[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 27



NIGERIA:

Lawyer advocates death sentence for corruption


A Rivers-based lawyer, Mr Abdulkareem Dauda, has said that an amendment to the 
law governing corruption to impose death penalty on convicted corrupt 
government officials and others was justifiable and desirable.

Dauda said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on 
Tuesday in Abuja.

The legal practitioner said death sentence for those found guilty of corruption 
was justifiable, considering the multiplier effects of corruption, which 
destroyed every sector of the society.

He added that "if an armed robber who kills 1 or 2 persons or robbed at 
gunpoint gets a death sentence, what of a corrupt government official whose 
action destroys many lives?"

He said corruption was a more dangerous offence than armed robbery and should, 
therefore, attract stiffer punishment in order to deter others.

"In my opinion, corruption should attract death penalty. People who are saying 
that corruption should attract death penalty are justified when you look at the 
many consequences of corruption on the society.

"When armed robbers attack, they rob an individual or a few people of their 
valuables and may kill in the process and the offence attracts death sentence.

"However, corruption kills several people, destroys the economy of a nation, 
health and social systems and affects several people's lives, exposing them to 
various kinds of diseases and even death," he said.

Dauda concurred with a recent comment credited to former civilian governor of 
old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, that 80 % of Nigeria's problems would 
be solved if corruption was eliminated.

He also said that "President Muhammadu Buhari is a man of integrity and the 
proper person that can rescue Nigeria from the syndrome of corruption."

The lawyer further stated that the fight against corruption should also be 
extended to the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, if government must win 
the war.

"I strongly believe that before the anti-corruption crusade can succeed; the 
president has a lot to do in terms of cleansing the enforcement agencies, 
especially the police, EFCC, ICPC and the judiciary.

"We have seen corruption cases where suspects are charged to court but because 
the police may have been compromised and cannot conduct investigation properly, 
the judge cannot convict the accused."

He, therefore, suggested the setting up of special courts comprising reputable, 
steadfast and incorruptible judges to handle corruption cases.

(source: thenationonlineng.com)






THAILAND:

Koh Tao defence team slams police abuses, errors


The defence team for the Koh Tao murder suspects presented an extensive closing 
statement yesterday, summarising the abuses, inconsistencies and alleged foul 
play that have riddled the case.

2 Myanmar migrant workers, Ko Zaw Lin and Ko Wai Phyo, are on trial for the 
rape and murder of 2 British backpackers last year. If convicted they could 
face the death penalty.

But the case has cast a spotlight on the treatment of Thailand's vulnerable and 
largely undocumented Myanmar migrant workforce, as well as problems within the 
Thai justice system.

The defence maintains the Rakhine State natives were scapegoated and should be 
acquitted based on irregularities during the police probe.

By their own accounts delivered on the stand at the end of the 3-month trial, 
the accused were subjected to psychological, sexual and physical abuse as 
under-pressure Thai investigators tried to elicit a confession.

One of the accused told the court of having plastic bags tied over his head 
until he blacked out from lack of oxygen, while the other recounted being 
stripped nearly naked in a freezing room and having his genitals flicked before 
being told he would be dismembered if he did not confess.

Both Ko Zaw Lin and Ko Wai Phyo also said the translator used by police and 
later by the court - a Myanmar roti seller from the same state - accused them 
of being involved in communal tension that flared in Rakhine in 2012.

The Myanmar bar workers were arrested in October 2014, less than 3 weeks after 
investigators found the bodies of holidaying Britons Hannah Witheridge and 
David Miller on an idyllic, heavily touristed beach in southern Thailand.

The suspect pool was quickly narrowed to focus on Thailand's migrant workforce, 
and investigators later admitted during the trial that not all leads were 
followed up. The suspects, who were on the same beach as the victims on the 
evening of the murder, retracted their confessions once they had access to 
legal representation.

The 21-day trial largely pivoted around the veracity of DNA evidence that 
supposedly pegged the 2 Myanmar workers to the case. The defence sought to 
undermine the argument by demonstrating a lack of procedural etiquette and a 
botched investigation, including forensic samples that were mishandled, CCTV 
footage that was not examined, a crime scene that was not cordoned off, and key 
pieces of evidence that were not tested or analysed.

"This evidence should not be considered as satisfying beyond reasonable doubt 
that the accused violently raped and murdered the female deceased or murdered 
the male deceased," the defence team said in a summary of their 56-page closing 
statement.

After confusion about whether any forensic material collected by the police 
remained to be re-tested, the defence was granted permission to have the 
samples independently re-anaylsed. Top Thai forensic expert Pornthip 
Rojanasunand testified that DNA samples collected from the murder weapon, a 
bloodied garden hoe, did not match the 2 accused, though it did match DNA 
samples taken from the victims as well as a third, unidentified person. Police 
claimed that DNA from the victims' bodies - which the prosecution's case hinges 
upon - was "used up" in the initial testing, and as a result not available for 
re-analysis.

