[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 3



SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi Arabia uses terrorism as an excuse for human rights abuses----The kingdom 
is ramping up executions of Shias, with the tacit approval of the United States


Reports emerged last week that Saudi Arabia intends to imminently execute more 
than 50 people on a single day for alleged terrorist crimes.

Although the kingdom hasn't officially confirmed the reports, the evidence is 
building. Okas, the 1st outlet to publish the report, has close ties to the 
Saudi Ministry of Interior and would not have published the story without 
obtaining government consent. Some of the prisoners slated for execution were 
likewise recently subject to an unscheduled medical exam, a sign that many 
believe portends imminent execution. There has already been a spike in capital 
punishment in Saudi Arabia this year, with at least 151 executions, compared 
with 90 for all of 2014.

The cases of 6 Shia activists from Awamiya, a largely Shia town in the oil-rich 
Eastern province, are particularly disconcerting. The majority of Saudi's 
minority Shia population is concentrated in the Eastern province and has long 
faced government persecution. The 6 activists were convicted for protesting 
this mistreatment and other related crimes amid the Arab uprisings in 2011. 3 
of them were arrested when they were juveniles. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a 
prominent Shia religious leader who was convicted of similar charges, also 
faces imminent execution.

All the convictions were obtained through unfair trials marred by human and 
civil rights violations, including in some cases torture, forced confessions 
and lack of access to counsel. Each defendant was tried before the Specialized 
Criminal Court, a counterterrorism tribunal controlled by the Ministry of 
Interior that has few procedural safeguards and is often used to persecute 
political dissidents. Lawyers are generally prohibited from counseling their 
clients during interrogation and have limited participatory rights at trial. 
Prosecutors aren???t even required to disclose the charges and relevant 
evidence to defendants.

The problems aren't just procedural. Saudi law criminalizes dissent and the 
expression of fundamental civil rights. Under an anti-terrorism law passed in 
2014, for example, individuals may be executed for vague acts such as 
participating in or inciting protests, "contact or correspondence with any 
groups ... or individuals hostile to the kingdom" or "calling for atheist 
thought."

One of the defendants, Ali al-Nimr, was convicted of crimes such as "breaking 
allegiance with the ruler" and "going out to a number of marches, 
demonstrations and gathering against the state and repeating some chants 
against the state." For these offenses, he has been sentenced to beheading and 
crucifixion, with his beheaded body to be put on public display as a warning to 
others.

Because of these procedural and legal abominations, the planned executions for 
these Shia activists must not proceed. They should be retried in public 
proceedings and afforded due process protections consistent with international 
law, which includes a ban on the death penalty for anyone under the age of 18.

No other executions should take place in Saudi Arabia. Capital punishment is 
morally repugnant and rife with error and bias, as we know all too well in the 
United States. Moreover, any outcome produced by the Saudi criminal justice 
system is inherently suspect. Inadequate due process, violations of basic human 
rights and draconian laws that criminalize petty offenses and exercising of 
civil rights are fixtures of Saudi rule.

"Saudi Arabia often escapes moral condemnation in large part because of its 
close relationship with the U.S."

They're also fixtures of authoritarian regimes in general. Those who simply 
expect Saudi Arabia to reform its criminal justice system ignore the fact that 
the kingdom is an authoritarian regime that uses the law as a tool to maintain 
and consolidate power. They also ignore the reality that Saudi Arabia often 
escapes moral condemnation in large part because of its close relationship with 
the U.S.

In 2014, for example, President Barack Obama visited the kingdom but made no 
mention of its ongoing human rights violations. In return, he and the 1st 
family received $1.4 million in gifts from the Saudi king. (By law U.S. 
presidents must either pay for such gifts or turn them over to the National 
Archives.) The 2 leaders discussed energy security and military intelligence, 
shared interests that have connected the U.S. and Saudi Arabia for nearly a 
century.

