[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 18



IRAN----executions

Public Execution of 2 Prisoners in Front of Children----The 1st public 
executions of 2015 were carried out in Shiraz this morning. There were several 
children among those watching the hangings.



2 prisoners were hanged publicly in Shiraz (Southern Iran) today. According to 
the official website of the Iranian Judiciary the prisoners were identified as 
"S. M." and "A. M." and were charged with rape of a woman.

Tens of people and anti-riot police were present at the execution site. There 
were many several children among the spectators.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) has previously urged UN to ban public executions and 
other inhumane punishments.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

2 prisoners hanged in public in Shiraz



The Iranian regime's henchmen in the southern city of Shiraz hanged 2 men in 
public on Saturday.

Many children watched the hanging through the windows of their homes or cars 
passing by near the public square where the executions were carried out.

The reports by the state-run media did not identify the men.

Since Hassan Rouhani has become the president of the clerical regime, at least 
1,200 people, including political prisoners, have been executed in Iran. At 
least 38 prisoners have been hanged since the beginning of the year 2015.

3 other prisoners were hanged in public in a northeastern town in Iran on 
January 11. The victims identified by their 1st name and last name initials as 
Mehdi V, Ehsan K. and Mahmoud V., were hanged in the town of Torghabeh near the 
city of Mashhad.

(source: NCR-Iran)








UNITED SARAB EMIRATES:

Death penalty for convicted rapist under appeal----Janitor accused of raping 
7-year-old girl not linked to her by DNA evidence, lawyer says



An Indian janitor in his 50s is appealing the death penalty handed to him for 
raping a 7-year-old girl at the school where he was formerly employed.

The defendant was found guilty by the Criminal Court of First Instance and the 
Court of Appeals last year. However, the Court of Cassation reverted the case 
back to the Appeals Court for further examination.

The Emirati victim had reportedly returned home after school one day upset and 
withdrawn. Her aunt detected a foul smell on her body. When the girl was 
undressed for her daily bath, a sticky substance merged with blood was found.

The plaintiff's lawyer argued that the teacher had sent the girl to the 
principal to deliver some papers as a form of punishment for something that the 
child had done earlier that day.


The incident reportedly occurred in the school's kitchen which witnesses 
revealed has a glass door that only allows individuals standing right outside 
to see inside the room.

A DNA test could not be conducted as substances that may have linked the victim 
to her attacker were washed away during the girl's bath.

Therefore, the defence lawyer argued that with no such evidence, his client 
could not be indicted. A representative from the Public Prosecution asked 
whether there was any blood evidence found on the kitchen floor to which the 
plaintiff's attorney replied: "No, because the defendant cleans the floor on a 
daily basis and the police only arrived to the scene at 11pm on the day of the 
incident."

However, the defence team asked how the incident could have happened with such 
a large number of individuals inside the school during the afternoon, 
especially since the kitchen faces the parents' waiting room.

The defence told the court that the girl's testimony was constantly changing 
after the results of every test, indicating that she was being told what to say 
in court.

A medical examiner revealed that this was not the 1st time the victim had been 
raped. The plaintiff argued that the girl was so shaken up by the assault that 
she was unable to see the whiteboard, prompting the teacher to write a note in 
the girl's school diary asking her parents to take her to an optometrist.

However, the defence said that as a female and a mother, the teacher would have 
noticed more visible effects of the assault than poor sight and so the 
plaintiff's argument was irrelevant.

He also stated that the school's janitors were all quetioned out of 
unsubstantiated suspicion and his client was picked as a scapegoat for the 
incident whose real perpetrator is not caught yet.

The verdict will be announced on February 25.

(source: Gulf News)








INDONESIA:

Indonesian ex-top judge: end executions----A former top Indonesian judge 
sympathetic to the Bali 9 says Jakarta's position on the death penalty is 
inconsistent and out-of-date.



A former top Indonesian judge who had wanted to spare Andrew Chan and Myuran 
Sukumaran from the death penalty has challenged Jakarta's inconsistency on 
capital punishment.

Indonesia put 1 citizen and 5 foreign prisoners to death for drug crimes on 
Sunday, sparking diplomatic upset from Brazil and The Netherlands.

The 2 Bali 9 ringleaders could be among the next group to face the firing 
squad, as President Joko Widodo backs another 20 executions this year as "shock 
therapy" to would-be drug pushers.

His predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had sent 5 prisoners for execution 
in 2013, and none in the 4 years prior.

Jimly Asshiddiqie, former chairman of Indonesia's constitutional court, went on 
the record in 2008 saying he had wanted to uphold the 2007 appeal of Chan and 
Sukumaran.

