[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 27



IRAN:

12 executions in Karaj, Shiraz, Ahvaz and Salmas prisons


Anti-human regime of mullahs hanged 12 prisoners in the central prisons of 
Karaj, Shiraz, Sepidar of Ahvaz and Salmas during days 23 to 25 October. One of 
the 5 prisoners that were hanged collectively on Tuesday morning, October 25 
was a 25-year- old youth by the name of Saeed Pour-Hassan. On the day before, 3 
prisoners in Shiraz and 2 young brothers in Abadan from Arab minority were 
hanged in the Sepidar prison of Ahvaz. In fear of the people's wrath, 
repressive SSF (State Security Force) were stationed in various locations in 
the Salich district of Abadan strictly controlling the people.

Also on October 23, 2 Kurd prisoners were hanged in in the prison of Salmas.

Meanwhile, Bahram Ghasemi, the regime's foreign ministry spokesman, described 
the recent European Parliament resolution about Iran as being "inaccurate" and 
based on "false information and reports". He called repression and killing of 
the Iranian people as an internal issue and said, "We have not and will not 
allow any individual or country to speak or judge about our internal issues." 
(state-run News Network, October 24)

The Iranian Resistance calls all the Iranian people and particularly the brave 
youths to protest against the brutal death penalty. It reiterates any dealing 
with the mullahs' regime should be contingent upon improvement of human rights 
situation, especially halt of executions.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)






EGYPT:

More Action Needed! - Prisoner of Conscience At Risk Of Death Penalty (Egypt: 
UA 243/14)


Urgent Action

October 26, 2016

A Cairo court adjourned to 1 November the trial of photojournalist Mahmoud Abu 
Zeid, popularly known as Shawkan. He is a prisoner of conscience facing 9 
trumped-up charges and is at risk of the death penalty, if convicted.

On 8 October, Cairo Criminal Court adjourned the trial of photojournalist 
Mahmoud Abu Zeid and 738 other defendants to 1 November, while it released 
Hosny Ali, a defendant suffering from cancer. One of Mahmoud Abu Zeid's lawyers 
told Amnesty International that the trial has been adjourned to screen the 
remaining pictures and videos that are supposed to contain evidence backing up 
the charges against the defendants.

Mahmoud Abu Zeid was arrested on 14 August 2013 while photographing the violent 
dispersal by security forces of the Rabaa al-Adaweya sit-in in Cairo. The case 
is referred to by Egyptian media as the "Rabaa dispersal" case. At the 8 
October session, the Public Prosecution displayed a few CDs containing pictures 
and videos allegedly incriminating the defendants. However, defence lawyers 
objected to what was contained in the CDs because they related to events that 
pre-date the dispersal of the Rabaa al-Adaweya sit-in, such as the "25 January 
Revolution" in 2011. The Prosecution responded by saying the evidence was 
supplied by the National Security Agency without elaborating. Since early 2015, 
the National Security Agency has emerged as the principle state agency engaged 
in suppressing opposition to the government, committing torture and other 
serious violations with impunity.

Shawkan has been held far in excess of the 2-year detention limit set out in 
Article 143 of Egypt's Code of Criminal Procedures for those at risk of life 
imprisonment or the death penalty. The law says that they must be sentenced 
within a 2-year period, or otherwise released immediately. His lawyers' 
requests for his release have been unsuccessful so far. He is detained in 
Cairo's Tora Prison Complex, and was moved on 19 October from Istiqbal Prison 
to Tahqiq. The reason for this transfer is still unclear.

Mahmoud Abu Zeid is being tried in a mass trial with 738 other defendants, 
including leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. He faces 9 trumped-up 
charges, which include "joining a criminal gang" and "murder". He has denied 
the charges against him. Mahmoud Abu Zeid only receives medication for 
Hepatitis C sporadically.

1) TAKE ACTION

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

-- Urging the Egyptian authorities to drop all charges against Mahmoud Abu 
Zeid and release him immediately and unconditionally as he is a prisoner of 
conscience detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of 
expression;

-- Calling on them to provide Mahmoud Abu Zeid with any medical treatment he 
may require.

