[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 28



SUDAN:

SLM-Minnawi warns Khartoum against carrying out death sentences in its members


The head of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM -MM) Mini Minnawi denounced the 
death penalty handed yesterday to 18 of its members and warned Khartoum against 
carrying it out.

The defendants were arrested following the capture of Ba'ashim area, north-west 
of Mellit in North Darfur last March by the Sudanese army and militiamen of the 
Rapid Security Forces (RSF).

The defendants faced charges of undermining the constitutional system, stir up 
war against the state, using heavy weapons, looting and destroying the 
citizens' properties and threatening local peace security.

Minnawi said in a statement today that the verdicts "do not respect the rules 
of justice and international law for the protection of prisoners of war under 
the Geneva Convention".

He called on all political forces, civil society and humanitarian 
organizations, local, regional and international to launch a campaign to save 
their lives.

Minnawi described this as a political trial "intended to humiliate the Sudanese 
people and avenge for the defeats received by the regime at the hands of our 
forces".

The rebel chief recalled that they released scores of Sudanese army POW's with 
the remaining ones receiving good treatment.

It is to be noted that the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and 
SLM-MM called during their recent negotiations with the Sudanese government to 
release its detained members but the government swiftly rejected this demand.

(source: Sudan Tribune)






BARBADOS:

CCJ rejects application by convicted murderers


The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), in a ruling today, ordered that the case 
of Vincent Edwards and Richard Haynes be sent back to the Barbados Court of 
Appeal.

Edwards and Haynes had been convicted of murder in June 2013 and sentenced to 
death.

The 2 men had previously appealed their convictions and sentences to the Court 
of Appeal, but that matter was dismissed.

They subsequently filed their application to the CCJ and to appeal as poor 
persons.

However, the CCJ decided that the issue of the unconstitutionality of the 
mandatory death penalty should be sent back to the Barbados Court of Appeal for 
a determination of how that issue should be resolved.

'The Court found no 'compelling reason' to allow the applicants to raise the 
issue for the first time before the CCJ. The Court said that it should not 
lightly allow persons to 'leapfrog the local courts' because 'the views of the 
local judges should first be heard' on such an important question."

The CCJ panel, which comprised Justices Adrian Saunders, Winston Anderson and 
Maureen Rajnauth-Lee, also advised the Court of Appeal to resolve the matter in 
a timely fashion.

". . . the Barbados Court of Appeal could either hear this issue and deliver 
judgment itself on it or it could first be heard by a trial judge. However, 
whatever option is chosen,writing in a police officer's notebook. These 
confessions were never initialled orsigned by either Edwards or Haynes and were 
denied by them at the trial.

Secondly, they argued that the mandatory death penalty imposed on them was 
unconstitutional, despite a 2002 amendment to the Constitution of Barbados that 
specifically legitimizes mandatory death sentences for murder.

This 2nd issue was, however, never raised by the men until they filed their 
Application to the CCJ. The Court granted permission for the men to appeal 
their convictions on the first ground and to appeal as poor persons.

In granting such permission, the Court found that the case was one of 
significant public importance, it warranted an appeal before the final court 
and that the men had demonstrated that there was a realistic possibility of a 
miscarriage of justice.

The Applicants were represented by Andrew Pilgrim, QC, Angella Mitchell-Gittens 
and Alexandria Thomas, while Donna Babb- Agard, QC, and Alliston Seale acted 
for the Respondent.

(source: Barbados Today)






MALDIVES:

Verdict looms on death penalty clemency


High Court is set to announce its verdict on Monday over the case seeking to 
annul the clause giving the president power to grant clemency to convicts on 
death row.

The case seeking to annul the clause in the Clemency Act, which gives the 
president the power to turn death sentences into life imprisonment, was filed 
privately by a group of individuals.

The High Court ended hearings on the case on Thursday and a verdict is expected 
on Monday.

State is against the case arguing that the clause was in direct contradiction 
to Islamic law.

The state argued that the authority given to the president by the clause cannot 
be used in Qisas (the right of a murder victim's nearest relative or Wali 
[legal guardian] to, if the court approves, take the life of the killer) cases.

The case being heard by the 5-judge bench of the appellate court was filed in 
2012.

Maldives has recently adopted a series of new rules and regulations and is 
currently drafting a law on death penalty.

The Supreme Court issued new guidelines on Sunday allowing death sentences and 
public lashing rulings issued by lower courts to be appealed automatically at 
the High Court.

