[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 18




TURKEY:

EU reminds Turkey it bound by treaty not to use death penalty


The European Union reminded Turkey on Monday that it is bound by its 
commitments under the European Convention on Human Rights and as a member of 
the Council of Europe not to reintroduce the death penalty.

"No country can become an EU member state if it introduces the death penalty," 
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters when asked about 
suggestions that EU accession candidate Turkey might execute leaders of the 
failed coup.

She also noted that Turkey was a member of the Council of Europe and a 
signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, which bans capital 
punishment across the continent:

"Turkey is an important part of the Council of Europe and is bound by the 
European Convention on Human Rights, which is very clear on the death penalty," 
she said.

(source: Reuters)

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

Germany tells Turkey return of death penalty would end EU accession talks


Turkey cannot join the European Union if it reinstates the death penalty, a 
spokesman for the German government said on Monday, sending a clear message to 
President Tayyip Erdogan who has raised the possibility after a failed military 
coup.

The government also urged Turkey to maintain the rule of law in investigating 
and bringing those behind the weekend coup attempt to justice, and raised 
questions about Turkey's decision to round up thousands of judges.

"Germany and the member states of the EU have a clear position on that: we 
categorically reject the death penalty," government spokesman Steffen Seibert 
told a news conference.

"A country that has the death penalty can't be a member of the European Union 
and the introduction of the death penalty in Turkey would therefore mean the 
end of accession negotiations."

Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004, allowing it to open EU accession 
talks the following year, but the negotiations have made scant progress since 
then.

With pro-government protesters demanding that the coup leaders be executed, 
Erdogan said on Sunday that the government would discuss the measure with 
opposition parties.

Even before the coup attempt, many EU states were not eager to see such a 
large, mostly Muslim country as a member, and were concerned that Ankara's 
record on basic freedoms had gone into reverse in recent years.

Turkey widened the crackdown on suspected supporters of the coup on Sunday, 
taking the number of people rounded up in the armed forces and judiciary to 
6,000.

German officials said they had seen no evidence of any conspiracy in the events 
beyond an effort by parts of the Turkish military to seize control of the 
government.

Erdogan and the Turkish government have accused the U.S.-based Muslim cleric 
Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan, of orchestrating the coup.

Seibert said German and EU officials would emphasize the need to maintain the 
rule of law in all their conversations with Turkey. He said he expected EU 
foreign ministers to address their concerns about the revival of the death 
penalty and disproportionate punishment in a joint statement about the 
situation after a meeting in Brussels later on Monday.

"Everyone understands that the Turkish government and the Turkish justice 
system must bring those responsible for the coup to justice, but they must 
maintain the rule of law, and that always means maintaining proportionality ... 
and transparency."

German Foreign Minster Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke to his counterpart early 
on Sunday, but Chancellor Angela Merkel has not spoken to Erdogan since the 
attempted coup, government spokesmen said.

(source: The Daily Star)

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

No Country Can Become EU Member if Reintroduces Death Penalty - Mogherini


Late on Friday, Turkish authorities said that an attempted coup d'etat took 
place in the country. The coup was suppressed several hours later. Soon after 
the coup attempt, both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime 
Minister Binali Yildirim said that capital punishment could be reinstated in 
the country.

"Let me be very clear on one thing ... No country can become an EU member state 
if it introduces death penalty," Mogherini told a briefing when asked about the 
situation in Turkey, a state that abolished capital punishment in 2004 to bring 
its legislation in line with the EU standards.

Late on Friday, the Turkish authorities said that an attempted coup d'etat took 
place in the country. The coup was suppressed several hours later.

The coup attempt was suppressed by early Saturday, with Turkish Prime Minister 
Binali Yildirim stating that all coup supporters were identified and would be 
apprehended as the country was returning to normal life. At least 208 people 
have been killed and at least 1,400 injured during the attempted coup, 
according to the country's foreign ministry.

(source: Sputnik News)

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

Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition would not support death penalty - spokesman


Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) would not support any 
proposal put to parliament on the reintroduction of the death penalty following 
a failed coup attempt, party spokesman Ayhan Bilgen told Reuters.

"No, we will not support it," Bilgen said, adding that in any case new laws 
could not be applied retroactively and that it was the responsibility of 
politicians to communicate this to the people.

Responding to crowds of supporters calling for the death penalty for the 
plotters on Sunday, President Tayyip Erdogan said such demands could not be 
ignored.

(source: Reuters)

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

The death penalty must not be the legacy of Turkey's quashed coup


The military coup that was launched, and that failed, between Friday night and 
Saturday morning, showed the two faces of today's Turkey in sharp relief. On 
the one hand, there was the old tendency of the military to take responsibility 
for the nation, with officers casting themselves as the guardians of law and 
order and the secular state. On the other, there was a new sense of pride in 
even flawed democracy that brought people, young and old, religious and not, 
into the streets to oppose an illegal seizure of power. The people won; so far, 
so good.