However at the time, he believed as the chief of the bench he should not side 
with the minority, and handed down a 6-3 decision.

He'd hoped their executions could be delayed 10 years, when the pair might find 
a "next generation" of constitutional court judges against the death penalty, 
even for drug traffickers.

Now, Mr Asshiddiqie says Jakarta has avoided confronting the issue for so long, 
its position is inconsistent and out-of-date.

"It's not right that when our workers abroad are facing the death penalty we 
protest against it, but when foreigners are about to face death here we don't," 
he told AAP.

"This is inconsistent.

"Personally, I think we must open a space where we can discuss the death 
penalty openly.

"Global humanitarian values have changed.

"Indonesia cannot avoid this."

Mr Asshiddiqie also blames the inertia for the current legal uncertainty over 
the death penalty.

Presidential clemency - officially denied to Sukumaran and expected to be 
denied to Chan - is a final appeal to be spared the death penalty.

But a new legal avenue could open, depending on the interpretation of a 
constitutional court decision allowing prisoners to seek multiple judicial 
reviews.

For Mr Asshiddiqie, the constitutional court position is clear.

There's no limit on judicial reviews, as long as the courts are being asked to 
consider new facts.

He wouldn't comment on whether Chan and Sukumaran should be granted a review to 
consider their remarkable rehabilitation in jail.

But the influential figure - nominated as Globe Asia's man of the year 2008 - 
does believe Indonesia should abolish the death penalty.

(source: sbs.com.au)

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

Rousseff 'outraged' at Indonesian execution of Brazilian----Indonesia put to 
death 6 people convicted of drugs offenses, including 5 foreigners



Indonesia put to death 5 foreigners and 1 local woman convicted of drugs 
offenses on Sunday, unleashing a diplomatic storm as Brazil and the Netherlands 
condemned the execution of their citizens.

Brazil's president was "distressed and outraged" after Indonesia defied her 
repeated pleas and executed 1 of her countrymen convicted of drug trafficking, 
a spokesman said.

"President Dilma Rousseff took note -- distressed and outraged -- at the 
execution of Brazilian Marco Archer in Indonesia today," a statement from the 
spokesman said of the execution, the 1st of a Brazilian overseas.

The executions -- the 1st under Indonesia's new President Joko Widodo -- were 
carried out by firing squad on foreigners hailing from Brazil, the Netherlands, 
Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria.

Indonesia has tough anti-drugs laws and Widodo, who took office in October, has 
disappointed rights activists by voicing strong support for capital punishment 
despite his image as a reformist.

Meanwhile Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said the Netherlands had 
temporarily recalled its ambassador to Indonesia over the execution of Dutchman 
Ang Kiem Soei, and described all 6 deaths as "terribly sad" in a statement.

"My heart goes out to their families, for whom this is marks a dramatic end to 
years of uncertainty," Koenders said. "The Netherlands remains opposed to the 
death penalty."

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte had been in contact 
with the Indonesian president on the matter, he said, and the government had 
done "all in its power" to attempt to halt the execution.

All the prisoners, who had been sentenced to death between 2000 and 2011, were 
executed around the same time shortly after midnight, Tony Spontana, a 
spokesman for the attorney general's office, told AFP.

Vietnamese woman Tran Thi Bich Hanh was executed in Boyolali district in 
central Java, while 5 others were put to death on Nusakambangan Island, home to 
a high-security prison, off the south coast of the archipelago's main island of 
Java.

They included an Indonesian woman, Rani Andriani, along with 53-year-old 
Brazilian Moreira and 62-year-old Dutchman Ang.

A Nigerian, Daniel Enemuo, and Namaona Denis, from Malawi, were also executed.

No presidential pardons

They were all caught attempting to smuggle drugs apart from the Dutchman, who 
was sentenced to death for operating a huge factory producing ecstasy.

All of them had their appeals for clemency to the president -- their last 
chance to avoid the firing squad -- rejected last month.

Jakarta halted capital punishment in 2008 but resumed executions again in 2013. 
There were no executions in Indonesia last year.

Widodo, known as Jokowi, has taken a particularly hard line towards people on 
death row for narcotics offences, insisting they will not receive a 
presidential pardon as Indonesia is facing an "emergency" due to high levels of 
drug use.

His tough stance has sparked concern for other foreigners sentenced to death, 
particularly 2 Australians who were part of the "Bali 9" group caught trying to 
smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005.

