[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 23



IRAN----executions

9 more prisoners hanged, 3 in public



9 more prisoners hanged in Iran, including 3 in public as the wave of 
executions continues under Hassan Rouhani.

3 men were put to death in the city of Bonab in the East Azarbaijan province on 
Wednesday morning.

On the same day, another group of 5 prisoners were hanged in Adelabad Prison in 
southern city of Shiraz that has not been announced by the regime.

The hanging followed the execution of a 26-year-old prisoner in the city of 
Torqabeh, in north-east Iran, on Monday. The prisoner was identified only with 
his initials of M.S.

At least 8 prisoners have been hanged in public since the beginning of the New 
Year in Iran.

More than 1,200 men women and children have been executed in Iran since Hassan 
Rouhani became president in July 2013.

(source: NCR-Iran)

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

IHRDC Chart of Executions by the Islamic Republic of Iran - 2015



This chart documents executions of people by the Islamic Republic of Iran 
beginning in January 2015. The official announcements are noted but, as the 
Iranian government does not announce many executions, it is difficult to know 
the exact number.

IHRDC is thus unable to confirm the unofficial reports but has provided links 
to PDFs of the original sources. It will update this list on a regular basis.

see: 
http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/publications/1000000564-ihrdc-chart-of-executions-by-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-2015.html

(source: Iran Human Rights Documentation Center)








PAKISTAN:

Pakistanis vote yes to death penalty



According to the Gilani Research Foundation Survey carried out by Gallup 
Pakistan, 95 % of Pakistanis agree that if convicted a person should be given 
the death penalty, only 4 % of Pakistanis disagreed.

A nationally representative sample of adult men and women, from across the four 
provinces was asked, "Please tell us, to what extent do you agree or disagree 
with the following sentence: 'Convicted should be given the death penalty'" In 
response to this question, 81 % of the respondents said they agree with this 
statement a lot, 14 % of the respondents said that they agree with this 
statement, while 4 % of the respondents disagreed with the statement and 1 % 
did not respond.

The study was released by Gilani Research Foundation and carried out by Gallup 
Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International. The survey was 
carried out among a sample of 2582 men and women in rural and urban areas of 
all 4 provinces of the country, during December 22 - December 29, 2014. The 
error margin is estimated to be approximately 2-3 % at 95 % confidence level.

(source: Pakistan Today)








JAPAN:

Former death row prisoners spearhead calls for reform of Japanese legal system



Revelations that inmates on Japan's death row were wrongfully convicted have 
sparked national debate and calls for reform of the death penalty.

While many countries in the region are abolishing the death penalty, Japan is 
sentencing more people than ever to hang, with 12 killed in the last 2 years.

But now former inmates who were put on death row after being wrongly convicted 
have started a reform movement, demanding legal representation for suspects, an 
end to detention without charge, and full video-taping of interrogations.

The public is backing them, with a campaign of demonstrations. But the 
country's government still insists it needs the death penalty.

Iwao Hakamada spent decades waiting to be executed for a crime he did not 
commit.

Mr Hakamada was wrongfully convicted of brutally murdering a family of 4 in 
1968.

The police tortured him for 23 days to secure a confession, and at his trial 
the prosecution fabricated evidence.

"The police will do anything to get a confession," his sister Hideko said.

"Iwao had to sign off on what the police wrote - it's usual for the police to 
do this."

In 2007 one of the judges who sentenced Mr Hakamada to death publicly admitted 
the court got it wrong.

It took 7 years for Mr Hakamada to be released, after 46 years on death row.

His body may be free but his mind is not, as he has been diagnosed with 
institutional psychosis.

"I think it's natural to go crazy if you confined in a small space for more 
than 40 years, but you think they could have treated him more humanely," said 
Hideko, who devoted her life to getting her brother released.

Now, Iwao Hakamada paces up and down for 12 hours a day in a small apartment in 
central Japan.

'Make the suspect confess no matter what'

Japan has 125 death row inmates and it is emerging that, like Iwao Hakamada, 
some of them may be innocent.

Hiroshi Ichikawa was a prosecutor for 13 years and describes the system as 
fatally flawed.

As a prosecutor, he said he fabricated confessions and threatened 1 suspect 
with death.

"I was told 'make the suspect confess no matter what'," he said.

"It's an order telling you to make up a confession."

I want them to investigate no matter what, I want them to hurry up and capture 
the real criminal before it's too late.----Toshikazu Sugaya

In the Japanese justice system, it is the confession and not the trial that 
virtually guarantees a guilty verdict.

The prosecution has an astonishing 99 % success rate, but Mr Ichikawa said he 
wanted that to change.

"It's nonsense to force a confession - I want the culture to change so they can 
accept acquittal," he said.

