[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 13



MALAYSIA:

Prisoner trades execution appeal for witness statement on unsolved murders


The Court of Appeal was scheduled to hear an appeal against a death sentence 
for a firearms offence yesterday, but the odd-job labourer withdrew his appeal 
and instead requested that a policeman take his statement on 2 unsolved 
murders.

Lim Long Chuan, 56, has been waiting at the Kajang prison to be hanged for 
discharging a firearm at a worker during a robbery at an Internet cafe more 
than 3 years ago.

At the outset of his appeal, his lawyer Kitson Foong informed the court that 
Lim was withdrawing his appeal and that he would like the judges to use their 
power to send a police officer to record his statement on 2
unsolved murders he had witnessed.

At this, Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who chaired the panel which also 
comprised Justices Dr Ha­­mid Sultan Abu Backer and Zamani A. Rahim, remarked: 
“This is a very unusual request.”

She adjourned briefly for a Chinese court interpreter to be present.

Lim told the interpreter in Mandarin that he wanted a police officer to record 
his statement for 2 murder cases in which he was a witness.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Nahra Dollah said that she was not aware of the 
procedure involving such a request and suggested that his lawyer write directly 
to Bukit Aman.

Justice Dr Hamid Sultan interjected, saying that if someone wanted to give 
evidence to the police on a murder, it was an important request and there was 
nothing stopping the prosecutor from facilitating Lim.

“This is a public duty. We have to take cognisance,” said Justice Dr Hamid 
Sultan.

DPP Nahra replied that the request could be facilitated.

Justice Tengku Maimun then struck out Lim’s appeal and ordered the deputy 
public prosecutor to contact the police to execute Lim’s request.

On May 5 last year, Lim admitted to discharging a firearm with intention to 
cause death to worker Mohd Rahmat Jul at an Internet cafe in Jinjang Selatan, 
Sentul, at 6.30am on Aug 27, 2012.

However, the High Court did not accept his guilty plea because the offence was 
punishable by death and heard evidence from 5 prosecution witnesses.

On April 22, after the 5th witness testified, Lim again told the court that he 
wanted to plead guilty. A court interpreter explained to him that the sentence 
was the death penalty.

Lim’s lawyer at the time, C.W. Chan, also explained the sentence to him but Lim 
still insisted on pleading guilty.

After High Court judge Justice Mohd Azman Husin questioned Lim for the third 
time and was satisfied that he understood the repercussions of his plea, he 
sentenced him to death.

Lim later filed his appeal.

(source: The Daily Star)




INDIA:

Youth gets double-lifer, double-death for rape, murder of 2-yr-old


In a first-of-its-kind judgement, a 21-year-old youth was handed a double-death 
double-life sentence for brutally raping and murdering his two-year-old niece.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay HC pronounced the sentence under Section 376A of 
the IPC, which had been amended in light of the Nirbhaya rape case.

A bench comprising Justice Bhushan Gavai and Justice Prasanna Varale confirmed 
the verdict of a Yavatmal sessions court that sentenced Shatrughan Masram to 
death for committing the heinous crime on February 11, 2013.

MAsram was awarded capital punishment under Section 376A, with a second death 
penalty under Section 302 of the IPC for murder. He was sentenced to life terms 
under Section 376 (2) (f) (i) (m) (rape) and the Protection Of Children from 
Sexual Offences (POSCO) act.

The bench rejected Masram’s plea for leniency considering his age, making its 
stand clear on cases of extreme brutality. His crime was categorised as “rarest 
of rare” cases, which is a necessary precedent for the death penalty.

The incident took place in Ghatanji town of Yavatmal 4 months after the family 
moved to Yavatmal from Andhra Pradesh. The parents of the victim, who are 
labourers, left her at a relative’s place, from where Masram took the girl to a 
construction site and raped and murdered her. The victim died on the spot and 
was soon found by her parents with Masram, who was attempting to escape.

Medical investigation revealed a brutal assault – her flesh had been torn off 
from her body with his teeth and there were bite marks all over her body.

(source: The Northeast Today)




SAUDI ARABIA----execution

Saudi national executed for killing policeman


Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed one of its citizens in the southern city of 
Abha after he was convicted of killing a policeman, the interior ministry said.

Ali Assiri shot and killed the policeman while being arrested, the ministry 
said in a statement published by the official SPA news agency.

The ultra-conservative kingdom has carried out 134 executions, including of 
many foreigners, so far this year, according to an AFP count. This far exceeds 
a toll of 87 for the whole of 2014.

Amnesty International says Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most prolific 
executioners, alongside China, Iran, Iraq and the United States.

Under the kingdom’s strict Islamic legal code, murder, drug trafficking, armed 
robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.

The interior ministry says the death penalty is an important deterrent.

The vast majority of executions are carried out by beheading, some in public, 
but a few are carried out by firing squad.

(source: Agence France-Presse)




NIGERIA:

‘295 Nigerians on death row in Asia’


No fewer than 295 Nigerians are on death row in prisons across about 8
Asian countries, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), The Legal Defence and 
Assistance Project (LEDAP) has revealed.

LEDAP, an organisation of lawyers and law professionals engaged in the 
promotion and protection of human rights, the rule of law and good governance 
in Nigeria, made this revelation on Saturday, during activities to mark the 
13th World Day against the use of the Death Penalty.

It named the countries to include China, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and 
Vietnam. Others are Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The organisation called on the federal government to abolish the application of 
the death penalty for drug-related offences and reminded it and Nigerian 
foreign missions of their legal obligations under the Vienna Convention on the 
Consular Rights Services, to provide consular support to its citizens that are 
in conflict with the law abroad.

