[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 25


VIETNAM:

Vietnam considers scrapping death penalty for 7 crimes



The abolition of the death penalty has been proposed for 7 crimes under the 
current Penal Code, Deputy Minister of Justice Dinh Trung Tung said in a 
seminar on Tuesday, citing an amendment to the code.

Meanwhile, another amendment has been proposed to include three new crimes in 
the code, Tung said.

The deputy minister released the information at a seminar held by the National 
Assembly Justice Committee in the northern province of Hoa Binh to discuss a 
number of basic orientations for amending the Penal Code.

One of the major amendments to the Penal Code is to limit the scope of capital 
punishment, Tung told the seminar.

He said the board drafting amendments to the code has advised that the death 
penalty be scrapped for seven crimes, including plundering property, destroying 
important national security works and/or facilities; disobeying orders in the 
military; surrendering to the enemy which is applicable in the army; 
undermining peace, provoking aggressive wars; crimes against mankind; and war 
crimes.

Besides, capital punishment has been recommended to be maintained only for the 
crime of "illegally trading in narcotics" and be abolished for all the other 
drug-related charges, Tung said.

He told the seminar that death sentences should be applied to offenders who 
have committed especially serious crimes that infringe upon human life - such 
as murder in a cruel manner, murder and robbery, murder and rape, or murder for 
mean purposes - or pose serious threats to social order and safety and to the 
development of society, as possibly seen in drug-related cases.

If the amendments are approved, the number of crimes subject to the death 
penalty in Vietnam will be reduced to 15 from the current 22.

Death should be maintained for corruption convictions

Most of the seminar attendees agreed to these proposed amendments, but 
emphasized that they should not be extended to corruption-related crimes, which 
the country is trying to prevent and fight.

Speaking at the event, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Tat Vien, a standing 
member of the Central Steering Committee for Justice Reform, said, "There have 
many opinions saying that the death penalty should be abolished for corruption 
or embezzlement charges, but I think that such an abolition should not be 
approved given the current situation."

Nguyen Son, deputy chief judge of the People's Supreme Procuracy, also said 
that maintaining death sentences for corruption crimes is one of the ways to 
prove the resolve of the Party and State to combat corruption.

3 new charges proposed

In the spirit of respecting and ensuring full enforcement of human rights as 
well as citizens' basic rights and obligations specified in the 2013 
Constitution, another amendment has been proposed to include three new charges 
in the Penal Code, Deputy Minister Tung said.

The new charges include infringing upon citizens' voting rights in referendums 
held by the State; altering referendum results; and infringing upon the right 
to freedom of speech, the right to freedom of the press, and citizens' rights 
to demonstration, Tung said.

In addition, heavier penalties have also been suggested for a number of 
existing crimes mentioned in the code, including infringement upon citizens' 
places of residence; infringement upon other persons' privacy or the safety of 
their letters, telephone and/or telegraph; illegally forcing laborers or public 
employees to leave their jobs; infringement upon citizens' rights to assembly 
and association, rights to freedom of belief and religion; and infringement 
upon the rights to complain and/or denounce, the official said.

Lethal injection for death penalty

In terms of execution methods, Vietnam switched from firing squad to lethal 
injection in November 2011, under Decree 82/2011 by the government.

However, the new execution method took years to implement due to a failure to 
import the needed drugs from the European Union, which banned the exportation 
of lethal injection drugs because it considers capital punishment a violation 
of human rights.

The Vietnamese government then issued Decree 47/2013 to amend Decree 82, 
allowing domestically produced drugs to be used for executions.

Decree 47 took effect on June 27, 2013 and the 1st execution by lethal 
injection was carried out in Hanoi on August 6, 2013.

(source: Tuoi Tre News)








BANGLADESH:

Govt appeals for Jabbar's death penalty



The government today appealed to the Supreme Court seeking death penalty for 
convicted war criminal Abdul Jabbar.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on February 24 sentenced Jabbar to 
imprisonment till death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 
Liberation War.

The attorney general's office submitted the 379-page appeal to the Appellate 
Division, challenging the "inadequate sentence" given by ICT-1 to Jabbar.

