[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 28




BANGLADESH:

Nizami to file review petition Tuesday


Condemned war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami will file 
a petition seeking review of the Appellate Division verdict that upheld his 
death sentence.

"The review petition will be filed tomorrow with the Appellate Division of the 
Supreme Court against his death sentences, upheld by the apex court, as all 
preparations have already been completed," Nizami's son Barrister Nazib Momin 
was quoted as saying by BSS.

The apex court on March 15 released the 153-page judgement after its 4 judges 
concerned signed the verdict that upheld the Jamaat chief's death penalty for 
war crimes.

International Crimes Tribunal issued a death warrant against the war criminal 
on the same day.

There is a provision of filing a review petition within 15 days after releasing 
the full verdict.

Nizami was given the death sentence on October 29, 2014 on 4 charges and life 
imprisonment on 4 other charges. He challenged the verdict at the apex court.

On January 6, the Appellate Division upheld the tribunal's sentence for the 
al-Badr chief for masterminding the killing of intellectuals and his 
involvement in 2 incidents of mass murders of over 500 people in Pabna in 1971.

He is the 3rd former minister after Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid 
and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury to get the death penalty for his 
notorious role during the war.

(source: dhakatribune.com)





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

Punishing ministers a message for all: Supreme Court


The Supreme Court has said that its verdict punishing 2 Cabinet members for 
contempt is a warning for all over undermining the judiciary's dignity.

Food Minister Md Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel 
Huq have been found guilty by the apex court on Sunday for their remarks on a 
war crimes convict's appeal hearing.

The 8-member bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has slapped a fine 
of Tk 50, 000 on each. If they don't pay up within 7 days, they will have to 
suffer a week's imprisonment.

Speaking at a discussion on Mar 5, Qamrul called for a new bench that, in his 
view, should exclude the chief justice to hear Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir 
Quasem Ali's appeal.

Justice Sinha's displeasure at the work of the International Crimes Tribunal's 
investigators and prosecutors in the war crimes cases, including Mir Quasem's 
one, had been interpreted by the minister as a 'broad hint' that the war 
criminal's death penalty might not be upheld.

Mozammel had also criticised the chief justice at the same programme.

The verdict, which was given 3 days later on Mar 8, however, upheld the death 
penalty awarded to the Jamaat leader by the International Crimes Tribunal.

But before that, the chief justice along with all of the 9 Appellate Division 
judges, summoned the two ministers for their comments.

The ministers later issued unconditional apologies and sought the court's 
mercy.

But according to Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, the court rejected their 
petitions as it found the extent of their offences 'far too much'.

Before announcing the verdict on Sunday, the chief justice said: "We, the 
judges of the top court, have evaluated everything meticulously. The reports 
(ran by media on the discussion where the comments were made) stated many other 
names. We did not draw proceedings against everyone.

"The contempt proceedings against the two ministers was done to send a 
message."

Speaking to the media after the verdict, the attorney general elaborated it. 
"The message which the Appellate Division wanted to give was that, under no 
circumstances the judiciary's dignity can be undermined."

Asked whether the ministers can still hold offices after being convicted, Alam 
declined to comment and said as far as he knows the Constitution did not 
address the matter clearly.

"But it's an ethical issue," he said adding that it was up to the Cabinet to 
decide on the matter.

(source: bdnews24.com)






PAKISTAN:

Worst fears come true for Pakistan's Christians in Easter attack


The worst fears of Pakistan's Christians came true with the carnage in Lahore 
on Easter Sunday, said activists who had braced for a backlash since thousands 
took to the streets over the execution of a murderer feted as an Islamist hero.

Taliban militants said they were targeting Christians with the suicide bombing 
which killed at least 72 people, nearly half of them children, in a crowded 
park in Lahore as thousands marked Easter on a warm spring evening.

Christian leaders said they had been filled with foreboding ever since the 
government executed Mumtaz Qadri, who murdered a liberal governor calling for 
reform of the country's blasphemy laws.

Their fears grew when Islamists announced on Friday that they would hold 
prayers for Qadri over the Easter weekend, four weeks after his hanging.

