[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 15



IVORY COAST:

C/d'Ivoire: Bill passed for death penalty abolition



The Ivorian government on Wednesday adopted a bill for the abolition of the 
death penalty.This was confirmed by the government spokesman Bruno Nagne Kone 
in Yamoussoukro after a cabinet meeting chaired by President Alassane Ouattara.

The move is part of judicial sector reforms initiated by the Ivorian 
authorities after the political crisis which ended in 2011.

"This new law enshrines the abolition of the death penalty", Mr. Kone said.

According to him, "this is to change our judicial system taking into account 
the reality."

Pending its adoption and ratification "the bill defines war crimes for 
instance, because we've been through that," he explained.

(source: Star Africa)








INDONESIA----impending execution

Brazilian drug felon will be 1st foreigner executed in Indonesia this year



A Brazilian drug felon has been told he will be executed on Saturday night in a 
move that will strike fear into the hearts of the Bali 9 members on death row.

Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, who will be the 1st foreigner to be executed in 
Indonesia this year, was transferred to an isolation cell at Besi prison on 
Wednesday night.

He is among 5 convicts who are expected to face the firing squad within 72 
hours.

Although there are no Australians in the 1st group, Bali 9 ringleader Myuran 
Sukumaran had his clemency plea rejected last week and Indonesian President 
Joko Widodo has warned he will have "no 2nd chances".

Moreira's lawyer, Utomo Karim, who was with him in his isolation cell until 
11pm, told Fairfax Media the Brazilian was in a state of shock, sadness and 
fear.

Moreira was imprisoned in 2003, after attempting to enter Jakarta airport with 
13.4 kilograms of cocaine hidden in tubes used for hang gliding.

Mr Karim said Moreira spoke at length with consular staff in his isolation cell 
last night. He told them he didn't want to to die and urged the Brazilian 
government to do everything it could to prevent him from getting killed.

Mr Karim said in a last-ditch attempt the Brazilian government sent a letter to 
Indonesia asking it to extradite Moreira and allow him to serve out the 
remainder of his sentence in Brazil. However he said Moreira had already been 
transferred from Pasir Putih prison on the penal isle of Nusakambangan island 
to Besi prison at 9pm on Wednesday and there was no time for legal manoeuvres.

Mr Karim said his client was terrified he was going to be executed on Wednesday 
night and begged prison guards to execute him where he was rather than transfer 
him to Besi prison.

Indonesia's method of execution has not changed since a decree signed by its 
1st president in 1964. Prisoners are woken in the middle of the night in their 
isolation cells in secret locations. They are offered blindfolds, and asked if 
they would like to stand, sit or lie down before being executed by a firing 
squad.

"Marco was too stressed last night to think of any request for his last wish. 
But he did say he wants his family here," Mr Karim said.

He said the delivery of the execution information was rushed.

No crime carries the death penalty in Brazil.

"The Brazilian population will be very concerned if this happens - it would be 
the 1st time this has happened to a Brazilian national abroad," a Brazilian 
government source told Fairfax Media.

Mr Joko has taken a hardline against drugs, telling a university audience last 
month that he would reject the clemency applications submitted by 64 convicts 
who were sentenced to death in drugs cases.

These 64 official killings were necessary, he said, because Indonesia was in "a 
state of emergency on drugs" with people dying daily.

The last person executed in Indonesia was Malawi citizen Adam Wilson in 2013, 
who was found guilty of smuggling 1 kilogram of heroin from Thailand into the 
country via his Indonesian girlfriend in early 2002.

Murder, drug offences and terrorism can all carry the death penalty in 
Indonesia.

Foreign nationals from Thailand, Pakistan, India and Nigeria have also been 
executed.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)

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

Bali 9 death sentences seeing 'muted' public reaction, calls for help to save 
lives of drug runners

A lobby group is calling on Australians to help save the lives of the 2 Bali 9 
prisoners due to be executed by firing squad in Indonesia this year.

Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan had their last hope of an official reprieve 
dashed last week when Indonesian president Joko Widodo declared he would not 
grant clemency to any prisoners convicted on drug charges.

The Mercy Campaign lobby group is now calling on Australians to take up the 
cause to save the drug runners' lives before it is too late.

Australian Catholic University vice chancellor Professor Greg Craven is a 
spokesman for the group.

"Public reaction to the fact that effectively the death penalty is imminent 
here has been extraordinarily muted," he said.

"I think it's also been the case that there is a natural belief that these men 
should be punished for what they did, and they absolutely should be.

