[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 16


SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi Arabia Beheads Syrian Drug Trafficker


A Syrian convicted of drug trafficking was beheaded in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, 
the interior ministry said.

Mohammed Ismail al-Jammus had been charged with smuggling a large quantity of 
amphetamines into the country, a ministry statement reported by state news 
agency SPA said.

His decapitation takes to 54 the number of people beheaded in the 
ultra-conservative Gulf nation so far this year, compared with 78 people in all 
of 2013, according to an AFP count.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable 
by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

Human Rights Watch expressed alarm last month at a surge in executions, which 
saw 19 people beheaded between August 4 and 20 alone.

HRW said 8 of those executed had been convicted of non-violent offences such as 
drug trafficking and "sorcery", and described the use of the death penalty in 
their cases as "particularly egregious."

(source: NDTV)






CZECH REPUBLIC:

Czech FinMin speaks of death penalty in link with murder of girl


Czech Deputy PM, Finance Minister and ANO leader Andrej Babis would be for 
death penalty's reintroduction, when he thinks of the recent murder of a 
schoolgirl in northern Bohemia and when he puts himself in the position of the 
girl's father, he told Impuls Radio today.

"I definitely would, as if I put myself in the role of her father, I, too, 
would probably want to kill him [the murderer]," Babis said in response to the 
interviewer's question.

Later he told journalists that he does not support the reintroduction of death 
penalty. He can only imagine what the killed girl's family feels, he said.

"I said nothing like that. I reacted to a situation if I were the father of the 
girl who was raped and killed, I'd probably kill the murderer," Babis said, 
adding that he does not want to support death penalty's reintroduction.

"I have 4 children and 2 granddaughters, I can put myself in the role of that 
mother, it is horrible," Babis said.

The 9-year-old girl from Klasterec nad Ohri was found dead last week. The 
police say she was raped and murdered by a 25-year-old man, a distant relative 
of hers.

The suspect has stayed in custody since Friday.

Death penalty was abolished in the then Czechoslovakia in 1990, shortly after 
the fall of the communist regime.

Since then, prison sentences from 20 to 30 years and life imprisonment have 
been viewed as exceptional punishment.

Death penalty is banned by the Charter of the Fundamental Rights and Freedoms 
that is part of the constitutional order of the Czech Republic, 1 of 
Czechoslovakia's 2 successor states since 1993.

Death penalty is banned by the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights, 
but it is applied in some African countries, almost all over Asia and in a 
majority of U.S. states.

In the Czech Republic, debates over its reintroduction usually flare up in 
reaction to brutal crimes. By reintroducing capital punishment, Prague would 
violate international agreements it joined in the past.

(source: ceskenoviny.cz)






SOUTH AFRICA:

South Africa deports murder suspect to Botswana even though he could face death 
penalty there


Human rights lawyers are pressing South Africa to explain why a murder suspect 
from Botswana was illegally deported to his country, where he could be executed 
if convicted.

South Africa's Department of Home Affairs acknowledges the man, Edwin Samotse, 
was handed to officials in neighboring Botswana in violation of South African 
rules that bar the extradition or deportation of people whose countries have 
the death penalty. It says it is investigating and that some officials were 
suspended.

David Cote of Lawyers for Human Rights, a South African group, said Tuesday 
that the group is asking a Pretoria court to instruct the government to ask 
Botswana not to impose the death penalty if Samotse is convicted.

South Africa abolished the death penalty in 1995 after the end of white 
minority rule.

(source: Fox News)



AFGHANISTAN:

Afghan Court Confirms 5 Death Sentences in Rape Case That Led to Outrage


An Afghan appeals court confirmed death sentences on Monday against 5 of the 7 
defendants in a notorious robbery and rape case, despite their claims that 
their confessions were extracted through torture.

For the other 2 defendants, the court found insufficient evidence to justify 
the death penalty, so it reduced their sentences to 20 years' imprisonment.

The 7 men were accused of dressing in police uniforms and stopping a caravan of 
cars returning from a wedding in the Paghman district, less than half an hour's 
drive from Kabul; robbing the occupants; and raping 4 of the women by the 
roadside.