"The Christian community had the feeling that there would be backlash from 
Qadri's execution, especially on festivals like Easter," said Shamoon Gill, a 
Christian activist and spokesman for the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance.

"We feared that something might happen."

The Taliban did not mention Qadri in their claim of responsibility.

But the attack came as thousands of his supporters clashed with police in 
Islamabad, several hundred kilometres away, with activists attacking the 
government's apparent tolerance of the demonstrators.

"People are calling for an assassin to be declared a hero and the government is 
giving them space," said Cecil Shane Chaudhry, executive director of the 
National Commission for Justice and Peace, a Christian NGO.

- Persecution -

Sunday's blast was the latest in the "long history of persecution of Christians 
in the country", leading human rights activist Hussain Naqi told AFP Monday.

In Rome, Pope Francis appealed to Pakistani authorities to step up security for 
religious minorities after the "abhorrent" suicide bombing.

Christians are frequently the target of militant attacks, including a double 
suicide bombing that killed 82 people at a church service in Pakistan's 
northwestern city of Peshawar in 2013.

They also often face discrimination at work and routinely fall victim to the 
blasphemy laws, which rights groups say are often used to wage personal 
vendettas.

Blasphemy can carry the death penalty in Pakistan and is a hugely sensitive 
issue in the Muslim nation of around 200 million.

Even unproven allegations can stir mob violence. Christians, who make up 1.6 % 
of the population, are often the target.

"We are teaching our kids a distorted, rather false history where the mullah is 
pious and the minorities are evil, and this is a very dangerous trend," Naqi 
said.

"It's not only with Christians, we are doing the same with Hindus and Ahmadis 
and that's why they take every possible step -- either legal or illegal -- to 
leave the country."

Chaudhry agreed.

"There is a growing sense of insecurity among minorities in Pakistan, and 
whoever is not a Muslim is not safe in this country," he said.

Activists pointed to officials who appeared to dismiss the militants' statement 
they were targeting Christians, accusing them of downplaying the threat.

"The target was not the Christian community in particular," senior police 
official Haider Ashraf told AFP Monday despite the Taliban statement, adding 
that Muslims were among the dead.

Naqi branded the statement a "cover-up" and said the government was in denial, 
"trying to downplay the incident to hide its own failure at protecting 
Christians and minorities".

On Monday around 3,000 of Qadri's supporters were still holding a sit-in near 
main government buildings in Islamabad.

Their demands include the execution of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother-of-five 
who has been on death row since she was convicted of blasphemy in 2010.

They are also calling for Qadri to be officially declared a martyr and want the 
immediate imposition of Sharia Islamic law.

"Didn't the government know what their demands would be? Why did the government 
not stop them?" asked Chaudhry.

(source: Daily Mail)






MALAYSIA:

Duo plead not guilty to alternative charges over Kevin Morais' murder


2 of the 7 men charged with alleged involvement in the murder of Deputy Public 
Prosecutor Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais have been offered 1 alternative charge 
each by the prosecution.

College student S. Nimalan was offered a charge under Section 201 of the Penal 
Code with assisting to hide Morais' body and destroying a vehicle bearing plate 
number WA 6264 Q with intention to protect 6 other co-accused from prosecution.

The offence was said to have committed between Jalan Dutamas 1 here and the oil 
palm plantation in Kampung Sungai Samak, Hutan Melintang, Hilir Perak, between 
7am on Sept 4 and 2am on Sept 5 last year.

Unemployed A.K. Thinesh Kumar was offered a charge of culpable homicide not 
amounting to murder under Section 304(a) of the Code.

He allegedly committed the offence during the journey from Jalan Dutamas 1 here 
to No. 20, Desa Mentari in Petaling Jaya between 7am on Sept 4 and 11.30am on 
Sept 5 last year.

Nimalan and Thinesh, both 22, pleaded not guilty to the alternative charges.

High Court judge Justice Azman Abdullah said the 1st day of trial, which was 
fixed on April 6, remained.

When met by media after the court proceedings Monday, Deputy Public Prosecutor 
Abdul Razak Musa said the alternative charges that were offered to Nimalan and 
Thinesh were based on the facts and their role in the case.

