[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 18



AFGHANISTAN:

Hundreds Gather To Commemorate Afghan Woman Lynched By Mob


Hundreds of Afghans have taken to the streets in Kabul to commemorate the death 
anniversary of a woman killed by a mob.

In March last year, a Kabul mob brutally attacked 27-year-old Farkhunda 
Malikzada outside a shrine in the Afghan capital, after one of the men in the 
group shouted that she had burned a Koran, the Muslim holy book -- an 
accusation that was later found to be false.

The brutal slaying stunned the country and led to calls for reform of the 
judicial system, long plagued by corruption, partisanship and incompetence -- 
and stronger protection for women from violence.

Hundreds of people, some wearing masks bearing an impression of her bloodied 
face, rallied to demand justice for Farkhunda on March 17.

Protesters, some with fake blood on their faces, chanted "Justice for 
Farkhunda!" on the banks of Kabul River where the frenzied mob turned on her.

Some demonstrators reenacted her grisly death, illustrating public anger over a 
Supreme Court ruling last week that upheld reduced sentences for the men 
convicted of her murder.

The court vacated the death penalty in 4 cases, reduced prison terms to 20 
years in 3 others and 10 years in the 4th. It also cut the sentences of 9 other 
defendants.

(source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)






MALDIVES:

Maldives top court to begin appeal of death sentence over MP's murder on Monday


Supreme Court announced Thursday that the 1st hearing in the state initiated 
appeal of the death sentence handed to Hussain Humam over the brutal murder of 
former Ungoofaru MP Dr Afrasheem Ali would begin on Monday.

Humam was found guilty of the MP's murder and sentenced to death in January 
2015. He later appealed the sentence.

High Court had on September 7 upheld the death sentence handed to Humam.

The prosecutor general's (PG) office had in November forwarded the case to the 
Supreme Court to initiate the final stage of appeal after Humam failed to 
appeal the sentence against him within the appeal window.

Regulations on death penalty that came into effect in 2014 require the 
prosecution to exhaust the appeal process -- the High Court and Supreme Court 
-- even if the convict wishes to not file for appeal.

Afrasheem was found brutally stabbed to death on the stairway of his apartment 
building in October 2012.

Criminal Court had acquitted Ali Shan of Hicoast in Henveyru district of 
Afrasheem's murder.

(source: haveeru.com)






INDONESIA:

Indonesia to Keep Applying Death Penalty for Drug Crimes ---- Foreign minister 
tells Bloomberg `we have to enforce our law'

Indonesia will continue to apply the death penalty to convicted drug 
traffickers despite international opposition fanned by the executions of 12 
foreign convicts last year, the country's foreign minister said.

The continuing use of the law was justified by a "drug emergency" in Southeast 
Asia's largest nation, Retno Marsudi said in an interview with Bloomberg News 
in Jakarta.

"That's why we have to enforce our law," Marsudi said in her office, which had 
a large map of the world in one corner and a globe in the other. "It's really, 
really, really worrying. It is not against a country. It's against crimes being 
done by those guys."

The executions of 7 foreigners in April -- among them 2 Australians -- prompted 
Australia to temporarily withdraw its ambassador. President Joko Widodo, who 
had been in office 6 months at the time, refused numerous appeals for clemency. 
Since April, there have been no executions.

"It's still part of Indonesian law," Marsudi said, when asked whether the 
country was prepared to keep executing drug convicts. "As long as it is there, 
then of course it is there."

Moderate Islam

Marsudi said the government's main foreign policy objectives were resolving 
maritime territorial disputes with its neighbors, helping Indonesians working 
abroad, furthering the country???s economic objectives and strengthening its 
voice at international forums.

The foreign minister also said Indonesia would intensify efforts to promote its 
traditionally less-conservative brand of Islam around the world. In January, 
militants claiming allegiance to Islamic State staged a suicide bomb attack in 
the capital, Jakarta, in what was the 1st major terrorist attack in the world's 
most populous Muslim nation since 2008.

