[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide----ZIM., TAN., S. KOREA, INDIA/S. LANKA

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 10



ZIMBABWE:

Tomana backs death penalty


PROSECUTOR-GENERAL Johannes Tomana has backed the retention of the death 
penalty, saying any death should be avenged and God will not be happy if it was 
scrapped from the statutes.

Addressing the last day of a National Prosecuting Authority workshop in 
Bulawayo, Tomana said even if other countries had scrapped the law, it was in 
Zimbabwe's best interests to maintain it.

"Personally, I also believe in the sixth commandment, which says 'thou shall 
not kill' and also that any blood spilt should be avenged," he said.

"But other countries have moved on, God will not smile at us if we condone such 
acts."

With the adoption of the new Constitution last year, Zimbabwe partially 
abolished the death penalty, with women no longer being sentenced to it.

However, the death penalty can be imposed for murder committed in aggravating 
circumstances on men between the ages of 21 and 70.

Tomana said because the country retained the capital sentence, a number of 
murder accused had fled to South Africa and attempts to repatriate them had 
failed as the neighbouring country does not deport people who face the death 
sentence in their own countries.

The death penalty is outlawed in South Africa.

Tomana said despite his feelings on the death penalty, he would not debate with 
policymakers on the abolition of the capital sentence.

"Remember, we are not activists, but law experts and so whether it makes sense 
to us or not we will not debate," he said.

"There should be no political emotions at work because politicians can talk 
casually about issues but we are only allowed to make investigated decisions 
and not allegations.

"We are not here for arguments because I did not write the constitution, I was 
not even consulted. It is the peoples will which we must enforce."

Speaking on prosecutor's conditions of service, Tomana said the law officers 
should be above reproach and their work must justify calls for better salaries.

"We can only justify better conditions by better service," he said.

(source: News Day)






TANZANIA:

Anti-death penalty campaigners say proposed Constitution nail in coffin


It was October 10 again, and I can't help to think of the several people all 
over the world who are now facing a machete on their neck - beheading, a rope, 
lethal weapon, electrical chair or squad shooting or in the name of the death 
penalty.

At times, I think over how the person who beheads a convict on death row feels 
there after and on whether they can sleep with peace as they recall the last 
glance.

The world marked the Anti Death Penalty Day where anti-death penalty 
campaigners gathered to ponder over what ought to be done to do away with this 
infamous punishment which violates the very fundamental right, the right to 
life.

I remind myself over this famous saying by Richard Sherricky, that "When you 
use murder to end murder you guarantee murder will never end," and wonder over 
whether murder will ever end by state killing killers.

The World Congress Against the Death Penalty marks the 12th World Day against 
the Death Penalty by drawing attention to the special concerns faced by accused 
and condemned prisoners with mental problems.

Abolitionist according to the World Congress Against the Death Penalty would 
like to see human rights standards that persons with serious mental illness or 
intellectual disabilities do not face the death penalty.

The Congress stresses that persons with mental illness are at risk of being 
convicted to death penalty other than the rest of the group.

The day however, comes as anti death penalty campaigners in the country grieve 
in despair as their dreams to have the capital punishment scraped out by the 
new Constitution seem to have almost been shattered.

This is so because Article 95: (1) ( c ) of the Proposed Constitution mentions 
one among the presidential duties as to commute a death sentence into life 
imprisonment, evidence that the country will still cling into the punishment.

The provision has been incorporated regardless of Article 33 guaranteeing the 
right to life.

Article 33 of the Proposed Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania 
specifies that "Every individual has the right to life and to receive 
protection for his life from the government and the community in accordance to 
the laws of the country."

There is no need to guess that the so called laws of the country are the ones 
which will nail those on death row.

Advocate Flaviana Charles who is the Vice President for the Tanganyika Law 
Society says the only way towards that is to deal with provisions which are 
fatal and which affect the principles of the Constitution.

She cautions that giving powers for the president to decide over who should die 
and who should live is very dangerous as the country may come with a dictator 
leader who may misuse the power to kill innocent people.

"If we get a president with no sense of compassionate he may kill all those on 
death row. The option we have is to look unto the principles things in the 
document, we better vote out to omit the said provisions as death penalty deals 
with human beings," she says.

For her part, the Director for Empowerment and Accountability for the Legal and 
Human Rights Centre (LHRC) Imelda Urrio says there are still hopes amid 
challenges though.

