[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

September 26




GHANA:

Don't abolish death penalty - Prof. Mike Oquaye



Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Oquaye has kicked against calls for the 
scrapping of the death penalty in Ghana's statute books.

The death penalty has been in Ghana's statute books since the application of 
the English common law in 1874, but in practice, no execution has been recorded 
since July 1993, when then-President Jerry John Rawlings ordered the execution 
of some 12 convicts via a firing squad.

Human Rights groups, like Amnesty International for years, have been pushing 
for the expulsion of the death penalty from the country's statutes.

The call heaped on following the sentencing of three persons by a Tamale High 
Court to death by hanging in July for murder.

"It is rather unfortunate that Ghana, we are still handing down death penalties 
or death sentences to Ghanaians. I believe that this is something that we 
should put an end to," the Country Director of Amnesty International, Ghana 
Robert Akoto Marfo told Starr News' in July in a reaction to the Tamale High 
Court sentencing.

Prof Oquaye however, argued Tuesday in Parliament after the approval of 
President Akufo-Addo's nominees to the Supreme Court, that death penalty is a 
fallback measure for the nation in punishing heinous and horrendous crimes 
thus, it must be maintained.

"It is [a] very interesting matter when people talk about the right of the 
criminal. Supposed a psychopath sets out to go and kill people in the mosque on 
Friday, people in the church on Sunday, mows everybody down, [and] at the end 
of it, he says, I have got the right under the law not to be executed. It is 
ridiculous. He has got the right not to be executed, but he has the right to go 
and kill thousands of worshipers. So, the state must reserve for itself [the 
death penalty]. It's good that in Ghana we have not executed people for so long 
of the death penalty.

"But, I believe the State of Ghana must have it [death penalty] in its pocket 
reserved so that where necessary, the most heinous of crimes can still be 
subject to such executions. These are parameters that some of the Human Rights 
advocates don't seriously exam and we must be very mindful of them in the 
future," he stated.

(source: ghanaweb.com)

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

Parliament approves nominees to Supreme Court



Rev Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye, the Speaker of Parliament of Tuesday 
indicated his personal support for the death penalty as the House approved by 
consensus, the nomination of 4 persons by President Nana Akufo-Addo as justices 
to the Supreme Court of Ghana.

The approval followed the debate by Members on the Report of the Appointments 
Committee after the vetting of nominees-Prof Emmanuel Ashie Kotey, a former 
Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana; Nene Abayateye Ofoe 
Amegatcher, private legal practitioner and former President of the Ghana Bar 
Association; Justice Samuel Kofi Marful-Sau and Justice Agnes Mercy Abla 
Dordzie, both judges of the Appeal Court of Ghana.

The Speaker, in a comment, before the plenary responded with a resounding "aye" 
to approve the nominees, picked on the thorny issue of death penalty and 
indicated that the death penalty, although not used for a long time in Ghana 
should be maintained to serve as deterrent.

The issue of the death penalty had come up during the vetting, and the Speaker 
wondered if it were right for a person to continue to enjoy life, on the 
grounds of human rights, if he or she takes that of others in a shooting spree.

Rev Prof Oquaye cited an instance of a psychopath, who enters a mosque on a 
Friday or a church on Sunday and kills about a thousand people in each case and 
then he is allowed to go scot free on the grounds of human rights.

He asked the proponents of human rights, who would not support death penalty 
for such a person, if that person has the right to take the lives of others.

Rev Prof Oquaye registered his personal support for the death penalty to be 
maintained, as he put it "have it in our pocket to serve as deterrent to 
offenders."

First Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Appointments Committee Joseph Osei 
Owusu agreed with Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu that issues about the 
number of people to serve on the Supreme Court, whether to capped or increased 
should be directed to that office for interpretation.

The appointment of the Justices to the Supreme Court followed the retirement of 
some long-serving justices.

As at 2016, there were 14 Supreme Court judges, but at least 3 Supreme Court 
judges have retired or are expected to retire in a few years.

(source: Ghana News Agency)








EGYPT:

Egypt Court upholds death sentences, long prison terms for 135 over Kerdasa 
police killings



Egypt's Court of Cassation upheld the prison sentences and death penalty Monday 
handed to 135 people in the case of the deadly attack on a police station in 
the town of Kerdasa in 2013.

In July 2017, a criminal court sentenced 20 defendants to death, 80 defendants 
to life-in-prison (25 years in prison per Egyptian law), 34 to 15-year prison 
term and 1 juvenile to 10 years in juvenile prison.

The court had acquitted 21 other defendants in the case.

