[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 1



INDONESIA/PHILIPPINES:

Death Penalty Hangs Over Duterte's Indonesia Visit----The case of Mary Jane 
Veloso puts the Philippine president in an awkward position.


Recent weeks have seen speculation regarding the specifics of Philippine 
President Rodrigo Duterte's 1st visit abroad later this month.

Initial chatter centered on which other ASEAN capitals Duterte would hit, in 
addition to Vientiane where he was expected to attend the next round of ASEAN 
summitry. He is now set to also visit Brunei and Indonesia.

But as I hinted in my previous piece, the focus has now moved to what the 
agenda for each leg of this ASEAN voyage will be. For the Indonesia leg, 
despite other key issues which officials expect to be discussed - from 
subregional economic cooperation to trilateral patrols in the Sulu Sea - media 
attention has unsurprisingly dwelled on how Duterte will address the death 
penalty.

Indonesia under Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has embarked on a series of controversial 
executions of foreign drug convicts on death row, and for the Philippines, the 
case of the Filipino woman Mary Jane Veloso in particular has been of interest.

On this question, Duterte would appear to be in a pickle. On the one hand, some 
in the Philippine media, as well as Veloso's family, have been pressing him on 
whether he will say or do something about an issue that clearly affects the 
fate of a Philippine national, especially given the attention his 
administration has said it places on the fate of overseas Filipinos. Duterte's 
reputation for truth-telling and bold actions, to put it politely, would also 
suggest that he will not leave that stone unturned.

But on the other hand, as I hinted at before, Duterte himself has embarked on 
his own controversial drug crackdown at home that has raised concerns about 
wrongdoing and rights. He is also pushing for a revival of the death penalty in 
the Philippines. That does not really seem to give him much room to give Jokowi 
an earful on this question.

That perhaps explains why Duterte has been coy about the issue in public. At a 
recent press conference, he said he would rather be private about such 
"sensitive" issues, demonstrating a level of caution he is not used to. And 
this week, he turned to religion (months after calling bishops in Asia's 
largest Catholic nation "sons of whores") saying he was praying he could do 
something for Veloso.

Duterte will probably end up addressing the issue in some manner, whether in 
public or in private or both, deliberately or inadvertently as he is prone to 
do in public engagements. His presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella even boldly 
suggested on Thursday that he could visit Veloso "given the opportunity."

In any case, in spite of the hypocrisy that would be evident in any attempt by 
Duterte to give Jokowi an earful on this issue, consistency is an overrated 
virtue in international relations. The case in point is Indonesia itself, which 
has fought for the rights of its own citizens facing death row abroad - which 
number in the hundreds - but is killing foreigners at home.

(source: Prashanth Parameswaran, The Diplomat)






BANGLADESH:

Man gets death penalty for killing wife


A Mymensingh court on Wednesday awarded death sentence to a man for killing his 
wife.

The convict was identified as Md Fakrul Islam, son of Abul Hossain of 
Fakirakanda village in Mymensingh sadar upazila, according to a news agency 
report.

According to the court prosecution, Fakrul, got married Shirinaz Begum some 25 
years ago and the couple has 4 sons.

Later Fakrul married another woman Kaniz alias Tania as his 2nd wife some 17 
years ago without taking permission of his 1st wife Shirinaz.

Following the 2nd marriage, a serious family feud arose between Fakrul and 
Shirinaz, sources said.

Following the feud, Fakrul killed his s2nd wife Tania in 2002.

A murder case was lodged with Kotwali Police Station in this regard.

Fakrul was sentenced for life imprisonment in the case and he suffered 11 years 
in jail and was released, source said.

After his release from jail, Fakrul slaughtered his 1st wife Shirinaz with a 
sharp cutter on March 3 in 2012 while she was sleeping around 3.30pm.

On information, police rushed to the spot, recovered the body and sent it to 
Mymensingh Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.

A murder case was lodged with Kotwali Police Station.

Later police pressed a charge sheet against Fakrul.

After examining 14 witnesses and evidences, Mohammad Amir Uddin, District and 
Session Judge of Mymensingh delivered the verdict.

(source: The Financial Express)






UGANDA:

Court Upholds Death Penalty for Murderer


The High Court in Kampala yesterday upheld a death penalty against a man who 
murdered a 5-year-old child in ritual sacrifice.

Justice Wilson Masalu Musene maintained that Francis Mwanga, 39, be hanged for 
murdering Shamim Muhammad on Easter Day of April 1999.

Mwanga's case had been among the 24 files that were sent back to the High Court 
for mitigation following the famous Susan Kigula land mark judgment but got 
lost on the process. His death penalty had been maintained by the Court of 
Appeal and confirmed by the Supreme Court before the Kigula land mark decision.

"Even though you (Mwanga) have spent 17 years on death row, you do not deserve 
any mercy since you well knowingly led an innocent child to the slaughter house 
due to your selfish motive of getting rich," Justice Musene ruled.

On July 4,1999, in Njeru Town Council, Buikwe District, Mwanga lured Shamim to 
the shrine of a witch doctor who had told him that sacrificing a girl child 
would cleanse him of evil spirits which had kept him in poverty. He then killed 
the girl and buried her head in an anthill.

Upon arrest, Mwanga confessed to the murder and led police to the anthill where 
Muhammad's head was recovered.

(source: The Monitor)