[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 9




PAKISTAN:

Waiting for the hangman----And at least 8,000 prisoners in Pakistan are simply 
waiting to die, whiling away an average of 11.41 years until they are either 
acquitted or executed


434 people have been hanged since the moratorium on death penalty was lifted in 
Pakistan. But the number of lives destroyed far exceeds this figure. When the 
state makes the decision to execute someone, it wrecks the lives of everyone 
who loves them.

The criminal justice system in Pakistan requires waiting. Waiting for things to 
move forward, waiting for verdicts, waiting for justice, which often isn't, as 
promised, served.

And at least 8000 prisoners in Pakistan are simply waiting to die, whiling away 
an average of 11.41 years until they are either acquitted or executed. Either 
way, whoever ends up on Pakistan's death row might as well get comfortable. 
They could be there a while.

Justice Project Pakistan has had clients that have spent well over 1/2 their 
lives as prisoners. Some were arrested before their 18th birthdays, making them 
in the eyes of the law, juveniles. Aftab Bahadur entered his prison cell as a 
15-year-old, wide-eyed teenager but left as 38-year-old in a body bag. Ansar 
Iqbal had spent 29 of his 43 years on this earth in prison before he was 
executed in June 2015. The time that Zulfikar Ali Khan spent on death row was 
enough to allow him to complete 33 diplomas and educate 50 other prisoners. In 
the 18 years, he was confined to a prison, the Government of Pakistan scheduled 
and postponed his execution 22 times.

All 3 of them did not deserve to be there.

This week, 'Intezaar' was staged by Ajoka Theatre Pakistan, Highlight Arts and 
Complicite, which offered its audience an insight into the lives that people 
like Aftab, Ansar and Zulfikar led locked in a prison. Their miserable 
existence contrasted heavily with their resilience and courage to inject some 
purpose into their otherwise meaningless lives.

There is a prisoner who can paint, another who can compose and sing, yet 
another who spends all his times studying and teaching others. But other 
inmates are there in violation of Pakistani and international laws: the 
juvenile offenders, the physically handicapped and mentally ill.

While there was some degree of artistic license at play here, none of these 
stories was fiction. When the play depicted the executioner attempting to hang 
a man paralysed from the waist down, they were talking about our client, Abdul 
Basit. The difficulty and inherent wrongness of hanging a man unable to stand 
was one experienced in actual life 2 years ago.

When the play showed us the story of a mute woman, prone to hysteria, it was 
not an embellishment but again, retelling of facts. Kanizan Bibi was held for 
11 days in police custody before being brought to the magistrate to confess. 
She was tortured so brutally and so relentlessly; she was hospitalised while in 
detention. Like her theatrical counterpart, Kanizan has not spoken a word in 
years, as a direct result of the trauma the torture put her through. 2017 marks 
her 27th year on death row.

The visual depiction of the very real consequences of our justice system forced 
the audience to confront what it really means to support the death penalty in 
Pakistan. And many turned away in shame, cringing that such violence is being 
committed in their name.

Conditions on Pakistan's death row expose prisoners to a high risk of the 
'death row syndrome,' a psychological disorder that inmates on death row are 
susceptible to when they are isolated. Suicidal tendencies, psychotic delusions 
and heightened anxiety (as a result of knowing of their imminent death) can 
cause prisoners to go insane. The wait to march to the gallows only exacerbates 
this.

Especially vulnerable are juveniles and individuals with mental illness or 
intellectual disabilities. The International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights considers the prolonged detention of the prisoner; the physical 
conditions of imprisonment; and the psychological impact of the incarceration 
on the prisoner as inhuman treatment. The United Nations Human Rights Committee 
has acknowledged that "the psychological tension created by prolonged detention 
on death row may affect persons in different degrees." Critical to this last 
factor are "personal circumstances of the prisoner, especially his age and 
mental state at the time of the offence."

