[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 9



PAKISTAN:

Plight of mentally ill inmates on death row discussed


Earlier this year many gaped in horror as the Supreme Court ruled that 
"schizophrenia is not a mental illness" and could be cured. The judgement came 
after the top court rejected the plea of Imdad Ali, a schizophrenic convicted 
of murder in 2001.

To discuss this case - because many more are to follow since the state lifted 
the moratorium on the death penalty last year - a talk titled 'The Imdad Ali 
Case and Emergent Conversations vis-a-vis Capital Punishment' was held at the 
office of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Thursday.

Story of Imdad Ali

Sarah Belal, who heads the Justice Project Pakistan and is also handling Ali's 
case in court, said Ali had spent almost 14 years on death row since his 
conviction. But it was revealed in 2012 that he was schizophrenic, and since 
then his condition has not improved, rather he had to be shifted to a hospital 
the same year for treatment. Recent reports claimed that he displayed psychotic 
symptoms and his case was later dubbed as "treatment-resistant".

Sarah said Ali's case raised an alarm when, despite efforts from multiple 
bodies, his final appeal was dismissed by the court a few months ago because 
the court rejected the fact that schizophrenia is a mental illness. Following 
an uproar, the court ordered a medical board to investigate so the court could 
ascertain if it would be inappropriate to hang Ali.

She pointed out that previous findings of Ali's case could not be found, but 
the prosecutor general was able to trace it from Multan, proving that he was 
indeed ill. "Despite all this, we need to realise that these are not isolated 
cases, rather there are many prisoners on death row who have shown similar 
symptoms, yet no one is paying attention to them. In many cases the prison 
authorities prefer sending such inmates to solitary confinement instead of 
institutions that would help them recover."

She lamented that many times the mental condition of the convict is not stated 
during the trial, but that does not take away the right to clarify it later, 
which is seldom the case in Pakistan because it is used to build a strong case 
against the defendant. "Schizophrenia's symptoms appear ... after a person 
turns 20 or 30, but it is also to be noted that all inmates are not lucky 
enough to be diagnosed when they end up in jail. Just last year, Muneer Hussain 
was hanged even though he was mentally unstable."

Shumaila Khan, a correspondent for BBC Urdu, who worked on Ali's case, said the 
convict's wife was quite determined to fight his case and had mentioned that he 
was unwell since the beginning. "She said he would often be disillusioned and 
think of himself as some sort of a king who had a huge army. While she doesn't 
want him to be released owing to his crime, she doesn't want him to be hanged 
either."

On the other hand, Pakistan Association for Mental Health President Dr Haroon 
Ahmed felt that lawyers were unaware if a person was fit for trial or even 
stable enough to testify.

The numbers game

On the number of inmates with psychological disorders, Sarah said a separate 
log for such people did not exist but there was a hand-written register that 
could help collect the information. "All of the prisoners are not examined so 
one can't be sure of their number, but the state should play its role in making 
the data accessible for organisations interested in helping out."

Representing the Legal Aid Office, Barrister Haya Eeman Zahid said the main 
checkpoints of the criminal justice system needed to evolve to facilitate 
people who come across it. "Our prisons have become dumping grounds for the 
mentally ill, and it appears that we haven't done away with the approach of 
colonial times when IG Prison was supposed to look after a mental institution."

She said 80,000 prisoners were being kept in the 96 prisons in Sindh, and at 
least 6,000 inmates were kept in the central prison, which could house only 
3,000. "The prisoners are visited by a team of doctors every week, and out of 
12 there is just 1 psychiatrist ... of 6,000 only 14 [inmates] are mentally 
ill, which is not quite believable because a person is 2 to 4 times more likely 
to develop such conditions in prison."

Is rehabilitation possible?

Referring to the Sindh Mental Health Act 2013, Haya said a mental health 
authority and a visiting board were yet to be constituted. "We need to ensure 
that once such people are out, they are able to be rehabilitated in society ... 
We still need to ask ourselves whether we are willing to let them in or not."

Regarding the lifting of moratorium on the death penalty, veteran journalist Dr 
IA Rehman, who also heads the HRCP, said the state needed to be reminded that 
the act was irreversible. "Just recently, a case surfaced when 2 brothers were 
acquitted [of] murder charges when they had been hanged in 2015. We need to be 
cautious and ask the right questions, especially pertaining to mental health of 
inmates, because do such people even qualify to stand a fair trial?"

(source: The News)

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

Babar urges review of death penalty


Pakistan People's Party Senator Farhatullah Babar yesterday asked political 
parties to agree on a minimum charter of human rights in 2016 just as the 
'Charter of Democracy' was agreed to a decade back in 2006.

Addressing a seminar on human rights in the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary 
Services in Islamabad organized by the Young Parliamentarians forum - a group 
of over 80 cross party and young parliamentarians on the human rights 
challenges and the way forward ??? he said, the absence of democracy in 
political parties diminishes their ability to establish democratic governance 
that was crucial to upholding human rights.

