[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 7



JAMAICA:

Human rights groups urge Jamaica to shelve idea to resume hanging


Forget the death penalty and instead focus on fast tracking critical reforms in 
the justice and law enforcement systems.

That's the advice 2 human rights groups - Stand Up for Jamaica (SUFJ) and 
Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) - have given to National Security Minister Robert 
Montague following his announcement that government is exploring the 
possibility of bringing back the death penalty.

Montague said the state minister in his ministry, Senator Pearnel Charles Jr, 
has been instructed to consult with several stakeholders, including the 
Ministry of Justice and Attorney General's Office, to determine if there are 
any "legal impediments" to be addressed in resuming hangings.

But the groups say there's an abundance of evidence that shows capital 
punishment is not an effective deterrent to crime, with several countries who 
continue to impose capital punishment still seeing high rates of violent crime.

"Instead of reviving an inhumane and ineffective practice, Government should 
focus on fast-tracking the critical reforms needed in the justice and law 
enforcement systems," they said in a joint statement. "Capital punishment does 
not address the root causes of crime and this is where we feel Minister 
Montague should focus his attention."

SUFJ and JFJ also suggested that if Jamaica is to be a part of the global 
village then it must accept international norms in order to avoid the 
consequences of losing critical support and funding from donors and 
international partners who have clearly expressed their opposition to the death 
penalty.

They added that while they understood the minister's need to send a strong 
message, "he could have been more prudent in making his comments about the 
resumption of hanging".

"Minister Montague's comments about a resumption of the death penalty has fed 
into the frustrations of many Jamaicans and has served to ignite passions about 
what is a very widely debated issue," said SUFJ Executive Director Carla 
Gullotta.

"If we are not careful, this frustration could lead to citizens taking matters 
into their own hands once they come to appreciate the well-established legal 
impediments which make the resumption of hanging highly unlikely in Jamaica," 
Gullotta added.

(source: caribbean360.com)






AUSTRALIA:

Bali 9: Turnbull government considers plan to gag AFP in death penalty cases


Australia's federal police would be forbidden from sharing information about 
drug crimes if it could result in the death penalty under major changes being 
considered by the Turnbull government.

Just after the 1-year anniversary of the executions in Indonesia of Australian 
drug smuggling ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, a parliamentary 
review led by retiring Liberal MP Philip Ruddock has called for new guidelines 
to prevent such cases ever occurring again.

The bipartisan report recommends the Australian Federal Police obtain 
guarantees that prosecutors in partner countries will not seek to apply the 
death penalty in drug cases before sharing information. In situations where 
such guarantees cannot be obtained, the AFP should withhold the information.

"The need to combat transnational crime cannot override the need to uphold 
Australia's human rights obligations and avoid exposing people to the death 
penalty," the report says.

The AFP - widely condemned for tipping off Indonesian authorities about Chan 
and Sukumaran's Bali 9 heroin plot - would have to take a much more careful 
approach under the plan. In "high risk" cases it would defer to the 
Attorney-General to make the final decision about how to proceed.

Crucially, the new AFP guidelines would apply to foreign nationals as well as 
Australian citizens.

The AFP has defended its role in the Bali 9 case, saying it did not have enough 
evidence to arrest the Australians before they left for Indonesia. The AFP has 
not responded to requests for comment to the new report.

Official police figures released under Freedom of Information laws last year 
showed the AFP puts hundreds of people at risk of the death penalty every year 
- 95 % of them for drug offences - with its information sharing.

The report also calls on the government to redouble its efforts to have the 
death penalty abolished worldwide, particularly in Australia's region and in 
the United States.

Mr Ruddock, who has long been a leading advocate for the abolition of the death 
penalty, delivered the report as his final act in parliament before calling 
time on his 43-year political career.

"There is no place for the death penalty in the modern world," Mr Ruddock said.

Amnesty International said the report was commendable and urged the government 
to adopt all the recommendations.

The Human Rights Law Centre's director of advocacy and research, Emily Howie, 
echoed that sentiment.

"Under current laws and guidelines, if the Bali 9 case happened again tomorrow, 
nothing would prevent the AFP from acting in the same way. Change is clearly 
needed and this important report provides a blueprint for meaningful and human 
rights-compliant reform," she said.

The Law Council of Australia said the report should send a clear message to our 
regional neighbours like Indonesia that Australia will "relentlessly campaign" 
to see the death penalty abolished.

