[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 26



MAURITANIA:

UN rights office deplores death sentence against Mauritanian blogger


The United Nations human rights office today deplored the confirmation of the 
death sentence for apostasy against a Mauritanian blogger, Mohammad Ould 
M'Kaitir, by the appellate court on 21 April.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), 
Mr. Ould M'Kaitir was convicted in the first instance by the criminal court in 
Nouadhibou in December 2014 for an article he had published online. He had 
expressed repentance on several occasions since, including during the appeals 
hearing, OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville told the regular bi-weekly news 
briefing Geneva.

"We should like to stress that under the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights, to which Mauritania became a State party in 2004, the death 
penalty, if not abolished, can only be applied for the most serious crimes," 
the spokesperson said.

"We hope that the Supreme Court, which has now been seized with the case, will 
overturn the death sentence against Mr. Ould M'Kaitir," he added.

(source: UN News Centre)






TAIWAN

Taiwan 'not thinking of' putting end to death penalty, Ma says


President Ma Ying-jeou said Monday that although some countries in the world 
have replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment without parole, Taiwan 
is not thinking of following suit.

The president was responding to a question on the death penalty issue, during a 
news conference on the release of the 2nd national report on the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on 
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

According to Ma, replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment without 
possibility of parole has given rise to many problems.

For example, the public might find it hard to accept the idea of the country 
providing lifelong support for people convicted of serious crimes, he said, 
adding that prison population management can be another problem.

Furthermore, putting criminals in prison for the rest of their lives is no less 
harmful to human rights than executing them, Ma said.

Based on these reasons, the Ministry of Justice is not considering replacing 
the death penalty with life imprisonment without parole, he added.

He said the government's current policy is to keep the death penalty but use it 
judiciously.

Over the past 20 years, Taiwan has abolished all the laws that prescribed the 
death sentence as the sole penalty and has been reviewing those laws that 
maintain it as an optional penalty, Ma noted.

Judges and prosecutors have also been very cautious in handling cases in which 
the death penalty is applicable, he said.

As a result, Ma said, the number of people sentenced to death has dropped to 
six per year on average from a high of 18 per year in the past.

People in Taiwan cannot yet accept the idea of removing the death penalty from 
the law books, the president said, adding that abolition of capital punishment 
is not yet a global trend either.

Although the United Nations has adopted several resolutions calling on states 
that maintain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on its use, the 
countries that retain capital punishment still account for 60 % of the world's 
population, Ma said.

(source: China Post)






SRI LANKA:

Lankan President commutes death sentences of 83 inmates


Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena has decided to commute the death 
sentences of 83 prisoners who are either on death row or serving life. 
imprisonments.

President Sirisena has taken the decision to spare the lives of the prisoners 
based on the recommendations made by a committee appointed following a request 
by the joint committee of the Ministries of Law and Order and Prisons Reforms 
and Justice to review the death sentences, reports Lanka Page.

The Commissioner General of Prisons Nishan Danasinghe said they expect more 
death row inmates to receive the same concession in future.

Although Sri Lankan courts give death penalty in serious crimes such as murder, 
rape and drug trafficking, no executions have been carried out since 1976.

All death penalty cases have been commuted to life in prison.

Sri Lanka last year decided to vote in favor of a UN resolution for moratorium 
on death penalty.

(source: Business Standard)






PHILIPPINES:

Philippines Presidential Frontrunner Says He'd Kill His Drug-Using 
Child----Admits he probably agrees with people who call him a killer.


Voters in the Philippines are choosing a new president in a couple of weeks and 
Rodrigo Duterte, mayor of Davao, has opened up a 12 point lead over Sen. Grace 
Poe.

Duterte has made international headlines a number of times over some of the 
outlandish things he's said - most recently that he felt he should have been 
allowed to rape a woman who was gangraped during a prison riot first, since he 
was the mayor of the town where it happened and she was good-looking.

Despite his reputation for speaking before he thinks, Duterte has bristled at 
comparisons to Donald Trump. "Donald Trump is a bigot, I am not," Duterte 
explained.

