[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 18



ISRAEL:

Almagor: Death Penalty for Terrorists as Part of Govt. Deal----The Almagor 
terror victims group called on Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu to demand a law 
for the death penalty for terrorists.



With the election over, coalition negotiations are set to begin in earnest, and 
parties are laying down their conditions for joining the government that 
Binyamin Netanyahu will be looking to form.

The Almagor terror victims group is calling on right-wing parties Jewish Home 
and Yisrael Beytenu to demand that the coalition support a law that would 
impose a death penalty for terrorists as a condition for their joining the 
coalition.

Yossi Tzur, whose son Assaf was killed in a Haifa bus terror attack in 2003, 
said that party leaders Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman, both of whom 
advocated for such a law during their campaigns, follow through and make 
passing a death penalty law part of their basic coalition conditions.

"They must act to ensure that this promise not be swept away with yesterday's 
election propaganda," said Tzur.

Almagor chairman Dr. Aryeh Bachrach, who lost his son Ohad in a 1995 attack in 
Wadi Qelt outside Jerusalem said that "many families of terror victims were 
encouraged by the proclamations of both these parties during the campaign that 
they would support such a law."

"Bennet and Liberman must declare that they unconditionally demand that a death 
penalty law be passed as the 'price' for their joining the coalition," he 
added.

(source: Israel National News)








BANGLADESH:

Subhan challenges his death penalty



Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdus Subhan today challenged the death penalty awarded 
to him by a war crimes tribunal for his crimes against humanity during the 
country's Liberation War in 1971.

Subhan's counsel submitted an 89-page appeal with the Appellate Division of the 
Supreme Court around 12:30pm, seeking acquittal of all the charges brought 
against him.

He also attached 1,182 pages of documents with his appeal mentioning 92 grounds 
on which the apex court may consider his prayer.

Jamaat Nayeb-e-Ameer, Subhan, who led the anti-liberation elements in Pabna, 
was sentenced to death on 3 charges, imprisonment until death on 2 charges and 
5 years' imprisonment on another by International Crimes Tribunal-2 on February 
18.

Supreme Court will later fix a date for hearing the appeal.

(source: The Daily Star)








SUDAN:

Sudan pardons 5 rebel leaders convicted of death penalty



Sudan's president Omer Al-Bashir has pardoned 5 rebel leaders convicted of 
death in the country, reports said on Tuesday.According to a presidential 
decree issued on Tuesday, 5 rebel leaders from the Justice and Equality 
Movement (JEM), who belong to the faction which signed a peace agreement with 
Khartoum led by Bakheit Abdul-Karim Dabago, have been pardoned.

The JEM prisoners were sentenced to death for participating in an attack on 
Sudan twin capital of Omdurman in 2008 before the split in the movement.

The splinter faction signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government 
within the framework of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur in 2013 but the 
agreement did not see the light as a result of the assassination of its 1st 
leader Mohammed Bashar in battles with legacy JEM group led by Jibril Ibrahim.

The movement then chose Dabago as its new chief after which it signed political 
and security understandings with the government and the ruling National 
Congress Party (NCP) which guaranteed the group a share in the government.

It also embarked on security arrangements to accommodate JEM-Dabago soldiers in 
the regular government forces.

(source: starafrica.com)



INDONESIA:

Bali Suitcase Murder Teenager Gives Birth ----- Heather Mack and her boyfriend 
are accused of murdering the girl's mother, whose body was found in a suitcase 
in Bali.



A US teenager imprisoned in Bali on accusations of killing her mother has given 
birth to a baby girl.

Heather Mack, a 19-year-old from the Chicago area, gave birth to the baby via 
caesarean section in an Indonesian hospital, said lawyer Anthony Scifo.

The baby, whose name is Stella, is in good health. Mack could return to the 
jail as early as Thursday and care for her baby there, prison officials said.

Mack and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer could face the death penalty if found 
guilty of murdering Mack's mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62.

The woman's battered body was found stuffed into a bloody suitcase outside a 
luxury hotel on the Indonesian island in August.

Police in Indonesia said in September that Schaefer had confessed to killing Ms 
Wiese-Mack in an argument.

Schaefer has been charged with premeditated murder and Mack is charged with 
assisting him.

Mack denies the charges.

She has sued in Cook County Court to get access to her trust fund to pay for 
her criminal defence in Bali.

A judge has granted her $119,000 so far from the trust fund, and the next 
hearing on the matter is on Friday in Chicago.

(source: sky.com)






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

Killing father-in-law: Timorese loses appeal



A Timorese field worker who stabbed his father-in-law to death for allegedly 
calling him a dog and pig yesterday lost his conviction for murder and death 
sentence.

