[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 10


GLOBAL:

Human Rights Day: abolishing the death penalty


Every year, on December 10, UN Human Rights Day commemorates the day in 1948 on 
which the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of 
Human Rights. Although the Declaration itself said nothing about the death 
penalty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that 
incorporated its values in 1966 made it clear in Article 6(6) that 'nothing ... 
should be invoked to delay or to prevent the abolition of capital punishment by 
any State Party to the ... Covenant,' which now has been ratified by all but a 
handful of nations.

Today, we pause to consider the considerable changes that have taken place in 
the use of capital punishment around the world over the past quarter of a 
century, changes which have shifted our pessimism - believing that in many 
regions of the world there was little hope of worldwide abolition occurring 
soon - towards increasing optimism. Since the end of 1988, the number of 
actively retentionist countries (by which we mean countries that have carried 
out judicial executions in the past 10 years) has declined from 101 to 39, 
while the number that has completely abolished the death penalty has almost 
trebled from 35 to 99; a further seven are abolitionist for all ordinary crimes 
and 33 are regarded as abolitionist in practice: 139 in all. In 2013 only 22 
countries were known to have carried out an execution and the number that 
regularly executes a substantial number of its citizens has dwindled. Only 7 
nations executed an average of 20 people or more over the 5 year period from 
2009 to 2013: China (by far the largest number), Iran (the highest per head of 
population), Iraq, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Yemen. The 
change has been truly remarkable. Indeed, we have witnessed and recorded a 
revolution in the discourse on and practice of capital punishment since the 
fall of the Berlin Wall.

We have witnessed and recorded a revolution in the discourse on and practice of 
capital punishment since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

This year's Human Rights Day slogan - Human Rights 365 - encompasses the idea 
that every day is Human Rights Day. It celebrates the fundamental proposition 
in the Universal Declaration that each one of us, everywhere, at all times is 
entitled to the full range of human rights, that human rights belong equally to 
each of us and bind us together as a global community with the same ideals and 
values. What better day then to reflect on the dynamo for this new wave of 
abolition - the development of international human rights law and norms.

Arising in the aftermath of the Second World War and linked to the emergence of 
countries from totalitarian imperialism and colonialism, the acceptance of 
international human rights principles transformed consideration of capital 
punishment from an issue to be decided solely or mainly as an aspect of 
national criminal justice policy to the status of a fundamental violation of 
human rights: not only the right to not to be arbitrarily deprived of life but 
the right to be free from cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment. 
The idea that each nation has the sovereign right to retain the death penalty 
as a repressive tool of its domestic criminal justice system on the grounds of 
its purported deterrent utility or the cultural preferences and expectations of 
its citizens was being replaced by a growing acceptance that countries that 
retain the death penalty - however they administer it - inevitably violate 
universally accepted human rights.

The human rights dynamic has not only resulted in fewer countries retaining the 
death penalty on their books, but also in the declining use of the ultimate 
penalty in many of those countries. Since the introduction of Safeguards 
Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of those Facing the Death Penalty, which 
were first promulgated by the UN Economic and Social Council resolution 1984/50 
and adopted by the General Assembly 30 years ago, there have been attempts to 
progressively restrict the use of capital punishment to the most heinous 
offences and the most culpable offenders and various measures to try to ensure 
that the death penalty is only applied where and when defendants have had 
access to a fair and safe criminal process. Hence, in many retentionist 
countries juveniles, the mentally ill, and the learning disabled are exempt 
from capital punishment, and some countries restrict the death penalty to 
culpable homicide.

