[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 26


INDONESIA/MALAYSIA:

Indonesian Migrant Worker Faces Death Penalty in Malaysia


Rita Krinsnawati, a 27-years old Indonesian migrant worker from Ponorogo, East 
Java, was charged with capital punishment after Malaysian authorities found her 
carrying four kilograms of crystal meth back in 2013.

"Rita is a victim of an international drug trafficking ring," said Lily Jatmiko 
Kusnadi, Coordinator for Migrant Care to Tempo on Tuesday, January 26, 2016.

Lily said that she will continue to attempt to relieve Rita, who originated 
from Gabel village, Kauman District from a death sentence by coordinating with 
the Foreign Ministry, Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, and the Indonesian 
Embassy in Malaysia. "We urged the government to carry out diplomatic efforts," 
Lily said.

Lily said that Migrant Care will took Rita's family to meet with government 
officials, including Poniyati, Rita's mother who continue to request for 
support from the Ponorogo Regency Government and the Ponorogo Regional 
Representatives Council to safe her daughter from capital punishment.

Sumani, Chief of the Ponorogo Social, Manpower, and Transmigration Agency said 
that her institution has coordinated with the central government and Migrant 
Care to discuss Rita's case. "The government will not stay put and will 
continue to provide counsel so that Rita is not executed and can be trialed in 
Indonesia," Sumani said.

(source: tempo.co)






PAKISTAN:

Qadri's supporters 'occupy' Lahore's Mall Road


The Mall Road of Lahore remained blocked for several hours on Monday as 
hundreds of supporters of convicted murderer Mumtaz Qadri staged a sit-in at 
Faisal Chowk demanding the removal of the death penalty served on the 
self-confessed killer of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer.

Around 1,000 protesters stayed on the Mall Road late into the cold Lahore night 
reciting Na'ats and chanting slogans which mostly ranged from mild defiance to 
open threats and abuses. The protesters had erected barbed wires and did not 
let any traffic move causing a massive gridlock on adjacent roads.

Mumtaz Qadri was awarded death sentence after he killed former Punjab governor 
Salman Taseer, while he was performing duties as his guard. Qadri exhausted his 
appeals options after the Supreme Court upheld his death penalty saying in its 
ruling that objections to blasphemy law did not constitute blasphemy and at any 
rate, Qadri had no authority to kill the governor. Qadri recently filed a mercy 
petition to the president to avoid the death penalty.

Qadri's followers and sympathisers have since held a number of protest 
demonstrations against his conviction.

On Monday, protesters caused a huge traffic deadlock on the Mall Road as they 
occupied the square in front of the Punjab Assembly causing nuisance to a 
number of commuters.

A number of ambulances were seen stuck in the massive traffic jams. Several 
patients, lawyers, students, teachers and government employees were also held 
up in the traffic, some of them for hours. Many of them demanded stern action 
against the protesters.

Arslan Maqsood, a student who is preparing for his CSS exam and was stuck in 
traffic, told Pakistan Today that it was unfair to block such an important road 
as it increased the misery of the commuters significantly. He said that the 
protesters had torn into pieces the National Action Plan (NAP) by showing open 
defiance and delivering provocative speeches against the government even as 
police and other law enforcement agencies kept their distance and let them do 
whatever they wanted. He said that it would be a defeat of the State if Mumtaz 
Qadri is released due to the pressure of these protesters.

"The use of loudspeakers at a public place and inciting the participants to 
violence must be a crime keeping in view the critical security situation of the 
country," he maintained.

The protesters were carrying placards to show support for Mumtaz Qadri and 
demand his release. The religious leaders hailing from the Sunni sect were 
taking promises from the participants that they would not allow the government 
to function if Qadri is not released. Some media persons were also asked to 
shout slogans in favour of Qadri if they wanted to cover the protest.

Syed Tajammal Hussain, a government employee who works in Punjab Civil 
Secretariat told Pakistan Today that it took 3 hours to reach Ganga Ram 
Hospital from his office because of the traffic jam. He was of the view that 
government must not allow the protesters to block the Mall Road and should 
allot a permanent place of protest to them like Nasir Bagh or Race Course Park.

