[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 22




SOUTH AFRICA:

Buthelezi says there should be debate on bringing back death penalty



IFP leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, has said that there should be a debate around 
bringing back the death penalty in order to combat violent crime. He made the 
comments at the party's manifesto launch in Gauteng. However, Buthelezi added 
that this did not necessarily mean the IFP supported the death penalty.

The suggestion came as part of the IFP's new election promises, which include 
getting rid of e-tolls and subsidising the transport costs of unemployed people 
looking for work.

Other election promises included cracking down on crime and stimulating the 
economy. Buthelezi has been hard on the campaign trail. He has said that this 
will be his last election as IFP leader. He had initially suggested he would 
step down from the party leadership in 2017, but has continued because of 
alleged infighting within the IFP.

Despite his party having most of its support in KwaZulu-Natal, Eyewitness News 
reported that there were hundreds of supporters at his Gauteng event.

The supporters were reportedly enthusiastic and were seen dancing and waving 
knobkerries.

The IFP, which remains in 4th place in terms of voter support, appears to be 
trying to mobilise more voters and connect to South Africans through sweeping 
policy proposals.

(source: briefly.co.za)








NIGERIA:

Consider capital punishment for rapists, activist urges govt



An Abuja-based lawyer, Ms Oluwatoyin Falaiye, on Thursday urged the government 
at all levels to consider capital punishment for convicted rapists.

She also called for urgent action by government to review laws on sex offence 
in Nigeria.

Falaiye, founder of Jewels Hive Initiative, a non-governmental organisation who 
made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, particularly 
urged the government to establish a law to prosecute sexual abuses in minors.

She lamented the high rate of sexual abuse in the country, especially among 
minors in primary and secondary schools.

“Governments at all levels should be able to muster the courage to review these 
laws. If prompt action is taken on those found guilty, such acts of sexual 
indiscretion will be minimised.

She also urged the Federal Government to consider capital punishment for 
rapists.

Falaiye said that domesticating such laws would drastically reduce the rate of 
occurrence.

Falaiye further called on parents to build and develop better relationship with 
their children and show them enough love and understanding, noting that such 
would make them open up to parents.

According to her, this fight is beyond 1 person, it is a national clarion call.

The lawyer said that Jewels Hive Initiative was an awareness and advocacy based 
NGO that serves as a voice for victims of sex abuse and sexual violence.

She said that the organisation provides a safe space for victims of sex abuse 
in order to help them attain healing through counsel, mentoring and therapy.

She added that the NGO also seeks to get an abuser to admit to the wrongful and 
shameful act and seek forgiveness where it is possible to do so or face the 
full wrath of the law where necessary.

She added that the organisation encourages victims to speak up! about sexual 
abuse and not hesitate to report cases of abuse to the relevant authorities.

Falaiye said that in future the organisation would have a physical facility 
(The Pink Hive) where an abuse victim can hibernate for a period of time.

“The facility will include a dormitory, laboratory, therapy and vocation 
centers for girls who will have to be rescued from a place of abuse and taken 
through counsel.

“It will also include therapy and mentoring before reuniting them with their 
families and reintegrating them back into the society,” she said.

(source: punchng.com)








MALAYSIA:

Ex-IGP: NZ terrorist attacks an example of why we need the death penalty



Putrajaya should take heed of the terrorist attacks in Christchurch that killed 
50 people before deciding to abolish the mandatory death penalty, says Tan Sri 
Musa Hassan.

The former Inspector-General of Police claimed the terrorists were emboldened 
to attack the 2 mosques because New Zealand does not have the death sentence.

"They know in New Zealand there is no death penalty, so they would be brave to 
do it (launch the attacks). They think if I kill people, I won't be hung, and I 
will be released.

"If I sit in prison for a long time, I will get food, people are supporting 
me," Musa said during a press conference at Wisma MCA on Friday (March 22).

Musa added that even the relatives of the terrorist reportedly said he deserves 
the death penalty, and there are also petitions calling for him to receive the 
death sentence.

"The death penalty is still relevant in Malaysia", Musa said.

The press conference was held in response to the government's decision to 
abolish the mandatory death penalty for 11 serious criminal offences, including 
acts of terrorism, murder, and hostage taking.

The mandatory death penalty will be substituted with the death penalty, at the 
discretion of the court.

However, Musa said this was not enough to punish criminals who committed 
heinous crimes involving loss of life, as the court is often inclined to rule 
life imprisonment over the death penalty.

"Most probably, the judges feel that it is not their right to hand down the 
death penalty to the criminal.

"If every offences with death penalty is discretionary, then it would be 
difficult for the court to choose death penalty for criminals," he said.