There has been some strong resistance to the political movement to force change 
ever since the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR was adopted by the UN 
General Assembly in 1989. Attempts by the abolitionist nations at United 
Nations Congresses, in the General Assembly, beginning in 1994, and at the 
Commission on Human Rights, annually from 1997, to press for a resolution 
calling for a moratorium on the imposition of death sentences and executions 
met with hostility from many of the retentionist nations. By 2005, when an 
attempt had been made at the Commission on Human Rights to secure sufficient 
support to bring such a resolution before the United Nations, it had been 
opposed by 66 countries on the grounds that there was no international 
consensus that capital punishment should be abolished. Since then, as the 
resolution has been successfully brought before the General Assembly, the 
opposition has weakened as each subsequent vote was taken in 2007, 2008, 2010, 
and 2012, when 111 countries (60 %) voted in favour and 41 against. Just 3 
weeks ago, 114 of the UN's 193 member states voted in favour of the resolution 
which will go before the General Assembly Plenary for final adoption this 
month. The notion behind Human Rights 365 - that we are a part of a global 
community of shared values - is reflected in this increasing support for a 
worldwide moratorium as a further step towards worldwide abolition. We 
encourage all those who believe in human rights to continue working towards 
this ideal.

(source: Carolyn Hoyle & Roger Hood, blog.oup.com)






IRAN:

Iranian Resistance calls to save lives of 31 prisoners on verge of execution


The Iranian Resistance calls for saving the lives of 31 prisoners on the death 
row in the Ghezel Hesar Prison who have been transferred to an undisclosed 
location.

It also hails over 500 prisoners who have staged a strike in Ward 2 of Ghezel 
Hesar Prison and urges all international human rights bodies and organs to 
adopt urgent measures to investigate the demands of the striking prisoners and 
to stop the death sentences, especially the group hangings.

Since December 2, the prisoners in Hall 3 of Ward 2 of Ghezel Hesar have staged 
a hunger strike to protest the group and consecutive hangings in this prison in 
order to stop this barbaric punishment. These prisoners have resisted the 
suppressive and deceptive measures by the regime to break their strike and have 
continued with their hunger strike for 8 days now.

Prison's head warden has threatened the striking prisoners that if they 
continue with their protest he would execute 200 of them.

As such, on Sunday, December 7, henchmen took 31 prisoners on the death row out 
of this ward and transferred them to an undisclosed location. A number of those 
transferred to be hanged are the prisoners that regime's officers consider them 
as the main elements in the protests and the hunger strike in Ghezel Hesar 
Prison. During this transfer, one of the prisoners resisted his transfer and in 
protest to this transfer for carrying out his death sentence shouted "Death to 
Khamenei" and "Death to Larijani". Finally, he tried to injure himself in order 
to stop his transfer. It is stated that due to extent of his injuries, this 
prisoner is about to die, but prison officials refuse to allow any information 
on this prisoner from getting out.

The increase in the wave of executions in various prisons and cities of the 
country, including the hanging of at least 51 prisoners just in the time span 
of November 24 to December 3 demonstrates the fear of the religious fascism 
from the spread of protests by the Iranian people who are under great pressure 
and is aimed at heightening the atmosphere of terror in the society. Regime's 
officials admit that "security ... is the foremost worry for the judicial, 
security and law enforcement systems and they have implemented and shall 
continue to live up to this responsibility."

International community's turning of a blind eye to the tragic situation of 
human rights in Iran has given a free hand to the leaders of the Velayat-e 
faqih regime, famous among the people as the "Godfather of ISIS", to resort to 
any kind of barbarism, including the splashing of acid and knife attacks 
against the innocent women and the wave of group hangings in prisons and 
various cities throughout the country.

Any rapprochement with this anti-human regime should be contingent on the 
respect for human rights, including the suspension of the anti-human punishment 
of hanging.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)






SAUDI ARABIA----execution//female

Ethiopian who stabbed sleeping child beheaded in Saudi


An Ethiopian woman who stabbed a small Saudi girl 30 times in her sleep was 
beheaded by the sword on Tuesday in the conservative Muslim kingdom, the 
interior ministry said.

Khadija bint Mohammed Isa was executed in Hafar al-Batin, northeast Saudi 
Arabia, it said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency 
(SPA).

She had "killed 3-year-old child Aljazi bint Mohammed bin Fahd al Harbi... By 
stabbing her 30 times while she slept in her parents' room," the ministry said.

