[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 14



ZAMBIA:

Abolish death penalty, says prisons deputy


Zambia Prisons Service deputy commissioner-general Lloyd Chilundika says the 
death penalty is inhuman and should be abolished.

Mr Chilundika told the Parliamentary committee on legal affairs, governance, 
human rights, gender matters and child affairs yesterday that taking of life 
can never be done humanely no matter the circumstances.

"The death penalty amounts to cruelty. It is my considered view that it be 
abolished and substituted with progressive types of punishments that should 
address that which death penalty has failed," he said.

Mr Chilundika, who was flanked by Zambia Prisons Service senior assistant 
commissioner in charge of research, planning and information and technology 
Chrispin Kaonga, said imprisonment alone is severe punishment enough.

"We are living in a dispensation of human rights and most countries in the 
Southern African Development Community have abolished the death penalty," he 
said.

Mr Chilundika said hanging is not done publicly contrary to views that death 
penalty serves as a deterrent to would-be offenders.

"Death may be calculated as punishment but what is punishment if it does not 
make one feel the pain and be remorseful to change for the better.

"Death is the end of one's life and therefore there is no lesson to the one 
that is punished with death sentence," Mr Chilundika said.

He said most times, people on death row reform by the time their execution 
period matures.

"The State is a rational being. We want to be a good State. We counsel these 
prisoners in the condemned section and by the time they are about to be 
executed, they are no longer the hardcore criminals they were," Mr Chilundika 
said.

He explained that every human being has the inherent right to life and no one 
should be arbitrarily deprived of life.

Meanwhile, Mr Chilundika has commended President Lungu for commuting to life 
imprisonment the sentences of prisoners on death row.

He said there were over 342 offenders waiting to be executed in cells meant for 
48 people.

(source: Daily Mail)






BELARUS:

Statement by the Spokesperson on a death sentence in Belarus


A death sentence was handed down last week to Mr Henadz Yakavitski by the Minsk 
Regional Court of the Republic of Belarus.

Mr Henadz Yakavitski's legal right to appeal should be fully guaranteed.

Mr Yakavitski was convicted of a serious crime and we extend our deepest 
sympathy to the family and friends of the victim.

Nevertheless, the European Union is opposed to capital punishment in all cases 
and without exception. We urge Belarus, the only country in Europe still 
applying capital punishment, to join a global moratorium on the death penalty 
as a 1st step towards its abolition. Commuting the sentences of persons 
sentenced to death and launching a public debate on the death penalty with 
Belarusian society would be an important move in this regard.

(source: diplomaticintelligence.eu)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Writers join worldwide action to protest Palestinian poet's death sentence in 
Saudi Arabia ---- Hundreds of writers in 44 countries take part in coordinated 
readings to support Ashraf Fayadh, condemned to death for allegedly promoting 
atheism


Hundreds of writers including Irvine Welsh, Ruth Padel and AL Kennedy are 
taking part in a worldwide reading in support of the Palestinian poet Ashraf 
Fayadh, who has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia after being accused of 
renouncing Islam.

The readings of Fayadh's poetry at 122 events in 44 countries on Thursday are 
part of a campaign organised by the International literature festival Berlin 
calling on the UK and US governments to halt his beheading and to put pressure 
on Saudi Arabia to improve its human rights record.

The action comes ahead of a panel of judges considering Fayadh's appeal next 
week, where it will be contested that the poet???s conviction for apostasy is 
seriously flawed and based on false and uncorroborated allegations.

Poems being read at the worldwide event include a selection from Fayadh's 2008 
book, Instructions Within, which his accuser claimed promoted atheism, a charge 
the poet has denied.

AL Kennedy, who is participating in a reading organised by PEN England at the 
Mosaic Rooms in west London, said Fayadh's persecution was "very obviously 
unjust and morally repellent".

Calling on the Saudi authorities to show mercy and wisdom, the novelist also 
offered the poet her "admiration for his courage and his devotion to truth and 
justice" and hoped that the international show of solidarity would "provide a 
measure of comfort in what must be a horrifying situation".

