[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 4




INDIA:

Rajya Sabha passes Anti-Hijacking Bill


Rajya Sabha today passed the Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2014, which provides for 
death penalty even if ground handling staff and airport personnel are killed 
during such acts.

In the earlier Bill, hijackers could be tried for death penalty only in the 
event of death of hostages, such as flight crew, passengers and security 
personnel.

The amendments in the Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2014 were cleared by the Cabinet In 
July 2015.

Besides broadening the definition of hijacking, it also provides for an 
enhanced punishment to the perpetrators as well as the area of jurisdiction.

Following the amendments, the perpetrators of hijacking would now be punishable 
with death penalty where such an act result in the death of any person.

The Anti-Hijacking Bill 2014, introduced in Rajya Sabha in December 2014, was 
referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and 
Culture.

The panel submitted its report in March 2015, suggesting various changes 
including making hoax calls a punishable offence and providing adequate 
compensation for victims of hijacking.

The panel had asked the government to look at adequately defining the terms 
'hostage' and 'security personnel'.

Earlier on discussion on the bill, A U Singh Deo (BJD) said the bill does not 
have provisions for improving security and intelligence gathering.

He added that India should make an agency to handle airport security on the 
lines of TSA in the US, which was created post 9/11.

V P Singh Badnore (BJP) said that there should be provisions for the safety of 
the Parliament building as well as the President's estate, which are close to 
the airports.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajpathi Raju said that the issues of security 
zone is looked after by Home Ministry.

Deputy Chairman P J kurien asked Raju to convey to the Ministry the concerns 
raised by the member over the security of the Parliament building and the 
President's estate.

During Special Mention, Vijay Jawaharlal Darda (Cong) raised the issue of 
restructuring of the Bureau of Civil Aviation.

Basawaraj Patil (BJP) demanded for a better utilisation of the ESI Hospital in 
Gulbarga (Karnataka).

Lal Singh Vadodia (BJP) raised the issue of improving the post office net 
banking services.

Vishambhar Prasad Nishad (SP) demanded to make the Prime Minister Crop 
Insurance premium free.

Vivek Gupta (TMC) raised the issue of release of MGNREGA funds to states.

(source: siasat.com)






INDONESIA:

Kalla: Death Penalty Is Just a Waiting Game


Vice President Jusuf Kalla handed over a file related to the next round of 
executions of death-row inmates to the Attorney General's Office on Wednesday 
(04/05).

However, Kalla said the Supreme Court had already issued verdicts in the cases 
long ago and that the executions now only constituted a waiting game.

"The Supreme Court has the authority to order executions and the verdicts have 
been issued a long time ago, but the time of the execution, that is up to 
[Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo]," Kalla said.

The 3rd round of executions was supposed to take place early this year but it 
was postponed due to shortages in the AGO's annual budget. Until now, there has 
been no confirmation from the AGO of when the executions will take place.

Among those on death row are Frenchman Sergei Areski Atlaoui, Briton Lindsay 
Sandiford and Mary Jane Veloso of the Philippines. However, the AGO confirmed 
on Tuesday that Mary Jane Veloso will not be facing the firing squad in the 3rd 
round of executions.

"We only have to set the execution date. That is what we are still unable to 
decide at this moment. As for the executions, we have never said that we would 
stop them, because the war on drugs will never end," Prasetyo said on Tuesday. 
He added that the government made the execution of drug convicts a priority.

The attorney general is still keeping the names of the inmates and dates of the 
execution a secret, saying only that his office will need to make sure that all 
of the death-row inmates' legal options have been exhausted.

Most of the inmates executed last year were foreigners, prompting a wave of 
international condemnation over Indonesia's use of capital punishment, as well 
as diplomatic pressure from many countries. After the execution, Australia 
temporarily recalled its ambassador to Indonesia.

Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) director Supriyadi W Eddyono urged 
the government to cancel all executions, saying that there has been errors in 
some inmates' death-row verdicts. He gave the example of Zainal Abidin, whose 
dossier had been missing for a few years but then suddenly reappeared with a 
verdict ordering the death penalty.

Supriyadi also said that the AGO was unable to explain the method used to 
determine the order in which inmates are scheduled to be executed.

The next round of executions is set to take place at the notorious Nusa 
Kambangan prison island near Cilacap, Central Java, where 14 convicts, 
including Australia's so-called Bali 9 duo Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, 
were executed last year.

(source: Jakarta Globe)

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

Indonesia police: We've trained shooters for next round of executions----'We 
have also prepared the facility for the bodies,' police said


Indonesia is preparing for a new round of executions, police said Wednesday, 
May 4 around a year after Jakarta sparked global outrage by putting 7 foreign 
drug convicts to death by firing squad.

Officials recently started getting ready after an order from the 
attorney-general's office, which oversees executions, said Central Java police 
spokesman Aloysius Lilik Darmanto.