Obama traveled to the kingdom earlier this year to offer his condolences on the 
passing of King Abdullah and to meet with the new ruler, King Salman. Again, 
human rights were never mentioned. Instead, U.S. National Security Adviser 
Susan Rice tweeted that Abdullah was a "close and valued friend of the United 
States."

This deafening silence is not lost on Saudi Arabia and has emboldened its 
impunity. In the wake of the Arab uprisings, the kingdom's brutal campaign 
against its Shia minority and political opposition has deepened. Shias have 
limited access to government employment and public education, few rights under 
the criminal justice system and diminished religious rights. Those who protest 
this discrimination face arbitrary trial and the prospect of execution for 
terrorism. Consider that Saudi Arabia has not carried out a mass execution for 
terrorism-related offenses since 1980, a year after an armed group occupied the 
Grand Mosque of Mecca.

Dissent of any kind is quelled. In November, Ashraf Fayadh, a Palestinian poet 
and artist born in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced to death for allegedly 
renouncing Islam. His supporters allege that he's being punished for posting a 
video of police lashing a man in public.

Even the kingdom's neighbors aren't immune from its authoritarian agenda. 
Numerous reports suggest that the Saudi-led coalition against opposition groups 
in Yemen has indiscriminately attacked civilians and used cluster bombs in 
civilian-populated areas, in violation of international law.

Despite its appalling human rights record, Saudi Arabia was awarded a seat on 
the U.N. Human Rights Council last year and this summer was selected to oversee 
an influential committee within the council that appoints officials to report 
on country-specific and thematic human rights challenges. Unsurprisingly, Saudi 
Arabia has used its newfound power to thwart an international inquiry into 
allegations that it committed war crimes in Yemen.

It's not by happenstance that the kingdom announced the mass execution just 
days after 130 people were killed in Paris in the worst terrorist attacks in 
Europe in more than a decade. Even before Paris, the U.S. used its "war on 
terrorism" to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq, engage in mass 
surveillance and develop an assassination program immune from judicial 
oversight. Is it any surprise that Saudi Arabia feels emboldened to intensify 
its own "war on terrorism"?

(source: Arjun Sethi is a writer and lawyer in Washington, D.C. He is also an 
adjunct professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center----America 
Aljazeera)

*******

52 inmates face death penalty in 1 day


Saudi Arabia is planning a mass execution of 52 prisoners in 1 day, human 
rights group Reprieve revealed yesterday.

The legal action charity cited several Saudi media reports this week saying 
that the 52 prisoners will be beheaded in 9 of the kingdom's cities in a single 
day.

The reports suggested that preparations will be made in the next 2 weeks, and 
that 6 youths would be among those executed.

They include 3 juveniles - Ali al-Nimr, Dawoud al-Marhoon and Abdullah 
al-Zaher. Reprieve alleges that they were all convicted on the basis of bogus 
confessions obtained under torture.

The charity added that Sheikh Nimr, Ali's uncle and a critic of the Saudi 
government, was also set to be executed.

Sheikh Nimr and the 3 juveniles are said to be in solitary confinement and have 
undergone unexplained medical treatment, which are signs of their impending 
execution, according to Reprieve.

(source: Morning Star)






CHINA:

4 sentenced to death in China for killing mine workers


4 people were sentenced to death today in China for killing 3 mine workers and 
faking accidents at coal mines to claim compensation.

Wu Youxin, Chen Xiaoxin, Liu Quanyou and Liu Xianggang were suspected of 
killing 3 people between 2009 and 2011 in private coal mines with sticks or 
hammers, the Intermediate People's Court of Yangquan City said.

According to the court, they then asked Wu's wife and sister or hired others to 
pose as relatives of the victims and demand compensation, cheating mine owners 
of more than 890,000 yuan, state run Xinhua news agency reported today.

Wu, who masterminded the scheme, was fined 80,000 yuan and sentenced to death.

