[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 20


CHINA:

Tainted oil dealer given death penalty, huge fine



A court in southwest China's Guizhou Province gave the death penalty with a 
2-year reprieve to a cooking oil salesman who sold thousands of tonnes of 
cooking oil made from the waste of slaughtered cattle.

Wei Mingjin was fined 340 million yuan (56 million U.S. dollars) and had all 
his property confiscated, the Anshun Intermediate People's Court announced in 
the first-instance ruling.

The court also gave 2 of Wei's accomplices prison terms of 15 years and 2 years 
respectively.

Wei was the corporate representative of Jin'an Food Development Co., which was 
registered in Anshun City as an edible oil, animal husbandry and agricultural 
processing business. The court found the company made bulk purchases of waste 
of slaughtered cattle between Jan. 2009 and May 2013 to produce "cooking oil", 
which is believed to be unfit for human consumption.

Trading records showed the company sold 19,000 tonnes of the tainted lard to 
Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality with total revenue of 170 million 
yuan.

Wei and one of his accomplices on Monday made appeal to the provincial higher 
court.

Food safety has become a top concern in China as a string of safety scandals, 
particularly in 2008 when melamine-tainted baby formula caused the deaths of at 
least 6 infants and sickened 300,000 others, have crippled customer confidence.

The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued 
interpretations to set standards for the punishment for these crimes in 2013 in 
order to form a more rigorous system checking food safety violators.

(source; Shanghai Daily)








VIETNAM:

Vietnam Court Sentences 8 People To Death For Smuggling Nearly 400 Pounds Of 
Heroin



A court in the Vietnamese province of Hoa Binh sentenced 8 people to death for 
smuggling heroin across the country's northern mountainous provinces. The court 
also ordered life sentences to 5 other people, while 17 other defendants were 
handed jail terms between 6 years to 20 years for crimes such as drug 
trafficking, harboring criminals, offering, brokering and taking bribes, 
murder, illegal use of weapons and opposing officials on duty.

7 men and 1 woman, who were given death penalties, had reportedly smuggled 
around 397 pounds of heroin, Thanh Nien News, a local newspaper, reported. 
Vietnamese police had busted the rings in June 2011 and had arrested several 
people, seized large quantities of drugs, confiscated 4 cars, 4 guns and 27 
mobile phones. Monday's verdict comes after a 14-day trial for the accused, 
according to a report by The Associated Press.

In Vietnam's largest-ever narcotics case in June last year, the country's 
highest court also upheld death penalties for 29 of 30 people for smuggling 
nearly 2 tons of heroin from Laos into Vietnam and then on to China.

Vietnam has some of the toughest drug laws in the world as smuggling more than 
600 grams of heroin or over 5.5 pounds of methamphetamine could lead to death 
penalty. The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other 
illegal drugs is also punishable by death, according to Thanh Nien News.

(source: International Business Times)

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

Wanted northern drug trafficker arrested while doing business in HCMC



Ho Chi Minh City police last week arrested a northern man who had fled to the 
city after a warrant was issued for him in his hometown for drug trafficking.

Officers said they caught Vu Ngoc Thang on the street January 15 with 7 
kilograms of methamphetamine he was carrying to his accomplices in District 11.

He had a gun and several rounds of ammunition, they said.

The gang has been operating for 6 years, trafficking meth from Thang's northern 
hometown Nam Dinh to HCMC.

The police also arrested his accomplices Tran Van Tuoi, 56, Tuoi's wife Tran 
Thi Thanh Van, 36, and Nguyen Van Nhung, all HCMC residents.

Thang was in HCMC since 1995, but after serving 18 years in jail for robbery, 
he returned to Nam Dinh and got into the drugs business.

He first worked for his lover, only identified as H, but after she was executed 
for drug trafficking in 2009 he took over the leadership of the gang, which got 
its supplies from Dien Bien Province on the China border and Son La on the Laos 
border.

When the gang's operations were discovered, Thang fled to HCMC and hooked up 
with Tuoi and Nhung, fellow inmates in jail, to traffic meth.

The HCMC police said they began to keep tabs on the gang last December.

Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws.

Those convicted of trafficking more than 600 g of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of 
meth face death.

Producing or selling 100 g of heroin or 300 g of other drugs also carries the 
death penalty.

(source: Thanh Nien News)








BANGLADESH:

HC continues hearing appeals in BDR carnage case



The High Court for the 2nd day yesterday continued hearing the death references 
and the appeals in the BDR carnage case.

During the proceedings, Deputy Attorney General AKM Zahid Sarwar Kazal read out 
from the charge sheet of the biggest ever criminal case in the country's 
history in terms of the number of accused and convicts.

After concluding the day's proceedings, the HC fixed today for resuming the 
hearing.

On Sunday, the bench started hearing on the death references and the 257 
appeals filed by the convicts of the case.

A Dhaka court on November 5, 2013 awarded death penalty to 150 soldiers of the 
erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and 2 civilians, and sentenced 161 others to 
life imprisonment for their roles and involvement in the carnage.

It also handed down rigorous imprisonment, ranging from three to 10 years, to 
256 people, mostly BDR soldiers. The court acquitted the remaining 277 accused. 
A total of 846 people, 823 of them BDR personnel, were on trial.

74 people, including 57 army officials, were slain in the BDR mutiny on 
February 25-26 in 2009 at the Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka.

(source: The Daily Star)



INDONESIA:

Australia pursues plea to spare drug smugglers on Indonesia death row



Canberra is pursuing efforts to save 2 convicted Australians from the firing 
squad in Indonesia, Foreign Minister Julia Bishop said Monday after Jakarta 
executed 6 drug offenders.

