[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 30




PAKISTAN:

In pictures: Artworks by death row inmates, underprivileged kids seek to build 
bridges in Pakistan----A travelling art exhibition aims to understand 
difference and diversity, and to broaden the boundaries of what society has 
labeled as art.


A 1st-of-its-kind project in Pakistan, Is Saye Kay Parcham Talay (The Shadow 
Over Our Flag) is a travelling art show that seeks to build bridges between 
artists and the community, and to invite people to indulge in difficult but 
necessary conversations. The show tackles issues of marginalisation and 
minority politics in Pakistan and looks at ethnic, religious, and gendered 
communities in the country and within art institutions themselves. The premise 
of the project is to understand difference and diversity, to absorb the 
cultural contexts of Lahore and then Karachi. It hopes to be part of a growing 
movement that broadens the boundaries of what society has labeled as art.

Starting in Lahore this month, the works to be displayed include those composed 
by death row inmates and nearly 50 child photographers from Karachi's 
underdeveloped Neelum and Shah Rasool Colonies. They will sit alongside the 
works of artists from different backgrounds, whose collective work observes a 
fractured nation.

The exhibition will reach Karachi in January, where it will feature works of 
additional local artists.

Justice Project Pakistan

Justice Project Pakistan, an organisation run by Sarah Belal, is probably one 
of Pakistan's most active groups against the death penalty. Spearheaded by JPP 
members, its installation will highlight the artwork of executed prisoner Aftab 
Bahadur, who was sentenced to death at the age of 15.

(source: scroll.in)

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

Should the death penalty exist?----A convicted person may well be innocent in 
Pakistan


As we await the ultimate fate of Abdul Basit, a paralysed man, to know whether 
or not he is to be hanged, the question arises: Should the death punishment 
exist, most particularly in Pakistan?

Abdul Basit was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 2009. While in 
prison he contracted tubercular meningitis and lost the use of both legs due to 
a lack of proper medical attention and care. Such neglect is common in prisons 
in Pakistan. A report put together by the organisation Death Penalty Worldwide 
says, 'Prison doctors (in Pakistan) are incompetent and uninterested state 
employees, and prisoners are given severely substandard care.'

Abdul Basit's execution has been delayed a couple of times, once only minutes 
before he was to be hanged because it was raining at the time of execution, and 
again just this month when the President of Pakistan ordered a 2-month delay in 
execution only a few hours before the event.

Another prisoner Shafqat Hussain was hanged in Karachi in August this year. He 
had been in prison since the age of 14, a minor convicted of murdering another 
minor. Hussain confessed to the crime but maintained that the confession was 
tortured out of him. An excerpt from a statement made by him earlier this year 
describes what it was like to be on death row: 'I have been told I am going to 
be executed 7 times. The 1st time was in 2013. I am alone in my cell now. Both 
my cellmates were hanged. I had shared a cell with them for 6 or 7 years. I 
cannot even begin to explain what I went through when they were executed 
because I myself was scheduled to be executed the next day.'

Hussain was hanged just a few days after this statement was recorded. At the 
time of his death he was just 24. He had been in prison for 10 years.

These are only 2 examples but together they serve to highlight several things 
about the death punishment in Pakistan: That prisoners suffer neglect and their 
physical condition makes little difference to their sentence as in the case of 
Abdul Basit whose execution has only been postponed now, not commuted. It 
highlights the fact that although the law does not allow the death sentence for 
minors, this law is broken as in the case of Shafqat Hussain. Overall it 
highlights the fact that the adage 'justice delayed is justice denied' holds 
little meaning in Pakistan. Both these men have been imprisoned for several 
years and have had their date of execution pushed around arbitrarily, thereby 
suffering the torture of everything but execution itself several times over.

Not that living on death row is much better, physically speaking. That report 
put together by Death Penalty Worldwide also describes conditions inside a 
typical death cell in Pakistan: 'The norm is for 7 prisoners to be confined in 
one death cell, which also contains the prisoners' toilet. In some cells, 
inmates must take turns sleeping for want of space to lie down. Families are 
allowed to bring food for loved ones but prison officials often withhold food 
intended for prisoners, and prisoners are given watered-down rations. Mentally 
ill prisoners are often kept together in1e cell. In 1 jail in Punjab, there are 
forty of them and they all have one arm chained to the wall. Only 1 hand is 
free. They are kept like this all day. In some prisons the gallows can be seen 
by the prisoners from their death cells.'

The report notes that as always, wealthy people are able to buy better 
conditions, even in prison, but almost all death row inmates are "extremely 
poor and helpless".

