[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 7



BANGLADESH:

Death warrant read out to war criminal Mir Quasem Ali


Authorities at the Dhaka Central Jail- 2 in Gazipur's Kashimpur read it out to 
the senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader.

"He said that he will file a plea for a review of the verdict after consulting 
his lawyers and family members," said prison Superintendent Prashanta Kumar 
Banik.

On Monday, the top court released the full verdict and sent it to the 
International Crimes Tribunal, which then issued the death warrant before 
forwarding it to the jail authorities.

Mir Quasem now has 15 days, starting from the day of the verdict's publication, 
to file a review petition.

Once it's resolved and if the death sentence is upheld, the war crimes convict 
will have the opportunity to seek a presidential clemency.

If the Jamaat leader is denied pardon, the government then will order the jail 
authorities to hang him.

Mir Quasem was the Al-Badr's 3rd most important functionary after 
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan 
Mohammad Mujahid.

Bangladesh has executed both Nizami and Mujahid for 1971 war crimes.

Mir Quasem, a terror during 1971 in Chittagong, has proved to be a shrewd 
businessman and politician.

The 63-year old media tycoon pumped billions into the Jamaat since the 
mid-1980s to put it on a firm financial footing in Bangladesh.

Police arrested him on Jun 17, 2013, in the offices of newspaper Naya Diganta 
less than 2 hours after the tribunal had issued a warrant for his arrest.

The trial started in September 2014 after he was indicted.

On Nov 2 the same year, the International Crimes Tribunal found him guilty and 
awarded the death penalty.

He challenged the verdict and on Mar 8 this year, the Supreme Court upheld his 
death sentence.

On Monday, the 244-page full verdict was released when the tribunal issued the 
warrant and sent it to the Dhaka Central Jail authorities, which reached 
Kashipur prison on the same night.

Mir Quasem's family said on Tuesday morning that they were yet to receive a 
copy of the verdict.

"A decision on seeking a review will be taken once we get the verdict's copy," 
said son Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem.

(source: bdnews24.com)

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



War trial: Death warrant for Quasem reaches Dhaka jail


The death warrant for Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali reached Dhaka 
Central Jail around half an hour after the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) 
issued the warrant this evening.

Neasar Alam, jailer of Dhaka Central Jail, told The Daily Star that they 
received the death warrant around 7:50pm and "would send the warrant to 
Kashimpur Jail-2 in Gazipur" where the Jamaat leader had been kept.

He, however, declined to say when the warrant would be sent there.

ICT issued the death warrant for war criminal Quasem hours after the Supreme 
Court had released full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty in a 
war crimes case.

The registrar's office of the tribunal issued the warrant around 7:30pm, ICT 
Registrar Shahidul Alam Jhinuk confirmed The Daily Star.

Copies of the warrant were also sent to the Dhaka district magistrate for 
necessary actions and to the home and the law ministries for information.

The SC registrar said his office received the copy of the full verdict around 
3:30pm today.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court released full text of its judgement 
upholding death for Quasem, also known as the moneyman of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Release of the full judgement has left Quasem to deal with one option to seek 
review of the apex court's verdict - that too has to be done by 15 days.

Quasem, 63, was the 5th Jamaat-e-Islami leader to get the death penalty for 
notorious role in 1971. He is considered by many as the main financier of the 
party that opposed Bangladesh's birth.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 gave him death penalty on 2 charges and 
different jail terms on 8 other charges. He later challenged the verdict at the 
apex court.

On March 8 this year, the Supreme Court upheld his death penalty.

(source: The Daily Star)






INDONESIA:

Top Indonesian court overrules release of drug suspect


Indonesia's Supreme Court sentenced a Chinese woman to death for drug smuggling 
Monday, overturning a lower court's decision to release her as the country 
prepares for its next round of executions.

The North Jakarta District Court ruled last year that all charges be dropped 
against Li Linfei, 33, but prosecutors later filed an appeal to the Supreme 
Court, demanding that she be put to death.

"Grant the demand of the public prosecutor," said a Supreme Court ruling 
published by news website detik.com Monday.

Linfei was arrested in 2014 along with 2 other suspects at a luxury residence 
in Jakarta where 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of methamphetamine was discovered.

She claimed to be visiting Indonesia on vacation, and the North Jakarta 
District Court ruled that she be released since she was allegedly unaware of 
any smuggling activity.

Monday's sentencing was issued by a panel of judges led by Artidjo Alkostar, 
who is known for handing tough penalties to those suspected of corruption and 
drug dealing.

