[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

February 28




GLOBAL:

7th World Congress Speaks Against Death Penalty



Brussels is hosting the 7th world congress against the death penalty this week, 
with politicians and activists arguing their case in the main city of the 
28-nation European Union, the largest zone to end the capital punishment.

The gathering at the European Parliament hemicycle was therefore naturally 
welcome in the Belgian capital. It was launched officially on Wednesday and 
will continue into Friday.

Over 1,500 delegates, diplomats, nonprofit representatives and others will 
deliver testimonials and proposals and take part in discussions at workshops 
and debates, which will include speakers of countries that still apply the 
death penalty.

The abolition of death penalty in Europe is not that old. In France, it is only 
in 1981 then Justice Minister Robert Badinter put an end to deaths by 
guillotine under President Francois Mitterrand. Norway abolished it in 1948, 
while the Czech Republic had its last execution in 1989. On the European 
continent, only Belarus still applies the capital punishment.

In the world, 4 countries represent some 84 % of the total of executions 
worldwide. China leads the tally, followed by the United States, Iran, India, 
and Saudi Arabia.

Africa has seen the most rapid process over the last few years. The justice 
ministers of Congo, Guinea, Gambia and Burkina Faso presented their legal 
decisions and application procedures. Burkina Faso was the latest country to 
abolish the death sentence in the fall of 2018.

The inaugural address was delivered by EU foreign policy chief Federica 
Mogherini who explained why no country that still applies the death penalty 
would ever be part of the bloc. She made a passionate case for taking it off 
the books.

"Every life matters. The state should never dispose of the life of anybody. We 
believe in Justice, not revenge. The death penalty is incompatible with who we 
are. No country could become a member of the EU if it applies the capital 
punishment. It is not necessary, it is not a deterrent, and there is no coming 
back once the life is taken, if a mistake has been done. But it is impossible 
to avoid mistakes," she said.

Robert Badinter, in a video from Paris, praised progress in championing the 
abolition cause worldwide, with 140 countries having ended it. He warned of 
persisting attempts to reimpose the capital punishment.

"In our strained world, often cruel, the abolitionist cause has made huge 
progress... We have become a majority in international bodies. With lucidity, 
we must face the fact that many great powers are still supporters of death 
penalty and keep it in their legislative arsenal. Some hesitate like Japan... 
So our task is yet unfinished," he said.

He warned of continued opposition to abolishing the death penalty. In France, 
he recalled, 69 % of the French population was in favor of the ultimate 
punishment when it was scrapped.

"The combat is not finished yet; we must make our voice heard for each 
execution. The death penalty is the absolute negation of the first human right, 
the right to live," he concluded.

French barrister Richard Sedillot, one of the conference's organizers, an 
expert on international penal law and director of the abolitionist nonprofit 
called Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), explained to Sputnik that the 
death penalty had no impact on crime levels.

"The death penalty has no deterrent effect, and countries that have abolished 
it never see an increase in crime. The more a country practices the death 
penalty, the higher its level of crime. We are supporters of justice, not 
revenge," he said.

A country is considered abolitionist when it no longer applies the death 
penalty for more than 10 years. Many countries opt to impose a moratorium on 
the death penalty instead of voting a law because of internal resistance, he 
noted.

"We are obviously asking for universal abolition. We say that the death penalty 
is illegal under international law. There is a series of texts, international 
instruments that any country should ratify. Abolition is now part of the 
international criminal custom... The meaning of history is abolition," he 
argued.

But not everybody agrees, and during the first day of the world congress 
abolitionists were careful to propose to delegates of countries that are still 
applying the death penalty - the so-called retentionists - to come and discuss 
this moral and legal issue.

Nicolas Tournay, communications director of Belgium's center-right People's 
Party, argued that those opposing the capital punishment did not care about 
what the voters thought. He pointed to opinion polls in France where 52 percent 
apparently want it back for the worst felonies. Turkey is considering 
reintroducing the ultimate punishment after a long string of bloody terrorist 
attacks.

"Can a politician simply brush away the majority rule because he or she 'knows 
better'? Do the people have strictly no voice?.. No American president, even 
Bill Clinton or Barak Obama dared touch on the issue of the death penalty; too 
touchy in a country that believes in the people's justice. I am ill at ease 
with these 'moral' decisions that don't respect the rule of majority," he said.

But Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, the executive director at the ECPM, made a point 
about public opinion, which he said followed the decisions made.

