[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 8




PAKISTAN:

Capital punishment to 2 postponed for 10 Days


The death penalty awarded to two persons in famous murder cases has been 
postponed in Central Jail Mirpur for 10 days on the appeal of the families of 
convicts forforgiveness.

According to Jail authorities, the schedule followed byissuance of the death 
warrants after rejection of the mercypetitions of both of the culprits by the 
President of Azad Jammu &Kashmir, the murderers Muhammad Yaqoob s/o Raja 
Muhammad and Ghazenfer son of Ghazen, both residents of Kotli district of AJK, 
were to be put on gallows in the Mirpur Central Jail on Friday (May6, 2016) 
morning, Syed Yasir Hussain Kazmi, Deputy SuperintendentCentral Jail told APP 
on Saturday.

The convict Mohammad Yaqoob had axed Imam of a mosque Muhammad Javed at 
Tattapani village to death few years ago. Similarly the other assassin 
Ghazenfer had shot dead his relative Raja Illayas, Naib Tehsildar at Gulpur few 
years back.

Both the accused were awarded death penalty in the murder charges by a district 
criminal court of AJK and the capital punishment kept intact by the Supreme 
Court of AJK - as the appeals of both the culprits against the punishment were 
turned down by the apex court, the Deputy Jailer said.

The award of capital punishment was postponed reportedly for 10 days after the 
families of the murderers moved to the victim's families for clemency for 
patch-up between the rival groups, he added.

(source: APP)






INDIA:

Bara massacre: After 15 years on death row, families of accused say they've 
lost track of their cases


15 years after they were sentenced to death, families of those convicted for 
the Bara massacre here have lost track of their cases. A media visit draws 
curious villagers to the house of one accused, seeking to know if there is 
something new.

Ajay Das alias Ajay Mochi is not among them. His mother was pregnant with him 
when father Krishna Das alias Krishna Mochi was given death along with 6 
others, in the February 13, 1992, killings of 35 upper-caste Bhumihars.

Sitting on a cot outside his mud-and-thatch house at Dhiwra village, 2 km from 
Bara, Ajay says he has grown tired of media visits. Admitting that he never 
goes to Bhagalpur jail to meet Krishna, now 58, Ajay says, "They tell me my 
father used to be an excellent clarinet player. I am living with the burden of 
not having seen him."

The case of Krishna Mochi is reflective of the points raised in the Death 
Penalty Research Project.

Ajay is the youngest of Krishna's 4 children, including a daughter. All the 
sons work as daily wagers. Krishna was not allowed to attend the wedding of any 
of the 4.

Ironically, adds the family, Krishna used to be the member of a village wedding 
band. His father Chaitu Das, who died 5 years ago, was also a known band 
master.

The Bara massacre, in which MCC (now CPI-Maoist) members killed 34 Bhumihars, 
was part of a string of caste clashes in the area. The 1992 massacre itself was 
believed to be the fallout of 6 previous killings in 1990-91 in which 59 
Scheduled Caste men and agricultural labourers were killed.

In 1997, the upper castes carried out a revenge attack for the Bara massacre, 
leaving 58 Dalits dead in Laxmanpur-Bathe.

For the Bara massacre, the Gaya District and Sessions court gave death to 
Nanhelal Mochi, Krishna Mochi, Bir Kuer Paswan and Dharmendra Singh on June 8, 
2001. The Supreme Court endorsed this in April 2002. In 2009, the designated 
TADA judge of Gaya sentenced Vyas Kahar, Naresh Paswan and Bugal Mochi to 
death. Of them, only Dharmendra was an upper caste, having turned against the 
dominant Bhumihars.

Later, Naresh was acquitted on grounds of lack of evidence and shoddy 
investigation, while the sentence of Vyas and Bugal was commuted to life.

Bhagalpur Central Jail authorities say the mercy pleas of the 4 other death row 
convicts, Nanhelal, Krishna, Bir and Dharmendra, were dispatched to the 
President on March 3, 2003. Says Vira Maharaj, a jail official, "Once a mercy 
petition is despatched, we get to know its status only when it is rejected."

In the Laxmanpur-Bathe case, incidentally, all the 26 upper caste accused 
convicted by a lower court were acquitted by the Patna High Court on grounds of 
inadequate evidence.

