[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 29


KYRGYZSTAN:

Kyrgyzstan Debates Death Penalty for Child Abusers



The rape of a 2-year-old Bishkek boy earlier in January is fueling a nationwide 
debate: should Kyrgyzstan reintroduce capital punishment for such heinous 
crimes? While passions rage in parliament and the media, rights activists say 
Kyrgyzstan's corrupt and unaccountable courts should not be trusted on matters 
of life and death.

In response to heated public discussions, where some have called for vigilante 
groups to hunt down and kill alleged sexual predators, on January 27 Prime 
Minister Djoomart Otorbaev recommended displaying large portraits of rapists in 
public squares, the state-run Kabar news agency quoted him as saying. He also 
said he supports reintroducing the death penalty for anyone convicted of 
sexually assaulting a child.

In a country where years of corruption and misrule mean the public today has 
little trust in its officials, it is perhaps not surprising that some are 
turning to vigilantism. On January 8, in the village of Sokoluk, just outside 
the capital, locals beat to death a 43-year-old man they accused of raping a 
local man.

Anger is also being directed at Kyrgyzstan's notoriously opaque court system.

2 years ago, a teacher in Osh, Kyrgyzstan's 2nd city, admitted to raping a 
9-year-old boy. But the teacher managed to convince the judge that he is 
insane, according to the boy's family's lawyer, Khusanbai Saliev. "The case has 
been suspended until his compulsory medical treatment is over," Saliev told 
EurasiaNet.org.

Both the lawyer and the mother believe the rapist bought phony medical 
documents in order to feign insanity to escape punishment.

Wiping away tears, the mother says her son's attacker should be executed. "I 
found out that my son was raped when he couldn't defecate. When I asked him 
what was wrong he said one of his teachers 'put his thing into me from 
behind,'" the boy's mother told EurasiaNet.org. "Shocked by what the man did to 
my son, I wanted to kill him. ... They [rapists] don't have the right to live."

Her lawyer, pointing to this case as an example of the courts' unreliability, 
argues against capital punishment. "Innocent people could be sentenced to death 
due to a miscarriage of justice," said Saliev.

There are no reliable statistics on sexual assault and child abuse in 
Kyrgyzstan, yet increased media attention on the once-taboo topic is fueling an 
impression that the number of assault cases is growing, says Nazgul 
Turdubekova, the head of the League of Children's Rights Defenders, an NGO in 
Bishkek. She added that Kyrgyzstan's judges are unreliable and prone to let 
bribery determine verdicts and rulings. And mistakes happen, too.

With an election coming this fall, Kyrgyzstan's MPs are keen to be seen as 
responsive to public concerns. On January 22, Irgal Kadyralieva - who is mostly 
known for pushing legislation that would ban girls under age 23 from traveling 
abroad, allegedly to "preserve the gene pool" - demanded parliament reinstate 
the death penalty.

Over the ensuing week, the local AKIpress news agency conducted an online 
survey. Of 4,702 respondents polled, 67.4 % favored reintroducing the death 
penalty for "abuse and violence against children." Another 16.2 % supported 
"castration;" and 14.2 % believed life imprisonment was a just punishment.

Kyrgyzstan carried out least 6 executions between 1992 and 1998, when a ban on 
capital punishment took effect. 2 of the death-penalty cases involved cases of 
child sexual abuse. Under law, the current maximum sentence for such cases 
ranges from 15 years to life in prison.

Retired police colonel Alexander Zelichenko, who consults widely on legal 
issues, argued that a return of the death penalty would not deter such crimes. 
He said the number of cases is not growing, rather they are no longer hushed 
up.

He said other societal ills that serve as triggers for child sexual abuse, such 
as alcoholism, need to be addressed. "Drunk people rape their stepdaughters and 
daughters," Zelichenko said. "Such things happen due to social degradation."

Zelichenko added that, given all the tumult during Kyrgyzstan's 23 years of 
independence, there is little public faith in the rule of law. Too many people 
are seen to be above the law, he argued. "Any offender must know that he or she 
will be found and punished. It is not necessary to chop off his arms or legs or 
castrate him like many people suggest," he told EurasiaNet.org. "It is 
necessary to ensure that the rule of law applies to everybody."

Turdubekova of the League of Children's Rights Defenders sees Kyrgyzstan's 
widespread poverty as a factor in the debate. "Due to their poverty, a large 
number of people leave the country to seek work. They leave their children 
unattended or to be cared for by neighbors, friends and relatives," Turdubekova 
told EurasiaNet.org, adding that children not living under parental supervision 
face a higher risk of experiencing violence.

(source: eurasianet.org)








PAKISTAN:

Rights groups call on Pakistan to halt execution of civilian



Rights organisations on Thursday called on the government to halt the execution 
of the 1st civilian for a non-terror related offence since 2008, saying the 
move would violate its own official policy.

A 6-year moratorium on the death penalty was lifted last month in the case of 
convicted terrorists following a terrorist attack by Taliban militants on a 
school in Peshawar which killed 150 people.

Since then 20 people have been hanged, with plans to execute up to 500.

But a death warrant issued this week for convicted murderer Shoaib Sarwar has 
raised the prospect of executions being resumed for the rest of the country's 
almost 8,000 death row convicts.

Sarwar, a death row prisoner, was convicted on murder charges in 1998.

He is currently being held in a jail in Haripur, some 25 kilometres from 
Islamabad.

Rights groups have slammed the announcement, which sets the date of his hanging 
for February 3 in Rawalpindi.

"The government policy on who should be executed is very clear it says only 
people who are on terrorism," Kate Higham of British legal charity Reprieve 
told AFP, adding the judge in this case had misunderstood his role and 
succumbed to pressure from the victim's family.

Analysts believe that resuming the executions in non-terror cases could imperil 
a favourable trade agreement with the European Union which exempts Pakistan 
from taxes on its textile exports.

(source: Agence France-Presse)