[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide----GLOBAL, ASIA, PAKIS., SING., MALD., AUST., HONG KONG

[Rick Halperin]

May 7



GLOBAL:

The execution debate ---- The recent riots and protests in cities as diverse as 
Baltimore and Ferguson after police killings have highlighted how trigger-happy 
the police can be. In no instance has a law enforcement officer ended up in 
death row despite a number of convictions



The 1st recorded parliamentary debate on the use of the death penalty was held 
in 427 BC when Diodotus, arguing that the penalty was not a deterrent, 
persuaded the Athenian assembly not to execute the Mitylene rebels.

The debate goes on in the US in particular, a big time user of the penalty 
where opinion, belatedly, is turning towards using it more sparingly and, 
recently, in Australia, when Indonesia decided to go ahead with the execution 
last week of convicted Australian drug traffickers. This event got major news 
coverage all over the world. These 2 developments suggest that in many 
countries there is a new thought going around about the efficacy and morality 
of capital punishment.

The modern abolitionist movement is usually traced back to the Italian, Cesare 
Beccaria's pioneering work, On Crimes and Punishment, published in 1764. 
However, it was a US state, Michigan, which in 1846 became the first 
jurisdiction in the world to abolish permanently the death penalty. In 1863, 
Venezuela became the first country. Amnesty International recently reported 
that the number of countries still executing people fell from 41 in 1995 to 22 
last year, while the number of states that have abolished the death penalty 
climbed from 59 to 98.

Abolishment-minded governments are often ahead of their own public opinion. 
Even in Europe, the word's pioneer in abolition, if there has been a 
particularly gruesome and heinous murder polls often show an upswing in support 
for its re-introduction. In Hungary last week the prime minister proposed 
re-instating the death penalty following the stabbing of a young tobacco store 
clerk.

In Asia, a number of countries in recent months have ramped up the giving of 
death sentences with the aim of cracking down on terrorism and drug 
trafficking. In December, Pakistan ended a 6-year moratorium on the death 
penalty after the Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar that left more than 140 
people, mainly children, dead.

However, moving in the opposite direction are many states in the US. The Boston 
Marathon Race bomber has just been convicted. Despite the strong emotions 
aroused by the incident, polls show that most Bostonians do not want to see him 
executed. Hillary Clinton, now running for president, is today part of a 
growing movement among politicians in both political parties re-questioning 
publicly their "tough on crime" reflex. When her husband was president she 
backed his draconian agenda on crime, which led to the mass incarceration of 
young, black, non-violent offenders. The US has now ended up with the largest 
prison population in the world - over 2 million - on a par with Russia and 
China.

Moreover, it ranks 5th in the number of people it executes, not far behind 
China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It executes more than North Korea. In the 
US, evidence of racial bias in capital sentencing is now beyond doubt. It is 
not just that 1 in 3 of the people executed are black; it is that they tend to 
be executed for killing whites. Yet the number of whites executed for killing 
blacks is proportionately a good deal less.

US police officers shoot and kill upwards of 400 people a year. A 
disproportionate number of the victims are black. The recent riots and protests 
in cities as diverse as Baltimore and Ferguson after police killings have 
highlighted how trigger-happy the police can be. In no instance has a law 
enforcement officer ended up in death row despite a number of convictions.

Execution is the ultimate, irrevocable punishment. The risk of executing an 
innocent person can never be eliminated. Since 1973, 150 US prisoners sent to 
death row have later been exonerated. A good number have been executed despite 
serious doubts about their guilt. Countries that execute commonly cite the 
death penalty as a way to deter people from committing crime. This claim has 
been repeatedly discredited, most recently in a study carried out at Oxford 
University. There is no evidence that the death penalty is any more effective 
in reducing crime than imprisonment.

In a number of countries the means of capital punishment can be sadistic. In 
Saudi Arabia, there are beheadings with some of them being public. Even 
adultery can be a capital crime. In some Muslim countries women can be punished 
with over 100 lashes for being the victim of a rape. This is perverse. In some 
countries retribution is regarded as a good enough justification for capital 
punishment. In Guinea, West Africa, I covered an abortive coup for the New York 
Times and witnessed a mass execution. But the crowd watched it as a sheer 
spectacle, not as some religious purifying act of retribution for a wounded 
society.

But then you either believe in capital punishment or you do not. I do not.

(source: Opinion; Jonathan Power----The writer has been a foreign affairs 
columnist for the International Herald Tribune for 20 years and author of the 
much acclaimed new book, Conundrums of Humanity - the Big Foreign Policy 
Questions of Our Age----The Daily Times)








ASIA:

Time to fight for a moratorium on the death penalty in Asia



As Australians mourn the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran we 
should also ask, what good can come of this?