"The prime minister (Tony Abbott) has written again to President (Joko) 
Widodo," Bishop said.

"The Australian government will continue to make representations at the highest 
level."

Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Indonesia and 
expressed fury Sunday after Jakarta put to death 2 of their citizens along with 
4 other drug offenders, from Vietnam, Malawi, Nigeria and Indonesia.

The 6 were the first people executed under new President Widodo, who took 
office in October and has voiced strong support for capital punishment.

Widodo's stance has raised fears 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, had his clemency appeal rejected last month 
but authorities say he will be executed with fellow Australian Andrew Chan as 
they committed their crime together.

Chan is still awaiting the outcome of his clemency appeal.

Bishop skirted round questions of Australia withdrawing diplomats from Jakarta, 
noting they were required to stay to plead with the government.

She said the foreign ministry had recently replied to her own letter "rejecting 
our representations on the basis that Indonesia claims it is facing a crisis in 
terms of drug trafficking and it believes that the death penalty should apply."

"It is a long-standing position of Australian governments that we oppose the 
death penalty and we oppose the execution of Australian nationals by another 
country," she said.

"I don't believe executing people is the answer to solving the drug problem.

"However, this is Indonesian law and it is a sober reminder that drug-related 
offenses carry very, very heavy penalties in other countries, particularly in 
Indonesia."

Widodo pledged in December there would be no pardons for drug traffickers on 
death row, including foreigners.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

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

Bali 9: Tony Abbott repeats appeal to Indonesia to show mercy to Australians on 
death row



Prime Minister Tony Abbott has again called on the Indonesian president to show 
mercy to 2 Australian men facing the death penalty.

On the weekend Indonesia executed 6 convicted drug smugglers by firing squad - 
5 of them foreign nationals.

Australians Myuran Sukamaran and Andrew Chan are facing the same fate over 
their role in the so-called Bali 9 drug smuggling ring.

Last week Mr Abbott renewed his written plea to Indonesian president Joko 
Widodo to accept requests for clemency on behalf of the pair.

He said this morning there was evidence the men were genuinely remorseful.

"My job is to try and stop the executions going ahead," Mr Abbott told the 
Australian Radio Network.

"I don't want to pre-empt what may or may not happen afterwards, but I think 
these two are well and truly reformed characters and I hope the Indonesians 
will accept that, acknowledge it.

"I hope that the evidence of genuine remorse, of genuine rehabilitation, means 
that even at this late stage pleas for clemency might be accepted.

"Because in the end, mercy has to be a part of every justice system, including 
the Indonesian one."

Bob Lawrence, father of Renae Lawrence, who is serving 20 years for her part in 
the Bali 9 drug ring, said the 2 men did not deserve the death penalty.

He said the Bali 9 were all young people who had made a silly mistake.

"Kids will do silly things, kids will do things to protect their families, kids 
will do things for a quick quid," he said.

"They think they're invincible, but they don't deserve the death penalty. It 
doesn't matter whether they organised it or what - a life sentence is bad 
enough.

"Possibly down the track, they might be old people when they get out, but 
hopefully they'll get out."

Yesterday Foreign Minister Julie Bishop made similar appeals but said her 
requests to Indonesia had been rebuffed.

A clemency appeal for Sukumaran has been denied and Chan's chances of reprieve 
appear equally doomed after Mr Widodo made it clear there was no prospect he 
would show mercy for prisoners on drug convictions.

(source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

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

Activists demand alternative to death row



Slamming President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's decision to proceed with the 
executions of 6 drug convicts recently, the country's human rights activists 
have joined hands to call on Jokowi to spare the lives of other death-row 
inmates set to face the firing squad this year.

Instead of putting convicts, who according to activists are mostly low-ranking 
criminals, to death, Jokowi's administration is being urged to implement 
fruitful measures to comprehensively combat narcotics-related crimes in the 
country, from practicing corrupt-free law enforcement to hunting down key 
people behind such crimes.

Besides the 6 recently executed, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security 
Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno previously revealed that 20 other 
death-row inmates were to be executed in 2015, the majority of whom were drug 
convicts.

"We hope the executions recently carried out will be the last in this country," 
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) chairman Hafid Abbas said on 
Monday.

"We all agree that we must eradicate narcotics-related crimes but imposing on 
the death penalty to fight such crimes is wrong," he added.

Hafid argued the death penalty was not an effective measure to exterminate 
narcotics-related crimes in Indonesia due to the country's unreliable legal 
system.

Together with Komnas HAM, critics of the death penalty also voiced concerns 
over Indonesia's efforts to uphold human rights, including the right to life, 
universally promoted as a non-negotiable right that must not be limited for any 
reason.

While many countries had eliminated the death penalty, Indonesia, on the other 
hand, regretfully still used it, activists slammed.

"We must include the removal of death penalty in the amendment of the KUHP 
[Criminal Code], an inheritance of the draconian colonial era," executive 
director of Jakarta-based human rights watchdog Imparsial said.

"In terms of the war on narcotics, the government must impartially enforce the 
law, including on officials who protect the 'big fish', while at the same time 
launch comprehensive preventive programs, particularly for young people," she 
emphasized.

Other groups that shared similar concerns included, among others, the 
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Institute 
for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), Setara Institute, Human Rights 
Working Groups (HRWG) and Migrant Care.

Migrant Care, which has been promoting the rights of Indonesian workers abroad, 
highlighted concerns over the fate of around 267 Indonesians who were facing 
the death penalty abroad.

