[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 3


THAILAND:

Death penalty expected to be retained


The Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) plans to retain the death penalty for 
violent criminals and make the Appeals Court the final arbiter of general legal 
cases to relieve the burden on the Supreme Court, committee spokesman Lertrat 
Rattanawanit said on Wednesday.

Gen Lertrat said the majority of members on a sub-committee on civil liberties 
proposed a complete end to the death penalty in all legal cases, but most 
members of the full CDC felt it should continue to exist for serious crime such 
as narcotics dealing, rape and serial killing.

CDC chairman Borwornsak Uwanno ordered an opinion survey on the death penalty.

The CDC also considered a proposal from another sub-committee on the justice 
system. The sub-committee proposed to maintain the Court of Justice, the 
Constitutional Court, the Administrative Court and the Military Court.

The CDC felt there should be a committee to rule on the authority of the 4 
courts. The committee will comprise experts from the 4 courts and 
representatives of conflicting parties.

For the Court of Justice, the CDC wanted general cases to be finalised at the 
Appeals Court to relieve the huge workload on the Supreme Court. However 
petitions to the Supreme Court should be allowed on a case-by-case basis, Gen 
Lertrat said.

The CDC sought to set the minimum age of judges at 35 instead of 25 to ensure 
their maturity.

For the Constitutional Court, the CDC wanted the judges to include experts on 
constitutional and public laws instead of involving mainly judges from the 
Supreme Court and the Administrative court, Gen Lertrat said.

(source: Bangkok Post)






INDONESIA:

Rights group renews call for end of capital punishment


Human rights watch dog Imparsial reaffirmed its stance against the death 
penalty, citing a report that 5 convicts will be executed by the end of this 
year while 20 others are awaiting their execution next year.

"No one has the right to take another's life, not even the state. President 
[Joko] 'Jokowi' [Widodo]must abolish the death penalty as he promised to uphold 
human rights [in his presidential campaign]," Imparsial executive director 
Poengky Indarty told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

According Imparsial, 158 inmates are on death row in the country, 66 of whom 
are foreigners from 23 countries such as Nigeria, Australia, Nepal, China and 
Malaysia.

89 of the convicts were sentenced to death in various cases, while 60 and 9 
convicts were found guilty of murder and terrorism, respectively.

Poengky said that the death penalty could not remain in the country's legal 
system as it had ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights (ICCPR) in 2005. One of articles in the covenant stipulated that every 
state must protect the right to life.

Poengky said that the death sentence was in fact a holdover from the country's 
colonial past.

"Indonesia carried on the death sentence and it's not relevant anymore," 
Poengky said.

Last Week, newly inaugurated attorney general HM Prasetyo announced that 5 
death-row inmates would be executed by the end of this year while 20 others, 
the majority of whom are drug convicts, would face the firing squad in 2015.

The attorney general plans to execute 10 convicts annually.

"We will carry out the executions after we complete their paper work. There is 
no mercy for drug dealers," Prasetyo said.

The most recent executions in Indonesia took place in 2013 when the Attorney 
Generals Office took the lives of drug smuggler Adam Wilson in March, 3 
convicted murderers in the Cilacap prison in May and a Pakistani drug smuggler 
in November.

Poengky said that if Jokowi could not abolish the death penalty immediately, he 
should at least impose a moratorium on the death penalty while it underwent 
evaluation.

Indonesia has 11 laws that carry the death sentence, including the Criminal 
Code, Law No. 12/1951 on firearm ownership, Law No. 11/PNPS 1963 on subversive 
activities, Law No. 5/1997 on drugs, Law No. 31/1999 on corruption eradication, 
Law No. 26/2000 on human rights court, Law No. 23/2002 on children's 
protection, and Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism

Al Araf, Imparsial program director, said that the new government should change 
its view on capital punishment.

"There is no correlation between crime and punishment. The death sentence will 
not guarantee that crimes rates will go down. We recommend a life sentence for 
those who commit serious crimes," he said.

(source: The Jakarta Post)



SAUDI ARABIA:

Man handed death penalty for Awamiyah shootings


The Special Criminal Court in Riyadh handed on Tuesday the death penalty to a 
terror suspect who was convicted of several crimes, including incidents of 
firing at security forces in Al-Awamiyah village, Qatif in the Eastern 
Province.

The court gave the convict 30 days to appeal the verdict, the Saudi Press 
Agency reported.

The court also ordered confiscation of a motorcycle, on which the convict 
carried out most of the attacks.

The charges against him included firing at traffic patrol team and injuring 
them while they were performing their duty at a traffic square in Al-Awamiyah 
and shooting and wounding another traffic patrol team at Al-Mugheera Street. He 
was involved in shooting incidents targeting security personnel in a number of 
other locations in Al-Awamiyah.

The convict was also found guilty of firing at a man suspected to be a police 
informer.

The man gave shelter to a group of people who were accused of attacking 
security personnel and patrol police teams, in addition to failing to inform 
police about them.

The charges against him also included attacking a man with a cleaver following 
a dispute between them, firing gun into the air to threaten another man, 
illegal possession of drugs, wireless sets as well as a revolver and 
Kalashnikov machinegun with an ulterior design of creating sedition, and 
undermining the Kingdom's security.

