[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

February 15



GLOBAL:

Executions for gay sex: 13 nations threaten it, 4 do it.



How many countries execute people for being gay? This blog’s best estimate: The 
laws of 13 nations call for the death penalty for gay sex, but only four 
countries go through with it.

This blog’s updated list of 13 nations with such harsh anti-gay laws is a 
decrease from the previous tally, which had included Daesh/the Islamic 
State/ISIS/ISIL. At its height, ISIS repeatedly executed men accused of 
homosexuality. (For example, from 2015: ‘Islamic State’ has reported 15 LGBTI 
executions.)

Now that violent extremist Islamist enterprise, thank God, has been eradicated 
as a government controlling territory and administering laws. So now it’s off 
the list.

Here’s a summary of the complete list, which is more fully discussed in the 
article “13 nations have death penalty for gay sex; 4 carry it out.”

Nations with such laws on the books; executions have been carried out in the 
recent past:

1. Iran

Iran is No. 2 in the world for frequency of executions of any kind, behind 
China. Those include executions for homosexual activity, although the facts are 
often unclear or misrepresented in media reports. (See, for example, “Bogus 
hanging in Iran, bogus tweets in Egypt” and “Series of public hangings in Iran, 
including 2 for sodomy.”)

When a man in Iran is hanged after being convicted of rape and sodomy, media 
coverage often wrongly describes the punishment as execution for homosexuality. 
The most recent example of such mislabeling appears in the Jerusalem Post, Gay 
Star News and Jihad Watch. Each states that an unidentified man was executed on 
Jan. 10, 2019, on “homosexuality charges,” which sounds like consensual 
same-sex activity. But the articles make clear that the man was actually 
convicted of kidnapping and rape.

2. Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is No. 3 among the world’s most avid executioners, with 90+ in 
2014. At least in the past, beheadings were imposed for homosexual behavior, 
including three men in 2002. Imprisonment and lashings are a more common 
punishment for same-sex activity.

Nations with no such law on the books; executions are carried out by militias 
and others:

3. Iraq

The ILGA report of 2015 noted that “Iraq, although [the death penalty is] not 
in the civil code, clearly has judges and militias throughout the country that 
issue the death sentence for same-sex sexual behaviours.” For example: Iraq has 
become a death trap for gay men (September 2012)

4. Somalia

The Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, which controls large areas of Somalia, 
reportedly killed two individuals in 2017 because of their sexual orientation. 
The deaths were described as murders, but they might better be labeled as 
executions since they were done by the governing power of that region.

Nations with such laws on the books; no recent executions reported:

1. Sudan

2. Yemen

3. Nigeria (Muslim northern part of the country only)

Nations with such laws on the books; no executions reported:

1. Afghanistan

2. Mauritania

3. Pakistan

4. Qatar

5. United Arab Emirates (Some interpretations of existing law would provide for 
the death penalty; no executions have been reported.)

6. Brunei Darussalam The country has had a de facto moratorium on executions 
since 1957. According to news reports, it has not yet implemented a harsh new 
Syariah Penal Code Order, which includes the death penalty for consensual 
same-sex sexual behavior, at least on paper.

(source: 76crimes.com)








IRAN----executions

3 inmates executed in Raja’i Shahr and Ardebil Prisons



At least 3 prisoners were executed on Wednesday, February 13, in Raja’i Shahr 
and Ardebil Prisons.

Ali Shakouri, 34, father of 3, was hanged in Ardebil prison, northwest Iran.

2 other prisoners identified as Behrouz Bayat and Mohammad Hedayati were also 
executed on the same day in Raja’i Shahr Prison. All the 3 inmates had been 
found guilty of murder.

Absence of classification of undeliberate murders in Iran lead to capital 
punishment for everyone committed murder, intentional or un intentional.

On January 29, a prisoner identified as Omran was executed in Maragheh Prison, 
also in northwest Iran.

