[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 12



SAUDI ARABIA:

Beheadings remain integral part of Saudi justice system----Rights campaigners 
decry frequent use of a form of execution that has aroused revulsion elsewhere


The beheading of Pakistani national Izzat Gul for drug trafficking was Saudi 
Arabia's 46th such execution for 2014, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). 
In August alone, Saudi Arabia decapitated 19 people, eight of them for 
nonviolent offenses, including sorcery, the rights group added.

While the beheading of ISIS captives James Foley and Steven Sotloff provoked 
global outrage, human rights groups decry the limited international attention 
given to Saudi Arabia's use of decapitation even for nonviolent crimes - a 
punishment so routine that Deera Square in Riyadh is sometimes referred to as 
"Chop Chop Square."

U.S. President Barack Obama failed to raise "a single human rights issue" with 
Riyadh during his trip to Saudi Arabia in March, said Adam Coogle, a Middle 
East researcher at HRW. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Saudi Arabia on 
Thursday to discuss U.S. strategy to combat Islamic State fighters in the 
region. In press briefings ahead of the trip, there were no indication that the 
issue of human rights would be brought up.

"There are a lot of interests at play in the U.S.-Saudi relationship, including 
economic and geostrategic issues as well as counterterrorism," Coogle said. 
"Unfortunately, the U.S. prioritized these other interests over using its close 
relationship to push the Saudi government to make human rights reforms."

Coogle said Saudi Arabia executes, on average, about 100 people a year, most 
via beheading, noting that the kingdom orders the death penalty as the sentence 
for a number of nonviolent offenses, including drug crimes, adultery and 
practices it deems witchcraft. The kingdom has one of the world's highest 
execution rates, according to Death Penalty Worldwide, an organization that 
collects information on executions.

Criminalizing dissent

Part of rights groups' concern is that Riyadh is using violent forms of 
punishment to quash dissent.

Gul's execution came shortly after a court decision last week upholding a 
10-year jail sentence and 1,000 lashes - meted out in weekly installments of 50 
lashes - against blogger Raef Badawi, who was charged with "insulting Islam" 
and "going beyond the realm of obedience." A Saudi news agency reported 
Badawi's conviction in March for his connection to "reformists" and for his 
tweets "against the rulers, religious scholars and government agencies."

His lawyer, Waleed Abu Alkhair - currently in jail facing similar charges - 
told the BBC that his client's charges concerned statements posted online 
calling for a relaxation of Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam.

Amnesty International has designated Badawi a prisoner of conscience, "detained 
solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression."

"Badawi's harsh sentence shows how little tolerance there is for any sort of 
expression that doesn't jibe with the Saudi government's official prescribed 
narrative," Coogle said, adding that the sentence is "very consistent" with 
other penalties levied against liberals and human rights activists.

Saudi Arabia's embassy in Washington did not respond to Al Jazeera's request 
for comment by the time of publication.

The kingdom's legal system relies on a hard-line reading of Islamic law, or 
Sharia, by religious judges who, according to Coogle, often rely on "ad-hoc 
interpretations."

"Judges have leeway to criminalize all kinds of things," he said. "It's 
completely left to the discretion of judges, within parameters of Islamic law, 
to state what the crime is and also the intended punishment."

In February, Saudi Arabia enacted a new Law for the Crimes of Terrorism and its 
Financing, legislation that some critics warn is vague and could be used to 
penalize anyone who criticizes the Saudi establishment.

Over the last 2 months, Saudi courts sentenced to death 5 religious leaders and 
activists who participated in protests demanding constitutional reform. All 5 
were charged and convicted on terrorism charges under the new legislation.

The new laws "turn almost any critical expression or independent association 
into crimes of terrorism," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa 
director at Human Rights Watch.

He said this is because "terrorism" can be nonviolent under the new laws, whose 
definition of it includes any act intended to "insult the reputation of the 
state," "harm public order" or "shake up the security of society."

Additional provisions in the new laws include the criminalization of unorthodox 
beliefs and atheism, participating in any form of protest against the 
government and attending conferences in or outside Saudi Arabia that "sow 
discord" in society.

Despite the criticism of foreign human rights groups, any reforms are more 
likely to originate in the corridors of power, said Juan Cole, a University of 
Michigan history professor who is the director of the school's Center for 
Middle Eastern and North African Studies. Politics in Saudi Arabia is practiced 
in the backroom, he said, making it difficult to see incremental changes.

"In 2005, they had their 1st municipal elections, the 1st elections of any 
sort. That was a big deal," he said, adding that Saudi Arabia is a "very 
dynamic society" in the "throes of enormous change."

