[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 22



SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi executions for 2015 set 20-year record


Just 24 hours into 2016, Saudi Arabia made world headlines with the execution 
of a dissident Shi'ite cleric - sparking violent protests in Iran, and a 
breaking off of diplomatic relations. But this just punctuated a very busy year 
for the Saudi execution state, with most of the victims receiving little 
international attention, and many sent to the chopping block for victimless 
crimes - prominently including drug possession.

Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 executions in 2015, with beheadings 
reaching their highest level in the kingdom in 20 years, according to a Jan. 1 
Associated Press report. Coinciding with the rise in executions is the number 
of people executed for non-lethal offenses that judges have wide discretion to 
rule on - particularly for drug-related crimes. Amnesty International found in 
November that at least 63 people had been executed in Saudi Arabia since the 
start of the year for drug-related offenses. That figure amounted to at least 
40% of the total number of executions in 2015, compared to less than four 
percent in 2010. Amnesty said Saudi Arabia had exceeded its highest level of 
executions since 1995, when 192 executions were recorded.

Saudi law allows for execution in cases of murder, drug offenses and rape. 
Though less often carried out, the death penalty also applies to adultery, 
apostasy and witchcraft. But while most of these charges carry fixed 
punishments under Saudi Arabia's interpretation of Islamic law, drug-related 
offenses are considered ta'zir, meaning neither the crime nor the punishment is 
defined in Islam. This leaves it up to the discretion of jurists.

A 2005 Saudi royal decree issued to combat narcotics further codified the right 
of judges to issue death sentences "as a discretionary penalty" against any 
individual found guilty of smuggling, receiving or manufacturing drugs. (SMH)

There's certainly some irony to the protests in Iran. According to the 
Norway-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, at least 648 
people were executed in the Islamic Republic in the first 6 months of 2015 - 
more than 2/3 for drug offenses.

(source: ww4report.com)






ZIMBABWE:

Death penalty befitting sadistic murderers


"If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the 1st step 
taken by my friends the murderers," said 19th Century French critic, journalist 
and novelist Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr.

One of the most complex moral issues - death sentence - is on the table again 
with Harare lawyer Tendai Biti representing 15 death row inmates in a case in 
which they want the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) to commute their sentences 
to life imprisonment, citing, among other issues, that capital punishment is 
not only unconstitutional, but cruel.

This week, Biti also won a landmark case in which the ConCourt ruled that - 
with immediate effect - no child under the age of 18 should enter a valid 
marriage.

Traditional leaders have also come out guns blazing against the death penalty 
on the grounds that "capital punishment (is) not cultural, but a relic of the 
colonial era". Yes, culture is not transient - here today, gone tomorrow - but 
is it that static and unchanging? And are we not using "colonial relics" like 
Roman-Dutch Law, police, judges and prisons to deal with crime? So, it's not 
really about "colonial relics", but efficacy, effectiveness, usefulness. 
Traditional remedies as they were constituted cannot work in the fast-paced, 
modern-day Zimbabwe. During those long-gone days, communities were small and 
sparse. Today the demographics have totally changed, communities are much 
bigger and complex. So new rules and methods have to apply.

Said Chief Bepura: "... people compensated the victim's family with cattle and 
a wife to appease the grieving family." Well, it's unacceptable in this day and 
age to treat females - and invariably young girls - as commodities in a 
transaction. The perpetrator himself must be made to solely pay for his crimes, 
not to throw young girls into the deal as if women are mere objects. 
Thankfully, the ConCourt did away with this traditional relic when Biti 
skilfully and incisively argued against the obnoxious forced child marriages. 
Biti is back in his element: Law, not politics. I digress.

The death sentence, if carried out, is irreversible. So are the murders 
committed by those sentenced to death not reversible - their victims' lives are 
gone forever. Nothing can bring them back. So, where do we draw the line in the 
interests of serving justice for both sides?

On the one hand, we have abolitionists who are totally against the death 
sentence under any circumstances, who are of the view that execution is 
tantamount to legalised murder. No matter how wicked and vicious the crime, no 
matter how vile and degenerate the criminal, these death penalty opponents are 
adamant that nobody can ever deserve to die - even if that person burned 
children alive.

Ironically, when it comes to another highly complex moral issue - that of 
abortion - those totally against the death sentence on the grounds that it is 
equally murder, are pro-choice. They say it is every woman's right to choose to 
have an abortion, itself an act of taking away innocent life. But when it comes 
to murderers, they are pro-life; they say lives that have deliberately taken 
other innocent lives must not be terminated under any circumstances. I find 
this illogical, unconscionable and outrageous.