On Jan 27 this year, army pathologist Col Dr K. Kunaseegaran, 52, was charged 
in the High Court with abetting in the murder of Kevin, 55, under section 109 
of the Penal Code, read together with section 302 of the same Code.

6 people - G. Gunasegaran, 47, R. Dinishwaran, 23, Thinesh, M. Vishwanath, 25, 
Nimalan and debt collector S. Ravi Chandaran, 44 - were jointly charged with 
the murder of Morais between 7am and 8pm from Jalan Dutamas Raya to Jalan USJ 
1/6D on Sept 4 last year.

They faced the mandatory death penalty, if convicted under section 302 of the 
Penal Code.

Morais went missing on Sept 4 after leaving his residence in Menara Duta for 
work in Putrajaya in a grey Proton Perdana.

His body was discovered cemented in an oil drum on Sept 16, which was dumped 
into a swampy area in Subang Jaya near here.

(source: The Star)






IRAN:

Call to save a young man on the verge of execution ---- He was under 18 at the 
time of arrest


The Iranian Resistance calls for urgent action to save the life of Himan 
Uraminejad, a 21-year-old Kurdish prisoner, who at the time of the alleged 
crime was under 18 and is now on death row, and demands effective action by 
international human rights authorities to stop this brutal sentence.

There are 110 prisoners on death row in Sanandaj prison. In addition to Himan, 
a number of others were less than 18 years old at the time of their alleged 
offense. Yousef Mohammadi, 20, was 14 years old at the time of the offense. 
Siavosh Mahmoodi and Amanj Hosseini (Oveyssi) were arrested at the age of 17.

The UN Children's Rights Committee consisting of 18 experts, on February 5, 
2016 issued a report on the continuing execution of juveniles by the clerical 
regime in Iran, and called the regime's inhumane policies and laws against 
children, especially girls, a violation of international standards and 
condemned it. The committee noted that based on the regime's laws, execution of 
even 9-year-old girls is permitted for the charges attributed to them ... the 
regime in Iran continues to execute juveniles. The head of the committee said 
that because of secrecy, there is no statistics on the number of executed and 
imprisoned children and juvenile offenders in Iran.

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

Relatives of Iran's executed dissidents expelled from cemetery


Relatives of the victims of Iran's 1988 massacre of political prisoners have 
sent a report from their attempt to visit their loved ones' mass grave in 
Khavaran Cemetery, south-east of Tehran.

The sister of one of the martyrs of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran 
(PMOI or MEK) writes: "On the final Friday of the [Iranian calendar] year on 
March 18, I went to Khavaran. I just had enough time to spread the flower 
petals from the flowers in the vase I had taken there on the canal. The 
authorities quickly expelled us."

Iran's fundamentalist regime routinely prevents the families of executed 
political prisoners from commemorating the death of their loved ones.

Some 30,000 political prisoners, primarily affiliated to the main democratic 
opposition PMOI (or Mujahedin-e Khalq) were executed in the summer of 1988.

1 month after Ruhollah Khomeini was forced to accept a cease-fire in his 8-year 
war with Iraq, the fundamentalist ruler of the mullahs' regime ordered a mass 
execution of all political prisoners affiliated with the main opposition group 
PMOI (MEK).

The brutal prison massacre has been described by some international human 
rights lawyers as the greatest crime against humanity that has gone unpunished 
since the Second World War.

Near the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Khomeini who felt that defeat was imminent, 
decided to take his revenge on the political prisoners. He issued a fatwa (or 
religious decree) ordering the massacre of anyone who had not repented and was 
not willing to collaborate fully with the regime.

Khomeini decreed: "Whoever at any stage continues to belong to the Monafeqin 
(PMOI) must be executed. Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately." He 
added: "Those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in 
their support for the PMOI are waging war on God and are condemned to 
execution...It is naive to show mercy to those who wage war on God."

The Iranian regime has never acknowledged these executions, or provided any 
information as to how many prisoners were summarily killed. Young girls, old 
parents, students, workers, and many of those who had already finished their 
sentences prior to 1988 were among those who vanished in the span of a few 
months. Their bodies were dumped into mass graves, including in Khavaran 
Cemetery.

