[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 27



UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:

Rape of school girl Death sentence for Abu Dhabi Keralite



An Appeal Court in Abu Dhabi has sentenced to death a 56-year-old man from 
Kerala for sexually assaulting a 7-year-old school girl.

The appeal court, after hearing the review petition filed by Gangadhran and 
school authorities, decided to uphold the sentence of the criminal court which 
had earlier found the man guilty and had pronounced death penalty on him.

The civil court will soon hear the appeal for the 50 lakh Dirhams as 
compensation package which will be given to the parents and the child for the 
physical, social and mental torture they had to undergo following the incident.

The incident took place in a private school where Gangadharan, who hails from 
Ezhur Kalarikkal in Malappuram district, was working as an assistant for the 
last 32 years. The prosecution case is that Gangadharan lured the child to the 
school kitchen at 11.30am. on Sunday, April 14, 2013 and raped her.

The Criminal court completed the hearing last year and had found Gangadharan 
guilty. However, the school authorities and Gangdharan had filed a writ 
petition in the Appeal Court to re-examine the verdict.

The child, who was sexually assaulted, was moody after she came back from 
school that day. The incident came light when a family member noticed stains of 
blood and semen on the child's inner wear when she undressed the child for 
bathing her.

The Appeal Court observed that Gangadharan had committed a heinous crime by 
sexually assaulting a minor girl and he deserved capital punishment, which was 
sought by the prosecution.

Abhu Dhabi Judicial department said that it was the 1st death sentence for rape 
in its history.

(source: manoramaonline.com)








MALAYSIA:

Malaysia court postpones trial of Australian woman accused of drug trafficking



The trial of an Australian woman charged with drug trafficking in Malaysia has 
been pushed back by a month due to delays completing a chemist report on the 
alleged contraband.

Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, a 52-year-old mother of 4, was arrested on December 
7 at Kuala Lumpur airport with 1.5 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, also 
known as ice.

A chemist report on the substance was to be submitted to the court on Friday, 
but was not yet ready, defence lawyer Tania Scivetti said.

A new date has been set for March 26.

Malaysia has a mandatory death penalty by hanging for anyone found guilty of 
carrying more than 50 grams of a drug.

If illegal drugs are confirmed, the case is expected to be elevated to a higher 
court that can handle death penalty cases.

Ms Scivetti said the case could stretch to at least the end of the year.

"She is in good spirits. She wants to get out of prison quickly," she said.

Defence lawyers say Exposto was duped into carrying a bag - which she believed 
contained only clothing - by a stranger who asked her to take it to Melbourne.

She had travelled to Shanghai after falling for an online romance scam by a 
person claiming to be a US serviceman, according to lawyers.

Customs officers discovered the drugs stitched into the compartment of a 
backpack.

The defence is yet to enter a plea until the case reaches a higher court.

2 Australians were hanged in 1986 for heroin trafficking - the 1st Westerners 
to be executed in Malaysia.

Few people have been executed in Malaysia in recent years.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

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

Govt mulls commuting Sirul's death sentence



Malaysia is mulling the option of commuting former police commando Sirul Azhar 
Umar's death sentence to life imprisonment to facilitate his extradition.

The move by way of the extradition treaty between Malaysia and Australia, would 
also allow for a prisoner exchange to take place.

It has been reported that the extradition treaty between the 2 countries is not 
valid in Sirul's case as Australia does not recognise the death penalty.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said this strategy might facilitate 
the return of Sirul.

"Yes, (it is) a possibility," he told the media after receiving a courtesy call 
from Australian Immigration and Border Security Minister Peter Dutton here 
today.

Dutton who only assumed the portfolio last December, was taken by surprise by 
the barrage of questions posed to him on Sirul's status.

"Is it because of my portfolio? I'm only here to visit my good friend," Dutton 
said.

Declining to take questions on the Sirul issue, Dutton explained that this was 
due to Australia's stringent privacy laws.

Pressed further, he said the legal process in Australia may take some time.

He also evaded answering questions on whether he knew of the planned 
teleconference between Sirul and PAS Information chief Datuk Mahfuz Omar.

However, he said, subject to the country's rule of law, without specifying the 
government's person of interest, an individual may call if he or she had a 
visa.

He declined to state if Sirul possessed the pertinent document or if he had met 
him.

A local news portal reported on Jan 21 that following Sirul's arrest, he would 
have to undergo a court process before a decision is made on his possible 
extradition to Malaysia.