Earlier this month, he led a panel of judges who rejected an appeal by an 
alleged member of an international drug syndicate accused of smuggling around 
840 kilograms (1,850 pounds) of methamphetamine into the country.

Siu Cheuk Fung met the same fate as 3 co-accused from Hong Kong, including drug 
lord Wong Chi Ping, when the Supreme Court upheld June 2 the death sentence 
issued by a lower court.

Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi was quoted by detik.com as saying Monday that 
Alkostar issued the death penalty for "major" drug dealers solely "based on the 
principle of justice and not for the deterrent effect".

Indonesia has some of the harshest anti-narcotic laws in the world, and 
President Joko Widodo declared a "drug emergency" last year.

Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo recently announced that the next round of 
executions will be held after the upcoming Eid holiday, expected to be marked 
around July 5.

The execution last year of 14 drug convicts was heavily criticized by the 
international community, with some countries whose nationals had been put to 
death withdrawing ambassadors from Jakarta.

(source: turkishweekly.net)






PAKISTAN----execution

Death row prisoner sent to gallows


A death row inmate was executed in the Timergara District Jail early Thursday 
morning, official sources said. They said the inmate, Said Jehan, a resident of 
Buner, was charged with the murder of his parents-in-law. The deceased had been 
serving time since 2011. The body was handed over to the relatives after 
execution. The government lifted the moratorium on the death penalty after a 
terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. At 
least 134 students and 18 staff members including teachers and 3 soldiers 
martyred in the brutal massacre. by our correspondent.

(source: Daily Times)

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

Pakistan to consider case of juvenile facing hanging


Judges in Pakistan will tomorrow (8 June 2016) consider the case of a prisoner 
who could be hanged at as little as 3 days' notice, despite evidence that he 
was arrested as a child.

Muhammad Anwar was arrested when he was just 17 years old, and subsequently 
sentenced to death on murder charges. Although his birth certificate shows that 
he was a juvenile when arrested, he continues to be held under sentence of 
death, in violation of both Pakistani and international law.

An execution warrant was issued for Anwar on 12 December last year, but the 
process was stayed at the last minute by the courts to allow the issue of his 
juvenility to be considered. His lawyers will tomorrow ask the Supreme Court to 
ensure that Pakistan's Government complies with its legal obligations and 
commutes his death sentence. The court had previously been due to consider his 
case last month, but the hearing was postponed.

Anwar was sentenced to death in 1998, 5 years after his arrest, and has now 
spent 23 years facing execution. In 2000, Pakistan introduced laws intended to 
bring it into line with international law banning the use of the death penalty 
against children. The country's President subsequently decreed in 2001 that 
anyone facing the death penalty for offences committed when they were a child 
should have their sentence commuted to life.

Anwar's family have since made a number of attempts to have his death sentence 
commuted, in line with Pakistani law, but no final decision has been taken by 
the authorities. They are now appealing to the Supreme Court in the hope that 
it will correct this historic mistake and ensure Anwar???s death sentence is 
commuted.

The nature of Pakistan's death penalty system means that Anwar could face 
execution with as little as 3 days' notice of receiving a 'black warrant,' 
which could be handed down at any time.

Maya Foa, Director of the death penalty team at international human rights 
organisation Reprieve said: "Anwar and his family have spent years trying to 
get someone to take a proper look at the evidence of his juvenility. The bottom 
line is that he simply should not be facing execution under either Pakistani or 
international law. However, he has been the victim of bureaucratic incompetence 
by the Pakistani Government, and as a result his case has fallen between the 
cracks. The Supreme Court now has the chance to correct this historic wrong and 
commute his sentence."

(source: ekklesia.co.uk)






PHILIPPINES:

Church will convince Duterte to drop death penalty-AdDU president


President-elect Rodrigo Duterte's pro-poor stance and preference for the return 
of the death penalty is not something that can be reconciled, the president of 
Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) tells INQUIRER.net.

Fr. Joel Tabora says that while he supports the Duterte administration's 
pro-poor thrust, the incoming President's insistence on the death penalty is a 
seeming contradiction.

"I think President Duterte really wants to go after crime. He wants people to 
respect the law. And as of now he is convinced that getting people to respect 
the law can be done by a death penalty, by the legislation of a death penalty," 
Tabora told INQUIRER.net during an interview in his office.

"The Church has over and over again insisted that the death penalty is not the 
answer. And I think the Church and the Catholic university, like this, will try 
to convince him that this is not the answer," he said.

Tabora pointed out that Duterte will also have to deal with Congress, which is 
tasked to approve new laws.

