[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 20



NIGERIA:

Mutiny - CLO Condemns Death Penalty On Soldiers


The Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, in Bayelsa State has described as 
"double standard" and "a national disservice," the death sentence passed on 12 
soldiers of the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, Bornu State for 
mutiny.

It called on the military authority to review the sentence or face a 
coordinated protest from civil society groups and the entire people of the six 
geo-political zones of the country.

The CLO in a statement by its Chairman, Chief Nengi James, said though the 
Nigerian Army has once again shown its posture and intolerance for acts of 
indiscipline by its officers and men, the death sentence pronounced against the 
12 soldiers over alleged mutiny and insubordination was a disservice to the 
nation at this time of security challenges."

It noted that the controversy trailing the retirement of the former General 
Officer Commanding, GOC, Major General Abubakar Mohammed was a further 
provocation to the troops and the purportedly convicted soldiers.

The statement said: "The action of the military authority lacks better judgment 
and a poor signal to the remaining troops at the war front against the Boko 
Haram insurgents."

(source: The Vanguard)






JAPAN:

Man sentenced to death for murder of financier, wife


The chief suspect in the murder of a wealthy Swiss-based Japanese asset manager 
and his wife whose bodies were found buried in a vacant lot in Kuki, Saitama 
Prefecture, in February 2013, has been handed a death sentence.

The ruling was handed down by the Tokyo District Court against Tsuyoshi 
Watanabe, 44, on Friday. Watanabe, 44, had pleaded not guilty in the trial, 
which began on Aug 20, and which was heard by lay judges.

Watanabe and another man, Takaaki Kuwahara, 42, were charged with killing 
financier Makoto Shimomi, 51, and his 48-year-old wife Mie, who had been living 
in Switzerland for 4 years prior to their deaths. They were said to live a 
high-flying lifestyle in Europe and owned apartments in Tokyo and Chiba, as 
well as several luxury cars.

The case gained a lot of media attention at the time.

As police closed in on Watanabe, he tried to commit suicide by swallowing a 
toilet cleaning liquid. He was found lying beside his car on a road in the 
middle of a field in Miyakojima. After he was discharged from hospital, he was 
flown to Tokyo.

Prosecutors said that Watanabe, a former fishery company executive, bore a 
grudge against Shimomi, blaming him for the loss of hundreds of millions of yen 
in investments, TBS reported.

The court heard that the Shimomis had come back to Japan for a visit in 
November 2012 and were scheduled to return to Switzerland on Dec 14. However, 
they disappeared after leaving their Ginza apartment on Dec 7. They were seen 
getting into a car and were never heard from again.

The couple told friends that they had been invited by "an acquaintance" to a 
party in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, on Dec 7, but police found no evidence of 
any scheduled party.

The 2 bodies were found buried in a shallow grave in a vacant lot in Kuki. 
Police said both victims were strangled to death and there were no personal 
belongings on them.

Investigators also revealed that after the Shimomis went missing, Makoto's 
credit card was used unsuccessfully at Tokyo Station by a man in a white face 
mask attempting to purchase 3 million yen worth of shinkansen ticket coupons. 
Some of their personal belongings were sold at pawnshops in Tokyo, police said.

The court heard that Watanabe had been communicating by phone and email with 
Shimomi for about a year about investment deals, TBS reported.

Watanabe owned the plot of land where the bodies were found.

Watanabe's lawyer said he intends to appeal the death sentence.

(source: Japan Today)






PAKISTAN:

Deadly silent


If we were to accept that our criminal justice system is fair, that the 
conclusion of guilt across 3 judicial hierarchies means no mistakes were made, 
then we would also be presuming that Shoaib's family had sufficient means to 
secure adequate legal representation, and that the police investigation was 
impartial and included defence and prosecution witnesses. We would be wrong on 
all counts.

Here is what we do know about Shoaib Sarwar with no uncertainty: he has spent 
18 years in jail for a crime that was never properly investigated. He has spent 
every single day in what we brutally (and officially) call a 'death cell' - 
roughly 8ftx12ft and shared with anywhere between 4-9 grown men.