(source: The Jakarta Post)

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

Death penalty a risk to diplomatic relations----With evidence the death penalty 
can be disproportionately applied, with some foreigners executed for 
trafficking smaller quantities than those who escape execution, the risk to 
diplomatic relations is high.



There are some in Australia who believe those who face the death penalty for 
drug trafficking are not deserving of sympathy. Indeed, there's a view that the 
death penalty is too good for traffickers who import hard drugs to peddle to 
usually, young people who go on to develop hard-to-shake addictions.

Then there are those countries - Indonesia amongst them - for which the death 
penalty is the panacea, the cure all solution. Execute or threaten to execute 
the drug traffickers and the drug scourge will peter out is their mantra.

However the evidence is not on the side of the believers in state sanctioned 
execution, although for Australians Myuram Sukumaran and Andrew Chan that will 
be of little comfort. Both are likely to face the firing squad for their 
ill-fated attempt in 2005 to import to Australia some 8 kilograms of heroin 
through Bali, where they are now on death row in Kerobokan Prison.

Amnesty International has investigated the impact of the death penalty on the 
incidence of drug crimes in 17 of the 28 nations where it is used or is on the 
law books. And its conclusion is that "despite the thousands of executions 
carried out, there is no clear evidence that the death penalty has had any 
identifiable effect in alleviating drug trafficking and abuse."

"In the countries which have introduced the death penalty for drug offences and 
in those which have carried out executions, Amnesty International is aware of 
no evidence of a decline in trafficking which could be clearly attributed to 
the threat or use of the death penalty."

In fact, Amnesty concludes that where the death penalty has been introduced, 
some in contravention of the United Nations goal of abolishing it, there's an 
increased risk that traffickers will kill to avoid capture, the severity of 
punishment will drive up the price of drugs and perhaps, most worrying that the 
punishment risks "playing into the hands of organized crime and attracting 
hardened criminals prepared to face the attendant dangers."

Although the global tendency is to abolish the death penalty where it has been 
on the statute books, some nations are refusing to budge despite the evidence.

Iran has executed 2,900 traffickers since the 1979 revolution. According to a 
2014 report of the International Narcotics Control Board, an independent, quasi 
judicial body that seeks to implement the UN's drug conventions, the route 
through Iran is still the most heavily traversed to transport heroin from 
Afghanistan and Pakistan to Europe. There's been little year on year dent in 
the movement of opiates and hashish produced in Afghanistan, or of Iranian 
methamphetamine produced for domestic and international consumption despite the 
death penalty for recidivist offenders producing or trafficking the drugs.

It's difficult to ascertain how many traffickers China has executed across its 
hundreds of provinces, but Amnesty International believes it to be in the 
hundreds, particularly around its drug producing "Golden Triangle" region. 
Despite this, advances in air and rail routes in China has meant trafficking in 
narcotics remains a serious problem according to the Narcotics Control Board.

Whilst China's consumption of opiates is on the decrease, the use of synthetic 
drugs is increasing, with a growing number of transnational criminal groups 
operating in the country. The Narcotics Control Board notes that heroin flows 
"into China from Burma, Laos, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan...in 
containerized cargo or fishing vessels to lucrative markets in other parts of 
Asia and Australia."

In Malaysia the demand for heroin has been steadily increasing along with the 
flow of the drug in to the country. An estimated 200 have been executed since 
1975 in Malaysia but the Inspector General of Police in Malaysia is of the 
belief that the death penalty "did not seem to deter traffickers". As far back 
as 1986, government ministers were sounding the alarm bell, the Deputy Minister 
for Home Affairs warning that the number of drug traffickers was increasing, 
rather than decreasing.

Indonesia has carried out comparatively fewer executions for drug crimes than 
Malaysia due to a 4-year moratorium that ended in 2013. Still, 29 people have 
been put to death since 1999, not all for drug crimes. The Narcotics Board 
noted that in 2013 "trafficking by West African drug trafficking organizations 
appeared to increase, while Chinese and Iranian drug trafficking organizations 
also remained active."

Drug trafficking is an international trade and as such foreigners are executed 
in countries where the death penalty applies. But with evidence the penalty can 
be disproportionately applied, with some foreigners put to death for 
trafficking smaller quantities than those who escape execution, the risk to 
diplomatic relations is high.

Perhaps that risk is the only proportionate factor when states that don't 
sanction execution face off against those that do.

(source: Commentary; Monica Attard is a Sydney based freelance journalist and 
former ABC foreign correspondent and senior broadcaster----SBS news)

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

After 6 executions, 60 more to follow



After the recent execution of 6 death-row convicts, 60 more, including a number 
of foreigners, will soon follow, says Attorney General Prasetyo.

"We still have 'a stock' of 60 more who will be executed," he said in an 
editorial club meeting at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Politics, 
Law and Security Affairs on Tuesday.

He added that the executions would prioritize drug convicts but declined to 
reveal when and where the executions would be carried out.

"The most important thing is that Indonesia will not bow to foreign pressure in 
implementing the death penalty. It will continue. Indonesia must be rescued," 
he said as quoted by kompas.com.

On Sunday, 6 death-row convicts, including several foreigners, were executed in 
Nusakambangan and Boyolali, Central Java, sparking strong protests from the 
European Union, the Netherlands, Brazil and international human rights 
watchdogs.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said she was sure the executions would not 
disrupt the bilateral ties between Indonesia and countries whose citizens were 
executed.

"We want other countries to look at this serious problem wisely. Drug crime is 
a serious matter that affects the Indonesian people. I have explained this 
problem from the start and we are ready to boost bilateral ties with all 
countries," she said at the Presidential Palace on Monday.

