[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 9



BANGLADESH:

Appeal hearing on Nizami's death penalty adjourned


The Supreme Court today started hearing on the appeal filed by Jamaat-e-Islami 
chief Motiur Rahman Nizami challenging a verdict that had sentenced him to 
death for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

A 4-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra 
Kumar Sinha began the hearing with Attorney General Mahbubey Alam placing 8 war 
crime charges on which Nizami was convicted.

Defence counsel Joynul Abedin Tuhin was read out the statement of prosecution 
witnesses before the apex court.

After hearing, the court was adjourned until November 3.

On October 29 last year, International Crimes Tribunal-1 (ICT-1) handed Nizami 
the death penalty on 4 charges of war crimes, including murdering intellectuals 
during the Liberation War in 1971. The 71-year-old was also awarded life 
imprisonment on the other four charges.

Nizami on November 23 of the same year challenged the death penalty claiming 
himself innocent. He sought acquittal of all the 8 charges on which he was 
found guilty.

(source: The Daily Star)






INDIA:

Death sentence rate highest in Delhi, J&K


A person convicted of murder in Delhi or Jammu & Kashmir has the highest 
probability of being handed the death penalty than anywhere else in India. In 
J&K, the likelihood is 6.8 times higher than the national average and in Delhi 
the convict is 6 times more likely to be put on death row.

These stark differences in sentencing, based on NCRB data, are part of a study 
called 'Hanging in Balance: Arbitrariness in Death Penalty Adjudication in 
India', which was cited by the Law Commission as "another axis of disparity in 
death penalty jurisprudence".

Death penalty cases have economic bias, says Kalam

For instance, a man convicted of murder in Jharkhand is 2.4 times more likely 
to get the death sentence than the national average while the possibility 
increases to 2.5 times in Gujarat, 3 times in West Bengal and 3.2 times in 
Karnataka.

The differences among many neighbouring states were found to be high. A murder 
convict in Karnataka is 5.8 times as likely to get the death sentence compared 
to Tamil Nadu. A convict in Gujarat is again 5.8 times more likely to get death 
than one in Rajasthan. Similarly, Maharashtra sends murder convicts to death 
row 2.9 times more frequently than Madhya Pradesh.

In absolute numbers, Uttar Pradesh sentences the most number of persons to 
death row. But in terms of the proportion of death sentences to murder 
convictions, it is almost at par with the national average. In Karnataka, which 
is the 2nd largest contributor to death row sentencing, the death sentence rate 
was 3.2 times the national average.

Mixed response on abolition of death penalty in India

Citing this disparity, the Law Commission headed by Justice (retired) A P Shah 
has recommended gradual abolition of death penalty with the exception of terror 
cases. To strengthen its argument on the "excessive use of death penalty", the 
commission cited data from Supreme Court analyzed by the Death Penalty 
Litigation Clinic. This 2nd study - which was reported by TOI - indicates that 
between 2000 and 2015, trial courts imposed the death sentence on 1,790 
persons.

Of these, 1,512 cases were decided by the high court. In 62.8% of these 1,512 
cases, the appellate courts commuted the sentence while upholding the 
conviction. In another 28.9 % cases, the convicts were acquitted, pointing to 
an even deeper systemic problem relating to the quality of adjudication in the 
lower courts. In all, the death sentence was confirmed in only 4.3% of the 
cases.

The Supreme Court's data thus shows that trial courts had erroneously imposed 
the death penalty in 95.7% of cases.

**********

Death sought for 2010 Kurla rape-murder accused


2 days after a cable operator, Javed Sheikh, was convicted for the rape and 
murder of a minor from Kurla in 2010, the prosecution sought the death penalty.

Special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat on Tuesday sought the death sentence 
on the ground that the case fell within the rarest of rare category. "The 
present offence is committed in a pre-calculated, pre-planned and cold blooded 
manner. After choosing his prey, intimacy was developed with the target and the 
feeling of truth and faith was developed in the mind of the victim," Gharat 
said.

He further said the punishment should be a deterrent and retributive to the 
extent of satisfaction of the society. "It should give the correct message that 
a person committing such offences is not spared," Gharat said.

The defence did not present its arguments. The accused once again told the 
court that he was not guilty. "I am innocent. However since the court has held 
me guilty, award me the death sentence," he said.

A special women's court on Saturday convicted the 24-year-old man for the 2010 
rape and murder of a minor from Nehru Nagar, Kurla. Judge Vrushali Joshi found 
the accused guilty of all charges framed against him - murder, rape and 
kidnapping in order to murder. Of the 3 rape and murder cases of minors that 
rocked Kurla in 2010, Sheikh was accused in 1.

(source for both: The Times of India)






SUDAN:

S Kordofan governor announces severe penalties for trade with rebel areas


The governor of Sudan's South Kordofan State, Issa Adam Abakar, on Monday 
issued a decree banning all kinds of trade with people in rebel-held 
territories.

The decree said the trade with the population in the rebel-controlled areas 
amounts to a criminal offence that may result in the death penalty or life 
imprisonment.