1996, 1998, 2003, 2006 and 2014. Those are the years that mark the most recent 
milestones in Shoaib's life. But these are not your regular teenage to mid-20s 
milestones like finished secondary school, got into college, got his 1st job. 
In 1996, Shoaib was arrested on a charge of murder.

Still an innocent man - if we were to foolishly accept that nobody presumes his 
guilt until proven, as the law requires - Shoaib had already spent 2 years in 
jail when a sentence of death, to be hung until his young neck cracks and he 
breathes his last breath, was pronounced on him. Not trusting the decision of a 
lower court where death sentences are concerned, Pakistan's high courts are 
required to confirm (or not) a sentence of death before it can be enforced, 
which came after 5 more years.

Another 3 long years in jail before the Supreme Court also sentenced him to 
death. But Shoaib still had one glimmer of hope left. Even though he had spent 
12 years in jail already, with impending death looming over him for every day 
of every week of those 12 years, his execution was suspended in 2008 until 
further notice.

We now jump to 2014. The last, but hopefully not final, milestone is Shoaib's 
life. It is a regular day in Shoaib's life of imprisonment and for his family. 
They pick up the newspaper and learn that, despite the stay of execution that 
he has been granted, despite the moratorium the government has unnoticeably 
announced, a warrant calling for his death has been issued and he has less than 
2 weeks to live.

Never made a party to the petition calling for his sentence to be imposed, 
Shoaib had no idea that the petition had been accepted and was not given the 
opportunity to present any evidence to save his life. This then begs the 
question: what excuse does the federation of Pakistan and the government of 
Punjab have, both parties to this petition, in not providing the necessary 
evidence related to the stay granted to Shoaib, or the fact that the government 
has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty across the country?

If Shoaib had not been granted last-minute reprieve through a stay of execution 
by the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, would the government have watched 
on silently as Shoaib was hung by the neck to his death? Official statements 
have been made by the Ministry of Interior that the moratorium will continue. 
How is it that no local government institution is aware of the state's 
decision? Even today, 2 days after a stay of Shoaib's execution was issued, the 
government remains silent.

This is not the 1st time that this government has let the lives of not just 1, 
but thousands like Shoaib, hang in the balance. Last year when the moratorium 
was momentarily lifted because of the indecisiveness of the present government, 
we saw human rights organisations like Justice Project Pakistan scrambling to 
save the lives of their mentally ill clients who were amongst those soon to be 
executed, before the government, realising the severe national and 
international problems it faced, suspended executions.

It made the right call. It is now time for the government to be held up to the 
promises and policy decisions it made one year ago and to be held accountable 
for its international obligations as a party to international human rights 
covenants like ICCPR and CAT. A change in democratic governments should not 
diminish the scope for justice. This change in government whims could mean the 
loss of approximately 8,500 lives - the number of people on our death row 
population.

(source: Opinion, Maryam Haq--The writer is a criminal lawyer and legal 
director, Justice Project Pakistan----The News)






SAUDI ARABIA----execution

Another Pakistani smuggler beheaded in Saudi Arabia


Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani who attempted to smuggle heroin into the 
kingdom, the interior ministry said, adding to the more than 50 people executed 
this year.

"Sanaullah Mohammed Amir was executed in Qatif governorate in Eastern Province 
today because he tried to smuggle a large quantity of heroin" into the country, 
said the ministry, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency. The sentence 
against Amir was endorsed by appeal and supreme courts before a royal order was 
issued to carry it out, the interior ministry said.

His decapitation takes to 55 the number of people beheaded in the 
ultra-conservative Gulf nation so far this year, compared with 78 people in all 
of 2013. A United Nations independent expert last week called on Saudi Arabia 
to implement an immediate moratorium.

"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 reporter on 
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. "The trials are by all accounts 
grossly unfair. Defendants are often not allowed a lawyer and death sentences 
were imposed following confessions obtained under torture."

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable 
by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

(source: The Nation)






INDONESIA:

US man confesses to killing girlfriend's mom


An American man has confessed to killing his girlfriend's mother at a luxury 
resort on the Indonesian island of Bali, while the girlfriend has admitted 
helping stuff the body into a suitcase, police said on Friday.

The battered body of Sheila von Wiese Mack, 62, was found in the case in the 
boot of a taxi in front of an exclusive hotel in the upscale Nusa Dua resort 
area on 12 August.