(source: The Jakarta Post)

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

How Indonesia's Record on Executions Stacks Up



The execution of 5 foreigners convicted of drug trafficking in Indonesia has 
sparked outrage among some countries with citizens on death row here.

Globally, Indonesia executes fewer people than places such as Iran, the United 
States and even Japan, but the move to step up executions after years of not 
doing so has drawn protests from human rights groups and produced a diplomatic 
backlash.

So where does Indonesia's stand on the death penalty stack up?

The last year Indonesia carried out executions was in 2013, when 5 people were 
put before the firing squad. By comparison, the United States executed 39 
people in 2013, according to Death Penalty Worldwide, a database run by Cornell 
University Law School. That same year, there were 8 executions in Japan and 6 
in Taiwan.

Within Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have all carried out 
executions since 2009 (though only of one or two people). Meanwhile, the number 
of countries worldwide that carry out large-scale executions has dwindled, with 
only 7 countries executing an average of 20 people or more between 2009 and 
2013, according to research on the death penalty by law professors Roger Hood 
and Carolyn Hoyle at the University of Oxford.

Despite the backlash, Indonesia says it stands by its policy on the death 
sentence, which officials argue is needed to curb rising drug abuse.

That has not gone over well with countries that have had their calls for 
clemency rejected. Brazil and the Netherlands - 2 countries whose citizens were 
executed over the weekend - have recalled their ambassadors to Indonesia in 
protest. On Monday Australia stepped up calls for clemency for 2 of its 
citizens on death row and said it would not rule out recalling its ambassador 
if the executions were carried out.

The number of countries that have abolished the death penalty since the late 
1980s has nearly tripled, from 35 to 99, according to professors Hood and 
Hoyle. And that makes Indonesia one of a few countries moving in the other 
direction, with President Joko Widodo saying in December that he would not 
grant clemency to dozens of individuals sentenced to death for drug-related 
crimes.

"The government must immediately halt plans to put more people to death," 
Amnesty International says in a statement. "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."

Between 2008 and 2013, Indonesia didn't carry out any executions. In 2013 it 
joined Kuwait, Nigeria and Vietnam in re-implementing the death penalty, 
according to Amnesty.

(source: Wall Street Journal)

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

Mercy has to be part of every justice system: PM



Prime Minister Tony Abbott hopes the genuine remorse shown by the Bali Nine 
ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will halt their possible 
executions.

There is no word yet on Chan's fate as Indonesia risks diplomatic tensions with 
its plans to execute more drug offenders this year, and President Joko Widodo 
has so far refused to spare Sukumaran from the firing squad.

Mr Abbott said he believed the pair, who oversaw the drug trafficking ring, had 
reformed.

"I hope that the evidence of genuine remorse, of genuine rehabilitation, means 
that even at this late stage ... this might be accepted, because in the end 
mercy has to be a part of every justice system," he told Sydney radio station 
WSFM on Tuesday.

"I think that these 2 are well and truly reformed characters.

"I hope that the Indonesians will accept that, acknowledge it and act 
appropriately."

The prime minister said his job was to try and stop the executions going ahead.

He declined to say whether or not Australian could withdraw its ambassador to 
Indonesia if the executions proceeded.

(source: Australian Associated Press)

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

Police catch another suspect in Bali murder of Aussie businessman Robert Ellis



A man Indonesian police have been hunting for months over the Bali murder of an 
Australian businessman has been arrested.

6 people face charges carrying the death penalty for taking part in the murder 
of Robert Ellis, 60, in November.

Among them are his wife of 25 years, Noor Ellis, who police allege ordered the 
hit when their marriage turned sour.

Adolf Malo Rangga, 34, was arrested on the island of Sumba, east of Bali, on 
Saturday night.

Police say when they found him at home drunk, he tried to flee through the 
kitchen but was surrounded.

He is in custody, awaiting transfer to Bali.

Police allege Mr Ellis was killed in the kitchen of his Sanur villa before his 
body was wrapped in plastic and dumped in a ditch. In custody are the Ellis' 2 
maids, accused of abetting the crime, and the boyfriend of one of the maids, to 
whom Ms Noor paid 150 million Indonesian rupiah ($14,220) to "solve her 
problems".

2 other men - 1 of them accused of slashing Mr Ellis' throat - were arrested in 
dramatic fashion in November, after hiding out in the Sumba jungle.

They fought police with poison arrows and machetes before officers eventually 
shot them in the legs and apprehended them. One remaining suspect is still at 
large.

Prosecutors hope to bring Ms Noor to trial next month.

(source: news.com.au.)

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

Indonesia To Execute More Nigerian Drug Smugglers



It was disclosed that 12 more Nigerians received death penalty for drug 
trafficking crimes only 2 days after 2 others sentenced were executed.

Amb. Danjuma Sheni, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign affairs, said 
the Federal government has addressed to the government of Indonesia to show 
forgiveness to the 12 Nigerians who are on death row so they will not be 
executed like the 2 Nigerians Daniel Emenuo and Okafor Solomon, who got their 
death penalty accomplished last Sunday January 18th, in the country for drug 
operating.

Ministry of Foreign affairs spoke to journalists after a meeting with the 
Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Eko Indiarto, yesterday in Abuja to object to 
the killing of the Nigerians even after much appeal made by President Goodluck 
Jonathan and the National assembly.

Mr. Sheni said: "Every country determines for itself the kind of action it 
takes. In the case of Nigerians and as you have just seen, we have protested 
very vehemently the execution and we are still looking at other options. That 
(recalling Ambassador) may be along the line, but we are looking at other 
options. I have just appealed to the government and people of Indonesia to show 
some clemency as we move forward with regards to the 12 other Nigerians still 
on death row in that country. We hope at the end of the day, there will be some 
form of clemency for our people and we do not hope, as of now, that it will 
have any significant impact on our relationship."