These experiences of prisoners on death row are a testament to the need for a 
comprehensive and urgent response from the international community. As Pakistan 
heads for its first of many UN reviews this year, this must be kept in mind.

We have woken up to so many stories in the last year alone, of people being 
acquitted after they have been hanged, or dying in prisons waiting for their 
appeals. And for all of them, the wait has been long, illegal and utterly 
destructive.

(source: Opinion, Rimmel Mohydin; The writer works with Justice Project 
Pakistan, a human rights law firm based in Lahore----Daily Times)






TRINIDAD:

Life or Death)


The debate over whether capital punishment should be reimplemented in Trinidad 
and Tobago has sparked heated debate on both sides of the divide - one which 
has taken on greater fervour with the recent spate of heinous murders, now at 
143 for the year so far.

Deeply concerned about the surge in homicides, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley 
announced recently that the Government has asked former Attorney General Ramesh 
Lawrence Maharaj, to consult on measures to reintroduce the hangman in the 
shortest possible time under. It was during Maharaj???s tenure that hangings - 
the execution of the notorious Dole Chadee and eight members of his gang in 
1999 - were last carried out in the country.

Maharaj, who has agreed to assist the Government free of charge, has since 
recommended a fast-track mechanism for murder cases to be tried all the way to 
the Privy Council so that hangings can be resumed. Maharaj, who has long 
advocated that the death penalty be reinstated, recommended, in part, that a 
Case Management Unit be established, comprising representatives from the Office 
of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Commissioner of Prisons, Supreme Court 
Registry, and Ministries of National Security and Foreign Affairs.

The unit, he said, would examine the cases of death row prisoners who are close 
to the 5-year Pratt and Morgan limitation period.

Some 36 convicted prisoners are currently on death row in the nation's prisons. 
Maharaj has also made it clear that the Government must have the will to 
reintroduce the death penalty.

Attorney Keith Scotland agreed, saying the death penalty remains on the statute 
books under the Offences Against Persons Act and should be exercised.

"It, therefore, means that the collective wisdom of our representatives which 
are to represent the will and aspirations of the people have insisted that the 
death penalty remains on the law books in spite of developments in other parts 
of the world in terms of the degrees of murder," Scotland said on Wednesday. 
"It is the law and ought to be implemented until such time as the Parliament or 
the people see it fit to have a change." South-based attorney and former 
Princes Town MP Subhas Panday believes that governments have been dragging 
their feet on bringing back capital punishment.

"There is no will to carry out the law and successive governments have been 
making excuses all the time," he said on Friday in a Sunday Newsday interview.

"It says to me that the they are anti-hanging but say they are interested in 
hanging and that Pratt and Morgan is preventing them from so doing." Moral 
issue vs the law Saying he does not have a moral position on the death penalty, 
Panday insisted: "It is the law.

Father (Joseph) Harris (Roman Catholic Archbishop) has a moral position but my 
view is that it is time for the implementation of the death penalty." Indeed, 
Harris has sought to debunk the view that capital punishment is the panacea for 
ridding the country of the spate of violent crimes. The archbishop's position 
came last December in response to calls by one of his subordinates, Fr Ian 
Taylor, to resume hangings as a deterrent to crime. During a Saturday night 
mass at St Charles RC Church, Taylor had urged that killers be hanged given the 
high level of violence in TT.

Of Taylor's call, Harris had said: "What was said goes totally against what the 
church stands for." Harris said the poor criminal detection rate also posed a 
challenge.

"You have to find the criminals and if our conviction rate is 3 to 5 %, who yuh 
hanging?" he asked. "Do we want to run the risk of hanging people for crime 
they didn't do so that it would look good?" Describing it as "barbaric," 
attorney and social activist Hazel Thompson-Ahye argued that the death penalty 
had no place in a civilised, progressive society.

"I am so sure, today, the death penalty is so wrong," she said.

