[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

August 21




THAILAND:

Myanmar men given death penalty for killing 2 British backpackers in Thailand 
appeal against sentence----Bar workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun were found 
guilty of murdering David Miller, 24, and raping and killing Hannah Witheridge, 
23, in September 2014.



2 Myanmar men given the death sentence for murdering 2 British backpackers in 
Thailand in September 2014 have used their last life line and appealed to a 
court against the sentence.

Migrant bar workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun were found guilty of murdering 
David Miller, 24, and raping and killing Hannah Witheridge, 23, whose bodies 
were discovered on a beach on the diving resort of Koh Tao in Thailand.

Both the men had raped Witheridge and bludgeoned the pair over the head, a 
court had heard in December 2015.

Their death sentence was upheld by the Appeal Court in March this year when the 
pair lost an appeal to have their sentence overturned.

Lin and Htun submitted their final appeal on Monday (21 August).

"The deadline is today so we have to submit it. This is the final chance to 
appeal," Nakhon Chomphuchat, head of the Myanmar men's defence team, told 
Reuters.

The conviction of the men in 2015 was mired in controversy as they had claimed 
that the confessions they made during the questioning - which were later 
retracted - had been extracted through torture or abuse.

The workers earned some supporters who also claimed that the DNA evidence 
submitted by the Thai investigators was inadmissible as it had not been 
collected, tested or analysed as per international standards. They also alleged 
that questioning of the 2 men was unlawful as it had been done without the 
presence of the lawyers of Lin and Htun.

The bodies of murder victims Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were found on a 
beach on the southern island of Koh Tao in ThailandFacebook

Reuters reported that some migrant rights groups also accused the Thai police 
of failing to properly seal off the area where the crime took place and of 
using the two Myanmar workers as scapegoats.

The Thai police denied the accusation. The families of the British tourists 
were also thought to have spoken in support of the police investigation.

There were huge protests outside Thailand's embassy in Myanmar's capital city, 
Yangon, which lasted a couple of days following the sentencing of Lin and Htun 
in December 2015.

Reuters noted that although Lin and Htun were given the death penalty, this 
mode of punishment has not been carried out in many years in Thailand.

(source: ibtimes.co.uk)








INDONESIA:

Indonesia to Reject UN Recommendation to Scrap Death Penalty



The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) commissioner Muhammad 
Nurkhoiron said that Indonesia is likely to reject 20 out of 75 recommendation 
from the United Nations Human Rights Council. "One of which being the scrapping 
of death penalty," Nurkhoiron told Tempo yesterday.

The commissioner did not divulge the details about 20 recommendations that 
would be rejected by the government. He said that they would only be noted by 
the government. He reasoned that, among others, the nations who made such 
recommendations did not understand the context of human rights issues faced by 
Indonesia.

The UN Human Rights Council in a universal periodic review (UPR) in May issued 
225 recommendations on human rights to Indonesia. The government had 
immediately accepted 150 recommendations including those relating to the 
education sector, religious freedom and protection for vulnerable and disabled 
people. However, 75 recommendations are still being discussed.

The UPR session in Geneva urges Indonesia to scrap death penalty. There are at 
least 12 recommendations on the issue, including calls for the country to issue 
a moratorium on death sentence and to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to 
the Indonesian Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR-OP2).

The Komnas HAM will continue to talk with the government and civil society to 
make a decision on the remaining 75 recommendations. "We expect to issue the 
final decision in early September," he said. The government plans to announce 
the result in September 20, which is deadline set by the UN Human Rights 
Council.

The Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment on Komnas HAM's 
statements.

Hasan Kleib, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Indonesia to the 
United Nations in Geneva, had said that that the government is unlikely to 
accept the recommendation to scrap death penalty. "Because it's still part of 
positive law in Indonesia," Hasan said in May.

Director General of Human Rights of the Law and Human Rights Ministry Mualimin 
Abdi said that death penalty law in the Criminal Code is being revised and is 
currently being deliberated by the House of Representatives (DPR). "Death 
penalty has been excluded from main penalty category. It has now become an 
alternative which implementation must be done prudently," he said. The Ministry 
said that 67 people are currently on death row.

