[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 8




JAPAN:

Japanese lawyers urge country to abolish death penalty


Japanese bar associations have formally adopted a policy against the death 
penalty for the first time, demanding the government abolish execution by 2020 
when Japan hosts the Olympics and an international conference on criminal 
justice.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations urged the government Friday to 
introduce life imprisonment to replace execution.

Japan has one of the world's lowest murder rates, making the need for capital 
punishment unconvincing, the federation said. It also cited the risk of 
wrongful convictions and the lack of evidence that the death penalty reduces 
crime.

Nearly 130 prisoners are on death row in Japan, according to justice officials. 
Crimes subject to a possible death penalty in Japan include murder and acts 
such as arson or sabotage that cause death, usually in the most egregious cases 
or involving multiple victims, as well as terrorist attacks and attempted 
coups.

"We should face the fact that the death penalty ... is a serious and grave 
violation of human rights by the state," the group said in a statement, adopted 
after heated debate and objection by opponents at a convention in Fukui, 
western Japan.

The statement said the possibility of mistrials and wrongful accusations could 
not be denied. "Once carried out, the death penalty is irreversible and 
fundamentally different from other punishment."

Four death row prisoners have been found innocent and released after being 
granted retrials since the 1980s, including former professional boxer Iwao 
Hakamada, who won release in 2014 after nearly 50 years on death row for a 
wrongful murder accusation.

Japan and the U.S. are the only Group of 7 members that maintain the death 
penalty, while 140 nations have ended the practice that opponents consider 
cruel.

The prospect of any change is unclear as the majority of Japanese still support 
the death penalty.

Some lawyers favor keeping the capital punishment as a way to address the 
victims' feelings. At Friday's convention, a group of lawyers handed out 
leaflets, unsuccessfully trying to vote down the federation-wide policy.

Membership in a local bar association is compulsory for Japan's more than 
37,000 lawyers, and its members include a few hundred other people, such as 
foreign lawyers.

(source: Associated Press)






INDONESIA:

ICJR calls for death penalty moratorium


A legal think tank, the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), has 
called on the government to include a moratorium on the death penalty in its 
reform packages aimed at rejuvenating the country's legal system.

ICJR executive director Supriyadi Widodo Eddyono said a moratorium on capital 
punishment must be put in place if the government was serious about reforming 
the country's legal system, given that numerous executions, including that of 
drug trafficker Zainal Abidin in April last year, had been carried out without 
fair trials.

Zainal filed a case review in 2005 over the ruling on his execution with the 
Palembang District Court in South Sumatra. He had to wait 10 years, only to 
have the Supreme Court reject his appeal.

"President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has to ask the Attorney General's Office [AGO] 
to stop handing down death sentences before the country's penal law system is 
reformed," Supriyadi said in a statement on Friday.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Minister Wiranto has announced a 
plan to issue legal reform packages that revolve around efforts to simplify 
overlapping regulations, to create more effective legal enforcement 
institutions and to improve legal culture.

Details of the reform packages, as well as their date of introduction, however, 
remain unclear.

(source: The Jakarta Post)






MALAYSIA:

Let the rope fall, says Amnesty International Malaysia


It is time for Malaysia to demonstrate its commitment towards reforming death 
penalty laws and put forward amendments to abolish the mandatory death penalty 
in the next Parliament session, Amnesty International Malaysia says as the 
world prepares to observe the 14th World Day Against Death Penalty on Monday, 
Oct 10, 2016.

In recent years, Malaysia has shown some positive signs in rethinking capital 
punishment including abolishing the mandatory death penalty for drug-related 
offences. The government needs to urgently put forward amendments to death 
penalty laws in the next Parliament session after several unexplained 
postponements.

Former law minister Nancy Shukri had announced last year that death penalty 
reforms would be put forward in the March 2016 Parliament session. However, 
this did not come to pass.

"Our concern when it comes to the use of the death penalty is not just that 
Malaysia remains one of 25 countries to still employ this archaic method of 
punishment, but also that does so with a lack of transparency. The public 
rarely has information on who is being executed and for what crimes.

"Transparency on the use of capital punishment is important as it is an 
essential safeguard that not only allows for greater scrutiny to ensure the 
rights of those facing execution are fully respected, but is also a 
pre-condition for informed and meaningful debates on the issue," Amnesty 
International Malaysia executive director Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu said.

In October 2015, for example, the Prisons Department indicated that between 
1998 and 2015 there had been 33 executions. However, Amnesty International, 
which publishes a yearly report on death sentences and executions globally, 
recorded only 22 executions in Malaysia for the same period. Globally, Amnesty 
International recorded 1,634 executions in 25 countries in 2015 alone.

"The death penalty is cruel, inhuman and degrading. In an imperfect world with 
a fallible justice system, it is never justified to take a life. The death 
penalty is irreversible and final. Should Malaysia move to abolish the 
mandatory death penalty for drug-related offences, the international community 
would view it as a positive first step towards completely removing the death 
penalty from Malaysia's law books," she said.

Amnesty International Malaysia is urging the Malaysian government - while it 
still retains the mandatory and discretionary death penalty for various 
offences - to be accountable for the lives it hangs:

Firstly, lawyers and families need to be provided with adequate notice of 
imminent executions. This is to allow lawyers and families to seek any 
available recourse against the execution. Secondly, prisoners, who often serve 
long years on death row, should also be provided information on the status of 
their pardon applications. Thirdly, the authorities should also annually 
publish detailed information on the use of the death penalty including the 
number of persons sentenced to death, the number of death sentences reversed or 
commuted on appeal, and the number of instances in which clemency can still be 
granted.

