[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 26



JAPAN----executions

Japan sends last 6 Aum death-row inmates to the gallows


The 6 remaining Aum Shinrikyo cult members on death row were executed Thursday 
morning, the Justice Ministry said, with all 13 of the cult members sentenced 
to death now having been hanged over the span of 3 weeks.

The executions followed the hanging of Shoko Asahara, the founder of the 
doomsday cult, and 6 former senior members of the group on July 6.

The 6 hung Thursday were Satoru Hashimoto, 51; Toru Toyoda, 50; Kenichi Hirose, 
54; Yasuo Hayashi (later named Yasuo Koike), 60; Masato Yokoyama, 54; and 
Kazuaki Okazaki (later named Kazuaki Miyamae), 57. Hayashi and Okazaki changed 
their surnames after they were imprisoned.

The 13 high-level Aum members were sentenced to death for committing crimes 
including those involving the cult's sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway 
system in 1995; another sarin attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in 1994; 
and the murder of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family in 1989.

It is rare for the government to execute this many death-row inmates over a 
short period of time. Until now, the shortest time span between executions 
since November 1998, when records of executions were made public, was 47 days.

Media outlets have speculated that the Justice Ministry wanted to close the 
curtain on the shocking crimes and dramatic events before the end of the Heisei 
Era, which began in 1989. The era is set to end next year as Emperor Akihito 
plans to abdicate on April 30.

The cult had attracted many young people, including those who were highly 
educated at top-level universities. Some followers were believed to have become 
disillusioned with the materialism seen amid the euphoria of the bubble economy 
in the 1980s.

The indiscriminate murders by Aum, in particular those in the Tokyo subway 
attack, deeply shocked the nation and are still remembered as key events that 
damaged a long-held sense of security felt by many in postwar Japan.

"The majority of the public believe that there is no other option than to 
execute those who have committed brutal crimes," said Justice Minister Yoko 
Kamikawa during a news conference in Tokyo.

Polls have long shown a majority of Japanese people support capital punishment.

Kamikawa declined to reveal if any of those executed Thursday had been calling 
for the reopening of their trials, as has been reported by some media outlets.

Aum Shinrikyo split into 3 smaller religious groups after the arrest of 
Asahara. Local residents living around those groups' facilities are worried, 
believing some of the followers still worship Asahara and the senior Aum 
members who were executed.

"The incidents that happened in the Heisei Era have finally ended. But for 
local residents, (their worries) won't end unless (successor groups) are 
disbanded," Hisashi Mizukami, 73, who heads a group of local citizens in Tokyo 
who live near the main office of Aleph, one of the successor groups, was quoted 
as saying by Kyodo News.

Human rights activists argue that those calling for retrial should not be 
executed unless all pending legal processes have been completed. The executions 
immediately drew condemnation from activists calling for the abolition of 
capital punishment.

Kamikawa said that the Justice Ministry does not believe that an execution 
should be delayed because an inmate is seeking a retrial.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has long called for the abolishment of 
the death penalty, arguing for lifetime imprisonment without parole instead.

JFBA Chairman Yutaro Kikuchi issued a statement on Thursday protesting 
Thursday's execution.

"Criminal punishment should not be given just as retaliation but for something 
helpful in preventing the recurrence of a crime, such as achieving the 
rehabilitation (of a criminal) into society," Kikuchi said.

Asahara founded the precursor of Aum Shinrikyo in 1986. Many members of the 
group were featured on TV shows numerous times in the 1990s to passionately 
defend the cult in public.

In March 1995, Aum Shinrikyo members released sarin gas inside subway cars 
during Tokyo's morning rush hour, killing 13 and injuring thousands. That was 
soon followed by a police raid and the arrest of Asahara at the cult's 
facilities in Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi Prefecture. The murders highlighted the 
dangerous nature of the cult, some of whose members would be willing to kill if 
ordered to by Asahara.

All the trials related to members of the cult were finalized in January this 
year, causing the media and the public to speculate that the death sentences 
would be carried out shortly.

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

Japanese justice minister's 16 execution orders the most since end of death 
penalty moratorium in 1993


With the hangings of 6 former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult 
Thursday, Yoko Kamikawa became the justice minister who has ordered the most 
executions, 16, since Japan lifted its 40-month moratorium on the death penalty 
in 1993.

