[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 10



IRELAND:

10 amazing Irish men and women who cheated the hangman


Ireland had a bitter history of the death penalty under the British. Famous 
rebels like Henry Joy McCracken, Robert Emmet and Padraig Pearse were put to 
death as a warning to other Irish people considering rebellion against the 
Crown.

Based on this, it's no surprise that when the Irish sat down after independence 
to write their own laws they initially planned to abolish capital punishmen. 
The Irish Civil War soon changed minds, however, and the ultimate deterrent was 
kept on the statute books.

29 ordinary Irish people would be hanged for murder before capital punishment 
was abolished in Ireland in 1964, but an even greater number would be sentenced 
to death before narrowly escaping the gallows. Here is a list of 10 men and 
women who nearly came face-to-face with the executioner.

1. Hannah Flynn

Flynn was from Killorglin, Co Kerry and in 1922 was working as a domestic 
servant for the O'Sullivan family who lived nearby. She was sacked after just 2 
months, however, for theft and disobedience.

On Easter Sunday the following year Margaret O'Sullivan was found lying on the 
kitchen floor by her husband when he returned from Mass. She had been butchered 
with a hatchet. Flynn was immediately under suspicion and was swiftly found 
guilty of murder and given a date of execution.

She was given a recommendation to mercy on account of her "low intellect" and 
received a reprieve after the sentence. She spent 18 years in prison before 
being released into a convent.

2. Patrick Aylward

Aylward was involved in an agricultural feud with his neighbors, the Holdens, 
in Kilkenny in 1923. He was accused, and found guilty, of taking their 
18-month-old son William and pushing him into the fire, causing him an 
agonizing death as revenge.

Aylward came within days of execution for the crime, but was reprieved at the 
last minute. He served 10 years in jail instead. He went to his death insisting 
that he had been framed for the horrific crime.

3. Jane O'Brien

O'Brien lived in Killinick, Co. Wexford, with her nephew John Cousins. In 1932 
Cousins was engaged to be married and told his aunt that she would have to move 
out to make way for his new bride. The elderly woman instead took a shotgun 
from under his bed and shot him as he returned from the pub. She was found 
guilty but received a reprieve on account of her age and gender.

4. Mary Agnes Daly

Daly was threatened with eviction in 1948 for being unable to pay her rent. She 
then attacked a stranger in a church in Glasnevin, Co. Dublin, using a hammer 
she had brought with her (apparently to break open church money boxes.) The 
stranger was 83 year-old Mary Gibbons. Daly was quickly found guilty and 
scheduled to meet Pierrepoint, the hangman. She was reprieved 2 weeks before 
the execution, spending 6 years in jail instead.

5. Shan Mohangi

Mohangi was a South African medical student who came to Dublin to study in the 
early 60s. The 23-year-old started seeing a 14-year-old girl named Hazel Mullen 
shortly afterwards but proved to be insanely jealous. In August 1963 he 
strangled her after accusing her of kissing another boy and dismembered her 
body gruesomely.

Mohangi was sentenced to death for the despicable crime, but in a retrial was 
found guilty of manslaughter only. He served just 4 years in prison and 
returned to South Africa on his release. In 2009 he was running for political 
office in South Africa when his murderous past caught up with him. He was 
forced to withdraw from the race.

6. Mary Somerville

Mary Somerville's daughter gave birth to a child outside of wedlock in Co. 
Monaghan in 1938. Instead of living with the huge social shame that came with 
such an occurrence in 1930s Ireland, however, Mary took the baby girl and threw 
her into a pond outside her house. The body was discovered some weeks later and 
the grandmother was given a death sentence for 2 days before Christmas, 1938. 
It was commuted on the 9th of the same month.

7. Daniel Duff

Garda James Byrne is amongst the unfortunate number of Irish policeman shot 
dead while on duty. Incredibly, however, it was a fellow Garda who fired the 
bullet that killed Byrne. Byrne fought with Garda Daniel Duff in 1945 when they 
were both stationed on armed night-duty in Co. Limerick. Duff, convinced that 
his colleague was drawing his gun, pulled out his own firearm and shot Byrne 
twice through the heart. Duff claimed self-defence but was found guilty and 
given the death sentence. He was reprieved and served just over 5 years in 
Mountjoy Prison.