"We have been making preparations," Darmanto told AFP. "We are ready whenever 
the order comes."

Darmanto said preparations included ensuring locations where the executions 
would take place were ready. For last year's executions, the drug convicts were 
taken to a jungle clearing on the island, which houses several high-security 
prisons, and tied to stakes before being shot.

"We have also prepared the facility for the bodies," he said.

"Each death row convict will face a group of 10 shooters and one group 
commander. We have selected and trained the personnel."

There has been growing speculation in recent weeks that executions were set to 
resume after a year-long hiatus, but high-ranking officials in Jakarta have so 
far said little. There was no immediate comment Wednesday from the 
attorney-general's office.

He said no date had been set for the executions, which will take place on the 
prison island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, and he did not know who would 
face the firing squad.

Firing squad

Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has repeatedly insisted that drug 
traffickers must face the firing squad to stem rising narcotics use. There are 
scores of drug convicts on death row in the country, including Indonesians and 
foreigners.

The execution in April last year of 7 foreigners - 2 Australians, a Brazilian 
and 4 Nigerians - and an Indonesian for drug offenses sparked international 
fury.

Since then, no one else has been put to death, but officials had continued to 
insist publicly that it was the country's right to use capital punishment."

Among the foreigners on death row are Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and Filipina Mary 
Jane Veloso, who were both pulled from the last round of executions.

Veloso will not be included in the next round of executions.

A British grandmother, Lindsay Sandiford, is on death row in Bali after she was 
caught smuggling a huge stash of cocaine into the resort island.

The executions last year of Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran 
Sukumaran in particular caused tensions, with Indonesia's neighbour Australia 
temporarily recalling its ambassador from Jakarta.

The April round was the 2nd under Jokowi. Since he took office in 2014, 14 drug 
convicts - mostly foreigners - have been executed.

(source: rappler.com)






PAKISTAN:

Pakistani Muslims Charged With Blasphemy After Sikh's Turban Desecrated


5 Muslim employees of a Pakistani transport company were arraigned on blasphemy 
charges after a Sikh man complained they desecrated his turban during an 
argument about a delayed bus.

Mahindar Paul Singh complained to police after the May 1 brawl on a bus journey 
from Faisalabad to Multan.

Singh said one employee threw his turban on the ground during the altercation 
-- an act tantamount to desecration under the Sikh religious code.

Singh said that, since he is a Pakistani national, the attackers should be 
charged with blasphemy according to the same law that non-Muslims have been 
prosecuted under when accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad or desecrating 
the Koran.

Pakistani authorities agreed, leading to the start of legal proceedings on May 
3.

Blasphemy carries the death penalty and is a hugely sensitive issue in 
Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Rights activists criticize Pakistan's blasphemy laws, saying they often are 
used to carry out personal vendettas against minorities.

(source: Radio Free Europe / Raio Liberty)






TAIWAN:

Death penalty debate needs to be undertaken with care


Nobody is indifferent to the public's opinion on death penalty. According to a 
survey from National Chung Cheng University's Crime Research Center conducted 
in February, more than eight in 10 Taiwanese people are against the abolition 
of the death penalty. That trend is still consolidating and developing to this 
day across all layers of society, including among politicians across the 
political spectrum. In response to several grisly murders carried out in broad 
daylight in recent months, President Ma Ying-jeou stated last month that Taiwan 
is not thinking of replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment without 
parole for the time being. In publicly choosing one side of the debate on death 
penalty, the president threw his weight behind those who are calling for a 
"robust justice system" in which death penalty is issued when "necessary." Yes, 
but how do you define situations in which a death sentence is "unavoidably 
determined"? This question remains unanswered, just like the acute differences 
of opinion existing between opponents and supporters of the death penalty. 
Still, the relevance of this issue was highlighted earlier this week after the 
release of Cheng Hsing-tse, previously convicted for killing a police officer, 
after 14 years in jail. The Taichung Branch of the Taiwan High Court granted 
Cheng a retrial on Tuesday due to new evidence discovered in March, indicating 
that the police officer's injury and Cheng's location at the time did not 
match.

This is not the 1st time, however, that our judicial system erred in its 
approach to death penalty. In 1996, Jiang Guoqing, a 20-year-old solider then, 
was accused of abducting, raping and eventually murdering a 5-year-old girl in 
a toilet at the R.O.C.'s Air Force Combatant Command after a piece of toilet 
paper was found there had Jiang's semen and the girl's blood on it. Security 
forces were accused of torturing Jiang to extract confessions. Soon, he was 
executed in response to the public pressure. In 2011, however, someone serving 
in the military at that time admitted that it was him who had committed the 
horrible crime. The reason why there was Jiang's semen on the toilet paper was 
simply because he was masturbating on the same toilet prior to the incident. In 
the Su Jianhe case, security forces were also accused of torturing Su and his 
two friends to extract confessions for a double killing in 1991. The trio was 
forced to admit that he had committed the crimes after a series of tortures. 
However, evidence show that the trio was "very likely" not present when the 
crime occurred. Yet, it took the judicial system 21 years to find that Su is, 
in fact, innocent. That is an important argument on the death penalty debate, 
which needs to be undertaken with care in order to leave seek for justice 
instead of revenge.

