[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 25




INDIA:

Legal eagles want life to replace death


The Supreme Court has in the past admitted that its own death penalty 
jurisprudence is arbitrary. The present law, laid down in 1980 in the Bacchan 
Singh Vs State of Punjab, which established the 'rarest of the rare' doctrine 
is subjective and opinions on this issue differ, Law Commission chairman and 
former chief justice of Delhi High Court Justice A P Shah has said.

Justice Shah made these observations at a recently concluded deliberations on 
death penalty where he was joined by many other former judges of high courts, 
most of whom sought abolition of the capital punishment which they believed was 
"immoral (to take life), does not deter (crimes), and is irreversible."

"In the Bacchan Singh case itself, the SC admitted that death penalty is 
awarded arbitrarily," Justice Shah said and gave the example of Harbans Singh 
Vs State of UP case of 1982 where three persons were awarded the death penalty 
and their appeals went before three different benches of the Supreme Court. 
"Each bench pronounced a dramatically different sentence. This case highlights 
the state of contradiction and confusion that surrounds the death penalty 
jurisprudence in India," Shah observed.

The former Delhi High Court chief justice calls this a "legal lottery" as there 
is little to differentiate those cases in which death penalty is given and 
those in which life imprisonment is awarded, except may be composition of the 
bench. "The personal predilection of judges impact whether death penalty or no 
death penalty is imposed in any given case," he pointed out.

Justice Shah called for a review of the "inhuman act" when international 
criminal law has abolished death penalty even for the most heinous crimes 
including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Former judge of the Bombay High Court Justice Hosbet Suresh, who had never 
given a death sentence, concurs with Justice Shah. "Various observations come 
from SC from time to time, but all of them have led to arbitrariness," Justice 
Suresh said and favoured dropping of 'special reasons' from the statute books 
to award a death sentence. Rejecting the option of 'rarest of the rare' crime 
for death penalty, he said, "We should choose life imprisonment instead." His 
observations were part of the law panel's consultation on death penalty.

Justice Prabha Sridevan, former judge of the Madras High Court, recounts one of 
her experiences at the consultation. "One of the first cases I heard as a judge 
was a case of rape and murder of a young girl by three men. It was a 
sensational trial. Women's groups sat through proceedings and the trial court 
had awarded the death penalty," she said.

When the case came to the high court, she commuted the sentence to life 
imprisonment. Thereafter she received anonymous letters, criticising her 
judgment. However, recently she discovered that the first accused in the case 
was now a gold medallist. "He undertook his studies while serving his term in 
prison," she said, emphasizing that the "duty of the state is to protect life 
and allow it to reach its fullest potential." Justice Sridevan applauded the 
Naroda Pattaya judgment where the judge didn't award the death penalty where it 
could've been easily categorised as the 'rarest of the rare'.

Justice Bilal Nazki, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Bihar and 
former chief justice of Orissa High Court, too finds death penalty arbitrary. 
"There is no doubt that death penalty is arbitrarily applied, but what are the 
reasons," he asks, and tries to blame the "baggage" his brother judges carry 
when they are elevated to the bench.

He said there is no adequate background checks with respect to the "baggage" 
that a person may be carrying when appointed as a judge. Justice Nazki narrated 
an interesting account. "Chambers and court halls are allotted to judges 
according to seniority. In Allahabad HC, after an SC judge retired, his chamber 
and hall was allotted to a judge of a higher caste. Then puja was done before 
the new judge entered his chamber. This is the baggage we carry," he said.

(source: The Times of India)






PAKISTAN:

Pakistan executes nearly one person a day after Peshawar school massacre


Pakistan has been executing nearly one person a day after it resumed the death 
penalty following the December 2014 Peshawar school massacre, in which 
Pakistani Taliban insurgents killed 150 people, including 134 children.

In the aftermath of the attack, Pakistan announced it would lift a 
6-year-moratorium on the death penalty in order to curb terrorism in the 
country.