He added, "The Saudi elite is well aware that with an increasingly middle-class 
and educated public, the old form of absolute monarchy will be difficult to 
keep going."

(source: Al Jazeera America)






JAPAN:

Matsushima stays course on death penalty but targets rape


Newly appointed Justice Minister Midori Matsushima on Thursday backed the death 
penalty as a deterrent against crime and said she planned to stiffen the 
penalty for rape and bolster immigration staff.

Noting that the death penalty enjoys strong public support, the former Asahi 
Shimbun reporter turned politician said in a group media interview that 
scrapping capital punishment would be inappropriate in light of Japan's 
recurring heinous crimes.

In a carefully phrased poll conducted every five years by the Cabinet Office, 
85.6 % of the respondents said in 2009 that capital punishment is "unavoidable 
if the circumstance demands it."

"I know there are various critical opinions when it comes to the death 
penalty," said Matsushima, dressed in her habitual color of red. "But I don't 
think it deserves any immediate reform."

On immigration and tourism, the 58-year-old Osaka native said the government 
needs to achieve a delicate balance between promoting more tourism and 
maintaining national safety.

"Non-problematic foreigners should be allowed to clear immigration as smoothly 
as possible" to boost Japan's reputation as a hospitable country, she said.

"Meanwhile, rigorous immigration checks must be in place to maintain safety 
here," she said, emphasizing that her ministry is set to hire 300 more 
immigration staff next year. Since Japan is trying to carve out a reputation as 
a tourism-driven nation, it makes sense to invest in more immigration 
personnel, she said.

Matsushima also seemed content with what is often criticized as the insular way 
in which immigration officials deal with asylum seekers. A mere 6 asylum 
seekers were granted refugee status in 2013, the least in 15 years, according 
to data released by the Justice Ministry in March.

"All we do is simply scrutinize each asylum seeker independently, and the 
number is just a result of that process," Matsushima said. "It's not like there 
is any numerical target we have to achieve."

She also said that one of her most immediate goals is to stiffen penalties for 
sex offenders. Matsushima pointed out that minimum sentence for people 
convicted of rape resulting in death or injury is 5 years, while the minimum 
sentence for robbery resulting in injury is 6 years.

"I have always been infuriated that stealing is considered more grave than 
raping a woman and ruining her life," she said.

Victims of rape are often but not always female.

(source: Japan Times)



INDONESIA:

Indonesia's Supreme Court upholds death sentence for drug lord Freddy Budiman


The Supreme Court has decided to uphold the death sentence for Freddy Budiman, 
a convicted drug lord who ran an ecstasy ring from behind bars. The ruling, 
posted on the court's website on Tuesday, said judges rejected the appeal of 
"Freddy Budiman alias Budi bin NanangHidayat."

The verdict was reached on Monday by 3 judges, including presiding judge 
ArtidjoAlkostar, The Jakarta Globe reported.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, Tony Spontana, said that Freddy 
would not be executed just yet, as he might file a request for a case review 
with the Supreme Court again or ask for clemency from the president.

However, a spokesman for the Supreme Court disagreed. Quoted by Detik.com, 
RidwanMansyur said that Monday's ruling was final and binding, and even if 
Freddy still wanted to ask for a case review or clemency, this should not 
prevent the AGO from picking a date for Freddy's execution.

Freddy's lucrative drug business was revealed by the National Narcotics Agency 
(BNN) in 2012 when its officers raided a truck containing 1.4 million ecstasy 
pills in Cengkareng, West Jakarta. The ecstasy pills were imported from 
Shenzhen, China, and had successfully passed through security checks at North 
Jakarta's TanjungPriok port.

It was found later that the drugs belonged to Freddy, an inmate who controlled 
the business from behind bars, using a dozen cellphones at his disposal.

(source: Thai PBS)






CHAD:

TOWARDS ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY


The Chadian government adopted on September 5 a penal code aimed at abolishing 
the death penalty, Minister of Communication and government spokesman Hassan 
Sylla Bakari announced after an inter-ministerial meeting held in N'Djamena.

Bakari said "the death penalty will be replaced by life imprisonment with no 
possibility of conditional release in future." Bakari added it had become 
necessary for the country to modernize its laws in the political, social, 
cultural, economic and diplomatic areas.

It is worth noting that although Chad has had the death penalty in its laws, 
there have been no reported executions since November 2003, when 9 men were 
executed within a period of 4 days, although they had not exhausted their 
appeals. 4 of the 9 men had been found guilty 2 weeks earlier of assassinating 
a Sudanese politician and businessman. The other 5 executed men had been 
sentenced for unrelated murders and assassinations.

