[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 27



UNITED KINGDOM/PAKISTAN:

Calls for ministers to intervene in the case of a Pakistani blasphemy accused



Ministers are facing calls to intervene in the case of a Pakistani Christian 
woman condemned to death for blasphemy.

Human rights campaigners said ministers could use their links with the country 
to demand a reprieve for Asia Bibi who was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 after 
an argument with Muslim co-workers.

The call comes as a UK-wide petition calling for the release of the woman tops 
half a million signatures.

Aid to the Church in Need, a global charity which aims to halt the persecution 
of Christians across the globe, has also called on the Consulate of Pakistan in 
Glasgow to encourage its government to carry out a review of the case.

Lorraine McMahon, head of operations in Scotland for the charity, said: "What 
is the Scottish Government doing to hold the Pakistan Government to account?

"It must utilise the strong business and cultural links between Scotland and 
Pakistan and the relationship External Affairs Minister Humza Yousaf has built 
up with Pakistani Government."

She added that the UK Government had doubled aid to Pakistan to over ???400 
million per annum and had "expressly stated that this money is aimed at 
tackling extremism".

She said: "However, over that same period our research shows that acts of 
intolerance and violence have increased and that few if any steps have been 
taken to alter current legal frameworks that clearly intimate religious 
minorities and only make the situation worse."

The Change.org petition was organised by university student Emily Clarke, who 
was moved by the plight of Ms Bibi, the 1st woman to be sentenced to death in 
Pakistan, with the number of signatures rising to more than 570,000.

The High Court in Lahore upheld her death sentence last October while her 
family is making a last chance appeal to Pakistan's Supreme Court.

Minister for Europe and International Development

Mr Yousaf said: "The Scottish Government strongly opposes the death penalty in 
all circumstances, and believes it to be the most fundamental violation of 
human rights. Scottish Ministers have consistently raised this issue through 
the UK Government and with the authorities in Pakistan.

"Scotland has a strong and enduring commitment to securing democracy, the rule 
of law and fundamental human rights across the world.

"Respect for human rights, the rule of law and democratic principles is 
critical to the stability of all nations and territories, and the Scottish 
Government is committed to ensuring we make a contribution to that effort as a 
good global citizen.

"We are deeply concerned by all incidents of religious persecution and have 
called on the Foreign Secretary to outline how the UK Government plans to 
engage further with international governments and faith leaders to tackle the 
persecution of religious minorities around the world."

(source: heraldscotland.com)

**********

IHC stays triple-murder convict's execution



A Division Bench (DB) of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday granted stay 
in the execution of capital punishment to Raees Ahmad, a convict of 
triple-murder, after his counsel adopted before the court that a settlement is 
being struck between his client and the victim family.

The IHC dual bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamir Farooq 
stayed the execution of death sentence to the triple murder convict and 
directed the counsel to produce the compromise deed before the court till March 
30 and deferred the proceedings in this matter till then.

Presently, the convict Raees Ahmad is imprisoned at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi and 
he was scheduled to be hanged on the morning of March 27 (today).

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) awarded death penalty to him in 1999 for charges 
of triple murder.

Raees Ahmed of Bara Kaho was awarded death sentence by a local court in 1999 
for triple-murder.

Later he had filed appeals against the sentence that were dismissed by the high 
court and Supreme Court of Pakistan.

His brother and father were also awarded sentence of imprisonment and they died 
inside the jail while serving the sentence.

The counsel for Raees appeared before the IHC dual bench and informed the court 
that a settlement is being struck with the victim family. Therefore, he 
requested the court to issue directions to halt the execution of death sentence 
to his client.

After hearing the arguments, the division bench stayed the execution and 
adjourned the hearing in this matter till March 30 for further proceedings.

(source: The Nation)








INDONESIA:

Executions near as Indonesia's supreme court rejects petition



Attorney General M. Prasetyo praised the Supreme Court's (MA) decision to 
reject a second case review petition filed by Philippines national Mary Jane 
Fiesta Veloso, adding that the decision helps clear the way for the Attorney 
General's Office (AGO) to carry out a second batch of executions.

