[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

Fri Apr 3 11:29:41 CDT 2015

April 3

MALAYSIA:

2nd Altantuya killer to seek review of Federal Court's guilty verdict

Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 1 of 2 former police commandos sentenced to death 
for the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, will apply for a review of 
the Federal Court's guilty verdict.

Azilah's lawyer, Datuk Hazman Ahmad, said the application was being finalised 
and would be filed soon although there was no deadline.

"There are some valid grounds to review the ruling by the 5-man bench," he told 
The Malaysian Insider when asked if Azilah had applied to the Pardons Board to 
get his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

He did not elaborate on the grounds of Azilah's review application. The former 
policeman is now on death row.

Hazman said the review application would have to be disposed of before any 
representation was made to the Pardons Board.

A review application is made under Rule 137 of the Federal Court rules on 
grounds of procedural unfairness, with the applicant asking for the adverse 
judgment to be set aside and a new bench be constituted to rehear the appeal.

The Federal Court had on January 13 reinstated the conviction of Azilah and 
Sirul Azhar Umar for the murder of the 28-year-old in 2006.

However, Sirul was not present when the verdict was delivered and subsequent 
news reports revealed that he had left for Australia last October.

The 43-year-old was arrested in Brisbane and held in an immigration detention 
centre there.

However, he was later reportedly released by the Australian Immigration 
authorities but his passport was withheld.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his blog yesterday launched 
his harshest criticism against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

He said Malaysians did not trust Najib and predicted Barisan Nasional (BN) 
would lose the next polls if he were to remain in power.

In the lengthy post, he highlighted various allegations made against Najib and 
wrote that none of them had been adequately answered.

This included the murder of Altantuya and the claims made by Sirul, who had 
been one of Najib's bodyguards.

On Sirul's claim that he had been "under orders" to kill Altantuya, Dr Mahathir 
said such an allegation ought to be investigated because Sirul had worked for 
Najib.

"This is a human life. It would be cruel if Sirul was subjected to the death 
penalty for carrying out instructions," he wrote.

Sirul had also threatened to reveal all about the high-profile murder of the 
Mongolian to the Australian media, claiming that Altantuya's murder had been 
carried out on instructions.

According to media reports, Sirul would not be sent back to Malaysia as 
Canberra forbids repatriating suspects who faced the death penalty, setting up 
a potential tug-of-war.

Earlier this week, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Sirul's 
extradition process was delayed because it involved "complicated legal issues".

Sirul's lawyer Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin had also revealed that the 
Attorney-General's Chambers has yet to commence an extradition request with 
Canberra, although the former policeman was arrested on January 22.

He said if an extradition request was filed, an application would have to be 
made for Sirul to appear before a magistrate in Australia.

Evidence in court revealed that Altantuya, a Mongolian translator, was murdered 
before the body was blown up by C4 explosives on October 18, 2006, on the 
outskirts of Shah Alam, near the capital city Kuala Lumpur.

Former political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, a confidante of Prime Minister 
Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was charged with abetting Azilah and Sirul but was 
acquitted by the High Court in 2008 without his defence being called.

The government did not appeal his acquittal. Despite the conviction, the motive 
for the murder of Altantuya was never revealed.

(source: The Malaysian Insider)

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

Penang Magistrate Court charges 2 men with trafficking heroin

A man with a mutilated right hand and a salesman were charged in the 
Magistrate's Court today with trafficking in 1,000 grammes of heroin last week.

However, no plea was recorded from T. Nanthakumar, 29, and K. Jayakumar, 32, 
respectively, after the charge was read out to them by a court interpreter 
before Magistrate Sharifah Izura Syed Mashor.

Nanthakumar and Jayakumar were charged with trafficking in the drug at a house 
in Penang Times Square in Jalan Datuk Keramat at 11.15 pm on March 24, under 
Section 38B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act which carries the mandatory death 
penalty upon conviction.

Meanwhile, in the same court, an unemployed man was charged with trafficking in 
16.28kg of heroin last week.

No plea was recorded from Cheah Chin Eng, 35, after the charge was read out to 
him.