He had been on death row since 2015 and had denied intentional murder charges 
saying it was a case of self defense. Omran argued that he reacted to the irate 
man who began beating him with an iron rod.

Iran is 1 of the 23 countries that have not yet abolished the death penalty.

Executions in Iran are mostly the result of grossly unfair trials which are 
usually held behind closed doors without the presence of a defence lawyer. 
Activists believe that many of those on death row were convicted on the basis 
of “forced confessions”, a method believed to be commonly used in the country 
at the moment. Moreover, when a death sentence is handed down, families are 
often not given prior notice of the execution.

At least 285 people were executed in 2018 in Iran. The officials acknowledged 
the execution of only 85 people last year, but it is believed that this figure 
grossly underestimates the true number in Iran because the regime had embarked 
on a campaign of secret and mass hangings of prisoners, especially in faraway 
provinces.

According to London-based international human rights watchdog Amnesty 
International, “more than half (51%) of all recorded executions in 2017 were 
carried out in Iran.”

Iran ranks second in the world after China in terms of executions and has 
“carried out 84% of the global total number of executions with Saudi Arabia, 
Iraq and Pakistan.”

The country’s judicial system has also been criticised for handing down death 
sentences against juveniles. Dozens of child offenders are on death row in 
Iranian prisons, waiting to go to the gallows when they reach 18.

(source: Iran Human Rights Monitor)








MALAYSIA:

Unemployed man charged with murder



An unemployed man was charged in the Magistrate’s Court here today with the 
death of M. Serentharan in Buntong, 3 years ago.

No plea was recorded from Muhammad Firdaus Naim Thikayarajan, 24, after the 
charge was read out before magistrate Nurul Hafizah Mohammad Fauzi.

He was charged with murdering Serentharan, who was also unemployed, behind a 
futsal field near Jalan Kantan Buntong here between 9pm and 10pm on Sept 5.

He was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which provides the death 
penalty upon conviction.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Nurul Qistini Qamarul Abrar prosecuted while the 
accused was represented by a lawyer, Charan Singh. The court set March 29 for 
mention.

(source: nst.com.my)








BANGLADESH:

Remembering Ko Ni, Myanmar's slain lawyer----Prominent lawyer working on plans 
to amend Myanmar's army-drafted constitution was shot dead at Yangon airport in 
2017.



When she was about 7 or 8-years-old, Yin Nwe Khine accidentally stepped on her 
father's eyeglasses, snapping them in 2.

Other parents she knew of might have scolded their children for such 
carelessness.

But Ko Ni, a lawyer who would later become renowned for his opposition to the 
Myanmar military's grip on power, was different.

Instead of getting angry, he invited his daughter to survey the damage, 
explaining that he could not read without his glasses. "Do you see? This is the 
consequence of negligence," she recalls him saying.

"He always tried to show people what their rights were and what were their 
responsibilities," Yin Nwe Khine, who is now in her mid-30s, told Al Jazeera at 
the family apartment in central Yangon.

"He taught us like he taught the people of this country."

On Friday, a court in Yangon decided the fate of 3 men, including 2 former 
military officers, accused of conspiring to assassinate Ko Ni, and a 4th man 
accused of harbouring 1 of the defendants.

The lawyer, a close confidant of Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was working 
on plans to amend or replace the military-drafted constitution when a gunman 
shot him in the back of the head at Yangon's airport in January 2017.

The assassination of Ko Ni was a major blow to Aung San Suu Kyi's National 
League for Democracy (NLD), which took office in 2016, promising to amend a 
charter that entrenches the generals' power even as they take a back seat in 
the wake of decades of military rule.

Kyi Lin, the gunman, and Aung Win Zaw, the man who recruited him to carry out 
the murder, were sentenced to death on Friday. In practice, this is likely to 
mean life in prison as Myanmar has not executed a death-row inmate since the 
late 1980s.

A 3rd man, Zeyar Phyo, received a 5-year sentence for his role in the 
conspiracy. The prosecution accused him of providing roughly $80,000 for the 
plot.

