[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 24


INDIA:

UNLF warns of death penalty for rape


A proscribed underground organisation in Manipur, the United National 
Liberation Front (UNLF) has warned that rapists, murderers of women and owners 
of restaurants and hotels that encouraged immoral activities may have to face 
death penatly. Such hotels and restaurants would also be destroyed, the Front 
said.

The announcement was made on the occasion of the golden anniversary of the 
outfit on Monday.

UNLF recalled that it had declared 1975 as the international year of woman and 
had chalked out various programmes to uplift the status of women. It had come 
down heavily on rapists since 1990. It promised more drastic campaigns in the 
future.

(source: The Hindu)

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Bring death to death penalty: Experts


Observer Research Foundation, a non-governmental organisation on Monday 
organised a discussion on the topic 'Why India should end death penalty'. At 
the discussion, legal expert advocate Yug Mohit Choudhary and persons like 
professor Alberto Quattrucci from Rome, Archbishop Felix Machado and chairman 
of ORF Sudheendra Kulkarni spoke about their experience and why the time had 
come to abolish death as punishment.

All the speakers were of the view that capital punishment made no sense and 
should be abolished. Advocate Choudhary said that the most important purpose of 
giving someone a punishment was to reform him/her and when the death penalty is 
awarded, the person is eliminated and so are the chances of reformation. He 
also said that often it is argued that death penalty is awarded as a deterrent 
so that other like-minded people refrain from committing similar crimes. He 
said that mostly death is awarded in crimes of murder and data shows that the 
crime of killing had gone down as compared to the past when there were more 
people sent to the gallows.

Professor Quattrucci said that it is a stupid way to send a message to others. 
"You do not want others to kill and you give this message by killing somebody," 
he said. He said there should be love for life and one should understand that 
living together is possible and necessary. According to him, 50 countries have 
abolished the death penalty since 1990.

Archbishop Machado said Jesus said that a tooth for a tooth will make the world 
toothless and an eye for an eye will make the world blind and the same way life 
for life will finish the world. "Can taking somebody's life, for whatever 
reason, teach our generations to respect life?" he asked.

Advocate Choudhary claimed that the punishment of death is not to control 
crimes or control law and order, but a political tool.

"The question here is not that the death penalty is a deterrent, but whether it 
is more of a deterrent than life imprisonment?" he added. He also claimed that 
so far 14 judges of the Supreme Court had written to different Presidents of 
India to commute the death sentence of some of the convicts where they found 
that the death sentence erroneously awarded.

(source: Asian Age)






GAMBIA:

Jammeh Declares Tougher Punishment for Child Abusers


The Gambian leader Friday evening declared that his government would adopt 
tougher measures to punish perpetrators of child abuse and exploitation in the 
country. He also declared that come September next year, his government will 
legislate to make it compulsory for every child in The Gambia to have access to 
basic education.

His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh made the declarations at 
the Kairaba Beach Hotel in Kololi while presiding over the launching of his 
spouse's newest initiative dubbed "Operation Save the Children" Foundation.

"We will now make it a capital punishment for raping a child," he declared. "We 
will impose the sentence of death penalty for raping a child."

"Well before I even became the president, it had been my dream that no child in 
The Gambia suffers," Jammeh told a gathering of over 1,000 participants, 
including the vice president and Women Affairs minister and other Cabinet 
ministers, children, UN agencies' officials and parents.

He lamented that perpetrators have now moved from raping adults to children, 
and warned that his government will remain unrelenting to protect children. 
"Protecting a child goes beyond just saving him or her from violence," he said. 
"The best assurance to ensure that a child is protected is education."

The Gambian leader also raised concerns on the increasing incidences of baby 
dumping in the country, saying stringent measures will also be taken against 
the menace. "They have no reason for dumping their babies. The baby commits no 
offence to be killed. If you cannot take your babies, then take them to the SOS 
Children's Village or bring them to State House," he said.

The Gambia leader further reminded perpetrators of this menace that they have 
no right to dump their babies, warning that if they do, they will spend the 
rest of their lives in jail. "In addition to the launching of the First lady's 
Foundation, I am also going to launch Operation no Compromise in the Protection 
of Children. Enough is enough," he stressed.

He appealed to Gambians to take the teaching profession seriously, saying it is 
a noble profession. He added: "We have to understand that nation building is a 
sacrifice. We have to all sacrifice to make ensure that in the next 10 years, 
people migrate to The Gambia instead of Gambians migrating to other countries."

The Gambian leader assured the First Lady of his full support and the 
Foundation, saying his attendance at the launching was a show of family 
solidarity and the interest in the protection and the welfare of Gambian 
children.

(source: The Daily Observer)






BANGLADESH:

Moncho demands execution of verdict


Welcoming the verdict, Gonojagoron Moncho has urged the government to execute 
the verdict of the tribunal that handed down death penalty to former Awami 
League leader Mobarak Hossain.

Moncho spokesperson Imran H Sarkar made the call at a rally in the capital's 
Shahbagh, immediate after the verdict was announced on Monday afternoon.