Cheah was charged with trafficking in the drug at a house in the Bukit Gambir 
Flats, Jalan Bukit Gambir at 10 pm on March 25.

The court set June 8 for mention of the 2 cases.

The prosecution was conducted by Deputy Public Prosecutor Muhammad Hafiz 
Hashim.

(source: themalaymailonline.com)

GAMBIA:

UN human rights commission concerned with Gambia's death sentences

The spokesperson of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 
Rupert Colville has expressed deep concern about the death sentences apparently 
imposed last week by a military tribunal in the Gambia against 3 people accused 
of participating in an attempted coup last December.

A statement issued Thursday said 3 people were reportedly also sentenced to 
life imprisonment during the same trial, which was held in secret, despite 
provisions in Gambia's Constitution and Armed Forces Law stating that 
proceedings should be held in public.

"Serious concerns have also been raised about the fairness of the judicial 
proceedings, particularly in relation to the provision of adequate legal 
representation, which is also guaranteed under the Constitution. We hope that 
the 6 detainees will be allowed to appeal, as is their right, and we call upon 
the Gambian Government to maintain its moratorium on the use of the death 
penalty."

The Gambia of the Gambia last December said it foiled a coup attempt led by 
Gambian dissidents based mainly in the United States. 2 of the alleged 
attackers were killed and some were captured while others escaped.

As a result, many people, including family members of the alleged perpetrators 
and others accused of complicity in the coup attempt were arrested detained 
incommunicado. Some of those were tried by the court martial which was not open 
to the public.

(source: Star Africa)

INDONESIA:

UN deplore Indonesia's response to calls to cease executions----UN Human Rights 
Committee deplores Indonesia's response to its call to stop executions for 
drug-related crimes

The UN Human Rights Committee has given Indonesia the lowest possible 
evaluation for its failure to respond to the Committee's call in 2013 to stop 
executing prisoners for drug-related crimes.

After a regular review of Indonesia's human rights record, the Committee in 
August 2013 urged the State to reinstate the de facto moratorium on the death 
penalty and to ensure that, if capital punishment was maintained, it was only 
for the most serious crimes, which do not include drug-related offences. The 
Committee also called on Indonesia to review its legislation so offences 
involving narcotics were not punishable by the death penalty.

In a follow-up evaluation of Indonesia this week, Committee members voiced 
concern at the recent executions in Indonesia and regretted that the State had 
not amended its legislation as requested. They awarded Indonesia a rare E grade 
on the scale of A to E, where A is largely satisfactory and E indicates the 
measures taken go against the Committee's recommendation.

Indonesia had argued that, given the severe impact and the challenges posed by 
drug-related crimes to the nation's survival and its young generation, it 
considered such offences as among the most serious to which the death penalty 
may apply.

Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 
to which Indonesia is a State Party, does allow for the death penalty in 
certain very restricted cases. The Committee has repeatedly stressed that 
drug-related offences are not such cases and that capital punishment for 
drug-related offences does not comply with Article 6 of the Covenant.

The Human Rights Committee monitors implementation by States Parties of the 
ICCPR by means of regular review and, where applicable, a follow-up procedure 
to analyse a State's response to the most pressing issues.

The Committee also urges all States to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to 
the Covenant, which aims at the abolition of the death penalty. In 2013, it 
called on Indonesia to do so.

(source: Scoop.co.nz)

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

Another Nigerian Sentenced to Death in Indonesia for Drug Trafficking

Another Nigerian, Simon Ezeaputa, has been sentenced to death in Indonesia for 
drug trafficking. The district court in Tangerang, near Jakarta, found Ezeaputa 
guilty of controlling a drug transaction from his prison cell, where he was 
serving a 20-year jail term for drug offences.

According to AFP, 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 6 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 Sydney.

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, particularly 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: This Day Live)

CHINA:

China ex-security chief charged with bribery, power abuse

China's former security chief Zhou Yongkang was charged Friday with bribery, 
abuse of power and disclosing state secrets, authorities said, making him the 
most senior official prosecuted in decades and setting the stage for a dramatic 
trial.