Kristianus Sawar, 40, was silent after the decision was handed down by Appeals 
Court judges Dato Balia Yusof Haji Wahi, Datuk Dr Hamid Sultan Abu Backer and 
Dr Badariah Sahamid, following arguments put forward by the prosecution and the 
defence.

Rozainah Mohd Said, who was retained by the Indonesian Consulate as the counsel 
for Kristianus, had put forward the defence of sudden provocation.

She urged the court to amend the charge to one of manslaughter, saying 
Kristianus was insulted by the victim, who had called him dog and pig.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Mukhzany Fariz Mohd Mokhtar, in his rebuttal, 
said the defence of provocation was never raised during the prosecution's stage 
of the trial, but only brought up during the defence phase.

In delivering the judgement, the court said there was no merit in the appeal, 
and hence dismissed. However, the sentence and conviction was affirmed.

Kristianus was convicted and sentenced by the High Court in Tawau for the 
murder of Suis Gradus, whom he stabbed 7 times on July 20, 2011 at 5.30pm, at 
an unnumbered house in Ladang Pompous 2, Cenderawasih, in the district of Lahad 
Datu.

The charge of murder on conviction as stated in Section 302 of the Penal Code 
is punishable with the death penalty.

The facts of the case stated that the murder had taken place as the result of 
Kristianus' wife running over to her parents' house to seek refuge, claiming 
that she was being abused by her husband (Kristianus).

Kristianus had showed up at the house on 5 separate days to ask his wife to 
return to their matrimonial home.

(source: The Borneo Post)








MALAYSIA:

Apostasy under Kelantan's hudud carries the death penalty



The hudud bill to be tabled by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) before the 
Kelantan State Assembly prescribes the death penalty for the offence of 
apostasy, the Malay Mail Online reports today.

The Syariah Criminal Code II 1993 classifies "intidah" and "riddah" as 
voluntary or deliberate pronouncements or utterances of words that violate a 
Muslim's creed, known has aqidah.

These involve challenges to fundamental aspects of the Islamic faith of every 
Muslim, including Rukun Islam (Pillars of Islam), Rukun Iman (Pillars of Faith) 
and the distinction between halal and haram.

According to the report, the enactment does not define what would constitute a 
violation of Rukun Islam or Rukun Iman.

Under the proposed legislation, the immediate punishment for such an offence is 
imprisonment over a period to be determined by the Syariah Court "for the 
purpose of repentance."

However, chillingly it goes on to say that if the offender fails to repent, the 
punishment may extend to execution.

"Provided that when he repents whether the repentance is done before the death 
sentence is pronounced or after such pronouncement is carried out, he shall be 
free of the hudud sentence and his forfeited property shall be returned to 
him," the enactment says, as quoted by the report.

A senior lawyer consulted by FMT suggests that the provisions were also against 
basic legal principles and also opens up the grave possibility of arbitrary 
exercises of the power by state authorities.

"Firstly, what constitutes a violation of Rukun Islam and Rukun Iman appears 
not to be properly defined, leaving them open to interpretation," he suggests.

"Secondly, the fact that the purpose of the punishment - even to the point of 
execution - is to secure repentance throws open the possibility of a citizen 
being coerced involuntarily into remaining in the faith," he adds.

"It is a trite principle of law that admissions and confessions must be 
voluntarily given - they cannot be extracted by inducement, threat or promise."

"Thirdly, and most importantly, it is a clear violation of the fundamental 
constitutional right of freedom of religion."

The proposed introduction of the enactment by the PAS-led Kelantan State 
Government has brought two Pakatan Rakyat coalition parties into direct 
conflict with each other, with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) insisting that 
the implementation of hudud law was impractical in a multi-racial and 
multi-religious country and was against the Common Policy Framework agreed upon 
by the coalition.

Political analysts suggest that one of the reasons why PAS is keen to table the 
bill was to paper over cracks appearing in its political stranglehold on 
Kelantan, where many Kelantanese are said to be dissatisfied with the State 
Government's recent performance especially in the wake of massive destruction 
caused by floods at the end of last year.

PAS has long held sway in Kelantan, forming the State Government for 8 years 
between 1959 and 1977, and again for another 25 years since 1990.

(source: Free Malaysia Today)








INDIA:

Double death penalty for triple murder



A 32-year-old man who brutally killed a 26-year-old woman and her 2 little 
children last year will be hanged twice until death, the district mahila court 
ruled on Tuesday.

Handing a double death penalty for the triple murder, mahila court judge M.P. 
Subramanian held that the accused, A. Senthil, was guilty of murdering M. 
Vatsala Devi and her sons - 6-year-old M. Mahilan and 11-month-old infant M. 
Pranith - on April 1 last year in Ganapathy.

