[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

Tue Jan 27 17:06:23 CST 2015

Jan. 27

SAUDI ARABIA----executions

3 more beheaded under new Saudi king

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday beheaded 2 more of its citizens and a Pakistani, 
continuing the strictest punishment under new King Salman.

Omar bin Yahya bin Ibrahim al-Barkati was tried and convicted of incest, the 
interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press 
Agency.

"He was executed as punishment for his crime and as a lesson to others," the 
ministry said, adding that authorities carried out the sentence in southwestern 
Asir region.

In a separate case, Yassir bin Hussein al-Hamza was executed in northwestern 
Jawf region after his trial and confession for smuggling amphetamine pills, the 
ministry said.

A 3rd convict, Latif Khan Nurzada, a Pakistani, was executed for trafficking 
heroin into the kingdom. He was executed in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, the 
ministry said in another statement.

According to an AFP tally, their executions bring to 16 the number of Saudis 
and foreigners put to death this year under the kingdom's strict version of 
Islamic sharia law.

4 have been executed since King Salman took office last Friday after the death 
of his predecessor Abdullah.

Under Abdullah, the number of executions jumped from 27 in 2010 to around 80 
annually, with 87 last year.

The oil-rich Gulf Arab state faces constant international criticism over its 
human rights record, including the use of the death penalty.

(source: timeslive.com)

INDONESIA:

No mercy: Derryn Hinch says Bali 9 drug smugglers SHOULD be executed and slams 
celebrities who star in video calling for them to be spared the firing squad as 
'hypocrites'

Controversial media personality Derryn Hinch has posted a video slamming 
celebrities participating in the 'I Stand For Mercy' campaign as 'hypocritical' 
and declaring his support for the death penalty in Australia.

In a video labelled 'Derryn Hinch on Bali 9 Executions', the radio and 
television presenter expressed no sympathy when bluntly stating that Bali 9 
ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan 'ran the risk' when they attempted 
to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia 10 years ago.

'People like Alan Jones, Germaine Greer, Asher Keddie, David Wenham, they've 
all lined up and they've all signed up, and I think it's hypocritical,' Hinch 
says in the video.

Never been one to hold back on his views, Hinch says in his video, posted on 
his website, Human Headline, that the Australian pair were fully aware of the 
ramifications if caught drug smuggling in Indonesia.

'It's the same in China, in Malaysia, in Thailand, in Vietnam, that's the risk 
you run,' he said bluntly.

Hinch went on to question the well-known Australian personalities' stance on 
the death penalty - asking whether the only sought mercy for their own 
countrymen.

'Did they stand up a week ago and say I stand for mercy for the Brazilian who 
was executed in Indonesia or the one from the Netherlands or the Indonesian 
woman or somebody from Malawi?' he asked.

'Are you against the death penalty for the terrorists?' he added in his rant.

He then expressed his support for the death penalty and believes that most 
Australians would stand right there alongside him.

'I support the death penalty for some crimes...but in cases of rapists, child 
murderers, people who kill policemen, people who kill prison guards, and 
terrorists, the death penalty should stand.

'We should have the death penalty in Australia. If we had a referendum, if Tony 
Abbott had the guts to do it, 75 % of Australians would agree with me.'

Australian war artist Ben Quilty is the person behind the campaign requesting 
mercy from Indonesian authorities and has produced a star-studded video called 
I Stand For Mercy.

The video contains a number of contributions from famous Australians saying how 
upset they are and that the men's lives should be spared. It features the likes 
of actors Asher Keddie, Bryan Brown and Claudia Karvan, musicians Missy Higgins 
and Megan Washington, and broadcasters Alan Jones and Andrew Denton.

Chan and Sukumaran face death by firing squad as early as next Sunday for 
attempting to smuggle heroin into Australia, and their clemency bids have been 
ignored.

Quilty became a mentor and close friend of Sukumaran after he was jailed, and 
has used his creative talents to create the powerful video in support of the 2 
men.

'The message is just for the boys to know there are people walking with them in 
this very dark time,' Quilty told news.com.au.

The 41-year-old is trying to organise a candlelight vigil for the pair, to 
'send a strong message to the men themselves and their families that there are 
a lot of prominent Australians in the arts, media and all parts of our 
community who are on their side.'

'I want the barristers to walk into that prison and tell the boys how many 
people are thinking of them and supporting them,' he said.

The 41-year-old has recruited dozens of renowned musicians to 'perform for 
clemency' and send a message that the death penalty is unacceptable.