"The traffic problems have significantly increased since the start of 
construction work on Orange Line Train and whenever a protest happens, 
commuters suffer badly," he concluded.

Rana Abdul Rehman, a practicing lawyer, said that some of his clients could not 
reach his office due to the traffic gridlock on the Mall. He was critical of 
the protesters as he said that Qadri had been offered due process of law, which 
was a lot more than he offered to a representative of the State before he 
brutally gunned him down. He said that the State must not allow the protesters 
to make a joke of the constitution and judicial process of the country.

(source: Pakistan Today)






KENYA:

Judiciary's New Policy Spells Doom for Death Row Convicts


New guidelines on the sentencing of criminals have proposed a mandatory death 
sentence to capital offenders, dealing a blow to several death row inmates who 
wanted life imprisonment.

The guidelines, however, bring relief to disabled, elderly and terminally ill 
convicts, who will now receive special treatment while in custody or have their 
jail terms reduced.

"Since the death penalty has not been abolished, judges must impose the death 
sentence with respect to capital offences. To curb their stay in prison, the 
court should recommend to the president to have a fixed time for a review of 
the cases, after which they should face death," say the guidelines.

The new policy further makes it possible for a convict to be sentenced to death 
in more than one case, although the individual will be hanged as per the first 
sentence, with the others being held in abeyance.

In reviewing the sentencing for the disabled, the elderly and the terminally 
ill, it was discovered that prisons do not have special facilities to cater for 
their interests, which exposes them to inhuman treatment.

As a result, the guidelines propose that the courts must ensure the sentencing 
does not amount to excessive punishment.

(source: All Africa News)






ZAMBIA:

Prisons NGO calls for abolition of death penalty


The Prisons Care and Counselling Association (PRISCCA) says the death penalty 
should be abolished because it goes against the declaration of Zambia as a 
Christian nation.

PRISCCA executive director Godfrey Malembeka has told the Parliamentary 
Committee on Legal Affairs, Governance, Human Rights, Gender Matters and Child 
Affairs that the revenge mentality which goes with the death penalty should 
have no place in a Christian nation like Zambia.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, death sentences do not deter 
other people from committing murders or other felonies. Emphasis should be on 
rehabilitation instead of retribution," Dr Malembeka said.

He also said the Zambian justice system has lapses which could lead to the 
arrest of a wrong person.

Dr Malembeka said mistrials and discriminatory application of the law on 
various grounds could lead to wrong persons being hanged.

He contends that most people on death row are from low-income groups.

Dr Malembeka said it is important for Zambians to realise that even prisoners 
have the right to life because the country is party to many regional and 
international instruments which promote human rights and respect the sanctity 
of life.

He said retaining the death penalty in Zambian statutes is a crime against 
humanity.

Dr Malembeka said prisons are originally a product of the church and were 
established for the purpose of realising remorse when one is locked up under 
heavy doors alone.

He said it is better to give offenders long sentences because they become 
productive while in prison. Death row where they only fill up space in prisons 
in that no death penalties have not been executed from 1997.

Dr Malembeka said PRISCCA appreciates the position taken by Presidents not to 
sign death warrants.

(source: Zambia Daily Mail)




SAUDI ARABIA:

Report: Islamic Saudi Arabia Passes Law That May Impose Death Penalty on Bible 
Smugglers


Recent reports state that officials in the Islamic country of Saudi Arabia have 
passed a law that may impose the death penalty on Bible smugglers and any 
others distributing religious materials that are not of the Muslim religion.

"[T]he new law extends to the importing of all illegal drugs and 'all 
publications that have a prejudice to any other religious beliefs other than 
Islam,'" Paul Washer's HeartCry Missionary Society outlines in a post on their 
website. "In other words, anyone who attempts to bring Bibles or gospel 
literature into the country will have all materials confiscated and be 
imprisoned and sentenced to death."

