[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 17



MALAYSIA:

An end to mandatory death penalty?



Under Malaysian law, capital punishment (the death penalty) is mandatory for 
the crime of murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping and several other offences. 
Since 1992, at least 651 convicted persons (Malaysians) have been given the 
death penalty, most of them for drug trafficking.

According to the Prisons Department, some 800 people are now on death row after 
being convicted of drug trafficking under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs 
Act 1952. A minister in the Prime Minister's Department said recently that the 
act will be amended to "give back" the discretionary power to the trial judge 
at the end of a drug trafficking case.

Welcoming this new move by the government, an executive director of Amnesty 
International Malaysia was quoted as saying that whilst the proposed amendment 
is only in respect of drug trafficking, she hopes it will become "a 1st step 
towards total abolition". Bar Council Human Rights Committee co-chairman Andrew 
Khoo called upon the government "to repeal all mandatory death sentences", 
adding that the sentence "robs judges of the opportunity to exercise their 
discretion" to hand down a punishment that fits the circumstances and gravity 
of each particular case.

Not everyone shares the view that the mandatory death penalty for drug 
trafficking should be scrapped. A former Federal Court judge was quoted as 
saying that the status quo should remain because abolishing it might see an 
increase of such crimes in the future.

"Although the death penalty has not reduced such cases in the past, removing it 
will only cause the number of cases to spike drastically," he had said.

The former judge (who was once a prosecutor in the Attorney-General's Chambers) 
strongly believes that the mandatory death sentence is a deterrent, and 
scrapping it "will only embolden" more criminals.

If the mandatory death sentence is to be replaced with a mandatory life 
sentence, the Malaysian government will have to bear the financial burden of 
looking after the welfare of these convicts in prison for the rest of their 
lives. Should our taxpayers be burdened by this? Furthermore, as said by 
Amnesty International, there is no evidence in the world to show that the death 
penalty can be a deterrent.

Also, if the 1952 act is amended, and convicted drug traffickers no longer face 
the mandatory death penalty, a trial judge may (after considering the 
circumstances of the case and the gravity of the offence) still apply his 
judicial discretion in imposing the death penalty on him.

The amendment therefore, repeals the "mandatory nature" of the punishment, but 
it does not deprive the trial judge of his judicial power to impose such a 
capital punishment on the convicted person. In short, the proposed amendment is 
still a far cry from the total abolition of the death penalty for all crimes.

Under Malaysian law, the death penalty can still be handed down by a trial 
judge upon conviction of an accused charged with any of the following offences:

WAGING or attempting to wage war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, a ruler or 
Yang di-Pertua Negeri (Section 121 of the Penal Code);

OFFENCES against the person of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Ruler or Yang 
di-Pertua Negeri (mandatory, Section 121A of the Penal Code);

COMMITTING terrorist acts resulting in death (mandatory, Section 130C of the 
Penal Code);

MURDER (mandatory, Section 302 of the Penal Code);

KIDNAPPING or abducting in order to murder (Section 364 of the Penal Code);

HOSTAGE-TAKING resulting in death (mandatory, Section 374A of the Penal Code);

RAPE resulting in death (Section 376(4) of the Penal Code);

GANG-ROBBERY with murder (Section 396 of the Penal Code);

DRUG trafficking (mandatory, Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952);

DISCHARGING a firearm in the commission of an offence (mandatory, Section 3 of 
the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971); and,

ABDUCTION, wrongful restraint or wrongful confinement for ransom (Section 3(1) 
of the Kidnapping Act 1961).

Official statistics (released by the police Narcotics Division) revealed that 
despite the mandatory death penalty for drug traffickers, the number of drug 
trafficking cases in the country continued to increase. From 1990 to 2011, the 
number of persons arrested for drug trafficking increased from 744 to 3,845. 
The escalating figures showed clearly that the mandatory death penalty law has 
not achieved the aim of eradicating the drug menace. In March 2012, then home 
minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein told Parliament that the mandatory 
death penalty has failed to stem the drug trade in Malaysia.