1 of the pair, Myuran Sukumaran, also had his clemency appeal rejected last 
month but authorities say he will be executed with the 2nd Australian -- his 
accomplice Andrew Chan -- as they committed their crime together.

Chan is still waiting for the outcome of his clemency appeal.

Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International's research director for Southeast Asia and 
the Pacific, said Sunday's executions marked "a seriously regressive move and a 
very sad day.

"The new administration has taken office on the back of promises to make human 
rights a priority, but the execution of 6 people flies in the face of these 
commitments."

He called on the government to halt plans for future executions. Authorities 
previously said that 20 were scheduled for this year.

Before the executions, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini had sought to 
ramp up pressure on Jakarta, describing the death penalty as "a cruel and 
inhumane punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent and represents an 
unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity".

(source: Agence France-Presse)

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

NZ man in Bali 'trafficked, not trafficker'



Lawyers for a New Zealander who could face the death penalty in Indonesia will 
use a novel defence - arguing he is a trafficked person rather than a drug 
trafficker - to try to save his life.

Antony de Malmanche, 52, was arrested at Bali's international airport on 
December 1 with 1.7kg of methamphetamine in his bag.

6 death row inmates were put to death on Sunday as part of Indonesian President 
Joko Widodo's determination to stop drug crime.

Barrister Craig Tuck, representing de Malmanche, is set to use a groundbreaking 
defence when the trial begins, likely next month.

He has formed a specialist team of human rights and legal experts from 
Indonesia and elsewhere to demonstrate that de Malmanche is a victim of human 
trafficking.

At present, international criminal law recognises human trafficking for the 
purposes of slavery, forced labour, sex, and organ donation.

Mr Tuck's team will argue the business model of international drug rings, 
whereby vulnerable people like de Malmanche are duped into carrying drugs, is 
human trafficking for the purpose of drug trafficking.

An invalid pensioner, de Malmanche says he took his 1st overseas trip to Hong 
Kong to meet 'Jessie', a woman he met online.

After 3 days there, an African man de Malmanche knew as Jessie's personal 
assistant 'Larry' instructed him to catch a bus to Guangzhou, China, where he'd 
finally meet Jessie.

But in Guangzhou, he met only Larry, who told him Jessie had visa problems and 
would see him in Bali instead.

Before he left, de Malmanche says, Larry bought and packed the bag that got him 
intercepted by customs in Bali, unaware he was carrying drugs.

Mr Tuck says de Malmanche - who spent more than 3 years in institutional care 
as a child and still suffers pain from physical injuries and abuse - 'was not 
exploiting the Indonesian people but was himself exploited'.

(source: skynews.com)

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

Execution of 6 death-row inmates in Indonesia deeply regrettable: EU



High representative of foreign affairs and security police at the EU, Federica 
Mogherini, said the EU deplored the execution of 6 death-row inmates convicted 
of drug trafficking in Indonesia.

"The announced execution of 6 death-row inmates in Indonesia, including a Dutch 
citizen, for drug offenses is deeply regrettable. This would be the 2nd round 
of executions since November 2013," said the EU vice president in a statement 
made available to The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The 6 convicts, comprising Ang Kim Soei (Dutch), Daniel Enemuo (Nigerian), 
Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira (Brazilian), Namaona Denis (Nigerian), Rani 
Andriani alias Melisa Aprilia (Indonesia) and Tran Thi Bich Hanh (Vietnamese) 
were executed early on Sunday.

Mogherini said the EU was opposed to capital punishment in all cases and had 
consistently called for its universal abolition.

"The death penalty is a cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to act as a 
deterrent and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity. 
The EU calls on the Indonesian authorities to stop all pending executions and 
consider establishing a moratorium on the use of death penalty as a 1st step 
towards definitive abolition," she said.

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

1st executions under new RI president regression for rights: AI



The execution of 6 drug traffickers in Indonesia early Sunday, the 1st since 
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo took office, is a retrograde step for human 
rights in the country, Amnesty International (AI) has said.

Those executed by firing squad today, comprising 1 Indonesian and 5 foreign 
nationals, had been convicted on drug trafficking charges.

"This is a seriously regressive move and a very sad day. The new administration 
has taken office on the back of promises to make human rights a priority, but 
the execution of 6 people flies in the face of these commitments," AI's 
research director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Rupert Abbott, said in a 
statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The new government has announced that 20 more executions are scheduled for this 
year.In December 2014, it was also reported that President Jokowi would not 
grant clemency to at least 64 individuals who had been sentenced to death for 
drug-related crimes.

