[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 17



SAUDI ARABIA----execution

Saudi carries out first death sentence of 2017 ---- Kingdom puts prisoner to 
death for shooting dead another Saudi in 1st of year by one of world's most 
prolific executioners.


Saudi Arabia, one of the world's most prolific executioners, on Tuesday carried 
out its 1st death sentence of the year, after more than 150 in 2016.

Authorities put Mamdouh al Anzi to death following his conviction for shooting 
dead another Saudi in a dispute, the interior ministry said.

He was executed in Arar, a city near Iraq.

Beheading with a sword is the most common form of execution in the kingdom.

According to an AFP tally based on official announcements, Saudi Arabia 
executed 153 locals and foreigners last year under its Islamic legal code, down 
slightly from the previous year.

Rights group Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia carried out at least 158 
death sentences in 2015, coming 3rd after Iran and Pakistan.

Amnesty's figures do not include secretive China.

Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom 
but the government says the death penalty is a deterrent.

(source: middle-east-online.com)






UNITED KINGDOM/BAHRAIN:

3 executed in Bahrain - Boris Johnson's Bahrain response 'woefully inadequate'


International human rights organization Reprieve has criticised the response of 
the UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, to Bahrain's execution this morning of 
3 men.

The 3 men, Ali Al-Singace (21), Abbas Al-Samea (27) and Sami Mushaima (42), 
were executed by firing squad after being convicted on the basis of forced 
'confessions'.

A statement from the Foreign Secretary did not confirm whether the Government 
took steps to prevent the executions. The statement also did not address 
concerns, raised by Reprieve, over the risk of UK complicity in the executions 
and other abuses such as torture.

Mr Johnson said: "The UK is firmly opposed to the death penalty, and it is our 
longstanding position to oppose capital sentences in all circumstances. The 
Bahraini authorities are fully aware of our position and I have raised the 
issue with the Bahraini Government."

The UK Foreign Office has spent over 5 million pounds in aid money on reforming 
Bahrain's human rights record since protests swept the Gulf kingdom in 2011. 
Reprieve has gathered information that suggests the assistance programme failed 
to protect the 3 men from torture.

Documents obtained by Reprieve, and reported in the Observer today, reveal that 
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons helped plan inspections of custody 
facilities in Bahrain; including the police station where all 3 men were 
tortured. Their abuse continued after inspections took place. The 6-page 
inspection report failed to mention their allegations of torture.

The FCO has also funded a UK state-owned body, NI-CO, to train 2 oversight 
institutions in Bahrain, an Ombudsman and a Special Investigations Unit. Both 
bodies rejected Mr al-Samea's complaint about his torture, without conducting a 
proper investigation.

The 3 men are the first people executed in Bahrain since 2010, and the 1st 
Bahrainis executed since 1996.

There are now concerns about 2 other men on Bahrain's death row who are also at 
imminent risk of execution, Mohammed Ramadan and Husain Moosa. Both say they 
were tortured into providing false confessions at the same police station as 
the 3 men who were executed today.

Commenting, Maya Foa, a director of Reprieve, said:

"The UK is one of Bahrain's biggest backers - last year Boris Johnson's 
Department oversaw 2m pounds of support to the Kingdom's prisons and wider 
criminal justice system. Unfortunately, the Bahraini bodies trained by the UK 
repeatedly failed to properly investigate appalling torture allegations lodged 
by the men who were executed today. Given this fact - and the grave 
miscarriages of justice that have taken place today - the Foreign Secretary's 
statement is woefully inadequate. It fails even to confirm whether HMG had 
opposed the imminent executions during recent high level meetings with Bahraini 
officials.

"The Government should immediately suspend its involvement with Bahrain's 
criminal justice system and Ministry of Interior, and make clear to the 
Kingdom's leaders that the UK unequivocally condemns its actions."

(source: reprieve.org.uk)






PHILIPPINES:

Some Duterte allies also against death penalty: Lagman


Not everyone in President Rodrigo Duterte's camp is backing his proposal to 
revive the death penalty.

House opposition leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman today revealed some 
administration stalwarts are among those opposed to the death penalty bill, 
with as many as 50 lawmakers ready to debate the bill.