Zhou -- seen as an adversary of President Xi Jinping -- is the most prominent 
victim of the Communist Party's much-publicised anti-corruption drive, which 
has targeted high-level "tigers" as well as low-level "flies".

He had a background in the oil industry and accumulated vast power as he rose 
through the ranks to become a member of the ruling party's elite Politburo 
Standing Committee (PSC), the most powerful body in China.

"The defendant Zhou Yongkang... took advantage of his posts to seek gains for 
others and illegally took huge property and assets from others, abused his 
power, causing huge losses to public property and the interests of the State 
and the people," said the indictment, posted online by prosecutors.

"The social impact is vile and the circumstances were extraordinarily severe," 
it said, adding that he also "intentionally leaked state secrets".

The document was filed with a court in the northern port of Tianjin, the 
Supreme People's Procuratorate added, but it gave no indication of a trial 
date.

Chinese courts are closely controlled by the ruling party and a guilty verdict 
is a certainty.

The proceedings will be the most significant in China since the infamous Gang 
of 4 -- which included Mao Zedong's widow Jiang Qing -- were put on trial and 
blamed for the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.

Xi has consolidated enormous power since taking office in 2012 and Zhou's fate 
will "establish Xi Jinping's ultimate authority over the entire country", said 
Willy Lam, a politics specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"This will strike fear into the hearts of his opponents or potential opponents, 
because Xi Jinping has total control over the entire anti-corruption 
apparatus," he added.

Zhou's fall sent shockwaves through the ruling party. After months of rumours, 
party authorities announced last July they were investigating him, and he was 
expelled from the party and formally arrested in December.

Now 72, he retired in 2012 as part of a once-a-decade leadership handover, but 
senior Chinese politicians normally remain significant players even after 
officially stepping down, and are generally immune from retribution.

Days after Zhou's arrest, the Communist Party's flagship People's Daily 
newspaper branded him a "traitor" and likened him to several past turncoats who 
were all executed -- setting off speculation that Zhou himself could face a 
similar fate.

Under Chinese law bribery can carry the death penalty in some circumstances, 
while the maximum penalty for leaking state secrets is seven years in prison.

Lam said a suspended death sentence -- normally commuted to life imprisonment 
-- was possible, but added: "This is the most senior official since the 
Cultural Revolution to have been incriminated for corruption. So to set an 
example to all, Xi Jinping might favour a death sentence."

- Faction fighting -

Communist authorities have touted the anti-corruption drive as a 
root-and-branch reform of the party to address an issue that causes deep and 
widespread public anger.

But critics note that China has failed to implement institutional safeguards 
against graft, such as public asset disclosure, an independent judiciary, and 
free media, leaving the effort open to being used for political 
faction-fighting.

The Communist party is riven by internal divisions but consistently seeks to 
present a united front to outsiders.

Several of Zhou's associates have also been brought down in the campaign, among 
them Jiang Jiemin, the former head of the body that regulates China's 
state-owned firms.

He is a former head of the China National Petroleum Corporation, a post 
previously held by Zhou, and the two are reportedly part of a Communist Party 
faction with roots in the oil industry, known as the "petroleum gang".

The hearings will be the 1st time Zhou has been seen in public since October 
2013. Officials have promised that they will be open in accordance with Chinese 
law, but attendance at previous high-profile cases has been closely controlled.

When former high-flyer Bo Xilai -- a Zhou ally who fell after a scandal around 
the killing of a British businessman -- was prosecuted for bribery, 
non-official media were limited to a "live" written transcript of events, whose 
accuracy was impossible to verify independently.

The China director of Human Rights Watch, Sophie Richardson, said on Twitter: 
"Zhou Yongkang, pivotal in denying so many the right to a fair trial, won't get 
one himself."

(source: Agence France-Presse)

GHANA:

Ghana imposes nine death sentences in 2014 - Amnesty International

The Human rights campaigner, Amnesty International says though no executions 
have been carried out for about 20 years in the country, 9 death sentences were 
imposed in 2014.

The Human Rights body has therefore urged the government to expunge the death 
penalty from the statutory books and stick to other forms of punishments to 
deter commitment of crimes.