13 of the 16 executed individuals were former members of the doomsday cult. Aum 
founder Shoko Asahara, who masterminded the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo 
subway system and other heinous crimes, and 6 others were hanged earlier this 
month.

Kamikawa ordered 1 execution during her yearlong stint as justice minister from 
October 2014. Since resuming the position in August last year, she has ordered 
2 executions in December and 13 this month. All of the orders were under the 
administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Japan implemented a moratorium on the death penalty between November 1989 and 
March 1993 due to increasing international pressure to abolish capital 
punishment. Justice Minister Masaharu Gotoda, during the administration of 
Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, lifted the moratorium and executions have taken 
place roughly every 6 months to a year since then.

Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura, a lawyer-turned-politician, did not greenlight 
any executions during his 11 months in office between October 2005 and 
September 2006 under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, citing his Buddhist 
beliefs.

His successor, Jinen Nagase, took the opposite approach and ordered executions 
for 10 death row inmates before he stepped down in August 2007. Nagase's 
successor Kunio Hatoyama further accelerated the pace of executions by carrying 
them out roughly every 2 months, sending 13 inmates to the gallows by the time 
he left office in August 2008. The Asahi Shimbun daily dubbed him the Grim 
Reaper.

When the Democratic Party of Japan came to power after defeating the Liberal 
Democratic Party in a 2009 general election, the pace of executions slowed. 9 
death row inmates were hanged by justice ministers of DPJ administrations up 
until the LDP retook power in 2012.

Keiko Chiba, the 1st justice minister under the DPJ administration and a lawyer 
who belonged to an anti-death penalty parliamentarian group before assuming the 
post, initially took a cautious stance on executions, but eventually ordered 
hangings of 2 inmates in July 2010. In an unusual move, she witnessed the 
executions and allowed members of the media to visit the execution chamber at 
the Tokyo Detention House the following month in a bid to stir public debate 
over the death penalty.

After the LDP came back to power in December 2012, justice ministers ordered 
executions periodically, with Sadakazu Tanigaki sending 11 inmates to the 
gallows, Mitsuhide Iwaki four and Katsutoshi Kaneda 3.

(source for both: The Japan Times)

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

Japan: 'unprecedented execution spree' continues as six more Aum cult members 
hanged


Japan's recent spate of executions will not make the country safer, said 
Amnesty International, in reaction to the executions of a further 6 members of 
the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo (Aum) this morning (Thursday 26 July).

July has now seen 13 people executed for their involvement in the deadly 1995 
sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, which killed 13 people and injured 
thousands more, as well as their involvement in other illegal activities. The 
last time Japan executed more than 10 people in a year was in 2008. It is also 
extremely rare for Japan to carry out 2 rounds of executions in the same month.

Hiroka Shoji, East Asia Researcher at Amnesty International, said:

"This unprecedented execution spree, which has seen 13 people killed in a 
matter of weeks, does not leave Japanese society any safer. The hangings fail 
to address why people were drawn to a charismatic guru with dangerous ideas.

"The taking of a life in retribution is never the answer. It is high time for 
the Japanese authorities to establish an immediate moratorium on all executions 
and promote an informed debate on the death penalty as first steps towards its 
abolition."

The 6 people executed in the early hours of Thursday morning were: Satoru 
Hashimoto, Yasuo Koike (Hayashi), Kenichi Hirose, Kazuaki Okazaki (Miyamae), 
Toru Toyota, Masato Yokoyama. Four of those hanged had requests for a retrial 
pending.

Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of 
the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender or the method used 
by the state to carry out the execution and has been campaigning for abolition 
of the death penalty for more than 40 years.

(source: Amnesty International)






INDIA:

A mother's long struggle to secure justice sends 2 killer cops to the gallows


The death penalty awarded to 2 policemen and smaller prison terms awarded to 3 
other cops by a Thiruvananthapuram CBI court for the custodial torture and 
death of a scrap dealer in 2005 made it to the front pages of most national 
dailies. 26-year-old Udayakumar was picked up in a case of theft against a 
friend and tortured by the police in an attempt to extract a confession that 
the Rs.4,000 found on him was stolen. It was his widowed mother Prabhavathi 
Amma, now 67, who fought the case with single-minded determination and secured 
a CBI probe which ultimately proved instrumental in nailing the policemen, 
something the departmental probe may not have achieved.

