[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 24



SINGAPORE:

Ang Mo Kio murder case: Family of Vietnamese woman to arrive here on Tuesday


The sister of a Vietnamese national who was found dead last week in an Ang Mo 
Kio flat is expected to arrive in Singapore from Vietnam on Tuesday to collect 
her body.

Ms Dinah, who works in Malaysia, told Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao that 
she would be going back to Vietnam to bring their mother here.

"We wanted to go to Singapore sooner, but we can only arrive on Tuesday," she 
said.

Ms Tran Cam Ny, 32, was allegedly murdered in a flat at Block 406, Ang Mo Kio 
Ave 10 last Thursday. Lim Hou Peng Jackson, 40, was arrested the same day and 
charged with the murder 2 days later.

Ms Tran was said to have made a living here singing and dancing in a club.

Following his charge, Lim was remanded for psychiatric evaluation and is 
expected to appear in court again in December. If convicted, he faces the death 
penalty.

(source: www.straitstimes.com)






PAKISTAN:

Christian woman given death sentence under blasphemy law appeals in SC


A Pakistani Christian woman and a mother of 5, convicted under the 
controversial blasphemy law in 2010, on Monday filed an appeal in the Supreme 
Court challenging a High Court's ruling upholding her death penalty.

"We filed an appeal today in the Supreme Court (Lahore registry) against the 
Lahore High Court's verdict in the Asia Bibi case," Asia's counsel advocate 
Saiful Malook said. He said Asia Bibi, 47, had been implicated in a false 
blasphemy case and she would prove this in the Supreme Court.

"Supreme Court is the highest forum and Asia Bibi has not given up hope of 
getting justice," he said. Malook said there had been legal defects in the 
judgement of the High Court in the case. Last month, a 2-member Lahore High 
Court bench dismissed the appeal of Asia Bibi after her lawyers failed to prove 
her innocence in the court.

"We have raised various points in the appeal. The FIR has been registered 
against Asia under blasphemy laws 5 days after the incident. While in the Ayub 
Masih case 2002, the Supreme Court had taken notice of a 3-hour delay in 
registration of FIR and given relief to the accused on this ground.

"The complainant, cleric Muhammad Salam, reported the matter to police 5 days 
after the incident which is itself a testimony of his being a lair," Malook 
said while sharing the contents of the appeal.

He said 2 Muslim women who gave statement to police against Asia did not 
testify in the court. Asia Bibi, a mother of 5, is a resident of Ittan Wali 
village district Sheikhupura, some 60 kilometers from Lahore. She was arrested 
in 2009 under blasphemy charges - Section 295 B and C of Pakistan Penal Code, 
subject to capital punishment - while working in a farm with Muslim women.

Her 2 fellow Muslim women - Asma and her sister - accused her of making 
drinking water unclean by touching the pot. Christians are prohibited to touch 
eating or drinking utensils used by Muslims in Pakistan. The Muslim women 
reported the matter to a local cleric Muhammad Salam who filed a blasphemy 
complaint against Asia with the police. Asia Bibi was sentenced to death in 
2010.

Her case shot to prominence when Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer was 
assassinated in January 2011. Mumtaz Qadri, the assassin of Taseer, in his 
statement to police said he killed Taseer for calling blasphemy laws "black" 
and pursuing the case of Asia Bibi.

Saiful Malook was a prosecution lawyer in the Taseer assassination case. During 
the proceedings, the trial judge left the country because of threats from 
extremists. Asia's husband has also submitted a plea for clemency to the 
President Mamnoon Hussain.

(source: firstpost.com)






TANZANIA:

CUF, CCM want IPTL scandal suspects axed


CUF National Chairman Professor Ibrahim LipumbaBoth the ruling party and major 
opposition Civic United Front (CUF) are calling on all officials implicated in 
the Tegeta 306bn/- escrow account scandal to voluntarily resign before they are 
publicly kicked out of office.

Additionally, CUF wants all accounts that have so far received funds from the 
Tegeta escrow account frozen and also on the remaining amount in the escrow 
account.

Speaking to journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday, CUF National Chairman 
Professor Ibrahim Lipumba advised the Prevention and Combating of Corruption 
Bureau to start investigating all officials implicated in the scandal.

