[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 21




INDIA:

Supreme Court to hear contempt plea against Kanhaiya Kumar, SAR Gilani tomorrow


The plea alleged that by terming the execution as "judicial killing", Kumar and 
others have committed contempt of the court which had delivered the verdict.

The Supreme Court has agreed to a plea on Monday seeking contempt action 
against jailed JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, former DU lecturer SAR Gilani 
and few others on the ground that they allegedly termed the execution of Afzal 
Guru as "judicial killing".

A bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices R Banumathi and UU Lalit fixed 
the contempt plea for hearing on Monday when the plea alleged that by terming 
the execution as "judicial killing", Kumar and others have committed contempt 
of the court which had delivered the verdict.

The plea, filed by lawyer Vineet Dhanda, refers to the apex court verdict, 
pronounced on August 4, 2005 in the case, by which Guru was handed down death 
penalty for being part of the conspiracy in the attack on Parliament. "The 
so-called cultural event's pamphlets spoke about the judicial killing of Afzal 
Guru. The main topic of the 'cultural event' organised was judicial killing of 
Afzal Guru which outright tantamount to criminal contempt as the respondents 
are calling the judges of the apex court as killers who have been projected to 
have committed judicial killing of Afzal Guru," the plea said.

"Afzal and Yakub Memon were no martyrs as projected by the group of students of 
JNU. The Supreme Court has already passed a detailed judgement in both cases 
after giving due consideration as per law after going through the evidence," it 
further said.

Pamphlets were allegedly distributed during the "so- called" cultural event 
held at JNU on February 9 that termed death sentence to Guru and Maqbool Bhatt 
as "judicial killing", the plea said. The students, who organised the event, 
also used social media platforms and "tarnished" the image of Supreme Court, it 
alleged.

Besides Kanhaiya and Gilani, the plea has sought contempt action against Umar 
Khalid, Lenin Kumar, Anirban Bhattacharya, Shehla Rashid Shora and Ali Javed.

(source: dnaindia.com)






VATICAN CITY:

Pope calls for worldwide abolition of death penalty


Pope Francis on Sunday called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, 
saying the commandment "You shall not kill" was absolute and equally valid for 
the guilty as for the innocent.

Using some of his strongest words ever against capital punishment, he also 
called on Catholic politicians worldwide to make "a courageous and exemplary 
gesture" by seeking a moratorium on executions during the Church's current Holy 
Year, which ends in November.

"I appeal to the consciences of those who govern to reach an international 
consensus to abolish the death penalty," he told tens of thousands of people in 
St. Peter's Square.

"The commandment "You shall not kill," has absolute value and applies to both 
the innocent and the guilty," he told the crowd.

The 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church allowed the death penalty in extreme 
cases for centuries, but the position began to change under the late Pope John 
Paul, who died in 2005.

The pope added that there was now "a growing opposition to the death penalty 
even for the legitimate defense of society" because modern means existed to 
"efficiently repress crime without definitively denying the person who 
committed it the possibility of rehabilitating themselves."

Francis made the comments to throw his weight behind an international 
conference against the death penalty starting Monday in Rome and organized by 
the Sant'Egidio Community, a worldwide Catholic peace and justice group.

Francis, who has visited a number of jails since his election as pope nearly 3 
years ago - the latest in Mexico last week - also called for better prison 
conditions.

"All Christians and men of good will are called on to work not only for the 
abolition of the death penalty, but also to improve prison conditions so that 
they respect the human dignity of people who have been deprived of their 
freedom," he said.

In the past, the pope also denounced life imprisonment, calling it "a hidden 
death penalty" and saying that more should be done to try to rehabilitate even 
the most hardened of criminals.

(source: Reuters)

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

Pope tells Catholic politicians: Stop death penalty executions


Catholic politicians should not authorize any death penalty executions this 
year, Pope Francis said Sunday, as he renewed the Vatican's support for a 
worldwide end to capital punishment.

"Even criminals retain the inviolable right to life, a gift from God. I appeal 
to the consciences of rulers so that we may arrive at a global consensus for 
the abolishment of the death penalty," Francis said during his Sunday Angelus 
message.

"And I propose to those [rulers] who are Catholic to commit a courageous and 
exemplary act: do not execute anyone in this Holy Year of Mercy," the pontiff 
added.

Francis was referring to the Jubilee, an ongoing Catholic festival offering the 
faithful a general pardon for their sins. The pope has scheduled it to run from 
December 8, 2015 to November 20, 2016, and has dedicated it to the Christian 
ideal of mercy.

(source: Europe Online Magazine)






IRAN:

Photos: Meet the teenage girls on Iran's death row


Mahsa's story begins like any other teenager's story: She fell in love. The 
17-year-old Iranian hoped to marry the boy, but her father opposed the 
marriage. One day she got into an argument with her father over the romance, 
got angry, and killed him with a kitchen knife. Now, Mahsa's brothers are 
requesting the death penalty for her.

In Iran, the death penalty can be applied to minors, and in 2014, a United 
Nations report estimated that at least 160 juvenile offenders were on death row 
in the country. Today Mahsa is one of them, held in a detention center in 
Zibashahr, near Tehran, with other minors awaiting capital punishment.

