[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

Mon Mar 16 09:24:07 CDT 2015

March 16

INDONESIA:

Indonesia's Islamic authority calls for death penalty for gay sex

Indonesia's Islamic authority has proposed the introduction of the death 
penalty for gay sex.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) on 3 March issued a fatwa calling for a 
range of punishments, from caning to the death penalty, for homosexual acts.

Hasanuddin AF, chairman of the MUI???s fatwa commission, said the edict was 
issued because sexual deviance was on the rise and had even infiltrated 
schools.

'Sodomy, homosexuals, gays and lesbians in Islamic law are forbidden and 
[sodomy] is a vile act that is punishable by the death penalty,' he said.

Hasanruddin said sexual perversion would hurt national morale, and called on 
the government to set up rehabilitation centers to 'cure' LGBTI people and 
eradicate homosexuality in the country.

The MUI issued a fatwa in January condemning homosexuality as a 'curable' 
disorder and sodomy as a punishable offence. It also forbade the legalization 
of gay sex.

Secretary of the fatwa commission, Asrorun Ni'am Sholeh, said sodomy was worse 
than adultery and extramarital sex and was punished with harsher sentences 
under Islamic law.

The Indonesian penal code does not ban gay sex, though 2 local governments have 
passed bylaws that criminalize homosexual acts.

In September, the staunchly Islamic Aceh province, passed sharia-based criminal 
code that punishes gay sex with up to 100 lashes of the cane and 100 months in 
jail.

The city of Palembang in South Sumatra clumps all gay-related activity with 
prostitution, which carries a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment and a 
Rp5 million ($380) fine.

These bylaws are generally seen as extremist sideshows, but the MUI carries 
more clout with both conservative and moderate Indonesians, even if its edicts 
are not legally binding.

(source: gaystarnews.com)

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

Jokowi fulfils clemency request of death row murderer in Pekanbaru

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has granted the clemency request filed by Dwi 
Trisna Firmansyah, 28, an inmate convicted of premeditated murder, and changed 
his sentence from death to life imprisonment.

Dwi's lawyer, Asep Ruhiat, said he received a copy of the Presidential Decree 
(Keppres) No.18/G/2015 on the clemency from the Gobah Penitentiary, Pekanbaru, 
where the convict has been incarcerated for the last 3 years, on Friday. The 
Pekanbaru District Court (PN) confirmed the granting of clemency.

"President Jokowi, through the State Secretariat, decided the Presidential 
Decree in Jakarta on Feb.13," Asep told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

"The Presidential Decree does not detail considerations on why President Jokowi 
granted the clemency request, except saying that the convict is eligible to 
receive clemency," he went on.Dwi is one of three death row convicts involved 
in the robbery and planned killings of Agusni Bahar, owner of the Niagara 
Ponsel store on Jl. Kaharuddin Nasution, Pekanbaru, and his son, Dodi Haryanto.

The 2 other convicts involved in the crime, Candra Purnama, a.k.a. Hendra, and 
Andi Paula, are also being held at the Gobah Penitentiary.

The 3 convicts brutally killed their victims when they were performing the 
Subuh prayer on April 16, 2012. They robbed their victims of 1 Daihatsu Terios 
car, 2 motorcycles, 12 mobile phones, dozens of cell phone vouchers, vehicle 
ownership documents (BPKB), vehicle registration certificates (STNK) and 3 bags 
containing a sum of money. The 3 criminals later fled to Palembang, South 
Sumatra before the police arrested them.

The PN Pekanbaru's judicial panel led by Ida Bagus Dwiyantara sentenced the 3 
suspects to death in a trial on Sept. 25, 2012. The judge's sentence was 
harsher than that demanded by the prosecutors, who requested life imprisonment 
for all 3 suspects.The judicial panel ruled that Asep was guilty of spying on 
the victims' activities before he and the 2 other suspects perpetrated their 
crimes. The court also said Asep was proven guilty of participating in the 
murder of their 2 victims.

The judge sentenced him to death for violating the Criminal Code's (KUHP) 
articles 340 and 55 on planned murder. Asep previously filed an appeal and for 
a case review - both were rejected by the Pekanbaru High Court and Supreme 
Court - before he requested clemency from the President.

(source: The Jakarta Post)

TANZANIA:

Law reforms sought to allow media in prisons----Tanzania housing 1000s of 
inmates above capacity

Tanzanian legislators are urged to make law reforms to allow press and public 
to visit prisons and prisoners as part of efforts to bring about reforms to the 
prison system in the country.

Notably Kenya and Uganda already allow public and press in their prisons a fact 
that authorities their say has significantly helped put pressure on their 
governments to make the much needed reforms.

