[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 2



INDONESIA:

Indonesia slammed in death penalty report


A global report on capital punishment has pointed to widespread reports of 
corruption in Indonesia's judiciary, while slamming claims in Jakarta that a 
wave of pending executions of drug traffickers is needed to combat a national 
emergency.

The human rights group Amnesty International says progress has been made around 
the globe towards abolishing the death penalty following a dramatic fall in the 
number of executions worldwide in 2014.

At least 607 executions were carried out worldwide last year - excluding China 
where data on the death penalty is a state secret - amounting to a decrease of 
almost 22 per cent compared with 2013.

But in a report released in London on Wednesday, Amnesty also singles out a 
number of countries for bucking the trend, including Indonesia where 
Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are among 10 prisoners scheduled 
for a simultaneous mass execution.

The report also criticises Indonesia over issues surrounding corruption of the 
trial process, and the use of the death penalty against juveniles and people 
with mental or intellectual disabilities.

Papang Hidayat, Amnesty International's Indonesia researcher, said fair trial 
concerns in Indonesia make its use of capital punishment particularly 
troubling.

"Investigations by human rights groups have found that individuals sentenced to 
death have been tortured and forced to sign police investigation reports. Many 
did and do not have lawyers, in particular after arrest and during 
interrogation," Mr Papang said.

"Widespread reports of corruption in the police and judiciary and Indonesia's 
decades-old penal code - which does not provide adequate protection from 
torture, for example - compound these issues."

The report comes as Indonesia prepares to execute 10 convicted drug 
traffickers, including the Bali Nine's Chan and Sukumaran. Their case and trial 
have been subject to accusations of corruption, including allegations the 
judges who sentenced them to death offered a lighter sentence in exchange for 
money.

A letter sent by their legal team to Indonesia's judicial committee earlier 
this year also claimed the judges received pressure from "certain parties" to 
hand out the death penalty.

Amnesty International is scathing of the Indonesian government's argument that 
the resumption of executions for drug-related offences, announced in December, 
was needed to "confront a national emergency".

Amnesty International secretary-general Salil Shetty said governments using the 
death penalty to tackle crime "are deluding themselves".

The trend of using the death penalty in "a futile attempt" to tackle real or 
imaginary threats to state security and public safety was stark last year, he 
said.

"There is no evidence that shows the threat of execution is more of a deterrent 
to crime than any other punishment."

The report shows more people were sentenced to death in 2014, but the figures 
are skewed by spikes in death sentences in Egypt and Nigeria, where courts 
imposed mass sentences against scores of people in some cases.

China is believed to have carried out more executions than the rest of the 
world put together in 2014, but the true figure cannot be determined.

Apart from China, the countries making up the world's top 5 executioners in 
2014, according to Amnesty, were Iran (289 officially announced, at least 454 
more not acknowledged by authorities), Saudi Arabia (at least 90), Iraq (at 
least 61) and the USA (35).

(source: sbs.com.au)

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

Nigerian sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking


Local media report on Thursday in Jakarta, said another Nigerian, Simon 
Ezeaputa, has been sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking.

It said the district court in Tangerang, near Jakarta, on Wednesday found 
Ezeaputa guilty of controlling a drug transaction from his prison cell, where 
he was serving a 20-year jail term for drug offences.

The report said the transaction involved 350 grams of crystal methamphetamine.

With the latest development more than 60 people are on death row in Indonesia 
for drug offences.

The report said Indonesia executed six drug convicts in January and was 
preparing to put to death another 10 death-row inmates.

It said these include 2 Australians who have been the subject of a diplomatic 
row between Jakarta and Canberra.

Meanwhile, the Amnesty International said in its annual report on the death 
penalty worldwide released on Wednesday that "Indonesia stood out for all the 
wrong reasons."

Papang Hidayat, Head, Amnesty Researcher, Indonesia, said the death penalty was 
always a human rights violation.

He said there were many issues in Indonesia, in particular fair trial concerns, 
that make death sentences more complicated.

Hidayat said investigations by human rights groups have found that individuals 
sentenced to death have been tortured and forced to sign police investigation 
reports.

(source: Nigeria Guardian)






PAKISTAN:

AI asks Pakistan to end death penalty


Amnesty International has noted an alarming rise in death sentences as 
governments around the world resorted to capital punishment to combat crime and 
terrorism in 2014.