In a circular, the Supreme Court said if the defendant fails to appeal death 
sentences and public lashing verdicts within 10 days, the court that had 
initially issued the verdict should forward the relevant documents to the High 
Court. The appellate court would have seven days to notify both the defendant 
and the prosecution of the appeal and during that period should take the 
necessary steps to begin appeal proceedings, it added.

The new rules follow similar guidelines issued by the apex court early this 
month.

The Supreme Court issued new guidelines on November 8 giving a month-long 
window for the last chance to appeal death sentences and public lashings backed 
by High Court.

According to the guidelines, if a defendant fails to appeal a High Court 
verdict in favour of death sentences and public lashing rulings within a 30-day 
period, the appeal can then only be filed at the Supreme Court by the 
prosecution.

The guidelines, included in a circular signed by Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed, 
did not specifically mention sentences of death and public lashing. However, it 
says that High Court rulings that need to be reconfirmed by the Supreme Court 
had to be appealed within 30 days, including public holidays.

Under local laws, the only sentences that need to be reconfirmed by the Supreme 
Court are death sentences and public lashing verdicts.

Judicature Act earlier granted a 90-day period, excluding public holidays, to 
appeal rulings by any court.

However, the Supreme Court had in January annulled that clause and issued new 
guidelines under which rulings issued by lower courts had to be appealed at the 
High Court within 10 days and appeal over High Court verdicts needed to be 
filed at the Supreme Court within 60 days.

Meanwhile, the government has included funds in the proposed state budget for 
next year to establish an execution chamber at the country's main prison to 
carry out the death penalty.

The state budget for next year, which was approved by the parliament on Monday, 
includes MVR4 million to build an execution chamber. However, the correctional 
service was not immediately available for comment.

Maldives adopted a new regulation last year under which lethal injection would 
be used to implement the death penalty.

However, over mounting pressure from human rights bodies, companies have been 
refusing to supply the fatal dose to countries still carrying out capital 
punishment.

Home minister Umar Naseer had earlier said the correctional service would be 
ready to implement the death penalty by the time a death sentence is upheld by 
the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the government announced on November 16 that it was in the process 
of drafting legislation on implementing death penalty.

Attorney General Mohamed Anil told reporters that the bill being drafted by his 
office would expand on the already existing regulations on death penalty. The 
bill would include procedures on conducting murder investigations, filing 
charges in such cases and conducting proceedings in murder cases, he added.

There are around 10 people on death row at present, but none of whom has 
exhausted the appeal process thus far.

(source: haveeru.com)






PAKISTAN:

I'll kill myself before I die!


Mumtaz Qadri, who was awarded a death sentence for the murder of former Punjab 
governor Salmaan Taseer, has threatened jail authorities that he would commit 
suicide if he were not allowed to meet his family in a separate room as per the 
previous routine.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan upheld Qadri's death sentence and he is being 
kept in Rawalpindi's Adyala jail.

When Qadri's relatives went to meet him at the jail recently, they were allowed 
to meet the convict through an iron fence due to security reasons. Qadri 
protested against the move and threatened to commit suicide if he was not 
allowed to meet his family in a separate room, a jail official said.

After Qadri's suicide threat, the jail authorities allowed him to meet his 
family in a separate room.

A bench of the apex court headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa rejected an appeal 
seeking to revoke Qadri's death penalty.

Qadri, a former police guard, who was entrusted security of former Punjab 
governor Salmaan Taseer, had shot him dead on January 4, 2011 outside his 
residence in Islamabad.

(source: Pakistan Today)

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

Court reserves decision on formation of JIT in Musharraf treason case


A special court in Islamabad on Saturday reserved its decision regarding 
formation of joint investigation team and timeframe of probe in the treason 
case against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, Dunya News reported.

A special court bench headed by Justice Faisal Arab heard the case today.

Prosecution lawyer Akram Sheikh argued that the federal government will 
challenge Islamabad High Court's decision in the same court through inter-court 
appeal. If decision is upheld on inter-court appeal, another inquiry will be 
held against November 3 move.

Akram Sheikh further argued that it is the government's prerogative to get the 
matter investigated through any agency.

FIA team had refused to re-investigate the November 3rd action, stating that 
the government failed to protect dignity of the agency.

The lawyer prayed to court to announce another timeframe for probe.

Meanwhile, Justice Faisal Arab remarked that apparently it seems that the 
government and the defence party are seeing IHC's decision as vague. The high 
court has left the matter of re-investigation up to the government.

The decision on the request will be announced at 4:00pm.