In Tanzania, the Prisons Act of 1967 prohibits members of the press from 
visiting prisons a situation that has been cited as detrimental to reform 
efforts.

The call for reform was made in a statement issued at the turn of the week in 
Machakos Kenya during a roundtable discussion titled 'Penal Reform in East 
Africa, Recent Development' convened by the Foundation for Human Rights 
Initiative (FHRI), Penal Reform International, and the International Commission 
of Jurists- Kenya Section (ICJ).

The meeting spotlighted the entire East Africa Community citing that all the 
member states have large numbers of prisoners on death row with Kenya taking 
the lead with 2757 prisoners on death row followed by Tanzania with 410 and 
Uganda which has 222 inmates awaiting execution.

The 2 days sessions brought together senior prison commissioners from Kenya, 
Tanzania and Uganda to build momentum on mainstreaming human rights in prison 
services. It further endeavoured to create a platform for debate and discussion 
as well as the exchange of experiences that will bring about prison reform in 
the region.

It was also cited that Tanzania's prison capacity is only 29,552 prisoners but 
the country hosts in excess of 34,000 inmates rendering the prisons 
insufferable congestion.

"The situation in Tanzania has forced inmates to sleep on floors like tightly 
packed cards and the only chance to turn over is in sequence at regular times 
controlled by other inmates," a press statement notes.

It was noted that the three countries also abstained from voting in the UN 
resolution on moratorium on the death penalty in November last year.

"As a result, there is an extreme level of prison congestion in the region," 
read the statement in part.

The statement acknowledged that the three countries have ratified the UN 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and are therefore bound by 
the treaty whose Article 6 (2) recognises each person's right to life.

"The Constitutions of the three countries provide limitations to the right to 
life," the statement says.

It explains that, the right to life is infringed (limited) because the death 
penalty is prescribed for certain capital offences under the Penal Code Act 
where offences such as murder, treason and terrorism and robbery attract 
mandatory death sentences.

Presenting a paper on 'Prison Infrastructure, Threats and Opportunities' 
Tanzania Commissioner for Prisons, Deonice Chamulesile said that most of prison 
structures in the country were built during the colonial era and have very poor 
ventilation coupled with even poorer sewage systems.

"The space in most of the prisons is extremely small," he said.

'A room that was meant to accommodate 1 prisoner now caters for 5 to 6 inmates 
and there are no safety considerations in the structures as most prisons have 
only one door which is very unsafe in case of fire outbreak or any other 
similar hazards," Chamulesile warned.

The Tanzania Commissioner for Prisons went on to note that prison improvement 
should go concurrently with improving number of staff and their living and 
working conditions.

He cited that, as is the case with the prisoners, most staff at prisons sleep 
in a single room housing that accommodates 3 to 4 officers who work in shifts.

"Our officers are forced to sleep on prison premises just to pass the night 
away due to shortage of housing," the Commissioner decried and attributed the 
problem to underfunding.

The meeting noted that the situation is no different in Kenya as the country's 
Assistant Commissioner of Prisons Henry Kisingu admitted; "Our prisons are also 
operating way beyond their recommended capacity which is 30,000 yet they are 
housing some 54,000 inmates."

Notably however and unlike Tanzania, he said Kenya has introduced an open door 
policy where members of the press can now visit prisons.

"This has helped shade light over the actual situation and put pressure on the 
government to make concerted efforts to improve the situation," he said.

On his part, Robert Munaniva the Commissioner for Prisoners in Uganda also 
conceded that the situation is none the better in Uganda's prison.

He said they have the capacity to accommodate only 16,499 inmates but cater for 
42,013, more than twice the number.

"Some inmates are forced to sleep on their feet due to lack of space," he 
admitted citing however that like Kenya, Uganda also has an Open Door Policy 
when it comes to their prisons and the public as well as members of the press 
can visit prisons and prisoners, 'a situation that is likely to speed up 
reforms' he said.

In Tanzania, to visit a prison or prisoner, the media is required by, the Act 
to write a letter to the Commissioner of Prisons in Tanzania and request 
permission and imposes fines and imprisonment terms for any violations.

Notably, the media in Tanzania has been vibrant in enhancing positive changes 
in the country yet it has failed to do so for the prisons system owing to the 
law. Media stakeholders under the Media Council of Tanzania once listed 13 laws 
which infringe the right to information and the Prisons Act of 1967 was one of 
them.

(source: The Guardian)

PAKISTAN:

Shafqat Hussain: Child offender to be executed in Pakistan

He was sentenced to death at just 14 years of age.

Shafqat Hussain was found guilty of killing another boy who was just half his 
age.

His family say he was tortured into confessing the crime, while human rights 
groups have called for his execution to be called off given his young age when 
the crime took place.

