[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 10



INDIA:

Kerala To Observe Hartal Demanding Abolition Of Death Penalty On Nov. 11


A democratic hartal will be observed on November 11th in Kerala demanding the 
death penalty be abolished as recommended by the National Law Commission 
Report. The other demands are declaration of a moratorium on death penalty in 
the country, passing of a motion in the State Assembly to pass a bill in 
Parliament to abolish death penalty, and protection of human rights of 
prisoners in our jails.

It was on November 11, 1944 that death penalty was abolished Tiruvitamcode, and 
the hartal is intended to evoke and pay homage to Kerala's tradition of 
tolerance and humanism. The hartal is committed to the protection of democratic 
rights of the citizens. Excepting essential services like hospital, newspapers 
etc, the hartal will be observed in a peaceful manner from 6 AM to 6 PM by 
closing commercial, educational and official establishments, avoiding vehicular 
traffic etc. We request all people to freely and democratically participate in 
the same.

This is not a hartal that is organized centrally and imposed from 'top to 
bottom', instead through voluntary public participation. During the last few 
months, the Organising Committee had campaigned all over the State, and support 
groups formed at the regional level to spread the message among the people and 
the hartal is organized through their active participation and initiative. 
Organisations like Adivasi Gotra Mahasabha, NCHRE, PUCL, Progressive Artists & 
Writers Collective etc and publications like Padabhedam have assured their 
formal support to the hartal.

The basic objective of this hartal is to remember and reassert the long 
tradition of renaissance and to rally the people behind the demand for 
abolition of death penalty. In the coming years too, November 11 - the day on 
which death penalty was abolished - will be observed as a Anti Death Penalty 
Day.

We appeal to all the democratic forces in this country who are struggling 
against fascist tendencies in our society to join hands to attain our 
objective. GEORGE

Convenor, Hartal Organising Committee

Anti Death Penalty Collective

(source: countercurrents.org)






SAUDI ARABIA----execution

Saudi Arabia executes citizen for killing policeman


Saudi authorities executed a citizen convicted of killing a policeman trying to 
arrest him for drug trafficking, the interior ministry has said.

Ayed al-Jahdali was executed in the Makkah region, the interior ministry said.

Saudi executions are usually carried out by beheading with a sword although 
sometimes a firing-squad is deployed.

A total of 151 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia this year -- the 
highest recorded figure since 1995 -- campaign group Amnesty International said 
in a statement, condemning the "bloody execution spree".

"The Saudi Arabian authorities appear intent on continuing a bloody execution 
spree which has seen at least 151 people put to death so far this year -- an 
average of 1 person every 2 days," said James Lynch, deputy director of Amnesty 
International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.

Almost 1/2 of the 151 executions were for offences that do not meet the 
threshold of "most serious crimes" which involve intentional killing and for 
which the death penalty can be imposed under international human rights law, 
Amnesty said.

The death penalty is disproportionately used against foreigners in Saudi Arabia 
and of the 63 people executed this year for drug-related charges, 45 were 
foreign nationals, the group said.

So far 71 foreign nationals have been put to death in the conservative kingdom 
in 2015, mostly migrant workers from developing countries, Amnesty said.

Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom 
and migrants are especially vulnerable as they typically lack knowledge of 
Arabic and are denied adequate translation during their trials, Amnesty noted.

"The use of the death penalty is abhorrent in any circumstance but it is 
especially alarming that the Saudi Arabian authorities continue to use it in 
violation of international human rights law and standards, on such a wide 
scale, and after trials which are grossly unfair and sometimes politically 
motivated," said James Lynch.

The country's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Sheikh Nimr Baqir 
al-Nimr, a prominent Shia Muslim cleric after a politicised and grossly unfair 
trial at Saudi Arabia's notorious counter-terror court.

Nimr's nephew Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr, and 2 other young Shia activists who 
were arrested as juveniles after taking part in anti-government rallies, also 
had their death sentences upheld, Amnesty said.

All 3 claim they were tortured and denied access to a lawyer during their 
trials.

(soruce: Business Standard)

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

Where's the Outrage Over the Beheadings in Saudi Arabia?


By the time you read this column, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, Dawoud Hussein 
al-Marhoon and Abdullah Hasan al-Zaher may be dead.