Contact these 2 officials by 7 December, 2016:

Public Prosecutor

Nabil Sadek

Office of the Public Prosecutor

Madinat al-Rihab

New Cairo, Egypt

Salutation: Dear Counsellor

Ambassador Yasser Reda

Embassy of Egypt

3521 International Ct NW, Washington DC 20008

Fax: 202 244 4319 -OR- 202 244 5131 I Phone: 202 895 5400

Email: ambassador at egyptembassy.net

Salutation: Dear Ambassador

(source: Amnesty International USA)






UGANDA:

Pardon Prisoners On Death Row


On October 24, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta commuted the death sentences of 
all 2,747 convicts on death row to life sentences giving them a reprieve from 
the hangman's noose.

The 2,655 men and 92 women will now serve life imprisonment. Invoking the Power 
of Mercy provided for under Article 133 of the Kenyan Constitution, President 
Kenyatta also pardoned 102 prisoners serving longterm sentences.

The development came a week after Kenyatta freed 7,000 inmates during the 
Heroes Day celebrations to create jail space for corruption convicts.

The decision to commute all death sentences brings Kenya closer to the growing 
community of nations, which have abolished the death penalty, calling it a 
cruel and inhuman form of punishment.

Although Kenya last executed in 1987, it has mandatory death penalty on its law 
books and had the highest number of people on death row in East Africa while 
Uganda at 28 offences has the highest number of offences that attract the death 
sentence.

This was not the 1st time such a mass commutation of death sentences happened 
in Kenya. On August 3, 2009, then president Mwai Kibaki commuted more than 
4,000 death sentences to life jail terms citing the undue mental anguish 
suffered by those sentenced to death. His decision however may have been 
influenced by the "would be" outcomes of 3 cases that were challenging 
mandatory use of capital punishment.

Should the legal challenges have succeeded, the government would have been 
faced with the unenviable task of holding individual sentence hearings for all 
4,000-plus prisoners under sentence of death as was the case in Uganda after 
the Kigula ruling. Commutation of a sentence is the substitution or reduction 
of a sentence to a lesser one.

Presidents are given power to do this by their countries' Constitutions. In 
Uganda this is under Article 121 (4)(c) of the Constitution. Various presidents 
have exercised this power. President Obama has gone down in the history of 
America as one who has used this power most.

As at June, he had commuted the sentences of 348 individuals - more than the 
previous seven Presidents combined. Commutation of death sentences has happened 
all over the world. In Africa, Zambia is yet another country that has had its 
presidents exercise this power continuously. By August 2015, Zambia had only 4 
convicts on death sentence.

The small size of the country's deathrow is the result of several presidential 
commutations. On July 16, 2015, president Edgar Lungu commuted the death 
sentences of 332 inmates to life imprisonment. In December 2013, there were 214 
people on death row, following former president Michael Sata's commutations of 
123 death sentences.

President, Rupiah Bwezani Banda pardoned and commuted sentences of 53 prisoners 
on death row in 2009 while in 2007, president Mwanawasa commuted the death 
sentences of 97 prisoners who were on death row to life imprisonment.

Instances of showing mercy to convicted prisoners through commutations and 
pardons are not new neither are they enshrined only in Constitutions. They are 
found in other great books like the Bible and have been practiced for 
centuries.

In Judaism and Christianity, the concept of the Jubilee is a special year of 
remission of sins and universal pardon. In the book of Leviticus, a Jubilee 
year is mentioned to occur every 50th year, during which slaves and prisoners 
would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be 
particularly manifested. Currently, the Catholic Church is commemorating an 
extra ordinary Jubilee of mercy (which will end on November 20).

Pope Francis issued a prayer for the year in which the second last paragraph 
re-echoes the call to free prisoners found among others in Isaiah 42:6-7, 
61:1-3, Psalm 69:33 and Luke 4:17-19; "send your Spirit and consecrate everyone 
of us with its anointing, so that the Jubilee of mercy may be a year of grace 
from the Lord and your Church, with renewed enthusiasm, may bring good news to 
the poor, proclaim liberty to the captives and oppressed and restore sight to 
the blind".

Although Uganda as a nation missed this element of jubilee celebration at the 
50 anniversary of independence, it is not late to exercise pardon to these 
prisoners as has been done in Kenya.

(source: Opinion; Lucy Nantume----The Monitor)






SINGAPORE:

Ex-policeman appeals to escape death penalty for Kovan double murders


3 years after he murdered 2 men, former police officer Iskandar Rahmat is 
fighting to save his own life.

