[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 29


IRAN----executions:

5 Prisoners Hanged in Kerman and Jiroft



On Thursday morning, 23rd April, 5 prisoners who had been charged with drug 
related crimes, went to the gallows, in Kerman city and Jiroft city.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), 
3 of them were hanged in the prison of Kerman and the other 2 were executed in 
the prison of Jiroft.

There is no information about their identity, and official responsible bodies, 
same as many previous cases have not announced these executions.

According to different estimates, more than 70 % of executions in Iran are on 
charges of drug related crimes, a problem that has caused most of criticism 
from human rights activists and international organizations on Iranian 
government. It was previously agreed that in the current month, a proposal 
regarding abolition of the death penalty for drug charges would be raised in 
the public meeting of Iranian parliament.

(source: HRANA News Agency)








BAHRAIN:

Police officer killer sentenced to death



The High Criminal Court has sentenced 1 man to death and seven defendants to 
life in prison for their role in the killing a police officer and the attempted 
killing of other officers.

Chief of the Terror Crime Prosecution and Advocate General Ahmed Al Hammadi 
said that 4 other defendants were given 10 years in jail each in the same case.

The citizenship of all defendants is to be revoked, the court ruled.

The Public Prosecution said that the 1st defendant set up in 2014 an illegal 
group with the purpose of using terror among other means to stall the 
provisions of the constitution and the laws. The other defendants later joined 
the group.

10 defendants were charged with deliberately killing Mahmood Fareed after they 
plotted to target the police officers tasked with security in the Eker area and 
prepared an explosive device for the purpose.

The 8th defendant planted it in on the site where the officers carried out 
their duties.

When the patrol arrived and Mahmood Fareed got off the vehicle, the first 
defendant remotely detonated the device to kill him. The victim succumbed to 
his wounds.

The defendants attempted to kill the other officers, using the same detonation 
method.

The defendants were also charged with possessing and using explosive devices, 
putting people's lives at risk and damaging a vehicle owned by the Ministry of 
Interior.

The 11th and 12th defendants were charged with participating in causing 
explosions and using documents belonging to other people to buy mobile phone 
chips.

The evidence against the defendants was gathered from the confessions of the 
four of them who had been arrested, the police investigations, the testimonies 
of the witnesses and the reports from the crime scene, from the criminal 
investigation laboratory and from the doctors.

The 4 defendants were put on trial while the others are still being sought by 
the police.

At the trial, the court listened to the pleas of the defense and to the public 
prosecution.

The prosecution called for the death penalty for all defendants. However, the 
court ruled the capital punishment for the main defendant.

The death penalty can be challenged at the court of appeals and subsequently at 
the court of cassation.

Under Bahrain's laws, the death penalty is carried out only after the approval 
of the court of appeals and the court of cassation, even if the defendant or 
his lawyers do not take the case to them.

(source: Bahrain News Agency)








PAKISTAN----execution

Murder convict hanged in Vehari----The convict Abdul Gaffur murdered an 
8-year-old girl in 1991 after rape.



A death row convict was hanged in Vehari District jail today (Wednesday), Dunya 
News reported.

According to details, the convict Abdul Gaffur murdered an 8-year-old girl in 
1991 after rape.

District and Session judge Lodhara ordered his death penalty and fine whereas 
the mercy plea was also rejected by the President on which black warrants were 
issued.

(source: Dunya News)

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

Saulat Mirza records statement before magistrate



Death row convict Saulat Mirza has recorded his fresh statement before 
magistrate pertaining to all startling revelations he made in a video statement 
hours before his execution last month, Samaa reported on Wednesday.

Sources said Mirza, an ex-worker of MQM awarded death penalty for triple 
homicide in Karachi, has repeated his previous statement before a magistrate in 
Muchh jail of Balochistan.

A joint interrogation team (JIT), formed to determine his claims regarding his 
party leadership, has submitted a new report to the federal government.

"Whatever I said was true, I stand by my words. It was voice of my heart, I 
didn't issue this statement under pressure but in hatred with party 
leadership," a source quoted Mirza as saying during interrogation by the JIT.

Saulat Mirza was awarded death penalty in May 1999 for 1997 murder of MD 
Karachi Electric Supply Corporation - now K-Electric - Shahid Hamid, his 
driver, and security guard.