After all, the main argument in Taiwan, Europe and the United States for 
opposing the death penalty is the risk of executing the innocent. In the U.S., 
for instance, there have been indications that support for the death penalty is 
on the decline. While the majority of Americans still favor the death penalty 
for those convicted of murder, support is at its lowest point for the past 40 
years. A new survey has revealed that 56 % are in favor of the death penalty 
for people convicted of murder, while 38 % are opposed. The percentage of those 
who support the death penalty has declined 6 % points since 2011, when in the 
1980s and 90s support often surpassed 70 %. Do you remember the case of Lloyd 
Schlup, who was convicted of murder while in prison in 1985, though videotape 
footage showed him to be in a different location during the time of the murder 
and several witnesses swore that he was not at the scene of the crime. Schlup 
was finally given the chance to prove his innocence when the United States 
Supreme Court corrected a lower court's overly narrow approach to the degree of 
proof needed to support a claim of innocence. But shortly after, Congress 
passed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which 
replaced the Supreme Court's standard with one that is virtually impossible to 
meet. Schlup was granted the chance for a new hearing after the federal 
District Court judge reviewed the evidence of his innocence. However, if the 
standards equivalent to those now imposed by Congress had applied to Schlup's 
case at the time, he would not have gotten relief and would probably have been 
executed. That is another reason for pushing for a careful debate on death 
penalty in order for justice to be served, meaning that it invokes proper fear 
among the public, hopefully preventing similar cases from being repeated in the 
future. If the public are dupes, however, and innocent victims are executed 
then we also have to warn that democracy is a dupe. That is equally worrisome.

(source: Editorial, The China Post)






BANGLADESH:

4 to walk gallows for murder in Pirojpur


A court here yesterday sentenced 4 people to death for killing a man in 
Zianagar upazila of the district in 2010.

The death penalty awardees are Sheuli Begum, 30, 40, Asad Majhi, Farid Ahmed 
and Belal Gazi of Kalaron village in the upazila.

The District and Sessions Judges' Court also fined the four Tk 50,000 each, 
court sources said.

According to the prosecution, Sheuli Begum, wife of Manik Majhi had an 
extramarital affair with Asad Majhi of the village. At one stage, they planned 
to kill Manik.

On the night of May 25, 2010, Asad, Farid and Belal with the help of Sheuli 
entered Manik's house and stabbed him indiscriminately, leaving him dead on the 
spot.

Deceased's younger brother Mizanur Rahman filed a murder case with Indurkani 
Police Station the following day.

Sub-Inspector Mahbubur Rahman of the police station submitted the charge-sheet 
against the 4 in 2011.

After examining the case record and 19 witnesses, Judge Mohammad Golam Kibria 
handed down the verdict.

(source: The Daily Star)






NIGERIA:

Nigerian senate recommends death penalty for kidnappers----Recommendation comes 
day after police rescue ex-Senator Anisulowo, who was kidnapped in southwestern 
Ogun State


Nigerian senate has recommended the death penalty for anyone involved in 
kidnapping, which is a rising phenomenon in the country's southern region where 
victims have included senators and schoolchildren.

The recommendation was made as lawmakers Wednesday unanimously adopted a report 
of the Senate Joint Committee on police affairs, national security and 
intelligence.

In his remarks, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce said: "Kidnapping is a very serious 
problem with grave implications in several areas of the economy."

The committee has the mandate to make recommendations on how to deal with 
unabated cases of abductions and hostage-taking, some of which resulted in 
deaths.

It recommended that a law prescribing death penalty for abduction be enacted as 
a national response for the phenomenon. It was unanimously adopted.

Senators took turns to describe their experiences as they shared how their own 
relatives got kidnapped and demands were made for ransom.

Senator Adamu Aliero of the ruling All Progressive Congress recounted the 
ordeals of abductees and what their families go through during such experience. 
"Anyone convicted of kidnapping should be sentenced to death," Aliero said.

The adoption of the committees' report came a day after police rescued a former 
Senator Iyabo Anisulowo, who had been abducted last Wednesday in southwestern 
Ogun State. Her abductor had demanded 2 million naira ($10,152) in return for 
her freedom.

Incumbent Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu recalled how he was abducted 
on September 10, 2000, and kept for two days before he was released.

Nigeria's most prominent abduction was the April 14, 2014, ferrying away of 
some 276 schoolchildren by Boko Haram militants. Only 57 of those girls have so 
far been accounted for, with 219 still believed to be held in captivity.

(source: aa.com.tr)