[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 22



INDIA:

Gandhi Tried His Best to Save Bhagat Singh's Life


The 85th death anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the revolutionary icon of 
the freedom struggle, who attained martyrdom at the young age of 23, falls on 
March 23, 2016. Alongwith Sukhdev and Rajguru, Bhagat Singh was hanged to death 
less than a week before the commencement of the Karachi session of the Indian 
National Congress, on March 29, 1931, a landmark event of India's freedom 
struggle in which economic freedom was equated with political freedom.

The year 1928 was marked by an anti-Simon Commision upsurge everywhere in 
India. On 30 October 1928, the Simon Commission faced a large hostile crowd led 
by Lala Lajpat Rai at Lahore Station. The Lala was severely beaten by the 
Police under J. A. Scot, British SP and he later succumbed to his head injury.

The whole nation was stunned by this savagery. As news of the attack on Lajpat 
Rai spread, the country reacted with anger.

Bhagat Singh was appalled. He could not believe that a white man could dare 
take a stick in hand and set upon Lajpat Rai. The HSRA (Hindustan Socialist 
Republic Army) decided to undertake retaliatory action. On 17 December, Bhagat 
Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and Chandra Shekhar Azad mistook the ASP, J.P.Scot for 
Saunders, as they pounced upon him and shot him dead.

A few months later, on 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Datta threw a 
bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly Hall in Delhi. It was hurled from the 
midst of a packed gallery, not aimed at anybody, but to draw the attention of 
the House, the Indian people and the British rulers in India.

As Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Dutt had planned not to escape after throwing 
the bomb, they were arrested. While Dutt was sentenced to transportation for 
life in the Assembly Bomb Case, Bhagat Singh, alongwith Rajguru and Sukhdev, 
was sentenced to death for the murder of Saunders in what became famous as the 
Lahore conspiracy case.

While in jail, Bhagat Singh took up the cause of bettering jail conditions and 
commenced a hunger strike. The Jail Committee requested Bhagat Singh and B.K. 
Dutt to give up their hunger strike but they declined. As the fast continued 
indefinitely with no solution in sight, Jawaharlal Nehru visited Bhagat Singh 
and the other hunger strikers in jail.

Nehru gives an account of his visit in his Autobiography: "I saw Bhagat Singh 
for the 1st time, and Jatindranath Das and a few others. They were all very 
weak and bed-ridden and it was hardly possible to talk to them much. Bhagat 
Singh had an attractive, intellectual face, remarkably calm and peaceful. There 
seemed to be no anger in it. He looked and talked with great gentleness."

Finally, it was Bhagat Singh's father who had his way. He came armed with a 
resolution by the Congress urging them to give up the hunger strike. The 
revolutionaries respected the Congress party because they knew of its struggle 
for India'a freedom. They called Gandhi 'an impossible visionary' but they 
saluted him for the awakening he had brought about in the country.

As days of execution of Bhagat Singh and his comrades drew near, appeals from 
all over India, from all sections of people poured in, usually addressed to the 
Viceroy asking him to stay the execution. Gandhi met Irwin on i9th March and 
pleaded for the reprieve of Bhagat Singh and his two colleagues from the death 
sentences to which they had been condemned. He reinforced this oral request 
with a powerful appeal to the charity of a "great Christian" in Young India.

Bhagat Singh, Rajguru & Sukhdev were hanged to death on March 23, 1931. As the 
news of Bhagat Singh's execution spread the nation went into mourning. There 
were processions throughout the country. Many went without food. People wore 
black badges and shut down their businesses to express their grief.

A pall of gloom hung over the Motilal Nehru pandal at the annual Congress 
session in Karachi. When the session was scheduled for 29 March, 1931 nobody 
had an inkling that Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru would be hanged 6 days 
ahead of schedule. A procession to be led by president-elect Sardar Vallabhbhai 
Patel was abandoned in grief.

Jawaharlal Nehru sponsored a resolution which was seconded by Madan Mohan 
Malviya. According to Kuldip Nayar in 'The Life and Trial of Bhagat Singh': 
"Gandhi chose Nehru to pilot the resolution because he was popular among the 
youth. Patel was heckled." A part of the resolution read: "This Congress while 
dissociating itself from and disapproving of political violence in any shape or 
form, places on record its admiration of the bravery and sacrifice of the late 
Sardar Bhagat Singh and his comrades, Sukhdev and Rajguru, and mourns with the 
bereaved families the loss of these lives. This Congress is of the opinion that 
this triple execution is an act of wanton vengeance and is a deliberate 
flouting of the unanimous demand of the nation for commutation."

What soothed the emotions was a speech by Bhagat Singh's father, Kishen Singh. 
Delegates wept loudly and openly as Kishen Singh recalled Bhagat Singh's words: 
"Bhagat Singh told me not to worry. Let me be hanged. But he made a fervent 
appeal: 'You must support your general (Gandhi). You must support all Congress 
leaders. Only then will you be able to win independence for the country.'"

