[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 15


JAMAICA:

Kingston man, woman plead guilty to shopkeeper's murder


29-year-old Troy Smith of Arnett Gardens and 23-year-old Precious
Williams of a Kingston address, today pleaded guilty to murder.

Smith and Williams have been in custody since 2012 when they were charged with 
the murder of shopkeeper, Clayton Byfield, from Rock Hall, St Andrew.

They were both charged with capital murder, however, they pleaded guilty to 
murder.

A charge of capital murder means the act was committed in furtherance of 
another crime and carries the death penalty while murder attracts life 
imprisonment with or without parole.

The Director of Public Prosecutions accepted the guilty pleas and said it is 
now up to the court to decide on the sentence.

Smith is being represented by attorney-at-law, Tamika Harris, while Williams is 
being represented by attorneys at law Christopher Townsend and Kaysian Kennedy.

Sentencing has been set for November 6.

Meanwhile, a 3rd accused, Andino Buchanan, has pleaded not guilty.

His matter is now being tried.

Buchanan is being represented by attorney-at-law Dr. Randolph Williams.

A 12-member jury was empanelled on Monday and the trial started today.

It is alleged that on March 16, 2012, Byfield was at his shop when he was held 
up by 2 robbers then fatally shot.

The police reportedly intercepted the getaway car being driven by Buchanan and 
Smith was found wearing the shopkeeper’s gold chain.

(source: The Gleaner)





SAUDI ARABIA:

Death penalty for rapist sought


State prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a man convicted of brutally 
raping and robbing a young college student.

The 25-year-old man had reportedly raped the woman, with the help of his 
friends, in an abandoned building along the coast, photographed her in various 
positions, robbed her of her cell phone and other possessions, and then threw 
her out onto the road.

The men had asked the woman for forgiveness without showing any remorse for the 
crime they had committed in such a “cold manner,” a local publication reported 
recently.

The prosecution said that the court must sentence the man to death because this 
was the penalty required under Islamic law for such a grave crime. His actions 
were made even more serious because it was committed against a defenseless 
young woman.

The young man, who reportedly works for a private company, had parked his car 
outside a college and when he saw the young woman, had offered her a lift to a 
large mall in the south of Jeddah.

However, when she got into his car, he drove in the opposite direction, despite 
her protestations that he should take her back to where he found her, according 
to the report.

However, he took her to an abandoned building along the coastal road south of 
Jeddah where two of his friends were waiting. The three of them forced her out 
of the car, tore off her clothes, raped her and then took photographs with 
their mobiles.

The woman said that she was not able to take down the license plate number of 
the car. However, she said that the men were smoking hashish. The attack had 
left her overcome with panic and fear, and crying uncontrollably, she said.

Medical tests conducted on the victim showed that she had been raped. The 
police had managed to track down the criminal and handed him over to the Bureau 
of Investigation and Public Prosecution.

(source: Arab News)




INDONESIA:

Amnesty report offers grim view of Joko Widodo's death penalty record

Report finds that many foreign death row prisoners in Indonesia were denied 
access to legal and consular services, and violently coerced into ‘confessions’


In the year since the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, assumed office, 14 
prisoners have been executed, 12 of which were foreign nationals, an Amnesty 
International report has found.

The report, entitled Flawed Justice, was released on Thursday and said half of 
all prisoners on death row interviewed by Amnesty claimed they had been beaten, 
tortured and coerced into “confessing” to their crimes.

The report includes claims from a Pakistani national on death row, Zulfiqar 
Ali, that police kicked, punched and threatened him with death for 3 days, only 
stopping when he confessed.

Ali’s confession under duress was used as evidence against him, even though 
there was no independent investigation into his allegations. The beating was so 
severe he required kidney and stomach surgery.

Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop have responded to the deaths of Andrew Chan and 
Myuran Sukumaran with diplomatic retaliation but rhetorical restraint in an 
effort to preserve relations with Indonesia

All 14 executions in Indonesia over the past year were for drug-related crimes, 
the report said.

Amnesty revealed foreign death row prisoners were often denied an interpreter 
during or before trial, were made to sign documents in a language they did not 
understand, or were refused access to consular services, which are all breaches 
of international human rights laws.

In January, the Bali Nine drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan 
learned that they would face execution by firing squad, after their appeals for 
presidential clemency were rejected.