Under the original provisions of Section 39B, conviction for drug trafficking 
does not entail a mandatory death penalty. At the end of the trial and upon 
conviction of the accused, the trial judge has the discretion to impose 
whatever penalty he deems fit in accordance with the circumstances of the case 
and the gravity of the crime. He can hand down a prison term (say 5 to 10 
years), a life sentence or the death penalty.

After the law was amended in 1983, this judicial discretion was removed and the 
trial judge must, after convicting the accused under Section 39B(1), give him 
the death penalty under Section 39B(2).

The Death Penalty Information Centre website stated that 104 countries have 
abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Malaysia is one of 57 countries, 
where the death penalty is retained for ordinary crimes. In the Asean region, 
only 2 countries have abolished the death penalty - Cambodia (1989) and the 
Philippines (2006).

Even though the mandatory aspect of the death penalty for drug trafficking may 
soon be scrapped, we are still a long way from abolishing capital punishment in 
this country.

(source: Salleh Buang formerly served the Attorney-General's Chambers before he 
left for practice, the corporate sector and, then, the academia----New Straits 
Times)








PHILIPPINES:

Arroyo gets 12 House committee memberships after death penalty stance



Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo may no longer be a Deputy Speaker 
after she voted against the bill reimposing the death penalty, but she's busier 
than ever as she is now a member of 12 House committees.

Arroyo was elected today to be a member of the Committees on Local Government, 
Veterans Affairs and Welfare, and Ways and Means.

That's in addition to her current memberships in the committees of Economic 
Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Government Enterprises and Privatization, Housing and 
Urban Development, Justice, Labor and Employment, National Defense and 
Security, Population and Family Relations, and Revision of Laws which she 
gained last May 16.

This makes Arroyo a member of 12 of the 58 standing committees of the House.

Congressmen in leadership positions, like Arroyo when she was deputy speaker, 
are ex-officio members of all committees of the House. They also enjoy the rank 
and privilege of committee chairmen.

Arroyo is also one of the most prolific members of the House in the 17th 
Congress, authoring at least 164 House measures.

Other new committee assignments announced today are: Rep. Jesulito Manalo as 
chairperson of the Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs, and Rep. Raymond 
Democrito Mendoza as chairperson of the Committee on Poverty Alleviation, 
making the Chairmanship of the Special Committee on Globalization and WTO 
vacant.

Manalo replaces Buhay Party-list Rep. Mariano Michael Velarde, while Mendoza 
replaces Gabriela Party-list Rep. Emmi de Jesus as chairpersons of the 
Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs and Committee on Poverty Alleviation, 
respectively, after they, like Arroyo, voted against the death penalty bill 
which is a priority bill of the administration.

New House member, Senior Citizens Party-list Rep. Milagros Aquino-Magsaysay, 
was designated as a member of the Committees on Cooperatives Development, 
Population and Family Relations, Social Services, and Veterans Affairs and 
Welfare, Women.

(source: abs-cbn.com)








IRAN----executions

8 Prisoners Hanged in One Day in Iran's Rajai Shahr Prison



On Wednesday August 16, 8 prisoners were reportedly hanged at Karaj's Rajai 
Shahr Prison on murder charges. Another prisoner was reportedly transferred to 
solitary confinement in preparation for his execution.

According to close sources, the names of 5 of the 8 prisoners executed are: 
Mostafa Bashkouh, Rasoul Gol Mohammadi, Shahram Abadeh, Seyed Mohammad Seyed 
Abdollah, and Moharram Abdi. These prisoners were transferred to solitary 
confinement on Monday in preparation for their executions. A juvenile offender 
by the name of Mehdi Bahlouli was also transferred to solitary confinement, but 
he was reportedly returned to his cell after the complainant on his case file 
postponed his execution. Another prisoner by the name of Majid Rahimi was also 
transferred to solitary confinement, but he received a 3-month postponement on 
his execution from the complainant on his case file.

