[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 31



IRAQ:

Execution of Saudi prisoners widens gap between Baghdad, Riyadh


On Oct. 7, Iraqi authorities executed Saudi prisoner Badr Ofan al-Shamri, 
making him the 3rd Saudi prisoner to be executed during 2016 in Iraq, following 
Abdullah al-Shanqeeti and Abdullah Azzam.

Iraq has executed 3 Saudi prisoners and nine others are on death row, raising 
the objections of Saudi Arabia that wants Baghdad to transfer the prisoners to 
the kingdom.

9 other Saudis on death row are scheduled to be executed in November. They are 
Fahad al-Anzi, Mohammed al-Obeid, Majid al-Buqami, Faisal al-Faraj, Battal 
al-Harbi, Ali al-Shahri, Ali al-Qahtani, Hamad Yahya and Abdulrahman 
al-Qahtani, all in al-Hoot prison in Nasiriyah.

Saudi media outlets reported anonymous sources as saying that Shamri had been 
extremely tortured during his 13-year detention, perhaps so much so that one of 
his legs had to be amputated.

Shamri's family has accused the Iraqi authorities of torturing their son and 
vowed to sue the Iraqi government. In this context, Shamri's brother Salman 
said Oct. 11, "The signs of torture were visible on my brother's body and the 
Iraqi government will be sued for this."

The issue of Saudi prisoners in Iraq is one of the most sensitive outstanding 
issues between the two neighboring countries, and one of the reasons behind 
their deteriorating relationship. Saudi Arabia keeps calling for the need for 
new trials for its nationals detained in Iraq and objects to the executions of 
Saudi citizens. Iraq says the Saudi prisoners formed part of terrorist 
organizations operating in Iraq since 2003.

On Oct. 3, Ali al-Qarni, a spokesman for Saudi prisoners in Iraq, said in a 
press statement, "Almost 25 Saudi prisoners in Iraq have either completed their 
sentences or [should be released] under conditional parole according to a court 
decision, but none have been transferred to the Saudi Embassy in Iraq to be 
sent back home."

It is said that the guillotine used in the execution of former Iraqi President 
Saddam Hussein is the same one being used to execute Saudi prisoners; if true, 
it is not whether this is a coincidence or a carefully calculated move by the 
Iraqi authorities.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to persuade Iraq of the need for new trials for Saudi 
prisoners in Iraq or at least convince the Iraqi authorities to transfer the 
prisoners to Saudi Arabia to serve the rest of their sentences. However, Iraq 
is refusing to answer the Saudi demands.

Saudi Arabia has accused the Iraqi government of not releasing 6 Saudi 
prisoners who completed their sentences in Iraqi prisons in Nasiriyah, Rusafa 
and Muthanna airport in Baghdad.

On Aug. 14, Saudi prisoner Ali Mohammed al-Habbabi died at the age of 22 in the 
4th Rusafa prison in Baghdad. His father said that his deceased son had a 
mental illness, but that Iraqi authorities did not provide treatment.

Salman Ansari, the chairman of the Saudi-US relations committee, told 
Al-Monitor, "There are 60 to 85 Saudi prisoners in Iraq, and Saudi Arabia has 
the right to look after its nationals around the world and Iraq is no 
exception. There is an opportunity for the Iraqi government to mend its 
relationship with its Arab brethren, particularly Saudi Arabia, and coordinate 
with it in order to transfer Saudi prisoners and allow them to serve the rest 
of their sentences in their country."

He added, "I am personally angered by reports proving that there have been 
unfair trials and sectarian discrimination against Saudi prisoners in Iraq. 
Whatever the charges for their detention, they have a right to a fair trial in 
which their human dignity is respected."

Saudi Arabia seems to be making a significant diplomatic effort for Saudi 
prisoners to serve the rest of their sentences in their country, but this would 
likely cause a public and political commotion in Iraq. It seems very unlikely 
that the Iraqi government would take such a step displeasing its citizens.

The issue of Saudi prisoners in Iraq has long been quite critical for Iraqi 
politicians; when former Saudi Ambassador Thamer Sabhan visited al-Hoot prison 
in Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq in June, a number of Iraqi politicians 
expressed their opposition to Sabhan's visiting prisoners the politicians 
considered to be terrorists.

Several Iraqi political blocs called for an Iraqi version of the Justice 
Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) that recently was passed in the 
United States. Iraqi parliament members are saying Saudi Arabia should be sued 
for its role in supporting terrorism, accusing it of facilitating the way for 
Saudi and non-Saudi extremists to cross into Iraq to carry out terrorist acts.