There are opportunistic low-lives among us who have no guilt over doing rotten 
or heinous things to other people. It's all in a day's work for them to hurt 
the innocent and defenceless. We are talking about people who are guilty as 
sin. Let's not go too far with this 'rights thing'. After all, the average 
person is not a murderer. It's the tiniest minority who kill gratuitously.

Should we take up any and all causes? Let's not be voguish or politically 
correct about the death penalty.

Yes, it is the ultimate punishment, but then it should be applied for the most 
hideous crimes. It's not like death row inmates are being executed every day. 
When people go beyond the pale - that is, throw away all the rules and wilfully 
and totally disregard all institutions of society that are synonymous with 
civilisation itself - then they fully deserve the ultimate punishment. If you 
deliberately choose to be outside of civilisation, then you should have no 
expectation at all to be treated in a civilised manner.

Let's not be like incurable do-gooders who think they are helping society by 
championing oppressed minority groups' rights, when in fact they are ruining 
society and endangering the innocent.

Let's not be nice about everything. Let's avoid misplaced pity. Do-gooder 
methods do not always create the positive outcomes intended; the complete, 
tragic opposite can occur. One such do-gooder in the United States befriended a 
serving prisoner and accommodated him in his own home after his release. Guess 
what? The convict went on to rob and kill him.

A do-gooder is an earnest, but often naive person (typically educated) who 
wants reform through philanthropic or egalitarian means - such as prison 
welfare. Do-gooders always mean well, but may misinterpret opposing preferences 
- like not supporting a blanket ban of the death penalty - to be "Zanuist", 
cold, cruel or intolerant.

As American Professor Robert Flecker rightly observed, we should guard against 
the prevailing academic assumptions about the evils of capital punishment. At 
Harvard Law School, where he won the prize for the best graduating thesis, 
Blecker was 1 of only 2 students to publicly defend the death penalty. He went 
on to prosecute corrupt lawyers, police, and judges and saw at close range how 
the rich and powerful were given breaks denied to poor and powerless offenders.

So there is no contradiction in supporting the death penalty for deserving 
cases and advocating prison reform. The 2 should not be mixed - they are 
separate.

Like criticising the despotic and corrupt Zanu PF regime should not stop us 
from pointing out the same tendencies in the private sector and elsewhere.

Those few among us who go all out to distinguish themselves as most sadistic 
murderers - the worst of the worst - certainly deserve to be hanged.

(source: Conway Nkumbuzo Tutani is a Harare-based columnist----NewsDay)






UNITED KINGDOM/ETHIOPIA:

UK urged to use Ethiopia summit to free death row Briton


The government must use the African Union summit which runs from 21-26 January 
in Addis Ababa to urge the release of a British man kidnapped to Ethiopia 
nearly 2 years ago, says the human rights organisation Reprieve.

Foreign Office minister James Duddridge is expected to attend the AU's annual 
summit in the Ethiopian capital. The AU recently named 2016 the 'Year of Human 
Rights in Africa.'

Reprieve has written to Mr Duddridge asking him to use the forum to secure the 
release of Andargachew 'Andy' Tsege, a British father of 3 and political 
activist who is held in Ethiopia under sentence of death. Andy has been in 
incommunicado detention since his illegal kidnap and rendition to the country 
by Ethiopian forces in June 2014. A prominent critic of Ethiopia's ruling 
party, Andy Tsege was sentenced to death in absentia in 2009, and since his 
rendition, Ethiopian authorities have refused to allow him to see a lawyer or 
his partner and children. Torture is common in Ethiopian prisons, and there are 
fears that he has suffered mistreatment whilst detained.

The UK government has so far refused to ask for Tsege's release 
(http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/21578), instead limiting itself to calling for 
regular consular access - which has been denied - and 'due process'. Ahead of 
last year's African Union summit, Foreign Office officials indicated to Tsege's 
partner that they planned to raise the case - however, an email later sent to 
her from a UK official said that the summit had been "unbelievably busy" and 
that "it wasn't possible to have a bilateral meeting."

The summit comes amid concerns for Andy Tsege's mental state in detention. In 
an expert report published this week, Dr Ben Robinson of the South London and 
Maudsley NHS Trust concluded that: "Mr Tsege's mental health has declined 
precipitously since being detained in Ethiopia", and that there is an "urgent 
need" to remove him from his current conditions.