Lawyers for the pair criticised Widodo for rejecting their subsequent appeals, 
which contained new evidence about their rehabilitation, before those appeals 
had even been submitted, read or reviewed. The men were executed in April.

Since assuming office last October, Widodo has taken a hardline stance against 
drug-related crime, saying all clemency applications from death row prisoners 
on drug charges will be rejected.

It was a marked shift from his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono , who did 
carefully consider clemency petitions and who introduced a de facto moratorium 
on the death penalty between 2008 and 2013.

Josef Benedict, Amnesty south-east Asia campaigns director, said while the 
death penalty was always a human rights violation, issues around how it was 
being applied, and haphazard legal processes in Indonesia, made it more tragic.

“Indonesia’s callous U-turn on executions has already led to the death of 14 
people, despite clear evidence of flagrant fair trial violations,” Benedict 
said.

“President Joko Widodo has promised to improve human rights in Indonesia, but 
putting more than a dozen people before a firing squad shows how hollow these 
commitments are.”

Greg Barton, a professor of Indonesian studies at Monash University in 
Victoria, said despite Widodo’s views on drugs-related crime, it was still too 
early in his presidency to say this stance would prove immovable.

“In Widodo we have actually do, by most measures, have a progressive and 
democratic president,” Barton said.

“However he is also socially conservative in some respects, which has 
manifested itself in this seemingly unswerving commitment to the death penalty 
for drug crime.

“Once he settles into the role and feels more self assured, we may see more of 
his progressive elements influence his policy in this area. There are members 
of his inner circle who he trusts and listens to who are more progressive.”

Widodo’s policies around economic reform to help the poor, his disdain for pomp 
and ceremony, and his intolerance of corruption indicated he was someone who at 
times favoured a progressive and moral approach, Barton said.

“He went into office without a strong majority, and wanted to be seen as strong 
and as sticking to his convictions on drugs, and that is where we see his 
social conservatism at his worst. It’s his greatest blind spot.

“He may though still be capable of realising that capital punishment is not the 
great panacea he thought it would be.”

According to figures obtained from the Law and Human Rights Ministry, there 
were 121 people known to be on death row in Indonesia in April, including 54 
people convicted of drug-related crimes, 2 convicted on terrorism charges and 
65 convicted of murder.

There have been no executions in Indonesia since April, when Chan and Sukumaran 
were executed along with Nigerian men Okwuduli Oyatanze, Martin Anderson, 
Raheem Agbaje Salami and Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise; Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte; 
and Indonesian Zainal Abidin. Gularte had been diagnosed with paranoid 
schizophrenia.

Australia withdrew its ambassador to Indonesia, Paul Grigson, in protest, and 
he resumed his position there in June.

Matthew Goldberg is the president of Reprieve Australia, a non-profit 
organisation dedicated to the international abolition of the death penalty.

He fought for Chan and Sukumaran as part of the Mercy campaign, and said 
Reprieve was continuing to support lawyers in Indonesia trying to keep their 
clients from execution.

“We believe that their dedication to a transparent and fair system of justice 
will prompt reform and the eventual abolition of the death penalty,” he said.

(source: The Guardian)


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


'Death-row inmates in Indonesia tortured'

Amnesty International says suspects facing the death penalty in Indonesia are 
often tortured.


Suspects facing the death penalty in Indonesia are often subjected to torture 
and sometimes denied access to lawyers and interpreters, Amnesty International 
says in a report.

Some of those who have been sentenced to death said police had beaten them in 
detention to make them confess, and judges accepted the confession as evidence, 
said Amnesty in the report titled Flawed Justice: Unfair Trials and the Death 
Penalty in Indonesia.

In some cases, defendants were denied interpretation during or before trial and 
were made to sign documents in a language they did not understand, the report 
said.

The death penalty is always a human rights violation, but the numerous and 
serious issues with regards to how it is being applied in Indonesia makes its 
use all the more tragic," Amnesty said on Thursday.

Authorities must end this senseless killing once and for all and immediately 
review all death penalty cases with a view to their commutation," it said.

Amnesty said its investigation into 12 individual death penalty cases revealed 
"emblematic flaws in Indonesia's justice system", with half of the prisoners 
claiming they had been coerced into confessing to their crimes.