Vatsala Devi and Mahilan had suffered 21 stab injuries each and Pranith had 
been stabbed 12 times. The judge awarded a life term to the accused for the 
murder of Vatsala Devi and the double hanging for the murder of the 2 minor 
children.

The prosecution said that Senthil, a former tenant of a house owned by Vatsala 
Devi???s husband Marudhamanickam in Ganapathy, had visited their house on April 
1, 2014 around 11 am and collected a part of the advance money he had paid. He 
visited the house again at 5.30 pm, knowing that Marudhamanickam and his mother 
Govindammal were away.

Senthil attempted to misbehave with Vatsala Devi and when she resisted, he 
stabbed her to death, the prosecution stated. He also removed a chain the 
victim was wearing. The woman's son Mahilan and her infant were also stabbed to 
death.

The Saravanampatti police had arrested Senthil a day after the murder at Sulur 
and booked him under Sections 302 (murder) (3 times), 449 (house-trespass in 
order to commit offence punishable with death) and 404 (dishonest 
misappropriation of property possessed by deceased person at the time of his 
death) of the Indian Penal Code. Besides the double hanging, the judge awarded 
the life term for offences under Section 449 of IPC (house trespass in order to 
commit offence punishable with death) and 7 years' rigorous imprisonment for 
offence under Section 404. (dishonest misappropriation of property possessed by 
deceased person at the time of his or her killing) of the IPC.

(source: Asian Age)








PAKISTAN----executions

9 more murder convicts hanged across jails in Pakistan



At least 9 murder convicts were hanged early Wednesday at different jails 
across Pakistan - the latest executions since the country resumed the death 
penalty for all capital crimes.

The executions come a day after 12 death row prisoners were hanged Thursday, 
marking the largest number of executions in a single day since the moratorium 
on capital punishment was lifted in December.

Death row prisoner Tahir Bashir was hanged in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail. Bashir 
had killed a man 15 years ago over a personal feud.

Shaukat Ali and Mohammad Shabbir were hanged at the Adiyala jail in Rawalpindi. 
Their appeals had already been turned down by the higher courts and the 
president.

Meanwhile, the execution orders of convicted murderer Qadeer Ahmed were stayed 
following a last-minute reprieve.

2 more death sentences - those of murder convicts Talib Hussain and Rab Nawaz - 
will be carried out at the Adiyala jail later tonight.

Death row prisoner Asad Khan was hanged at the Attock District Jail. Khan was 
sentenced to death for committing 5 murders in 2 separate incidents.

Ghulam Mohammad, sentenced to death for killing his brother-in-law in August 
2000, was sent to the gallows along with convicted murderer Zakir Hussain at 
the District Jail Jhang.

Murder convict Ahmed Nawaz was executed at the Central jail Mianwali. Nawaz was 
sentenced to death for killing a man in 1998 over a personal feud.

Authorities at the district jail Faisalabad said 2 death row convicts were 
hanged till death at 5:30am. The prisoners, Shafaqat Ali and Mohammad Saeed, 
were convicted of killing two brothers in March 1998.

A total of 48 people have so far been hanged since the government restarted 
executions in December.

Reintroducing the death penalty was part of the government's move to step up 
its fight against militants and criminals after Taliban militants killed over 
150 people - mostly children - at Peshawar's Army Public School on Dec 16.

The death penalty moratorium, in force since 2008, was initially lifted only in 
terrorism cases.

But the government extended the order earlier this month, directing provincial 
governments to proceed with hangings for all death row prisoners who had 
exhausted their appeals and clemency petitions.

Rights groups estimate that Pakistan has over 8,000 prisoners on death row, a 
majority of whom have exhausted their appeals.

(source: geo.tv)

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

Govt ready to consider proof in 'juvenile's' conviction case



Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Tuesday that the Interior 
Ministry is ready to consider proof in the case of Shafqat Hussain, who is said 
to have been convicted despite being a juvenile.

In a statement on the floor of the House on the issue of convict Shafqat 
Hussain, he said for the past few months, social media has been abuzz with 
comments that a juvenile was sentenced to capital punishment in 2004 and that 
his punishment should be repealed. He said, "The issue has spread so much that 
I thought it appropriate to speak on this issue briefly, in the House. On my 
right side, a political party that rules Sindh has issued a formal statement on 
this issue 2 days ago. Another political party which is not present here today 
has also issued a formal statement. There are many other political leaders who 
have expressed views on this issue."