Her teenage daughter, Heather Mack, and daughter's boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 
had been staying with her at the St Regis hotel but fled to another part of the 
island after the killing. They were caught the following day.

They are in custody in Bali while police investigate and could face the death 
penalty if found guilty of premeditated murder.

Indonesian authorities previously claimed they have strong evidence against the 
pair and on Friday Djoko Heru Utomo, police chief in the Balinese capital 
Denpasar, said they had admitted their involvement in the case during 
questioning in recent days.

"Both suspects have confessed," he said, adding that Schaefer, 21, had admitted 
to carrying out the killing after an argument with the victim.

The daughter, 19, claimed she watched Schaefer kill her mother and then helped 
to stuff the body into the suitcase, said Utomo.

"The interrogation is continuing in order to get the full account," he added.

Heather Mack, who is pregnant, had previously refused to talk to Indonesian 
police without American legal representation present, and this week her lawyer 
from the United States arrived in Bali to assist her locally-hired lawyers.

The pair are yet to be charged with any crime, as under the Indonesian legal 
system suspects are not formally charged until they appear in court at the 
start of a trial.

A trial will only begin once police have completed their investigations and 
passed the evidence to prosecutors. The victim and the suspects are all from 
the Chicago area.

(source: news24.com)






IRAN----executions

17 prisoners executed in one day, 5 in public


Mullahs' judiciary chief: Who is [the UN] Secretary-General to tell us stop the 
executions; these words are cheap, baseless and lack reasoning. Executions for 
corruption on earth is an internal matter.

On Thursday, September 17, 2014, at least 17 prisoners were hanged in cities 
across Iran, including 5 in public. The executions were carried out in cities 
of Shiraz, Marvdasht, Kerman and Bandar Abbas. A group of 4 prisoners were 
hanged in public in Shiraz while another group of 8 sent to gallows in Shabab 
Prison in city of Kerman.

The Thursday's executions followed reports of more executions that had been 
carried out in other cities in Iran. A group of 7 young men, mostly in their 
20s, were executed on September 10 in cities of Karaj and Hamadan.

Prior to that, 15 prisoners were hanged on September 1 in Karaj's Ghezel Hessar 
Prison and in prisons in cities of Hamadan and Zahedan. 10 of those hanged were 
prisoners who had been protesting in Ghezel Hessar Prison.

13 other prisoners were hanged on August 26 and 28 in groups of 8 and 5 in the 
main prison in city of Bandar Abbas.

Meanwhile, reacting to the UN Secretary-General's annual report to the UN 
General Assembly, which referred to some aspects of the catastrophic situation 
of human rights in Iran, the Iranian regime's chief justice, Mohammad Javad 
Larijani, said: "Who is this Mr. Secretary-General to tell us you should stop 
the executions? Who are they to say so? The death sentence for Corruption on 
Earth is an internal matter... Much of the things that were said in the 
official report of an important international organization; they are cheap, 
baseless words that lack reasoning."

The inaction by the international community, particularly the Western 
countries, regarding crimes committed by the clerical regime, including over 
1,000 executions since Hassan Rouhani assumed office, has emboldened the 
clerical regime to continue and ramp up torture, execution and suppression.

Iran's human rights dossier should be referred to the United Nations Security 
Council. This is not only an essential step to stop the cycle of crime and 
execution, but it is necessary for adherence to the values that the United 
Nations has been established to defend.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)

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

2 more executions at prison of Uremia


2 prisoners who were charged with carrying and possessing drugs, were executed 
by hanging in the central prison of Uremia (Sea).

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), on the 
dawn of Tuesday, 16th September, 2 prisoners accused of carrying and possessing 
drugs were executed by hanging in the central prison of Uremia (Sea).

The execution sentences of these 2 prisoners, named Hamid Ghanbari and Falid 
Qasryek, were confirmed by the Supreme Court before being carried out.

An informed source told HRANA's reporter: "2 other prisoners named Seyvedin 
Mohammadi and Felit Azizi were taken to solitary confinement in Quarantine ward 
a few days ago in order to be executed."

(source: Human Rights Activists News Agency)