The report goes on to say that 'some officials abuse prisoners in custody. 
Female prisoners may be subjected to abuse including custodial rape. Condemned 
prisoners can walk outside for only about an hour a day, are subjected to 
lengthy periods of shackling - a practice the UN has concluded as torture - may 
be excluded from social or recreational activities, and have severely 
restricted visitation rights. A condemned prisoner may face impending death 
while under these conditions for more than 10 years.'

The fact is that even outside of prison living conditions in Pakistan are good 
only for the select few. For prisoners in daily expectation of death, they are 
pitiful. No human deserves to live this way, not even convicted murderers for 
whom civil and religious norms both prescribe justice and humane treatment, and 
neither justice nor humanity may be found in any of these cases. It is time we 
re-examined the very existence of the death penalty everywhere but most 
particularly in Pakistan where even more than in other places a person 
convicted of murder may well be innocent.

Persons who would otherwise be awarded the death penalty should be sentenced to 
life in confinement without a chance of parole, yes. But if there is any doubt 
as to their guilt they should not receive the death punishment and their case 
should be investigated immediately rather than being allowed to drag on for 
years. Living conditions in prison should be humane. Unfortunately, practical 
concerns make it necessary to consider finances when evaluating death vs life 
under confinement. Feeding and housing a person with any semblance of humanity 
is difficult to afford particularly for a poor country like Pakistan. But with 
a little ingenuity and some organisation an alternative can be managed tailored 
to the particular requirements of this country. Long term prisoners could 
perhaps be confined in a place similar to a commune where they could grow their 
own food and work at a cottage industry to pay for their keep.

Citizens of any country and all humans everywhere have rights in life, and in 
death, as well as when they are under sentence of death. We have been 
instructed in this in the best of ways: 'Be just, for this is closest to 
righteousness....' (Quran 5:8)

(source: Rabia Ahmed, Pakistan Today)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Strong evidence kingdom will go ahead with mass execution, says rights group


There is growing evidence that Saudi Arabia will go ahead with the mass 
execution of more than 50 people convicted of terrorism, a human rights group 
has claimed.

Okaz newspaper reported that the country is poised to execute 55 people for 
"terrorist crimes" that killed more than 100 civilians and 71 security 
personnel.

The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR), which has been 
monitoring the publication of news reports in the media, believes that the 
Saudi government may be "testing the waters" ahead of the execution of 
activists convicted of anti-government offences. If the public reaction is not 
deemed strong enough, the Gulf kingdom could go ahead with the punishments.

Last week, 3 news reports of a mass execution were published in online 
publications described by ESOHR as "pro-government", including Okaz, Al-Riyadh 
and Al-Jazeera, quoting unofficial sources. 2 of the articles were subsequently 
deleted. Additionally, unofficial Twitter accounts, which are known to to be 
sources close to the government and give accurate news, also spread news about 
executions, but did not give the identities of the accused.

"When those accounts come out and they announce events, people take it 
seriously. We think those media put the articles up to evaluate the 
international community's reaction," Zena Esia, a research associate for the 
ESOHR, told IBTimes UK.

Esia explained how ESOHR witnessed similar behaviour with Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr, 
a prominent human rights defender, who was believed to be in line for execution 
along with his nephew, Ali Mohammed Al-Nimr. In July, there was a strong 
reaction from the public, which protested after the Twitter accounts announced 
Nimr would be executed.

"If the international community is quiet, it would not be in the favour of 
these young men and Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr." - Zena Esia, research associate, 
European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights

Sheikh Nimr was arrested in 2012 after supporting protests that were by then 
raging in Qatif and al-Awamiyah and was shot in the leg by police. His arrest 
and later conviction on a range of charges - including "encouraging foreign 
meddling" in the kingdom and insulting its rulers - caused days of rioting 
during which 3 protesters were killed.

"In the past, articles went up announcing the government's intentions to 
execute Sheikh Nimr, to test the water. On the day the protests were planned, a 
news article came up saying the execution would not take place," Esia said.

"We see this as a deliberate media strategy, which can be very psychological 
because Ali Mohammed al-Nimr's mother has seen a lot of these unofficial 
statements, and it is very disturbing for her. If the international community 
is quiet, it would not be in the favour of these young men and Sheikh Nimr 
Al-Nimr."

Legal charity Reprieve, which has followed the case of the pro-democracy young 
man and his uncle, said this week that a number of those who will reportedly be 
executed come from the same region as the activists convicted of 
anti-government offences. The men were also taken for an announced medical 
examination in prison, which suggests their execution has been scheduled.

Under Saudi Arabia's draconian legal system, the two are to be beheaded and 
their bodies crucified in public. The case has triggered uproar worldwide, with 
Amnesty International describing the trial as unfair and deeply flawed.