Khomeini had assigned an "Amnesty Commission" for prisoners. In reality it was 
a "Death Commission: comprised of the 3 individuals: A representative of the 
Ministry of Intelligence, a religious judge and a prosecutor. Most trials 
lasted for just a few minutes and resembled more of an interrogation session. 
The questions were focused on whether the prisoner still had any allegiances to 
the PMOI, whose supporters made up more than 90 % of the prisoners. If the 
prisoners were not willing to collaborate fully with the regime against the 
PMOI, it was viewed as a sign of sympathy to the organization and the sentence 
was immediate execution. The task of the Death Commission was to determine 
whether a prisoner was an Enemy of God or not. In the case of Mojahedin 
prisoners, that determination was often made after only a single question about 
their party affiliation. Those who said "Mojahedin" rather than the derogatory 
term "Monafeqin" (meaning hypocrites) were sent to the gallows.

None of the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran 
and none of the regime's senior officials including the Supreme leader, Ali 
Khamenei, have been brought to justice to date.

(source for both: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)

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

Iran's Executions and Human Rights Abuses Hit 27 year high


The Islamic Republic hit the highest rate of executing people since 1989. The 
official number indicates that Iran executed nearly 2 times more people in 2015 
in comparison to 2010 when the hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in 
office, as well as roughly 10 times more than the number of executions in 2005.

Approximately 1000 people were executed in 2015, according to the latest report 
from the United Nations investigator, Ahmed Shaheed, the special rapporteur for 
human rights in Iran. The unofficial number is higher.

The peak of the executions in 2015 was between April and June in which nearly 4 
people were executed every day on average. Most of the executions were carried 
out in prisons located in urban areas such as Ghezel Hesar and Rajai Shahr in 
Karaj, and Adel Abad in Shiraz.

Iran has surpassed China in the number of executions being carried out per 
capita. Most of the executions in Iran are being done by hanging. In addition 
to the alarming increase in executions, fundamental rights of Iranians and 
ethnic and religious minorities appear to have regressed in 2015 as well. In 
addition, this year witnessed the highest level of disqualification of 
political candidates, 61 %, since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, 
1979.

Who and Which Groups are Being Mainly Targeted

Iranian authorities claim that these executions are overwhelmingly related to 
drugs offenses. Nevertheless, many of the executions were linked to other 
issues. Only around 65 % of those who were executed, were charged, with 
violating Iran's narcotics law.

In other areas, according to Amnesty International, the Islamic Republic 
remains a leading executioner of minors. Currently, 160 juvenile offenders are 
on Iran's death row. Other human rights groups also believe that Iran has 
executed more juveniles than any other country. Michael G. Bochenek, senior 
counsel of the children's rights division at Human Rights Watch pointed out 
"Iran is almost certainly the world leader in executing juvenile offenders." 
Some articles in Iran's criminal code allows girls as young as 9 and boys as 
young as 15 to receive death sentences.

In addition, ethnic and religious minority communities, including the Sunni, 
Arabs, and Bahai continue to be systematically targeted and discriminated 
against.

Iran's Sunni are the largest minority in the country. Some of the 
discrimination that the Sunnis have suffered, according the UN report, are that 
the Sunni communities in Iran "have long complained that Iranian authorities do 
not appoint or employ them in high ranking government positions such as 
cabinet-level ministers or governors. They have also raised concerns regarding 
reported restrictions on the construction of Sunni mosques in Shia-majority 
areas, including the capital Tehran, and the execution or imminent execution of 
Sunni activists the government alleges were involved in terrorist-related 
activities."

Other groups include journalists, artists, writers, musicians, and human rights 
activists who witness arbitrary arrests, detentions and prosecutions.

Amnesty International and the United Nations do not have executive power to 
force Iran to reform its law or hold Iranian leaders accountable, but the UN 
can offer recommendations such as the latest one in which Iran is asked to 
"take the necessary steps to ensure and that it citizens fully enjoy the rights 
and freedoms awarded to by the Iranian constitution with special emphasis on 
the right to freedom of expression, the right to political activity and their 
right to assemble". According to Nazanin, an Iranian lawyer based in Karaj, 
"Iran's judiciary and parliament will ignore these recommendations and not 
follow up with them".