The aftermath is starting to look a lot less palatable. If the failure of the 
coup can be seen as a victory for modern, European, democratic Turkey - or at 
least aspirations in that direction - it is not at all apparent that the trend 
will continue. There are now believed to be 6,000 people under arrest, 
including senior members of the armed forces and - more surprisingly - of the 
judiciary. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be exploiting his position 
to eliminate his enemies, far beyond those actually responsible for the plot 
against him. Nor is "eliminate" necessarily too strong a word: he has called 
for the return of the death penalty and whipped up enthusiastic crowds in his 
support. The proposition could be put to parliament.

Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004, when it joined the Council of 
Europe. The move was part of its pursuit of European credentials at a time when 
its ambitions to join the EU were at their height. Reinstating the death 
penalty would be a highly retrograde step, doubly so if it were done as a 
response to a particular event. Asking parliament to decide, in such 
circumstances, could be seen as an improvement on summary justice - which also 
appears to be a possibility - but not by much.

With the Turkish state as fragile as it is, any appeal to the president to stay 
his hand could be difficult

Beyond making the strongest possible diplomatic representations, is there 
anything either the Council of Europe, in the shape of the European court at 
Strasbourg, or the EU can do? The first move might be a little 
self-examination. Even as stable a state as the UK retained the death penalty 
for treason until 1998, though it had been abolished for other crimes decades 
earlier. It is hard to regard the coup attempt in Turkey as anything other than 
treason. With the Turkish state as fragile as it evidently still is, any appeal 
to the president to stay his hand could be difficult.

Attempts should nonetheless be made. On a hierarchy of priorities, the first 
should be opposition to summary justice. The second should be a demand for due 
process: no mass trials or convictions. Rank-and-file conscripts cannot be held 
accountable for the plotting of their superiors. The failed coup should not 
provide a pretext for the president to purge his political enemies more 
broadly. Any moral superiority he might now command would soon dissipate.

It has to be recognised, however, that the persuasive power of Strasbourg is 
restricted to the moral plane, while the bargaining clout of Brussels is 
limited. The EU is more dependent on Turkey's goodwill than it was before the 
agreement on repatriating migrants, however questionable that deal was and 
however imperfectly it is operating. The ray of hope is that Turkey entered 
into that agreement at all, which suggested that Erdogan and his government had 
an interest not just in the money, but in keeping the country's EU application 
alive.

With the survival of democracy at risk, the Turkish president's priorities may 
have changed. But the EU's priorities for aspiring members - including respect 
for the rule of law - should not.

(source: The Guardian)





BANGLADESH:

Bangladesh war crimes: 3 get death penalty, 5 jailed for life----The verdict 
came as the prosecution accused all the 8 of 5 charges relating to crimes like 
mass murders, abductions, tortures and lootings.


3 Islamists were handed down death penalty while 5 others jailed until death by 
a special tribunal in Bangladesh for committing crimes against humanity during 
the 1971 liberation war with Pakistan.

A 3-member panel of judges of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal 
(ICT-BD) led by Justice Anwarul Haque pronounced the judgement as 2 of the 
convicts appeared on the dock while 6 others were tried in absentia as they 
were on the run to evade justice.

The verdict came as the prosecution accused all the eight of five charges 
relating to crimes like mass murders, abductions, tortures and lootings.

Prosecution lawyers said 6 of the convicts were members of infamous Al-badr 
auxiliary force of the Pakistani troops during the war and carried out 
atrocities in northern Jamalpur district.

The 2 others belonged to Razakar, another Bengali-manned armed group raised by 
Pakistanis during the war.

Manned by activists of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, which was opposed to 
Bangladesh's 1971 independence from Pakistan, the Al-Badr appeared as an 
extremely notorious force by carrying out ruthless atrocities siding with 
Pakistani troops.

The verdict came amid a nationwide tension following the recent 2 back-to-back 
Islamist terror attacks in the country following which Prime Minister Sheikh 
Hasina hinted that Jamaat could be behind the assaults.

Bangladesh has so far executed 4 war crimes convicts since the process began to 
try the top Bengali perpetrators of 1971 atrocities in line with the electoral 
commitment of Prime Minister Hasina in 2008.

(source: indianexpress.com)

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

Man gets death penalty for killing brother


A Gazipur court has handed down maximum penalty to a man for killing his elder 
brother in 2013.

District Session Judge AKM Enamul Haque also slapped a total of Tk15,000 fine 
on the convict, 25-year-old Md Borhan Uddin, on Monday.