The alarming problem in cases of wrongful conviction is that the culprits could 
still be at large.

Toshikazu Sugaya was accused of being a paedophile and a serial killer of 3 
young girls in 1991.

He was convicted of murdering 1, but after 19 years of jail, DNA tests revealed 
he was innocent.

Mr Sugaya says the real killer has a pattern - he kills girls between 4 and 8 
years of age, in a 20-kilometre radius, and strikes about twice a decade.

And he claims the police are not investigating the case properly.

"I want them to investigate no matter what, I want them to hurry up and capture 
the real criminal before it's too late," he said.

(source: ABC news)








MALAYSIA:

SA man caught with drugs in Malaysia sentenced to death; Deon Cornelius was 
found carrying 2 kilos of drugs after arriving at Penang International Airport 
in 2013.



A South African security guard has been sentenced to death by a High Court in 
Malaysia after being found guilty of drug trafficking.

Deon Cornelius was found to be carrying 2 kilograms of methamphetamine after 
arriving at Penang International Airport in 2013.

The 28-year-old has now been sentenced to death by hanging.

Cornelius's family initially thought he would get a 10-year-sentence under a 
deal with Malaysian prosecutors.

His wife, Angelique Cornelius's Facebook page is full of loving messages for 
her husband, but in her latest post, she shares the devastating news of his 
sentence.

2 kilograms of methamphetamine were found inside Cornelius's laptop bag.

He says the bag was given to him by a man named "Tony" to bring to Malaysia and 
that he was unaware of its contents.

However, the judge found that he had knowledge of the drugs in the bag and that 
he only mentioned "Tony" as an afterthought.

Cornelius, who has a 5-year-old daughter, was charged under Malaysia's 
Dangerous Drugs Act which carries a mandatory death sentence.

(source: EyeWitness News)

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

Altantuya's killer to file for clemency soon, says lawyer



Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 1 of the 2 former police commandos sentenced to 
death for the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu, will file for an 
application to obtain a pardon without further delay.

His lawyer Datuk Hazman Ahmad said he would be meeting his client next week to 
take further instruction before writing to the Attorney-General.

"Besides the legal process, it is also the constitutional right of a convict to 
write to the authorities to be pardoned for the crime committed," he told The 
Malaysian Insider.

Hazman said he would proceed without delay although another convict, Corporal 
Sirul Azhar, has fled.

Sirul and Azilah have been free since August 23, 2013, after the Court of 
Appeal overturned their murder convictions.

However, the Federal Court reinstated the convictions and upheld the death 
sentence for both men last week.

Evidence in court revealed that Altantuya, a Mongolian translator, was murdered 
before her body was blown up by C4 explosives on October 18, 2006, in the 
outskirts of Shah Alam, near the capital city Kuala Lumpur.

Former political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, a confidante of Prime Minister 
Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was charged with abetting Azilah and Sirul but was 
acquitted by the High Court in 2008 without his defence being called. The 
government did not appeal.

Despite the conviction, the motive for the murder of Altantuya was never 
revealed.

Sirul left for Australia last October and was absent when the Federal Court 
last week delivered the verdict that both were guilty of the murder.

The 43-year-old was reported to have been arrested in Brisbane, Australia 3 
days ago and Malaysian authorities have made a formal request that Sirul be 
extradited to Malaysia.

However, Australian law dictates that a person facing the death penalty in his 
or her home country cannot be extradited.

It was also reported today that Sirul has been released by the Australian 
Immigration authorities but that his passport is being withheld.

Sirul's lawyer are expected to file a legal challenge on any attempt to 
extradite Sirul and legal experts share the view that the process will take 
time.

Meanwhile, Hazman said he would write to the Attorney-General's Chambers to 
obtain the pardon for his client who is now held in solitary confinement in 
Sungai Buloh prison.

"The Attorney-General will then present a paper with his reccomendations to 
Selangor Pardons Board which will be chaired by the state ruler," he said, 
adding that the matter was referred to the state because the crime had taken 
place in the state.

The Federal Constitution states that the board is required to consider the 
written opinion of the Attorney-General before advising the ruler.

Lawyer M. Visvanathan said the ruler had absolute discretion when a convict 
made a plea for his life to be spared.

"Usually the death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment if the plea 
for clemency is allowed," he added.

Meanwhile, the New Straits Times reported today that the Australian authorities 
have released Sirul with conditions attached and that his movements in the 
country are also being monitored.

"His passport is being held, but Australian Immigration released him on certain 
conditions, including having to come forward if required by the authorities 
there," a Wisma Putra spokesman told the NST.