"The debates will be very extensive particularly from those who are going to 
interpellate. I think we can produce even 50 interpellators. Matagal yun pero 
you know the leadership can always find ways under the rules of the House to 
stop the lengthy interpellation but were going to oppose that," Lagman said.

Lagman named Duterte's own allies, Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles and PBA 
party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles, as among those opposing the bill.

"Yesterday Koko Nograles approached me and told me that he is against the 
reimposition of the death penalty and he has very good arguments why it should 
not be reimposed," he said.

Jericho Nograles confirmed this in a text to message.

"I am pro-admin. However, I am also pro-life. I cannot support the death 
penalty bill," he said.

Lagman said former president and now House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal is 
also opposed to the death penalty. Arroyo abolished the death penalty when she 
was president.

"She has made her announcement already that she is against the reimposition of 
the death penalty. It was former president Arroyo who signed the bill which 
became law abolishing the death penalty," he said.

Arroyo has said she remains steadfast against the death penalty but would not 
debate with the administration on the measure.

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat, another opposition leader, said the Makabayan bloc, 
which is also supportive of the Duterte administration, is opposed to the death 
penalty.

Baguilat added long debates can test the existence of a quorum during the 
plenary session.

ROUGH SAILING AHEAD

Lagman believes the bill faces rough sailing at the Senate.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, president of Duterte's PDP-Laban party, 
admitted on Monday that the upper chamber is divided on the issue.

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House Justice Committee 
which is tasked to handle the bill, said the Lower House will work on passing 
the bill regardless of the developments at the Senate.

Lagman said that, based on his experience fighting for the equally 
controversial reproductive health bill, debates for a single interpellator can 
drag on for weeks.

With some House lawmakers belonging to the supermajority showing opposition to 
the death penalty, Lagman urged the ruling PDP-Laban party and other major 
political parties to allow a conscience vote.

"If there would be a conscience vote then definitely it will not pass. But the 
Speaker wants a party vote which is a pressure vote so that is where some 
members of the House who are at present against the death penalty maybe 
pressured not anymore to attend the session in order to deny a negative vote," 
he said.

(source: abs-cbn.com)

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

Pimentel: Senators divided over death penalty revival


Senators are split over the proposed restoration of the death penalty, a 
"non-negotiable" issue for those who are opposing it, Senate President Aquilino 
"Koko" Pimentel III said on Monday.

Pimentel said he himself is against the revival of the capital punishment but 
he would keep an open mind just to show his support for President Rodrigo 
Duterte.

"It's split," he told reporters when asked about the senators' sentiments on 
the issue, which is now considered a priority measure in the House of 
Representatives. "What's good about the Senate is that for some, it's 
non-negotiable. You can't sway their stand against death penalty so it would be 
a very interesting discussion here in the Senate," he said.

The House was reportedly considering the passage of a measure, seeking the 
revival of the capital punishment, before the adjournment of the 1st regular 
session of the 17th Congress in June.

Pimentel said the House's target was "realistic," saying it would be enough 
time for the Senate to also come up with its own recommendation. "We have 41 
session days. I think that's good enough time for us to discuss the death 
penalty and also come up with a decision by June. I think that's a realistic 
timetable," he said.

The Senate leader said the Senate committee on justice chaired by Senator 
Richard Gordon has already started its deliberations on various bills on the 
revival of the death penalty.

(source: newsinfo.inquirer.net)






INDONESIA:

Veloso family visits Mary Jane in Indonesian jail on her birthday


With high hopes that their loved one would be freed soon and spared from 
execution, the family of Filipino drug convict Mary Jane Veloso paid a visit to 
her last week at the Wirongunan Lembaga prison in Jogjakarta, Indonesia to 
celebrate her 32nd birthday.

In a statement, Migrante International said Veloso's parents Cesar and Celia 
and her 2 children, Mark Daniel and Mark Darren, flew to Indonesia last 
Thursday for a 4-day visit coordinated by the group, the Department of Foreign 
Affairs, and Philippine Embassy officials. Mark Daniel was only 1 year old 
while Mark Darren was 3 months old when Mary Jane was arrested in 2010.