It points to an article on the Copts Today website, which notes that "indecent 
materials and publications" are also included in the customs prohibition.

Reporters have attempted to obtain confirmation of the report from Saudi 
Arabia's U.S. Embassy press officer in Washington, but the information has 
neither been confirmed or denied.

(source: Voice Observer)

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

The truth about the Saudi executions


Saudi Arabia's execution of 47 accused terrorists on Jan. 2 drew extensive 
condemnation in the United States. Further, because four of the men executed 
were Shiites, including in particular Shiite religious leader Sheikh Nimr 
al-Nimr, Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran and consulate general in Mashhad were 
stormed the same day and set ablaze by rioting Iranian Basij and others. In 
response to these incidents, Saudi Arabia and many of its Arab allies severed 
diplomatic relations with Iran. Yet, in the face of criticism by US officials 
and pundits trying to twist the executions into an example of the 
state-sanctioned killing of innocent people, or a case of Sunni sectarian 
actions against a Shiite minority, the truth needs to be told: The 47 men 
executed were proven terrorists and criminals, all of whom had committed or 
inspired murder, and many of whom had direct links to al-Qaeda or the terrorist 
Shiite group Hezbollah al-Hejaz (Saudi Hezbollah).

The al-Qaeda links were established legal fact. Indeed, 43 of those executed 
were tied to the men who carried out 9/11. They had been fighters, recruiters, 
senior commanders and theologians in the terrorist group behind the horrors of 
the attacks on the World Trade Center, United Flight 93 and the Pentagon. 
Furthermore, they had been part of the local Saudi branch of al-Qaeda that 
carried out a series of terrorist attacks between 2003 and 2006 in the kingdom 
in an attempt to foment mass murder on a scale equal to or beyond 9/11. 
Although these attempts ultimately failed, they nevertheless led to the deaths 
of numerous civilians, including many Americans.

As noted, some critics have characterized the Saudi executions as an act of 
Sunni sectarian violence against members of a Shiite minority primarily because 
one of those executed, Nimr, was a renowned cleric in the Shiite enclave of 
Qatif. Leaving aside that only 4 of the 47 men killed were Shiites, thus 
totally debunking the accusations of sectarian violence, a closer look at Nimr 
suggests that he was nothing like the peaceful activist campaigning against an 
authoritarian monarchy and discrimination depicted in the press by certain 
White House officials. He was in fact a political extremist linked to a known 
terrorist group and numerous killings. In the words of Tawfiq al-Sayf, a 
prominent Shiite activist in Saudi Arabia, Nimr was fomenting a "Shi'a 
equivalent of ISIS."

In his public life, Nimr had been closely tied to Hezbollah al-Hejaz, the 
armed, avowedly Khomeinist group established in Qatif and active in Saudi 
Arabia's Eastern Province, Kuwait and Bahrain. As a leadership figure in the 
organization, Nimr consistently preached that the Sunni ruling dynasties in the 
three countries were illegitimate and called for armed struggle against the 
Saudi government. Hezbollah al-Hejaz carried out the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing 
that killed 20 US service personnel and injured 498 people of various 
nationalities. The 4 senior members who led the attack, and who are on the 
FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list, subsequently fled to Iran and continue to 
live there in hiding with the support of the mullahs in Tehran. The plot 
recently thickened.

On Aug. 26, 2015, it was announced that Saudi intelligence officers had 
apprehended Ahmed Ibrahim al-Mughassil, leader of the Hezbollah al-Hejaz cell 
that carried out the Khobar Towers bombing, in a sting operation in Beirut. 
Since being whisked away under the eyes of Lebanese Hezbollah, Mughassil has 
been in Saudi custody divulging details about who carried out the Khobar 
bombings and how they did it. According to a Saudi security official who spoke 
on condition of anonymity, Mughassil has provided information on the structure 
of the organization, its funders, its members and its covert links to the 
current Iranian leadership. Mughassil fingered Nimr as a leading fundraiser, 
recruiter and facilitator for Hezbollah al-Hejaz in Qatif and Bahrain.