"However, I agree that any crime that does not include loss of life can be 
given the discretionary death penalty," he said, adding that he has seen many 
drug trafficking cases where people were tricked into becoming drug mules.

Musa argued that removing the mandatory death penalty for heinous crimes such 
as those involving murder, torture, and terrorism will encourage a rise of 
serious crimes.

He said the law already protects criminals, as the police have a high burden of 
proof and must prove beyond reasonable doubt that a suspect is guilty.

To avoid the execution of innocent people, Musa said there is a need to improve 
the police's technique of investigation, so the judges can rule without doubt.

"In Malaysia, we are more concerned about the rights of criminals, rather than 
rights of victims. The government has a right to upkeep justice, justice for 
rakyat who obey the law, not for criminals," he said.

Also present during the press conference were lawyer Christina Teng and Malay 
Muslim NGO Ummah secretariat head Aminuddin Yahya, and brother of the late 
Datuk Kevin Morais, Datuk Richard Morais.

(source: thestar.com.my)








IRAN----execution

Man Hanged at Shirvan Prison----Salman was in prison since 5 years ago over a 
so-called honour killing.



A prisoner was executed at Shirvan Prison for murder charges last Saturday.

According to the IHR sources, on the morning of Saturday, March 13, a prisoner 
identified as Salman Azarpanah, was executed at Shirvan Prison. Shirvan is a 
city in North Khorasan Province of Iran.

A well-informed source told IHR, “Salman was in prison since 5 years ago over a 
so-called honour killing.”

The aforementioned execution has not been reported by Iranian media so far.

According to the Iran Human Rights statistic department, the majority of 
executions in 2017 and 2018 in Iran was for murder charges. At least 188 
prisoners were executed for murder charges in 2018. Only 33% of executions were 
announced by Iranian authorities in 2018.

There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results 
in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and 
intent.

(source: Iran Human Rights)




PHILIPPINES:

Revive death penalty – Jimenez



DANTE Jimenez, founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crimes and 
Corruption (VACC), has urged the public to support the crusade for the 
reinstatement of capital punishment.

Jimenez made the call on Thursday in connection with the gruesome murder of 
Christine Silawan, 16, on March 10 in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.

“This outrageous incident should now send the message for the government to 
draw the line and put an end to such heinous and bestial acts. It is now time 
to reinstate the death penalty and restore public order and sanity in society,” 
he said.

Silawan was found in a vacant lot on March 11, naked from the waist down, her 
head and face peeled off, exposing her skull.

She also bore multiple stab wounds in the body and the initial medico-legal 
report showed that her tongue, esophagus, trachea and right ear were ripped 
from her body.

Jimenez, at the same time, commended the National Bureau of Investigation 
(NBI)-Region 7 for the arrest on March 16 of one of the suspects in the Silawan 
case.

He said the NBI strictly followed protocol in arresting the 17-year-old suspect 
in Maribago, Lapu-Lapu City.

NBI-7 Director Tomas Enrile said, “We were very careful in handling the 
suspect. He was not forced to make any admission in the absence of a lawyer and 
a representative of the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Region 7.”

The NBI also conducted a parallel investigation with the Lapu-Lapu City Police 
Office, even as the Office of the President ordered a speedy resolution of the 
case.

Meanwhile, Jimenez also lauded the Philippine National Police for the arrest of 
suspect Jones Bueno in the killing of a 60-year-old farmer in Danao City, Cebu 
in January.

Bueno was also being investigated for his possible involvement in Silawan’s 
murder.

(source: Manila Times)

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

In Cebu, Dela Rosa says Silawan murder proves death penalty needed----Though 
there is no proof that Christine Lee Silawan's murderer is a drug addict, 
Ronald Dela Rosa points to her death as a reason to impose death penalty 
against drug traffickers



While campaigning in vote-rich Cebu, administration bet Ronald dela Rosa again 
used the gruesome murder of a Cebuano teen to drum up support for death 
penalty.

Dela Rosa, speaking in front of a large crowd in Mandaue City, said the rape 
and death of Chistine Lee Silawan is one example of a crime for which the only 
appropriate punishment is death by hanging.

"She went to her church to help in collection. When she went home, she can no 
longer be found. The next day, she was dead. She was raped and stabbed. 
Afterwards, the murderer wasn't content. He skinned her face, took off her 
beautiful face and turned it ugly. He skinned her face. Can an ordinary 
criminal do that?" he told the crowd.

A 17-year-old boy who had supposedly known Silawan before her death is under 
the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development as a suspect.

Another HNP candidate, Francis Tolentino, agreed that Silawan's murderer must 
be killed.