Queen's Counsel Mark Trowell said Australian law dictates that Malaysia must 
make a formal application for an arrest warrant. The warrant, he added, would 
be issued only if the magistrate in Australia is satisfied that the person can 
be extradited.

"If the person is determined to be eligible for surrender then it falls to the 
AG to decide whether the person should actually be surrendered. That's when the 
issue of the death penalty becomes relevant," he reportedly said.

(source The Sun Daily)








ENGLAND:

When forgery meant the rope



Who would not want to be in a Magic Circle? It is the rather self-satisfied 
label for the 5 biggest London solicitors' firms, and while they tend to 
disavow the term publicly they have never sued anyone for using it.

Although not all of the annual list of promising younger lawyers we publish in 
this issue of Financial News work at Magic Circle firms, inevitably some do - 
but where did the term originate?

In 1985 it was used to refer to influential London barristers, not solicitors, 
and as recently as 1989 it was taken to include Ashurst, Travers Smith and 
Macfarlanes, perfectly reputable solicitors but not in the Magic Circle as it 
is understood today.

The magazine Legal Business has a good claim to early use of the term in 
today's sense, applying it to a London top 6 in 1991, and by 1998 Legal 500, a 
ranking from the same publishers, was applying it to today's top 5: Linklaters, 
Slaughter & May, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & 
Overy.

The term has a far older meaning - the society of magicians founded in a Soho 
pub in 1905 and still going strong. But magicians distort reality and make 
things vanish, and of course lawyers would never do that.

However, 200 years ago the oldest Magic Circle law firm had a connection to a 
more serious sort of conjuring - forgery of banknotes.

Freshfields can date its origins to 1743, when Samuel Dodd was appointed 
solicitor to the Bank of England - for which the firm still acts. The firm owes 
its name to a later partner, James Freshfield, who qualified in 1795.

In 1797 the Bank had a problem. With bullion running low because of the 
Napoleonic wars, it started issuing low denomination paper money, 1 and 2 pound 
notes, that could not be converted into gold. The market opportunity was 
obvious, and soon there was a thriving trade in forgeries.

The death penalty had been in force for forgery since 1697, and for possessing 
forged notes since 1725, but it did not seem any better a deterrent than the 
penalties for benchmark fixing today. As hangings continued - often of people 
who protested they had not known the note in their possession was forged - 
public and parliamentary disquiet rose as illustrated by George Cruikshank's 
cartoon. Freshfields advised the Bank to try another approach.

A Bill drafted by the firm was passed by Parliament in 1801, offering to 
commute death sentences to transportation to Australia in exchange for guilty 
pleas.

The Bank's archives of letters to the governor and directors, pleading for 
mercy, were recently put on its website.

A typical case was that of James Clarkson, who in May 1807 was "indicted 
capitally for the actual forgery of bank notes" but was sent to Australia for 
life when he pleaded guilty to possession.

The Bank could be surprisingly lenient - the files include grants of money to 
help convicts once they arrived in Australia.

Yet the policy was not a ringing success - in 1817 there were 32 capital 
convictions for forgery, exactly as many as in 1801, according to House of 
Commons records.

Freshfields still takes a close interest in financial regulation. It recently 
brought out the 3rd edition of its "Financial Services: investigation and 
enforcement", a snip at 150 pounds for 934 pages.

We have not read every word, but we are fairly sure it does not urge the 
Financial Conduct Authority to reintroduce hanging.

(source: efinancialnews.com)








INDONESIA:

Bali 9 executions: Isolation cells on Indonesia's Alcatraz ready by Saturday



The Bali 9 duo will be shot simultaneously in a field with 8 other drug felons, 
it has been revealed.

And isolation cells will be ready on Saturday on Nusakambangan, the penal 
island where the executions will take place.

This latest news will send chills through Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who 
were told the delays to their transfer from Bali's Kerobokan jail were because 
the isolation cells were not ready at Nusakambangan.

It has previously been announced the drug felons will be executed swiftly once 
they arrive on the island so as not to unsettle other prisoners. They will be 
given 72 hours' notice.

Attorney-General H.M. Prasetyo is yet to announce the proposed date of 
execution, or when Chan and Sukumaran will be transferred to Nusakambangan, 
known as Indonesia's Alcatraz.

A spokesman for the Attorney-General, Tony Spontana, said the execution would 
take place in one location.

"It will be done simultaneously with all 10 convicts," he said.

He denied media reports that the location had been decided, saying several 
alternatives were being reviewed.

Meanwhile the head of Central Java Corrections, Ahmad Yuspahruddin, said the 
isolation cells were being prepared and would by ready by Saturday.