In his recorded video, Mirza claimed that MQM chief Altaf had ordered him to 
carry out the killings. He also blamed PPP government for facilitating MQM???s 
prisoners.

He is scheduled to be hanged on April 30 in Muchh jail.

(source: Samaa.tv)








INDONESIA:

Backgrounder: The other Australians on death row; Andrew Chan and Myuran 
Sukumaran are the first Australians to be executed overseas in almost a decade. 
Van Tuong Nguyen's death in Singapore for drug trafficking also shocked the 
country in 2005. 3 Australians are currently on death row around the world and 
more could face a similar fate.



Nguyen was 25 when he was hanged in 2005 for smuggling heroin through 
Singapore, in a bid to pay off his debts and those of his drug addict brother.

His tragic story loomed large in the Australian consciousness, dividing the 
hearts and minds of many across the country.

"Young foolish people like these young men make mistakes early in life, they 
should be punished for it," said Peter Norden, the former Catholic priest who 
supported Van Nguyen's family. "But whether or not their lives should be taken 
away is the question that's got to be asked.

"It's a lifelong punishment of pain and sadness, heart breaking particularly 
for a mother and I think that's where the real evil of sanctioned executions 
can be seen."

Drug offences were behind all 6 executions of Australians overseas in recent 
decades.

"These are countries where drug trafficking particularly into the West has been 
seen as a particular blight upon those societies," said Donald Rothwell, 
Professor of International Law at Australian National University.

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

Drug convicts' executions: Jokowi asks for law to be respected, Kalla says row 
will hurt Australia more



Following the executions of 2 Australian death-row inmates convicted on drug 
charges, Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Vice-President Jusuf Kalla have 
asked the Australian government to respect Indonesian law, which recognizes the 
death penalty, while also warning that any protracted diplomatic rows will 
spell negative repercussions for the Australian economy.

Mr Joko stated on Wednesday: "Our law must be respected. We also respect the 
sovereignty of law in other countries."

Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that Indonesia bought 
US$1.7billion (S$2.24 billion) worth of goods from Australia in the first 3 
months this year, while Australia imported US$547.3 million from Indonesia.

(source: straitstimes.com)

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

Filipina Convict's Death Already Written In Ink



So certain were some Philippine newspapers that convicted drug smuggler Mary 
Jane Veloso would face the firing squad in Indonesia after midnight Tuesday 
that they had already declared her dead.

"Death came before dawn," read the headline of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, 
the country's largest paper. The Manila Bulletin stated, "No delay in 
execution," while Filipino-language tabloid Abante wrote "Farewell, Mary Jane" 
across a front page colored black in mourning.

As the nation woke, however, they discovered that the headlines were wrong and 
that an 11th hour reprieve had been granted to Ms. Veloso so she could stand 
witness in a human-trafficking trial. The 30-year-old mother of 2 was sentenced 
to death for attempting to smuggle 2.6 kilograms of heroin into Indonesia in 
her luggage in 2010.

Hours before her execution, the woman who allegedly recruited Ms. Veloso turned 
herself into Philippine authorities paving the way for a court case. Tony 
Spontana, a spokesman for the Indonesian Attorney General's Office, told The 
Wall Street Journal in a text message that "the Philippine president said her 
presence was needed in the trial."

The news came after days of building protests and calls for clemency.

During a regional summit Monday, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III had 
made a last-ditch appeal to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to spare Ms. 
Veloso's life.

Philippine Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras said Mr. Aquino continued to push 
his request the next day, breaking protocol to relay directly to Indonesia's 
foreign minister the news of the recruiter's surrender and the case being built 
up against the human-trafficking syndicate.

The death penalty was abolished in 2006 as capital punishment in the 
Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country. Despite building protests, 
however, Mr. Widodo had refused to concede, saying his country was sticking to 
executions in order to put an end to rising drug abuse.

Protesters in Manila who had staged candlelight vigils in front of the 
Indonesian Embassy to plea for Ms. Veloso reacted with shouts of joy to what 
had only hours earlier seemed an impossible outcome.

"We are relieved that the execution of Mary Jane Veloso was not carried out 
tonight....The Lord has answered our prayers," Department of Foreign Affairs 
spokesman Charles Jose said during a news briefing to deliver the news.

Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, who made an earlier public appeal to 
President Joko Widodo, also sent out a message thanking God.