"For the investigation to be free and fair, first, the culprits should resign," 
he said.

"In case they are directly linked, other procedures including dragging them to 
court will follow...it is important that PCCB takes action immediately before 
some of the culprits leave the country," he urged.

In a related development, the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has also 
called for 'strict legal action' on all persons implicated in the scandal.

CCM Ideology and Publicity secretary, Nape Nnauye, maintain that the party's 
stance is, 'everyone should carry his/her own cross and leave the party 
untainted and strong.'

Addressing a public rally yesterday at the Ilulu grounds in Lindi at the close 
of an 8 day official visit of CCM???s Secretary General Abdulrahman Kinana to 
the region, he said 'the party's stance is that all those involved should leave 
the party.'

"Our party is strong and follows procedures when taking action against wrong 
doers within the party," he added.

"We are dealing with all corruption scandals including the Tegeta escrow 
account...if you are trusted with a leadership position it is a must to adhere 
to leadership ethics and if one fails the party will take action against them," 
he said.

In a related development, Methodist Bishop for the Dodoma Diocese, Joseph 
Bundala, proposed the death penalty or life imprisonment for all found guilty 
in the Tegeta escrow account scandal.

Speaking to The Guardian yesterday in the capital, the Bishop maintained that 
the country needs harsh laws 'especially on public leaders who are sworn in by 
the President' the cleric urged.

"They vowed to be at the service of the country in a trustworthy manner but 
they have gone against their vows by embezzling public funds for their own 
benefits while the wananchi are dying for lack of medicines," the bishop 
decried.

(source: IPP Media)






CHINA:

Senior court official says China to continue death penalty reform


China's top court said it would study ways of further reducing the number of 
crimes punishable by death, in an effort to reform a segment of Chinese law 
widely criticised by international rights groups.

Activists say China uses capital punishment more than any other country, 
raising public concern of irreversible miscarriages of justice.

In October, the National People's Congress, China's parliament, began reviewing 
a policy to trim nine crimes from the list of offences subject to the death 
penalty. Those reforms have yet to be finalised.

Hu Yunteng, a senior researcher at the Supreme People's Court, told a meeting 
of academics on Saturday that China would deepen death penalty reform.

"[Officials] must thoroughly study how to reduce death penalty crimes, and 
progressively limit and reduce the scope of the use of the death penalty," the 
People's Court Daily on Sunday cited Hu as saying.

The use of the death penalty must be "100 percent accurate and guard against 
any false or unjust charges", Hu said, adding that the role of lawyers must be 
ensured and the human rights of defendants respected.

Officials have previously said China would review the use of the death penalty, 
which applies to 55 offences, including fraud and illegal money-lending.

China guards the number of people executed every year as state secrets.

The San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation, which seeks the release of 
political prisoners in China, estimated that 2,400 people were executed in 
2013. By comparison, 39 people were executed in 2013 in the United States, 
according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Last week, state media said a court in Inner Mongolia would reconsider a 1996 
rape and murder case which may have led to the execution of the wrong man.

Huugjilt, 18 at the time, was put to death a month after being sentenced, the 
official Xinhua news agency said. Years after his execution, another man 
confessed to the murder.

The ruling Communist Party, worried about rising social unrest and anger over 
land grabs, corruption and pollution, has vowed to carry out legal reforms.

Experts, however, have said the reduction in death penalty crimes is not 
expected to greatly lower the number of executions per year.

(source: Reuters)






BANGLADESH:

Nizami appeals to SC against death penalty


Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami yesterday challenged the death 
penalty awarded to him by a war crimes tribunal for his crimes against humanity 
committed during the Liberation War.

In his appeal filed with the Supreme Court, Nizami claimed himself innocent and 
sought acquittal on the eight charges he was found guilty.

International Crimes Tribunal-1 on October 29 handed him the death penalty on 4 
charges of war crimes, including murdering intellectuals. The 71-year-old was 
also awarded life imprisonment on the other 4 charges.

Citing from the appeal, Shishir Manir, a lawyer for Nizami, told The Daily Star 
that the tribunal had failed to consider that Nizami was never associated with 
any auxiliary force controlled by Pakistan army in 1971.