Mr Lawrence Amesu, Director of Amnesty International Ghana made this known at 
the launch of the 2014 death penalty report on Wednesday.

He said President John Dramani Mahama has already commuted 21 death sentences 
to life imprisonment.

"The plans by government to put to a referendum recommendation of the 
Constitution Review Commission that require changes to the constitution, 
including the removal of the death penalty, were not implemented in 2014."

The Human rights group warned of an "alarming" rise in death sentences around 
the globe in 2014, with Egypt and Nigeria accounting for much of the increase.

The number of death sentences actually carried out went down by 22 % to 607 
however from the previous year, although Amnesty warned the numbers did not 
count executions in China where death sentences were kept secret.

"There is no evidence that the death penalty is any more of a deterrent to 
violent crime or terrorism than other forms of punishment," Mr Amesu said.

China had the highest number of executions in the world, followed by Iran, 
which carried out with 289, as well as at least 454 executions which Amnesty 
said were not acknowledged by the authorities.

Saudi Arabia carried out 90 executions, followed by Iraq which had 61 people 
sentenced to death and the US, which executed 35.

While the report notes an overall decrease in the number of death sentences 
handed out, it says a major exception was Egypt, where the number rose to 509 
from 109 in 2013.

"This included mass death sentences against 37 people in April and 183 people 
in June following unfair mass trials," Amnesty said.

Death sentences in Nigeria also shot up to 659 in 2014 from 141 in 2013, mainly 
linked to the Boko Haram rebellion in the country's northern regions.

The overall positive trend was for fewer countries to use capital punishment, 
said Amnesty, which has been campaigning against the death penalty for nearly 
40 years.

"The few countries that still execute need to take a serious look in the mirror 
and ask themselves if they want to continue to violate the right to life," said 
Salil Shetty, Amnesty's Secretary General.

Amnesty also found that around the world there were 113 exonerations for death 
row prisoners in 2014.

(source: ghanabusiness.com)

PAKISTAN:

Pakistan military courts sentence 6 militants to death

The newly established military courts in Pakistan on Thursday sentenced to 
death 6 militants while sending another to life imprisonment on terrorism 
charges, the first such convictions since the courts were set up after the 
deadly Taliban school massacre in December.

Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif confirmed the death sentence given to 
6 terrorists, military spokesperson said. Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa said 
that seven men accused of heinous crimes of terrorism, manslaughter, causing 
colossal damage to life and property, suicide bombing and abduction for ransom 
were tried by the military courts.

The courts awarded death sentence to 6 and life imprisonment to one militant. 
These sentences of death were confirmed by General Sharif. The convicts have 
the right to file an appeal before the court of appeals against the ruling.

Those awarded death sentence include Noor Saeed, Haider Ali, Murad Khan, 
Inayatullah, Israr uddin and Qari Zahir, while Abbas has been sentenced life 
imprisonment. The military courts were set up as part of national action plan 
to eliminate militancy from the country in the aftermath of deadly Taliban 
attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that killed over 150 people, mostly 
students.

The military courts are expected to deliver speedy justice as terrorism cases 
linger for years in ordinary courts, as the judges are reluctant to conclude 
the trials or convict the militants due to fear of backlash. Pakistan has 
already hanged 66 prisoners since lifting moratorium on the death penalty after 
the Taliban attack.

There are more than 8,000 death row prisoners in the country. The United 
Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have 
urged Pakistan government to reimpose the moratorium on the death penalty.

(source: Daily News & Analysis)

INDIA:

Calcutta HC commutes death sentence of child killer

Calcutta high court on Tuesday spared the life of a man sentenced to death for 
raping and murdering his 13-year-old stepson in September 2007.

Sanjay Haldar alias Batul was on death row but will now spend 25 years in jail. 
He was the ninth prisoner awaiting execution in the state according to a 
January 2015 headcount. The trial court had sentenced him to death because it 
felt Sanjay would be a threat to society if allowed to walk free, but a high 
court division bench thought differently.

The case dates back to September 27, 2007, when a woman, Mamata Haldar, walked 
into East Jadavpur police station to file a complaint about her missing son. 
She said that the 13-year-old boy was last seen with her 2nd husband, Sanjay, 
and that he always hated the child. She said Sanjay regularly abused him 
sexually and threatened to kill him.