In 2016, 4 executions became public knowledge - the hanging of Ahmad Najib Aris 
on Sept 23 and the triple executions of brothers Sasivarnam and Ramesh 
Jayakumar, and Gunasegar Pitchaymuthu on March 25.

"The logic is simple - why the secrecy if the death penalty is an effective 
deterrent to crime?"

#AbolishDeathPenalty 2016 Campaign

Amnesty International Malaysia and partner organisations will be launching the 
#AbolishDeathPenalty 2016 Campaign which targets to provide information to the 
public about the misconceptions of the death penalty. The 1st leg of the 
campaign kicks off at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall from 
Oct 9 to 16. It will feature an art installation which puts the visitor in the 
shoes of a suspected drug trafficker or a defence lawyer.

The 2nd leg of the campaign will feature a photo exhibition by noted artist 
Toshi Kazama and the set-up of a mock solitary confinement cell by Amnesty 
International Malaysia at The Curve from Oct 19 to 23.

2 petitions will be placed on amnesty.my on Oct 10; the 1st for the Malaysian 
government to abolish the death penalty and the 2nd, to urge the commutation of 
Shahrul Izani Suparman's death sentence.

"For the last 2 years, Amnesty International has been campaigning on Shahrul 
Izani's behalf because we believe that the death penalty is never the answer. 
After over 13 years on death row for cannabis possession found when he was 
riding a friend's motorcycle, Shahrul Izani needs to be spared the noose,"

Shamini said.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist 
organisation with more than 7 million members in more than 150 countries 
campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organisation investigates and 
exposes abuses, educates and mobilises the public, and works to protect people 
wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

(source: malaysiakini.com)






GAZA:

The EU Missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah condemn death sentence issued in Gaza


The EU Missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah condemn the death sentence issued in 
Gaza on 5th October.

As in their most recent statement on 21st July, the EU Missions in Jerusalem 
and Ramallah recall the EU's firm opposition under all circumstances to the use 
of capital punishment.

The EU considers that abolition of the death penalty contributes to the 
protection of human dignity and the progressive development of human rights. It 
considers capital punishment to be cruel and inhuman, that it fails to provide 
deterrence to criminal behaviour, and represents an unacceptable denial of 
human dignity and integrity.

The de facto authorities in Gaza must refrain from carrying out any executions 
of prisoners and comply with the moratorium on executions put in place by the 
Palestinian Authority, pending abolition of the death penalty in line with the 
global trend.

(source: Palestine News Network)






IRAN----imminent execution/URGENT ACTION

Help Halt Imminent Execution of 22-Year-Old Iranian Kurdish Woman (Iran: UA 
227/16)


Urgent Action

Zeinab Sekaanvand Lokran, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, is at risk of 
execution following an unfair trial in which she was convicted of the murder of 
her husband. She was 17 years old at the time of the crime. She could be 
executed as early as 13 October.

Iranian Kurdish woman Zeinab Sekaanvand Lokran, now aged 22, was sentenced to 
death under qesas ("retribution in kind") in October 2014 after an unfair trial 
before a criminal court in West Azerbaijan Province, which convicted her of 
killing her husband. She was arrested in February 2012 at a police station 
where she "confessed" to the murder of her husband, whom she had married at the 
age of 15. She was held in the police station for the next 20 days where she 
has said she was tortured through beatings all over her body by male police 
officers. She "confessed" that she stabbed her husband after he had subjected 
her to months of physical and verbal abuse and had refused her requests for 
divorce. She was only provided with a (state-appointed) lawyer at her final 
trial session, at which point she retracted her "confession" telling the judge 
that her husband's brother, who she said had raped her several times, had 
committed the murder. She said he told her that, if she accepted 
responsibility, he would pardon her (under Islamic law, murder victims' 
relatives have the power to pardon the offender and accept financial 
compensation instead). The court failed to investigate Zeinab Sekaanvand's 
statements and, instead, relied on "confessions" she had made without a lawyer 
present to issue a verdict. Although she was under 18 years old at the time of 
the crime, the court failed to apply juvenile sentencing provisions in Iran's 
2013 Islamic Penal Code and order a forensic report to assess her "mental 
growth and maturity" at the time of the crime.

In 2015, Zeinab Sekaanvand married a prisoner, also held in Oroumieh Central 
Prison, West Azerbaijan Province, and became pregnant. Subsequently, the 
authorities informed her that they would delay her execution until after the 
birth. On 30 September, she was transferred to a hospital outside the prison 
where she gave birth to a still-born baby. Doctors said her baby had died in 
her womb 2 days earlier due to shock, around the same time as the execution of 
her cell mate and friend on 28 September. She was returned from the hospital to 
the prison the day after the birth, and has not been allowed to see a doctor 
since for postnatal care or psycho-social support.

1) TAKE ACTION

Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:

-- Urging the Iranian authorities to immediately halt any plans to execute 
Zeinab Sekaanvand and ensure that her conviction and death sentence are quashed 
and that she is granted a fair retrial without recourse to the death penalty 
and in accordance with principles of juvenile justice;

-- Calling on them to conduct a prompt, independent, and thorough 
investigation into Zeinab Sekaanvand's allegations of torture and other 
ill-treatment, and ensure that any statements obtained from her under torture 
and other ill-treatment, coercion or without a lawyer present, are not used as 
evidence against her in court;

-- Reminding them that there is an absolute prohibition on the use of the 
death penalty for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age under both 
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on 
the Rights of the Child, both of which Iran has ratified;

-- Immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to 
abolishing the death penalty.

Contact below official by 18 November, 2016:

Office of the Supreme Leader

Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

622 Third Avenue, 34th Floor

New York, NY 10017

Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei

Salutation: Your Excellency

(source: Amnesty International USA)