[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 15



VIETNAM:

Large drug hauls seized in Vietnam


Vietnamese police are cooperating with Lao counterpart to look for a Vietnamese 
national who has been accused of sending nearly 10kg of cannabis to his wife 
for reselling in Vietnam.

The case was detected on August 11 when police caught Le Thi Kim Oanh, 42, red 
handed carrying more than 6kg of cannabis.

Police also seized nearly 4kg of cannabis at her house in Hue Town.

At the police station, Oanh said her husband Le Xuan Hien had sent the cannabis 
from Laos.

Investigation led to the arrest of Vo Ngoc Binh, 46, a bus driver on Hue-Lao 
route that transported the drug for the couple and Truong Ngo, 43, another link 
in the illegal trade.

Investigators believed that Binh has transported drug for the couple for many 
times.

In related news, Lao Cai police have arrested 4 people in 3 separate drug 
smuggling cases in the northern province from August 10-12. They seized a total 
of nearly 3kg of heroin and 1kg of cannabis.

Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws. Those convicted of 
possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 
kilograms of methamphetamine face the death penalty.

The production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal 
narcotics is also punishable by death.

(source: Thanh Nien News)






GLOBAL:

Changing minds about the death penalty


Last week Judge Navi Pillay, esteemed retired UN High Commissioner for Human 
Rights and former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 
delivered the keynote address at the 77th Biennial Conference of the 
International Law Association. Pillay now has a new role as a commissioner of 
the International Commission Against the Death Penalty. Janet Smith spoke to 
her.

Janet Smith: You're finally based at home in Durban after so many years in 
Geneva and travelling the world as a campaigner for human rights. But even as 
you've brought that experience back to South Africa to play a key role here, 
your global role continues. Is this how you are happiest?

Navi Pillay: It's worked out completely differently to what I imagined 
retirement would be. When I was with the UN, I was travelling all the time, but 
still now, I've also been travelling outside the country every month. At the 
same time, there's been very interesting work inside the country.

There was the xenophobia probe we did here in KZN, and then there's the 
independent panel under (former president Kgalema) Motlanthe which involves 15 
of us, mainly academics, that is assessing legislation passed after 1994.

We're not like these Parliament sub-committees. We've got to make sure we 
reflect the truth and get to the ground. It's a mammoth task involving lots of 
people.

I'm so aware of promises being made nationally, but where there's no delivery 
locally. So although I am still moving on a global scale, I'm very focused 
locally now.

JS: In Women's Month, especially this year as we reflect on the leaders of the 
1956 march on the Union Buildings, we're thinking about our heroes. You're one 
of them, but this is not only because of the scale of the work you did around 
the Rwanda genocide and at the UN. This is also about your past, when you were 
a young lawyer in South Africa.

NP: Going back to 1973,1974; there was a huge number of detentions, even of 
high school children, and my office became like a human rights office. How can 
you charge for work like that? My husband Gaby was detained because he had 
given a R100 donation, and for that, he was held 5 months in solitary.

Fortunately, he'd left a power of attorney with me, and he'd described his 
experiences over a first stint in detention, so I was able to use the courts to 
prevent the police from torturing him. Then people constantly came running to 
me asking, "why can't you do this for our children?" So we started collecting 
affidavits from people who had been tortured, and that would help us take this 
whole thing forward.

I was terrified at the time of bringing the case to protect my husband. I was 
so scared that I didn't go to the court. There was a Colonel Swanepoel who I 
was afraid to look at eye-to-eye. He'd been torturing everyone from the 1960s, 
but once I'd filed, and these types of interrogation had been prohibited as 
unlawful, and the sheriff had served it, they never touched my husband after 
that.

I think we must look at the quality of women. When you have nothing in life, 
and you still find something to feed your children; In my case, it was really 
an emotional matter.

Later on, all those affidavits were collected by the ANC and the UN got 
involved. There were important documents there, including on (Steve) Biko who 
was also killed by torture, and so the ANC asked the UN for 2 things: 1 was 
sanctions against the apartheid government, and the other was for a convention 
against torture. Those things happened, and started with little steps.

That's what women understand; that you just have to take those 1st small steps, 
not only look at the big picture.

I know that when I was a young lawyer, I made many mistakes. I'd be much better 
today with all the experience, but we still had to try . We still have to 
strengthen ourselves, so we can go out there and move away from intimidation 
and fear.