In November 2012, Chad was targeted by a mission of Hands off Cain and the 
Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT), aimed at 
favouring the abolitionist process internally and obtaining a favourable vote 
on the UN Resolution for the universal moratorium on executions.

(source: Xinhua)






INDIA:

Koli asks if hanging is 'painful'----Mother says her son was made a "scapegoat" 
because he comes from a poor family


The convict in the Nithari killings Surinder Koli who had got a breather on 
September 8 when Supreme Court had stayed his hanging by a week, asked the 
Meerut jail officials on Thursday if death by hanging was 'painful'. His query 
came hours after he met his mother Kunti Koli for the 1st time in 8 years since 
he was lodged in jail for allegedly sexually abusing and killing children in 
Nithari village in Noida.

According to the S.H.M. Rizvi the Senior Superintendent of the Chaudhary Charan 
Singh district jail in Meerut, Koli on Thursday asked some of the jail 
officials if hanging was "painful". Koli who awaits hangman's noose, is 
spending anxious days in the high security cell of the jail these days.

"I was told by some of the jail officials that Koli inquired one of them about 
execution and the process of being hanged. Normally he has been completely 
silent. But he today he asked people about the day of his hanging," Mr. Rizvi 
told The Hindu.

"He asked how long is the process of being hanged. He also asked if death by 
hanging is painful," added the senior superintendent.

Earlier in the day Koli had met his mother. Coming all the way from Mangrukhal 
village in Almora town in Uttarakhand the 68-year-old Kunti Koli met her son 
for about 50 minutes. While talking to The Hindu after meeting her son, Ms. 
Kanti alleged her son was made a "scapegoat" because he comes from a poor 
family.

She referred to Koli's employer and businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, who was 
also 1 of the accused in Nithari killings but was acquitted later and his death 
was overturned by the Allahabad High Court in 2009. He still faces trail in 5 
of the 12 cases.

"My son is being sacrificed to save influential people. If Pandher was not 
given death penalty. If my son is hanged then Pandher should also be hanged," 
she said.

Visibly emotional after meeting her son, the agitated mother asked: "What logic 
is this? Rich people like Pandher get saved from being hanged. Why poor people 
only have to bear the burden of justice".

The apex court had in the early hours of Monday stayed Koli's execution for a 
week until a fresh review petition challenging his death penalty was heard in 
an open court room by a Bench of 3 judges of the apex court.

Koli, who was found guilty of rapes and murder of several children between 2005 
and 2006, was sentenced to death in 4 cases and his death sentence was 
confirmed by the apex court in 2011.

(source: The Hindu)


VIETNAM:

2 sentenced to death for trafficking ecstasy from Laos

A 2-day trial in Thanh Hoa Province ended in high drama after a drug trafficker 
the court sentenced to death attempted to smash his head against a courtroom 
wall.

Nguyen Huu Bang, 35, and Nguyen Ngoc Hung, 45, were both sentenced to death for 
their major role in trafficking more than 5 kilograms of ecstasy pills from 
Laos.

Bang's wife Le Thi At, 39, received a life sentence. Hung's wife Phan Thi Vi, 
40, and another member Van Thi Nga were each sentenced to 20 years 
imprisonment.

Hung attempted to ram his head into the wall after the verdict was announced. 
Security forces at the trial stopped him in time, so he only suffered from 
dizziness and confusion.

Bang blamed his wife for the crime, saying he only served as an interpreter 
between her and Kong Thong and that investigators had forced him to plead 
guilty.

But his wife At admitted their involvement.

The indictment said Bang and At were living in Vientiane, Laos, when a local 
man named Kong Thong introduced them into the drug trade last October.

He asked the couple to find consumers in Vietnam.

Bang and At then went to Vietnam to recruit Hung and Vy, 2 Thanh Hoa locals.

In late December, Hung gave Bang a big order, so Bang called Kong Thong asking 
for the supply.

On December 29, Bang and the Lao supplier drover a truck across the border to 
deliver more than 5 kilograms of ecstasy pills to At and Nga, who brought them 
to Hung and Vi.

Hung and Nga met the customer at a hotel the next night and they agreed on the 
price of VND48,000 (more than US$2.27) a pill, as well as delivery and payment 
terms.

The next night, Kong Thong accompanied Nga to pick up the money from one hotel 
while At and Hung delivered the pills to another.

There, police rushed in and arrested them.

Bang, Vi and Nga were arrested soon afterward, while Kong Thong and the 
customer managed to escape.

At was pregnant during the time of her arrest and gave birth in jail.

She said she wanted to make money to take care of the baby.

She kept fainting, causing the judge panel to delay the trial several times.

Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws.

