[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

October 17



VIETNAM:

Drug mule nabbed with 308 killos of tik faces death penalty in Vietnam



Police in northern Vietnam have arrested a Laotian man caught with more than 
300 kilograms of methamphetamine (commonly known as tik in South Africa) in one 
of the largest meth seizures ever recorded in the country, authorities 
announced on Tuesday.

Police arrested Xeng Vang, 23, in Quang Binh province's Le Thuy district on 
Saturday, one day after he fled from a traffic stop after attempting to bribe 
the officers who pulled him over for speeding, police said in a statement.

Upon inspecting the car, police found 308.6 kilograms of meth stored in 300 
nylon bags. It was the largest drug bust recorded in Quang Binh province, with 
an estimated street price for the drugs in the millions of dollars.

Although Xeng managed to escape into a forest along with 2 suspected Vietnamese 
accomplices, police tracked him down the next morning. He admitted to being 
paid 10 000 dollars to transport the drugs from Vietnam's Ha Tinh city to Da 
Nang. The other 2 suspects are still at large.

In Vietnam, those caught smuggling at least 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine 
face the death penalty.

(source: iol.co.za)








BANGLADESH:

Journo Farhad, wife killing: HC commutes death penalty of 2



The High Court (HC) commuted the death sentence on Tuesday of 2 convicts to 
life imprisonment over the killing of journalist Farhad Khan and his wife 
Rahima Khatun in the city in 2011.

An HC bench of Justices Md Ruhul Quddus and ASM Abdul Mobin passed the order 
after hearing petitions filed by the convicts and the death references.

The death penalty was commuted for Nazimuzzaman Yon and his friend Raju Ahmed.

Advocate Abdul Matin Khasru and Mansurul Haq Chowdhury stood for the convicts 
while Deputy Attorney General Moniruzzaman Rubel represented the state.

Farhad Khan, 60, senior sub-editor of the Dainik Janata, and his wife Rahima 
Khatun were killed at their Nayapaltan residence in the city on January 28, 
2011.

His younger brother Abdus Samad Khan filed a case with Paltan Police Station 
accusing unknown persons.

On October 10, 2012, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-3 sentenced Yon, Farhad's 
nephew, and Raju to death.

Later, the convicts filed separate petitions with the High Court challenging 
the lower court order.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)








AUSTRALIA:

Law Council backs Australia’s global death penalty abolition drive



The Law Council of Australia is supporting the Australian government's newly 
unveiled framework to abolish the death penalty around the world.

The "Strategy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty," launched by Senator 
Marise Payne, Australia's foreign minister, details practical steps that the 
country's ministers, parliamentarians, and diplomatic missions can follow to 
end death penalty worldwide.

"Australia's Strategy for Abolition of the Death Penalty sends a powerful 
message that Australia is committed to advocating for the abolition of the 
death penalty beyond our borders," said Arthur Moses SC, Law Council 
president-elect.

He said it is paramount that Australia steps up its opposition to the death 
penalty as the country is faced with the prospect of the execution of some of 
its citizens abroad.

"This is particularly pressing in our own region where some of our neighbours 
and allies continue to shoot and hang people convicted of crimes," he said. 
"Senator Payne is correct when she says the death penalty is an affront to 
human dignity. If you believe this, then it is your responsibility to advocate 
forcefully on a global level and this is exactly what Australia is doing."

He said that international progress is being made, with Malaysia saying last 
week that it will end the practice.

"The Law Council will continue to strongly and consistently argue that no 
person, anywhere in the world, should ever be subjected to the death penalty. 
The death penalty is a breach of the most fundamental human right: the right to 
life," he said. "We are extremely pleased that the Australian government is 
taking a strong position we can all be proud of."

(source: australasianlawyer.com.au)







MALAYSIA:

Unjust for death row prisoners to serve 30 years in jail, says MP



It is ridiculous for death row prisoners to serve another 30 years following 
the government's move to abolish the death penalty, a backbencher said.

Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh said these prisoners were already serving time 
in jail, for between five and 20 years, from the time they were arrested and 
convicted by the courts.

"It is totally unjustified to order them to serve another 30 years in prison. 
This is akin to natural life imprisonment," he told FMT.

Ramkarpal said this in response to the announcement by de facto law minister 
Liew Vui Keong in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday that death row inmates would serve 
30 years' life imprisonment under the proposed abolition of the death penalty.

"Their jail term will run from the date the Pardons Board commutes the death 
sentence to life imprisonment," he said.

There are 1,267 prisoners on death row, about 900 of whom were convicted of 
trafficking in dangerous drugs.

Ramkarpal, who is a lawyer and has appeared for accused persons charged with 
offences that carried the death penalty, said the changes in the law would be 
meaningless to death row prisoners.

"Those aged between 40 and 50 will die in prison as I understand the additional 
30-year jail term is mandatory and cannot be commuted."

Malaysian Bar president George Varughese said the cases of these condemned 
prisoners should be brought before the Federal Court for review.

"The bench can substitute the death penalty with a jail term after taking into 
account mitigating and aggravating factors," he said.

Varughese said for new cases before the court, judges should be given the 
discretion to impose a jail term of up to 30 years.

"All death sentences should not be automatically replaced with a minimum 
30-year life imprisonment," he said, adding that only then will the jail 
punishment meted out be just and effective.

(source: freemalaysiatoday.com)

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

Malaysian Bar: Don't automatically replace death sentences with life 
imprisonment



Death sentences should not automatically be replaced with life imprisonment or 
a minimum of 30 years’ jail after the death penalty is abolished, says the 
Malaysian Bar.

Its president George Varughese said the sentences of death row inmates should 
instead be commuted to sentences that are proportionate to the severity of the 
offences they had committed.

He also said various factors should be taken into consideration for each 
offender's case, including the offender's age, past criminal record, mental 
capacity, fear of another person, rehabilitation goals, degree of cooperation 
with the authorities and remorse shown by the offender.

"Only then will the punishment of imprisonment meted out be just and 
effective," he said in a statement on Tuesday (Oct 16).

His statement comes following comments by Minister in the Prime Minister's 
Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong that prisoners on death row would have to serve 
time for at least 30 years once the death penalty is abolished.

He said these prisoners would have their sentences commuted to "imprisonment 
for life" or "life imprisonment".

He added that "imprisonment for life" means that the convicts would serve the 
rest of their lives in prison without any release date whereas for "life 
imprisonment", convicts have to serve time for a minimum of 30 years.

(source: thestar.com. my)








PAKISTAN----execution

Pakistan executes Kasur child rapist and murderer----Execution of Zainab 
Ansari's assailant takes number of state-sanctioned killings to nearly 500 
since late 2014.

Pakistan has executed a man convicted of raping and murdering a six-year-old 
girl in the eastern district of Kasur, jail authorities and the girl's family 
have said.

Imran Ali was hanged at the Kot Lakhpat jail in the eastern city of Lahore 
early on Wednesday, jail officials told Al Jazeera. They spoke on condition of 
anonymity, as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Ali, 24, was executed in the presence of Muhammad Amin Ansari, the father of 
6-year-old Zainab Ansari, whose brutal rape and murder in January sparked a 
widescale manhunt.

"He walked by himself to the gallows and stood there comfortably," Muzammil 
Ansari, Zainab's cousin, told Al Jazeera by telephone.

"They put the noose around his head, he did not resist. He did not ask for any 
forgiveness from us."

Zainab's body was found in a rubbish heap in Kasur on January 9, sparking 
nationwide outrage and protests. In Kasur, riots broke out, police clashing 
with angry protesters demanding justice be done in the case.

Police arrested Ali two weeks later, after closed-circuit television footage 
showed Zainab being led down a narrow lane in her neighbourhood. Police said 
that DNA tests also linked Ali to at least 6 other cases of rape and murder.

