[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 21




EGYPT:

Cancel Alexandria Death Penalty----Risk of Imminent Execution After Flawed 
Trial


Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi should cancel a death sentence 
confirmed by the country's highest appeals court on April 25, 2017, Human 
Rights Watch said today. The sentence followed a trial that violated the 
defendant's due process rights. If carried out, it would be the 9th execution 
related to an incident of political violence since the military removed the 
former president in 2013.

An Alexandria criminal court originally sentenced Fadl al-Mawla, an employee of 
the Engineers' Club in Alexandria and a preacher affiliated with the Muslim 
Brotherhood, to death in 2016 in connection with the killing of a taxi driver 
during a protest 3 years earlier. During the trial, the court denied defense 
lawyers' requests to hear exonerating testimony from witnesses.

"Egypt's justice system remains highly politicized, characterized by rampant 
due process violations," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human 
Rights Watch. "The last thing the authorities should be doing in this period of 
extreme political polarization is to put people to death following unfair 
trials."

Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch called on Egyptian authorities to place a 
moratorium on the death penalty in view of the sharp rise in the number of 
death sentences, turbulent political upheaval, and failure to pass a 
comprehensive transitional justice law in Egypt since the military removed 
former President Mohamed Morsy in 2013.

The case stemmed from an August 15, 2013, march in Alexandria organized by the 
Muslim Brotherhood to protest the brutal dispersals of mass sit-ins opposing 
the military's removal of Morsy the day before. The dispersals on August 14, 
2013, resulted in the deaths of at least 904 people at 2 protest sites in 
Cairo.

The Alexandria march blocked traffic on the seaside corniche road, and some of 
the protesters carried weapons, according pictures posted by residents on 
social media. Protesters clashed with the police and government supporters. By 
the end of the day, at least 7 people had been killed. At some point during the 
march, an altercation began between protesters and a taxi driver.

In a video filmed from a balcony, a yellow-and-black Alexandria taxi can be 
seen maneuvering quickly from one end of the crowd to the other. It accelerates 
through marchers, possibly hitting some, before it runs into the rear of 
another car and becomes stuck in traffic. Scores of marchers quickly swarm the 
taxi, and a sound resembling a gunshot is audible. The person filming the video 
says, "They shot him?" In another video that begins shortly after the apparent 
gunshot, the crowd of marchers can be seen attacking the taxi while the person 
filming screams, "They're killing him!" The videos do not clearly show the 
identities of those in the crowd.

In the hours after the march, police set up checkpoints and arrested more than 
a dozen alleged participants at locations around Alexandria, according to the 
verdict handed down in June 2016. Police arrested 12 men on Abu Qir Street in 
the Fleming neighborhood, allegedly confiscating a 9mm pistol, and 5 other men, 
including al-Mawla, on Army Road, in front of Alexandria's Engineers Club as 
"they tried to escape," the verdict stated.

Prosecutors alleged that al-Mawla beat the taxi driver, a Christian named Mina 
Raafat Aziz, and fatally shot him with a birdshot pistol to spread "sectarian 
strife" in the country. But problems with the state's case arose from the 
beginning.

The key witness, Aziz's passenger, a man named Amr Ahmed Ghanem, told an 
interviewer on video immediately following the incident that 2 "thugs" he 
recognized from his neighborhood killed Aziz. Later, he changed his story, 
telling prosecutors that al-Mawla stopped the taxi after seeing a cross hanging 
in Aziz's car, beat Aziz, and shot him with the pistol.

A defense lawyer told Human Rights Watch that the court allowed him to question 
Ghanem in court but did not address Ghanem's contradictions in the judgment.

The defense lawyer said that the court refused to let any defense witnesses 
testify, including a neighbor of al-Mawla who rode to work with him on the day 
of the march and an acquaintance of al-Mawla who was present during the attack 
on the taxi driver and said he did not see al-Mawla there.

Egypt's criminal procedure code gives judges the discretion to deny defense 
requests to call witnesses during trial if the defense has not submitted their 
testimony in advance or presented them for interrogation at the beginning of a 
trial. Al-Mawla's legal team had not done so. Egyptian defense lawyers involved 
in political cases like al-Mawla's often decline to present witnesses in 
advance out of fear that National Security agents will arrest or otherwise 
intimidate them.