Subhash Chandra Bose had told Gandhiji that they should, if necessary, break 
with the Viceroy on the question of Bhagat Singh and his 2 comrades: "Because 
the execution was against the spirit, if not the letter, of the Delhi pact." 
Still, Netaji added: "It must be admitted that he (Gandhi) did try his very 
best."

Gandhi's secretary, Mahadev Desai also quoted the Mahatma as saying : "I was 
not here to defend myself and hence I have not placed the facts as to what I 
have done to save Bhagat Singh and his comrades. I have tried to persuade the 
Viceroy with all the methods of persuasion I had. After my last meeting with 
the relatives of Bhagat Singh, on the appointed date, that is , 23rd morning, I 
wrote a personal letter to the Viceroy, in which I had poured in my whole 
being-heart and soul-but it has all gone in vain... Pandit Malaviyaji and Dr 
Sapru also did their utmost."

Lord Irwin took the public into confidence on his reasons for rejecting 
Gandhi's appeal. In his farewell speech on 26th March, 1931, Irwin said: "As I 
listened the other day to Mr. Gandhi putting the case for commutation formally 
before me, I reflected first on what significance it surely was that the 
apostle of non-violence should so earnestly be pleading the cause of devotees 
of a creed fundamentally opposed to his own, but I should regard it as wholly 
wrong to allow my judgment on these matters to be influenced or deflected by 
purely political considera-tions. I could imagine no case in which under the 
law the penalty had been more directly deserved."

The jail diary of Bhagat Singh makes for an interesting historical reading. He 
wrote shortly before his death : "They (the youth) should aim at a Swaraj for 
the masses based on socialism. That was a revolutionary change which they could 
not bring about without revolutionary methods..." Bhagat Singh exhorted 
Punjab's youth to follow Nehru. He called Nehru and Bose as a "redeeming 
feature of the freedom struggle" during the 1920s.

In his last letter to his youngest brother, Kultar, he quoted the popular Urdu 
couplet: Khush raho ahle watan hum to safar karte hain (Goodbye, dear 
countrymen, we proceed on our journey).

(source: The New Indian Express)






NIGERIA:

Osun Assembly plans death penalty for kidnapping


Speaker of Osun House of Assembly, Mr Najeem Salaam, said the assembly would 
soon review the state???s criminal law to provide for death penalty for 
kidnapping in the state.

Salaam made this known when the new Commandant of Nigerian Security and Civil 
Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the state, Mr Ayodele Olusola, visited him in his 
office in Osogbo on Tuesday.

He expressed optimism that the review would discourage kidnapping and other 
associated vices in the state.

According to him, the assembly wants to be proactive in making laws that will 
protect lives and property in the state.

On upcoming House of Assembly bye-election in Ife Central, Salaam urged the 
NSCDC commandant to provide adequate security for the electorate before, during 
and after the election.

"I want to urge you to ensure violence-free election.

"We don't want bloodshed before, during and after the election, and that is why 
I am pleading with you to mount surveillance around lfe," he said.

The bye-election is as a result of the death of Mr Dejo Makinde, who was 
representing the constituency.

Makinde, who died in December, 2015 was a member of the Peoples Democratic 
Party (PDP) and minority leader of the house.

Earlier, Olusola said that the NSCDC command in the state would do the needful 
to protect lives and property before and during the election.

He added that the command would continue to execute its mandate of protecting 
government facilities at all times.

(source: The News)

***********

Killer of 12 policemen to die by hanging, court rules


One of the killers of 12 policemen who were ambushed and shot dead along the 
creeks of Lobia 2 community, Southern Ijaw, Bayelsa State, on April 5, 2013, 
has been sentenced to death by hanging.

The Oporoma Judicial Division of the High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the state 
capital, slammed the capital punishment on the accused person, Jackson 
Feutuboba, known along the creeks and waterways as Jasper.

The 2013 victims were deployed by the state police command, then headed by 
Kingsley Omire (retd) to provide security for the funeral of the late mother of 
an ex-militant leader, Mr. Kile Torughedi, popularly known as Young Shall Grow.

Torughedi who was the commander of the South Wing of the Movement for 
Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) from 2002 till 2009 when he embraced the 
amnesty for repentant militants was then serving as the Senior Special Adviser 
to Governor Seriake Dickson on Marine Waterways Security.

The slain policemen were escorting dignitaries to the wake of the deceased when 
the gunmen attacked them.

The gunmen killed 12 out of 15 of them and held 1 of them hostage for ransom.

Jasper and 2 others have been standing trial for their murder.

The court ruled that the prosecution proved its case beyond every reasonable 
doubt and found Jasper guilty on all the 11 counts.

He was particularly arraigned for killing one Police Inspector, Joseph Ofozini.

The prosecution told the court that the accused person had over 5 cases in 
various courts bothering on kidnapping, sea piracy and involvement in the death 
of the policemen.