Ms. Veloso was among a group of 8 foreigners, including 2 Australians, 4 
Nigerians and a Brazilian, awaiting execution Tuesday evening. 7 of them were 
killed by a firing squad just after 12:30 a.m. along with an 8th convicted drug 
smuggler from Indonesia.

(source: Wall Street Journal)

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

Indonesia Executes the Traffickers----The Failings of Capital Punishment



"Jokowi. Myuran Sukumaran. Kerobokan Prison. Bali. 23/01/2015. People can 
change." - Inscription by Myuran Sukumaran of a portrait of Joko Widodo, 
Indonesian President.



We have been reduced to morbid reflections, those moments when the smell of 
death, and the exiting life, is near. "The 2 boys died well," explained 
Australian lawyer Peter Morrissey. "They made their preparations, they were 
dignified. They're strong against the death penalty, they were supportive of 
their families." Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran died before the firing squad 
without being given the last rites. They were joined by 6 others: Okwuduli 
Oyatanze, Martin Anderson, Raheem Agbaje Salami, Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise, 
Rodrigo Gularte and Zainal Abidin.

The 8 executions that took place at 12.35 in the morning local time on the 
prison island of Nusakambangan were not averted by the involvement of the UN 
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Or the EU. Neither did the pleas of France, 
Australia, Brazil, or Nigeria have much sway, though Philippines woman Mary 
Jane Veloso received a last minute reprieve from Manila that she be spared to 
act as a witness against a woman charged with trafficking her.

The entire saga has been one of state-sustained cruelty. 1 of the executed, 
Rodrigo Gularte, was a confirmed schizophrenic. The man executed as Raheem 
Agbaje Salami was actually Jamiu Owolabi Abashin, a Nigerian national whose 
fake identity was used by authorities from his conviction to his clemency 
pleas. He died, effectively, as a fake. Australians Chan and Sukumaran, leaders 
of the "Bali 9" drug group, had been passing time in the throes of 
rehabilitation, with Sukumaran learning to paint and Chan finding God and a 
vocation in teaching English.

Even as those on death row were awaiting their last gasps of life, they were 
greeted by the vicious legal lottery that is capital punishment. Earlier this 
month, the "shock therapy" that Indonesia's unrelenting president Joko Widodo 
described as necessary against drug traffickers was far from evident in the 
Bandung High Court. In commuting the death sentences of Iranians Mosavipour bin 
Sayed Abdollah and Moradalivand bin Moradali to life imprisonment, the court 
spoke of a need to educate rather than exact revenge.

Death here is taken in various guises. Drugs kill, though some are more 
permissible than others. Traffickers profit, suggesting that they, too, are the 
profiteers of the sick society. But visiting death upon such individuals in 
this bullet-ridden context is an irreversible, immutable process, striking 
rehabilitation efforts dumb. It suggests that the world is irreversibly dark, 
and the crimes of a few individuals will be met by the sanctioned crime of a 
vengeful state. Such punishment can never, by its own logic, be a deterrent 
because those who are best deterred will breathe no more. The victims, and the 
perpetrators, will continue to multiply.

The joint statement from France, Australia and the EU outlined some of the 
salient points. "We fully respect the sovereignty of Indonesia. But we are 
against the death penalty in our country and abroad. The execution will not 
have a deterrent effect on drug-trafficking or stop others from becoming 
victims of drug abuse. Executing these prisoners now will not achieve 
anything."

The Bali 9 saga did not make for pretty reading and viewing. There was 
sentimentalising, not least of all attempts to transform moral chaff to 
patriotic wheat. Australian actor Brendan Cowell decided to get stroppy, urging 
the Australian prime minister in a video packed with celebrity wishes to "show 
some balls" in getting "over to Indonesia and bring[ing] these boys home."

The inconsistency in the approach of certain countries to protecting their 
citizens was also exposed. Australia's politicians were adamant in mucking in 
the emotional stakes for Chan and Sukamaran, but indifferent to citizens caught 
in the so called "war on terror" (David Hicks) or those who would meddle with 
the muscular presumptions of US foreign policy (Julian Assange). State policy 
is often merely a form of established hypocrisy.

There were also the parochial outbursts. Indonesians felt that drug dealing 
convicts were being romanticised as victims, while their legal system was being 
derided as fetid. Right to the point of the executions, there were suggestions 
on the part of Chan and Sukumaran that the judges hearing their case were 
compromised by corruption.