Aung Win Tun, a 4th defendant, received 3 years for harbouring Aung Win Zaw, 
his brother.

Prominent lawyer

In a country under fragile civilian rule and struggling with resurgent Buddhist 
nationalism, Ko Ni knew it was dangerous - especially for a prominent member of 
Myanmar's Muslim minority - to face off with the military; in the months 
leading up to his killing, he received several death threats, according to his 
family.

But he did not let fear override his sense of duty. "He took his 
responsibilities very seriously. He always thought if you do something, small 
or big, you have to take responsibility," said Yin Nwe Khine.

Once, when she told him she wanted to become a doctor, he cautioned her. There 
were two professions that required taking on other people's problems, he 
warned. One was the law, the other medicine.

"So you'll have none of your own time, you won't have time to relax," she 
recalls him saying. "If you are ready for the consequences, you can do it."

Ko Ni kept his family and work life separate. He even stopped taking on 
criminal cases because he thought it was too distressing for his wife, mother 
and children when clients who had suffered a terrible tragedy came to his home 
office.

But the family still caught glimpses of his life among Myanmar's rising 
political elite, a cohort of former dissidents and political prisoners who were 
getting to grips with parliamentary democracy as the country underwent a 
dizzying transformation.

Hanging on the living room wall in their colonial-era apartment is a photograph 
of Ko Ni and his wife, Tin Tin Aye, posing with Aung San Suu Kyi.

"That day was the first time ever I met Daw Suu," said Tin Tin Aye, using the 
honorific used to address older women.

The photo is from 2012 when Ko Ni was helping educate people about how to vote 
in an historic by-election that propelled Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament less 
than 2 years after she had been released from years of house arrest.

Tin Tin Aye was at first afraid to approach the woman who had become an icon, 
"but she welcomed me very warmly like a sister and she hugged me".

While Aung San Suu Kyi has disappointed many supporters who say she has failed 
to stand up for Myanmar's minority Muslims and kowtowed to hardliners, Ko Ni 
continued to believe in his political idol.

Still, when the NLD failed to field a single Muslim candidate for the 2015 
general election, the lawyer broke ranks to speak to the press about his 
concerns, even as he defended the decision as a political necessity.

Just days after Ko Ni was shot, infamous anti-Muslim monk Wirathu took to 
Facebook to publicly thank the killers.

"I feel relief for the future of Buddhism in my country," the monk wrote, 
according to the Irrawaddy news website. "Anyone who wants to scrap the 
constitution should be mindful," he added.

Political will

When police raided the office of a company owned by Zeyar Phyo, they found a 
recording of Wirathu's teachings.

In court, Zeyar Phyo, a former military intelligence captain, denied being a 
religious "extremist" and said police found the disc outside his personal 
workspace, according to Reuters news agency.

No evidence has come to light of any current military officers being involved 
in the killing, but there are signs of active links between the defendants and 
Myanmar's powerful military establishment.

Myanmar's police chief and home affairs minister told a press conference in 
2017 that when the three men met in a teashop and plotted to kill Ko Ni, they 
were joined by a former assistant to Min Aung Hlaing, the military's 
commander-in-chief.

The assistant, Lin Zaw Tun, made a donation of about $15,000 to Wirathu in 
2015, according to local media.

One of the men in the teashop was the suspected mastermind, a retired 
lieutenant colonel named Aung Win Khine. He has so far evaded arrest.

His absence from criminal proceedings represents a "failure of rule of law", 
said Zar Li Aye, a legal expert and criminal defence lawyer.

"To me, this is a lack of political will," she added, pointing to the 
authorities' failure to catch him.

For Yin Nwe Khine, Friday’s verdict changes little; her father is never coming 
back.

Her thoughts are of what the case will mean for Myanmar.

"For our family nothing changes, whatever the punishment is," she said before 
the verdict. "But it will change the future of the country."