"It is really a very negative way of dealing with crime. It is based on 
retribution, waging a vendetta against the criminals. Do them because they have 
done us. When you have a negative response, you are going to get negative 
results." Thompson-Ahye, a proponent of restorative justice, lamented that TT 
was a punitive society.

"We still cannot get out of the corporal punishment of children.

All of these things are connected.

We feel we must beat children.

We feel we must hang criminals," she said, adding that many punitive measures 
were taken against the disadvantaged in the society.

Thompson-Ahye described as "scandalous" the fact that the Ministry of National 
Security's allocations in the national budget over the years, have exceeded 
that of the Ministry of Education. She said the focus must be on tackling the 
socio-economic conditions which give rise to crime in the first place." "There 
is too much inequality in the society," she observed.

"Don't think for a moment that when we talk about the obscene bonuses and 
gratuities that we give to the CEOs, even when they are in failing businesses, 
that it is lost on the poor." Thompson-Ahye asked: "When people read about the 
millions of dollars that were paid to private attorneys and the DPP's office is 
being starved of resources, we really have to ask ourselves, are we really 
serious about fighting crime?" She said society should be focusing on dealing 
with its inequalities.

"We speak about spending $25,000 a month on keeping an inmate in Remand Yard 
and where is that money going? she asked.

Taking issue with Fr Taylor's call for the return of the hangman, Thompson-Ahye 
said: "I don't know how he could talk in favour of the death penalty because 
there is a finality which denies the possibility of conversion. No matter how 
heinous the crime the criminal has committed, that person still remains a child 
of God. That person is still redeemed in the blood of Christ, especially in 
this Easter season." Thompson-Ahye also said attention should be paid to 
alleviating what she called the structural violence meted out to the poor in 
relation to housing, healthcare and other areas White collar crime, she 
insisted, also must be tackled aggressively.

Last week, Chairman of the United Kingdom All Party Parliamentary Group of the 
Abolition of the Death Penalty Mark Pritchard on a visit to Port of Spain, 
warned against using the death penalty as a quick fix to crime and violence.

Rather, the anti-death penalty advocate said fixing the system must be handled 
in a "calm, objective, evidence-driven manner" before capital punishment can be 
effectively carried out.

Despite the misgivings of abolitionists, some of whom have been passionate in 
their condemnation of the issue, protagonists are adamant that it is necessary 
to combat the worrying surge in murders.

"There are too many senseless killings in the country especially within recent 
times and the killers are seeing that they have no consequences to face," said 
retired prisons commissioner Cipriani Baptiste, who presided over the execution 
of the Chadee gang at the Port-of-Spain jail, some 18 years ago. While he 
believes that the death penalty will not be a deterrent for would-be killers, 
Baptiste, who served as prisons commissioner from 1993 to 2001, suggested that 
restorative justice "in a general sense," can be a talking point as 
deliberations on capital punishment continue.

Senior Counsel Israel Khan insisted that the death penalty must be carried out 
for 1st degree murders. "I believe that murders should be categorised into 1st, 
2nd and 3rd degree.

I reserve, at this point in time in our history, the death penalty for first 
degree murders - that is atrocious or vicious murder," he told Sunday Newsday. 
"For example, if a man takes a fee to kill a man and he wants to receive a fair 
trial and he has lost all of his appeals, he should be executed because life is 
sacrosanct and no one should take anybody???s life. You have forfeited the 
right to live." Khan said while hangings may not necessarily reduce the murder 
rate "it gives satisfaction to the human part of us that wants revenge for 
killing someone." "It gives a sort of psychological satisfaction because you 
have forfeited your right and you should be executed," he added.

Attorney Martin George agreed.

"I am fully supportive of the view taken that once this is the law on the books 
of Trinidad and Tobago, then it ought to be implemented and we ought to make 
use of it as part of the arsenal of the legislative structure of the country," 
he said.