8. Hannah O'Leary

O'Leary was jointly charged with murder in 1924 along with her brother Con. The 
2 were found guilty of killing their brother Patrick and dismembering his 
corpse before scattering it around a field adjoining their farmhouse in 
Kilkerran, Co. Cork.

Both denied the charges but were sentenced to death nonetheless. Con was duly 
hanged, claiming still to be an innocent man. Hannah spent 17 years in jail, 
where she was described as "not quite right" by prison authorities. She was 
released into a convent in 1942.

9. Frances Cox

Cox was a Protestant from Co. Laois who wanted to marry a local Catholic. Her 
brother Richard did not approve but took ill suddenly in 1949 and died in 
excruciating pain. The Gardai treated the otherwise healthy young man's death 
as suspicious and examined his organs. They contained large traces of the 
deadly household poison strychnine.

Frances was found to have the means and the motive to have administered the 
lethal substance and was given a date with the hangman. Her sentence was 
commuted and she spent 7 years in prison for the murder.

10. Robert Stevenson

Stevenson was from the Isle of Bute in Scotland and was a sailor. His oil 
tanker docked in Dublin shortly before Christmas 1953. Incredibly, after just 
12 hours on Irish soil, Stevenson was said to have murdered Mary Nolan, a woman 
he met in a pub on the quays in the city. He maintained his innocence but was 
found guilty and sentenced to death the following year. He was reprieved, 
narrowly saving himself from becoming the last man hanged in the state.

The death penalty was last used in Ireland in 1954, just months before 
Stevenson was reprieved. It was abolished for ordinary murder 10 years later.

(source: Colm Wallace has written a book "Sentenced to Death: Saved from the 
Gallows" about thirty Irish men and women who had the death penalty imposed on 
them between 1922 and 1985. It is being launched on June 17 this year and is 
available for pre-order on amazon.com----irishcentral.com)






AFGHANISTAN:

Halt Further Executions----Donors Should Urge Death Penalty Moratorium


Afghanistan's government should immediately halt further executions and impose 
a moratorium on the death penalty, Human Rights Watch said today. The 
executions by hanging of 6 Taliban prisoners on May 8, 2016, were the 1st 
capital sentences carried out by President Ashraf Ghani since he took office in 
2014.

The 6 executions appear to be part of Ghani's efforts to respond to critics who 
have demanded that the government take a harder line against the Taliban, Human 
Rights Watch said. Following the April 19 truck bomb attack in Kabul that 
killed at least 64 people, Ghani vowed to "deal severely with those who shed 
the blood of our innocent people and soldiers and ... show no mercy when 
punishing them ... including where it concerns capital punishment."

"The Afghan government needs to recognize that the death penalty is not only an 
unacceptably cruel punishment, but ineffective and possibly counterproductive 
in tackling terrorist threats," said Patricia Gossman, senior Afghanistan 
researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Delivering justice requires adhering to the 
highest standards, not flaunting a hanging for the purpose of revenge."

All 6 men had been on death row for years for their alleged involvement in 
crimes that included the 2010 attack on a Finest supermarket in Kabul that 
killed 8; the 2011 assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, former president of 
Afghanistan and then head of the High Peace Council; the 2009 assassination of 
Abdullah Laghmani, deputy head of the National Directorate of Security; a 2011 
attack on a military hospital in Kabul that killed 6; the 2012 attack on the 
Spozhmai Hotel in Qargha that killed 20; and a 2009 attack in Paktia that 
killed 6.

"Deep-seated weaknesses in the Afghan legal system and the routine failure of 
courts to meet international fair trial standards make Afghanistan's use of the 
death penalty especially problematic," Gossman said.

Announcing the executions, the president's office stated that they were carried 
out "after a fair legal process and in accordance with the country's 
constitution and Islamic laws." However, no details of the trials have been 
released; Afghanistan's judiciary is notoriously corrupt, and due process 
violations are rife, including in capital cases.

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an 
inherently cruel form of punishment. A majority of countries have abolished the 
practice. On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly passed a 
resolution by a wide margin calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions.