(source: aljazeera.com)





INDIA:

2012 gangrape: Govt seeks fast tracking of death penalty----The government’s 
move came after the victim’s parents moved a petition before the Additional 
Sessions Judge Anu Grover Baliga to fast-track the procedure to hang the 
convicts.



The Delhi government has approached a Delhi court, seeking directions for 
immediate execution of 4 adult convicts awarded the death penalty for the 
December 2012 gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus.

The government’s move came after the victim’s parents moved a petition before 
the Additional Sessions Judge Anu Grover Baliga to fast-track the procedure to 
hang the convicts. The judge has sought stand of the convicts, out of which 
three of them told the court they are preferring a curative petition before the 
SC. One is yet to file a review petition against the apex court’s 2017 
decision.

The court listed the matter for hearing on March 2.

(source: indianexpress.com)

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

Supreme Court stays death sentence of teacher who raped 4-year-old student



The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the execution of a rape convict school 
teacher from Madhya Pradesh who was given death sentence for brutalising his 
4-year-old student who died of severe injuries.

The death sentence to the criminal, Mahendra Singh Gond, was given by a 
district court in Madhya Pradesh as his ghastly crime was seen as a ‘rarest of 
rare’ instance, earning him the gallows as the first man to be executed under 
the new law of death penalty for child rapists.

Gond is slated to be hanged till death on March 2 and he had moved the apex 
court seeking a respite in the sentence. The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the 
execution order of the rapist and would not be hanged for the time being.

Gond was to be executed in Jabalpur jail on March 2 for the crime of kidnaping 
and raping the victim on June 30, 2018. The brutality of the crime had shocked 
the entire country and police had arrested the criminal soon after the incident 
was reported.

The perpetrator of the crime had dumped the child after raping and brutalising 
her in a jungle after he thought that she was dead. The braveheart survived the 
ordeal and was found by her family who admitted her to a hospital. Such violent 
was the nature of her rape that she had to be airlifted to AIIMS for an 
operation to align her intestines.

The district court had awarded death sentence to the rapist after the 
survivor's statement which was recorded through video conferencing.

(source: timesnownews.com)




SRI LANKA:

EU agrees to work with Sri Lanka closely on human rights, reconciliation, 
reiterates opposition to death penalty



The European Union (EU) and Sri Lanka at their Joint Commission on Thursday in 
Brussels have agreed on the importance to continue working closely together on 
human rights and reconciliation while committed to work jointly during next 2 
years to foster rural development, democratic governance, investments and 
economic growth.

The European Union and Sri Lanka held their 22nd meeting of the Joint 
Commission on Thursday, 14 February 2019, in Brussels. The meeting was held in 
an open and constructive spirit and developments in both the EU and in Sri 
Lanka were discussed, the EU said in a statement.

The meeting was co-chaired by Paola Pampaloni, Deputy Managing Director for 
Asia and the Pacific at the European External Action Service, and Ravinatha 
Aryasinha, Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka.

The EU also reiterated its opposition to the use of the death penalty in all 
circumstances and encouraged Sri Lanka to maintain its moratorium on executions 
with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

The 2 sides agreed on a series of actions for follow-up before the next Joint 
Commission meeting in Colombo in 2020.

Following is the joint press release issued by the European Union on the joint 
meeting:

The European Union (EU) and Sri Lanka held their 22nd meeting of the Joint 
Commission on Thursday, 14 February 2019, in Brussels. The meeting was held in 
an open and constructive spirit. Developments in both the EU and in Sri Lanka 
were discussed.

Bearing in mind the resilience of the democratic institutions which had 
prevailed during the political events in Sri Lanka late 2018, the EU reiterated 
its full support for the Government's efforts to improve governance, human 
rights and reconciliation, fight against corruption, and strengthen economic 
growth. The EU and Sri Lanka agreed on the importance to continue working 
closely together on human rights and reconciliation, issues which figured 
prominently on the agenda of the meeting.