The Kabul police department was under enormous public pressure to solve the 
case, which prompted national outrage and revulsion. But women's rights 
activists have noted that the outrage was less an expression of concern about 
the women's welfare than about the perceived dishonor to the victims' husbands.

That pervasive sense of male privilege - to the degree that Afghan women and 
girls are still commonly seen as marital property, and are frequently subject 
to so-called honor killings even when they are the victims of sexual attacks - 
has remained despite efforts to reform Afghanistan's legal code to enshrine 
more protections for women.

Qaisullah was 1 of the defendants sentenced to death in a rape case in 
Kabul.Credit Shah Marai/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Almost from the 
start, questions have been raised about whether the suspects were being 
railroaded by the government. President Hamid Karzai promised to approve the 
death penalty against the men even before their 2-hour trial on Sept. 7.

The entire case against them rested on their confessions and on their 
identification by victims at a police lineup. But all seven men said that they 
had been severely beaten by police officers until they confessed to the rapes, 
and that the police had told the victims whom to identify in a lineup that 
included no one other than them.

"When the lady who picked me out first came in, she put her hand on the chief 
of the criminal investigation division, and then on the cook," Qaisullah, one 
of the 5 condemned men, said at the appeals court hearing on Monday, referring 
to 2 police employees who would have been in plain clothes. "Then they showed 
me to her, and she picked me." Like many Afghans and several of the other 
defendants, Mr. Qaisullah uses only 1 name.

Human Rights Watch said the identification procedure was not a lineup but a 
"showup," in which the police indicated to the victims who the suspects were.

The 5 men whose death sentences were confirmed on Monday did not deny being 
part of the gang that carried out a robbery at the scene, but they said they 
had nothing to do with the rapes.

"After that beating, I would have confessed to adultery with my mother," said 
Azizullah, one of the five men, describing at the hearing his interrogation by 
the police. Another, Mohammad Nazar, said that he had acted only as a lookout 
and that the police had beaten him for 5 days until he confessed. "I never even 
saw the women taken from the cars," he said through sobs at the hearing.

Mr. Azizullah's wife and sister were in the audience at the hearing on Monday, 
wearing blue burqas. "Why are the victims not present here?" the sister, 
Habiba, asked the court. "Why are none of their relatives here? You should have 
strong proof when you are handing down death sentences."

The 2 men whose death sentences were reduced to prison terms testified that 
they had been in the process of committing a separate burglary when the police 
arrested them, and then had been beaten until they confessed to involvement in 
the rapes. One of them, Saifullah, said the police had forcibly put a uniform 
on him before photographing him to support their case against him. The other 5 
defendants confirmed to the appellate judge, Atiqullah Aqiq, that they did not 
know the 2 burglars.

There was little sympathy in the crowded courtroom for any of the accused. 
Asadullah Wahdat, head of the legal aid office that provided 3 lawyers to 
defend the men, said that all three had received death threats and that one had 
withdrawn from the case as a result. Mr. Wahdat said the lawyers had not been 
given the legally required seven days to prepare their defense.

The appeals court heard testimony from two policemen and from two women who 
said they had recognized some of the accused when their trial was televised, 
and accused them of having robbed their homes at gunpoint in four previous 
episodes.

"The Paghman case shows how abusive and dysfunctional the Afghan legal system 
remains, not only for suspects but for women who are survivors of sexual 
violence," Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in a 
statement.

"The public reaction was very much because of the men's honor," said Wazhma 
Frogh, executive director of the Research Institute for Women, Peace and 
Security. "The arrests were to save the honor of the men, not the women. The 
men of the country felt dishonored."

(source: New York Times)






NIGERIA:

12 Nigerian soldiers sentenced to death for mutiny: court martial


12 Nigerian soldiers were on Tuesday sentenced to death for mutiny after shots 
were fired at their commanding officer in the restive northeast city of 
Maiduguri earlier this year.

A 9-member military tribunal, sitting in Abuja, convicted the soldiers 
following the incident on May 14 when shots were fired at the commanding 
officer of the Nigerian Army's 7th Division, which is tasked with fighting Boko 
Haram insurgents.