At the launch of a report on death penalties in 2014, the Amnesty said that 
various states used the death penalty in a flawed attempt to tackle crime, 
terrorism and internal instability. It said that the number of 2014 jumped by 
almost 500 compared to 2013, mainly because of sharp spikes in Egypt and 
Nigeria.

David Griffiths, Asia-Pacific Deputy Director at AI, told The News that 
Pakistan is bucking global trend. "We have seen reduction in death penalties in 
some parts of the world but Pakistan resumed it in the wake of horrific attacks 
on Army Public School (APS) children in Peshawar. The APS attack was a horrible 
attack for the whole nation and it traumatised everyone but the government gave 
a wrong response to it. There is no evidence to show that the death penalty is 
a deterrent to crime. Seven people were executed in 2-104 but by the end of 
March 64 people were executed. There is a dangerous escalation in the number of 
those being executed in Pakistan."

Griffits said that Pakistani government has a choice. "There is no proof 
available that death penalty can curb crime and terrorism. It's a misguided 
approach to bring back death penalty law as a response to horrific violence. 
Instead the government of Pakistan should concentrate on protecting civilians 
and must do everything to fix flaws in the legal system.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan confirms that many of the 8200 people who 
are on death row have gone through unfair trials and didn't have proper legal 
aid available to them, and torture is rife in Pakistan during detention. This 
raise further concerns."

He called on Pakistan to end death penalties and use the normal legal route to 
try criminals and suspects. Chiara Sangiorgio, Amnesty International's Death 
Penalty Expert, told The News that using capital punishment is a flawed attempt 
to tackle crime and terrorism. "As horrific as the Peshawar school attack was, 
nothing can justify the government's resumption of executions in its aftermath. 
Authorities have already taken more than 60 lives since the moratorium on 
executions of civilians was lifted in December, and thousands more are at risk. 
There is simply no justification for the death penalty - not only is it a human 
rights violation, but any claims that it will work as crime stopping tool are 
false."

"Pakistan had made real strides towards ending the ultimate cruel, inhuman and 
degrading punishment until December last year. Instead, the country is now 
emerging as one of the world's top executioner - a shameful club no country 
should aspire to join. We urge authorities to immediately re-impose a 
moratorium on the death penalty with a view to its full repeal," it was added. 
Amnesty researchers said that China, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and USA were the 
top f5 executioners of the world.

(source: The News)

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

Pakistan executes 64 death row prisoners at a rate of 1 every 2 days, since 
lifting of moratorium in December


Authorities in Pakistan have executed 64 death row prisoners at a rate of 1 
every 2 days, since the government lifted its unofficial moratorium in 
December.

The Pakistani government lifted a 6-year moratorium on the death penalty in 
December, in response to the murder of 132 children by the Taliban in an attack 
on a school in Peshawar.

Initially the lifting of the moratorium only applied to convicted terrorists, 
but has since been expanded to include people accused of other crimes.

Christian mother of 5 Asia Bibi, 50, is one of 8,000 prisoners believed to be 
on death row in Pakistan, sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the 
prophet Mohammed.

Lawyer Naeem Shakir defended Ms Bibi in her original trial and said the 
evidence against her was weak.

"Asia has been put in solitary confinement and in that confinement, she is 
embarrassed, she is abused and she is totally frustrated and feels alienated 
from the whole world," Mr Shakir said.

"The complainant who was a religious clergy in charge of that local mosque, he 
was not a witness to the occurrence.

"He did not hear any word, anything uttered by Asia Bibi. So it was a case of 
hearsay."

Globally, Amnesty International said it had seen a 22 per cent reduction in the 
number of executions in the last year.

But deputy director for South Asia David Griffiths said Pakistan was bucking 
that trend.

"There is an additional concern in Pakistan because of the serious fair trial 
concerns and flaws in the judicial system," he said.

"Now we've seen evidence of torture, of lack of legal representation. Some of 
the prisoners have been convicted of non-terrorism related offences in 
anti-terror courts.

"What's going on in the judicial system behind this is highly problematic."

