[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 30



TURKEY:

Turkish opposition demands to restore death penalty for terrorists


In Turkey, the head of the opposition National Movement Party (MHP) Devlet 
Bahceli urged the government to restore the death penalty for terrorists, the 
Turkish TV channel TRT Haber reported March 30.

The fact that the death penalty was abolished in Turkey unties the hands of 
terrorists, Bahceli said.

On Feb. 16, 2015, the head of the parliament's justice commission Ahmet Iyimaya 
said that Turkey's parliament may consider the restoration of death penalty.

Iyimaya said the death penalty can be applied in the case of violence against 
women, and particularly brutal murders.

Following the rape and murder of a 20-year-old student, Ozgecan Aslan, in 
Turkey's Mersin province, a number of ministers requested that the death 
penalty be used against the perpetrator.

Ozgecan Aslan was last week raped and killed by a bus driver. Her body was 
found in a river in southern Turkey.

Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2001. The country hasn't used the death 
penalty since 1986.

(source: trend.az)






BELARUS:

Death sentence to Ivan Kulesh has been upheld


Death sentence to Ivan Kulesh has been upheld photo by the Human Rights Center 
"Viasna" On March 28 the Supreme Court???s Criminal Board has turned down the 
appeal and left the verdict of the Hrodna Regional Court in place. Kulesh was 
told about his right to seek pardon from the President.

Let us recall that Ivan Kulesh was sentenced to death by a verdict of Judge 
Anatol Zayats of the Hrodna Regional Court of 20 November 2015.

He was charged of triple murder, as well as attempted murder, theft and robbery 
committed in the Lida district in 2013 and 2014.

During the hearing, Ivan Kulesh said that he fully agreed with his sentence 
saying that it was 'fair', HRC "Viasna" informs. He confessed to 1 murder, but 
refused to answer the judge's question of whether he had killed the 2 remaining 
saleswomen.

Ivan Kulesh said that during the investigation he was forced to testify. He was 
questioned without a lawyer, while the latter only came to sign papers.

The lawyer asked to commute the death penalty to 25 years' imprisonment, since 
the case has extenuating circumstances, including full confession, which were 
not taken into account by the Regional Court.

The public prosecutor said there was no reason to reduce the sentence.

As a result, the Supreme Court has turned down the appeal and left the verdict 
in place. The death convict was told about his right to seek pardon from the 
President.

Ivan Kulesh had previous convictions for theft, robbery and false denunciation. 
He had no permanent job.

(source: EuroBelarus)



INDONESIA:

Greater Jakarta: Prosecutors lack evidence to charge Jessica


The Jakarta Prosecutor's Office will return the dossier on the murder of Wayan 
Mirna Salihin to the Jakarta Police as it regards the evidence as insufficient 
to charge the sole suspect Jessica Kumala Wongso.

Prosecutor's office spokesman Waluyo said on Tuesday that one of the 
deficiencies in the case dossier was witness testimony as this was fundamental 
to bring a case to the court.

"We need more witness testimony that will be solid enough as evidence. It is 
still incomplete," Waluyo said as quoted by kompas.com, adding that they would 
return the dossier to the investigators within 14 days from it being submitted 
on March 22.

"[We will return it] around April 3 or 4," he said. Separately, Jessica's 
lawyer Hidayat Bostam said the police did not have enough evidence to bring his 
client to trial as a murder suspect. A premeditated murder case, he said, 
needed strong evidence as it carried such a heavy sentence.

Jessica has been charged under Article 340 of the Criminal Code, which carries 
the death penalty.Mirna died on Jan. 6 after drinking an iced coffee while at a 
restaurant in Jakarta with Jessica and another friend. Police have named 
Jessica as the sole suspect in the murder case, alleging she laced the victim's 
coffee with cyanide.

(source: thejakartapost.com)






TAIWAN:

Group denies death penalty rally result of 'Little Light Bulb' case


A civic rights group that is planning to hold a rally in Taipei on April 10 to 
promote enforcement of capital punishment said Wednesday that the event was not 
aimed at highlighting any isolated case.

