[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwidey

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 17



PHILIPPINES:

Death for foreign drug traffickers - lawmaker


The death penalty for foreigner drug traffickers in the country has been 
proposed in the House of Representatives.

Senatorial candidate Samuel Pagdilao, also ACT-CIS party-list congressman, made 
the proposal, citing cases of Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking in China, 
Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, among other countries, who face capital punishment 
while foreigners do not get the same harsh punishment when they commit such 
crime within Philippine territory.

"The death penalty, which was abolished in 2006, should be reinstated for 
foreigners who smuggle or trade illegal drugs in our country. The principle of 
reciprocity should apply," Pagdilao, a former Philippine National Police 
general and director of the Criminal and Investigation and Detection Group, 
said.

The life of Filipino Mary Jane Veloso was spared by Indonesian officials at the 
last minute before her scheduled execution last April 29, 2015 for her drug 
trafficking conviction in 2010.

Veloso, who initially applied for a job as a household service worker in 
Malaysia, was nabbed in Indonesia's Yogyakarta airport in 2010 for bringing in 
2.6 kilos of heroin sewn in the lining of her suitcase by her recruiter without 
her knowledge.

She said she accepted the suitcase as a gift because she did not have one.

"Many Filipinos sentenced to capital punishment abroad were only victims of 
poverty and of false accusations," Pagdilao said.

A 2014 report of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said 67 out of 13,792 
drug traffickers caught were foreigners, mostly from China.

Last Wednesday, the National Capital Region Police Office Regional Anti-Illegal 
Drug Special Operations Task Group arrested 2 Chinese in Quezon City for 
smuggling 30 kilos of shabu worth P150 million.

: This happened a day after P180 million worth of shabu was also confiscated 
from 2 other Chinese in a storage facility in Valenzuela City, Metro Manila.

"It is high time that the problem of drug trafficking be curbed through 
penalties that will deter the continued incidences of drug abuse, especially 
among the Filipino youth," Pagdilao, also a lawyer, said.

(source: The Manila Times)






BANGLADESH:

Sayedee files review petition


War criminal Delwar Hossain Sayedee has filed a plea seeking review of the 
Supreme Court verdict that awarded him imprisonment till death.

Sayedee's lawyer Khandakar Mahbub Hossain said they filed the 90-page plea on 
Sunday morning, seeking acquittal of the Jamaat leader on 16 grounds.

Earlier on January 12, the state filed a review petition with the apex court 
against its judgement that reduced the death penalty of the notorious war 
criminal.

Sayedee, known as "Deilya Razakar" in 1971, was given the death penalty on 
February 28, 2013 after the war crimes tribunal found him guilty of committing 
crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.

He was sentenced to death for killing Ibrahim Kutti and one Bisa Bali in 
Pirojpur. The tribunal did not deliver sentence on the 6 other proven charges.

The Jamaat-e-Islami leader appealed against the tribunal verdict seeking 
acquittal while the state pleaded for sentence on the 6 other proven charges.

On September 17, 2014, the Appellate Division's 5-member bench headed by the 
then Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain delivered its short verdict based on 
majority judgement.

The full verdict was published on December 31 last year. According to the 
rules, a review petition has to be filed within 15 days after the full verdict 
is published.

. (source: dhakatribune.com)






PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

Tkatchenko Calls for Death Penalty on Kokoda Rape Suspects


Just a few hours after officially assuming his role as Tourism Minister Justin 
Tkatchenko firmly suggested the application of the country's death penalty on 
the perpetrators of the Kokoda Track rape.

"As far as I'm concerned, if I had it my way, I would castrate these criminals 
that raped this innocent woman, castrated - they don't deserve to live. In my 
personal opinion, we have the death penalty and we should use it," said 
Minister Tkatchenko.

2 prime male suspects allegedly involved in the rape of an American woman on 
Monday, along PNG's prime tourist hotspot, have been apprehended by police and 
will be flown into Port Moresby for further interrogation.

A 3rd male suspect, engaged to assist both tourists in their journey, fled the 
scene, leaving them at the mercy of the attackers who were allegedly armed with 
bush knives and a spear.

This was confirmed by Provincial Police Commander, Laimo Asi.

The American and her companion, a British male, were trekking through Efogi 
Village, along the Track around 8am on Monday, when they were allegedly stopped 
and attacked by 2 local men.

The British male was allegedly stripped of his clothes then blindfolded and 
tied to a tree while his partner was repeatedly raped for 2 hours, just meters 
away.

"So far, with the assistance of the community in Efogi and Maraba, 3 suspects 
have been arrested - one of the suspect is in possession of all the victims 
belongings, including their phones.

The suspects were flown to Port Moresby, arrested and charged. Now they are 
behind bars at Boroko Police cell.