(source: tempo.co)








IRAN----executions

3 Prisoners Hanged in Qom----They were sentenced to death about 21 years ago 
based on the Judge's opinion rather than actual documented evidence.



3 prisoners were reportedly hanged at Qom Central Prison on murder charges. The 
case files for these prisoners were reportedly opened about 21 years ago.

According to a report by the human rights news agency, HRANA, the Iranian 
authorities carried out the 3 executions on the morning of Tuesday August 15. 
The report identifies the prisoners as Mahmoud Arab Khorasani, Mehdi Kaseb, and 
Mohammad Taghi Dehparvar. The prisoners were reportedly transferred to solitary 
confinement on Sunday August 13 in preparation for their executions.

"These 3 prisoners were sentenced to death about 21 years ago based on the 
Judge's opinion rather than actual documented evidence," an informed source 
tells Iran Human Rights. "21 years ago, 2 of the prisoners had their death 
sentences commuted to lashings and a 3-year prison term each. However, they 
were tried again and sentenced to death."

Iranian official sources, including the Judiciary and the state-run media, have 
not announced these 3 executions.

(source: Iran Human Rights)








CHINA:

Nigerian excretes 1410.9 grams of cocaine, faces death penalty in China



The High People's Court of Guangdong Province, China, has finally confirmed a 
death sentence with 2 years probation on a Nigerian, Mr. Ikechukwu Peter 
Obiekezie, who was reportedly found guilty of smuggling 1410.9 grams of cocaine 
into China.

Details reaching Vanguard disclosed that Obiekezie, with Nigerian standard 
Passport No. A50296207, was on 2nd October, 2016, arrested at the Baiyun 
International Airport in Guangzhou, China, upon arrival from Addis Ababa aboard 
Ethiopian Airlines Flight No. ET 606 on suspicion of smuggled drugs, which he 
swallowed and brought to China.

He has, since October 3, 2016, joined the growing list of Nigerians who are 
detained and serving various jail terms in Guangdong Province, China, after he 
excreted a total of 1410.9 grams of cocaine at the Chinese Aviation hospital.

Having been in detention since then, Obiekezie was on August 18, 2017, issued a 
death sentence, following rejection of an appeal made at the Intermediate 
Peoples' court of Guangzhou on April 7, 2017, after he was declared guilty of 
smuggling the hard drug into China and was given suspended death sentence.

A follow up report from the Nigerian Consulate General in Guangzhou, China, 
disclosed that, the death sentence, in the case of Obiekezie, will not be 
carried out within the period of 2 years if the convict shows remorse, good 
behavior and if no new crime is intentionally committed during the 2-year 
probationary period.

The Consulate also said that the death sentence will be reduced to life or 10 
to 15 years imprisonment if the convict remains of good behaviour.

"Capital Punishment is a legal penalty in the People's Republic of China. It is 
mostly enforced for murder and drug trafficking, and executions are carried out 
by lethal injection or shooting.

"There is widespread public support for capital punishment, especially as a 
penalty for violent crimes. The People's Republic of China executes the highest 
number of people annually.

"It is worth noting that after a 1st trial conducted by an Intermediate 
People's Court which concludes with a death sentence, a double appeals process 
must follow.

"The 1st appeal is conducted by a High People's Court if the condemned appeals 
to it, and since 2007, another appeal is conducted automatically (even if the 
condemned does not make the appeal) by the Supreme People's Court of the 
People's Republic of China (SPC) in Beijing, to prevent the awkward 
circumstance in which the defendant is proven innocent after the death penalty, 
an obviously irrevocable punishment has been administered.

"Chinese courts often hand down the death sentence with 2 years probation. This 
unique sentence is used to emphasize the seriousness of the crime and the mercy 
of the court."

It also stressed that cases of drug smuggling into the People's Republic of 
China is giving Nigeria a bad image in China, adding that, "Presently, there 
are more than 500 Nigerians serving jail terms for drug trafficking and over 
200 languishing in jail for illegal residence in China.