"It's nothing permanent, it's just to separate those on death row who are to be 
executed from the rest of the prisoners," he said.

Across the seaport town of Cilacap, which is divided from Nusakambangan by a 
narrow strait, people are on standby for the executions.

The local priest believes at least three of the 10 condemned prisoners are 
Catholics, and is waiting to be asked to perform the last rites.

The doctor at the government health office wonders if his ambulance will be 
called upon, as it was when 3 murderers were executed in 2013.

The undertaker, Suhendro Putro, has stocked up on an extra 6 coffins. He was 
warned by police to have sufficient this time after he was caught short when 5 
drug felons were killed on the island on January 18.

He can usually only accommodate 9 coffins, but he now has 12, including 1 jumbo 
size and 2 for children.

Despite ghoulish speculation in the media that the jumbo-size coffin has been 
earmarked for Sukumaran, who is nicknamed "the gentle giant", the large coffin 
had been in stock for three months, Mr Suhendro said.

He has received no definitive order from police and, like many in the seaside 
port, is relying on media reports for details on the number facing execution.

Shortly after midnight on January 18, Mr Suhendro waited with the families of 
the 5 condemned felons at Batu prison, which means "stone" prison. This is the 
most notorious of the 7 prisons on Nusakambangan, and is where Sukumaran and 
Chan will also be incarcerated before their deaths.

"I heard the shots and then the families started screaming and crying," he 
said. "I felt nothing because they were not my family but still I feel sad 
looking at their families ... I thought 'How come it should end like this? If 
they were my family I wouldn't want to be there.' "

He was called to wash and dress the bodies of the Christian, Catholic and 
Buddhist prisoners using 5 water tanks at a site 20 metres from the execution.

The Muslim prisoners, whose faces must point towards Mecca, were cleansed by a 
Muslim.

Mr Suhendro assumed the police supplied the clothes in which he dressed the 
prisoners because they were brand new. He provided gloves, socks and 
cylindrical cushions to ensure the bodies did not move in the coffins.

Mr Suhendro said he did not support the death penalty for murder. However, he 
believes in capital punishment for narcotics offenders because he says drugs 
destroy the lives of many.

To the bemusement of his family, Mr Suhendro, who has been in business since 
1972, has become something of a media celebrity in recent weeks. He consulted 
authorities on how to deal with the media and was told: "Answer all the 
questions but not the secret ones."

Across town, Bambang Setyono from the government health office, is awaiting 
instructions on whether his ambulance will be deployed.

In 2013, his staff drove the ambulance to the ferry dock following the 
execution of three murderers. It was then used to transport 2 of the bodies to 
Yogyakarta for burial.

An acquaintance of Dr Setyono was called upon to check that the prisoners were 
dead after the firing squad pumped their bodies with bullets.

It was an unpleasant experience and one he does not want to re-live for the 
media.

Father Charlie Burrows, known by locals as Romo Carolus, says it is difficult 
for doctors because they take the Hippocratic oath - known in Indonesian as 
Sumpah Kedokteran.

"This says you shouldn't be involved in taking another's life," Father Burrows 
says.

He believes he will be called on to administer last rites to three of the 
prisoners, who are Catholic.

"Some of the others could be as well," Father Burrows said. "We strongly ask 
that we be present beforehand to counsel and listen to families and be present 
at the execution."

Staff at the harbour - where Chan and Sukumaran will be transferred on the 
ferry Pengayoman (which ironically loosely translates as "protection, shelter, 
care and nurture") - are on high alert for journalists.

Local media caused havoc during last month's executions by posing as fishermen 
to gain access to the island.

Daily Mail Australia journalist Candace Sutton will be interrogated by 
immigration officials in Cilacap on Thursday after she was caught working on a 
tourist visa.

As the noose tightens for the 10 facing execution, another of the prisoners on 
death row is attempting a last-ditch legal appeal.

Nigerian Raheem Agbaje Salami, who was caught smuggling 5.3 kilograms of heroin 
into Indonesia in 1998, is trying to get President Joko Widodo's rejection of 
his clemency plea nullified on the grounds it was not rejected within the time 
limit.

His lawyer, Utomo Karim, is lodging the challenge in the Administrative Court. 
This is the same court that threw out Chan and Sukumaran's appeal on Tuesday on 
the grounds it did not have the power to rule on presidential decrees. The 
duo's lawyers are appealing.

Mr Karim said his client hoped the appeal would get him a reprieve and see his 
sentence revert to 20 years' imprisonment. "And that during the court process, 
he not be executed," he said.