The Philippines' presidential frontrunner is at it again, insisting he would 
murder his own children if they did drugs. The issue came up in the last debate 
before the election, with Duterte vowing to be a harsh president. "They say I 
am a killer," Duterte, who as mayor of Davao has seen a dramatic rise in 
vigilante death squads in his city. "Maybe I am."

When he was asked what he would do if he caught one of his children doing 
drugs, he told the moderator he'd kill them. The Philippines is one of several 
Southeast Asian countries where certain drug crimes carry the death penalty. In 
the island nation, possession of as little as .3 ounces of heroin, cocaine, and 
other narcotics, or 17 ounces of marijuana, is punishable by death.

Similar suggestions have been made for the United States. Most recently, Maine 
Gov. Paul LePage (R), proposed beheadings for drug traffickers caught in his 
state.

(source: reason.com)



NORTH KOREA:

Pyongyang imposes death penalty for dealers in drugs and S. Korean videos


North Korea is executing people who distribute illegal drugs and South Korean 
videos, says the Korea Institute for National Unification.

The institute published "North Korean Human Rights Report 2016" on Monday after 
conducting in-depth interviews with 186 North Korean defectors who came to 
South Korea from the end of 2014 to last year.

According to the report, three North Koreans including a Hyesan University of 
Agriculture and Forestry student were shot dead in Hyesan, Yanggang Province in 
2013 because they distributed drugs and South Korean videos.

2 men were also executed at Hyesan airport in 2014 after being charged with 
smuggling drugs and watching South Korean dramas. The defectors said 11 people 
had been sentenced to death for the same offences since 2011.

North Koreans did not face the death penalty just for distributing South Korean 
TV programs. However, they were sentenced to death when police caught them 
dealing in or buying illegal drugs as well as the videos.

The institute said illegal drugs were widely distributed in North Korea. 
Because of the growing number of cases involving drug dealing and distribution 
of South Korean videos, North Korean authorities had recently launched a 
crackdown and introduced severe punishment.

(source: Korea Times)






INDIA:

Yug Chandak final hearing: Prosecution cites 3 key witnesses on 1st day


The final hearing of Yug Chandak murder case began on Monday with prosecution 
strongly asking for maintaining death penalty for both perpetrators - prime 
accused Rajesh Dhanalal Daware (19) and Arvind Abhilash Singh (23). The killer 
duo was present during the hearing in afternoon amid tight security with 
gun-wielding cops keeping a close watch on them to prevent any untoward 
activity. Yug's father Dr Mukesh Chandak and a couple of his relatives also 
attended the hearing.

Both convicts were awarded a rare double death penalty on February 4 by Nagpur 
sessions court for diabolical murder of 8-year-old on September 1, 2014, that 
sparked off huge outrage and protests in the city.

Government pleader Bharti Dangre started the proceedings while citing 
testimonies of three key witnesses and the 'last seen theory'. She was assisted 
by additional public prosecutor Jyoti Vajani and Chandak family's counsel 
Rajendra Daga. She also cited ransom calls made by accused to deceased's 
father, Dr Mukesh Chandak, on the same day that Yug was kidnapped. The 1st call 
was made for Rs10 crore while 2nd one was for Rs5 crore and both were made from 
public telephone booths.

She informed that Dr Chandak immediately lodged the FIR after which police 
machinery was set into motion. Explaining 'last seen theory' she named three 
witness who last saw the child with killers. The first one was watchman of Guru 
Vandan Apartments, where Chandaks reside, who saw Singh carrying Yug with him 
on a motorcycle. Another witness Biharilal Chhabria, staying in same 
apartments, also saw the second accused with the child. The 3rd witness Ranjan 
Tiwari, a nearby shopkeeper, saw the eight-year-old going with both accused 
from his shop.