Studies have shown that the majority of the country's citizens support capital 
punishment, but executive director of the Research Society of International Law 
in Islamabad Ali Sultan said it was because there had been "a collapse of the 
criminal justice system".

"The normal court case here can drag on for years," Mr Sultan said.

"It ends up being a generational dispute. They don't expect justice from the 
normal court system, so people do want to see a more robust manifestation, if 
you will, of justice being meted out in Pakistan.

"That is something people really crave."

(source: Yahoo News)

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

IHC stays execution of 2 convicts


A Division Bench (DB) of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday granted stay in 
the execution of capital punishment of 2 murder convicts till April 02 after 
Advocate General (AG) Islamabad sought some time to assist the court about 
these 2 separate murder cases.

After staying the death sentences, the DB comprising Justice Athar Minallah and 
Justice Aamir Farooq deferred the hearing on the request of AG Islamabad Mian 
Abdur Rauf.

One of the convicts, Raees Ahmed, is awarded death penalty in a triple murder 
case and presently imprisoned at Adyala jail. He was scheduled to be hanged on 
March 27. In his application through his counsel, Raees Ahmed approached the 
IHC and claimed that a compromise between him and the legal heirs of the 
deceased will soon be done.

The convict Raees Ahmed, a resident of Bara Kaho, was awarded death sentence by 
a local court in 1999 for killing three people. Later, he had filed appeals 
against the sentence that were dismissed by the high court and Supreme Court of 
Pakistan. His brother and father were also awarded sentence of imprisonment and 
they died inside the jail while serving the sentence.

The second convict is Zulfiqar Ali Khan who was awarded death sentence by an 
Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Rawalpindi in 1999 for charges of double murder in 
1996 after he was arrested on April 14, 1996.

He challenged his hanging on technical grounds while adopting that he was 
awarded death sentence by ATC Rawalpindi while his death warrants were issued 
by ATC Islamabad that has no jurisdiction.

On Tuesday, Advocate General Islamabad Mian Abdur Rauf submitted a notification 
before the IHC regarding establishment of an ATC in Islamabad. He argued that 
in 1999 when Zulfiqar Ali Khan was awarded death sentence, it was ATC 
Rawalpindi that used to hear cases of Islamabad region as well and ATC 
Islamabad was established later.

After the arguments of the AG, the court adjourned hearing in this matter for 
further legal assistance from the advocate general till April 02 while the IHC 
bench also extended in the stay orders in the death sentences of both the 
convicts.

The convict Zulfiqar Ali Khan presently imprisoned at Kot Lakhpat jail of 
Lahore was scheduled to be hanged on the morning of March 30. ATC had directed 
the authorities to execute convict through death squad for committing the 
double murder.

In another matter, the same division bench deferred the proceedings in the 
intra court appeal (ICA) of chairman Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) 
against federal government's decision to send him on forced leave. The dual 
bench adjourned the hearing of the ICA as an additional attorney general was 
not present in the court.

(source: The Nation)






BELARUS:

Belarus and Ukrainan rebels keep death penalty alive in Europe


Belarus, recent host of the Minsk Ceasefire summit, was the only country in 
Europe and Central Asia to execute prisoners last year. But, after 
reintroducing capital punishment in territory they hold, pro-Russian Ukrainian 
rebels have sentenced at least one man to death since September 2014.

Belarus executed 3 people by shooting in 2014 after a 24 month break in state 
killings, Amnesty International told EurActiv. It is the only European and 
Central Asian country which uses the death penalty.

The executions were secret with lawyers and family only being told after the 
prisoners were dead, Amnesty, which today (1 April) published its annual Death 
Penalty Report, said.

Authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko hosted the February Minsk talks to 
end fighting in eastern Ukraine. They were attended by Russian President 
Vladimir Putin, Ukraine's Petro Poroskenko, Germany's Angela Merkel and 
France's Francois Hollande.

Ukraine abolished the death penalty in 2000. In August last year, pro-Russian 
rebels in the so-called Donetsk People Republic, in eastern Ukraine, introduced 
a criminal code in August, reserving the death penalty for the "gravest 
crimes". The same session approved the setting up of military "courts" in the 
territories they control.

The Luhansk People's Republic has also re-introduced the death penalty. On 26 
September, rules were introduced that homosexual rape could be punished by 
death.