"Because if we reach to a point where the population, for whatever reason, 
decides and is able to prevail upon the Legislature to change the law that the 
death penalty is no longer part of our legislative framework, then that is a 
different issue, but once it remains the law, then I am of the view that we 
ought to take all measures and all steps to implement it." Saying his view was 
not based on emotion, George said: "It is simply a view that says that the 
death penalty is the law and it ought to be implemented until it changes. If it 
changes then we have a different paradigm. But as it stands, that remains the 
law of the land." Welcoming Maharaj's input in fast-tracking the process, 
George said the argument about whether the death penalty impacted crime was a 
"spurious and speculative debate. Because it is very clear and obvious that the 
death penalty deters at least 1 person. The person who is hung. He will never 
go out and murder anybody again. So, it is clearly a deterrent for him if 
nobody else." Regarding Pritchard's view that capital punishment should not be 
seen as a quick fix to violent crime, George said: "I think those who look at 
it that way, they are mistaken.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with using that as one of the tools in our 
arsenal in our legislative framework to deal with the scourge of crime in TT. 
Of course, It is not that it is a cure all or magic bullet." George also 
expressed the view that there are many convicted people who have not committed 
crimes and by the same token, those who have gone free but committed the act.

(source: Commentary, Corey Connelly, Newsday)






BANGLADESH:

Mufti Hannan to be executed 'anytime'----Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid 
rejects militant leader's mercy plea.


Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Sunday said there was no 
legal bar to execute the death penalty on militant leader Mufti Hannan as 
President Abdul Hamid has rejected the clemency plea, a media reported.

"The Kashimpur Jail authorities have started the preparation, Mufti Hannan will 
be executed anytime," the Home Minister said while talking to media at his 
secretariat office here, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

"There's no threat of militant attack centring the execution of the militant 
leader," he added in reply to a query.

Ditto his aides

On March 21, the Supreme Court's Appellate Division released the full text of 
its verdict confirming the death penalties of Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami 
Bangladesh (HujiB) leader Mufti Hannan and his 2 aides.

The culprits were sentenced to death for the assassination attempt on Anwar 
Choudhury, the then British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, during his visit 
to Hazrat Shahjalal's shrine in Sylhet city on May 21, 2004.

The attack killed 3 persons and severely injured Anwar.

On December 23, 2008, a Sylhet court sentenced the trio to death and 2 others 
to lifetime imprisonment for their roles in the attack. The High Court upheld 
the sentences in February 2016.

Mufti Hannan was also sentenced to death for the 2001 Ramna Batamul bombing, in 
which 10 persons were killed.

The HujiB militant group was formed in 1992 and claims to have carried out at 
least 14 attacks, killing more than 100 people in the pursuit of "establishing 
Shariah law in Bangladesh."

(source: The HIndu)






SOMALIA----executions

Somalia Court Executes 5 Militants for Murders of Officials


5 al-Shabab militants convicted of murdering senior officials in the north 
eastern Somalia town of Bossaso have been executed by firing squad.

The men were sentenced to death in February by a military court in Bosaso port 
town, the commercial hub of Puntland, Somali federal member state.

The court said the men were involved in identifying possible targets, and 
carrying out assassinations against officials.

Abdifitah Haji Adam, Chairperson of Puntland military court, told VOA Somali 
Service that the court found the suspects guilty and gave them the death 
penalty 2 months ago.

"The men were al-Shabaab members. They were behind assassinations that happened 
here in Bososo, including the killing of the director of Puntland State 
presidency and the General Attorney of the army. They included murderers and 
accomplices. The court found them guilty and sentenced them to death in 
February, and today the sentences have been carried out," said Adam.

Group's leaders targeted

Al-Shabab, a terrorist group that emerged amid Somalia's years of chaos, once 
controlled large swathes of South and Central Somalia.

U.S. drone strikes killed some of the group's top leaders, weakening its 
military power in south and central Somali, causing some of its fighters to 
spread north to the Puntland mountainous areas to set up bases.

The group still is capable of carrying out frequent suicide bombings and 
assaults on Somalia's hotels and military targets, proving to be more resilient 
than expected.