Saudi Arabia has already executed more than 150 people this year, mostly by 
public beheading, the most in 20 years, rights group Amnesty International said 
this month.

(source: ibtimes.co.uk)






BANGLADESH:

Justice At The Gallows - Analysis


On November 22, 2015, condemned war crimes convicts Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) 
Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed (67) and Bangladesh Nationalist 
Party (BNP) Standing Committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury (66) were 
hanged simultaneously at Dhaka Central Jail at 12:55 am. Earlier, on November 
21, 2015, President Abdul Hamid had rejected their applications seeking 
Presidential clemency, which they had filed after losing all legal battles 
against their death sentences on charge of crimes against humanity committed 
during the Liberation War of 1971.

On July 17, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 (ICT-2) had sentenced 
Mojaheed to death after finding him guilty on 5 of 7 charges against him, 
including the killing of eminent journalist Serajuddin Hossain in Dhaka; mass 
killings at village Baidyadangi in Faridpur District; the killing of Badi, 
Rumi, Jewel, Azad and Altaf Mahmud at Nakhalpara Army Camp in Dhaka; the 
killing of intellectuals in Dhaka; and the killing of Hindu civilians and 
persecution in Faridpur District. He had filed an appeal with the Appellate 
Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on August 12, 2013. On June 16, 2015, the 
Appellate Division upheld Mojaheed's death sentence.

Similarly, on October 1, 2013, ICT-1 sentenced Salauddin to death finding him 
guilty on nine of 23 charges including the Madhya Gohira Genocide, in which the 
Hindu community was targeted on April 13, 1971; the murder of Nutun Chandra 
Singha; genocide at Jogotmollopara, in which 32 Hindus were killed; the murder 
of Nepal Chandra and 3 others; the genocide at Unsuttarpara, in which an 
estimated 70 Hindus were killed; the killing of Satish Chandra Palit; the 
killing of Mozaffar and his son; abduction and torture of Nizamuddin Ahmed; and 
abduction and torture of Saleh Uddin. He had lodged an appeal with the 
Appellate Division on October 29, 2013, but his death sentence was upheld on 
July 29, 2015.

On September 30, 2015, the Appellate Division released its full verdicts 
upholding the death penalty of Mojaheed and Salauddin, leaving them with the 
option of seeking a review of the verdicts. Expectedly, both Mojaheed and 
Salauddin had filed their respective review pleas on October 14, 2015. Again, 
the Appellate Division dismissed their review petitions on November 18, 2015, 
with all 4 judges - Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, Justice Nazmun Ara 
Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foyez Siddique - 
concurring, leaving only Presidential mercy as a last resort. On November 21, 
2015, Mojaheed and Salauddin submitted their separate mercy petitions to the 
President, and these were rejected on the same day.

Mojaheed had been arrested on June 29, 2010, and was indicted on June 21, 2012; 
while Salauddin was arrested on December 16, 2010, and indicted on April 4, 
2012.

Salauddin and Mojaheed are the 2 highest-profile war crimes convicts to walk to 
the gallows. Salauddin is also the first BNP leader to be executed, and was 
Parliamentary Affairs Adviser to the then Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, 
with the rank of a Cabinet Minister. He had also served as Minister of Health 
during General Hussein Muhammad Ershad's regime.

Mojaheed had served as Minister of Social Welfare in the then BNP-led coalition 
Government between 2001 and 2006. He is the third JeI leader to have been 
hanged for war crimes, after JeI Assistant Secretary Abdul Quader Mollah (65), 
known as 'Mirpurer Koshai (Butcher of Mirpur), who was hanged at Dhaka Central 
Jail on December 12, 2013; and JeI Senior Assistant Secretary General Muhammad 
Kamaruzzaman (63), the 3rd most senior figure in the JeI, who was hanged at 
Dhaka Central Jail on April 11, 2015.

Expectedly, on November 22, 2015, the JeI called for a countrywide dawn-to-dusk 
hartal (general strike) for November 23, 2015. Earlier, protesting the SC 
verdict of November 18, 2015, JeI had called a countrywide hartal on November 
19, 2015. Unlike previous hartals called by JeI protesting against war crimes' 
verdicts against party leaders, which had resulted in massive street violence, 
these 2 hartals were largely ignored across the country and no major acts of 
violence were reported.