Prasetyo said that the AGO would announce the date of the executions after the 
Supreme Court issued rulings on 2 other case-review petitions filed by 2 other 
drug convicts; Serge Areski Atlaoui of France and Martin Anderson alias Belo of 
Ghana.

Atlaoui is currently challenging his death penalty verdict, which stems from a 
November 2005 arrest where he was found in possession of 138.6 kilograms of 
methamphetamine, 290 kg of ketamine and 316 drums of drug-making ingredients at 
a factory in Cikande, Tangerang, Banten. Anderson was sentenced to death after 
being arrested with 50 grams of heroin in Kelapa Gading, Jakarta, in November 
2003.

"From the very beginning we were prepared to conduct the executions, but we 
also must respect the legal process. The executions will be conducted as soon 
as we hear the result of the legal process of [the 2 other convicts]," Prasetyo 
said on Thursday.

Prasetyo added he hoped both appeals would be rejected so the AGO could proceed 
with the executions.

"I think the Supreme Court has the same spirit as us and we have to appreciate 
what it has ruled [on Veloso]," Prasetyo added.

Separately, Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi confirmed the rejection of Veloso's 
case-review petition, saying the panel of three justices - comprising Timur 
Manurung, Andi Samsan Nganro and Mohammad Saleh - ruled Wednesday that Veloso's 
petition failed to meet the requirements for a case review as stipulated in the 
Criminal Code (KUHP).

"The arguments [of the bench] are that the petition failed to meet requirements 
for a case review," Suhadi said on Thursday.

Veloso was sentenced to death after she was found guilty of attempting to 
conceal 2.6 kg of heroin at Adisucipto International Airport in April 2010 in 
Yogyakarta.

Veloso, Anderson and Atlaoui are 3 of 10 convicts who are set to be executed in 
the near future on the isolated Nusakambangan prison island near Cilacap, 
Central Java.

The other drug convicts facing imminent executions are Bali 9 duo Myuran 
Sukumaran and Andrew Chan of Australia, Rodrigo Gularte of Brazil, Zainal 
Abidin of Indonesia and Raheem Agbaje Salami of Nigeria. Also slated to be 
executed are three convicted murderers of Indonesian nationality: Syofial alias 
Iyen bin Azwar, Harun bin Ajis and Sargawi alias Ali bin Sanusi.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has reportedly declined multiple phone calls 
from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has very publicly pleaded with 
Jokowi to spare the lives of Sukumaran and Chan.

Abbott told reporters on March 5 he made such an appeal to Jokowi by phone and 
had been unsuccessful.

Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Nadjib Riphat Kesoema on Thursday brushed 
off intimations of a kind of snub.

"The President was too busy," the AP quoted the ambassador as telling reporters 
in the Australian capital of Canberra.

"Because, as you know, the President's 1st priority is his own people, to the 
provinces. Not only in Java, in Kalimantan or Sumatra, but also in Papua. So he 
is making a lot of trips," he said.

"I've certainly put in a request because the government and the people of 
Indonesia need to know that this is important to us," Abbott said in early 
March.

(source: asiaone.com)

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

Bali 9: Indonesia denies judicial review for fellow death row inmate Mary Jane 
Veloso



Indonesia's high court has denied a judicial review for a woman who is due to 
be executed alongside 2 Australians, despite her not having a proper translator 
when she was sentenced to death.

The lives of convicted drug smugglers, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, depend 
on their current court challenge but also on the legal challenges mounted by 
those listed for execution alongside them.

Indonesia has delayed the executions until all legal options have been 
exhausted.

One of their fellow death row inmates, Mary Jane Veloso, from the Philippines 
had applied for a Judicial Review because she was not provided with a proper 
translator during her trial and did not understand proceedings.

But a spokesman for the Supreme Court said her application was rejected.

Had it been granted, it could have delayed the executions for months.

