[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 29



PAKISTAN----executions

8 more murder convicts hanged in Pakistan


8 more death row prisoners, who were convicted for murders, were sent to 
gallows in different prisons of Punjab on Wednesday.

According to Samaa correspondent, three murder convicts were hanged in district 
jail in Attock city early in the morning. A father and his son were among the 3 
condemned prisoners.

Officials said 5 other death row convicts were executed in jails of Sargodha, 
Multan, Kasur, Jhang and Gujarat.

Authorities on Monday resumed executions following a one-month break during 
Ramazan.

Over 180 people have been executed since December when the country ended a 
6-year moratorium on the death penalty following a Taliban attack on a school 
in Peshawar that killed more than 150 people -- mostly children -- in the 
country's deadliest ever terror attack.

Among those currently on death row are murder convict Shafqat Hussain who is 
scheduled to be hanged on Aug 4 in Karachi.

His case has drawn international criticism because his family and lawyers say 
he was under 18 at the time of the killing and claim he was tortured into 
confessing.

Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on 
death row, most of whom have exhausted their appeals.

(source: Samaa.tv)






IRAN:

Juvenile Offender Accused of Murder at 15 May Be Executed on 
Saturday----Amnesty International has issued a warning about the imminent 
execution of a juvenile offender in Iran


Salar Shadizadi is a juvenile offender in Rasht Prison who is reportedly set to 
be hanged to death on Saturday, August 1st for a murder crime he reportedly 
committed when he was 15. Salar's death sentence was confirmed by Iran's 
Supreme Court.

In a recently published statement by Amnesty International the NGO urges 
Iranian authorities to stop Salar's execution.

In April 2015 Iranian authorities executed Jamal Saberi, a juvenile offender 
who was 17 years old at the time he was arrested and charged with murder and 
drug possession. Jamal was sentenced to death by Iran's Judiciary and hanged in 
Rajai Shahr Prison along with 4 more prisoners charged with murder. Jamal 
reportedly suffered from severe psychological disorders and was held in Omid 
Abad Psychiatric Ward for some time before his execution.

Iran is signatory to the United Nation's International Covenant of Civil and 
Political rights where in Article 6 it states: "Sentence of death shall not be 
imposed for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age..."

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

27th anniversary of massacre of 30000 political prisoners in Iran


Saturday marks the 27th anniversary of the massacre of 30,000 political 
prisoners in Iran. In the summer of 1988, one month after Ruhollah Khomeini was 
forced to accept a cease-fire in his 8-year war with Iraq, the fundamentalist 
ruler of the mullahs' regime ordered a mass execution of all political 
prisoners affiliated with the main opposition group People's Mojahedin 
Organization of Iran, PMOI (Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK).

The brutal prison massacre, which has been described by some international 
human rights lawyers as the greatest crime against humanity that has gone 
unpunished since the Second World War, saw the execution of some 30,000 
defenseless prisoners.

Near the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Khomeini who felt that defeat was imminent, 
decided to take his revenge on the political prisoners. He issued a fatwa (or 
religious decree) ordering the massacre of anyone who had not repented and was 
not willing to collaborate fully with the regime.

Khomeini decreed: "Whoever at any stage continues to belong to the Monafeqin 
(PMOI) must be executed. Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately." He 
added: "Those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in 
their support for the PMOI are waging war on God and are condemned to 
execution...It is naive to show mercy to those who wage war on God."

The Iranian regime has never acknowledged these executions, or provided any 
information as to how many prisoners were summarily killed. Young girls, old 
parents, students, workers, and many of those who had already finished their 
sentences prior to 1988 were among those who vanished in the span of a few 
months. Their bodies were dumped into mass graves, including in Khavaran 
Cemetery near Tehran.

Khomeini had assigned an "Amnesty Commission" for prisoners. In reality it was 
a "Death Commission: comprised of the three individuals: A representative of 
the Ministry of Intelligence, a religious judge and a prosecutor. Most trials 
lasted for just a few minutes and resembled more of an interrogation session. 
The questions were focused on whether the prisoner still had any allegiances to 
the PMOI (MEK), whose supporters made up more than 90 percent of the prisoners. 
If the prisoners were not willing to collaborate fully with the regime against 
the PMOI (MEK), it was viewed as a sign of sympathy to the organization and the 
sentence was immediate execution. The task of the Death Commission was to 
determine whether a prisoner was an Enemy of God or not. In the case of 
Mojahedin prisoners, that determination was often made after only a single 
question about their party affiliation. Those who said "Mojahedin" rather than 
the derogatory term "Monafeqin" (meaning hypocrites) were sent to the gallows.