Preferential access to the EU market granted to Sri Lanka under the GSP+ scheme 
has clearly benefitted Sri Lanka since the reintroduction in May 2017, with 
over ?2.2 billion of exports under GSP+ during the period June 2017?May 2018. 
Both sides acknowledged that there was room to make even better use of the 
concessions granted.

Sri Lanka reaffirmed the commitments made to implement 27 conventions on human 
and labour rights, environment and good governance in order to benefit from the 
GSP+ scheme. In this context, while acknowledging that the new draft 
legislation was now being considered by Parliament, the EU reiterated the need 
to repeal and replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in order to bring 
counterterrorism legislation in line with international standards.

The EU also reiterated its opposition to the use of the death penalty in all 
circumstances and encouraged Sri Lanka to maintain its moratorium on executions 
with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

The meeting provided an opportunity to exchange views on the implementation of 
the UN Human Rights Council Resolution of 1 October 2015, co-sponsored by Sri 
Lanka. The important steps taken by Sri Lanka with regard to establishing an 
Office on Missing Persons and passing legislation to set up an Office for 
Reparations were welcomed. Sri Lanka's continued commitment to the 
implementation of the resolution was acknowledged and the EU stressed the need 
for further progress in the advancement of national reconciliation. The EU 
expressed its continued readiness to support Sri Lanka in these efforts.

The Joint Commission was informed about the proceedings of the third EU-Sri 
Lanka Working Group on Development Cooperation held in Brussels on 13 February 
2019. The EU and Sri Lanka committed to work jointly during 2019-2020 on the 
preparation of new actions aiming at fostering integrated rural development, 
democratic governance, investments and economic growth.

The EU and Sri Lanka discussed the EU strategy on Connecting Europe and Asia, 
which aims to better connect Europe and Asia through transport links, energy 
networks, digital networks and people-to-people connections, and agreed to 
deepen their contacts in this field, including in view of the Indian Ocean 
Ministerial conference to be held in Colombo this year.

In this context, the Joint Commission noted that the European Investment Bank 
agrees to enhance its lending activities in Sri Lanka in the field of climate 
change mitigation and adaptation, particularly in support of renewable energy, 
energy efficiency, urban transport, and other investments which reduce CO2 
emissions and/or strengthen resilience to climate change. The support extended 
to develop the SME sector was welcomed.

Discussions also focused on issues related to mobility and migration. Ways to 
enhance cooperation on higher education, with a particular reference to the 
Horizon 2020, the EU framework programme for research and innovation, were also 
discussed.

Ways to engage on security issues were also explored, and the EU referred to 
areas for deeper security engagement in and with Asia as listed in the 
Conclusions of the May 2018 Foreign Affairs Council, notably maritime security, 
cyber security, counter terrorism, hybrid threats, conflict prevention, the 
proliferation of Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear weapons, and the 
development of regional cooperative orders.

Cooperation in the framework of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and 
towards the common goals of preservation of healthy oceans, conservation and 
sustainable use of marine living resources was discussed.

The EU and Sri Lanka agreed on a series of actions for follow-up before the 
next Joint Commission meeting in Colombo in 2020.

The meeting was co-chaired by Ms Paola Pampaloni, Deputy Managing Director for 
Asia and the Pacific at the European External Action Service, and Mr. Ravinatha 
Aryasinha, Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka.

The Joint Commission, which oversees the 1995 EU-Sri Lanka Cooperation 
Agreement on Partnership and Development, deals with a broad range of bilateral 
and multilateral issues of mutual interest. Its tasks are to: ensure the proper 
functioning and implementation of the Agreement; set priorities; and make 
recommendations.

All 3 Working Groups established under the terms of the Joint Commission 
reported back from their respective meetings held in June 2018 (the Working 
Group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights) and in July 2018 (the 
Working Group on Trade and Economic Cooperation Issues, and on 13 February 2019 
(the Working Group on Development Cooperation).