The Court of Appeal reserved judgment on Wednesday (Oct 26) on Iskandar's 
appeal against 2 death sentences handed down to him for the murder of Mr Tan 
Boon Sin, 67, and his son Chee Heong, 42, on Jul 10, 2013.

Iskandar's lawyer, Wendell Wong, argued the murder convictions should be 
overturned and replaced with reduced charges, sparing Iskandar the noose. He 
urged the apex court to consider new evidence in the form of 2 reports - a 
forensic pathology report and a psychiatric report.

The forensic pathology report states that Iskandar suffered defensive injuries, 
lending weight to the defence's case that Mr Tan Boon Sin was the aggressor, 
and that Iskandar had wrested the knife from his hand and killed him in 
self-defence.

The latter report said Iskandar was diagnosed with 2 mental illnesses at the 
time of the murders. This "abnormality of mind ... substantially impaired his 
mental responsibility" for the killings, psychiatrist Dr John Bosco Lee stated.

FATHER, SON DIED FROM MULTIPLE STAB WOUNDS

Iskandar, 37, was found guilty of two counts of murder and sentenced to death 
on Dec 4 last year. High Court Justice Tay Yong Kwang found "no doubt" that the 
policeman, facing bankruptcy and dismissal from the force, intended to kill the 
elderly man for his money.

When Mr Tan's son, Chee Heong, appeared "at the most inopportune moment" at his 
father's house, "he quickly became collateral damage", Justice Tay said.

Father and son died from multiple stab wounds - 21 and 17 respectively - on 
areas like the scalp, face, neck and chest. The elder Tan died in Iskandar's 
arms, while the younger Tan staggered out of the house and collapsed behind a 
car in the driveway.

His body got caught under Iskandar's getaway car and was dragged for nearly 1km 
before it dislodged in front of Kovan MRT station. It also left a trail of 
blood leading back to 14J Hillside Drive, where the other body was discovered.

During his 10-day trial, Iskandar insisted he stabbed the men in self-defence, 
when the elder Tan came at him with a knife after he realised Iskandar had 
tricked him into removing S$600,000 in cash from a safe deposit box.

Iskandar maintains all he intended to do was to rob the man, not kill him.

The younger Tan barged in to find Iskandar covered in his father's blood and 
wielding a knife, and came at him with fists clenched, Iskandar had testified.

Prosecutors said Iskandar intended to kill Mr Tan for the money and decided to 
finish his son off too, to "silence completely the 2 persons who had seen him".

DIAGNOSIS OF MENTAL ILLNESS THREE YEARS LATE, "UNRELIABLE"

On Wednesday, they attempted to block Mr Wong from presenting new evidence, 
pointing out that the reports were prepared more than 3 years after the 
killings and more than 8 months after the trial.

In response to Mr Wong's submission that Iskandar was suffering from Acute 
Stress Reaction and Adjustment Disorder around the time of the murders, Deputy 
Public Prosecutor Lee Lit Cheng pointed out Iskandar himself had denied this at 
trial.

Iskandar cannot be allowed to now rely on "unreliable, self-serving" reports 
based on interviews 3 years after the fact, the prosecutor argued.

Urging the apex court to uphold the death sentence, DPP Lee said Iskandar had 
"no choice" but to kill Mr Tan "or face certain reprehension", because of the 
great lengths to which he had gone to trick the elderly man into removing cash 
and valuables from a safe deposit box.

PLAN GONE WRONG

Iskandar called Mr Tan from a payphone on Jul 10, and introduced himself as an 
officer from the Police Intelligence Department. He told the elderly man the 
police had "intel" that his safe deposit box would be "hit". Mr Tan agreed to 
replace his valuables with a CCTV camera, under the impression that he was 
participating in a secret police operation.

The men met later that afternoon at a Shell petrol station in Paya Lebar, where 
Iskandar passed Mr Tan a dummy CCTV camera to put in his safe deposit box.

Mr Tan did as he was told and returned later with cash and valuables in tow. 
Iskandar offered to escort him home as he was carrying a lot of money, and Mr 
Tan agreed.

It was when the pair arrived at the Tan family home at Hillside Drive that 
things went horribly wrong.

