[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 28



SINGAPORE:

Man to hang for 'brutal' murder of wife's ex-lover



A 58-year-old businessman was yesterday sentenced to the gallows for the 
"bloody and brutal" murder of his wife's former lover.

Chia Kee Chen was originally given life imprisonment by the High Court after 
being convicted of murder last year.

But a 3-judge Court of Appeal overturned the earlier decision and allowed an 
appeal by prosecutors for the death penalty.

The apex court said that Chia's actions had "exhibited such viciousness and 
such a blatant disregard for the life of the deceased, and are so grievous an 
affront to humanity and so abhorrent that the death penalty is the appropriate, 
indeed the only adequate, sentence".

The court noted that the death penalty, being the "final and terminal 
sentence", should be imposed only after "the most anxious consideration".

Chia abducted the victim, material analyst Dexmon Chua Yizhi, 37, near his Choa 
Chu Kang flat, forced him into the back of a van and severely assaulted him 
between Dec 28 and Dec 29 in 2013.

The Singaporean had an accomplice, Indonesian Febri Irwansyah Djatmiko, 35, who 
later fled the country.

A 2nd accomplice, Chua Leong Aik, 67, who drove the van, is serving a 5-year 
term.

The victim's body was later dumped in a military live firing area in Lim Chu 
Kang.

Explaining its reasons for imposing the death sentence, the court said Chia was 
the mastermind as he had wanted to exact revenge on the victim for carrying on 
an affair with his wife, who is 52 this year.

After Chia found out about the extramarital affair in November 2012, Mr Chua 
made police reports about Chia making threatening phone calls to him and 
stalking him.

Although the defence argued that Febri was the one who inflicted the blows, the 
court pointed out that he was doing so under Chia's directions.

"One who hires an assassin to kill another or who otherwise controls a killer 
cannot be less culpable than the one who does the killing," said Chief Justice 
Sundaresh Menon, who delivered the judgment.

The court added that Chia did not tell Febri to stop attacking the victim but 
joined in the assault. The court also said Chia showed a high degree of 
planning and premeditation.

He was familiar with the victim's movements, recruited accomplices, procured a 
van, and knew where to dump the body.

The attack on the victim was "undeniably vicious and brutal", said the court.

Almost every facial bone, from the victim's eye socket to the lower jaw, was 
fractured. Blood was found on the ceiling, rear door and side of the van.

The court also noted that after dumping the body and washing the van, Chia 
calmly left for Malaysia with his wife and daughters for a holiday, using the 
opportunity to take Febri out of Singapore.

Referring to Chua's police statements, the court said the picture that emerges 
was that Chia wanted the victim to suffer as much as possible.

"The only regret that Chia ever expressed was that the deceased had died before 
he could cause the deceased even more suffering."

(source: tnp.sg)








IRAN----executions

2 Prisoners Hanged in Karaj



2 prisoners were executed at Rajai Shahr Prison on murder charges.

According to a close source, on the morning of Wednesday, June 27, 2 prisoners 
were executed at Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj. The prisoners, charged with 
murder, were identified as Safa Ali Jalali from ward 1 and Majid Heydari from 
ward 7.

The prisoners were transferred to the solitary confinement in a group of 11. 8 
of them were able to ask for time from the plaintiffs and return to their cells 
and 1 of them, named Javad Darabi, is still held at the solitary confinement.

A close source told IHR, "Javad Darabi was transferred to the solitary 
confinement a week earlier by mistake. He will be executed next week. Now he 
has to stay in the solitary confinement until next week in this hot weather."

The execution of these prisoners has not been announced by the state-run media 
so far.

According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 
517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. There 
is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in 
issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and 
intent.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

Rights Group Outraged by Iran's Apparent Execution of Juvenile Offender



An international rights group said it had learned that Iran quietly executed a 
teenager for a crime he committed when he was 14 years old.

Amnesty International's London-based Iran researcher Raha Bahreini told VOA 
Persian her group heard from local sources that Abolfazl Chezani Sharahi was 
executed Wednesday at dawn in Qom prison, south of Tehran.

Sharahi had been sentenced to death in September 2014 for fatally stabbing a 
young man during a fight in December 2013, when Sharahi was 14. Bahreini said 
Iranian authorities transferred him to solitary confinement on Tuesday in 
preparation for his execution - the 5th such transfer since 2014.

