[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 1



MALAYSIA:

Man Faces Death Penalty For Weed Charge in Malaysia


A federal contractor has been sentenced to death in Malaysia for allegedly 
trafficking several dozens of pounds of cannabis.

Dickson Levy Maria George, 29, was handed down his sentence from High Court 
Judge Datuk Dr Sabirin Ja'afar.

Dickson had been accused of of trafficking 31 pounds (14.49 kilograms) of 
cannabis on May 9, 2013.

The law under which he was charged - the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1952, Section 
39B - carries a mandatory death sentence if the accused is convicted.

Malaysia is known for its strict attitude in regards to drug policy, which 
stems in part from it being a Muslim nation.

"Generally speaking, Muslim countries and secular authoritarian regimes, 
especially in Asia, have the heaviest penalties for drug offenses, including 
long prison sentences for possession and execution for trafficking," says 
Reason Magazine Senior Editor Jacob Sullum. "But don't lose sight of the fact 
that the United States stands out among liberal democracies for the harshness 
of its drug policies, which include routine arrests of drug users and rigid, 
Draconian sentences based on drug weight."

(source: merryjane.com)






INDONESIA:

Former Indonesian president 'rejects' death penalty


The 3rd president of Indonesia has publicly revealed he opposes the death 
penalty as the country prepares for a third round of executions of drug 
offenders.

In a sign of growing dissent over capital punishment within Indonesia, former 
president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie said he had arrived at the conclusion that 
no man had the right to take someone's life.

"It is God's prerogative right," the 79-year-old, who ruled Indonesia following 
the fall of Suharto, said at the launch of the book Politik Hukuman Mati di 
Indonesia (The politics of the death penalty in Indonesia) in Jakarta.

"So if you ask: 'Habibie, what is your comment on capital punishment?' The 
answer is that I reject it."

Another round of executions will take place after the Muslim fasting month of 
Ramadan in June, according to the Attorney-General's office.

The announcement followed weeks of febrile speculation that the end was 
imminent for up to 15 drug offenders on death row, as firing squads prepared on 
Indonesia's death island, Nusakambangan.

Last year, President Joko Widodo moved swiftly to execute 14 drug offenders - 
including Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan - citing a drug 
emergency.

The death penalty is widely supported in Indonesia, with media polls typically 
showing about 75 % approval.

Joko last week authorised judges to sentence child sex offenders to death 
following a national outcry over the gang rape of a 14-year-old girl in 
Sumatra.

But the anti death-penalty campaign is gaining momentum. Law and Human Rights 
Minister Yasonna Laoly and popular Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, 
known better as Ahok, both oppose capital punishment.

Former Indonesian judge Professor Jimly Asshiddiqie told the book launch he 
regretted he had been unable to convince a fellow judge to abolish the death 
penalty in a landmark Constitutional Court case in 2007.

The case, brought by Sukumaran and Chan and others, claimed the death penalty 
was inconsistent with the guarantee of the right to life in the constitution.

Professor Asshiddiqie, who was chairman of the Constitutional Court at the 
time, said unfortunately the case came at a time when there was huge public 
anger about drugs in Indonesia.

He voted with the majority - 6 votes to 3 - to uphold the death penalty.

However he confessed to the book launch that he actually agreed with the 
dissenting judges who believed the death penalty was unconstitutional.

"Actually I will share with you the secret ... I was with them," he said.

Professor Asshiddiqie said the constitutional court, established in 2003 as 
part of reforms following the Suharto regime, was a new institution at the 
time.

"I didn't always agree with the court's ruling but I also rarely made 
dissenting opinions," he said.

"Because those who make dissenting opinions are the ones who will make it into 
newspaper headlines."

But Professor Asshiddiqie, who was a key player in the anti-death penalty lobby 
in Jakarta in the lead-up to the executions last year, said he regretted not 
being able to persuade a 4th judge the death penalty was unconstitutional.

"Because if in 2007 we managed to have 5 (judges support) the abolishment of 
capital punishment ... the history of capital punishment would surely have been 
changed."

Meanwhile the Indonesian government is scrambling to assist Indonesian migrant 
worker Rita Krisdianti, who has been sentenced to death in Malaysia for 
carrying 4 kilograms of methamphetamines.

The foreign ministry has appointed a team of lawyers to file an appeal.

Human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, who represented Chan and Sukumaran, 
said the Indonesia's inconsistency was obvious when it defended migrant workers 
on death row overseas but carried out executions at home.

(source: stuff.co.nz)

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

Woman accused of murdering friend with cyanide laced iced coffee may face death 
penalty


An Australian resident accused of murdering her friend by poisoning her iced 
coffee with cyanide, may face the death penalty.

Jessica Wongso is set to face trial in Indonesia following the death of Mirna 
Salihin, 27.

Ms Salihin died after drinking a coffee, which police claimed, was laced with 
cyanide on January 6.

She began foaming at the mouth after taking 1 sip of 'Vietnamese Coffee' at 
Olivier Grant Cafe and died on her way to hospital.

Murder is a capital crime in Indonesia.