Indonesia executed 14 convicted drug traffickers, including Australians Myuran 
Sukumaran and Andrew Chan and 10 other foreigners, this year despite 
international appeals for mercy.

The government said no dates have been set for further executions, as it 
focuses on tackling an economic slowdown.

Poengky Indarti, executive director of the human rights group Imparsial, 
described the Amnesty report as "accurate".

"Indonesia's legal system is prone to corruption and collusion and under such a 
system innocent people could be easily victimised," she said.
She said the death penalty served as a "cover to make the government look 
decisive and strong".

"Most of those executed were just drug mules because the kingpins are protected 
by corrupt members of law enforcement."

The national police strongly denied the allegations that investigators tortured 
suspects and denied them interpreters or lawyers.

"We do things according to the proper procedures," national police spokesman 
Agus Rianto said.

"Don't just believe what people outside say," he said, adding that police could 
be sued if they engaged in torture or other forms of ill treatment.
"The fact that they were convicted showed that there were no legal

violations were committed in the investigation process," he said.

At least 121 people are currently on death row in Indonesia, including 35 
foreigners mostly convicted of drug-related crimes, according to the Justice 
Ministry.

(source: ntnews.com.au)




PAKISTAN:

Pakistani Courts Continue to Issue ‘Blasphemy’ Death Sentences, But No US 
Blacklisting


For the 13th consecutive year, the executive branch continues to override 
expert recommendations to designate Pakistan an egregious violator of religious 
freedom, despite an annual State Department report highlighting numerous 
abuses, particularly those associated with the Islamic country’s blasphemy 
laws.

The latest report, covering 2014 and released Wednesday by Secretary of State 
John Kerry, said that during the course of last year Pakistani courts had 
sentenced three people convicted of “blasphemy” to death, six to life 
imprisonment, and three to two years’ imprisonment. Twelve new blasphemy cases 
had been registered with police.

Not only do the blasphemy laws remain in place – despite calls over many years 
for their repeal or amendment – but the government also failed to address false 
accusations of blasphemy, the report found.

Pakistan’s government moreover generally failed to investigate, arrest, or 
prosecute religious freedom violators, promoting an environment of impunity 
that fostered further intolerance and violence, it said.

The penal code states that freedom of speech is subject to “reasonable 
restrictions in the interest of the glory of Islam.”

Blasphemy laws provide for the death penalty for “defiling Prophet Muhammad,” 
for life imprisonment for “defiling, damaging, or desecrating the Qur’an,” and 
for 10 years’ imprisonment for “insulting another’s religious feelings.”

Religious minorities are disproportionately accused of blasphemy, accusations 
are often a cover for personal grudges or business disputes, and mobs 
frequently attack individuals accused of blasphemy.

Among specific cases cited were two in which police officers murdered people 
incarcerated for blasphemy; one in which an Ahmadi lawyer representing a 
blasphemy accused was himself killed; and an incident in which a large mob 
accused a Christian couple of blasphemy and burned them alive in a brick kiln.

Despite these and numerous other abuses of religious freedom documented in the 
report, Pakistan continues to escape designation as a “country of particular 
concern” (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).

At the report’s release, ambassador-at-large for international religious 
freedom, David Saperstein, listed the designated CPCs for this year – Burma, 
China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and 
Uzbekistan.

With the exception of Turkmenistan, which was added last year, the list has 
remained unchanged since 2007.

That’s despite annual recommendations by the U.S. Commission on International 
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to add a group of additional countries to the list.

Most recently they include Vietnam, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Nigeria – but 
Pakistan has been on the USCIRF’s recommendation list since 2002, Last year the 
commission, an independent statutory body established under the IRFA, 
identified Pakistan as the worst violator among the group of countries that 
have not been designated CPCs despite its advice.

Countries listed as CPCs may be targeted with U.S. sanctions or other measures 
intended to encourage governments to stop violating religious freedom or 
condoning abuses.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee 
dealing with human rights, criticized the administration for its approach to 
promoting religious freedom abroad.

“The State Department does not utilize the tools it has to name and shame 
‎violators of religious freedom such as the designation of country of particular 
concern (CPC)‎,” he said in response to Wednesday’s report release.