"The reasoning used by us and the Bali nine lawyers might differ, but in 
essence it's the same, we are trying to get a presidential decision nullified."

However, a spokesman for the Attorney-General has said the Bali nine appeal 
will have "no effect" on the execution.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)

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

Indonesia May Kill Brazil Defense Deals Amid Execution Row----Diplomatic spat 
could cause Jakarta to rethink procurement of Brazilian equipment.



Indonesia may reevaluate defense deals with Brazil as bilateral ties between 
the 2 countries deteriorate over the execution of a Brazilian for drug 
offenses, local media reported earlier this week.

According to ANTARA News, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Monday that the 
Indonesian government was rethinking the procurement of a squadron of 16 
Brazil-made Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano aircraft for Indonesia's air force as 
well as an order for Astros II multiple launch rocket launcher systems.

"We are reconsidering our plan to purchase weapons [from Brazil]," Kalla 
reportedly told the media.

The Post also reported Tuesday that the House of Representatives commission 
that oversees defense and foreign affairs had said that Indonesia could turn to 
other countries including Russia to procure weapons systems. Tantowi Yahya, a 
lawmaker, had earlier said he would hold a meeting with the defense ministry on 
the broader relationship.

"I think Brazil needs us more than we need them. We have an emergency situation 
with drugs and we don't need to be afraid of pressure from Brazil...," Tantowi 
said on Sunday.

Separately, on Tuesday Indonesia's foreign minister Retno Marsudi said 
Indonesia would "reevaluate all aspects" of Jakarta's bilateral relationship 
with Brazil.

The ties between the 2 countries have deteriorated over the past few weeks 
after Brazilian national Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira was executed in January 
by firing squad for drug trafficking - along with 5 others - in spite of 
appeals from the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.

On Monday, Indonesia recalled its newly appointed ambassador after Brazil had 
declined to accept his credentials during a ceremony on Friday. Brazil had also 
recalled its ambassador in January following Moreira's execution.

Indonesian president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Tuesday declined to say if 
Indonesia intended to freeze bilateral ties with Brazil but stressed that the 
implementation of the death penalty was a matter of Indonesian sovereignty.

"First of all, and I will be clear about this, there must be no intervention in 
the implementation of the death penalty, as it is a matter of our legal 
sovereignty. Our law still recognizes the death penalty," Jokowi said after 
meeting both Indonesia's recalled ambassador as well as Retno.

A 2nd Brazilian, Rodrigo Muxfeldt Gularte, is among a 2nd group of 11 prisoners 
to be executed soon in Indonesia.

(source: The Diplomat)

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

Tanks on standby to take Bali 9 duo to prison island



8 Panser tanks are on standby in Denpasar to remove Andrew Chan and Myuran 
Sukumaran from Kerobokan Prison and deliver them to the airport for transfer to 
the prison island of Nusakambangan.

News Corp Australia has learned the TNI, or Indonesian military, has ordered 
the 6-wheeler armoured personnel carriers to be ready to shift the Australian 
prisoners the moment they receive orders.

Sources say that one of the APCs will enter Kerobokan to collect the condemned 
men, with another travelling close behind in support at the jail.

The other 6 APCs will clear intersections and traffic for the estimated 
20-minute drive from the prison to the airport.

The timing of the executions is riddled with uncertainty, with Indonesia so far 
not revealing a firm date.

After a fortnight of misunderstanding and tension between the countries over 
the planned killings, Tony Abbott said he had a good conversation on Wednesday 
evening with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who was "carefully considering 
Indonesia's position".

But Mr Abbott did not want it to be seen as a breakthrough.

"I don't want to raise hope that might turn out to be dashed," he said.

Adding pressure for a swift end to the lives of Chan and Sukumaran was Said 
Aqil Siragj, the head of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul 
Ulama, who yesterday visited President Widodo at his palace in Bogor.

"We are supporting Jokowi to reject clemency for drug dealers," Siragi said. 
"We support the death penalty. We are behind the President."

It now appears the TNI will take complete control of the transfer when it 
happens.

The show of force involving 2 Australian prisoners who offer no threat of 
resistance demonstrates how badly Indonesia has reacted to complaints by 
Australia, and the world, on what it sees as its sovereign right to conduct 
executions.

Chan and Sukumaran are not high-risk terrorists but ordinary drug criminals, 
yet have become the unfortunate beneficiaries of what is being planned as a 
major precision operation with maximum visual impact.

News Corp earlier revealed that Indonesia had deployed Sukhoi fighter jets to 
Denpasar to escort the pair who would be flown in a CN-295 military transport 
plane from Denpasar to Cilacap, on the south coast of Java, close by the prison 
island of Nusakambangan.