The presiding Judge, Justice M.A Ayemieye, took into consideration the nature 
of the offence, the passionate plea for mercy made by the defendant's lawyer.

But the judge concluded that the sentence for murder is death and it is 
mandatory.

Justice Ayemieye ruled and sentenced the accused to death by hanging.

The police prosecutor, Arthur Andrew Seweniowor, said if the accused failed to 
appeal the sentence in three months, the governor would sign his death warrant 
and he would be hanged.

The accused lawyer, Efieseimokumo Bipelede earlier pleaded with the court to 
tamper justice with mercy saying the accused person is a family man with 5 
children.

He said imposing the maximum penalty would truncate the destiny of all the 
children whom he described as minors.

He urged the court to convert the punishment to prison sentence.

The court discharged and acquitted the second accused person identified as 
ThankGod Clinton Ezetu for lack of evidence.

(source: thenationonlineng.net)






ST. KITTS/NEVIS:

PM Harris reminds no abolishment of death penalty


With the Federation's continuing fight against the scourge of gun crimes, Prime 
Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy has reminded the nation that the death penalty is 
not off the books.

Addressing media representatives at his recent press conference, Dr. Harris 
explained that there was no consideration for the removal of that piece of law 
from the books.

"The law is there and at times people seem to forget that the death penalty has 
not been abolished, and it is a matter for the courts to impose in their 
wisdom. But the death penalty still remains on our books."

Currently, St. Kitts and Nevis has recorded 9 homicides for the year; 6 in 
January and 3 in March.

To this end, PM Harris stressed that "this government has no intention of 
removing it in the immediate future".

Just last year, an advocacy group along with a number of European Union 
officials had called for regional leaders to abolish the law.

St. Kitts and Nevis is one of 11 countries in the Caribbean and also one of 59 
in the world that still uses capital punishment for those convicted of murder.

Amnesty International, an internationally-acclaimed NGO, has described the use 
of the death penalty as being "cruel, inhuman and degrading", and as such they 
strongly oppose its implementation.

"Amnesty opposes the death penalty at all times - regardless of who is accused, 
the crime, guilt or innocence or method of execution," the body said on its 
website...

During a conference held in Georgetown, Guyana in 2015, several EU 
representatives had lobbied for the law to be scrapped entirely, highlighting 
the detriments in the case of wrongfully putting someone to death.

However, when asked about the overcrowding of facilities in the region and the 
burden it places on developing countries, one representative indicated that 
funding could be sought to assist those nations from the European Union.

"The European Union provides significant funding to countries in the Caribbean 
through the European Development Fund and it has three programmatic lines, 
climate change, regional integration, and crime and security. So we are working 
with governments in the region to define exactly how these funds will be 
disbursed and it's an ongoing conversation."

The Federation's main penitentiary, Her Majesty's Prison in Basseterre, is 
overcrowded and Dr. Harris, who is also the Minister of National Security, 
revealed to reporters that consideration is being given to constructing another 
facility, but he confessed that they have not done an evaluation on the cost of 
it as yet.

Asked if outside assistance would be sought for construction of the new prison 
under the EU programme, the Prime Minister indicate that they would first look 
at providing the resources before going internationally.

Meanwhile, in an interview with The St. Kitts and Nevis Observer last year, Dr. 
Harris had informed that leaving the death penalty on the books would be seen 
as a discouragement against criminal activities.

"It will help to send a strong message that homicides and all of these serious 
crimes are not to be tolerated...The government at this time will not remove 
any legislation or any mechanism that could help."

St. Kitts and Nevis uses the noose while most developed countries, including 
the United States of America, use lethal injection or the electrical chair as 
their means of capital punishment.

The Federation last used the noose in 2009 when convicted murderer Charles 'Al' 
LaPlace was sentenced to death after chopping his wife to death.

According to reports, LaPlace had held his wife Diana against her will at a 
home they once shared in Sandy Point. It is while escaping capture that he 
reportedly dealt her several chops about her body in the presence of their 
neighbours.

(soruce: sknvibes.com)






INDONESIA:

Student on drug trafficking charge faces death penalty


A student charged with drug trafficking was ordered to be further remanded in 
prison by a magistrates' court here yesterday as the offence is non bailable. 
No plea was taken from Ralph Lee Zhen Jie, aged 21.

He appeared before Magistrate Zubaidah Sharkawi who ordered him to be remanded 
in prison at Puncak Borneo here pending further mention of the case on April 
19.

The student of a private college here is charged with possessing 655 grammes of 
cannabis (gross weight) when he was detained at 9.45pm on March 13 at a house 
in Jalan Dogan.

Drug trafficking listed under Section 39A(1) (a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 
1952, provides a mandatory death sentence upon conviction. Lee was represented 
by counsel Roger Chin while DPP Poh Yoh Tinn prosecuted.

(source: theborneopost.com)