"The government must immediately halt plans to put more people to death. This 
is a country that just a few years ago had taken positive steps to moving away 
from the death penalty, but the authorities are now steering the country in the 
opposite direction," Abbott said.

"The use of the death penalty at home also makes the Indonesian authorities' 
efforts to fight it being applied to Indonesians abroad look hypocritical. 
Indonesia must impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view 
to its eventual abolition," he went on.

5 of the 6 convicts, comprising Ang Kim Soei (Dutch), Daniel Enemuo (Nigerian), 
Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira (Brazilian), Namaona Denis (Nigerian), and Rani 
Andriani alias Melisa Aprilia (Indonesia), were executed on Nusakambangan 
Island, Central Java. Tran Thi Bich Hanh (Vietnamese) was executed in Boyolali, 
also in Central Java.

AI says it opposes the death penalty in all cases and under any circumstances, 
regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or 
the method used by the state to carry out the execution.

"The death penalty violates the right to life as recognized in the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading 
punishment. The protection for the right to life is also recognized in 
Indonesia's Constitution," it said.So far 140 countries have abolished the 
death penalty in law or in practice.

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

Indonesia's death penalty for drug-related convictions 'deplorable', says HRW



The application of the death penalty for inmates convicted on drug trafficking 
charges is intolerable as international human rights law has limited the use of 
the death penalty to only "the most serious crimes", typically crimes resulting 
in death or grievous bodily harm, a New York-based rights group has said.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that the United Nations (UN) Human Rights 
Committee and the UN expert on unlawful killings have condemned using the death 
penalty in drug cases. The UN high commissioner for human rights and the 
director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime have likewise expressed grave 
concerns about the application of the death penalty for drug offenses, it said.

"All this makes Indonesia's application of the death penalty for drug-related 
convictions particularly odious," HRW's deputy director for Asia division, 
Phelim Kine, said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Sunday. 
6 death row inmates convicted on drug trafficking charges, namely Ang Kin Soei 
(who was Dutch), Daniel Enemuo (Nigerian), Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira 
(Brazilian), Namaona Denis (Nigerian), Rani Andriani alias Melisia Aprilia 
(Indonesian) and Tran Thi Bich Hanh (Vietnamese), were executed by firing squad 
early on Sunday.

According to Kine, the government's decision to execute the 6 convicts 
contradicted its moves to save Indonesian citizens being threatened with the 
death penalty in other countries.

Citing an example, he said, the Indonesian government was working hard to 
prevent Saudi Arabia from executing Satinah Binti Jumadi Ahmad, a domestic 
worker who has been on death row since 2010 for allegedly murdering and robbing 
her Saudi employer's wife. The Indonesian government has launched a formal 
appeal to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to pardon Satinah. The paying to the 
victim's family of a legally recognized "blood debt" equivalent to US$1.9 
million in late 2014 paved the way for that possible pardon, so Satinah may be 
spared execution.Kine said Moreira, one of the 6 executed convicts, had been no 
less deserving of the Indonesian government's mercy than Satinah.

The Brazilian citizen, who was on death row in Indonesia since 2003 for drug 
smuggling, was less fortunate, however. According to Moreira's lawyer, the 
government had denied requests by the Brazilian government to extradite Moreira 
in order to allow him to serve a prison sentence in Brazil.Kine said the 
Indonesian government's pursuit of clemency for Satinah in Saudi Arabia while 
ignoring its own continued use of the death penalty was more than just about 
hypocrisy over the right to life.

"It's an expression of recently elected President Joko Widodo's avowed support 
for the death penalty as an 'important shock therapy' for drug-law violators," 
he said. Last month, the President denied petitions for clemency submitted by 5 
of the ultimately executed convicts saying that the drug traffickers on death 
row had destroyed the future of the nation.

Sunday's executions were the 1st since the use of the death penalty on March 
15, 2013, when Adami Wilson, a 48-year-old Malawian national convicted in 2004 
of smuggling 1 kilogram of heroin into Indonesia, was killed by firing squad, a 
sentence that marked the end of a 4-year unofficial moratorium on capital 
punishment.

"The President has an opportunity to demonstrate wise leadership by recognizing 
the well-documented failure of the death penalty as a crime deterrent and 
joining the growing number of countries that have abolished capital 
punishment," said Kine.

(source for all 3: The Jakarta Post)

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

Brazil, Netherlands recall Indonesia ambassadors after executions



Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors in Indonesia after the 
Southeast Asian nation ignored their pleas for clemency and executed 6 
prisoners for drug offences on Sunday, the 1st executions under President Joko 
Widodo.