Findings of the tribunal about Nizami were manifestly perverse and therefore 
the conviction and sentence given to him were liable to be set aside and the 
appellant was liable to be acquitted, he said, quoting the appeal.

Shishir said Nizami in his 121-page appeal mentioned 168 grounds to establish 
his innocence.

Total 6,252 pages of documents were annexed with the appeal, he said, adding 
that the Supreme Court would now fix a date for hearing the appeal.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday told reporters that the 
government would not file any appeal with the Supreme Court against the 
tribunal verdict on Nizami, as it was satisfied with the verdict.

He also said his office would place arguments before the apex court to defend 
the tribunal verdict.

Tribunal-1 in the verdict said it was well-proved that the accused being the 
chief of Islami Chhatra Sangha and Al-Badr force whole-heartedly resisted the 
War of Liberation and also actively participated in the crimes against humanity 
in 1971.

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

ICT hailed for handing death to AL brass Mobarak


Star file phto shows a Gonojagoron Mancha faction marching from Shahbagh 
following the verdict Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami's death penalty for war 
crimes.

The death penalty for Brahmanbaria Awami League leader Mobarak Hossain clears 
issues that war criminals will be brought to trial and justice beyond their 
respective political identity, a faction of Gonojagoron Mancha said today.

Imran H Sarker, spokesperson for a Gonojagoron Mancha faction, said he was 
happy with the special war crimes tribunal awarding death for Mobarak's war 
crimes in 1971.

"Mobarak was a very sly person. He joined a progressive party after 
independence to hide away his war crimes committed in 1971," he told a 
television reporter.

"We were concerned that he might use his political identity to evade justice. 
But, this verdict proves that if this goes on, war criminals who took shelter 
in several political parties will be brought to trial and face justice," he 
added.

Gonojagoron Mancha wanted trial for war criminals beyond of respective 
political identity, Imran added.

The Mancha faction brought out a joyous procession from Dhaka's Shahbagh and 
paraded through Dhaka University campus after hearing the verdict.

Mobarak, a Jamaat-e-Islami leader who later joined the Awami League after 1971, 
was handed death today in 1 charge of crimes committed against humanity in 
1971.

(source for both: The Daily Star)

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

Former Awami League official to be hanged for war crimes in Bangladesh


Bangladesh's war crimes court Monday sentenced a former ruling party official 
to death for mass murder, the 14th person convicted of atrocities during the 
1971 war, a prosecutor said.

Mobarak Hossain, who was expelled from the Awami League after he was charged 
with war crimes in 2012, was found guilty of heading a militia that rounded up 
and killed scores during the nine-month conflict.

"He was sentenced to death for the murder of 33 people and given (a) life term 
for the abduction and murder of another person," prosecutor Shahidur Rahman 
told AFP.

The 64-year-old Hossain is the 1st person connected with the ruling party to be 
given the death penalty by the controversial tribunal, which has mostly focused 
on trials of officials of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Hossain, who was in court to hear the verdict, had previously been an official 
of Jamaat-e-Islami.

During the war he was a local commander of a notorious militia in the eastern 
border town of Akhaura which carried out murders, abductions and torture, 
Rahman said.

In one of the worst episodes of the war, "Hossain and his associates abducted 
132 people and then murdered 33 of them on the bank of a pond", he said.

After Bangladesh gained independence, Jamaat was banned for some years. Hossain 
eventually switched to the Awami League, serving as a low-level official for 16 
years until he was charged.

Jamaat's leader and its top lieutenants were sentenced to death last year for 
their roles in the war, triggering the country's deadliest political violence.

Thousands of activists clashed with police in various protests that left some 
500 people dead.

An ex-minister of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has 
also been sentenced to hang.

The BNP and Jamaat have called the court's trials politically motivated and 
aimed at eliminating opposition leaders rather than rendering justice.

Rights groups have said the trials fall short of international standards and 
lack any foreign oversight.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina maintains the hearings are 
needed to heal the wounds of the conflict, which it says left 3 million people 
dead.

Independent researchers estimate that between 300,000 and 500,000 people died 
in the 1971 war.

(source: The Express Tribune)