(source: colombopage.com)


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

UK, EU urge Sri Lanka against death penalty



The United Kingdom and European Union this week reiterated their opposition to 
Sri Lanka's proposed implementation of the death penalty.

“The Sri Lankan Government is well aware of the UK and EU position on the death 
penalty and we hope the moratorium will be sustained,” the UK Minister of State 
for Asia and the Pacific, Mark Field said in parliament when asked by an MP 
regarding what action had been taken on the issue.

“Earlier, the British High Commission in Colombo joined the EU delegation in 
lobbying the Sri Lankan Foreign Affairs Ministry to maintain this position in 
the December 2018 UN vote, supporting a moratorium on the use of the death 
penalty."

"In January 2019, after further reporting of the intention to restart the death 
penalty, our High Commission raised the issue with senior officials in the Sri 
Lankan Government," he added.

(source: Tamil Guardian)

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

Sri Lankan president denounces opponents of the death penalty



Addressing parliament on February 6, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena 
reiterated his commitment to ending the country’s 43-year moratorium on the 
death penalty. He warned the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and 
other human rights groups not to hinder his efforts.

Sirisena told parliament that although death row prisoners had filed appeals 
against their convictions since he began calling for the reinstatement of 
executions, “we would be able to implement the death penalty in one to two 
months. Whatever opposition would be raised against it, I have taken a firm 
decision to implement it.”

Citing the death penalty in India, the US and Singapore, he cynically declared: 
“We need stringent laws to make a law abiding and spiritual society.”

During his visit last month to the Philippines, Sirisena hailed President 
Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”—the extrajudicial killing of thousands of 
alleged drug dealers—as an “example to the whole world” and vowed to 
reinstitute the death penalty in Sri Lanka.

Sirisena’s campaign for executions and his praise of Duterte drew immediate 
criticism from human rights groups in Sri Lanka and internationally.

Sirisena responded by telling parliament that any invocation of human rights in 
relationship to the drug trafficking underworld was “wrong” and demanded human 
rights organisations “not object” to his death penalty campaign.

Sirisena singled out the toothless, government-appointed HRCSL for attack and 
referred to the brutal beating of prisoners in Angunakolapelessa jail last 
November by Special Task Force (STF) officers and prison staff. A secretly 
recorded video of the incident drew wide criticism of the government.

Sirisena criticised the HRCSL chief for daring to ask the STF commandant who 
had given the order to send in the STF.

“The human rights commission, which was appointed by us, should have defended 
us,” the president told parliament. “Instead, it is questioning the STF chief.” 
He also condemned the HRCSL for vetting Sri Lankan military officers for human 
rights violations before they were sent abroad on so-called UN peace keeping 
assignments.

HRCSL chairperson Dr. Deepika Udagama responded in writing to Sirisena’s 
allegations, saying these actions were “in accordance with human rights law” 
and not “an attempt by the Commission to protect criminals.”

Sirisena’s broadside in parliament has only one meaning. He will not tolerate 
any opposition to the reinstitution of the death penalty or any government 
violation of basic democratic rights. Sirisena is sending a clear message to 
the police, and its notorious STF, and the military, that he will back them in 
all circumstances.

Sirisena’s defence of the military is indicative. Between 1983 and 2009, it 
conducted a vicious communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of 
Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The bloody conflict was a culmination of the communalist 
policies pursued by the ruling elite since 1948 to suppress and divide the 
working class along ethnic and religious lines.

Sirisena, like his predecessors, is committed to shielding the political 
leaders of successive governments and the military hierarchy responsible for 
all the war crimes committed since 1983.

While officially there have been no official executions since 1976, the Sri 
Lankan state has a horrifying record of eliminating its political opponents, 
workers and young people through extra-judicial killings.

Military and associated paramilitary death squads abducted and executed, 
without trial, tens of thousands of people during the war against the LTTE and 
in crushing the youth insurgencies of 1987–89 in Sri Lanka’s south.

The Constitutional Council (CC) was another target of Sirisena’s speech to 
parliament.