Musharraf faces the death penalty if convicted of charges over his suspension 
of the constitution and imposition of emergency rule in 2007, when he was 
trying to extend his tenure.

Musharraf governed the country for nearly a decade after the 1999 coup but was 
forced to step down in 2008 after growing discontent with his rule. He left the 
country soon after.

He returned to Pakistan in March 2013 after years in self-imposed exile, with 
the hope of running in the national election that was held in May 2013. But he 
was disqualified from participating in the vote because of his actions while in 
power and has spent most of his time battling legal cases.

(source: Dunya News)



SRI LANKA/SAUDI ARABIA:

Sri Lanka urges Saudi not to stone to death maid for adultery


Sri Lanka said on Friday it was calling on Saudi Arabia to pardon a domestic 
worker sentenced to death by stoning after she admitted committing adultery 
while working in the Arab nation.

An official from Sri Lanka's Foreign Employment Bureau said the married 
45-year-old woman who was working as a maid in Riyadh since 2013 was convicted 
of adultery by a Saudi court in August.

Her partner, also a Sri Lankan migrant worker, was given a lesser punishment of 
100 lashes on account of being single.

"She has accepted the crime 4 times in the courts. But the Foreign Employment 
Bureau has hired lawyers and have appealed against the case," Upul Deshapriya, 
spokesman for the Foreign Employment Bureau, told the Thomson Reuters 
Foundation.

"The appeal is going on. Also from the foreign ministry side, they are in 
negotiation with the Saudi government on a diplomatic level."

Officials from the Saudi Embassy in Colombo did not respond to requests from 
the Thomson Reuters Foundation on whether they would consider the plea for 
clemency.

Oil-producing Saudi Arabia follows Sharia, or Islamic law, and is often 
criticised by human rights groups for the wide range of crimes such as 
adultery, drug smuggling and witchcraft which carry the death penalty.

Stoning, a form of execution where a group throws stones at a person buried 
waist or chest deep in the ground until they are dead, is still carried out in 
parts of the Muslim world.

In 2013, Saudi Arabia beheaded a young Sri Lankan housemaid for the killing of 
an infant left in her care, rejecting repeated appeals by Colombo against her 
death sentence.

Thousands of men and women from the Indian Ocean island travel to the Middle 
East every year to seek jobs as maids or drivers.

According to Central Bank data, 279,952 Sri Lankans went to work in Middle 
Eastern nations in 2014, generating over $7 billion in remittances, around 9 % 
of total GDP.

Saudi Arabia, which is current chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council 
Panel, has executed over 150 people this year, mostly by public beheading, the 
most in 20 years, rights group Amnesty International said this month.

Foreigners, mostly guest workers from poor countries, are particularly 
vulnerable as they typically do not know Arabic and are denied adequate 
translation in court, Amnesty said.

Riyadh says it provides fair trials to all defendants.

(source: Reuters)

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

'Kill us alongside our children' defiant activists' mothers tell king


The mothers of 5 young Saudi prisoners sentenced to death by beheading made a 
passionate plea to the king to spare their sons' lives. The appeal followed 
reports that the Gulf kingdom is poised to execute more than 50 people 
convicted of terrorism.

In a public letter the women said the verdicts against the young dissidents, 
including Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, were based on confessions extracted under 
torture and the related trials fell short of international standards.

"The sentences handed down to our children are unique in the history of Saudi 
justice," the letter read. "As mothers of young men both deprived of their 
right to liberty and facing an unknown fate that may deprive them of their 
right to life, we demand that the Saudi government drop their sentences and 
order their retrial."

It concluded: "We stress that we will only stay silent over this crime if they 
kill us alongside our children." It was signed by Naima Ali al-Matrook, Fatima 
Hassan al-Ghzwe, Zahra Hassan al-Rebh, Amena Ahmed al-Saker and Nasra Abdullah 
al-Ahmed, mothers of 5 activists from the Shia minority arrested on sedition 
charges in 2012 when they were all teenagers.

Among them is al-Nimr, a 21-year-old dissident whose case has triggered uproar 
worldwide.The nephew of a vocal Shia cleric and activist, he was arrested aged 
only 17, for taking part in a protest.

He was forced to sign a confession under torture and has since been sentenced 
to death on a diverse set of charges, including attacking police, breaking 
allegiance to the king, setting up terror cells, rioting and robbing a 
pharmacy, according to human rights organisation Reprieve. Under Saudi Arabia's 
draconian legal system, he is to be beheaded and his body crucified in public.