"The Constitution Review Act requires that the proposed Constitution be sent to 
the public for discussion for them to decide on whether all of the provisions 
are to their best interest," says Urrio.

She calls upon the public to concentrate on the proposed Constitution by 
observing on whether provisions incorporated are worthwhile if not vote out, so 
that it can omit provisions such as the one which condones the capital 
punishment before the final document.

A lawyer in Dar es Salaam Masoud George says that the fact that the capital 
punishment has been incorporated in the document indicates that those 
responsible held no regard for human dignity.

"Anti death penalty campaigners should not give up as changes take time. They 
should keep educating the public on the evil deed of the death penalty as most 
are unaware of its repercussions. One day the government will take heed," says 
George.

I am sure some people may be wondering over why one would want a killer spared, 
well it is for simple reasons, that there is no justification of doing the very 
same thing that you abhor and then term it a punishment.

Some say an eye for an eye, while the late Dr Martin Luther King said that such 
concept will leave the whole world blind.

If we are to kill killers, then we should also rape those who rape others. Do I 
see the country come up with a national rapist to do the work as we do with a 
hangman? Most of you would disagree.

The capital punishment will never be right simply because it is irreversible, 
as killing an innocent person and realising it later will be fatal or the same. 
No wonder, life in prison is better option as one can still resume his/her life 
once someone finds them innocent.

Another major reason pro death penalty need to know is that those who convict a 
person to die are not angels. Prosecutors make mistakes so do judges, and no 
judicial system is free from human error, not even in the most advanced states 
and no wonder, there are several prisoners in prisons who are innocent.

The only reason they have found themselves there is because they are poor, 
destitute and some with mental illness who can never afford to pay for a good 
defense lawyer.

Statistics in the 2013 Tanzania Human Rights Report by the LHRC indicate that 
there were 387 Tanzanians on death row as of September 2013, a number which 
could be higher due to courts convicting several individuals to die in this 
year.

Helen Prejean, author of the book "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of 
the Death Penalty in the United States" was once quoted as saying "If we 
believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to 
be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well."

Indeed, the death penalty ought to be bad for all of us, let us hope that those 
responsible will spare the country from condoning the hang man as doing so, 
makes us all uncivilised.

Let life imprisonment be a solution to murderers all over the world, as killing 
amounts to vengeance.

(source: Rose Mwalongo; The writer is an anti death penalty campaigner who 
works as the Information Officer for the LHRC----The Guardian)






SOUTH KOREA:

Court to give verdict in case of doomed South Korea ferry


A South Korean court is set to rule on whether the captain of a ferry that 
capsized killing more than 300 people, most of them children on a school trip, 
should be put to death for culpable homicide in a case that triggered 
widespread grief and outrage.

A 3-judge panel in the southern city of Gwangju will hand down verdicts and 
sentencing on Tuesday in the trial of captain Lee Joon-seok, 68, as well as 14 
crew members, who face jail terms if convicted.

The overloaded Sewol capsized on April 16 while making a turn during a routine 
voyage to the holiday island of Jeju. The crew were among the first people to 
be rescued from the ship, while the mostly teenage passengers waited in their 
cabins.

The public outcry provoked by the tragedy led to concerns over whether the crew 
would be able to get a fair trial, with private sector lawyers largely shunning 
the defendants. Only one crew member was represented by a private lawyer.

"I think the prosecutors have been under very heavy pressure," said Cheong 
Yeong-seok, a law professor at Korea Maritime and Ocean University.

During the 5-month trial, families in the gallery occasionally made emotional 
outbursts.

"In my opinion, the death penalty which prosecutors demanded is too much for 
the captain's charge. But the public opinion was too negative and the situation 
from the gallery in the courtroom wasn't good," said Cheong.

Death sentences are rare in South Korea, which has not carried out an execution 
in more than 15 years.

Kim Hyun, a maritime lawyer advising the government on payment of damages to 
victims in the sinking, said he believed the crew received a fair hearing.

"I think it has been a fair trial given the defendants and their lawyers have 
made enough arguments in favor of them, despite public criticism," he said.

Only 172 of the 476 passengers and crew were rescued. Of the 304 confirmed dead 
or still missing, 250 were school children.

The crew on trial have said they thought it was the coastguard's job to 
evacuate passengers. Video footage of their escape triggered outrage, 
especially after survivors testified that crew repeatedly told passengers to 
stay put.

3 crew members in addition to Lee face homicide charges, with prosecutors 
seeking life prison terms. Prosecutors sought prison terms ranging from 15 to 
30 years for the other crew on trial, who face lesser charges, including 
negligence.

