[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 27



HUNGARY:

PM proposes to debate EU on having capital punishment instead of real life 
prison sentence



Hungary must remain a member of the European Union and NATO, the prime minister 
said during questions in Parliament. In response to a question by Gabor Vona, 
leader of the radical nationalist Jobbik party, concerning whether a referendum 
would be held on renegotiating Hungary's position with the EU, Viktor Orban 
said Jobbik "can hide behind a referendum" but "the fact is that Jobbik wants 
us to leave the EU and NATO." It is in the interest of the Hungarian people 
that Hungary should remain a member of both organisations, he said.

Meanwhile, Jobbik lawmaker Adam Mirkoczki asked Orban to support a 
parliamentary debate on capital punishment, initiated by Jobbik. Mirkoczki 
noted that in 2012 Orban had referred to EU principles to explain why the death 
penalty would not be restored. Noting the murder of a young tobacconist in 
south-west Hungary, Orban insisted the EU had "attacked" the implementation of 
real life prison sentences and now the situation had changed. If Brussels can 
"force" the country to let habitual offenders back into society then "we 
shouldn't take defensive action but instead take a step forward." "We need to 
respond by saying: let's have a debate on capital punishment," Orban said.

(source: politics.hu)








PAKISTAN----impending executions

PIA Flight 544 hijackers to be hanged on Thursday



The convicts in hijacking case of Flight 544 Shahsawar Baloch and Sabir Baloch 
are scheduled to be executed by handing on Thursday at Hyderabad Central Jail, 
Dunya News reported.

The terrorists had hijacked a passenger flight on May 25, 1998 with 33 
passengers and 5 crew members on board in order to stop testing of nuclear 
weapons Pakistan developed.

The flight took off from Gwadar International Airport and was scheduled to land 
at Hyderabad airport. The told the pilot to take the flight to New Delhi. What 
followed is no less than a plot of an action film.

The pilots told the hijackers that the flight, Fokker F27 model, did not have 
enough fuel to make it to New Delhi to which the hijackers demanded to land the 
flight at nearest airport in India.

The pilot then contacted Hyderabad airport and addressed it as Bhuj airport. 
Comprehending the signal, Hyderabad airport staff pretended to be from Bhuj 
airport and told the pilot Bhuj was waiting for the plane to land. This was a 
sort of assurance for the hijackers.

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had intercepted the communication and joined the 
operation.

Upon landing, Rangers' Major Aamir Hashmi, SSP Akhtar Gorchani, and Deputy 
Commissioner Suhail Akbar Shah waited outside the aircraft while dressed as 
Indian personnel which led the hijackers to believe they had landed in India.

Acting as Indian airport staff, communicating in Hindi and introducing 
themselves to the hijackers with Indian names, Pakistani officials successfully 
convinced the hijackers to let women and children go.

The final showdown happened when the commandos' reinforcement stormed the 
aircraft chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) slogan which left the hijackers 
shot. 1 of the hijackers fired at Deputy Commissioner but missed and shot one 
of his own accomplices instead.

Subsequently the hijackers were arrested and transferred to Karachi for 
prosecution. The anti-terrorism court awarded them death penalty and despite 
issuance of death warrants only to be canceled owing to temporary moratorium on 
death penalty.

However, the fresh death warrants have been issued and their execution is 
scheduled for May 28, the date on which Pakistan successfully test fired 
nuclear weapons in 1998.

The final meeting of death-row inmates with the families took place on 
Wednesday at the Central Jail.

Talking to the press, Shahsawar's son said that his father is 'innocent' and 
should be pardoned.

(source: Dunya News)








ALGERIA:

Algeria sentences 12 Islamists to death over 2008 bombing



An Algerian court sentenced 12 Islamist militants to death today and 2 more to 
life imprisonment for their involvement in a 2008 bombing that killed a 
Frenchman and his driver.

The APS news agency said the accused were all members of Katibat el-Arkam, the 
most dangerous branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and were 
behind several attacks in the Boumerdes region 50 kilometres east of Algiers.

Those given the death penalty are all on the run and were sentenced in absentia 
by Algiers criminal court, while the 2 present in court were sentenced to life.

