[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 2



MALAYSIA/SOUTH AFRICA:

SA drug mule loses appeal, faces death penalty in Malaysia


A Johannesburg father who was reportedly caught smuggling drugs into Malaysia 
is now facing the death penalty.

Deon Cornelius, 29, on Thursday lost his an appeal to have his death penalty 
sentence overturned after he was convicted in January.

Patricia Gerber, head of Locked Up, an organisation that assists South Africans 
arrested overseas for drug smuggling, said she was uncertain whether there were 
any other avenues that Deon Cornelius could pursue.

The 29-year-old man was arrested 2 years ago after he was found in possession 
of 2kg of methamphetamine when he landed at Penang International Airport on 
October 4 2013.

At the time of his arrest, he told authorities he had been given the laptop bag 
containing drugs by a person named Tony in Penang.

At the time, Beeld reported that Cornelius had told his family that he was 
going to Durban, before he disappeared.

Gerber however, said she blamed the South African government for the soaring 
numbers of South Africans who continued to be caught up in drug smuggling.

"My point is our government is creating a safe haven for drug lords," said 
Gerber.

She claimed that in the last financial year, over 230 South Africans had been 
arrested for abroad for drug-related crimes.

"But there is not a single drug lord who is being implicated and arrested," she 
said.

Gerber said she believed that police officials working in South Africa's 
airports were being bribed by drug lords to tip-off police officials in foreign 
countries about who was bringing in the smaller amounts of drugs.

"These South Africans caught abroad are not drug mules. They are used as 
decoys. They are victims of human trafficking," she said.

She accused the government of not taking these human trafficking allegations 
seriously.

"I am so fed up," she added.

(source: news24.com)






EGYPT:

Amnesty warns Egypt could give Ibrahim Halawa the death penalty----Dubliner was 
a teenager when he was arrested in Cairo - Sunday is his 8th trial date


Amnesty International claims Ibrahim Halawa may face the death penalty in 
Egypt.

Today marks the 777th day of the 19-year-old's detention after his arrest in 
Cairo back in 2013.

Following numerous postponements, Ibrahim is due to stand trial again on 
Sunday.

His family will stage a demonstration to call for his immediate and 
unconditional release at the Spire in Dublin this afternoon at 3 O'clock.

Ibriham, who Amnesty has named an International Prisoner of Conscience, is from 
Firhouse in Dublin and was holidaying in Egypt when he was arrested.

Ibrahim Halawa was 19 when he was arrested

He and his sisters were forced to seek sanctuary in the Al Fateh mosque after 
violent clashes between supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi and the 
security forces.

They were subsequently jailed in Tora prison, before the sisters were released 
and returned to Ireland.

Sunday's court date is his 8th trial date.

Ibrahim's father Sheikh Hussein Halawa is the imam of Ireland's largest mosque.

(source: newstalk.com)

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

Ibrahim Halawa 'may face death penalty'


Amnesty International has warned Ibrahim Halawa may be sentenced to death when 
his case comes back before an Egyptian court this weekend.

Today marks the 777th day of the 19-year-old's detention after his arrest in 
Cairo in 2013. He was arrested that August while taking shelter in a mosque 
from protests in Cairo. He has been detained in prison there ever since.

Following numerous postponements, Ibrahim is due to stand trial again on 
Sunday.

His family will stage a demonstration to call for his immediate and 
unconditional release at the Spire in Dublin today at 3pm.

Colm O'Gorman from Amnesty International said the Dublin student may face the 
death penalty.

He said: "He could see himself convicted of very serious charges and facing a 
possible death penalty within minutes of that trial starting," he said. "Such 
trials often take 10 or 15 minutes in Egypt without lawyers present.

"Or, we could see yet another postponement, another agonising wait for Ibrahim 
and his family as he, frankly, rots in an Egyptian prison which is frankly no 
place that you would want anybody to be."

(source: breakingnews.ie)



FIJI:

Fiji supports abolition of death penalty


Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola has delivered Fiji's statement at a human 
rights event at the United Nations.

In delivering Fiji's statement, Minister Kubuabola said that, Fiji abolished 
the death penalty formally in February this year through the Republic of Fiji 
Military Forces Amendment Act 2015.

Ratu Inoke said Fiji's move on the death penalty stemmed from the growing 
international trend to remove capital punishment. The Minister added the move 
is consistent with Fiji's new Constitution which guarantees every person the 
right to life and its not relevant to Fiji, its justice system and its people.

He advised the UN event that Fiji was aware that the death penalty has little 
deterrent effect on the committing of serious crimes, and that sentencing 
policies now require a delicate balance between deterrence, rehabilitation, 
denunciation and punishment.