"To begin with the national political charter should be focused, along with the 
right to life, liberty and security, four basic freedoms: namely freedom of 
expression, freedom of information, right to assembly and the right to 
association," he added.

He added, "Topped by the freedom of expression, these freedoms are critical to 
citizens to record their concerns, voice their aspirations and offer 
alternatives to national issues, he said and lamented that these freedoms are 
under constant threat."

Behind the facade of loosely defined 'national security' these rights have 
consistently been ignored and denied, he said and urged the political parties 
to work for balancing the national security interests with public interests. In 
order to credibly advance human rights' agendas nationwide, the political 
parties will also have to reform themselves, he said.

He urged the cross party young parliamentarians to join hands for this purpose. 
He asked the political parties to form human rights cells to keep an eye on the 
human rights situation the country adding that the PPP had already set up such 
cells. He said that the frontiers of human rights were expanding; what was a 
privilege yesterday has become a right today.

"Education was a privilege in the past. Now it is a fundamental right. Freedom 
of information was a luxury in the past it is now a fundamental right," he 
said.

He said gender equality and women empowerment were a taboo in the past; "Today 
they are in the forefront of human rights. Indeed human rights transcend 
national boundaries and prevail over the state and are irreversible."

He called upon the young members of the national Assembly to get anti-torture 
bill passed from the national assembly the was already passed unanimously by 
the senate and transmitted to the National Assembly in January 2015 as a human 
rights gift to the nation.

He also called for the implementation of the report of senate committee on 
addressing the issue of enforced disappearances. Babar stressed the need for 
reviewing death penalty because of possibility of wrong convictions and its 
irreversibility and quoted the recent example of two convict having been hanged 
even before their conviction had been set aside by the Supreme Court and 
ordered free. "There are 27 offences that carry death penalty in Pakistan and 
asked whether Islam provides death penalty for 27 offences? We should ensure 
that after the sunset clause the military courts are disbanded," he said. 
Ordinary criminals, instead of black jet terrorists as promised at the time, 
have also been hanged, he said.

Regarding the missing persons, he called for ending the impunity with which 
some organizations still work and to bring the state agencies under the ambit 
of the law, the lawmaker said.

(source: The Nation)






PHILIPPINES:

Hontiveros says death penalty plus lower age of criminal liability will lead to 
'death row kids'


Senator Risa Hontiveros on Thurs released a statement expressing her alarm over 
the simultaneous efforts to reinstate the death penalty and lower the age of 
criminal liability.

The Akbayan Senator said that the "deadly combination" will "condemn Filipino 
children to a dark and sinister future in which they will become death row 
kids."

Hontiveros added that there is no empirical proof the death penalty will help 
reduce crime. She also pointed out that the consolidated death penalty bill 
goes against the government's supposed rehabilitation and reformation programs 
for convicted drug users and criminals.

"What is therefore the point of building a mega-drug rehabilitation center in 
Nueva Ecija if the government wants all the drug addicts killed anyway?" the 
senator asked.

Death penalty bill is now slated for plenary debates after the House justice 
committee on Wed approved the consolidated bill. The mode of capital punishment 
could either be through hanging, by firing squad or lethal injection.

The senator also drew attention to reports that the House Committee on Justice 
Subcommittee on Correctional Reforms has already conducted hearings on the 
bills seeking to lower the age of criminal liability.

"Putting children aged 9, who are not psychologically developed enough to 
understand the nature of crimes, in prison will merely turn them into hardened 
criminals. It will only stigmatize them and trigger repeat offense. What they 
need is to recover their sense of dignity and self-worth through rehabilitation 
and education programs under a fully-implemented Juvenile Justice Law," 
Hontiveros said.

(source: coconuts.co)

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

'Frustration' over rising crimes to blame for death penalty calls: Amnesty 
Int'l


The public's "frustration" over the rising number of crimes in the country has 
led to an appreciation of short-cut solutions such as the death penalty, a 
human rights group said.

Amnesty International (AI) Philippines Chairperson Ritz Lee III said Filipinos 
have been experiencing feelings of "frustration and dismay" over the rise of 
crime incidents, from petty crimes to heinous crimes, which makes them think 
that reviving the death penalty is the best solution.

"They tend to appreciate these shortcut solutions because there is a lack of 
understanding, appreciation on what human rights, human dignity is all about," 
he said in an interview on "Mornings @ ANC."

On Wednesday, the justice committee of the House of Representatives voted 
12-6-1 approving a committee report on the consolidated bill for the 
reimposition of death penalty.

According to Santos, research shows that there is no guarantee that death 
penalty will deter crimes, and it may even lead to an increase in criminal 
incidents.

He said if the public is educated well enough on the concepts of human rights, 
they can make informed choices on what is right and what is wrong.

"We believe if the public is educated on the basics, even the concepts of human 
rights, they will appreciate that due process is very important. Some human 
rights cannot be taken away regardless of the situation," he said.