JS: Fighting torture and the death penalty are a significant part of your work 
internationally now. But while your earlier victories in South Africa laid the 
groundwork, was it the massive challenge of eight years as a judge at the 
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that cemented it? For four years, 
you were its president. You were also the only female judge for the 1st period, 
so that must have been a gauntlet of its own.

In the end, it was the trial of ex-teacher and mayor Jean-Paul Akayesu, who 
didn't stop the killings of Tutsis in his commune, and even supervised some, 
that changed the way the world views rape and sexual assault.

These are now considered war crimes thanks to the work you did there, which was 
a world-changing achievement. Yet our own horrifying rape statistics, which are 
not on the decline, must still trouble you.

NP: It was an achievement. I mean, people had written about and studied the 
fact that women were for so long collateral damage, given as rewards to 
soldiers, but after that, authorities now have to take it seriously and protect 
women.

I always say it's because men get away with domestic violence and family rape 
and so on, because they have a sense that nothing will happen to them, that 
they are emboldened to commit these crimes. That's the story of South Africa 
right now. And even though people, lots of South Africans, feel that if we had 
the death penalty, it would deter people, I think that's got everything to do 
with the comfort of knowing there will have to be an investigation. A person 
will be punished.

Now that's what we don't have here, and I find it alarming that women cannot 
just walk out on to the street, even in day time, now, with an assurance that 
they will be safe from thesecrimes.

As far as the tribunal went, it was the most difficult time of my life, 
emotionally. I'd just been nominated as a High Court judge here by Nelson 
Mandela, and then this came along, and people said, "well, go there, try it 
out, you can resign after a year". But when I heard the witnesses, and I saw 
the women who had been gang-raped looking at me with haunted eyes;. the people 
who had lost whole families; little children killed where the shape of their 
heads showed how they had been banged against church walls, there was no way I 
could abandon them and go home.

I burst out crying many times at that suffering, but all the time I knew we had 
to render justice.

JS: That kind of illuminated work, which tells us everything about your 
compassion and your global reputation, must be assisting the work you're now 
doing with the International Commission Against the Death Penalty?

NP: Yes. Well, it's an international NGO which is funded by the Spanish 
government and others based in Madrid, so it's a bit different, but I have seen 
how, because of my status from the UN, I am able to get access at the highest 
levels. It's given me that credibility.

What we're trying to do is to change the minds of governments where they might 
not be using the death penalty, but they haven't abolished it altogether, which 
means it can still be used any time when governments change.

Take Gambia, which suddenly executed 9 people in 1 day. The UN had to step in.

It's all about making people see that if you respect the right to life, it 
means you cannot take someone's life away under any circumstance. In our case, 
our Constitutional Court gave 11 opinions in 1 judgment, and I've taken that 
judgment and shared it with other judges around the world.

The problem is that, on one level, the world sees South Africa as a moral 
authority, and yet in practise we are really disappointing.

It's all about having good institutions. If you erode your institutions, you're 
going downhill, heading towards conflict.

The High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration 
of Fundamental Change, of which Pillay is a part, is starting its public 
hearings on laws passed since 1994. The dates of the Western Cape hearings are 
still to be confirmed.

(source: iol.co.za)






UGANDA:

Museveni expresses support for maintaining the death penalty


President Yoweri Museveni has said he fully supports maintaining the death 
penalty on the aw books as the ultimate punishment for capital offences.

Museveni made the comments while officiating at the passing out ceremony of 
1,548 prisons officers in Kampala on Monday.

Dr. Johnson Byabashaija, the Commissioner General of Uganda Prison Services, is 
on record as being opposed to the death penalty. Back in 2007, he told an 
American newspaper that nobody has the right to take away life.

Byabashaija added that: "Our criminal justice system is not foolproof. There is 
the danger of an innocent person being wrongfully convicted, and you cannot 
reverse that".

Uganda upholds the death penalty for all capital offences. But of recent there 
has been a drive by parliament to amend for laws that reference the death 
penalty and replace them with life imprisonment with or without parole.

A bill was tabled in parliament seeking to amend and repeal mandatory death 
penalty provisions in the Anti-Terrorism Act 2002, The Penal Code Act chapter 
120 of the laws of Uganda, the Uganda People's Defence Forces Act 2005, and the 
Trial on Indictment Act chapter 23.