The 5 foreigners and one Indonesian were killed by firing squad shortly after 
midnight, the Attorney General's Office said. The foreigners were from Nigeria, 
Malawi, Vietnam, the Netherlands and Brazil.

Brazil recalled its ambassador in Jakarta for consultations and said the 
executions would affect bilateral relations.

"The use of the death penalty, which the world society increasingly condemns, 
affects severely the relationship of our countries," the presidency said in a 
statement published by Brazil's official news agency.

The Netherlands, a former colonial power in Indonesia, also recalled its 
ambassador and condemned the execution of its citizen, Ang Kiem Soei.

"It is a cruel and inhuman punishment that amounts to an unacceptable denial of 
human dignity and integrity," said Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders.

Before the execution, the lawyer for Soei tweeted that Soei was thankful for 
the Dutch government's unsuccessful efforts and that he would stand before the 
firing squad without a blindfold.

Indonesia's president, who signed off on the executions last month, has taken a 
tough stance on the rule of law and pledged no clemency for drug offenders.

Indonesia resumed executions in 2013 after a 5-year gap.

"This is a country that just a few years ago had taken positive steps to move 
away from the death penalty, but the authorities are now steering the country 
in the opposite direction," said Rupert Abbott, a Southeast Asia research 
director for Amnesty International.

(source: Reuters)

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

Dutch ambassador to Indonesia recalled following execution



The Netherlands has recalled its ambassador to Indonesia following the 
execution of Dutch national Ang Kiem Soei shortly after midnight on Sunday 
local time.

Ang Kiem Soei was 1 of 6 people shot by a firing squad for drugs offences. He 
had been on death row since 2003 for the production of ecstasy.

King Willem-Alexander had been in touch with president Joko Widodo in an effort 
to halt the execution, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A last-ditch phone call from the king to foreign minister Retno Marsud also 
failed to persuade the Indonesian authorities not to carry out the sentence, 
the NRC reported, quoting sources in Indonesia.

Marsudi was Indonesia's ambassador to the Netherlands until her new appointment 
last October. The king had also hosted a farewell reception for her, the NRC 
said.

Foreign minister Bart Koenders condemned the killing in a statement, saying the 
execution of Ang and five others is 'deeply sad'.

The death penalty is a 'savage and inhuman' punishment which is 'an 
unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity,' the statement said. 'The 
Netherlands will continue to campaign for the end of the death penalty in 
Indonesia and the rest of the world.'

Ang Kiem Soei's lawyer Bart Stapert accused the Indonesian authorities of an 
'inhuman action' in refusing to allow his family to wash his body prior to his 
cremation, which was carried out almost immediately.

Ang's wife and 4 children live in Utrecht.

Brazil has also recalled its ambassador to Indonesia following the execution of 
one of its nationals. The others came from Nigeria, Malawi, Vietnam and 
Indonesia.

(source: Dutch News)

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

Australia should protest loudly over executions



Understatement makes the images from Indonesia all the more powerful. They show 
white vans painted in the livery of ambulances driving last Saturday through a 
scattering of onlookers towards one of the 4 prisons on Kambangan island, off 
the southern coast of Java. Their cargo was not human but material; their task 
not to preserve life but to facilitate its end.

The ambulances were carrying coffins destined to hold the mortal remains of the 
convicted drug traffickers, 5 of them foreigners, 2 of them women, who were 
executed by firing squad shortly after midnight on Sunday. The death penalty, 
which for a time under Indonesia's previous administration was only a remote 
possibility, is once again an active element of that country's strict policy 
against drug trafficking.

Protests from the home countries of the foreign prisoners have been ignored. 
Indonesia's new president, Joko Widodo, has made it clear he has no time for 
drug traffickers, Indonesian or foreign. Combined with his less accommodating 
stance towards foreign countries and interests generally, the return to a 
hardline anti-drug stance has clear implications for Australia.

It is almost 10 years since the last Australian to risk the same fate, Van 
Tuong Nguyen, was executed in Singapore for drug trafficking. 2 Australians are 
now on death row in Indonesia. Andrew Chan and Myukan Sukumaran, 2 of the 
so-called Bali 9, were sentenced to death for their roles in attempting to 
smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005. Both have appealed against their 
sentences without success, and have appealed for clemency - their last hope of 
avoiding the firing squad - to Indonesia's President Joko Widodo. Sukumaran's 
request was turned down last month; Chan is yet to know the outcome of his.