Imran said: "We welcome the verdict. There was an uncertainty that the verdict 
might be influenced as Mobarak had joined the ruling party after the Liberation 
War."

He also gave special thanks to the government as it did not influence the 
verdict and established that a war criminal must have to face justice wherever 
he belongs to.

Meanwhile, both the factions of Gonojagoron Moncho and Bangladesh Chhatra 
League members brought out separate joyous rallies at Shahbagh in the capital 
after the verdict was pronounced.

(source: The Dhaka Tribune)



CHINA:

China court upholds death sentence to man, life term to wife


A court in China has upheld the death penalty to a man for rape and murder of a 
17-year-old girl and life term in jail to his wife for abetting the crime.

The Higher People's Court of Heilongjiang rejected the couple's appeals and 
upheld the penalties meted out by a lower court in June, which sentenced Bai 
Yunjiang to death and his wife Tan Beibei to life imprisonment.

On July 24, 2013, Tan who was pregnant at the time lured the girl, identified 
as Hu, to her home by pretending to have pregnancy complications.

The couple then gave the teenager a yoghurt drink spiked with a sedative and 
Bai attempted to rape her.

According to the court, the sexual assault was unsuccessful but the couple 
killed the girl anyway and buried her body.

Tan said her husband was aware that she had several extra marital affairs and 
the idea to acquire a young girl for her husband's pleasure had emerged out of 
guilt.

The court also found the couple had previously failed in 2 such assaults -- 1 
was the attempted rape of 1 of their daughter's classmates in June last year 
and the other was the attempted robbery and murder of 1 of Bai's former 
classmates in mid July last year, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The higher court affirmed the facts and evidence of the 1st trial and declared 
the judgment and sentencing appropriate.

(source: Press Trust of India)

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China high court to investigate ways to reduce death penalty crimes


China's highest court, the Supreme People's Court will investigate ways of 
reducing the number of crimes punishable by death according to remarks by Hu 
Yunteng, a senior researcher at the Supreme People's Court, published Monday. 
Hu told a group of academics Saturday that the government must reduce the use 
of the death penalty and use the death penalty with care to prevent the 
execution of innocent individuals, according to the Supreme People's Court 
official newspaper the People's Court Daily. While the Chinese government does 
not publish the exact number of executions each year, the San Francisco-based 
Dui Hua Foundation estimated that 2,400 people were executed in 2013.

The statement from the Supreme People's Court is the most recent acknowledgment 
of a reform movement by the Chinese government to reduce executions in the 
country. In October proposed legislation that would eliminate the death penalty 
as punishment for 9 crimes was submitted to the Standing Committee of the 
National People's Congress (NPC). The NPC has previously contemplated reducing 
the number of crimes punishable by death, announcing in March that various 
government departments were studying possible changes. In 2011 the NPC amended 
the national criminal law to remove 13 offenses from the list of crimes subject 
to the death penalty. Those removed were non-violent economic crimes, including 
smuggling cultural relics, precious metals and rare animals; fraudulent 
activities with financial bills and letters of credit; fraudulent export tax 
refunds; teaching of crime-committing methods; and robbing ancient cultural 
ruins.

(source: jurist.org)






IRAN:

Iranian Supreme Court Upheld a Death Sentence for Insulting the Prophet on 
Facebook


Branch 41 of the Iranian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of the 
blogger Soheil Arabi for insulting the Prophet on the Facebook.

The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) arrested Soheil Arabi (30), and his wife on 
November 2013. Mr. Arabi's wife was released few hours later, but he was kept 
in solitary confinement for 2 months inside IRGC's Ward 2-A at Evin Prison, 
before he was transferred to Evin's General Ward 350 where he is being held 
now. Branch 76 of the Tehran Criminal Court, under Judge Khorasani, found Arabi 
guilty of "sabb al-nabi" (insulting the Prophet), on August 30, 2014.

Article 262 stipulates the death sentence for cursing the Prophet of Islam, any 
of the other grand prophets. In February 2014 the Iranian Supreme Court upheld 
the death sentence of Ruhollah Tavana for insulting the Prophet.

(source: Iran Human Rights)






SOMALIA:

Jubaland Military Court Executes Soldier for Murder


Jubaland military court executed a soldier convicted of killing a 9-year-old 
boy in the southern port city of Kismayo, Garowe Online reports.

The convicted killer-Abdirashid Abdi-was executed by the firing squad with 
prosecutor-general Hassan Ishaq Yarow present.

Addressing reporters at the scene of the execution, Yarow said that soldiers 
who deliberately kill civilians will face death penalties.

The death sentence and the subsequent execution mark the 1st since the new 
state's 1st military course was set up last week.

Meanwhile, Jubaland President Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Madobe) has jetted 
off to Dubai through Kenyan capital of Nairobi at official invitation.

Jubaland forces are battling Islamist insurgents in deadly offensives on 
fertile hinterlands along Juba River.

Following IGAD-brokered bilateral talks in Addis Ababa, Somalia's Federal 
Government recognized Jubaland in August 2013.

(source: Garowe Online)