The event also comes amid criticism of the Foreign Office for a recent decision 
to abandon its anti-death penalty strategy in countries including Ethiopia.

Commenting, Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said: 
"The UK government must use this summit to make a concerted push for Andy 
Tsege's release. It is shocking that no progress has been made since last 
year's event - when British diplomats were 'too busy' to raise the case. Now 
that the African Union has made 2016 the 'year of human rights', the Foreign 
Office must tell Ethiopian officials to honour that pledge and urgently free 
Andy."

(source: ekklesia.co.uk)



IRAN:

More child offenders executed under Hassan Rouhani


The Iranian regime has executed more child offenders in 2014-2015 compared to 
any time during the past 5 years.

Dr Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations Special Rapportuer on the Situation of 
Human Rights in Iran, wrote in a piece published on his website on Wednesday: 
"Iran is 1 of a handful of countries that still executes child offenders, or 
boys and girls under 18 years of age at the time they commit a crime."

"In 2015 human rights groups documented at least three executions of child 
offenders, with at least 160 others awaiting the same fate on death row."

Mr. Shaheed said: "The number of child offenders executed in 2014-15 are 
actually higher than at any time during the past 5 years," adding "piecemeal" 
measures are not enough.

"Today Iranian judges can, and have, sentenced girls as young as 9 lunar years 
and boys as young as 15 lunar years to death by hanging, in plain violation one 
of the most fundamental and sacrosanct rights recognized under international 
law," he said.

On January 12, 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child concluded its 
review of Iran's 3rd and 4th periodic reports on the implementation of the 
provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The UN investigator has joined the members of the committee in calling on the 
Iranian regime to take more drastic and immediate measures to ensure that from 
this day on no child offenders are executed in Iran, regardless of the nature 
of their crime.

There have been over 2,000 executions in Iran in the 2 years that Hassan 
Rouhani has been in office, more than in any similar period in the past 25 
years.

On April 20, 2014, Hassan Rouhani described these executions as "God's 
commandments" and "laws of the parliament that belongs to the people."

(source: NCR-Iran)






AUSTRALIA:

Victoria's Nomination for 'Australian of the Year'


Barrister Julian McMahon tried his best to save the lives of Bali 9 duo Andrew 
Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, becoming Victoria's strong contender for Australian 
of the Year award.

As a critic of death penalty system and a defender of human rights, McMahon 
tried hard to save the lives of Australians facing death penalty in foreign 
nations for the past 13 years for free. He acquired his law degree in Melbourne 
and he decided to become a lawyer when he was in his secondary level of 
education in Sydney.

McMahon told AAP that his interest in law grew when he was a teen as he watched 
Rumpole of the Bailey. His 1st case against death penalty was of Van Tuong 
Nguyen in Singapore. He fought the case in 2002 when he was just a "relatively 
new and raw barrister," having an experience of a mere 4 years. Despite efforts 
from McMahon, his team and also pleas for clemency by the Aussie government, 
the victim was executed over drug trafficking charges.

Since then, the barrister has handled a number of cases to save Australians 
staying overseas from death penalty charges. The cases included George Forbes 
in Sudan who returned to Sydney and the Bali 9 duo cases. In April 2015, the 
Bali 9 pair was executed in spite of McMahon's severe trials. Since then, he 
has presented his views and work on death penalty at the Asian Regional 
Congress in Malaysia and he continues to oppose it throughout the globe.

The barrister advocates continuing his trials to ensure the eradication of the 
death penalty system someday. "I would say that lots of people have difficult 
or demanding jobs and lives, but what I do is nothing compared to lifetime 
carers of people suffering serious disabilities," he told AAP. "I just feel 
embarrassed when people say 'you're so amazing,' when the fact is I'm doing my 
work the best I can and it's not as hard as what a lot of people have to do."

McMahon stated that even if he has received a nomination for such a prestigious 
award such as Australian of the Year, he will be using it to aid people 
belonging to the marginalised sector of the society. The Sunshine Coast Daily 
reported that qualified former nurse, Anne Carey, who helped fight Ebola in 
Sierra Leone, has also been nominated for the Australian of the Year award.

(source: Australian Network News)






PHILIPPINES:

Death penalty sought for local 'El Chapos,' protectors


The local "El Chapos" and their protectors, such as military and police 
officials, must be sentenced to death, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto 
said Friday.

"El Chapo" is the moniker of the dreaded Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, 
leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, who was recaptured on January 8 after 6 
months on the run following his escape from a Mexican prison.

