[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 11




THAILAND:

NRSA approves death penalty for corruption exceeding 1 billion baht worth of 
ill-gotten gains


The National Reform Steering Assembly unanimously endorsed by 155 votes with 7 
abstentions a report by its political reform panel which proposed stiffer 
penalties, including death, against corrupt politicians.

Mr Seri Suwanpanont, chair of the NRSA's political reform committee, clarified 
after the assembly meeting that corruption has been a serious problem that has 
undermined the country for a long time.

He claimed that his panel did not initiate the capital punishment but merely 
complied with the Criminal Code without any intention to hurt any particular 
group of people but merely intended to discourage people from getting involved 
in corruption.

Besides, he noted that only a handful of people who amassed more than 1 billion 
baht in ill-gotten gains from corrupt practices.

The report proposed varying degrees of punishments in accordance with the 
amount of money amassed from corruption: 5 years for amount less than 1 million 
baht; 10 years from amounts over 1 million baht up to 10 million baht; 20 years 
for amounts over 10 million baht up to 100 million baht; life imprisonment for 
amounts over 100 million baht up to 1 billion baht; and death penalty for 
amount exceeding 1 billion baht.

Seri defended that the report was meant to make it clear to political office 
holders of the consequences they would face if they are corrupt.

Mr Kasit Bhiromya, an assemblyman, rejected the death penalty, saying that as a 
Buddhist, he disagreed with the capital punishment.

The report will be fine-tuned before it is sent to the cabinet, the National 
Legislative Assembly, the Constitution Drafting Committee, the National 
Anti-Corruption Commission, the Constitutional Court, the Election Commission 
and the National Human Rights Commission for consideration.

(source: pattayamail.com)






PAKISTAN:

Pakistan sets execution date for mentally ill man----The United Nations has 
previously called on Pakistan to protect mentally ill inmates.


A Pakistani judge has issued a death warrant for a schizophrenic man, his 
lawyers said, months after the country's top court halted the execution of 
another mentally ill prisoner.

Khizar Hayat, a 55-year-old former police officer, was sentenced to death in 
2003 for shooting a colleague.

The United Nations has previously called on Pakistan to protect mentally ill 
inmates, singling out Hayat as having "psychosocial disabilities".

The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), which is managing his case, said Hayat's 
lawyer in September 2015 had challenged the execution in light of his mental 
illness.

Hayat was diagnosed by government doctors in 2008, when a de facto moratorium 
on the death penalty was in place.

But Lahore jail authorities pressed ahead with seeking the death warrant, which 
was granted by a sessions court, and the execution has been set for 17 January.

Another mentally-ill man, Imdad Ali, was given a last-minute reprieve from 
execution by the Supreme Court in October, which said it was "inappropriate" to 
hang someone in his condition. A final decision on his fate remains pending.

Sarah Belal, executive director of JPP, said:

"Expert medical opinion and Pakistan's international obligations makes Khizar's 
execution not only unlawful but also inhumane."

Knowingly hanging a mentally ill man would signal to the world that Pakistan 
does not uphold the fundamental rights of its citizens or abides by its 
international obligations.

Since lifting its moratorium on executions in December 2014, Pakistan has 
hanged some 420 prisoners, overtaking Saudi Arabia to become the world's 3rd 
largest executioner nation after China and Iran.

But according to a report by British charity Reprieve, 94% of Pakistan's 
executions have been for non-terrorism offences, despite the government's claim 
that capital punishment was reinstated to combat Islamist militancy.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






INDIA:

The love of hanging: There's one thing that India and Pakistan agree on


Last month, Pakistan joined India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives in 
rejecting a global moratorium on the death penalty at the UN.

Pakistan chose to vote against the recent resolution in the United Nations 
General Assembly that had called for a global moratorium on the death penalty 
and was adopted by the majority of member states.

The gist of this resolution has been adopted by the UN General Assembly every 2 
years since 2007. The resolution adopted on December 19, 2016, was backed by 
117 member states, while 40 voted against it and 31 abstained. As against the 
voting pattern in 2014, the new supporters of the moratorium call were Guinea, 
Malawi, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Swaziland.

South Asia maintained its fondness for the death penalty as Pakistan joined 
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Maldives in rejecting a universal 
moratorium, while Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka voted in favour.

Pakistani authorities have an aversion to any scrutiny of the rationale for 
retaining the death penalty.

Those who defend the death penalty as a principle enjoined by Islam may look at 
the division among the Muslim states (the category includes all members of the 
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, an association of 57 Islamic states).

How Muslim states voted

Those voting in favour of a moratorium included: Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, 
Benin, Bosnia Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Gabon, 
Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, 
Somalia, Suriname, Togo, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Those who abstained included: Bahrain, Cameroon, Comoros, Djibouti, Indonesia, 
Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and the United 
Arab Emirates.

