[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 29



CHINA:

Death penalty upheld for bus arsonist


The Higher People's Court of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on 
Wednesday rejected the appeal of an arsonist who was sentenced to death by 
Yinchuan Municipal Intermediate People's Court on July 3.

The court upheld the arson conviction and death sentence of Ma Yongping.

Ma set a bus on fire using a bottle of gasoline on January 5 in Helan County, 
motivated by anger over a personal dispute.

The fire, which quickly burned the bus into an empty shell, killed 18 people 
and left 32 injured.

(source: Shanghai Daily)






IRAN----executions

8 Prisoners Executed on Murder and Moharebeh Charges


8 prisoners sentenced to death for murder and Moharebeh (enmity against God) 
charges were reportedly hanged at Karaj's Rajai Shahr Prison (Alborz province, 
northern Iran) on Wednesday September 28.

According to close sources, on Thursday September 22, 11 prisoners at Rajai 
Shahr were transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for their 
executions. The execution sentences of 8 of them were reportedly carried out on 
Wednesday. The other 3 prisoners were returned to their cells after their 
executions were stopped by the complainants on their case files.

A close source who asked to be annonymous has confirmed the names of the 
prisoners: Ali Rabizadeh, Majid Gonjehali, Adnan Anwar, Hossein Karimi, 
Mohammad Jafari, Karim Hatamzadeh, Farajollah Hatami, and Mehdi Alizadeh. 
According to the source, Karim Hatamzadeh was executed on Moharebeh charges 
related to armed robbery, the other 7 were executed on murder charges.

Additionally, on Sunday September 25, a Baluch prisoner, Mehdi Nazari, 
sentenced to death for drug related offenses, was transferred from his prison 
cell to an unknown location. There has been no information on his whereabouts 
or condition since then.

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

7 Prisoners Executed for Drug Offenses


7 prisoners sentenced to death for drug related offenses were reportedly hanged 
at Minab Central Prison (Hormozgan province, southern Iran). According to close 
sources, the executions were carried out early morning on Tuesday September 27. 
Iranian official sources, including the Judiciary and the media, have been 
silent about these 7 executions.

The prisoners were reportedly transferred from their wards to solitary 
confinement on Sunday September 25 and were permitted to have their immediate 
family members see them for the last time on Monday. The names of the prisoners 
have been confirmed to Iran Human Rights by close sources as: Khodabakhsh 
Balouch, Ali Balouch, Chaker Balouch, Mohammad Mohammad Zehi, Majid Nariman, 
Mehdi Moradi, Mohammad Ghourchizadeh.

Iranian authorities continue carrying out executions for drug offenses, even 
though last month, a top judicial official claimed that the death penalty is 
not a deterrent against drug crimes. "The death penalty for drug traffickers 
has not acted as a deterrent so far. We fought against many drug traffickers in 
accordance to the law, but, unfortunately, the volume of drugs entering and 
transiting through the country has increased," said Mohammad Bagher Olfat, who 
is in charge of social assistance and crime prevention in the Iranian 
Judiciary. "Normally, the drugs are sold for cheap to individuals who do not 
have sufficient financial income."

(source for both: Iran Human Rights)






INDONESIA:

Leader of Indonesia gang which raped, murdered girl sentenced to death


An Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced to death the leader of a gang of men 
and boys who raped and murdered a schoolgirl in a case that prompted the 
president to take steps to impose harsher punishments for attacks on children.

The gang leader, Zainal, was sentenced to death in a court on Sumatra island. 4 
other men were jailed for 20 years for their roles in the April attack on the 
14-year-old in the western island by a group of 14 males, including eight boys.

Sexual violence against women and children is common in Indonesia but gang rape 
is unusual.

The case shocked the world's fourth most populouscountry and prompted President 
Joko Widodo to sign a regulation allowing for harsher punishments for child 
rapists, including death and chemical castration.

The regulation is pending approval in parliament.

"Because of the sadistic nature of the crime ... the court sentences Zainal to 
death," said presiding judge Henny Faridha.