He added that the FG is in talks with the Indonesian government to agree on a 
Prisoner Transfer Agreement so that those on death row would be sent back to 
Nigeria to get their prison time.

38 year-old Nigerian, Daniel Enemuo, better known as Diarrssouba, was sentenced 
as a drug smuggler in 2004.

He was executed on Sunday, January 18th, among other 6 foreigners in spite of 
appeals from the international communities for the Indonesia government not to 
kill.

(source: naij.com)

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

Indonesia executions endanger lives of own death row citizens abroad----Other 
nations more likely to ignore Jakarta's calls for mercy in capital punishment 
cases



Indonesia's controversial execution of 6 drug offenders, including 5 foreign 
nationals, will make it harder for the country to argue for leniency for its 
own citizens facing the death penalty abroad, according to human rights groups.

Wahyu Susilo, of the Jakarta-based Migrant Care, said that executions carried 
out on Sunday will weaken the government's own diplomatic efforts on behalf of 
Indonesian citizens currently facing the death penalty in other countries.

"We lose the legitimacy to speak up for our people when our country executes 
foreign nationals," Wahyu told reporters during a press conference this week in 
Jakarta.

According to Migrant Care, there are 17 Indonesian nationals who have been 
sentenced to death in other countries - 9 in China, 5 in Saudi Arabia and 3 
people in Malaysia.

Further analysis by the NGO suggests that as many as 267 migrant workers are 
charged with crimes where they could ultimately face the death penalty if 
convicted.

"Indonesia's bargaining position will be weaker with other countries," Wahyu 
said.

"They would say, 'you ask us to cancel the execution of your citizens, but you 
easily execute the citizens of others in your country.'"

The Indonesian government maintains that Sunday's executions, which involved 
the killing of nationals from Brazil, Malawi, the Netherlands, Nigeria and 
Vietnam, will not harm diplomatic relations with other nations.

"We try to maintain relations with countries we consider our friends," Foreign 
Affairs Ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir told reporters after the executions, 
according to the Jakarta Globe newspaper.

The government's public statements, however, appear to be in stark contrast 
with the actions of Brazil and the Netherlands, both of which have recalled 
their ambassadors to Indonesia.

Brazil's national news agency, Agencia Brasil, reported this week that Brazil's 
president, Dilma Rousseff, was "appalled" and "outraged" by the executions.

(source: UCA news)



SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudis worried about image of their country after beheading vide----Leaked 
beheading video sparks comparison with Daesh in social media



BIn a recent video from Saudi Arabia, 3 uniformed security officers and a 
professional swordsman in a white gown struggled to placate a woman cloaked in 
black and sitting in the street. A Saudi court had convicted her of murder, but 
she was proclaiming her innocence.

Then the officers stepped back, the swordsman took aim and the woman shrieked 
and fell silent as he struck her neck with his blade, three times in total. 
Medics wearing white gloves tended to the body, and the swordsman wiped his 
blade with a cloth.

The video was distributed by human rights activists and posted online after the 
execution in Makkah on January 12, shedding light on the way Saudi Arabia 
applies the death penalty.

On Sunday, Saudi news outlets reported that the authorities had arrested the 
man who had shot the video and planned to prosecute him. Although the reports 
did not specify what charges he faced, an Interior Ministry spokesman said such 
matters fell under the country's law against cybercrimes.

Saudi Arabia is governed by a strict interpretation of Sharia. Some of its 
practices have come under greater scrutiny with the rise of Daesh extremist 
group in Iraq and Syria, which also claims to rule according to Sharia law and 
has shocked the world with videos of its fighters beheading captives.

The kingdom recently delayed the second round of the public caning of a writer 
sentenced to 1,000 blows for running a liberal website after his sentence was 
criticised by the US State Department and the United Nations. That followed an 
uproar caused by a video of the 1st round of the punishment that was posted 
online.

Many Saudis object to their country's being compared to Daesh, saying that 
Saudi Arabia executes only those convicted of grave crimes, while the fighters 
of Daesh indiscriminately kill those who do not share their beliefs.

International human rights organisations have criticised the Saudi justice 
system, and 2 UN human rights experts called for a moratorium on beheadings in 
Saudi Arabia last year, labelling them "cruel, inhuman and degrading 
treatment."

Although Saudi Arabia criminalises any words or acts that insult the Prophet 
Mohammad (PBUH), it condemned the deadly attack this month on the newspaper 
Charlie Hebdo in France and has joined the US-led air campaign against Daesh.

Still, some Saudis worry about how domestic practices affect their image 
abroad.

"You reach a stage where you can't defend the country," said Khalid Al Maeena, 
a social and media analyst who lives in Jeddah. "I can't go on a platform in 
Europe and say that everything is hunky dory when someone is being lashed every 
Friday."

Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and commentator, said that while some 
Saudis saw the damage such practices caused abroad, the government faced little 
opposition domestically, partly because of the belief that Islamic punishments 
should be carried out in public.

"It is the Saudi Foreign Ministry that will face the heat, but locally we don't 
have a problem with that," he said of public executions.

Saudi Arabia, a country of 27 million, executed 87 people last year for crimes 
like rape, murder, armed robbery and drug trafficking, according to a count 
compiled by Human Rights Watch. It has executed 11 people so far this year.

While most executions are believed to be beheadings, the government does not 
usually disclose the method used.

The United States, by contrast, executed 35 people last year, according to the 
Death Penalty Information Centre, using methods that are not always flawless.