"Death penalty must be imposed for those involved in large-scale drug 
trafficking, including military and police officials who coddle and conspire 
with them," Recto said in a statement.

The senator made the statement a day after a ranking military official and a 
former official of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea) was arrested 
along with a Chinese national in a drug bust operation.

On Thursday, Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Marcelino, former director of the 
Special Enforcement Services of Pdea, was arrested in a raid in a house in Sta. 
Cruz, Manila. The operation yielded P320 million worth of shabu.

Recto said he was against the capital punishment but involvement of military 
and police in drug trafficking had pushed him to support the restoration of 
death penalty in the country.

"Although I am fundamentally against capital punishment, the impunity by which 
men in uniform coddle and align themselves with dangerous criminals they are 
supposed to stop, has led me to be open to the restoration of death penalty if 
attended by aggravating circumstances like the one I cited above," he said.

Recto expressed alarm over the proliferation of illegal drug trade in the 
country, saying "wholesale drug operation does wholesale damage."

He thus said those responsible for manufacturing and sale of illegal drugs, 
which he dubbed as "weapon of mass destruction," deserved a punishment "greater 
than a cushy taxpayer-paid stay in a Bilibid cell with spa and air 
conditioning."

"A sack of shabu victimizes not just one person but many. There are millions of 
granules in a sack, and each can potentially fuel another crime by a user who 
steals money or snatches a phone to feed his habit, to cases of domestic 
violence," the senator said.

"If the retail trade of shabu is booming, it is because the source is left 
untouched. The best way to stop water from flowing is not to close each and 
every faucet, but to shut down the main," he added.

Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe, chair of Senate committee on public order and 
dangerous drugs, has called on the Pdea to investigate the possible involvement 
of a ranking military officer in the illegal trade.

"I urge the police and the government prosecutors to investigate the matter 
thoroughly and with full transparency to get to the bottom of this. This should 
send a strong message that no one is above the law," Poe said in a statement on 
Thursday afternoon.

"I also urged the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) to look into the matter 
seriously to ensure that no one from its ranks is involved this illegal trade," 
she added.

(source: Sun Star)






INDIA:

Lifer not punishment enough: Jamanthi ---- Victim's close relatives upset 
Nisham has been spared death penalty.


For an immensely rich and influential person like the convict Mohammed Nisham, 
the life in prison will not be a punishment, according to Jamanthi, wife of 
Chandrabose, the slain office assistant of Sobha City.

"For us the sentence was not on the expected lines and we are not satisfied 
with his getting life term," she said reacting to the court order. The close 
relatives of the victim were upset over the court not awarding death sentence 
to Nisham.

"For the gruesome way in which he murdered my son, he deserves the noose and we 
are concerned about his getting a VIP treatment throughout his term in the 
prison and his coming out on parole using his influence," said Ambujakshi, 
mother of Chandrabose.

The family members, however, said that the prosecution team led by C.P. 
Udayabhanu along with lawyers C.S. Hrithwik, T.S. Rajan and K.A. Salil 
Narayanan along with their assistant C.R. Johnson had tried their best to send 
Nisham to the gallows.

Kunnamkulam MLA Babu M. Palissery who was present at the court said that the 
compensation awarded to the family was meagre considering the Rs 5,000 -crore 
assets of the convicted beedi tycoon.

"It is even less than the cost of tyres of the Hummer car that Nisham used to 
hit Chandrabose," he said.

Special Public Prosecutor in the case C.P. Udayabhanu said that it was up to 
the state government to move the High Court seeking death penalty for Nisham.

Meanwhile, former deputy director of prosecution, M. Mohammed, who was a part 
of the defence team of lawyers, was heard telling the close relatives of Nisham 
that even though life imprisonment means spending one's whole life in prison, 
most such convicts were released by the government after 14 years through 
special orders.

"If a person is given life imprisonment, there is no point in the claims of 
prosecution lawyers that first the convict will serve 24 years' rigorous 
imprisonment for related crimes and then the lifer for murder," he said.