Public Prosecutor Haris Uddin Ahmed said, Borhan stabbed his elder brother 
Jahirul and dumped him in a septic tank on April 12, 2013 over a family feud.

Locals rescued Jahirul and rushed him to the upazila health complex where 
doctors pronounced him dead.

Jahirul's wife Fahima Akter filed a murder case accusing her brother-in-law 
Borhan.

The court delivered its verdict after recording depositions of 10 witnesses.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)






INDONESIA:

National scene: Isolation cells ready for death row inmates


The Central Java Law and Human Rights Agency, which holds authority over the 
prisons on Nusakambangan Island, confirmed that it recently built a number of 
isolation cells for inmates who are facing the death penalty.

The isolation cells will be used to separate death row inmates and other 
prisoners ahead of planned executions on the island.

"We have just completed a new 2-story block at the Batu Penitentiary on 
Nusakambangan with more than 10 cells. Later, the death row inmates will be 
placed in the isolated cells," the head of the Central Java Law and Human 
Rights Agency's corrections division, Molyanto, told The Jakarta Post on 
Sunday. He said a number of preparations have been made, including a security 
task force, an execution site and the isolation cells that will be used by the 
prisoners to meet their families, lawyers and spiritual guides.

"Everything will be ready in the near future. We're just waiting for the 
order," said Molyanto. The official order on when the executions will take 
place has not yet been made. "Various agencies are still coordinating. It's a 
matter of time before the Attorney General's Office issues the order," said 
Molyanto.

(source: Jakarta Post)






KENYA:

Nairobi tout gets death penalty for killing infant


A tout who murdered a 4-month-old girl and dumped her body in a pit latrine is 
on death row after being convicted.

The child's only "crime" was that her mother had conceived her from a previous 
relationship.

Peter Kinyua Mwangi was sentenced to hang on February 26, 2015, for killing the 
infant whose mother was his lover. He was cohabiting with the child's mother, 
Monica Wanjiku, at the time.

In her testimony, Ms Wanjiku said she had known Mwangi for 3 months before she 
delivered her baby.

On the night of April 22, 2009, in Kiangombe village in Embakasi, Nairobi 
County, Mwangi strangled the child, placed her on the bed and then pushed 
Wanjiku to the bed. However, Wanjiku managed to free herself. In anger, the 
accused hit the baby, who died. He then dumped her body in a pit latrine.

"He implored her to forget about the baby because they could have their own 
later. He even invited her to go back to bed," the prosecution told the court.

Wanjiku screamed for help but neighbours did not make it in time to rescue the 
child.

The High Court judge at the time, Nicholas Ombija, said in his judgement that 
Mwangi, 30, turned his anger on Wanjiku, noting he went for her neck, pulled 
her braids and tried to strangle her, claiming the baby was a 'jini' (evil 
spirit) in the house.

But Wanjiku managed to disentangle herself from the man. Moments later, when 
she asked him where the baby was, he said he had thrown the 'rat' in the 
latrine.

The court heard that Mwangi asked Wanjiku to sober up because they were going 
to have a human child seeing as the one he had killed was an "evil spirit".

Prosecutor Mercy Ikol asked the court to pass a harsh penalty, noting that the 
accused had earlier been charged in another court for giving false information. 
The prosecution called 7 witnesses.

Malice Aforethought

Justice Ombija said the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt 
and that Mwangi had malice aforethought. The judge agreed with the prosecution 
assertions that the accused committed the offence.

"After carefully analysing the evidence, I find and hold that it is the accused 
who caused the death of the deceased by strangling her, apart from lying on top 
of the mother with the child below her on the bed," he said.

Ombija added: "The prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and 
I sentence the accused to suffer death in the manner prescribed under the law. 
He is inhuman, brutal and heartless and he therefore does not deserve mercy 
from this court."

The judge also said the fact that Mwangi had earlier been charged with giving 
false information reinforced the prosecution case against him.

"I had the advantage of assessing the demeanour of the accused. He appeared to 
me as a person who is economical with the truth while on the other hand the 
wife appears as the witness of the truth and, accordingly, I rest my judgement 
on her testimony," he said.

The woman said on the fateful night, they retired to bed at around 11pm but 
Mwangi woke up at 2am, lit a candle then put it off, claiming there were "evil 
spirits" in the house.

She said Mwangi lifted her and placed her on top of the child as she struggled 
to free herself. She managed to free herself and that is when he strangled the 
baby despite her pleas.

In mitigation, Mwangi's lawyer, Daniel Mathenge, pleaded for a lenient 
sentence, arguing that his client had already spent 5 years in custody.

(source: standardmedia.co.ke)