"The Consular problems arising from this barrage of drug related activities of 
Nigerians have overwhelmed the staff of the Consulate-General of Nigeria in 
Guangzhou, China.

"On 31st July, 2017, a Nigerian with drugs in his system died aboard the 
Ethiopian airlines flight to Guangzhou".

In reaction, Nigeria Consul General to China, Ambassador Wale Oloko informed 
the need to equip the Mission regulating authorities.

He noted that the Nigerian Mission in Guangzhou, China, is the busiest among 
the 4 Nigerian Missions in China and should be quipped with necessary tools to 
address affectively and follow up cases affecting some Nigerian immigrants to 
China, while pointing out that the Mission should not be facing serious 
financial predicament, which also include non-payment of Foreign Service 
Allowances (FSA) and rent on the accommodation of the Home-Based Officers and 
salaries of locally recruited staff.

The Mission currently is said to be facing ejection notice from its present 
location after its inability to pay its rent.

And if it goes through, it would be the 2nd time within a period of 10 months 
to witness such embarrassment, having earlier been ejected from its previous 
location in November, 2016 for non-payment of accumulated rent to give way to 
the Consulate-General of an African country and now the owners of the property 
have taken the Mission to court to recover outstanding rent fees.

(source: niyitabiti.net)








BANGLADESH:

10 ordered to be executed in firing squad



HasinaA Dhaka court on Sunday handed 10 men death penalty for an attempt to 
kill prime minister Sheikh Hasina at Kotalipara of Gopalganj in 2000.

Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-2 judge Momtaz Begum handed down the verdict saying 
the convicts will be executed in the firing squad.

On 22 July 2000, Bangladesh Army recovered a 76kg bomb from Sheikh Lutfor 
Rahman Ideal College in Kotalipara upazila of Gopalganj which was planted 
aiming to kill the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Hasina was supposed to address a rally there the next day.

On 23 July, another bomb weighing 40kg was recovered from the same spot.

Kotalipara police then filed an attempted murder case and a case under 
explosives act after the incident.

Police accused 10 people of banned militant group Harkatul Jihad including 
their leader Mufti Abdul Hannan on 8 April 2001.

The other accused are: M Mahibullah, Munshi Ibrahim, M Mahmud Azhar, M Rashed 
driver, M Shah Newaz, M Yusuf, M Lokman, Sheikh M Enamul and M Mizanur Rahman.

Gopalganj court sent the case to Dhaka fast track tribunal in 2010.

Mufti Hannan was later excluded from the case as he was sentenced to death in 
another case of attempted murder of former British High Commissioner Anwar 
Choudhury.

(source: prothom-alo.com)

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

10 get death penalty for attempted assassination of Bangladesh PM Hasina----The 
convicts had hatched the plot to kill Hasina in 2000 by planting a high-powered 
explosive device



10 militants were on Sunday sentenced to death and 9 others jailed for 20 years 
each by a court in Bangladesh for attempting to assassinate Prime Minister 
Sheikh Hasina in 2000.

The convicts had hatched the plot to kill Hasina in 2000 by planting a 
high-powered explosive device in an open ground at her village home in 
southwestern Gopalganj where she was scheduled to address a public rally.

Security officials, however, detected the bomb ahead of the rally.

On further investigation, outlawed Harkatul Jihad-e- Islami Bangladesh (HuJI) 
chief Mufti Hannan, who was executed earlier this year in another case 
involving the attempted assassination of the then Bangladeshi-origin British 
High Commissioner, was found to be the mastermind of the plot.

25 suspects had been accused in the Special Powers Act case. Nine received 20 
years in prison and were fined 20,000 taka each, while 4 were acquitted.

"They (convicts) will be executed either by hanging or by shooting with 
permission of the High Court," Dhaka's Speedy Trial Tribunal-2 judge Mamtaz 
Begum said.

Only 8 of the accused faced the trial in person while the rest were sentenced 
in absentia.