Those convicted of producing or selling 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of 
other illegal narcotics face the death penalty.

Smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of 
methamphetamine is also punishable by death.

(source: Thanh Nien News)






PAKISTAN:

Capital punishment: HRCP calls for abolition of death penalty


The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Thursday expressed concern 
over reports that despite an informal moratorium on executions, a murder 
convict was scheduled to be hanged at Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, on September 18.

The HRCP has called upon the government to stay the hanging and announce a 
formal moratorium on executions.

In a statement on Thursday, the commission said, "The HRCP has received with 
great alarm and dismay reports that Shoaib Sarwar, a death row prisoner 
currently detained in Haripur prison, is set to be hanged at Rawalpindi's 
Adiala Jail on September 18."

It said the convict was awarded death sentence on July 2, 1998, on the charge 
of murdering Awais Nawaz in Wah Cantt in 1996. The victim's brother had moved 
the high court against the delay in implementing the sentence despite 
exhaustion of all appeals by the convict and rejection of his clemency plea by 
the president.

The high court ordered the district and sessions judge to implement the 
execution of the sentence.

"The last execution of a civilian death row prisoner in the country had taken 
place in late 2008. Executions have since been suspended. HRCP wishes to remind 
the government that the reasons that have caused the stay of executions since 
2008 have not changed.

These include the well-documented deficiencies of the law, flaws in 
administration of justice and investigation methods and chronic corruption.

In view of these factors, capital punishment allows for a high probability of 
miscarriages of justice, which is wholly unacceptable in a civilised society, 
particularly because the punishment is irreversible.

Despite the informal stay of executions, capital punishment remains on 
Pakistan's statute books for 28 offences, and the courts continue to award 
death sentences.

It said Sarwar's planned execution on September 18 was a regressive step and 
raised concerns at several levels.

It said the convict's relatives had once again asked the president to overturn 
the sentence and were also trying to settle the issue through payment of blood 
money.

"The HRCP calls upon the government to immediately halt this and any other 
executions that might be under consideration and make the informal suspension 
of executions formal without further delay.

We also urge the president to favourably consider mercy petitions and convert 
capital punishment to life imprisonment."

The human rights commission of Pakistan demanded that the government take 
urgent measures towards abolition of capital punishment, including deletion of 
the death penalty from the statute book, at least for all but the most serious 
offences.

(source: Express Tribune)

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

ICJ calls for immediate halt to Shoaib Sarwar's imminent execution


The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) urgently calls on the Pakistani 
Government to halt the imminent execution of Shoaib Sarwar, scheduled to take 
place on 18 September 2014.

In 1998, a sessions court found Shoaib Sarwar guilty of murdering Awais Nawaz. 
In 2003, the Lahore High Court rejected his appeal, and in 2006, the Supreme 
Court confirmed the death sentence.

The President of Pakistan also rejected Shoaib Sarwar's mercy petition seeking 
to have the execution commuted.

"Pakistan has had an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty since June 
2008, with only the exception of Muhammad Hussain's execution in November 2012 
following a court martial," said Sam Zarifi, ICJ's Regional Director for Asia 
and the Pacific. "Breaking its moratorium on the death penalty will be a major 
step backwards for Pakistan, calling into question the commitment of Prime 
Minister Nawaz Sharif"s Government"s to its human rights obligations."

The resumption of the death penalty puts Pakistan in opposition to the global 
and regional movement towards the abolition of the death penalty.

Currently, 150 countries worldwide, including 30 states in the Asia-Pacific 
region including Nepal and Sri Lanka, have abolished the death penalty in law 
or in practice.

"Resuming executions is all the more alarming given that over 8,000 people are 
currently on death row in Pakistan," added Zarifi. "With the death penalty 
prescribed for 27 offences, including blasphemy, arms smuggling and offences 
related to drugs, these numbers are increasing by the day."

The ICJ opposes capital punishment in all cases without exception. The death 
penalty constitutes a violation of the right to life and the right not to be 
subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution emphasizing that "that 
the use of the death penalty undermines human dignity" and calling for the 
establishment of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty "with a view to 
abolishing the death penalty".

India ended its 8-year moratorium on the death penalty with the executions of 
Ajmal Amir Kasab in November 2012 and Afzal Guru in February 2013.

South Asia's increasing resort to the use of the death penalty goes against a 
15-year worldwide trend towards abolition. More than 150 of 192 United Nations 
member States have now either abolished the death penalty or do not practice 
it, including 30 States from the Asia-Pacific region.

The resolution was reaffirmed in 2008, 2010, and most recently in December 
2012, when an overwhelming majority of 110 UN Member States voted in favor of a 
worldwide moratorium on executions as a step towards abolition of the death 
penalty.