"Your client is the only person alive who was there," Chief Justice Sundaresh 
Menon said, pressing Iskandar's lawyer for an explanation as to why Mr Tan and 
his son ended up dead, when Iskandar claims he was the one attacked with a 
knife.

The CJ pointed out there appears to be no explanation for why Mr Tan allegedly 
attacked Iskandar suddenly, after following the policeman's instructions and 
even allowing him into his home.

"I have to tell you that that's something that causes me a great deal of 
difficulty," CJ Menon said, especially because "the only evidence (Iskandar 
has) put forward pivots on this point - that (Mr Tan) attacked him".

Mr Wong said there was no way the murder weapon could have come from Iskandar. 
The policeman was dressed in office wear and would not have been able to 
conceal a knife under his clothes, he argued.

To that, the prosecution reiterated that no knives were missing from the Tan 
family home and highlighted that Iskandar was "able to describe the knife in 
detail". He even drew a picture of it for investigators, despite the fact that 
its details would have been obscured by blood, DPP Lee said.

Iskandar's family was allowed to spend a few minutes with him after the 3-hour 
hearing. The Tan family was not present.

(source: channelnewsasia)



MALAYSIA:

Duo on death row fail in appeals:


A 27-year-old Filipino labourer will be hanged for murdering a local man in 
Keningau 7 years ago after losing his final appeal in the Federal Court here on 
Wednesday.

Justices Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, Tan Sri 
Ahmad Hj Maarop, Tan Sri Hasan Lah and Dato' Balia Haji Wahi unanimously 
dismissed Mohd Hussin Abdul Karim's appeal and upheld his conviction and 
sentence.

The apex court held that they found no merit in the appeal.

Hussin was on April 8, 2011 found guilty by the High Court here of murdering 
one Kedin Repad, 51, along with an accomplice still at large at 1.30am on May 
10, 2009 at the Tamu area in Keningau town.

He was convicted under Section 302 of the Penal Code which carries the death 
sentence on conviction.

The Court of Appeal rejected his appeal on July 8, 2014.

Hussin's assigned counsel Hamid Ismail, raised 2 grounds in the appeal, namely, 
that the element of common intention was not proven and that improper 
evaluation of Hussin's evidence by the trial judge on common intention was not 
considered.

Hamid submitted that the trial judge had failed to consider evidence in 
determining the element of common intention, namely that Hussin and his friends 
were at the crime scene for a drinking session, Hussin approached Kedin as he 
wanted to help a waitress, who was scared to give the bill to Kedin as Kedin 
was drunk and aggressive and that Kedin lied to Hussin and the restaurant by 
giving an empty envelope as payment.

He added the trial judge failed to consider Hussin's evidence about common 
intention and that Hussin's evidence would show that he was at the caf??? for a 
drinking session and he did not ask his two friends to assist him to hit Kedin.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Awang Ahmadajaya submitted that there was common 
intention as essentially Hussin and his friends wanted to cause injury to 
Kedin.

He also said that Hussin's attempt to take a manhole metal cover during the 
incident showed his intention to cause injury to Kedin as the metal cover was 
heavy.

Meanwhile, a 60-year-old Filipino who was sentenced to death for murdering a 
man in Tawau failed in his final appeal against his death sentence at the 
Federal Court.

Justices Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, Tan Sri Richard Malanjum, Tan Sri 
Ahmad Hj Maarop, Tan Sri Hasan Lah and Dato' Balia Haji Wahi dismissed Wilson 
Arad's appeal and affirmed his conviction and sentence.

The court held that there was no merit in the appeal and that the prosecution 
had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Wilson was on Aug 2, 2012 found guilty by the Tawau High Court of killing one 
Said Alian, 57, along with an accomplice still at large at 4.30pm on Aug 30, 
2007 in a house at Jambatan 2, Kg Kurnia Jaya, Mile 4, Jalan Apas, Tawau.

The offence comes under Section 302 of the Penal Code which carries the death 
sentence on conviction.

Wilson's appeal to the Court of Appeal was rejected on Sept 9, 2014.

Earlier, assigned counsel Ram Singh representing Wilson submitted among others 
that there was no investigation carried out inside the house although 3 people 
emerged from the house.

