[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

Tue Nov 24 14:58:05 CST 2015

Nov. 24

SOUTH AFRICA:

MPLs debate death penalty referendum

KwaZulu-Natal Transport, Community Safety and Liaison MEC Willies Mchunu on 
Tuesday dismissed calls for the death penalty to be reinstated.

Mchunu, who was responding to demands in the provincial legislature by the 
National Freedom Party (NFP) that a referendum on the death penalty was needed, 
said: "We cannot return to the primitive era where the state was killing 
people. There is no evidence to back the claim that a death penalty results to 
a reduction on crime, so the call is a false hope."

The debate over the death penalty went ahead in the legislature despite 
Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader caucus leader Sizwe Mchunu pointing out 
that such a debate needed to take place in the national assembly and not the 
provincial legislature.

The NFP said it was time to revisit the matter in light of the province's high 
crime statistics. "Seeing that it is 21 years that you (the ANC) have been in 
power, let us (go) to the people and get their response," said NFP provincial 
deputy chairman Erickson Zungu as he directed his gaze to ANC members.

He cited statistics which showed that violent crime was on the rise and that 
the spate of attacks on police was proof of the need to take a tough stance 
against crime.

Sizwe Mchunu said the uncontrollable levels of crime was an evidence of failed 
leadership, naming both MEC Mchunu and KZN police commissioner Lieutenant 
General Mmamonnye Ngobeni.

"What can you expect from an MEC who does not attend committee meetings where 
crime issues can be discussed? The fact of the matter is you cannot expect a 
lot when leadership is failing," Mchunu said.

The Economic Freedom Front's Vusi Khoza said attacks on police were an end 
result of anger from community members.

"When people are complaining about service delivery they are shot at like 
Andries Tatane, when they want better salaries they are shot at like in 
Marikana and when students call for a freeze on fee increase they are shot at 
by police. What attitude do you expect from members of the public?" quizzed 
Khoza.

Nhlanhla Msimang from the Inkatha Freedom Party and Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi 
from the Minority Front said they supported the call for a referendum on the 
death penalty.

(source: IOL Mobile News)

PAKISTAN----execution stayed

Execution of disabled Pakistani man delayed for 4th time

A disabled Pakistani murder convict was given a fourth stay of execution late 
Tuesday just hours before he was due to be hanged, as rights activists slammed 
Islamabad for a executions spree on track to see 300 deaths in under a year.

Abdul Basit, a paraplegic who was convicted of murder in 2009, was scheduled to 
be hung early Wednesday. His execution has already been harrowingly postponed 
several times after rights groups raised concerns about how a wheelchair-bound 
man would mount the scaffold.

The presidency issued a statement late Tuesday saying the execution had been 
delayed for two months while President Mamnoon Hussain ordered an inquiry into 
Basit's medical condition.

The statement said the president had vowed that "human rights will be upheld".

"We are very happy to hear the TV news that (the) president of Pakistan has 
stayed the execution," Basit's mother Nusrat Parveen told AFP in response to 
the last minute delay.

"We also got confirmation from a jail staff," she said, adding that the family 
hoped the stay would be extended beyond 2 months.

Earlier, Basit's sister Asma Mazhar had issued a plea to the president to spare 
her brother.

She told AFP she had gone with her mother to see him on Tuesday for what they 
had believed was the last time, and found him "helpless and quiet".

She said he told them that authorities had come to measure his body and that it 
was an "awful moment".

Pakistan has executed 299 people since the death penalty was controversially 
reinstated following a Taliban mass killing at a school in Peshawar last 
December, according to Amnesty International.

"Pakistan will imminently have executed 300 people since it lifted a moratorium 
on executions, shamefully sealing its place among the world's worst 
executioners," it said in a statement.

45 people were executed in October alone, Amnesty said, making it the deadliest 
month since the moratorium was lifted.

No official figures are available. The rights group Reprieve told AFP Tuesday 
that by its tally the number of executions has just passed 300, while other 
local activists said the figure was below 260.

"Pakistan's ongoing zeal for executions is an affront to human rights and the 
global trend against the death penalty," David Griffiths, Amnesty's South Asia 
research director, said in a statement.

"Even if the authorities stay the execution of Abdul Basit, a man with 
paraplegia, Pakistan is still executing people at a rate of almost one a day."

Pakistan ended a 6-year moratorium on the death penalty last year as part of a 
terror crackdown after Taliban militants gunned down more than 150 people, most 
of them children, at an army-run school in the restive northwest.

The massacre shocked and outraged a country already scarred by nearly a decade 
of extremist attacks.

Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism, but 
in March they were extended to all capital offences.

Supporters argue that executions are the only effective way to deal with the 
scourge of militancy in the country.

But critics say the legal system is unjust, with rampant police torture and 
poor representation for victims during unfair trials, while the majority of 
those who are hanged are not convicted of terror charges.

There is no evidence the "relentless" executions have done anything to counter 
extremism in the country, Griffiths said in the Amnesty statement.

Recent research by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies also suggests that 
death is no deterrent for militants who are "committed to dying for their 
cause".

The Amnesty figures suggest Pakistan is on track to become one of the world's 
top executioners in 2015.

In 2014 607 people were put to death in 22 countries, according to Amnesty, 
though that figure does not include China, where the number of executions is 
believed to be in the hundreds but is considered by authorities to be a state 
secret.

(source: Yahoo News)

BELARUS:

SECOND KNOWN DEATH SENTENCE IN BELARUS IN 2015

A 28-year-old man, Ivan Kulesh, was sentenced to death in Belarus on 20 
November. He is at least the
second person to receive the death sentence in 2015.

Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format, including case 
information,
addresses and sample messages.

On 20 November the Hrodna Regional Court, in western Belarus, sentenced Ivan 
Kulesh to death for
“committing murder with particular cruelty”, theft and robbery under articles 
139, 205, 207 of the
Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. Ivan Kulesh was found guilty of 
murdering three female sales assistants, two in September 2013 and
one in November 2014, and of stealing goods and money from the shops where 
these women worked. He
was also found guilty of the attempted murder of the son of a saleswoman, who 
caught him in the shop
in November 2014. Ivan Kulesh had been under the influence of alcohol when 
committing these crimes.
According to the forensic medical examination Ivan Kulesh was diagnosed with an 
antisocial
personality disorder, but was found “sane” (“vmenyaemyi”). Ivan Kulesh was 
raised in an orphanage
and has a two-year old daughter.

Ivan Kulesh was detained in November 2014 and has been held in the Hrodna 
regional pre-trial
detention facility. He will now be transferred to a pre-trial detention 
facility in Minsk, where
executions take place. He has until 30 November to appeal the decision.

His lawyer asked the court to sentence Ivan Kulesh to 25 years' imprisonment, 
taking into account
that Ivan Kulesh signed a confession and cooperated with the investigation. 
Ivan Kulesh previously
was convicted for theft, robbery and providing misleading information to the 
investigation.

Belarus is the last country in Europe and Central Asia still applying the death 
penalty.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception. 
It violates the
right to life, as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It 
is the ultimate cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishment.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

On 18 March 2015, Siarhei Ivanou was sentenced to death by the Homel Regional 
Court for the murder
of a 19-year-old woman in August 2013.

Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format.

Name: Ivan Kulesh
Gender m/f: M
UA: 266/15 Index: EUR 49/2926/2015 Issue Date: 24 November 2015

Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact!

EITHER send a short email to uan at aiusa.org with “UA 266/15” in the subject 
line, and include in the
body of the email the number of letters and/or emails you sent,

OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action.

Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office 
if taking action after
the appeals date. If you receive a response from a government official, please 
forward it to us at
uan at aiusa.org or to the Urgent Action Office address below.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please write immediately in Belarusian, Russian, English or your own language:
  *  Urging President Lukashenka to halt any planned executions and immediately 
commute the death
     sentence handed down to Ivan Kulesh and all others sentenced to death in 
Belarus;
  *  Calling on him to establish an immediate moratorium on the use of the death 
penalty with a view
     to abolishing it;
  *  Stress that whilst we are not seeking to downplay the seriousness of the 
crime of which Ivan
     Kulesh has been convicted, research shows that death penalty does not deter 
crime whilst it is
     also the ultimate denial of human rights.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 5 JANUARY 2016 TO:

President
Alyaksandr Lukashenka
Vul. Karla Marksa 38
220016
Minsk, Belarus
Fax: +375 17 226 06 10
+375 17 222 38 72
Email: contact at president.gov.by
Salutation: Dear President Lukashenka

And copies to:
Prosecutor General Alyaksandr Kaniuk Vul. Internatsianalnaya 22 220050 Minsk, 
Belarus Fax: +375 17 226 42 52 (Say "fax" clearly if voice answers) Email: 
info at prokuratura.gov.by

Also send copies to:
Charge d'Affaires Mr. Pavel Shidlovsky, Embassy of Belarus
1619 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20009
Fax: 1 202 986 1805 I Phone: 1 202 986 1606 I Email: usa at mfa.gov.by

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