"But my point is that when the real horror of this hits home, when we see the 
diagrams in the newspapers of what it looks like for people to be bound to 
stakes and to be shot, then at that point I think Australian opinion will 
change.

"And it will be far, far too late."

Bali 9 members 'force for change' in prisons

It has been 10 years since Sukumaran and Chan were first arrested on 
drug-running charges in Bali, along with seven other young Australians in the 
so-called Bali 9 gang.

Their lawyer Julian McMahon said Sukumaran appeared to be coping remarkably 
well after last week's confirmation that his plea for clemency had been 
rejected.

He said Chan was also steeled for the worst after Mr Widodo made clear all 64 
clemency pleas from prisoners with drug convictions would be rejected.

"Myuran is doing what he has been doing for many years. He is every day getting 
up and trying to make the most of the day," Mr McMahon said.

"That's what both of them are like, you know.

"They got sentenced to death 3 times and slowly they just turned their lives 
around and they live 1 day at a time under the philosophy of trying to do your 
best on that day, and that's how they live."

Mr McMahon said there was "absolutely no doubt" the 2 prisoners were a "force 
for change" in the prisons.

"My clients were not impressive when they got arrested or when I met them," he 
said.

"Gradually, over the next few years, they just came to grips with who they 
were, what they'd done and what the future held.

"Their philosophy gradually became one of something virtuous, which was just to 
get on with life and do the best you can for the people around you.

"People kind of snort when they hear that sort of stuff, but that's in fact 
what they've been doing day in, day out in prison on death row in maximum 
security."

Challenge to save men would be in timing, McMahon says

It is not the 1st time Mr McMahon has attempted to save the life of a young 
Australian abroad.

In 2005 he led a desperate 11th hour bid to stop the hanging of 25-year-old Van 
Nguyen n in Singapore.

He said while Australians might have been distracted by recent world events 
such as the attacks in Paris, he was confident the country would get behind the 
2 men.

"The Australian people tend to watch these things without getting too 
involved," he said.

"I think my past experience is that when death is imminent they certainly get 
very involved and very concerned.

"It's very hard to work with the timing in these cases. In this case right now 
we don't know what the timing is.

"Indonesia is planning to execute quite a few people in the foreseeable future, 
but whether that is days, weeks or months is actually very unclear."

(source: Australian Broadcast Corporation)

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

Trial Begins for Couple Charged in Bali Suitcase Murder Case



Tommy Schaefer and Heather Mack, charged with the brutal killing of Mack's 
mother and Chicago socialite Sheila von Wiese-Mack during a vacation in Bali, 
traded their bright orange prison vests for clean pressed clothes Tuesday as 
guards led them into an Indonesian courtroom for the 1st day of their murder 
trial.

The bloodied body of von Wiese-Mack, 62, was found on Aug. 12, stuffed in a 
suitcase in the back of a taxi at the posh resort where she had been staying. 
Prosecutors charged Schaefer, 21, and Mack, 19, with premeditated murder, which 
makes the couple eligible for the death penalty.

Their trial, held in Bali's Denpasar District Court, will resume next week and 
the couple will enter their pleas at that time. Prosecutors claim that Schaefer 
beat Mack's mother with the iron grip of a fruit bowl.

Mack's mother didn't approve of her relationship with Schaefer, according to 
prosecutors. Shortly before her murder, she and Schaefer got into a heated 
argument, during which she used a racial slur that angered her daughter's 
lover.

Lawyers for Mack, who is 7 months pregnant with Schaefer's child, claim that 
she was hiding in her mother's hotel room at the time of the murder and helped 
conceal her mother's body in a suitcase out of loyalty to the father of her 
unborn child.

During Tuesday's session, the panel of judges overseeing the proceedings was 
also told by prosecutors that before their trip to Bali, Mack had reportedly 
sent Schaefer a text message proposing that he try and find a hitman to murder 
her mother for $50,000, according to the Associated Press.

The couple are being tried separately. If convicted, they could face execution 
by firing squad.

(source: TIME)








SAUDI ARABIA----executions

Saudi beheads another Pakistani for drug trafficking



Saudi Arabia on Wednesday beheaded a convicted Pakistani drug trafficker and 1 
of its own citizens who killed a soldier.

Mahmoud Massih Iqbal Massih was executed in Qatif near the Gulf coast for 
heroin trafficking, the Saudi interior ministry said.