Prior to his execution, Nimr had been directly implicated in the shooting 
deaths of several Saudi police officers in late 2011, early 2012. 3 of his 
young followers admitted that they had been inspired by Nimr's teachings and 
directly encouraged by him when they attended a "diwaniya" (gathering) in his 
home village of Awamiya, in Qatif. Nimr and the 3 accused killers were 
subsequently arrested. Convicted of several acts of murder by Saudi courts, 
they are the 4 Shiites the kingdom executed.

Perhaps Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan best summed up the mood in Saudi 
Arabia and most of the Muslim world when he said, "The same people who keep 
silent during mass killings are now trying to stir up the world over the 
execution of 1 person. 4000,000 [Syrian] people have been killed ... You can 
never justify yourselves." Executions like those carried out Jan. 2 will 
continue as Saudi Arabia attempts to defend itself against terrorists. 
Mughassil, whose horrific crimes will eventually be made public, will most 
likely be among those executed. In time, such revelations may come as an 
embarrassment to the Barack Obama administration, which given the Iranian 
nuclear deal, seems much more concerned about legacy building than prosecuting 
Tehran-backed terrorists who have taken countless American lives.

(source: al-monitor.com)






IRAN----executions

2 Unidentified Prisoners Hanged


2 unidentified prisoners have been hanged by Iranian authorities.

According to state run news agency Khabar Online, a prisoner was hanged at 
Yasuj's central prison on Sunday January 24. The prisoner, who has not been 
identified, was reportedly executed on murder charges. The unidentified 
prisoner was reportedly arrested 5 months ago. Yasuj is located in the Iranian 
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province (southwestern Iran).

In another official report by Khabar Online, the execution of a prisoner in 
Kermanshah (western Iran) for the alleged murder of the Friday Prayer Imam of 
Savojbolagh (a county in the province of Alborz, northern Iran) was confirmed 
by the Iranian Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohsen Eje'i. According to 
Eje'i, the prisoner was also charged with other offenses. Information about the 
date and location of the execution, the other offenses, or about the prisoner's 
identity were not mentioned in the report.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

Growing Up on Death Row: The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders in Iran


Scores of youths in Iran are languishing on death row for crimes committed 
under the age of 18, said Amnesty International in a new report published 
today. The report debunks recent attempts by Iran's authorities to whitewash 
their continuing violations of children's rights and deflect criticism of their 
appalling record as one of the world's last executioners of juvenile offenders.

Growing Up on Death Row: The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders in Iran 
reveals that Iran has continued to consign juvenile offenders to the gallows, 
while trumpeting as major advances, piecemeal reforms that fail to abolish the 
death penalty against juvenile offenders.

"This report sheds light on Iran's shameful disregard for the rights of 
children. Iran is one of the few countries that continues to execute juvenile 
offenders in blatant violation of the absolute legal prohibition on the use of 
the death penalty against people under the age of 18 years at the time of the 
crime," said Said Boumedouha, deputy director of Amnesty International's Middle 
East and North Africa Program.

"Despite some juvenile justice reforms, Iran continues to lag behind the rest 
of the world, maintaining laws that permit girls as young as 9 and boys as 
young as 15 to be sentenced to death."

In recent years the Iranian authorities have celebrated changes to the 
country's 2013 Islamic Penal Code that allow judges to replace the death 
penalty with an alternative punishment based on a discretionary assessment of 
juvenile offenders' mental growth and maturity at the time of the crime. 
However, these measures are far from a cause for celebration. In fact, they lay 
bare Iran's ongoing failure to respect a pledge that it undertook over 2 
decades ago, when it ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 
to abolish the use of death penalty against juvenile offenders completely.

As a state party to the CRC Iran is legally obliged to treat everyone under the 
age of 18 as a child and ensure that they are never subject to the death 
penalty nor to life imprisonment without possibility of release.

However, Amnesty International's report lists 73 executions of juvenile 
offenders which took place between 2005 and 2015. According to the UN at least 
160 juvenile offenders are currently on death row. The true numbers are likely 
to be much higher as information about the use of the death penalty in Iran is 
often shrouded in secrecy.