The 2 convicted drug smugglers' legal appeal returns to court on Monday.

(source: ABC news)








THAILAND:

Thailand ranked in middle related to death penalty abolishing



Thailand ranked somewhere in the middle when it comes to abolishing death 
penalty among nations in the Southeast Asian region and the kingdom was 
criticized for a 'lack of tangible advancement' towards abolishing death 
penalty in a latest United Nations report released Friday.

Although Cambodia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste have abolished death 
penalty, Thailand still maintains its death penalty although no execution has 
taken place since 2009 and is regarded as a 'rententionist state'.

As of 30 June 2014, there were at least 612 people under sentence of death in 
the kingdom and the year 2013 alone saw 294 people sentenced to death.

Crimes punishable by death in Thailand includes offences against royalty, 
internal and external security, and liberty, and offences relating to sexuality 
causing death.

(source: The Nation)



EGYPT:

Egyptian faces death penalty for crimes he did not commit, lawyers say ---- 
Hany Amer has been convicted of attacks on police his family and legal team say 
happened after he was 'disappeared' into a military prison



Lawyers fear an Egyptian prisoner will be executed in the coming days for 
crimes they say he could not have committed because they took place months 
after he had been "disappeared" into a secret military black site.

Hany Amer, a 35-year-old computer programmer, has been sentenced to death along 
with 8 others by a military court for taking part in attacks on a police van 
and an army checkpoint in March 2014, and for being a leader of Ansar Beit 
al-Maqdis (ABM), an extremist group that later pledged allegiance to Islamic 
State (Isis).

Among other allegations, military prosecutors said Amer and his co-defendants 
"agreed between each other on a hostile attack against one of the army's 
personnel transportation vehicles while military personnel were inside it" and 
were arrested days later on 19 March.

But Amer's lawyers and family say that he was arrested on 16 December 2013, 
well before any of the attacks took place, and likely taken to Azouli, a secret 
military prison that was the subject of a Guardian investigation in June 2014.

In a message apparently smuggled from prison, Amer wrote that his conviction 
constituted "the highest degree of infidelity and tyranny ... by accusing us of 
participating in incidents that took place while we were under arrest".

Egypt's military judicial authority repeatedly said no one was available to 
respond to the claims, while a spokesman for the defence ministry declined to 
comment. Egypt's main mouthpiece, the State Information Service, said it was 
not authorised to respond on the army's behalf.

In 2 messages seen by the Guardian, Amer's family sent a telegram to 
prosecutors on 17 December, demanding to know his whereabouts, while his lead 
lawyer, Ahmed Helmy, sent a similar demand in January 2014. Neither message got 
a response.

But in February, prisoners from Azouli who were attending a separate trial told 
Helmy's colleagues that Amer was one of up to 400 people being held outside of 
civilian oversight at the jail, which is inside the headquarters of Egypt's 2nd 
army, 62 miles (100km) north-east of Cairo.

Helmy said: "7 people came from Azouli, so we used to ask them who they saw 
there, and we made a list of that. His name was on the list."

Helmy believes that Amer and others were forced to confess under duress. Azouli 
survivors interviewed by the Guardian claim they were electrocuted, beaten, and 
hung naked from their wrists for hours to get them to give up information. 
Helmy says that some prisoners, including Amer, were repeatedly tortured until 
they made specific confessions.

"You can't know if these people have committed these crimes or not," Helmy told 
the Guardian last year. "Under the pressure of torture you can admit to 
anything. It's clear that some people are admitting to things because of the 
torture."

Egypt has faced a series of major jihadi attacks since the overthrow of the 
Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, in June 2013. But Amer's brother claims he 
was not involved and was likely targeted because the police had failed to 
arrest the real culprits and needed to find easy scapegoats. His brother 
believes Amer drew attention because he was a known supporter of Hazem Abu 
Ismail, a popular Salafi preacher jailed in the days after Morsi's ousting.