Says Krishna's wife Chandramani Devi, "My husband was framed just because we 
were not dependent on upper castes for a living. He earned good money playing 
at weddings."

Son Vinay says they go to meet Krishna at Bhagalpur, 225 km away, only when 
they can save some money. Jitendra Das, who is married to Krishna's daughter 
Basanti, says, "Whenever we meet him, he requests us to plead his case. He has 
not lost hope yet."

A few metres away from Krishna's house are razed structures that were once 
homes of Nanhelal and Bhugal. Their families shifted to Baddi Bigha village in 
Gaya after their Dhiwra houses were set on fire in 1994, allegedly by some 
upper caste men.

Nanhelal has 2 sons and Bugal 6. All are daily wagers.

Naresh, who was among those sentenced to death, was acquitted in 2013. The 
family of his brother Krishnandan Paswan says Naresh had taken the help of 
upper castes to get out.

Naresh now lives in his wife's village in Gaya and works as a daily wager.

The family of another death convict, Bir, 70, lives at Khutwar village, 1.5 km 
away from Dhiwra. His younger brother Karu says the Bara massacre accused were 
given death because they were SCs. "Earlier, police used to come. Now no one 
comes to share any information."

The 80-year-old Rajo Devi, who has spent 24 years now in wait of son Krishna, 
says they are helpless. "Vakil kabhi kehta hai Dilli se chitthi aayega, kabhi 
kehta hai Patna se aayega (The lawyer sometimes says relief will come from a 
Delhi court, sometimes he says Patna)."

(source: Indian Express)

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

On death row, dying many deaths


The human rights of prisoners in death row are grossly violated, shows Death 
Penalty India Report

"I left my sleeping child at home because the police called me to sign 
documents. I never got home after that," said Akira. She is among the 136 
prisoners on death row who claimed to have not been informed of the reason for 
their arrest, a constitutional right.

To prepare the Death Penalty India Report, released on Friday, National Law 
University, Delhi, interviewed 373 of the 385 death row prisoners in India. The 
report does not talk about the innocence of these prisoners. But their stories 
highlight gross violations of human rights and the fallacies in the legal 
system. From not getting access to lawyers to being forced to confess to 
crimes, prisoners shared experiences of being a death row prisoner.

Month-long torture

Zaid, accused in a terror case, was detained in a mansion used by investigative 
agencies. He was tortured for over a month before a formal arrest was recorded. 
Mahmud, Zaid's co-accused, was severely beaten and electrocuted in the 
genitals. He was blindfolded during the entire duration of police custody 
except when he was given food.

Zaid recalled that Mahmud's skin would peel off as he removed his clothes. 
Finally, Zaid, Mahmud and other accused were acquitted by the Supreme Court. 
The court expressed anguish at the incompetence of the investigating agencies 
as these men had already spent 11 years in prison. A majority of the prisoners 
shared their experiences of custodial violence with the researchers. All this, 
when as per law, the police are supposed to take "reasonable care of the health 
and safety of an accused under custody." Rollers were pressed over Amarpreet's 
body when she was arrested. As a result, she suffered a miscarriage.

The report says that of the 92 prisoners who said they had confessed in police 
custody, 72 admitted to making statements under torture. Roshni said she was 
repeatedly tortured to confess. As she was tied to a chair and beaten up, she 
suffered a bone injury in her leg.

No hearing

As The Hindu reported on Friday, the structural loopholes in the administration 
of the death penalty denied many prisoners a fair trial. Ramrang never got a 
chance to speak with his lawyer. And so he was not asked a single question by 
the judge and was sentenced to death without getting any opportunity to defend 
himself. As he worries about his family, he remarked: "Be it the government, 
the police or the judge - no one heard our pleas." The report says harsh prison 
conditions and inhuman treatment of prisoners form an integral part of the 
punishment.

Hanut, who has served more than 12 years in prison, revealed that until 2010, 
there were no toilets in the prison. He was provided with a steel tub to 
relieve himself. "Give us punishment, but until then at least treat us like 
human beings," he said.

Sharing his experience of the violence, Javed said: "Just kill me. But don't 
inflict this repeated torture on me." An opportunity to pursue studies has 
great significance for reform. The Supreme Court has noted that a prisoner can 
be sentenced to death only if she is beyond reform. Moinuddin, however, was 
unable to continue his studies in prison. His repeated requests were rejected, 
for he was a prisoner sentenced to death.