The youngest member of the gang was 13 years old.

They attacked the girl as she was on her way to school. Her battered body was 
found in a rubber plantation a few days later, after her parents reported her 
missing.

7 gang members were earlier jailed for 10 years, while 1 was ordered into a 
rehabilitation program for a year. 1 suspect is on the run, according to 
police.

The victim's parents, who were in court, said the sentencing was inadequate.

"They should all get the death penalty," Yana, the victim's mother, told 
reporters as she broke down in tears.

The attack was reminiscent of a 2012 fatal gang rape of a female university 
student in India's capital, New Delhi, which provoked a national outcry and 
soul-searching about the treatment of girls and women in Indian society.

(source: Reuters)



PHILIPPINES:

The Philippines should not reinstate the death penalty, even for Peter Scully


There have been calls to reintroduce the death penalty in the Philippines as 
the trial of alleged Australian child sex abuser Peter Scully takes place and 
horrific details of the crimes he is accused of emerge.

The abolition of the death penalty in south-east Asia isn't so much a movement 
that has swept through the region as a fragile mosaic. In the countries that 
don't execute the line is held - but tenuously. And in some countries where 
they do execute, there's the sense that it could turn. There are unofficial 
moratoriums or death sentences handed out that don't lead directly to the 
gallows, just lifetimes in jail.

Japan has the death penalty and it's use is shrouded in secrecy, but the Japan 
Federation of Bar Associations, whose membership includes 37,000 lawyers, said 
it would declare its opposition to the death penalty at a meeting in early 
October due to growing concern over miscarriages of justice.

Thailand continues to regularly sentence people to death, however executions 
are rare, with no lawful executions since 2009.

Malaysia and Singapore still execute.

Executions have been on hold in Vietnam because the government cannot acquire 
the drugs used for lethal injection (pharmaceutical companies that manufacturer 
the drugs have refused to supply their medicines for such means).

Indonesia has the death penalty. After a lengthy informal moratorium under 
former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the killings resumed again in 2014.

After Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986, the Philippines abolished the death 
penalty via a newly drafted constitution. But there was a "get out" clause 
allowing congress to reinstate it "hereafter" for "heinous crimes".

The 1st country in Asia to abolish the death penalty, the Philippines played an 
important role in the region, signalling a move away from pre-modern forms of 
punishment. Abolitionists hoped the removal of the death penalty in the region 
would act as a sort of nudge or cause a domino effect.

In the absence of a nudge, abolition of the death penalty could be posited as 
an entry into a trading bloc or partnership. Having capital punishment on your 
statute books is a barrier to entering the EU, for example. Turkey abolished 
the death penalty in a bid to qualify for membership, although there has been 
talk of bringing it back following the July coup attempt.

It can easily be assumed that progress towards enlightenment is linear. We 
abolish capital punishment and we don't go back. We don't go back even when the 
mob and the media are begging for it.

If you accept, as I do, that the abolition of the death penalty is a move 
towards a more enlightened, humane, civilised and less barbaric society, then 
opposition to the death penalty must occur regardless of individual cases that 
grip and even sicken the public imagination. Which brings us to the case of 
alleged Australian paedophile, Peter Scully.

Reading an account of the crimes he is accused of (he is pleading not guilty), 
it would be hard not to lapse into fantasies of revenge if he's found guilty - 
to want him to be made to suffer horribly and even more; that he be eradicated, 
dissolved, removed from the world. Murder is murder. Child abuse is stealing 
someone's life from them. What other punishment could be fitting? And yet ...

Nietzsche's warning that "he who fights with monsters might take care lest he 
thereby become a monster" is true here.

And more. Bringing back a flawed system to kill a rotten individual means that 
we dispense with the individual but are stuck with the system.

This is a system - as the United States is finding out more and more with 
advanced DNA technology - that executes the wrong people, or executes poorly - 
many long minutes between the 1st dose of the drug, or the 1st wave of the 
shock and the prisoner pleading for death, then finally the death.