Amer's brother said: "The government is treating prisoners like my brother as a 
strategic reserve so that whenever there is a big terrorist attack and they 
can't find the actual militants, they bring people like Hany from prison and 
charge them so that it doesn't look like they actually failed.

"The charges from the military case were all from March - but my brother was in 
Azouli since December. Others were inside since November. But the problem is 
that there is nothing that proves they were in Azouli. The government always 
denied they were there. The only proof we have are the telegrams we sent 
before.

"I don't know for certain if any of them were involved. But for sure Hany and 
several others were in Azouli - and they couldn't have escaped just to do these 
crimes."

Under the former army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the Egyptian government has 
launched a crackdown on all forms of political and militant opposition that 
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say is "on a scale unprecedented 
in Egypt's modern history". At least 1,000 dissidents have been killed since 
Morsi's overthrow, while security officials have told the Associated Press that 
at least 22,000 people have been arrested. According to rights groups, many of 
them have been subject to miscarriages of justice.

Only 1 man has been executed so far, but hundreds are appealing death sentences 
that were given en masse after trials that lasted less than an hour.

Spokesmen for the Egyptian government deny any judicial impropriety and have 
frequently praised "the independence, fairness, and transparency of Egypt's 
judiciary". They say the crackdown is justified as a legitimate response to 
jihadi attacks, which have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.

(source: The Guardian)








CHINA:

China Domestic Violence Law May Spare Spouse Murderers from Death Penalty



With China expected to begin review of its first national domestic abuse law in 
August, various parties, including the public, have begun to weigh in on how 
the law should handle the perpetrators and victims of domestic violence.

China's Supreme Court and Procuratorate has recommended that courts should no 
longer seek the death penalty in cases of domestic violence where men murder 
their wives in self-defense, Beijing Today reported Thursday.

The court's recommendation came as a reaction to a similar policy enacted in 
2014 that removed capital punishment as a possible sentence in cases where 
wives had killed their husbands after prolonged abuse.

Allowing only women to be exempt from the death penalty was seen as 
discriminatory, the story stated.

Should the Supreme Court's recommendations be passed, assailants both male and 
female will be charged with "excessive defense" instead of murder.

The sentencing guidelines are also the result of what is seen as a disparity 
between the punishment of domestic violence perpetrators.

2 examples reported by Women of China illustrate this situation: Dong Shanshan 
was beaten to death by her husband after less than a year of marriage. He was 
sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in prison. Li Yan killed her husband after 
years of abuse and several appeals to the police for assistance. She was 
sentenced to death, which was upheld on appeal, but finally commuted to an 
as-yet undefined, non-capital sentence by the Supreme Court.

(source: thebeijinger.com)








IRAN----executions

7 prisoners hanged



At least 7 prisoners were hanged on Thursday in a prison in the southern city 
of Shiraz.

The prisoners who had been arrested on drug related charges were hanged in the 
city's main prison known as Adelabad prison.

The victims had been transferred to Isolation last Thursday, a day before the 
Iranian New Year and hanged in secret this week.

Many prisoners have been hanged secretly during the last few months in prisons 
across Iran.

According to a report, a group of 4 men also were hanged last month in a prison 
in the city of Maragheh, in northwestern Iran.

They were identified as Bahram Ashtari, Atef Ranjbar, Karim Sadat and Vali 
Najafnia.

Some 1,400 individuals have been executed in Iran under Hassan Rouhani. The 
victims included political prisoners, women, juvenile offenders and citizens of 
Afghanistan.

The U.N.'s special investigator on Iran said on March 16 that the human rights 
situation and repression of Iranian women and activists has worsened since 
Hassan Rouhani became president in 2013.

Dr. Ahmed Shaheed said in Geneva: "in my view the overall situation has 
worsened, as indicated by the surge in executions."

He lamented that Iran executes more people per capita than any other country in 
the world.

"There is a lot of concern amongst the Iranian society that the nuclear file 
may be casting a shadow over the human rights discussion," Shaheed told the 
news briefing.

Mr. Shaheed, a Muslim and former foreign minister of the Maldives, has not been 
allowed to visit Iran since taking up the independent post.