In case you've never heard their names, they are young prisoners of conscience 
currently housed in solitary confinement at the notorious al-Ha'ir penitentiary 
in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They are waiting to be beheaded. In all likelihood, as 
is Saudi custom, no advance public notice of their executions will be given. 
We'll learn of their demise only after the fact, via social media, or when the 
Saudi government officially announces that their sentences have been carried 
out.

Al-Nimr, al-Marhoon and al-Zaher are Shiite Muslims who were arrested without 
warrants at different times in 2012 for participating in pro-democracy protests 
in the country's Eastern province during the Arab Spring uprising of 2011-2012. 
Al-Nimr and al-Marhoon were 17 years old when they were apprehended; al-Zaher 
was 16.

Although approximately 90 % of the Saudi population consists of Sunni Muslims, 
the oil-rich Eastern province is predominantly Shiite. Relations between the 2 
strands of Islam have never been good in Saudi Arabia, but tensions have 
reached a fever pitch in recent years. Branded as apostates by prominent Sunni 
clerics, the Shiites of Saudi Arabia are an oppressed and segregated minority, 
historically excluded from access to government services, jobs and leadership 
positions and often subject to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.

Al-Nimr and his cohorts were held for more than 2 years in pretrial detention 
without access to counsel while they were interrogated and reportedly tortured 
into signing confessions. Their alleged crimes, according to Amnesty 
International, included "chanting slogans against the State with the intent of 
destabilizing the security of the country and overturning its system of 
government, participating in the killing of police officers by making and using 
Molotov cocktails to attack them" and "carrying out an armed robbery."

Their trials were devoid of the most basic due-process protections. 
Predictably, in 2014 all three were convicted and sentenced by the nation's 
Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh to death by beheading. Their convictions 
and sentences were subsequently upheld on appeal.

The only difference in the outcome of the 3 cases is that al-Nimr won't just 
have his head lopped off. His body will be crucified afterward and put on 
public display as a warning to other would-be troublemakers. Al-Nimr is the 
nephew of a leading Shiite spiritual figure - Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr - who 
is also under a death sentence for his vocal criticism of the monarchy, the 
House of Saud, which has exercised absolute rule over its people since 1932.

Saudi Arabia is one of the last nations on earth that stage public executions. 
"They are carried out not just in Riyadh, but in other cities," Neil Hicks of 
Human Rights First (HRF) told me in an interview last week. "In Riyadh, they 
generally take place after Friday prayers in a downtown courtyard known locally 
as 'Chop Square,' when crowds of men are already gathered in the area and 
provide a ready audience."

Beheading is the most common method of execution, but other means, such as 
firing squads, are occasionally used. Amnesty International reports that in 
2014, the Saudis executed 90 people. This year, through Oct. 22, the number has 
soared to 137. Apart from China and Iran, no other country consistently exceeds 
such totals.

Hicks, who formerly worked as a researcher for the Middle East department of 
Amnesty International in London before becoming director of human rights 
promotion at the HRF in New York, says the spike in the Saudi death penalty is 
part of a general "clampdown on human rights" that has taken place over the 
last 3 to 4 years "because the regime is concerned with the impact of the Arab 
Spring" and "threats to authoritarian rule." Public beheadings, he explains, 
are "meant to keep order and suppress dissent."

Coerced confessions like those extracted from al-Nimr, al-Marhoon and al-Zaher 
are a staple of the Saudi justice system, as are closed trials and appeals. 
Equally deplorable is the fact that capital crimes are vaguely defined, ranging 
from murder and drug smuggling to adultery, apostasy, witchcraft and sorcery. 
>From 2014 through the middle of this year, nearly 1/2 of those sent to the 
sword had been convicted of nonlethal, drug-related crimes.

The Saudi system of executing juveniles also violates international law, 
specifically the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Even the 
United States - which along with Japan is the last advanced Western-style 
democracy that regularly implements capital punishment - has halted the 
execution of juvenile offenders as a result of a 2005 Supreme Court decision 
(Roper v. Simmons) declaring the practice unconstitutional.

Women and the mentally disabled, too, are subject to the Saudi death penalty. 
In one particularly loathsome case, Rizana Nafeek - a Sri Lankan woman who had 
worked as a domestic servant - was beheaded in Dawadmi, a small town 200 miles 
west of Riyadh, for causing the death of a 4-month-old baby in her care. Nafeek 
claimed the child choked while being bottle-fed. Once in custody, she 
"confessed" - without the assistance of a lawyer or interpreter - to strangling 
the infant. The opening stages of Nafeek's execution were filmed and are 
available for viewing on YouTube.