(Names of prisoners have been changed by the researchers to maintain anonymity)

(source: The Hindu)

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

Man gets death penalty for killing minor boy


A local court on Saturday awarded death sentence to one Manish Kumar alias 
Nepali Mandal (25) after finding him guilty of kidnapping and subsequently 
killing a 10-year-old boy on April 9, 2012. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 
25,000 on Manish.

The judgement was delivered by the court of ADJ-V Jyoti Swaroop Shrivatava 
which termed the case as "rarest of rare". The court held Manish guilty of 
kidnapping the boy, committing unnatural sex with him, plucking his eyes and 
concealing the body after murder.

Additional public prosecutor (APP) Shushil Kumar Sinha said Manish had 
kidnapped Aditya Rajkamal, son of Raju Mandal, a resident of Jamalpur, in broad 
daylight with the help his 2 friends - Amit Jha and Manoj Kumar - who are still 
absconding.

"After abduction, the kidnappers demanded Rs 50,000 as ransom from the parents 
of Aditya for his safe release. They even allowed the boy to talk to his 
parents before killing him," said the APP.

The parents, instead of paying ransom to the kidnappers, brought the matter to 
the notice of the police. The police arrested Manish and recovered the body of 
Aditya Kumar from a drain.

The news of Aditya's murder spread like wildfire in Jamalpur and the entire 
town rose against the crime by holding protest rallies and demonstrations.

(source: Times of India)






BANGLADESH:

2-day strike in Bangladesh begins to protest Islamist party chief's death 
sentence


A two-day nationwide shutdown called by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami began on 
Sunday morning in protest of an apex court verdict that upheld death penalty 
for the Islamist party's chief for 1971 war crimes.

Hours after the Appellate Division bench of Bangladesh Supreme Court (SC) on 
Thursday dismissed the final review petition of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami 
party's Ameer (president) Motiur Rahman Nizami who is now behind the bar, the 
party called the 48-hour non-stop nationwide hartal for May 8 and 9.

Nizami, who is Jamaat chief since November 2000, now only has the option of 
seeking the president's mercy to stall his imminent execution.

On account of the strike, the traffic on short routes in and around Dhaka was 
almost regular as almost no activities of pro-hartal activists were visible. 
Man-paddled cycle rickshaws were dominating the city streets while presence of 
private cars was thin due to fear of possible vandalism and arson attack.

In other parts of the country, the shutdown also reportedly have almost no 
impact on people's routine life.

Academic activities also hampered to some extent to a number of educational 
institutions though attendance in the government and private offices was as 
usual. But businesses in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country opened as per 
schedule Sunday morning.

No major incidents have so far been reported.

74 year old Nizami served as the agriculture and industries minister in Khaleda 
Zia's 2001-2006 cabinet. Nizami's party says he was deprived of justice. But 
the government says the trail met proper standards.

Nizami is among the top Jamaat leaders who have been tried in 2 war crimes 
tribunals which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasian's Bangladesh Awami League-led 
government formed in 2010 to bring the perpetrators of 1971 to book.

Nizami was indicted in 2012 with 16 charges of crimes against humanity, 
including looting, mass killings, arson, rape and forcefully converting people 
to Muslims during the 1971 war.

The indictment order said Nizami was a key organizer of the Al-Badr, an 
auxiliary force of then Pakistani army which planned and executed the killing 
of Bengali intellectuals at the end of the war.

(source: Shanghai Daily)

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

US Congress HR commission asks Bangladesh to halt Nizami's execution


Human rights commission of the United States Congress has urged Bangladesh to 
stay the execution of Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami terming the 
legal process through which the death penalty was handed down was 'faulty'.

In a press release issued on Friday, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of 
the United States Congress said its co-chairs urged Bangladesh to stay 
execution in Bangladesh case for "lack of due process."

On 16 November 2015, said the press release, co-chairs of the Tom Lantos Human 
Rights Commission joined respected international observers in expressing 
serious concerns over death penalty convictions handed down by the 
International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh ICT,B, due to "irregularities that 
raised due process issues and led to doubts about the fairness of the trials."

At that time, it read, the cases in question were those of Salauddin Quader 
Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mojaheed. On November 22, 2015 both were 
executed.