(source: onepng.com)






UNITED KINGDOM/PAKISTAN:

British aid helps Pakistan to put drug traffickers to death ---- Government 
made 5.6m pounds donation to counter-narcotics operations in Pakistan despite 
capital convictions


The UK taxpayer has given millions of pounds to help Pakistan's 
counter-narcotics force target and arrest drug traffickers, at least five of 
whom have been sentenced to death.

The revelation has raised questions about the UK's commitment to opposing the 
death penalty in other countries. Last year Sir Simon McDonald, permanent 
under-secretary at the Foreign Office, said that human rights no longer had the 
profile within his department that they had in the past.

The UK's 5.6m pounds donation was made to Pakistan's anti-narcotics force, 
through a 5-year UN Office on Drugs and Crime project, despite the fact that 
the Pakistan government insisted donors could not demand that it be linked to 
human rights considerations. A UNODC valuation of the programme, published in 
April 2014, observed that: "UNODC was strongly advised by the GOP [government 
of Pakistan] to exclude [human rights] considerations from the CP [country 
programme] design and to advance with an oblique approach, where human rights 
issues would be addressed indirectly through training and improving criminal 
justice results [prosecutions based on evidence not interrogation] but not 
explicitly mentioned."

The project paid for the acquisition of surveillance vehicles, drug-testing 
kits and the construction of border control posts, places where drug carriers 
are frequently arrested, according to human rights groups. It was assessed 
according to key performance indicators - notably the number of arrests and 
successful prosecutions carried out by the ANF.

Human rights groups claim the targets encourage capital convictions because 
drug seizures of more than a kilogramme are punishable by death in Pakistan, 
which last year executed more than 300 people, overtaking Saudi Arabia to 
become the world's 3rd most prolific executing state. In its annual report 
filed last year, the ANF boasted that it was achieving the sort of results 
demanded by the UNODC. It noted that it had a successful prosecution rate of 
89% "which includes 5 death penalties".

"It is a scandal that the government is using public money to support raids 
that send people to death row," said Maya Foa, director of Reprieve's death 
penalty team. "Pakistan's anti-narcotics force aggressively pursues death 
sentences for people convicted of non-violent drug offences in deeply flawed 
drug courts."

The UK funding of the United Nations project project began when Pakistan was 
holding a moratorium on the death penalty. "We are not aware of any executions 
in Pakistan as a result of UK counter-narcotics co-operation," a Foreign Office 
spokeswoman said. "The UK and Pakistan have a shared interest in working to 
tackle organised crime including the trafficking of drugs, which is a threat to 
both our societies."

But even after the moratorium was lifted the UK continued to run 
counter-narcotics training operations in Pakistan. In November 2015, Border 
Agency staff were helping to train staff at Karachi airport to detect drug 
smugglers as part of a programme that is to be rolled out toother airports 
including Lahore and Islamabad.

The UNODC is now seeking donors for a new counter-narcotics programme in 
Pakistan that will run from 2016 to 2019 and aims to increase "interdiction, 
investigations and prosecution of drug traffickers". It remains unclear as to 
whether the UK will commit to the programme. The government discontinued 
funding counter-narcotics programmes in Iran amid concerns about the country's 
use of the death penalty.

The Foreign Office insists that all government departments must adhere to clear 
guidance when deciding on funding programmes abroad that have human rights 
implications. But Foa said this does not go far enough. "The UK must freeze all 
funding for law enforcement-led narcotics operations in states which retain the 
death penalty for drug offences - whether that's Pakistan, Iran or Saudi 
Arabia."

(source: The Guardian)



ZIMBABWE:

We've no right to play God


Zimbabwe's last hangman - some say he was of Malawian origin while others say 
he was a former Zambian police officer - retired after carrying out his last 
job on the 2 notorious murderers, Admore Edward Edmund Masendeke and Stephen 
Chidhumo over 10 years ago.

At the time of his departure, the executioner was said to be struggling with 
his conscience. The man was reported to be always extremely remorseful about 
his job.

His workplace was inside Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and the gallows, 
built long before independence, are said to be made of scaffolding and wood.

chikurubi-maximum-prison

Work for the hangman has no routine. One day he would execute between 2 and 4 
prisoners at dawn then go for months before other hangings are carried out.

A brief look at the qualification requirements for the eccentric job of killing 
people will tell you the profession, if one would call it such, demands a few 
but curious skills.

The job requires basic education, perhaps anything above Grade 7 - but a bit 
more training seems in order since execution by hanging involves knowledge of 
ropes, knots, basic mechanics, body weight and general human physiology.