According to the decision, anyone who commits the crime of doing business with 
armed groups - a business locally known as "Tijara Al-Sumbuk" - will be 
punished by death or life imprisonment with confiscation of his or her 
properties and means used to commit the crime.

The decree explained that the confiscated assets, goods or commodities will be 
used by the state government. The decision also said that 40% of the 
confiscated goods will be allocated to the military force that carried out the 
seizure operation.

Last month, President Bashir proposed a 2-month ceasefire with rebels fighting 
to overthrow his government.

(source: radiotamazuj.com)






PAKISTAN:

Pakistan among world's top executioners after terror attack


For years, Pakistan did not put prisoners to death. Then a Taliban attack 
butchered 150 people, most of them children, and the country resumed carrying 
out the death penalty and quickly turned into one of the world's most avid 
executioners.

But instead of killing militants, the campaign is largely executing common 
criminals, The Associated Press has found.

Only one in 10 of the 226 prisoners executed since December was convicted of a 
terror attack, according to human rights activists. Still, the executions 
continue in order to placate a public still angry over last year's Taliban 
assault on a military school in the city of Peshawar.

The Pakistani government refuses to discuss the executions, and most on the 
street still support them. Some, however, are beginning to question whether the 
death penalty truly works as a deterrent in a country where suicide bombings 
remain a common militant tactic.

"You cannot deter those militants who are committed to die for a cause," said 
analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi, a retired political science professor.

Pakistan under former President Pervez Musharraf halted executions in 2008, 
partly due to the pressure of human rights groups. The hiatus started after 
another terror attack shocked the nation - the assassination of former Prime 
Minister Benazir Bhutto amid a heated election campaign. The government blamed 
the Pakistani Taliban for that attack as well, though the militants never 
claimed responsibility for the assault and others questioned why elements of 
Pakistan's powerful intelligence agencies failed to prevent her killing.

At the time of the pause in 2008, Human Rights Watch said some 7,000 people 
were on Pakistan's death row and 36 had been put to death that year. The year 
before, authorities executed 134 people; they put to death 85 in 2006, 52 in 
2005 and 21 in 2004. Officials discussed commuting the death sentences of those 
remaining to life in prison, but apparently never did.

After 2008, Pakistan's military executed only one soldier in 2012 after 
convicting him of murder. Civilian authorities largely didn't discuss resuming 
executions, even as the Pakistani Taliban and other insurgent groups continued 
their campaign of violence across the country, including suicide bombings and 
the 2012 shooting of future Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai.

The Dec. 16 attack changed everything. In Peshawar, Taliban gunmen stormed a 
military-run school, killing 150 people, nearly all children attending class. 
Popular anger raged against the militants, many of whom have long ties to 
sections of Pakistani intelligence services.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif used his strongest language yet against the 
extremists, vowing there would be no discrimination between "good or bad 
Taliban" as he allowed those convicted of terror charges to be executed. He 
also pledged to "continue this war until even a single terrorist is not left on 
our soil,"

Days later, Pakistan carried out its first executions by hanging Mohammed 
Aqeel, convicted of attacking an army headquarters near Islamabad, and Arshad 
Mahmood, put to death for his role in a 2003 plot to kill Musharraf. Other 
executions followed. In all, at least 21 people have been executed in terror 
cases involving a plane hijacking, attacks on soldiers and other violence, 
according to data from the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

In March, Pakistan quietly lifted its execution ban entirely and hangings 
surged. Over all, Pakistan has executed at least 226 people, according to the 
commission, though an exact number is difficult to ascertain as authorities 
decline to discuss the death penalty in detail. Repeated requests for comment 
by the AP to the Pakistani Interior and Information ministries have gone 
unanswered.

Officials also said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was traveling 
abroad and unable to discuss the executions. However, Khan told journalists in 
August that the country had executed at least 211 people, including terrorists. 
He did not elaborate.

On the street, the executions remain incredibly popular among many Pakistanis, 
including those who lost loved ones in the Peshawar school attack.

"I think terrorists should be killed at public places the way they kill 
innocent people," said Ashfaq Ahmed, an Islamabad taxi driver. "If terrorists 
use guns to kill people, you too kill them with guns. Kill them the way they 
kill innocent people."

Mohammad Ahsan, a university student, agrees.

"Hang 200 to 300 killers every day," he said.

But the rise in executions worries activists like Zohra Yusuf, the head of 
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. While only murder and treason carried the 
death penalty when Pakistan gained its independence in 1947, now 27 offenses 
carry the possibility of execution, including blasphemy charges often used in 
personal disputes against minorities in this largely Sunni Muslim country. 
While no one has been put to death for blasphemy, those accused in the past 
have been killed by mobs.

Others have raised concerns about death-row inmates being beaten into 
confessing to crimes they didn't commit or took part in as minors. In August, 
Pakistani authorities hanged Shafqat Hussain, who was convicted of killing a 
7-year-old boy in 2004 when he was just 14, according to his family.