Amnesty International has been able to identify the names and location of 49 
juvenile offenders at risk of the death penalty in the report. Many were found 
to have spent, on average, about 7 years on death row. In a few cases 
documented by Amnesty International, the time that juvenile offenders spent on 
death row exceeded a decade.

"The report paints a deeply distressing picture of juvenile offenders 
languishing on death row, robbed of valuable years of their lives - often after 
being sentenced to death following unfair trials, including those based on 
forced confessions extracted through torture and other ill-treatment," said 
Boumedouha.

In a number of cases the authorities have scheduled the executions of juvenile 
offenders and then postponed them at the last minute, adding to the severe 
anguish of being on death row. Such treatment is at the very least cruel, 
inhuman and degrading.

'Piecemeal' reforms failing to deliver justice

Iran's new Islamic Penal Code adopted in May 2013 had sparked guarded hopes 
that the situation of juvenile offenders under a death sentence would finally 
improve, at least in practice. The code allows judges to assess a juvenile 
offender's mental maturity at the time of the offence, and potentially, to 
impose an alternative punishment to the death penalty on the basis of the 
outcome. In 2014, Iran's Supreme Court confirmed that all juvenile offenders on 
death row could apply for retrial.

Yet almost 3 years after the changes to the Penal Code, the authorities have 
continued to carry out executions of juvenile offenders, and in some cases, 
they even often fail to informed the juvenile offenders of their right to apply 
for a retrial.

Tragically, the report also points to a growing trend where juvenile offenders 
retried under recent reforms are judged to have attained "mental maturity" at 
the time of the crime and resentenced to death, in blatant evidence of how 
little has changed.

"Retrial proceedings and other piecemeal reforms had been hailed as possible 
steps forward for juvenile justice in Iran but increasingly they are being 
exposed as whimsical procedures leading to cruel outcomes," said Boumedouha.

In some cases, judges have concluded that a juvenile offender was "mature" 
based on a handful of simple questions such as whether he or she understood 
that it is wrong to kill a human being. They have also repeatedly confused the 
issue of lack of maturity of children due to their age with the diminished 
responsibility of individuals with mental illness, concluding that a juvenile 
offender was not "afflicted with insanity" and therefore deserved the death 
penalty.

Fatemeh Salbehi was executed in October 2015 for murdering her husband whom she 
was forced to marry at 16. She was resentenced to death after a retrial session 
lasting only a few hours in which the psychological assessment was limited to a 
few basic questions such as whether or not she prayed or studied religious 
textbooks. In 5 other cases Hamid Ahmadi, Amir Amrollahi, Siavash Mahmoudi, 
Sajad Sanjari, and Salar Shadizadi were resentenced to death after courts 
presiding over their retrials concluded that they understood the nature of the 
crime and were not insane.

"The persisting flaws in Iran's treatment of juvenile offenders highlight the 
continuing and urgent need for laws that categorically prohibit the use of the 
death penalty against juvenile offenders," said Boumedouha. "The life or death 
of a juvenile offender must not be left at the whim of judges. Instead of 
introducing half-hearted reforms that fall woefully short, Iran's authorities 
must accept that what they really need to do is commute the death sentences of 
all juvenile offenders, and end the use of the death penalty against juvenile 
offenders in Iran once and for all."

As Iran re-enters the world of international diplomacy it is also crucial that 
world leaders use such new channels to raise the cases identified in this 
report with the Iranian authorities and to urge them to immediately commute all 
death sentences for juvenile offenders.

In June 2015 Iran introduced reforms specifying that juveniles accused of a 
crime must be dealt with by specialized juvenile courts. Previously juvenile 
offenders accused of capital crimes were generally prosecuted by adult courts.

Although the introduction of specialized juvenile courts is a welcome step, it 
remains to be seen whether this will prevent further use of the death penalty 
against juvenile offenders in practice.