"It's for Myu and Andrew - I'd do anything for those 2 boys," he said.

'I want to send a strong message to the men themselves and their families that 
there are a lot of prominent Australians in the arts, media and all parts of 
our community who are on their side.'

Co-founder of the Mercy Campaign, Brigid Delaney said the video highlighted the 
support for the 2 men on death row.

'It's amazing how much support the petition asking for clemency has received. 
We have more than 50,000 signatures, with thousands being added each day as the 
message of mercy spreads,' she said.

'This video is part of that campaign, respectfully asking the Indonesian 
government for mercy for Myuran and Andrew.'

A concert is also planned in Sydney on Thursday in support of the Mercy 
Campaign. Details on the event are still being finalised.

The families of Bali 9 ringleaders Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33, have made a 
desperate plea to Indonesia's president to reconsider the pair's executions in 
light of the work they have done to improve the lives of fellow inmates.

On Thursday, Chan's last ditch attempt at a clemency bid was rejected by 
President Widodo, following Sukumaran's rejected bid in December, officially 
exhausting the legal appeals against their death sentence for attempting to 
smuggle heroin into Australia.

The relatives of Chan and Sukumaran said they were devastated to hear the 
decision about the clemency bids, and pleaded for the president to visit the 
pair in Kerobokan Jail.

(source: Daily Mail)

BARBADOS:

No more compulsory death penalty for murder

Barbados' House of Assembly this morning was moving to stop the death penalty 
from being compulsory for murder.

Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite, who piloted a bill to make this possible, 
said the new law would give judges a range of options for sentencing murder 
convicts. He told parliamentarians the Offences Against the Person Act with its 
mandatory imposition of the penalty of death, was being changed in keeping with 
Barbados' obligations under the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has long ruled that the mandatory 
death penalty violates Articles 4(1) and 4(2) - which prohibit arbitrary 
treatment and limit the death penalty to the most serious crimes - of the 
American Convention on Human Rights.

These state: 1. Every person has the right to have his life respected. This 
right shall be protected by law and, in general, from the moment of conception. 
No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. 2. In countries that have not 
abolished the death penalty, it may be imposed only for the most serious crimes 
and pursuant to a final judgment rendered by a competent court and in 
accordance with a law establishing such punishment, enacted prior to the 
commission of the crime.

The application of such punishment shall not be extended to crimes to which it 
does not presently apply.

Brathwaite pointed out that the death penalty would stay on the books.

(source: nationnews.com)

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY:

New Death Sentence Issued By Gaza Court----PCHR Calls for Immediate Moratorium 
on the Use of the Death Penalty as a Form of Punishment in the occupied 
Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) renews its demand for the 
abolishment of the death penalty in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) 
as Gaza courts issued a second death sentence in 2015.

On Monday, 19 January 2015, the Court of First Instance in Gaza City, acting as 
a court of appeal, sentenced E. M. A. (24), from al-Maghazi refugee camp in the 
Central Gaza Strip, to death by hanging after convicting him of shooting and 
killing M. B. A. (68), from al-Maghazi refugee camp in a family dispute on 15 
February 2009.

A 1st degree court had sentenced the aforementioned to life imprisonment on 9 
March 2014, but the Prosecutor appealed the ruling, and the sentence was raised 
by the Court of Appeal to death.

It should be noted that the defendant was 18 when the 1st sentence was issued.

This sentence has been the second of its kind in the occupied Palestinian 
territory (oPt) since the beginning of 2015 where the 1st death sentence was 
issued by a military court in Hebron against (A. L. A.) on 11 January 2015 
after convicting him of collaboration with the Israeli forces.

Thus, the total number of death sentences issued by the Palestinian Authority 
since 1994 has risen to 157, of which 130 have been issued in the Gaza Strip 
and 27 in the West Bank.

Among those issued in the Gaza Strip, 72 have been issued since Hamas took over 
the Gaza Strip in 2007.

The Palestinian Authority also executed 32 death sentences, of which 30 have 
been executed in the Gaza Strip and 2 in the West Bank.

Among those executed in the Gaza Strip, 19 have been executed since 2007 
without ratification by the Palestinian President in violation of the law.