"The capital punishment is cruel, degrading and inhumane, it discriminates 
disproportionately minorities. It gives the wrong moral impression that 
vengeance is legitimate. Public opinion follows the decisions made, whatever 
the country ... Some say that life is not worth anything. I say nothing is 
worth more than life itself," he said.

He cited the state of Michigan where the capital punishment was scrapped back 
in 1846.

(source: urdupoint.com)

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

7th World Congress Against Death Penalty Opens in Brussels, Belgium



An estimated 1,500 government officials and representatives of non-governmental 
organizations from more than 140 countries gathered in Brussels, Belgium on 
February 26, 2019 for the opening of the Seventh World Congress Against the 
Death Penalty. The World Congress – organized by the Ensemble Contre la Peine 
de Mort and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty – is the world’s 
leading convocation on capital punishment. The four-day meeting formally opened 
on February 27 with a ceremony in the European Parliament in Brussels featuring 
remarks by European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, Belgian 
Foreign Affairs Minister Didier Reynders, and video messages from United 
Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and Pope Francis encouraging the 
delegates to strive for global abolition of the death penalty.

The opening of the Congress followed a high-level death-penalty panel 
discussion by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on 
February 26 focusing on human rights abuses in the application of capital 
punishment. Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 
introduced the panel by reiterating the international body’s long-held beliefs 
on capital punishment. “The UN opposes the use of the death penalty, 
everywhere, and in all circumstances,” Bachelet said. “Today, I am pleased to 
say, there is a clear international trend towards abolition.” The topic of 
human rights, discrimination, and the death penalty, she said “is particularly 
well chosen, because nowhere is discrimination more evident than when one looks 
at the people on death row – the people who society has decided are beyond 
rehabilitation and should be killed. … [D]eath rows are disproportionately 
populated by the poor and economically vulnerable; members of ethnic 
minorities; people with psycho-social or intellectual disabilities; foreign 
nationals; indigenous persons; and other marginalised members of society.” 
Speaking on behalf of the 8 countries that sponsored the resolution calling for 
the panel debate, Minister Reynders expressed special concern about the use of 
the death penalty as punishment for peaceful expression of religious or 
political beliefs, blasphemy, same-sex relationships, and consensual sexual 
relations outside of marriage. “The application of the death penalty in these 
cases,” he said, “takes on a particularly discriminatory nature.”

In his video message to the Congress, Secretary-General Guterres said “[t]he 
death penalty has no place in the 21st century.” He called the record number of 
nations that sponsored last December’s UN General Assembly resolution for a 
global moratorium on the use of the death penalty evidence of progress, but 
said it was still “far from enough.” The death penalty, he said “is still 
employed despite its cruelty, despite the myth that it deters crime and despite 
the knowledge that innocent people have been – and may continue to be -- put to 
death.” The video message by Pope Francis encouraged activism against the death 
penalty as a “courageous affirmation of the principle of the dignity of the 
human person.” The Pope called capital punishment a “serious violation of the 
right to life. … While it is true that human societies and communities have to 
often face very serious crimes that threaten the common good and the safety of 
people, it is not less true that today there are other means to atone for the 
damage caused,” Francis said. The Pope stressed that “the dignity of the person 
is not lost even if he has committed the worst of the crimes. … It’s in our 
hands to recognize the dignity of each person and to work so that more lives 
are not eliminated.”

The Seventh World Congress also provided a special forum for European leaders 
to focus on the use of the death penalty in Belarus, the sole remaining country 
on the continent to authorize capital punishment. The 47-nation Council of 
Europe and the World Congress have jointly organized a round table meeting on 
the Belarusian death penalty on February 28, with the participation of Anaïs 
Marin, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Belarus and representatives 
of the Belarusian government.

(source: Death Penalty Information Center)

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

Former death row inmate urges end to death penalty



A man who spent several years on death row in the United States has made an 
impassioned plea for an end to the death penalty.

Speaking on the eve of a major event this week in Brussels on the death 
penalty, Joaquín José Martínez said it had cost him over $1.5m to clear his 
name and win the pardon which led to him being freed.

He said, “Luckily, I had the means to do this, but, of course, this is 
exceptional as the vast majority of death row inmates do not have such 
resources.”

Martínez was speaking at Brussels press club just ahead of the opening ceremony 
in Parliament of the 7th world congress against the death penalty.

“The death penalty cannot be defended in a civilised world, not least because 
of the possibility of mistakes happening,” he told reporters.

Martínez, a father of 2 who was wrongly accused of a double homicide in Florida 
in 1997, spent over 5 years in prison, 3 of them on death row, before his 
release in 2001.