The attack on the Kerdasa police station, which saw 12 policemen and 2 
civilians killed and their bodies mutilated, followed the forced dispersal of 
sit-ins in support of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo in 
August 2013 that left hundreds dead and sparked nationwide unrest.

The case has been making its rounds in the court system since 2014, with a 
criminal court initially sentencing 188 defendants, some in absentia, to death.

(source: ahram.org.eg)








PAKISTAN:

SHC rejects plea against convict's death sentence

The Sindh High Court (SCH) on Tuesday rejected a plea against death sentence to 
a convict, Aijaz Nawaz, and upheld the verdict of the anti-terrorism court.

The anti-terrorism court had sentenced Aijaz Nawaz capital punishment. He had 
shot to death an engineer Muddasir Hayat over resistance. The suspect had tried 
to snatch the mobile phone from Muddasir on which he offered resistance.

Prosecutor Iqbal Awan said that cause of snatching mobile could be understood 
due to poverty, but lifting arms could not be justified. He said there should 
be no relief for those who use arms over petty issues.

The accused was apprehended in 2015.

(source: Pakistan Today)

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

"I've been closing myself in a box for hours to get a feel of confinement."



Sarmad Khoosat talks about preparing himself for No Time To Sleep, the most 
challenging act of his career.

On October 10, 2018, Sarmad Khoosat will be stepping into the skin of the most 
difficult character and performance of his life. This live act will be 
performed at Bari Studios in Lahore, where Sarmad will be reliving the last 24 
hours in the life of a death row prisoner, Prisoner Z, also known as Doctor 
Sahib.

This groundbreaking live act, titled No Time to Sleep, has been organized by 
the Justice Project Pakistan in collaboration with Olomopolo Media and 
Highlight Arts, in solidarity with the World Day Against Death Penalty. The 
performance will permit 24 batches of a limited audience of twenty people each 
and will be live streamed on various channels throughout the world, including 
the British Parliament and universities across Ireland. Viewers in Pakistan 
will be able to see the live telecast on Dawn.

Sarmad Khoosat has been preparing and rehearsing for this performance for 6 
months but the challenges of the role he has undertaken are graver than simply 
losing weight and looking the part.

"I had to grow a beard and lose weight, but the biggest challenge is to feel 
the confinement," Sarmad shared with Instep. "I've been closing myself in a box 
for hours to get a feel of confinement."

It's a feeling beyond comprehension. It's also not as simple as most movies 
would have you believe. Fiction has fed into numerous stereotypes over time and 
history, and what really happens is quite unknown. Sarmad explains how so many 
fictional stereotypes will be shattered during his 24-hour performance.

"I was told to lose weight but not too much weight," Sarmad shared some 
disturbing details. Apparently, prisoners on death row experience such 
heightened adrenalin surges in the last few days that they begin to bloat. 
Instead of shriveling, as one would expect, they start retaining body fluids 
and swelling up.

The last meal - contrary to fictional and romanticized scenes where prisoners 
are offered a 'last wish' or a 'last supper' of their choice before being 
hanged, is the most basic breakfast of tea and biscuits or rusk, which Prisoner 
Z will be given at 7am. A doctor's visit is always scheduled on the day of the 
execution, ironically to ensure that the prisoner does not have fever, an 
infection or worst of all, an upset stomach.

"All sorts of strange things happen to a person when he is hung," Sarmad 
explained, "and a prisoner with a loose stomach is not something jail 
authorities necessarily want to deal with."

The ghusl, or the last bathing ritual, may possibly be one of the most morbid 
experiences the prisoner goes through as it is conducted before he is executed. 
A human body is given a ghusl after it has expired but in the case of a death 
row prisoner, the ghusl is conducted before he is hanged.

"Prisoners are given ghusls before they are hanged," Sarmad shared details of 
how this act will push boundaries that have never been attempted in Pakistan 
before. While nudity and exploration of the human body are norms on the western 
proscenium arch, Sarmad will have to strategically reveal what the human body 
is stripped to. "It is an extremely immersive experience," he said with both 
anxiety and the excitement that an actor must experience when undertaking a 
challenge of this magnitude.

The idea is to humanize a prisoner who, to most people, is merely a statistic 
of how one man convicted of murdering two men, was sentenced to death. The 
performance, directed by Kanwal Khoosat, will attempt to cast the prisoner in a 
new light; not many people know that Zulfiqar, known as Prisoner Z or also as 
Doctor Sahib, had completed 2 Master degrees and 33 diplomas in jail and had 
taught over 300 prisoners how to read and write during his sentence. His death 
sentence was issued and reversed almost 20 times (possibly because he fired the 
gun in self-defense) for all the years he spent in jail. He was hung on his 
last verdict.