Australians, like Indonesians, generally despise and detest the drug trade. 
Profiting from addiction and human misery is beneath contempt wherever it 
happens. Where our two countries differ is in the way we punish those who flout 
the law on drugs. It is no attempt to excuse or mitigate the crimes of drug 
makers, merchants and dealers, to say that the death penalty in every case is 
simply wrong. There is no possible justification for punishing any crime at 
all, however heinous, by ending a human life.

The Australian government appears to be doing what it can to make the case for 
clemency for Chan and Sukumaran. Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has 
written to her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi. Tony Abbott has spoken to 
President Widodo to plead for clemency. They are right to do so, and they 
should continue their efforts to persuade Indonesia's government to show 
clemency in the case. Ideally, the death sentences would be commuted to life 
imprisonment, with part of the sentence to be served in Australia.

Australia should speak out clearly on this matter. There is no cause to mince 
words or hold our tongue for fear of jeopardising our relationship with 
Indonesia. The outcome of one criminal case, in which guilt is not in doubt, 
does not weigh heavily in the balance against all the other things which go to 
make up the relationship with our nearest neighbour. The principle is what is 
important here.

Australians will feel their government's effort should be all the greater 
because of controversy regarding the process that saw both men, and other 
members of the Bali Nine, arrested in Indonesia. As is well known, the Bali 9's 
likely intentions were known to police ahead of time. The then head of the 
Australian Federal Police, Mick Keelty, appears to have decided that there was 
insufficient reason to stop members of the group from going to Indonesia 
initially, although there was enough to warn Indonesian authorities that the 
group was likely to be involved in the drug trade. An alternative would perhaps 
have been to allow the group to return to Australia with their drugs and arrest 
them here - beyond the reach of Indonesia's draconian laws.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of what was done 8 years ago, they would matter 
far less in the absence of the death penalty. Not the least of its flaws is its 
chilling finality. There is no appeal from the firing squad.

(source: Editorial,. Sydney Morning Herald)








PAKISTAN----execution

20th executions and counting: SSP convicted murderer hanged in Lahore jail



An activist of the banned sectarian outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) was 
executed at Kot Lakhpat Jail Saturday morning, pushing to 20 the total number 
of executions since the lifting of a 6-year moratorium on the death penalty by 
the prime minister in December.

Ikramul Haq, alias Lahori, was condemned to death by an anti-terrorism court 
(ATC) in 2004 for killing Nayyar Abbas, a guard at an Imambargah in Shorkot, 
Jhang, in 2001. His mercy plea had also been turned down by President Mamnoon 
Hussain.

Ikramul Haq's death warrants were issued on January 6. Subsequently, the 
plaintiff approached the complainant and the 2 sides managed to reach a 
compromise, and the execution, which was scheduled for January 8, was stopped 
at the last moment when the agreement was presented before a judicial 
magistrate.

Subsequently, the two parties were asked to approach the ATC for the 
confirmation of the agreement. Out of the eight family members of Abbas, only 2 
of his brothers and a sister appeared before the court, hence the ATC refused 
to accept the agreement and upheld its decision of the death sentence to the 
convict.

The Faisalabad ATC re-issued the black warrant and fixed January 17 for Ikramul 
Haq's execution. On which advocate Mustafa, the counsel for the convict, 
challenged the warrant before the Lahore High Court (LHC) but the petition was 
dismissed by a bench of the LHC on January 15.

The last meeting of Ikramul Haq with his family was arranged on Friday. After 
the execution, authorities handed over the body to his brother. Strict security 
measures were in place in and around the central jail.

(source: The Express Tribune)

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

Amnesty calls on Pakistan to end executions



Amnesty International (AI) called on Pakistan Friday to end what has been an 
extreme increase in executions following the Peshwar school attack. Following 
the school attack and Pakistan's subsequent lift of a death penalty moratorium, 
Amnesty reports that a "wave of executions" has resulted in the deaths of 19 
people in the past month. Many of those on death row have been convicted of 
acts of terrorism under Pakistan's 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act, which AI asserts is 
"so vague that almost all crimes fall under this definition." AI's Deputy Asia 
Pacific Director David Griffiths expressed his opinion that, "the [Pakistani] 
government should immediately reinstate a moratorium on executions with a view 
to the eventual abolition of the death penalty." AI characterizes Pakistan's 
use of the death penalty as especially heinous, as the organization believes 
that the country often hands down death sentences following unfair trials.