Irvine Welsh, who will read at the Two Hearted Queen coffee shop in Chicago, 
said he hoped the campaign would put "pressure on governments who espouse 
democracy and freedom to consider their actions in dealing with [Saudi 
Arabia]".

The Trainspotting author added: "I have distaste for all clerical regimes. I 
believe that people should be free to practice and renounce any religion they 
see fit. If you believe in human rights and are anti-fundamentalist terrorism, 
then isolate the regime in Saudi Arabia. Otherwise, you are guilty by 
association."

Earlier this month, organisers of the Berlin festival sent a letter, signed by 
350 writers' associations and authors, including Nobel laureates Orhan Pamuk 
and Mario Vargas Llosa, to Barack Obama, David Cameron and the German foreign 
ministry calling on them to intervene in the imprisoned poet's case.

The letter also demanded that the United Nations suspend Saudi Arabia from its 
Human Rights Council until the country's "abysmal record on upholding civil 
liberties improves".

British author Priya Basil, who co-wrote the letter, said Fayadh's poem Frida 
Kahlo's Moustache would be read at the Berlin event because "it's addressed to 
a lost love but if you read it now ... it's an elegy to a lost life".

She added that this illustrated how "his poetry can't be condemned because it 
can be read so many different ways".

Fayadh was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian refugee parents, and under Saudi 
law is classed as a refugee himself, without Saudi citizenship. He co-curated a 
Saudi art show at the 2013 Venice Biennale, and has been in prison since 
January 2014 after a man accused him of making blasphemous remarks during an 
argument in a cafe in the conservative city and for renouncing Islam in 
Instructions Within, charges Fayadh denies. He was originally sentenced to 4 
years in prison and 800 lashes for apostasy by the general court in Abha, a 
city in the south-west of the ultraconservative kingdom, in May 2014.

After his appeal was dismissed, Fayadh was retried and in November 2015, a new 
panel of judges ruled that he should be executed. His father died of a stroke 
after hearing of his death sentence, but the poet was not allowed to attend the 
funeral.

British Palestinian author Selma Dabbagh, who is also reading at the Mosaic 
Rooms, said she hoped the campaign would "raise the profile of a man and his 
work, who is at risk of losing his life due to what appears to be ... a 
personal vendetta against him". It was remarkable that Fayadh, as a Palestinian 
refugee in a small town, had achieved so much in terms of promoting Saudi art 
internationally and writing his own work, she added. "If Saudi nationality laws 
were different ... Fayadh would be an exemplary citizen [of Saudi Arabia]" she 
said.

Last month, UN human rights experts called on the Saudi authorities to halt 
Fayadh's execution, which they condemned as a grave violation of artistic 
freedom of expression.

(source: The Guardian)






IRAN:

'Iran would've handed Al-Nimr death 7 times'


Despite Iran's criticism of Saudi Arabia's judiciary, its own courts would have 
given Nimr Al-Nimr 7 death sentences for the same charges, according to a legal 
expert.

Lawyer Ahmed Al-Jamaan Al-Malki told a local publication that Al-Nimr, 1 of the 
men executed in the Kingdom recently for terrorism, would have received 2 death 
sentences for 2 charges.

This would be for calling for the government's overthrow and allegiance to 
Wilayat Al-Faqih (Rule of the Jurist). According to Iranian Criminal Law 
endorsed in 1992 these are seen as treasonous acts.

He said that Article 504 of Iranian Civil Law regards these as acts of 
aggression. For these and other charges there would be an additional 5 death 
penalties. Al-Nimr had confessed to all these violations, he said.

"When he waived his rights to be prosecuted by a civil court, he would have 
been referred in accordance with Articles 183, 185 and 504 of Iranian Criminal 
Law to the Military Revolutionary Court established in 1979 by Ayatollah 
Khomeini."

If he had done so, he would have lost many rights, including to have his case 
heard in public and access to a lawyer. "According to the Iranian justice 
system, Al-Nimr deserves 7 death sentences in the country's military and 
revolutionary courts," he said.

(source: The Guardian)






ZIMBABWE:

Death row inmates in Zimbabwe ask for life sentences instead


Inmates who have spent years on death row in Zimbabwe's prisons approached the 
country's highest court on Wednesday in a bid to have their sentences commuted 
to life imprisonment.

