[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 14



MALDIVES:

Maldives prosecutors file final appeal in death sentence over lawyer's murder


Prosecutors on Tuesday filed the final appeal of the death sentence handed to 
Ahmed Murrath over the murder of prominent lawyer Ahmed Najeeb.

Regulations on death penalty that came into effect last year require the 
prosecution to exhaust the appeal process -- the High Court and Supreme Court 
-- even if the convict wishes to not file for appeal.

Murrath's lover, Fathimath Hana had also been convicted and sentenced to death 
over the murder in 2012.

But the appeal of her sentence is yet to be concluded.

The charges filed by the state detailed that Najeeb had been invited to 
Masroora by the suspects. Upon his arrival, the victim had been led to a chair 
at knife point, bound and gagged with duct tape, charges stated. State had also 
said that Najeeb had been stabbed in the neck after he had tried to scream.

Both suspects in their confessions had admitted that Najeeb had been invited to 
their home and had been murdered in rage after the lawyer had tried to 
establish a "relationship" with Hana. While Murrath had confessed to the murder 
charges, Hana had only admitted to being accessory to the murder. She had 
insisted that her only involvement in the crime was to tie the victim to a 
chair with duct tape.

However, Murrath in his confession had said that Hana had no involvement in the 
crime or tying Najeeb to the chair.

The male suspect had also revealed that before the murder, Najeeb had been 
forced to give up his cash card and pin number and had used the card to 
withdraw MVR4,000 on 2 separate occasions. The money was used to buy drugs, 
cigarettes and a large garbage can, in which Najeeb's body was later 
discovered, according to Murrath's confession.

Najeeb's body was discovered on the night of July 1, in a room in the 1st floor 
of Masroora. His body had been dumped in a large garbage can inside the room, 
which the police claimed in court was occupied by the unmarried Hana and 
Murrath.

No more clemency powers

High Court had recently stripped the president of his power to grant clemency 
to convicts on death row.

Maldives has recently adopted a series of new rules and regulations and is 
currently drafting a law on death penalty.

The Supreme Court issued new guidelines allowing death sentences and public 
lashing rulings issued by lower courts to be appealed automatically at the High 
Court.

In a circular, the Supreme Court said if the defendant fails to appeal death 
sentences and public lashing verdicts within 10 days, the court that had 
initially issued the verdict should forward the relevant documents to the High 
Court. The appellate court would have seven days to notify both the defendant 
and the prosecution of the appeal and during that period should take the 
necessary steps to begin appeal proceedings, it added.

The new rules follow similar guidelines issued by the apex court early this 
month.

The Supreme Court issued new guidelines on November 8 giving a month-long 
window for the last chance to appeal death sentences and public lashings backed 
by High Court.

According to the guidelines, if a defendant fails to appeal a High Court 
verdict in favour of death sentences and public lashing rulings within a 30-day 
period, the appeal can then only be filed at the Supreme Court by the 
prosecution.

The guidelines, included in a circular signed by Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed, 
did not specifically mention sentences of death and public lashing. However, it 
says that High Court rulings that need to be reconfirmed by the Supreme Court 
had to be appealed within 30 days, including public holidays.

Under local laws, the only sentences that need to be reconfirmed by the Supreme 
Court are death sentences and public lashing verdicts.

Judicature Act earlier granted a 90-day period, excluding public holidays, to 
appeal rulings by any court.

However, the Supreme Court had in January annulled that clause and issued new 
guidelines under which rulings issued by lower courts had to be appealed at the 
High Court within 10 days and appeal over High Court verdicts needed to be 
filed at the Supreme Court within 60 days.

Meanwhile, the government has included funds in the proposed state budget for 
next year to establish an execution chamber at the country's main prison to 
carry out the death penalty.

The state budget for next year, which was approved by the parliament on Monday, 
includes MVR4 million to build an execution chamber. However, the correctional 
service was not immediately available for comment. Maldives adopted a new 
regulation last year under which lethal injection would be used to implement 
the death penalty.

However, over mounting pressure from human rights bodies, companies have been 
refusing to supply the fatal dose to countries still carrying out capital 
punishment.

Home minister Umar Naseer had earlier said the correctional service would be 
ready to implement the death penalty by the time a death sentence is upheld by 
the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the government announced on November 16 that it was in the process 
of drafting legislation on implementing death penalty.

Attorney General Mohamed Anil told reporters that the bill being drafted by his 
office would expand on the already existing regulations on death penalty. The 
bill would include procedures on conducting murder investigations, filing 
charges in such cases and conducting proceedings in murder cases, he added.

There are around 10 people on death row at present, but none of whom has 
exhausted the appeal process thus far.

(source: haveeru.com)






SAUDI ARABIA----execution

Saudi put to death in kingdom's 151st execution of year


A Saudi convicted of murder was executed on Tuesday, in the 151st death 
sentence carried out this year in the conservative Muslim kingdom.