He has since campaigned for the global abolition of the death penalty.

“Ironically, I used to believe in the death penalty until this happened to me. 
I’d seen people on TV who had been condemned and could not have imagined I 
would end up like that.”

“Some of the people who were on death row with me became my friends but none of 
them are alive today - they have all been executed.”

“Fortunately, I got a lot of support from some very influential people like the 
Pope but it also cost me €1.5m to clear my name,” Martínez added.

Among those speaking at the opening of the Congress on Tuesday was EU High 
Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini.

The event is co-hosted by the European Union and Belgium and will last for four 
days until 1 March.

The Congress takes place every three years, bringing together many public and 
private actors involved in the cause of death penalty abolition.

The event is, according to a European Commission source, an opportunity to 
reiterate the EU's strong opposition to capital punishment in all circumstances 
and for all cases.

A spokesman for the Congress said, “This year's edition will especially reach 
out to private sector actors and explore new paths for collaboration towards 
the abolition of the death penalty.”

Over 1,500 participants from all over the world are expected to attend the 
4-day event.

Last October, on the European and World Day against the Death Penalty, the 
Council of Europe and the European Union reiterated their “strong opposition to 
capital punishment in all circumstances and for all cases.”

A statement said, “The death penalty is an affront to human dignity. It 
constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and is contrary to the right 
to life. The death penalty has no established deterrent effect and it makes 
judicial errors irreversible.”

“Member States should continue taking effective measures to prevent their 
involvement, however indirect, in the use of the death penalty by third 
countries, such as by adopting measures that prevent the trade in goods that 
could subsequently be used to carry out executions.”

As part of the congress, the 47-nation Council of Europe is co-organising an 
event on capital punishment in Belarus on Thursday.

Belarus is the only country in Europe to still use the death penalty. 
Executions are usually carried out in secret and relatives may only be informed 
weeks or months later, said the CoE.

However, Belarus has, it adds, made a number of “positive” statements on the 
death penalty in recent years and the number of executions in the country has 
fallen from 47 in 1998 to 4 in 2018.

The CoE round table will focus on historical aspects of capital punishment in 
Belarus, the current situation and future strategies to move towards abolition. 
(source: Martin Banks is a senior reporter at The Parliament Magazine)

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

Caribbean snub - Regional ministers a no-show at death penalty Congress



It appears that Caribbean countries have snubbed the organisers of the 7th 
World Congress on the Death Penalty now under way in Brussels, Belgium.

“For the first time, we invited all the ministers of foreign affairs and 
ministers of justice from all Caribbean countries,” said Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, 
executive director of Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), a France-based 
group leading the coalition to stop executions worldwide.

However, of the 15 countries in the Caribbean Community, only Jamaica, St 
Lucia, Dominica, The Bahamas, and Belize responded to say they were not able to 
attend the congress.

10 others did not even acknowledge the invitation.

“I think that they have to realise how much this trend is powerful,” 
Chenuil-Hazan said.

The development coincides with concern that regional countries have not carried 
out the death penalty for at least a decade, yet they did not support the last 
resolution at the United Nations General Assembly for a universal suspension on 
executions.

“This is inconsistent, this is crazy,” Chenuil-Hazan said. “They vote in 
complete contradiction with the reality in their countries.”

According to the ECPM head, this is because of what he called a “strange 
solidarity”, but he said that the Caribbean must take the lead in its own 
affairs.

Don’t need death penalty

None of the 28 member states of the European Union supports the death penalty. 
However, it is still practised in places like the United States, which carried 
out 25 executions last year.

“You don’t need the death penalty because you don’t use it,” Chenuil-Hazan said 
of Jamaica.

At the same time, he said that the Caribbean is ripe for dialogue with a view 
to abolishing capital punishment.

Jamaica carried out its last execution in 1988, and in 1993 the United 
Kingdom-based Privy Council ruled in the landmark Pratt & Morgan case that it 
was unconstitutional to have an inmate on death row for more than 5 years.

This makes the possibility of executions in the Commonwealth Caribbean 
extremely difficult since a convict sentenced to death cannot exhaust all 
appeal channels within 5 years.

Meanwhile, Chenuil-Hazan said, if in the next 3 to 4 years, Caribbean countries 
vote in favour of the UN resolution or abolish the death penalty, it would be a 
major success.

But beyond the Caribbean, he said that this has been the most difficult year 
for the abolitionist group as the 52 countries where the death penalty is now 
implemented seem bent on continuing the practice.

