much amount of drugs 
to courier. He is too dumb."

According to media sources, de Malmanche had never been out of New Zealand 
before.

He met a South African woman called Jessie through online dating and she sent 
him money for his passport and airfare to Hong Kong. He is thought to have 
flown there to see her.

Tina de Malmanche said she was convinced he has been led astray by a woman's 
promises. "As his whanau, I can tell you he has been set up. I'm a retired 
hooker - I know how easy it is."

De Malmanche's family has set up an online Givealittle page to raise money for 
a lawyer. A New Zealand consul is to visit him this week.

Other family members contacted by the Wanganui Chronicle would not talk about 
Mr de Malmanche.

But family and friends earlier told media he was born in Dannevirke and grew up 
in Palmerston North. He had a number of children and was working as an arborist 
in 2002 when injured in the tree felling accident.

He had ongoing neck and back pain, and decided to retrain for a less physical 
job.

He finished a computer, literacy and numeracy course at Whanganui Learning 
Centre in 2011, and may have then undertaken a certificate course in Mental 
Health Support Work at Whanganui UCOL.

He is also said to have joined a Christian group, and his Facebook page has a 
number of pictures of him fishing.

(source: New Zealand Herald)

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

Death penalty for drug convicts?


I do not think that the death penalty will be an adequate deterrent to minimize 
illicit drug-related offenses. Despite its effectiveness being widely hailed, 
as some countries have not ended the practice of capital punishment, thorough 
empirical and sociological research that discredits its deterrent effect cannot 
be ruled out.

If jeopardizing the lives of many is the basic rationale we employ to underpin 
such a move, we accordingly must indiscriminately apply the same principle to 
the corruption-related convicts, especially those involved in cases of 
astronomically high amounts of money, since their crimes have inflicted dire 
impacts to the lives of millions in the country.

Yet, as drug-selling businesses thrive because, in part, of people's (users, in 
this regard) consent, corruption, in most cases, is solely driven by 
self-centered motives.

Therefore, implementing the death penalty as a firm act against drug convicts, 
while not applying the same principle to corruption convicts, sounds 
inconsistent. If we consistently follow the argument of "upholding the law", we 
should inevitably extend the principle to graft cases. However, capital 
punishment given to these 2 kinds of criminals is not endorsed. Besides, 
revoking the death penalty for drug convicts should be advocated for various 
reasons.

Firstly, evil, which is at the heart of this sinfulness, will be always at 
work. Malice is potentially embedded in every human heart. We cannot eradicate 
evil by killing particular human persons, since this is only the "embodiment" 
of certain evil proclivities that anybody could possess. What is more important 
is to do certain conscious and well-orchestrated efforts to break the seemingly 
unbreakable demand-and-supply chain of the drug business.

Secondly, the preamble of our Constitution has made a point-blank assertion 
that this beloved country is unchangeably based on humanity. Interpretations 
may vary with regard to this principle, but I think that humanity is a noble 
principle that advocates the idea that human beings are always capable of 
renewing themselves, drug convicts included. Idealistic it might sound, but we 
simply do not have any more convincing argument for the outright repudiation of 
this innate human capability.

Bearing this in mind, we should reaffirm that any positive legal punishment is 
mainly for correction and rehabilitation, not for revenge. By sending drug 
convicts before the firing squad or giving them lethal injections, we won't 
resurrect the already dead victims of this drug business, will we?

Lastly, words - often associated with Mahatma Gandhi - said by Canadian 
parliamentary member George P. Graham during a debate on the death penalty in 
1914, might be food for thought for us: "We can argue all we like, but if 
capital punishment is being inflicted on some man, we are inclined to say: 'It 
serves him right.' That is not the spirit, I believe, in which legislation is 
enacted. If in this present age we were to go back to the old time of 'an eye 
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' there would be very few hon. [honorable] 
gentlemen in this House who would not, metaphorically speaking, be blind and 
toothless."

Jerry Gatum

South Jakarta

(source: Letter to the Editor, Jakarta Post)

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

Hopes dashed for Bali 9 inmates on death row as Indonesian president takes 
hard-line on drugs


Indonesian President Joko Widodo has definitively ruled out issuing pardons for 
any drug convicts on death row.

His comments will send shockwaves through Kerobokan Prison, where 2 Bali 9 
inmates, Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, applied more than 2 
years ago to the president's office for clemency.

Taken at face value, Mr Joko's new policy will condemn them and at least 62 
other drug prisoners in Indonesian jails to the firing squad.

Mr Joko said the dossiers of drug convicts had sat for years untouched on the 
president's desk under his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"I'm asking now, what should I do? For years no decisions have been taken. I 
say now I will issue no pardon for drugs [criminals]," said the president 
during an appearance at a Yogyakarta State University for Human Rights Day.

In his comments, Mr Joko used both the words grasi (clemency) and pengampunan 
(pardon).

The shock comments come just a week after the president announced, through his 
ministers, that 5 convicts would be executed by the end of the month. Though 
they have not been named, it's believed all 5 on the list are drug traffickers.

Drugs are considered a public menace in Indonesia, and any move to appear soft 
on the issue is highly unpopular, as Dr Yudhoyono discovered when he gave a 
5-year sentence cut to Australian Schapelle Corby.

Mr Joko appears to have adopted the argument put by his anti-narcotics agency, 
BNN, that the death penalty will cure Indonesia of the problem.

"We all realise that Indonesia is now on high alert for drugs. Every day there 
are 40 to 50 Indonesians, especially our young generation, who died due to 
drugs. Every day," Mr Joko said.