"Congress will decide on the basis of Congress' perception of the common good," 
he said.

"The Church I think will make its stance and say, in so many cases, the death 
penalty has been anti-poor because it normally kills not the rich but the poor. 
And sometimes erroneously. Many times because they cannot get legal 
assistance," he argued.

During the hour-long interview, Tabora discussed the prospects of a Duterte 
government and how it would benefit Mindanao and bring about social justice.

He said among the problems that may be resolved by Duterte was the conflict in 
Mindanao, the exploitation of natural resources and the displacement of 
indigenous peoples.

"I think everybody will benefit if the problems of peace in Mindanao is 
addressed. I think everybody will benefit also if the problems of indigenous 
peoples is also addressed. I think when we talk about indigenous peoples, we 
are to a great extent talking about our national heritage, our national soul," 
he explained.

Duterte has long announced that he will push for the return of the death 
penalty after it was abolished in 2006 by his predecessor former President 
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

He has also once said that perpetrators of heinous crimes such as robbery with 
homicide and rape should be killed by hanging, twice.

But the Catholic Church and the Commission on Human Rights have objected, 
saying it will not deter criminality.

The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) called the plan anti-poor, saying that 
before the death penalty was abolished, 70 % of death row inmates were poor and 
were allegedly wrongfully convicted.

It said the poor were more vulnerable because they did not have enough 
resources to hire good lawyers. They also have "no voice" and "no power."

(source: Philippine Inquirer)





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INDIA:

Gulbarg case: SIT seeks death penalty


Calling the Gulbarg society massacre as "barbaric and inhuman", the prosecution 
on Monday sought capital punishment for the 24 convicts found guilty by the 
trial court.

The prosecution pleaded that the convicts be "awarded exemplary punishment like 
death sentence or life imprisonment till death" for the case, which the public 
prosecutor described as "mass murder as victims were roasted alive."

The court on Monday adjourned the hearing till June 9 as the arguments on the 
quantum of sentence remained inconclusive.

(source: The Hindu)

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

As the world moves away from the death penalty, why is India tightening the 
noose?----2 Acts passed this year widen the scope of capital punishment in 
India.


While a majority of countries globally have abolished the death penalty in law 
or practice, at least 2 laws have come into force in India in the last 2 months 
that expand the scope of the death penalty.

The Bihar Excise (Amendment) Act, 2016, passed in March, says that mixing 
poisonous substances with liquor can be punishable by death, in cases where 
death is caused. Then, the Anti-Hijacking Act 2016, which was notified by 
Parliament in May, allows for capital punishment in cases of hijacking that 
have resulted in the deaths of hostages, security personnel or any person not 
involved in the offence.

This is in sharp contrast to the position taken by the Law Commission of India 
in August last year. In a report, the commission said that the time had come 
for India to move towards abolishing the death penalty. The commission 
recommended doing away with capital punishment immediately for all crimes 
"other than terrorism-related offences and waging war," in the hope that the 
"movement towards absolute abolition [would] be swift and irreversible".

Intent to kill not required

Apart from widening the ambit of the death penalty, the recent laws are also 
problematic because they do not require the accused to have lethal intent, that 
is, the intent to cause death, while committing the crime, in order to attract 
capital punishment.

Several preexisting Indian laws also prescribe the death penalty as a possible 
punishment for acts that do not involve intentional killing.

Some don't even require a death to have occurred for the imposition of the 
death penalty.

For example, Section 364 (A) of the Indian Penal Code states that the death 
sentence can be imposed in cases of kidnapping for ransom, if amongst other 
things, the person kidnapped or abducted is threatened with death or hurt, or 
there is reasonable apprehension that this can happen.

Departure from international stance

The expansion of the death penalty through the recent laws is inconsistent with 
India's international obligations. According to the International Covenant on 
Civil and Political Rights, which India acceded to in 1979, countries that 
retain the death penalty may impose it only for "the most serious crimes". 
India's Supreme Court affirmed this standard in the Bacchan Singh vs State of 
Punjab judgment of 1980, where it also held that the death penalty should not 
be imposed "save in the rarest of rare cases when the alternative option is 
unquestionably foreclosed".

United Nations' agencies and experts have clarified the scope of what 
constitutes "most serious crimes".

For example, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary 
executions had said that the imposition of the death penalty must comply with 
the "most serious crimes" restriction and "can only be imposed in cases where 
it can be shown that there was an intention to kill which resulted in the loss 
of life."