On Tuesday August 15, at least 1 prisoner in Rajai Shahr Prison was transferred 
to solitary confinement in preparation for his execution. According to close 
sources, the prisoner's name is Sadegh Gholami and he is sentenced to death on 
the charge of possession of approximately one kilogram of crack.

"Sadegh Gholami was scheduled to be executed last year on drug related charges, 
but in order to delay his execution, he murdered one of his cellmates. The 
status of the new case file opened for him for the murder crime is uncertain 
right now. Sadegh is attempting to receive forgiveness from the complainant on 
his new case file in order to be spared from execution," an informed source 
tells Iran Human Rights.

Some prisoners on death row in Iran have been known to murder a cellmate or 
inflict self-injury in order to postpone their execution sentences.

Official Iranian sources, including the Judiciary and the state-run media, have 
not announced these 8 executions.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

Execution of 3 Prisoners After 21 Years of Imprisonment



On Monday morning August 14 The Iran regime hanged 3 inmates in a central 
prison in Qom.

The 3 detainees were transferred to the quarantine facility of Qom Prison 
yesterday to execute the death sentence.

21 years ago 2 of these prisoners were sentenced to 3 years in prison and 
flogged, and then released, but they were again arrested when the case was 
opened, and they were held in Qom prison until their death sentence was 
executed.

The names of these prisoners were "Mahmoud Arab Khorasani, Mehdi Kasseb and 
Mohammad Taqi Dehparvar???, who were from Qom and resident of this city.

The families of these prisoners were summoned to prison on Sunday for their 
last visit.

Last week, the 18 year old son of Mahmoud Arab Khorasani committed suicide when 
he heard that his father had been sent for execution, but he was saved by his 
family attempts.

(source: NCR-Iran)








NIGERIA:

Ondo Court Sentences 2 Policemen, 1 Other To Death Over Armed Robbery.



The Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure , has sentenced to death by hanging 
2 policemen, Henry Ubogu and Emmanuel Moses attached to the State Police 
Command for conspiracy and armed robbery.

Aside Ugbogu and Moses who had earlier been dismissed before their arraignment, 
a civilian conspirator, Ige Onukun would also face the hangman noose for the 
same offence.

LEADERSHIP gathered that the 2 former policemen were specialized in robbing 
unsuspecting motorists of their cars while operating illegal checkpoints on the 
highways.

It was also learnt that the third accused person, Ige Onukun who bagged the 
same penalty, was specialized in helping them driving away the snatched cars.

According to the prosecution, the convicts conspired and robbed one Pastor 
Ayodele Joseph of his Toyota Camry with Registration number LA 46 AAA at 
Olopejojo junction Ijoka road, Akure, around 8p.m on 7th April 2010.

The court however dismissed that particular charge, saying the prosecution 
failed to establish the link between the Pastor's car, despite the fact that 
they had confessed to snatching of car at that area around the time.

The court presided over by Justice David Kolawole held that proof in criminal 
trial is that of proof beyond reasonable doubt and that car may be that of 
another person.

Justice Kolawole held that, there is no room for guessing or doubt in criminal 
trial as all doubt must be resolved in favour of an accused person .

However, the convicts were unlucky in the other charge relating to the 
snatching of Toyota Camry of Mr. Victor Ojo, a lawyer and politician, whose car 
was snatched on 26th April 2010 , at Ijapo Akure, while the convicts were 
pretending to be on stop and search duty.

According to the prosecution, the reckless manner they were driving after the 
robbery led to their arrest by the Patrol team who gave them a hot pursuit.

In his ruling, Justice David Kolawole subsequently convicted and sentenced them 
to death by hanging for conspiracy and robbery.

(source: leadership.ng)

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

Court Martial Sentences Airman To Death For Killing Girlfriend



The General Court Martial of the Nigerian Air Force has sentenced Air Craftsman 
Kalu Bernard of the Nigerian Air Force Ammamem unit, to death by hanging for 
killing his girlfriend and colleague, Miss Oladipupo Sholape on March 12, 2017.