The child's body was found dumped in Dhapa and an autopsy confirmed that he had 
been raped and strangled to death. The prosecution fielded 14 witnesses, one of 
whom had seen Sanjay and the child just before the murder at Dhapa. The witness 
picked out Sanjay from a line-up and a trial court sentenced Sanjay to death, 
noting that it was a heinous crime. "The victim was helpless. The accused, his 
stepfather, was in a dominating position and had carnal intercourse with him 
for several days in a very cold and pre-planned way, concealed evidence and 
brutally strangled him. The conduct of the accused proves that he is a man who 
cannot be rectified or reformed. His free movement in society will be 
dangerous. If this kind of crime is treated leniently, wrong signals will go 
out to society," the order read.

A high court bench of Justice Ashim Kumar Roy and Justice Ishan Chandra Das 
agreed that the crime was "undoubtedly grave, serious and heinous". "He had a 
dirty and perverted mind and no control over his carnal desire. The victim was 
a helpless boy. Not only did he have carnal intercourse with the boy regularly 
but murdered him and destroyed evidence. Nevertheless, it cannot be held that 
he is such a dangerous person that to spare his life would endanger the 
community," the bench said, adding that seen in the light of the principle laid 
down by Supreme Court, Sanjay should be jailed for 25 years rather than 
executed.

SC guidelines on imposing death penalty

1) The court must consider every relevant circumstance relating to the crime 
and the criminal

2) If the court finds that the offence is of an exceptionally depraved and 
heinous character and constitutes a danger to society, it may impose the death 
sentence

3) The court should consider the probability of the accused repeating the crime 
and the likelihood of him/her being reformed and rehabilitated

(source: The Times of India)

VIETNAM:

Vietnam not to drop death penalty for corruption

Vietnam will not consider abolishing capital punishment for corruption 
offenses, deputy chairman of the National Assembly Uong Chu Luu has said.

The abolition of the death penalty has been recommended for several crimes in 
Vietnam but that punishment will still be applied to those convicted of 
corruption as the highest sanction, Deputy Chairman Luu said.

The most prominent point of the proposed amendments to the Penal Code that the 
central government is about to submit to the National Assembly is narrowing the 
applicable scope of capital punishment, lowering jail-term sentences, and 
increasing pecuniary penalties, the official said in a recent meeting.

These new moves will help create conditions for offenders to remedy what they 
have brought about while committing crimes, he said.

Thus the abolition of the death penalty has been proposed for 7 crimes, but 
they do not include corruption charges, he added.

Most participants in a recent seminar organized by the National Assembly 
Justice Committee agreed on that proposition, Luu said.

He stressed that corruption has caused great discontent and anxiety in society 
and the Party and State have shown strong determination to combat it, so the 
death penalty should be maintained as the highest punishment for those found 
guilty of corruption.

In a seminar on March 24, Dr. Nguyen Tat Vien, a standing member of the Central 
Steering Committee for Justice Reform, said, "There are many opinions saying 
that the death penalty should be abolished for corruption or embezzlement 
convictions, but I think that such abolition should not be approved given the 
current situation."

"Bribery and embezzlement are causing anger and displeasure in our society, 
undermining the prestige and efficiency of the state apparatus and threatening 
the survival of our regime. If we do not severely crack down on such 
wrongdoings, people will lose their trust in the ongoing fight against 
corruption," Dr. Vien said.

However, among the amendments to the Penal Code is a suggestion that capital 
punishment should be commuted to a life sentence if the convicted can submit to 
competent agencies at least 1/2 of the money or property they have gained from 
their crimes; actively work with investigators on detecting, investigating, and 
handling criminals; or achieve a great feat.

Vietnam is mulling over the abolition of the death penalty for 7 crimes: 
plundering property; destroying important national security works and/or 
facilities; disobeying orders in the military; surrendering to the enemy, which 
is applicable in the army; undermining peace, provoking aggressive wars; crimes 
against mankind; and war crimes.

(source: Tuoi Tre News)