[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 14




PAKISTAN:

No juvenile convict executed after lifting of moratorium: expert


Legal consultant on Child Rights for Ministry of Human Rights, Sharafat A. 
Chaudhry, said on Saturday that after lifting of moratorium on death penalty 
Pakistan has not executed any juvenile convict. Talking to Business Recorder, 
he said that Pakistan had been requested, being a state party to the Convention 
on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to submit its response to a number of 
questions including death penalty to juvenile to which Pakistan has worked out 
a response for United Nations Committee on the Right of the Child (UNCRC) over 
death penalty of juvenile convict.

One of the additional questions on Pakistan fifth periodic report on CRC for 
the UNCRC includes; "Please provide detailed information on investigations 
undertaken and their outcome, if any, into alleged juvenility, as well as into 
allegations of torture, in the cases of Ansar Iqbal, Shafqat Hussain, Aftab 
Bahadur, Faisal Mahmood and Muhammad Afzal - Please also explain how the right 
of a child to the rule of the benefit of the doubt is protected in cases where 
filed evidence of juvenility is dismissed on procedural grounds".

Responding to the question case by case, Chaudhry said that it has been noted 
that learned trial judges properly scrutinise the prosecution evidence as well 
as defence pleas taken by the accused persons in their statements and while 
doing so, entire facts and circumstances of cases were considered by the 
courts.

He said that the convicted persons - Ansar Iqbal, Shafqat Hussain, Aftab 
Bahadur, Faisal Mahmood and Muhammad Afzal - availed all judicial forums 
including the appellate forums of High Court and Supreme Court but could 
neither prove their innocence nor alleged claim of juvenility. "Additionally, 
on administrative grounds, the Ministry of Interior conducted inquires for 
these cases but the alleged claim of juvenility could not be proved," Chaudhry 
maintained.

Responding to the question relating to the case of Ansar Iqbal, he said the 
Supreme Court had comprehensively analysed the record and judgements of trial 
court as well as of high court, adding that the top court had dismissed the 
claim of Ansar's juvenility on merit and not on technical grounds. He claimed 
the accused person presented fake documents to prove his claim of juvenility as 
Ansar's school leaving certificate claimed his year of birth 1979, Form- B, 
allegedly issued by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), 
records his year of birth as 1978 while the NADRA record related to his father 
shows 1974 as his year of birth.

"The documents presented by Ansar could not be verified, thus the apex court 
decided to leave his appeal on merit considering all relevant material and 
evidence on record," Chaudhry said.

He also said that in Shafqat Hussain's case the claim of juvenility was never 
claimed upto the criminal revision petition before Supreme Court whereas in 
case of Faisal Mahmood, the claim of juvenility was never agitated and proved 
by the record except his solitary statement recorded under Section 342 CrPC 
during his trial.

(source: Business Recorder)

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

Most of those being hanged in Pakistan not accused of terrorism: Reprieve


Reprieve, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) working on death 
penalty, says the GSP Plus status involves Pakistan committing to certain human 
rights reforms, including around the death penalty and they will share 
information with the European Union (EU) officials to ensure they have access 
to the evidence they need to assess whether these reforms have been delivered 
or not.

Talking to a group of Pakistani journalists who visited Reprieve headquarters 
in London, Director of death penalty Maya Foa said as much as 345 people have 
been executed since the moratorium was lifted in December 2014 to February 05, 
2016.

"Majority of those executed not been terrorists or related to terrorism. An 
independent analysis by various organisations carried out last year estimated 
that 'fewer than 1 in 6' of those hanged between December 2014-July 2015 'were 
linked to militancy'. Reprieve is currently working on new figures which 
indicate the proportion since then may be even lower, but we have yet to 
finalise these," commented Maya.

She said that the GSP Plus status involves Pakistan committing to certain human 
rights reforms, including around the death penalty.

To a question about what is Reprieve's take on these executions and the 
government's argument that they are aimed at uprooting terrorism in Pakistan, 
she said as independent analysis has shown, the vast majority of those executed 
have not been terrorists.

"Most of those being hanged have not even been accused of terrorism. Rather, 
they are often the poor and disadvantaged, or victims of the widespread use by 
the police of torture to extract false 'confessions.'

It is hard to see how executing hundreds of people like this will do anything 
to make the country safer," she remarked. When asked what steps are being taken 
by Reprieve to stop death penalties in Pakistan, she said Reprieve continues to 
work to support some of the poorest and most vulnerable people on Pakistan's 
death row, who have suffered from torture, unfair trials and other abuses.

"We are particularly concerned by the execution of people who were sentenced to 
death as children - something which happened at least 5 times last year. One 
example is Faisal Mehmood, who was executed on 27 May even though when the case 
reached the Supreme Court even the prosecutor agreed that he should not face 
the death penalty as he was under 18 at the time of the alleged crime (he was 
tried just months before the introduction of the Juvenile Justice System 
Ordinance).