Nakhon Chompuchat, the head defence lawyer, yesterday told The Myanmar Times 
that the court proceedings had been "rather fair, more so than other cases".

He added that he was not sure how the judges would lean when the verdict is 
announced on December 24.

"I hope the judges will consider the evidence, use reason and follow the rule 
of law," he said.

(source: Myanmar Times)






ETHIOPIA:

'Bury Me in England': New Fears for British Father Kidnapped to Ethiopia


A British father of 3 who has been held for 16 months in incommunicado 
detention in Ethiopia has suggested he may die in prison.

Andargachew 'Andy' Tsege, whose British partner and children live in London, 
was abducted at an airport in Yemen in June 2014 and rendered unlawfully to 
Ethiopia. He spent a year in secret detention, and was subjected to months of 
'interrogations', before being recently moved to a prison that has previously 
been described as a 'gulag.' Andy is a prominent critic of Ethiopia's ruling 
party, and has received an in absentia death sentence on charges relating to 
his political views.

Since his kidnap, Andy has been refused access to a lawyer or his family, and 
has not been charged with any crime or subjected to any form of legal process. 
Lawyers at human rights organization Reprieve have been barred from visiting 
him.

It's now emerged that Andy is afraid that he will soon die; he has asked the 
British government to ensure that he is buried in England, and told his 
children to "be brave." In the comments - made recently during a rare, closely 
monitored visit by Britain's ambassador to Ethiopia - Andy also revealed that:

--The Ethiopian authorities have not allowed him outside his cell for months;

--He is an effective 'ghost prisoner' - the Ethiopian authorities have not told 
him what charges or sentence he faces, and he has no prisoner number;

--He has demanded a lawyer, but the request has been refused;

--He has been refused access to an independent doctor, despite illness.

The UN has condemned Mr Tsege's ordeal and ordered Ethiopia to release him, but 
the British government - a close ally of Ethiopia - has so far limited itself 
to requesting proper consular access and 'due process' to be followed in his 
case. Last week, Foreign Office Minister Grant Shapps MP hosted a trade event 
in London with the Ethiopian Foreign Minister and other officials, promising in 
his remarks that the UK would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with them. Foreign 
Secretary Philip Hammond later revealed that he had raised Andy's case with his 
Ethiopian counterpart during the visit, but that he had not asked for Andy's 
release.

Commenting, Maya Foa, head of the death penalty team at legal charity Reprieve, 
said: "Andy Tsege is a British father of three who has been subjected to 16 
months' of abuse at the hands of the Ethiopian authorities - from kidnap to 
torture to an in absentia death sentence. It is tragic that he now feels the 
only way he will return home to Britain is in a coffin. Yet instead of 
demanding Andy's release from unlawful detention, ministers have been cosying 
up to the Ethiopians at a special trade event just last week. The Foreign 
Office must urgently push for his release, so he can return to his partner and 
children in London before it's too late."

(source: commondreams.org)



IRAN:

Iran reportedly open to discussing human rights violations


UN rapporteur says Iran is willing to discuss alleged human rights violations 
but hasn't taken any concrete steps.

Iran, which is notorious for its draconian use of the death penalty and other 
critical human rights issues, is now open to discuss the issue, the UN rights 
expert said Monday, according to the AFP news agency.

But beyond a willingness to discuss UN grievances, Iran has yet to take 
concrete steps to improve its rights record, stressed the envoy, Ahmed Shaheed.

Iran regularly executes citizens who are convicted of murder, rape, armed 
robbery, drug trafficking, adultery and espionage.

Earlier this summer, Iran launched an "execution spree", executing an average 
of 3 people per day, with nearly 700 people executed in the 1st half of 2015 
alone, many for political crimes or on trumped-up charges, according to an 
Amnesty International report at the time. The Islamic Republic has claimed that 
93 percent of executions in the country involve drug smuggling and has ignored 
UN pleas to stop the unjust executions.

Shaheed, a former foreign minister of the Maldives who is now a human rights 
academic in Britain, is due to present his annual report to the UN General 
Assembly this week. It is his first report since the historic nuclear deal with 
world powers that has opened up a new era of relations with Tehran.

The deal provides for the lifting of sanctions and brings to an end decades of 
isolation for Iran over its controversial nuclear program.

"The nuclear agreement reached this summer does present opportunities for 
advancing human rights," said Shaheed, a lawyer from the Maldives who has been 
the UN's special rapporteur on Iran since 2011, according to AFP.

The rights expert said he was "marginally more optimistic" in this year's 
report, compared to 2014.

"The real reason for that is that I am witnessing a greater desire on behalf of 
Iran to engage with me and the UN," he was quoted as having said.