A 2014 report of the UN Secretary General further confirmed that in 
international human rights jurisprudence, the term "most serious crimes" has 
been interpreted as "allowing the death penalty to be applied only to the crime 
of murder or intentional killing", and concluded that, "Until it is fully 
abolished, retentionist states must ensure that the death penalty is imposed 
only for those crimes that involve intentional killing".

A systemic problem

While there have been only 4 executions in the past 16 years - 1993 Mumbai 
blasts convict Yakub Memon's hanging in July last year was the latest - the 
death penalty continues to be regularly used in India. According to the 
National Crime Records Bureau, 1,303 death sentences were handed out in India 
between 2004 and 2013, and 95 people were sentenced to death in 2014.

The larger systemic and institutional problems with the application of the 
death penalty in India have been rigorously documented.

A 2008 report by Amnesty International India and the People's Union for Civil 
Liberties (Tamil and Puducherry) said that the imposition of the death penalty 
in India was effectively a "lethal lottery" because of the arbitrariness 
inherent in the decision of whether to impose the death sentence in any 
particular case. The recently released report by National Law University's 
Delhi's Death Penalty Project observed that the death penalty in India is 
disproportionately imposed on prisoners from socio-economically marginalised 
groups. The report also outlined fair-trial violations in many cases where 
individuals were sentenced to death.

The Indian Law Commission cited the "extreme agony" faced by convicts on death 
row - compounded by degrading and oppressive prison conditions - as one of the 
reasons to move away from the death penalty.

These reports strengthen the case for the abolition of the death penalty in 
India in all circumstances and for all offences. Its brutal nature along with 
arbitrary and seemingly discriminatory manner in which it is applied violate 
the right to life and the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, and degrading 
punishment.

As of 2015, 140 countries in the world had abolished the death penalty in law 
or practice. Instead of keeping with this trend, India is expanding the scope 
of capital punishment in a manner that is not only inconsistent with 
international practices but also its own Constitutional values.

(source: scroll.in)


IRAN----executions

2 Afghan Citizens Hanged In Iran- Lawyer Conducted The Executions


A lawyer reportedly has carried out executions in one of Tehran's prisons. 
According to the state-run Iranian news agency Fars, 2 Afghan citizens were 
hanged in a prison in Tehran. The prisoners were reportedly convicted of 
several cases of rape and robbery. The names of the prisoners, the date of 
their executions, or the exact location of the executions were not revealed in 
the report, which was published on Sunday June 5.

A lawyer for 1 of the complainants reportedly carried out the executions. The 
lawyer, who was not identified by name, told Fars News Agency: "On the request 
of 1 of the complainants, I personally caried out the punishments." This is 
despite that the prisoners were reportedly charged with rape and not murder.

According to Iranian laws, families of murder victims may carry out the 
execution of the murderer. Iran may be the only country where the execution of 
rape victims could be carried out by the lawyer of a complainant.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) condemns the executions. "It is outrageous that lawyers 
are carrying out executions. Iran's leaders are responsible for promoting a 
culture of death penalty in Iran," says Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the 
spokesperson for IHR.

(source: Iran Human Rights)






THAILAND:

PM calls for death penalty for rapists


Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday ordered the legal community and 
judiciary to ensure that convicted rapists are sentenced to death.

"Foreign countries tackle rape cases by resorting to capital punishment," the 
prime minister said.

"Is it possible in Thailand? The judicial sector must undertake this.''

Prayut added that he also wanted legislators to review the punishment of 
suspects who are accused of serious crimes, which if prosecuted will create 
far-reaching consequences for the public.

"Is it possible that we impose heavier punishment for offenders in serious 
crimes? Some offences carry only Bt1,000 to Bt2,000 fines.

"This is not right because the country has to spend resources in putting these 
cases through trial of hundreds of thousands to millions [of baht],'' he said.

Prayut made the remarks on the occasion of world Anti-Human Trafficking Day 
while presiding over an awards presentation ceremony for officials who have 
succeeded in prosecuting offenders in human trafficking cases.

The PM said he wanted officials to take proactive measures to prevent crimes, 
not only reward officers who made arrests.

"But I admit some problems like prostitution are caused by poverty as no one 
wants to become a prostitute. We arrest offenders who are poor and they have 
nothing to eat. Why do we have to do it? We have to set everything right,'' 
Prayut said.

He added that the government aimed to achieve a 90-per-cent success rate in the 
fight against human trafficking, which would signal that the country was almost 
crime-free.

"To achieve this goal, one country cannot solve the problem," Prayut said. "We 
must build up a network and seek cooperation with Asean countries to prevent 
the problem at upstream, middle-stream and downstream levels."

(source: The Nation)