According to the state-run Saudi Press Agency, the executed woman was a citizen 
of Myanmar who had been convicted of severely beating her husband's 7-year-old 
daughter, also from Myanmar, and violating her with a broomstick "without mercy 
or pity, which led to her death."

In the video, which appeared to have been filmed with a mobile phone, the women 
repeatedly yelled, "I didn't kill! I didn't kill!" and "This is oppression!" in 
Arabic while the men positioned her for the blows of the sword.

The Saudi newspaper Okaz reported on Sunday that the police in Makkah had 
arrested a security officer who had filmed the beheading and that he would face 
both military and civilian justice.

Another Saudi newspaper, Al Riyadh, cited Lt Col Atta Al Quraishi, a spokesman 
for the Makkah police, as saying that the man would be turned over to the 
"relevant authorities."

(source: Gulf News)

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

Why Saudi Arabia still has public beheadings



Last week, a Burmese woman in Saudi Arabia who'd been convicted of abusing and 
murdering her step-daughter met Saudi justice: police dragged her through a 
street in Mecca and held her down as, in full public view, she was gruesomely 
beheaded. When a clandestine recording leaked to YouTube (it has since been 
pulled), the Saudi government defended its latest public beheading as necessary 
to "implement the rulings of God," warning any who might commit a similar crime 
that "the rightful punishment is their fate."

This execution, Saudi Arabia's 10th in January alone, is representative of the 
country's extreme and often horrifying justice system. Those practices have 
come under renewed international attention over Saudi blogger Raef Badawi, who 
was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, carried out over 20 weeks, for speaking up in 
defense of atheists and ridiculing religious figures. His most recent round of 
50 lashes has been postponed - according to Saudi authorities, because the last 
50 were so painful that he might not survive another round in his current 
state.

The story of why and how Saudi Arabia's justice system became so notoriously 
barbaric is more complicated than you might think. It's in many ways less about 
religion than it is about Saudi Arabia's unusual politics; yes, Saudi Arabia 
has politics. At the heart of it is the relationship between the Saudi monarchy 
and the country's ultra-conservative clerical establishment - an arrangement 
that dates back to 1744.

This is all built on a 270-year-old Faustian bargain between the Saudi clan and 
a fundamentalist leader

In 1744, when the place we now know as Saudi Arabia was divided among many 
fractious clans, a minor clan leader named Mohammed ibn al-Saud met Muhammed 
ibn al-Wahhab, a Sunni religious figure preaching an austere, puritanical 
interpretation of Islam. They struck an alliance: Wahhab would support the 
Saudi family as political rulers, and the Saudis would spread Wahhab's 
ultra-conservative doctrine and let him set religious code within their 
territory.

Wahhabism, as Wahhab's doctrines came to be known, gave al-Saud a believing tax 
base and an ideological justification for uniting the peninsula under his rule. 
"Without Wahhabism," London School of Economics Professor Madawi al-Rasheed 
writes, "it is highly unlikely that ... [Saudi] leadership would have assumed 
much political significance."

With the support of Wahhab and his followers, by the early 1800s the Saudi 
family had expanded their control from a small holding in the center of the 
Arabian peninsula to essentially all of what we now call Saudi Arabia, an area 
larger than present-day Mexico. As Saudi political control spread, so did the 
power of the Wahhabi clerical establishment. And as the empire grew, so did 
Saudi reliance on Wahhabi doctrine to unify and rule.

Why the Wahhabists wanted to bring back ancient practices

The Ottoman Empire destroyed the Saudi state in 1818, but Saudi rule returned a 
century later, reestablishing Saudi Arabia as we now know it 1932. The 
Saudi-Wahhabi alliance remained the core of the national ideology, and remains 
so to this day.

Wahhabism is a sort of fundamentalist revivalism, emphasizing a return to what 
its ultra-conservative proponents see as the core and original Muslim values. 
As such, it takes a fairly literalist view of Islamic law - and is willing to 
use the force of the state to back that up.

In the Wahhabi view, punishments such as public beheadings, though seen as 
barbaric by virtually the rest of the world - including the Muslim world - are 
justified and indeed important because they are perceived throwbacks to the 
Prophet Mohammed's seventh-century rule, and one of many ways in which the 
Wahhabists sought to turn back to clock to what they saw as a better era. That 
the punishments are medieval is the point.

In this view, "the death penalty or stoning for adultery and fornication, 
flogging and amputation for stealing, and punishments of retribution, are 
sanctioned by the Quran and are unchangeable," legal scholar Shahid M. 
Shahidullah explains. Wahhabist interpretation of "sharia law is the exclusive 
foundation of criminal justice" in Saudi Arabia.

So the centuries-old political bargain between the Wahhabis and the ruling 
explains why the Saudi criminal code sanctions such brutal punishments.

The Saudis keep these practices not out of religious devotion, but because of 
politics

Over the past several decades, as individual members of the Saudi royal family 
have grown up far more exposed to outside ideas and formal education, they have 
drifted away from the country's Wahhabi roots. That has included some modest 
reforms to the justice system. "Successive monarchs of the kingdom supported 
selective modernization of the kingdom in many areas, including law and 
justice." Shahidullah writes. "It is for this relatively liberal perspective of 
the Saudi ruling monarchy that a number of law and justice institutions have 
recently grown to establish strict procedural guidelines on the implementation 
of sharia law."

And yet, the medieval punishments remain. There are two main reasons for this, 
both of which have far more to do with politics than religion. First, the Saudi 
royal family still believes it needs the support of the ultra-conservative 
clerical establishment to hold power, just as it did in the 1700s. And these 
punishments are a way of appeasing those clerics. Second, the Saudi royal 
family is a dictatorship that earnestly fears unrest, and uses severe 
punishments as one of several tools to stifle dissent or grassroots organizing.