The hangman's job is reserved only for men. According to experts, the job 
demands strength and unwavering focus. It is not for the faint-hearted. A 
hangman cannot have second thoughts just before he pulls the lever.

If a hangman is found, jail officials will teach him how to tie the noose and 
train him to maintain the correct posture while executing as this is vital. But 
it appears the toughest part of the job is not about ropes and levers. It is 
about conscience.

"A hangman should never have second thoughts, if he does he should be retired," 
a former principal prison officer said.

The most evil aspect of the death penalty is the painful reality of one "dying" 
several times over before they actually die.

Last week 14 prisoners that have been sentenced to death, challenged the 
legality of their pending executions, citing the fact that the present legal 
framework does not allow anyone to be hanged and also on the grounds that their 
lengthy stay in prison awaiting the noose was punishment enough to warrant 
commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment.

There are 117 people waiting to be killed by hanging in Zimbabwe at the present 
moment and no one has been hanged since Masendeke and Chidhumo were hanged in 
2005.

The condemned prisoners' constitutional argument appears to hold a lot of water 
on the grounds that Zimbabwe does not have an Act of Parliament stipulating how 
capital punishment may be implemented in terms of the new constitution.

In other words, the law that is expected to permit the death penalty in the new 
constitution has not yet been passed by Parliament - Therefore, it will be 
unlawful to punish anybody by killing them or to put anybody on death row under 
the present laws of the country.

The other argument that some of the prisoners have waited to be killed for up 
to 20 years and, therefore, feel they have taken part of the death penalty 
already, also sounds reasonable.

Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who himself experienced life on death row, 
has publicly condemned the practice of revenging death by death and has openly 
vowed he will never, as Justice minister - which he still is - sign the death 
warrants as is required by law before anybody can be hanged.

Yes, condemned murderers have taken innocent lives, often brutally, 
senselessly, callously and without any justification whatsoever and therefore, 
would seem to deserve no mercy. However, a relook at the meaning of deliberate, 
sober and conscious decision to avenge death by death and the conditions that 
the condemned must face the so-called justice should give us second thoughts.

The prisoners must sit in the solitary confinement of their cells for years, 
waking up every morning and expecting to be dragged to the gallows. In my view, 
a human being does not deserve to be subjected to this mental torture on a 
daily basis for over 20 years - it does not matter that they committed the most 
heinous crime of taking another person's life.

This is why I agree with agitations from various quarters for the abolition of 
capital punishment for the many humane reasons proffered. I find it reasonable 
that while this battle for and against the death sentence continues, society 
must have a position on the fate of those awaiting the noose.

The absence of an executioner is a mixed blessing for the condemned but it is 
also an agonising and indefinite wait on death row in a jail dubbed a "gulag" 
because of its inhumane conditions.

Chikurubi maximum Security prison is notorious for its grimy, icy and 
overcrowded cells infested with lice, maggots and rats.

An inmate on death row, Shepherd Mazango, made an emotional plea to the Supreme 
Court in 2010 in his appeal against his death sentence.

He wrote in his court deposition on March 30 2010: "God knows when I am going 
to be executed. I am anxious about this every day."

"The very thought that I am dying steals all my hope for the future, makes me 
restless and the delay traumatises me. It causes me emotional and psychological 
trauma. Worse still, to think that I can spend 13 years before execution, like 
my colleague George Manyonga, crushes me."

Several prisoners on death row have had their sentences commuted to life 
imprisonment after the Supreme Court ruled it inhumane to delay their 
execution.

Justice minister, Mnangagwa echoed the same sentiments, saying death row was a 
harrowing experience.

"My views on the death penalty are, to a large extent, informed by the 
harrowing experiences I went through while on death row, the sanctity of life 
and the need to rehabilitate offenders," Mnangagwa said, referring to the 
pre-independence horrors he experienced while on death row, from which he was 
saved by an age technicality.

Apparently, Mnangagwa has gained some ground and, by his word, Cabinet is now 
divided over the issue.

Former High Court judge Justice Simpson Mutambanengwe, who has in his career 
sentenced convicts to death, has also come out clear about what he thinks about 
the death penalty.

He wishes it were abolished and says many judges feel the same, but are forced 
by law to sentence convicts to death. He said judges go to great length to find 
extenuating circumstances in a bid to avoid reaching the capital sentence 
verdict.

"We take an oath to do justice according to the law. As a judge, you do the 
best you can with the evidence given to you and some judges strain to find the 
extenuating circumstances just to evade the death penalty," said Mutambanengwe.

Jenni Williams, the director of rights group Women of Zimbabwe Arise, aptly 
said only God had the right to take life.

"Who are we to hold power over life and death? Who are we to play God? That is 
God's place and no one else's," said Williams.

(source: The Standard)