[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 12



NIGERIA:

Nigerian Governors differ on punishment for corruption


Governors in Nigeria have disagreed over what should be done to government 
officials found guilty of corrupt practices.

However, Labour Unions in the country have demanded capital punishment for 
corrupt Nigerian officials as obtained in China and India.

NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, and EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, said the 
campaign against corruption must be intensified and sustained.

To drum support for the anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari, 
the organised labour held a mass rally on Thursday in Abuja.

Governor of Ekiti, Ayodele Fayose and Rivers state Governor, Nyesome Wike both 
kicked against the suggestion that government officials found guilty of 
stealing the Nations treasury should be sentenced to death.

The state governors spoke against this during the National rallies held by NLC 
members to canvass for support for the Buhari anti corruption drive as well as 
call for death penalty to be enforced on corrupt government officials.

Ondo state governor, Olusegun Mimiko, who spoke through his information 
commissioner, Kayode Akinmade, said due process must be followed if Nigerians 
agree that the death penalty is what should be meted on corrupt officials.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State called for life imprisonment for any 
public office holder convicted of corruption.

Wabba said the NLC was in support of whatever would address the issue of 
corruption in the country, including death sentence as Corruption had badly 
damaged the core of the country's national existence.

(source: tv360nigeria.com)






IRAN:

Imprisoned Leader of Spiritual Group on Hunger Strike


Mohammad Ali Taheri, the leader of a spiritual group who has been behind bars 
since 2011 on charges of "corruption on earth" and "blasphemy," has been on a 
hunger strike since August 13, 2015 to protest his sentence and prison 
conditions, a member of his family told the International Campaign for Human 
Rights in Iran.

"Before he ends his hunger strike, we want the authorities to respect Mr. 
Taheri's most basic rights as a human being and prisoner," the relative said. 
"Secondly we demand a fair and open trial."

Taheri's case has been surrounded by uncertainty following contradictory 
reports on the views of 3 senior religious leaders regarding whether he has 
also committed apostasy, a charge that carries the death penalty.

"According to the court sentence viewed by Taheri's lawyers, the death sentence 
is based on the judgement of three Grand Ayatollahs. Yet news agencies recently 
quoted the same Grand Ayatollahs that their views are not definite and the 
sentence can change. What kind of game is this? If they really don't think he 
should be condemned to death, they should officially say so," Taheri's family 
member told the Campaign.

Mohammad Ali Taheri is the founder of the now-banned "Erfan-e Halgheh" 
(Spiritual Circle) arts and culture institute whose popular books on religion 
and spirituality have all been published with permission from the Islamic 
Guidance and Culture Ministry. He has also taught classes in alternative 
medicine at Tehran University.

On October 30, 2011, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for "blasphemy," 74 
lashes for "touching the wrists of female patients," and 900 million tomans in 
fines (about $300,000) for "interfering in medical science," "earning 
illegitimate funds," and "distribution of audio-visual products and use of 
academic titles."

On July 13, 2015, Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei stated in a 
press conference that Taheri had been found guilty of "corruption on earth" in 
the lower court's ruling, a charge that potentially carries the death penalty.

"Mr. Taheri is a researcher and author on alternative medicine. We want the 
Supreme Court to exonerate him. He has never accepted the accusations against 
him and there has never been any proof to back the charges in his case. The 
treatment he has been getting is a clear violation of his human rights," said 
the family member.

In February 2014, Fars News Agency reported that the Judiciary had asked 3 
religious authorities, Nasser Makkarem Shirazi, Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, and 
Mohammad Alavi Gorgani, to give their opinion on Taheri and they had found him 
guilty of "apostasy," and a "corruptor on earth." Yet on September 1, 2015, the 
state-run Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) published replies from the three 
religious authorities denying that Taheri's "apostasy" had been absolutely 
determined.

"The life of a human being is in the hands of 3 religious authorities who have 
not clearly expressed their opinion. You cannot play with someone's life like 
that," Taheri's family member told the Campaign.

(source: Iran Human Rights)






UNITED NATIONS:

UN experts call for abolition of death penalty in India----The experts also 
welcomed the decision to reduce the number of crimes subject to death penalty 
by China.


The recommendation by the 9-member panel was, however, not unanimous, with 1 
full-time member and 2 government representatives dissenting and supporting 
retention of capital punishment.

UN human rights experts have welcomed recommendations made by India's Law 
Commission to abolish death penalty with the exception of terror offences and 
called on Indian authorities to move towards the complete abolition of capital 
punishment.

"The conclusions and recommendations of the Indian Law Commission represent an 
important voice in favour of the abolition of the death penalty in India," 
Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof 
Heyns said.

"I encourage the Indian authorities to implement these recommendations and to 
move towards the complete abolition of the death penalty for all offences," he 
added.