"Definitely the culprit there should be hanged," he said.

Tolentino later on maintained that the suspect must still be accorded his 
rights to due process but that he should get the "highest punishment" possible.

Reinstating the death penalty is Dela Rosa's number one campaign promise as 
senatorial candidate. President Rodrigo Duterte himself is pro-death penalty, 
saying it is the only way to seek retribution for heinous crimes.

16-year-old Silawan was stabbed and skinned after an afternoon spent helping 
out in a local church. Her murder shocked Cebu and the entire nation, with 
Duterte himself condemning the perpetrators.

(source: rappler.com)








INDIA:

Another rape death sentence commuted to life



Although the collective conscience of 3 subordinate judges were so shocked that 
they awarded the death sentence to a drug addict who brutally raped and 
murdered a 3-month-old infant on April 20, 2018, a three-judge bench of the 
Supreme Court commuted it to life in jail. Never mind the ordinance amending 
the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenders Act (POCSO) which allowed the 
death sentence for such heinous crimes. That was just a cosmetic gimmick.

And never mind the fact that the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked India as the 
most dangerous country for women, edging out Syria and Afghanistan for the top 
post because the Indian government allegedly did very little after the brutal 
rape and murder of Jyoti Singh or Nirbhaya in 2012. Now, the purpose of 
amending POCSO has been defeated by judicial interpretation.

The Supreme Court and 24 high courts have to uphold the legislative intention 
and policy but in several cases of men raping minor girls, the top court has 
protected the rights of the rapists rather than show sympathy for the victims 
who have very little rights under the law. After they are raped and burnt to 
death, they will remain forgotten forever.

The dastardly rape of the 3-month-infant in April 2018 so outraged Indore 
residents that they thrashed the brute outside the court after the verdict. The 
state bar council also asked its lawyers not to defend Navin Gadge, who was 
sentenced to death. But all this did not weigh with the Supreme Court judges 
who felt the death sentence was not warranted although the latest POCSO 
amendment allows death for such rapists. And so, another brute of a rapist has 
got a reprieve, thanks to the apex court.

The reasoning given by the Madhya Pradesh high court was not enough to rouse 
the conscience of a three-judge bench comprising CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justices S 
Andul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna. The Madhya Pradesh high court stated the rape 
of a infant was a “monstrous burial of her dignity in the darkness. It is a 
crime against the holy body of a girl child and the soul of the society and 
such a crime is aggravated by the manner in which it has been committed.

It was not committed by accused under any mental stress or emotional 
disturbance and it is difficult to comprehend that he would not commit such 
acts and would be reformed and rehabilitated. The act of the appellant / 
accused meets the test of “rarest of the rare case”.

The convict had abducted the infant in the wee hours of April 20, 2018 while 
she was fast asleep next to her mother. He had earlier fought with the infant’s 
grandmother for breaking his liquor bottle after he tried to force the old 
woman to consume liquor, perhaps with evil intentions.

When she refused to pay him for the broken bottle, he apparently planned his 
revenge by abducting her, raping her and brutally smashing her head. The crime 
got wide publicity which forced the trial court to pronounce the sentence 
within less than 2 months. But rather than being appreciated, the trial court’s 
efficiency got flak.

The point here is that India has not abolished the death penalty like some 
European countries which is why terrorists have been hung to death. But child 
rapists are as evil as terrorists and it is surprising that the same bench of 
the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of another rapist to life in jail 
on the ground that he could be reformed.

In the 2nd case, in January, 2019, the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh 
high court had confirmed the death sentence of Rabbu alias Sarvesh under 
various provisions of the POCSO Act. The prosecution case was the convict with 
a juvenile accomplice, brutally gangraped a 16-year-old girl who was studying 
for her SSC exam at home alone. He entered her house, raped and strangulated 
her with her underwear and set her on fire.

In February 2019, the Supreme Court again commuted to life term the death 
sentence awarded to one Jagdish for killing his wife and 5 children in cold 
blood in April 2009. The reason? “Unexplained delay” of 4 years by the Madhya 
Pradesh government in forwarding the mercy petition of the convict to the Union 
home ministry.

The apex court said there was a delay of almost 5 years in deciding the mercy 
petition as the state authorities did not send it to the home ministry for four 
years. A bench headed by Justice N V Ramana said that convict Jagdish had filed 
a mercy petition on October 13, 2009, but his plea was forwarded to the Union 
home ministry on October 15, 2013.

“The mercy petition is the last hope of a person on death row. Every dawn will 
give rise to a new hope that his mercy petition may be accepted. By night fall 
this hope also dies,” the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and 
Indira Banerjee said.