The suspect fled but was later captured and convicted, it said.

Local media said Isa was a maid, although SPA did not clarify her employment 
status or say what led to the killing.

Working conditions of more than 2.4 million foreign maids in Saudi Arabia and 
other Gulf countries have been widely criticised.

Saudi Arabia last year passed new rules that grant maids one day of rest a week 
and guarantee the payment of their salaries.

Isa was the latest of 78 foreigners and Saudis most of them men executed in the 
kingdom this year despite international concerns over the number and judicial 
process.

The kingdom "is keen to protect security and justice", the interior ministry 
said.

Authorities also executed a convicted Saudi drug dealer on Tuesday, it said.

Nasser bin Amiq Ali al-Inzi was found guilty of trying to smuggle "a large 
amount" of amphetamines into the country.

He was beheaded in the northern Jawf region.

The interior ministry said last week that authorities had seized more than 41 
million amphetamine tablets during the Islamic calendar year that ended in 
October.

Rape, apostasy and armed robbery are also punishable by death under the 
kingdom's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






INDONESIA:

'No Mercy' for Death Row Inmates


The Indonesian government has signaled it will provide no clemency for the 68 
inmates on death row for drug-related charges as it prepares to execute 5 
prisoners this month.

"The instructions came directly from the president [Joko Widodo]," Justice 
Minister Yasonna Laoly said on Monday.

The Justice Ministry ???along with the ministry of health, the National 
Narcotics Agency [BNN] and the National Police have conducted a cabinet 
meeting, the outcome of which decided that we will take a hard stance against 
drug traffickers," Yasonna said. "A least 68 [drug] convicts are currently on 
death row."

The Attorney General's Office revealed last week that five inmates would be 
executed this month after Joko had denied their petitions for clemency.

The AGO declined to provide details on the inmates' identities.

Joko defended his decision on Monday, saying: "It has been decided by the court 
[that the inmates are sentenced to death]. Everyone must respect this. Every 
country has its own rules."

The president was responding to criticism from local and international human 
rights groups that have made repeated appeals to Indonesia to eliminate its 
death penalty.

Capital punishment is a sentencing option for Indonesian judges on several 
convictions, including drug trafficking, murder, sedition and terrorism.

As of 2013, campaigners against the death penalty recorded that there were 113 
prisoners awaiting execution, but since then, more than 16 have been sentenced 
to death by Indonesian judges.

Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo said Joko was not planning to abolish capital 
punishment anytime soon, particularly in cases of drug trafficking.

"There will be no mercy for drug traffickers," Prasetyo said.

"If the legal aspects [of the case] are finalized, we will execute them 
straight away - no need for stalling," he added.

Justice Minister Yasonna said that Joko had declared war against drug 
traffickers, pointing to the increasing number of drug abuse victims.

"Some 4.3 million [drug] users were reported [last year], which increased to 
5.8 million users [in 2014]," Yasonna said.

The coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, Tedjo Edhy 
Purdijatno, said the number of drug traffickers executed by the government was 
nothing compared to the number of people dying from drug overdoses.

"Each day, 30 to 40 of our children die because of drugs. Will we do nothing?" 
he said, adding that incarcerating drug traffickers would not stop them from 
doing business behind bars.

Traffickers "are still able to control their drug deals from inside the prison. 
The criminals are not sorry for what they have done. We must stop this," Tedjo 
said.

(source: Jakarta Globe)

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

This Mother Supports Death Penalty of Her Own Daughter


A 70 year old mother in Jember, Fatima is supporting the application of death 
penalty to Siti Soleha, her 38 year old daughter.

Siti Soleha is facing accusation of murdering her own child, Iin, who was 18. 
Her own mother hopes that the court can give a death verdict.

"Give the child a death penalty, I do not accept her killing my own 
grandchild," Fatima said after the court session as reported by kompas.com on 
Tuesday (9 Dec 2014).

According to Fatima, she was often scolded by Siti Soleha. "Soleha often 
scolded me," Fatima said. The same tone is shared by Soleha's sister, Sumiati, 
who claimed that she often received rough treatments from her own sibling.