Rouhani's Pledges

One of Rouhani's main promises was to promote and reform restrictive law in 
relation to civil liberties and social justice. "The situation has not changed 
since Rouhani came to power. They only talk about their victory with regards to 
the nuclear deal, while a lot people and religious minorities face daily 
discrimination", Morteza, an Iranian teacher in city of Esfahan pointed out.

When it comes to number of people being executed as well as the rights of 
ethnic and religious minorities, Iran's president would not change the status 
quo regardless of whether he is being presented as a moderate or hardliner.

The major institutions which have power over these matters are the judiciary 
system (its head is appointed by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei), 
the ministry of Intelligence, the office of the Supreme Leader, the 
Revolutionary Guards, and paramilitary groups such as the Basij.

In order to preserve his own interests and power, an Iranian president will not 
stand against these powerful political establishments, and will support the 
ruling political establishment. In fact, the number of executions increase and 
rights for ethnic and religious minorities appear to deteriorate when the 
Islamic Republic has "moderate" or "reformist" president. The above 
institutions tighten the rules in order to send a message to the Iranians that 
a non-hardline president does not mean that the country is liberalizing its 
politics.

(source: Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is an American political scientist, business 
advisor and the president of the International American Council on the Middle 
East. Harvard-educated, Rafizadeh serves on the advisory board of Harvard 
International Review. An American citizen, he is originally from Iran and 
Syria, lived most of his life in Iran and Syria till recently. He is a board 
member of several significant and influential international and governmental 
institutions; Huffington Post)






ISRAEL:

Killing an injured terrorist may be wrong, but it isn't murder either----The 
killing of an injured terrorist in Hevron poses a difficult moral dilemma - but 
in grappling with it we must not lose our perspective.


What to make of the controversy surrounding the killing of an injured terrorist 
in Hevron by an IDF soldier last week?

While many on both sides of the debate see it as a straightforward issue - "he 
is a murderer" versus "he is a hero" - the reality is far more nuanced.

On the one hand, morally-speaking the soldier most certainly is no murderer. An 
armed terrorist who comes in order to kill and hoping in the process to achieve 
"martyrdom" can hardly be described as a "victim." I'll go further still: he 
deserved to die. Him and all the others like him; those motivated by a 
genocidal, Nazi-like bloodlust to murder and maim as many Jews as possible. 
These are no innocent victims but jihadist terrorists, murderers and 
degenerates of the worst kind - whether they ultimately succeed in killing or 
not.

Were it not for the heavy concentration of soldiers in Hevron, Judaism's 
2nd-holiest city, the terrorist would surely have targeted civilians, as many 
others have. Men, women and children; civilians, police officers and soldiers; 
pregnant women, the elderly and the disabled; mothers, fathers, rabbis, nurses, 
teachers and students; peaceful worshippers at prayer - all of these are 
considered fair game to the Arab and Islamic chauvinists for whom the very 
notion of Jewish empowerment and independence, Zionism, is considered a most 
grievous "provocation."

The only essential difference between the knife/gun/car/ax-wielding Arab 
terrorist who stalks the streets looking for Jews to kill in 2016, and the 
machine-gun-wielding guard at a Nazi concentration camp in the 1940s, is that 
while the latter's Jewish victims were mostly powerless to resist, the former's 
are - to his great misfortune - a very different breed of Jew indeed.

So please, spare me the faux outrage. And no, the video did not disturb me - 
far more disturbing are the videos and pictures of murderers being given free 
treatment at Israeli hospitals at tax-payers' expense. To know that a man or 
woman who robbed a family of a loved one, who left orphans, widows and grieving 
parents behind, or left innocent people with life-changing injuries, will be 
pampered and treated using my taxes is a far more sickening prospect than a 
jihadist killer getting his just desserts.

And yet, at the same time, the prospect of a soldier carrying out a field 
execution - if that is indeed what occurred (which, though you would believe 
otherwise from some of the media coverage, has still yet to be determined) - 
poses a very disturbing problem.