The death sentence is expected to be carried out in the coming days as local 
media reported authorities were preparing for a mass execution of 55 convicts 
in a single day.

"These executions must not go ahead and Saudi Arabia must lift the veil of 
secrecy around its death penalty cases, as part of a fundamental overhaul of 
its criminal justice system," said James Lynch, deputy director of the Middle 
East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

"Beheading or otherwise executing dozens of people in a single day would mark a 
dizzying descent to yet another outrageous low for Saudi Arabia, whose 
authorities have continued to show stone-faced cynicism and even open defiance 
when authorities and ordinary people around the world question their sordid 
record on the use of the death penalty".

(source: IB Times)

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

Joint statement on death sentence of Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh ---- Index 
on Censorship condemns the decision by Saudi authorities to sentence Ashraf 
Fayadh to death on charges of apostasy


We, the undersigned organisations, all dedicated to the value of creative 
freedom, are writing to express our grave concern that Ashraf Fayadh has been 
sentenced to death for apostasy.

Ashraf Fayadh, a poet, artist, curator, and member of British-Saudi art 
organisation Edge of Arabia, was first detained in August 2013 in relation to 
his collection of poems Instructions Within following the submission of a 
complaint to the Saudi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue. He was released 
on bail but rearrested in January 2014.

According to court documents, in May 2014 the General Court of Abha found proof 
that Fayadh had committed apostasy (ridda) but had repented for it. The charge 
of apostasy was dropped, but he was nevertheless sentenced to 4 years in prison 
and 800 lashes in relation to numerous charges related to blasphemy.

At Ashraf Fayadh's retrial in November 2015 the judge reversed the previous 
ruling, declaring that repentance was not enough to avoid the death penalty. We 
believe that all charges against him should have been dropped entirely, and are 
appalled that Fayadh has instead been sentenced to death for apostasy, simply 
for exercising his rights to freedom of expression and freedom of belief.

As a member of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), the pre-eminent 
intergovernmental body tasked with protecting and promoting human rights, and 
the Chair of the HRC's Consultative Group, Saudi Arabia purports to uphold and 
respect the highest standards of human rights. However, the decision of the 
court is a clear violation of the internationally recognised rights to freedom 
of conscience and expression. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights (UDHR) states that, "[e]veryone has the right to freedom of thought, 
conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or 
belief'. Furthermore, under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights, "everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this 
right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, 
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of 
frontiers". Saudi Arabia is therefore in absolute contravention of the rights 
that as a member of the UN HRC it has committed to protect.

There are also widespread concerns over an apparent lack of due process in the 
trial: Fayadh was denied legal representation, reportedly as a result of his ID 
having been confiscated following his arrest in January 2014. It is our 
understanding that Fayadh has 30 days to appeal this latest ruling, and we urge 
the authorities to allow him access to the lawyer of his choice.

We call on the Saudi authorities to release Ashraf Fayadh and others detained 
in Saudi Arabia in violation of their right to freedom of expression 
immediately and unconditionally.

List of signatories:

AICA (International Association of Art Critics)

Algerian PEN

All-India PEN

Amnesty International UK

Arterial Network

ARTICLE 19

Artists for Palestine UK

Austrian PEN

Banipal

Bangladesh PEN

Bread and Roses TV

British Humanist Association

Bulgarian PEN

Centre for Secular Space

CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art)

Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain

Croatian PEN

Crossway Foundation

Danish PEN

English PEN

Ethiopian PEN-in-Exile

FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights)

Five Leaves Publications

Freemuse

German PEN

Haitian PEN

Human Rights Watch

Index on Censorship

International Humanist and Ethical Union

Iranian PEN in Exile

Jimmy Wales Foundation

Lebanese PEN

Ledbury Poetry Festival

Lithuanian PEN

Modern Poetry in Translation

National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC)

Norwegian PEN

One Darnley Road

One Law for All

Palestinian PEN

PEN American Center

PEN Canada

PEN International

PEN South Africa

Peruvian PEN

Peter Tatchell Foundation

Portuguese PEN

Quebec PEN

Russian PEN

San Miguel PEN

Scottish PEN

Slovene PEN

Society of Authors

South African PEN

Split This Rock

Suisse Romand PEN

School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia

The Voice Project

Trieste PEN

Turkish PEN

Wales PEN Cymru

(source: indexoncensorship.org)

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

Woman to be stoned to death for adultery in Saudi Arabia - while male partner 
to receive 100 lashes


A woman faces being stoned to death after being convicted of adultery in Saudi 
Arabia - while the man she was caught with faces 100 lashes.