Court president Brigadier General Chukwuemeka Okonkwo said the sentences were 
subject to confirmation by Nigeria's military authorities but added there was 
no doubt about the gravity of the offence.

The panel considered "its likely effect on the counter-insurgency operations in 
the northeast as well as its implications on national security", he told the 
court.

- Equipment shortage -

Nigeria's army has been under pressure to end the bloody five-year insurgency 
that has claimed thousands of lives, made tens of thousands of others homeless 
and seen the militants make territorial gains in the northeast in recent weeks.

Front-line troops have frequently complained of a lack of adequate weapons and 
equipment to fight the rebels.

Residents in towns raided by the Islamists have said the insurgents are often 
armed with rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft weapons mounted on 
trucks and, in some cases, armoured personnel carriers.

Soldiers by contrast have at times reportedly lacked ammunition and been sent 
out to the bush to fight without basic communication equipment.

Last month, dozens of Nigerian soldiers refused to deploy for an offensive to 
try to retake the captured Borno town of Gwoza, which the Islamists claimed as 
part of an Islamic caliphate.

Soldiers' wives also demonstrated at the gate of a military base in Maiduguri 
trying to stop their husbands from heading to Gwoza without proper equipment.

One of the protesting soldiers, who set up camp on the outskirts of Maiduguri, 
said at the time: "We are being killed like chickens by Boko Haram because we 
are not given the required weapons to fight. We say enough is enough."

The country's military spokesman Chris Olukolade denied the troops had mutinied 
and told AFP that Nigerian soldiers were "too disciplined and patriotic to 
indulge in this dangerous offence".

The military has also rejected claims that hundreds of troops shouldered arms 
and fled their posts in border towns overrun by Boko Haram.

President Goodluck Jonathan has asked lawmakers to approve a $1 billion (750 
million euros) foreign loan to upgrade the capacity of the military, which was 
seen as a tacit acknowledgement that troops were being out-matched.

- Unruly protest -

The court martial heard that on the day in question, the soldiers from 101 
Battalion opened fire at a convoy containing the 7th Division commander General 
Amadu Mohammed at an army medical centre in Maiduguri.

The soldiers had demanded that Mohammed speak to them after a number of their 
colleagues were killed in an ambush on the way back from the Borno state town 
of Chibok.

The previous month, Boko Haram fighters kidnapped more than 200 girls from 
their school in the town, triggering global outrage.

Witnesses said the soldiers became unruly and threw stones at an officer when 
he arrived and shots were fired into the air. Mohammed then had to take cover 
as they trained their guns on him but he was not injured.

"The soldiers succeeded in shooting at his staff car, thereby causing bullet 
impressions at the right rear door where the GOC (general officer commanding) 
sat," Okonkwo told the court.

"He said thank God for the staff officer who rushed him into his car and the 
fact that the staff car is an armoured plated vehicle."

Eighteen soldiers in total, ranked from private to corporal, were charged with 
mutiny, criminal conspiracy, attempted murder, disobeying orders, 
insubordination and false accusation.

12 were sentenced to death for mutiny, 1 was given 28 days' hard labour on 
another count and 5 were acquitted. All pleaded not guilty.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






JAPAN:

Financial program for death-row inmates' artistic endeavors to continue


Organizers of a 10 million Y private fund that was introduced in 2005 to 
support death-row inmates have decided to maintain the fund beyond its original 
10-year limit and will seek further contributions.

The fund has depended on money bequeathed by Sachiko Daidoji, an opponent of 
capital punishment whose son is on death row, and has been used to help 
condemned prisoners seek retrials while encouraging them to engage in artistic 
pursuits, such as painting and writing, in their cells by providing awards for 
excellent work.

The award selection committee includes an art director, literary critic and a 
well-known novelist.

"We initially planned to use the 10 million Y within 10 years - 1 million Y per 
year - during which we expected the death penalty to be abolished in Japan," 
said Masakuni Ota, a senior member of the body that manages the Daidoji Fund. 
"But we cannot foresee abolition at present, and it has become more and more 
significant for death-row inmates to contribute their works to us."