But his approach has seriously disappointed Indonesia's human rights 
establishment, who expected him to have a less hardline approach.

The country's National Human Rights Commission, Komnas Ham, said earlier this 
week that the Indonesian legal system was not yet robust and uncorrupt enough 
to be trusted to take people's lives.

Amnesty International has urged Mr Joko to introduce a moratorium on the death 
penalty. Under Indonesia's constitution, the president has the power and the 
ability to consider cases one by one, and decide on clemency.

Chan and Sukumaran have argued that, since their conviction over an attempted 
heroin trafficking operation in 2005, they have turned their lives around, 
setting up a number of rehabilitation centres within the prison which have 
earned the endorsement of a number of officials including the Kerobokan prison 
governor.

One of the lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran, Melbourne-based Julian McMahon, said 
Indonesia was rightfully proud of its record of obtaining the release of more 
than 200 of its own citizens - mostly low-paid guest workers - from death row 
in other countries.

"No other government or NGO in the world has rescued so many people from death 
row in such a short time," Mr McMahon said.

He would not comment on recent developments.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)






LEBANON:

Calls for capital punishment erupt after Bazzal killing


Ramez Bazzal has no conflicting emotions about who should pay for the death of 
his son Ali, a captive policeman whose murder the Nusra Front group announced 
over the weekend.

"I demand that Joumana Hmeid and Omar al-Atrash be executed as a solution to my 
son's case" he told The Daily Star by phone Monday.

Previously, Islamist militants had demanded the release of several accused 
terrorists currently in Lebanese jails, including both Hmeid and Atrash, in 
return for freeing servicemen they have held captive since August. The 
judiciary had previously recommended the death penalty for both prisoners.

While it has been nearly 11 years since Lebanon carried out a death sentence, 
the killing of four captured servicemen at the hands of Islamist militants over 
the past months has renewed calls for the state to reactivate capital 
punishment for prisoners who are found guilty of terror-related crimes.

ISIS and the Nusra Front are still holding at least 25 Army and Internal 
Security Forces personnel they captured when they briefly occupied the 
northeastern town of Arsal in August. After killing Bazzal, the Nusra Front, 
like ISIS, has threatened to kill other captives if the government does not 
respond to demands for a swap deal.

But many believe that despite the emotional appeals of families of the hostage 
soldiers, the state will not carry out death sentences.

"This is not Lebanon. This is not our way of living, nor our way of thinking 
about law and order," former Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said. Executing 
prisoners would not stop the kidnappers, he added.

Approximately 51 prisoners have been executed in Lebanon since 1947, and 
between 1996 and 2014 just 5 death sentences have been carried out.

Since the end of the Civil War in 1990, a number of increasingly vocal civil 
society organizations, officials and politicians have called for the abolition 
of the death penalty in Lebanon altogether.

In 2011, Parliament formally approved a bill which made legal room for those 
"sentenced to death without being executed."

Despite repeated violent security crises, from the Nahr al-Bared battle between 
the Army and Islamists in 2007 to similar clashes in Sidon last year, no death 
sentences have been carried out in Lebanon since 2004, when 3 murderers were 
put to death in Roumieh.

Lawyer and law professor Charbel Aoun, however, believes that under the current 
political and security circumstances, the government is likely to reactivate 
the death penalty.

While a de facto moratorium has been observed for years, Aoun believes that the 
government will strategically execute some terrorists in Lebanese prisons as 
leverage against the terrorists.

"The government will consider that if they execute prisoners, the terrorists 
will stop killing the soldiers," Aoun said.

"The terrorists are not stopping their executions, so Lebanon is losing in all 
senses," he said.

Shakib Qortbawi, also a former justice minister, vehemently disagreed, saying 
executing prisoners in reaction to the events in Arsal would be injurious to 
the government's image. "We are not terrorists," he added. "We cannot do like 
they do."

While Qortbawi said he was fundamentally against the death penalty, he added 
that the issue could be equally argued on legalistic grounds.

For an execution to take place, he explained, a decree must be signed by the 
president, prime minister and minister of justice. In the absence of a 
president, the entire Cabinet would have to sign the decree, a remote 
possibility in view of the deep political divisions in the government.

If the government can barely agree on a strategy to negotiate for the release 
of the captive soldiers, it's unlikely that they will agree on signing death 
sentences, even for terrorists, said Mohammad Fayez Abbas, the father of 
captive soldier Ahmad Abbas.

"The government does not have the nerve to execute one of those dogs," he told 
The Daily Star. When pressed, however, he refused to say whether he supported 
reactivating capital punishment, saving his vitriol for the government.

Father Hady Aya, who heads the Lebanese organization Association Justice et 
Misericorde said that while his group was wholly against the death penalty, he 
sympathized with the families of the captive servicemen.

"All their emotions and demands are perfectly reasonable, given the situation," 
he said. "They are in crisis."

But the government, he added, must not be reactive or emotional.

Georges Ghali, a program officer at the human rights NGO Alef, said that while 
he understood the family's reaction, applying human-centered justice was 
particularly important for the country as emotions were running high.

"We need to refrain from inhumane and undemocratic practices that will only be 
considered as similar to the barbaric treatment of the hostages," he said. "The 
right to life is absolute."

While he is concerned by the political and popular pressure to reactivate 
capital punishment, Ghali does not believe the government will do so.

"I don't feel there is the willingness or ability of the state ... to actually 
commit such acts."

(source: The Daily Star)