"Sadly, this appalling development was not brought to the attention of domestic 
and international human rights groups until the early hours of Wednesday, and 
this allowed the judicial authorities to carry out his unlawful execution 
quietly and without attracting the public outcries that generally emerge when a 
juvenile offender is scheduled for execution in the country," Bahreini said.

There was no immediate confirmation of Sharahi's execution from Iranian state 
media.

Bahreini said Amnesty was outraged that Iranian authorities had not taken 
systematic steps to end what she called the "horrendous practice of executing 
juvenile offenders."

The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Iran ratified in 1993, 
prohibits the use of the death penalty, also known as capital punishment, for 
crimes committed by individuals younger than 18 years old.

Under Iran's penal code, the death penalty can be handed down to boys as young 
as 14 years and 6 months, or the equivalent of 15 lunar years - the age of 
adult criminal responsibility for males in Iran.

In February, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein 
issued a statement criticizing Iran for violating what he called the "absolute 
prohibition" on using the death penalty against juvenile offenders, saying it 
committed such violations "far more often than any other state."

(source: voanews.com)








CHINA:

In China the death penalty on the Playground drug dealers sentenced



In the city district of Haikou, about 300 people watched the death penalty of 2 
men convicted in the trade in narcotic substances. The spectators, among whom 
were children, watched as the accused were shot.

Media and human rights organizations raised the alarm because of the incident 
in the Chinese district of Haikou, where the local court were sentenced to 
death 2 drug dealers. The sentence was executed on the Playground of the city 
in front of about 300 people. Children and adults watched as the men shot. Some 
children were at the place of execution, together with their teacher of natural 
history. Their teacher thinks is right that minors face death sentenced, as 
this will help to "educate" and "scare" them.

This public execution is held in China as part of the government's fight the 
country's drug abuse and illicit trafficking in narcotic substances. One 
executed offender was 39 years, in 2015 he was accused of illegal sale of drugs 
defendant purchased in the mail. The 2nd defendant was 36 years old, he was 
accused of transporting and selling drugs in 2015.

(source: The Siver Telegram)








BARBADOS:

CCJ strikes down mandatory death penalty in Barbados



Judgments were delivered by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in a pair of 
unrelated death penalty cases from Barbados.

The cases, Jabari Sensimania Nervais v The Queen and Dwayne Omar Severin v The 
Queen, were consolidated because both appeals challenged the murder convictions 
of each of the men and the constitutionality of the mandatory death sentence 
for murder in Barbados.

The Court stated that a section of the Offences Against the Person Act was 
unconstitutional because it provided for a mandatory sentence of death. In 
addition, both men had their appeals against their convictions dismissed.

These are the last judgments that the Rt. Hon. Sir Dennis Byron will deliver as 
CCJ President as he will demit office on Tuesday, 4 July 2018.

Before examining the issues raised by the appeal, the CCJ considered the state 
of the mandatory death penalty in Barbados for murder and found that it was 
indisputable that the nation, through its actions, had acknowledged that it had 
an obligation to remove such mandatory sentence under section 2 of the Offences 
against the Person Act.

Barbados had also given undertakings to the CCJ and the Inter American Court of 
Human Rights to rectify the mandatory sentence which was reflected in the 
Barbados Privy Council's consistent commutation of the mandatory death penalty.

The CCJ held that section 11 of the Constitution, which gives the right to 
protection of the law, was enforceable.

The CCJ 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.

Mr. Justice Anderson disagreed with the majority's view and stated that the 
appeals should be allowed on the basis that the judicial monopoly on the power 
to sentence, which is protected by the separation of powers principle, is 
consistent with "ensuring respect for, and adherence to, the ongoing evolution 
in the protection of human rights'.

The CCJ ordered that the appellants be expeditiously brought before the Supreme 
Court for resentencing.

Mr. Nervais was convicted of the murder of Mr. Jason Barton and the mandatory 
sentence of death by hanging was imposed on him.

Mr. Barton was selling from a booth when an alarm was raised that caused him, 
and the people gathered around, to run away.

Gunshots were fired by a group of men and Mr. Barton was struck by a bullet and 
died. Later, Mr. Nervais was arrested and charged with Barton???s murder after 
he made oral statements and a written confession to a police officer.

The Court of Appeal in Barbados dismissed his appeal against conviction and 
affirmed his sentence.

Mr. Nervais raised a number of grounds of appeal before the CCJ including 
addressing the trial judge's alleged misstep in telling the jury that a 
witness' evidence corroborated the disputed written statement.