But why protest the death sentence, many people will argue. Did we not want to 
see the terrorists responsible for APS handed the Capital Punishment? Did Javed 
Iqbal, the serial killer responsible for the sexual abuse and murder of 100 
young boys, not deserve to be hanged? There have been so many tragic instances 
in the country that have merited the death sentence upon child molesters, 
murderers, terrorists, etc.

While former President Asif Ali Zardari had issued a moratorium on the death 
sentence in Pakistan, former PM Nawaz Sharif lifted that moratorium after the 
tragic APS incident. It was only meant for terrorists though the Pakistan Penal 
Code cites 27 offenses (including blasphemy, rape and sexual intercourse 
outside of marriage) as punishable by death. It's a very tricky territory and 
boils down to one thing.

"It's all about the faulty judicial system," Sarmad summed it up. "Life 
imprisonment is understandable but how do you bring back someone who has been 
given an unfair verdict? There have been instances where the reversal of a 
death sentence has been issued but delivered a month or 2 after the death 
sentence has already been carried out."

No Time For Sleep will be a cross between reality and just enough fiction to 
make the 24-hour performance possible. A functional toilet has been created on 
set, and elaborate sound design has been developed to lend sonic dimension to 
the immersive experience. Prisoner Z will hear mosquitoes whining in his cell, 
the sound of the Azaan in the distance; he will possibly hear his own breath 
and voices in his head too.

"Man experiences 5 stages of grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and 
finally acceptance and possible hope. In this situation there is only 
resignation," Sarmad concluded.

Man is also known to err and until a system so fool proof that a faulty verdict 
is considered impossible is established, the Capital Punishment seems like a 
fate worse than death. Since only the President of Pakistan can excuse a 
prisoner on death row, maybe President Alvi will take note and issue a 
moratorium on the death sentence again.

(source: thenews.com.pk)








INDIA:

HC constitute special benches to expedite hearing of murder references



The Punjab and Haryana high court administration has constituted 3 special 
benches for expeditious disposal of murder references pending before the court 
seeking confirmation of capital punishment.

As per the decision taken by Chief Justice Krishna Murari, 3 special benches of 
Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill, Justice A B Chaudhari 
and Justice Surinder Gupta and Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Raj Shekhar 
Attri would decide such cases.

On awarding the capital punishment, the trial courts in various districts, send 
the reference to the HC for confirmation. With the constitution of these 
special 3 benches, such references would be decided expeditiously.

Information in this regard was made available to the member of high court bar 
by chairman of high court's computer committee, Justice Rajesh Bindal. Other 
members of the committee, including Justice Surinder Gupta, Justice Arun Palli 
and Justice B S Walia were also present in the meeting held in the high court 
bar room.

The lawyers were also informed that instead of physical printouts of receipts, 
SMS would be sent on the registered mobile number of the applicants.

This would save paper, as around 5 lakh receipts were issued in the high court 
last year for filing of different applications or cases and it consumed around 
800 rolls of paper, equivalent to 400 rims of A4 size paper with 500 sheets 
each.

(source: The Times of India)








MALAYSIA:

Chemist faces the death row



A 46-year-old chemist who is among 3 suspects detained 2 weeks ago following a 
RM72.5mil drug bust has been charged in court.

However, no plea was recorded from Lee Wooi Keong after the charge was read to 
him before magistrate Dianne Ningrad Nor Azahar.

Clad in a yellow T-shirt and shorts, Lee was brought to the courthouse where he 
was charged with possession of 27.275kg of methamphetamine in a two-unit 
factory at the small and medium industrial zone in Bukit Tengah here at 3am on 
Sept 12.

The charge under Section 39B(1) (a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 carries the 
mandatory death penalty upon conviction.

Lee, who was unrepresented, was denied bail and Dianne set Nov 22 for mention 
pending the chemist's report.

The 2 other suspects have been released on police bail.

It was reported that Bukit Aman Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department 
raided the factory and scored its largest seizure since the department's 
inception 22 years ago.

Among the drugs seized were 2.13 million Erimin 5 pills, and barrels of Erimin 
5 powder weighing 742.6kg that could be used to produce 2.47 million more 
pills.

Police also seized 27.3kg of marijuana and 5,080 ecstasy pills besides 53.7kg 
of chemicals along with various machinery to produce the capsules and 2 luxury 
vehicles.

The operation against the international syndicate was conducted in 
collaboration with Sekretariat Nukleus Narkotik, office of the Narcotics 
Control Board Thailand, Police Narcotics Suppression Bureau Thailand and 
National Narcotics Control Commission of China.

(source: thestar.com.my)