The Malayalam papers and the local editions of English dailies gave prominence 
to Prabhavathi Amma's uphill struggle and it is a rare story of human 
transcendence that needs to be told and retold. She instantly reminded me and 
many others of Professor Eachara Warrier, father of Rajan, an REC Calicut 
student who went missing after being taken into custody during the Emergency on 
suspicion of being a Naxalite. But with one difference. Professor Warrier was 
already a respected figure in society, had harboured the then chief minister of 
Kerala C Achutha Menon when he went into hiding during the ban on the Communist 
Party, and thus could claim a measure of political support though it did not 
count for much in saving Rajan or discovering his final resting place.

In contrast, Prabhavathi Amma was not educated, had few resources, would hardly 
step out of her house, and though living just at the outskirts had never even 
been to downtown Trivandrum. The legal struggle that ensued transformed this 
woman and soon she was making visits to faraway Kochi to attend proceedings at 
the high court, waiting at court verandahs and checking into local lodges when 
hearings continued longer.

On hearing the verdict the mother broke down and Malayala Manorama reports that 
she said, "My son, everything has been achieved." Another report in the paper 
talks abot Udayakumar doing odd jobs to earn a livelihood and once when digging 
a well he discovered an old Ganesha idol broken at the edges which he gifted to 
his aged mother. When Udayan was killed, the mother installed the deity in her 
courtyard in memory of her son and would pray there.

The paper also had another report which said the convicts sent a police officer 
to her to find out how she would fight the case and Prabhavathi Amma reportedly 
said she had no resources for the road ahead. This apparently made the accused 
police officers complacent but they had no way of knowing the resourcefulness 
and the strength that resides in those who appear weak and helpless.

Unfortunately, Prabhavathi Amma's story also reflects the weakness of our 
judicial system. Though the state is the prosecuting agency, time and again we 
see forceful interventions by the families of victims ensuring that justice is 
not derailed. This is why it has become incumbent upon courts to also hear the 
families of victims at every stage of the case to ascertain their satisfaction 
at the progress of the case and the conduct of the investigating officer and 
prosecutor.

(source: indiatimes.com)






KENYA:

DPP loses attempt to halt 98 death penalty petitions


The High Court has dismissed an attempt by the Director of Public Prosecutions 
to stop a petition by 98 death row inmates seeking to be freed. The inmates 
argue that they were convicted on the basis of a faulty law.

The petition follows a Supreme Court judgement last year that declared the 
Penal Code, on which basis capital offenders are condemned to death, is 
partially unconstitutional.

The Penal Code imposes a mandatory death penalty on offenders upon conviction.

Supreme Court judges ruled that contested sections of the Penal Code infringed 
on the judges' discretionary powers to rule on the basis of facts and evidence. 
And now, the 98 applicants want the High Court to order a review of their 
sentences, arguing their right to fair trial was infringed on.

In the wake of the judgement, the Attorney General created a task force to 
study its implications and make recommendations on the way forward.

The Supreme Court also advised Parliament and the Kenya Law Reform Commission 
to consider legal and constitutional reforms regarding the death penalty.

But the DPP opposed the petition, saying applicants should allow the task force 
to make its recommendations, including its interpretation of what would 
constitute a life term in jail. The DPP wanted all petitions filed after the 
December 14, 2017 Supreme Court judgement halted, pending the task force's 
report and interventions by Parliament.

However, the State lost the application after Justice Eric Ogola ruled the 
applicants were likely to face prejudice if it was sustained.

The judge said the 98 petitioners should not be hamstrung for long as this 
would infringe on their rights.

"Stopping the hearing of the petitions filed by the applicants will be wrong 
since no one is sure how long it will take the task force to interpret the 
death sentence," said Mr Ogola. He said the judge had the discretion to 
influence the kind of judgement to be issued.

He however directed that every petition be heard in the regions where the 
judgement was initially made.

"All petitions will proceed but every case should be heard from where the 
judgement was issued for easier access of court documents," said the judge.

"Judgements issued outside Mombasa should be filed and heard from where they 
emanated."

State counsel Alexander Jami wanted the cases stayed until the task force 
completed its work.

"These cases should have been stayed until an outcome of the legislative 
interventions and the task force," Mr Jami said.

