[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 28



SAUDI ARABIA/CANADA:

What's behind surge in Saudi beheadings?----Saudi Arabia has executed 1 person 
every 2 days since last August, new Amnesty International report finds


One person has been executed in Saudi Arabia every 2 days since last August, 
making the Gulf kingdom "one of most prolific executioners in the world," 
Amnesty International said this week.

The country has executed more people in the 1st half of 2015 than all of last 
year, Amnesty said in a new report.

Between Jan. and June, 102 people were executed, compared to 90 in 2014, 
Amnesty reported.

Most executions were by beheading and many sentences were handed out to people 
found guilty of non-lethal crimes, including apostasy, witchcraft and 
drug-related offences.

"Our main recommendation here is that Saudi Arabia needs to abolish the death 
penalty," said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada.

Of the 2,208 executions recorded in Saudi Arabia since 1985, about 48.5 % were 
carried out against foreign nationals, Amnesty found. This includes many 
migrant workers from poor socioeconomic backgrounds, who often do not have 
access to consular services or translations during trial.

Underage offenders and people with mental disabilities were also not exempt 
from the death penalty.

An effort to crack down on drug crimes may be responsible for the recent surge 
in executions, "but that certainly is not the only story here," Neve told the 
Star.

"It's hard to give an exact explanation of course because everything about the 
justice system in Saudi Arabia is shrouded in such complete secrecy. There are 
no explanations ever offered, be that by the government or by the judiciary," 
he said.

Despite growing international pressure, Saudi Arabia executed 4 people - 3 
Saudi nationals and 1 Syrian - on Wednesday for crimes that included murder and 
drug smuggling, Al Jazeera reported.

The Saudi authorities, Neve said, "have responded defiantly and aggressively" 
to criticism of the country's human rights record, and of its use of the death 
penalty.

"They take the position that it's an internal Saudi matter, that the Saudi 
justice system is absolutely fine. They . . . essentially convey a message to 
the rest of the world that it's nobody else's business how Saudi Arabia 
conducts its justice system."

The Saudi legal system is based on Islamic law, or Sharia, which is derived 
from the Quran and the Sunnah, the practices and sayings of the Prophet 
Mohammad.

In addition to Sharia courts, a Board of Grievances deals with cases involving 
the government and committees within government ministries settle specific 
disputes. Saudi Arabia also established a Supreme Court in 2007.

But in many criminal cases, Amnesty said, Saudi judges are not bound by legal 
precedent when handing out sentences or deciding what constitutes a crime. This 
gives them "wide powers of interpretation."

The country's ruler, King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, retains the final 
authority over judicial matters and he can issue royal decrees when Sharia law 
does not prescribe a solution.

Some observers were cautiously optimistic when Salman took the throne last 
January after the death of his brother, King Abdullah. But so far, the new king 
has instituted few substantial democratic reforms.

Despite this, Saudi Arabia remains a major Western ally in the Middle East. 
King Salman is expected to make his 1st official visit to Washington next week, 
and the kingdom was the top client in U.S. arms sales in 2014, according to the 
Council on Foreign Relations.

Canada-Saudi ties are also strong. Last year, Canada finalized a $15 billion 
arms deal to sell light armoured vehicles to the Gulf monarchy. A report in The 
Globe and Mail this week revealed that Ottawa is contractually obligated to 
keep the details of that agreement secret.

"The promotion and protection of human rights is an integral part of Canadian 
principled foreign policy," Amy Mills, spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Trade 
and Development Canada, told the Star in an e-mailed statement when asked about 
alleged Saudi human rights violations.

"Canadian officials engage regularly with Saudi officials, including the Saudi 
Human Rights Commission, to maintain an open, respectful and constructive 
dialogue on human rights issues. The Government of Canada takes every 
opportunity to regularly make its views on human rights known to Saudi 
authorities and the international community."

But Saudi Arabia has been accused of imprisoning political dissidents, failing 
to protect migrant labourers and discriminating against minorities and women, 
among other violations.

Neve said Ottawa has failed to hold Saudi Arabia accountable. "All we hear from 
the rest of the world, including Canada, is silence. It's disgraceful and it's 
unacceptable and it has to end," he said.

