[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 4



NIGERIA:

20 Condemned Convicts Escape Death as Ambode Commutes Sentences • Frees 14 who 
had spent 20 years in prison



No fewer than 20 condemned prisoners in Lagos were saved from the hangman when 
the state government commuted their death sentences to life imprisonment just 
as it freed 14 inmates who had spent 20 years in prison.

This was sequel to the recommendations of the Advisory Council on Prerogative 
of Mercy which toured the prisons to review cases in the drive to decongest 
prisons.

This was made known when the State’s Attorney General and Commissioner for 
Justice, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem (SAN) was handing over the order for the release of 
the inmates signed by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to prison authorities.

Kazeem explained that the development was pursuant to Constitutional provision 
for the constitution of an Advisory Council and empowered the Governor power to 
grant clemency to convicted persons on the advice of the Council.

“Prerogative of Mercy is a right recognised under the 1999 Constitution of the 
Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended); Section 212(2) of the Constitution 
provides that the powers conferred on the Governor under Section 212(1) shall 
be exercised by him after consultation with the Advisory Council of the State 
on the Prerogative of Mercy as may be established by the Law of the State,” 
Kazeem explained.

According to him, the inmates were considered to benefit from the prerogative 
of mercy after due examination of their case files, which revealed that they 
had been reformed and ready for re-integration into the society.

Kazeem congratulated the freed inmates, and advised them to be of good conduct 
outside the prison.

Also speaking, Chairman of the Council, Prof. Oyelowo Oyewo said aside its 
power under the Constitution, the setting up of the Council also served as a 
way of de-congesting the prisons.

He equally congratulated the beneficiaries of the clemency by the Governor, and 
urged them to avoid acts that led them into prison in the first place.

The Controller of Prison in charge of Kirikiri Maximum Prison, DCP Emmanuel 
Oluwaniyi commended the State Government for the efforts to decongest the 
prison.

Oluwaniyi, who was newly deployed to the state, said it was gratifying that he 
was commencing his stewardship in the state on a good note with the release of 
inmates who were due to be re-integrated into the society, just as he equally 
admonished them to be of good conduct outside the prison.

Aside Oyewo and Kazeem, other members of the Lagos State Advisory Council on 
Prerogative of Mercy are Mr. Adedotun Adetunji, Mrs. Musili Onasanya, Mr. 
Olumide Oniyire, Mr. Chris Okoye, Mrs. Bolatumi Animashaun, and Mrs. Yemisi 
Ogunlola (Secretary).

(source: This Day Live)








MALAWI:

Malawi gives personal 'emergency alarms' to albino citizens



The Malawian government is handing out some 1,600 personal security alarms to 
its albino citizens, in an attempt to stop deadly attacks on the community.

"The gadgets will be distributed to persons with albinism in all the regions in 
Malawi," Cecilia Chazama, minister for Gender, Children and Disability, said 
Friday.

Albinos are targeted in Malawi and some other African countries because of the 
superstitious belief that their body parts are magic and can make people rich.

Francis Masambuka, an albino activist, welcomed the project but stressed it 
wasn't a cure-all solution to attacks on people with the condition - which 
causes lack of skin pigmentation.

"The gadgets are connected to the network of nearest police stations...and once 
a person with albinism is under threat, they can press it and the police can 
rush to the scene," he said.

Some 24 people with albinism have been killed and 160 attacks reported to 
police since 2014, according to figures from the Association of Persons with 
Albinism in Malawi.

The emergency buttons - which will be distributed Saturday - are being 
introduced amid continued attacks. Since December, 1 man has been reported 
killed and 2 children abducted.

Despite the Malawian government's promise to tackle the problem, rights groups 
have complained that few suspected of crimes against albinos are successfully 
prosecuted.

However, on Friday a Malawi court sentenced a man found guilty of murdering an 
albino to death. The death penalty has not been carried out in Malawi for 
years, usually meaning life imprisonment instead.

Willard Mikaele, a 28-year-old barber from Thyol district, was found guilty of 
strangling to death 19-year-old Mphatso Pensulo. He said he had been advised by 
a witchdoctor to kill a person with albinism if he wanted to get rich.

"The motive behind the killing was as devilish as it is primitive. I want to 
agree with the state that death sentence is appropriate as it reflects a sense 
of justice in the circumstances," said Justice Maclean Kamwambe.

(source: iol.co.za)








TAIWAN:

Death penalty on table of 2nd Taiwan-EU consultations<>P>

The issue of the death penalty in Taiwan is expected to be tackled when 
Taiwanese and European Union (EU) officials hold the annual Human Rights 
Consultations later this month.