At the same time, Rakan bin Eid bin Bikheet al-Baqmi, a Saudi, was found guilty 
of chasing and firing on a security patrol, killing soldier Sultan bin Ibrahim 
bin Ghrahid al-Jaid.

Baqmi was executed in the Mecca region of western Saudi Arabia.

Their cases bring to 9 the number of executions this year, according to an AFP 
tally.

Saudi Arabia carried out the death penalty against 87 people last year, up from 
78 in 2013, according to another AFP tally.

The kingdom had the 3rd-highest number of recorded executions in 2013, behind 
Iran and Iraq, Amnesty International said in a report.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are punishable by 
death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic law.

(source: Agence France-Presse)


PAKISTAN----executions

2 more convicts hanged in Lahore and Karachi



2 more condemned prisoners including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi activist Mohammad Saeed 
alias Maulvi and Zahid alias Zahidu were hanged at Karachi central prison and 
Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore, respectively, on Wednesday morning.

An anti-terrorism court in Karachi had found Saeed guilty for shooting Police 
Deputy Superintendent (retired) Syed Sabir Hussain Shah and his young son Syed 
Abid Hussain Shah. He was awarded death sentence in April 2001. Saeed had 
killed both his victims in an ambush near the Malir City railway crossing. Both 
Sabir Hussain and his son were reportedly killed on sectarian grounds, whereas 
Saeed is said to be associated with the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi outfit.

An anti-terrorism court had issued black warrants for his execution on January 
3, 2015. Zahid Hussain alias Zahidu was awarded death sentence by an 
anti-terrorism court in 2004 for killing a policeman in Multan in 2002. Earlier 
on January 7, Lahore High Court chief justice had dismissed a petition which 
sought directions to restrain an anti-terrorism court from issuing death 
warrants for Zahid Husain. Hussain through his counsel had pleaded that as he 
had reached a compromise with legal heirs of the victim, Ghulam Husain, so the 
trial court should be restrained from issuing his death warrants.

A provincial law officer told the court that the trial court had handed down 
capital punishment to Zahid Husain under provisions of Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) 
and added that the offences falling under the ATA were not compoundable. The 
chief justice had then dismissed the petition for being non-maintainable. Mercy 
appeals of both convicts had been turned down by the President Mamnoon Hussain. 
Strict security measures were taken outside the jails in Lahore and Karachi. 
Besides heavy contingent of police, army and rangers personnel were deployed in 
and outside the premises of jails.

So far, 19 death row prisoners have been executed, since Prime Minister Nawaz 
Sharif lifted the moratorium on death penalty on December 17, 2014, a day after 
the Army Public School, Peshawar carnage took place. A moratorium on the death 
penalty had been in place unofficially since 2008. In wake of the lifting of 
the moratorium on the death penalty, Minister for Interior Affairs Chaudhry 
Nisar Ali Khan had announced that more than 500 people would be hanged.

(source: Daily Times)

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

LHC confirms death penalty to Amir Adeel



A division bench of the Lahore High Court Wednesday confirmed death sentence to 
Amir Adeel for attacking on a defence ministry bus in Rawalpindi killing 25 
people and injuring 66.

Appearing before the bench, counsel for convict Adeel submitted that he was 
arrested 1 year after the incident. He said allegations against him were that 
he provided logistic support to suicide bomber Shakeel Pathan to reach the spot 
on a rented car. He said the investigators could produce no receipt for rented 
car. He said no one from the injured had seen his client while driving.

A prosecutor submitted that policemen had seen him and identified him while 
driving the car. The court after hearing the arguments dismissed appeal of Amir 
against death sentence on 20 counts awarded by Anti-Terrorism Court of 
Rawalpindi. Amir Adeel is on death row at Adiala Jail for attacking on the bus 
on September 4, 2007 that killed 25 people and injured 66 others. He was 
arrested in 2008 and was sentenced to death on March 14, 2011.

(source: The International News)

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

4 Pak Taliban militants given death for attacking ISI office



4 militants of Pakistani Taliban have been sentenced to death by An 
anti-terrorism court in Pakistan.

The militants were sentenced for an attack on country's powerful spy agency 
ISI's office in which 15 people were killed.

The ATC-I Multan handed down the penalty to Abdul Raheem, Hafiz Suleman, Sajjad 
and Muhammad Afzal on 11 counts each, and 25-year imprisonment to their 5th 
accomplice Ijaz, on Tuesday, Jan 13.

All the 5 convicts belong to the banned terrorist group Tahreek-i-Taliban 
Pakistan.

