[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 20



INDIA:

6-yr-old's rapist, killer sentenced to death


The Lucknow bench of high court awarded death penalty to a 25-year-old man for 
raping a 6-year-old girl and strangulating her to death in a sugarcane field. 
"In such a case, leniency by court will send out wrong message. The offender's 
age is no mitigating circumstance and with his deviant behavior he has 
forfeited his right to live so death sentence is the only punishment for him.

Dismissing the appeal of the convict challenging the judgment of trial court 
and accepting the reference made by the Shravasti district judge, a bench of 
justice S V S Rathore and justice Pratyush Kumar observed that since the case 
is rarest of rare, it deserves exemplary punishment so that persons of deviant 
behavior may think better than committing such an act.

The incident occurred in Semgarha village under Ikauna police station, 
Shravasti on March 8, 2012 on the occasion of Holi. The convict Chhotkau took 
the of 6-year-old away with him and when the girl did not return for long, the 
villagers went searching and found her body in a sugarcane field. Many 
villagers had seen the youth taking her away. After the incident, the youth 
fled from his house.

Later, he was nabbed and put to trial. The district judge conducted his trial 
and awarded him capital sentence on March 29, 2014 and the district judge sent 
the reference of capital sentence to the high court under section 366 of the Cr 
P C. Meanwhile, the convict also filed appeal against the verdict from jail.

Advocate Atul Verma argued that the case was based on circumstantial evidence 
and that the convict was implicated falsely at the instance of the village 
pradhan over a property dispute. Finally, he demanded leniency to award life 
term considering his age. Strongly opposing the plea, government attorneys 
argued that the convict deserved only death penalty.

(source: The Times of India)






CHINA:

Chinese crypto techie sentenced to death for leaking state secrets----31 others 
caught up in spying row

A computer technician at a Chinese state encryption lab has been sentenced to 
death for selling government secrets to foreign intelligence agencies.

For nine years Huang Yu, 48, sold 150,000 state documents for "a foreign spy 
organization" and earned over $700,000, Shanghai Daily reports. These included 
ciphers for the Communist Party, government, military and financial 
communications.

"He had offered a great deal of classified information in 10 years, which 
caused serious threats to our core government and military departments," the 
state safety bureau of Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, said in a statement.

According to state media, Yu contacted the unnamed foreign intelligence agency 
offering documents for sale after becoming unsatisfied with his job. His 
contact offered $10,000 for the first tranche of files and a monthly salary of 
$5,000 to get more, and also trained Yu in espionage techniques.

For a while all went well, but then Yu was fired from his job for poor 
performance. In order to keep the documents - and paychecks - coming, Yu 
reportedly pressured his wife - who also worked at the center - for more 
information. He also stole state documents from his brother-in-law's computer 
while repairing it.

However, Yu's wealth and his frequent visits to Hong Kong and other Asian 
countries, caught the eye of the authorities. After an investigation he was 
arrested and charged in 2011, but this is the 1st time the news has been made 
public.

While Yu now faces the death penalty, his wife was sentenced to 5 years in 
prison, and his brother-in-law to 3 years, for "negligence," and 29 of his 
former colleagues have also been punished.

(source: theregister.co.uk)






NIGERIA:

Delta legislature prescribes death penalty for kidnappers


The Delta House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the Anti-kidnap Bill, prescribing 
death sentence for kidnappers and life imprisonment for accomplices. The 
passage of the bill by a unanimous vote of the members present followed a 
report presented by the house's Committee on Rules, Business, Legal and 
Judicial Matters at plenary in Asaba.

Presenting the report, Chairman of the committee, Mr Rueben Izezi, said that 
the bill, when signed into law, would also give life imprisonment and 
forfeiture of all property within the state for anyone whose property was used 
for kidnapping.

The bill, which was initiated by the Executive, also provides life imprisonment 
for persons who initiated a compromise, settlement or refused to give testimony 
in court in respect of charges for kidnapping.

In his remarks, Speaker of the assembly, Chief Monday Igbuya, said that at the 
committee of the whole, the bill was considered clause by clause and section by 
section.

"I must also commend members for giving considerable attention to this bill, 
which is to the benefit of the people of the state," he said.

Igbuya, therefore, directed the Clerk of the House, Mrs Lyna Ochulor, to 
forward a clean copy of the bill to the governor of the state for his assent.

(source: financialwatchngr.org)