The report also recommends the Attorney-General's department conduct a review 
of its extradition and mutual assistance arrangements to ensure they align with 
Australia's international obligations.

Chan and Sukumaran were executed by firing squad on the Indonesian prison 
island of Nusa Kambangan on April 29 last year.

Australia abolished the death penalty in 1973, the same year Mr Ruddock was 
first elected.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)






PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

Papua New Guinea tells UN it accepts court decision on Manus Island illegality 
---- Human rights council assessment meeting advised that arrangements are 
being made for the 905 men still under detention


Papua New Guinea has told the United Nations it accepts a court decision that 
the Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island is illegal, and is working 
to make "appropriate arrangements" for the men detained within.

Overnight on Friday, Papua New Guinea appeared before the Universal Periodic 
Review, a human rights council assessment where countries publicly critique 
other states' human rights records.

Several countries raised the issue of the death penalty in PNG, calling on the 
country to impose a moratorium on capital punishment. PNG has not executed 
anybody since 1954, but the punishment remains legally active.

Sarufa told the UPR session that PNG would not be swayed by international 
pressure to end the practice.

"The death penalty under international law is not illegal. And for Papua New 
Guinea, the death penalty is part of our penal code. On the issue of a 
moratorium that has been proposed by a number of delegations, this is a 
sensitive issue, and ... under the UN charter, each and every country has 
sovereign right to make decisions in its own national interest.

"We have a law that prescribes the death penalty as part and parcel of our 
judicial system. And until and unless the appropriate authority which is the 
national parliament of Papua New Guinea decides, based on the sentiments of 
Papua New Guineans, we still have, in our penal code, the death penalty."

(source: The Guardian)






INDIA:

Death row inmates as alive as dead bodies: Report highlights flaws in justice 
system


The execution of Yakub Memon, one of the accused in 1993 Bombay bombings, last 
year ignited the debate on 'capital punishment' with pro- and anti-death 
punishment brigades making ferocious arguments to prove their points. While 
arguments against Yakub's hanging addressed specific procedural facts of the 
case, it also brought forth the debate on the desirability of the death 
sentence as we call it in India.

The massive unrest that was witnessed on the JNU campus over the last 3 months 
was an offshoot of long resentment of a group of students over the execution of 
Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. At the heart of it, however, was the 
objection to the death sentence in principle.

In this backdrop, 'Death Penalty India Report' released on Friday by the Center 
of Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi assumes great significance 
as it raises serious questions on the criminal justice system in the country.

Anup Surendranath, Director, Centre on the Death Penalty National Law 
University, while presenting the report said that the report tends to reflect 
upon "this unique and harshest punishment in the criminal justice system in 
India as it is administered today" and in doing so tends to make serious 
efforts to find the answer to these questions: What is the state of the 
criminal justice system that we use to sentence people to death? How do prisons 
treat the death row prisoners? What kind of legal assistance do they get? What 
kind of evidence is used in these cases? And what are the sentencing practices 
in these cases?

"And in that sense the idea of the report is to introduce the aspects the 
administration of the death penalty that are just absent from the 
conversation," said Surendranath. "And I think by the virtue of being the most 
unique and harshest of punishment available the compliance and fidelity to 
constitutional protections and the rule of law must be at its highest. And that 
is what we were testing. What we see is the complete breakdown of the criminal 
justice system," he added.

In terms of who gets the death penalty, the report states that around 70 % of 
death row prisoners are from the economically vulnerable background. 64 % of 
them are primary or sole earner in their families at the time of the arrest; 76 
% of them either belong to Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) or 
Other Backward Castes (OBC) or are religious minorities that include Muslims 
and Christians. 23 % of death row prisoners never went to school for a single 
day and 62 % of death row prisoners did not complete their secondary education. 
Around 30 % are those who belong to religious minorities/OBC/SC/ST class, did 
not complete the secondary education and are economically vulnerable.

Experience in police custody

"Rampant narrative of custodial tortures is what we heard while interviewing 
these prisoners. Most basic constitutional procedures are not followed by the 
police. Eighty percent of prisoners told us that they suffered in police 
custody," said Surendranath.