PCHR is gravely concerned over the continued application of the death penalty 
in Palestinian Authority controlled areas, and:

1. Calls for an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a form 
of punishment because it violates international human rights standards and 
instruments, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), and the UN 
Convention against Torture (1984);

2. Calls for reviewing all legislation related to the death penalty, especially 
the Penal Law No. 74 (1936) which remains in effect in the Gaza Strip, and the 
Jordanian Penal Code No. 16 (1960) that is in effect in the West Bank, and 
enacting a unified penal code that is in line with the spirit of international 
human rights instruments, especially those pertaining to the abolition of the 
death penalty;

3. Points out that the call for abolition of the death penalty does not reflect 
a tolerance for those convicted of serious crimes, but rather a call for 
utilizing deterrent penalties that maintain our humanity; and

4. Stresses that ratification of the implementation of death sentences is an 
absolute power of the Palestinian President according to the Palestinian Basic 
Law and relevant laws, and no death sentence can be implemented without such 
ratification.

(source: International Middle East Media Center)

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

Palestinians urged to abolish death penalty

A rights group on Tuesday urged Palestinian authorities to abolish the death 
penalty, after 2 new sentences were handed down this month in the Gaza Strip 
and the West Bank.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights called for "an immediate 
moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a form of punishment because it 
violates international human rights standards."

Authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza sentenced a 24-year-old to death by 
hanging on charges of murder, and a court in Hebron in the West Bank handed a 
sentence to another man on charges of collaboration with Israel, it said.

Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel, murder and drug trafficking 
are all punishable by death.

Hamas has since 2007 controlled the Gaza Strip and president Mahmud Abbas's 
Palestinian Authority administers the West Bank.

All execution orders must be approved by the Palestinian president before they 
can be carried out, but Hamas no longer recognises the legitimacy of Abbas, 
whose 4-year term ended in 2009.

Hamas executed 18 men in August for alleged collaboration with Israel during 
the 50-day Gaza war, having executed 2 others in May on the same charge.

The PCHR's statement on Tuesday was directed specifically at the PA, which it 
said had issued 157 death sentences since its creation in 1994, and so far 
carried out 32 of them.

(source: The Peninsula)

GUYANA:

Guyana being lobbied to suspend death penalty

Amnesty International and the charitable not-for-profit Justice Institute of 
Guyana are lobbying for an official suspension of hanging convicted prisoners, 
according to a United Nations report.

Prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 
for the Human Rights Council's Working Group on the 21st Session of the 
Universal Periodic Review scheduled for January 19 to 30, 2015; the report says 
that representatives of the London-based Amnesty International met officials of 
the Guyana government in 2014.

That human rights organisation is working with the Justice Institute to 
"advocate for an official moratorium on the death penalty with the aim of its 
ultimate abolition." A number of public events and meetings have been held in 
Guyana to heighten awareness about the need and importance of suspending the 
death penalty.

Resolution 67/176 by the United Nations General Assembly that was passed on 
December 20, 2012 calls on Guyana and several other countries around the world 
to suspend the death penalty because any miscarriage or failure of justice in 
the implementation of the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable. 
"Convinced that a moratorium on the use of the death penalty contributes to 
respect for human dignity and to the enhancement and progressive development of 
human rights, and considering that there is no conclusive evidence of the 
deterrent value of the death penalty," states the resolution.

The General Assembly in that resolution also welcomed the steps taken by 
countries to reduce the number of offences for which the death penalty may be 
imposed and the decisions made by an increasing number of States, at all levels 
of government, to apply a moratorium on executions, followed in many cases by 
the abolition of the death penalty.

Guyana last executed a death row prisoner in 1997. The Guyana Report for the 
UPR states that there are 13 male prisoners on death row. An amendment to the 
death penalty that provides for persons to hanged in limited cases such as 
murder of a police officer on duty or treason, has seen 15 prisoners on death 
row having had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment during the past 5 
years. A number of these, according to the report, will be coming up for parole 
in the next 3 years. One prisoner on death row was exonerated in 2012.

When Guyana comes up for review on Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Council will 
hear that a Parliamentary Special Select Committee failed to focus on the death 
penalty and instead on corporal punishment. The report on Guyana noted that the 
parliamentary committee had been specifically tasked with seeking to determine 
the attitude of Guyanese, particularly the families of victims, criminologists, 
and professionals, on capital punishment and its possible abolition.

Amnesty International wants Guyana to commute without delay all death sentences 
to terms of imprisonment, pending the full abolition of the death penalty, 
esure rigorous compliance in all death penalty cases with international 
standards for fair trial and ratify without reservations the Second Optional 
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at 
abolition of the death penalty.

(source: caribnewsdesk.com)