[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 9



ISRAEL:

The death penalty is making a comeback in Israel----By sentencing Palestinians 
convicted of murder to death, the Israeli Right will only bring the mutual 
cruelty between Jews and Palestinians to another level.


No one really wants to look back and learn anything from history. Every 
colonial regime convinces itself at some point to raise the level of brutality 
in order to force the natives to accept their situation. It seems like this is 
the path we must also take.

Avigdor Lieberman's party is promoting an initiative that would allow military 
tribunals to sentence terrorists who were convicted of murder to death. Naftali 
Bennett's Jewish Home party already announced it would back the bill, as did 
some Likud ministers. This was kind of expected. After all, the Right has been 
calling on IDF soldiers to open fire on Palestinian stone-throwers, which can 
itself become an informal death sentence.

In fact, the military regime in the West Bank has the legal option of using the 
death penalty, but the prosecution rarely demands it, and rightfully so. The 
new bill is intended to change this policy and allow a majority of justices to 
sentence people to death (as opposed to a unanimous decision, which is the 
current requirement). However, capital punishment does not prevent acts of 
murder; even the Americans are starting to internalize this fact. It surely 
will not deter Palestinians. Those who were willing to carry out suicide 
bombings will also be willing to take the risk of being hanged.

Imposing the death penalty in Israel, aside from the inevitable international 
drama that would accompany any sentence, will be bring the mutual hatred and 
cruelty between Jews and Palestinians to another level. The British learned 
this lesson not long ago.

In 1947, the Irgun Jewish underground group kidnapped 2 British sergeant1, 
Sergeant Clifford Martin and Sergeant Mervyn Paice, threatening to kill them if 
the death sentences passed on 3 Irgun militants were carried out. The 3 had 
been captured by the British during a prison break, tried, and convicted on 
charges of illegal possession of arms, and with the "intent to kill or cause 
other harm to a large number of people." When the 3 men were executed by 
hanging, the Irgun killed the 1 sergeants and hung their booby-trapped bodies 
in a eucalyptus grove. Menachem Begin even wrote an open letter to one of the 
fathers of the sergeants, in which he blamed the British government for the 
incident.

Will an Israeli mother receive such a letter from Hamas in the coming years?

After the bodies of the sergeants were discovered, British officers and 
soldiers took vengeance on passersby in Tel Aviv, beating and shooting them. 5 
Jews were murdered, and a wave of anti-Semitism engulfed Britain. The British 
government, on the other hand, ceased using capital punishment in Mandate 
Palestine.

I don't expect much from the Right in the Israeli Knesset. But other parties, 
especially Labor and Yesh Atid, who have recently decided to join the populist, 
nationalist chorus spearheaded by the Right, must come out in opposition to the 
death penalty.

(source: Noam Sheizaf, 972mag.com)


SUDAN:

Time Is 'Running Out' for Imprisoned Sudanese Pastors Facing Possible Death 
Penalty for Their Christian Faith


The American Center for Law and Justice has warned that "time is running out" 
for two imprisoned Presbyterian pastors who are on trial and facing a possible 
death penalty for their Christian faith. The ACLJ has also launched a 
letter-writing campaign for the pastors, and urged people to sign it.

"We have launched a massive letter-writing campaign to Sudan's new minister of 
justice demanding Sudan follow international law, ensure that these persecuted 
pastors can properly prepare a defense, and that the case be dismissed for a 
lack of evidence," the law group said on Wednesday.

"The more letters we send to him, the higher the international pressure. The 
higher the international pressure, the more likely pastors Michael and Peter 
will find justice and freedom."

Rev. Yat Michael and the Rev. Peter Yen Reith of the South Sudan Presbyterian 
Evangelical Church are officially being charged with espionage and blasphemy 
under the Republic of Sudan's strict Islamic law, though church leaders have 
pointed out that Christians are often targeted for their faith.

"This is not 'something new' for our church," the Rev. Tut Kony, another pastor 
from the Presbyterian church, said in May. "Almost all pastors have gone to 
jail under the government of Sudan. We have been stoned and beaten. This is 
their habit to pull down the church. We are not surprised. This is the way they 
deal with the church."

The Sudanese court has said that there is enough evidence to move forward with 
the "trumped-up" espionage charges, which carry the death penalty, and gave the 
pastors' attorney only two weeks to prove their innocence.

Their attorney has been denied access to the pastors, however, and been granted 
only visitation rights at court.

Last week, the pastors' lead attorney (the lawyer who represented Christian 
mother Meriam Ibrahim), Mohaned Mustafa, was arrested after speaking out 
against the government and its land dispute over a church's property.

Although Mustafa was arrested just one day before the pastors' hearing, he was 
released on bail and able to represent the pastors in last Thursday's hearing.

The ACLJ said that "the odds are stacked against Michael and Peter," but urged 
supporters not to give up hope, and make their voices heard in the 
letter-writing campaign.

"Just like Mariam Ibraheem, who was sentenced to die for her Christian faith 
last year, these 2 pastors could be sentenced to hang for their faith if the 
world is silent," reads the letter, which has been signed by over 204,000 
people.

"Pastors Michael and Peter need your voice now. Time is of the essence. Our 
silence could be their death."