This is what the report states: "The forms of torture described by the 
prisoners often left permanent effects on their health and bodily integrity. 
Permanent loss of eyesight and hearing, irreparable damage to limbs and other 
bodily parts, spinal injuries are some of the lasting effects of custodial 
violence that prisoners complained of. Amongst prisoners subject to intense 
electric shocks over significant periods in police custody, we often heard 
about severe recurring headaches. 1 prisoner claimed that he had developed 
epilepsy after being subject to prolonged electric shocks in police custody. 
The inability to eat any food due to intense pain and swelling, urinating 
blood, fractures in different parts of the body, bleeding from the mouth, ears 
or anus were other debilitating consequences that prisoners suffered after 
being subjected to custodial violence."

Denied basic constitutional safeguards

According to the report, 64.5 % prisoners said they were not produced before 
the magistrate within 24 hours. "Out of the 258 prisoners who spoke about 
production before a Magistrate, 166 said that they were not produced before a 
Magistrate within 24 hours. Narratives of police custody for periods up to 
seven days, which sometimes even extended to several weeks or months, were 
documented." 97 % of the interviewed prisoners did not have lawyers when the 
police interrogated them. Even while being produced before the magistrate 90 
percent of them were not represented by a lawyer.

Commenting on this aspect, Surendranath said, "These are questions that do not 
enter death penalty adjudication. Courts do not seem to grapple with the 
reality how these cases come to them, how these cases are carried out and what 
are the procedural violations. If you have to impose this punishment, I truly 
believe that it must have absolute gold standard of compliance. But you are so 
far away from basic procedural compliance with constitutional and legislative 
safeguards."

Issues of Juveniles

9 persons sentenced to death by trial courts in the past 15 years were found to 
be juveniles by the high courts. Determining the age of the convict becomes 
very difficult as most have had no documented proof owing to their 
socio-economic background and bone density test is not considered very 
authentic.

Referring to one such case, the report states, "Chiranjiv, a prisoner sentenced 
to death in 2013 for the rape and murder of a minor, claimed that he was a 
juvenile at the time of the incident. It must be noted that this aspect was not 
considered by the trial court in its judgment and neither is it known if this 
was raised by Chiranjiv's lawyer. Chiranjiv had studied till the 10th standard 
and thereafter, was working in a brick kiln. After the incident, his family 
severed all contact with Chiranjiv, and only after he was sentenced to death, 
did they begin to visit him and provide support. During his interview, he said 
that he was hopeful that his sentence would be commuted by the High Court, and 
otherwise he was ready to go to every forum available to him, including the 
Supreme Court, and thereafter the Governor and President. More than anything, 
he longed to be with his family. Chiranjiv committed suicide in prison a few 
months after we met him. He was only 20 years old".

Talking about a case where 2 brothers were convicted and claimed to be 
juvenile, Surendranath said that while the elder one had gone to school for few 
months and had documents to prove his age the younger brother had none. In 
another case the prisoner who had spent 19 years in jail, 16 years on death 
row, was found to be juvenile after Centre on the Death Penalty took initiative 
and after much efforts could find the documents to prove his age. But he termed 
it as 'pure luck' which is not possible in most of the cases.

Improper legal aid system

The report states that lack of competent legal representation and the 
minimalistic (bordering on non-existent) sentencing practices are of particular 
concern. "Very often the concern about the quality of legal representation has 
been couched in terms of inadequacies of the legal aid system. More than 60 % 
of the prisoners sentenced to death had private lawyers in the trial court and 
high courts. It must be a cause for extreme concern that prisoners and their 
families wanted to avoid the legal aid system at all costs and therefore went 
to great lengths to ensure that they had private legal representation," reads 
the report.

It adds, "While this deepened their economic vulnerability, it did not ensure 
access to competent legal representation. It is evident that the problem of 
legal representation in capital cases cannot be meaningfully characterised as 
one of legal aid against private representation. The concern with competent 
legal representation in capital cases is much broader and cannot be restricted 
to just legal aid lawyers. This was perhaps most amplified at the stage of 
sentencing where the sentencing hearings seem to be conducted merely to meet 
the technical requirements of the law and very little else. Given the paucity 
of relevant sentencing information being brought before the courts, it is not 
surprising that the sentencing parts in judgments tend to focus almost 
exclusively on the nature of the crime".

Victimisation of the families of the convicts

The report also tries to bring out the fact that there are very serious and 
real social costs to the experience that prisoners and their families go 
through. "The social and economic consequences along with debilitating forms of 
ostracisation that families face heighten their vulnerability, driving them 
deeper into destitution."