"It was a happy reunion for Mary Jane and her family who last saw each other in 
January 2016. The children clung to their mother making up for all the time 
that they were separated from their mother not wanting the moment to end," 
Migrante said.

"Mary Jane cheerfully shared her experiences and skills she learned in prison 
and will use these in the future to help her family. She professed her 
innocence from the charges against her, and that in her heart, she has already 
forgiven her recruiters but fervently wished that the recruiters will admit 
what they did to her.... She became emotional as the end of the visiting hours 
came nearer. The visit, cum birthday celebration, was capped by a simple 
lunch," it added.

Migrante said Mark Darren rendered a song for her mother, and Mary Jane also 
delivered a translated version of "Hatiku Perkaya" or "My Heart Believes" and 
the Philippine National Anthem. The visit ended at around 11:30 a.m. with a 
closing prayer.

"She (Mary Jane) was asked to read the gospel taken from John 15: 4-7, and gave 
a brief reflection. She said the message of the gospel reading gave her hope 
and inspiration. She also led in reciting the Lord's Prayer and the Rosary. 
While she still can converse in Filipino, she is now much fluent in Bahasa," 
the group said.

"As she bade goodbye to her family, she wished that she can soon enjoy their 
company outside the prison walls and without prison guards hovering around 
them. She longingly told her expectant children that she is praying hard for 
her to come home by December to celebrate Christmas with them," Migrante added.

Veloso was spared the firing squad in April 2015 after her alleged trafficker 
surfaced back home and admitted duping her into smuggling drugs.

In September last year, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said President Rodrigo 
Duterte gave the "go ahead" for Veloso's execution, during the Philippine 
leader's working visit to Jakarta. Duterte said he told Widodo that "we will 
respect the judgment of your courts," but added that "it would have been a bad 
taste in the mouth to be talking about having a strong posture against drugs, 
and here you are begging for something."

(source: globalnation.inquirer.net)






BANGLADESH:

Elite Bangladesh police among 26 sentenced to death for 2014 murders


A Bangladeshi court on Monday sentenced 26 people, including 16 members of the 
country's elite anti-terrorism force, to death, after a former member of the 
ruling Awami League party hired them to kill political rivals.

The ruling was the 1st time that members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) 
had been handed the death penalty, Shakhawat Hossain Khan, a lawyer for the 
victims, told reporters.

RAB commander Tarek Sayeed, son-in-law of a minister in Bangladesh Prime 
Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, was among those sentenced to hang for the 
abduction and murder of seven people in 2014 in the city of Narayanganj.

"We are happy with the verdict," Hossain said outside the court in Narayanganj, 
following a trial that shocked the nation of 160 million people.

Lawyers for the defendants said they would appeal the verdict in the high 
court.

International human rights groups have accused Bangladeshi security forces of 
carrying out extra-judicial killings, abductions and detentions of suspects 
without charge. RAB denies the allegations, saying it follows the law.

Opposition parties also say hundreds of their activists have disappeared during 
Hasina's 8-year rule. The government says it was not behind the disappearances, 
and denies that security forces were involved.

The court found all 35 defendants in the trial guilty of involvement in the 
murder of 7 people after they were kidnapped outside a cricket stadium in 
Narayanganj in April, 2014. 9 of the 35 were given prison sentences.

Witnesses reported seeing the victims being bundled into an unmarked van. The 
victims' bodies, their bellies slashed, were later found floating in a river.

According to the court, politician Nur Hossain, at the time a member of 
Hasina's Awami League, paid RAB members to kill a political rival and 4 of his 
aides.

A lawyer who filmed the abductions and his driver were also kidnapped and then 
killed.

23 of those convicted were in court, while 12 remain at large.

The bitter rift between the Awami League and mainly Islamist opposition in 
Bangladesh is widely seen as contributing to militant violence that has 
targeted foreigners, free thinkers and members of religious minorities.

The authorities lay most of the blame on local insurgents, although Islamic 
State and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for some of the deadly attacks 
carried out over the last 2 years.

(source: Reuters)