If his execution does go ahead as planned, he will be one of 8000 estimated 
inmates who are set to be executed on death row in the South-East Asian 
country.

Pakistan has lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases 
after restarting executions for terrorism offences in the wake of a Taliban 
school massacre.

The interior ministry last week directed provincial governments to proceed with 
hangings for prisoners who have exhausted all avenues of appeal and clemency, a 
move which has been widely condemned by human rights groups.

Meanwhile Hussain's elderly mother made an emotional appeal for authorities to 
halt the execution of her son.

The then teenager was sentenced in 2004 by a court in the port city of Karachi 
after it found him guilty of killing another boy.

In a telephone interview from the Pakistani-controlled section of the disputed 
Kashmir territory, Makhni Begum insisted that Hussain was innocent.

"I request to the government and I beg to the judiciary to order the retrial of 
my son. Please spare his life. Don't snatch him from me," she sobbed. The woman 
said her son went to Karachi to work as a security guard, but one day she heard 
that he had been arrested in a murder case.

Hussain's brother Manzoor alleged that his brother was tortured by police to 
force a confession.

"My brother was subjected to the worst torture for admitting that he had killed 
another boy and dumped his body" near a drain in Karachi, he said.

No police official was immediately available for comment.

Manzoor, who uses only 1 name, said the jail authorities had summoned them for 
a final meeting with Hussain, who is scheduled to be executed on March 19.

Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said executing child 
offenders is a barbarous violation of basic decency and international law.

"Sending someone to the gallows for an alleged crime committed as a child shows 
the Pakistani government's disregard for children's rights."

Pakistan has ratified both the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which specifically 
prohibit capital punishment of anyone who was under 18 at the time of the 
offence.

According to HRW, Pakistan's execution of an alleged child offender on June 13, 
2006, when authorities in Peshawar hanged Mutabar Khan.

A trial court in Swabi had sentenced Khan to death on October 6, 1998, for the 
alleged murder of 5 people in April 1996.

A Pakistani human rights organisation has also called for Hussain's execution 
to be halted due to his youthful age when the crime was committed.

In a statement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said Pakistan's 
minister for interior had announced in January that an inquiry would be 
conducted into the concerns raised regarding Hussain's conviction. "No such 
inquiry has taken place," it said.

Pakistan imposed a moratorium on executions in 2008, but partially lifted the 
ban in December after a Taliban attack on a school in the north-western city of 
Peshawar killed 150 people, mostly children.

The death penalty moratorium was completely lifted this month with authorities 
making plans to execute all prisoners on death row.

(source: news.com.au)

IRAN:

2052 Executions For Drug-Offences in the Last 5 years in Iran

According to a report published by Iran Human Rights (IHR) at least 2052 people 
charged with drug-related offences, have been executed by the Iranian 
authorities in the period of 2010-2014.

During the past 5 years, drug-related charges have counted for the majority of 
executions in Iran.[1] Based on death penalty reports, at least 2052 people 
have been executed for drug-related charges since 2010 in Iran. In 2013, there 
was a relative decrease in the number of drug-related executions compared to 
the previous 3 years. However, the decrease didn't continue. In 2014, at least 
367 people were executed for such charges. 123 of these executions were 
announced by the official sources.

Iranian authorities claim that many of those sentenced to death for 
drug-related charges are involved in organized, armed smuggling. However, there 
is a general lack of transparency in the Iranian judicial system and all those 
convicted for drug-related charges have been tried by the Revolution Courts 
behind closed doors, and most of those executed are not identified by name. 
Human rights groups have received many reports on unfair trials and confessions 
under torture. An example is Saeed Sedighi[2] who was executed in October 2012 
despite calls from the UN Special Rapporteurs to halt the execution.[3] 
Furthermore, many of those executed belonged to the most marginalized parts of 
society.REF

The international fight against drug trafficking and executions

The United Nations' Office for Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) has cooperated with 
Iran in the fight against drug trafficking for the past decades. Several 
European states have provided millions of dollars worth of support through 
UNODC to counter-narcotics forces in Iran. A recent report by Reprieve provides 
a direct link between the UNODC funding and thousands of executions in 
Iran.[4],[5] Together with several other right groups, IHR and ECPM have urged 
the UNODC on several occasions to freeze its counter-narcotic funding[6],[7] to 
Iran or condition it to a stop in drug-related executions. Several countries 
such as Denmark, Ireland[8] and the UK have stopped their counter-narcotic aid 
to the UNODC programs in Iran. However, the UNODC continues praising Iranian 
authorities for their efficient struggle against trafficking without taking 
into account the several hundred who are executed every year for such charges 
in Iran. Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime 
(UNODC), told reporters that "Iran takes a very active role to fight against 
illicit drugs," [9] before an international meeting on global efforts to combat 
narcotics in Vienna on March 13-14. "It is very impressive," Fedotov said 
referring to the reports showing that in 2012, Iran seized 388 tons of opium, 
the equivalent of 72 percent of all such seizures around the world. Commenting 
on Mr. Fedotov's praise of Iran???s fight against drugs, IHR spokesperson 
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: "The amount of seized drugs is the only positive 
result UNODC and the Iranian authorities can present. But there is no evidence 
that the UNODC cooperation with Iran has led to a decrease in drug trafficking. 
Besides, UNODC cannot be indifferent to the indiscriminate execution of 
hundreds of prisoners under the pretext of fighting the drug trafficking. UNODC 
must take its share of responsibility." [10]