In the face of such medieval barbarity, where is the outrage?

To be sure, international human rights organizations have worked hard to expose 
the Saudi atrocities. Thus far, however, their pleas to dismantle the Saudi 
killing machine have proved ineffective.

Most shamefully, the Obama administration has declined to speak out. Although 
the president has frequently condemned the gruesome beheadings performed by 
Islamic State, he has remained mum on Saudi practices.

When White House press secretary Josh Earnest was asked by a reporter in a 
Sept. 23 media briefing to comment on the al-Nimr case, he claimed not to be 
"familiar with the intimate details of ... the situation." Earnest quickly 
added, however, "that the United States, under the leadership of this 
president, regularly raises our concerns about the human rights situation 
inside of Saudi Arabia."

But even if the U.S. is indeed employing back channels of diplomacy to halt at 
least some of the Saudi executions, such efforts are grossly inadequate and 
also hypocritical. "The Saudi practices of public beheadings," Hicks says, "are 
the pattern that has been followed by [Islamic State] to terrify and subdue 
subject populations. This is where [Islamic State] gets its message from. The 
Saudis have been doing the exact same thing for decades."

The U.S. refusal to condemn Saudi human rights violations is rooted, of course, 
in larger geopolitical machinations. Despite the recent drop in global 
commodity prices, the Saudis remain a critical supplier of crude oil to the 
West. Even more critically, the Saudis are viewed as a vital American military 
ally - 2nd only to Israel in the Middle East - in the all-purpose and 
never-ending war on terror.

Since October 2010, according to the Congressional Research Service, the Saudis 
have purchased more than $90 billion in fighter aircraft, helicopters, missile 
defense systems, missiles, bombs, armored vehicles and related equipment from 
such American defense manufacturers as Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. 
Since March of this year, U.S.-trained Saudi military personnel have deployed 
such equipment to launch a vicious air-bombardment campaign against Shiite 
Houthi rebel groups in Yemen.

Although the Obama administration lacks the courage and decency to come 
forward, the rest of us have no reason to be constrained. Campaigns to free 
al-Nimr and his compatriots confined on Saudi Arabia's death row are underway 
and deserve our active participation.

The 1st step in ending tyranny is to expose its existence - to let the tyrants 
know that we're watching and won't turn away until they are forced to change 
their ways or stand down once and for all.

(source: Bill Blum, truthdig.com)


IRAN----executions

3 Prisoners Hanged: 2 in North, 1 in Central Iran


Between Sunday and Monday November 8-9, Iranian authorities reportedly hanged 3 
prisoners to death on alleged drug charges.

According to the human rights news group, HRANA, 2 prisoners were executed at 
Gorgan Central Prison on Sunday November 8. According to the Baluchi Activists 
Campaign, 1 prisoner was hanged at Isfahan Central Prison on Monday November 9. 
All 3 prisoners were reportedly executed on drug related charges.

The prisoners hanged on Sunday have been identified as: Mohammad Barani, 39 
years old, and Mokhtar Khoojamaly, 33 years old. The prisoner hanged on Monday 
has been identified as: Barkat Malekraeesi, held in prison for 7 years before 
his execution.

Official Iranian sources have been silent on these 3 executions; however, on 
Sunday, the official website of Golestan's Judiciary reported that 2 
unidentified prisoners were hanged in public on rape charges.

Iran Human Rights is greatly concerned with the lack of transparency of 
executions and convictions in Iran and fears the real number of prisoners who 
have been hanged is much higher than what has been reported by human rights 
groups.

(source: Iran Human Rights)






BANGLADESH:

Rajon, Rakib killings: Death references at HC


The death references in 2 cases filed for killing 13-year-old boys Sheikh Md 
Samiul Alam Rajon and Rakib reached the High Court today for examining the 
verdicts that sentenced 6 people to death.

Officials of Sylhet and Khulna courts concerned brought the documents of the 
cases including the judgements to the HC, Supreme Court???s Additional 
Registrar Sabbir Foez told The Daily Star.

Death reference section of the HC has received the documents, he said.

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha will now assign the High Court judges to 
hold hearing on the references.

Sylhet Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court on Sunday sentenced four people 
including prime accused Quamrul Islam to death for beating Rajon to death in 
July this year.

On July 8, Rajon was beaten to death by a group of brutes in Kumargaon Bus 
Stand area of Sylhet Sadar allegedly for trying to steal a rickshaw van.