The defense lawyer said that the defense team submitted footage captured by 
Engineers' Club security cameras showing security forces raiding the club and 
conducting arrests. A video posted by the club on YouTube showed the damage 
caused by the raid and included interviews with 2 witnesses. The lawyer also 
said that the defense submitted an official statement from the club saying that 
al-Mawla had been at his workplace during the protest. Police did not recover 
the birdshot pistol allegedly used to kill Aziz.

In its judgment, the court wrote that it had heard the defense arguments but 
was satisfied with the prosecution's evidence and did not need to hear from the 
defense witnesses.

Prosecutors used Egypt's colonial-era Assembly Law, passed in 1914, to charge 
all 17 defendants collectively with the killing of Aziz and 6 other people who 
they said had died during clashes between marchers and residents involving 
firearms, knives, and Molotov cocktails. The Assembly Law bans any gathering 
larger than 5 people that endangers "public peace" and allows courts to convict 
anyone who participated in the gathering for acts, including murder, committed 
by other participants. It is the subject of a lawsuit filed in administrative 
court by Egyptian human rights activists, who contend that parliament voted to 
repeal the law in 1928 and that it should no longer be in effect.

Prosecutors also charged the defendants with stealing Ghanem's property, 
destroying Aziz's car, endangering a public roadway, possessing unlicensed 
weapons, and belonging to a banned group.

In its ruling, the court stated that the evidence supported a verdict of 
"intentional murder" against al-Mawla, but not the other defendants, for 
allegedly shooting Aziz in the chest from a range of approximately one meter. 
The other defendants, the court stated, had committed the lesser crime of 
"wounding or beating until death," which implies unintentional murder.

The court sentenced al-Mawla to death. It sentenced a former Muslim Brotherhood 
official and member of parliament, al-Mohamedi Sayed Ahmed, to 15 years in 
prison, and the 14 other defendants to 5 years in prison.

In March and April, Human Rights Watch sent letters to 6 Egyptian institutions, 
including the presidency and Defense Ministry, expressing serious concerns 
about death sentences handed down in both military and regular courts. Human 
Rights Watch urged President al-Sisi and Defense Minister Sedki Sobhi not to 
approve any further death sentences. Egypt should move quickly toward 
abolishing the death penalty.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as a 
punishment that is not only unique in its cruelty and finality, but also 
inevitably and universally plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error. At 
least 10 other people currently face execution in connection with alleged 
political violence, 6 of them sentenced in a regular court and four in a 
military court, after appeals courts confirmed their death penalties earlier in 
June.

(source: Human Rights Watch)






INDIA:

Kerala HC sets aside death penalty in murder case


The Kerala High Court commuted the death penalty awarded to the convict in a 
2010 murder case to rigorous imprisonment for life. The court said the accused, 
Rasheed,35, hailing from Meenangadi in Wayanad, should not be released from 
prison till he completed the actual prison term of 40 years.

The case

According to the prosecution, Rasheed landed in Kochi to raise funds for going 
abroad as he was broke. On November 16, 2010, he approached a woman named 
Bindu, of Pachalam, seeking a room on the 3rd floor of her residence for rent. 
Rasheed murdered Bindu and stole her ornaments when she took him to the 3rd 
floor.

The court observed the facts and circumstances in the case clearly showed all 
the material prosecution witnesses had definitely put forward a consistent 
case.

"On applying the principles in the case of award of death penalty, We (the 
court) found this as not a fit case to be classified as the 'rarest of rare 
cases' warranting a death penalty," the court stated.

Counsel for the accused submitted a case within the category of rarest of rare 
cases only deserved the extreme punishment. According to him, the sentence and 
the fine imposed on the accused are extremely harsh and not commensurate to the 
socio-economic status of the accused.