The execution of juveniles is a serious breach of both Pakistani and 
international law and something which the government needs to address urgently.

"The moratorium needs to be reinstated until serious flaws in the justice 
system such as this can be fixed," commented Maya.

(source: The News)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi YouTube stars call for gays to be executed in 'the most horrific ways 
possible'


Popular Saudi Arabian YouTubers posted a shockingly homophobic video to YouTube 
- which was removed for hate speech.

The clip was uploaded by Fe2aFala - popular Arabic vloggers who have more than 
500,000 subscribers, racking up over 45 million views

In a shocking video uploaded to the video site, the young men rant about 
"Deviant marriage in Riyadh", apparently after a local raid of a ceremonial gay 
wedding.

They added: "We would like to thank the police for beating their asses."

The vloggers play a clip appearing to show 2 "deviants" getting married - 
accompanied by an on-screen emoji poo.

The men continue to insist that gays are "disgusting and nasty", asking Allah 
to send his "godly wrath" upon them.

The men then discuss whether gays are "mentally ill" and needing a "cure" - or 
whether they are "animals" who need to be "executed in the most horrific ways".

After outcry, YouTube took action to pull the video, with a message now 
explaining: "This video has been removed for violating YouTube's policy on hate 
speech."

An LGBT rights campaigner said: "I translated this video from the Saudi Arabian 
YouTube channel Fe2aFala for the English-speaking audience to raise awareness 
against Fe2aFala's recent video dealing about promoting the killing and abusing 
of gay and transgender people, the issue has aroused after the unorganized gay 
marriage that happened recently in Saudi Arabia."

(source: pinknews.co.uk)






NORTH KOREA:

The latest rumor from North Korea: Another general executed


Yet another North Korean general is killed by the Pyongyang regime.

That's the story that's been doing the rounds this week after a South Korean 
news agency quoted an anonymous South Korean official from an unnamed South 
Korean agency as saying that Ri Yong Gil, chief of the Korean People's Army 
[KPA] general staff, had been executed for corruption.

\ It fit with the pattern that has emerged since Kim Jong Un took over the 
leadership of North Korea from his father at the end of 2011: Aging member of 
the old guard dispatched by young upstart leader.

After all, it happened with Hyon Yong Chol, the defense minister executed by 
anti-aircraft gun for insubordination and treason. And to Pyon In Son, head of 
operations in the army, said to have disagreed with Kim. The 33-year-old leader 
even had his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, shot for amassing too much power.

This rumor about Ri may well be true. But as with almost everything related to 
North Korea, very little is clear.

A memo from South Korea's National Intelligence Service, obtained by the 
Washington Post, said that Ri was executed on Feb. 2 or 3 for factionalism and 
corruption charges.

"Even though corruption and factionalism were given as reasons behind his 
execution, Ri had been considered a man on principle so it is more likely that 
these reasons were just given to justify his execution," the memo said. "This 
is another sign of Kim Jong Un's reign of terror," it said.

But the South's spy agency has a history of being wrong about North Korea 
almost as often as it's right, and the Daily NK, a Seoul-based news service 
with informants inside Norh Korea, Friday reported that Ri had been arrested 
rather than executed.

Ri was "going against the Party's monolithic teachings and monolithic military 
system" by "exercising privileges and partaking in factional bureaucracy," a 
source told The Daily NK. He was arrested at a party meeting and dragged out in 
handcuffs, the site reported.

There is also recent precedent for top officials being given a time-out: Choe 
Ryong Hae, Secretary of the Korean Workers' Party, went missing for three 
months last year, reportedly because of corruption, then returned to the public 
eye last month. North Korea's state media reported he gave a speech at a 
ceremony marking the anniversary of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League in 
Pyongyang.

There were also rumors in South Korea that Hwang Pyong So, director of the 
General Political Bureau of the Korean Peoples' Army, had been knocked off at 
the end of last year after three weeks passed without him putting in an 
appearance. Then he showed up next to Kim during a trip to a tree nursery 
operated by the army (yes, in North Korea trees are a military issue.)

Further obscuring the truth about Ri, the elderly general had appeared on state 
television in recent days, alongside Kim Jong Un, an unlikely occurrence if Ri 
had in fact been executed. Those who've been put to death are usually edited 
out of official news broadcasts.

Ri, who has (or had) held a number of top military positions, was ranked number 
76 on the national funeral committee formed after Kim Jong Il's death in 
December 2011, according to Michael Madden's biographical notes on his Web 
site, North Korea Leadership Watch.

In 2012, Ri delivered a speech at a Korean People's Army rally commemorating 
the 1-year anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il, and the following year 
accompanied Kim Jong Un on several field inspections.