(source: Deccan Chronicle)

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

Compassion on death row cases


Death row convict Mohammed Arif alias Ashfaq, a Pakistani national found guilty 
of conspiring to organise the attack on the Red Fort complex in Delhi in 2000, 
in which 2 Army soldiers and a sentry were killed, has been given 1 more 
opportunity of an oral hearing. His lawyers have been allowed by the Supreme 
Court to file a fresh petition seeking a review of the death sentence confirmed 
by the court in August 2011 so that the matter can be heard once again in open 
court. The court has once again demonstrated its inexhaustible capacity to deal 
with death penalty cases in a spirit of compassion. A September 2014 
Constitution Bench judgment ruling that a 30-minute oral hearing in open court 
for every review petition involving the penalty is a constitutional requirement 
was not applicable to Ashfaq, one of the petitioners before it. This was 
because the limited oral hearing in death row cases was just an exception to 
the general rule that review petitions be decided by circulation of the papers 
among judges. The exception was limited to those cases in which both a review 
petition and a subsequent curative plea had already been rejected. In Ashfaq's 
case, the court declined to review his sentence in August 2012 and the curative 
petition was rejected in January 2014. Chief Justice T.S. Thakur has, however, 
decided that he deserves a concession in order that even the slightest 
possibility of error may be eliminated, for he was the sole convict who did not 
get the benefit of the earlier verdict.

After upholding Ashfaq's death sentence and declining to review it, obviously 
because there was no apparent error, is it not mere moral tokenism to afford 
him another oral hearing? Howsoever one may answer this question, it cannot be 
disputed that the Supreme Court has been dealing with cases culminating in the 
death penalty in a liberal spirit in recent years. It has delivered a series of 
judgments widening the scope of the clemency jurisdiction. Even when 
constrained by an earlier judgment by another five-member Constitution Bench 
allowing the disposal of review petitions without an oral hearing, the Bench, 
in 2014, carved out an exception for death row cases alone by making oral 
hearing an integral part of 'reasonable procedure'. By extending the benefit to 
Ashaq, a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist found guilty of plotting and facilitating an 
audacious attack , the court is enhancing the value of due process. Some 
critics may question the wisdom of being magnanimous towards such offenders and 
not taking a stern stand against all forms of terrorism. This apparent conflict 
between the thirst for condign punishment and the twinge of conscience about 
sending one to the gallows will persist as long as the death penalty remains on 
the statute book. Until it is well and truly abolished, it is only the court 
that can humanise the law and procedure relating to death and mercy.

(source: Editorial, The Hindu)






PAKISTAN:

Death sentences : LHC admits petitions against 3 military court verdicts


The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench on Thursday admitted petitions filed by 
3 persons against death sentences handed down by military courts.

Justice Abdul Sami Khan admitted the petitions filed by Javaid Iqbal Ghuari, 
Kalsoom Bibi, and Said Zaman after their lawyer Advocate Colonel (retired) 
Inam-ur-Rahim maintained before the court that due course of law was not 
followed when they were tried in military courts.

The office of the LHC registrar had raised an objection against the petitions, 
saying that writ petitions could not be filed in the high court against 
military court verdicts. After hearing the arguments of Advocate Rahim, 
however, Justice Khan admitted the petitions and set January 25 for the next 
hearing.

According to available information, Javiad Iqbal Ghauri, a former employee of 
the Federal Ministry of Information, informed the court that his son Muhammad 
Ghauri was a student in Islamabad. He said his son went missing a few years ago 
and he had no clue of his whereabouts.

Ghauri said that in 2014, he was informed that his son was in the custody of 
intelligence agencies. He said that he was also informed that a military court 
had tried, convicted, and sentenced his son to death.

The petitioner said that a meeting was arranged with his son 2 years ago. He 
noted that his son had become disabled. He said that he had not seen his son 
for the last 2 years.

Separately, Justice Khan issued notices to the Adiala jail superintendent, 
asking for a response to the petition filed by Said Zaman.

Advocate Rahim, representing the petitioner, said he approached the jail 
superintendent to get legal documents signed by Zaman, but the official did not 
allow him to see his client. The lawyer said that the jail authorities told him 
that Zaman's appeals against his death penalty had already been cancelled.

Kalsoom Bibi, a resident of Jacobabad, stated in her petition that her son 
Abdul Qayyum had been given the death penalty by a military court. She said 
that she had no access to her son and did not know why he had been given a 
death sentence.

Meanwhile, Justice Khan disposed off a petition filed by Musarat Bibi, a 
resident of Okara. The court asked her to file an appeal against the death 
penalty awarded to her son by a military court before the concerned 
authorities.

In her petition, Musarat Bibi had maintained that her son Aqson Mahboob went 
missing from Lahore on July 14, 2014. Later, she learnt that Raiwind police had 
killed her son in an encounter. However, she was against informed that her son 
was alive and was given death sentence on January 1, 2016.

(source: The Express Tribune)