Tied to a pole, he screamed for help, cried for water and begged for his life. 
But they laughed and jeered at him till the boy went silent, forever. One of 
them even filmed the horrendous incident and shared it on Facebook.

The 28-minute video footage went viral and shows Quamrul, in a black T-shirt 
and lungi, hitting the boy with a stick in the feet, joints of legs, shoulders 
and in the head.

The sickening torture video shook the nation to its core and stirred outcries 
in the social network and the mainstream media.

On the other hand, Khulna Metropolitan Magistrate Court handed down death 
penalty to 2 people for killing Rakib by pumping air into his rectum.

On August 3, Rakib's former employer Md Sharif and his uncle Mintu Mia stripped 
the boy naked, inserted a high-pressure air pump nozzle into his rectum and 
filled the body with air for changing workplace. Rakib's intestines tore apart 
and lungs burst as air filled the abdomen, which left him dead.

The killing incident sparked outrage all over the country 3 months ago.

(source: The Daily Star)



SINGAPORE:

How do we justify the death sentence without unanimous judgments?


Some Friday mornings an inmate is awakened before dawn and taken to a chamber 
in a maximum security section of Changi Prison. A noose is slipped over his or 
her head, the knot positioned under a ear to make sure the spinal cord is 
broken upon impact, to ensure instant death. A doctor certifies the inmate dead 
and the body is taken away for the family to claim later.

Once this is done, there is no going back.

There is no punishment more final than that of the death penalty. Its 
irreversibility means that when we send someone to the gallows, we must be 
sure. Beyond sure. There can be no questions, no loose ends, no doubt 
whatsoever.

Yet in Singapore people can be sentenced to death even when there is 
disagreement among judges ruling on the case. Take Kho Jabing, the 31-year-old 
Sarawakian convicted of murder after a robbery ended up with one man dead. 
Following the changes to the mandatory death penalty in 2013, a High Court 
judge set aside his death sentence and changed it to life imprisonment with 24 
strokes of the cane. The prosecution then appealed, and in early 2015 the Court 
of Appeal sent him back to death row in a 3-2 split decision.

The High Court judge had found that there was "no clear sequence of events 
concerning the attack." The dissenting judges in the Court of Appeal also found 
a lack of evidence to determine how Jabing had attacked the victim, and 
observed that there was "reasonable doubt" as to whether he had acted in a way 
that exhibited a "blatant disregard for life".

Regardless of one's views on capital punishment, I think we can all agree that 
death penalty cases need to be watertight because of its harsh finality. 
Wrongful executions can never been rectified, and leave us as guilty of taking 
a life as those we seek to punish.

How then, do we justify the imposition of the death sentence when there is no 
unanimity on the bench? When even 2 of our learned appeal judges have doubts 
over whether it is safe to impose the death penalty in such a case, can we 
truly be sure that the punishment is justified?

Before we put someone to death, there can be no doubt. It is unsafe to send 
someone to the gallows when even High Court and Court of Appeal judges do not 
feel like there is enough evidence to make such a sentence appropriate.

(source: Kirsten Han is a Singaporean blogger, journalist and filmmaker. She is 
also involved in the We Believe in Second Chances campaign for the abolishment 
of the death penalty. A social media junkie, she tweets at @kixes. The views 
expressed are her own----Yahoo news)

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

Family of man on Singapore death row turn to Sarawak lawmakers


Buoyed by the delay of his execution in Singapore, family members of Sarawakian 
Kho Jabing are coming to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow for a last ditch attempt at 
rallying support from lawmakers to take up his case in helping to plead for 
leniency. The Singapore Court of Appeal granted Jabing, 31, a stay of execution 
on Thursday, barely 24 hours before he was scheduled to be hanged at the Changi 
Prison for causing the death of Chinese citizen Cao Ruyin in 2007.

Jabing's sister Jumai and their mother Lenduk are expected to seek out 
Sarawakian lawmakers, said Malaysian lawyer Ngeow Chow Ying.

"I've been trying to help arrange for them to meet as many members of 
Parliament from Sarawak as possible," said Ngeow, who was contacted by 
Singapore anti-death penalty group We Believe in Second Chances 2 weeks ago to 
provide assistance to Jabing's family. The few whom her team managed to get in 
touch with have "not been very positive" in showing much enthusiasm for 
Jabing's cause, she said.