On July 12, Aws al-Khafaji, the head of the Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas faction, 
threatened to execute Saudi and non-Saudi prisoners detained in Iraq on 
terrorism charges if the Iraqi government was unable to execute them itself.

The issue of Saudi prisoners in Iraq remains a critical matter in Saudi-Iraqi 
relations, which do not seem to be heading in a positive direction in the short 
term in light of Saudi Arabia's demands that Saudi prisoners be transferred to 
Saudi prisons while Iraq insists on carrying out the death sentences.

This disagreement over Saudi prisoners, despite the serious charges against 
them, adds fuel to the fire and widens the gap between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, 
aggravating other conflicts over regional issues as well as each country's 
internal problems.

(source: al-monitor.com)






PHILIPPINES:

Death penalty bill to be approved by House before Christmas


House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has announced the House of Representatives 
plans to approve the bill that would bring back the death penalty before 
Christmas break this year.

"I don't know with the Senate, I don't control it, but as far as the House is 
concerned, we will approve it before the Christmas break," the Philippine Daily 
Inquirer quoted Alvarez.

"If they want to hang them, shoot them by firing squad, it s up to them. The 
criminals would be dead either way," he added, in reference to the method of 
execution which he said the legislature would leave to the executive.

He also defended the controversial measure, saying it did not work before 
because the state did not kill enough criminals when it was in effect.

He noted that critics of the death penalty often insisted that it was not a 
deterrent to crime.

"Before they speak, they should look at the record first. How many were killed? 
It had not been a deterrent because they kept on objecting, so it was not 
implemented," he told reporters in Tokyo, where he joined Mr. Duterte in his 
official visit to Japan.

Meanwhile Albay Representative Edcel Lagman vowed to block any move to return 
the death penalty.

"That projection is consistent with the alarming emergence of a culture of 
death and violence. It is a deadly Christmas gift," he said. "It took me almost 
20 years to crusade for the abolition of the death penalty, which is anti-human 
rights, a non-deterrent and anti-poor. I will oppose the reimposition if it 
takes me another 20 years."

According to Inquirer.net, capital punishment in the Philippines was abolished 
in 2006 during the term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who approved the 
measure because it did not serve to deter crime.

The 1987 Constitution states that the death penalty should not be imposed 
unless, for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, Congress provides for 
it.

(source: The Filipino Times)






PAKISTAN:

Pakistan SC stays death penalty of mentally ill man days before execution


Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday issued a last minute reprieve to a mentally 
ill man set to face the gallows this week, after his lawyers challenged the 
ruling using the last legal manoeuvre available to them.

Lawyers and rights groups say convicted murderer Imdad Ali, who was diagnosed 
with schizophrenia while in prison in 2012, cannot be executed as he cannot 
understand his crime and punishment.

He was previously set to be executed on November 2 following a ruling by the 
Supreme Court that said schizophrenia was a "recoverable disease" that could be 
treated by drugs, and not a mental disorder.

The fresh legal challenge will now be heard in the 2nd week of November, the 
Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), which is providing counsel for Ali, said in a 
statement.

The government of the Punjab province, where Ali was convicted, is also seeking 
to overturn the conviction, the group added.

Sentenced to death in 2001 over a shooting, Ali has spent 14 years on death 
row, with 3 years in solitary confinement in the jail's hospital because of his 
schizophrenia.

A 2013 government medical report stated Ali was "insane", while reports from 
September and October this year said he was psychotic and a psychiatrist deemed 
him "a treatment-resistant case".

The stay of execution also comes days after European Union politicians warned 
that Pakistan's preferential trade status with the bloc could be under threat 
from its executions drive.

Since lifting its moratorium on executions in December 2014, Pakistan has 
hanged some 418 prisoners, overtaking Saudi Arabia to become the world's 3rd 
largest executing nation after China and Iran.

But according to a report by British charity Reprieve, 94% of the executions 
have been for non-terrorism offences, despite the government's claim that 
capital punishment was reinstated to combat Islamist militancy.

Officials from the EU who oversee Pakistan's special trade status, that lets 
around 20% of Pakistani exports enter the trading bloc at zero tariff, are set 
to visit the country from Monday to assess whether the government has honoured 
its obligations under the scheme, which include abiding by certain human rights 
standards.

(source: Hindustan Times)

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

SC commutes death sentences of two murderers to life imprisonment


Supreme Court (SC) on Monday converted the death penalty of 2 murder convicts 
to life imprisonment.

A 3-member bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa held a hearing over the 
plea pertaining to the diminution in the sentences of the convicts.

