[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 27




Court reserves decision on formation of JIT in Musharraf treason case


A special court in Islamabad on Saturday reserved its decision regarding 
formation of joint investigation team and timeframe of probe in the treason 
case against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, Dunya News reported.

A special court bench headed by Justice Faisal Arab heard the case today.

Prosecution lawyer Akram Sheikh argued that the federal government will 
challenge Islamabad High Court's decision in the same court through inter-court 
appeal. If decision is upheld on inter-court appeal, another inquiry will be 
held against November 3 move.

Akram Sheikh further argued that it is the government's prerogative to get the 
matter investigated through any agency.

FIA team had refused to re-investigate the November 3rd action, stating that 
the government failed to protect dignity of the agency.

The lawyer prayed to court to announce another timeframe for probe.

Meanwhile, Justice Faisal Arab remarked that apparently it seems that the 
government and the defence party are seeing IHC's decision as vague. The high 
court has left the matter of re-investigation up to the government.

The decision on the request will be announced at 4:00pm.

Musharraf faces the death penalty if convicted of charges over his suspension 
of the constitution and imposition of emergency rule in 2007, when he was 
trying to extend his tenure.

Musharraf governed the country for nearly a decade after the 1999 coup but was 
forced to step down in 2008 after growing discontent with his rule. He left the 
country soon after.

He returned to Pakistan in March 2013 after years in self-imposed exile, with 
the hope of running in the national election that was held in May 2013. But he 
was disqualified from participating in the vote because of his actions while in 
power and has spent most of his time battling legal cases.

(source: Dunya News)





SRI LANKA/SAUDI ARABIA:

Sri Lanka urges Saudi not to stone to death maid for adultery


Sri Lanka said on Friday it was calling on Saudi Arabia to pardon a domestic 
worker sentenced to death by stoning after she admitted committing adultery 
while working in the Arab nation.

An official from Sri Lanka's Foreign Employment Bureau said the married 
45-year-old woman who was working as a maid in Riyadh since 2013 was convicted 
of adultery by a Saudi court in August.

Her partner, also a Sri Lankan migrant worker, was given a lesser punishment of 
100 lashes on account of being single.

"She has accepted the crime 4 times in the courts. But the Foreign Employment 
Bureau has hired lawyers and have appealed against the case," Upul Deshapriya, 
spokesman for the Foreign Employment Bureau, told the Thomson Reuters 
Foundation.

"The appeal is going on. Also from the foreign ministry side, they are in 
negotiation with the Saudi government on a diplomatic level."

Officials from the Saudi Embassy in Colombo did not respond to requests from 
the Thomson Reuters Foundation on whether they would consider the plea for 
clemency.

Oil-producing Saudi Arabia follows Sharia, or Islamic law, and is often 
criticised by human rights groups for the wide range of crimes such as 
adultery, drug smuggling and witchcraft which carry the death penalty.

Stoning, a form of execution where a group throws stones at a person buried 
waist or chest deep in the ground until they are dead, is still carried out in 
parts of the Muslim world.

In 2013, Saudi Arabia beheaded a young Sri Lankan housemaid for the killing of 
an infant left in her care, rejecting repeated appeals by Colombo against her 
death sentence.

Thousands of men and women from the Indian Ocean island travel to the Middle 
East every year to seek jobs as maids or drivers.

According to Central Bank data, 279,952 Sri Lankans went to work in Middle 
Eastern nations in 2014, generating over $7 billion in remittances, around 9 % 
of total GDP.

Saudi Arabia, which is current chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council 
Panel, has executed over 150 people this year, mostly by public beheading, the 
most in 20 years, rights group Amnesty International said this month.

Foreigners, mostly guest workers from poor countries, are particularly 
vulnerable as they typically do not know Arabic and are denied adequate 
translation in court, Amnesty said.

Riyadh says it provides fair trials to all defendants.

(source: Reuters)

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

'Kill us alongside our children' defiant activists' mothers tell king


The mothers of 5 young Saudi prisoners sentenced to death by beheading made a 
passionate plea to the king to spare their sons' lives. The appeal followed 
reports that the Gulf kingdom is poised to execute more than 50 people 
convicted of terrorism.

In a public letter the women said the verdicts against the young dissidents, 
including Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, were based on confessions extracted under 
torture and the related trials fell short of international standards.

"The sentences handed down to our children are unique in the history of Saudi 
justice," the letter read. "As mothers of young men both deprived of their 
right to liberty and facing an unknown fate that may deprive them of their 
right to life, we demand that the Saudi government drop their sentences and 
order their retrial."