A Central Jakarta District Court has said there is no binding agreement 
preventing Ms Wongso being given a death sentence despite Justice Minister 
Michael Keenan stating previously that he had promised she would not be 
sentenced to death.

District Court Judge and court spokesman Jamaluddin Samosir told ABC News that 
no such deal was possible in the Indonesian judicial system.

"The judges can decide any penalty they want. We are independent, there can be 
no intervention."

A spokesperson for Mr Keenan's office told ABC News that the Indonesian 
government had assured the Australian government in writing that the death 
penalty will not be sought.

The cafe has since become infamous for the Vietnamese Iced Coffee.

Business at the restaurant has reportedly boomed, with diners waiting hours for 
a table.

Many have taken photographs of their visits to share on tourism websites and 
social media.

Ms Wongso reportedly ordered Ms Salihin the drink, after she arrived an hour 
before her.

Mirna had recently married her husband Arief Soemarko.

CCTV captured her handling the drink before her friend arrived, local media 
reports.

Ms Wongso studied with Ms Salihin at the Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney 
and Swinburne University of Technology.

The pair graduated in 2008 and Ms Wongso remained in Sydney to work.

She returned to Indonesia some time later, but local police claimed the friends 
had grown apart.

Before her death, Ms Salihin, had married Arief Soemarko.

Ms Wongso did not attend the wedding and it's alleged she was driven to murder 
by 'revenge and jealousy'.

Ms Wongso has denied killing her friend and since vowed to clear her name.

(source: Yahoo news)






PHILIPPINES:

Belmonte expects 'raucous' Congress debates on death penalty


Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Wednesday said the proposal to bring back the 
death penalty could face a rough sailing in the incoming 17th Congress even if 
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte enjoys the support of a "super majority" in the 
House of Representatives. Belmonte, who is eyeing the post of Minority Leader 
in the next Congress, said he expects bills for reinstating capital punishment 
to pass through the eye of a needle considering the difficulty it faced when it 
was reinstated during the Ramos administration by virtue of Republic Act 7659.

"When it (law on death penalty) was passed for the first time because virtually 
all of the world - except for a major country like the US - had abolished it. 
[The proposal to bring it back] will be a very contentious issue," he said in a 
press conference Wednesday.

Considering lawmakers have been split on the issue of reinstating death penalty 
through the years, Belmonte said he expects heated discussions on it to ensue 
in the House when the 17th Congress convenes in July.

"I'm very sure it, [the proposal] will get a very raucous hearing and debate in 
the House," he said.

Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, Duterte's choice for Speaker, earlier 
said bills for bringing back capital punishment will be tackled within the 
first 100 days of the incoming Congress. The tough-talking President-elect said 
he plans to reinstate the death penalty, which has been suspended since 2006, 
under his term.

He said he prefers executions to be carried out by hanging. Even if Alvarez 
manages to form a "super majority" of more than 200 lawmakers in the 290-member 
legislative chamber, Belmonte said the passage of bills on reinstating the 
death penalty could still be difficult because of his colleagues' beliefs. 
"Some people consider that issue as a conscience vote. They don't consider it 
as something that???s easily done," he said.

Belmonte noted that it took more than a decade for Congress to pass the 
Reproductive Health (RH) Law in 2012 even if the wisdom behind the legislation, 
for him, appeared to be "common sense" because lawmakers and the public were 
divided on the issue.

(source: GMA News)






BANGLADESH:

1 sentenced to death, 2 get life for Bangladesh 1971 war crimes----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 Sheikh Hasina in 2008.


A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Wednesday handed down death penalty to 1 
person and imprisonment until death to his 2 brothers for committing crimes 
against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War by siding with Pakistani 
troops.

Bangladesh???s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) announced the verdicts to 
the convicts, all in their late 60s, who faced the trial in person after they 
were arrested earlier this year.

"He (Mohibur Rahman Boro Mia) will be hanged by neck until he is dead," 
pronounced chairman of the 3-member ICT-BD panel of judges Justice Anwarul 
Haque.

The verdict also ordered imprisonments until death for Mohibur's younger 
brother Mozibur Rahman Angur Miah and paternal cousin Abdur Razzak for carrying 
our atrocities at their neighbourhood in northeastern Habiganj raising a gang 
of paramilitary "razakar force" siding with the Pakistani troops.

The judgment came 21 days after the tribunal wrapped up the hearing of the case 
but held the verdict, which can be challenge in the Supreme Court.

On May 10, chief of Bangladesh's biggest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami Motiur 
Rahman Nizami was hanged as the last remaining top perpetrator of crimes 
against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.

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 Sheikh Hasina in 2008.

2 others - 1971-time Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam and ex-BNP minister Abdul Alim - 
were earlier handed down "imprisonment until death" penalty instead of capital 
punishment on grounds of their old age as they had exceeded 80. They 
subsequently died in the prison cells of a specialised state-run hospital due 
to old age ailments.

The Supreme Court until now disposed 8 cases of war crimes trial in the appeal 
process against ICT-BD verdicts while several of the convicts facing death 
penalties have fled the country to evade justice.

In one of the cases, the apex court enhanced the life imprisonment of 1 of the 
convicts, Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah, to death penalty, finding the 
tribunal verdict too lenient and in another case, reduced the death sentence of 
another Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, ordering imprisonment until 
death.