In February, a trial court convicted Ali for the kidnapping and murder of 
Zainab, handing down a death sentence on 4 counts, including kidnapping, rape 
and murder.

He was later sentenced to death for the rape and murder of 4 other children in 
Kasur.

Public hanging request denied

On Tuesday, the Lahore High Court rejected an appeal by Muhammad Amin Ansari, 
the victim's father, for Ali to be hanged publicly, saying it was not the 
prerogative of the court to make that judgment.

The provincial government had denied an earlier, similar request by Ansari, as 
it did not conform to Pakistani law.

Ansari's family said they made the demand in order to deter potential 
criminals.

"To the parents of other daughters, I would say just this: this request we had 
made for a public hanging, the objective was so that the whole world could see 
it, and it would have a good effect," Zainab's father, Muhammad, told reporters 
gathered outside the jail shortly after the execution on Wednesday.

"But even now, given how much the electronic media has highlighted this, 
because of this families and children have all gained a lot of awareness and 
become a lot more conscious [...] about how they should bring them and take 
them to school and other places," Ansari added.

Muzammil Ansari, Zainab's cousin, said she was "not just our daughter, but a 
daughter of the nation."

Executed, then acquitted: Fair trial concerns plague Pakistan

"Our daughter's gone, she will never come back. But we wanted to save the other 
daughters of the nation, by creating fear in the hearts of those who do such 
horrible things," he added.

For years, Pakistan maintained a moratorium on executions, which it lifted in 
late 2014 after an attack on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar 
killed more than 130 schoolchildren.

Since then, the state has executed at least 497 people, with a death row 
population of more than 4,687. Rights groups say the use of the death penalty 
in Pakistan is problematic, given numerous fair trial concerns in an overloaded 
criminal justice system.

The eastern district of Kasur had earlier come to prominence in 2015 when 
police arrested a gang of paedophiles in the district. The gang had allegedly 
been involved in the sexually assaulting and filming more than 280 young boys.

Years later, family members of the abused children told Al Jazeera they are 
still awaiting justice.

(source: Al Jazeera)

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

Pakistan executes murderer and repeat child sex offender



Pakistan hanged Imran Ali on Wednesday morning, who was convicted of sexually 
abusing many minor girls in Kasur city located to south of Lahore, in the 
Pakistani province of Punjab.

Imran Ali was hanged in the presence of Superindtendent Kot Lakhpat Jail, 
Magistrate and medical officer, reported Geo News.

Tight security arrangements were made around Kot Lakhpat Jail before the 
execution of Imran Ali.

4 members of Imran's family, including his father and uncle, were present in 
jail to receive his body.

On June 12, Supreme Court Chief Justice Saqib Nisar had turned down his plea 
against death sentence in rape and murder case of 7-year-old Zainab Ansari.

(source: United News of India)

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

A Death Sentence Over a Cup of Water?----The case of Asia Bibi has become a 
symbol of ancient hatreds in Pakistan. The country's Supreme Court has the 
chance to put things to rights.



"To pardon or overturn the verdict against Asia Bibi, self-confessed blasphemer 
is the commission of blasphemy itself and is crime against Islam and the 
Constitution of Pakistan." So read a handout distributed by the hardline 
Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan in rallies all over Pakistan last 
week. The group threatened to paralyze the country with protests if the mother 
of 5a were to be exonerated by Pakistan’s Supreme Court, members of the group 
dispatching to all the major areas of the country.

Going by the laws of evidence and due process, Asia Bibi should be freed rather 
than put to death as ordered in 2010. Stemming from a dispute over a drinking 
cup, the case has huge evidentiary holes, violations of due process and factual 
fabrications. And as it has proceeded to the supreme court in Pakistan, it has 
become an emblem of how longstanding hatreds and vague laws have enabled 
minority persecution.