Might it be, paradoxically, that the time has come to collaborate with nations 
across the Asia Pacific to agree upon a moratorium on the death penalty as a 
1st step towards ending it for good globally?

The community and media attention given to the heroin trafficking by, and 
conviction of, the Bali nine and the 10-year journey by Andrew Chan and Myuran 
Sukumaran of repentance and rehabilitation has prompted unprecedented and 
bipartisan efforts to convince the Indonesian President to grant a reprieve. 
While we have focused on the two Australians as we followed their plight over 
recent months, Indonesia has employed the death penalty against the nationals 
of many other countries, including Norway, Brazil, Nigeria, Thailand and the 
Netherlands. The leaders of these countries have been rebuffed, among them the 
king of Norway, as was Australia's Prime Minister. The irony is that, somewhat 
inconsistently, Indonesia has pleaded for the lives of its own citizens under 
sentence of death in other countries such as Saudi Arabia.

There is some evidence of a trend in south-east Asia towards abolition of the 
death penalty. Cambodia, Timor L'Este, Nepal, Bhutan and the Philippines have 
ended executions and de facto moratoriums have existed for some years in Laos 
and Thailand. Some states, including Singapore and Malaysia, have reduced the 
number of offences attracting the death penalty and commutations are common in 
Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. In the Pacific, Fiji has de facto 
ended the death penalty and New Zealand abolished it in 1989. While the UN 
Secretary General has argued that the "death penalty has no place in the 21st 
century", China, Vietnam, Japan and Indonesia maintain a harsh policy of 
executions.

There are several vehicles through which diplomatic and institutional 
initiatives could promote a moratorium on executions within the Asia Pacific.

Member states could add a discussion of the issue to the agenda of the 
forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November. It is time 
for CHOGM to confirm its 2012 commitment to the inherent right to life in the 
Commonwealth's Charter of Human Rights. ASEAN's Intergovernmental Commission on 
Human Rights could also be influential in seeking a consensus, building upon 
its 2012 Human Rights Declaration. Australia could link our aid programs in the 
region more directly to improving human rights and governance according to the 
rule of law. We could also expand our bilateral human rights dialogues with 
China and Vietnam to other nations within the Asia Pacific.

National human rights institutions across the region have called for an end to 
the death penalty. The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia has, for example, 
recently urged its government to abolish the death penalty. The chair, Tan Sri 
Hasmy Agan, has asked for the mandatory death sentence for drug offences to be 
amended to return the discretionary power to judges to decide the appropriate 
penalty for such crimes.

When considering a strategy to end the death penalty in the Asia-Pacific 
region, it should be recognised that by global standards, the region is 
exceptional in its approach to human rights.

Unlike the European, Inter-American and African Courts of Human Rights, or the 
proposed Arab Court of Human Rights, nations of the region have not agreed to a 
legally binding human rights charter or to a regional commission or court to 
promote legal jurisprudence. Many Asian nations have not engaged with the 
global human rights monitoring regime. Most are not party to the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and have been unresponsive to 
calls by the Human Rights Council to accept responsibility to protect the right 
to life. While many Asian states remain outside the international human rights 
treaty system, cultural norms are, nonetheless, changing in the region. 
Political leadership, building on recent de jure and de faco moratoriums on the 
death penalty, has the potential to prove highly effective.

Vital to any regional initiative to end the death penalty is a clear 
understanding of the law. International law does not prohibit the death 
sentence absolutely. Article 6 of the ICCPR provides that the death penalty 
"may be imposed only for the most serious crimes" and if pursuant to the 
judgment of a competent court. The Human Rights Committee, in its General 
Comment No 6 of 1982, has argued that the phrase "the most serious crime" 
should be read restrictively to mean the death penalty should be a "quite 
exceptional measure". That the execution of those trafficking in drugs is 
contrary to international law is strongly arguable. Moreover, to execute drug 
traffickers who have been rehabilitated fails to respect their human dignity 
and inherent right to life. The death sentence also creates an unacceptable 
risk of executing an innocent person and the evidence indicates that it is not 
an effective deterrent to serious crimes.

The United Nations has been active in promoting the abolition of the death 
penalty by promoting the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, under which 
states agree to end executions. The General Assembly has also adopted 4 
resolutions calling for the progressive restriction of executions and reduction 
of the kinds of offences punishable by death. Under the Universal Periodic 
Review, in which countries review each others' human rights record, 
recommendations have been made to abolish the death penalty.

