[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide----ZAM., BEL., INDIA

[Rick Halperin]

July 17



ZAMBIA:

Human Rights Commission comments on Commutation of Death Sentences and HH 
Attack


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMMUTATION OF SENTENCES FOR DEATH ROW INMATES BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT 
OF ZAMBIA MR. EDGAR CHAGWA LUNGU

The Human Rights Commission is delighted at the move by His Excellency the 
President Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu taken to commute the death sentences of 332 
death row inmates to life imprisonment.

The commutation is a clear demonstration that President will not depart from 
the direction taken by his predecessors of the de facto moratorium. In light of 
this action, the Commission calls upon Government to take the extra step and 
accede to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil 
and Political Rights which requires State Parties to abolish the death penalty. 
Further, Zambia needs to domesticate the Option Protocol to ensure that the 
Judiciary do not continue handing down death sentences as a matter of law.

The Commission reiterates its opposition to the maintenance of the death 
penalty as submitted to the technical committee on drafting the Zambian 
Constitution in 2012. Human Rights practice today guides that a rehabilitative 
approach to criminal offenders should be adopted as opposed to the traditional 
approaches of retribution, vengeance and punishment under which the death 
penalty falls.

The Human Rights Commission has repeatedly raised concerns about over-crowding 
in prisons which exposes inmates to inhumane conditions. It is encouraging to 
note government's willingness to address the problem of congestion in prisons. 
The Commission believes that the legislative and administrative measures 
announced by the president to address conditions in prisons across the country 
will go a long way in creating the desired environment for inmates in line with 
the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.

ATTACK ON UPND LEADER HAKAINDE HICHILEMA BY PF CADRES

The Human Right Commission condemns in strongest terms the reported violent 
acts of Patriotic Front (PF) cadres on the Copperbelt Province who forced their 
way into Icengelo Radio on Wednesday evening to stop a radio programme where 
the United Party for National Development Party (UPND) President Mr. Hakainde 
Hichilema was scheduled to speak.

The Commission is disappointed with PF cadres' attack on Mr. Hakainde Hichilema 
and interference with Radio Icengelo's scheduled programme.

It is unfortunate that the cadres have continued to behave violently and 
conducting themselves in a manner that is inconsistent with the stance taken by 
His Excellency the President Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu's on political violence. 
For as long as cadres are not punished for these acts, there will be no end to 
political violence. The Commission calls upon the PF party leadership to 
translate the commitment to stop political violence in action by sanctioning 
the cadres behind the attack so that they understand there are no rewards for 
perpetrating such acts.

Issued by:

Florence Chibwesha

DIRECTOR

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

(source: Lusaka Times)






BELIZE:

15 inmates escape death row - 9 freed from prison


It's been a full 30 years since the state of Belize executed anyone for murder, 
and this week, the last man on death row, Glenford Baptist, 44, had that 
sentence overturned by the Supreme Court, which will either grant him life in 
prison or a definitive sentence.

Baptist was convicted in November 2001 along with Gilroy Wade and Oscar Catzim 
Mendez of the murder of Ozrin White. In 2006, the Privy Council commuted Wade's 
sentence to life, but Wade, whose life had been threatened, was murdered inside 
prison the following year. Mendez???s conviction was quashed.

Central Prison CEO, Virgilio Murillo, told Amandala that the last time there 
was no one on death row at the prison was back in 2000.

Murillo told us that he has been reviewing the prison records and found that 
there are several inmates who were on death row who have either had their 
sentences commuted to life in prison or who have been given definitive 
sentences and have since been re-released into society.

Former death row inmate, Pasqual Bull, who escaped hanging at the 11th hour in 
1995, now spending 6th year on parole

There are currently 36 persons serving life sentences, and 5 of those were 
formerly on death row. They are Earlin White, Andrew Kelly, Leslie Pipersburgh, 
Patrick Robateau, and Patrick Reyes.

Earlin White's 2003 sentence for the murder of Dwayne Arnold back in 2002 was 
quashed and replaced with a life sentence, on the grounds that a psychiatric 
evaluation ought to have been done.

Leslie Pipersburgh and Patrick Robateau, who had been convicted in connection 
with the 2002 quadruple murder of 2 security guards, as well as a man and a 
woman, were subjected to a retrial on orders from the Privy Council, which had 
quashed their conviction. They were handed life sentences by the Belize Supreme 
Court in 2011.

9 persons formerly on death row have been freed: Adolph Harris, Norman Shaw, 
Wilfred Lauriano, Cleon Smith, Pasqual Bull, Alfred Codrington, Aurelio Pop, 
Linsford Logan, and Ellis Taibo, Murillo informed us.

In the case of Harris, his sentence was fixed at 20 years back in 2006, minus 
11 years he had already served, by then Chief Justice Conteh.

Of all those sentenced to death who have gotten a 2nd chance at life, Bull came 
the closest to having been executed - but he is today a free man.