None of the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran 
and none of the regime's senior officials including the Supreme leader, Ali 
Khamenei, have been brought to justice to date.

(source: NCR-Iran)






INDIA:

Yakub to be hanged tomorrow as SC, Guv reject pleas


Yakub Memon, the sole death row convict in 1993 Mumbai blasts case, will be 
executed at 7 am tomorrow (Thursday) in Nagpur Central Prison after a 3-judge 
Supreme Court bench dismissed his petition against the scheduled execution.

Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao too rejected Memon's mercy petition.

Minutes before Governor rejected the mercy plea, the SC bench said that Yakub's 
curative petition was rightly disposed off and that there were no procedural 
lapses. Yakub had questioned the process.

Rejecting his plea, the bench said that the Supreme Court does not find fault 
with the issuance of death warrant by TADA court.

Talking to reporters, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said, "SC has 
today rejected petition (curative) filed by Yakub and dismissed all the 
contentions raised by him."

"The procedures tomorrow will depend on what Maharashtra Governor and 
President's decision on Memon's mercy petition," he added.

The bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, before rising for lunch recess, had 
said it would pronounce the order on Wednesday itself, if the counsel for the 
parties 'cooperate'.

Senior advocate Raju Ramachndran, appearing for Memon, initiated arguments by 
referring to the separate, divergent orders passed by Justice A.R. Dave and 
Justice Kurian Joseph on Tuesday and said that the procedures established by 
the law have not been followed while deciding the curative petition of the 
convict.

Ramachandran said, "The judges, who were part of judicial process earlier, must 
be party to curative petition. It cannot be decided by judges who are strangers 
to the matters."

He further said that besides the 3 senior most judges, the curative petition 
should have been circulated to the judges, if available, who had decided the 
criminal appeal and the review petition.

Senior advocates T.R. Andhyarujina and Anand Grover both supported the 
contention of Ramachandran and said that this death warrant is illegal and can 
not be executed tomorrow.

Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, who is presently continuing his argument, said 
that the court should not forget the fact that it was the 1st terror attack at 
the heart of the country that had led to the death of 257 persons and several 
hundred injured.

Memon and 11 others were slapped with the death penalty by the special TADA 
court in July 2007 for the 1993 bomb blasts.

The apex court by its March 21, 2013 verdict upheld his death sentence while 
commuting the death sentence of 10 others (1 having died subsequently) to life 
imprisonment.

The court on April 9 again dismissed Memon's plea for the review of his death 
sentence, as it had earlier dismissed a similar plea seeking recall of the 
March 21, 2013 verdict.

(source: manoramaonline.com)

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

SC Paves the Way for Yakub Memon's Hanging; Maharashtra Governor Rejects His 
Mercy Plea


The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict 
Yakub Memon any relief as rejected both his petitions, even as the Maharashtra 
Governor rejected his 2nd mercy petition, paving the way for his execution on 
30 July.

Memon had moved SC seeking quashing of the death warrant issued against him by 
a special Tada court of Mumbai on 30 April claiming that he had not exhausted 
all his legal remedies when he was awarded the death penalty. He had also 
sought a stay on his execution.

A 3-judge bench, constituted by Chief Justice HL Dattu, rejected both his pleas 
one after the other in the afternoon.

Justice Dattu had constituted a larger bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Prafulla 
C Pant and Amitava Roy after a 2-judge bench differed in their opinions on 
Memon's petitions.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao also rejected Memon's plea for 
mercy, media reports said.

Earlier on Wednesday Memon filed a 3rd mercy petition to President Pranab 
Mukherjee despite the fact that he had rejected his 1st plea seeking pardon.

(source: International Business Times)

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

Activist lost his family in a bomb blast, campaigns against death penalty of 
the terrorist


The usual reaction of any person who had lost his family members in a bomb 
attack would be to hang the person responsible for the bomb blast. Some even go 
a mile ahead, wishing how they would kill the terrorist who was responsible for 
the terrorist attacks which had taken away their friends or someone who lived 
across their street.

Similar intellectuals echoed Tushar's comments and said 'Terrorists are very 
friendly people. One should be friends with them to know how cool they are'.

But Tushar Nair, a 45-year old activist and a well known Intellectual, stands 
tall amongst this usual blood-seeking communals. Having lost his wife, son and 
daughter in a gruesome terror attack 10 years ago in Mumbai, Tushar is now 
leading the call for canceling the death penalty of the sole terrorist who was 
behind the bomb blast that killed his family.