Earlier this month Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain signed into law 
anti-terrorism legislation that established military courts for the hearing of 
civilian terrorism related cases. Also this month the Pakistan Supreme Court 
overturned the release of terrorist suspect Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. Lakhvi, head 
of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, who was the alleged organizer of the 2008 Mumbai 
attacks that killed 165 individuals. In July Pakistan passed a strict 
anti-terrorism bill that allowed police to use lethal force, to search 
buildings without a warrant and to detain suspects at secret facilities for up 
to 60 days without charge "on reasonable apprehension of commission of a 
scheduled offense." Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif claimed in September 2013 that 
the country's anti-terrorism laws would be amended to more effectively combat 
modern threats.

(source: The JURIST)

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

Problematic penalty



When an ambulance carrying the body of a Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan militant 
hanged in Karachi Central Prison is showered with rose petals by well-wishers, 
it demonstrates how problematic the death penalty is in religiously inspired 
militancy and terrorism cases.

It clearly cannot be a deterrent for terrorists whose very missions either 
involve blowing themselves up or launching attacks in which death is a likely 
outcome.

Moreover, the hangings may only be inspiring other would-be militants given the 
faux martyr status bestowed by a certain fringe section of society upon those 
executed.

All that the hangings have achieved so far is feed a growing appetite in 
society for vengeance rather than justice - turning an already wounded populace 
into cheerleaders of death.

More broadly, the question that is still unanswered is, what of the 
government's National Action Plan and the range of other measures the 
government is meant to take to combat extremism and dismantle terrorist groups 
operating on Pakistani soil?

Some initial steps have been taken, but nothing close to a coherent strategy 
has emerged yet and the government, for all its meetings and press releases, 
does not appear to have the will or the capacity to develop one.

Where there has been movement, it appears to occur largely because of the 
military's initiative or insistence that the civilian-run side of the state 
take certain steps.

Surely, though, a militarised strategy to fight militancy and extremism cannot 
be a winning strategy.

The PML-N government may have only reluctantly, and very belatedly, tried to 
own the fight against militancy, but being in charge of 2 governments - in 
Punjab and the centre - means the party leadership must play a central role. 
Where is the PML-N lacking?

In nearly every department, starting from the interior ministry, which is still 
in the hands of a minister who fruitlessly pursued peace talks with the very 
same militants that the ministry must now take the fight to.

The unwieldy committee approach to taking on militancy is another problem, with 
bureaucrats having an unhealthily large presence in many committees that could 
do with subject-specific expertise.

Why, for example, is the police leadership so under-represented in the multiple 
committees that the PML-N has created? There is still time to correct course, 
beginning with admitting that execution is no answer and what the government 
really needs to do is speed up other aspects of the fight against terrorism.

(source: Dawn)

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

Prime accused behind 2010 attack on Qadianis sentenced to death on 7 counts



The anti-terrorism court of Lahore on Saturday ruled on Qadiani worship places 
attack case in which it sentenced prime accused Muawia to death on 7 counts and 
life in prison on another 2 counts, while another accused Abdullah was 
sentenced to life in prison on 9 counts.

Both men pronounced guilty belonged to banned terrorist outfit 
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Other than the death penalty and life in 
prison sentences, both men were fined Rs 3.3 million each.

According to the details, TTP had stormed 2worship places belonging to the 
Qadiani minority group in 2010 and had claimed responsibility. The law 
enforcement institutes had taken Muawia and Abdullah into custody and both men 
were prosecuted in special anti-terrorism court in Lahore.

At least 94 were killed and over 100 were wounded in a terrorist attack on 
Qadiani prayer houses in 2010.

(source: Daily Dunya)








MALAYSIA:

'Abolish death penalty to bring back Sirul'----Human rights campaigner's way to 
bring justice to Altantuya and learn the full truth about 'beastly affair'.



Malaysia should now abolish the death penalty, so that a convicted killer of 
Altantuya Shaariibuu may be brought back from Australia; and the truth about 
her killing uncovered, a human rights campaigner said today.

Kua Kia Soong, adviser to human rights organisation Suaram, said full justice 
had not been delivered in the Altantuya case because the motive for her murder 
had never been established in the courts.

Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, a model and translater, was shot and 
her body blown up in the jungles near Subang, Selangor, in a case involving 
commissions for the Navy's purchase of 2 submarines.

Last week the Federal Court reinstated the death penalty on 2 policemen, Chief 
Insp Azilah Hadri and Cpl Sirul Azhar Umar, members of an elite VIP bodyguard 
unit, for her murder. A 3rd accused, defence analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, had 
been acquitted without his defence being called.

Sirul is now reported to be in Australia but a Malaysian request for his 
extradition is complicated by Australian policy not to repatriate anyone facing 
the death penalty, which has been abolished there.