All were found guilty of "forming an armed terrorist group and premeditated 
voluntary homicide".

The 2 defendants in court, Khaled Asalah and Brahim Brahim, admitted membership 
of AQIM and taking part in several attacks.

On June 9, 2008, engineer Pierre Nowacki of the French firm BTP Razel and his 
Algerian driver were killed by a remotely controlled roadside bomb in the Beni 
Amrane area east of the capital.

A 2nd blast in the area minutes later wounded 7 people.

The Frenchman had been overseeing repair work on a railway tunnel.

(source: The Business Standard)








SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi execution surge 'very disturbing': UN rapporteur



Saudi Arabia's execution surge is "very disturbing" and out of line with global 
trends, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary 
executions told AFP Wednesday.

He spoke as the number of beheadings in the kingdom hit 89, compared with 87 
during all of 2014, according to tallies by AFP.

"It is certainly very disturbing that there is such a fast pace of executions 
at the moment," Christof Heyns said in a telephone interview from South Africa.

"If it continues at this pace we will have double the number of executions, or 
more than double the number of executions than we had last year."

Heyns, who submits annual reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council and General 
Assembly, said Riyadh's use of the death penalty "is just so way out of line" 
with global trends where the number of executions and states which apply the 
death penalty is decreasing.

"So this is going in the opposite direction. It's going against the stream," he 
said.

Heyns, a professor of human rights law at the University of Pretoria, said 
statistics indicate that Saudi Arabia last year had the world's third highest 
number of executions after China and Iran.

He said there are a number of concerns about the kingdom's use of the death 
penalty.

Under international law, if capital punishment is imposed at all it should only 
be for murder, he said.

But in Saudi Arabia "more than half" the executions are for non-lethal crimes.

Under the Gulf nation's strict version of Islamic sharia law, drug trafficking, 
rape, murder, apostasy and armed robbery are all punishable by death, as are 
other offences including espionage.

In a country of about 29 million, a "very high number of people for the 
population" are sentenced to death and executed, the special rapporteur said.

"It seems that many of these trials are in secrecy and that lawyers are not 
available and they do not comply with the standards of fair trial."

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry has cited deterrence as a reason for 
implementing capital punishment.

(source: The Daily Star)

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

89 in 5 months: Saudi Arabia continues executions



A man was beheaded in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, with the convicted murderer's 
execution becoming the 89th case this year, according to an AFP count. The 
death toll has already overtaken the total for all of 2014.

Fahd bin Hussein Daghriri was found guilty in participating in the murder of a 
fellow Saudi citizen, AFP reported on Wednesday, citing an interior ministry 
statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency. Authorities executed 
the convicted criminal in the southern region of Jazan.

The man was sentenced to death according to the nation's strict version of 
Islamic sharia law, under which such crimes as murder, rape, armed robbery and 
drug trafficking are punishable by death. Executions are mostly conducted by 
decapitating the accused with a sword in public.

The Gulf kingdom had already executed 88 people across 2015 before the newest 
case, both locals and foreigners. This month, 5 foreigners were executed in 
Saudi Arabia, causing international outcry, with human rights groups having 
condemned the country.

Daghriri's beheading was the 89th since the beginning of the year. In 
comparison, in all of 2014, 87 people were executed in Saudi Arabia.

The "fast pace" of executions in Saudi Arabia was deemed "very disturbing" by a 
UN special rapporteur.

"If it continues at this pace we will have double the number of executions, or 
more than double the number of executions, that we had last year," Christof 
Heyns who submits annual reports to the UN Human Rights Council and General 
Assembly, told AFP on Wednesday.

Observing that how, in a country of approximately 29 million, the number of 
people sentenced to death and executed is "very high," Heyns said Saudi Arabia 
"is going against the stream," while execution figures are decreasing in other 
countries.

The UN official called the practice "something which really doesn't belong in 
the 21st century," adding that in the Gulf kingdom trials leading to beheadings 
are often carried out "in secrecy," with lawyers being unavailable. "They do 
not comply with the standards of fair trial," Heyns told AFP.

Out of the 22 countries currently known to practice capital punishment, in 2014 
Saudi Arabia was ranked 3rd on Amnesty International's list of countries that 
carry out the most executions, surpassing Iraq and the United States.