Citing from the appeal, Deputy Attorney General Bashir Ahmed told The Daily 
Star that the 1st option of punishment for a war criminal is death sentence, 
which the ICT-1 did not follow though the war crime charges against Jabbar had 
been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

10 reasons have been cited in the appeal for which the SC may consider to 
sentence Jabbar to death, he said.

(source: The Daily Star)








PAKISTAN----executions

6 death row convicts executed across Pakistan



Pakistan executed 6 more death row convicts in different cities of country on 
Wednesday morning, ARY News reported.

The executions started with 2 hangings in Sukkur Central Jail where Abdul 
Razzaq Chohan and Jalil alias Jalal Morejo were hanged to death.

Jalil was awarded death penalty for killing a relative in 1997 while Abdul 
Razzaq killed a secondary level student by slitting his throat.

Sahiwal Central Jail witnessed 1 hanging while another hanging was delayed as 
the aggrieved family said to be pardoned the murderer.

Shahbaz was executed while Jaffar's hanging was delayed. Shahbaz killed a 
citizen Asim Baig in a gun attack back in 1998. Jaffar who killed his brother 
Khaleel and sister Saeeda was pardoned by the family.

Muhammad Khan was hanged to death in Mianwali Central Jail while another 
convict Khubdar Shah???s execution was delayed after receiving a 'compromise 
agreement'.

Death row convict Ayub was hanged in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail while a rapist 
cum murderer Ghulam Yaseen was executed in Bahawalpur Jail.

(source: arynews.tv)

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

Execution of 4 More Convicts



While implementation of courts orders of Capital punishment 4 more criminals 
were executed this morning in different cities, PakistanTribe .com reported.

In Sahiwal's Central Jail, Shahbaz Ali inmate on death penalty was executed. In 
1998, a 7-years-old Asim Baig was shot dead by Shahbaz on land conflict.

The district court sentenced execution to the offender and when his all appeals 
were rejected by higher courts, the President had also rejected his appeal for 
clemency.

Other 2 criminals Abdul Razzaq and Jalal were executed in Sukkur jail.

Jalal, a residential of Noshero Feroz, killed his cousin Haroon Muryju, on 
personal enmity. The district Court of Noshero Feroz sentenced the offender a 
death penalty.

The murderer Abdul Razzaq Chohan was a student in a local religious madrasa 
when in 2001 he slaughtered a boy Aftab Marani.

Sukkur District Court sentenced the convict to hang.

Both the criminals were applied against conviction which were dismissed and few 
day ago the death warrants were issued to them.

On the other hand, a criminal guilty to rape and murder Ghulam Yaseen, the 
residential of Ahmed Pur Sharqia, is executed today in central jail Bahawalpur.

The guilty killed a woman after raping her.

Yaseen was sentenced to hang by District Court Bahawalpur over the convict of 
rape and murder.

Pakistan government took the decision of abolition of moratorium on death 
penalty on March 10, 2015 in the result of December 16, attack of Taliban 
militants on Army Public School, Peshawar where they gunned down more than 150 
people, most of them were children.

The European Union (EU), Amnesty International (AI), the United Nations (UN) 
and the Human Rights Watch are very critical about the government's decision. 
It should be clear that civil death plenty was ban in the country since 2008.

(source: pakistantribe.com)

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

Case of twisted facts to get death penalty banned in Pakistan



Amid reports that the condemned killer Shafqat Hussain's case has been taken up 
by some foreign-funded NGOs and international media with twisted facts as part 
of a campaign to get the death penalty banned in Pakistan, the interior 
ministry has referred the case to FIA for inquiry.

FIA would inquire into the age controversy of the killer of a 7-year old boy 
and the related matters but there is no indication of questioning those foreign 
funded NGOs, which had intentionally used local and international media and 
even befooled the UN to propagate that the killer was a juvenile when he 
committed the heinous crime.

In police, jail and court record Shafqat Hussain was 23 years of age at the 
time of the crime he committed - the fact which has never been contested at any 
stage by the culprit or any of his representatives at any official or judicial 
forum. The culprit's photo taken by the jail authorities in 2004 also show him 
a grown up man instead of a 14-year old boy.

Geo News staffer Syed Arifeen was accompanying the police raid team along with 
his cameraman at the time of arrest of the killer in 2004 for ransom and 
murder. When approached, Arifeens said that Shafqat at the time of arrest never 
looked like a 14-year old child.