The minister also said a death sentence, and especially a mandatory death 
sentence, fails to give the judge the discretion to balance these factors and 
to pass a sentence which is suited to the individual.

(source: Fiji News)






BANGLADESH:

Ex-ministers get death warrants in Bangladesh


A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal has issued death warrants for 2 former 
ministers - Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.

The warrants were issued on Thursday, a day after the country's International 
Crimes Tribunal - 1 received the copies of full judgments of the Supreme Court 
upholding the death penalty of Mojaheed, secretary general of Jamaat e Islami, 
and Chowdhury, a top leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), for 
committing crimes against humanity.

Under law, the warrants would be sent to the jail authorities soon and its 
copies will be forwarded to magistrates and other authorities concerned, to 
initiate the process for execution.

Mojaheed, who was the commander of the notorious al-Badr killing squad during 
the Liberation war in 1971, is currently in Dhaka Central Jail.

Chowdhury, who had taken part in the annihilation of scores of pro-independence 
people, mostly the Hindu minorities, in Chittagong, is kept at the Kashimpur 
High-Security Jail near Dhaka.

The International Crimes Tribunal on October 1, 2013 sentenced Chowdhury, 66, 
son of Muslim League leader Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, to death on 4 out of 9 
proven charges, including the murder and genocides in Chittagong.

Mojaheed, 69, who was the Social welfare minister during the BNP-Jamaat 
alliance's 2001-06 government, was sentenced to death by the tribunal on July 
17 the same year.

PTI adds:

Lawmaker, son held

A lawmaker with Bangladesh's main opposition party was arrested on Thursday, 
along with his son, on charges of committing war crimes during the 1971 
liberation war.

M.A. Hannan, member of Jatiya Party, and Rafique Sazzad, 62, were arrested 
after warrants were issued against them by International Crimes Tribunal.

Arrest warrants have been issued against 8 others. "We also received warrants 
ordering arrest of 8 other suspected 1971 collaborators but we would disclose 
their names only after they are arrested," police officials said.

(source: The Hindu)






INDIA:

An eye for an eye


Gandhiji said "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" ("5 awarded death 
for 7/11 train attacks," Oct.1). The sentence is likely to trigger another 
round of debate over capital punishment. Death penalty is unjust and inhuman. 
Its continuous use acts as a stain on our society. Further, when awarded to a 
terrorist, it has other repercussions as he becomes a martyr in the eyes of a 
few who may be motivated to follow his path. When 140 countries in the world 
have abolished the capital punishment, India has no reason to retain it and 
should repeal section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The European Union 
(EU) even has the 'abolition of death penalty' as a prerequisite for 
membership. The land of Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha has to do away with this 
brutal form of punishment.

Gagan Pratap Singh,

Noida

(source: Letter to the Editor, The Hindu)

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

21 terrorists got death in trial court since '93 in city


The death sentences in the July 11, 2006 train blasts where the death toll, the 
state says, went up to 189, has taken capital punishment in terror cases in 
Mumbai alone to 21 since the first the most deadliest blasts of 1993.

If the Pune's German Bakery blast is included where Himayat Baig was convicted 
and sentenced to death by the trial court, it takes the count of death for 
terror, to 22.

There are 50 convicts with death sentences in Maharashtra and nearly 50% that 
would mean had come from terror cases. There have been 2 executions of terror 
convicts in the last 3 years. The 1st was Ajmal Kasab for the 2008 terror 
strike on Mumbai and the 2nd and last one in Maharashtra was of Yakub Memon on 
July 30, for the 1993 serial blasts. But barring the 2 hangings, these 22 cases 
of capital punishment as seen fit by the trial court, were either not all 
confirmed or are yet to be confirmed. A death sentence awarded by a trial court 
can be executable only when it is confirmed by a high court in most cases or 
directly by the Supreme Court in terror cases where the since repealed 
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (Tada) was applied.

In the March 12, 1993, blasts case where 257 persons died and over 700 were 
left maimed, special Tada court judge P D Kode had sent 12 accused to the 
gallows. 1 of them died pending confirmation and the SC commuted the death 
penalty to life imprisonment for 10 planters, upholding the noose only for 1, 
main absconding conspirator Tiger Memon's brother, Yakub Memon. In the 2003 
twin blasts, the trial court sentenced 3 accused, including a couple, to death 
and Bombay high court confirmed it in August 2012.

The twin blasts on August 25, 2003, had killed 52 people and left 184 injured. 
A special trial court judge under the then law called Prevention of Terrorism 
Act (Pota) had in August 2009 convicted and sentenced to death 46-year-old auto 
driver Haneef Sayyed, his wife, Fahmeeda (43), and Ashrat Ansari (32).

In the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, the lone surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab was 
awarded a death sentence by then special trial judge M L Tahaliyani.

(source: The Times of India)