Sultan al-Dosari was executed in the eastern province of Ihsa after his 
conviction for stabbing to death another man, the interior ministry said.

According to AFP tallies, his case brings to 151 the number of locals and 
foreigners put to death this year, against 87 for all of 2014.

Amnesty International says the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year 
is the highest for 2 decades, since 192 people were put to death in 1995.

The toll has rarely exceeded 90 annually in recent years, it said.

Reasons for the surge are unclear.

Over the past few weeks, however, there has been a marked drop in executions, 
all of which are reported by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi executions are usually carried out by beheading with a sword.

Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the 
kingdom, where the interior ministry says the death penalty is a deterrent to 
crime.

Amnesty says Saudi Arabia had the world's 3rd-highest number of executions last 
year, after China and Iran.

Under the kingdom's strict Islamic legal code, murder, drug trafficking, armed 
robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






JAPAN:

Man serving life for murder gets death sentence for another slaying


A man sentenced to life over a high-profile yami saito (darkness website) 
murder case in 2007 has now been sentenced to death for a different slaying 
committed 9 years earlier.

Judge Taro Kageyama of the Nagoya District Court sentenced Yoshitomo Hori, 40, 
to death on Tuesday in a lay judge trial for the murder of Ichio Magoori, 45, 
and his wife, Satomi, 36, in Aichi Prefecture in 1998.

In the 2007 murder case, Hori was initially sentenced to death in 2009 for 
kidnapping, robbing and killing Rie Isogai, 31, in Nagoya with 2 men Hori met 
through a so-called yami saito for seeking "crime mates."

The sentence was reduced to life in prison in 2011 by a higher court, which 
acknowledged the possibility of his rehabilitation. The sentence was finalized 
by the Supreme Court in 2012.

"It is rare that a death penalty is handed down to a defendant after his life 
imprisonment was finalized for a different case," said Hiroki Nakajima, a 
criminal law professor at Heisei International University.

According to the indictment, Hori conspired with 2 different men and killed the 
Magoori couple in an apartment in Hekinan and stole Y60,000 from them in June 
1998.

Hori is also suspected of assaulting a woman in her 70s in an apartment in 
Nagoya and robbing her in 2006.M

One of Hori's accomplices in the Isogai murder, Kenji Kawagishi, was sentenced 
to life in prison, while the other, Tsukasa Kanda, was sentenced to death. He 
was hanged this past June.

(source: Japan Times)






PAKISTAN----executions

A year on from Peshawar, Pakistan sends more convicts to the gallows


Pakistan has hanged 8 convicted murderers in jails across the country. 
Executions come a day ahead of the 1-year anniversary of the Peshawar school 
attack, which prompted Islamabad to reinstate the death penalty.

A moratorium on executions was lifted last year by Pakistan after Taliban 
gunmen killed more than 150 people, most of them children, at an army-run 
school in the northwest on December 16, 2014.

The latest round of executions took place Tuesday in various locations in 
Punjab province, with 8 convicted murderers sent to the prison gallows.

"2 convicts on death row were hanged in Multan, 2 each in Bahawalpur and Gujrat 
and 1 each in Attock and Dera Ghazi Khan," Chaudhry Arshad Saeed, a senior 
prison official in Punjab, told the AFP news agency.

Pakistan has not released figures on the number of executions carried out since 
the 6-year moratorium was lifted. But rights activists put the number at 310 
since March.

Taliban atrocity spurs return of hanging

The killing of nearly 150 people, mostly pupils, outraged the nation, allowing 
government to bring back the gallows.

Germany, the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have 
called on Pakistan to cease executing prisoners.

Islamabad argues the state killings are necessary to deter militancy in the 
country. But rights groups say 90 % of those executed were convicted of common 
crimes and not tied to militant groups.

For decades more than 7,000 death row prisoners have been awaiting the gallows, 
according to statistics compiled by the Law Ministry.

(source: Deutsche Welle)

***********

Governor's killer loses bid to review death sentence


The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday rejected a review petition against the death 
sentence of former elite force guard Mumtaz Qadri for killing Punjab governor 
Salman Taseer.

A 3-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa took 
up Qadri's review petition against the court's October 6 order for maintaining 
his death penalty.

Mumtaz Qadri was feted as a hero by radicals after he shot Salman Taseer 28 
times in broad daylight in 2011.

He later admitted the killing, saying he objected to the politician's calls to 
reform Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws. Rights groups say these are 
frequently used to pursue vendettas, sometime against religious minorities.

Taseer had also been vocal in his support of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who 
has been on death row since 2010 after being found guilty of blasphemy.

"The review petition has been dismissed" by a three-judge panel headed by 
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Qadri's lawyer Khwaja Mohammed Sharif said.