Chen, Liu Quanyou and Liu Xianggang, who committed the murders along with Wu, 
also received death penalty.

Wu was blackmailing a disabled man who accidentally drowned in an underground 
pit.

Xiong Zijin, who also stood trial, claimed to be the man's brother and 
blackmailed the mine owner for 165,000 yuan.

Xiong split the money with the other 4 suspects soon after. Xiong was fined 
120,000 yuan and sentenced to prison for 7 years for fraud and blackmail.

All the defendants have appealed. The crimes, which resemble the plot of the 
award-winning movie "Blind Shaft," is not the 1st such case in China.

In July, a court in north China upheld the death sentence for 5 people who 
killed 4 miners and faked accidents at coal mines to claim compensation

(source: Press Trust of India)






SUDAN:

27 Muslims on trial for apostasy in Sudan


Some 27 Sudanese Muslims are standing trial in a Khartoum court accused of 
apostasy, risking the death penalty if they are convicted, their lawyer told 
AFP on Thursday.

The men are accused of taking the Koran as the sole source of religious 
legitimacy and rejecting other Islamic texts.

"The court in Kalakla in south Khartoum has started the trial of 27 defendants 
brought before it under Article 126 of Sudanese criminal law, apostasy from 
Islam," defence lawyer Ahmed Ali Ahmed told AFP by telephone.

If convicted of apostasy, the defendants could face the death penalty under the 
Sharia Islamic law that has been in place in Sudan since 1983.

They are also charged with disturbing the public order, Ahmed said.

Ahmed said investigators told the court that police arrested 5 of the 
defendants on November 2 inside a market in the southern Khartoum neighbourhood 
of Mayo "when they were talking to people about their conviction in the belief 
in the Koran and how they don't recognise" other religious texts.

He said that the remainder were arrested the next day for the same reasons.

The defendants are accused of belonging to adheres strictly to the Koran and 
rejects the authority of the sunnah, traditions attributed to the Muslim 
Prophet Mohammed.

Both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims rely on the sunnah as a source of Islamic law.

The trial of the 27 started last Sunday and went through four sessions during 
which the judge heard the investigators' case against the men before it 
adjourned on Wednesday.

It resumes on December 8.

(source: news24.com)






EGYPT:

Journalists' appeal accepted in Rabaa operations room trial----Abdullah 
Al-Fakharany, Samy Mostafa and others were sentenced to life imprisonment


The Egyptian Cassation Court accepted Thursday appeals on verdicts issued 
against 38 defendants, sentencing them to death penalty and life in prison.

The case included 14 journalists and media workers; 13 of whom received life 
sentences, while 1 received the death penalty.

These include Rassd board members Abdullah Al-Fakharany and Samy Mostafa. 
Al-Fakharany was arrested on 25 August 2013, 11 days following the dispersals, 
and has since then been held in Istikbal Tora Prison.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 11 April 2014, when the Cairo Criminal 
Court, headed by Judge Nagy Shehata, issued a verdict on the defendants of the 
"Rabaa Operations Room" case.

Along with the 2 Rassd journalists, Mohamed Al-Adly, a presenter on the 
Islamist Amgad channel, Mosaad Al-Barbary, head of Ahrar 25 channel and 
Egyptian-American activist Mohamed Soltan were convicted.

The court sentenced 12 defendants to death and 26 to life in prison on charges 
of spreading false news and forming an operations room to direct the terrorist 
Muslim Brotherhood to defy the government during the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in 
dispersal, and to spread chaos in the country.

(source: Daily News Egypt)


ST. KITTS-NEVIS:

Regional leaders urged to engage EU on funding for the abolition of death 
penalty


With the European Union (EU) pushing regional leaders to abolish the death 
penalty, the body is urging governments to engage more discussions on how the 
European Development Fund can better be able to assist in that regard.

Advocates for the abolition of Capital Punishment told a European Union and 
British High Commission sponsored Conference on the removal of the 'Death 
Penalty' on Monday (Nov 23) in Guyana, that "it is possible that an issue such 
as that could be addressed under European Development Fund".