He also confirmed that the 2004 jail picture of Shafqat, which was published in 
The News a few days back and is also in great circulation on the social media, 
is true and that was what he appeared at the time of his arrest.

In Arifeen's view, even otherwise at the time of raid, Shafqat behave like a 
crook and shrewd criminal as he had tried to trick the police repeatedly but 
ultimately confessed his crime.The NGOs, media and some local and international 
so-called rights organisations took up the twisted case of Shafqat Hussain only 
after December 2014 Peshawar school attack when Pakistan decided to end 6-year 
old moratorium on the death penalty.

It is believed even by the official circles that the whole 'save Shafqat 
Hussain campaign' was launched on the basis of fabricated information but with 
the motive to pressure Pakistan to re-impose ban on the death penalty.

During the last 11 years, the age factor of the culprit had never been an issue 
but all of a sudden recently a town committee in AJK issued Shafqat's birth 
certificate, which instead of settling the issue raised serious questions about 
the authenticity and validity of the document.

According to a journalist, who had probed the matter, the birth certificate is 
also part of the campaigners??? agenda to present distorted facts and pressure 
the government to get the death penalty banned yet again.

In one of his recent blogs the journalist wrote, "Birth certificate, if 
obtained much later, has to be substantiated by some records. Records can be 
birth & death registers, hospital records, midwife records, school entering or 
leaving records, official examination cards, property documents with dates of 
birth or Form-B of the pre-NADRA era Registration Authority. In this case, a 
town committee in Neelum Valley has issued a birth certificate simply on the 
basis of an affidavit by the family."

He added, "This battle (of NGOs) that has fooled so many educated Pakistanis 
was never about 'innocence' or mistaken identity. The NGOs never claimed that 
Shafqat Hussain did not seduce and murder a 7-year old Umair Siddiqui who, if 
alive, would have been 18 now. What about their child's right to life? What 
about their right to seek justice? The NGOs are fighting this case on technical 
ground that Shafqat Hussain was a juvenile, he was only 14 when convicted. This 
was nothing but dishonest afterthought to exploit loopholes in the system. 
Imagine how easy it is to fool people if you dress modern and speak a bit of 
English that so many people on social media, without seeing any evidence 
whatsoever of age 14, actually believe that the state of Pakistan has to give 
an answer on age issue. How come a juvenile of age 14 was tried! To support 
this contention they have managed to obtain a birth certificate from Neelum 
Valley."

Meanwhile documents show that on December 22, 2014, the town committee Kail of 
district Neelum issued a birth certificate claiming Shafqat to have born on 
1-10-1991. A day before the issuance of the certificate one Sumaira bibi, who 
claimed to be the sister of the killer, got an affidavit that in 2004 she was 
15 and that Shafqat was one year younger than her.

After the issuance of the birth certificate, Shafqat's mother Makhani Begum on 
January 5, 2015 in her affidavit claimed that her killer son was born 1 or 2 
years after the birth of her daughter Sumaira. The mother claimed that her 
daughter is now 25.Besides these affidavits of Shafqat's family, there is no 
official document available which may confirm that Shafqat was 14 and not 23 in 
2004.

However, it is interesting to note without any verification and ignoring the 
police, jail and judicial record, a campaign was launched in the national and 
international media against Pakistan and its policy of death penalty.

Slogans like "Don't hang child offender" were attractive enough for the west 
and the so-called human rights organisations to issue serious warning to 
Pakistan and portray the country negatively in regard to its policy of death 
penalty.

Such has been the influence of the propaganda that even a UN group got befooled 
as its "human rights experts" in a statement said, "Mr. Hussain was 14 years 
old when he was arrested in connection with the disappearance of a young boy."

The UN group even went to the extent of saying that Shafqat's confessions were 
obtained after he was reportedly tortured over 9 days by police officers after 
his arrest in 2004. These so-called human rights experts of the UN neither had 
the time to go through the court case of the culprit nor knew the basic fact 
that the dead body of the deceased child was recovered from a nullah on the 
pointing of the killer.

Anti-Terror Court had awarded him double death penalty. In the Sindh High 
Court, Shafqat Hussain took the plea that he did not want to kill Umair, he did 
not have the intention and high court judge accepted that and commuted his 
death sentence under Section 302 to 5-year imprisonment. However he could not 
get rid of conviction under 365-A of ATA, which relates to "Abduction for 
Ransom".