Khwaja said his client's last option was to file a mercy petition to the 
President of Pakistan.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court also declared the Islamabad High Court (IHC) 
decision of annulling the death sentence under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 
null and void.

The sentence was first awarded by an anti-terrorism court and was then upheld 
by the IHC before being challenged in the apex court.

Last month, Qadri threatened to commit suicide if he is not allowed to meet his 
family in a separate room.

Earlier, when his brother and father went to meet him at Rawalpindi's Adiala 
Jail, they were only allowed to see him through an iron fence owing to security 
concerns. However, Qadri protested against the move and threatened to commit 
suicide if he was not allowed to meet his family in a separate room.

Qadri was sentenced to death for the murder of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in 
Islamabad's Kohsar Market on January 4, 2011.

During the hearing, which continued for almost 45 minutes, former Lahore High 
Court (LHC) judge Mian Nazir Akhtar failed to point out any error in the 
court's judgement, resulting in dismissal of the review petition over 
non-maintainability.

Further, Justice Khosa remarked that it was not proved that Salman Taseer had 
committed blasphemy.

(source: Khaleej Times)



VATICAN CITY:

Francis calls on global leaders to abolish death penalty, provide healthcare, 
forgive debt


In the name of his ongoing Jubilee year of mercy, Pope Francis has strongly 
called upon global leaders to make what he has termed "courageous gestures of 
concern" for those left most in need by society -- especially prisoners, 
migrants, and the unemployed.

Among the pontiff's requests, made Tuesday with the publication of his annual 
message for the upcoming World Day of Peace: Abolition of the death penalty, 
conditions for legal residency for migrants, jobs for the unemployed, access to 
medical care for all, and forgiveness of international debt burdens.

Francis makes the requests at the end of his 2016 message, titled "Overcome 
Indifference and Win Peace," in a concluding section on "Peace in the sign of 
the Jubilee of Mercy."

The pope first speaks of prisoners, saying that "in many cases practical 
measures are urgently needed to improve their living conditions, with 
particular concern for those detained while awaiting trial."

"It must be kept in mind that penal sanctions have the aim of rehabilitation, 
while national laws should consider the possibility of other establishing 
penalties than incarceration," he continues.

"In this context, I would like once more to appeal to governmental authorities 
to abolish the death penalty where it is still in force, and to consider the 
possibility of an amnesty," he states.

The pope then speaks of migrants, asking that "legislation on migration be 
reviewed, so, while respecting reciprocal rights and responsibilities, it can 
reflect a readiness to welcome migrants and to facilitate their integration."

"Special concern should be paid to the conditions for legal residency, since 
having to live clandestinely can lead to criminal behavior," he states.

The World Day of Peace is celebrated by the church each Jan. 1, which is also 
the Catholic feast day of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Pope Paul VI 
first dedicated that feast to world peace in 1967, and each feast since 1968 
has seen release of a papal message.

Francis' message is particularly forceful in his requests upon world leaders, 
which he makes in the context of a special Jubilee year he opened for the 
Catholic church on Dec. 8 that is focused on highlighting the boundless nature 
of God's mercy.

A Jubilee year is a special year called by the church to receive blessing and 
pardon from God and remission of sins. The mercy Jubilee will last until Nov. 
20, 2016.

The pontiff focuses his 2016 World Day of Peace message on overcoming what he 
has commonly called a "globalization of indifference." He opens the message 
with a stirring reinforcement of God's care for humanity, stating: "God is not 
indifferent! God cares about mankind! God does not abandon us!"

Francis also reflects at length on the meaning and importance of mercy, stating 
simply: "Mercy is the heart of God."

"It must also be the heart of the members of the one great family of his 
children: a heart which beats all the more strongly wherever human dignity -- 
as a reflection of the face of God in his creatures -- is in play," he 
continues.

"Jesus tells us that love for others -- foreigners, the sick, prisoners, the 
homeless, even our enemies-- is the yardstick by which God will judge our 
actions," he states. "Our eternal destiny depends on this."

Throughout the 21-page message, the pope outlines different kinds of 
indifference in the world, starting with "indifference to God, which then leads 
to indifference to one's neighbor and to the environment."

He says one particular form of indifference of our times is the ability of 
people to be incredibly informed through TV, newspapers, or social media about 
the problems of the world but to not get involved or engaged in the problems of 
the people around them.

"Theirs is the attitude of those who know, but keep their gaze, their thoughts 
and their actions focused on themselves," he states, adding that our culture of 
over-information "can numb people???s sensibilities and to some degree downplay 
the gravity of the problems."

The World Day of Peace message is signed by Francis and dated on Dec. 8, the 
opening of the Jubilee year and the Catholic feast of the Immaculate 
Conception.

(source: National Catholic Reporter)