(source: NCR-Iran)








JAPAN:

1 year since Hakamada's release, how much has really changed for Japan's death 
row inmates?



Exactly 1 year ago today, 78-year-old Hakamada Iwao walked out of the Tokyo 
Detention Centre after a District Court in Japan granted him a temporary 
release and retrial. Hakamada ??? the world's longest serving death row 
prisoner -- had spent more than half his life on Japan's death row. His 
conviction had been based on a "confession" he made under repeated torture, and 
with evidence that the court ruled could have been fabricated.

Yet, despite the fact that this high-profile case shook people's confidence in 
Japan's prison and justice systems, 1 year on, little has changed. Japan's 
criminal justice system is still deeply flawed and conditions on death row 
remain inhumane.

Solitary confinement

When Hakamada emerged from detention into the glare of the media spotlight on 
27 March last year, what news cameras captured was not an image of jubilation, 
but of a slightly stooped elderly man wearing a blank expression. After more 
than 45 years confined alone in a 5 square metre cell, Hakamada left prison 
mentally ill. His speech makes little sense and he often withdraws into 
himself. At other times, he suddenly flies into a temper.

Hakamada began showing signs of disturbed thinking and behaviour back in 1980, 
when the Supreme Court confirmed his death sentence. His lawyer reported that 
it was difficult to communicate with him, which made meetings with him 
ineffective. Conversations with his sister, Hideko, and letters he wrote also 
showed disordered thinking.

"After more than 45 years confined alone ... Hakamada left prison mentally 
ill."----Hiroka Shoji

In Japan, death row prisoners are kept secluded from the outside world, which 
in addition to solitary confinement also means little contact with family 
members. Hakamada lived under such conditions for not just years, but decades.

Mental health ignored

Hakamada is not the only inmate to have become mentally ill while on death row. 
Matsumoto Kenji, facing execution since 1993, also saw his mental health slip 
while detained. This was on top of an intellectual disability that he was born 
with.

Like Hakamada, Matsumoto began showing signs of irrational thought following 
detention. In 2008, a supporter said he received a letter from Matsumoto in 
which he claimed to have received prize money from the Japanese Prime Minister 
and the US President, events that had not taken place. Because of his mental 
disability, his lawyers said that he is unable to understand and participate in 
the legal proceedings in his case, nor can he help them prepare appeals in his 
defence.

International law and standards clearly state that the death penalty should not 
be used on people with mental or intellectual disabilities. Yet, Japan has no 
effective safeguards to stop this from happening, so that prisoners like 
Matsumoto with pre-existing intellectual disabilities are still condemned to 
death. And the prison conditions that have caused so much damage to Hakamada 
and Matsumoto's mental health remain unchanged.

"International law and standards clearly state that the death penalty should 
not be used on people with mental or intellectual disabilities."----Hiroka 
Shoji

Need for change

In a public statement following his release, Hakamada said: "It is absolutely 
unacceptable for a nation state to kill its people."

His case raises potent questions. For example, can locking someone up in a 
cramped cell, alone for decades ever be justified? Does the Japanese criminal 
justice system as it stands guarantee fair trials and provide enough safeguards 
against forced confessions? And if the risk of executing the innocent is always 
present, will there ever be enough safeguards? Experience from the great 
majority of countries in the world shows that the answer is no.

In the past year, Hakamada has shown signs of improvement. Now living in 
Shizuoka, Japan, with his sister, Hideko, he has become more open to having 
conversations with her. Occasionally, a smile even breaks through.

"It is absolutely unacceptable for a nation state to kill its 
people."----Hakamada Iwao

Hakamada's case still sits with the high court pending a ruling on a retrial, 
but for now, he is back home. Reforms to the justice system and improvements in 
conditions on death row are needed to be sure, but the ultimate change must be 
an end to the death penalty. My hope is that reform in Japan will not come too 
late for Matsumoto and others like him still on death row.

(source: Amnesty International)