Mahsa's portrait was taken by Sadegh Souri, a 30-year-old Iranian photographer 
who spent 4 years researching women and girls in his home country. With rare 
access to the Zibashahr prison, Souri's photos tells the stories of several 
young women between the ages of 12 and 18, convicted of crimes including armed 
robbery and drug trafficking.

"My main goal in this project was to understand how young girls could end up in 
jail in the first place," the prizewinning photographer tells Quartz. "I spent 
time talking to them, they were nice and kind."

According to a Jan. 25 report by Amnesty International, 73 juvenile offenders 
were executed in Iran between 2005 and 2015.

see:http://qz.com/615376/iran-women/

(source: qz.com)






OMAN:

'Highest punishment for drug trafficking is death sentence'


The highest punishment for anyone attempting to smuggle narcotic or 
psychotropic drugs into the sultanate is death penalty, according to the ROP.

"Article 43 of the amended law states that drug abusers can receive up to 3 
years imprisonment, a maximum fine of RO3,000 or death sentence," Col 
Abdulrahim bin Qasim al Farsi, Director General for Combating Narcotics and 
Psychotropic Substances in ROP, said.

He added, "Under Article 66, the court can order an expatriate convicted of 
drug related crimes, to be deported, besides cancellation of visa and 
employment in Oman."

Col Farsi said, "According to Article 64, any person concealing information on 
or access to the drugs' consignment from concerned authorities will be jailed 
between 6 months and 3 years and imposed a fine of minimum RO100 but not more 
than RO1,000."

As per amendments to the Law of Combating Drugs and Psychotropic Substances 
promulgated by Royal Decree 34/2015, drug abusers can avoid prosecution if they 
seek treatment at a rehabilitation centre, provided they are not caught 
red-handed and no criminal suit is already filed against them. Rehabilitation 
can either be sought by the addict or on the request of spouse or kin.

Col Farsi has also advised those getting medicines from abroad to keep 
prescription with them at all times to avoid legal consequences.

The ROP is also planning to conduct awareness campaigns against drug abuse 
across the sultanate. It will be also be organising de-addiction programmes.

(source: muscatdaily.com)






PAKISTAN:

ATC awards death sentence to narcotics smuggler


Anti Narcotics court Saturday awarded death sentence to narcotics smuggler and 
his co accused was awarded life imprisonment.

The hearing was held in the court of Chaudhry Anwar Ahmed Khan here. In his 
verdict Muhammad Shabbir was awarded death penalty and his co accused Muhammad 
Shafi was sentenced to life imprisonment while both the accused would have to 
pay Rs 2,00,000 fine each. Anti Narcotics Force ANF had arrested and recovered 
660 kg charas from their possession.

(source: The News)

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

Criminal injustice


In 2015, Pakistan executed at least 324 people. Only 2 more countries - China 
and Iran - executed more people over the past year, with Saudi Arabia following 
Pakistan closely to complete an ignoble quartet. The moratorium on capital 
punishment, in place in Pakistan between 2008 and 2014, was lifted after the 
Peshawar Army Public School (APS) massacre as the entire nation was whipped up 
in anger. The government of Nawaz Sharif had been trying to lift the moratorium 
ever since it came to power in 2013 but lacked the political will to either 
stand up to the pressures of the international community or risk the riposte of 
the terrorists. However, in the aftermath of the APS attack, it was relatively 
easy for the government to reinstate capital punishment, initially only for 
convicted militants and then later spreading its scope to include all convicted 
criminals. Lest anyone mistake this upturn in executions as a sign of 
Pakistan's anti-terrorist resolve, it should be pointed out that only 39 (10 %) 
of those executed had ties to a militant organisation. It is obvious that the 
justification of combating terrorism was a mere smokescreen, and that the 
sitting government's eagerness to restart executions was part of its regressive 
"tough on crime" image, which ignores ground realities and frequent 
miscarriages of justice in favour of gruesome spectacle. Unfortunately, the 
public's (arguably manufactured) bloodlust is still unrelenting, and this 
shameful revelation has been welcomed by many as evidence that the country is 
headed in the right direction.

Opposing the death penalty is possible on 2 grounds: the ethical and the 
practical. Since there is little stomach for the former school of thought in 
these quarters, it is useful to expand on the latter. It is baffling how the 
same police and courts of the country that are condemned ad nauseam for being 
corrupt, incompetent and heartless are suddenly entrusted to handle matters of 
life and death with full due diligence. It can be logically concluded, even 
without looking at the facts, that wrongful convictions would be a norm rather 
than exception, thereby making it likely that many innocent individuals can be 
(and are) wrongfully executed. But then if one looks at the details of people 
on death row, it is evident that the list is full of the most vulnerable people 
of our society: the extremely poor, the mentally ill, people convicted while 
still being juveniles, religious minorities - in other words people with no 
hope of gaining access to adequate counsel. The rich and the influential gain 
advantage of the lopsided Qisas laws and easily pay their way out of trouble. 
All in all, it is hard to see how reinstating capital punishment has made 
Pakistan a safer place, as the deterrence principle has also been 
quantitatively proved to be fallacious. There are no 2 ways about - there is no 
place for the death penalty in Pakistan without compromising on the principles 
of justice.

(source: Editorial, Daily Times)