[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 6


INDONESIA:

Pakistani convict Zulfiqar Ali is innocent, must be released soon: Komnas HAM


The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is calling for President 
Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to pardon Pakistani death row inmate Zulfiqar Ali, saying 
he is innocent and should be released after already having been imprisoned on a 
drug conviction for a decade without any concrete evidence.

"We ask the President to pardon Zulfiqar Ali for the sake of justice and 
humanity and release him from all punishment as soon as possible," Komnas HAM 
commissioner Hafid Abbas said in a statement on Wednesday.

Komnas HAM had also conveyed a set of recommendations to Jokowi on Sept. 27, 
one that had also been given to then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono more 
than 2 years ago.

Ali escaped the 3rd round of executions of drug convicts on the Nusakambangan 
prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, on July 29.

Hafid noted that the judges had succumbed to public pressure and went beyond 
the demands of prosecutors, who had sought a life sentence, for the mere sake 
of their public image, since public opinion deemed corruption, terrorism and 
drug-related offenses to be extraordinary crimes.

"That also influenced the atmosphere of the trial, so the judges imposed a more 
severe punishment than the prosecution demand for the death penalty," he said.

Police arrested Ali based on a statement from Gurdip Singh, an Indian national 
arrested on allegations of heroin possession at Soekarno-Hatta International 
Airport on Aug. 24, 2004. Gurdip retracted his statement against Ali. However, 
the court went on to sentence him to death in June 2005.

(source: The Jakarta Post)






SINGAPORE:

Greater support for death penalty among higher educated: Poll


About 80 % of people in Singapore believe that the death penalty should be 
retained, according to a survey conducted by the Government.

The survey also found out that there was greater support for the death penalty 
among the higher educated, with 68 % of residents with university or 
postgraduate education saying that they support the death penalty.

Reach - the Singapore Government's citizen-engagement agency - said in a 
statement today (Oct 6) that a computer-assisted telephone interview poll was 
conducted between June 13 and 17 this year. A total of 1,160 randomly selected 
Singapore residents aged 15 or above were polled.

Only 10 % of respondents felt that the death penalty should be abolished. The 
other 10 % of respondents either did not give a definite answer, or refused to 
answer, Reach said.

Reach said that "82 % of respondents agreed that the death penalty was an 
important deterrent that helped keep Singapore safe from serious crimes".

Among those who supported the death penalty, there was higher support for it as 
the maximum sentence for violent crimes (as high as 81 % for murder). Only 67 % 
of respondents think it should be the maximum sentence for drug trafficking.

Close to 2/3 of respondents believed that there were enough safeguards in 
Singapore to ensure that no person was wrongly sentenced to death, Reach said.

Reach said in the statement "where the sample was not demographically 
representative of the national population by gender, race, or age, it was 
weighted accordingly to ensure representativeness".

(source: asiaone.com)






INDIA:

Suspense Over Death Sentence Of VS Dupare As SC Hears His Review Petition In 
Open Court


The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Rohinton Fali Nariman 
and Uday Umesh Lalit today heard the review petition of the death-row convict, 
Vasanta Sampat Dupare, currently lodged in Nagpur Central Jail, in the open 
court. As hearing of the review petitions of death-row convicts by a 
three-Judge bench is mandatory after the SC judgment in Mohd.

Arif case, Dupare's senior counsel, Anup Bhambhani got the opportunity to make 
his submissions before the bench.

Background: Dupare's death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court's 3 
judge bench on November 26, 2014. Dupare was convicted and sentenced to death 
for the offence of rape and murder of a minor girl in 2008. In 2010, the trial 
court found him guilty and sentenced him to death under section 302, life 
imprisonment under section 376(2)(f), and rigorous imprisonment of 7 years 
under sections 363 and 367 and rigorous imprisonment of 3 years under section 
201 of the IPC, along with fines and imprisonment in default.

On March 24, 2011, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court, at the 
confirmation stage, held that Dupare had not received a fair trial as the legal 
aid lawyer appointed on his behalf was absent when 4 important witnesses were 
to be cross-examined, and Dupare himself had been asked to cross-examine those 
witnesses. The high court, therefore, set aside his conviction and sentence, 
and remanded the case back to the trial court.

On remand, the trial court again convicted and sentenced him to death. On 
February 23, 2012, the trial court both convicted and sentenced Dupare, though 
his advocate was not present, and he could not make any submissions on the 
point of sentence.