The state intended to execute Bull (and Herman Mejia) in August 25, 1995, but 
his attorney Simeon Sampson arrived within 20 minutes of the appointed time 
with a stay from the Privy Council. Bull had been charged for the April 15, 
1993 double-murder of Juan Natividad and Hipolito Cowo at Mile 1 on the Gracie 
Rock Road, Belize District.

His conviction and death sentence had been upheld by the Court of Appeal. 
However, in 1998, Pasqual Bull's 1994 death sentence was overturned by the 
Privy Council, and his murder conviction replaced by a conviction for 
manslaughter, for which he was later given a definitive sentence of 25 years.

According to Murillo, prison CEO, Bull was released on parole on August 28, 
2009, and his parole supervision is due to end on October 20, 2019, which will 
mark the 25th year since his detention.

Persons sentenced to life in prison are not entitled to parole - a principle 
which is currently being challenged with the recent filing by Senior Counsel 
Eamon Courtenay at the Caribbean Court of Justice on behalf of Gregory August, 
whose case is the first criminal appeal to be heard by the regional court. His 
case will likely set a precedent for the other 35 inmates serving life behind 
bars.

According to Murillo, it was the challenge filed for Patrick Reyes, whom he 
said had been convicted of the double murder of 2 cousins in a land dispute, 
which brought the change which has seen several other death row inmates escape 
the hangman's noose.

Belize continues to be challenged by the UK to remove the death penalty, the 
mandatory sentence for murder, off its law books.

It seems unlikely that Belize will resume hanging 30 years after the execution 
of Bowers. Parliament only recently approved an optional protocol for the 
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or 
Punishment of 1984, which reaffirms "that torture and other cruel, inhuman or 
degrading treatment or punishment are prohibited and constitute serious 
violations of human rights." Belize acceded to that convention in 1986.

In 2012, a UN Special Rapporteur argued that "the evolving international 
standard which considers the death penalty as a violation of the prohibition of 
torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and the resulting illegality 
of the death penalty under article 1 and 16 of the Convention against Torture 
is developing into a norm of customary international law, if it has not already 
done so already."

The protocol to the Convention recently approved by Parliament at its last 
sitting commits Belize to a regime under which it would grant an independent 
body access to persons who believe they are being unfairly deprived of their 
liberty and being treated cruelly by the State of Belize.

(source: amandala.com)






INDIA:

Man gets death for murder of 14-year-old maid servant----He confessed to 
slicing her body into 3 pieces in 2006


K C Hamza, who is a native of Kerala, had buried the victim in a pit near a 
check dam he was building in Goa. His wife has been sentenced to 6 years in 
jail for illegally confining the girl and for shielding Hamza

Thiruvananthapuram : A public works contractor, who brutally murdered his 
14-year-old maid servant by slicing her body into 3 pieces 8 years ago, was on 
Thursday awarded the death penalty by a court in Kerala.

K C Hamza (52), a native of Kasargod district, was found guilty of the brutal 
murder of Safiya by the district sessions court based on scientific evidence. 
His wife, Maimoona (48), has been sentenced to 6 years' imprisonment for 
illegally confining the girl and shielding the accused, while their relative, M 
Abdulla (48), was sentenced to 3 years in jail for destroying evidence in the 
case.

The murder of Safiya, who hails from Madikeri in Karnataka, had taken place in 
December 2006. Hamza had confessed to the police that he had cut the girl into 
pieces after she suffered burn injuries while cooking and buried the body in a 
pit near a check dam he was building in Goa.

The convict had earlier claimed that Safiya had gone missing from his flat in 
Goa. The Kasargod police, which took up the case following a missing complaint 
lodged by Safiya???s father in December 2006, could not get any clue about the 
girl for more than 2 years.

The Crime Branch, which was handed over the investigation following prolonged 
agitations spearheaded by an action committee, unravelled the mystery in 8 
months. With the help of forensic experts, they found that the girl was 
murdered. The crime branch team later unearthed the chopped skeletal remains of 
Safiya from the dam site.

Principal sessions judge, Justice M J Shaktidharan, awarded the maximum 
punishment to Hamza with the observation that a man who had murdered a 
14-year-old girl so brutally was dangerous to society. The judge has also 
imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on him. Of this, Rs 8 lakh will go to the family 
of the deceased.

The court acquitted Moidu Haji, 59, who supplied the girl to the contractor, 
and Kerala police official A. Gopalakrishnan, 57, who allegedly helped in 
scuttling the case while he was posted with the Adhur police station, for want 
of evidence.

Safiya was handed over to Haji by her parents as he had promised that Hamza 
would give them money to marry off their daughter. For the 1st year, Safiya had 
worked in Hamza's house at Kasargod and was later taken to Goa after he secured 
the contract for building the dam.

According to the prosecution, the girl had sustained brutal torture and burn 
injuries for several months before her death. Forensic examinations had proved 
that the girl was alive when her body was sliced into 3.

(source: Free Press Journal)