In October, a YouTube video surfaced which appeared to show a "people's court" 
of about 300, judging 2 alleged rapists of women. After gunpoint confessions 
and a vote by the kangaroo court, one was sent to the frontline.

The other was sentenced to death by firing squad, with only his mother speaking 
out for mercy. Amnesty International have not been able to confirm if he was 
shot, but the sentence did not appear to be carried out immediately.

While there have been numerous reports of summary executions in Ukraine, they 
were not committed within the pseudo-legal framework of the criminal code.

European Union

The European Union does not recognise either the Luhansk or Donetsk republics, 
branding November elections held in the territories "illegal and illegitimate". 
It has called for the rule of law and order to be reestablished, so that human 
rights violations can be prevented and investigated.

"Capital punishment cannot be justified under any circumstances. The death 
penalty is a cruel and inhuman punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent 
and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity," an EU 
official said.

Every EU member state has abolished the death penalty in law or practice. The 
last country to do so was Latvia, which banned capital punishment in wartime in 
2012. The absolute ban on the death penalty is enshrined in the Charter of 
Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Lukashenko, described as leading "Europe's last dictatorship", was able to play 
the international statesman at Minsk, shoring up his position at home, 
campaigners told EurActiv.

But there was little choice in the location for the summit if EU leaders wanted 
to stop the fighting. The EU can leverage hardly any influence over the police 
state, which is heavily backed by Russia.

A lack of interest from the west, hastened by the Ukraine crisis, have also 
ruled out any Maiden-style revolution in Belarus, according to analysis by 
Belarus Digest, published in The Guardian. Lukashenko has been in power since 
1994.

"Legal" executions

The EU has urged Belarus to join a global moratorium on the death penalty as a 
step towards its universal abolition. Despite repeated EU condemnations, 
Belarus continues to execute by shooting, and to sentence prisoners to death.

In April 2014 Belarus secretly executed Pavel Selyun, sentenced in June 2013 
for a 2012 double murder. The UN Human Rights Committee had requested a stay in 
execution, which was ignored.

Such requests are legally binding on state parties to the First Optional 
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which 
Belarus agreed to in 1992.

In May, the Mogilev Regional Court in Belarus confirmed that Rygor Yuzepchuk 
had been executed. He was sentenced to death in 2013 for a 2012 murder. The 
authorities have not made public the date of his execution or the location of 
his grave.

Alyaksandr Haryunou was executed in October. He was sentenced to death in 2013 
for a murder committed in 2012. Haryunou appealed to the UN Human Rights 
Committee in April, arguing that his trial had been unfair.

The Committee asked the Belarusian authorities to stay his execution until it 
had considered the case. They ignored the legally binding request. Neither his 
relatives nor lawyer were given the chance to have a final meeting with 
Haryunou.

In March 2015, Siarhei Ivanou was sentenced to death by the Homyel Regional 
Court of the Republic of Belarus. The EU's foreign policy bureau called for his 
right to appeal to be guaranteed, while expressing sympathy to the family of 
the victim.

Counter-terrorism

Worldwide, there was a sharp spike in the handing down of death sentences in 
2014, up more than 500 on the previous year to at least 2,466. This was due to 
more governments in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan using 
sentences handed down on trumped up terror charges to quell dissent, Amnesty 
International said.

Writing exclusively in EurActiv today, it warned that "mainstreaming 
counter-terrorism" into EU foreign policy in the guise of "international 
cooperation" could undermine its principled stance on the death penalty.

Targeted and upgraded security dialogues with countries such as Pakistan and 
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, were dialogues with countries that executed as 
a matter of course, warned Iverna McGowan, acting director of Amnesty 
International's European Institutions Office.

"In the wake of the sharp spike in death sentences, and closer security 
cooperation with many state perpetrators, the burning question the EU needs to 
answer is whether and how it is making sure partners stop using the death 
penalty," she said.

Russia and the Council of Europe

Ironically, Belarus' sponsors Russia has had a moratorium on the death penalty 
since 2009. All 47 member states of the Council of Europe, including Russia, 
have stopped using capital punishment due to commitments under the European 
Convention on Human Rights.