Dr Kua said if the death penalty was abolished, Sirul might be brought back and 
he raised the possibility of a fresh trial to uncover the whole truth.

However if the death penalty was carried out, "we will never know the full 
story of why they murdered the woman, whether she was connected with the 
purchase of the RM7 billion Scorpene submarines, or if they were induced by 
people in power to murder her".

He pointed to "too many inconsistencies" in the case, such as:

--the assertion that all records of Altantuya's entry and presence in Malaysia 
were erased from the computers of the Immigration Department;

--the sudden removal of the presiding judge before the trial started and the 
changing of the head of the prosecution team at the 11th hour;

--the fact that defence lawyers for the accused kept changing, with 1 walking 
out on the 1st day while charging that "3rd parties" were interfering in his 
work;

--that defence lawyers and prosecutors both stopping Altantuya's cousin from 
testifying further when she revealed that the victim had shown her a photograph 
of herself, Razak Baginda (an associate of Najib Razak, then defence minister), 
Najib and "others" having lunch in a Paris restaurant; and

--the possibility of plea bargaining

Dr Kua speculated about the possibility of a fresh trial being ordered and said 
if the death penalty was abolished, it might be possible to induce the 2 
convicted men to "spill the beans over the whole beastly affair" in exchange 
for a shorter sentence.

He said doing away with capital punishment would help avoid irrevocable 
miscarriages of justice, which usually take time to surface, pointing to the 
film Hurricane about a US boxer who spent 20 years in jail for a murder he did 
not commit.

Capital punishment has been abolished in about 1/4 of the world's countries, 
including most of Europe and Australia.

(source: Free Malaysia Today)

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

Abolish the death penalty



There is no better time for our country to abolish the death penalty than the 
present predicament we face in trying to extradite 1 of the convicted murderers 
of Altantuya from Australia.

Since the Australian government cannot bring itself to return someone to 
Malaysia where he will be facing the death penalty, why don't we do the just 
and reasonable thing by doing away with the death penalty once and for all? In 
so doing, we can ensure that this other convicted killer of Altantuya faces 
justice in our country.

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights prohibits all forms of "cruel, 
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Capital punishment for murder offences has been abolished in Britain since 
1965. Although the issue has been brought up periodically in the House of 
Commons, it has always been defeated.

Today, most of Europe has abolished the death penalty. By the 1970s, capital 
punishment had been abolished as a statutory punishment in about 1/4 of the 
world's nations including Australia.

The judicial taking of life has been described as "the most pre-meditated and 
most diabolical of murders." It is basically a relic of the primitive drive for 
revenge and it merely passes the responsibility to the judge or jury who are 
supposed to be acting on our behalf.

It is indicative of the primordial psyche that we are not content that 
criminals be safely put away in prison, we demand their death.

Executions dehumanise society and undermine the common values upon which the 
full and free development of human society is based in all cultures. The value 
of human life is lessened once a state, in avowing the defence of its citizens, 
resorts to inhuman and degrading forms of punishment.

Perhaps the most popular misconception is that capital punishment acts as a 
deterrent to crime for there is little evidence to show this.

According to the British Home Office Research Unit study undertaken in the 
eighties, over the previous decade the increase in murders in the various 
categories had been insignificant. This was despite the fact there was a war in 
Northern Ireland.

Another strong argument against capital punishment is that it entails 
irrevocable miscarriages of justice. In Britain, if the law on hanging had not 
changed in 1964, at least six men would have been hanged for offences they did 
not commit.

The film Hurricane tells the story about the former US boxer Rubin Carter who 
spent more than 20 years in jail for a murder he did not commit. If he had been 
hanged soon after his conviction, his death would have been on the nation's 
conscience forever.

This was accounted for by the fact that no legal system is infallible. 
Moreover, as in the case of Hurricane, miscarriages of justice usually take 
time to surface.

In the case of the 2 convicted murderers of Altantuya, I don't think full 
justice has been done to Altantuya since the motive for the murder was never 
established by the court.

If the death penalty is carried out, we will never know the full story of why 
they murdered the woman.

Who knows? There may come a day when a retrial is ordered and the two convicted 
men can fully spill the beans over the whole beastly affair.

There might even be the possibility of plea bargaining to induce the 2 
convicted men to do this in exchange for a shorter sentence. This is only 
possible if the death penalty is abolished in this country.

Thus, at a stroke we will have become a more humanist society and we can keep 
alive the hope that justice will be done for Altantuya when the motive for her 
murder has been established.

Kua Kia Soong

Adviser

Suaram

(source: The Sun Daily)