"The Canadian government is much more focused on ensuring that a lucrative arms 
deal . . . goes through. They are much more concerned about upholding that deal 
than in raising any of these human rights concerns."

(source: The Star)






INDIA:

Law panel drafts paper, favours abolition of death penalty


The Law Commission is set to recommend abolition of death penalty in India 
except for terror convicts, media reports said on Friday, a move rights 
activists say is long overdue in the country.

India is one of 59 countries in the world where capital punishment is still 
awarded and activists have been demanding its abolition, saying death penalty 
had no place in civilised society.

The issue had generated intense debate before and after the hanging in July of 
Yakub Memon, the sole Mumbai blasts convict to be executed.

A 272-page draft report of the Law Commission was in favour of speedy abolition 
of the death penalty from the statute books, except in cases where the accused 
is convicted of involvement in a terror case, the Indian Express reported.

The Law Commission had recommended retention of death penalty in 1962.

"The Commission suggests that the death penalty be immediately abolished for 
all crimes other than terror offences. At the same time, for terror offences a 
moratorium as regards sentencing and execution be immediately put in place. 
This moratorium can be reviewed after a reasonable period," the report quoted 
the draft as saying.

The panel also hoped that the "movement towards absolute abolition will be 
swift and irreversible".

The commission, headed by justice (retd) AP Shah, is likely to submit its 
report next week to the Supreme Court which had asked the panel to study the 
issue.

A copy of the report will also be handed over to the Union law minister as any 
call on changes in penal provisions has to be taken by Parliament.

The panel's term expires on August 31. According to the report, the commission 
is of the view that death penalty has not served its intended purpose of acting 
as a deterrent to crimes or criminals.

"The quest for retribution as a penal justification cannot descend into cries 
for vengeance," the draft paper said.

The panel had held wide-ranging discussions with many different sections 
including political parties.

Former president late APJ Abdul Kalam is among the people who had earlier 
supported abolishing death penalty while responding to a consultation paper of 
the Law Commission.

Ahead of Yakub Memon's hanging after a dramatic late-night rejection of his 
final mercy, a group of activists had written to President Pranab Mukherjee 
seeking a stay on his execution.

(source: Hindustan Times)


PAKISTAN:

The Death Penalty in Pakistan


Since lifting a long standing moratorium on the death penalty in December 2014, 
Pakistan has executed over 200 people.

tAbdul Basit is 43 and was sentenced to death in 2009. In 2010, he contracted 
tubercular meningitis in prison, which left him paralyzed from the waist down. 
A Government-appointed medical board recently confirmed that Basit has no use 
of his lower limbs and is "bed bound with urinary and fecal incontinence." 
Despite being unable to stand, and reliant on a wheelchair, a 'Black Warrant' 
has been issued for his execution. It is deeply disturbing that Pakistan's 
authorities are trying to go ahead with this cruel and unnecessary executions. 
There is surely no justification for trying to hang a man with such severe 
disabilities.

Among those executed was Aftab Bahadur, who was hanged in June 2015, despite 
evidence of his innocence. In violation of international and Pakistani law, 
Aftab was sentenced to death when he was a child. Reprieve worked until the 
very last minute to save Aftab's life, but the Lahore High Court dismissed our 
request for a stay of execution.

Shafqat Hussain was also sentenced to death while still a child. He was 
brutally tortured for 9 days, and eventually 'confessed' to a crime, in order 
to end the abuse. The Pakistani authorities had tried to execute Shafqat in 
January and June 2015, but both times thousands of people joined with us to 
voice their opposition, and succeeded in stopping his execution.

In July 2015 Shafqat was issued with a new execution warrant. Yet again, 
thousands joined our campaign to email President Mamnoon Hussain, demanding a 
stay of execution. However, Shafqat was eventually hanged in the early hours of 
Thuesday 4th August 2015.

Reprieve aims to end the death penalty worldwide, by working on individual 
cases such as those of Aftab and Shafqat, and on wider projects. We are 
currently assisting more than 40 people facing the death penalty in 11 
countries.