The matter will be mentioned on October 4.

(source: standardmedia.co.ke)






ISRAEL:

No decision from security cabinet on death penalty for terrorists----Former 
brigadier-general Lior Akerman said that while the death penalty may serve a 
desire for vengeance, it will not deter attacks and will give the terrorists 
"international legitimization."


The security cabinet on Wednesday failed to reach a decision on whether to 
advance a bill calling for capital punishment for terrorists.

Yisrael Beytenu faction chairman Robert Ilatov, who sponsored the bill that 
passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset in January, said he was 
"disappointed" by the non-decision.

"We expect that an additional discussion will be held as soon as possible to 
finish the process and quickly complete the legislation," he said.

Prior to the security cabinet discussion, Liberman posted on Twitter that 
"finally the death penalty for terrorists will come for a decision."

"I am sure that my ministerial colleagues understand that we need all the means 
possible in the war on terrorism," Liberman wrote. "A terrorist who slaughters 
a family does not need to return home. There is no reason we should be more 
enlightened than the United States and Japan in the war on terrorism."

Both the US and Japan have capital punishment.

The Prime Minister's Office did not issue any statement about Wednesday's 
security cabinet meeting.

In January the Knesset voted 52-49 in a preliminary vote for a bill that would 
make it easier for the military courts to sentence terrorists to death. Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time he supported the death penalty for 
terrorists in "extreme cases."

Capital punishment was a central part of Yisrael Beytenu's plank in the 2015 
elections.

Nadav Argaman, the head of the Shin Beit (Israel Security Agency) reportedly 
told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense committee in December that he 
was opposed to the death penalty. In the past, some senior security officials 
have opposed the idea out of the fear that it would only spur more terrorism.

Lior Akerman, a former IDF brigadier-general who served as a division head in 
the Shin Bet, said on Kan Bet radio said that the death penalty would not deter 
terrorists.

"Those who set out to murder and carry out suicide attacks are going from the 
premise that they will not return alive," he said.

"They want 72 virgins [in heaven] and payments for their families, and they 
will get all that if they are given the death penalty. This will only increase 
their fame."

Akerman said that while the death penalty may serve a desire for vengeance, it 
will not deter attacks and will give the terrorists "international 
legitimization."

(source: Jerusalem Post)



SRI LANKA:

Govt to go ahead with death penalty directive


The Government is to forge ahead with the death penalty directive given by 
President Maithripala Sirisena even if it leads to the loss of GSP Plus, 
Co-cabinet spokesperson, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said this at a 
Cabinet press briefing.

He was responding to criticism levelled by the European Union and other 
countries over the Government's decision to enforce the death penalty for drug 
traffickers.

Speaking at the Cabinet press conference yesterday, the Minister clarified that 
the death penalty would be implemented on those who were already convicted on 
drug related offences and who continue to trade drugs while being behind bars.

"A list 19 such individuals drafted by the intelligence services have been 
forwarded to the Justice Ministry so that the government can carry out the 
death sentence," he said.The Minister stated that the President's directive is 
to mainly address the issues Sri Lanka is having with previously convicted drug 
traffickers who continue to engage in the trade.

According to reports, Investigations by Police Narcotics Bureau revealed some 
suspects arrested for the possession of heroin had been acting on the orders of 
an inmate at Welikada who is already serving a life sentence for drug related 
offences.

A concurrent investigation by the PNB over the arrest of another individual 
with 103 kg of heroin revealed that the suspect had been in touch with 8 prison 
officials. Referring to this incident, the Minister said these prison officers 
will be severely dealt with under the law for aiding drug traffickers.

(source: Times Online)

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

Executions and Article 11 of the Constitution


Recently, a large volume of writing has taken place discussing the merits and 
demerits of executing the death penalty imposed upon prisoners languishing in 
the country's jails for committing a variety of capital offences. When I read 
those comments my mind immediately went back to the note of resignation 
submitted by Her Majesty's executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, which he later had 
included as a preface to his Autobiography. In that note he wrote" I do not 
believe that anyone of the 400 executions I carried out has in any way acted as 
a deterrent against future acts of murder. Capital Punishment, in my view, 
achieved nothing except revenge".

Aside from any number of ethical, religious or such other reasons for decrying 
the execution of Capital penalties there is a Constitutional hurdle that one 
has to leap before legally, a noose is put around the neck of a human being, in 
Sri Lanka.