Sanghi Ram (name & religion changed) who is now getting ready to face the 
execution next week had been trying his best to escape the noose. While there 
were usual calls from the usual suspects to cancel his death penalty on various 
grounds ranging from his religion to his mental instability (not due to 
religion though), petition from Tushar Nair seemed to have shocked even the 
rest of liberals and activists.

One such activist said, "We calling for the rejection of death penalty of 
terrorists is fine. We never witnessed any bomb attacks and we mostly retire 
back to our AC rooms with glass of wine after condemning any terror attack and 
delinking it from religion in our tweets. But, Tushar lost his most loved 
family in that terror attack, for which this person is going to be hanged. This 
is shocking. Does he really bat for it? Or is he planning to finish him like 
how Naseeruddin Shah did in 'A Wednesday?"

We finally managed to get in touch with Tushar. Sporting a smile, he said, "I 
had been raising my voice against oppression of minorities in India ever since 
my college days. And now, with a Hindutva government at the centre, I'm worried 
about the state of minorities. I had even signed petition to block death 
penalty of Guru and Kasab. And, this person who had planted a bomb that killed 
my family ... well ... my family members were from majority. No matter how many 
people die, majority is anyway going to lose only a small fraction. But, if 
minorities are hanged or killed, then it is a great blow to their population. 
And that is why, I initiated a signature campaign against death penalty granted 
to that terrorist. I would even accept him as member of my family, upon his 
release, to prove that I???m a secular and my ideology is plural. Now, excuse 
me, I need to prepare letter template to save future terrorists from being 
hanged."

(source: firstpost.com)

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

Commute Yakub's death penalty to honour Kalam


Former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi has appealed to President 
Pranab Mukherjee to reconsider the mercy petition of death row convict Yakub 
Memon as a "fitting tribute" to former President APJ Abdul Kalam whose 
"conscientious opposition" to capital punishment is widely known.

In his appeal to the President, Gandhi said Kalam had, as recently as earlier 
this month, expressed his opposition to the concept of capital punishment.

"He expressed this opinion to the Law Commission, which has been holding 
deliberations regarding the desirability and efficacy of the death penalty. It 
would, I suggest, be a fitting tribute to the humane legacy of President Kalam 
to grant Yakub Memon his life, for which course there are also other compelling 
reasons," Gandhi wrote.

President Mukherjee had last year rejected Yakub's mercy plea.

Underlining that he was writing this appeal as matter of urgent, general and 
public interest, the former Governor cited a case of 1997 when the then 
President Shankar Dayal Sharma reversed earlier decision and commuted death 
penalty of two boys from Andhra Pradesh on the appeal of Mahashweta Devi and 
other eminent citizens on the eve of their scheduled execution.

Gandhi said it established "the supreme constituent power of the President of 
India under Article 73 of the Constitution, to reverse his earlier decision, 
and heed voices of conscience to commute a death sentence."

"Yakub Memon submitted to Indian jurisdiction, when he may quite easily have 
evaded justice. A respected officer of Indian intelligence has spoken of his 
cooperation with the law, thus rendering the death penalty completely 
inappropriate in this case. Former Supreme Court judges have openly said that 
his execution would be unjust," he said.

Yakub is the sole death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. 12 
coordinated blasts had rocked Mumbai on March 12, 1993, leaving 257 dead and 
over 700 injured.

(source: thestatesman.com)

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

10 Years: 1,303 Death sentences, only 3 executions


A death sentence such as the one handed to Yakub Memon, lone convict of the 
1993 Mumbai serial bombings is common in India, with 1,303 capital-punishment 
verdicts between 2004 and 2013, according to this National Crime Record Bureau 
(NCRB) prison statistics report.

However, only 3 convicts were executed over this period, one each in West 
Bengal (2004), Maharashtra (2012) and Delhi (2013). India saw an execution-free 
period of seven years between 2004 and 2012.

On 14 August 2004, Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged at Alipore Central Jail in 
West Bengal on his 42nd birthday, convicted for the rape and murder of a 
teenage girl.

On 21 November 2012, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab the only terrorist to have 
survived the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was hanged in Pune's Yerwada Jail.

On 9 Februrary 2013, Mohammed Afzal Guru, a convict in the 2001 Parliament 
attack case was hanged inside Delhi's Tihar jail.

In addition, 3,751 death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment during 
this period.

Former chartered accountant Memon is set to be hanged on 30 July 2015, the day 
he turns 53. A debate has now broken out over the verdict against him and the 
death sentence in general.

In July 2007, Yakub and 11 others were convicted and sentenced to death by a 
special court for planning or carrying out the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 
nearly 260 people and injured 700.