A judicial commission indicated that it had investigated claims that the judges 
had asked for $130,000 to reduce the sentences to less than 20 years in prison, 
only to refuse to release its findings. "I don't think executions should take 
place if the investigations have not taken place," suggested defence counsel 
Todung Mulya Lubis. "I don't even know what is the outcome of the 
investigation." The legal proceeding had become a parody of itself.

What matters in the spirit of rehabilitation is that there is no bridge too far 
- in some cases. Beating a retreat to the realm of measured sanity and 
stability are possible. Those efforts, if they are not at least rewarded, 
should not be ignored by populist, executive fiat. Those who perish before the 
capital punishment do so as political, rather than judicial sacrifices. 
Sovereignty kills.

(source: Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, 
Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne----counterpunch.org)

********

More Nigerians Still On Death Row - Abike Dabiri



The chairwoman of the House Committee on diaspora matters, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, 
has revealed that there are currently more Nigerians on death row in Indonesia.

Her revelation comes as the Asian country last night executed eight foreigners 
including 4 Nigerians on the island of Bali over drug related crimes.

Abike Dabiri-Erewa gave an interview to Channels TV and said that in 2008 she 
visited the Asian nation alongside a federal government delegation and she 
discovered that then there were 21 Nigerians on death row for drug related 
offences.

She said that in Indonesia, in every stop in the country there were 
advertisements displayed warning people against drugs and saying the penalty 
for drug trafficking is death.

Abike Kafayat Oluwatoyin Dabiri-Erwada is a Nigerian politician and member of 
the Nigeria Federal House of Representatives representing Ikorodu constituency 
in Lagos state. She was the chairwoman of the House Committee on media and 
publicity.

(source: naij.com)


PHILIPPINES/SAUDI ARABIA:

Another Pinay on death row in Saudi, mom says



After Mary Jane Veloso, the family of Rose Dacanay Policarpio is seeking the 
help of government after she is reportedly next in line on death row in Riyadh, 
Saudi Arabia.

Policarpio was charged with murder in 2013 after she allegedly killed her 
Lebanese employer. Policarpio, however, is insisting she is innocent.

Her relatives said that in May 2013, 3 unidentified men broke in her employer's 
house.

The 3 men allegedly tried to rape her but she fought back. The same men also 
allegedly killed her Lebanese employer.

But when Saudi police arrived on the scene, they only found Policarpio and the 
dead Lebanese, which made her the immediate suspect in the killing.

Editha Dacanay, the mother of the Filipina, said received information her 
daughter's fellow inmate that Rose is now on death row.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has not confirmed Dacanay's claim. It 
has also yet to give a statement on the issue.

The DFA earlier said around 88 Filipinos are facing death penalty abroad.

DFA spokesperson Charles Jose on Monday said about half of the total number 
Filipinos on death row are jailed for illegal drugs, while the other half are 
for murder.

He said most of the Filipinos facing death penalty are in China and Malaysia.

''We are aware of all of these cases and we are paying close attention to them. 
Embassies and consulates concerned are monitoring these cases,'' Jose said.

''Most of these were already given two-year reprieve, or on appeal, so walang 
imminent for execution."

In recent years, several Filipinos were executed abroad for murder and 
drug-related charges.

The latest Filipino to be executed was Carlito Lana, who was beheaded in Saudi 
Arabia in December 2014 after being found guilty of shooting Saudi national 
Nasser Al-Gahtani before running him over with a car.

In July 2013, the DFA also confirmed the execution of a woman who was caught 
smuggling illegal drugs in China.

The Pinay was arrested on January 25, 2011 at an international airport after 
authorities found 6.198 kilos of heroin inside her luggage. Her cousin was also 
arrested for carrying 6.171 kilos of heroin in his own luggage.

China also executed in 2011 3 Filipinos - Sally Ordinario Villanueva, Ramon 
Credo, and Elizabeth Batain - who were convicted of drug trafficking.

Former Ambassador to UAE Roy Seneres said the key to saving Filipinos in death 
row are in the hands of ambassadors.

He said embassy officials should make his or her presence felt.

Seneres helped save the lives of 3 overseas Filipino workers, including Sarah 
Balabagan.

(source: ABS-CBNNews)