"This situation puts Saudi Arabia at odds with the rest of the Arab world"

That first point, though, may be the most important. The Saudi monarchy sees 
itself as stuck between a powerful, ultra-conservative clerical establishment 
on one side and the practical realities of running a modern country on the 
other. Public beheadings are one way that the Saudis continue to allow 
Wahhabist control over religious matters, and thus preempt Wahhabist opposition 
to the monarchy's modest modernizations and pro-Western foreign policy.

This tension has long defined the country: in 1979, religious extremists seized 
the Grand Mosque in Mecca, demanding the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy for 
betraying ultra-conservative Islamist ideals. The siege, which killed over 200 
people, led the Saudis to try to prevent future attacks by co-opting radical 
Islam where it could, to be more extremist than the extremists. In 1991, when 
elements of the Saudi clerical establishment practically revolted over the 
monarchy allowing US troops to temporarily base there, the monarchy again 
responded by co-opting the extremists, encouraging them to fund jihadists 
abroad rather than make trouble at home.

Brutal punishments such as public beheadings are one way that the Saudis do 
this. The monarchy has given little indication it considers human rights a 
priority, so it has been seemingly quite willing to trade them away.

In return, the religious establishment has rewarded the monarchy with loyalty 
that has been crucial to keeping the Saudis in power. "In every crisis the 
regime has faced since the founding of the modern Saudi state," Texas A&M's F. 
Gregory Gause writes, "the Wahhabi clerics holding high positions in the state 
religious hierarchy have rallied to the colors."

Even when it comes to something like commercial law, where the haphazard nature 
of sharia law does actual harm to the Saudi economy and thus the regime's 
coffers, the monarchy has been historically hesitant to try to reform the 
religious courts.

"This situation puts Saudi Arabia at odds with the rest of the Arab world, 
where modernizing governments have steadily hemmed in religious courts," 
Dickinson College historian David Commins writes. "It appears as though the 
Saudi rulers lack the confidence to challenge directly the Wahhabi ulama, 
perhaps from a sense that the dynasty's claim to legitimacy is questionable."

Saudi Arabia is unique

It's tempting to use Saudi Arabia, one of the largest and most powerful Arab 
states, as a proxy for the legal systems in Arab states as a whole. But that's 
not fair. Saudi law takes a much stricter interpretation of Islamic law than 
almost all of its neighbors, and Saudi practices are viewed with horror in much 
of the Middle East.

That's because the Faustian pact between Wahhabi clerics and the al-Saud family 
is unique. Though many nations use sharia as a source of inspiration in their 
legal codes, no other Arab country is explicitly founded as clerical-Wahhabi 
states.

Reform is not impossible. Caryle Murphy documented a number of promising signs 
in an interesting Foreign Policy essay, including growing diversity of 
religious thought and declining public support for sharia law. Saudi women are 
challenging some of the particularly absurd gender rules, like the ban on women 
driving.

But don't expect an end to flogging or beheading anytime soon. The Wahhabi 
establishment, and its harsh vision of criminal law, are deeply embedded in the 
Saudi state, and seen by the monarchy as essential for keeping themselves in 
power.

(source: vox.com)

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

Of Drugs And Beheadings



A 3rd Pakistani citizen has been beheaded this year in Saudi Arabia for heroin 
smuggling under strict Sharia laws. Eleven people have already been executed 
for drug smuggling in Saudi Arabia. There are 2 major issues of concern. The 
1st is that of Pakistan's involvement in the international drug trade and 
heroine supply. This is something that we have been unable to nip in the bud. 
Without Pakistani smugglers and Karachi as a transport hub, opium production in 
Afghanistan would collapse. What is additionally worrying is that there are 
reports that poppy production is on the rise in Balochistan. The root problem 
is at home. It is a problem of a lack of law enforcement, bureaucratic 
corruption and bribery, ineffective border control of drugs coming in from 
Afghanistan and going out of Karachi or across the border to Iran, and of 
Pakistan being a factory for Afghanistan to refine drugs. The culprits that are 
caught are usually just middle men, the real kingpin need to be arrested and 
convicted. Else we will continue to have our citizens beheaded and arrested.

The list is long of what Pakistan needs to do and we can't expect leniency on 
the part of international governments. All states can do is enforce their laws 
and that's all that Saudi Arabia is doing. But the death penalty is a harsh way 
to go about it and this brings us to the 2nd issue of human rights concerns. 
Beheading criminals is something expected of rogue militants like ISIS, and 
does not and should not be associated with the revered kingdom. The United 
Nations has expressed concern about the judicial process and called for an 
immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. The 
country has the 3rd-highest number of recorded executions in 2013, behind Iran 
and Iraq, according to Amnesty International. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed 
robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi law.

Drug trafficking is also a problem in the UAE and most networks have Pakistani 
smugglers and transporters. These countries are of importance to us with 
regards to the booming remittance economy of Pakistan. We have many honest and 
law abiding citizens working in the Gulf and we cannot afford to get a 
reputation for being criminals and drug traffickers. We live in a world that is 
increasingly becoming more and more paranoid about security and immigration and 
is more and more hostile to Pakistanis. We don't need any more bad press.

(source; The Nation)








TRINIDAD:

'Opposition committed to death penalty' ... but will not support Amendment Bill



The People's National Movement (PNM) will not support the Constitution 
Amendment (Capital Offences) Bill, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley has 
indicated in a letter to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan.