Taiwan and the EU agreed to hold their 2nd annual Human Rights Consultations in 
Brussels in mid May, and the meeting will be attended by high-ranking 
representatives from both sides, an EU official who spoke on condition of 
anonymity told CNA.

The EU will raise the issue of the death penalty and gender equality this year, 
the official further revealed, adding that it was the EU's position to ask 
Taiwan to put a moratorium on carrying out capital punishment, with an ultimate 
goal of abolishing it.

Taiwan and the EU held the 1st installment of the meeting in Taipei in March 
2018, in which death penalty and gender equality were also on the agenda.

However, Taiwan's Ministry of Justice executed a man convicted of murdering his 
ex-wife and daughter just 5 months after the 1st Human Rights Consultations. In 
response, the EU issued a statement expressing its concerns over the execution.

In that statement, the EU described the death penalty as a "cruel and inhumane" 
form of punishment which failed to act as a deterrent to crimes and represented 
an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity.

Some Taiwanese people rejected the EU statement, saying European countries 
should not impose their values on Taiwan.

Nonetheless, the EU said it will continue its dialogue with Taiwan on this 
issue.

It has been consistently advocating the abolishment of the death penalty, even 
making it a requirement for countries to join the regional bloc.

(source: focustaiwan.tw)








IRAN:

UN Stresses Execution of Child Offenders in Iran “Absolutely Prohibited” by 
International Law



The execution of 2 17-year-old boys in Iran on charges of rape and robbery, 
after a trial that appears to have seriously breached fundamental due process 
guarantees, is deplorable, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle 
Bachelet said on Friday. She, once again, urged the authorities in Iran to 
ensure that executions of child offenders are immediately halted.

“The prohibition of executions of child offenders is absolute under the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and under the Convention 
on the Rights of the Child,*” Bachelet said. “Iran is party to both human 
rights treaties and obliged to abide by them. These two cases are particularly 
outrageous because it appears that both boys were reportedly subjected to 
ill-treatment and a flawed legal process.”

Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat were 15 years old when they were arrested 
and accused of rape and robbery in 2017. According to information received by 
the UN Human Rights Office, they were held in a police detention center for two 
months, where they were initially deprived of their right to a lawyer, beaten 
and reportedly coerced into making false confessions. The boys had originally 
denied all charges. They were later convicted and sentenced to death.

Their families and lawyers brought their case to the Supreme Court, which 
overturned the lower court’s sentence of capital punishment and ordered a 
retrial. The lower court again convicted the boys and sentenced them to death. 
Apparently, neither the victims nor their families were aware that the 
executions were going to take place. They were executed on 25 April 2019 in 
Shiraz in the southern Fars Province.

Sohrabifar and Sedaghat were reportedly flogged prior to their execution. 
Flogging is also prohibited under the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child as an act 
that amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and possibly torture.

It is understood that none of the courts involved took into due consideration 
the medical evidence of Sohrabifar’s mental health, including the fact he had 
attended a school for children with special needs for a decade. Article 91 of 
the amended Islamic Penal Code gives judges the discretion to exempt children 
from the death penalty if the judge assesses that the child did not realize the 
nature of the crime or if there is uncertainty about his or her mental 
development.

“I am appalled,” Bachelet said. “My Office has been engaging with Iran to 
advocate for a total ban on executions of people who were minors at the time of 
the offence. I once again call on the authorities to halt all executions of 
juvenile offenders, and to immediately commute all such death sentences.”

The UN Human Rights Office opposes the use of the death penalty in all 
circumstances.

* International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 6.5: “Sentence 
of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen 
years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women.”

Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 37: “States Parties shall ensure 
that:

(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading 
treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment 
without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by 
persons below 18 years of age.”

(source: Iran Human Rights)








YEMEN:

Stop death penalty sentences against convicts in Yemen



Joint statement: Stop death penalty sentences against convicts in Yemen

Geneva - The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, SAM for Rights and 
Liberties and AFD International warned in a joint statement that the courts of 
the Houthi group in Yemen will continue to carry out death sentences against 
political opponents without regard to fair trial conditions.

The three organizations said in a statement that al-Houthi group had turned the 
judicial system in the areas under its control into a political tool to settle 
accounts with its political opponents. The group detained and tried hundreds of 
civilians on broad charges and violated all legal procedures to ensure the 
rights of the accused.