The White Rose Social Care Association announced on Tuesday that it would hold 
a mass rally in front of the Presidential Office building on April 10 in the 
wake of the beheading of a four-year-old girl on Monday in what was apparently 
a random attack.

The announcement was met by a response from the mother of the 4-year-old girl 
on her Facebook page on Wednesday urging individuals or groups not to try to 
exploit the victim for their own ends.

Defending the association's rally, the group's chairwoman Eva Liang said the 
planned rally was not aimed at highlighting any specific case but rather at 
urging the government to take the issue of personal safety more seriously.

She said her organization had been planning the rally since before the Jan. 16 
presidential election and issued a written statement to presidential candidates 
at that time to promote the cause but did not receive any response.

Liang also stressed that the group did not reveal the names of the 4-year-old 
girl and her mother or the girl's nickname -- "Little Light Bulb "-- on its 
official website and that the girl's mother wrote at the end of the Facebook 
post that her comments were not targeted at the association.

The main focus of the rally will be to stress the importance of personal safety 
of the people and push for the enforcement of capital punishment, Liang said.

Asked whether the girl's mother will be invited to attend the event, Liang said 
"no," because "the association did not want to rub salt into the wound of the 
victim's family."

The random attack occurred Monday when the mother and her daughter were on 
their way to a metro station in Taipei's Neihu District to meet the girl's 
grandfather and 2 of her siblings for lunch.

A man later identified as 33-year-old Wang Ching-yu grabbed the child from 
behind and beheaded her with a cleaver after striking several blows.

Wang was arrested, and a district court ordered that he be detained on the 
grounds that he was a flight risk.

The case, the 2nd child killing in Taipei in less than a year, has sparked 
widespread public anger and criticism of calls to abolish the death penalty.

The death penalty has always been legal under Taiwan's Criminal Code, but death 
sentences were not enforced for a 5-year period from 2005 to 2010 until public 
furor over the lack of enforcement pressured the incumbent Kuomintang 
government to resume executions.

Opinion polls in Taiwan have indicated strong support for the death penalty, 
but the Democratic Progressive Party, which was in power from 2000 to 2008 and 
will assume power again on May 20, has traditionally been against capital 
punishment.

(source: focustaiwan.tw)


INDIA:

10 convicted in last case under Pota


A special Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) court on Tuesday convicted 10 
accused, including conspirators Saquib Nachan and planter Muzameel Ansari, for 
planning and executing triple blasts at Mumbai Central, Vile Parle and Mulund 
in 2002-2003. The court acquitted 3 accused of all charges leveled against 
them.

On Wednesday, the court will hear arguments regarding the sentence. Ansari 
faces the maximum sentence of death penalty, while a few others, including 
Nachan, could be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Special public prosecutor Rohini Salian said the conviction was based purely on 
the witness testimony, confessional statements of the accused given under Pota 
and forensic and ballistic evidence.

The 1st blast took place near an eatery in the main building of Mumbai Central 
terminus on on December 6, 2002, followed by another in a market in Vile Parle 
on January 27, 2003 and the 3rd in a crowded ladies 1st class compartment of a 
suburban train near Mulund March 13. Nachan, suspected to be a member of the 
banned outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was said to be 1 of 
the prime conspirators in the case. The prosecution had clubbed the 3 blast 
cases, because the conspiracy was interlinked and accused were associated with 
each other.

Though the draft charges were submitted to the court in 2003, the actual 
charges were framed only in 2014, because Nachan had moved the higher court, 
challenging the clubbing of the cases and maintainability of Pota. To bring 
home the guilt of the accused, the prosecution examined 154 witnesses, 
including injured persons and eyewitnesses.

Salian said the first arrest was of Nachan, made in 2003, after a police team 
was restrained by residents of Padgha village, who refused to let the cops 
carry out any local search. Nachan then moved the high court, seeking 
directions to restrain the police from entering the village and harassing its 
natives. It was then that the Mumbai police crime branch opposed the plea and 
submitted an affidavit raising suspicion about the accused.

Based on that, the high court directed Nachan to surrender before Pota. Later, 
the other accused also came to be arrested. 2 accused died while two were 
discharged during the trial. Finally, only 13 were tried, of whom 3 were 
acquitted.