It concluded: "We stress that we will only stay silent over this crime if they 
kill us alongside our children." It was signed by Naima Ali al-Matrook, Fatima 
Hassan al-Ghzwe, Zahra Hassan al-Rebh, Amena Ahmed al-Saker and Nasra Abdullah 
al-Ahmed, mothers of 5 activists from the Shia minority arrested on sedition 
charges in 2012 when they were all teenagers.

Among them is al-Nimr, a 21-year-old dissident whose case has triggered uproar 
worldwide.The nephew of a vocal Shia cleric and activist, he was arrested aged 
only 17, for taking part in a protest.

He was forced to sign a confession under torture and has since been sentenced 
to death on a diverse set of charges, including attacking police, breaking 
allegiance to the king, setting up terror cells, rioting and robbing a 
pharmacy, according to human rights organisation Reprieve. Under Saudi Arabia's 
draconian legal system, he is to be beheaded and his body crucified in public.

The death sentence is expected to be carried out in the coming days as local 
media reported authorities were preparing for a mass execution of 55 convicts 
in a single day.

"These executions must not go ahead and Saudi Arabia must lift the veil of 
secrecy around its death penalty cases, as part of a fundamental overhaul of 
its criminal justice system," said James Lynch, deputy director of the Middle 
East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

"Beheading or otherwise executing dozens of people in a single day would mark a 
dizzying descent to yet another outrageous low for Saudi Arabia, whose 
authorities have continued to show stone-faced cynicism and even open defiance 
when authorities and ordinary people around the world question their sordid 
record on the use of the death penalty".

(source: IB Times)

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

Fellow poets protest Saudi death sentence facing Ashraf Fayadh


Poets from around the world are lining up in solidarity with the Palestinian 
poet Ashraf Fayadh, with the Syrian poet Adonis, Ireland???s Paul Muldoon and 
Britain's poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy among the signatories to a letter 
laying out how "appalled" they are at the death sentence he has been handed by 
Saudi Arabian authorities.

Fayadh was sentenced to death last week for renouncing Islam, a charge which he 
denies. Evidence used against him included poems from his collection 
Instructions Within, which is banned in Saudi Arabia, as well as his posts on 
Twitter, and a conversation he had in a coffee shop in Abha which was said to 
be blasphemous. He was given 30 days to appeal the sentence.

Today, PEN International published the latest salvo from an international arts 
community which has rallied behind him, with Muldoon, Duffy and Adonis joined 
as signatories to a letter attacking Saudi Arabia's ruling by major names from 
the world of international poetry including the Serbian-American poet Charles 
Simic, the American John Ashbery, Palestinian Ghassan Zaqtan, Israeli Amir Or 
and the Hungarian-born George Szirtes.

"We, poets from around the world, are appalled that the Saudi Arabian 
authorities have sentenced Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh to death for 
apostasy," they write, in a letter which PEN International hopes to deliver to 
the poet himself in an expression of solidarity. "It is not a crime to hold an 
idea, however unpopular, nor is it a crime to express opinion peacefully. Every 
individual has the freedom to believe or not believe. Freedom of conscience is 
an essential human freedom."

The letter says that Fayadh's death sentence "is the latest example of the 
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's lack of tolerance for freedom of expression and 
ongoing persecution of free thinkers", ending with a plea for the Palestinian's 
release.

"We, Fayadh's fellow poets, urge the Saudi authorities to desist from punishing 
individuals for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression 
and call for his immediate and unconditional release," they write.

Speaking to the Guardian on Friday, Szirtes insisted that "opinions are not 
crimes".

"Incitement can be a crime, hate speech may be a crime, but opinions are not," 
he said. "That is precisely why organisations such as PEN exist. Any sentence 
for an individual opinion brings shame on Saudi Arabia: a death sentence brings 
maximum shame."

According to Szirtes it is "incongruous for a country like ours to be allied 
with a country that makes decisions like this".

"It runs counter to all our thoughts, habits and instincts, not just as poets 
or writers but as human beings," he added. "Nor is it just a cultural matter: 
it is a matter of exactly that which we describe as universal human rights."

The appeal follows the release of a joint statement signed by more than a dozen 
cultural and free speech organisations condemning the conviction of the 
Palestinian poet, including PEN International, which will be delivered to the 
Saudi embassy in London today by English PEN.

Last week, Fayadh told the Guardian that he was "really shocked" to receive his 
sentence "but it was expected, though I didn't do anything that deserves 
death".