The Muslim states that voted against the resolution were: Afghanistan, 
Bangladesh, Brunei, Egypt, Guyana, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, 
Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

We find that 24 of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's 57 member states 
voted in favour of the moratorium, while 13 abstained and only 18 voted 
against. In other words, Pakistan is in the minority group of 18 Organisation 
of Islamic Cooperation member countries that opposes the moratorium.

It is for Pakistan's government and its Islamic scholars to ponder as to why 
the majority of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation members do not find any 
faith-based bar to the acceptance of a moratorium on capital punishment. They 
may also consider the possibility that, as in the case of some international 
treaties, reservations expressed in the name of religion are in fact dictated 
by the culture or custom of the countries concerned.

What is more distressing for human rights activists, abolitionist groups and 
promoters of humanitarian laws in Pakistan is the authorities' aversion to any 
scrutiny of the rationale for their love of the death penalty regime.

What one hears of references to the death penalty during the Universal Periodic 
Review [a process in which the human rights records of all 193 UN member states 
are reviewed periodically] or at talks with the European Union on the GSP+ 
[Generalised Scheme of Preferences] status is not the result of any serious 
deliberation. Indeed, one doubts if any discussion on the subject has ever 
taken place in Pakistan. That there is an urgent need for such a discussion can 
easily be established.

The recent cases in which the Supreme Court acquitted 2 individuals who had 
already been executed, or ordered the release of persons who had spent long 
years on death row, have strengthened the call for abolition of the death 
penalty on the ground of high risk of miscarriage of justice. A number of other 
issues that have surfaced over the past many years also need to be addressed. 
These are:

-- The view that the death sentence is not a deterrent to crime has not been 
challenged nor has the view that hangings brutalise society.

-- The Qisas [retribution] law has prevented the Pakistan president from 
pardoning death convicts or commuting their sentence although his power to do 
so under Article 45 of the Constitution remains intact. How does one explain 
the fact that the Army chief can pardon a person awarded the death sentence by 
a military court while the president cannot do so?

-- The scholars agree that Islam prescribes the death penalty in only 2 
instances. How does the state of Pakistan defend the fact that capital 
punishment is prescribed for 27 offences in the name of religion?

-- The judiciary has pointed out the problems it faces in cases in which 
capital punishment is mandatory if the evidence on record warrants a lesser 
penalty.

-- The possibility of a minor or a mentally challenged person being executed 
keeps cropping up every now and then.

The case in India

One ventures to suggest a look at the Indian response to the issue of the death 
penalty in view of our shared legal tradition.

The Law Commission of India recommended in August 2015, vide its Report No 262, 
that "the death penalty be abolished for all crimes other than 
terrorism-related offences and waging war". The commission agreed to retain 
capital punishment for certain offences in view of a plea by parliamentarians 
that "abolition of death penalty for terrorism-related offences and waging war 
will affect national security", although in the commission's view "there is no 
valid penological justification for treating terrorism differently from other 
crimes".

The commission noted the significant steps taken during India's decades-long 
efforts to restrict the use of the death penalty: removal of the requirement of 
giving special reasons for awarding life imprisonment instead of death (1955); 
introduction of the requirement of imposing the death penalty (1973); and the 
Supreme Court's decision that the death penalty should be restricted to the 
rarest of rare cases (1980). The conclusion reached by the commission was:

"Informed also by the expanded and deepened contents and horizons of the right 
to life and strengthened due process requirements in the interactions between 
the state and the individual, prevailing standards of constitutional morality 
and human dignity, the commission feels that time has come for India to move 
towards abolition of the death penalty."

During the latest debate in the UN General Assembly, however, India again voted 
against the resolution calling for a moratorium although it could have shown 
some respect for the Law Commission's recommendation by abstaining. Which only 
goes to show that in developing countries state policies are often determined 
by authorities that are too timid to disturb the status quo or too proud of 
their conservatism to heed the counsel of experts who are conscious of the call 
of the age.

(source: scroll.in)

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

Couple awarded death penalty for killing Dalit woman


A Sessions Court here on Tuesday awarded the death sentence to a couple, 
holding them guilty of killing a Dalit woman after her brother eloped with 
their daughter.

After Viswanathan, a railway employee from Vannarpet in Palayamkottai eloped 
with Kaveri, a caste Hindu girl from Thatchanallur last May, the girl's father, 
P. Sankaranarayanan (48), is said to have visited Viswanathan's house on 
several occasions and threatened the youth's kin, demanding that they hand over 
his daughter. However, the family maintained that they were unaware of the 
couple's whereabouts.

Growing agitated over this, Sankaranarayanan and his wife Chellammal (42) went 
to Mr. Viswanathan's house on May 13 last year and picked-up a quarrel with his 
sister Kalpana (25), who was at home along with her 18-month-old son at the 
time. As the heated exchange got out of hand, Sankaranarayanan, in a fit of 
rage, hacked Kalpana to death and fled the spot. Later in the day, he was 
arrested along with his wife.

