[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 22



TURKEY:

Turkey rebuffs EU on death penalty, as Erdogan calls for 'new blood' in army


Turkey rebuffed the European Union on Friday over the death penalty, while 
President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to restructure the military and give it "fresh 
blood", signalling the scope of a shake-up yet to come under a state of 
emergency.

There is growing worry in the West about Turkey's widening crackdown against 
thousands of members of the security forces, judiciary, civil service and 
academia after last week's failed military coup. On Wednesday Erdogan announced 
a state of emergency, a move he said would allow the government to take swift 
action against coup plotters.

The possibility of Turkey bringing back capital punishment for the plotters of 
the attempted coup that killed more than 246 people and wounded more than 2,100 
has put further strain on Ankara's relationship with the EU, which it seeks to 
join.

Turkey outlawed capital punishment in 2004 as part of its bid to join the bloc 
and European officials have said backtracking on the death penalty would 
effectively put an end to the EU accession process. Erdogan says the death 
penalty may need to be brought back, citing the calls for it from crowds of 
supporters at rallies.

"People demand the death penalty and that demand will surely be assessed. We 
have to assess that demand from the standpoint on law, and not according to 
what the EU says," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told broadcaster CNN Turk.

His comments are likely to spark further unease in the West, where there is 
growing worry about instability and human rights in the country of 80 million, 
which plays an important part in the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State and 
in the European Union's efforts to stem the flow of refugees from Syria.

Erdogan accuses Fethullah Gulen, a charismatic U.S.-based cleric, of 
masterminding the plot against him, which crumbled early on Saturday. In a 
crackdown on Gulen's suspected followers, more than 60,000 soldiers, police, 
judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or placed 
under investigation.

Bozdag said that armed Gulen supporters had infiltrated the judiciary, 
universities and the media, as well as the armed forces.

Erdogan told Reuters late on Thursday he would restructure the military and 
give it "fresh blood", citing the threat of the Gulen movement, which he 
likened to a cancer.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States for years, has 
denied any role in the attempted putsch, and accused Erdogan of orchestrating 
the coup himself. Turkey wants the U.S. to extradite the cleric. Washington 
says Turkey must give clear evidence first.

SUPREME COUNCIL

Erdogan said the government's Supreme Military Council, which is chaired by the 
prime minister, and includes the defence minister and the chief of staff, would 
oversee the restructuring of the armed forces.

"They are all working together as to what might be done, and ... within a very 
short amount of time a new structure will be emerging. With this new structure, 
I believe the armed forces will get fresh blood," Erdogan said.

Speaking at his palace in Ankara, which was targeted during the coup attempt, 
he said a new putsch was possible but would not be easy because authorities 
were now more vigilant.

"It is very clear that there were significant gaps and deficiencies in our 
intelligence, there is no point trying to hide it or deny it," Erdogan told 
Reuters.

Erdogan also said there was no obstacle to extending the state of emergency 
beyond the initial three months - a comment likely to spark concern among 
critics already fearful about the pace of his crackdown. Emergency powers allow 
the government to take swift measures against supporters of the coup, in which 
more than 246 people were killed and over 2,000 wounded.

Emergency rule will also permit the president and cabinet to bypass parliament 
in enacting new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms as they deem 
necessary.

Germany called for the measure to end as quickly as possible. An international 
lawyers' group warned Turkey against using it to subvert the rule of law and 
human rights, pointing to allegations of torture and ill-treatment of people 
held in the mass roundup.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the reaction to the coup must 
not undermine fundamental rights.

"What we're seeing especially in the fields of universities, media, the 
judiciary, is unacceptable," she said of detentions and dismissals of judges, 
academics and journalists.

For some Turks, the state of emergency raised fears of a return to the days of 
martial law after a 1980 military coup, or the height of a Kurdish insurgency 
in the 1990s when much of the largely Kurdish southeast was under a state of 
emergency.

Opposition parties which stood with the authorities against the coup expressed 
concern that the state of emergency could concentrate too much power in the 
hands of Erdogan, whose rivals have long accused him of suppressing free 
speech.

Erdogan, an Islamist, has led Turkey as prime minister or president since 2003.

"We will continue the fight ... wherever they might be. These people have 
infiltrated the state organisation in this country and they rebelled against 
the state," he said, calling the actions of Friday night "inhuman" and 
"immoral".

Around 1/3 of Turkey's roughly 360 serving generals have been detained since 
the coup attempt, a senior official said, with 99 charged pending trial and 14 
more being held.

The Defence Ministry is investigating all military judges and prosecutors, and 
has suspended 262 of them, broadcaster NTV reported, while 900 police officers 
in the capital, Ankara, were also suspended on Wednesday. The purge also 
extended to civil servants in the environment and sports ministries.

The state of emergency went into effect after parliament formally approved the 
measure on Thursday.

(source: Reuters)






PHILIPPINES:

Philippine woman will not be in Indonesia's next round of executions


A woman from the Philippines convicted in Indonesia for drug smuggling and 
sentenced to death will not be among the first round of executions carried out 
when capital punishment is resumed after a lull, the attorney general said on 
Friday.

Indonesia imposed a moratorium on executions for 5 years before resuming them 
in 2013. It provoked international outrage in April last year with the 
execution of 8 drug traffickers, 7 of them foreigners.

After the outcry, authorities said they were postponing executions while the 
government focused on reviving he economy. But President Joko Widodo's 
administration has this year pledged to resume executions by firing squad.

A Philippine maid, Mary Jane Veloso, got a last-minute reprieve last year, 
following a request from Manila after an employment recruiter, whom Veloso had 
accused of planting drugs in her luggage, gave herself up to police in the 
Philippines.

"Not yet," Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo told reporters when asked about 
Veloso.

"We are still waiting on the legal process in the Philippines, which we have to 
respect."

Prasetyo has said 16 prisoners will be executed this year, including nationals 
from Nigeria and Zimbabwe, but has declined to give a specific time frame. That 
number will be more than doubled next year, he said.

Indonesia has declared a "drug emergency" and vowed no mercy for drug 
traffickers.

Authorities have not given a breakdown of the numbers of foreigners on death 
row but citizens of France, Britain and the Philippines are known to be among 
them.

(source: Today Online)