The family also hope to meet prominent lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, 
who heads the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), to 
deliver a letter of appeal for Asean nations to lend their support in calling 
for clemency for Jabing. Ngeow was also the lawyer for Malaysian Yong Vui Kong, 
who in November 2013 became the 1st drug trafficker on death row to have his 
sentence commuted to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane under 
Singapore's 2012 amendments to their capital punishment laws.

She said the level of public, government and international support for Yong, 
24, was much greater than for Jabing, admitting that the case for the 
Sarawakian of Chinese and Iban descent was "more complicated".

"For Vui Kong, we had a lot of media coverage, a lot of people signing the 
petition to grant him clemency and we even had international pressure," said 
Ngeow. "But because in Jabing's case it's murder, or rather robbery leading to 
murder, it's a problem trying to rally public support. MPs are also hesitant to 
throw their support behind his case," she said.

Doubts about conviction However, Ngeow said it was important to emphasise that 
there was "a lot of doubt" in the details of Jabing's murder conviction, which 
was the reason why rights groups and lawyers believed he should be spared from 
execution.

The Singapore High Court reviewed Jabing's case and resentenced him to life 
imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane in 2014, but his family's relief was 
shortlived after the death penalty was reimposed by the Court of Appeal in a 
split 3-2 decision. President Tony Tan then rejected his appeal for clemency on 
October 19.

The Court of Appeal's ruling last Thursday surprised many rights activists, who 
say it was unprecedented in Singapore's recent history to delay an execution at 
the 11th hour. While his family pin their hopes on garnering greater public and 
government support in the extra time they have, Ngeow is quick to caution 
against being too optimistic of the effectiveness of diplomacy in pushing for 
clemency.

"The Malaysian government will most likely not petition for Jabing, at the most 
they will write a letter of appeal," said Ngeow, citing Malaysia's strict 
adherence to Asean's policy of non-interference.

"From experience, the chances of diplomatic pressure alone being the reason for 
the Singapore government to relent is very slim," she said. Jabing's lawyer has 
until November 23 to present a Motion of Crisis for his case to be resubmitted.

Priscilla Chia, director of We Believe in Second Chances, said if the court 
decides to dismiss the motion, Jabing will be the 1st Malaysian to be hanged in 
Singapore since 2011.

The organisation has been one of Jabing's strongest supporters, providing legal 
counsel and financial support to his family during their stay in Singapore.

(source: themalaysianinsider.com)






INDONESIA:

Indonesia plans to use crocodiles to guard death row drug convicts ---- In 
echoes of the Bond film Live and Let Die, the country's anti-drugs chief is 
backing the plan because 'you can't convince them to let criminals escape'


Indonesia's anti-drugs agency has proposed building a prison on an island 
guarded by crocodiles to hold death row drug convicts, an official has said, an 
idea seemingly taken from a James Bond film.

The proposal is the pet project of anti-drugs chief Budi Waseso, who plans to 
visit various parts of the archipelago in his search for reptiles to guard the 
jail.

"We will place as many crocodiles as we can there. I will search for the most 
ferocious type of crocodile," he was quoted as saying by local news website 
Tempo.

Waseso said that crocodiles would be better at preventing drug traffickers from 
escaping prison as they could not be bribed - unlike human guards.

"You can't bribe crocodiles. You can't convince them to let inmates escape," he 
said.

But he is banking on the convicts lacking the crocodile-running skills shown by 
Roger Moore's 007 in the Bond movie Live and Let Die when he escapes from an 
island using the reptiles as stepping stones.

The plan is still in the early stages, and neither the location or potential 
opening date of the jail have been decided.

Indonesia already has some of the toughest anti-narcotics laws in the world, 
including death by firing squad for traffickers, and sparked international 
uproar in April when it put to death seven foreign drug convicts, including 
Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

But president Joko Widodo has insisted that drug dealers must face death as the 
country is fighting a "national emergency" due to rising narcotics use.

Despite the harsh laws, Indonesia's corrupt prison system is awash with drugs, 
and inmates and jail officials are regularly arrested for narcotics offences.

Anti-drugs agency spokesman Slamet Pribadi confirmed authorities were mulling 
the plan to build "a special prison for death row convicts".

He said only traffickers would be kept in the jail, to stop them from mixing 
with other prisoners and potentially recruiting them to drug gangs.

The agency is currently in discussions with the justice ministry about the 
plan, he added.

(source: The Guardian)

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

In the end, Chan and Sukumaran's executions stung Indonesia's economy, not its 
conscience


On the night of 28 April, much of the world's media was trained on a prison 
island off central Java where 8 prisoners, including 2 Australians, were 
executed at midnight.