He was appointed Chief of the General Staff in August 2013, according to 
Madden. But he did not appear during footage broadcast this week of Kim 
celebrating North Korea's latest long-range rocket launch.

What is clear is that the Pyongyang regime is in a state of upheaval ahead of 
the Congress of the Korean Workers' Party, scheduled for May.

It would be the 1st time such a shin-dig has been held in 36 years, and many of 
Kim's recent moves - including the nuclear test and rocket launch - are 
considered preparation for the Congress.

"The head of the party congress is going through the files of everybody in 
senior positions in the government, military or party very closely," Madden 
said. "This is where someone like Ri Yong Gil could possibly get in trouble. I 
think that's one of the reasons we've seen a lot of secondary personnel changes 
too."

What that means is that there is plenty more change in and brinksmanship from 
North Korea over the next 3 months, Madden said.

(source: Washington Post)






INDIA:

Decrying Afzal's Execution is not 'Anti-National'


An event at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi on February 9 on 
Mohammad Afzal Guru, the Kashmiri young man who was executed in Delhi's Tihar 
Jail precisely 3 years ago on February 9, 2013, found 2 groups of students 
clashing with each other leading to the police being deployed on the campus to 
restore order.

The incident occurred at the end of a cultural evening organised by some 
students (to mark Afzal's 3rd death anniversary) at the Sabarmati Dhaba against 
the execution of both Afzal and Kashmiri separatist leader Maqbool Bhat and for 
Kashmir's "right to self-determination". Afzal, as is well known, was executed 
after a long drawn judicial process (he was on the death row for nearly a 
decade) having been charged with organising the 2001 Parliament attack case.

This event triggered a major controversy in the electronic media in particular 
with one TV anchorperson loudly accusing the students who held the cultural 
evening as "anti-national" parroting the BJP view on the subject since members 
of the BJP's students wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, had clashed 
with those students hurling the same accusation against the latter.

One does not have to subscribe to the views of Afzal or for that matter other 
Kashmiri leaders, a large number of whom are alienated from India in the 
Valley, to understand the reasons for their alienation.

One person who had been directly connected with Afzal as his lawyer was Nandita 
Haksar, the noted human rights activist and advocate. She was also the lawyer 
for Abdul Rehman Geelani, the Delhi University professor who too was implicated 
in the same Parliament attack case. Geelani was subsequently released the court 
having been unable to find strong evidence of his involvment in the attack. 
Nandita's book, The Many Facess of Kashmiri Nationalism: From the Cold War to 
the Present Day, has recently been published. In that she brings out her 
position quite clearly. She writes: "I had ensured that our campaign for his 
(Geelani's) acquittal had been in the language of Indian nationalism. The 
slogan I had come up with was: 'Defend Geelani, defend Indian democracy'.... I 
believed that to defend the corrupt police officers of the Special Cell who 
were trying to frame a Kashmiri Muslim would only undermine Indian democratic 
institutions, the media, the courts and the entire criminal justice system." 
She took the same position while trying to save Afzal from the gallows.

In the book she refers to a meeting held on September 24, 2005 at Srinagar in 
defence of Afzal, and points out:

"...that September day in 2005 all the leaders,... signed a joint statement:

'The judgement of the Supreme Court states that the attack on the Indian 
Parliament resulted in heavy casualties and has 'shaken the entire nation and 
the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital 
punishment is awarded to the offender.'

We, the people of Kashmir, ask why the collective conscience of Indians is not 
shaken by the fact that a Kashmiri has been sentenced to death without a fair 
trial, without a chance to represent himself? Throughout the trial at the 
Sessions Court Mohammad Afzal asked the judge to appoint a lawyer. He even 
named various lawyers but they all refused to represent him. Is it his fault 
that the Indian lawyers think that it is more patriotic to allow a Kashmiri to 
die rather than ensure he gets a fair trial?....

We resolve to launch a Kashmir-wide signature campaign in support of our demand 
that the death sentence of Afzal be commuted.

"It was clear that neither Afzal nor the Kashmiri leaders were claiming that 
Afzal was innocent. Afzal had never feigned innocence, which was why his story 
had such poignancy. In a letter sent from Jail No 2 on January 26, 2004, he had 
written:

The magnitude and gravity of my unknowing, unwilling and unintentional 
involvement in the Parliament attack case was from the beginning emotionalised 
and magnified by the police through all possible means due to my helplessness 
and ignorance and unability to manage the suitable legal aid and the police 
made me scapegoat so as to mask their unability and failure and to make people 
fool.

"In the trial court, Afzal had admitted that he had helped 1 of the 5 militants 
who attacked the Parliament buy a white Ambassador car for their mission. But 
he had not taken part in the actual attack and was not responsible for any 
death.