(source: Jamaica Gleaner)

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

End the death penalty



The death penalty is a cruel violation of the basic right to life and robs 
people of the chance to repent and make amends for the crimes they have 
committed, Pope Francis said.

The right to life is “the source of all gifts and of all other rights” that 
must be protected, the pope said in a video message to participants at the 
World Congress Against the Death Penalty Feb. 27.

“The death penalty is therefore a serious violation of the right to life of 
every person,” he said.

According to the conference’s website, the goal of the World Congress Against 
the Death Penalty is to encourage “countries to make concrete commitments, 
mobilize public opinion and help to develop common strategies” to abolish the 
death penalty.

In his message, the pope recognized the need for governments to protect their 
citizens from “serious crimes that threaten the common good and the safety of 
people.”

On the other hand, he said, “we can never abandon the conviction of offering 
even those guilty of crime the possibility of repentance.”

“For this very reason, it is a positive sign that more and more countries are 
taking a chance on life and no longer use the death penalty or have removed it 
completely from their criminal legislation,” he said.

Pope Francis said that although the death penalty was once seen as an 
appropriate response to some crimes, “the dignity of the person is not lost 
even when he or she has committed the worst of crimes.”

The abolition of the death penalty, he added, represents “a courageous 
affirmation of the principle of the dignity of the human person” and the 
conviction that humanity can confront crime while “also rejecting evil.”

“No one’s life can be taken and deprive them of the opportunity to once again 
embrace the community he or she wounded and made suffer,” the pope said.

Last August, the pope ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic 
Church, which says that “the church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that 
‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability 
and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition 
worldwide.”

(source: Catholic News Service)





INDIA:

Shakti mill case: Centre defends provision of death penalty in rape cases



“Rape not only affects the person but also the victims soul and in addition to 
physical harm it has psychological impact on the victim, state not only has a 
duty to punish the offender but also deter future crimes,” argued the Union 
Government on Wednesday in the Bombay High Court. The arguments were made while 
opposing the plea filed by three convicts in the Shakti Mills rape case, 
challenging validity of section 376 (E) of the Indian Penal Code which 
stipulates death penalty for second time offenders.

Additional Solicitor General, Anil Singh argued that the rape victims reluctant 
to lodge case, society also looks down on a victims, neighbors are also 
suspicious, which leads to a social stigma to the victim.

3 convicts Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali and Salim Ansari, have challenged the 
Constitutional validity of the section 376 (E), claiming that they could not be 
treated as repeat offender, as they were not convicted, earlier, before being 
charged with the amended section, in the photojournalist case.

Singh opposed the grounds raised by the petitioners saying that the statutory 
and constitutional powers of remission and commutation by the 
Governor/President are not taken away as claimed by the petitioners. Singh 
relied on Supreme Court judgments stating that as prescribed in the section 376 
(E), where life sentence is up to the end of natural life of a convict, is also 
mentioned in other punishments. Further, the amended section does not create a 
different category of offenders.

Singh also argued in court that the section 376 (E) as claimed by the convicts 
that it was convictions based. Advocate Dr Yug Mohit Chaudhary appearing for 
the convicts have argued that he enhancement of punishment to death has to be 
in a subsequent offence, after conviction. However, Singh claimed that the 
section only reads as subsequent offence and not conviction. The hearing will 
continue on Thursday.

(source: dnaindia.com)

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

How The Poems Written By A Death Convict Helped Him To Save From The Gallows?



The Supreme Court commuted death penalty of a kidnap cum murder convict, who 
was just 22 years of age at the time of occurrence. The bench comprising of 
Justice AK Sikri, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice MR Shah, particularly 
took note of the poems written by Dnyaneshwar while he was in jail and observed 
that these poems show that he has realised his mistake and has reformed.

Dnyaneshwar was convicted and sentenced to capital punishment under Sections 
302, 364 and Section 201 read with Section 34 of the IPC for murdering a minor 
child named 'Rishikesh'.

Before the Apex Court, Senior Advocate Anand Grover brought to the notice of 
the bench the poems written by the accused in the jail and submitted that it 
reflects his current state of mind and that he has realized the mistake 
committed by him at the time when he was just 22 years of age and that he is 
reformative. During the span of 18 years in the jail, not only he has learned a 
lesson but he has realized the mistake committed by him and he has tried to 
become a civilized person and that he has completed his graduation in Bachelor 
of Arts (B.A.) and has also undergone training of Gandhian thoughts undertaken 
by Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, the Court was told.