Earlier in October, the Special Criminal Court sentenced 2 men convicted of 
taking part in rioting in Al-Awamiyah to death.

(source: Al-Arabiya News)






IRAN----executions

18 Executions for Drug-Related Charges in 1 Day in Iran----18 people were 
executed in 3 different Iranian prisons on Tuesday according to unofficial 
sources. All the prisoners were convicted of drug-related charges and there 
were 2 women and 1 Afghan citizen among them.


11 prisoners were hanged in the Ghezelhesar prison of Karaj (west of Tehran) 
early Tuesday morning 2. December, reported the human rights activists news 
agency (HRANA) and the human rights and democracy activists in Iran (HRDAI). 
All the prisoners were convicted of drug-related charges according to the 
report. Iran Human Rights (IHR) has confirmed the executions.

HRDAI has identified 7 of the prisoners by name and and claimed that there was 
1 woman and 1 Afghan citizen among the prisoners executed on Tuesday.

HRANA also reported about 7 other executions in 2 different prisons on Tuesday. 
3 prisoners male prisoners identified as Yadollah Fahimi, Mokhtar Davoudkhah 
and 1 female prisoner identified as Marziye Ostavari were hanged in the prison 
of Urmia (Northwestern Iran). 3 other prisoners were hanged in the prison of 
Bandar Abbas (Southern Iran). These prisoners were identified as Ali Akbar 
Nouraddini, Alireza Ghorbani and Hossein Shahozehi. All the prisoners were 
convicted of drug related charges.

Iran is the country with the highest number of executions for drug-related 
charges. This is despite the fact that drug-related charges are not considered 
as the most serious crimes by the international law.

Large number of executions in Iran are not announced by the official Iranian 
media.

(source: Iran Human Rights)






SINGAPORE:

Drug courier gets death sentence


A 49-year-old drug courier has been given the death penalty after he failed to 
receive a certificate of substantive assistance from the public prosecutor that 
would have given the High Court the option to sentence him to life imprisonment 
and caning.

Mohd Jeefrey Jamil, 49, is the second person - after Malaysian Devendran A/L 
Supramaniam, who imported 83.36g of diamorphine into Singapore and was 
convicted in July ??? to meet 1 requirement needed for a chance to escape the 
gallows but not the other, since amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act kicked 
in last year.

Drug traffickers must be deemed to have been merely couriers and to have 
provided substantive assistance in disrupting drug-trafficking activities in 
order for the courts to consider the alternative sentence.

Mohd Jeefrey was convicted of trafficking no less than 45.26g of diamorphine. 
He was arrested on March 23, 2012, at Hamilton Road while making his 5th 
delivery. 10 packets of the drug were found in his haversack.

The year before, he had agreed to help someone in Malaysia deliver "packages" 
in return for S$3,000 or 30 packets of heroin each time.

On the day of his arrest, he had received a call and was told to go to a mosque 
in Marsiling to collect a plastic bag containing the bundles of drugs. He put 
the bundles in his haversack and returned to his rented unit in Hamilton Road.

Justice Tay Yong Kwang rejected his defence that he had not known the bundles 
contained a controlled drug, saying it must have been plain to any reasonable 
person in his position that he was being asked to be a drug courier.

Mohd Jeefrey had earlier disputed the voluntariness of the statement he had 
given to the police, but Justice Tay found that his oral statement had been a 
voluntary one that officers had fully and properly recorded.

(soure: Channel News Asia)

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

Drug courier gets death sentence----He fails to give substantive assistance, 1 
of 2 requirements to escape gallows


A 49-year-old drug courier has been given the death penalty after he failed to 
receive a certificate of substantive assistance from the public prosecutor that 
would have given the High Court the option to sentence him to life imprisonment 
and caning.

Mohd Jeefrey Jamil, 49, is the 2nd person - after Malaysian Devendran A/L 
Supramaniam, who imported 83.36g of diamorphine into Singapore and was 
convicted in July - to meet 1 requirement needed for a chance to escape the 
gallows but not the other, since amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act kicked 
in last year.

Drug traffickers must be deemed to have been merely couriers and to have 
provided substantive assistance in disrupting drug-trafficking activities in 
order for the courts to consider the alternative sentence.

Mohd Jeefrey was convicted of trafficking no less than 45.26g of diamorphine. 
He was arrested on March 23, 2012, at Hamilton Road while making his 5th 
delivery. Ten packets of the drug were found in his haversack.

The year before, he had agreed to help someone in Malaysia deliver "packages" 
in return for S$3,000 or 30 packets of heroin each time.

On the day of his arrest, he had received a call and was told to go to a mosque 
in Marsiling to collect a plastic bag containing the bundles of drugs. He put 
the bundles in his haversack and returned to his rented unit in Hamilton Road.

Justice Tay Yong Kwang rejected his defence that he had not known the bundles 
contained a controlled drug, saying it must have been plain to any reasonable 
person in his position that he was being asked to be a drug courier.

Mohd Jeefrey had earlier disputed the voluntariness of the statement he had 
given to the police, but Justice Tay found that his oral statement had been a 
voluntary one that officers had fully and properly recorded.

(source: todayonline.com)