In a first, Shaheed last month sat down with members of Iran's judiciary and 
security forces to discuss the crackdown on drugs that has in part fueled the 
high number of executions.

More than 800 people have been executed so far this year, and Iran is on track 
to reach 1,000 by the end of the year, its highest total in years.

There is no indication, however, that Iran would be willing to change course 
and invite Shaheed to visit. No such invitation has been extended since his 
appointment four years ago. In fact, an Iranian lawmaker went so far as to 
claim last year that Shaheed was a spy for the CIA and the Israeli Mossad.

"They are cooperating with me in a more meaningful way than before," Shaheed 
said Monday. "But a country visit is still not on the cards."

Shaheed continued by saying the economic boost from the lifting of sanctions 
under the nuclear deal "holds promise for improvement in the future" by 
providing more opportunity to Iranians.

"But this will require continued pressure on the country to do better," he 
added.

(source: Israel National News)






ZIMBABWE:

Jailbirds challenge death penalty


A local human rights lobby group, Veritas, is fronting an attempt by 15 inmates 
to have the death penalty scrapped from Zimbabwe's statute books.

The Constitutional Court (ConCourt) will this week, according to Veritas, hear 
the case where the death row inmates are seeking stay of execution.

"On Wednesday October 28, the ConCourt is due to hear an important case, 
Chariwa and 14 others v Minister of Justice (Emmerson Mnangagwa) and others 
(CCZ 47/2015), in which 15 prisoners who are languishing on death row are 
seeking a stay of execution. The case has been initiated by Veritas," the lobby 
group said in a statement on its website. The applicants were separately 
sentenced to death for murders that took place between 4 and 20 years ago.

"Since then, they have been kept on death row awaiting execution. They argue 
that they have been kept there for so long that it would be unconstitutional to 
execute them now - unconscionable might be a better word - for the following 
reasons: section 53 of the Constitution protects everyone, including convicted 
prisoners, against torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

"The lengthy periods they have spent in prison awaiting execution, never 
knowing from one day to the not when they would be hanged [because death-row 
prisoners are not told in advance of the date and time of their execution] 
amounts to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment," the prisoners 
will argue, according to the statement.

"Therefore, the applicants argue, they cannot now be executed and the ConCourt 
should commute their sentences to life imprisonment. The applicants rely on 
judgments of the Supreme Court which were laid down as long ago as 1993 that it 
was cruel, inhuman and degrading to keep prisoners under sentence of death 
waiting for long periods for their sentences to be carried out."

The death penalty has been partially abolished, with women now exempt from the 
capital punishment.

(source: NewsDay)






BANGLADESH:

European MP Jean Lambert asks for review of war criminal Mujahid's death 
sentence


Jean Lambert also expressed her concern at the Supreme Court's Appellate 
Division decision in a letter written to Bangladesh Ambassador to EU Ismat 
Jahan on Oct 23, weeks before the expected date of settling Mujahid's review 
petition on Nov 3.

"She wrote the letter in her personal capacity. It's not the decision of the 
European Parliament," a senior official at the foreign ministry told 
bdnews24.com, but he cannot be named as he was not authorised to brief the 
media.

A member of the Green Party of England and Wales, Lambert has been a Member of 
the European Parliament for the London Region since 1999.

In her letter, she said she was writing "in my capacity as Chair of the 
European Parliament Delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia 
to express concern at the upheld death sentence".

Lambert said she was highlighting this particular case "due to reports that 
full due process may not have been followed and could be contrary to a number 
of international human rights and judicial standards".

The subject of the letter read: "Urgent: Imminent Execution of Mr. Ali Ahsan 
Mohammad Mujahid".

Mujahid is the secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami that sided with 
Pakistan in 1971 War of Independence.

The war crimes tribunal sentenced him to death for his crimes against the 
humanity during the war.

The EU Parliament earlier in a resolution endorsed the tribunal and also asked 
opposition political party BNP to remove Jamaat from its alliance.

The EU, however, is always against the death penalty in any circumstances in 
any part of the world.

But Bangladesh law allows death sentence as maximum punishment.

(source: bdnews24.com)






IRAQ:

160 Terrorists Sentenced to Death in Iraq----Iraqi President approves the death 
penalties


Scores of convicts have received the death penalty in Iraq for engaging in 
terrorist actions, a source from the Iraqi Justice Ministry has revealed.

BasNews understands that the sentences have been signed by the Iraqi president 
and 160 terrorists are now on death row.

The source also revealed that 20 other terrorists have already been executed.

"Undertaking the death penalties has been delayed as a committee from the 
justice ministry must review each case first," the source pointed out.

According to the Amnesty International reports, 675 people were sentenced to 
death in Iraq between 2005 and 2014.

The organisation has been pressuring the Iraqi government to stop death 
penalties as sectarian motives may be involved in the court orders.

(source: BasNews)