On Thursday, the human rights watchdog presented an 11-point legislative agenda 
making the case against the death penalty which includes a call to address 
extra-judicial killings in the country.

Even though there is no proof of state-sponsored killings, Santos said 
President Rodrigo Duterte should take command responsibility for the thousands 
of alleged extra-judicial killings since the deaths are happening under his 
term.

"We are not saying that he (Duterte) actually gave an order to kill drug 
pushers and drug addicts but we also have the command responsibility principle. 
It is happening during his term right now so we are hoping, expecting, that he 
gives a statement against condoning these killings," he said.

He also urged the President to create an independent investigative group to 
look into the thousands of extrajudicial killings which the group claims is 
more than the total number of killings during the decade-long martial law 
period.

"It seems that we are having breakfast on the dead bodies that we are seeing 
everyday," he said

(source: abs-cbn.com)






LEBANON:

Judge calls for death penalty of 2 Syrians over grisly murder of Kuwaitis


Investigate Judge Rami Abdullah Thursday called for the death penalty of two 
Syrians accused of the cold-blooded murder of 2 Kuwaiti nationals earlier this 
year.

Ammar al-Ahmad and his compatriot Samir Mustafa were accused of bludgeoning 
Kuwaiti citizens Hussein Nassar and Nabil al-Gharib to death with an iron 
hammer inside their Mount Lebanon residence in Baabda on March 10.

After recommending the death penalty, the Baabda judge transferred the case to 
the Criminal Court of Baabda for their prosecution.

The 2 were charged with purposefully collaborating and premeditated murder.

According to the indictment, Ahmad was employed as custodian at the property 
purchased in Araya by the 2 Kuwaitis, which is known as "Al-Amer" restaurant. 
The purchase was completed in 2015 and, at the time, the restaurant was not in 
business because of needed maintenance and restoration.

46-year-old Ahmad, his wife Lina and her daughter from a different man, Rasha, 
and Lina's sister Mayda lived in the residence, according to the indictment. 
The Kuwaitis decided to employ Ahmad because of his past experience in 
construction while he and his wife were custodians at the property. They 
intended to renovate the restaurant at a later time.

The 2 Kuwaitis, Nassar and Gharib, would routinely travel to Lebanon in order 
to check on the property. During their visits, Rasha and Mayda would often go 
out with Nassar and Gharib and spend time together separately in their rooms, 
the indictment said. The latter would often give the females financial support, 
investigations showed.

Problems initially began when Ahmad took advantage of the Kuwaitis and borrowed 
$3,000 dollars from Nassar and when Nassar asked to be paid back, Ahmad claimed 
he was unable to due to his financial situation.

At this point, the indictment alleges, Ahmad contacted 44-year-old Mustafa for 
advice and he recommended killing both the Kuwaitis. Mustafa also recommended 
robbing the victims in order to profit from the plan.

After Mustafa convinced Ahmad, the 2 gathered in Ahmad's room to carry out the 
plan; however, Gharib was awake late.

The next day, the 2 suspects met again and waited for the Kuwaiti nationals to 
return home after a night out with Rasha and Mayda at Jounieh's Maameltein 
area. Maameltein is located north of Beirut and notoriously known for 
prostitution in what is commonly referred to as Lebanon's red light district.

Once the couples returned to Araya, the suspects waited for the Kuwaitis to 
fall asleep then proceeded with their plan to murder them.

The 2 Syrians entered Gharib's room first, the indictment says. Ahmad struck 
Gharib with an iron hammer on the head 3 times and left to Nassar's room. The 2 
struck Nassar multiple times on the head, killing him on the spot.

Ahmad went back into the 1st room and was treating Gharib, when Mustafa entered 
the room and dealt Gharib the final blow to his head, killing him.

The criminals proceeded to steal a watch, 2 mobile phones and $350 dollars and 
toss the rest of the victims' identifications into a water tank on the roof.

Mustafa left the scene and Ahmad returned to his room and prepared tea, waiting 
to bury the victims the following day in the yard.

Ahmad prepared to bury the bodies by digging a grave a day prior to the crime, 
according to the indictment. But when the victims' friends and relatives 
reported their disappearance, Internal Security Forces hunted down the 2 
suspects. Ahmad was arrested and his compatriot was later arrested as well.

Ahmad immediately admitted to committing the crime with Mustafa. The latter 
said he helped Ahmad, but claimed that Ahmad convinced him of killing the 2 
Kuwaitis.

Ahmad's wife, Lina, admitted during interrogations that she accidentally 
briefly woke up at 5 a.m. on the day of the murder, but did not find her 
husband and his mobile phone was on the balcony. After waking up a 2nd time, 
Lina went to the kitchen and the teapot was still warm.

According to the indictment, Lina said that when she told her husband that 
Nassar's wife called asking about his whereabouts, he had a worried look on his 
face.

When Lina told Ahmad that she recommended that Nassar's wife call the police, 
Ahmad was not pleased and began to beat her.

(source: The Daily Star)