He said if proper investigation were done by the investigating officer and more 
blood swabs taken, it could have revealed who actually had killed Said, adding 
that, the 3 other witnesses, who were seen inside the house, only saw Wilson 
holding a Rambo knife.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Awang Ahmadajaya rebutted that that there were 
eye-witnesses who saw Wilson holding the knife and coming out from the house 
during the incident.

Meanwhile, the apex court struck out the prosecution's appeal against the 
acquittal of a man from a drug trafficking charge.

The court made the decision after being informed by the prosecution that the 
respondent, Mohana Dass Velayutham, failed to turn up in court on Wednesday for 
hearing of the appeal and that the notice of hearing had been served.

DPP Awang also told the court that Wednesday was the 3rd mention date for the 
appeal.

The prosecution was appealing against the Court of Appeal's decision on Sept 
12, 2014 to set aside Mohana Dass Velayutham's conviction and death sentence 
and to acquit and discharge him of the charge.

Mohana Dass of Kajang, Selangor was on Feb 8, 2012 sentenced to death by the 
High Court here after he was found guilty of trafficking 4,674.3gm of ketamine 
at 4.40pm on July 31, 2011 at Terminal Two of the Kota Kinabalu International 
Airport.

The offence under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act provides for 
death penalty on conviction.

(source: The Daily Express)






NEPAL/UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:

PM Dahal urges UAE to pardon a Nepali in death row


Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has urged the UAE to provide amnesty to Amar 
Bahadur Bam of Darchula, who was sentenced to death by a United Arab Emirates 
court. Bam has been living behind hars in UAE since 2003.

Bam, a resident of Dhari VDC in far-western Nepal, was convicted of murder for 
killing an Indian national Sharad Shetty in 2003, and has been languishing in 
the Al Abira Central Jail in Dubai.

PM Dahal's secretariat informed that Dahal urged the Ambassador of UAE to Nepal 
Saeed Hamdan Mohammad Al Naqbi to pardon Bam during a meeting between the 
Ambassador and PM Dahal at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of 
Ministers (OPMCM) on Thursday.

Ambassador Naqbi had reached Singha Durbar to invite Nepal to attend the World 
Future Energy Summit to be held in UAE on January 16, 2017.

PM Dahal expressed his interest to attend the programme. The duo also held 
discussions on issues pertaining to bilateral interests between Nepal and UAE.

(source: Katmandu Post)






CHINA:

Court exercises prudence in giving death penalty for graft


Legal experts have praised the more prudent application of the death penalty 
for corrupt officials in China as achieving a balance between appropriate 
punishment and human rights, despite some public skepticism over sentences 
appearing too light for the worst offenders who tried to embezzle millions of 
yuan.

Nearly 80 senior officials have been investigated and sentenced since 2012. 
However, none have been executed, according to media reports.

In the last 2 weeks, 3 corrupt officials, who raked in record amounts of money, 
were sentenced to death with a 2-year reprieve.

In the latest case, Yu Tieyi, a former deputy manager of the supply division of 
the Heilongjiang Longmay Mining Holding Group, was sentenced to death with a 
2-year reprieve last Friday for taking bribes worth 306.8 million yuan ($45.3 
million), the highest amount so far dealt with in a corruption case in China, 
according to media reports.

Death sentences with reprieves are commuted to life imprisonment with no chance 
of parole and penalty abatement when the probationary period expires, usually 
after 2 years. The criminal will be executed only if crimes are conducted again 
during the probationary period, according to the latest Criminal Law Amendment 
(CLA) that took effect in November 2015.

Many people have expressed skepticism online over the reprieved death sentences 
handed out to senior officials convicted of corruption.

Many said the sentence is too light for those who caused huge losses to the 
nation, especially after the Supreme People's Court (SPC) approved the death 
sentence on Jia Jinglong on October 18.

Jia, a villager from North China's Hebei Province, shot and killed the village 
chief last February in revenge over the demolition of his house during the 
village's reconstruction campaign in 2013.

Wasting tax

"If the worst corrupt officials are not sentenced to death, people may believe 
that officials are shielding each other," Mo Shaoping, a law professor at the 
Central University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on 
Wednesday.

Mo added that people are dissatisfied with a life sentence, as they feel that 
the longer convicted criminals are behind bars, the more taxpayer money is 
wasted.