Even if all goes "well", it is possibly the most cruel and unusual punishment 
to have the time and date of your death fixed by the state. You know when you 
will die and by what means, and each minute of waiting until that moment must 
of course be filled with terror and dread.

But it need not be this way. Christopher Hitchens wrote:

"... it is possible to eliminate the execution of the innocent, simply by 
joining the association of countries that have dispensed with the death 
penalty."

Those in the international community who have been appalled by the spate of 
extrajudicial killing by the Duterte government in the Philippines must surely 
also be appalled by talk of reintroducing capital punishment. This is frontier 
justice not just at night, on the borders, but brought right into the daylight 
and given the centre seat in the justice system.

(source: The Guardian)






PAKISTAN:

Pakistan Says It 'May Limit' Death Penality, Amid Fears for Mentally Ill 
Prisoner


Pakistan says it is seeking ways to limit the scope of the death penalty, amid 
fears for a mentally ill prisoner who faces hanging as early as next week.

Speaking on Monday at an event at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the 
first secretary of Pakistan's Permanent Mission to the UN said the government 
was examining the country's penal code to determine whether the death penalty 
could be "narrowed", saying: "We are looking at the option of enhancing the 
duration of life sentence instead of awarding death sentences." She added: 
"Pakistan remains fully committed to promoting and protecting the human rights 
of all our citizens."

Pakistan has executed some 419 people since the lifting of a moratorium on the 
death penalty in December 2014, making it one of the world's most prolific 
executing states. Research last year by Reuters and human rights organization 
Reprieve found that - despite a claim by the Pakistani government to be 
targeting 'terrorists' - fewer than 1 in 6 of those prisoners who had been 
hanged could be linked to militancy.

Among those currently facing execution is Imdad Ali, a former electrician who 
is severely mentally ill. Yesterday, Pakistan's Supreme Court dismissed an 
appeal by Mr Ali to stop his hanging, which had been scheduled to take place 
last week. Ruling that Imdad's execution could go ahead, the Court said that a 
large proportion of prisoners in Pakistan suffer from mental illness and that 
they "cannot let everyone go." He could now be hanged as early as next week, 
despite a prison medical report from earlier this month describing him as 
"insane."

The execution of mentally ill people is prohibited under Pakistani and 
international law. Yesterday, several UN human rights experts urged Pakistan to 
halt Mr Ali's execution, while Amnesty International and the Asian Human Rights 
Commission have also called for the hanging to be stopped.

Commenting, Harriet McCulloch, deputy director of the death penalty team at 
Reprieve, said: "While it's encouraging to hear that Pakistan's government may 
finally be turning away from its recent shameful spree of executions, the 
authorities must act now to prevent another illegal hanging. Imdad Ali could be 
executed within days, despite the government's own doctors having declared him 
'insane' - his hanging would be a grave breach of Pakistani and international 
law. If Pakistan's leaders are serious about scaling back the death penalty, 
they must start right away, and call off Imdad's execution."

(source: commondreams.org)

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

Help Halt Execution Of Person With Mental Disability (Pakistan: UA 222/16)


Imdad Ali, a death row prisoner with a mental disability, is at imminent risk 
of execution. He was convicted of the murder of a religious teacher in 2002. In 
2012, he was diagnosed with "paranoid schizophrenia". International law clearly 
prohibits the use of the death penalty against people with mental or 
intellectual disabilities.

Imdad Ali was arrested for the murder of a religious teacher in 2001 and 
convicted in 2002 under 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code. In 2012, he was 
diagnosed with "paranoid schizophrenia". Dr. Naeemullah Leghari, the head of 
psychiatry at Nishtar Hospital in Multan who examined Imdad Ali, described his 
condition in a medical report as "a chronic and disabling psychiatric illness" 
that "impairs the person's rational thinking and decision-making capabilities."