The President of the General Court Martial, Group Captain Elisha Bindul handed 
him the death penalty after the defense failed to prove his innocence in the 
March 12 tragedy when Air Craftsman Kalu Benard who was charged with murder, 
attempted murder, house break-in, losing service property and failure to 
perform his official duties, killed Air Craftswoman Sholape for allegedly 
cheating on him.

"On the 1st charge of murder, contrary to section106 sub-section A of the Armed 
Forces Act Cap A20, Law of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, the convict is 
sentenced to death by hanging".

"On the 2nd charge of house break-in, contrary to section 110 sub-section B of 
the Armed Forces Act Cap A20, Law of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, the 
convict is sentenced to 5 years imprisonment".

"To the 4th charge of attempt to commit an offence, contrary to section 95 of 
the Armed Forces Act, Cap A20 of the Law of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, the 
convict is sentenced to life imprisonment".

Meanwhile, counsel to Air Craftsman Kalu Benard, Mr. A. M Ewuga, is heading on 
appeal, noting that his court is innocent of the 5 count charge preferred 
against him and accused the general court martial of not evaluating the 
evidence before it.

He said, "The court has not evaluated the evidence before her properly".

"The case of the defense is not considered by the court and in our own very 
candid opinion, the decision of this honourable court need to be tested and 
surely we are going to move to the court of appeal to consider this decision of 
the court today".

(source: channelstv.com)








INDIA:

Supreme Court stays Death Penalty of husband-wife duo convicted for human 
sacrifice



The Supreme Court is seized of yet another death penalty matter, this time from 
Chhattisgarh.

A 3-judge Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and AM Khanwilkar today 
stayed the death penalty awarded to a husband-wife duo and granted leave in a 
case of alleged human sacrifice.

Senior Advocate Rebecca John along with advocates Liz Mathew, Ninni Susan 
Thomas, Philip Mathew, Nicey Paulson, Waheb Hussain, Kabir Dixit and Yash S 
Vijay appeared for the petitioners.

The factual matrix of the case involves some distressing allegations against 
the convicts. It is alleged that the 2 main accused, Ishwari Lal Yadav and her 
wife Kiran Bai used to indulge in Tantirism. The wife had asked the husband and 
other co-accused to get a small child for sacrifice. Chirag Rajput, the 2 year 
old child of the immediate neighbours was kidnapped and was allegedly killed in 
a gruesome manner.

The Sessions Court had sentenced the husband-wife duo and five others to death 
for the crime. The Chhattisgarh High Court had confirmed the death penalty of 
the husband and the wife but reduced the sentence of the co-accused.

The husband and wife have challenged the decision of the High Court in Supreme 
Court.

The Court today issued notice in the matter and stayed the execution of the 
appellants. The Court also directed that the matter be listed before 
appropriate Bench on November 28.

(source: barandbranch.com)

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

Bengali film has provoked fresh debate on death penalty----Dhananjoy shows how 
the police, the judiciary and the State can err in sending a poor security 
guard to the gallows.

The debate on death penalty continues to rage. And why not? For more than 60 % 
of the global population lives in countries like India, China, Indonesia and 
the US where executions take place. And although the United Nations has time 
and again passed resolutions - albeit non-binding - urging the abolition of 
capital punishment, 56 nations still send people to the gallows. Yes, 103 have 
done away with this barbaric practice, and 30 are abolitionist in practice. It 
is in this context that Arindam Sil's heart-wrenching film, Dhananjoy, is of 
immense sociological consequence.

The Bengali film - which hit the screens on August 11 - could not have come at 
a more appropriate time, a time when the nation is witnessing a social turmoil 
and one political crisis after another, when life-and-death issues such as 
death sentence tend to be relegated to the back-burner. Sil's film opened on 
the eve of the 13th anniversary of Dhananjoy Chatterjee's hanging in Kolkata on 
August 14, 2004. The young man had aged parents, a brother and a wife, and in 
what seemed like a heartless action, the noose was placed around his neck on 
his birthday. He was 39.