The story began in the small village of Katanwala, in an area known as Nankana 
Sahib, which stands 30 miles from the Pakistani city of Lahore. There, on the 
afternoon of June 14, 2009, 4 women working in the fields got into a terrible 
argument over a drinking cup. Asia Bibi, the only Christian among them, 
allegedly grabbed the communal cup and drank from it before the other 3 could 
do so. The others claimed she had "contaminated" the cup and that they should 
have been permitted to drink first. The argument escalated and more 
fieldworkers gathered. In an interview to BBC Newshour, Bibi’s daughter 
recounted how she ran to get her father. When they returned, however, Bibi had 
already been taken away. Within days a blasphemy case had been registered 
against her by the village cleric, who additionally claimed she had "confessed" 
to the crime.

The question of drinking order is a vestige of the Hindu caste system.

The question of drinking order is a vestige of the Hindu caste system that has 
lingered in the area even after most of the population converted to Islam over 
a hundred years ago. Christians, believed to be converts from the lowest 
classes of Hinduism, continue to be treated as untouchables in parts of 
Pakistan. For high caste Hindus, using the same utensils as someone from a 
lower caste represented contamination or impurity. It seems the women in the 
field with Asia Bibi on that ill-fated June day believed this as well.

The case seemed tailor-made for hardline parties looking to mobilize 
communities against religious minorities. Similar recent blasphemy cases have 
been brought against Shia Muslims and members of the Ahmediyya sects. The 
country is rapidly transitioning from a mostly rural to mostly urban milieu. 
With caste and status in flux, clinging to some imagined superiority based on 
religion can be an attractive prospect - even if it only confers the privilege 
of drinking from a cup before a Christian.

The blasphemy law itself has been criticized even by Islamic scholars, who have 
pointed to its vaguely worded text. But the law has become the signature issue 
of hardline groups who oppose any change they see as weakening the Islamic 
nature of the Pakistani state. Tehreek-e-Labbaik have deployed themselves as 
watchdogs and vigilantes, supposedly policing the country against blasphemers. 
In another incident several months ago, they staged a protracted sit-in at one 
of the major intersections in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital city, paralyzing 
traffic for months, because the government had surreptitiously removed the name 
of the Prophet Muhammad in the oath of office. The government capitulated, 
saying that the altered oath had been a "mistake."

The new government installed after the election this summer has also shown 
susceptibility to hardline Islamic pressure. A little over a month ago, Prime 
Minister Imran Khan removed Princeton economist Atif Mian from his Economic 
Advisory Council because the latter belongs to the Ahamdiyya sect, which does 
not believe that the chain of prophets ended with Muhammad. Mian's expertise in 
the area of debt and credit restructuring is sorely needed as Pakistan lobbies 
for an IMF bailout. But Khan, who already expressed his support for the 
blasphemy law as he wooed Islamists during his election campaign, removed Mian 
from his position.

With a public that has increasingly championed the death penalty and cheered 
its resumption following a seven-year moratorium that ended in 2015, and a 
Prime Minister beholden to the very people who want her dead, Asia Bibi can 
only rely on the Supreme Court itself. The lawyers and judges have all faced 
intimidation from the hardliners who are issuing threats, insisting that those 
who exonerate Asia Bibi will be blasphemers themselves. The three male justices 
deciding her case heard arguments from both sides on October 8, and while they 
seemed interested in the way the witness statements contradicted each other, 
and that the male cleric who had filed the case was not actually present when 
the altercation took place, there were few clues as to which way the court 
leaned. At the end of the proceedings, the court said it would "reserve" the 
verdict. Pakistani media were told to refrain from discussing the case, a 
directive most of have adhered to in recent days.

Aside from the threat of protests, a more sinister shadow hangs over the 
proceedings. 2 politicians - the former Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, and 
a Federal Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti - were gunned down in 2011 
for supporting Asia Bibi's innocence.

The Supreme Court has made bold rulings before, for example the one in 2017 
that ended Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s time in office - he was subsequently 
convicted of corruption. And there is genuine concern in Pakistan about the 
international reaction to putting a woman to death over a dispute centered on a 
drinking cup.