A division bench of Justices Bhushan Gavai and Swapna Joshi then adjourned the 
hearing till Tuesday. The hearings would continue on a day-to-day basis till 
arguments from both sides are over. It was 2nd diabolic killing in the city 
within 3 years after another 8-year-old child Kush Katariya was similarly 
killed by Ayush Naresh Pugalia on October 11, 2011, for extracting Rs2 crore 
ransom from his parents. He was awarded a rare double lifer by the court, which 
was enhanced to triple lifer by the Nagpur bench.

Govt appoints Vajani to assist prosecution

State's Law and Judiciary Department has appointed additional public prosecutor 
Jyoti Vajani, to assist the prosecution in the confirmation case of death 
penalty to Yug Chandak's perpetrators in Nagpur bench. A March 31 letter by 
under secretary SG Deshmukh requested her to join the public prosecutor during 
the arguments. Vajani had pleaded for the prosecution while arguing the case in 
sessions court that awarded capital punishment to the accused duo earlier. In 
the past, she had successfully pleaded for prosecution in many such cases in 
which the accused were sentenced to gallows.

(source: The Times of India)

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

Release of the NLU Delhi Death Penalty India Report on 6th May 2016


The Centre on the Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi announces the 
release of the 'Death Penalty India Report' on 6th May 2016.

Based on interviews with all prisoners on death row and their families carried 
on from June 2013 to January 2015, the Report documents the socio-economic 
profile of prisoners sentenced to death in India and provides an in-depth 
understanding of their interaction with the criminal justice system.

The release of the 'Death Penalty India Report' shall be at the Nehru Memorial 
Museum and Library (Teen Murti Bhavan Auditorium) on 6th May 2016 at 5.30 pm.

Welcome Address would be by Professor (Dr.) Ranbir Singh, Vice Chancellor, 
National Law University, Delhi followed by the presentation of the Report by 
the Centre itself.

There shall be a Panel Discussion amongst Hon'ble Mr. Justice Madan B. Lokur, 
Judge, Supreme Court of India; Ms. Nitya Ramakrishnan, Advocate, Supreme Court 
of India and Dr. Anup Surendranath, Director, Centre on the Death Penalty.

The whole event shall be moderated by Mr. Omair Ahmad, Books Editor, The Wire 
and concluded by Remarks from Professor (Dr.) GS Bajpai, Registrar, National 
Law University, Delhi.

The Death Penalty Research Project has been carried out by National Law 
University, Delhi in collaboration with the National Legal Services Authority 
(NALSA), and was approved by Honourable Justice Sathasivam in his capacity as 
the Executive Chairman of NALSA.

(source: livelaw.in)

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

Kerala: People's manifesto calls to abolish death penalty


The people's manifesto, a draft released by an activist group in Kozhikode, 
scrutinises the current development strategies followed by the state 
administration and proposes a sustainable model to uplift the marginalised 
people in the state. The manifesto has been released as part of 'Occupy Kerala' 
campaign, a movement against corporate-model development and anti-environmental 
activities in the name of development.

The draft has covered areas like health, energy, trade and labour. It stresses 
agriculture-based development and says that growth should be based on 
sustainable and participatory democracy. It also proposes to abolish the death 
penalty in India. "Death penalty has been eliminated in about 150 countries but 
there was no increase in the crime rate there. Kerala has to stand for 
abolishing death penalty as a progressive state," the document says.

Another take is to form a transgender justice board to address the problems of 
transgender minorities. "Kerala is the 1st state that unveiled a transgender 
policy but the attitude of most people remains unchanged and this campaign will 
promote the rights of transgenders," the manifesto says.

Dr. Asad, one of the pioneers of the campaign, says that they intend to 
showcase all the atrocities happening under the label of development. "We aim 
to address all the basic issues that an administration has to follow. Dalits 
are the victims of development and they are the most neglected section in 
society. We have to hold them with us rather than ignore them as a forsaken 
community," he says. A 2-day camp and discussions took place as part of the 
campaign and the manifesto was drafted thereafter.

(source: Deccan Chronicle)






IRAN----executions

2 Prisoners Executed


According to recent reports, a prisoner was hanged on Sunday April 24 at Sari 
Prison on murder charges and a prisoner was hanged on Thursday April 21 at 
Zahedan's Central Prison on drug charges.