Ruan Qilin, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, 
told The Beijing News that China had been strictly controlling and more 
prudently applying death penalties since the SPC took back the right to review 
death penalties from lower-level courts in 2007.

Ruan said the death penalty as a deterrent to corruption should be kept on the 
statute books, as the public expects this.

However, Hong Daode, a professor at the China University of Political Science 
and Law, told the Global Times that prudent application of the death penalty is 
aimed at safeguarding the right to life while maintaining fairness, which is in 
line with international practice.

"Court sentences given to corrupt officials are based on a combination of the 
amount of embezzled money and the gravity of the crimes," Hong said.

According to a clarification of applicable law for corruption and bribery 
cases, jointly issued by the SPC and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on 
April 18, the death penalty will be handed down in cases that involve 
exceptionally large amounts of money, where the crime is particularly severe, 
with an extremely bad social impact, or if it results in huge losses to the 
country and people.

Corrupt officials who accept huge amounts of bribes - 3 million yuan or more - 
will be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, life imprisonment or death 
along with a fine and property confiscation.

In addition, the clarification by the SPC stipulates that the death penalty can 
be imposed with a 2-year reprieve if suspects turn themselves in and assist in 
the authorities' inquiries, faithfully confess their crimes, repent sincerely, 
return illicit money, or help reduce or avoid the damage they have caused.

'Living dead'

China will try to avoid death sentences in corruption cases unless deaths and 
great damage, either to society or national security, are involved, Hong said.

Hong believes that life imprisonment is a worse deterrent than death, as it 
makes corrupt officials the "living dead."

Li Yong, a law professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global 
Times that imposing a reprieved death sentence is a balance between punishment 
and human rights.

"Strict punishment alone cannot curb corruption," Li said.

Li noted that the root of corruption is power. He said that moves to simplify 
administrative procedures and delegate authority to lower levels as well as a 
strict supervision mechanism should also be instituted to curb corruption from 
the roots.

China is the only country in the world that gives the death penalty for 
economic crimes. Caijing magazine reported in 2015 that 10 % of 50 corrupt 
officials in China were sentenced to immediate execution in 2010, while 26 % 
were sentenced to the death penalty with a reprieve and 14 % to life 
imprisonment.

Among the 80 senior officials arrested since the 18th National People's 
Congress in 2012, no one was sentenced to immediate execution and only one 
person, former general Gu Junshan, had been sentenced to death with a reprieve 
as of October 2015, according to The Beijing News.

(source: cri.cn)






INDIA:

SC Stays Execution Of Convicts In Jharkhand Massacre


Granting permission to amend grounds of review petition, the Supreme Court has 
stayed the execution of the death sentence 'pending further orders' awarded to 
Mofil Khan and Mobarak Khan for murdering Haneef Khan and family consisting of 
his wife and 4 sons. His review petition is now being heard by a bench headed 
by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur.

The bench granted permission to the counsel to file amended grounds for review 
within 4 weeks.

"The execution of the death sentence awarded to the petitioners shall remain 
stayed pending further orders from this court," the order dated 24.10.2016 
said.

Mofil Khan and his nephew Mobarak Khan and 2 others were found guilty by the 
trial court of murdering Haneef Khan and his family consisting of his wife and 
4 sons, including 3 minors and 1 physically disabled boy.

Death penalty awarded to Mofil Khan and his nephew by the court was confirmed 
by the Jharkhand High Court. The Supreme Court had heard the appeal of Mofil 
Khan restricting itself to the question of sentence only.

The apex court judgment in this case discusses various case laws which dealt 
with 'rarest of rare' doctrine. A bench comprising then Chief Justice of India 
HL Dattu, Justice RK Agrawal and Justice Arun Mishra had observed that the 
judiciary has a paramount duty to safeguard the rights of the victims as 
diligently as those of the perpetrators.

"In the context of these turbulent social times, we cannot remain oblivious to 
the substantial suffering of the victims. It stands as a fact that criminal 
justice reform and civil rights movement in India has historically only paid 
considerable attention to the rights of the accused and neglected to address to 
the same extent the impact of crime on the victims. It is not only the victims 
of crime only that require soothing balm, but also the incidental victims like 
the family, the co-sufferers and to a relatively large extent the society too," 
the court had observed.