On March 27, 2012, the high court confirmed the sentence and dismissed Dupare's 
appeal. There is no mention of the absence of Dupare's advocate at the time of 
sentencing (by the trial court) in the high court judgment.

MAIN GROUNDS OF REVIEW

During the arguments before the bench today, Dupare's counsel made the 
following points: Dupare was deprived of an opportunity to make submissions on 
sentence as the trial court imposed the death sentence on him on the very same 
day, he was convicted in the case. As a result, he could not place any material 
on sentencing on the record.

Besides, as his advocate was not present that day before the trial court, 
Dupare was unable to make any submissions on sentence, and therefore, doubly 
disabled. Dupare's counsel has submitted that the trial court had treated the 
sentencing hearing as a mere formality and not discharged the obligation cast 
upon it under the Cr.P.C. As Dupare studied only till class 6, legal assistance 
mattered most to him at the time of sentencing.

As a result, he was unable to effectively canvass the points which might have 
served to mitigate the death sentence imposed upon him, it was argued.

Additionally, the counsel submitted that the Supreme Court had in a previous 
case, held that for determining the sentence in death penalty cases, material 
additional to what has been produced for establishing guilt is required to be 
produced.

No such material was produced before the Supreme Court or the Courts below in 
the present case, the bench was told. This is an error apparent on the face of 
the record, and therefore, a ground for review, the counsel argued.

Another major ground for review argued by the counsel was that the State has 
not placed on record any material which would rule out the possibility of 
reform and rehabilitation of Dupare. Materials like the report of a Probation 
Officer, psychological evaluation etc. were not obtained, the bench was told.

The counsel argued that age, by itself, cannot be the determinant factor to 
conclude whether a convict is capable of being reformed. Dupare was in his 
mid-40s when he committed the crime.

The counsel also told the bench that Dupare's conduct in the jail since 2008 
has been good. He was involved in painting, and his work had been displayed on 
several occasions in jail, it was revealed.

Dupare's counsel also appealed to the bench to consider imposing a fixed term 
sentence, and place it beyond the application of remission powers, as an 
alternative to death sentence.

Last year, Dupare completed the Bachelors Preparatory Programme offered by the 
Indira Gandhi National Open University. This course enables people who have 
discontinued schooling before matriculation to prepare for bachelors-level 
studies.

Dupare's case is likely to be of interest because the bench had earlier refused 
to remand the case, on the ground that he did not get a fair chance before the 
trial court on sentencing.

Today, Dupare's counsel was heard patiently by the bench for nearly 50 minutes, 
more than the time laid down in Mohd.

Dupare's counsel cited a few precedents with similar factual background, 
wherein the Supreme Court had commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment. 
The bench, after hearing the arguments of the counsel for the prosecution, has 
reserved its judgment.

(source: livelaw.in)






CHINA:

Husband fights for evidence to help US wife accused in China


9 days had passed since Jeff Gillis, at home in Houston, Texas, had last heard 
from his wife. During that phone call, she told Gillis she was extending her 
business trip in China, but he grew anxious. He filed a missing person's report 
with U.S. consular officials whose response left him flabbergasted: His wife, a 
business consultant, had been detained by Chinese state security agents almost 
two weeks earlier.

Now, 18 months later, Phan Phan-Gillis is still detained, charged with spying 
and awaiting trial in China, consigned to an unknown fate in a highly opaque 
and impenetrable legal system in which even the charges brought against her 
remain cloudy. Gillis says that his wife appears to have been accused of spying 
against China 2 decades ago, although even her Chinese lawyer says he has been 
barred by Chinese law from providing details.

Despite the scant information, Gillis has set about trying to prove his 
56-year-old wife's innocence. He hopes documents he has uncovered will help 
free Phan-Gillis, known as Sandy to friends. Her lawyer says her trial has been 
postponed indefinitely from its original Sept. 19 court date.

The case speaks to both rising suspicion between Beijing and Washington and 
China's drive to pursue those accused of crimes occurring outside its borders. 
Gillis says part of the charge relates to alleged spying carried out within the 
United States.

"China probably is now more aggressive in pursuing anyone who can be regarded 
as harming China's interests," said Fu Hualing, a law professor at the 
University of Hong Kong.