"She [Soleha] is rough to me and mother. She does not want to go to her 
family," said Sumiati, who also requested the court to give a death verdict to 
her sister.

"Do not give a life time sentence, just [give] her the death penalty," she 
said.

Soleha, has undergone a court session in Jember, East Java. The murder case was 
revealed after an admission from Soleha's 9 year old son. The case was only 
uncovered 2 years after the death of Iin, who was allegedly murdered and thrown 
to a septic tank by the accused. She was reportedly emotional upon seeing her 
glassware being broken by the now deceased.

(source: Global Indonesian Voices)

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

Death penalty does not deter drug traffickers


The Attorney Generals Office (AGO) has announced its plan to execute 5 people 
by the end of 2014: mostly drug traffickers.

Indonesia is among the few countries with the harshest drug laws, executing 
drug traffickers to create a deterrent effect.

However, Indonesia's position to retain the death penalty, particularly for 
drug offenses, is problematic.

First, the Indonesian legal community often refers to drug trafficking as an 
"extraordinary crime", thereby justifying the extraordinary punishment of the 
death penalty.

However, labeling drug trafficking as an extraordinary crime is groundless from 
the perspective of international law.

Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) - 
which Indonesia has ratified - states that for countries that have not yet 
abolished the death penalty, it may only be imposed for "the most serious 
crimes".

Various UN bodies, such as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Human 
Rights Committee, UN Special Rapporteur for extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary 
executions killings and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, have consistently 
asserted that drug offenses do not meet the threshold of "the most serious 
crimes" to which the death penalty may lawfully be applied.

In his 2012 report to the UN General Assembly, the UN Special Rapporteur on 
extrajudicial killings stated that the death penalty should only be applied for 
offenses of intentional killings, based on the practices of retentionist states 
and the jurisprudence of the UN and other bodies.

In March 2014, the International Narcotics Control Board - the independent and 
quasi-judicial body for monitoring government compliance with the 3 
international drug control conventions, of which Indonesia is a member, 
encouraged states to abolish the death penalty for drug-related offenses.

The 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic 
Substances does not recognize the concept of "extraordinary crimes" for drug 
offenses. The convention places drug offenses into 2 categories.

First, drug offenses of a "grave nature", such as the production, manufacturing 
and extraction of drugs.

Second, offenses that are "particularly serious", such as the involvement of 
organized criminal groups in the production of drugs.

The 1988 convention does not explicitly recognize the death penalty for drug 
offenses.

Therefore, from an international drug law and international human rights law 
perspective, categorizing drug trafficking as an "extraordinary crime" and 
applying the death penalty to drug offenses is indefensible.

Second, the death penalty is retained because it is believed to have deterrence 
effect. This view is simply invalid. In 2008, Indonesia executed 2 drug 
traffickers and in 2013, it executed one more drug trafficker.

According to the 2012 death penalty report by the Harm Reduction International 
group, there were approximately 100 people on death row in Indonesia, including 
58 drug traffickers.

According to the 2013 annual report of Indonesia's National Narcotics Agency 
(BNN), there were 260 drug traffickers arrested in 2013 - an increase from 157 
people in 2011 and 202 people in 2012. These numbers suggest that while the 
death penalty is continuously imposed and executions are carried out, the crime 
of drug trafficking shows no sign of abating. It seems obvious that the death 
penalty does not deter drug traffickers.

Further, in the past few years there have been cases where drug traffickers 
were able to operate from inside the prison.

This indicates that they may not be afraid of the penalty because they can 
bribe prison officials and other law enforcers. Hence, the argument that death 
penalty carries a deterrence effect is implausible.

Third, it is also often argued that drug trafficking has fatal consequences for 
younger generations and therefore drug traffickers deserve to be sentenced to 
death. But as William Schabas - an international scholar on the death penalty - 
rightly points out, in most cases, the drug traffickers are arrested and the 
drugs are confiscated. Interdicting drugs before they reach the public means 
that the trafficker sentenced to death could not have sold the drugs nor could 
anyone else and, hence, no lives have been lost.