Under the Bangladesh law, the death sentences would require being endorsed by 
the High Court following an automatic death reference hearing. The convicts are 
allowed to file an appeal as well.

The judgement comes even as a Dhaka court nears the end of a trial regarding 
another major assassination attempt on Hasina while she was the opposition 
leader as the chief of the Awami League in 2004.

An influential group of the then ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of 
ex-premier Khaleda Zia is believed to have masterminded the plot, which they 
had engaged HuJI to execute.

Hasina narrowly escaped the attack that killed 23 people and injured hundreds.

BNP leader and Zia's son Tarique Rahman is being tried in the case in absentia 
as a prime accused.

"The verdict of the case is expected by the year end," a court official 
familiar with the development said.

(source: business-standard.com)

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

Bangabandhu's grandson Radwan Mujib says he was surprised by law to protect 
killers



It came as quite a shock to Radwan Mujib Siddiq, when he was told by his family 
that there was a law in the country protecting the killers of his grandfather 
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Bangladesh's founding father was assassinated with most of his family members 
in a military putsch 42 years ago.

Bangabandhu's 2 daughters, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana were 
in Germany when they lost their whole family in the carnage on Aug 15, 1975.

Siddiq, the son of Rehana, says he knew about it in 1986 when he was attending 
preschool in Dhaka.

"I was quite surprised...how can it be a law," he told a group of students and 
professionals on Saturday at a seminar in Dhaka.

He was addressing the seminar, 'Bangabandhu Murder Case: Journey, 
Accomplishments and Remaining Challenges' organised by the Awami League's 
research arm Centre for Research and Information or CRI.

After the assassination, Khandaker Mostaq Ahmad, a cabinet minister under 
Bangabandhu, took over the presidency and on Sep 26, 1975 promulgated the 
indemnity ordinance.

Later it was incorporated into the constitution as the Fifth Amendment in 1979, 
after reconstitution of parliament during the rule of military dictator Ziaur 
Rahman.

The amendment also legalised all military rules and orders given during the 
period of Aug 15, 1975 to Apr 9, 1979.

The 12 army men involved in the killings had been rewarded with jobs in 
diplomatic missions abroad during BNP founder Zia's regime.

"In 1986, my family moved to Dhaka and I was admitted at a kindergarten school 
in Banani, but was shifted to another school soon after," Siddiq said recalling 
his childhood memories.

"When I asked my mother why, her answer was the killers' sons went to the same 
school. I was told about the law when I asked how murderers can roam free?"

Recalling that children of his age then did not know anything about 
Bangabandhu, he said, "Our family never hides history. So we were briefed about 
the brutality."

He added that he could not even speak about his grandfather in school for 
security reasons.

21 years after the killing of the independence leader, a trial began when the 
Awami League formed the government in 1996.

In November of the same year, the parliament repealed the Act paving the way 
for the prosecution of the killers.

12 people were awarded the death penalty for the assassination. In 2010, 5 of 
the convicts were executed while 1 died as a fugitive abroad. 6 others are 
still absconding, including 1 of the masterminds, Abdur Rashid.

Convicts M Rashed Chowdhury and Noor Chowdhury have been traced to the US and 
Canada. The government says the process to bring them back is on.

Prosecutors and investigators of the Bangabandhu murder case, legal academics 
and senior journalists spoke at Saturday's seminar at the premises of the 
Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.

Law Minister Anisul Huq, who was the chief prosecutor of Bangabandhu murder 
case, was the keynote speaker at the seminar moderated by Mizanur Rahman, 
former chief of Human Rights Commission.

The panelists included Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique, 
Awami League MP Fazilatunnesa Bappy, Chairman of Centre for Genocide Studies at 
the Dhaka University Delwar Hossain, and Executive Editor of Daily Janakantha 
Swadesh Roy.

Trustee of CRI and State Minister Nasrul Hamid, Bangabandhu Memorial Trust CEO 
Mashura Hossain, and Bangabandhu Museum's Curator Nazrul Islam Khan also spoke 
at the seminar.