In March 2013, the Supreme Court upheld Memon's death sentence, while commuting 
the death sentence of 10 others (one died later) to life imprisonment.

On social media, a raging debate with dubious data

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy reacting to assertions 
that only Muslims were being hanged recently said that 170 people have been 
hanged in India after 1947 with only 15 of them Muslims, according to Asian 
News International (ANI).

Since independence, at least 60 Muslim (according to their surnames) convicts 
were hanged, according to the Death Penalty Research Report by National Law 
University, Delhi.

The report compiled data from central prisons but is not an exhaustive list 
because many states did not provide complete information.

Some states provided such reasons: Kerala and Andhra Pradesh authorities said 
termites destroyed records.

The 35th Law Commission report, released in 1967, said more than 1,400 
prisoners were executed from 1953 to 1963 but does not give religion-wise 
details of hanged convicts.

2007: Year of death sentences

The most death sentences were awarded in 2007 (186), followed by 164 in 2005. 
That year 2005 1,241 death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, the 
most ever.

Uttar Pradesh awarded the most death sentences (318) over the last 10 years. 
Maharashtra was second with 108, followed by Karnataka (107), Bihar (105) and 
Madhya Pradesh (104).

Top 5 States (Prisoners Awarded Capital Punishment, 2004-2013)

These top 5 states comprise almost 57% of all capital punishments awarded in 
the country between 2004 and 2013.

In Delhi, 2,465 prisoners had death sentences commuted to life imprisonment 
(between 2004 and 2013). Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh were 2nd with 303 death 
sentences commuted to life imprisonment, followed by Bihar (157) and West 
Bengal (104).

Top 5 States (Sentences Commuted To Life Imprisonment)

Delhi alone accounted for nearly 66% of all prisoners whose death sentence was 
commuted to life imprisonment between 2004 and 2013.

Death sentence abandoned by 160 countries not India, China, US and Japan

About 160 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice while 
98 have abolished it altogether, according to this United Nations report.

In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution towards the 
abolition of capital punishment and the protection of human rights when it 
endorsed a call for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.

Apart from India, other prominent countries that opposed the resolution to 
abolish the death penalty include China, Japan and United States.

In 2013, nearly 778 executions were reported in 22 countries, a 14% growth over 
682 executions in 2012.

On Monday, Pakistan executed 2 murder convicts following a 1-month break during 
the holy month of Ramzan. This adds to 176 executions since December 2014, 
after a 6-year moratorium on the death penalty.

(source: indiatvnews.com)

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

Yakub's mercy plea: A matter of life and death; How will the President react?


He has to consider all the angles in the case and then decide. Under Article 72 
of the Constitution, the President can grant him pardon, suspend or commute a 
sentence of death or change the penalty to life imprisonment.

However, he does not act on his own and is advised by a council of ministers, 
which too has been clearly mentioned in the Constitution.

Once the sentencing has been done by the Supreme Court, even a foreign national 
can send a mercy petition requesting the government to hold the death sentence.

A mercy plea can also be sent to the governor of the state concerned who then 
forward it to the MHA. Apart from this, the convict can also file a mercy plea 
from the jail through his family, lawyer or can even email it to the MHA.

Just a few years ago, the Union Ministry of Law told the MHA that the 
President's power to grant pardon, reprieves, respites or remissions of 
punishment under Article 72 was "absolute and cannot be fettered by any 
statutory provisions" under the Code of Criminal Procedure or prison rules.

The president also exercises the power of commuting the death sentence to life 
imprisonment, which means the convict is to stay in jail for the rest of his 
life till natural death.

Yakub has 50-50 chances

While the fate of Yakub solely depends on the last moment decision of the 
President, MHA data till date is rather discouraging.

It shows that Presidents, barring Narayanan and Pratibha Patil, have shown 
little mercy in the appeals. According to the information released by the 
government under the RTI Act, out of the 77 mercy pleas decided by the 
Presidents between 1991 and 2010, 69 were rejected.

While R Venkatraman (1987- 1992) rejected them mercilessly, former Presisent 
Partibha Patil was the most generous of them all. During her tenure from 
2007-2012, she spared several serial murderers.

Several Presidents have also been alleged of religious favouritism or political 
considerations while judging a mercy plea.

(source: oneindia.com)

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

Mercy petition filed by Guru was never sent to Dr. Abdul Kalam: Pancholi.


A day after the death of the former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam, Civil 
Rights lawyer and renowned Indian civil society member, N.D. Pancholi Tuesday 
claimed that Home Ministry of India was so eager to hang Kashmiri youth 
Muhammad Afzal Guru that it never sent mercy petition filed by Guru's wife to 
the then president APJ. Abdul Kalam.