Such works have been displayed in Tokyo where opponents of capital punishment 
have held public meetings around Oct. 10 every year, the World Day against the 
Death Penalty. Inmates' drawings have also been exhibited at galleries around 
Japan, while some of their literary works, such as essays looking back on their 
lives and crimes, have been published.

The management body has already secured some additional financing, according to 
Ota.

"We will continue to seek additional resources to continue supporting death-row 
inmates," he said.

Details of future activities will be announced at this year's public meeting 
against the death penalty, scheduled for Oct. 11 in Tokyo to mark the 10th 
anniversary of the Daidoji Fund, he said.

Among those who have contributed drawings or literary works, 6 have already 
been hanged and 3 have died in custody.

"1 of the executed inmates, for example, expressed his unfulfilled dreams in 
his drawing, prompting us to envision his difficult childhood," Ota said. "It 
has been a bitter experience for us to hear the news of their executions."

Another inmate expressed his desire in a 31-syllable Japanese verse to help 
tackle the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant with his own hands 
rather than be hanged.

"It shows how death-row inmates seek points of contact with outside society," 
Ota said. "They also ardently seek dialogue with others through their works."

During the past 9 years, around 370 drawings have been contributed by 34 
inmates, most of which are on display in a public gallery in Shibuya Ward, 
Tokyo, through Sept. 23.

Daidoji died in 2004 at age 83. Her son was convicted of playing a role in a 
radical group's fatal 1974 bombing of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s 
building in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district and is now seeking a retrial.

11 inmates have been executed since the December 2012 launch of the 
administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

While the government says that surveys show overwhelming support by the 
Japanese people for capital punishment, a death-row inmate, convicted in the 
killing of a family of 4 in 1966, was released in March after a court decided 
on a retrial.

(source: Japan Times)






BANGLADESH:

HC upholds death penalty of acid-attacker husband----High Court has given the 
go-ahead to execute the death sentence of a person from Sirajganj who has been 
convicted of throwing acid on his wife.


A bench of Justice Md Abdul Hye and Justice Krishna Debnath has given the 
'carte blanche' on Tuesday.

The convict has been identified as Md Akbar Ali, who hails from Gopinathpur 
village in Shahjadpur Upazila of Sirajganj.

On August 23, 2009 Sirajganj District Judge Biplob Goswami had awarded him the 
death penalty.

Akbar appealed to the appellate division of the High Court against the verdict. 
Another plea seeking execution of his death penalty was also placed before the 
High Court.

High Court upheld the earlier verdict.

In the Court, Deputy Attorney General Md Moniruzzaman Rubel represented the 
state while the defence was represented by Yusuf Hossain Humayun.

According to the case document, Akbar Ali threw acid on his wife Ayesha Siddika 
Nila, 22, on Feb 18, 2008. Hearing her scream, neighbours rescued her.

Ayesha's father filed a case against his son-in-law over the incident.

Deputy Attorney General Md Moniruzzaman Rubel said,"This is an exceptional 
verdict. There are enough evidences that Akbar threw acid on his wife. Akbar 
also failed to prove his innocence or that his crime is trivial before the 
court. So, the Court upheld the death penalty."

(source: bdnews24.com)

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

Man to die for killing wife ---- The court also acquitted Afzal Hossain, father 
of Mokarram, from the murder case


A Joypurhat court has handed down death penalty to a man for killing his wife 
for dowry. Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 2 Judge Mijanur 
Rahman pronounced the verdict on Tuesday morning.

The convict is Mokarram Hossain, hailed from Dharki Sotahar village under the 
sadar upazila. The court also acquitted Afzal Hossain, father of Mokarram, from 
the murder case. On April 27, 1999, Mokarram strangulated his wife Ruliya Begum 
for dowry.

Victim's uncle Enamul Haque filed a murder case in this connection on the next 
day.

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

10 to die for killing schoolgirl after rape


A Lakshmipur court has handed down death penalty to 10 persons for their 
involvement in killing a schoolgirl after rape in the district. The court of 
Lakshmipur District and Session Judge Monjurul Basid pronounced the verdict on 
Tuesday afternoon.

The court also acquitted 14 other accused from the case as the charges against 
them were not proved.

Public Prosecutor Advocate Jashim Uddin confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.

(source for both: Dhaka Tribune)