In a rule-of-law society it is the courts who must mete out justice to 
criminals; not soldiers, not police officers and not civilians - no matter how 
enraged or wronged they are.

For the record, I am personally a supporter of the death penalty, at least in 
cases of terrorist murderers. I believe that such a punishment is not only 
fundamentally the only just one for premeditated murder, but that it would 
serve as a deterrent - even to those who attack with the intention of dying in 
the process. It's one thing to be killed in a blaze of (in)glory during the 
course of an attack, quite another to die alone, as a common criminal, staring 
at the hangman's noose.

But allowing individuals to exact "justice" in the field is the start of a 
slippery slope which could well lead to a total breakdown in law and order, 
with terrifying consequences for the general public. If such authority is 
granted to the army or police - let alone private citizens - Israel could 
quickly descend into the dark, savage anarchy engulfing many of our neighbors, 
where the rule of the gun (or sword) is the only real authority, and 
blood-vengeance, death squads and summary executions affect the innocent and 
guilty alike. Worse still, such authority could easily be abused by those in 
power in unthinkable ways. It could be the death-knell of Israeli democracy.

It is worth pointing out that the law and order argument, too, is a nuanced 
one. Take the recent stabbing in Petah Tikva: putting aside the fact that in 
that case the terrorist was not yet neutralized and therefore still posed a 
potential danger anyway - automatically justifying his victim's subsequent 
heroic actions - should a stab victim pulling the knife from his neck and 
killing the terrorist who attacked him with it in retribution - even if he was 
already neutralized - be subsequently punished? Personally, I would recoil from 
such a notion, and it would take a particularly heartless, morally-bankrupt 
judge to seriously consider punishing a victim in such a way.

Yet the case last Thursday was markedly different: the soldier who fired the 
fatal shot was not injured and the terrorist in question was lying mortally 
wounded on the ground. Angry though he may understandably have been over the 
preceding attack which injured his comrade, he was not himself the victim. The 
only legitimate justification (and for his part this is the soldier's version 
of events) would be if he believed the terrorist still posed some kind of 
threat, for example by carrying a concealed explosive device.

This is not impossible - in at least one attack terrorist knifemen also used 
improvised explosives - but whether that was the soldier's true motivation is 
for the military court to decide. It is of course the IDF's duty to try the 
soldier in question and, if it is determined that he broke the rules of 
conduct, he should be punished accordingly.

But there is something very disturbing in the way the case has played out in 
parts of the media. I'm not talking about the trial by media which is, 
unfortunately, an all too common phenomenon - rather, I refer to the way in 
which we are being subtly robbed of our moral compasses without even knowing 
it.

Consider, that when a Palestinian terrorist stabs a pregnant woman, or stabs a 
mother or father to death in front of her or his children, or guns down parents 
in front of their children, or stabs and slashes scores of innocent passersby, 
it is forgotten within a day or two, and certainly receives little critical 
analysis or direct criticism of Palestinian society and the terrorism it 
breeds. It's just one of those things; maybe it's even Israel's fault.

In some cases - and it has happened far too often to be anything other than a 
concerted editorial position - news articles will either whitewash the act of 
evil committed or even go so far as to equate the victims and their killers, or 
highlight the "suffering" not of the victims' families, but of the families of 
the Palestinian "martyrs".

Much in the same way as the Duma attack was the focus of so much more outrage, 
international criticism and self-flagellation by Israel and Jews everywhere, 
there are those who would have us approach the events in Hevron last Thursday 
as somehow more outrageous than the attack which preceded it.

Well, it wasn't. In fact, after half a year of daily attacks (and decades of 
brutal terrorism before that), that one soldier may have lost his calm and shot 
a would-be murderer in the head is far less worthy of outrage than the daily 
acts of Arab terror we have sadly become inured to. If anything, we should give 
pause for thought to just how few such incidents have occurred in spite of the 
huge pressure and constant dangers faced by IDF soldiers.