The sad executions of Michael Chan and Myuran Sukumaran provide an opportunity 
to build on community rejection of the death penalty, on regional trends toward 
abolition and on United Nations efforts to end executions. Their deaths could 
be the spark that ignites a consensus among all states of the Asia Pacific to 
rethink adherence to a policy that is increasingly cruel and out of place in 
the 21st century.

(source: Commentary; Gillian Triggs is President of the Human Rights 
Commission----The Age)








PAKISTAN:

Saulat Mirza's wife files plea seeking halt to his execution



Death row inmate, former Muttahdia Qaumi Movement (MQM) activist Saulat Mirza's 
wife on Thursday has filed a plea in the Sindh High Court (SHC) seeking halt to 
her husband's death penalty.

The petition forwarded by Nighat Mirza states that the execution should be 
halted until the inquiry of the joint investigation team's (JIT) report is 
finalised. The petitioner maintained that the names mentioned by Mirza during 
his investigation must be included in the related cases and until these are 
finalised, execution should be postponed.

Separately, the inspection team 2 of the SHC has formed its report regarding 
Mirza's cases.

According to the report, there is no case pending in the SHC against the death 
row inmate. SHC chief justice (CJ) had ordered the team to put forth a report.

(source: Dunya News)








SINGAPORE:

Abolish Capital Punishment ---- Join Global Moratorium Against Death Penalty



Singapore's execution of Mohammad bin Kadar on April 17, 2015, should be the 
last use of capital punishment in the country, Human Rights Watch said today.

Singapore has about 25 people on death row. At least 2, recently sentenced, 
could face execution in the coming months. In place of these and other 
potential executions, Singapore should join the 117 United Nations member 
countries that in 2014 voted for a global moratorium on the death penalty and 
move ultimately to abolish it.

"Singapore should realize that its use of the death penalty makes it an 
increasing outlier among nations," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. 
"It's a barbaric practice that has no place in a modern state."

Singapore authorities hanged 39-year-old Mohammad bin Kadar after he spent 8 
years on death row for the 2005 murder of his neighbor, a 69-year-old woman. 
The court determined that Mohammad bin Kadar, who had a borderline IQ of 76 and 
was in a drug-induced state, knew what he was doing when he stabbed the victim 
repeatedly, establishing he had an "intention to kill," which under Singapore 
law made the death penalty mandatory.

Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions at the 
time said in reference to a 2005 drug case in Singapore that having a mandatory 
death penalty violates international legal standards. Making such a penalty 
mandatory, thus eliminating the discretion of the court "makes it impossible to 
take into account mitigating or extenuating circumstances and eliminates any 
individual determination of an appropriate sentence in a particular case. ... 
The adoption of such a black-and-white approach is entirely inappropriate where 
the life of the accused is at stake."

In November 2012, Singapore's parliament revised the law to restrict the kinds 
of drug and murder convictions for which the death penalty is mandatory. In 
murder cases, death sentences are not mandatory if the convicted murderer had 
"no outright intention to kill." Mohammad bin Kadar appealed his death sentence 
on the grounds that the law had been amended, but his appeal was rejected.

According to Amnesty International, since the laws were amended, courts have 
reviewed and eventually commuted death sentences to life imprisonment and 
caning in at least nine cases. However, the law still provides for mandatory 
death sentences, in contravention of international standards.

At least 2 of those on death row in Singapore, Kho Jabing and Michael Galing, 
received mandatory death sentences after being convicted in separate murder 
cases. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all cases because of its 
inherent cruelty and irreversibility and urges the government to commute the 
sentences of all those held on death row.

In July 2012, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean reiterated the Singaporean 
government's longstanding position on the death penalty, saying that "the death 
penalty has been an effective deterrent and an appropriate punishment for very 
serious offences, and [Singaporeans] largely support it. As part of our penal 
framework, it has contributed to keeping crime and the drug situation under 
control."

In its December 18, 2007 resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on the 
death penalty, the UN General Assembly stated that "there is no conclusive 
evidence of the death penalty's deterrent value and that any miscarriage or 
failure of justice in the death penalty's implementation is irreversible and 
irreparable."

"How many people will Singapore execute before they understand that the death 
penalty is not an effective deterrent to crime?" Robertson said. "Singapore 
should join with the UN secretary-general in recognizing that the 'death 
penalty has no place in the 21st century.'"

(source: Human Rights Watch)

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

Man accused of killing brother gets pro bono lawyer



A former Singapore Polytechnic student accused of murdering his older brother 
at their family home has found a lawyer to represent him free of charge.