Established by the 19th amendment to the constitution in 2015 under the 
Sirisena presidency, the CC is supposed to ensure the “independence” of the 
judiciary and the government service. Consisting of representatives of the 
president and the parliamentary parties, and headed by the parliamentary 
speaker, it is not independent in any sense.

Sirisena complained that the CC had not approved his nominees for judges and 
the chief justice. “They are yet to inform me the reasons for turning down 
those names,” he declared.

The president is not alone in his provocative and authoritarian outbursts. His 
views are endorsed by the entire political establishment, including Prime 
Minister Wickremesinghe’s ruling United National Party (UNP), which is working 
hand in glove to tighten up the instruments of state repression. Last week, 
Justice Minister Thalatha Athukorala announced that the “administrative 
procedures for the execution of 5 drug convicts had been completed.”

Every faction of the ruling elite is turning toward police-state forms of rule. 
For about two months last year, these factions were engaged in open political 
warfare. Sirisena unconstitutionally sacked Wickremesinghe, replacing him with 
his arch-rival, former President Mahinda Rajapakse, and then dissolved the 
parliament after Rajapakse was unable to gain a parliamentary majority.

The plot failed because the US was hostile to Rajapakse, whom Washington 
considers sympathetic to Beijing, and the Supreme Court overruled Sirisena, 
compelling him to reinstate Wickremesinghe.

Behind the ongoing infighting within the political elite is the eruption of 
plantation and other workers’ struggles as part of an international 
working-class upsurge.

Two days before Sirisena’s death penalty address to parliament, he made an 
unprecedented Independence Day speech in which he hailed the military and 
declared that governments had failed to resolve the country’s democratic and 
social questions.

The death penalty is a cruel and inhumane punishment, with most of its victims 
around world coming from the most oppressed layers of society. Sirisena’s call 
for the speedy restoration of this barbaric practice, endorsed by all the major 
parliamentary parties, is a clear indication that the capitalist class is 
lurching toward dictatorial forms of rule.

In a signal that the Sirisena government is pushing ahead with its reactionary 
agenda, the government-owned Daily News newspaper ran a grotesque advertisement 
on February 11 for people to apply to become the official hangmen. The 2 people 
who will be employed to carry out state killings must be males aged between 18 
and 45 and possess “mental strength.” They will reportedly be paid 36,410 
rupees, or $203, a month to hang other human beings.

(source: World Socialist Web Site)








SOUTH KOREA:

South Korean bishops call for an end to the death penalty



The South Korean bishops’ conference has called for an end to the death 
penalty, and asked the nation’s Constitutional Court to consider whether 
capital punishment violates South Korea’s constitution.

“The capital punishment system treats criminals not as human beings capable of 
moral reflection and improvement, but simply as a means of defending society. 
If the aim were to permanently segregate criminals to protect society, that 
could certainly be achieved through life imprisonment or penal servitude 
without the possibility of parole, which represent less of a restriction on 
basic rights,” the bishops said in their constitutional appeal, filed Feb. 12.

“All individuals’ lives possess the same value, and that life is of absolute 
significance to each individual,” a spokesman for the bishops’ campaign told 
the Hankyoreh newspaper.

“It is no different even for criminals who have committed atrocious acts that 
violate and harm the life and human rights of others.”

The South Korean bishops have collected the signatures of 102,517 South Koreans 
requesting that capital punishment be replaced by life imprisonment, Hankyoreh 
reported.

The nation’s Constitutional Court has ruled previously, both in 1996 and in 
2010, that the death penalty does not violate the South Korean constitution.

61 people await execution on South Korea’s death row, according to death 
penalty abolition groups, but no one has been executed in the country since 
1997.

Pope Francis has been an outspoken opponent of the death penalty, revising the 
Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to call execution “inadmissible.”

There are nearly 6 million Catholics in South Korea, comprising more than 10 % 
of the country’s population.

(source: Catholic News Agency)