(source: indianexpress.com)






AUSTRALIA:

Death row prisoners' matchstick boat symbolises South African anti-apartheid 
struggle


South African-born human rights campaigner Andrea Durbach has shared her "most 
prized possession" - a lovingly made matchstick boat - in an exhibition that 
reflects the struggle to end apartheid.

The boat was built by the black prisoners she successfully defended against the 
death penalty in the 1980s.

It is now on display as part of the Memories of the Struggle: Australians 
Against Apartheid exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy (MOAD) in 
Canberra.

Professor Durbach, director of the Australian Human Rights Centre at the 
University of NSW, was a young solicitor when she represented the so-called 
Upington 25 - 22 men and 3 women who were convicted of the murder of a black 
policeman during an anti-apartheid demonstration in 1985.

After a case lasting several years, 21 of the convictions were overturned on 
appeal.

The remaining four prisoners were spared execution and later released from jail 
when the death penalty was abolished under president Nelson Mandela.

Prisoners built boat as a gift

Professor Durbach formed a close relationship with her clients, who included a 
couple in their 60s, a former mayor, a boxer, and a male nurse who later became 
a lawyer.

Each Thursday she would collect a shopping list from them for simple items such 
as drinks and toiletries - but also, to her puzzlement, many boxes of 
matchsticks and glue.

Their purpose was revealed when the prisoners presented her in court with the 
boat they had built, emblazoned with her name.

"I was so moved and thrown by this," Professor Durbach said.

"It was so meticulously built and so beautiful.

"The little portholes were made out of the plastic from the bottles of juice 
that I'd bought them ... they'd actually pulled the wool from their prison 
jumpers and matted it together to make little carpets."

The group went on to make about 20 matchstick boats which were sold after an 
exhibition in South Africa to raise money for their children.

MOAD senior historian Libby Stewart said the original boat "really packs a 
punch".

"It's just so powerful because it says everything about how these people were 
feeling," she said.

Professor Durbach left South Africa in 1989 but continued to work on the 
Upington 25 case from Australia.

She said she treasured the boat as a link to an important and formative time in 
her life and to the people who shaped it, some of whom are no longer alive.

"Just their love and their ingenuity and their skill and their dedication," 
Professor Durbach explained.

"That they were able to pull that up from this experience which was so dire for 
all of them is always amazing to me.

"The fact that [the boat] came over in a container when I moved countries to 
Australia and was completely unscathed by this journey across the water is also 
amazing to me because it shows how sturdy and solid it is - and how it's stood 
against so much."

(source: abc.net.au)






NAURU:

Abolition of death penalty in Nauru


Press Release - Delegation of the European Union to the Pacific

Statement by the Spokesperson on the abolition of death penalty and 
decriminalisation of homosexuality in Nauru

The recent amendments to Nauru's Criminal code abolishing the death penalty and 
decriminalising homosexuality send a strong signal to other countries in the 
Pacific region that are yet to do so.

In abolishing the death penalty, Nauru has demonstrated its belief, shared by 
the European Union as well as many other countries worldwide, in the inherent 
dignity of all human beings and the inviolability of the human person. The 
death penalty cannot be justified under any circumstances.

The decriminalisation of homosexuality puts Nauru among the increasing number 
of countries that have taken steps to abide by their international human rights 
commitments to promote the equality and dignity of all human beings 
irrespective of their sexual orientation.

(source: pacific.scoop.co.nz)






UGANDA:

Uganda opposition leader's treason trial opens


Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye's treason trial began Wednesday with 
the prosecutor saying he could not be brought to court for security reasons.

Besigye, who claimed fraud after coming second in February's presidential 
election, was arrested last month for holding a mock swearing-in ceremony and 
charged with treason.

He is being held at the maximum security Luzira Prison in the capital Kampala.

State prosecutor Lino Angunzu told the judge that Besigye could not be brought 
to court because of "a specific security threat" and requested that further 
hearings be held inside the prison.

Chief Magistrate James Ereemye Mawanda said he would rule on the request on 
June 15 and adjourned the case until then.

Opposition party officials and supporters who had thronged the small courtroom 
jeered as the brief hearing took place.

Mugisha Muntu, president of Besigye's Forum for Democratic Change party, said 
the proceedings were "absurd" and a "manipulation of the judicial system by the 
executive."

Besigye was arrested in Kampala on May 11 after staging his mock inauguration 
ahead of President Yoweri Museveni's swearing in.

He was then whisked to a northern town and charged with treason before being 
brought back to the capital a few days later.

Treason is a capital offence in Uganda, but the death penalty has not been 
carried out for years.

Besigye was earlier charged with treason in 2005 and the case was eventually 
dropped.

A long-standing opponent of Museveni, Besigye has been frequently jailed, 
placed under house arrest, accused of both treason and rape, tear-gassed, 
beaten and hospitalised over the years.

Museveni seized power at the head of a rebel army in 1986 and has ruled the 
country ever since. His victory in February's poll marked the start of his 5th 
term in office and 4th decade in power.

(source: Daily Mail)