Ng Yao Wei, 21, appeared in court via video link from Changi Prison yesterday 
and was remanded for another 3 weeks at Changi Medical Centre for further 
evaluation and treatment, on the request of the Institute of Mental Health.

He is accused of killing 26-year-old motion graphics artist Ng Yao Cheng on 
April 13 at the Windermere condominium in Choa Chu Kang, where the brothers 
lived with their parents.

Ng will be represented pro bono by Mr Josephus Tan of Fortis Law Corporation, 
who saw his client for the 1st time yesterday as he appeared on screen.

Mr Tan said he was appointed last week after the defendant's parents approached 
him.

He told reporters outside the courtroom: "I know it was reported that they are 
living in a condo, but apart from the house, I don't think they have the 
financial capability.

I can't be expecting them to sell the roof over their heads to fund their legal 
fees. Our concern is for the parents to seek counselling themselves and leave 
the legal proceedings to us."

Ng called police to report a murder on the night of April 13 and paramedics 
arrived to find the elder Mr Ng lying in a pool of blood in a bedroom, 
reportedly with knife wounds to his neck. He was pronounced dead at 11.16pm.

It is believed that the brothers had been arguing.

Ng was arrested on the spot and taken to Changi General Hospital as he had 
injuries.

He was charged with murder there on April 15.

Ng recently completed a diploma course in business information technology at 
Singapore Polytechnic where his results put him on the Director's Honour Roll 
in his 2nd year.

If found guilty, he could face the death penalty.

The case will next be heard on May 27.

(source: asiaone.com)



MALDIVES:

'Maldives will not back down on religious stand'



Maldives has on Wednesday maintained that it would end the moratorium on death 
penalty, uphold laws that forbid religious freedom and allow flogging, despite 
the United Nations??? member countries urging for it to do otherwise.

The UN Human Rights Council???s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) saw Maldives 
being questioned over its stand on religious matters.

Countries such as Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, 
Belgium, Canada, Nepal, Montenegro, and Ukraine and urged the Maldives to 
withdraw its decision to implement the death penalty.

The UN's member nations had voiced their concerns at a time when President 
Yamin Abdul Gayoom had announced that the death penalty will be implemented by 
the end of 2015. He said this on the 27th of April in regard to the death 
penalty against those that were sentenced for MP Afraasheem Ali's murder.

"We are saddened by the fact that Maldives makes it compulsory for an 
individual to be a Muslim to acquire citizenship in the country" the US' 
statement said.

The States further noted a complete lack of rights for the LGBT community.

Foreign Minister Dhunya Maumoon said that Islamic principles have become the 
foundation for Maldivian society and is a key part of its identity. Therefore, 
the Maldives will not heed calls for freedoms that violate the tenets of Islam, 
she said.

"Foreigners have the right to practice their religion in secret but for 
Maldivians, Islam is a principle part of their identity" the Minister further 
said "I assure you that this will not change".

The President's Office's Legal Affairs Secretary Aishath Bisham - who was also 
part of the delegation - said that Maldivians believe that Islamic principles 
and human rights go hand-in-hand.

Bisham said that laws on flagellation are very solid and that the recipient is 
treated in a way that protects his rights. She further said that while pregnant 
women and children are exempted from flogging; out of the 425 articles in the 
new Penal Code describing what constitutes a crime, flogging is used to punish 
only 5 of those crimes.

"Flogging is used to prevent crime as opposed to being used as a punishment" 
she said "And even then, it is used with civility".

(source: haveeru.com)








TAIWAN:

Dane faces death penalty for heroin smuggling in Taiwan; How Carl-Erik Jensen, 
43-year-old from Aarhus, went on holiday to Thailand, was robbed and quickly 
found himself working a courier----Jensen is currently awaiting trial and could 
be executed



Like many Danes, when Carl-Erik Jensen went to Thailand on holiday in the 
spring of 2014, he imagined he'd be back home before he knew it.

Just one year later, the 43-year-old sits in a Taiwanese prison, charged with 
trying to smuggle 1,500 grams of heroin out of the country, knowing he could 
face the death penalty if convicted. 5 people were executed last year for 
similar offences.

The warning signs are clear in the airport at Taiwan (the Republic of China)

The belly of Bangkok

In his home city of Aarhus, Jensen led a pretty ordinary life. A worker in the 
North Sea oil industry, he was single, content and occasionally in trouble with 
the law.

As a streetwise individual, he could handle himself on the streets of the 
Jutland city, contends a source close to the Dane, but he hadn't bargained on 
the belly of Bangkok.