(source: The News)








MAURITANIA:

Call to release Mohamed Mkhaitir, blogger sentenced to death for apostasy



We, the undersigned human rights and civil society organisations, call for the 
immediate and unconditional release of Mohamed Cheikh ould Mohamed Mkhaitir. We 
consider him a prisoner of conscience who has not committed any crime but was 
merely peacefully exercising his right to freedom of thought, conscience, 
expression and religion.

International law prohibits any coercion that would impair the rights to have 
or adopt a religion or belief, including the use of penal sanctions to compel 
believers or non-believers to adhere to any religious beliefs, to recant their 
religion or belief or to convert. We further consider that this provision of 
the Mauritanian penal code, imposing the death penalty, violates Mauritania's 
international obligations.

Mohamed Mkhaitir, a 29-year-old blogger who was held in pre-trial detention for 
almost 1 year, was sentenced to death for apostasy[1] at the Nouadhibou Court 
on 24 December 2014 in northwest Mauritania. He had posted an article online on 
the Aqlame newspaper's website, in December 2013, which was later taken down as 
it was deemed blasphemous towards the Prophet Mohamed. The article was 
addressed to the members of his Moualamine (meaning blacksmith) social category 
and criticised those who use religion to marginalise certain groups in 
Mauritanian society.

Though article 306[2] of the Mauritanian penal code provides for leniency in 
case of repentance, none was shown to Mohamed Mkhaitir in spite of the fact 
that he repented during his pre-trial hearing at the gendarmerie (military 
police) station.

During his trial at the Nouadhibou Court the judge told Mohamed Mkhaitir that 
he was accused of apostasy for "speaking lightly" of the Prophet Mohamed. 
Though Mohamed Mkhaitir repented again during his trial, explaining that his 
article was solely intended to denounce those who use religion to belittle 
others, he was shown no leniency. This is the 1st death sentence imposed in 
Mauritania for apostasy since independence in 1960.

His lawyers have since appealed the decision to hand down the death sentence.

A fundamental human right

The right to freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. According to 
the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), established 
pursuant to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights to which 
Mauritania is a state party, freedom of expression under the charter has 2 
primary elements: the right to receive information and the right to express and 
disseminate opinion.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief notes in 
particular that freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression are 2 
mutually reinforcing human rights.[3] He also further notes that similar to 
freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief has a strong communicative 
dimension, which includes sharing one's convictions with others, receiving and 
disseminating information about religious or belief issues and trying to 
persuade others in a non-coercive manner.[4]

The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) established pursuant to the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in its General 
Comment No.34[5] notes also that, "Prohibitions of displays of lack of respect 
for a religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws, are 
incompatible with the [ICCPR], except in specific circumstances where 
individuals are advocating "national, racial or religious hatred that 
constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence" (article 20 of 
the ICCPR).[6]

We also take this opportunity to remind the Mauritanian authorities of the 
recent recommendation made by the UNHRC, which stipulates that Mauritania 
"should remove the crime of apostasy from its legislation and authorize 
Mauritanians to fully enjoy their freedom of religion, including by changing 
religion."[7]

Death penalty violates right to life

We the signing organisations, oppose the death penalty in all cases without 
exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime, the guilt, 
innocence or other characteristics of the offender or the method used by the 
state to carry out the execution. The death penalty violates the right to life 
as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); and it is 
the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Mohamed Mkhaitir's death 
sentence is also a clear violation of Mauritania's obligations under the ICCPR 
to respect the right to freedom of expression.

[1] The abandonment and criticism of one's religious faith, belief or cause.

[2] Article 306 of the Mauritanian penal code provides that, "any Muslim guilty 
of the crime of apostasy ... will be asked to repent within a period of three 
days...if he does not repent within this time; he shall be sentenced to death 
as an apostate." This article also states that "Any person guilty of the crime 
of apostasy (Zendagha), shall be sentenced to death, unless he repents 
beforehand," and also that, "...if he repents before the execution of this 
sentence, the prosecutor will seize the Supreme Court, to the effect of his/her 
full rehabilitation, without prejudice to any sentence provided in the 1st 
paragraph this article [3 months to 3 years in prison and a fine of 5,000 to 
60,000 UM]."