(source: Reprieve.org)






CHAD:

Chad sentences 10 Boko Haram members to death


Chad has sentenced 10 members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram to 
death on terror charges, after a 3-day trial in the capital N'Djamena.

The 10 were convicted over their roles in twin attacks on the capital in June, 
which killed at least 38.

The attacks were the 1st by the Nigerian-based group in Chad, which hosts the 
headquarters of a regional force set up to fight the militants.

In July, Chad reintroduced the death penalty for acts of terror.

Opposition and civil liberties groups have criticised the new anti-terror 
legislation, saying it could be used to curb civil rights.

The men were found guilty of charges including criminal conspiracy, killings, 
wilful destruction with explosives, fraud, illegal possessions of arms and 
ammunition, and using psychotropic substances, according to chief prosecutor 
Bruno Mahouli Louapambe, quoted in AFP news agency.

The trial had been due to last eight days, but "due to security reasons it was 
speeded up and moved on Thursday to an undisclosed secret location," a judicial 
source told AFP.

Among those convicted was Mahamat Mustapha, aka Bana Fanaye, the man described 
as the "mastermind" of the attack by Chad's Interior Minister Abderahim Bireme 
Hamid.

The June attacks were followed by a blast at a market in the capital in July, 
which killed 15 people.

Chad has banned people from wearing the full-face veil following the bombings.

Boko Haram had previously threatened to attack Chad, after it sent troops to 
help Nigeria recapture territory from the militant group, mostly in Borno 
state.

Chad has been instrumental in helping Nigeria retake most of the areas Boko 
Haram had seized.

The jihadists, who want to create their own Islamic caliphate in Nigeria, have 
killed thousands and forced millions to flee their homes in the country's 
north-east Nigeria since 2009.

(source: BBC news)






EUROPEAN UNION:

EU Blasts Palestinian Use Of Death Penalty


European Union missions based in Jerusalem and Ramallah in the occupied West 
Bank condemned Friday a death sentence issued in the Gaza Strip earlier this 
week.

The sentence was the 5th issued since the beginning of the year by Palestinian 
courts.

On Monday, the Permanent Military Court in Gaza City - acting as a court of 
First Instance - sentenced a 37-year-old Palestinian from the al-Daraj 
neighborhood to death by firing squad after he was convicted of "collaboration 
with a foreign hostile entity," the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) 
reported.

Under Palestinian law, wilful, premeditated murder and treason as well as 
collaboration with the enemy - usually Israel - are punishable by death.

The EU called on authorities in Gaza - run by the Hamas movement - to refrain 
from enforcing capital punishment on the grounds that the practice is cruel, 
inhumane, fails to deter criminal behavior, and denies citizens human dignity.

PCHR said that Monday's sentence brings the total number of death sentences 
issued by the Palestinian courts since 1994 to 161, over 80 % of which were 
carried out in the Gaza Strip.

The remainder took place in the occupied West Bank in courts run by the 
Palestinian Authority.

The majority of those facing the death penalty in the Gaza Strip have been 
executed since Hamas took control on 2007, PCHR said, adding that 19 have been 
executed since 2007 without ratification by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Under Palestinian law, capital punishment may only be carried out with the 
approval of the Palestinian president.

As the Hamas movement broke from the Palestinian Authority in 2007 and does not 
recognize the legitimacy of Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip 
sidestep the president's consent on cases of capital punishment.

The EU added that the authorities in Gaza must "comply with the moratorium on 
executions put in place by the Palestinian Authority, pending abolition of the 
death penalty in line with the global trend."

While Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and the Palestinian 
Authority rules in the occupied West Bank, the death penalty is carried out by 
both parties in both territories.

Hamas executed 18 men in August for alleged collaboration with Israel during 
the 50-day Gaza war.

Palestine is 1 of 22 countries that carried out the death penalty last year.

The practice has been abolished in 140 countries - nearly 2/3 of countries 
around the world - and in 2012 over half of United Nations member states voted 
for a UN resolution to be passed for a global moratorium on the practice.

In 2014, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States carried out the largest 
numbers of recorded death sentences.

Rights groups have criticized Palestinian authorities in both the West Bank and 
Gaza Strip for implementing capital punishment without due process.

(source:eurasiareview.com)