"We will be shooting ourselves in the foot by, unwittingly, virtually 
abolishing hanging in the process of your Government's ill-conceived proposed 
amendments, and we will certainly be giving convicted murderers more 
opportunity to escape hanging by facilitating appeal on appeal to argue the 
constitutional parameters of the new law," Rowley told Ramlogan in a letter 
dated January 15.

Rowley also told Ramlogan that he found it difficult to comprehend how an 
Attorney General who was ostensibly committed to the implementation of hanging 
would proceed to treat with such an important matter "in wanton and reckless 
disregard" for the conventions by which legislation is enacted.

Stating that the Opposition was committed to the imposition of the death 
penalty, which is the existing law, Rowley said: "We will not support a measure 
that is ill-conceived and one that has in fact only reduced the number of 
persons on death row where it has been attempted, and one that will only create 
new avenues of appeal for convicted murderers."

Rowley was replying to the Attorney General's letter on the Constitution 
Amendment (Capital Offences) Bill 2015.

"If we change the law concerning the death penalty now, there is the grave and 
serious risk that those convicted of murder will challenge the new law as not 
being constitutional...and the Privy Council is likely to agree with these 
arguments," the Opposition Leader said.

Rowley stated that Trinidad and Tobago was not affected by the decision of the 
Privy Council rendered on Watson, which struck down the death penalty in 
Jamaica.

The reason why the Privy Council struck down the death penalty in Jamaica was 
because the Parliament of Jamaica had enacted legislation which provided for 
categories of murder and which retained the sentence of death for only the most 
serious types of murder, in an Act passed after the enactment of the 
Constitution, he noted.

Rowley pointed out that on the same day that the death penalty was struck down 
by the Privy Council in Jamaica, it was affirmed by the same enlarged panel of 
the Privy Council for Trinidad and Tobago in the case of Charles Matthews.

"Attorney General, the reason why Trinidad and Tobago did not suffer the fate 
of Jamaica was because the then government, of which I was a part, had 
recognised the strength of the "savings law" clause in the Constitution. Put 
simply, that clause, which is now contained in section 6(1) of the 1976 
Constitution, saves the death penalty from being struck down by any court on 
the grounds that it is unconstitutional," Rowley stated.

"That is the background which led the Parliament of Jamaica to attempt in 2011 
to amend the Constitution of Jamaica in the manner you now seek to amend the 
Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago. I reiterate this point - the Privy Council 
ruled that our existing constitutional arrangements permitted the imposition of 
the death penalty, while finding at the same time that the constitutional 
arrangements in Jamaica did not," Rowley emphasised.

"I find it to be incomprehensible that you and the Government that you serve 
would so recklessly attempt a constitutional amendment to fix a problem that 
the Privy Council has held does not exist in Trinidad and Tobago. Our problem 
is not the Constitution. Our problem lies in the implementation of the law," he 
added.

Rowley said until Ramlogan and the Government are prepared to commit to doing 
this real work, the death penalty will not be carried out in Trinidad and 
Tobago.

"The fault is not our Constitution, Attorney General, rather it is the careless 
and undisciplined approach to this matter that is now writ large in the very 
public and, I daresay, factually-misguided utterances made on this matter by 
you and certain of your colleagues," Rowley said.

"Further, it is important to note that in Jamaica where a similar amendment was 
made in 2011 no one has since been executed by the State," he said, adding: "In 
fact, the amendment has only had the predictable effect of having fewer persons 
sentenced to death in that jurisdiction."

Rowley said all that was needed for the implementation of the death penalty in 
T&T was the establishment of the right administrative procedures to ensure that 
the existing saved law is implemented.

"The existence of international bodies is no excuse. They are not new. They 
were there during the Dole Chadee trial, yet he and others were hanged because 
the proper administrative procedures were put in place," Rowley said.

"We urge you to be responsible in the discharge of your duties as the Attorney 
General of Trinidad and Tobago and to stop the charade with respect to the 
proposed constitutional amendments now afoot as the good citizens of our 
beloved country deserve far better," Rowley stated.

(source: Trinidad Express)





INDIA:
Death can be awarded inspite of young age: Chhattisgarh to Supreme
Court

Death sentences can be awarded inspite of the young age of a convict and
there are several judgements to buttress it, Chhattisgarh government today
told the Supreme Court.

The submission was made before a 3-judge bench headed by Justice A R Dave,
which is hearing the review plea of condemned convict Sonu Sardar whose
mercy petition has been rejected by the President after the apex court had
upheld the death penalty.

The counsels for Chhattisgarh, Atul Jha and Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, said
there were a number of cases in which the apex court have confirmed death
penalty of convicts who were of young age at the time of commission of an
offence.

Raising objection to the submission of Sardar's counsel that the
conviction should be re-visited, he said the circumstantial evidence
proved that Sonu had played a "vital role" in the crime.

He cited apex court judgements where death sentence was confirmed in cases
hinging on circumstantial evidence and there were more than 1 accused
involved in the offence.

The bench, which is hearing the plea in an open court in view of an
earlier verdict that review petitions in death penalty cases would not be
decided in closed chambers, fixed the matter for further consideration on
February 10 saying "We intend to reserve a full day for hearing. We don't
want to put constraints on anybody."

Sardar, who was few months above the age of minority, was convicted and
sentenced to death for killing 5 family members including two minors of a
scrap dealer in Raipur on November 26, 2004 by the trial court on February
27, 2008.

The Chhattisgarh High Court and the Supreme Court had confirmed it on
March 8, 2010 and February 23, 2012 respectively. The Supreme Court had
thereafter on June 19 stayed execution of his death sentence.

The President had rejected his mercy plea on April 21 this year.

(source: Economic Times of India)