As his 2nd ground of appeal, Nervais contended that the learned trial judge 
usurped the fact-finding function of the jury because she determined a fact 
that was in issue, which undermined his alibi. However, in these, and 3 other 
grounds raised by Mr. Nervais, the Court was satisfied that the judge did not 
usurp the function of the jury, there was no error or misdirection, and the 
necessary procedures were followed by the police.

In the other case, Mr. Severin was convicted before a judge and jury for the 
murder of Mr. Virgil Barton in St. Phillip.

The prosecution relied heavily on the evidence of Mr. Barton's nephew, Mr. Judd 
Barton, who testified that he saw 2 men shoot at the deceased. Mr. Barton's 
nephew managed to escape but not before recognizing 1 of the shooters, whom he 
had seen on 2 previous occasions.

While investigating Mr. Judd Barton's suspicions, the police conducted a search 
of Mr. Severin's residence and found a Taurus semi-automatic gun along with 31 
9mm rounds in his bedroom. Forensic testing confirmed that 3 of 14 cartridges 
retrieved from the murder scene were fired from that gun.

In his appeal to the CCJ, Mr. Severin challenged the reliability of Mr. 
Barton's evidence, the fairness of the informal identification parade, and the 
instructions given by the judge to the jury at the trial.

After considering Mr. Barton's evidence, the CCJ expressed its satisfaction 
that the shooter's features would have been "fresh" in his mind. The CCJ 
determined that the judge placed a balanced case before the jury, although 
there was the view that the judge could have been clearer in his lengthy 
instructions to them.

The appeals were heard together on 25th January 2018 by the Bench of the CCJ 
comprising the Rt. Hon. Sir Dennis Byron, President of the CCJ, and the 
Honourable Messrs. Justices Saunders, Wit, Hayton, Anderson, Rajnauth-Lee and 
Barrow. The appellants were represented by Mr. Douglas L. Mendes SC, Mr. Andrew 
O. G. Pilgrim QC, Ms. Naomi J. E. Lynton and Ms. Kamisha Benjamin. The 
respondent was represented by Mr. Anthony L. Blackman, Deputy Director of 
Public Prosecutions (Acting); Ms. Krystal C. Delaney, Senior Crown Counsel and 
Mr. Neville Watson.

The full judgment of the Court, and a judgment summary, are available on the 
Court's website at www.ccj.org.

(source: stlucianewsonline.com)








INDIA:

Punjab adopts death penalty for rape of below-12 girls----Besides death penalty 
for rape of a girl under 12 years of age, the criminal law ordinance amended 
the Indian Penal Code to enhance minimum punishment for rape from the existing 
7 to 10 years



The Punjab cabinet on Wednesday decided to extend to the state 2 ordinances 
relating to cases involving rapes and fugitive economic offenders, as recently 
promulgated by the Union government.

The meeting approved republication of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 
2018 of the centre, to make the law on rape more stringent, in the Punjab 
gazette. Further, in consonance with the finance ministry's proposal of 
promulgating the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance 2018, the state cabinet 
gave its nod to republish the aforesaid ordinance in the official gazette of 
the state.

Besides death penalty for rape of a girl under 12 years of age, the criminal 
law ordinance amended the Indian Penal Code to provide for enhancement of 
minimum punishment for rape from the existing 7 to 10 years. The minimum 
punishment for the offence of rape of a girl child under 16 years of age has 
been fixed at life imprisonment, as against the earlier provision of 20 years.

The Code of Criminal Procedure has also been amended under the ordinance to 
ensure mandatory completion of investigation in rape cases within 2 months. 
Trial of rape cases is also required to be completed in 2 months, with a total 
limit of 6 months fixed for disposal of appeals in all rape cases. The 
provision of anticipatory bail to the person accused of rape or gangrape of a 
girl under 12 years or 16 years of age has also been done away. Further the 
high court or the court of sessions, before deciding the regular bail 
applications, will give notice of 15 days to the public prosecutor to appear 
for hearing of the application, where presence of a person authorised by victim 
shall be mandatory.

As far as the fugitive economic offenders are concerned, the ordinance empowers 
the authorities to attach and confiscate properties and assets of economic 
offenders, such as loan defaulters, who flee the country. The ordinance was 
promulgated by the Centre in the wake of the recent financial frauds, 
especially the Rs 13,000-crore loan scam wherein Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi 
fled the country.

(source: Hindustan Times)