Confirming his death penalty, the apex court had observed thus: "Keeping in 
view the said principle of proportionality of sentence or what it termed as 
"just desert" for the vile act of slaughtering 8 lives, including four innocent 
minors and a physically infirm child whereby an entire family is exterminated, 
we cannot resist from concluding that the depravity of the appellant's offence 
would attract no lesser sentence than the death penalty."

Later on March 6, President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected their mercy 
petitions.

(source: livelaw.in)

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

HC seeks response from death row convict


The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the reply of 2 death row convicts in the 
2009 Jigisha Ghosh murder case, whose case file has been sent by the trial 
court here for confirmation of capital punishment.

A bench of justices Gita Mittal and P. S. Teji also sought personal presence of 
convicts Ravi Kapoor and Amit Shukla, who were handed down death penalty by the 
trial court.

The bench, which has fixed the matter for further hearing on November 24, also 
issued production warrants to the 2.

The sessions judge had sent the case record relating to the conviction and 
death sentence of Kapoor and Shukla to the HC.

It is mandatory for a trial court to refer a death penalty case to a HC for 
confirmation of the sentence within 30 days of the pronouncement of the 
verdict.

The trial court had on July 14 held the duo guilty for murder of 28-year-old IT 
executive Jigisha Ghosh and other counts.

While sentencing the 2 to death on August 22, the trial court had said the girl 
was killed in a "cold-blooded, inhuman and cruel manner" and "brutally mauled 
to death".

(source: The Hindu)






PAKISTAN:

Pakistan Sets Execution Date for 'Insane' Prisoner


Authorities in Pakistan have handed down an execution warrant to a death-row 
prisoner who is severely mentally ill.

Pakistan's interior ministry today handed down a so-called 'black warrant' 
confirming that it plans to hang Imdad Ali, who suffers from paranoid 
schizophrenia, next Wednesday (2nd). Mr Ali was sentenced to death in 2008 over 
a shooting, following several years in which his family struggled to pay for 
medical treatment. Since then, a series of medical assessments have confirmed 
his illness, with one doctor describing him as "insane", and saying that his 
condition is "chronic and disabling."

Despite this, last week saw Pakistan's Supreme Court dismiss an appeal by Mr 
Ali's lawyers, commenting that schizophrenia is "not a mental disorder." This 
afternoon, authorities at the jail where Mr Ali is held confirmed that a 
warrant has been issued for his execution on November 2nd.

The execution of mentally ill people is prohibited under Pakistani and 
international law, and today's development comes amid mounting criticism of 
plans to hang Mr Ali. UN human rights experts have called on the government to 
halt Mr Ali's execution, while the UK's Foreign Office has said it is "very 
concerned" about the case. A group of Pakistani psychiatrists has also urged 
the authorities to commute Mr Ali's sentence. Over 20,000 people have signed a 
petition calling on Pakistan's President, Mamnoon Hussain, to grant mercy to Mr 
Ali.

Under international law, the President has a duty to review death penalty 
cases. Article 45 of Pakistan's Constitution grants the President powers to 
"grant pardon, reprieve and respite, and to remit, suspend or commute" death 
sentences.

Commenting, Maya Foa, a director at Reprieve, said: "It's appalling that the 
Pakistani authorities are pushing ahead with their plans to execute Imdad. 
Experts agree that Imdad is severely mentally ill - meaning his hanging would 
be a grave breach of Pakistani and international law, and an indelible stain on 
Pakistan's reputation. It is the President of Pakistan's constitutional duty to 
review death penalty cases and to use his power to grant mercy in cases such as 
Imdad's - where not to do so would result in a gross, irreparable miscarriage 
of justice. The President must use his power to pardon Imdad, and prevent this 
outrage from going ahead."

(source: commondreams.org)

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

Pakistan's courts must not ignore mental illness


Imdad Ali lives, or exists, in Pakistan. He is on death row. He may not live 
much longer. Indeed, he very well may die, thrashing in the hangman's noose, as 
early as next Wednesday.