'A honour killing'

During the trial, B. Rajaprabhakaran, Special Public Prosecutor, cited 7 
verdicts of the Supreme Court and produced 17 prosecution witnesses to 
strengthen his case. Terming the murder as a honour killing, he prayed for 
capital punishment to be awarded to the accused.

Holding that the prosecution had proved the charges against the couple beyond 
reasonable doubt, the Second Additional Sessions and Special Court Judge, Abdul 
Khader, awarded the death sentence to Sankaranarayanan and Chellammal.

(source: The Hindu)






EGYPT:

Ibrahim Halawa vows to stay on hunger strike until he's released from Egyptian 
jail----Ibrahim was arrested in August 2013 after he attended a demonstration 
in Cairo supporting the Muslim Brotherhood


Ibrahim Halawa has vowed to stay on hunger strike until he is released from 
prison in Egypt, his sister has revealed.

The Irishman has been surviving on just milk and water for 15 days but his 
family are "very hopeful" a visit to the country by 8 TDs yesterday will 
finally lead to him returning home.

His sister Nasaybi said: "He has been on hunger strike before and we try every 
time to stop him from doing it by convincing him it is only going to harm his 
body.

"Sometimes he listens to my mother and father and he will stop but we got a 
message yesterday that this time he has said, 'I can't handle this any more so 
I'm not going to stop my hunger strike until I'm back home'.

The TD delegation led by Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail met with their 
Egyptian counterparts and discussed the case of the 21-year-old, who has been 
imprisoned for 40 months.

Nasaybi, 35, said the family are pleased by the multi-party approach as the 
Government strategy over 3 years "has not worked".

Ibrahim, from Firhouse, South Dublin, was arrested in August 2013 after he 
attended a demonstration in Cairo supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which had 
been ousted from power by the Egyptian military.

He is being tried alongside more than 490 others on charges which could 
ultimately see him face the death penalty.

However, the trial was postponed for the 17th time last month and has been 
rescheduled for next Tuesday.

Ibrahim's family claim he has been tortured, suffered electric shocks, 
beatings, been spat on and moved without their knowledge during his time in 
custody.

Nasaybi added her mother Amina Mostafa travelled to Egypt in recent weeks, 
while a family member is due to meet the multi-party delegation for an update 
on Ibrahim's case.

She said: "He was so upset because I had twin baby boys [Salaman and Ismil] at 
the beginning of December and they are getting bigger.

"Everybody's life is moving on and he is missing out. My daughter Aisha is 
nearly four and when he left she was only a few months old."

Speaking about the multi-party delegation, Nasaybi added: "We are very happy 
about that and we are very hopeful this will bring Ibrahim home.

"It doesn't matter how, we just want him home.

"We have been dealing with the Irish Government involving Ibrahim's case and we 
really find that has not worked so well, but we really hope because it's the 
parliament now that that will bring Ibrahim home.

"It's not only the Government's view now, it's not one group's view. It's 
different people from different groups so hopefully it's a parliament [view] 
and they are representing the people of Ireland and they should give them our 
voice.

"Hopefully they will bring something different than what the Government has 
been doing for us over three years. For me the Irish Government's strategy is 
not working.

"I hope the parliamentary group will be able to see the condition my brother is 
in as well. He is destroyed physically and mentally because of what he went 
through until now, it's terrible."

(source: Irish Mirror)






THE NETHERLANDS:

Dutch Protestant fundamentalists debate the reintroduction of death penalty


The Dutch Protestant Fundamentalist Party SGP is proposing the reintroduction 
of the death penalty.

Heading towards the March legislative elections the chairman of the 
Zwartewaterland branch of SGP told AD that party should include the death 
penalty in its March 2017 manifesto, making references to the Old Testament and 
"God's Sword." The same pledge was in the party's 2012 manifesto, although the 
national party spokesman said they would recommend against this position in the 
forthcoming legislative elections.

The debate and takes place in theological terms.

SGP promotes the idea of a theocratic state and has 3 MPs in the 150-seat Dutch 
Parliament. It gains most of its support from the so-called Dutch "bible belt" 
of deeply conservative constituencies from Zeeland to West-Betuwe and Veluwe. 
The central role of the Church in these tightly knit communities also means a 
socially conservative stand that goes against the liberal mainstream on many 
issues, including euthanasia, gay rights, abortion, and gender equality, The 
party traditionally is against the right of women to vote. Currently, SGP does 
not allow women to stand for office, although they can be members. In 2001, the 
United Nations declared that the Netherlands is discriminating against women 
for accepting SGP within its parliamentary ranks.

(source: neweurope.eu)