Muhammad Asif and Khurram had killed their aunt over resistance during a 
dacoity bid in Rawalpindi.

The bench remarked that a hostile murder has not been proved and the dispute 
among the parties could be something else.

The court commuted the sentence over insufficient evidence.

(source: duyanews.tv)






TURKEY:

Reinstating the death penalty: The mother of all mistakes


President Tayyip Erdogan's remarks on Oct. 29, in which he said reinstating the 
death penalty could be on parliament's agenda "soon," rekindled debates about 
the quality of democracy in Turkey and also put the country's position in 
further jeopardy vis-a-vis European institutions.

Bringing back the death penalty was back on Turkey's political agenda as early 
as the night of the bloody coup attempt of July 15, voiced by those who rushed 
to Istanbul's Atat???rk Airport to welcome President Erdogan.

He had managed to get his voice heard by the people by connecting to CNN Tyrk 
via Facetime, after which he flew to Istanbul from Marmaris, where he had been 
having a family holiday when news of the coup attempt broke.

When Erdogan slammed the network of his former ally, the U.S.-based Islamist 
preacher Fethullah Gulen, for being behind the coup attempt, the crowd started 
to chant: "We want the death penalty."

Capital punishment was abolished by Turkey on July 14, 2004 as a part of 
reforms to harmonize Turkish legislation with the European Union. The move was 
initiated by then-Prime Minister Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AK 
Parti) government and supported by the main opposition Republican People's 
Party (CHP).

But there was a story behind that move. Death sentences in Turkey were handed 
out extensively after the military coup on Sept. 12, 1980, with 50 ultimately 
carried out on charges of terrorism. However, it was stopped in practice in 
1984. From the 1990s there were campaigns inside and outside Turkey by NGOs to 
completely abolish capital punishment. Its inclusion onto the political agenda 
only came after the arrest of outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader 
Abdullah Ocalan, outside the Greek Embassy in Kenya on Feb 15, 1999, in a joint 
operation of Turkish and American intelligence services MIT and CIA.

It has still never been revealed whether not executing Ocalan was a 
precondition of the cooperation put forward by the Bill Clinton administration 
in the U.S. After all, the charges against Ocalan were more than enough to 
warrant the death penalty. Then-Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's 3-party 
coalition - including the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and its leader 
Devlet Bahceli - then issued a memorandum to not implement the death penalty 
given by the court until a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). 
In the meantime, Turkey's membership application from 1987 was acknowledged as 
eligible by the European Commission in its Helsinki Summit on Dec. 10, 1999.

Eventually, the death penalty was abolished first for crimes committed outside 
times of war and terrorism in 2001. Then it was further limited to cases of 
close and immediate threat in 2002. It was completely abolished in 2004.

Ironically, 1999 was also the year when Gulen left Turkey to settle at a ranch 
in Pennsylvania. Back in 2014, when Gulen was no longer considered an ally but 
rather the head of a terrorist gang, Erdogan speculated whether a "superior 
mind" had "given Ocalan and taken Gulen." He again referred to that alleged 
"exchange" shortly after the coup attempt at a press gathering on Aug. 6.

Now, Erdogan is again clear in his stance that he would approve a 
reintroduction of capital punishment if it is passed by parliament. A few hours 
after he spoke, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a TV interview on Oct. 
29 that he would look for support from other parties in parliament for such a 
move. Lawyers claim that the death penalty could be included as part of the 
constitutional draft for a shift to the presidential system, taken to a 
referendum with the support of the MHP.

Perhaps this rhetoric is only a tactic by Erdogan to attract nationalist votes 
in order to guarantee victory in a possible presidential referendum. Even so, 
it would be a bad mistake for Turkey. Not only would it add to the current 
tension, which is already high due to the rise in terrorist attacks and the 
neighboring wars in Syria and Iraq, it would also further distance Turkey from 
the democratic world.

It is true that the death penalty is still on the books in some advanced 
post-industrial countries like the U.S. and Japan. But there is no country 
within the EU that still has the death penalty, as it is one of the basic 
points in the EU's Copenhagen criteria for membership. In the Council of 
Europe, Belarus is the only country that still has the death penalty in its 
legislation, with Kazakhstan limited to times of war.

Some of the countries that have carried out capital punishments in 2015 are 
China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Somalia, Egypt (which Erdogan 
despises), and (shamefully) the U.S.

So bringing back the death penalty is certainly not a good idea for Turkey. It 
will be a further big mistake to downgrade the quality of democracy in Turkey, 
which is already suffering problems.

(source: Hurriyet Daily News)