Malaysian Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said yesterday that 
Putrajaya had formally asked Australia to hand over Sirul, who fled there last 
October ahead of a court decision last week that upheld his death sentence.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Noor Rashid Ibrahim was reported 
as saying that the matter had been referred to the Attorney-General's Chambers 
for repatriation.

Australian media has reported that Sirul will not be sent back as Canberra 
forbids repatriating suspects who face the death penalty, setting up a 
potential tug-of-war.

Australia's foreign minister Julie Bishop, who is in Washington, was reported 
as saying that she was "not in a position to give any details in relation to 
the matter", or how it would affect the relationship between the 2 countries.

(source: The Malaysian Insider)

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

Australian mother in drug case 'duped in romance scam', says lawyer



An Australian mother of 4 charged in Malaysia with the capital crime of drug 
trafficking was duped into carrying the drugs after falling for an online 
romance scam, her lawyer said today.

Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 52, was arrested on Dec 7 after arriving at Kuala 
Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) en route from Shanghai to Melbourne.

A routine Customs check discovered a hidden compartment in a bag she carried, 
which contained 1.5kg of suspected crystal methamphetamine, or "ice". She was 
charged on Dec 19.

Exposto has denied knowledge of the drugs, saying she accepted a bag that she 
thought contained only clothing from a stranger who asked her to take it to 
Melbourne.

One of her lawyers, Tania Scivetti, said Exposto had become involved in an 
online romance with a person claiming to be a US serviceman.

She travelled to Shanghai to meet him, only to discover that another person had 
been posing as her supposed love interest. It was there that she was tricked 
into carrying the drugs, Scivetti said.

"Basically she had been duped into believing she was going to see him, but 
instead she was duped into becoming a (drug) mule," Scivetti said.

Scivetti provided no further details.

Drug trafficking carries a mandatory sentence of death by hanging upon 
conviction in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Anyone with at least 50g of "ice" is considered a trafficker, subject to the 
death penalty.

Exposto originally hails from East Timor but has been an Australian citizen 
since 1985, her lawyers have said.

She appeared in a court outside Kuala Lumpur on Friday for the scheduled 
presentation of test results on the substance found in the bag, but the court 
was told the chemist's report was not yet ready.

A new date was set for Feb 27.

The defence is yet to enter a plea as the court now handling the case has no 
jurisdiction over death-penalty cases. The case is expected to be moved up to a 
higher court.

Hundreds of Malaysians and foreigners are on death row, many for drug-related 
offences, though few have been executed in recent years.

2 Australians were hanged in 1986 for heroin trafficking - the 1st Westerners 
executed in Malaysia - in a case that strained bilateral relations.

(source: therakyatpost.com)



PHILIPPINES/SAUDI ARABIA:

THE KING AND I -- Spared from death, OFW Lanuza writes in praise of Saudi 
monarch



Mercy and compassion, the phrase recently associated with the papal admonition, 
is something the late Saudi monarch Abdullah is seen as a living example of. 
And the best poster boy of such is a Filipino worker on death row for whom the 
king shelled out P27 million in blood money.

King Abdullah will be remembered as "the 1st Saudi king to contribute blood 
money to save the life of an overseas Filipino worker," according to Vice 
President Jejomar Binay, who as presidential adviser on OFW concerns worked 
closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs in the difficult campaign to 
stay the execution of that OFW, Rodelio Celestino "Dondon" Lanuza.

In 2013, King Abdullah gave 2.3 million Saudi Riyals to spare Lanuza from the 
death penalty. "He also generously extended more than once the deadline for 
foreign workers to correct their residency or work status to legalize their 
stay in the Kingdom," Binay recalled.

King Abdullah's "kindness and compassion was extraordinary," the vice president 
said in a statement on the death of the Saudi monarch; and no one best shows 
appreciation of that than Lanuza himself, who wrote an open letter cum ode to 
the Saudi king soon after learning of his passing.

Here, below, is the text of Lanuza's letter, shared with InterAksyon.com by the 
Center for Migrant Advocacy:

Bismillahir Rahmannir Rahim

When you save one life, it is as if you saved the entire world.

It is a sorrowful moment, to learn that a great man already left us, the king 
of Saudi Arabia.

I am one of the thousand few, that this great man willingly and selflessly 
helped.

Many had known and witnessed the tremendous help and assistance he extended to 
me.

He spared my life. I would forever be indebted and grateful to him.

Many thanks to you, from my family and I, from the bottom of our hearts.

We are one in sorrow. I am sure you are on your way to Jannah.

Again, our deep condolences to your family. And deep gratitude to the one of 
the greatest man I've known.

You will be remembered HRH King Abdullah ibn Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, forever.

Eesa "Dondon" Lanuza

(source: interakyson.com)