"President Ghani should impose an immediate death penalty moratorium and 
eventually do away with the practice altogether," Gossman said. "Afghanistan's 
foreign donors who have bankrolled judicial reform for the past decade should 
make ending the death penalty a top priority."

(source: Human Rights Watch)

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

UN Voices 'Serious Concerns' Over Execution Of Taliban Inmates


The United Nations has voiced "serious concerns" over the recent execution of 6 
Taliban prisoners on death row in Afghanistan.

"We regret the execution on Sunday, 8 May, of 6 people in Afghanistan, amid 
persisting serious concerns about compliance with fair trial standards, and 
reports about the widespread use of torture and ill-treatment as a means of 
extracting confessions," the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human 
Rights, Rupert Colville, said in a statement on May 10.

Colville urged Kabul to "refrain from approving death sentences and to 
immediately introduce an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty."

President Ashraf Ghani has toughened his stance against the militants after a 
major Taliban assault on Kabul that killed 64 people and wounded another 340 
last month.

The president's office defended the executions, saying in a May 8 statement 
that they were conducted after a fair legal process and in accordance with the 
country's constitution and Islamic laws.

(source: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty)






BANGLADESH:

Bangladesh set to execute Jamaat-e-Islami leader----Without presidential 
pardon, execution of Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami now appears 
imminent


Authorities in Dhaka have formally rejected a request to review the case of 
Motiur Rahman Nizami, the leader of Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami group who was 
convicted earlier of committing wartime atrocities.

Nizami now faces imminent execution unless he is granted a presidential pardon.

On Sunday, the country's Supreme Court released its final verdict, condemning 
Nizami, 73, to death for murder, rape, looting and collaborating with the 
Pakistani army during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence.

On the same day, he was brought to Dhaka's central prison, where executions 
generally take place.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said Monday that Nizami's execution could 
only be halted by a pardon granted by Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid.

In October of 2014, Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal -- a domestic 
court -- sentenced Nizami to death for atrocities committed during the 1971 
conflict.

During the war, Nizami had been the commander of the Al-Badr militia, which had 
supported the Pakistani army.

According to official Bangladeshi statistics, as many as 3 million people were 
killed by the Pakistani army and its local allies during the conflict.

In January, following an appeal hearing, the appellate bench of Bangladesh's 
Supreme Court upheld the death penalty against Nizami handed down earlier by 
the tribunal.

Last Thursday, the same bench rejected a request lodged by Nizami to have his 
sentence reviewed.

Following the move, the Jamaat-e-Islami group -- which Nizami has led since 
2001 -- organized a 3-day protest, including a nationwide strike on May 8.

Abdul Qader Molla, another Jamaat leader found guilty by the same tribunal, was 
executed in December of 2013, and group leader Mohammad Kamaruzzaman was hanged 
in April of last year.

Jamaat Secretary-General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid -- along with the 
Bangladesh Nationalist Party's Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury -- was executed last 
November.

The Bangladesh government established the war crimes tribunal in 2009 to 
investigate individuals suspected of having committed atrocities during the 
1971 conflict.

Tribunal prosecutors have since charged 9 Jamaat-e-Islami leaders -- including 
Nizami -- and 2 Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders with having committed 
wartime atrocities.

Opposition parties and international organizations, however, have criticized 
the tribunal, with Human Rights Watch expressing concern over whether the 
accused received fair trials.

Last Thursday, Jamaat-e-Islami acting chief Maqbul Ahmed and group 
Secretary-General Shafiqur Rahman issued a joint statement condemning the 
sentence passed against Nizami.

"The government has filed [a] false case against Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami 
in line with the so-called allegation of crimes against humanity in a bid to 
make Jamaat-e-Islami a leaderless party," they asserted.

"The allegations which have been raised against him are completely baseless, 
false, concocted and fictitious," they added.

(source: aa.com.tr)

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

HRW: Suspend Nizami's death penalty


The death sentence against Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami should be 
suspended with immediate effect, Human Rights Watch has said. The New 
York-based rights organisation also reiterated its long-standing call for the 
government of Bangladesh to restore fundamental rights of protection to those 
accused of war crimes.

"Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an 
irreversible, degrading, and cruel punishment," HRW Asia director Brad Adams 
said in a statement issued on Monday. He went on to say: "It is particularly 
problematic when there are questions about whether proceedings meet fair trial 
standards."