"Now there is another case, that of Matiur Rahman Nizami, accused by the ICT of 
crimes including genocide, and also sentenced to death."

Saying that there can be no doubt that victims and survivors of the atrocities 
committed during the 1971 war for independence have a right to justice, the 
human rights commission recalled that states are obligated to ensure due 
process and guarantee fair trials, even for the worst perpetrators. "The stakes 
are highest in death penalty cases because no redress is available after the 
fact," it observed.

"We thus reiterate our call-shared by former US ambassador-at-large for war 
crimes issues, Stephen Rapp, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and 
international human rights observers-to Bangladeshi authorities to proceed in 
accordance with international law and standards of due process and fair trials, 
as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Bangladesh is a State Party, 
and halt any executions that fail these standards," the rights body urged 
Bangladesh.

(source: prothom-alo.com)






INDONESIA:

Bali duo legal team discuss death penalty


The Indonesian lawyer for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran says it is time for 
activists fighting to end the death penalty in the country to engage with the 
Islamic community about the cause.

Indonesian lawyer Dr Todung Mulya Lubis and Australian barrister Julian McMahon 
led the long legal fight against the executions of the Bali 9 duo, who were 
shot by a firing squad on the prison island of Nusakambangan in April last 
year.

Speaking just over a week after the 1-year anniversary of their deaths, Dr 
Mulya said it was time to start a dialogue with the Islamic community around 
executions.

"It was taken for granted by those death penalty activists that you cannot 
converse with them, as they are extremists. But I think it's time for us to do 
that," he told the ASEAN Literary Festival on Sunday in Jakarta.

When he began campaigning against the death penalty in Indonesia in 1979 he 
said he was accused of being anti-Islamic and anti-Pancasila (the 5 moral 
principles said to make up Indonesian life and society).

"Every label was put on me ... But I'm pleased to know there are more and more 
people now talking about the death penalty."

Mr McMahon said while it was common for the 21st century to be described as 
something belonging to Asia, economic growth and leadership was not enough.

"In that context you have to think of society as a whole, and that includes 
crime and punishment.

"There is no evidence that shows that executions have any value in terms of 
being a deterrent," he added.

The comments come after Indonesia's Attorney-General HM Prasetyo flagged that 
executions in the country were likely to resume this year.

While there has been no announcement as to when this will happen, Security 
Minister Luhut Panjaitan has said he did not want to see a repeat of the 
"drama" like what occurred in the lead up to the Australians' executions, 
during which there was intense foreign media attention and diplomatic pressure 
on Indonesia, as well as strident international appeals and pleas from family 
members.

He has said that the law stipulated Indonesia only needed to give 3 days' 
notice as to when an execution was going to take place.

(source: The Australian)






CARIBBEAN:

Human rights groups urged CARICOM countries to abolish death penalty


The UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group is 
calling on 2 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to implement a number of 
recommendations that will improve their human rights records in the future.

According to the draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic 
Review, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname are being urged to 
implement measures including acceding to or ratifying the Second Protocol to 
the International Covenant on Civil a and Political Rights (ICCPR), which 
promotes international commitment in abolishing the death penalty.

In addition, the Caribbean countries are being urged to sign and ratify the 
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as well as sign or ratify the Optional 
Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or 
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).

The human rights record of several CARICOM countries are being examined by the 
UN body.

In the case of St. Vincent and the Grenadines it is also being asked to 
implement comprehensive guidelines under the Domestic Violence Act to ensure a 
coordinated response for victims of violence by police, courts, health and 
social welfare agencies and undertake a public advocacy campaign to combat 
gender-based violence, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders.

Kingstown is also being urged to implement targeted training for law 
enforcement officials on responding to cases of domestic violence, and ensure 
that all allegations are fully investigated and to take steps to ensure the 
provision of adequate shelter, including staffing and durable resources, for 
victims of domestic violence.

The CARICOM countries are also asked to continue strengthening programmes to 
combat domestic violence, including an awareness-raising plan and to continue 
the actions taken to reduce domestic violence and violence against women in all 
its forms.

The Caribbean countries are urged to reinforce measures to combat violence 
against women, including legislative amendments to the Criminal Code and the 
Domestic Violence Act and by awareness raising campaigns.

(source: Antigua Observer)