To those who answer with the predictable "we should be better than them," I 
would say that - apart from being a fundamentally racist sentiment (why are 
"we" better than "them"?) - I personally have no desire to be held to a "higher 
standard" than anyone else. "Higher standards," too, are a form of racism, 
particularly when - as is the case with Israel in the kangaroo court of 
international opinion - they magically apply only to our obligations, but 
afford us no greater rights or legitimacy.

So, as Israel navigates the difficult yet crucial task of enforcing the rule of 
law even on the complex and morally challenging battlefield, we must resist the 
urge to leap to uninformed conclusions, as well as the groupthink which pushes 
us to sympathize with the terrorist as a victim, and to view the soldier as a 
cold-blooded killer.

What happens subsequently is up to the military court to decide, and we should 
be proud of the State of Israel for that.

(source: Op-Ed; Ari Soffer----The writer is the Managing Editor of Arutz Sheva 
English----Israel National News)






SCOTLAND:

Mother of tragic teen signs petition calling for murderers and rapists to face 
death penalty


CAMPAIGNERS on the Change.org page are calling for convicted criminals such as 
paedophiles to be executed if forensic evidence shows a person is 100 % guilty.

THE mother of tragic teenager Paige Doherty has signed a petition calling for 
murderers and rapists to face the death penalty.

The Change.org page calls for convicted murderers, paedophiles and rapists to 
be executed if forensic evidence can guarantee a person is 100 % guilty.

It also demands tougher sentencing for killers and rapists, claiming that 
prisons "seem like a holiday camp".

The petition comes just days after 15-year-old Paige's body was found in a 
wooded area just off Glasgow's Great Western Road.

Her devastated mum, Pamela Munro, signed the petition on Saturday writing 
"#justiceforpaige".

Since being created 2 days ago it has already had more than 20,000 signatures.

The online document states: "Bring back some sort of death penalty to convicted 
murders, paedophiles, and rapists.

"If Forensics can 100% guarantee that a person is guilty for the crime then why 
should the hard working people of the UK pay our taxes to put a roof over their 
head, food in their stomach, a job, an education, and all other luxuries you 
can get in prison these days.

"Prison is for punishment and these days it seems like a holiday camp.

"Too many people are suffering horrific crimes for these evil sick twisted 
people and it's time we put a stop to it.

"We are scared to walk our streets and let our children play outside without 
adult supervision.

"Our crime rate for rapes and murders are at an all time high.

"Men, women and children are all being victimised by rape and even worse, 
murder.

"Innocent people do not ask to have such atrocities to happen to them.

"Things have to change and if we bring back the death penalty there will be a 
drop in the crime rate that our country has."

Dozens of Paige's friends and colleagues left messages of support for the 
petition and for Paige's family.

Amy Strawhorn wrote: "I was Paige's boss. So tragic."

Lorna Jane Anderson said: "Something needs to be done to protect our children."

? And Lynn Banks wrote: "You take someone's life, you don't deserve to be 
living yours."

Paige's body was found in a wooded area in Glasgow's West End last Monday after 
going missing two days before.

(source: dailyrecord.co.uk)






GLOBAL:

The death penalty: Bad in U.S., atrocious in other countries


The debate about putting someone to death for committing a crime is an issue 
often raised in criminal justice conversations.

Regardless of which side of the discussion we take, we Americans have some 
sense as to which crimes are appropriate for death penalty consideration. Our 
laws and our public view is that murder is on that short list. Contrast our 
view with others around the world. Others elsewhere view life differently, 
sometimes considerably so.

For example, there are people and countries that applaud and encourage suicide 
bombings. It is not hard to understand, then, where they may be coming from 
when an individual does something they consider criminal.

There are also countries that will kill you if you are a homosexual or if you 
voice criticism against the government. In some countries you can be put to 
death if you are an adulterer or even if you are convicted of theft.

While the list of countries that allow and use the death penalty continues to 
decrease - as of July, 2015, according to Amnesty International (AI), 140 
countries have legally abolished the death penalty or have effectively 
abolished it despite laws still on the books - what, in some countries, 
constitutes a crime that can trigger the death sentence is frequently 
unfathomable.

In the United States of America, being involved in the death of another person 
is almost a de facto prerequisite for getting the death penalty. Another death 
penalty crime is treason, which remains on the books in the Federal system and 
in some states as well.

