[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 26



PHILIPPINES:

Drilon: no resurrection of death penalty at the Senate


The bill seeking to revive the death penalty is already "dead in the Senate."

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said this Wednesday as the chamber is 
expected to tackle the proposal when the session resumes next week.

The chamber has failed to get a consensus on the bill, a priority anti-crime 
measure of President Rodrigo Duterte.

"It's dead and the chances of resurrecting it before we even bring it to a vote 
are very slim, if not zero, at least in this Congress," Drilon said in a 
statement.

He said the measure, a version of which was speedily passed at the House of 
Representatives in March, does not have enough votes at the chamber.

"By my own estimate, there are at least 13 senators who will block the passage 
of the death penalty bill, including the 6-member minority group and 7 from the 
majority block," Drilon said.

7 bills are currently pending at the Senate seeking to restore the death 
penalty for various crimes.

Sen. Manny Pacquiao, the revival's fiercest sponsor, has three proposals to 
impose the death penalty on convicts of aggravated rape, kidnapping and 
drug-related crimes.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian has 2: 1 seeks an amendment to the 2002 anti-drug law 
to impose the death penalty for drug sale and trading, and another for heinous 
crimes such as child trafficking, exploitation, pornography and rape.

Sen. JV Ejercito is proposing to revive the death penalty for a foreigner found 
guilty of drug trafficking in the Philippines.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson meanwhile proposed to revive the punishment as maximum 
penalty for those convicted of terrorism, plunder, bribery, treason, piracy, 
kidnapping, drug-related crimes, parricide, murder, infanticide, rape, and 
destructive arson.

Apart from the authors, Drilon identified Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto 
III and Sen. Cynthia Villar as those who have expressed support for the revival 
in media interviews.

Meanwhile, those opposed to the proposal other than Drilon are the other 
minority members: Senators Francis Pangilinan, the detained Leila De Lima, and 
Benigno Paolo Aquino of the Liberal Party (LP), Akbayan Senator Risa 
Hontiveros, an LP guest candidate during the elections, and Sen. Antonio 
"Sonny" Trillanes IV.

De Lima has a pending bill seeking to prohibit the reimposition of death 
penalty.

Drilon said another LP member, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, is 
also against the controversial measure.

"We are ready to lead the fight against the death penalty bill. We believe that 
a death penalty law was not and will never be an effective deterrence against 
crime," Drilon said.

"It will be detrimental to the poor who will be made victims of this cruel and 
inhumane punishment due to the inefficiencies of our judicial system," he 
added.

(source: abs-cbn.com)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Twitter goes wild over reported death penalty for 'atheism' in Saudi Arabia


Saudi Arabia has reportedly sentenced a young man to death for apostasy. The 
news has stirred up Twitter users, with some expressing sadness and sorrow, 
while others praised the move.

On Tuesday, a Saudi Arabian court dismissed an appeal from Ahmad Al Shamri, who 
had spent 3 years in prison over charges of "atheism and blasphemy," the 
Exmuslim website reports.

Al Shamri was in his early 20s and lived the city of Hafr Al-Batin in the 
country's Eastern Province, according to the website. He had reportedly 
renounced Islam and posted various videos reflecting his views on social media. 
The man was arrested in 2014, faced trial and was sentenced to death in 
February 2015.

After the appeal was rejected, social media users were split over the court 
decision, posting their comments under a trending hashtag, which can be 
translated from Arabic as "apostate from Hafar Al-Batin."

Many social media users condemned Saudi Arabia, pointing out that the country 
is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

(source: rt.com)






IRAN:

More Than 30 Men Arrested For 'Sodomy' In Iran Face Death Penalty if Convicted: 
Reports


More than 30 men were arrested after a private party in the Bahadoran region of 
Isfahan, Iran was raided by the police, Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees 
reported Thursday. Their charges are sodomy, drinking alcohol and using 
psychedelic drugs and they face the death penalty if found guilty.

The men, between the ages of 16 and 30, the Canadian charity reports, were 
rounded up late April 13 amid gunshots and beatings from police, according to 
the Jerusalem Post.

"IRQR received several reports in last few days and were able to confirm that 
police attacked guests and physically beat them. Police detained them all at 
the Basij (Revolutionary Guard Militia) Station and then transferred them to 
Esfahan's Dastgerd Prison. A few people managed to escape and we received 
reports that there were several heterosexual individuals among those arrested," 
IRQR reported.

IRQR also reported that those arrested were forced to name their LGBT friends 
to authorities. In Iran, homosexuality is punishable by death, according to the 
International Society for Human Rights.

IRQR reports that a special prosecutor has been named and that those arrested 
will be subjected to anal examination to prove the homosexuality charges.

In Iran, LGBT citizens are afforded very little, if any, civil rights. 
Presently, LGBT citizens cannot marry, cannot adopt, cannot serve openly in the 
military and are not protected from any discrimination, according to Equaldex. 
In 2007, then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad infamously declared while 
at Columbia University that there were no gay people in Iran.

European civil rights leaders are calling for the EU to step in.

"While the Islamic State throws gays from rooftops, the Islamic Republic hangs 
them. Iran's regime forces homosexuals to flee the country and the EU turns a 
blind eye," Stefan Schaden, an LGBT rights activist and spokesman for the 
European "Stop The Bomb campaign" said in an email to the Jerusalem Post. "The 
EU is, however, required in their dealings with third countries to comply with 
binding guidelines laid down in the Union's 'LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bisexual, 
transgender and/or intersex] Toolkit' to combat state violence against LGBTI 
persons. The EU must clearly step up its efforts in this regard and consider 
more human rights sanctions against the Iranian regime."