"The faith of the families in the criminal justice system is further eroded as 
the case moves into the realm of the appellate courts and the mercy 
jurisdiction. The irony of the legal system is such that the closer a prisoner 
gets to execution, the administration of justice gets more opaque from the 
perspective of families. It is difficult for the families of prisoners to get 
any substantial information about the proceedings in the High Court and that 
problem only worsens when the case moves to the Supreme Court. There is no real 
protection against such multiple axes of vulnerability and the tendency to see 
the suffering of prisoner families as morally acceptable collateral costs must 
be resisted," reads the report.

Raising serious questions on the legal aid assistance provided to the accused 
persons the report states, "Defense lawyers hardly have any information about 
the individual they are representing that can be meaningfully used in 
sentencing hearings. As mentioned earlier, the very idea of a sentencing 
hearing is to consider all circumstances of the individual beyond the crime in 
question. A comprehensive understanding of the prisoner's background requires 
an extensive interaction by the lawyer. Unfortunately, that is severely lacking 
in the manner in which the prisoners in this study were represented. It is a 
combination of the inability of the accused to afford quality representation 
along with structural issues regarding the nature of criminal defense in 
India".

Inadequate trial

Out of the 225 prisoners who spoke about their presence during the trial 
proceedings, only 57 (25.3 %) said that they were present during all hearings. 
The responses of the remaining prisoners varied from attending the majority of 
proceedings to being present for the examination of a few witnesses. Another 
practice was taking the prisoners to the court premises and then confining them 
in the court lock-up, without actually producing them in the courtroom.

No talks of reformation and rehabilitation

The Supreme Court in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab, while upholding the 
constitutionality of the death penalty, placed significant emphasis on 
reformation. However, according to the report this is not addressed in any 
substantive manner.

Accused not even provided with proper documents

According to the report, while section 207 of the CrPC provides that the 
Magistrate shall, without delay, furnish the accused with a copy of the 
chargesheet and other documents such as the first information report, 
statements made by persons which the police may seek to examine as witnesses 
and judicial confessions before the Magistrate, it is blatantly violated. "Out 
of the 255 prisoners who spoke about receiving the chargesheet, 60 said that 
they never received a copy of the chargesheet. Among the 195 prisoners who did 
receive a copy, there was a widespread concern that they received it after the 
commencement of the trial, or after the pronouncement of the trial court 
judgment. Further, it was a challenge to understand the language in which the 
chargesheet was written while others could not read it at all as they were 
illiterate," it says.

Not even informed about the ground of arrest

According to the report, of the 219 prisoners who spoke about being informed 
about the ground of arrest, 136 said that they were not informed about the 
same. Common practices included asking individuals to accompany the police 
officials for false and often vague reasons such as 'answering a few questions' 
or 'signing some documents'.

graphic

There were 385 prisoners under the sentence of death during the course of this 
project. 373 of those prisoners across 20 states and one Union Territory 
(Andaman & Nicobar Islands) are a part of this study (Graphic 1).1 The 
remaining 12 prisoners who do not form part of this study were sentenced to 
death in Tamil Nadu. Despite our numerous attempts, the Government of Tamil 
Nadu did not grant us permission to conduct prison interviews, citing lack of 
security clearance from 'agencies' in Delhi. We were never informed who these 
'agencies' were.

Amongst the 373 prisoners, 361 were men and 12 were women. While Uttar Pradesh 
had the highest number of prisoners sentenced to death (79) in absolute 
numbers, Delhi had the largest proportion in terms of the prisoners sentenced 
to death in comparison with the population (1.79 persons per 10 lakh 
population), with 30 prisoners sentenced to death. The prisoners interviewed in 
the project were incarcerated in 67 prisons, of which 42 were central prisons 
and 25 were district prisons. Of these 67 prisons, 30 had gallows.

(source: firstpost.com)

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

30% Death Row Convicts Eventually Acquitted: Study


Out of every 100 prisoners given the death sentence by trial courts in India, 
30 are acquitted, reveals the National Law University or NLU's Death Penalty 
India Report released on Friday. The 1st of its kind report also says only 5 % 
of death sentences are upheld by higher courts.

The report is based on in-depth interviews with 373 of the 385 death row 
inmates in India, their families and jail authorities conducted by the National 
Law University between June 2013 and January 2015.

80 % of all death row prisoners interviewed for the study said they were 
tortured in police custody. Complaints ranged from waterboarding, cigarette 
burns, forced nudity, pulling out fingernails to electric currents.