"If they think there's a violation of Chinese criminal law and the impact is 
felt within China they are willing to pursue that and they think that they 
probably have the capacity to do that now," he said. "Imagine: The case 
happened in the '90s. It's not like it happened recently."

--

Phan-Gillis' lawyer, Shang Baojun, said the American is charged with spying, 
but that he could not provide details because the case involves state secrets. 
The maximum sentence for spying is the death penalty.

The court in Nanning, a city in southern China near the Vietnamese border, also 
refused to release specifics about the case.

"It is a closed trial because it involves state secrets, so it is inappropriate 
for us to release information ... including the date of the trial," said Tang 
Xingzhong, administrative head at the Nanning Intermediate People's Court. 
Calls to the prosecutor in charge of the case rang unanswered.

Jeff Gillis, 54, said the charge relates to "beyond ridiculous" allegations 
that Phan-Gillis went on a spy mission to Nanning in 1996, then returned to the 
U.S. and recruited Chinese citizens to work for a foreign spy organization 
within the United States in 1997 and 1998. He says the foreign spy organization 
is alleged to be the FBI. The bureau's press office declined to comment.

Nanning is the capital of Guangxi, a poor farming region neighboring Guangdong 
province, where Phan-Gillis' family has its roots. Ethnically Chinese, 
Phan-Gillis was born in Vietnam and left that country as a teenager after the 
end of the Vietnam War, ending up via a harrowing boat journey in a refugee 
camp in Malaysia. She became an American citizen, met Gillis in 2001 and 
married him a year later.

Gillis said his wife, a consultant who matched investors with projects, 
traveled to China numerous times on business and as a volunteer to promote 
cultural and business exchanges and better health care. Most of her trips have 
been to the southern business centers of Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Gillis said he 
had never heard his wife mention Guangxi until she brought it up in a phone 
call during her detention - his 1st clue in his quest to free her.

Phan-Gillis was detained in March 2015; that September, Gillis quit his job as 
a U.S. production services manager for an oilfield services company to focus 
full time on freeing her. He remains in Houston; lawyers told him he should not 
come to China for the trial.

Gillis started reading up on how Chinese cases work, and knew that he and the 
lawyers would only have a short window to prepare a defense once charges were 
filed and revealed to them.

Lawyer Shang said they could read Phan-Gillis' case file only in early 
September - more than 6 weeks after she was indicted. Her legal team is not 
allowed to photocopy or take photos of the hundreds of pages.

"We can only copy it by hand," Shang said.

--

Gillis knew virtually nothing about why his wife was in custody before he 
received an unexpected phone call about a year ago. At the time, Chinese 
President Xi Jinping was in the U.S. meeting President Barack Obama, and Gillis 
had just started a media campaign to coincide with Xi's visit.

It was his wife. She frantically asked him to stop.

"She was pretty much begging me to tell the people who were on the phone in the 
room with her that I was going to stop the media campaign," Gillis said by 
phone from Houston. But she was also allowed to tell him that "the case 
involved some people who she had known from Guangxi over 20 years ago."

Soon, he was digging through his wife's old files, sorting them by year. When 
he learned more about the accusations he went straight to the boxes labeled 
"1996," ''1997" and "1998."

"The house still looks like a warehouse. I have boxes stacked everywhere," he 
said.

Gillis is thankful for his wife's tendency to hoard, because she left behind 
documents that show she couldn't have been present for the offenses he says she 
is accused of committing.

"I have the passport that shows that she didn't even have a visa in '96, no 
entries or exits. I have her pay stubs that show that she was not off on 
extended leave."

He has found old receipts and a newspaper article with a photograph of 
Phan-Gillis attending a horse event in Houston when she is alleged to have been 
in China. He has submitted the documents to his wife's lawyers, and has pressed 
politicians to write letters on her behalf.

U.S. consular officials are allowed to visit Phan-Gillis once a month. Gillis 
said she told them that threats and relentless interrogation sessions caused 
her to suffer a heart attack.

"Hearing how they had treated her, it made me cry," he said.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that China "continues to 
withhold many details of the case."

"We remain deeply concerned about Ms. Phan-Gillis' welfare and continue to 
monitor her case closely," he said in a statement.