The married 45-year-old woman, originally from Sri Lanka, was working as a maid 
in Riyadh and was convicted of adultery in August.

But her partner, who was single and also from Sri Lanka, was given a punishment 
of 100 lashes after being found guilty of the same offence.

Upul Deshapriya, spokesman for the Foreign Employment Bureau said: "She has 
accepted the crime 4 times in the courts.

"But the Foreign Employment Bureau has hired lawyers and have appealed against 
the case.

"The appeal is going on. Also from the foreign ministry side, they are in 
negotiation with the Saudi government on a diplomatic level."

Saudi Arabia follows Sharia law which is criticised by human rights groups for 
carrying the death penalty for crimes such as adultery and drug smuggling.

Stoning, in which 'offenders' are pelted with stones until death is still 
carried out in some parts of the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia, which is current chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council 
Panel, has executed over 150 people this year, mostly by public beheading, 
Amnesty International said this month.

Foreigners, mostly guest workers from poor countries, are particularly 
vulnerable as they typically do not know Arabic and are denied adequate 
translation in court, Amnesty added.

Last month we reported how a Saudi wife who suspected her husband of cheating 
filmed him with his maid on her mobile phone.

She posted the video on social media with the caption: "The minimum punishment 
for this husband is to scandalise him."

But, she could actually be imprisoned for a year on defamation charges, due to 
Saudi Arabia's strict law.

(source: The Mirror)

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

Fellow poets protest Saudi death sentence facing Ashraf Fayadh


Poets from around the world are lining up in solidarity with the Palestinian 
poet Ashraf Fayadh, with the Syrian poet Adonis, Ireland???s Paul Muldoon and 
Britain's poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy among the signatories to a letter 
laying out how "appalled" they are at the death sentence he has been handed by 
Saudi Arabian authorities.

Fayadh was sentenced to death last week for renouncing Islam, a charge which he 
denies. Evidence used against him included poems from his collection 
Instructions Within, which is banned in Saudi Arabia, as well as his posts on 
Twitter, and a conversation he had in a coffee shop in Abha which was said to 
be blasphemous. He was given 30 days to appeal the sentence.

Today, PEN International published the latest salvo from an international arts 
community which has rallied behind him, with Muldoon, Duffy and Adonis joined 
as signatories to a letter attacking Saudi Arabia's ruling by major names from 
the world of international poetry including the Serbian-American poet Charles 
Simic, the American John Ashbery, Palestinian Ghassan Zaqtan, Israeli Amir Or 
and the Hungarian-born George Szirtes.

"We, poets from around the world, are appalled that the Saudi Arabian 
authorities have sentenced Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh to death for 
apostasy," they write, in a letter which PEN International hopes to deliver to 
the poet himself in an expression of solidarity. "It is not a crime to hold an 
idea, however unpopular, nor is it a crime to express opinion peacefully. Every 
individual has the freedom to believe or not believe. Freedom of conscience is 
an essential human freedom."

The letter says that Fayadh's death sentence "is the latest example of the 
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's lack of tolerance for freedom of expression and 
ongoing persecution of free thinkers", ending with a plea for the Palestinian's 
release.

"We, Fayadh's fellow poets, urge the Saudi authorities to desist from punishing 
individuals for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression 
and call for his immediate and unconditional release," they write.

Speaking to the Guardian on Friday, Szirtes insisted that "opinions are not 
crimes".

"Incitement can be a crime, hate speech may be a crime, but opinions are not," 
he said. "That is precisely why organisations such as PEN exist. Any sentence 
for an individual opinion brings shame on Saudi Arabia: a death sentence brings 
maximum shame."

According to Szirtes it is "incongruous for a country like ours to be allied 
with a country that makes decisions like this".

"It runs counter to all our thoughts, habits and instincts, not just as poets 
or writers but as human beings," he added. "Nor is it just a cultural matter: 
it is a matter of exactly that which we describe as universal human rights."

The appeal follows the release of a joint statement signed by more than a dozen 
cultural and free speech organisations condemning the conviction of the 
Palestinian poet, including PEN International, which will be delivered to the 
Saudi embassy in London today by English PEN.

Last week, Fayadh told the Guardian that he was "really shocked" to receive his 
sentence "but it was expected, though I didn't do anything that deserves 
death".