There are 58 people on death row in South Korea, according to the justice 
ministry, but the last time the country carried out an execution was in 
December 1997, when 23 convicts were hanged.

Lee, the captain, has apologized to the families of the victims and said he 
never intended to harm anyone.

Some of the crew made tearful apologies following their lawyers' closing 
speeches, which argued that the defendants were mostly too badly trained to 
handle the disaster.

(source: Reuters)






INDIA/SRI LANKA:

Death for Indian fishermen----'Sri Lanka has not implemented death penalty 
since 1976'


Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, currently in Chennai, said 
he had explained this to the families of the 5 Tamil fishermen awarded the 
sentence by a Colombo court recently.

In what could be a major relief to the 5 Tamil fishermen who have been awarded 
death sentence by the Sri Lankan High Court on drug trafficking charges, the 
country's Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran said his country 
had not implemented death sentence since 1976.

Mr Wigneswaran, who was a former Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, said 
in Chennai on Monday that even though death sentence was still part of the law 
it had not been implemented since 1976.

He said the families of the 5 fishermen also met him in Chennai and had sought 
his intervention to cancel the death penalty. "I explained to them that death 
sentence was not strictly implemented in Sri Lanka," he told reporters.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M.A. Sumanthiran, a Constitutional and human 
rights lawyer, said that in Sri Lanka, if a person possessed more than two 
grams of heroin he would face death sentence.

"There were instances of death sentences awarded to those involved in smuggling 
of narcotics. But the sentences were not implemented," he said.

(source: The Hindu)

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

5 Tamil fishermen serving death sentence in Sri Lanka to be transferred to 
Indian jail


In a big relief to the families of five Tamil fishermen who were awarded death 
penalty by a Sri Lankan court, the island nation has decided to transfer all 
the five convicts to Indian jail, according to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

The breakthrough happened after Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped in and 
spoke to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Swamy tweeted on Monday 
morning.

"Namo and Rajapaksa spoke on the phone yesterday&agreed to process papers & 
transfer 5 fishermen convicted to Indian jail. I am vindicated!," the tweet 
read.

Neomal Perera, Deputy Minister of External Affairs, Sri Lanka told CNN-IBN, 
"Indian Prime Minister has spoken to President Rajpaksa yesterday.. details and 
outcome of the conversation are not clear yet. Sri Lanka and India have very 
good relations, we respect each others concern. We are sure every problem can 
be sorted out through discussion."

The case dates back to 2011 when the 5 fishermen set out to fish from 
Rameswaram and were apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy on the charge of 
possessing narcotics.

A Sri Lankan court had recently sentenced the 5 fishermen to death in the case.

(source: CNN-IBN Live)

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

PM Narendra Modi Speaks to Sri Lankan President Over Death Penalty to Indian 
Fishermen


Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 
Sunday over the death sentence handed out to five Indian fishermen which has 
sparked protests in their home state of Tamil Nadu.

The 5 - Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet - were sentenced 
to death by the Colombo High Court on October 30 on charges of drug 
trafficking.

"The talks were centred around the 5 Indian fishermen's issue but as of now I 
don't know any other details," Lankan Presidential Spokesperson Mohan 
Samaranayake told NDTV.

Political parties in the state including MDMK - an ally of the ruling NDA at 
the Centre - have accused the Centre of doing little. In a letter to the Prime 
Minister, Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had raised apprehensions over whether 
the fishermen had received a fair trial.

Alleging that the case against the fishermen was "fabricated", MDMK chief Vaiko 
had said that the PM should intervene strongly through diplomatic channels to 
secure the release of the convicted Indians.

The arrest of fishermen has long been an issue in Tamil Nadu. The sentence 
comes at a time when the state is demanding the return of Katchatheevu, an 
island India had gifted to Sri Lanka in the early 70s. Former Tamil Nadu Chief 
Minister J Jayalalithaa has filed a petition in the Supreme Court in this 
regard.

Some headway was made on the arrests during the visit of President Rajapaksa in 
May for the swearing-in of PM Modi. A month later, Ms Jayalalithaa, who had 
boycotted the swearing-in to protest the invitation to Mr Rajapaksa, wrote to 
the Prime Minister, asking him to make the issue a priority.

Mr Rajapaksa ordered the release of a few hundred fishermen arrested for 
trespass. But those accused of drug peddling were not allowed to go.

(source: NDTV.com)