The bench then considered the following mitigating circumstances in his favour, 
to commute the death sentence: "The accused at the time of commission of the 
offence was aged of 22 years; that, by now, he has spent 18 years in the jail; 
that, while in jail, his conduct is good; that, the accused has tried to join 
the society and has tried to become a civilized man and has completed his 
graduation in B.A. from jail. He has tried to become reformative; that, from 
the poems, written by him in the jail, it appears that he has realised his 
mistake which was committed by him at the time when he was of young age and 
that he is reformative; therefore the appellant can be reformed and 
rehabilitated."

The bench observed that these factors show there is a possibility he would not 
commit similar criminal acts and would not be a continuing threat to the 
society.

"It is required to be noted that the accused was not a previous convict or a 
professional killer. At the time of commission of offence, he was 22 years of 
age. His jail conduct is also reported to be good." the bench added. "We have 
considered each of the circumstance and the crime as well as the facts leading 
to the commission of the crime by the accused. Though, we acknowledge the 
gravity of the offence, we are unable to satisfy ourselves that this case would 
fall in the category of 'rarest of rare case' warranting the death sentence. 
The offence committed, undoubtedly, can be said to be brutal, but does not 
warrant death sentence. It is required to be noted that the accused was not a 
previous convict or a professional killer".

(source: livelaw.in)



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

Centre defends provision of death penalty in rape cases



Justifying the legislature's decision to provide death penalty for repeat 
offence of rape, the Union government Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that 
rape laws had been amended in 2013 to introduce a powerful deterrent against 
such crimes.

The Centre made the submission before a bench hearing writ petitions filed by 
the 3 convicts in the Shakti Mills gangrape case here challenging the 
constitutional validity of the death sentence awarded to them by the trial 
court in 2014.

Arguing on behalf of the Union, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told 
the high court that the IPC Section 376, that comprise the penal provisions for 
the offence of rape, had been amended following much deliberation.

None of the provisions introduced through the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 
2013, was unconstitutional, he noted.

"An act of rape is a very serious offence for even when it is non-homicidal, it 
doesn't merely cause physical harm to the victim, but, it affects her soul and 
her personality too," Singh said.

"In most instances, because of the stigma attached to the offence of rape, 
victims do not come forward to register a case.

"Therefore, considering that it is the state's duty not just to punish, but 
also to prevent a crime, the new, stricter provisions governing the offence of 
rape were introduced in 2013," he said.

Singh was arguing before the bench of justices B P Dharamadhikari and Revati 
Mohite-Dere that is hearing the writ petitions filed by the three convicts 
Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali and Salim Ansari.

The convicts, through their counsel Yug Chaudhry, had argued on the previous 
hearing that the death sentence awarded to them violated their fundamental 
right to life.

They had also said IPC Section 376 (E), under which they had been granted the 
death penalty, had been introduced by the legislature in "haste" and in an 
arbitrary manner, without laying down the procedure under the Code of Criminal 
Procedure for its implementation.

Singh, however, disagreed with their arguments.

He said the new provisions were in consonance with legal requirements and they 
do not need to stand the test of constitutional rights.

"Section 376 (E) does not introduce a new category of punishment, and 
therefore, the existing provisions governing rape laws, the death penalty, and 
enhanced punishment in cases of repeat offences, are adequate to govern its 
implementation," the ASG maintained.

In April 2014, a sessions court in the city held five persons guilty in the 
case.

One of them, Siraj Khan, was sentenced to life imprisonment. A 2nd person, a 
minor, was sent to a correctional facility.

Jadhav, Bengali and Ansari were awarded the death penalty under the then newly 
introduced section 376 (E) of the IPC since the 3 had also been convicted in a 
previous case of gangrape.

The trio, however, moved the High Court soon after their conviction, 
challenging the constitutional validity of section 376 (E).

In March 2013, following the December 2012 gangrape case in New Delhi, the 
Union government amended the rape laws in the country, introducing several 
stringent provisions, including Section 376 (E).

This section says if a person, who has been previously convicted for rape under 
IPC Section 376, is subsequently found guilty in a similar offence, the courts 
can sentence him to imprisonment for the rest of his life, or, even award the 
death penalty.

The 3 petitioners were convicted for raping a city-based photojournalist in the 
premises of defunct Shakti Mills here in August 2013.

(source: business-standard.com)








SRI LANKA:

102 applications for executioner post – Prisons Dept.