That came in a light of questions raised about the cost to governments if the 
death penalty was abolished, leading to more persons in developing nations 
serving lifetime prison sentences.

One of the EU representatives informed that "The European Union provides 
significant funding to countries in the Caribbean through the European 
Development Fund and it has three programmatic lines, climate change, regional 
integration, and crime and security. So we are working with governments in the 
region to define exactly how these funds will be disbursed and it's an ongoing 
conversation."

St. Kitts and Nevis is one of a number of countries that still uses the death 
penalty as part of its legislative framework to punish convicted murderers.

Currently, hanging is the only form of Capital Punishment meted out to persons 
sentenced to death in St. Kitts-Nevis.

After a decade long absence, the federation carried out its 1st execution in 
2008, when convicted murderer Charles Elroy Laplace was hanged.

His conviction came after he reportedly stabbed and chopped his wife Diana, 
before slitting her throat when she tried to escape his brutal attack.

Questioned on the removal of the death penalty following the current spate of 
homicides in St. Kitts and Nevis, Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris recently 
informed that his government is not currently considering removing that penalty 
from the law books.

He noted that capital punishment will act as a deterrent to serious crimes in 
the federation.

"It will help to send a strong message that homicides, and all of these serious 
crimes are not to be tolerated...The government at this time will not remove 
any legislation or any mechanism that could help," Dr. Harris said.

However in 2011, then Permanent Representative to the United Nations, His 
Excellency Delano Bart, Q.C., had acknowledged at the Tenth Session of the 
Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, that the death penalty was not 
necessarily a deterrent to crime.

"However, having considered the matter, the Government has decided to retain it 
as one of the sentences available to the Court that it can use within its 
discretion. We accept, from the outset that there may be some evidence that it 
is not necessarily a deterrent, but within the context of our present society 
and the increasing crime rate, the Government would have great difficulty in 
justifying to its citizenry its decision to deprive the Court of this optional 
punishment."

United Kingdom's Parliamentary representative, Lord Navnit Dholakai disclosed 
that it is through forums such as the conference in Guyana that they can be 
better able to let governments and countries better understand what assistance 
the European Union and the British government provide.

The conference agenda included all the information about the EU's support 
network to regional governments in this matter, including the issue of 
reparatory justice; the issue of rehabilitation of people; and the issue of how 
perpetrators as well as victims of crime are dealt with.

St. Kitts-Nevis is a long standing partner with the European Union, from which 
it continues to receive significant grant aids.

(source: thestkittsnevisobserver.com)



BANGLADESH:

Islamist leader asks Bangladesh court to commute death sentence


The lawyer representing the head of Bangladesh's Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party 
appealed on Wednesday to the Supreme Court to commute his death penalty for war 
crimes to life in prison.

The country's war crimes tribunal, set up in 2010 to investigate abuses during 
the independence war in 1971, handed down the sentence in October last year. 
"Considering his age and physical condition, we appealed to reduce the gravity 
of the punishment," Motiur Rahman Nizami's defence lawyer Khandaker Mahbub 
Hossain told Reuters.

"According to official documents he is 73 years old, but his real age is more 
than that and he has been suffering for 4 months from different (health) 
complications, because of which the trial has been suspended for that period," 
he said.

The prosecution will resume arguments in the case on Dec. 7.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told a news briefing that, for the 1st time, a 
Jamaat member had confessed to committing war crimes during the 1971 conflict, 
but Hossain denied Nizami had made any such admission.

Bangladesh executed 2 opposition leaders last month for war crimes.

Islamist leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, from 
the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), were hanged shortly after President 
Abdul Hamid rejected their appeals for clemency.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh, until 1971 East Pakistan, has seen a rise in 
Islamist militant violence in recent months, with two foreigners and four 
secular writers and a publisher killed this year.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina opened an inquiry into crimes committed during the 
war 5 years ago, paving the way for prosecutions by a tribunal that Islamists 
have denounced as part of a political campaign to weaken Jamaat-e-Islami's 
leadership.