Although there has not been a significant reduction in the number of executions 
for drug-related charges, the growing international attention seems to have 
some impact on the Iranian authorities' rhetoric regarding this issue.

Change in the Anti-Narcotic Law: a change in rhetoric or practice?

In previous years, Iranian authorities proudly presented the high number of 
executions for drug offences as a sign of their efficient struggle against 
international drug trafficking. As late as March 2014, referring to the 
drug-related executions, Javad Larijani, head of the Iranian Judiciary's "Human 
Rights Council" said: "We expect the world to be grateful for this great 
service to humanity". He continued: "Unfortunately, instead of celebrating 
Iran, international organizations see the increased number of executions caused 
by Iran's assertive confrontation with drugs as a vehicle for human rights 
attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran." [11],[12]

However, the rhetoric has clearly changed in the last months of 2014. On 
December 4, in an English-language interview with France 24, Javad Larijani 
said, "No one is happy to see that the number of executions is high." Javad 
Larijani continued, "We are crusading to change this law. If we are successful, 
if the law passes in Parliament, almost 80% of the executions will go away.[13] 
This is big news for us, regardless of Western criticism." Interestingly, his 
statement was published also by the state-run Fars News Agency.[14]

This has been echoed by the judiciary. Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, Javad 
Larijani's brother and the head of Iran's Judiciary, addressed the need to 
change the country's drug laws. During a December 2 meeting of judiciary 
officials, he said, "On the issue of drugs and trafficking, it seems necessary 
that we need a change in the legislation because the ultimate goal of the law 
should be implementing justice, while in reality, this goal is often not 
realized".[15],[16]

Based on these statements, one can conclude that the Iranian authorities have 
at least publicly admitted that the executions have not been an efficient mean 
in the fight against drug trafficking.

However, it remains to be seen to what extent these statements represent a real 
willingness for policy change and are not just a change of rhetoric by the 
Iranian authorities. Iran's response to the UPR recommendations regarding the 
drug-related executions will be indicative of where Iran is heading.

UPR Recommendations on drug-related executions:

Several countries have recommended Iran to respect the ICCPR, which restricts 
the death penalty for the most serious offences. Below are the recommendations 
that directly mention the drug-related executions.

--Amend the Penal Code to exclude drug-trafficking related crimes from those 
punished by the death penalty (Spain);

--Consider introducing a moratorium on the death penalty, with a view to its 
abolition, in particular for drug-related offences and other crimes that cannot 
be labelled as "most serious" according to international standards (Italy);

-----

[1]http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/090/2011/en/0564f064-e965-4fad-b062-6de232a08162/mde130902011en.pdf

[2]http://iranhr.net/2012/10/urgent-saeed-sedighi-and-several-other-prisoners-scheduled-to-be-executed-tomorrow-ihr-urges-un-and-eu-to-react-now/

[3] 
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12688&LangID=E

[4] European Aid for Executions - Reprieve, 2014

[5] Daily mail, Special report, 14. December 2014

[6] 
http://iranhr.net/2014/12/human-rights-groups-urge-un-to-freeze-funding-of-iran-counter-narcotic-efforts/

[7] 
http://iranhr.net/2012/10/rights-groups-urge-un-to-cease-anti-drug-trafficking-funding-iran-death-penalty/

[8] http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-iran-drugs-1166152-Nov2013/

[9] 
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/uk-iran-drugs-un-idUKBREA2A0PA20140311

[10] 
http://iranhr.net/2014/03/despite-328-executions-for-drug-related-charges-in-2013-unodc-praises-irans-drug-fight/

[11] http://www.tasnimnews.com/Home/Single/302871

[12] http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2014/03/larijani-executions/

[13] Mohammad Javad Larijani's interview with France24, December 4, 2014

[14] http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13930914000637

[15] http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13930912000412

[16] 
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/12/iran-end-death-penalty-drug-cases.html#

(source: Iran Human Rights)