In Puntland, the militant group recently assassinated dozens of government 
officials, including the attorney general of Puntland Military Courts, 
AbdiKarim Hasan Fidiye, 3rd deputy commander of Puntalnd Police Forces, and the 
director of the Presidential Palace.

President Donald Trump recently gave the U.S. military more authority to 
conduct offensive airstrikes on al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia.

Journalist sentenced

Meanwhile, a court in Hargeisa, the capital of Somalia's breakaway northern 
territory of Somaliland, has sentenced journalist Abdimalik Muse Oldon to 2 
years in prison.

The journalist was arrested 2 months ago for meeting Somalia's new president 
Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo in Mogadishu.

The court said Oldon was charged with "engaging in anti-national activities, 
spreading "false" news and disturbing public order."

The chairman of Somaliland's independent human rights group based in Hargeisa, 
Guled Ahmed Jama, who is also the defense lawyer of the journalist has 
described the sentence as unfair and unconstitutional.

"The journalist did nothing against Somaliland and meeting with someone 
supporting is not constitutionally illegal. We see the sentence as "unfair" and 
we are appealing," the attorney told VOA.

(source: voanews.com)






KAZAKHSTAN:

Proposed Article To Kazakhstan's Criminal Code Raises Concerns


Like many other countries, Kazakhstan has shown a tendency to equate violent 
acts where deadly force is used to terrorism.

Kazakhstan has an article in its Criminal Code -- Article 174 to be exact -- 
that outlaws actions that foment social, national, tribal, racial, class, or 
religious hatred and actions that insult national honor or dignity or the 
religious feelings of citizens.

The article is sufficiently vague that it has allowed broad interpretation by 
Kazakhstan's courts, which have on several recent occasions found journalists, 
bloggers, civic activists, and others guilty of violating the article. Rights 
groups have decried such use of Article 174 to silence government critics.

A proposed major addition to the Criminal Code is being debated, and some 
believe this article would also be open to broad interpretation and potential 
abuse.

Article 184-1 seeks to punish those who have caused "great harm to the vitally 
important interests" of Kazakhstan. Conviction on this charge could carry the 
death penalty.

RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, known locally as Azattyq, quoted Deputy Justice 
Minister Zauresh Baymoldina as saying the "vitally important interests" would 
include actions that "compromise the territorial integrity of the state, the 
stability of the constitutional structure, social, or political stability, [or] 
defensive capabilities and security."

It seems to be a response to terrorism, though there are clearly other actions 
that would fall under this article.

Proposed penalties for violators of Article 184-1 include prison terms of 15 to 
25 years. Loss of citizenship is another penalty that was already recently 
added to the books.

Kazakhstan still officially allows for the death penalty, although there has 
been a moratorium on its use for nearly 20 years.

So far, there is only 1 specific offense under the draft article that is 
punishable by death: any attempt to kill the 1st president of Kazakhstan, 
Nursultan Nazarbaev "with the goal of hindering his legal activities or in 
revenge for [his] activities."

Veteran Kazakh civic activist Yevgeny Zhovtis has told Azattyq that Article 
184-1 is a modern adaptation of the Soviet Criminal Code concerning 
"anti-Soviet" activities.

He is among those who fear the article will be used to punish government 
opponents. "It only remains to wait a little while until 'enemies of the 
people' and 'undesirable elements' appear...[including] opposition figures, 
independent journalists, or activists," Zhovtis told Azattyq.

For that reason, attorney Ayman Umarov told Azattyq that the authorities must 
concretely define what is "vitally important" for the country. Umarov agreed 
the article seemed to target terrorists. But he said, for example, large-scale 
embezzlement of state funds is vitally important for the state and the people.

Blogger Miras Nurmukhanbetov wrote that the Criminal Code "is turning into a 
stick to be used against those who think differently [than the authorities]."

Defining 'Terrorism'

There have been very few incidents in Kazakhstan since 1991 independence that 
would qualify as acts of terrorism.