Zimbabwe's Constitutional Court heard the accounts of 15 inmates, some of whom 
have been waiting to be executed for 18 years.

"Because of the torture we have been subjected to whilst waiting for a long 
time on death row, it will be unconstitutional to execute us," Cuthbert 
Chawira, a murder convict on death row for 15 years, said in an affidavit 
submitted in court. Prison guards regularly taunt inmates about their imminent 
executions, he said.

Vice President and Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is in charge of 
authorizing executions, refuses to sign any execution orders for Zimbabwe's 
nearly 100 death row inmates due to his personal objections to the death 
penalty. While Zimbabwean law allows capital punishment, no one has been 
executed in the county since 2005 because there was no qualified executioner 
until 2013. The death penalty is only handed down to men convicted of murder.

The inmates' lawyer, Tendai Biti, described Zimbabwe's harsh prison conditions, 
saying they only added to his clients' woes.

"There are no newspapers or tissues in these toilets and sometimes prisoners 
resort to using the Bible as toilet roll," Biti told the court. "The prisons 
are cold and lifeless."

Rights group Amnesty International has urged the southern African country to do 
away with the death penalty completely.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Abolish Death Penalty, Urges Biti's PDP As Prisoners Wait 20 Years for Hangman


The opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) has urged government to consider 
an abolition of capital punishment as it breaches the country's constitution.

In a statement Wednesday, the PDP's deputy secretary general Tongai Matutu said 
it is inhumane for death-row inmates to await their fate for as long as two 
decades.

"The PDP calls for the immediate abolition of the death penalty in the country 
as it is totally inhumane, degrading and against the international best 
practices," he said.

"Capital punishment is in breach of the country's Constitution, which 
guarantees and protects the right to life for every citizen.

"As PDP, our call comes when they are 117 convicted inmates on the death row in 
Zimbabwe who are facing death and are reported to be being subjected to 
physical and psychological torture."

He was referring to media reports that 17 death-row inmates have taken 
government to court demanding that capital punishment be removed from the 
country's statutes and a review of their sentences.

Zimbabwe adopted a new constitution in 2012 in which the death penalty is 
qualified and can now be administered to women and people above 70 years old or 
on a convict who would have committed the crime before they turned 21.

Matutu said some of these condemned prisoners have been "waiting for the 
hangman for between three and 21 years living under squalor at Harare Central 
Prison or Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison where they are kept in solitary 
confinement for 23 hours every day".

"They are living a life without hope, alienation and vilification and the 
prison for them has become a prison within a prison. Some of these condemned 
prisoners have gone insane or are terminally ill," the former Masvingo Urban 
lawmaker said.

"As the PDP we are fully behind the constitutional challenge that has been 
brought to the Constitutional Court by 17 prisoners who are on death row 
seeking review of their sentences and that they are allowed to go for retrial.

"It is within their constitutional mandate to approach the Constitutional Court 
as any aggrieved person has a right to approach the courts."

"However, as PDP we are aware of the heinous crimes that prisoners facing 
murder charges would have committed but the act of hanging an accused person is 
barbaric and outdated and Zimbabwe should follow international standards and 
the solution is to abolish the death penalty."

The PDP, whose leader Tendai Biti is legal representative for two human rights 
activists seeking a Constitutional Court order to compel President Robert 
Mugabe to set up an independent complaints mechanism to investigate military 
excesses, said it supported the challenge.

"Zimbabwe's security forces have a dark history when it comes to violations of 
citizens' rights and various case have been recorded such as the Gukurahundi 
massacres in southern Zimbabwe soon after independence ...

" ... the murder of student activist Batanai Hadzidzi, the slaughter of 
hundreds of opposition activists like Tonderai Ndira and others, the abduction 
and torture of human rights defender Jestina Mukoko and the general heavy 
handedness of the police is crushing peaceful demonstrations which has become a 
norm in this country," the party said.

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is on record as saying capital punishment 
will not be implemented under his watch. Mnangagwa who survived the hangman's 
noose during the Rhodesian era doubles up as Justice Minister.

(source: All Africa News)