The press department of the Judiciary in Mazandaran has identified the prisoner 
from Sari as H.H., 27 years old, executed on murder charges.

According to a report by the Campaign of Baluch Activists, the prisoner from 
Zahedan is Javad Sanji, executed on drug charges. Iranian official sources, 
including state run media and the Judiciary, have been silent about Javad 
Sanji's execution.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

Dowlat Nowrouzi: Execution rate rising in Iran under Rouhani


Dowlat Nowrouzi, the representative of the National Council of Resistance of 
Iran in the United Kingdom, says the rate of executions in Iran are rising 
during Hassan Rouhani's presidency.

In an interview with ncr-iran.org on Tuesday, Ms. Nowrouzi said that recent 
trips by European officials to Iran have not led to an improvement of the human 
rights situation by the mullahs' regime.

Earlier this month while the head of European Union diplomacy Ms. Federica 
Mogherini visited Tehran, 10 people, including 2 women, were executed, Ms. 
Nowrouzi pointed out.

"The recent trips not only did not help the terrible human rights situation in 
Iran; they only aggravated it," she said.

She added that according to the United Nations the execution rate in Iran hit a 
record last year.

"In reality and based on the reports by the UN Special Rapporteur on human 
rights in Iran only last year 966 people had been executed in Iran, while we 
know that the real figure is much higher," Ms. Nowrouzi said.

"In the aftermath of the nuclear deal the human rights situation has not 
improved for the better; rather, it is getting much worse."

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a statement on April 
13 that the increasing trend of executions "aimed at intensifying the climate 
of terror to rein in expanding protests by various strata of the society, 
especially at a time of visits by high-ranking European officials, demonstrates 
that the claim of moderation is nothing but an illusion for this medieval 
regime."

Ms. Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for 
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, was in Tehran on April 16 along with 7 EU 
commissioners for discussions with the regime???s officials on trade and other 
areas of cooperation.

Her trip was strongly criticized by Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the 
Foreign Affairs Committee of the NCRI who said: "This trip which takes place in 
the midst of mass executions, brutal human rights violations and the regime's 
unbridled warmongering in the region tramples on the values upon which the EU 
has been founded and which Ms. Mogherini should be defending and propagating."

Amnesty International in its April 6 annual Death Penalty report covering the 
2015 period wrote: "Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to 
at least 743 the year before."

"Iran alone accounted for 82% of all executions recorded" in the Middle East 
and North Africa, the human rights group said.

There have been more than 2,300 executions during Hassan Rouhani's tenure as 
President. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation 
in Iran in March announced that the number of executions in Iran in 2015 was 
greater than any year in the last 25 years. Rouhani has explicitly endorsed the 
executions as examples of "God's commandments" and "laws of the parliament that 
belong to the people."

(source: Iran Human Rights)



VIETNAM:

Thai woman, 3 Vietnamese sentenced to death for drug trafficking


A court in Hanoi sentenced 3 Vietnamese and a Thai woman to death on Monday for 
drug trafficking.

Investigation found Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang, 53, from Ho Chi Minh City, learned 
about the illegal trade in late 2011 and started hiring several people to help 
her transport drugs across regional borders.

Police in Hanoi, Quang Ninh Province and HCMC busted the ring in October 2012, 
seizing 24 kilograms of heroin and more than 2 kilograms of methamphetamine.

They arrested Trang and 3 of her smugglers Le Xuan Phu, Phan Thi Lien, and 
Pornpirom Upapong from Thailand, local media reported.

The members told police Trang was the mastermind and hired them to transport 
drugs across regional countries including China, Cambodia, Nigeria, Malaysia, 
Thailand and the Philippines.

Police said the gang also hired some Africans who used money to lure poor 
Vietnamese women, who had little knowledge about drug laws, into the illegal 
business.

They are still looking for these suspects.

Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws. The production or sale of 
100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics is punishable by 
death.

Those convicted of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or 
more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine also face the death penalty.