The War Crimes (WC) Trials, which began on March 25, 2010, have thus far 
indicted 44 leaders, including 27 from JeI, 6 from the Muslim League (ML), 5 
from Nezam-e-Islami (NeI), four from BNP and 2 from the Jatiya Party (JP). 
Verdicts have been delivered against 24 accused, including 17 death penalties 
and seven life sentences. So far, 4 of the 17 people who were awarded death 
sentence have been hanged. Each earlier judgment had resulted in violence 
unleashed by fundamentalists, led by the Opposition combine of BNP, JeI and its 
student wing Islami Chattra Shibir (ICS). According to partial data compiled by 
the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), the country recorded at least 51 
fatalities, including 23 civilians, one Security Force (SF) trooper and 27 
JeI-ICS cadres (between December 12, 2013 and December 19, 2013) as violent 
protests were witnessed across Bangladesh after the execution of JeI Assistant 
Secretary Abdul Quader Mollah on December 12, 2013. Further, the violence that 
followed the execution of JeI Senior Assistant Secretary General Muhammad 
Kamaruzzaman (63) on April 11, 2015, led to death of 2 JeI-ICS cadres (violent 
protests continued till April 14, 2015). However, no violent protests have 
taken place, thus far, after the execution of JeI Secretary General Ali Ahsan 
Mohammad Mojaheed (67) and BNP Standing Committee member Salauddin Quader 
Chowdhury (66) on November 22, 2015.

Meanwhile, on November 22, 2015, various political parties and organizations 
hailed the latest executions. The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) demanded 
a ban on the politics of JeI and ICS to root out extremism from the country 
forever. Demanding immediate execution of all other war crimes convicts, 
Bangladesh Chhatra Federation (BCF), the student front of Ganasanghati Andolon, 
another left leaning political party, expressed satisfaction over the verdict 
and declared that it was a reflection of people's expectations. Sammilita 
Sangskritik Jote, a cultural organization, also expressed satisfaction over the 
executions. Gonojagoron Mancha (People's Resurgence Platform), a youth platform 
seeking death sentences for all war criminals, took out a procession at 
Shahbagh in the capital, Dhaka. Further, calling for confiscation of all 
properties of the convicted war criminals and distribution of the wealth among 
the families of insolvent freedom fighters and rape victims of the 1971 
Liberation War, Shahriar Kabir, Acting President of Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal 
Nirmul Committee, an anti-war crimes platform, asserted, on November 26, "The 
properties of Jamaat-e-Islami including its business firms, factories, NGOs, 
and educational and social institutions, should come under the Government's 
control. These institutions have to give compensation as well."

Surprisingly, the BNP did not announce any programme of protests in the wake of 
the execution of its leader, Salauddin. At a high-level party meeting on 
November 25, 2015, BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia did not allow her party 
colleagues to discuss Salauddin's execution. After the meeting, Jamiruddin 
Sircar, a member of the party's Standing Committee disclosed, "The issue of 
Salauddin's execution was raised at the meeting. Madam [Khaleda Zia] offered 
her condolence at his death. There was no more discussion on it as it was not 
on the agenda. We now want to make it clear that we are not in favour of war 
criminals. By not discussing Salauddin, she has saved her party from the 
accusation of patronizing war criminals."

Earlier, on November 19, 2015, when a correspondent of Prothom Alo (First 
Light), a major daily newspaper published from Dhaka city in the Bengali 
language, contacted seven BNP leaders, including 3 members of its Standing 
Committee, one Standing Committee member, preferring anonymity, observed, 
"Salauddin Quader's execution will have no impact on BNP. The party is not also 
discussing this much (sic)."

Indeed, BNP is now trying to extricate itself from its own past. For decades, 
the party has been facing accusation of patronizing war criminals. Its 
electoral ties with the anti-liberation JeI have also drawn flak, and the 
leadership has been facing pressure from both friends and foes at home and 
abroad to cut ties with JeI. In the past, BNP had joined often violent 
protestsat the war crimes verdicts and past executions.

Criticizing former Presidents Ziaur Rahman and H. M. Ershad; and BNP 
Chairperson Khaleda, for rehabilitating those involved in war crimes in 1971, 
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed observed, on November 23, 2015, "Ziaur 
Rahman did not try the war criminals. We tried and executed the war criminals. 
I think through the trial and execution of the war criminals the victims' 
family members will at least get some consolation. If we cannot end the trial 
of war criminals, the nation will never be freed from curse (sic)."

For years now, entities sympathetic to the JeI-BNP combine, backed by several 
Western nations, have been attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the war 
crime trials. With the BNP pulling away from the convicted war criminals, it 
appears that the legitimacy issue has been more than settled, and apologists 
will find it increasingly difficult to sustain their campaigns against a 
process that has been abundantly transparent.

(source: Eurasiareview.com)






MALDIVES:

Maldives strips pres of death penalty clemency


High Court on Monday annulled 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.

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

The court ruled that the president cannot grant clemency to convicts on death 
row in Qisas cases but would be able to exercise the power on other cases 
involving a death sentence.

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)