[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 12




PAKISTAN:

Aasia Bibi’s lawyer will now plead the case of a Christian couple on death-row



Saiful Malook, the lawyer who pleaded the case of Aasia Bibi is all set to 
fight the case of a Christian couple who are now on death row for committing 
blasphemy.

The couple was directed to pay Rs100,000 fine each and in case of default, they 
would further undergo 6 months’ imprisonment.

Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Masih were given death sentence under Section 295-C 
of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with Section 34 of the PPC by the 
additional sessions judge of Toba Tek Singh on April 4, 2014.

Saiful Malook advocate confirmed to a private source that he had submitted his 
Vakalatnama in the LHC to plead their case, saying that he had already met with 
Kausar in Multan jail.

Malook – who was offered citizenship by EU countries but returned to Pakistan 
to play his role in human rights matters – said Kausar is lodged in the same 
death cell, where Bibi was imprisoned before her acquittal in the blasphemy 
case by the Supreme Court late last year.

The couple’s appeal is pending in the Lahore High Court (LHC) and a hearing is 
likely to be fixed soon.

(source: Daily Times.com.pk)








IRAN:

Ahwazi Arab prisoners at risk of execution, Amnesty warns----Ahwazi Arab 
prisoners were sentenced to death at 'grossly unfair trial'. “Confessions” they 
have said were obtained under torture and other ill-treatment, were used to 
convict them.



Amnesty International has warned against the imminent execution of 2 members of 
Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority convicted of “enmity against God”.

Abdullah Karmollah Chab and Ghassem Abdullah, Sunni Muslims from Iran’s Ahwazi 
Arab minority, are on death row following a grossly unfair trial.

Amnesty says “confessions” they have said were obtained under torture and other 
ill-treatment, including electric shocks and mock executions, were used to 
convict them. Their cases are before the Supreme Court.

They have been convicted of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) in connection with 
an armed attack on a Shi’a religious ceremony in Safiabad, Khuzestan province, 
on 16 October 2015, which left 2 people dead.

They have denied any involvement in the attack.

Their lawyers have said there is no evidence linking them to the attack and 
have identified inconsistencies between the “confessions” that led to their 
convictions and the accounts of eyewitnesses present at the scene of the crime, 
according to Amnesty International.

On 19 October 2015, both men were arrested by the ministry of intelligence and 
held in solitary confinement in an unknown location for 6 months. They have 
since been moved to several different detention centres.

They have been given extremely limited access to their families through 
irregular telephone calls and only one visit. On 9 April 2019, they were 
transferred to a ministry of intelligence detention centre in Hamedan, Hamedan 
province, where they have been denied access to their families.

Both men have said they were subjected to months of torture in detention 
including by being beaten and given electric shocks.

Abdullah Karmollah Chab has said his interrogators hung him upside down for 11 
days and subjected him to mock executions, saying they would execute and bury 
him in an unmarked grave.

For three mornings in a row, according to him, they woke him, put a sack over 
his head and a noose around his neck, and told him that if he “confessed” he 
would not be executed.

He refused, saying he was innocent. On the third day, he said he heard one of 
the interrogators say: “Just let him go. If he had anything to confess he would 
have done so by now.”

Both men were denied access to a lawyer until the day of their trial, when they 
were represented by a state-appointed lawyer. During their trial before the 
Revolutionary Court in Ahvaz on 22 June 2016, they reportedly removed some of 
their clothes to show torture marks on their bodies to the court. However, no 
investigation was ordered.

Iran’s Supreme Court later quashed the conviction and sentence due to lack of 
evidence and flawed investigations and ordered a retrial. On 6 July 2017, they 
were sentenced to death again. The case is now again before the Supreme Court 
for appeal.

(source: iran-hrm.com)








BRUNEI:

Brunei LGBT community living in fear despite sultan's death penalty reprieve



When the Sultan of Brunei last week announced a moratorium on the 
much-condemned death penalty for gay sex, some hailed the move as a major 
advance. But inside the tiny South-East Asian nation, members of the LGBT 
community says there is little reason to celebrate - and much still to fear.

In an interview with the Telegraph, one gay man, who asked to be identified 
only as 'M', warned that the apparent turnaround would only be temporary. The 
moratorium declared following an international backlash was "for appearances 
only," he said, a "performative" reprieve adopted in part due to Ramadan.

Once the religious season was over, M said, he expected the death penalty would 
be reinstated. And even if it was not, he said, "it's a living hell here either 
way."

The sultan drew global condemnation over the Shariah penal code, which mandates 
punishments including death by stoning for sex outside marriage and anal sex; 
amputation of limbs for theft; and 40 lashes for lesbian sex. After protests 
led by celebrities such as George Clooney and Elton John and calls to boycott 
his luxury hotels, the authoritarian leader said a moratorium on the death 
penalty observed by Brunei for 2 decades would also be applied to the new laws.

But the announcement - accompanied by a rare English translation - was nothing 
but a "cynical attempt to reassure critics", said Neela Ghoshal, senior 
researcher for Human Rights Watch's LGBT rights programme.

"The sultan could reverse his decision on a whim, and the punishments of 
amputation and whipping could still be used," Ms Ghoshal said, adding that the 
silencing and terrorising of LGBT people continued.

One young lesbian, who asked to be identified as 'T', said that she was 
ostracised after a friend discovered and revealed her sexuality. After she was 
fired from her job, an influential man blackmailed her into acting as his 
prostitute, saying he would out her and block her access to work. Regardless of 
the legal situation, T said, she is "already living a prison sentence".