The lead up to the executions and the diplomatic repercussions that followed 
dominated much of the Australian news agenda for the first 4 months of this 
year.

Yet after so much sound and fury, debate about the death penalty and engagement 
with Indonesia on the issue seems to have dropped away.

60 people convicted of drug offences were due to be executed this year. So far, 
14 have been killed. Why haven't any other executions been held since that 
night in April when Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, and 6 others, were 
killed?

Anti-death penalty activists - including myself - have been holding our breath, 
waiting with dread for further killings to be announced, but the year is racing 
to a close and the state's lethal urges appear to be spent.

Indonesia's so-called drugs emergency, which was the reason given for the rush 
to the gallows in the first place, has not suddenly gone away. Nor has there 
been a sudden surge of humanity. But Indonesia's economy is hurting and the 
very public spectacle of the executions in April hasn't helped.

The cost of the executions is being picked over by local press. The last 2 
rounds of executions cost around AU$206,000. For the April executions, 
Indonesia allocated around AU$20,000 for each prisoner in its "execution 
budget" and chose Nusakambangan Island for the venue because it was cheaper 
than other locations. According to local media reports in May, Indonesia's 
attorney general wanted to further save costs in the 3rd round of executions.

It's not just the cost of the actual executions that is putting Indonesians 
off. A bad economy, a tanking rupiah, slowing growth and the desire to attract 
foreign investment have meant the "3rd round" has not gone ahead.

Dr Vannessa Hearman, a lecturer in Indonesian studies at the University of 
Sydney, told Guardian Australia that the Indonesian government has not yet 
named when the next batch of executions would take place. "After talk about the 
3rd wave, there doesn't seem to be any further developments," she said.

Hearman says that while there have been reports about a move away from carrying 
out executions "because they cost a lot of money and the focus is on growth ... 
this stalling is more a response to the international outcry to the 
executions."

Indonesia has a lot on its plate at the moment. As well as the economy 
spluttering, there's massive environmental problems with the fires causing 
enormous haze, health problems and disruption to trade across large swathes of 
the country.

Local human rights activists are also busy with other issues, such as the 281 
Indonesians facing execution abroad, sex trafficking and corruption. The death 
penalty, particularly the execution of foreigners, is further down the list of 
priorities.

Todung Mulya Lubis, lead Indonesian lawyer for Chan and Sukumaran, appeared at 
the Ubud Writers Festival in Bali last weekend. He spoke of his disappointment 
with Indonesian president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo:

When I was involved in the campaign to elect Jokowi, human rights was on the 
agenda. We'd like more civil society, we'd like abolishment of the death 
penalty but that hasn't happened.

The Bali 9 executions has been very damaging for Indonesia ... Our constitution 
guarantees human rights, and we also have a lot of Indonesians facing death 
penalty overseas. What morality do we have if this is the double standard that 
we have?

The mere existence of a double standard was not a cause for pausing the 
executions earlier this year. Nor was the plea for mercy, or the 
well-documented rehabilitation of the prisoners.

But perhaps the best hope for abolition of the death penalty is to reframe it 
in an economic context. Trading partners - both at a government and private 
level - can take the lead and let it be known that they are uncomfortable doing 
business in an environment where executions occur, particularly when the 
justice system is so flawed.

A report by Amnesty International released last month said:

Death row prisoners in Indonesia are routinely denied access to lawyers and are 
coerced into 'confessions' through severe beatings, while foreign nationals 
facing the death penalty had to deal with a judicial system they hardly 
understand.

Speaking to the ABC in September, Todung Mulya Lubis said he had seen 
nervousness among the business community about government policies.

"Jokowi realises, he understands, new investment is not coming to Indonesia," 
he said. "Even the existing investment cannot be maintained. They may go any 
time. And I as a lawyer come across that. I know some of the companies ... are 
considering leaving, so that is not very good."

This pause is great news for those on death row who may have thought they'd be 
killed by now. But Hearman would like to see more certainty.

"Currently no one in the government is moving towards it (more executions). But 
to me, the danger of keeping quiet is that the death penalty can still be used 
at some time. It's not sustainable for the government to have this 
arrangement."

Right now, business concerns may be the best hope abolitionists have in 
stopping the executions.

(source: Brigid Delaney is the co-founder of the Mercy Campaign----The 
Guardian)