The government denies accusations of interference in the judiciary.

East Pakistan broke away to become independent Bangladesh after a war between 
India and Pakistan. About 3 million people were killed, according to official 
accounts, but an independent body said the figure may be considerably lower.

(source: Reuters)






MALAYSIA:

Loosening the hangman's noose


According to the "Mandatory Death Penalty" portal which I visited recently, 
there are presently at least 29 countries that maintain a "mandatory" death 
penalty for specified offences. Those countries include (in alphabetical order) 
Afghanistan, Brunei, Congo, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Malawi, Malaysia, 
Myanmar, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, 
Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Zambia.

A mandatory sentencing scheme is one where the imposition of a death sentence 
is automatic upon conviction of a crime, in other words, where the trial judge 
has no discretion to impose a lighter sentence, such as a life imprisonment.

Research by legal scholars reveals that mandatory death penalty is on the 
decline due to judicial challenges to its application. Since 2000, at least 18 
nations have abolished the mandatory death penalty. In several jurisdictions, 
mandatory death penalty has been declared as arbitrary, inhumane, contrary to 
the universal principles of the right to life and the right to due process.

In Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 US 280 (1976), the United States Supreme 
Court held that the mandatory death penalty is arbitrary, inhumane and in 
violation of the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution. The court stated that 
the Eighth Amendment requires the trial judge to consider the character and 
record of the individual offender and the circumstances of the particular 
offence before imposing sentence.

In Mithu v. State of Punjab, 1983 SCR (2) 690, the Supreme Court of India held 
that the mandatory death sentence is unconstitutional. The court said that the 
legislature "cannot make relevant circumstances irrelevant, deprive the courts 
of their legitimate jurisdiction to exercise their discretion not to impose the 
death sentence in appropriate cases". The court also said that the gravity of 
an offence is a material consideration for the trial court, and if the death 
sentence is made mandatory and applied "without regard to the circumstances of 
the offence and offender", then the death penalty imposed is irrational.

In Kafantayeni v. Malawi, Constitutional Case No. 12 of 2005, the High Court of 
Malawi held that mandatory death penalty is unconstitutional because (1) as a 
disproportionate penalty, it results in inhumane treatment, and (2) as an 
unreviewable sentence, it violates the rights to a fair trial and access to 
justice.

In Attorney General v. Kigula, Criminal Appeal No. 3 of 2006, the Supreme Court 
of Uganda found that prohibiting judicial discretion when life is on the line 
violates the principle of equal protection, as it denies the convicted person 
from presenting mitigating factors in their defence. The court also held that 
the mandatory death penalty violates the principle of the separation of powers, 
because it allows parliament "to tie the hands of the judiciary in executing 
its function to administer justice".

Apart from national courts, international tribunals have also condemned the 
mandatory death penalty.

In Boyce v. Barbados (2007), the Inter-American Court on Human Rights held that 
laws providing mandatory death penalty are arbitrary. The tribunal held that 
such laws are arbitrary because they fail to distinguish "the different degrees 
of culpability of the offender" as well as to consider "the particular 
circumstances of the crime".

In Malaysia, the punishment for drug trafficking is a mandatory death penalty. 
Despite the severity of punishment (where trial judges do not have the 
discretion even to impose a life sentence), the number of drug trafficking 
cases continued to increase.

>From 1990 to 2011, the number of persons arrested in relation to drug 
trafficking had increased from 744 to 3,845. These statistics show that the 
mandatory death penalty has not achieved the legislative intent in deterring 
drug trafficking.

In December 2013, The Malaysian Bar and Suhakam called upon the government to 
abolish the mandatory death penalty and give back to the trial judges the 
discretion to impose the appropriate punishment.