(source: Fox news)






IRAN:

Iran's Parliament Weighs Abolition of Death Penalty for Drug Smugglers ---- 
Drug-related offenses account for a majority of executions in the Islamic 
Republic, and lawmakers in a more liberal parliament installed in August are 
taking a first step toward reform.


Lawmakers in Iran's newly installed parliament are drawing up legislation to 
abolish the death penalty for drug smugglers, which account for a majority of 
the country's executions, The New York Times said.

In Tuesday's report, the newspaper counted Iran as 2nd in the world behind 
China in executions.

It said the Iranian government doesn't publish any statistics on executions but 
local media say 950 people were hanged last year, though human rights groups 
say that total is 1,500.

The legislation apparently faces an uphill battle, with Iran's hardliners 
rejecting the proposal. Sadegh Larijani, head of Iran's judiciary, is quoted as 
calling any criticism of capital punishment "inappropriate."

"If the judiciary had not taken a tough stance, the situation would have been 
very bad, and drugs would have been available even at traditional medicine 
stores," Larijani told the Iranian news agency Fars last week.

Yahya Kamalpour, a reformist lawmaker, arguing in favor of the bill expected to 
be introduced to Parliament, is quoted to have told the ISNA news agency:

"We want to eliminate the death penalty for those criminals who act out of 
desperation. We need a scientific not an emotional approach to this problem."

(source: haaretz.com)






PALESTINE:

PCHR Reiterates Rejection of Death Penalty and Calls for its abolishment after 
woman Sentenced to Death in Khan Younis


On Wednesday, 05 October 2016, Khan Younis First Instance Court issued a death 
sentence against a woman, setting a precedent in the history of the Palestinian 
Judiciary. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reiterates its 
position rejecting the death penalty and condemns the excessive application of 
this punishment by Gaza judiciary in light of fragile interrogation techniques.

According to PCHR's follow-up, the First Instance Court in Khan Younis 
sentenced a woman (N. 'A.) (26), from 'Abasan village, east of Khan Younis, to 
death by hanging, after being convicted of premeditated murder of her husband 
(R. 'A.) (36).

In 2016, the number of death sentences issued has so far risen to 15 sentences, 
12 of which were issued by Military Courts, while the rest 3 were issued by a 
Civil Court. 4 of those sentences were issued by the High Military Court, 
upholding previous sentences. It should be mentioned that the 15 sentences were 
issued in the Gaza Strip.

The total number of death sentences issued in the Palestinian Authority (PA) 
controlled areas has risen to 179 sentences since 1994, 30 of which have been 
issued in the West Bank and 149 in the Gaza Strip. Among those issued in the 
Gaza Strip, 91 sentences have been issued since 2007.

Since the establishment of the PA, 35 death sentences were applied; 33 of which 
were in the Gaza Strip and 2 in the West Bank. Among the sentences applied in 
the Gaza Strip, 22 were applied since 2007 without the ratification of the 
Palestinian President in violation of the law, and 3 of which were implemented 
on 31 May 2016. Those 3 were the first death sentences to be implemented 
without the Palestinian presidential ratification following the formation of 
the National Unity Government in June 2014. PCHR emphasized that it is 
extra-judicial execution and constitutes a flagrant violation of the 
Palestinian Basic Law (PBL) since it requires the ratification of the 
Palestinian President for implementation.

PCHR follows up with deep concern the excessive application of this serious and 
irreversible punishment. PCHR is also gravely concerned over the continued 
application of death penalty in the PA controlled areas, and calls upon the 
Palestinian President to sign the 1989 Second Optional Protocol to the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition 
of the death penalty and issue a presidential decree to halt it until the 
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) convenes and abolishes it;

PCHR calls upon the PLC, if convened, to review all legislations related to the 
death penalty, especially the Penal Law No. 74 (1936) which remains in effect 
in the Gaza Strip, and the Jordanian Penal Code No. 16 (1960) that is in effect 
in the West Bank, and enacting a unified penal code that is in line with the 
spirit of international human rights instruments, especially those pertaining 
to the abolition of the death penalty .

Points out that the call for abolition of the death penalty does not reflect 
tolerance for those convicted of serious crimes, but rather a call for 
utilizing deterrent penalties that maintain our humanity; and

pchr Stresses that ratification of the implementation of death sentences is an 
absolute power of the Palestinian President according to the PBL and relevant 
laws, and no death sentence can be implemented without such ratification.

(source: Palelstine News Network)