Fine amount

The trial court had imposed a fine of `11,10,000 on the accused for various 
offences. The court observed it was paradoxical to impose such a huge amount as 
fine when the prosecution itself cited extreme poverty of the accused as a 
predominant motive for committing the crime. "Considering the allegations 
against the accused and over all circumstances brought out in evidence, the 
fine imposed on the accused is highly excessive and the default imprisonment is 
also unjustifiably long," the court said.

Quantum and severity of punishment, especially capital punishment, directly 
depend on the nature of the crime, brutality with which it was done, nature of 
the weapon used, the condition or situation of the victim, the manner in which 
it was committed, the societal impact of the crime, the antecedents of the 
offender and the like factors. In this case, the material aspects revealed from 
the prosecution evidence show the accused was in dire financial constraints and 
he was struggling to support a family. The prosecution has no case he is a 
hardcore criminal involved in any other offence. The young age of the accused 
is also a favourable factor.

The court held the prosecution succeeded in establishing beyond reasonable 
doubt the accused committed murder of Bindu after confining her in room on the 
2nd floor of her residential building with an intention to rob her gold 
ornaments.

(source: The New Indian Express)

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

Father gets death penalty for killing pregnant daughter


A father, who murdered his pregnant teenage daughter on the day of her delivery 
in 2013, as he was against her inter-caste marriage, was sentenced to death by 
Nashik's District and Sessions court on Monday, terming it the rarest of rare 
cases.

After the murder, Eknath Kisan Kumbharkar (47) is said to have stated that his 
daughter Pramila had disgraced him and so he had killed her.

The victim's mother stated that her husband was a good for nothing fellow, and 
demanded that he should be hanged.

It may be recalled that, Pramila had married Deepak Kamble, who belonged to a 
different caste, in 2012 in Saptashrungi temple. She was nine months pregnant 
and was due on 28 June 2013.

Kisan visited his daughter in Mahatmanagar in an autorickshaw and told her that 
her mother was ill and admitted to Savarkar Hospital. Hearing the news, 
Pramilla accompanied her father in the auto. When they reached Chopda Lawns, 
Eknath took out a nylon rope and strangled Pramilla.

The auto driver Pramod Mangal Ahire (35) tried to intervene but was unable to 
stop Eknath. But he informed the police and took the unconscious woman to 
Nashik Civil hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. The cops 
arrested Kisan and produced him in court the next day. He is a resident of More 
Mala, Hanumanwadi in Panchavati area. The police had also charged him under 
section 316.

(source: The Asian Age)






TAIWAN:

Prosecutors seeking death penalty for model's killing: The crime was 
premeditated, as the suspect lured the victim to a building under the pretext 
of a photography shoot, prosecutors said

The Taipei Shilin District Prosecutors' Office yesterday announced it is 
seeking the death penalty for Cheng Yu 23, who was charged with the rape and 
strangulation of a female model, surnamed Chen, at a building in Taipei's 
Nangang District in March.

Prosecutors completed nearly 4 months of investigations before arriving at 
yesterday's indictment.

Prosecutors dropped charges against Liang Ssu-hui, Cheng's girlfriend at the 
time.

Cheng had claimed that Liang took part in the crime.

Cheng was also charged with forgery and fraud as well as one one count of theft 
and one count of robbery.

Prosecutors allege he made purchases with her credit cards and used her mobile 
phone in an attempt to make it appear that Chen was still alive.

Cheng has previous convictions for sexual assault, fraud, forcible confinement 
and causing bodily harm, prosecutors said.

"Based on his criminal record, it has been determined that jail time has not 
had the desired effect of rehabilitation, and that Cheng has a low possibility 
of ever being rehabilitated. Cheng should be removed from society. Therefore we 
request the most severe penalty available for this crime," the office's Deputy 
Chief Prosecutor Chen Hsi-chu said.

Prosecutors said the murder was premeditated, adding that Cheng used the 
pretext of a commercial photography shoot and promised the victim payment to 
lure her to the building.

"Cheng raped the victim and killed her for his own sexual gratification then 
seized the victim's possessions," prosecutors said.

"After killing the victim, Cheng tried to cover up the crime by falsely 
accusing Liang of involvement, which misled the police and the judiciary in the 
course of the investigation," prosecutors said.

(source: Taipei Times)