This incident comes on the heels of reports that in Chechnya, gay men are being 
rounded up, tortured and in some cases even killed.

(source: towleroad.com)






TRINIDAD & TOBAGO:

Hangings in T&T 'as soon as lawfully possible'


The current number of people on death row as of yesterday stands at 37.

Of those 37, 12 people can be hanged within the time frame set out in the Pratt 
and Morgan ruling, which states that "in any case in which execution was to 
take place more than 5 years after sentencing, there would be strong grounds 
for believing that the delay was such as to constitute inhuman or degrading 
punishment or other treatment".

The figures were confirmed by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi who was at the 
time responding to questions from the Opposition in the Upper House.

Asked what government's timetable to resume hangings is, Al-Rawi indicated that 
the death penalty would be carried out as soon as it was lawfully possible, 
given the current circumstances.

Al-Rawi explained the process involved in carrying out hangings.

"It is necessary to put on the record again...that there are 3 steps of 
approach towards managing the criminal justice system as it relates to 
implementing the death penalty.

The 1st...is that you have a High Court matter where conviction may be given.

Secondly...is that you're entitled to appeal that to the Court of Appeal. After 
appeal to the Court of Appeal, then to the Privy Council, then lastly to the 
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights."

In examining data from 2006 to present day, he noted, however, that the appeals 
process has proved to be challenging, placing additional hurdles in the way of 
the implementation of the death penalty.

"One notes from the data standing under the last government, that of the 37 
people on death row, 29 of them have had consideration by the last government.

And of that 29, 6 of them were met with a conclusion of appeal at the Privy 
Council just at the 5-year marker with the then track having to run on the 
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights."

Al-Rawi said a new tracking system monitors each file of every person who 
stands convicted to be hanged in accordance with the laws of Trinidad and 
Tobago.

Since May 2016 to present day, 8 additional people (included in the 37 on death 
row) have been committed to hang.

According to the AG, 25 persons in total are being tracked for the 
implementation of the law, "so that the State ensures that every step that it 
has within its power to comply with the State???s input into the appellate 
process is preserved and...accomplished".

"In those circumstances, we expect to carry out the death penalty as soon as is 
lawfully possible in all the circumstances," he said.

(source: looptt.com)






PAKISTAN----executions

Another 4 militants executed in Pakistan----Military courts have sentenced 161 
militants to death penalty since 2014 following Peshawar school attack


Another 4 militants, convicted by military courts for their involvement in 
terrorism, have been executed at a jail in northwestern Pakistan, an army 
spokesman said on Tuesday.

"Another 4 hardcore terrorists involved in committing heinous offenses relating 
to terrorism, including the killing of innocent civilians, attacking armed 
forces of Pakistan and law enforcement agencies have been executed at a jail in 
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [northwestern province]," the spokesman said in a statement.

The executed convicts Rehman ud Din, Mushtaq Khan, Obaid ur Rehman, and Zafar 
Iqbal were members of the Pakistani Taliban coalition, Tehrik-e-Taliban 
Pakistan (TTP).

Pakistan established controversial military courts to try "hardcore" militants 
following a deadly gun-and-bomb attack on an army-run school in Peshawar in 
December 2014, which claimed the lives of over 140 people, mostly students.

The military courts, which were given another 2-year extension by parliament 
last month, have sentenced 161 militants to the death penalty, 26 of whom have 
been executed.

Islamabad lifted a 6-year long de facto ban on capital punishment in 2014 
following the Peshawar school attack.

According to official statistics, over 8,000 death row convicts are currently 
in jail.

(source: Anadolu Agency)






INDIA:

Serial killer sisters say they don't deserve 'barbaric' death penalty


A pair of serial killer sisters from India who murdered 9 kids - 1 not even a 
year old - say they shouldn't be hanged on the gallows because doing so would 
more "barbaric" than they deserve.

Instead, a lawyer for Renuka Shinde and her younger sibling Seema Gavit is 
making one last-ditch bid to have a judge commute their sentence to life in 
prison, according to News.com.au.

Shinde and Gavit, now both in their 40s, have been held in custody since 1996 
when they were busted along with their mother Anjana Bai Gavit for kidnapping 
13 young children and murdering 9 as part of a pickpocketing ring that operated 
out of the city of Pune.

Their helpless victims commissioned to help them steal, ranged in age from 9 
months to 2 years old.

The evil trio killed the children they deemed useless in the most gruesome 
ways.

The 9-month-old was starved and beaten to death because he cried too much, 
another was gagged and drowned in a toilet and a 4-year-old boy was hung upside 
down, his head slammed against a wall until he died.

The sisters were convicted at trial in 2001 of 6 of the 9 slayings - but 1 was 
overturned on appeal.

Their mom died behind bars in 1997 while awaiting trial.

The sisters are now among 13 women on death row in India, including Fahmida 
Sayed, who planted a car bomb in Mumbai that left 54 people dead in 2003.

The last woman to be hanged in the country was in 1955.

The sisters' previous exhausted all appeals to have their execution overturned.

(source: New York Post)