Article 11 of the Sri Lanka's 1978 Constitution reads: "No person shall be 
subjected to torture or to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment". 
Those very same words are found in Article 11 of the present South African 
Constitution.

In The State vs Makwanyanne and Another,reported at (1995)3 South African 
Reports at page 391, the two accused were convicted of the offence of Murder, 
under the South African Penal Code, by a Court sitting in the Province of 
Witwatersrand. At their conviction they were both sentenced to death. The 
sentencing judge wrote on the report that the murders they had committed were 
so gruesome that they do not deserve to be commuted. They both appealed to the 
South African Court of Appeal, but the hearing was held back until a 
constitutional issue as to the constitutional validity of capital punishment 
was determined, by the South African Constitutional Court. Learned counsel 
argued that Article 11, of the South African Constitution, which as pointed out 
earlier was identical with the same Article of our constitution, made capital 
punishment unconstitutional, it being "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment 
or punishment."

Last execution

As it is in the Sri Lanka Constitution, what constitutes "cruel, in-human or 
degrading conduct" has not been defined and that it was up to each court upon a 
case by case basis to determine, if and when that matter came before them. 
Therefore, the 1st question that required to be determined, before any 
executions takes place, is whether under Article 11 of the Sri Lanka 
constitution, capital punishment is constitutional? The last execution in Sri 
Lanka took place in 1976 which was 2 years prior to the promulgation of the 
1978 Constitution. There was no determination of the constitutional validity of 
the imposition of capital punishment, under Article 11.

Returning to Makwanyane, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, after 
examining a very large number of authorities held that Article 11 of their 
constitution made capital punishment, unconstitutional.

As for the present trend regarding the abolition of the death penalty, there is 
a large measure of material which learned counsel in several jurisdictions had 
utilized

The 1st question we have to seek answers from our Apex Court is whether under 
Article 11 of our own Constitution the imposition of capital punishment was 
valid under Article 11. Unless the answer to that question is first obtained 
any rush to put into effect a sentence of death may well change the nature and 
character of that act, from one of a judicial execution to one of an extra 
judicial act of murder. In such an event a large contingent of persons from the 
executioner, in the 1st degree, and other officers as participating in a 
criminal act may become liable under the Criminal Law and also under the Civil 
Law for the payment of compensation. Above all the degree of international 
criticism to which Sri Lanka may be targeted will not be a suitable proposition 
to face.

Decision of the Supreme Court

As for the present trend regarding the abolition of the death penalty, there is 
a large measure of material which learned counsel in several jurisdictions had 
utilized, and are available for our courts and our learned counsel to consider. 
In the Caribbean, the Bahamian and the Courts in other Islands have found 
against the retention of capital punishment. So have the courts in Africa: 
Uganda, Malawi and Kenya. In a seminal judgment delivered by the Privy Council 
in The Attorney General for Belize v Reyes [2002] 2 Appeal Cases 235, the Law 
Lords, after an extensive perusal of the available law found that sentences of 
death were unconstitutional where there is in any Constitution, as we have" a 
fundamental human right to life."

Therefore, it is important that a decision of the Supreme Court is first 
obtained, before the State rushes to execute convicts under sentences of death, 
for whatever offences they may have committed. The basic question therefore is, 
is capital punishment, in keeping with Article 11 of the Constitution? That 
question could be answered only by our Apex Court to which resort could be had 
by anyone of the 19 persons earmarked for execution, or some other interested 
party, or by His Excellency himself under Article 129 of the Constitution.

(source: Lakshman Marasinge; The writer is a Professor of Law from the 
University of Winsdor----Daily Mirror)






TRINIDAD:

Archbishop wants death penalty off the law books


Archbishop Jason Gordon says Trinidad and Tobago must do everything it can "to 
remove the death penalty off the books."

Speaking yesterday on the online programme Archbishop Speaks, Gordon said while 
many people will pour scorn on the idea and may express concern that the 
already high murder rate will go up more, "what people are not accepting as a 
truth is that the high murder rate will not be deterred by the death penalty."

Gordon said the last time he checked, "about 8 years ago, only 10 % of murders 
were being detected and ten per cent of the detected murders were being 
convicted, so that's 1 %, that is not a deterrent."