"They accused me [of] atheism and spreading some destructive thoughts into 
society," he said, describing his poetry collection as "just about me being [a] 
Palestinian refugee ... about cultural and philosophical issues. But the 
religious extremists explained it as destructive ideas against God."

Pen International pointed to extracts of Fayadh's poems, translated by Mona 
Kareem. "it was said: settle there... / but some of you are enemies for all / 
so leave it now," he writes in one. "look up to yourselves from the bottom of 
the river; / those of you on top should provide some pity for those 
underneath."

The free speech organisation said that during his trial, the poet "expressed 
repentance for anything in the book that religious authorities may have deemed 
insulting", and said, according to trial documents: "I am repentant to God most 
high and I am innocent of what appeared in my book mentioned in this case."

On 25 November, the Guardian reported that, in a message to his supporters, 
Fayadh said he was "grateful for everyone working on my behalf". "To be honest, 
I was surprised because I felt alone here. I am in good health. I'm struggling 
to follow all the developments. People should know I am not against anyone 
here, I am an artist and I am just looking for my freedom," said the poet.

(source: The Guardian)






MALAYSIA:

Hakam: Impose moratorium on execution of 1,022 death row prisoners


The National Human Rights Society of Malaysia (Hakam) welcomes the government's 
move to abolish the mandatory death sentence for drug-related offences.

The mandatory death sentence deprives the sentencing judge of the discretion to 
consider all relevant facts of the case and the individual circumstances of 
each convicted person. A sentencing judge must be given the option to impose 
the appropriate sentence.

Whilst removing the mandatory death sentence is a step in the right direction, 
we would call on the government to abolish the mandatory death sentence in its 
entirety for all criminal offences.

The death penalty violates the right to life guaranteed under Article 5 of our 
Federal Constitution and is undoubtedly a cruel, inhuman and degrading 
punishment contrary to international law. A recent public opinion survey on the 
death penalty in Malaysia undertaken by Emeritus Professor Roger Hood QC from 
the University of Oxford has shown that the majority of the Malaysian public do 
not support an imposition of the death penalty.

We also call on the government to impose a moratorium on the execution of 1,022 
death row prisoners currently waiting for execution pending the abolition of 
the mandatory death sentence for all criminal offences.

Having been on the Human Rights Council and presently on the Security Council 
as a non-permanent member, Malaysia must show a genuine commitment to abide by 
international norms in relation to the right to life and the prohibition 
against cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

We hope that the government will continue taking steps in the right direction 
towards the ultimate abolishment of the death penalty.

Ambiga Sreenevasan is president of Hakam. The above state was issued on behalf 
of the Hakam executive committee.

Addendum

Following Hakam's statement calling for a moratorium of all 1,022 executions 
while the government looks into abolishing the mandatory death sentence in 
Malaysia, Hakam also urges the government to explore all diplomatic channels to 
persuade the Singapore government to grant clemency to Kho Jabing, the 
Sarawakian who is on death row in Singapore. Hakam acknowledges Sarawak Chief 
Minister Adenan Satem's statement that he will write to appeal to the Singapore 
government to grant clemency to Jabing.

This is indeed an urgent call for the government to defend one of her citizens 
on death row. The Malaysian government must view this as a serious case. Kho 
Jabing was sentenced to death in 2008 and in 2013, Singapore amended its law 
concerning the mandatory death sentence. This resulted in a resentencing 
hearing for Kho Jabing.

The High Court of Singapore then sentenced him to life imprisonment plus 24 
strokes of the cane which shows that the High Court found that he should not be 
sentenced to death. Upon appeal by the prosecution, the Court of Appeal 
sentenced him to death in a 3-2 decision.

This fact plays an important role in proving that we should be pursuing all 
means necessary to ensure he is given clemency and a chance at rehabilitation. 
The court had also acquitted Kho Jabing's co-accussed, Galing, of murder charge 
and sentenced him of the offence of robbery with hurt. The minority judgment of 
the Court of Appeal also found that there was insufficient evidence to 
establish beyond reasonable doubt that Kho Jabing had acted in a way which 
exhibits viciousness or a blatant disregard for human life.

The Malaysian government must do all it can within its capacity to appeal to 
the Singapore leadership to exercise discretion to grant Kho Jabing clemency.

This move should not be seen as interfering in the legal system of Singapore 
but it must be viewed as the government's positive obligation to protect the 
right to life of its citizens abroad.

Hakam reiterates that nobody should be sentenced to death as it is contrary to 
international norms in relation to the right to life and the prohibition 
against cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

(source: aliran.com)