“Keeping in view that the petitioner has been incarcerated for almost 14 years, 
we are of the view that regardless of the brutal nature of the crime, this is 
not a fit case where death sentence should be executed and we, accordingly, 
commute the death sentence to that of life,” the apex court said.

The dictum that the death penalty is awarded in the rarest of rare cases to 
heinous criminals without any hope of reform was laid down in Bachchan Singh’s 
case in 1980 when the Supreme Court dissected the constitutionality of the 
death sentence after studying voluminous reports of the British and Indian Law 
Commissions apart from the practice of other countries.

The apex court laid down that the high courts were given wide leeway to 
pronounce a life term or a death sentence in heinous crimes such as dacoity 
where murder has been committed, brutal murders without any hope of reforming 
the criminal. And so our judiciary continues to indulge in academic debates 
over the need to reform rapists and murderers while the parents of those little 
girls who were raped and murdered relive an unending torment for the rest of 
their lives.

(source: Olav Abuquerque holds a PhD in law and is a journalist-cum-lawyer of 
the Bombay high court----freepressjournal.com)








PAKISTAN:

SHC annuls death penalty



The SHC annulled the death sentence of 2 accused on Thursday and released them 
in the case of firing on a police vehicle. A 2-member bench, comprising Justice 
Naimatullah Phulpoto and Justice KK Agha, announced the verdict on the plea and 
ordered the release of accused Abdur Rasheed and Nasir. According to the 
police, the accused were arrested in 2016 for injuring 2 police officials of 
Aram Bhagh Police Station, Naseer and Altaf Khan, in crossfire. A special 
anti-terrorism court had found them guilty and awarded death sentences to the 
accused.

(source: The Express Tribune)








SINGAPORE:

Malaysian executed in Singapore despite pleas for clemency----Migrant worker 
hanged at Changi Prison after being convicted of murdering construction worker

A Malaysian convicted of murder in Singapore has been executed in the city 
state despite an appeal by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and others 
to spare his life on humanitarian grounds.

Michael Garing, 30, a migrant worker from Sarawak, is the 2nd Malaysian to be 
hanged in the neighboring nation since Malaysia announced last year that it 
would follow international conventions and abolish the death penalty in its 
reform drive.

The Malaysian embassy in Singapore said in a statement that Michael’s execution 
took place at Changi Prison on the morning of March 22.

“His remains are expected to arrive at Sibu Airport tomorrow before being 
brought back to his hometown in Kapit,” an embassy spokesman told Malaysian 
news agency Bernama. “We are currently assisting Michael’s family members who 
are here.”

His parents, Ensiring anak Garman and Garing anak Kanyan, sent a clemency 
petition to Singapore President Halimah Yacob asking her to spare their son’s 
life by commuting his sentence to life imprisonment, Malaysian media reported.

Michael, who was 21 when the crime took place, was convicted of being part of a 
4-man gang involved in a series of muggings 1 night in May 2010 which led to 
the death of 41-year-old construction worker Shanmuganathan Dillidurai. 3 
others were severely injured.

Fellow accused Tony Imba was jailed for life with 24 strokes of the cane, while 
Hairee Landak, was sentenced in 2013 to 33 years’ imprisonment and 24 strokes 
of the cane. Donny Meluda, who was arrested 6 years later, was given a similar 
sentence in 2018.

Before Mahathir’s reformist government took over last year, both countries had 
pursued a policy of capital punishment for serious crimes including murder and 
drug trafficking since the days of British colonial rule.

Michael converted to Islam in prison and chose Muhammad Arif Sufi as his Muslim 
name, according to the embassy spokesman.

Malaysian Prabu Pathmanathan, 31, was hanged in Singapore in October 2018 after 
being convicted of smuggling heroin.

Malaysia announced last September that it would abolish the death penalty. 
There is a moratorium on the punishment in the multicultural, Muslim-majority 
Southeast Asian nation.

(source: ucanews.com)








SOMALIA:

Somali justice pronounces death penalty for 2 defendants



Somalia’s military court on Wednesday sentenced 2 al-Shabab fighters to death 
for their involvement in terrorist attacks and assassinations.

Chief of the First Tribunal of the Armed Forces of Somalia Hassan Ali Shute 
announced the verdict after Anshour Osman Abukar, 23, and Mohamed Ali Borow, 
25, were convicted of orchestrating and participating in al-Shabab attacks.

The 2 were found guilty of killing innocent civilians, organizing multiple 
explosions and other staged terror attacks at a complex in Mogadishu in 2017 
and 2018.

(source: africandailyvoice.com)