The Archbishop said the "real deterrent is a higher rate of detection and a 
higher rate of conviction." He argued that 60 % is detected and 60 % of the 
murders detected were convicted, then "we will have a real deterrent to stop 
people in their tracks and think."

Gordon is hoping the new Commissioner of Police will pay attention to 
increasing the detection rate.

The Archbishop later told the T&T Guardian that a meeting with the Attorney 
General and Government was on his agenda but said he said no time-lines yet. He 
said there was a Caribbean-wide movement to eliminate the death penalty.

Speaking on the issue during his live programme, Gordon said the Bishops of the 
Antilles Episcopal Conference (AEC) had done a pastoral on the death penalty 
"and we have asked all governments to remove the death penalty from the books. 
We believe human dignity is not annihilated because of anything that anyone 
does."

1 month ago, the CCJ ruled that Section 11 of the Barbados Constitution, which 
gives the right to protection of the law, was enforceable. It found that the 
mandatory death penalty breached that right as it deprived a court of the 
opportunity to exercise the quintessential judicial function of tailoring the 
punishment to fit the crime.

Prior to the ruling, if somebody was charged and convicted of murder it had to 
be a death sentence, but following the ruling "the judge has discretion and 
that is the 1st step out," the Archbishop said.

Gordon said, "What happened in Barbados was wonderful. It is no longer a 
mandatory sentence. That's amazing as a 1st step in taking it off the books."

(source: guardian.co.tt)






IRAQ----execution

Iraq executes Islamic State member who partook in Shingal massacre


An Iraqi Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced to death by hanging a member of 
the Islamic State (IS) who admitted to having taken part in the murder of 
Yezidis (Ezidis) in the Nineveh Province.

"The convicted man had confessed to the killing of many civilian men and women 
in the Sinjar (Shingal) district as well as fighting against the security and 
military forces in Mosul," the Iraqi Higher Judicial Council's spokesperson, 
Judge Abdul-Sattar Birqdar, said in a statement.

In IS' August 2014 invasion of the predominantly Ezidi-inhabited town of 
Shingal, over 15,000 people were killed or abducted, and nearly 50,000 
displaced from their homes.

Though it has been years since IS' ouster, a severe lack of essential services, 
stability, and government efforts to revitalize the region have kept its 
population from returning to their homes.

"The 2nd body in the Nineveh Criminal Court sentenced to death" the IS member 
"who was known as al-Muhajir," Birqdar noted.

At the end of June, based upon the directive of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, 
the government executed12 convicted terrorists in response to IS' abduction, 
murder, mutilation, and later dumping of Iraqi self-described security forces.

A week before Baghdad's action, IS released a video showing the abducted 
security personnel and gave the government a 6-day deadline to release female 
prisoners affiliated with the organization.

Last month, Brigadier-General Yahya Rasool, a spokesperson for the Iraqi army's 
Joint Operations Command (JOC), said he had seen the IS video, released on June 
23, and claimed authorities were working on finding the location of the 
hostages.

In the end, Baghdad's promised efforts failed as the bodies of the abductees 
were found on the road connecting Kirkuk to the capital.

According to Iraq's counterterrorism law, aiding or membership in the extremist 
group carries the penalty of life in prison or death.

"The court issued its decision to hang to death the accused under the 
provisions of Article 4/1 of [Iraq's] anti-terrorism law," spokesperson Birqdar 
concluded.

(source: kurdistan24.net)

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

IS leader captured, another sentenced to death in Iraq


Iraqi security forces captured Wednesday a local leader of extremist Islamic 
State (IS) group in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, while an Iraqi court 
sentenced a prominent IS leader to death penalty.

Maj. Gen. Faisal al-Abadi, chief of Diyala's provincial police, told Xinhua 
that a joint force from police intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Service 
carried out an operation in Tabaj area in northeast of the provincial capital 
Baquba, some 65 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and captured an IS 
leader and 3 of his aides.

The leader is responsible for movement of IS militants and suicide bombers in 
Himreen mountainous area which stretches on the provincial border between 
Diyala and its northern neighbor Kirkuk, al-Abadi said.

The captured leader was "emir" of IS responsible for applying the law of the 
extremist group in the town of Hawijah, but he ran away after the Iraqi forces 
liberated the areas in west of Kirkuk in October last year.