(source: Thanh Nien News)






PAKISTAN:

Fears that wheelchair-bound prisoner on death row will have a 'horribly botched 
execution'


A paralysed prisoner on Pakistan's death row has called on the country's 
President to spare his life, as a stay of execution granted to him in January 
expired on the weekend.

Abdul Basit, 44, who has no movement from the waist down, has had his execution 
halted at the last minute 3 separate times in the past year, after his lawyers 
raised concerns that his execution could be illegal (as the country's prison 
rules have no provisions for the hanging of prisoners in wheelchairs).

According to the country's law, a prisoner sentenced to death should be able to 
"reach the execution point on his own feet".

Campaigners have argued that hanging a man in a wheelchair runs a high risk of 
the execution going wrong, potentially leading to slow strangulation or 
decapitation.

Maya Foa, a director at the anti-death penalty NGO Reprieve, said in a 
statement that the government has still given no explanation of how it plans to 
avoid a "horribly botched execution."

Basit has been on death row since 2009, convicted of murdering a man in a 
financial dispute. He has always maintained his innocence.

He became paralysed in 2010 after he contracted tuberculosis meningitis in the 
prison. Complications with the illness - which lawyers say were a result of 
negligence - caused him to lose all movement in his limbs, and he was rendered 
incontinent and put in a wheelchair.

Wassam Waheed, a spokesman for legal aid group Justice Project Pakistan, told 
The Independent

Basit has "spent 6 years on the prison floor, unable to move and reliant on 
others for personal hygiene".

Basit's family and his legal team are calling on the government to grant him 
clemency, despite no pardon having been granted to any death-row prisoner since 
a moratorium on executions was lifted in the country in 2014.

Basit's wife Musarat told The Independent: "It is not only my husband who is 
being punished by the legal system.

"It is his entire family who is suffering through this, especially my children. 
They haven't visited their father in years as he didn't want them to see him 
lying on jail floor, not able to walk".

After visiting her son in prison yesterday, Basit's mother Nusrat Perveen told 
The Associated Press that her son had lost a lot of weight and looked skeletal.

"His life has become a bigger punishment than death ... he is living in 
conditions worse than hell".

She urged the country's president to pardon her son.

"I beg Mr President, Mr Prime Minister and the judiciary, please have mercy on 
my son. He has already suffered a lot. He is already half dead. What will they 
get if they execute a paralysed man, a helpless paralysed man who is already in 
prison for life? Basit deserves mercy."

Representatives at legal aid group Justice Project Pakistan say that in the 
absence of instructions from the Federal Government, "the jail authorities are 
likely to forward a request for a fresh warrant of execution in the coming 
days".

(source: news.com.au)






SINGAPORE:

Young Malaysian rider arrested with a kilo of drugs faces death penalty


Singaporean authorities arrested a young Malaysian rider who was carrying 
heroin and meth worth $86,000 at the Woodlands checkpoint.

The 20-year-old motorcyclist had in his possession almost one kilogram of 
drugs, which far exceeds the minimum amount of contraband that attracts death 
penalty in Singapore.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority and Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) 
said in a joint statement that apart from the heroin, about 120 gram of meth 
also was recovered from the rider.

The rider arrived at the checkpoint at 5.20 in the morning on Monday. The 
checkpoint authorities discovered a packet of heroin weighing 460 grams on him 
and arrested him.

They then handed him to the central narcotics bureau officials, who recovered 
another packet of heroin from him which contained the same quantity of the 
contraband.

Drug related offences get harsh punishment in Singapore, including death. The 
island republic has been in the forefront of nations that vouch for strict 
punishment for drug crimes.

Under Singapore's Misuse of Drugs Act provides anyone trafficking heroin above 
15 grams can be punished with death.

In a speech at a UN conference last week, Singapore's Minister for Home Affairs 
and Law K. Shanmugam said the country will never go soft in its fight against 
drugs.

"We believe that drugs will destroy our society. With 200 million people 
traveling through our borders every year, and given Singaporeans' purchasing 
power, a soft approach will mean our country will be washed over with drugs," 
Shanmugam said.

(source: ibtimes.com)