The Indian Law Commission issued its report on August 31, concluding that the 
death penalty does not serve as a deterrent and recommended its abolition for 
all crimes, except terrorism-related offences and waging war.

The Commission had been tasked by the Supreme Court to study the issue of the 
death penalty in India.

In its report, the Indian Law Commission recognised that, while on death row, 
the prisoner "suffers from extreme agony, anxiety and debilitating fear arising 
out of an imminent yet uncertain execution," and that "the death row phenomenon 
is compounded by the degrading and oppressive effects of conditions of 
imprisonment imposed on the convict, including solitary confinement".

Special Rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez said the Indian authorities should 
review the findings very carefully and ratify the law.

The experts also welcomed the decision to reduce the number of crimes subject 
to death penalty by China.

China amended several provisions of its Criminal Law, replacing death penalty 
with life imprisonment for several offences, including smuggling of weapons, 
ammunition, nuclear materials and counterfeit currency; obstruction of duty of 
police; and creating rumours during wartime.

"By adopting these amendments to its criminal code, China has made progress in 
the right direction; this needs to be encouraged," the UN experts noted.

"These new developments in India and China are in line with the general trend 
towards the abolition of the death penalty at a global level, even if there are 
isolated moves in the opposite direction," Heyns said.

Special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council 
to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights 
theme.

(source: Indian Express)



PHILIPPINES:

A witless decision


17-year-old Renzo Rei Bodoy, a 1st year college student, died after he was 
stabbed repeatedly by Richard Pring, 32, who grabbed his cell phone during a 
jeepney holdup in Quiapo, Manila.

After he was stabbed in the chest for resisting, Bodoy jumped out of the 
jeepney to escape further harm, but Pring followed him and stabbed him again 
and again.

Human rights advocates and bleeding hearts perhaps would ask people to 
understand the plight of Pring, who has been in and out of jail and is a member 
of the Batang City Jail gang.

They would probably say Pring is a victim of society's apathy towards the poor 
and all that stuff about social injustice.Why should society treat a hardened 
criminal like Pring with compassion when he was merciless towards his victim?

In Davao City, Pring would have been executed on the spot, and residents would 
have rejoiced at his fate.

There should be no 2nd chance for criminals who treat their victims without 
mercy.

The exceedingly slow process of putting a criminal on trial leads to an 
injustice - to his victim.

The axiom "justice delayed is justice denied" appears to be mainly for the 
accused and not his victim.

Human and constitutional rights for the accused?

What about the human and constitutional rights of his victim or victims?

* * *

The abolition of the death penalty through a presidential edict was a witless 
decision on the part of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Why should we show mercy to persons who plunder, kill and rape or enslave 
others by making them drug addicts?

Why should the government invoke humanitarian considerations for criminals but 
apparently show no sympathy towards crime victims through a court trial that 
takes so long?

Gloria's convent school upbringing and pressure from the Catholic Church led to 
her decision.

Or probably back then she had a premonition that she would be put on trial for 
plunder and she would rather rot in prison than be hanged if she got convicted.

* * *

Prompt and commonsensical dispensation of justice deters crime and discourages 
would-be criminals.

This is what the vigilante group Davao Death Squad (DDS) does to hardened 
criminals avoiding tedious hearings.

Handling of a case using common sense, as opposed to the conviction of a 
quadriplegic for rape.

The Bulacan Regional Trial Court judge, Andres Soriano, who convicted the 
quadriplegic, and the Court of Appeals justices, who upheld the rape 
conviction, definitely lacked common sense.

A Supreme Court justice (his name escapes me at the moment) once said that the 
application of law is common sense.

In Davao City, the DDS doesn't pick its subjects at random or whim, but chooses 
them like a sniper gingerly aiming at his target before deliberately squeezing 
the trigger.

That's why residents applaud whenever a criminal is found dead in an isolated 
alley because they know he was "ripe" for the killing.

There are very few criminals in Davao City because they know their days are 
numbered if they continue to stay there.

* * *

The other day, a woman came to my office at Isumbong mo kay Tulfo with her 
16-year-old daughter in tow.

The woman, a domestic helper, was accompanied by her female employer.

She said her husband started molesting their daughter when she was only 4 years 
old. At the age of 8, the father then started having sexual relations with the 
girl.

To make things worse, her uncle, the brother of her father, raped her when she 
was 10.

The brothers only stopped their bestial acts when their niece started 
menstruating at the age of 12.

Now a teenager, the victim told her mother that she could not turn to her for 
help then because the latter at that time was working in Manila, far from their 
town in the Visayas.

Her father and uncle would be likely candidates for lethal injection if 
President Gloria had not abolished the death penalty.

(source: Philippine Inquirer)