According to their sources, the three organizations said that the 
Houthi-controlled courts consistently and blatantly violated all justice 
procedures and denied detainees and their lawyers the right of defense 
guaranteed under domestic and international law.

The joint statement pointed out that most of the detainees in al-Houthi prisons 
were illegally taken and subjected to enforced disappearance for several months 
before being shown in illegal detention centers that are not under the 
supervision of the Public Prosecution. They are subjected to various kinds of 
psychological and physical torture during detention, and are forced to sign 
confessions they know nothing about their content.

The organizations indicated that they documented a number of cases where 
executions were made against a group of civilians. It took only one session to 
issue sentences ending their lives. The court did not give the defense body the 
right to plead guilty.

The organizations quoted a Yemeni lawyer, speaking on condition of anonymity, 
as saying that the right to defend the accused was completely lacking. “I 
attended a trial session for a group of defendants. I was surprised at the 
first session by the Judge pronouncing the death sentences for five of them. I 
asked the court for a copy of the case file and the hearing was adjourned, but 
my request was rejected immediately.”

The organizations pointed out that the courts under al-Houthi's control clearly 
violate the privacy of the detainees. In some cases, the detainee is 
photographed during the interrogation period, which is not permissible by the 
law.

A photo and audio recordings of the detainee are published via media, with the 
public inciting against them in an attempt to prepare the public opinion to 
accept and encourage the harsh sentences against the accused.

The organizations have shown that such measures are a clear violation of the 
criminal justice law and fair trial rules and raise serious concerns about the 
intention to issue harsh sentences against detainees.

Since March 2015, the Houthi courts have issued 55 death sentences against 
civilians. The courts have not observed fair trial guarantees, an indication of 
a loss of confidence in Yemen's entire judicial system.

Concluding their statement, the organizations issued an urgent appeal to all 
the relevant international parties to pressure the al-Houthi group to stop the 
execution of a number of defendants and to urge the group to stop the 
politicized verdicts and death sentences issued against dozens of Yemenis on 
fabricated charges.

The organizations urged that all parties to the conflict in Yemen, including 
armed groups, should respect the rules of international humanitarian law and 
spare civilians any dangers they may incur, stressing the need for urgent UN 
intervention to end the suffering of thousands of detainees in prisons in 
Yemen.

(source: scoop.co.nz)








EUROPE:

Preacher who said ‘gays should face death penalty’ to be banned from most of 
Europe



An anti-gay preacher has been banned from entering most of Europe, Dutch 
officials have confirmed.

Steven Anderson, from Arizona, US, has previously called for the execution of 
gay people by stoning and said it was ‘good news’ that 49 victims died in the 
Orlando nightclub mass shooting.

LGBTI campaigners, Dutch MPs and Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, called on 
the government to block the preacher’s entry ahead of his European tour, which 
included events in Ireland and Sweden.

Dutch security minister Mark Harbers announced he had taken steps to stop 
Anderson entering the Schengen Area, comprising 26 European countries, for a 
planned visit to The Netherlands on May 23.

In a statement issued to Dutch parliament on Wednesday, Harbers said: ‘There is 
no place in a democratic nation like ours for discrimination, incitement to 
hatred or intolerance and violence on any grounds. ‘Civil liberties are not a 
license for intolerant behaviour that limits the freedoms of others.

‘The government is committed to taking strong action against extremist speakers 
who, by spreading their beliefs restrict the freedoms of others or incite 
people to hatred or violence.’

Amsterdam’s mayor Halsema said he was ‘relieved’ at the decision to block 
Anderson.

Philip Tijsma, a spokesman for Dutch LGBTI rights organisation COC, said the 
move was ‘a wise and good decision’.

Anderson founded the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, in 2005, 
which describes itself as an ‘old-fashioned, fundamental’ church which has made 
international headlines ever since. On its website, a doctrinal statement says: 
‘We believe that homosexuality is a sin and an abomination which God punishes 
with the death penalty.’

He has previously said in a 2014 sermon that the world would be cured of AIDS 
within months if ‘homos’ were stoned to death, reported Pink News.

Anderson said: ‘It’s curable, right there. Because if you executed the homos 
like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant.’

Following the Orlando Pulse nightclub attack, which killed 49 people and 
severely injured 53, he called it ‘good news’ because there were ‘less 
paedophiles in the world’ who wanted to ‘recruit people into their filthy 
lifestyle’.

He is also reported to have denied the Holocaust and to have prayed for 
President Barack Obama’s death because of his views on abortion rights.

(source: metro.co.uk)