Over the past decade, interdisciplinary social science studies on the 
relationship between adolescence and crime, including neuroscientific findings 
on brain maturity of teenagers, have been cited in support of arguments for 
considering juveniles less culpable than adults. Such findings were invoked 
during arguments which ultimately persuaded the US Supreme Court to abolish the 
death penalty against individuals convicted of committing a crime while under 
18 years of age in 2005.

(source: Amnesty International USA)

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

Dozens of young offenders face death penalty in Iran for crimes when they were 
teens


Dozens of young offenders arrested in Iran for crimes committed before they 
turned 18 are at risk of the death penalty. A new report by Amnesty 
International identifies the names and locations of 49 juvenile offenders who 
face the death penalty despite recent reforms.

But the group fears the official numbers could be higher after a UN report in 
2014 claimed the number of juvenile offenders at risk of execution at more than 
160.

The London-based group also found that Iran has executed at least 73 juvenile 
offenders between 2005 and 2015.

At least 4 were put to death last year alone. The majority of them were 
convicted of murder, according to the 110-page document.

Others were executed for crimes including rape, drug-related crimes and 
national security offences such as "enmity??? against God.

It comes as Tehran tries to rebuild relations with the West following last 
year's landmark nuclear deal.

The agreement came into force this month after Iran took steps to curb its 
nuclear programme, which lead to international sanctions being lifted.

Amnesty noted that reforms introduced in 2013 give judges more discretion to 
take into account young offenders' mental maturity and potentially impose 
softer punishments.

"Iran continues to lag behind the rest of the world, maintaining laws that 
permit girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 to be sentenced to death" 
----Amnesty International

The Supreme Court has since said juvenile offenders facing execution could have 
their cases retried.

Additional reforms introduced last year also require cases involving juveniles 
to be heard in special juvenile courts.

However the group called for more to be done.

It said in a statement: "Despite some juvenile justice reforms, Iran continues 
to lag behind the rest of the world, maintaining laws that permit girls as 
young as 9 and boys as young as 15 to be sentenced to death."

Last October, the UN's special investigator on the human rights situation in 
Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, warned that executions in Iran have risen at an 
"exponential rate" since 2005 and could top 1,000 in 2015.

He said Iran puts more people to death per capita than any other country, 
adding that the majority of executions do not conform to international laws 
banning the death penalty for juveniles and non-violent offenders.

But head of Iran's Human Rights Council, Mohammad Javad Larijani, dismissed the 
UN report as "a collection of baseless accusations".

Iran is one of the world's largest users of the death penalty, ranking second 
behind China in 2014, according to the most recent figures from Amnesty.

Most executions overall in Iran are carried out for drug smuggling.

The country straddles a major narcotics trafficking route linking 
opium-producing fields in Afghanistan to Europe.

(source: Sri Lanka Daily Star)






JAPAN:

Death penalty sought for man over 1998 murder of Aichi couple


Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for a man indicted over the 
1998 murder and robbery of a couple in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan.

The death penalty was sought for Hiroshi Sato, 39, in a lay judge trial at the 
Nagoya District Court over the murder of company executive Ichio Magoori, 45, 
and his wife Satomi, 36, in the city of Hekinan.

Prosecutors said Sato "committed a cruel and evil crime, taking the lives of a 
couple who had done nothing wrong just to get money." The court is expected to 
hand down a ruling on Feb 5.

Sato's accomplice, Yoshitomo Hori, 40, who was sentenced to death in December, 
has appealed the ruling.

According to the indictment, Sato conspired with Hori and Teruo Hayama to kill 
the couple at their home and stole approximately 60,000 yen in June 1998. The 3 
men were co-workers at the time.

Sato's defense counsel urged the court not to sentence him to death, saying he 
"just helped his accomplices and has reflected on what he did, praying for the 
repose of the couple's souls."

Sato offered an apology to the relatives of the victims in the trial.

Separately, Sato and Hori have been indicted for attempting to kill a woman in 
her 70s by strangling her at her home in Nagoya and robbing her of around 
25,000 yen in 2006.

(source: Japan Today)