A fateful night out

On his first night out in the Thai capital, he met some girls in a bar, took 
one out for dinner and drinks, and then returned to his hotel room for a party.

The rest of the night was a blur. He woke up the next morning in a trashed 
hotel room without any of his clothes and money and, most importantly, without 
his passport.

A 'chance' meeting

It was Saturday morning, and Jensen knew the Danish embassy was closed. He 
borrowed some clothes at the hotel and started to wander the streets. He didn't 
know where he was going.

Out of nowhere, a European-looking man asked him whether he needed help. 
Together, in a brand new Range Rover, they drove first to a department store to 
buy some clothes, and then to a large mansion on the outskirts of the city.

Like Hef's mansion

Upon arriving, Jensen was given a glass of champagne and invited to get into a 
jacuzzi. More girls. Several days passed, and with the mansion, pool and Thai 
girls en masse at his disposal, Jensen had few complaints.

But soon it was time to pay. Jensen's hosts told him it was time to pay them 
back for all the help he had received. The bill came to $15,000.

But there was also good news: they'd managed to recover his passport and they 
just happened to have a job for which the payment was $15,000.

Life as a courier

Jensen took the job and smuggled an unspecified amount of heroin into Taiwan. 
Upon his return, he was allowed to return to the mansion where the champagne 
and girls never ran out. And he was even allowed to keep the money. More 
courier jobs followed.

Jensen, by this time, was hooked on the lifestyle. And even though he briefly 
returned to Denmark, he couldn't wait to return to get back to work.

Hooked on the lifestyle

Jensen mostly smuggled heroin from Taiwan into Thailand, either disguised as a 
businessman wearing a nice suit, watch and shoes, or as a school teacher 
dressed more casually, carrying schoolbooks and folders.

Each job commanded a payment of between $25,000 and 40,000 and involved 
smuggling between 1 and 2 kilograms of heroin. Jensen moved to Thailand and 
settled into a routine of making 2 courier trips per month.

Love in Cambodia

But after a few months, he moved to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh where 
there were fewer visa issues and the living costs were even cheaper. Besides, 
the beaches were nice and the girls pretty.

At an apartment showing, Jensen met Sery, a 27-years-old Cambodian woman with 3 
children from a previous relationship. For Jensen it was love at first sight, 
and he married Sery a couple of months later.

Unfortunately for the happy couple, their honeymoon period didn't last long.

Jensen and his bride Sery's happiness was cut short

Taken in Taiwan

In early March, Sery received a call from the Danish representation in Taiwan, 
which has also since confirmed Jensen's retention to the Weekly Post. Her 
husband had been arrested at the country's airport carrying an airline ticket 
to Cambodia and 1.5 kilograms of heroin taped to his thigh.

She was told that she wouldn???t be able to speak to Jensen for at least 2 
months while the police investigations continue.

Death by firing squad

Jensen, meanwhile, is being held in Taiwan, a country where the punishment for 
drug-related offences is execution by firing squad.

When he eventually appears in court later this year, he will be provided with a 
lawyer to defend him.

If found guilty, it is likely he will be sentenced to death. Some 48 people 
have been killed in the past 15 years, including 17 in the last 3.

(soure: Copenhagen Post)








HONG KONG:

Jackie Chan 'supports death penalty' for drug offences



Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan has said he supports the use of the death penalty 
for some drug offenders.

Chan, whose son was jailed for drugs offences, said that with drugs "you're 
hurting thousands of young children".

Jaycee Chan spent 6 months in prison in China after police found marijuana in 
his home.

Jackie Chan is Singapore's 1st celebrity anti-drug ambassador. He was named 
official Narcotics Control Ambassador by Chinese police in 2009.

Both Singapore and China have enforced capital punishment for drug trafficking.

In an interview with journalists conducted in both English and Mandarin, he 
said drugs were not only hurting young people, they were hurting his family.

"On some issues, I do support the death penalty," he said.

"When you're hurting thousands and thousands of young children, I think these 
kind of people are useless.

"You should get the right punishment."

He added: "[Young people say] 'it's okay, it's just like a cigarette'. I say 
'it's not okay, not in my family'."

Jaycee, 32, was imprisoned for not just using drugs, but for the additional and 
more serious crime of "providing a shelter for others to abuse drugs", Beijing 
police said at the time.

When asked about Jaycee's time in prison, Chan said he felt "ashamed" and 
"shocked" and that he was now more focussed on his son.

"I'm more concentrating on him now, used to be just, 'you are a grown man.' But 
now I find out, he's still a boy," Chan said.

(source: BBC news)