"There is a popular opinion in Pakistan that death penalty should not be 
abolished, but increasing incidents of terrorist attacks and routine crimes 
indicate that executions are not a deterrence," Yusuf said. "Even after the 
resumption of executions, violence has continued. There have been incidents of 
sectarian violence and we also witnessed attacks on churches."

Of the prisoners executed since December, most were convicted on murder 
charges. A confidential government report submitted to Pakistan's Supreme Court 
and seen by the AP said 7,056 prisoners were on death row in 2014, while the 
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it believes the number is more than 
8,000. It's unclear how many of those on death row were convicted on 
terror-related charges.

Either way, Pakistan was one of the world's top executioners this year, behind 
China, Iran and Iraq but ahead of Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty 
International. The U.S. has carried out 19 in 2015 - 10 of them in Texas.

Pakistan carries out its executions at several locations, but all die by 
hanging.

A senior prison official and three other workers, all speaking on condition of 
anonymity as they weren't authorized to talk to journalists, told the AP that 
executions are carried out before sunrise. The condemned has a final meal, 
bathes and then has time to pray before being led to the gallows, they said. 
Executioners cover their face with a black hood and tie their hands and legs 
before hanging them, they said.

One of the last prisoners executed, 71-year-old Maqbool Husain, spoke to the AP 
before his death Aug. 27. He said a dispute between families over property saw 
him lose his right leg in an attack before his own family took revenge and 
amputated the leg of a rival. The other family killed 2 of his brothers in 1994 
and Husain waited until 1996 before killing six of them in retaliation, he 
said.

Looking back on his life, he said: "I request all to end enmity so that no one 
faces hanging like me."

(source: Associated Press)

***********

Notice to govt on appeal against death penalty


A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued notice to ministry 
of interior on an appeal against conviction of an alleged member of a banned 
organisation by military court on murder charges.The military court had awarded 
death sentence to Muhammad Sabir Shah for his involvement in abetting murder of 
Advocate Syed Arshad Ali in Lahore. The Chief Of Army Staff (COAS) confirmed 
his death sentence last week. Laila Bibi, mother of the convict, filed the 
appeal against the conviction.

As the bench took up the appeal, Advocate Zia Ali Bajwa argued on behalf of the 
appellant that her son was juvenile (below age of 18 years) at the time of the 
incident and was not given the right to fair trial. He said neither he was 
allowed to meet his family members nor given a chance to engage a counsel to 
plead his case.

The counsel said the family of the convict had come to know about the military 
court decision through a press release issued by ISPR. He said a habeas corpus 
petition challenging illegal detention of Shah was still pending before the 
high court. He argued that requisites of justice were not met by the military 
court while awarding sentence to the appellant's son.

He requested the court to set aside the military court's sentence decision 
being an unfair.

The bench comprising Justice Abdul Sami Khan and Justice James Joseph issued 
notice to the ministry for tomorrow (September 10).

(source: The News)






INDONESIA:

Death penalty no longer a priority----Does the change of priorities of the 
Attorney General Office mean those on death row will be spared?


Indonesia hasn't changed its mind on the death penalty - but it did say it's no 
longer a priority.

Attorney General HM Prasetyo on Tuesday, September 8 said it has changed its 
priorities to focus more on program development, given the country's 
discouraging economic conditions.

"We are now focused on supporting and assisting government programs on 
development. We cannot do all the big things at the same time. We have to 
decide what is our priority," Prasetyo told Rappler.

Prasetyo also denied that the change of heart is due to any outside pressure.

"No pressure. We are a sovereign nation. We never give any pressure to other 
country, so we will not let other country do the same thing. We are a big 
country," he said.

But Prasetyo also clarified that just because it is not on top of their list 
right now, it does not mean the government has changed its mind on its 
necessity.

"We are not going to change our position on that. Particularly with drug 
offenders, dealers and manufacturers. We are resolute," he said.

He said this is especially true for those whose death sentence have already 
been meted out, and are only waiting for their executions. He did say however 
that even those are not the government's priority, although he refused to call 
it a delay.

He said the government is merely "evaluating" the death penalty.

"We are examining some details," he said. "We are focused on development right 
now. The AGO (Attorney General Office) will focus on that issue."

Indonesia has been in the spotlight in recent months due to their death 
penalty, specifically their executions of foreign nationals.

Australia, for instance, had mounted a sustained campaign to save its citizens, 
who had been on death row for almost a decade, with the prime minister 
repeatedly appealing for them to be spared. The appeals did not work.

Amnesty International has also condemned the executions as "utterly 
reprehensible" in a statement from research director for Southeast Asia and the 
Pacific, Rupert Abbott.

The Penal Code of Indonesia states that death-sentenced inmates are to be 
executed by firing squad, out of public view. The inmate is informed of his or 
her execution only 72 hours in advance. The inmate can stand or sit, and have 
his or her eyes covered by a blindfold or a hood.

In April however, Indonesia, in a rare move, did spare the execution of 
Filipino Mary Jane Veloso who is accused of drug trafficking, because of a 
last-minute plea from Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and the surrender 
of the recruiter of Mary Jane on the day of scheduled execution.

The recruiter is under investigation in the Philippines.

(source: rappler.com)