Human Rights Watch also called on the Bangladeshi government to impose a 
moratorium on the death penalty with a plan to abolish it altogether.

"While many in Bangladesh believe Nizami to be guilty and want him punished, 
justice is only served through fair trials," said Adams. "Instead of expedited 
hangings, authorities in Bangladesh should do everything possible to ensure 
that victims receive accurate answers about responsibility for crimes of such 
gravity and magnitude."

The Supreme Court released the full verdict on Monday, 4 days after rejecting a 
review petition filed by the Jamaat-e-Islami chief.

A special tribunal had sentenced Nizami to death on October 29, 2014 for 
genocide, murder and rape in Pabna and Dhaka during the Liberation War in 1971.

The former Al-Badr militia chief led Jamaat's the then student front Islami 
Chhatra Sangha. His only option now is to seek mercy from the president.

Former minister Nizami also carries a death sentence in the 10-truck arms haul 
case.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)






GUYANA:

EU envoy renews call for abolishing death penalty, decriminalising same sex 
intimacy


Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Guyana Jernej Videtic last 
evening called once more for government to abolish the death penalty, 
decriminalise same sex intimacy and to strengthen efforts to combat domestic 
abuse and trafficking in persons.

"The European Union has a strong commitment to gender equality, the empowerment 
of women and girls, and the eradication of gender-based violence," Ambassador 
Videtic also said last evening at a reception hosted by EU at the National 
Cultural Centre to celebrate "Europe Day."

(source: Stabroek News)






NORTH KOREA:

Ex-N. Korea army head, who Seoul said was executed, is alive


A former North Korean military chief who Seoul had said was executed is 
actually alive and in possession of several new senior-level posts, the North's 
state media said Tuesday.

The news on Ri Yong Gil marks yet another blunder for South Korean intelligence 
officials, who have often gotten information wrong in tracking developments 
with their rival. It also points to the difficulties that even professional 
spies have in figuring out what's going on in one of the world's most closed 
governments.

Ri, who was considered one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's most trusted 
aides, missed 2 key national meetings in February. Seoul intelligence officials 
later said that Kim had him executed for corruption and other charges.

Kim has reportedly overseen a series of killings, purges and dismissals since 
he took power in late 2011, part of what foreign experts call an attempt to 
tighten his grip on power.

The South's report on Ri's execution seemed to be bolstered later in February 
when Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency confirmed Ri had lost his 
job by describing someone else as chief of the North Korean military's general 
staff.

He hadn't appeared anywhere in KCNA, the North's main media outlet for foreign 
audiences, until the report Tuesday that a person with the same name as Ri was 
among those awarded important positions during the just concluded Workers' 
Party congress in Pyongyang. The congress, the 1st in 36 years, ended Monday 
with announcements of personnel and organizational changes.

According to KCNA dispatches, Ri got 3 posts - member of the party's Central 
Committee, alternate member of the committee's powerful Political Bureau, and 
member of the party's Central Military Commission.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said Tuesday that it confirmed Ri is back after 
analyzing North Korean state media photos and video of the party congress.

South Korean media said that Seoul intelligence authorities were responsible 
for the initial reports on Ri's execution. But the National Intelligence 
Service - South Korea's main spy agency - tried to distance itself from the 
misstep, saying it never disclosed any information on Ri.

Monitoring developments among the North's ruling elite is very hard for 
outsiders; the country keeps strict tabs on visitors and its own state-run 
press acts as a disseminator of government propaganda. South Korea, which runs 
several intelligence organizations mainly tasked with spying on the North, has 
a mixed record.

Earlier this year, South Korean intelligence and defense officials faced 
criticism for failing to see in advance that North Korea had been preparing for 
its 4th nuclear test.

The NIS also failed to learn of the 2011 death of Kim Jong Il, the dictator 
father of Kim Jong Un, before Pyongyang's state TV announced it. In 2013, it 
saved its face by releasing its finding that Kim's powerful uncle Jang Song 
Thaek was purged, days before North Korea announced his execution.

The rival Koreas have shared the world's most heavily fortified border since 
the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and they bar ordinary citizens from 
exchanging phone calls, letters and emails without special permission.

(source: Associated Press)