While Brunei's society is becoming increasingly conservative, the sultan 
himself is said to have a personal life that would generously be referred to as 
colourful. Described by a 2011 Vanity Fair piece as “constant companions in 
hedonism”, he and his brother Prince Jefri are alleged to have spent much of 
the 1980s and 1990s throwing lavish parties and running a 'harem' at their 
nearly 2000-room palace.

In 1997, the former Miss USA Shannon Marketic attempted to sue the sultan for 
$90 million, claiming she had been held hostage by him and his royal entourage, 
drugged and used as a "sex slave". The case was dropped after the sultan 
claimed sovereign immunity.

Meanwhile, men such as M download VPN software to evade arrest for visiting gay 
websites, and abandon all hopes of finding a relationship at home as a "fatal 
risk". Via one of the dating apps he uses, M dreams of leaving the country if 
he finds a man abroad to pursue a romance with. "Either I leave and get the 
freedom to live my life," he said, "or eventually I will commit suicide."

(source: telegraph.co.uk)








GAMBIA:

Amnesty applauds Gambia’s President for standing against death penalty



Gambia’s President Adama Barrow has commuted the death sentences of 22 
prisoners to life imprisonment.

Responding to the news that Gambia’s President Adama Barrow has commuted the 
death sentences of 22 prisoners to life imprisonment, Marie-Evelyne Petrus 
Barry, Amnesty International West and Central Africa Regional Director-who met 
with the Gambian President last week- said:

“The President’s commutation of these death sentences to life imprisonment is 
an important milestone for Gambia which is slowly and steadily moving away from 
the death penalty.

“Less than a week ago, Amnesty International met with President Adama Barrow 
who confirmed to us his commitment to outlaw this cruel punishment – it’s good 
to see him take another concrete step against the death penalty.

“This decision is a positive step, however we want the authorities to go 
further by abolishing the death penalty for all crimes without delay, including 
in the country’s future constitution.

“We also hope they will implement our recommendations to repeal draconian media 
laws, reform the security sector and end discrimination against women.”

Background

Gambia’s Attorney General and Justice Minister, Aboubacarr Tambadou, said 
yesterday that President Adama Barrow has commuted the death sentences of 22 
prisoners to life imprisonment. This followed an Amnesty International mission 
to Gambia to present to the authorities a series of recommendations covering 10 
areas of reform to protect and promote human rights. The recommendations 
include the abolition of the death penalty and commutation of all death 
sentences to terms of imprisonment.

In February 2018, President Adama Barrow announced the establishment of an 
official moratorium on executions. In September 2018, Gambia ratified the 
Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty thus becoming the 86th 
State Party to the treaty.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception 
regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or 
the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The death penalty violates 
the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 
It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

(source: newsghana.com.gh)








PHILIPPINES:

Big win by pro-admin politicians could open door to return of death penalty



President Duterte is expected to strengthen his grip on power in midterm 
elections next week, experts say, clearing a possible path to restoring the 
death penalty and advancing his pledge to rewrite the Constitution.

Duterte has found international infamy for his foul-mouthed tirades, but 
remains hugely popular among Filipinos fed up with the country’s dysfunction 
and elite politicians.

He has pledged to bring back capital punishment for drug-related crimes as part 
of a deadly crackdown on narcotics in which thousands of alleged pushers and 
users have already been killed.

The President’s tough-on-crime platform, which also includes lowering the age 
of criminal responsibility from 15 to 12, was key to his landslide election 
victory in 2016.

Among the 18,000 posts up for grabs on Monday are half of the seats in the 
Senate, which has stopped cold some of Duterte’s most controversial policy 
initiatives.

Opinion polls suggest administration loyalists are strong favorites to capture 
the Senate and keep control of the House of Representatives.

Duterte has also pledged to rewrite the Constitution, which would open avenues 
to prolonging his power beyond a legally mandated single term that ends in 
2022, according to opposition politicians.

High bar for reform

Any change in the Constitution, however, would require lawmakers’ backing as 
well as popular approval in a referendum, a high bar that has stymied reform 
attempts by earlier presidents.

Capital punishment and constitutional reform bills have both sailed through the 
House with little opposition since 2016, but were halted by the Senate’s mix of 
administration opponents and independents.

“The Senate has acted as some sort of institutional check on the worst 
instincts of the President,” political analyst Richard Heydarian told Agence 
France-Presse (AFP).

But he warned that could change after Monday’s elections.

An opening for Duterte

Historically, the 24 senators who serve 6-year terms have had a reputation for 
being more independent-minded than their House counterparts.

An opinion poll from Pulse Asia, based on face-to-face interviews with 1,800 
likely voters, has key administration supporters taking the majority of the 12 
open Senate seats.

Imee Marcos, daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is expected to win 
one and thus extend the family’s remarkable political return in the decades 
since it was chased from power by the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution.

The first enforcer of Duterte’s drug war, former Philippine National Police 
chief Ronald dela Rosa, is also well-positioned despite some of the crackdown’s 
most well-known abuses happening on his watch.

Duterte has thrown some of his strongest support behind former presidential 
aide Christopher “Bong” Go, who could serve as a direct link between the 
President and Senate if he wins a seat.

The death penalty has a twisting past in the country, having been outlawed in 
1987, reinstated 6 years later and then abolished again in 2006.

A capital punishment bill that passed the House in 2017 allowed execution in 
cases where suspects were caught with 500 grams of marijuana, or 10 grams of 
cocaine, heroin or ecstasy.

(source: newsinfo.inquirer.net)