Uganda last put the death penalty to use in 1999 when 28 people were hanged in 
Luzira Prison. Whether the 1,548 wardens and wardresses will witness an 
execution under their wardenship remains to be seen.

The President also expressed his appreciation of the good work done by the 
prison services in agriculture and carpentry.

As a sign of his appreciation of the prisons service's carpentry works the 
president has directed all government departments and ministries to furnish 
their offices with carpentry works of the prison services.

On his part, the commissioner general of Uganda Prison Services said that more 
money needs to be invested in the prison services.

More than 35 billion shillings is needed construct decent houses for prison 
officers. The President has promised to ensure that this money is acquired. 
It's however his support of the death penalty that will raise eyebrows.

(source: ntv.co.ug)






INDONESIA:

Bau brothers charged with murder of Balai Ringin man


2 brothers from Bau were charged with causing the death of a Balai Ringin man 
in Kampung Jugan, Bau, in the magistrates' court here yesterday.

No plea was taken from Chong Fook Fatt, 42, and Fook Loi, 40, pending 
transmission to the High Court for trial hearing.

Fook Fatt was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code which provides for a 
mandatory death sentence for allegedly committing the offence on one Ching Siew 
Kong.

Meanwhile, Fook Loi was alleged to have abetted in the murder under Section 109 
of the Penal Code read together with Section 302 of the same code, which 
provides for the same penalty.

They allegedly committed the offence on June 21, this year, at around 2pm at 
Kampung Jugan in Bau.

Magistrate Zulhairil Sulaiman who presided over the case set Oct 7 for further 
mention.

Chin, 36 year, and his friend were travelling in a lorry from Serian to Kampung 
Jugan where they were said to have planned to purchase black pepper.

As they were driving into a pepper farm, the friend heard a shot and saw Chin 
collapsing in his seat with gunshot wounds on his head.

The victim was driven to Bau district hospital before being referred to the 
intensive care unit at Sarawak General Hospital here.

He however succumbed to his injuries without regaining consciousness at the 
hospital.

(source: The Borneo Post)



ST KITTS AND NEVIS:

Capital punishment to remains on books in St Kitts


St Kitts and Nevis has not carried out the death penalty since 2008, but the 
law remains on the books and the Government stands ready to carry out the 
decisions of the court, said Prime Minister Timothy Harris.

"We all are in favour in allowing the law to speak," Harris said at a recent 
town hall meeting in Sandy Point. His statement was prompted by a question from 
a member of the audience about the use of capital punishment, which the 
Constitution allows in cases of treason and murder.

"I have no objection to that. The Attorney General [Vincent Byron] has no 
objection to that. We must uphold the law," Harris stated.

The Prime Minister however said it was his wish that there was no need for the 
death penalty to be implemented. He added that society should discipline 
itself, particularly parents with their children as they raise youth to be 
positive citizens.

However, Harris, who is also the Minister of National Security, reaffirmed that 
his Government is guided by the rule of law and good governance, and that the 
Cabinet does support the law of the land with respect to capital punishment.

Charles LaPlace was the last person to be executed on order of the court. He 
was condemned for violently killing his wife with a knife.

(source: nationnews.com)






BAHAMAS:

Sears Would Uphold Death Penalty


Party Leader hopeful Alfred Sears says while he does not personally advocate 
for the death penalty since the law is already on the books, he would uphold it 
if he becomes the next prime minister.

Mr. Sears, while a guest on "Q&A" with host Quincy Parker on Guardian Radio, 
expressed the fact that he believes the current Prime Minister Perry Christie 
is not the reason why the death penalty has been enforced in recent years.

"I think we have to look at why the death penalty is not being enforced. It is 
not because of Mr. Christie, it is because of what we have - the Privy 
Council," he said.

Mr. Sears expressed that once a person is sentenced to die, they then have the 
right to appeal and and a constructional appeal. He expressed that all appeals 
must be exhausted before the state can carry out an execution.

"The Privy Council has a series of rulings one of which you cannot basically 
have an unspecified sentence of death, this is where you come to terms with the 
worst of the worst," he said.

Mr. Sears says if all appeals are met, yet turned down, he will uphold the law.