Becoming a member of the international organisation for cooperation, human 
rights and rule of law, would mean Belarus would have to give up the death 
penalty. It would also be open to legal challenges over its dismal human rights 
record.

Council spokesman Andrew Cutting stated, "The Council of Europe is firmly 
opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances. The Committee of Ministers 
has repeatedly called upon non-member countries including Belarus, the United 
States and Japan to cease using the death penalty and move towards abolition."

Japan (3 executions last year) and the United States have observer status at 
the Council. Executions in the US dropped from 39 in 2013 to 35 in 2014, 
Amnesty International said.

China again carried out more executions than the rest of the world put 
together. Amnesty International believes thousands are executed and sentenced 
to death there every year, but with numbers kept a state secret the true figure 
is impossible to determine.

Without China, there were 602 executions in 22 countries in 2014. The world's 
top 5 executioners apart from China in 2014 were Iran (289 officially announced 
and at least 454 more that were not acknowledged by the authorities), Saudi 
Arabia (at least 90), Iraq (at least 61) and the USA.

(source: euractiv.com)






JAPAN:

Amnesty hopes Hakamada's release will spur death penalty reform in Japan


A prominent human rights group hopes the decision to release the world's 
longest serving death row inmate in Japan will spur greater debate in about 
capital punishment in the country and spur reforms.

Amnesty International spokeswoman Chiara Sangiorgio said Wednesday she is happy 
with last year's decision to release - pending a retrial - 79-year-old Iwao 
Hakamada, who was sentenced to death in 1968.

"We hope that through Hakamada's case we can put under the spotlight the plight 
of all the others on death row and the effects of solitary confinement and the 
secrecy and lack of notification of executions," Sangiorgio said.

"All this has clearly led to tangible effects on Hakamada's health. It's an 
unsafe conviction which led to him spending over 45 years on death row.

Hakamada was sentenced to death for the 1966 murder of four people in Shizuoka 
Prefecture who were all from the same family. He was freed in March 2014 after 
a court cast doubt on the evidence used to convict him and ordered a retrial. 
Prosecutors are challenging the retrial.

"We need further debate in Japan," Sangiorgio said. "Some hope has come from 
the introduction of the lay judge system and we saw last year that a group of 
lay judges involved in a death penalty case asked for more transparency in the 
way the death penalty is applied.

"Often transparency is the beginning of the debate and we hope it begins 
meaningfully in Japan."

Sangiorgio said she was disappointed that Hakamada's case had failed to lead to 
any systemic changes and she highlighted the fact that several other death row 
inmates suffer, like Hakamada, from mental and intellectual disabilities.

"We are amazed that no better checks have been put in place to ensure that 
mental health assessments are carried out and that people are taken off death 
row," she added. "It is in the power of the minister of justice."

The rights group also released its global death penalty statistics for 2014 on 
Wednesday. This year's report says Japan executed 3 people in 2014. Amnesty 
said that executions in the country are shrouded in secrecy, and noted that 
relatives and lawyers are told in advance.

2 new death sentences were handed down in Japan last year, both for murder. At 
the end of 2014 there were 128 people on death row in the country, excluding 
Hakamada, Amnesty said. Six foreign nationals were among those on death row. Of 
the total, 93 were seeking retrials.

Japan resumed executions in March 2012 after a 20-month pause. The government 
argues that public opinion overwhelmingly supports the policy.

In terms of the global picture, 2014 saw a sharp spike in death sentences, up 
28 % on the previous year. The rise was largely accounted for by Egypt and 
Nigeria. At least 2,466 sentences were imposed around the world.

There were 607 known executions during the year, down almost 22 %. Executions 
were recorded in 22 countries, the same number as in 2013.

Amnesty does not provide figures for China, which considers such information a 
state secret.

(source: Japan Times)






SOUTH KOREA:

South Korea charges Kim Ki-Jong for knife attack on US envoy Lippert


A South Korean man who attacked the US ambassador to Seoul with a knife, 
slashing his face and arms, has been formally charged with attempted murder.

Prosecutors also charged Kim Ki-Jong, a nationalist activist, with assaulting a 
foreign envoy and obstruction of duty.

Police say Mr Kim wanted to highlight his opposition to joint military 
exercises with the US.

Mr Kim denies attempting to kill ambassador Mark Lippert, who received 80 
stitches after the attack in March.