"The moderate Islam, the tolerant Islam -- that is the Islam in Indonesia," she 
said "We want to reflect that and share our experience."

Asked whether she was concerned about the anti-Muslim rhetoric of U.S. 
presidential candidate Donald Trump, Marsudi said she hoped America's tradition 
of tolerance would be maintained.

"I don't want to comment on the political campaigns of other countries, but 
what I would like to underline is the values of the Americans," she said. "I 
know that they have the values of respecting diversity and respecting 
differences."

(source: Bloomberg News)






JAPAN:

Killer of 6-year-old Kobe girl gets death penalty


The Kobe District Court on Friday gave the death sentence to a man who killed a 
6-year-old girl in the city in 2014.

Yasuhiro Kimino, 49, lured the 1st-grader to his home by asking her to sit for 
a painting. He then strangled and stabbed her, dismembered her body and placed 
it in plastic bags, prosecutors say.

The prosecutors sought the death penalty, saying Kimino showed a brutal 
disregard for human life.

The case was tried by presiding Judge Takeshi Samo, 2 other professional judges 
and 6 lay judges.

(source: The Japan Times)






INDIA:

2 awarded death penalty for killing 4-year-old


The convicts Akshay Patel (24) and Kuldeep Panchal (26) broke down in the court 
after additional sessions judge KM Dave pronounced the death sentence. The duo 
had abducted Golu, son of a share broker in Kansa village, on March 17, 2012 
for ransom. They had demanded Rs 50 lakh for his release. But the boy's father 
informed police, who began a search for the kid. However, Golu's body was found 
the next day from a river bank near Visnagar. Post-mortem report revealed that 
Golu was strangulated to death.

Akshay and Kuldeep were arrested after few days.

Judge Dave termed the abduction and killing of the 4-year-old by as rarest of 
the rare case and ordered that they be hanged till death.

Public prosecutor Sanjay Patel said that the both pleaded for mercy from the 
judge saying that they were young and they should not be given death penalty. 
However, the judge refused to entertain their plea.

(source: The Times of India)






GERMANY:

German state to finally get rid of death penalty


The central state of Hesse is overhauling their constitution, making sure to 
get rid of one thing in particular that no other state has: the death penalty.

In the wake of the Second World War, Germany wrote a new Constitution with 
reforms intended to shake off its violent Nazi past, including to clearly 
define where the country newly stood on the death penalty.

"Capital punishment is abolished," states Article 102 simply, with no further 
explanation.

The Constitution, or Grundgesetz, was signed in 1949, but just three years 
before, the state of Hesse apparently had its own ideas about capital 
punishment.

"For especially severe crimes, the sentence can be death," dictates Article 21 
of Hesse's state constitution, written in 1946.

Now, 70 years later, Hesse is at last working to clear up this inconsistency.

When the Grundgesetz was approved, it immediately superseded the state law, 
thus making Article 21 essentially irrelevant. Even during the three years in 
between those legal documents being signed, capital punishment was never 
exercised in Hesse, though it was used in other parts of the country, according 
to Tagesspiegel.

Hesse's state legislators met this week to discuss reforming the constitution, 
which would also include changes like lowering the minimum age of voting in 
state elections from 21 to 18 - something else unusual to Hesse.

The last time Hesse attempted to negotiate a similar major constitutional 
reform, which included changing the death penalty, was between 2003 and 2005, 
Hesse parliament spokeswoman Carola May told The Local. But the various parties 
could not agree on the proposed changes. The death penalty remained.

To finalize the reform, Hesse will have to put forth a referendum to the 
people.

In Europe, only Belarus maintains the death penalty in both law and practice, 
while 102 countries worldwide have abolished it.

In a surprising survey 2 years ago, a law professor in Bavaria found that 1/3 
of his students and aspiring lawyers supported the death penalty.

(source: thelocal.de)