Fourth, the higher probability that a harsh sentence is to be passed down, the 
higher probability that corruption is involved.

It is widely known that the Indonesian legal system is tainted with corruption 
and bribery. In this corrupted legal environment, if a drug trafficker is 
arrested and punishable by the death sentence, he or she is ready to pay high 
sums to enforcers to avoid prosecution or seek lenient sentences.

Rich drug traffickers will likely be able to evade the death penalty while 
those who are poor and cannot afford to bribe will be the ones facing 
execution.

The intention that the death penalty will get rid of drug traffickers is 
therefore not achievable and the risk that the state executes the wrong person 
is higher.

Fifth, organizations running illicit drug trafficking are involved in a complex 
network controlled by some powerful people. Those arrested are often just drug 
mules taking the greatest risks.

Imposing the death penalty on them will not deter the drug kingpins controlling 
the syndicate as they will continue to seek, groom and exploit vulnerable 
individuals to do the dirty jobs.

Illicit drug trafficking unquestionably has harmful effects on individuals and 
society. However, there is a common misconception that imposing the death 
penalty and executing those involved in drug trafficking is the magic formula 
to address this problem. As the above arguments demonstrate, the death penalty 
is ineffective for combating drug trafficking, and thus Indonesia must evaluate 
its strategy.

Indonesia should probably start by evaluating its unrealistic "2015 Indonesia 
Drug Free" program. While drugs have negative impacts on human beings, drugs 
can be positive too, for the purposes of health, science and technology.

This means that we cannot live in a "drug-free world", but looking at 
Indonesia's stubbornness to retain the death penalty despite its useless 
effect, one would ask whether Indonesia is open and ready to evaluate its 
misguided beliefs.

(source: Opinion; Ricky Gunawan--The writer is director of LBH Masyarakat (the 
Community Legal Aid Institute), based in Jakarta---- Jakarta Post)






INDIA:

SC extends stay on 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon's execution


The Supreme Court on Wednesday further stayed the execution of Yakub Abdul 
Razak Memon, lone death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, and 
sought responses from Maharashtra Special Task Force and CBI on his plea 
seeking review of death penalty awarded to him.

In an open court hearing, a three-judge bench, headed by Justice AR Dave, said 
the execution of Memon shall remain stayed during the pendency of his review 
petition against the imposition of death penalty and fixed the matter for 
further hearing on January 28, 2015.

"We are issuing notice," the bench, also comprising justices J Chelameswar and 
Kurian Joseph, said.

The counsel appearing for Memon said that neither the trial court nor the apex 
court gave special reasons for sending him to gallows.

"My entire conviction is based on retracted confessions of several co-accused," 
his lawyer said, adding, "the judgement under review does not talk about the 
fact and evidence that I took part in any terrorist activities".

The lawyer also alleged that Memon was convicted and then sentenced to death by 
the special TADA court even before the entire judgement was delivered, hence, 
his conviction was not valid.

Earlier, the review petitions used to be decided in chambers, but later, the 
apex court had ruled that such pleas, if directed against the imposition of 
death penalty, would be heard in open court.

The apex court had, on September 26, sought response from Maharashtra 
government and others on a plea of Memon that his review petition against the 
death penalty be heard in open court. It had also stayed the execution of 
Memon.

A constitution bench of the apex court had on June 2 held that years spent 
behind bars during prolonged judicial proceedings cannot be a ground for 
converting death sentence to life imprisonment and review plea of condemned 
prisoners must be given an open court hearing.

Taking a cue from the judgement by the constitution bench, Memon had said in 
his plea that according to the verdict, his review plea should be heard in an 
open court.

Memon is the 3rd death row convict, after Nithari rapist-cum-serial killer 
Surinder Koli, who had approached the apex court seeking hearing of their 
respective review pleas in an open court.

(source: Zee News)