According to the Ministry of Justice and Prison Reforms, 102 applications have 
been received by the ministry for the post of the executioner.

Senior Assistant Secretary of the Ministry, Bandula Jayasinghe said that among 
the applicant, a foreign national, too, have applied for the post. However, the 
application of the foreigner will be discarded without consideration, he added.

Reportedly, consideration of rest of the applications has already commenced and 
applicants will be called in for interviews accordingly.

The President emphasized on several occasions that the death penalty would be 
imposed on those who are found guilty of drug-related offenses and the 
Department of Prisons called for applications for the post of the executioner.

There are 48 inmates who have been sentenced to death due to drug-related 
offenses; however, only 17 inmates will be receiving the death penalty for 
certain as the rest have appealed their cases, stated the Ministry.

(source: adaderana.lk)








PAKISTAN:

SC rejects appeal of death sentence convict



The Supreme Court on Wednesday maintained the decision of Lahore High Court and 
rejected the acquittal appeal of a death sentence convict. A three-member Bench 
of the court headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and comprising 
Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah heard the case filed by Ahmed 
Ali convicted for death penalty over murder of his 2 sons.

During the course of proceedings, the Chief Justice remarked that accused’s 
relations with his 1st wife were not good and motive of the murder matter was 
his 2nd marriage. He observed that the accused brutally killed his 2 sons 
without any reason which was not acceptable.

He remarked that the accused’s 3rd son was the eyewitness of the incident and 
his witness could not be rejected as a son could not register false witness 
against his father. It is to mention that death sentence convict Ahmed Ali 
killed his 2 sons Waqas and Faraz in agriculture farms in Pakpattan in 2009.

The trial court had awarded 2 time death sentence to the convict and the Lahore 
High Court also maintained trial court verdict.

The Supreme Court also maintained LHC decision and rejected the appeal.

(source: nation.com.pk)




MALAYSIA:

Community leaders call for in-depth study on capital punishment



The death penalty should not be abolished without thorough study and taking 
into account the feedback from various communities.

Bidayuh community leader for Kuching Division, Temenggong Austin Dimin Niyon 
said an in depth study on the ramification of the death penalty abolishment 
must first be carried out.

“Abolishing the law on death penalty should not be done in haste, in-depth 
study should be carried out involving all communities and religious 
institutions in the country,” he said yesterday.

Austin said if it is proven that the death penalty had been a deterrent to 
people committing serious crimes then it should be retained.

Penghulu Richard Daho is of the opinion that death penalty should only be meted 
out after all due process of the law have been exhausted.

“If we look at section 39B of the Dangerous Drug Act and section 302 of the 
Penal Code, the sentences are carried out after all due process of law have 
been considered.

“If we abolish death penalty, then the innocent society will suffer, our prison 
will be full of convicts…if one raped, killed and trafficked drugs, he or she 
should face the consequences,” he pointed out.

According to him, the advocacy to abolish death penalty by the human rights 
movement is not practical as there has to be a strong deterrent against serious 
crimes.

Bidayuh Pemanca for Kuching District Raymond Jihap said the death penalty 
should not be abolished.

However, he believed that death sentence should be only imposed after 
mitigating factors have been taken into account.

“In drugs cases for example the big dealers should get death sentence, but not 
the smalltime pushers.

Meanwhile, lawyer Datuk Detta Samen, said death penalty should be abolished to 
comply with the international norms.

“Further, there is no evidence to show that death penalty has deterred the 
criminals, for example, drug trafficking is still rampant with the mandatory 
death sentence,” he pointed out.

Former state assemblyman Datuk David Teng, who is a lawyer by profession, said 
the Malaysian public must have a say on the abolishing of the death penalty.

A bill to abolish the death penalty will be tabled in Parliament next month, 
and Teng said the federal government should prove that majority of Malaysians 
are supportive of the Bill, and not leave the decision-making to 222 
parliamentarians.

Teng said the death penalty should be maintained, adding that in Malaysia the 
death penalty is only meted out for capital offences like murder, drug 
trafficking and death resulting from rape, kidnapping and robbery.

According to Teng, 56 countries still maintain the death penalty including 
developed countries like United States, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan.

(source: The Borneo Post)








EGYPT:

Law imposing death penalty comes in line with IHRL: Egypt’s Human Rights 
Council



"The law imposing the death penalty comes in accordance with the International 
Human Rights Laws,” Hafez Abu Saada, member of the National Council for Human 
Rights, said.