"They accused me [of] atheism and spreading some destructive thoughts into 
society," he said, describing his poetry collection as "just about me being [a] 
Palestinian refugee ... about cultural and philosophical issues. But the 
religious extremists explained it as destructive ideas against God."

Pen International pointed to extracts of Fayadh's poems, translated by Mona 
Kareem. "it was said: settle there... / but some of you are enemies for all / 
so leave it now," he writes in one. "look up to yourselves from the bottom of 
the river; / those of you on top should provide some pity for those 
underneath."

The free speech organisation said that during his trial, the poet "expressed 
repentance for anything in the book that religious authorities may have deemed 
insulting", and said, according to trial documents: "I am repentant to God most 
high and I am innocent of what appeared in my book mentioned in this case."

On 25 November, the Guardian reported that, in a message to his supporters, 
Fayadh said he was "grateful for everyone working on my behalf". "To be honest, 
I was surprised because I felt alone here. I am in good health. I'm struggling 
to follow all the developments. People should know I am not against anyone 
here, I am an artist and I am just looking for my freedom," said the poet.

(source: The Guardian)






MALAYSIA:

Hakam: Impose moratorium on execution of 1,022 death row prisoners


The National Human Rights Society of Malaysia (Hakam) welcomes the government's 
move to abolish the mandatory death sentence for drug-related offences.

The mandatory death sentence deprives the sentencing judge of the discretion to 
consider all relevant facts of the case and the individual circumstances of 
each convicted person. A sentencing judge must be given the option to impose 
the appropriate sentence.

Whilst removing the mandatory death sentence is a step in the right direction, 
we would call on the government to abolish the mandatory death sentence in its 
entirety for all criminal offences.

The death penalty violates the right to life guaranteed under Article 5 of our 
Federal Constitution and is undoubtedly a cruel, inhuman and degrading 
punishment contrary to international law. A recent public opinion survey on the 
death penalty in Malaysia undertaken by Emeritus Professor Roger Hood QC from 
the University of Oxford has shown that the majority of the Malaysian public do 
not support an imposition of the death penalty.

We also call on the government to impose a moratorium on the execution of 1,022 
death row prisoners currently waiting for execution pending the abolition of 
the mandatory death sentence for all criminal offences.

Having been on the Human Rights Council and presently on the Security Council 
as a non-permanent member, Malaysia must show a genuine commitment to abide by 
international norms in relation to the right to life and the prohibition 
against cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

We hope that the government will continue taking steps in the right direction 
towards the ultimate abolishment of the death penalty.

Ambiga Sreenevasan is president of Hakam. The above state was issued on behalf 
of the Hakam executive committee.

Addendum

Following Hakam's statement calling for a moratorium of all 1,022 executions 
while the government looks into abolishing the mandatory death sentence in 
Malaysia, Hakam also urges the government to explore all diplomatic channels to 
persuade the Singapore government to grant clemency to Kho Jabing, the 
Sarawakian who is on death row in Singapore. Hakam acknowledges Sarawak Chief 
Minister Adenan Satem's statement that he will write to appeal to the Singapore 
government to grant clemency to Jabing.

This is indeed an urgent call for the government to defend one of her citizens 
on death row. The Malaysian government must view this as a serious case. Kho 
Jabing was sentenced to death in 2008 and in 2013, Singapore amended its law 
concerning the mandatory death sentence. This resulted in a resentencing 
hearing for Kho Jabing.

The High Court of Singapore then sentenced him to life imprisonment plus 24 
strokes of the cane which shows that the High Court found that he should not be 
sentenced to death. Upon appeal by the prosecution, the Court of Appeal 
sentenced him to death in a 3-2 decision.

This fact plays an important role in proving that we should be pursuing all 
means necessary to ensure he is given clemency and a chance at rehabilitation. 
The court had also acquitted Kho Jabing's co-accussed, Galing, of murder charge 
and sentenced him of the offence of robbery with hurt. The minority judgment of 
the Court of Appeal also found that there was insufficient evidence to 
establish beyond reasonable doubt that Kho Jabing had acted in a way which 
exhibits viciousness or a blatant disregard for human life.

The Malaysian government must do all it can within its capacity to appeal to 
the Singapore leadership to exercise discretion to grant Kho Jabing clemency.

This move should not be seen as interfering in the legal system of Singapore 
but it must be viewed as the government's positive obligation to protect the 
right to life of its citizens abroad.

Hakam reiterates that nobody should be sentenced to death as it is contrary to 
international norms in relation to the right to life and the prohibition 
against cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

(source: aliran.com)