But like many other countries, Kazakhstan has shown a tendency to equate 
violent acts where deadly force is used to terrorist acts.

The violence in the western city of Aqtobe in early June was branded a 
terrorist attack. In that incident, a group of some 2 dozen mostly young men 
robbed a gun shop and then went on a bizarre spree where they hijacked a bus 
and, after first allowing all the passengers to leave, drove to a military 
facility and launched an ineffective attack that was quickly repelled and in 
which most of the attackers were killed.

No extremist or terrorist group ever claimed the attackers were part of their 
group, although Kazakh officials explained the young men were inspired to 
violence after listening to Islamic extremist radio broadcasts.

Another incident in Almaty in July 2016 was labeled terrorism, though it 
involved one ex-convict who confessed he had killed several policemen (he 
purportedly wanted to kill some judges but couldn't find any) out of vengeance 
for being put it jail.

Some Kazakh citizens have gone to conflict areas such as Syria or Iraq -- not 
many, probably only several hundred -- enough that the Kazakh government does 
have a legitimate concern but possibly not so many that the Criminal Code has 
to be greatly overhauled to deal with the as-yet-quite-small problem of 
terrorism in the country.

Which brings us back to Yevgeny Zhovtis's concern that a law meant to punish a 
specific group of individuals who represent a genuine threat will end up being 
used to punish people who challenge the authorities.

(source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)






SRI LANKA:

Reprieve death row, lifers to overcome prisons congestion, says report


There could be some reprieve for prisoners on death row as well as for those 
serving life sentences, if the Govt. accepts the recommendations of a special 
Task Force (TF) appointed by the Cabinet to look into congestion in prisons.

The report of the TF tabled in Parliament this week by Chief Government Whip, 
Parliamentary Reformss and Mass Media Minister Gayantha Karunatileka, proposed 
that, the Govt. consider commuting death sentences to life imprisonment, and 
consider parole for those serving life sentences according to the existing 
laws.

"As capital punishment had not been carried out since 1976, and due to the 
moratorium on the death penalty, the Govt. has to consider alternative action 
to manage overcrowding of prisons, as life sentenced and death penalty 
prisoners contribute greatly to overcrowding. To date, there are a total of 
1,082 persons on death row, 726 cases remain under appeal, while Life sentence 
prisoners total 555, with 463 cases under appeal," the report said.

The TF recommended that Govt consider commutation of death penalty prisoners' 
sentences to life sentences. Life sentenced prisoners' sentences can be 
commuted according to existing provisions of law" and to make Presidential 
pardons available to long term prisoners who are rehabilitated and are able to 
re-integrate into society, and to consider a system of parole for detainees who 
are identified as eligible by a Parole Board.

Among the key findings of major contributory factors for prison overcrowding 
are underutilisation of existing provisions of law, misuse of existing 
provisions of law and socio-economic reasons. "Based on the data collected by 
the Prisons Dept, the number of remand prisoners equals the number of convicted 
prisoners held in custody."

The UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading 
treatment or Punishment, who visited Sri Lanka last year, in his report 
submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in March, also spoke of the appalling 
conditions within Sri Lankan prisons and made several recommendations.

The UN official has recommended that the Govt. adopt and implement measures to 
significantly reduce overcrowding, including overhauling the prison system, to 
reduce the number of detainees and increasing prison capacities in more modern 
prison facilities; accelerating the judicial process and reviewing sentencing 
policies by introducing alternatives to incarceration (bail and electronic 
surveillance for pretrial defendants; non-custodial sentences for non-violent 
offenders and juveniles; parole and early release for the convicted) and design 
a criminal justice system that aims at rehabilitating and reintegrating 
offenders, including by creating work and education opportunities.

Sri Lanka's prison population at present stands at around 17,000 (7,496 
convicted prisoners, 8,351 remand prisoners and 1,143 prisoners whose cases are 
under appeal).

(source: The Sunday Times)