LEDAP’s National Coordinator, Barrister Chinonye Obiagwu, said: “Data collected 
independently by LEDAP showed that nearly 120 Nigerians are facing the death 
penalty in Chinese prisons, and over 170 in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, 
Vietnam, etc and 5 in Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

“33 countries and territories retain the death penalty for drug crimes and it 
is estimated conservatively that over 16,500 Nigerians are in prisons abroad 
and nearly 350 of them are facing the death penalty.”

The group said Nigeria is a signatory to a number of international instruments 
including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which 
prohibits the imposition of the death penalty for any but the ‘most serious’ 
crimes.

It emphasised that drug offences do not meet this threshold, and that only 
crimes involving intentional killing can be ‘most serious’.

Obiagwu revealed that LEDAP had litigated over 35 death penalty cases on 
appeal, out of which nearly 1/2 of the prisoners were exonerated. She added 
that the NGO is producing a documentary on the innocents on death row to be 
titled “The Exonerated”.

She continued: “There is an urgent need for the government to through the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to track and support its indigent citizens facing 
the death penalty abroad, and their families.

“This is no longer an emotional issue but an issue of balancing the prospects 
of harsh punishment that does not even deter crimes, with the risk of wrongly 
executing innocent people. We will continue to insist with other abolitionist 
campaigners that the death penalty is itself inhuman and degrading, and to 
apply it in situation where there is high risk of mistaken conviction is 
utterly unacceptable in the 21st century.”

Obiagwu further questioned the fairness of trials Nigerians face abroad. She 
said: “Most of the Nigerians convicted abroad did not receive fair trials 
because most of them did not have lawyers to defend them, the trials are held 
in languages they do not understand, in many cases no interpreters are provided 
and more importantly, consular support services are lacking.”

LEDAP called on the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that 
consular services are provided to every Nigerian facing a criminal charge 
abroad. The group urged the ministry to recruit and train legal attachés in all 
its missions, especially in South-East Asia, to ensure that no Nigerian is on 
death row aboard.

The NGO further warned all the 58 retentionist nations including Nigeria of the 
dangers of continued use of the death penalty. LEDAP and hundreds of exonerated 
ex-death row prisoners in Nigeria and aboard called on the federal government 
to make concerted effort to abolish the death penalty in Nigeria and be 
responsive to the plight of its citizen’s aboard.

(source: The Nation)




BANGLADESH:

Govt cancels order that made IEDCR researcher Mustak Hossain OSD--Lawyers 
defending Ali Ahsan Mujahid seek a meeting with him


Lawyers representing Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid have 
sought a meeting with him at the Dhaka Central Jail.

Mujahid is facing a death sentence for war crimes during the 1971 Liberation 
War, when his party opposed the Bengali independence movement and sided with 
Pakistan's army.

Shishir Monir, who led the defence for Mujahid, told bdnews24.com that he had 
sought permission from the Dhaka Central Jail authorities to meet his client.

"We have asked for permission to meet him (Mujahid) at 3 pm on Tuesday. We hope 
we will get the permission," said Monir.

He said 4 other lawyers—Mashiul Alam, Ehsan Abdullah Siddique, Motiur Rahman 
Akhand and Asad Uddin—would like to accompany him to discuss a possible review 
petition with Al Ahsan Mujahid.

The Jamaat leader has 2 more days left to file a petition seeking a review of 
his death sentence.

On Sep 30, the Supreme Court published the full verdict on the appeals against 
the capital punishment of BNP Standing Committee Member Salauddin Quader 
Chowdhury and Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mujahid.

They were sent to the International Crimes Tribunal same day.

The next day tribunal issued the death warrants for the 2 war criminals and 
sent them to the prison authorities.

The warrants were then read out to the war crimes convicts, initiating the 
process for the execution of both convicts.

Both have been found guilty of 'crimes against humanity' during Bangladesh’s 
War of Independence in 1971.

Their lawyers had confirmed that they would file review petitions after 
receiving the copies of the final verdict.

Mujahid, the social welfare minister in Khaleda Zia’s BNP-Jamaat coalition 
Cabinet, planned and executed mass murders including those of intellectuals, 
scientists, academics and journalists in 1971.

The war crimes tribunal on Jul 17, 2013, ordered him to walk the gallows for 
the massacre of the intellectuals and involvement in the murder and torture of 
Hindus during the war.

Out of the 7 charges levelled against him, the tribunal had found him guilty on 
5 counts. He was given the death penalty in the 1st, 6th and
7th charges.

After he moved the Appellate Division against the verdict, the apex court on 
Jun 16 upheld the death penalty against Mujahid, who was a former commander of 
Al-Badr, which supported the Pakistani forces.

He will not be executed before the disposal of the review petition.

Once the review petitions is resolved and if the death sentences are upheld, 
the war crimes convicts can seek mercy from the president and meet family 
members.

If they are denied pardon or if they decline to appeal, the government will 
execute the convicts in jail.

(source: bdnews24.com)




RUSSIA:

Russia may reinstate death penalty for terrorism


The State Duma of the Russian Federation proposes to abolish the moratorium on 
death penalty for terrorists.

This initiative was voiced by deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on 
Constitutional Legislation and State Construction, Vadim Solovyov.

The MP suggested reinstating death penalty for individuals convicted of acts of 
terrorism. He believes that the Russian anti-terror legislation has to be 
tougher; terrorists need know that they will face death penalty for their 
crimes. According to Solovyov, lifting the moratorium on death penalty will 
reduce the terrorist threat in Russia.

According to him, the Russian government rejects the proposal on the basis of 
some incomprehensible Western values.

In May of this year, the State Duma (the Russian Parliament) rejected a similar 
bill.

(soruce: Pravda)