The APCs, which are known in Indonesia as Anoa - named after a water buffalo - 
will carry members of the TNI's, or Indonesian military's, cavalry. Standard 
Anao Pansers are fitted with .50 calibre machine guns. Each can carry 14 armed 
men.

Since then, the Sukhois have flown over Kerobokan in what is thought to be an 
effort to ram home the message that it will tolerate no interference.

The head of Bali Prosecutor's office, Momock Bambang Samiarso, yesterday 
repeated his daily statement that there was still no date for the transfer or 
the executions, but that they would be moved when Nusakambangan was ready to 
take them.

"As soon as they ready, we send," he said. "We are ready. Soon. The sooner the 
better. There is no delay. We keep going. Maybe the delay is because of 
technical issue. There is no political issue."

Asked if the move could be this month, he said: "Everything is possible. 
Everything remains possible."

Meanwhile, divisional head of prisons in the Justice and Human Rights Ministry 
in Central Java, Yusparudin, said he anticipated the new isolation cells on the 
island would be ready in 2 or 3 days.

"The preparation is only by building partitions, so that other prisoners cannot 
communicate with prisoners being isolated," Yuspahruddin said.

The Attorney General said yesterday that 10 prisoners will be shot. They are 9 
foreigners and 1 Indonesian - all of them drug traffickers.

(source: news.com.au)

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

French death row convict's family apologizes to Indonesia



The wife of a French drug convict on death row in Indonesia, Sabine Atlaoui, 
has apologized to the Indonesian government and people for her husband Serge 
Atlaouis offences.

"I apologize to the government and people of Indonesia for my husbands 
actions," Sabine Atlaoui said here on Thursday.

When asked about her husbands death penalty, Sabine, a mother of 4, said she 
respected Indonesias legal process. However, she added that a judicial review 
can be the only legal way out.

"Hopefully, this (judicial review) can work well and will be accepted by the 
court. I wish my husband could be free from the death penalty," Sabine 
remarked.

Since her husbands detention, Sabine has been doing various jobs, from a 
waitress in restaurants to a janitor in hotels.

"I must work to meet the needs of my family," she noted.

Meanwhile, Sabine acknowledged she has not met with her husband in a while and 
said she will soon go to Nusakambangan prison island where her husband has been 
kept.

Serge Atlaoui was sentenced to death in 2007 for drug offences. He was arrested 
from an ecstasy factory located in Cikande, Serang, Banten, near Jakarta, in 
2005.

His name is on the list of prisoners to be executed by the Attorney General. 
President Joko Widodo through Presidential Decree No. 35/G 2014 had rejected 
his clemency plea recently.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Attorney General HM Prasetyo said here that preparations 
for executing ten prisoners on death row were 90 % complete and there will be 
no cancellation of executions.

"We have finished 90 % of our preparations. What is left is just coordinating 
with related parties, transporting the inmates from their prisons to 
Nusakambangan Penitentiary, and preparing a firing squad," he had noted.

Speaking at the State Palace here, Prasetyo had emphasized that the executions 
would be carried out without delay as the government had finalized its decision 
on the matter.

"This is about the states authority and consistency in law enforcement," he had 
stated, adding that 6 of the 10 prisoners had already been moved to 
Nusakambangan Penitentiary, while the transfer of the remaining four were in 
process.

Asked about the fate of a convicted Brazilian drug smuggler, Rodrigo Gularte, 
who had been reportedly diagnosed with schizophrenia, he had said he would seek 
authorized experts opinion on the prisoners mental state.

Besides Rodrigo Gularte, the other prisoners who will be executed in the near 
future include Syofial, alias Iyen bin Azwar, (Indonesia); Mary Jane Fiesta 
Veloso (the Philippines); Myuran Sukumaran, alias Mark, (Australia); Harun bin 
Ajis (Indonesia); Sargawi, alias Ali bin Sanusi, (Indonesia); and Andrew Chan 
(Australia).

Indonesia recently executed 6 drug convicts as part of its serious efforts to 
combat drug trafficking in the country.

The 6 convicts were Namaona Denis of Malawi, Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira of 
Brazil, Daniel Enemuo, alias Diarrassouba Mamadou, of Nigeria, Ang Kiem Soei, 
alias Kim Ho, alias Ance Tahir, of the Netherlands, Rani Andriani, alias Melisa 
Aprilia, of Indonesia, and Tran Thi Bich Hanh of Vietnam.(*)

(source: ANTARA news)