The law group added that it's been working with Ibrahim to raise awareness for 
the pastors' case. The Christian mother was originally sentenced to death in 
Sudan in 2014 for marrying an American Christian citizen, but following great 
international pressure, the Sudanese court acquitted her of all charges.

(source: christianpost.com)






EGYPT:

Egypt sentences 10 to death for killing judge's guard


An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced 10 men to death for killing a security 
guard for one of the judges hearing a case against ousted president Mohamed 
Morsi, an official said.

Sergent Abdallah Metwally was part of a team of policemen guarding the home of 
judge Hussein Kandil, when he was gunned down in February 2014 in the city of 
Mansoura north of Cairo.

At the time, Kandil was the presiding judge in Morsi's trial for escaping from 
jail during the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

Since Morsi's overthrow in July 2013 by then army chief and now President Abdel 
Fattah al-Sisi, hundreds of people have been sentenced to death in speedy 
trials amid a brutal government crackdown on his supporters.

In May, Morsi and more than 100 co-defendants were sentenced to death in that 
trial for plotting jailbreaks and attacks on police.

On Thursday, the Muslim Brotherhood - which has been lobbying the Africa's 
highest judicial authority to intervene against Egypt's use of the death 
penalty for more than a year - called for international and regional bodies, 
including the UN Security Council and EU, to intervene in what the group's 
lawyers described as a situation presenting "a grave threat to regional 
stability".

"It is inevitable that the increase in state oppression will result in unwieldy 
and increasingly hostile dissent, a situation that will only exacerbate the 
threats to peace and security in an increasingly uncertain region," Tayab Ali, 
a partner at UK-based ITN Solicitors, said in a statement.

In a letter to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, according to 
Thursday's statement, the Brotherhood requested that the EU give an update on 
the steps it has taken since Morsi's death sentence was confirmed in mid-June 
and review its relationship with the Egyptian government.

The group also called for the Security Council to investigate, under the UN 
charter, the extent to which the current situation in Egypt threatens regional 
stability.

Egyptian authorities have blamed the Brotherhood movement for the violence that 
has rocked Egypt after his overthrow, including increasing attacks in the Sinai 
Peninsula.

Rights groups, however, accuse the authorities of using the judiciary in its 
crackdown against Morsi supporters that has left hundreds dead and thousands 
jailed in the past 2 years.

In retaliation, militants have targeted security forces, and in recent months 
have also attacked judges and prosecutors.

On 29 June, the country's top state prosecutor Hisham Barakat was assassinated 
in a Cairo car bombing - the highest-ranking official to be murdered since the 
ouster of Morsi.

In May, gunmen killed 2 judges and a prosecutor in Sinai.

The 10 men sentenced to death on Thursday were among 24 tried in a court in 
Mansoura in connection with Metwally's murder, the official said. Verdicts 
against the 14 others will be announced in September.

In line with Egyptian law, the death sentences were referred to the mufti, the 
government's official interpreter of Islamic law, and the court will deliver 
its final ruling on 7 September.<>P> Also on Thursday, the Mansoura court 
confirmed death sentences against four men accused of forming a "terrorist 
group", while nine others were sentenced to life.

The men were also accused of receiving weapons training in the Gaza Strip from 
Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

(source: middleeasteye.net)






THAILAND:

Thai police say key DNA evidence in murders of Britons has been lost


Thai police said on Thursday some key DNA evidence in the trial of 2 men for 
the murders of 2 British tourists had been lost or "finished" and so could not 
be retested as the defence has demanded.

The trial of 2 Myanmar migrant workers, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun began on 
Wednesday. The 2 men are accused of killing David Miller, 24, and Hannah 
Witheridge, 23.

The high-profile case has raised questions about the competence of the 
investigation and the treatment of migrant labourers in Thailand.

The murdered pair were found on a beach on Koh Tao, an island in southern 
Thailand popular with backpackers and scuba divers, on Sept 15.

Post-mortem examinations showed both had suffered severe head wounds and 
Witheridge had been raped.

Both accused men deny the killings.

The defence wants some evidence central to the case re-examined. But Police 
Lieutenant Colonel Somsak Nurod, who led the original investigation, said some 
evidence could no longer be re-tested as it had been lost, including a hair 
sample found in Witheridge's hand. "There is documentation of the testing we 
did at the time but some of the evidence, including the hair sample, was lost, 
so it cannot be retested," Somsak told Reuters in a telephone interview.

He added that biological samples found on cigarette butts taken from the crime 
scene were "finished", but declined to go into further details.

Chief defence lawyer Nakhon Chompuchat told reporters that a garden hoe 
allegedly used as the murder weapon would be retested.

"We contacted the institute and they said if they are doing the testing as an 
emergency case then it can be done in three to seven days," said Nakhon. "We 
will definitely test the garden hoe."

Cross-examination on Wednesday centred on why police were slow to seal off the 
crime scene, why doctors arrived hours after the bodies were found and whether 
officers on the island were trained to use a DNA testing kit.

Thai police said in October the 2 accused men had confessed to the killings, 
but they later retracted their confessions, saying they had made them while 
being tortured.

Police say they have a watertight case, and that DNA found on the victims 
matched the suspects.

Critics have argued the arrests resulted from discriminatory ethnic profiling.

The men could face the death penalty if found guilty. A verdict is expected in 
October.

(source: Reuters)