Everyone in the U.S. who has been executed since the death penalty was 
reinstated in 1976 participated in a crime in which at least one victim died. 
In most of these cases, the individual executed directly killed the victim. A 
small number of death sentences have been carried out where the defendant 
ordered or contracted with another person to carry out a murder. Some death 
sentences have been carried out where the person executed participated in a 
felony during which a victim died at the hands of another participant in the 
felony.

Elsewhere around the world:

--Death sentences can follow convictions for homosexuality in Afghanistan, 
Brunei Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, in the United Arab 
Emirates and in Yemen.

--Convictions for perjury and treason can result in death sentences in Algeria, 
Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Botswana, Central African Republic, 
Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Israel (high treason), Japan, Kenya, 
Laos, Libya, Nauru, North Korea, New Guinea, Peru, Saint Lucia, Sierra Leon, 
Singapore, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and 
Tobago, United Arab Emirates, the United States, Vietnam and Zambia.

--A conviction for espionage can result in death in Algeria, Cameroon, Central 
African Republic, Iran, Peru, Qatar, the United States, Vietnam and Syria.

--Corruption is a death penalty crime in China, Cuba and Iran.

--Fraud is a death penalty offense in China and Vietnam.

--Stealing something can get you executed in Algeria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia 
and Syria.

--Adultery can result in the death penalty in Brunei, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, 
Yemen and Syria.

--A woman and her 2 daughters are being held in Papua, New Guinea on charges of 
sorcery. The death sentence may follow if they are convicted.

--Last November a Saudi Arabian court sentenced a Palestinian poet to death for 
apostasy, defined as the act of abandoning his Muslim faith.

--Saudi Arabia (AI reports) continues to impose the death sentence on 
individuals under the age of 18, violating child human rights laws.

But the death sentence cannot be justified.

--Around the world, some countries with absurdly unfair justice systems (such 
as China, Iran, Iraq) employ the death sentence after conducting unfair trials, 
when "confessions" are extracted through torture, and to punish political 
opponents. The death penalty in such countries is often used as a tool of 
repression, a quick way to silence political opposition. Frequently, those 
accused do not have lawyers representing them.

--It is discriminatory, particularly in the United States, when being poor or 
being a member of an ethnic or a religious minority is much more likely to 
result in a death sentence. This fact is the result of still blatant 
discrimination as well societal factors. Poor people and those in marginalized 
groups have less access to the legal resources that are necessary for them to 
defend themselves.

Amnesty International keeps statistics on executions around the world. They 
rank China the most prolific state executioner, despite the Chinese 
government's efforts to suppress the numbers. AI uses media sources and human 
rights groups, rather than official government sources to estimate the number 
of executions in China.

Executions in China can follow convictions for drug trafficking and for other 
offenses that would not trigger death sentences in the U.S. Apparently China 
does not discriminate by class, according to AI. Recently a billionaire was 
executed for running a criminal gang.

AI statistics place Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in 2nd to 4th places in number 
of annual executions worldwide last year. The U.S. is currently number 5.

Beyond the debate about whether the death penalty should be allowed, many 
states in this country are struggling with the method of execution. The supply 
of lethal drugs, limited now for many years for a number of reasons, has 
resulted in alternate methods of execution being considered, which could be 
used if lethal injections are ruled unconstitutional or if a state cannot 
obtain the necessary drugs.

As for other methods under consideration, the Mississippi House wants to use 
firing squads. Oklahoma would pursue electrocution or a firing squad. Wyoming 
would use the gas chamber and Tennessee would use electrocution. Utah is the 
only state that has executed 3 men by firing squad, the most recent example 
occurring in 2010.

Countries that do execute individuals they define as "criminals" employ methods 
we Americans would never consider: beheading, shooting in the back of the head, 
and hanging. Saudi Arabia has conducted an execution by crucifixion.

Has anyone asked the current crop of Presidential candidates if they would 
support a death penalty ban?

To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, not justice. -- Desmond 
Tutu

(source: Paul A. Samakow is an attorney licensed in Maryland and Virginia, and 
has been practicing since 1980----commdiginews.com)