Since then, dozens of people, including child offenders, have been executed 
amid growing international concern. Human rights groups have warned that 
several death sentences are in breach of both domestic and international laws 
and that inmates often confess after being tortured.

In March, the United Nations urged Pakistan to reinstate the moratorium as 
there is no scientific proof that the death penalty serves as a deterrent or 
contributes to combating crime or violent extremism.

IBTimes UK spoke with Kate Higham, from the death penalty team at Reprieve, on 
the escalation of executions and the need to reinstate a moratorium on capital 
punishment to avoid human rights abuses.

In June, Pakistan executed Aftab Bahadur amid international outrage. Bahadur 
was arrested and sentenced to death at the age of 15 in 1993, and was executed 
even after his lawyer tried to introduce new evidence that could prove his 
innocence.

As with Bahadurs case, the death sentence handed to Shafqat Hussain has also 
drawn international criticism. Hussain, still on the death row, was sentenced 
to death in 2004 for allegedly kidnapping and killing a 7-year-old boy.

Hussain, who was 14 at the time of the sentence, was granted a last-minute 
reprieve in March and in June 2015, when Pakistan stayed the execution 
following the intervention from human rights groups, which warned Hussain had 
confessed to killing the boy after being tortured in his jail.

(source: International Business Times)






INDONESIA:

Executions not a priority: Attorney General


After executing over a dozen drug convicts amid international outrage since 
January, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) claims that it has yet to schedule 
a 3rd round of executions, following the most recent one in April.

Attorney General M. Prasetyo said on Friday that the AGO had yet to discuss the 
next executions, specifically those of Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and Mary Jane 
Veloso of the Philippines.

"I have not even thought about it yet. We are focusing on other, more important 
tasks that need to be completed soon," he told reporters at the AGO 
headquarters in South Jakarta.

"We hope that it was clear through the 1st and 2nd round of executions that we 
will be firm and not tolerate any drug violations," said the attorney general.

Both Atlaoui and Veloso were slated to be among a group of death row inmates 
who faced a firing squad on April 29 for drug trafficking charges.

However, Atlaoui's most recent appeal was rejected by the Jakarta State 
Administrative Court (PTUN) on June 22.

Atlaoui has repeatedly denied the charges against him, saying that he had been 
hired to install industrial machinery at what he thought was an acrylics 
factory in Tangerang, Banten, where he and several others were busted in a 2005 
police raid.

Meanwhile, Veloso's execution was delayed by the AGO at the last minute after 
she was named a witness in a human trafficking case being investigated by 
Philippine authorities. She was arrested in possession of 2.6 kilograms of 
heroin at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta in 2010.

Superstar Filipino boxer Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao, who is also a member of the 
Philippine House of Representatives, made efforts to meet with Veloso and the 
Indonesian House of Representatives on July 10. However, Prasetyo has said that 
the meeting was unlikely to result in a postponement of Veloso's execution as 
the AGO was "waiting on the legal process in the Philippines to conclude".

Meanwhile, National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) member Siti Noor 
Laila said that the commission remained firm in its anti-death penalty 
stance."As we have said previously, Komnas HAM still does not agree with the 
death penalty because it violates the right to life," she told The Jakarta Post 
on Friday.

Siti Zuhro, a senior political analyst with the Indonesian Institute of 
Sciences (LIPI), told the Post on Friday that the government's position might 
well be due to international pressure.

However, she noted that it would be unwise for Indonesia to back down from 
conducting further executions as it would show the country was reluctant to 
uphold its laws, an image that it was currently trying to shed. "[President 
Joko] "Jokowi" [Widodo] has already affirmed that we are at a red light with 
drugs and that we will uphold our law," Zuhro said.

Zuhro added that being firm about the executions could work positively for 
Indonesia, especially during the creation of international treaties, as it 
would show that the state held true to its word.

(source: Jakakrta Post)






LEBANON:

Lebanese Need Justice, Not Executions


It reportedly began as a traffic dispute and ended in a vicious public murder, 
a man stabbed to death in broad daylight on a busy sidewalk in central Beirut.