As at June 2013, 964 Malaysians had been sentenced to death for crimes of 
murder, terrorism-related offences, drug trafficking, robbery with firearms and 
firearms possession, kidnapping and treason.

In July 2012, the then attorney-general, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, said 
Malaysia might follow Singapore's move to abolish the mandatory death penalty 
for drug mules. He added that research was being undertaken whether trial 
judges should be given back their former discretion of imposing an appropriate 
sentence in each particular case as well as to "re-sentence those on death row 
to life sentences".

In June this year, Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan (Minister in the Prime Minister's 
Department) was quoted as saying that it is time for the mandatory death law to 
be revisited. He said that the number of drug trafficking offences was rising, 
clearly indicating that the mandatory death penalty was not a deterrent.

"When policies are not working, I believe that they should be changed," he 
said, whilst speaking at the Asian Regional Congress on the Death Penalty.

Recently, Nancy Shukri (Minister in Prime Minister's Department) told reporters 
that the government planned to table an amendment in the law to abolish the 
mandatory death penalty for serious crimes like drug trafficking. Saying that 
the amendment may be tabled in Parliament next year, Nancy said she had raised 
the matter with the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, and the 
latter had indicated his support.

A move to abolish the mandatory death penalty is not to be treated as an 
intention to abolish the death penalty in toto, as we had seen happening in 
many jurisdictions referred to above. What is intended here is to leave the 
final decision to impose the death penalty (upon conviction of specified 
offences) to the trial judge after considering the circumstances of each case, 
especially the culpability of the convicted offender and extenuating 
circumstances (if any). Such an amendment is indeed timely.

(source: Salleh Buang; The writer formerly served the Attorney-General's 
Chambers before he left for practice, the corporate sector and, then, 
academia---New Straits Times)

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

AG's Chambers studying effectiveness of death penalty


The Attorney-General's Chambers is still in the process of studying the legal 
issues, policies and effectiveness of the implementation of the death penalty 
in the country, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nancy Shukri.

She said the scope of the study was not limited to status of the mandatory 
death penalty, but encompassed the entire provision of the death penalty 
enforced in the country, as well as its implementation.

"The policy decision in relation to the death penalty in the country will be 
taken based on findings of the study," Nancy (photo) said in a written reply to 
a question from Su Keong Siong (DAP-Ipoh Timor), which was circulated in the 
Dewan Rakyat today.

Su wanted to know whether the government intended to review the mandatory death 
sentence for criminal cases in Malaysia.

Recently, Nancy was reported saying that the proposal to amend the Penal Code 
to abolish the mandatory death sentence involving serious crimes could not be 
solved immediately, as there were other laws that needed to be studied.

She hoped the proposed amendments could be tabled in Parliament in March next 
year.

(source: malaysiakini.com)

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

Driver Faces Death Penalty For Trafficking 305.1gm Of Cannabis


A 38-year-old driver employed with a government agency was charged in the High 
Court yesterday and faces the death penalty for allegedly smuggling drugs in 
April, Kosmo Online reports.

The accused, Abdul Sukur Mohd.Saiful Bahri, only nodded to indicate he 
understood the charge read out to him before Judge Ahmad Bache.

However, no plea was recorded from the accused.

It was reported that Mohd Saiful was charged with 1 count of trafficking 
dangerous drugs, weighing 305.1 grams of cannabis into a house located at Lot 
2366, Taman MGU Ketereh at 12.30 am on 16 April 2015.

The accused were charged under Section 39B (2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 
on possessing and distributing drugs, which carries the mandatory death 
sentence upon conviction.

Deputy public prosecutor Nooriah Osman appeared for the prosecution while the 
accused was represented by lawyer, Datuk Shukri Mohamed. The defence has filed 
a motion asking for the case to be moved to a new date to allow time for the 
accused to file an appeal.

The high court judge set December 16 as the new mention date.

(source: malaysiadigest.com)