The ICJ urges the Pakistani Government to respect UN General Assembly 
resolutions and immediately halt Shoaib Sarwar???s impending execution.

In addition, the ICJ calls on the Government to instate an official moratorium 
on the death penalty, with a view to abolishing the death penalty in law and in 
practice and to acceding to the Second Optional Protocol to the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the abolition of capital punishment.

(source: Kashmir Watch)






CHINA:

'China's 9/11': 3 get death penalty


3 people were condemned to death on Friday and one given life in prison for a 
mass stabbing that killed 31 people in China, state television said, an attack 
authorities blamed on separatists from largely Muslim Xinjiang.

The convictions and sentences were handed down by the Intermediate People's 
Court in Kunming, in the southwestern province of Yunnan, state broadcaster 
China Central Television (CCTV) reported on a verified microblog.

The March 1 carnage at a train station in Kunming also saw more than 140 people 
wounded and was dubbed "China's 9/11" by state-run media.

The suspects, whose names appear to identify them as members of the Uighur 
minority, had been accused of crimes including "leading a terrorist group" 
which planned and carried out the attack, Kunming's Intermediate Court said 
earlier on its microblog.

4 armed guards in helmets and dark clothing, and holding automatic weapons, 
were positioned inside the courtroom opposite the suspects, CCTV showed.

The accused - 3 of them men with shaved heads, the other one a woman - wore 
prison clothes. Each of them had a separate dock, with 2 police officers 
sitting behind.

State prosecutors said three of the suspects - whose names were transliterated 
as Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad by the official news 
agency Xinhua - were arrested while attempting to cross China's border, 
according to the court.

The other accused, named as Patigul Tohti, took part in the attack, along with 
at least 4 other assailants whom police shot dead at the scene, prosecutors 
added.

Authorities had previously given the toll as 29, but the change indicated that 
2 of the wounded had later died of their injuries.

More than 300 members of the public were present in court, Xinhua said, 
including some victims and their relatives.

Beijing blamed the attack on "separatists" from the resource-rich far western 
region of Xinjiang, where at least 200 have died in attacks and clashes between 
locals and security forces over the last year.

Militants from Xinjiang were accused of organising an explosive attack in the 
regional capital Urumqi which killed 31 people in May, and a suicide car crash 
in Beijing's Tiananmen Square last year.

The Kunming mass knifing was the biggest-ever violent incident against 
civilians outside the region.

Death penalty

China's courts have a near-100 % conviction rate and the death penalty is 
regularly handed down in terrorism cases.

China last month announced the executions of 8 people for "terrorist attacks", 
including three it described as "masterminding" the car crash in Tiananmen 
Square. That came after 13 people were executed in June for attacks in 
Xinjiang.

Xinjiang, a resource-rich region which abuts Central Asia, is home to several 
ethnic minorities with strong cultural ties to neighbouring states such as 
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Uighurs, who are mostly Muslim, are its largest ethnic group but many resent 
decades of immigration by China's Han majority.

They say it has brought economic inequality and discrimination, as well as 
cultural repression such as a campaign to stop the Islamic practice of women 
covering their faces.

China counters that it plays a positive role and has brought about development 
and improvements to health and living standards.

Beijing regularly accuses what it says are exiled Uighur separatist groups such 
as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and the Turkestan Islamic Party 
(TIP) as being behind terrorism.

But overseas experts doubt the strength of the groups and their links to global 
terrorism, with some arguing China exaggerates the threat to justify tough 
security measures in Xinjiang.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

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

China supreme court official urges quick trials of terror crimes


Courts in Xinjiang should speed up trials of terror cases and deliver exemplary 
penalties, a senior official with China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) said 
Thursday.

Current policies should be maintained against "3 evil forces" of terrorism, 
separatism and extremism, said SPC executive vice president Shen Deyong while 
addressing Xinjiang court support staff.

Cases involving ethnic minorities should be handled no differently from any 
other, Shen said, suggesting that local judges' professionalism needs to 
improve to protect rights of all people equally.

In June, 9 people were sentenced to death for terrorism in northwest China's 
Xinjiang. Local courts sentenced 81 defendants in 23 cases to death, life 
imprisonment and fixed-term imprisonment.

The verdicts include organizing, leading or participating in terrorist 
organizations, intentional homicide, arson or illegal manufacture, storage and 
transport of explosives, making and spreading audio or video information on 
terrorism, inciting ethnic hatred and discrimination, and teaching criminal 
methods.

The number of terror cells apprehended in Xinjiang increased from about 140 in 
2010 to more than 200 last year.

(source: ECNS)