Despite repeated military operations in the Diyala province, remnants of IS 
militants are still hiding in some rugged areas near the border with Iran, and 
in the sprawling areas extending from the western part of the province to 
Himreen mountain range.

Meanwhile, Nineveh Criminal Court in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh issued 
a verdict of death penalty for an IS leader, known as al-Muhajir.

He was sentenced for his role in slaughtering civilians in the town of Sinjar, 
some 120 km west of Mosul, and fighting against the Iraqi security forces 
during the battles to liberate IS major stronghold in Mosul in 2017, Abdul 
Sattar al-Biraqdar, spokesman for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, said in a 
statement.

In another statement, Biraqdar said the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad 
issued 2 verdicts of life imprisonment for 2 terrorists for joining IS group 
and involvement in terrorist acts against civilians and Iraqi security forces.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full 
liberation of Iraq from the IS extremist group.

(source: xinhuanet.com)






SUDAN:

Sudanese journalist could face death sentence for crimes against state----Wini 
Omer backed by activists as she says mounting list of charges against her 
amounts to a state attempt to stifle dissent


A Sudanese journalist and outspoken campaigner for women's rights could face 
the death penalty after allegations including prostitution and crimes against 
the state were made against her.

Wini Omer appeared before a public order court on Tuesday, where she faces 
charges of prostitution and violating public morals. At the hearing, she was 
told that she could also face further charges of spying against the government 
and communications against the state.

Omer and her supporters say she is being targeted because of her human rights 
work.

Omer told the Guardian: "It's an attempt to send a message to the other 
activists, to say: 'You should be mindful and careful and not to cross the 
boundaries, we are watching you. And by the law we can arrest you.' They are 
trying to make us behave."

Omer, a recent Mandela Washington fellow, was arrested in February after 
officers burst into a meeting between her, a woman and 2 men. She was detained 
for 5 days, her laptop was confiscated and she was later banned from leaving 
the country.

Almost any mixed social gathering is prohibited under Sudan's public order act, 
a wide-ranging piece of legislation that places restrictions on what women can 
do and wear. It is enforced by public order police and charges are heard in 
public order courts.

Omer was arrested in December for being indecently dressed while wearing a 
skirt, blouse and scarf. She was also accused of walking in an indecent manner. 
The case was later thrown out.

In 2016, more than 15,000 women were sentenced to flogging as a result of 
prosecutions brought under the public order, according to the No to Women's 
Oppression Initiative, a campaign group in Sudan.

Walaa Isam, a social activist in Sudan and friend of Omer, said the public 
order act is used arbitrarily against women. "[It is used] especially among 
very poor women, the women who sell tea on the street, beggars and migrant 
women. They take you to court and then you have to pay a fine, you are 
imprisoned and sometimes could be sentenced to flogging." Women's rights 
activists are also targeted, she added.

Allegations of crimes against the state have not been formally brought against 
Omer, but her lawyer, Ahmed Sibiar, said: "The National Intelligence and 
Security Service can use these accusations at any time and put them all in 
jail, including [Omer], for up to 7 months just for the interrogation."

Dr Ihsan Fagiri, who campaigns for No to Women's Oppression, said she and other 
women, including Omer's mother, were banned from attending Tuesday's hearing 
because only men were allowed in the courtroom. "They put these laws just to 
prevent women from going out and participating in public life," Fagiri said.

If found guilty, Omer could face the death penalty. Charges of prostitution 
could lead to a lengthy prison sentence.

Omer has written about human rights issues in Sudan, and recently campaigned on 
behalf of the teenager Noura Hussein, who was sentenced to death for killing 
her husband as he tried to rape her. The sentence against Hussein was 
eventually overturned in an appeals court.

Omer said the court proceedings were deliberately slow.

"In Wini's case, you have to ask who has reported her to the police? How come 
the police knew that she was working in that room together with male 
colleagues, and why were there so many police ready to break in and arrest 
her?" said Suad Abu Dayyeh, Middle East and North Africa expert for the women's 
rights organisation Equality Now. "Was she being observed by people who don't 
like the way she is working as a journalist, which is a very important job?"

The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in the Middle East and 
North Africa has called for the charges against Omer to be dropped.

It has also urged the Sudanese authorities to "cancel laws that are 
contradictory to the constitution and international and regional treaties and 
covenants".