(source: rt.com)



CHINA:

China's top court stresses death penalty for drug crimes



The Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Wednesday published a circular emphasizing 
that death penalty should be used to punish drug crime.

In cases involving drug lords, professional drug dealers or re-offenders, if 
the crimes were serious enough, capital punishment should be handed down, said 
the circular formulated at a recent national conference on trials of drug 
crimes.

Death sentences may also be used to punish drug smuggling, organized 
transnational drug crime and armed or violent drug crime.

The top court also required more stricter standards for reprieves, ruling them 
out for re-offenders.

Reprieves for those found to have induced, instigated, conned or forced others 
to commit drug crimes should also be strictly controlled, the SPC said.

Abatements or probation for sentenced drug gang bosses, professional 
traffickers and re-offenders also needs to be scrutinized, the circular added.

The document went on that the amount of narcotics the suspects held for their 
own use will no longer be an element when the judges decide on convictions, and 
such facts will only be considered during the sentencing process.

The circular pledged equal punishment for drug-related crimes conducted via the 
Internet and vowed to step up the confiscation of the drug criminals' assets.

(source: Global Times)

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

Former Chinese legislator stands trial for sex business



A 5-star hotel owner and former national legislator went on trial in south 
China's Guangdong province for alleged involvement in prostitution, Xinhua news 
agency reported on Wednesday.

Liang Yaohui, and his 46 hotel employees, were accused of arranging 
prostitutes, including underage girls, in Crown Prince Hotel in Dongguan city 
since 2004, according to Dongguan Intermediate People's Court.

The city, which is about 80 km away from provincial capital Guangzhou, is 
famous for casinos, bath houses and massage parlours.

The hotel made about 48.7 million yuan ($7.8 million) by organising over 
100,000 illegal sexual acts in 2013, according to the court.

In February 2014, Liang's hotel was closed down together with some other hotels 
and entertainment venues involved in sex trade in Dongguan after media exposed 
the city's sex business. The scandal was followed by a 3-month crackdown on 
prostitution in Guangdong.

Liang, born in 1967, was stripped of the title as a deputy to the National 
People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, after being detained in April 
2014.

Prostitution has been outlawed in China since the People's Republic of China 
was founded in 1949. According to Chinese laws, organising prostitution can 
result in life in prison or even the death penalty.

(source: The Business Standard)








BANGLADESH:

Mujahid appeal verdict June 16



The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has fixed June 16 for delivering 
its verdict on an appeal filed by Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, 
challenging his death penalty. The 4-member Appellate Division bench headed by 
Chief Justice SK Sinha passed the order on Wednesday afternoon.

On July 17 last year, International Crimes Tribunal 2 awarded the death penalty 
to Jamaat leader Mujaheed for committing crimes against humanity during the 
Liberation War.

He received death penalties in 2 cases filed for abetting and facilitating the 
killing of intellectuals during the Liberation War and participating in and 
facilitating the murder of 9 Hindu civilians in Faridpur.

On August 11 last year, Mujahid filed an appeal with the Appellate Division 
against his capital punishment.

On April 29, the SC started the appeal hearing of the condemned prisoner for 
committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)

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

Bangladesh to 'form tribunals at divisional headquarters to try human 
trafficking offences'



Law Minister Anisul Huq today said the government will form 7 special tribunals 
at 7 divisional headquarters of the country to try and punish the offences of 
human trafficking, and curb such crimes.

District and session judges concerned will conduct the tribunals, which will be 
established under the Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act 2012, 
the minister said while talking to reporters after a meeting with Swedish 
Ambassador Johan Frisell at his Secretariat office.

Highest punishment for such organised crimes under this law is death penalty, 
he added.

The law minister said his ministry has already sent proposal for formation of 
the tribunals to the ministries concerned.

He said there are 557 cases, filed on charges of human trafficking, are pending 
with different courts across the country. Charge sheets were submitted in 257 
cases and trial proceedings of 12 cases have been finished, he said.

Anisul also said the trial proceedings of the pending cases will be conducted 
at the women and children repression prevention tribunals concerned of the 
districts until the special tribunals are established in the divisional 
headquarters.

(source: The Daily Star)