[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 8



BANGLADESH:

Man to die for killing housewife after rape----The charges against the accused 
were proved beyond any doubt, says the court


A Chittagong court has awarded death penalty to a person on charges of killing 
a housewife after violating her in the district's Banshkhali upazila in 1999. 
The judge of Woman and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-1, Md Rezaul 
Karim, pronounced the verdict in absentia of the accused on Wednesday morning.

The convict, Abdur Rahim, son of Golam Sobhan, of Pashchim Sadhanpur of 
Banshkhali, is still on the run.

Public Prosecutor (PP) Jesmin Akhter of the tribunal said that the court passed 
the order after testifying 9 witnesses out of 14 under section 9/6(2) of Woman 
and Children Repression Prevention Special Act-1995. The charges against the 
accused were proved beyond any doubt, said the court while delivering the 
verdict.

According to the case documents, there was a good social relation between the 
families of Rahim and Nurunnahar. On March 24 in 1999, Rahim took the victim 
outside from her father's residence, alluring her by the notion of travelling. 
When they reached a nearby jungle, Rahim forcefully took her inside, raped and 
stabbed her to death.

Later, it was found that Rahim had already fled the area when police recovered 
the dead body from the jungle on the following day.

Mother of the victim, Sufia Begum, lodged a case with Banshkhali police station 
accusing unidentified person.

Police on November 4, 1999, submitted the charge sheet against Rahim after an 
investigation while the court framed charges against him on March 25, 2001.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)






TAIWAN:

Majority favors death penalty: Minister Luo----END OF LIFE:Surveys show that 
about 70 % of the public support capital punishment, the justice minister said, 
as 2 recent rulings sparked public debate


Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay yesterday said that while she respects court 
decisions that handed out life sentences in 2 murder cases, "the majority of 
Taiwanese are in favor of capital punishment."

There are civic organizations lobbying to abolish the death penalty, "however 
this is at some divergence from the majority opinion," she told a Judiciary and 
Organic Laws and Statues Committee meeting, adding: "We cannot subjugate the 
wishes of the majority to that of a minority."

She said that public surveys have shown that about 70 % of the public approve 
of capital punishment, while about 20 % oppose it.

Luo's remarks came in the aftermath of 2 court rulings earlier this week that 
caused a furor and led to heated discussion over capital punishment.

1 case involved the slaying of a 5th-grade student by 31-year-old Tseng 
Wen-ching in Greater Tainan in 2012. Tseng was convicted of killing the boy by 
slitting his throat with a knife.

Tseng reportedly told investigators that "in Taiwan nowadays, I could kill 1 or 
2 people and would not get the death penalty. I will just be locked up for 
life."

"If I had not been arrested for this crime, I would have killed more people 
until I had been caught," he said.

The Greater Tainan branch of the High Court on Monday sentenced Tseng to life 
in prison, upholding a lower-court decision in July last year.

The other ruling was over the murder of a female university student by 
39-year-old Huang Wen-chin in Greater Taichung last year. The Taichung District 
Court on Tuesday sentenced Huang to life in prison.

Due to the grisly nature of the crime, which included rape and swindling her 
out of a large sum of money, some members of the public had demanded that Huang 
be put to death.

Judicial Reform Foundation executive director Kao Jung-chih said the situation 
has changed since former minister of justice Wang Ching-feng ended her tenure. 
Wang was minister from 2008 to 2010.

"During her term, Wang refused to sign execution orders for death row 
convicts," Kao said.

"Her stance polarized many people, pitting those in favor of capital punishment 
against people who oppose it," Kao said.

"Because of Wang's inaction, deliberation on the issue influenced judges, some 
of whom have been reluctant to hand out death sentences," Kao said.

Regarding the decision in Tseng's case, Luo said the ruling is not final, 
adding that she hopes judges can take into account public opinion.

"We have laws that aim to protect children, but there is also a push by 
international communities to abolish capital punishment, so we have a very 
difficult task on our hands," she said.

(source: Taipei Times)






IRAN:

Canadian MPs demand end to executions in Iran


Canadian lawmakers from all parties have called on the Iranian regime to halt 
execution of prisoners on death row in Iran.

They include Iranian cleric Ayatollah Boroujerdi sentenced to death for his 
anti-regime views, and Ms Reyhaneh Jabbari, a 26-year-old victim of an assault 
who stabbed her attacker in self-defense.

They also urged for the release of Omid Kokabee a physicist who is dying in 
prison after being denied medical care.

"These executions need to stop and as Canadians we can do something about 
this," New Democrat MP Wayne Marston told reporters Tuesday.

"Evil occurs when good people do nothing," Conservative John Weston said. "As 
Canadians we promote freedom, democracy and humanitarian aid and we will 
continue to do that."

Weston said 200,000 signatures have been collected so far to save Jabbari and 
put an end to these "senseless executions."

Liberal MP Irwin Cotler said he and his fellow MPs will raise the issue at both 
the UN General Assembly this week and at a future Human Rights Council meeting 
in Geneva, Switzerland.

(source: NCR-Iran)






AFGHANISTAN----execution

Senior Mafia leader Habib Istalif executed


The senior Mafia leader Habib Istalif was executed in Kabul prison on 
Wednesday, security officials said.

Kabul police chief, Gen. Zahir Zahir said Istalif was executed along with 5 
perpetrators of Paghman gang rape inside the Pul-e-Charkhi prison.

Former President Hamid Karzai signed off on death penalty for Istalif on late 
last month.

Istalif was found guilty of major kidnappings, murder, armed robberies 
including robbery of $3 million World Bank money and other major criminal 
activities.

Istalif was arrested by Afghan police forces in capital Kabul earlier in 
October last year while he was plotting to arrest a businessman in Kabul.

(source: Khaama Press)






MOROCCO:

Morocco activist slams 'inhumane' treatment on death row


Rights activists accused Moroccan authorities on Wednesday of keeping more than 
100 prisoners awaiting execution in "inhumane and unacceptable conditions", 
despite a 20-year moratorium on the death penalty.

Citing a recent study, Abderrahim Jamai, coordinator of the Moroccan Coalition 
Against the Death Penalty (CMCPM), said dozens of inmates were being kept in 
"corridors of death" nationwide.

Some prisoners "have already spent 15 years in their cells and that begs the 
question about the amount of time it takes to implement a sentence", Jamai 
said.

He expressed the hope that this Friday, the 12th World Day against the Death 
Penalty, would spur capital punishment reform in Morocco.

Although a moratorium on executions was signed in 1993, dozens of prisoners 
remain on death row across the country.

"Many of those condemned to death suffer from mental issues and endure 
extremely difficult psychological conditions," said lawmaker Nouzha Skalli, a 
former minister and spokeswoman for the Parliamentary Network Against the Death 
Penalty in Morocco.

In June, Driss el Yazami, the president of the National Council for Human 
Rights, called for an end to the death penalty.

Although this provided campaigners with some hope that the kingdom was moving 
towards abolishing capital punishment, Morocco's Islamist-led parliament 
rejected the measure.

"The government needs to take into account that there are close to 240 
parliamentarians (out of 600) who openly favour abolition (of the death 
penalty)," Skalli said.

"The great humanist causes advance inexorably," she added, referring to the 
global drive to stamp out capital punishment.

Skalli's group tabled a bill in parliament to this effect in late 2013, but it 
"has not yet been discussed".

Opponents of the death penalty point to Morocco's new constitution, adopted in 
2011 in the wake of the Arab Spring, which guarantees the "right to life" 
without explicitly proscribing capital punishment.

(source: Global Post)