[3] Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, 13 
August 2012, paragraph 17, 
http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=A/67/303&Lang=E, (last 
consulted 2 March 2015).

[4] Ibid, paragraph 27.

[5] UNHRC, General Comment No 34 on the ICCPR, 12 September 2011, paragraph 48, 
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/docs/gc34.pdf, (last consulted 2 March 
2015).

[6] ICCPR, article 20, 
http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx, (last consulted 2 
March 2015).

[7] UNHRC, Concluding observations on the initial report of Mauritania, 21 
November 2013, article 21, CCPR/C/MRT/CO/1, 
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR/C/MRT/CO/1&Lang=Fr, 
(last consulted 2 March 2015).

(source: bizcommunity.com)








INDONESIA:

Bali 9 pair's lawyers to present evidence for fresh appeal----'We still have 
hope for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran,' says lawyer for the pair who says 
there were errors in the court's rejection of a clemency appeal



Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan's lawyers are set to make their case on 
Wednesday for an appeal of the presidential decree that denied them clemency.

The state administrative court last month threw out the challenge to the 
clemency rejection, which has sent the pair a step closer to the firing squad 
over their 2005 heroin smuggling bid.

The court threw out the challenge on jurisdictional grounds.

Doly James, a lawyer for the Australians, said his team on Wednesday would 
present documented evidence to support the case for the administrative court to 
hear the appeal.

"We still have hope for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran," he said. "There were 
errors in the issuing of the clemency rejection.

"I'm not denying the prerogative rights of the president. But the president 
must also comply with the ethics and principle of good governance.

"The decision is still the president's prerogative but the process should not 
be reckless either, the president must be responsible."

Last week the court laid out a timetable for the appeal, asking that it wrap up 
on 1 April for a decision soon afterwards.

If they are granted the appeal, lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran will argue 
Indonesia's president, Joko Widodo, did not properly assess their clemency case 
- including their well-documented rehabilitation - before issuing a blanket 
rejection to the Australians as drug offenders.

Indonesia's attorney general, HM Prasetyo, has committed not to execute Chan 
and Sukumaran before their legal avenues are exhausted.

7 of 10 prisoners in line for execution are pursuing court action and Prasetyo 
said he would respect all of their legal processes.

Meanwhile, Chan and Sukumaran wait on Nusa Kambangan where the simultaneous 
executions are planned.

Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said she did not expect to be 
updated on the situation until the legal appeals were complete.

Indonesia's foreign ministry said it has passed on a request from Australia's 
prime minister, Tony Abbott, to speak by phone to Joko, and it is now in the 
hands of the presidential palace.

(source: The Guardian)

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

Bali drug trial of Kiwi Antony de Malmanche will go ahead



A Bali court has decided to continue with the trial of a New Zealand man 
accused of smuggling 1.7 kilograms of crystal meth into Indonesia.

Lawyers for Antony Glenn de Malmanche, 52, argued there were various errors 
with the prosecution indictment.

They said the 52-year-old wasn't told of his right to a lawyer when he was 
intercepted at Bali's airport on December 1, making the basis of the 
prosecution case invalid.

But Chief Judge Cening Budiana on Tuesday sided with the prosecution and 
determined the trial should proceed.

"The judges think that on December 1 to 4, 2014, which is when the 
investigation started, the investigator had conveyed to the defendant his 
rights to be accompanied by lawyer," he said.

"The investigator even appointed a lawyer, Nyoman Sudiantara, but the defendant 
said he wasn't prepared for a lawyer yet.

"The defendant finally appointed a lawyer of his own on December 16, 2014."

De Malmanche could face the death penalty for bringing drugs into Indonesia, 
where President Joko Widodo is proving especially hard on drug offences.

The New Zealander said he thought he was going on his 1st overseas trip to meet 
a woman he met online, but was instead sent to China at the direction of a man 
claiming to be the woman's personal assistant.

There he was given a bag - that unknown to him contained the drugs - and was 
told he would finally meet his new girlfriend in Bali.

The trial will begin on Tuesday (local time) with prosecution witnesses from 
the customs office.

(source: AAP)