11 death row cases that came to the Supreme Court were dismissed without a 
hearing on technical grounds, the report adds.

"The report shows our criminal justice system not just needs procedural but 
systemic reform. The legal aid system is a joke. No one really has any faith in 
it," Supreme Court Judge Justice Madan B Lokur said.

The report also shows there is a great distrust in the legal aid system in the 
country - even those prisoners who can't afford private lawyers try to hire 
them - even if they have to sell their assets, jewellery, land for it.

70 % of those sentenced to death had never discussed their case details with 
their lawyers at trial stage. Of those who moved High Court, over 64% haven't 
even met their lawyers and 44 % don't even know the names of their lawyers when 
the case moved to the Supreme Court, the study reveals.

The study also shows most death row prisoners are from poor families. 74 % are 
economically vulnerable - of those 63.2 % were either primary or sole earners 
in their family.

Anup Surendranath, director, Death Penalty Centre Of National Law University 
told NDTV, "They don't know anything about their cases, nobody is telling them 
anything. Every day they live in fear. So many of them told us that when they 
hear footsteps at night, they were they will be taken away to be killed. We 
need to think about as a society," he said.

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

Resolution In Rajya Sabha Seeks Abolition Of Capital Punishment


A private member resolution was on Friday moved in the Rajya Sabha seeking 
abolition of capital punishment and an imposition of moratorium on all death 
sentences till the necessary amendments are made to the existing laws.

"The time has come for India to say emphatic "no" to capital punishment by 
making amendments to various laws, which have provision for death penalty so as 
to abolish capital punishment in the country. Till that time, impose moratorium 
on execution of death sentences," said D Raja of CPI while moving the 
resolution.

The resolution should not be linked to any particular case as the issue is 
related to confronting the humanity, he said, adding, "I am not making it as an 
ideological issue at this point of time. It is more than that."

Asserting that India should take a stand on this issue, Mr Raja said the 
majority of the UN members have voted in support of the UN General Assembly 
resolution calling for a moratorium on death penalty and India is among the 
minority of member countries still voting against the resolution.

About 120 countries have abolished capital punishment and few of them have 
stopped the practice of execution, he added.

"The situation now has fast changed. The world is moving towards jurisprudence 
based on humanism and correction of individuals committing crimes. But we are 
still lagging behind. We are still stick on to the colonial laws. We need to 
change our mindset," Mr Raja noted.

Stating that crimes have socio-economic factors, Mr Raja said, "The issue 
should not be looked at from just legal and technical point of view. It should 
be looked at pyschological, sociological and polical angle."

Quoting a study by students of Delhi-based National Law University, Mr Raja 
said the research shows that there are caste and religious biases in the 
imposition of death penalty in India, indicating that 94 % of the persons given 
death sentences for terror related cases belonged to dalit caste or religious 
miniorities.

Even the Supreme Court has admitted to "errors and miscarriage of justice due 
to arbitrary application of death penalty" and the Law Commission Chairman 
Justice A P Shah has also said that there is "serious need to re-examine" the 
issue of death panalty.

Mr Raja said this resolution was earlier submitted to the Upper House in July 
2015 but it was not taken up due to various reasons. Even his party colleague 
late C K Chandrappan had moved a private member bill on this issue way back in 
2004.

(source for both: ndtv.com)

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

RS members debate abolition of death penalty----His short speech on capital 
punishment prompted Congress MP Jairam Ramesh to ask how Swamy could make a 
speech without making any allegations.


For the 1st time since he became a member last week, Subramanian Swamy spoke in 
the Rajya Sabha uninterrupted, without making any provocative remarks and 
without being disturbed by the Opposition.

Swamy stood up to speak on two other occasions in the past week, and both times 
he created a flutter by linking Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her family with 
the AgustaWestland helicopter scam.

On the 1st occasion, in fact, he could not even complete a sentence, having 
brought up Sonia's name at the start of his speech. The 2nd time, on Tuesday, 
he could speak for more than 15 minutes but amid strong protests by the 
Congress.

On Friday afternoon, in the presence of just 15 members in the Rajya Sabha, 
Swamy got up to speak again, but this time it was not about AgustaWestland or 
anything to do with the Gandhi family. He participated in a discussion on a 
resolution on the abolition of capital punishment that was moved by CPI member 
D Raja. His short speech on capital punishment prompted Congress MP Jairam 
Ramesh to ask how Swamy could make a speech without making any allegations.