"Everyone has right to express his views. Every political party has the right 
of expression. But let us keep politics aside on this important issue. This 
issue came before me as Interior Minister last year in December when it was 
almost decided that on a particular date the accused would be hanged. Till that 
time neither any representation was made before me nor was any record 
presented. But a group of civil society contacted me and as per the set 
procedure, and since some space was also available because the limited 
moratorium on death penalty that was lifted at that time and was only 
applicable to terrorism related cases, so I had the date for his capital 
punishment postponed."

"Since then 2 months have passed. We are constantly in touch with the 
provincial government. I don't want to give details because then I would be 
blamed for political point scoring. "Since this incident is from Sindh so the 
capital punishment was awarded by Anti-Terrorism Court in Sindh in 2004. In 
2006 the High Court maintained that punishment. The Supreme Court also upheld 
the sentence in 2007. And for the 1st time this case was put up before the 
Supreme Court that he was underage. The Supreme Court rejected this plea 
observing that this issue was not raised earlier," the minister added.

Chaudhry Nisar said, "In the review petition, this was again rejected. And, I 
would like to bring to notice that this is not politics and I am bringing forth 
only the record. In 2012, during the previous government, the then president 
rejected his mercy appeal. And as far as I know I tried my utmost but no proof 
of birth could be brought before me." "I am not sure since it is not confirmed 
but I guess in the Mercy Appeal too, the concerned did not raise the issue of 
his being under age or being juvenile nor gave the relevant proof. In July 2012 
after going through the entire process his capital punishment was maintained."

Since there was moratorium on capital punishments and since our Government also 
continued that moratorium for some time so this issue remained there, he 
stated. The minister said, "in December when moratorium was partially lifted 
and he was sentenced for capital punishment so we exercising our authority, for 
2 months or so, kept the orders pending." "And now when the entire moratorium 
has been lifted only then it has been decided that he would be hanged on 19th 
March.

The date has been fixed according to the law and by the courts. I am constantly 
in touch with Sindh Government. I have held an inquiry into this matter. They 
say that inquiry has not been held. For the past 2 months inquiry was underway. 
I wish these people had awakened in 2004."

"I appreciate that this might be a reaction but why was this issue not raised 
inside and outside of the court in 2004. Why was this issue not raised when 
appeal was made in the high court. Why was this issue not raised when this case 
went to Supreme Court in 2007. Why was this issue not raised when the mercy 
appeal was rejected by President Asif Ali Zardari," he added.

(source: Daily Tinmes)

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

EU urges Pakistan to reinstate moratorium on death penalty



A spokesperson of the European Union (EU) said on Wednesday that the government 
of Pakistan should halt all executions as capital punishment violates 
international law and basic human rights.

The spokesperson referred to the death penalty as an unjust and cruel 
punishment and said capital punishment should be eliminated globally.

The government has executed 48 convicts since the moratorium on the death 
penalty was lifted following the horrific terrorist attacks on the Army Public 
School in Peshawar last year.

The condemnation of the death penalty by the EU comes at a time when the 
government is set to hang underage convict, Shafqat Hussain on Mar 19, 2015.

Hussain's case has triggered outrage from rights campaigners, who complain he 
did not get a fair trial and was only 15 at the time of the killing.

The EU is only 1 of many international organisations urging the government to 
halt executions of convicts all over the country. Amnesty International and the 
Human Rights Watch have also called for a stop to the hangings.

The EU had opposed the removal of the moratorium in December last year, and 
again expressed concerns during the First Pakistan-EU Local Human Rights 
Dialogue where the delegation met to discuss Pakistan's GSP Plus status.

(source: Pakistan Today)

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

Pakistan Should Re-Impose Moratorium on Death Penalty - Amnesty Int'l

The Pakistani government must re-instate the moratorium on the death penalty 
following a series of mass executions on Tuesday, the Amnesty International's 
Deputy Asia Pacific Director said.

The executions demonstrate horrific consequences of the decision made by the 
country's government in December 2014 to resume capital punishment, according 
to Griffiths.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan executed 12 men convicted of crimes including 
murder and terrorism.

"At this rate, Pakistan is turning itself into one of the world's top 
executioners - a shameful club no country should aspire to join. The government 
must immediately re-impose the moratorium on the death penalty with a view to 
its eventual abolition," Griffiths said in a statement posted on Amnesty 
International's website.

Several juveniles are reported to have been among those executed, though the 
use of this type of punishment against minors is prohibited by international 
law.

On December 17, 2014, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted a death penalty 
moratorium that had been in existence for 6 years. The decision came a day 
after a deadly attack on a Peshawar school that killed over 150 people, mostly 
children.

Last week, the Pakistani authorities declared that not only terrorism-related 
activities would be punished by death, but also other crimes.

Since the moratorium on capital punishment was lifted 39 people have been 
executed, and another 8,000 people remain on death row.

(source: sputniknews.com)