Bystanders captured the attack on film and footage clearly shows a man 
repeatedly stabbing George Ibrahim al-Reef despite pleas from al-Reef's wife 
Rola. The authorities later arrested Tarek Yateem, a bodyguard for the powerful 
chairman of Societe Generale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) and charged him with 
premeditated homicide - a crime punishable by death. Lina Haider, who was 
traveling in the car with Yateem, is charged with being an accessory to 
al-Reef's murder.

Brutal images of George's murder galvanized the Lebanese public. Some called 
for the immediate and public execution of the accused, claiming that was the 
only way to ensure political connections do not prevent the application of 
justice.

While the public's frustration with the flawed Lebanese justice system is 
understandable, executions aren't the solution.

A recent Lebanon report by the International Crisis Group called law-breaking, 
especially among the well-connected, a norm which often goes unpunished.

The current media and public discourse that began with this murder has now 
become focused more generally on the politicization of the judicial system. One 
local journalist wrote that the Lebanese people no longer trust the state and 
the judiciary. In this context, the calls for the death penalty can be seen as 
demands for serious accountability in the absence of an independent and 
effective judiciary.

Executions are not the answer. Between the barbaric execution of Lebanese 
soldiers by extremist groups, violent attacks on Alawite, Sunni, and Shiite 
neighborhoods, the last thing Lebanon needs is more killing, even 
state-sanctioned.

The death penalty in all cases is an inherently cruel punishment that cannot be 
reversed even when miscarriages of justice are found to take place. 
Furthermore, study after study suggests that capital punishment does not deter 
crime more than other sanctions.

Human rights need to offer an effective moral guide in turbulent times. 
Government officials need to show they are addressing concerns by strengthening 
the rule of law and protecting the justice system from political interference, 
not through executions. Promoting a culture of accountability and access to 
fair trials is a step towards abolishing widespread impunity.

(source: Human Rights Watch)

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

HRW cautions against Yateem death penalty


Human Rights Watch cautioned against handing the death penalty to Tarek Yateem, 
the suspected culprit facing trial for the brutal stabbing of George Reef, 
saying it would not deter such crimes from recurring.

Instead, the group said more effective measures should be taken by government 
officials to prevent political interference in the affairs of the judiciary.

"Executions are not the answer," the statement said, at a time when some among 
an enraged Lebanese public, roused by footage of the attack captured by 
bystanders, are calling for Yateem to face the maximum sentence allowable for 
premeditated murder as a means to prevent political meddling in the judiciary.

Yateem is the bodyguard of Antoun Sehnaoui, the powerful chairman of Societe 
Generale de Banque au Liban.

Reef died after being stabbed 15 times in the chest by Yateem in the Beirut 
neighborhood of Saifi last week after a road rage incident.

"The death penalty in all cases is an inherently cruel punishment that cannot 
be reversed even when miscarriages of justice are found to take place. 
Furthermore, study after study suggests that capital punishment does not deter 
crime more than other sanctions," the rights-monitoring group said.

"Human rights need to offer an effective moral guide in turbulent times. 
Government officials need to show they are addressing concerns by strengthening 
the rule of law and protecting the justice system from political interference, 
not through executions," it said.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said Yateem could face the death penalty if found 
guilty, calling for a swift trial to deter other would-be killers. But he could 
face a lighter sentence if his testimony to police, that he was under the 
influence of drugs during the murder, is proven to be true.

Yateem was known to the authorities for his addiction to drugs and has a 
criminal record, including assault. He also has several arrest warrants issued 
against him and spent 2 months in prison in March 2010 on charges of attempted 
murder after a brawl in a Beirut nightclub. While in prison he was caught with 
drugs.

Citing a recent report by the International Crisis Group which found that 
law-breaking among the well-connected often goes unpunished, Human Rights Watch 
recommended Lebanon promote a culture of accountability and access to fair 
trials as a step toward abolishing widespread impunity.

(source: The Daily Star)