N.D. Pancholi said that ever since Guru was arrested, the Home Ministry was 
determined to execute him and in fact Parliament attack convict had lost all 
the hope in Indian Justice System.

Pancholi said that, "a death warrant had been issued to Afzal Guru, convicted 
in the Parliament terror attack case sometime in October 2006, and a mercy 
petition was filed in a hurry on behalf of his wife.

Advocate Nandita Haksar and I had helped draft the petition. Nandita suggested 
that we should seek an appointment with the President of India---Dr APJ Abdul 
Kalam-- on behalf of Guru???s mother, wife and minor son for a personal 
hearing."

"I was skeptical as never before had a President given any such opportunity to 
the family of a death row convict. Moreover, the Union Home Ministry was deadly 
against Guru, determined to ensure his execution. Nevertheless we decided to 
try, and I wrote to the President. To our surprise within 2 days I received a 
phone call from Rashtrapati Bhawan that Dr. Abdul Kalam, the President, had 
accepted our request and we were asked to meet him the day after."

"Guru's wife, mother and minor son including Nandita Haksar and I went to meet 
the President. Nandita and I were part of the delegation as the advocates. The 
meeting lasted for about 1 hour. Dr. Kalam first ascertained whether the ladies 
from Kashmir could talk in Urdu/Hindustani. Getting an answer in the 
affirmative he said that he would like to hear the family first. Both the 
mother and wife placed their woes before him and he listened patiently and 
attentively to both of them, with intermittent questioning. He was affectionate 
to the child who was about 8/9 years old. Both Nandita and I made our legal 
submissions. The President's staff took down notes. He looked serious, and 
appeared considerate. At the end of the meeting he said that he would look into 
it. We came out of the meeting with a glimmer of hope."

"Before filing the mercy petition on behalf of the wife, we wanted Afzal Guru 
himself to file it personally on his own behalf. But he was not willing as he 
thought it to of no use, as he felt the government was determined to hang him. 
So the petition was filed by the wife. After the meeting with President Abdul 
Kalam, both Guru's wife and mother met and gave him the details, as to how they 
were given a patient hearing."

"Afzal Guru had already read the news and seemed to be moved by the 
unprecedented gesture shown by Dr.Kalam to his family. The mercy petition by 
the wife was prepared in haste and we were of the opinion that a properly well 
drafted document should be prepared and be filed on behalf of Guru himself. 
This time it was easy to persuade him. In the first para of his petition Afzal 
wrote in the petition addressed to the President of India:

"....I myself had no hope that I would get a hearing. However, after my wife, 
Tabassum, my mother, Ayesha Begum and son Ghalib, told me how graciously you 
had received them I was really moved and it kindled a new hope that I may still 
get justice." But the Home Ministry was determined to deny justice to Afzal 
Guru.

"We came to know later that the mercy petition filed by him was never sent to 
Dr. Abdul Kalam Azad, with or without the comments of the Ministry. By the time 
he with its comments by the Ministry. By that time Dr. Kalam had come to 
entertain doubts about the death sentence in itself. He raised the question as 
to how it was that only those persons who belonged to the poorer and 
marginalized sections of society were getting death sentences! He publicly 
expressed his doubts."

"The Home Ministry seems to have been scared by his unconventional views. So 
the mercy petition of Afzal Guru was not sent to Dr. Abdul Kalam. More so, as 
he had already returned 50 mercy petitions in 2005 back to the Home Ministry 
for consideration. He had dismissed only one petition that of Dhananjay 
Chatterji, a lift operator, which he did reluctantly as he said himself later 
on. This delay by the President helped death row convicts like Devinder Pal 
Singh Bhullar and three others accused in the Rajiv Gandhi case. As later the 
Supreme Court commuted their death sentence into life imprisonment on the 
ground that there was unexplained delay in deciding their mercy petitions. 
These had been dismissed by present President Pranab Mukherjee sometime in 
2013."

"Afzal Guru would have been alive today on the same grounds had the government 
not hanged him secretly on Feb 9,2013 without following due procedures. This 
was done just done a few months before the judgment of the Supreme Court that 
gave relief to Bhullar and the others. Dr. Abdul Kalam was at heart a man of 
the people and remained so when he became the President of India. He led a 
simple life even as the President. In him lay a pious soul and kind heart who 
sought to serve society according to dictates of his conscience. He was against 
the death penalty and his views in this regard are a significant contribution 
to the human rights movement for its abolition."

(source: The Kashmir Monitor)