Asia Bibi's case may have begun as a macabre mélange of class, caste, and 
religious persecution, but it has quickly become a gendered narrative as well. 
Most if not all Tehreek-e-Labbaik members are men, as is Khadim Rizvi, its 
leader. Asia Bibi's case would represent the 1st case ever of a woman put to 
ever be executed. The power now lies in the hands of the all male bench of the 
Supreme Court that heard her case, as the 2 male lawyers presented their 
arguments.

The country's Supreme Court has shown it can stand up to politicians. Now is 
its chance to show it can stand up to the mob, and the deeply ingrained 
prejudices mobilizing it. At the heart of the case is, quite simply, a woman - 
and a large number of people who want her dead.

(source: Rafia Zakaria is an attorney, a political philosopher and the author 
of The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan----The New Republic)








IRAN----execution

Man Hanged at Ferdows County Prison



A prisoner was executed at Ferdows County Prison on murder and armed robbery 
charges last Sunday.

According to HRANA, on Sunday, October 14, a prisoner named Ayyub Jahandar, 28, 
from Torbat Heydariye city, was hanged at Ferdows County prison.

According to the prisoner's relatives, "Mr Jahandar was accused of murdering a 
person during an armed robbery that happened six years ago. His brother also 
convicted to 15 years of imprisonment for assisting Ayyub in the robbery."

Ferdows County is a county in the north of South Khorasan Province in Iran. 
Around 300 prisoners are held in the county's prison.

The Iranian media outlets have not published news related to the aforementioned 
execution so far.

(source: Iran Human Rights)








ZIMBABWE:

81 Death Row Inmates Await Execution



Zimbabwe Prisons says it has in its custody, a total of 81 death row inmates 
with some now having been on the list for more than 10 years.

The inmates live in the anguish of not knowing when they will finally be 
executed after government has failed to find a hangman since the retirement of 
the last one 2006.

The last execution in Zimbabwe was done in 2005.

Last year the Justice Ministry advertised for the post, later telling the media 
it had received some 50 applications but up to now no one has been appointed.

In an interview, Prisons Deputy Commissioner Human Resources Fadzayi Mupure 
said death row inmates live under the same conditions as those of other 
inmates.

"We need to appreciate from the onset that the death penalty, although still 
used in many countries and even in Zimbabwe, lobbying for its abolition in the 
international law has risen to high levels," Mupure said.

"The fact that we have a death penalty as provided for in Section 48 of the 
Constitution, I however need to point out that Zimbabwe has set conditions for 
all the incarcerated persons such as the right to appeal."

Mupure went on to say that inmates are informed about their rights as soon as 
they are convicted and sentenced to death.

"Immediately after their sentence, the prisoners are informed aout their right 
to appeal against their sentence," she said.

"If their appeal is not successful, they are at liberty to seek pardon or 
moratorium by the President."

She however could not give figures over how many have pending appeal cases.

"... Let me add also that of the 81, two used to be women but I also still need 
to verify on that one," she said.

At least 16 inmates on the death row escaped the hangman's noose when President 
Emmerson Mnangagwa commuted their death sentences to life in jail early this 
year.

Some of them who have been on the death row for more than 10 years also had 
their sentences reduced to life imprisonment.

According to the country's constitution, the death sentence cannot be imposed 
on women, persons who are aged less than 21 or older than 70 years.

(source: allafrica.com)








UNITED KINGDOM:

Sajid Javid accused of abandoning moral stand on death penalty



The Home Secretary has been accused of abandoning the UK's moral and legal 
stand against the death penalty by handing over evidence to the United States 
on 2 alleged Isis terrorists. The accusation's been made by Ben Emmerson QC, a 
sitting Judge, who's called for an inquiry into Sajid Javid's decision to hand 
over evidence without assurances that the 2 men will not receive the death 
penalty.

(source: channel14.com)