"When you accept a position, you have to carry out the law," the former 
attorney general said.

Mr. Sears went on to note the fact that the majority of people killed by the 
death penalty are black men.

"When I look at the reality of our system and when I look at the selective 
application of the law, I have very profound concerns, and I don't believe in 
state killings," he said.

It has been contested in the public forum that the death of 11-year-old Marco 
Archer was a case that should've invoked the death penalty.

Kofhe Goodman was sentenced to death for the murder of Marco Archer on October 
29th, 2013.

Justice Bernard Turner, when handing down sentence stated that is a "clear and 
compelling case for the ultimate sentence of death, to satisfy the requirements 
of due punishment for the murder of this child and to protect this society from 
any further predatory conduct by this convict at any time in the future."

During September 23 and September 28, 2011 Goodman killed young Archer.

Another recent example of the death sentence not being carried out was the 
infamous sentence of Maxo Tido, who is the convicted killer of16-year-old 
Donell Cornover.

In 2006, Senior Justice Anita Allen, who is now Court of Appeal President 
sentenced Tido to death.

Cornover was found dead with head injuries in May 2002. Her body was also set 
on fire.

The Privy Council quashed his death sentence in 2011. He was later sentenced to 
52 years.

(source: The Bahama Journal)






RUSSIA:

Death penalty in Russia: Can execution of terrorists be humane?


After the brutal murder of his daughter, Vladimir Dobrenkov, former dean of the 
Faculty of Sociology at the Moscow State University, Professor, has been 
actively supporting the lifting of the moratorium on death penalty in Russia. 
He wrote an open letter to President Putin and initiated "The people and the 
power about death penalty" events at the Moscow State University.

"The last death sentence in Russia was executed 20 years ago, on August 2, 
1996. What has changed since that time?"

"I firmly believe that Russia should reinstate death penalty. The current state 
of affairs in Russia and the world require the use of death penalty. When the 
Americans orchestrated the coup in Turkey, President Erdogan realized at once 
that one would have to reinstate death penalty in Turkey. If the coup had ben 
successful, Turkey would have seen a lot more victims. We have seen that in a 
number of countries.

"Putschists deserve death penalty just as murderers and perpetrators of other 
grave crimes. More than 80 % of Russians support death penalty for grave 
crimes. The people of the UK, Germany and France share similar views as well, 
as many studies show.

"England has tried to take the bill through the parliament three times, 
although to no avail, because liberals glorify humanity. What kind of humanity 
is it - not to execute criminals and terrorists? At the same time, those 
liberals send troops and planes to kill hundreds of thousands and even millions 
of innocent people. What's all this? This is pure paranoia.

"Murder, rape and other grave crimes should be punished strictly, by capital 
punishment. Laws should be tougher. I do not envy Europe - the European 
civilization is coming to an end. Europe will vanish from the map of the world 
in about ten years because of the policies of EU governments."

"Is there any chance for the moratorium on death penalty to be lifted in 
Russia?"

"The question of death penalty has always been actual. It requires a complex 
approach. At first, one needs to have a political will of the leadership. 
Everything depends on Putin, absolutely everything. Secondly, this is a 
political, rather than a legal issue. Yeltsin introduced the moratorium on 
death penalty in Russia because the Council of Europe was opposed to capital 
punishment. What does the Council of Europe have to do with Russia? Russia is a 
sovereign state, and no other state or any agency of a foreign state has a 
right to interfere in Russian internal affairs. Many countries can not do 
without tough laws. Lesser blood guarantees safety to people. Western 
policy-makers are liars and cynics - double standards and lies are everywhere.

"Liberals pretend to treasure human beings and human values, but what are they 
doing now in the Middle East? They have destroyed Libya,Yugoslavia, Iraq, and 
they continue torturing Syria. I support Putin's policies, Russia must be 
proactive, Russia must not allow other countries intimidate her. Terrorists 
must be killed, one should not judge them. Russia still has the issue of death 
penalty preserved in the Penal Code, the question only remains about the 
moratorium.

"Many countries remain under the influence of the USA. America dictates to them 
what to do, and they do it, like fools. Europe is too sick to struggle against 
it, and Russia is the only hope. Russia will save the world - this is her 
mission."

(source: Interviewed by Tatiana Traktina----pravdareport.com)