Swamy spoke strongly in favour of retaining capital punishment, arguing that no 
country of "any importance" had abolished the death penalty. "It is a futile 
debate," he said, while calling the campaign against death penalty a "part of a 
fashionable international movement of NGOs".

"The US has it, Russia has it, all the Arab countries have it, Iran has it. 
Even the country with which Raja's party has fraternal relations, China, has 
death penalty. You (Raja) have not been able to convince China to abolish death 
penalty, you want India to abolish it. Only some crazy liberal nations have 
done away with capital punishment," Swamy said.

He claimed the Congress was confused on the issue. "They (Congress government) 
hanged Afzal Guru but they want the killers of Rajiv Gandhi to be set free. 
They do not want to subject them to capital punishment even when the Supreme 
Court has said that is the rarest of rare case," he said. "In my opinion, India 
is not going to change. We are going to have capital punishment, but the 
safeguards are necessary. The Supreme Court has already laid down those 
safeguards," he said.

Earlier, D Raja argued that India must say an "emphatic no" to capital 
punishment and till such time that a decision in this regard is taken, there 
should be a moratorium on execution of all death sentences. "The world is 
moving towards a new kind of jurisprudence, one based on humanism, one based on 
correction of individuals committing crimes, may be, even heinous crimes. But 
we still lag behind ... We still stick to colonial relics, on colonial laws," 
he said.

The CPI member said a study by National Law University had shown caste and 
religious biases in award of death penalty and indicated that 94 % of those 
given capital punishment in terror-related cases were either Dalits or belonged 
to religious minority communities.

"I am not making an insinuation ... I am not casting aspersions on any 
individual judge or court. But all said and done, we are all human beings, and 
we have been talking about corruption. Corruption does not only mean 
involvement of money. It can mean involvement of caste bias or religion bias as 
well," he said.

(source: Indian Express)


SAUDI ARABIA----execution

Saudi executes Jordanian drug smuggler


Saudi Arabia on Thursday put to death a Jordanian convicted of drug 
trafficking, in the kingdom's 91st execution this year.

Maher al-Ghurabli had been found guilty of smuggling amphetamine pills into the 
kingdom, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Authorities carried out the sentence against him in the northwestern region of 
Tabuk, which borders his Jordanian homeland.

Most people put to death in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword.

Ghurabli's is the 91st execution of a local or foreigner this year, according 
to an AFP tally.

The executions include 47 for "terrorism" on a single day, January 2.

Murder and drug trafficking cases account for the majority of Saudi executions.

Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia had the 3rd highest number of people 
put to death last year -- at least 158.

That was far behind Pakistan, which executed 326, and Saudi Arabia's regional 
rival Iran, which executed at least 977, said Amnesty, whose figures exclude 
secretive China.

(source: ahram.org)






EGYPT:

Egypt court spares ousted president Mohamed Morsi the death penalty


An Egyptian court recommended death sentences on Saturday for 6 codefendants of 
Mohamed Morsi but not for the ousted Islamist president in their trial on 
espionage charges.

The presiding judge in the trial asked the mufti -- the country's official 
interpreter of Islamic law -- to consider death sentences for the 6 
codefendants, saying the court would convene again on June 18 after the mufti's 
response.

It will then pronounce its verdict and sentence for the remaining 5 defendants, 
including Morsi, on charges of having supplied Qatar with classified documents.

Egyptian law requires the mufti to sign off on death sentences. His opinion is 
not binding but is usually respected by courts.

Qatar was a main backer of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement while he 
was in power between 2012 and July 2013, when the military overthrew and 
detained him.

He has since been sentenced to death, life in prison and 20 years in three 
separate trials.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






NIGERIA:

Lawmakers Urged To Recommend Death Penalty For Treasury Looters


Following the recommendation of death penalty for kidnappers, the Senate has 
been urged to take a step further and recommend same punishment for treasury 
looters.

This call was contained in a statement issued by the chairman, Association of 
Online Media Practitioners, Wole Arisekola.

He noted that while the recommendation made during the week by the senators 
prescribing death penalty for kidnappers was laudable, the lawmakers should go 
a step further by also recommending same punishment for public officials who 
loot the treasury.

Arisekola, in the statement noted that "the same law should be passed on 
corrupt public officials because corruption is worse than kidnapping", noting 
that "kidnappers cannot kidnap the whole nation but corruption kills the entire 
nation".