“The administration should re-designate countries every year for their 
religious freedom violations,” Rubio said. “In particular, countries such as 
Pakistan, Syria and Vietnam should be considered for a CPC designation, as has 
been repeatedly recommended by the independent [USCIRF].”

‘Pretext to justify violence in the name of religion’

Saperstein identified blasphemy and apostasy laws as one of the “trend lines” 
in this year’s report, citing Pakistan as well as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and 
Sudan.

He said the U.S. opposes such laws, which are “inconsistent with international 
human rights and fundamental freedoms, and we will continue
to call for their universal repeal.”

“The existence of such laws has been used in some countries as pretext to 
justify violence in the name of religion to create an atmosphere of impunity 
for those resorting to violence and/or leads to false claims of blasphemy,” he 
added.

The report also highlighted abuses against the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. 
Pakistan’s constitution declares that an adherent of the sect, which claims 
millions of followers in 190 countries, “is not a Muslim for the purposes of 
the Constitution or Law” and the penal code criminalizes Ahmadi worship.

Ten Ahmadis were killed for their faith, according to the community, Ahmadi 
mosques have been attacked and 24 Ahmadis were charged by police in cases 
mostly related to the anti-Ahmadi laws, while another 13 were charged with 
Qur’an desecration.

One of the more positive religious freedom developments in Pakistan last year 
was a Supreme Court ruling in June ordering the federal government to set up a 
national minorities commission, establish a special police force to protect 
religious minorities, and tackle religious intolerance by revising biased 
school curricula and discouraging the use of social media for spreading 
religious hatred.

But, the State Department report said that apart from the creation of the 
commission, the court’s other recommendations have yet to be implemented.

(The court ruling was made in response to the deadliest attack ever against the 
country’s Christian minority – the deaths at least 80 people in a Sept. 2013 
church suicide bombing in Peshawar, claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.)

(source: CNSnews)




SRI LANKA:

Wele Suda sentenced to death


Colombo High Court Judge Preethi Padman Soorasena yesterday sentenced Gampola 
Withanage Samantha Kumara alias Wele Suda to death for possessing 7.05 grammes 
of heroin and of involvement in drug trafficking and peddling.

The convict should be held in CID custody at the Welikda Prison and hanged when 
the President approved the implementation of the death penalty, the court said.

Wele Suda was arrested at Mt. Lavinia on Dec. 4, 2008 with 7.05 grams of heroin 
in his possession.

The court held that the evidence of the six prosecution witnesses had confirmed 
the guilt of the accused.

The dock statement of the accused was not admissible.

The prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, the Judge said.

The inquiry had revealed that Wela Suda had international drug trafficking 
contacts. He had spent lavishly and could not reveal his sources of income.

The judgment said that according to official reports, Sri Lanka had over 
100,000 drug addicts. Drug addiction was an acute social evil. Accordingly, a 
severe penalty on Wela Suda was justifiable, the judgement said.

Senior State Counsel Suharshi Herath appeared for the Attorney General.

(source: The Island)





PAKISTAN----executions

6, including killer of ex-Punjab CM executed in Punjab jails


At least 6 death row prisoners including a man convicted of killing former 
Punjab chief minister Ghulam Haider Wyne were hanged in different jails of 
Punjab in the wee hours of Thursday.

Death-row inmate Zamani was executed in Multan Central Jail. He was convicted 
of murdering Ghulam Haider Wyne during an election rally in Mian Channu tehsil 
of Punjab in September 1993. Wyne was a Pakistan Muslim League (PML) leader who 
rose to the position of Punjab chief minister in 1990.

Meanwhile, 2 prisoners were hanged in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail for murder. 
Inmate Zareen was accused of killing 2 brothers in Murree whereas Rab Nawaz was 
found guilty of murdering a man in Royal Artillery Bazaar in the garrison city.

Furthermore, in Dera Ghazi Khan’s Central Jail, 2 brothers, Ghulam Akbar and 
Hazoor Buksh convicted of the murders of 2 men were executed. The murders were 
committed in 1996.

Separately, murder convict Abdul Sami was hanged in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail. 
His black warrants were issued on Tuesday after he was found guilty of killing 
a man over a petty dispute.

Over 200 prisoners have been executed since Pakistan lifted its moratorium on 
the death penalty in all capital cases on March 10 this year.

(source:Pakistan Today)