Sil's movie is bound to get the burning subject back into drawing-room 
conversations, and draw the attention of the people in the top echelons of 
political and judicial power. Sil's work, Dhananjoy, will keep alive an issue 
as pertinent as capital punishment.

It is pertinent, and highly so, because as Sil shows in his fictionalised 
account how the police, the judiciary and the State could have erred in sending 
the poor security guard, Dhananjoy, to the gallows. Throughout his 
14-year-incarceration (which by itself could have been a full sentence), he had 
said a million times that he was innocent of the crime he had been convicted 
of: the rape and murder of 18-year-old school-going Hetal Parekh, who lived 
with her parents and brother in one of south Kolkata's high-rise residential 
complexes.

There is another sentence that Dhananjoy kept uttering during his days in the 
prison. He was being punished for being poor, and he seemed to have used the 
same, famous words of an American Supreme Court judge, William Douglas, who 
quipped that "capital punishment was for those without capital". And Dhananjoy 
had no money, and his lawyer in the face of a dwindling flow of fees lost 
interest in the case. Which is precisely what Sil says in his film, while 
throwing up a theory.

The movie narrates a fictionalised reopening of the case by 2 lawyers, who 
argue out in court that Dhananjoy might not have committed the heinous crime he 
had been executed for. It could have been Hetal's mother, who in a fit of anger 
after seeing blood stains on the girl's undergarment and presuming that she 
would have had sex, killed her. And the family went to elaborate lengths to 
cover up the murder, and Dhananjoy, who was a guard in the building, became the 
scapegoat.

Throughout Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Nizhalkkuthu, the hangman keeps uttering that 
he might have executed the wrong person, an innocent man.

The film also follows a book, Adalat-Media-Samaj Ebong Dhananjoyer Fansi 
(Judiciary-Media-Society and Dhananjoy's Hanging), published in September 2016 
that avers that the guard may have been wrong implicated in the rape and 
murder. The real villain may have escaped! It may have been Hetal's mother.

Sil's movie sticks to this line as well. Slickly mounted and neatly edited, 
Dhananjoy is paced like a thriller from a director who is known to have made 
some films in this genre.

Whatever be the merits or demerits of Sil's work, the fact is that Dhananjoy is 
a movie that needs to be watched, discussed and analysed. The man is dead and 
gone, but the family has been leading an impoverished existence in rural 
Bengal, ridden with guilt and accused by society of having spawned a man who 
raped and killed a young girl.

Sil's Dhananjoy assumes still greater significance in the lights of surveys 
conducted the world over.

A 1988 survey conducted for the United Nations concluded that there was 
absolutely no basis to show that death sentence had a greater deterrence than 
life imprisonment. Statistics from the countries which have abolished this 
penalty have since supported the finding.

Worse, as long as capital punishment exists, the risk of putting a noose around 
an innocent can never be eliminated. After all, no human system is infallible. 
In India, where no research has progressed in this aspect, such miscarriage of 
justice is quite likely, given the state of the judiciary and the complexities 
of the society. The legal system is not only bogged down by archaic laws, but 
also a terrible shortage of personnel.

And in a country ridden with caste, communal and religious disparities, and a 
far-from-perfect method of policing, the chances of wrongful (maybe even 
wilful) conviction may not be exactly rare. In the US, the death penalty has 
been often termed "racist". India - where large sections of the 1 billion-plus 
population live in extreme poverty with absolutely no means of hiring talented 
lawyers to argue their cases - is probably a good example of what Douglas once 
said.

The celebrated auteur, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, shows this, all too clearly, 
through the guilt of a hangman in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore in 
his Nizhalkkuthu (Shadow Kill). Throughout the film, the hangman keeps uttering 
that he might have executed the wrong person, an innocent man.

Sil's Dhananjoy provokes us into thinking exactly this. Was the 39-year-old 
security guard not guilty? Was he framed? Maybe, the case can be reopened. 
Maybe, the debate on the death sentence can get a fresh dose of oxygen, and 
Sil's work has the potential to reawaken a society to the ills of having such a 
barbaric law on its statue.

(source: dailyo.in)