“President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi explained in his speech in the closing ceremony 
of the first European-Arab League Summit the extraordinary conditions Egypt 
undergoes that might force him to take severe and quick procedures to combat 
terrorism,” Abu Saada told Egypt Today.

“We are still in the construction stage. Egypt has faced a lot of challenges 
that resulted in the death of more than 1,200 martyrs and the injury of more 
than 20,000. Thus, combating terrorism is a necessity. We cannot encourage 
tourists to visit Egypt when Egyptians are in danger,” Abu Saada further 
elaborated.

Abu Saada stated that the martyrs’ families insist on taking revenge, yet the 
government insists to get their rights back according to the law and 
constitution, reiterating that Egypt respects and is committed to following the 
International Human Rights Laws.

“Sisi does not invent illusive challenges or threats; terrorism is real and we 
have no choice but to combat it mercilessly. On the other hand, Europe does not 
face the same challenges so it speaks day and night about human rights.”

Abu Saada concluded his speech referring to the bilateral agreement between 
France and Belgium in which they vowed to intensify cooperation to eradicate 
terrorism by sentencing all violators to death. Hence, such severe sentences 
are applicable and acceptable to preserve a state's stability.

(source: Egypt Today)








IRAN:

UN Urges Iran To End Child Executions



In his latest report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council February 27, UN 
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran Javaid Rehman 
raised his concern over human rights violations in Iran, paying particular 
attention to the way the death penalty is carried out in the Islamic Republic.

A British-Pakistani legal scholar and Professor of Islamic Law and 
International Law at Brunel University, Rehman expressed deep regret that 
children as young as 9 years old can still be executed, noting that at least 33 
minors have been executed for their offenses since 2013.

Rehman said Iran must "urgently amend legislation to prohibit the execution of 
persons who committed [a crime] while below the age of 18 years and as such are 
children, and urgently amend the legislation to commute all existing sentences 
for child offenders on death row.”

While praising the decline of the number of executions related to narcotics and 
drugs smuggling following a recent amendment of the law, Rehman noted that the 
death penalty should only be imposed for the “most serious crimes,” a term 
widely understood to mean only premeditated killings.

“Concerns were raised following the establishment of special courts in August 
2018 to try 'economic crimes' which carry the death penalty,” Rehman said.

Furthermore, Rehman pointed to reports indicating that ethnic and religious 
minority groups constitute a disproportionately large percentage of persons 
executed or imprisoned in Iran

"Concerns have been raised, for example, about the situation of Hedayat 
Abdollahpour, a Kurdish Iranian, whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme 
Court upon its 2nd review in October 2018 amidst reports that he had been 
subjected to torture in detention and had been denied access to a lawyer of his 
choice" Rehman maintained.

Rehman also raised the issues of the detention of Iranians with dual 
citizenship, the suppression of ethnic minorities, including Sufi dervishes of 
the Gonabadi denomination, Baha'is, newly converted Christians, and widespread 
detentions in the provinces of Azarbaijan, Kurdestan, and Sistan & Blauchestan.

The recent crackdown on labor rights in Iran was also given special attention 
in Rehman’s report.

Workers’ strikes at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane mill in the city of Shush, the 
Iran National Steel Industrial Group (INSIG) in Ahvaz, in the oil-rich province 
of Khuzestan, as well as widespread protests by teachers and truckers were 
noted.

Rehman offered the Islamic Republic a list of recommendations for improving its 
human rights record, including ending the death penalty for all but the most 
serious crimes, ensuring that prisoners are protected from torture and 
ill-treatment, including coerced confessions, guaranteeing all accused access 
to a lawyer of their choosing, and addressing all forms of discrimination 
against religious and ethnic minorities and ending persecutions of these 
groups.

(source: radiofarda.com)








VATICAN CITY:

Pope encourages group working to end use of death penalty



In a video message sent Wednesday to an international anti-death penalty group 
Pope Francis encouraged them in their work and deliberations.

“Human life is a gift that we have received, the most important and primary, 
the source of all other gifts and rights. As such it needs to be protected,” 
Pope Francis said Feb. 27 to the seventh World Congress Against the Death 
Penalty, being held in Brussels.

“The death penalty is a serious violation of the right to life of every person. 
While it is certain that societies and human communities often face very grave 
delicts which threaten the common good and the security of persons, it is no 
less certain that today there are other means to expiate the harm caused, and 
detention systems are increasingly more effective in protecting society from 
the evil which some persons can occasion,” the pope stated.