Salian said the prosecution relied on the testimony of the witness, who knew 
bomb planter Ansari and had seen him at the place of the blast before the 
incident. Through several witness testimonies and confessional statements, the 
prosecution was able to prove the association between the accused.

The prosecution had alleged that the blast conspiracy was hatched between three 
groups located in Malegaon, Kurla, Padgha and Kalyan. Salian said the bombs 
were prepared at accused Dr Wahid Ansari's clinic in Kurla.

The blasts

December 6, 2002: Blast at Mumbai Central terminus injures 25 people

January 27, 2003: Blast at Vile Parle market kills 1 woman and injures 32 
people. 1 unexploded bomb found.

March 13, 2003: Blast in a Karjat-bound local near Mulund station kills 11, 
injures 82

The convicts

1. Saquib Nachan

2. Atif Mulla

3. Haseeb Mulla

4. Ghoolam Khotal

5. Farhan Khot

6. Dr Wahid Ansari

7. Muzameel Ansari

8. Mohammed Sheikh

9. Noor Ansari

10. Anwar Ali

Acquitted accused

1. Mohammed Nadeem Paloba

2. Haroon Lohar

3. Adnan Mulla

(source: dnaindia.com)






BANGLADESH:

Death for Bangladeshi woman who cut out lover's heart


A young woman who cut her lover's heart out and slashed his throat has been 
sentenced to death by a Bangladeshi court, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Fatema Akhter Sonali, 21, acted out of revenge after the man refused to marry 
her and secretly kept recordings of the couple having sex, prosecutor Quazi 
Shabbir Ahmed said.

She had also found video footage of him having sex with other women on his 
laptop, Ahmed said.

"It's rare for a woman to be sentenced to death. But her case was exceptional," 
he told AFP."

She admitted to the court she killed her lover, Emdadul Haq Shipon, for 
refusing to marry her and for keeping a recording video of their sexual 
intercourse in his laptop.

The judge delivered Sonali's sentence on Monday in a packed court in the 
southwestern city of Khulna.

In her confession, Sonali said she spiked a soft drink with 20 sleeping pills 
and gave it to Shipon, a 28-year-old part-time lift attendant at a hospital.

When he fell unconscious, she bound his hands and feet before killing him by 
slitting his throat.

Sonali then cut open his chest and removed his heart.

"She told the court that she was curious to see how big his heart was. She said 
a man must have a big heart to carry out such audacious crimes," said Ahmed, 
using a Bengali idiom.

Sonali committed the murder in March 2014 and can challenge the sentence in a 
higher court.

If her execution goes ahead she will be the 1st woman to be hanged in 
Bangladesh, according to Tipu Sultan, a deputy inspector general of prisons.

(source: asiaone.com)

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

SC fixes Apr 3 for hearing date on Nizami's review


A chamber judge of the Supreme Court today fixed April 3 for hearing a 
government application filed for setting a date on the hearing of condemned war 
criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami's review petition.

Chamber Judge Mirza Hossain Haider sent the government's petition to the apex 
court's full bench.

The full bench of appellate division on April 3 may fix a date for holding a 
hearing on Nizami's review petition, Deputy Attorney General Ekramul Haque 
Tutul told The Daily Star.

Earlier on the day, the government filed an application to the SC to fix the 
date for hearing the review petition.

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Nizami yesterday filed the review petition challenging 
the SC's verdict that upheld death penalty for him for war crimes.

Nizami filed the petition 14 days after the SC released the full judgment.

The SC on January 6 this year upheld the verdict of the International Crimes 
Tribunal-1 that sentenced Nizami to death for crimes against humanity during 
the country's 1971 Liberation War.

2 months later, on March 15, the apex court released the full verdict. The ICT 
issued death warrant for him hours after the SC released its full verdict.

The following day, the jail authorities read out the judgment before the 
convict.

In October 2014, the ICT-1 handed down capital punishment to Nizami, the leader 
of infamous Al-Badr Bahini, for his wartime offences.

(source: The Daily Star)