(source: bd news24.com)



PAKISTAN:

Christian boy in Pakistan faces death penalty for allegedly burning 
Quran----Pakistan's blasphemy law states a mandatory death penalty for people 
convicted of damaging the Quran.



A teenage boy from the minority Christian community in Pakistan has been 
arrested over blasphemy charges for allegedly burning pages of the Quran. Asif 
Massih, 18, could be awarded a death penalty if convicted of blasphemy.

Massih was arrested on the night of 12 August after a complaint was registered 
against him. The complaint stated that he burnt a few pages of the Muslim holy 
book outside a shrine in Jam Kayk Chattha village in central Punjab province.

"He is in jail now," Muhammad Asgharat, a police official at the Alipur Chattha 
police station, told Al Jazeera.

Another police official said that hundreds of people had gathered at the time 
of his arrest. People were demanding the accused to be handed over to them.

"When the police took the suspect into custody and brought him to a police 
check post, a crowd of around 200 men gathered outside... demanding the culprit 
be handed over to them," local police official Pervaiz Iqbal told the AFP news 
agency.

"We then secretly moved the culprit to the police station in Wazirabad where he 
was interrogated and confessed to his crime."

Blasphemy is a very sensitive issue in the Muslim-majority nation and dozens of 
people have been killed by civilian vigilantes for disrespecting the holy book 
or the religion.

Massih was reportedly charged under section 295-B of Pakistan's penal code, 
Iqbal said. Death sentence is a mandatory punishment for people found guilty of 
damaging the Quran.

In general, blasphemy charges in Pakistan involve punishments ranging from 
fines to the mandatory death sentence.

Currently in Pakistan, nearly 40 people are either on death row or serving life 
sentences for blasphemy charges, according to Al Jazeera, citing data from the 
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Since 1990, at least 71 people have been killed by angry mobs or vigilantes 
over alleged blasphemy offences, the news channel added in its report.

(source: ibtimes.co.uk)

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

Murder accused gets death penalty



Additional Sessions Judge Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali on Saturday awarded death 
penalty to an accused involved in a murder case of 2 people.

According to the prosecution, accused Waseem, Abid and their accomplices had 
shot dead Hanif and Shahid Guhman over a minor issue in Bina Baryar village in 
the limits of Sadar police 3 years ago.

The court awarded death sentence and Rs 500,000 fine to accused Waseem and life 
imprisonment and Rs 500,000 fine to co-accused Abid. The court acquitted other 
accused giving them the benefit of the doubt.

(source: thenews.com.pk)








MOROCCO:

415 people, including 14 Convicted for Terrorism



On the King and the People day celebration, King Mohammed VI granted a royal 
pardon to 415 persons convicted by the various courts of the kingdom, said the 
Department of Justice in a statement.

Out of the 343 detained beneficiaries of the pardon, 337 inmates benefited from 
the pardon over their remaining prison term and 6 inmates had their prison 
sentences commuted from life imprisonment to fixed prison terms.

In addition, among the 72 free beneficiaries of the royal pardon, 14 people 
benefited from pardon over their imprisonment term, 1 person had his prison 
sentence dropped and fine maintained and another person benefited from pardon 
over his prison term and fine, while 56 people had their fines dropped.

King Mohammed VI also granted his pardon over the remaining prison term for the 
benefit of 13 detainees, sentenced for terror charges and who participated in 
the "Mussalaha" (reconciliation) program.

He has also commuted death penalty to a 30-year fixed prison term for the 
benefit of 1 convict who was also involved in the Mussalaha program.

The royal pardons came as a response to the requests made by the people 
concerned, after they officially expressed their attachment to the Morocco's 
"immutable values and national institutions, reviewed their positions and 
thinking, voiced their rejection of extremism and terrorism and affirmed that 
they resumed the right path, while showing good conduct in prison," said the 
department of justice.

During the Throne day celebration on July 30, the king granted a royal pardon 
to 1,272 persons who were convicted by Moroccan courts.

(source: moroccoworldnews.com)