"Afzal never had a lawyer to represent him right through the trial or during 
the appeal. The court records show that key witnesses against him were never 
cross-examined. The reason for this was largely that he and his family were too 
poor to engage a lawyer and the Kashmiri organisations never bothered to help 
him at that stage.

"Could Afzal have been saved from the gallows? I believe he could have been. 
There were many sane voices in India who spole about the wisdom of not hanging 
Afzal. Even B. Raman, the former additional secretary in the Indian 
intelligence service's Researcha and Analysis Wing (RAW), had advised against 
the hanging of Afzal. The President of India had expressed his views that the 
death penalty should be banned in India and the president of the Congress 
Party, Sonia Gandhi, had intervened to save the woman convicted of being 
involved in her husband's assassination; Sonia was strongly against the death 
penalty."

Several democratic-minded people subsribe to the stand of Nandita while 
decrying Afzal's execution. Can all of them be branded anti-national?

(source: mainstreamweekly.com)

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

Dalits and Muslims: India's favourites for the death penalty


In October 1931, Gandhi said of Ambedkar that "he has every right to be bitter. 
That he does not break our heads is an act of self-restraint on his part." 
Meaning that given the background of the atrocities against him and his 
communities, Ambedkar was entitled to be harsh with his words.

I thought of that as another college protest has attracted the ruling party's 
anger. In Delhi, police have registered charges of sedition against students at 
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) over an event protesting the hanging of Afzal 
Guru.

Sedition is the "the crime of saying, writing, or doing something that 
encourages people to disobey their government".

The FIR was lodged by the BJP MP from East Delhi, Maheish Girri, who in a 
written complaint called the students "anti-constitutional and anti-national 
elements". Girri also wrote to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Human Resource 
Development Minister Smriti Irani, telling them "strict action should be taken 
against the offenders so that such shameful and anti-India activities are not 
repeated".

This is a repeat of the sequence in Hyderabad where the BJP acted strongly 
against students protesting the hanging of another man, Yakub Memon. That 
episode ended with the tragedy of one of the students hanging himself.

JNU, which says it had not approved the event, has set up a committee to 
inquire but again, the same problem of representation has arisen. The students' 
union says there is no member on it from marginalised communities.

There was a choice here for the BJP. Instead of throwing the book at the 
students, it could have shown some understanding of the issue, which is linked 
to caste directly. Why are dalits protesting against hangings in Hyderabad? Why 
is the focus on Muslims at JNU? Why are the students insisting on 
representation from marginalised communities when they are being judged by a 
committee? The fact is that India reserves the death penalty mostly for dalits 
and Muslims.

A study that will be published later this year by the National Law University 
shows that 75 % of all death sentences and 93.5 % of all death sentences for 
terrorism were given to dalits and Muslims. The obvious issue here is that of 
prejudice. The government shows no signs of acting strongly when upper-caste 
Hindus commit acts of terrorism, as the case of bombings in Malegaon shows. And 
there is no hurry to hang the killer of Beant Singh, while Rajiv Gandhi's 
killers have had their death sentences commuted. They had also been convicted 
of terrorism, but not all of us are judged by the same rules. Let us leave 
aside the others like Mayaben Kodnani, convicted of murdering 95 Gujaratis and 
not even in jail.

The 2nd issue is that of economics.

Dalit and Muslim are also synonyms for 'poor'. Afzal Guru got almost no legal 
representation in the trial court stage. Given the reality, it should not 
surprise us that dalits and Muslims and their supporters are protesting against 
the government. They have every right to and are justifiably upset. They are 
seen as out of control and unbalanced, but they are arguing on fact. It is the 
BJP MPs who keep shooting off letters to Smriti Irani, demanding firm action 
against those who are acting on emotion.

Those in the upper castes insist that all Indians must buy into their fantasies 
that they are a perfect society that everyone must bow to. Hindutva's 
constituency is middle class and upper caste. It detests the idea of 
reservations because it senses its privileges are being encroached upon. This 
is why the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh also does not like reservations and 
their statements on this have got the BJP into trouble during elections.

The prime minister's response to this has been to accuse the opposition of 
invention and lies. But the facts are absolutely clear on the ground. Dalits 
are getting a voice and are standing up for their rights. There is nothing 
wrong with that and if they use intemperate language, they should not be 
treated as criminals. It is important the Indian government engage them, and 
listen to their argument, not only their slogans.

Compare the wisdom of Gandhi we saw at the beginning to the knee-jerk actions 
of the leaders of Hindutva, first against the students in Hyderabad and now in 
Delhi.

Indians must show some mature understanding of the issues. As long as the 
government does not even attempt to do that, we should not be surprised that 
those whom we are oppressing so cruelly and relentlessly will say, write and do 
things that encourage people to disobey the government.

(source: Opinion, Aakar Patel, The Express Tribune)