[UPDATE: Since this was written, Imdad's execution date has been set for 
Wednesday, 2 November, 2016 - please join our urgent call on Pakistan's 
President to stop the hanging going ahead]

On October 20th, the Supreme Court of Pakistan affirmed his death sentence. The 
Court used some odd language. He was, they wrote in the strange words of 
Pakistan capital cases, "awarded a death sentence by the trial court" (much as 
if he had received an OBE from Her Majesty). After this, a "black warrant" was 
issued authorising his execution. The question posed to the court was whether 
his long history of paranoid schizophrenia should spare him from the gallows.

In the appeal, his lawyer asked - or "respectfully prayed" - that mercy should 
"very graciously be granted ... in the interest of justice." In considering 
this, the court asked whether Imdad could rightly be construed as being of 
"unsound mind."

It is not as if Imdad's family just made this up. Before Imdad was even born, 
over a half-century ago, his father Muhammad Ismail was afflicted with 
schizophrenia. One night, when Imdad was just 2 years old, Muhammad jumped in 
front of a train, thinking he was invincible. He wasn't.

Some 20 years ago, as it become clear that Imdad was also becoming ill, the 
fruit falling close to the parental tree. His family were desperate for help, 
but they were also poor, so they could not afford it. Imdad became increasingly 
withdrawn, talking to himself, chatting with inanimate objects, and instructing 
the sun loudly to shine with less heat. His wife, Safia, tried unsuccessfully 
to get him into a mental hospital.

In 2002, his rational mind in tatters, Imdad was arrested over a shooting and 
subsequently sentenced to death. As any sane person must surely understand, it 
was not Imdad who committed murder, but his schizophrenia. It seems that the 
entire neighbourhood is still willing to come forward to testify that Imdad was 
crippled by his illness.

Most recently, it was a prison doctor who labelled Imdad 'insane.' A few days 
ago, he came agonisingly close to execution before the Supreme Court of 
Pakistan issued a brief stay. Unsurprisingly, the vacillation between life and 
death has itself taken a toll. Imdad's mental health has only declined. Indeed, 
the prison had to put him in solitary confinement (itself often deemed cruel) 
because his manic ramblings upset the other prisoners.

Most Islamic scholars say, emphatically, that Islam would never countenance the 
execution of a mentally ill man such as Imdad. We should celebrate mercy in the 
law wherever we may find it, and the Pakistan courts do ill service to Islam 
when they ignore it. They go further. They ignore decades of medical evolution 
and understanding.

"At this stage," the court lectures us, "it is appropriate to ascertain what 
'schizophrenia' is?" The court then begins along what seems a sensible course, 
noting that it is a "severe emotional disorder, usually of psychotic 
proportions, characterised by misinterpretation and retreat from reality, 
delusions, hallucinations, ambivalence, inappropriate affect, and withdrawn, 
bizarre or regressive behaviour..."

Then, 'bizarrely' and 'inappropriately', the members of the court themselves 
retreat from reality, indulging in what might be deemed a delusion promoted by 
people making a regressive misinterpretation of medical science. Quoting a 
case, ironically - given the number of recent conflicts between the countries - 
from India, the Pakistan court argues that we really should not "use the word 
'schizophrenia' because [we] do not think any such disease exists..." To show 
mercy based on such an illusory illness leads to "reducing a human being into a 
functional non-entity..."

That way madness lies (King Lear Act 3, scene 4, 17-22). The Indian case cited 
involves a divorce: whether a schizophrenic wife should be deemed an unfit 
spouse because of her illness. It is, indeed, offensive to say that such a 
person cannot be a fit partner in life. It is quite another thing, however, to 
twist that humane interpretation of the condition into the inhumane insistence 
that decency requires we hang a man like Imdad.

Neither I, nor any of those from Reprieve or others interested in making a plea 
for reasonable, informed and decent clemency in this case, have any wish to 
show disrespect to Pakistan's judiciary or argue for something inconsistent 
with that sovereign nation's cultural, religious, moral and legal traditions.

Quite the contrary, we are asking the Supreme Court and the people of Pakistan 
to recognise in this case that both the wisdom of ancient precepts and the 
incontestable findings of established medical science demonstrate one clear 
path to justice.

No one and nothing, not the memory of the victim, nor the reputation and 
standing of Pakistan, can gain or benefit from so cruel, unjust and unwise a 
killing as the hanging of this tormented and desperately ill man. We urge the 
Court to think again.

(source: Stephen Fry, reprieve.org.uk)