“On the other hand, there can never be abandoned the conviction of offering 
even to those culpable of crimes the possibility of repentance.”

He added that “it is a positive sign that more and more countries are betting 
on life and no longer utilize the penalty of death, or have completely 
eliminated it from their penal legislation.”

“For believers, human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. For 
believers and non-believers alike, every life is a good and its dignity must be 
guarded without exception,” the pope said.

“The dignity of the person is not lost even when they have committed the worst 
of the crimes. No one can be killed and deprived of the opportunity to embrace 
the community they wounded and made to suffer.”

The Church has “always defended life,” Pope Francis said, “and her vision of 
the death penalty has matured.”

He said that it was “for this reason” that the text of the Catechism of the 
Catholic Church was changed last year.

In August 2018, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a new 
draft of the catechism's paragraph regarding capital punishment.

Quoting Pope Francis’ words in a speech of Oct. 11, 2017, the new paragraph 
states, in part, that “the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that 
‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability 
and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition 
worldwide.”

Reasons for changing the teaching, the paragraph says, include: the increasing 
effectiveness of detention systems, growing understanding of the unchanging 
dignity of the person, and leaving open the possibility of conversion.

The Church has consistently taught that the state has the authority to use the 
death penalty, in cases of “absolute necessity,” though with the qualification 
that the Church considered such situations to be extremely rare.

Fr. Thomas Petri, O.P., a moral theologian at the Dominican House of Studies in 
Washington, D.C., told CNA at the time that he thinks this change “further 
absolutizes the pastoral conclusion made by John Paul II.”

“Nothing in the new wording of paragraph 2267 suggests the death penalty is 
intrinsically evil. Indeed, nothing could suggest that because it would 
contradict the firm teaching of the Church,” Fr. Petri continued.

Both of Pope Francis’s immediate predecessors condemned the practice of capital 
punishment in the West.

St. John Paul II called on Christians to be “unconditionally pro-life” and said 
that “the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of 
someone who has done great evil.” He also spoke of his desire for a consensus 
to end the death penalty, which he called “cruel and unnecessary.”

And Benedict XVI exhorted world leaders to make “every effort to eliminate the 
death penalty” and told Catholics that ending capital punishment was an 
essential part of “conforming penal law both to the human dignity of prisoners 
and the effective maintenance of public order.”

Pope Francis concluded his video message encouraging the meeting in Belgium.

“I accompany you with my prayer, and I encourage the governors and all those 
with responsibilities in their countries to take the necessary steps towards 
the total abolition of the death penalty,” he said.

“It is our responsibility to recognize the dignity of each person, so that no 
other lives are taken away, but are earned for the good of all society.”

(source: Catholic News Agency)








KENYA:

Rev. Njoya: The corrupt in Kenya should be hanged



Outspoken man of cloth Reverend Timothy Njoya has proposed a capital punishment 
for Kenyan leaders who are caught in corruption scandals.

Njoya explained that the massive plunder in the country was being fueled by a 
cartel of super rich people who were intent on robbing the poor silly with the 
knowledge that they were above the law.

He faulted the president for being slow to act on the corruption scandals whose 
amounts were in hundreds of billions.

Speaking with Citizen TV’s Jeff Koinange, Njoya said that the best punishment 
Uhuru would mete out to the corrupt few would be death by hanging.

“If Uhuru Kenyatta’s father hanged the poor for robbing the rich why can’t he 
(Uhuru) do the same; hang a few for robbing the poor, “Njoya said.

He suggested that if a few cabinet secretaries were sentenced to hang, others 
with equally sticky fingers would think twice before jumping in.

Njoya alluded to the bible story in which a couple; Ananias and Sapphira were 
struck dead by the holy spirit for conspiring to steal proceeds meant for the 
poor.

“If you rob the poor, or conspire to lie to the poor, then you deserve to be 
hanged because that is a capital offense,”he added.

His unorthodox proposition comes hot in the wake of a new scandal in town where 
KSh. 21 billion meant for the construction of Arror and Kimwarer Dams In Elgeyo 
Marakwet County disappeared.

It has since emerged that Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, Devolution 
Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa and Treasury PS Kamau Thugge may be questioned 
by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) as detectives dig into the 
dam’s scandal.

(source: citizentv.co.ke)

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

Raila proposes death penalty for corrupt officials to slay graft dragon



The ODM party leader argued Kenya does not have a better mechanism for fighting 
corruption - He cited KSh 21 billion Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal as one of 
the cases which may warrant death as punishment

(source: tuko.co.ke)