The envoy was targeted at a breakfast event in Seoul and spent several days in 
hospital, recovering from gashes to his face and hand.

Doctors said Mr Lippert's injuries could have been life-threatening if the cuts 
had been any deeper.

Mark Lippert returned to work after being treated for his injuries

Mr Kim was tackled at the scene and arrested. Under South Korean law, the trial 
has to start within 14 days.

He could face life in prison if convicted of attempted murder, or even the 
death penalty, though that is rarely used in South Korea.

Prosecutors are also examining whether Mr Kim can be charged under a 
controversial National Security Law, which bans any praise or assistance for 
North Korea.

However, Mr Kim insists he was acting alone, rather than on the orders of 
Pyongyang.

Many anti-US activists such as Mr Kim favour reunification with North Korea and 
regard the massive US troop presence in South Korea as an obstacle to their 
aims.

The attack on Mr Lippert prompted rallies and prayer sessions in his support 
and in support of US-South Korea relations.

(source: BBC news)






KUWAIT:

Kuwait court sentence death penalty to Indian for smuggling drugs


The Penal Circle of the First Instance Court has sentenced an Indian to death 
after he was convicted of smuggling and trafficking in heroin and narcotic 
pills, sources said here the other day.

The suspect was caught red-handed and police had later found heroin and 
narcotics from his home. During interrogation the convict had allegedly 
admitted to the charges filed against him.

(source: customstoday.com)






CHINA:

China executes more people than rest of world combined, Amnesty International 
reveal


In a single year, it executed more people than the rest of the world combined.

But exactly how many death row prisoners have been killed in China remains top 
secret.

Amnesty International estimates at least 1000 people were executed by the Asian 
powerhouse in 2014 alone.

In its Death Penalty 2014 report, the human rights group said it actually 
believed the real number of people being put to death in China each year was in 
the "thousands", conceding the true figure was impossible to determine.

And with more than 50 offences punishable by death and a startling 99 per cent 
conviction rate, it is perhaps the one country in the world where you don???t 
want to be accused of committing a crime.

At least 1 Australian resident, New Zealand-born Peter Gardiner, is facing the 
prospect of a Chinese firing squad after being accused of smuggling ice into 
the country with his girfriend, Sydney woman Kalynda Davis, who has since been 
returned to Australia.

The annual report names China among 22 nations which still carry out 
executions, despite the scrapping of capital punishment in more than 140 
others.

And unlike other nations, China does not reveal its official figures to the 
world.

Amnesty International spokesman Rose Kulak said the conservative estimate of 
1000 deaths was obtained via non-government agencies, families who've had 
bodies returned to them and activists on the ground.

"The Chinese Government treats executions as a state secret," she said.

"In China you can get the death penalty for a wide scope of crimes (roughly 55 
different crimes). This includes burglary, burning down a shop or accepting a 
bribe.

"The lack of fairness in trials, which sees on average a 99 % conviction rate 
and a huge number of charges for which you can face the death penalty, is why 
there???s such a massive execution tally in China, and why the exact number 
remains a secret."

Just last month, a Chinese court sentenced a man to death for a 1996 rape and 
murder, after admitting it had earlier executed the wrong man by mistake for 
the same crime.

Zhao Zhihong, 42, confessed to the attack in 2005, after an innocent Huugjilt, 
18, had already been put to death. He was posthumously exonnerated and his 
family awarded compensation.

Amnesty said while the numbers of executions around the world had fallen by 22 
%, the number of people being sentenced to their deaths had skyrocketed by 28 
%.

It said 607 official executions were recorded across the world, excluding 
China's figures, with countries using the death penalty "in a flawed attempt to 
tackle crime, terrorism and internal instability."

Amnesty also said the spike in death sentences being handed out - 2466 globally 
- was largely due to recent mass sentencing carried out across Egypt and 
Nigeria.

While China remained the world???s top executioner, Iran came in second with 
289 deaths officially announced. It is understood a further 450 which have not 
been officially acknowledged.

OPERATION: STRIKE HARD

China, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq all executed people accused of terrorism 
offences, according to Amnesty.

Pakistan attracted global headlines when it announced 8000 prisoners on death 
row would soon be executed.

It lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases after 
restarting executions for terrorism offences in the wake of a Taliban school 
massacre in December last year.

In China, authorities used the death penalty as a punitive tool in the "Strike 
Hard" campaign against unrest in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, 
executing at least 21 people during the year related to separate attacks, 
Amnesty figures reveal.

North Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia continued to use the death penalty as a tool 
to suppress political dissent, while Jordan ended an 8-year moratorium in 
December, putting 11 murder convicts to death.

The government claimed it was a move to end a surge in violent crime.

In Indonesia, the government announced plans to execute mainly drug traffickers 
to tackle a public safety "national emergency".

Among the methods used to kill in 2014 were beheading, hanging, lethal 
injection and firing squad.

In Saudi Arabia and Iran, executions are carried out in public, often by 
beheading and hanging.

People were executed for a range of crimes including robbery, drug-related 
offences, economic offences, adultery, blasphemy and even sorcery.

AUSTRALIANS ON DEATH ROW IN CHINA

Little is known about those on death row in China, however recent cases 
involving Australian citizens have brought it into the global spotlight.

New Zealand-born Australian resident Peter Gardiner is among the thousands 
understood to be facing the firing squad in China.

Gardiner was allegedly caught with 30 kilograms of methamphetamine, worth up to 
$80 million, with Australian woman Kalynda Davis earlier this year.

The pair were busted after meeting on Tinder and travelling to China on a whim. 
However, while Mr Gardiner awaits his fate, Ms Davis has returned to Australia 
after top secret negotiations led by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop saw her 
secretly flown back to Sydney.

(source: news.com.au)

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

Australian Bengali Sherrif given death sentence in China


One of the several Australians facing serious drug charges in the southern 
Chinese province of Guangdong has been handed a suspended death sentence, it 
has been reported.

Australian man Bengali Sherrif, was caught in June last year by Chinese 
authorities at Guangzhou's international airport attempting to smuggle 
methamphetamine, also known as ice, into Australia, along with Queenslander 
Ibrahim Jalloh.

Sherrif's death sentence would likely be commuted to life in prison if he 
maintained good behaviour for 2 years, the ABC reported, while it is understood 
Mr Jalloh has yet to be tried.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has declined to disclose details of 
individual cases, citing privacy reasons, and publicly available information on 
Chinese court cases is limited by the country's opaque judiciary.

But Guangzhou Customs confirmed to Fairfax Media in December that it had 
arrested 11 Australians on suspected drug charges last year. If convicted, they 
too could face the death penalty under China's strict drug laws.

In all, customs seized 391 kilograms of drugs in 193 separate cases last year, 
arresting 79 suspects - 63 of them foreigners.

The cases highlight the difficulty police from both countries face, despite 
cooperative efforts, to restrain the thriving drug trade between China and 
Australia, as well as the strain on diplomatic staff in Guangzhou providing 
consular assistance to a growing number of jailed Australians.

China has emerged in recent years as the region's largest producer of crystal 
meth, with the southern province of Guangdong in particular attracting 
notoriety as a meth manufacturing hub with an apparent steady supply of the 
synthetic ingredients needed for the drug's production.

And Australia is being increasingly targeted by international drug syndicates, 
given the higher market price the drug is able to attract, according to 
international drug control agencies and police.

Details of the arrests of Sherrif and Jalloh emerged in a Melbourne court last 
week during a committal hearing for three men, Sam Komba, Foday Kamara, and 
Wedi Bembo, charged over an alleged conspiracy to import drugs from China.

The Australian Federal Police, acting on a tip from Customs, intercepted phone 
calls which led them to become aware that the syndicate was sending 2 drug 
couriers to China.

The spate of arrests of Australians - as many as 8 in recent months - prompted 
the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to issue a travel advisory in 
September reminding travellers of the severe drug laws in China, which can lead 
to life imprisonment or the death penalty.

Sydney woman Kalynda Davis and her travel companion Peter Gardner were also 
arrested at Guangzhou in November, with customs finding more than 30 kilograms 
worth of ice, in 60 separate vacuum-sealed bags placed in 2 pieces of luggage 
with the zips super-glued shut.

Ms Davis was later cleared and released in December, while Mr Gardner remains 
in jail.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)