Some 15 people were killed and more than 50 others were injured in the bomb and 
gun attack on the ISI office in Multan Cantonment in 2009, some 350 kilometres 
from Lahore.

Country's ATCs have expedited cases as part of the government's national action 
plan to curb terrorism following the Peshawar school massacre in which 150 
people, mostly children, were killed in December last year.

Pakistan ended its 6-years-old moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases. 
12 death row prisoners involved in terror activities have been executed so far 
after the Nawaz Sharif-led government lifted the moratorium.

(source: Sarahasamany.com)








SYRIA:

Syria militants execute woman for 'adultery': monitor



Al-Qaeda-linked militants have publicly executed a woman accused of adultery in 
northwestern Syria, a monitoring group said Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in total 14 people had been 
executed for alleged adultery or homosexuality in the war-torn country since 
July, 1/2 of them women.

It released a video showing fighters from Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syrian 
affiliate, tying up a woman and shooting her in a square in the town of Maaret 
Masirin in the province of Idlib.

A crowd of civilians and fighters are seen watching, as a jihadist accuses the 
woman of "corrupting the earth, and adultery".

Islamic law views all sex outside marriage as a punishable crime.

Other cases of execution documented by the Observatory include a man accused of 
adultery who was stoned to death by Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist groups in 
the town of Saraqeb in Idlib.

The rival Islamic State (IS) jihadist organisation is also accused of executing 
several women and men for alleged adultery or homosexuality.

Another Islamist group threw a man thought to be gay off a building in the 
northern province of Aleppo.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said that more executions might have 
taken place elsewhere in Syria that were not documented.

IS has captured large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, declaring a 
"caliphate" and imposing its harsh interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

(source: Agence France-Presse)








TRINIDAD:

AG wants death penalty debate with Rowley



Attorney General Anand Ramlogan has challenged Opposition Leader Dr Keith 
Rowley to a public debate on the issue of the death penalty legislation.

In a release, Ramlogan said it was impossible to carry out the death penalty in 
this country under the existing law.

Ramlogan responded to Rowley's public comments as it relates to the 
Opposition's position on the Constitution (Amendment) (Capital Offences) Bill, 
2015 "Hanging Bill".

Ramlogan wrote to Rowley asking the Opposition to submit its proposals to 
ensure the passage of the legislation.

Rowley had said the death penalty was already law in this country and it was up 
to the State to carry out the judicial process - that is, ensure that convicted 
murderers complete their appeals within 5 years. Ramlogan stated this was 
"virtually impossible".

The AG noted that after an appeal is made to the Court of Appeal and the Privy 
Council, the convicted murderer has the right to be heard before the Mercy 
Committee and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Experience 
has shown that the hearing of a petition before the IACHR is usually delayed 
until the 5-year mark is crossed, resulting in the death sentence is being 
converted into a life sentence.

"To imply that it is possible to hang convicted murderers given the present 
state of the law is disingenuous and hypocritical. It begs the question: why 
was no one executed during the 9-year term of office under the PNM 
administration?" stated Rowley.

Ramlogan said the law had developed after the execution of the Dole Chadee gang 
as the Privy Council had ruled that the state could not execute a prisoner 
whilst his petition was pending before an international human rights body.

Practically, this meant that no one could be executed as the 5 years was easily 
exhausted by the prisoners' constant appeals.

"That is why no AG has been able to authorise the lawful hanging of a prisoner 
since the execution of the Dole Chadee gang," stated Ramlogan.

He also took issue with Rowley's comment that the Privy Council would strike 
down any attempt by Government to make changes to the existing law.

Ramlogan pointed out that Jamaica recently made similar amendments to its 
constitution to facilitate the implementation of the death penalty.

Rowley had said the criminals have to be caught first and there was a problem 
with a low detection rate.

Ramlogan countered this stating there are approximately 1,000 prisoners who 
have been charged for murder awaiting trial.

He said these murders have been detected, persons have been arrested, and the 
Director of Public Prosecution was satisfied there was sufficient evidence 
justify the charge of murder.

Ramlogan also took issue with Rowley's statement that the return of the Hanging 
Bill was an election ploy as it is an election year.

The AG said that the Government had brought this bill to Parliament before, in 
2011, less than a year in assuming office and it was defeated because the PNM 
refused to support it despite all the concessions government made.

Ramlogan said Rowley had failed to offer a counter-proposal for the 
Government's consideration.

(source: Trinidad Express)