In 2015 the Pakistani Supreme Court rejected Imdad Ali's appeal, ruling that 
there was no evidence of his mental disability. However, the Supreme Court's 
judgment shows that Imdad Ali's state-appointed lawyer had not included the 
2012 medical report diagnosing him with paranoid schizophrenia as evidence. 
This oversight raises fair trial concerns.

Imdad Ali has been issued 2 execution warrants since 2015. The latest execution 
was scheduled for 20 September 2016, but he was given a stay at the last minute 
so the Supreme Court could consider whether his execution warrant should be 
suspended on grounds of his mental disability. On Tuesday 27 September, the 
Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. Imdad Ali can now face imminent execution. 
He remains on death row in Vehari, Punjab province.

After the Supreme Court verdict Imdad Ali's lawyers submitted a mercy petition 
to Pakistan's President Mamnoon Hussain, who has the direct authority to 
commute his death sentence.

1) TAKE ACTION

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

--Urging the authorities to immediately grant Imdad Ali clemency and commute 
his death sentence, reminding them that international law clearly prohibits the 
use of the death penalty against people with mental or intellectual 
disabilities;

--Urging them to re-establish the official moratorium on all executions in the 
country as a first step towards the abolition of the death penalty, in line 
with 5 UN General Assembly resolutions adopted since 2007;

--Calling on them to ensure that any measures taken to combat crime do not 
violate Pakistan's obligations under international human rights law and that 
all safeguards guaranteeing the rights of those facing the death penalty are 
respected.

Contact these 2 officials by 7 October, 2016:

President of Pakistan

Honourable Mr Mamnoon Hussain President's Secretariat

Islamabad, Pakistan

Fax: +92 51 920 8479
Twitter: @Mamnoon_hussain

Salutation: Your Excellency

H.E. Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, Embassy of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan

3517 International Ct NW, Washington DC 20008

Fax: 1 202 686 1534 -- Phone: 1 202 243 6500 Ext. 2000 & 2001 -- Email: 
ambassador at embassyofpakistanusa.org

Salutation: Dear Ambassador

(source: Amnesty International USA)






BANGLADESH:

Rapist gets death penalty in Kovai ---- He was also handed down another 3 
counts of life imprisonment for other related charges.


The Mahila Court here on Wednesday awarded death sentence to a construction 
labourer from Tirunelveli district, after he was found guilty of raping and 
murdering a 24-year-old college professor in Karamadai in 2014. He was also 
handed down another 3 counts of life imprisonment for other related charges.

According to the prosecution, D. Ramya, 24, an assistant professor in a private 
engineering college at Kinathukadavu on Pollachi road was found dead at her 
residence at Ganesh Nagar near Teachers Colony in Karamadai on Nov. 3, 2014.

Her mother D. Malathi (48), a homemaker lay unconscious with serious injuries.

The incident came to light when the victim's father Dharmaraj (50), a Tamil 
Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) staff at 
Kothagiri in Nilgiris district, on returning home panicked after both his wife 
and daughter did not pick up his calls. He found his daughter lying dead in 
pool of a blood and wife in an unconscious state with severe head injuries.

Malathi was rushed to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, where she 
fortunately recovered after treatment. On 23 January, 2015, the Karamadai 
police arrested K. Mahesh, a native of Thenkasi in Tirunelveli district from 
Pappanaickenpalayam area.

He was arrested in a different case, but was found to be involved in the rape 
and murder of the professor during enquiry. On the day of incident, Mahesh had 
followed the victim, who was heading home on foot, with intent to snatch her 
chain, the prosecution said.

However, suspecting her to be alone, the convict barged into the house through 
the back door. He attacked Malathi with a wooden log, then raped and murdered 
Ramya in a brutal manner. The accused then fled away with 3.2 sovereigns of 
gold jewels from the house.

On completion of trial, the Mahila Court judge G Raja awarded him death by 
hanging for murder, besides 3 life sentences for rape, trespassing and attempt 
to murder. In addition, he was also given 10 years of imprisonment for attempt 
to murder, which may be served concurrently. Also the accused was slapped with 
a fine of '25,000.

(source: Deccan Chronicle)