Omer's arrest comes as the African Editors Forum warned of a wider crackdown on 
press freedom in Sudan. On Tuesday, the authorities confiscated print runs of 
the Al Jareeda newspaper for the 3rd day, after it reported on the country's 
bread and fuel shortages.

Press freedom is also threatened by new laws that would allow a statutory press 
council to ban a newspaper from publishing for 15 days without a court order.

(source: The Guardian)






UNITED KINGDOM:

Sajid Javid has betrayed our values by giving way on the death penalty----The 
home secretary's action undermines Britain's long-held position on capital 
punishment - and wider human rights


The UK abolished the death penalty over 50 years ago. Today, more than 3/4 of 
the world's countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, 
joining the ever-growing international consensus that the death penalty is a 
cruel and inhuman punishment that violates the right to life.

The UK's principled opposition to the death penalty paved the way for its firm 
position on capital punishment in its relations with other countries: a 
commitment "to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of 
principle". In practice, this means the government must not provide assistance 
in criminal proceedings where there is a chance that the death penalty might be 
imposed, without first seeking assurances from the prosecuting government that 
the punishment will not be sought. But it goes wider than this: abolition of 
the death penalty has been one of the UK's leading human rights foreign policy 
objectives for many years, reaffirmed last week by the Foreign Office at the 
launch of its annual human rights report.

The Foreign Office provides financial support to organisations working to 
reduce the use of the death penalty globally. The Death Penalty Project has 
been a beneficiary of such grants for many years: this support makes a real 
difference in moving countries where it still exists closer to abolition.

The UK was the 1st country to develop a global position on the abolition of the 
death penalty, and our approach has encouraged other nations to do the same. 
The UK's strong voice against the death penalty is particularly critical when 
you consider that many of the countries that retain the death penalty around 
the world inherited their death penalty laws from us.

That's why it was so troubling to find out earlier this week that the home 
secretary, Sajid Javid, had privately agreed to assist the US in the federal 
prosecution of 2 formerly British men without seeking assurances that they 
would not face the death penalty. The revelations have caused outrage across 
the political divide, as Javid appears to have abandoned the UK's longstanding 
and absolute opposition to the death penalty.

Javid's apparent concession that there may be some circumstances where the UK 
is willing to turn a blind eye to the use of capital punishment is deeply 
worrying. It makes a mockery of the UK's position elsewhere in the world, and 
undermines decades of diplomacy. We have moved overnight from a position of 
moral clarity to one of ambiguity and incoherence. This decision could lead to 
the government taking a step back on other human rights guarantees that are 
central to our values as a liberal democracy.

We believed the UK's opposition to the death penalty was grounded firmly in a 
belief in universal human rights and an understanding that the death penalty, 
in the government's own words, "undermines human dignity". In his letter, Javid 
said he was of the "view that there are strong reasons for not requiring a 
death penalty assurance in this specific case".

But the details of the case are irrelevant. The government's commitment must 
hold true in all circumstances, regardless of the nature of the offence in 
question. Any aberration from this position is not just a departure from a 
long-held and principled policy, but is damaging to human rights everywhere. 
This unprecedented action has huge implications, not only for our leadership on 
the international stage, but also for any individuals, British or otherwise, 
who may be facing the death penalty around the world.

(source: Parvais Jabbar is co-executive director of The Death Penalty Project, 
a legal action charity based at law firm Simons Muirhead and Burton----The 
Guardian)






TAIWAN:

Keeping death penalty undecided: new justice minister


Whether executions will continue to be carried out in Taiwan remains undecided, 
as no consensus has been reached, new Justice Minister Tsai Ching-hsiangsaid at 
a press conference Wednesday.

Tsai, who replaced Chiu Tai-san last week, reiterated that there is no 
timeframe for the issue.

The death penalty is to be gradually abolished in Taiwan, and that policy 
remains unchanged, Tsai said.

The Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutor's Office are extremely 
careful with handing down death sentences and follow strict procedures to 
review such cases, Tsai added.

As of June 2018, 43 criminals had been sentenced to death in Taiwan, according 
to the website of the Ministry of Justice.

Tsai declined to reveal his personal stance on the death penalty, saying only 
that whether execution should be an option should be considered in terms of the 
rule of law and public opinion.

(source: focustaiwan.tw)