He stressed further that "corruption is the bane of our underdevelopment, it is 
the reason behind all the social ills including kidnapping. It is the reason 
why there are no drugs in hospitals, why our roads are in deplorable 
conditions, the educational sector is in comatose and why the whole nation is 
still in darkness."

It stated further that "One must however, commend the senators for rising to 
the occasion by recommending death penalty for kidnappers who are making the 
country unsafe for all, it is also patient that we should tackle the foundation 
of crime in our society before we deal with criminals".

He expressed firm optimism that "this proposal, I belief, if considered and 
passed by the lawmakers, will act as a deterrent to whoever might be nursing 
any idea of defrauding this great nation of ours now or in the future".

(source: leadership.ng)

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

3 kidnappers sentenced to death


A Delta State High Court sitting in Effurun, has sentenced 3 persons, Augustin 
Akpojivi, Dawel James and Collins Enye, to death by hanging for kidnapping.

The Court which also found the 3 accused persons guilty of 3 other counts of 
conspiracy to commit a felony to wit: kidnapping, illegal possession of 
firearms, demanding property with menace and stealing, sentenced them? to 20 
years imprisonment with hard labour.

2 other accused persons were however lucky as they escaped the death sentence, 
having been discharged and acquitted by the Court.

The 2 acquitted persons are Samuel Okoloda and Precious Victor Ochuko. They 
were acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence linking them to the crime by 
prosecution.

Earlier during trial, the Prosecution told the Court that Dawel James, a driver 
by occupation, conspired with Augustin Akpojivi (29), also a driver, and 
Collins Enye (23), a commercial motorcycle rider; and others now at large, to 
kidnap his employer, one Rufus Uzoma Allwell, staff of Warri Refining and 
Petrochemical Company (WRPC), while armed with guns and demanded for a ransom 
of N2million before releasing their victim.

The Court heard that Dawel James who was the driver to the kidnapped victim 
master minded the kidnap of his boss and received part of the N2million ransom 
paid by the elder brother of his boss.

Reacting to the Court Judgement, the State Attorney-General and Commissioner 
for Justice, Barr Peter Mrakpor hails the Court verdict and expressed optimism 
that the judgement of the Court will send a strong signal to criminally minded 
persons in the State that it was not business as usual.

He commended the exceptional courage displayed by witnesses in the matter who 
came out willingly without pressure to give evidence in Court during trial and 
called on others to emulate the patriotic spirit put forward by the Prosecution 
Witnesses.

(source: The News)






SOMALIA:

5 Sentenced to Death for Baidoa Attack


Somali military court has on Saturday sentenced 5 people to death for their 
role in Baidoa attack on February.

According to the chairman of the court Liban Abdi Yarrow four of the men were 
found guilty for their involvement in the attack that resulted death of over 30 
people and wounded many more on 28 February.

The 5th person was found guilty for killing a civilian. Armed group Alshabaab 
claimed the responsibility of the double explosion attacks that rocked the 
South Western Somali city.

Despite over whelming human rights groups condemnations Somali military court 
continues with the execution of Alshabaab members found guilty for attacks 
against government targets.

(source: allafrica.com)






BANGLADESH:

Pakistan concerned over review application dismissal on death sentence for JI 
leader in Bangladesh


Pakistan has expressed deep concern over dismissal of the review application on 
the death sentence by the Bangladesh Supreme Court for Jamaat-e-Islami leader 
Motiur Rahman Nizami.

In a statement issued today, Foreign Office said Pakistan has been following 
the reaction of the international community and human rights organizations to 
the controversial trials in Bangladesh related to the events of 1971.

It said there is a need for reconciliation in Bangladesh in accordance with the 
spirit of Tripartite Agreement of April 1974, which calls for a forward looking 
approach in matters relating to the events of 1971.

Meanwhile, Punjab Assembly, in unanimously passed resolution on Friday, 
expressed concern over rejection of the review application of Motiur Rehman 
Nizami by the Bangladeshi Supreme Court.

The resolution was moved by the Parliamentary Leader of Jamaat e Islami in 
Punjab Assembly Dr. Waseem Akhtar.

The resolution urged the federal government to contact Organization of Islamic 
Cooperation and the United Nations for halting implementation of the death 
penalty.

Earlier, Bangladesh's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Motiur Rahman 
Nizami for war crimes yesterday.

(source: Radio Pakistan)