[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 6



IRAQ:

Commentary: Why Iraq should limit Islamic State trials



At the height of its power in Iraq, Islamic State controlled 40 % of the 
country's territory and the daily lives of millions of Iraqis. Tens of 
thousands of Iraqis came to serve the IS administration, including as doctors, 
teachers, judges, cooks, and lawyers, arguably contributing to the group's 
control of the cities it occupied.

Just as Iraqis were forced to join the Baath party under Saddam Hussein, many 
in IS-controlled areas say they were forced to join the group to keep their 
jobs - though no doubt some also supported IS's extremism.

But today, under Iraqi law - and as urged by various United Nations resolutions 
- Iraq is trying to prosecute them all. Those convicted face life in prison or 
the death penalty merely for IS membership. But such broad prosecutions would 
be a grave mistake if Iraq is ever to establish some modicum of national 
reconciliation.

There is global sympathy for Iraqi popular demands for justice against the IS 
criminals who mercilessly, even proudly, caused unimaginable suffering, death, 
and destruction in Iraq (and Syria) for 3 years. Our 21st century is now 
scarred with the modern medievalism of captive Yezidi women sold as slaves and 
journalists in orange jumpsuits beheaded with giant swords on live camera. 
Beyond the daily tyranny IS inflicted on Iraqis under their control, from 
public killings for minor offenses to strict codes of religious conduct 
ensnaring ordinary families, it caused the deaths and injuries of thousands of 
Iraqi soldiers deployed to defeat it. And IS militants certainly showed no 
respect for the laws of war or human decency in how they treated captured Iraqi 
soldiers.

After Islamic State

The UN has established a special investigative team to gather evidence of IS 
crimes to assist Iraqi courts in their prosecutions. But the international 
community has chosen to look away from the mass vengeance still under way at 
the hands of Iraqi soldiers: grotesquely torturing, beating, and executing IS 
suspects while arbitrarily detaining thousands of IS-related women and children 
in makeshift camps and prisons.

While this vigilantism in the heat of war may well subside, the trials, 
jailing, sentencing, and execution of at least 10,000 IS suspects will go on 
for years, sustaining new grievances for a much greater number of Iraqi 
families, tribes, and communities. Our research into these prosecutions shows 
that they are rife with the same due process violations that have for decades 
tainted the Iraqi judicial system - detention in inhumane conditions based on 
flimsy evidence; allegations of severe torture to coerce confessions; no 
prisoner access to lawyers or families, who often don't even know if their 
loved one is alive; and summary trials, some lasting as little as 15 minutes 
but resulting in hastily-issued death sentences.

Sadly, these trials don't even have the merit of establishing a judicial, 
historical account of IS's crimes against the Iraqi people and a real sense of 
justice for the victims. Instead, the only charge IS suspects regularly face is 
"membership in Islamic State," quite easy to prove with a 1-sentence 
confession, but with no effort to establish the full record of crimes, such as 
genocide under international law or rape and murder under Iraqi criminal law. 
There's no strategy to prioritize prosecution of those most responsible for the 
gravest abuses, instead of the "first in, first out" factory-line process, 
where, as one senior Iraqi judge insisted to us, "the Islamic State cook is as 
guilty as the Islamic State fighter."

Victims of IS crimes, who should be able to testify about abuses they suffered 
and have the satisfaction of seeing the wrongdoers face justice in a court of 
law, are not included in these trials, leaving a vast disconnect between 
victims and the justice system. We already know that Iraqi courts have 
prosecuted at least 7,282 IS suspects under the counter-terrorism laws, and 
executed 92. Without a dramatic shift in approach, we will see hundreds more, 
if not thousands, executed, and ten times that number clogging Iraqi courts and 
prisons for decades.

Men identified by Iraqi security forces as suspected Islamic State militants 
are presented at a media conference at the Iraqi military intelligence 
directorate in There is an alternative to this disappointing and dangerous 
outcome and it is well within Iraq's practical reach, if not within its 
immediate political will. Iraq can, and should, find alternatives to 
prosecution for the thousands of IS suspects who carried out no serious crimes 
or acts of violence. Let's face it: The reasons someone may have joined IS are 
complex and touch upon a long history of Sunni isolation, for which many in 
Iraq are to blame.

A better (though no doubt imperfect) way to address the community betrayal such 
membership most deeply represents is to allow these IS members to participate 
in a national truth-telling mechanism that can also create a meaningful record 
of IS crimes, and to make amends through service to the Iraqi communities to 
which they and their families ultimately belong. There is ample precedent for 
this. In many other post-conflict situations, governments have decided to 
choose such alternatives to prosecution as the best way forward. Given the 
deeply fractured state of Iraqi society, this may also be its best chance to 
unite and rebuild a peaceful country.

(source: Commentary; Sarah Leah Whitson is the Middle East and North Africa 
director at Human Rights Watch----Reuters)








SUDAN:

Khartoum appeals court upholds death sentence for college student



The Khartoum Court of Appeals on Tuesday issued a ruling upholding the death 
sentence against the university student Asim Omer for the alleged killing a 
policeman during protests last year.

Last September, Khartoum North Criminal Court found Omer guilty of premeditated 
murder of a police officer and sentenced him to death by hanging.

The Khartoum Court of Appeals on Tuesday issued a ruling supporting the 
conviction of a 21-year-old university student and member of the opposition 
party.

He accused of killing an anti-riot policeman who died after a hit by a Molotov 
cocktail during the student protests in April 2016.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) on Tuesday has warned of carrying 
out the death penalty against the student.

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune Tuesday, the SCoP expressed confidence 
on his innocence, vowing to resist the court ruling until all rights to appeal 
have been exhausted.

The SCoP said he is facing a "political charge", warning against serious 
consequences if the death sentence is executed.

"Our promise to Omer is that he will come out free and honoured against the 
will of the executioners who know with certainty that causing a little harm to 
him would ignite a far-reaching sedition," read the statement.

(source: sudantribune.com)








INDIA:

Bishop criticizes death-penalty call for cow slaughter----Bishop Vincent Barwa 
says the demand by a radical Hindu group seeks to create religious divisions

An Indian Catholic leader has slammed an inflammatory call by a radical Hindu 
group for the execution of people who slaughter cattle or transport beef.

Bishop Vincent Barwa, who chairs the bishops' office for ethnic minorities and 
lower caste people, said the demand by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu 
Council-VHP) sought to create violence and religious divisions.

The senior prelate was responding to ucanews.com following media reports that 
the VHP had resolved to press for a national law against cow slaughter 
stipulating death sentences for violators.

Orthodox Hindus revere cattle. Laws restricting the slaughter of cows, bulls 
and bullocks exist in 20 of India's 29 states.

Since the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party came to power nationally in 2014, 
India has witnessed more than 20 mob lynchings connected with what is generally 
referred to as "cow slaughter".

The media have widely reported orchestrated attacks on Muslims and Dalits, 
formerly known as untouchables, by so-called cow vigilantes.

A report, compiled by IndiaSpend, India's 1st data journalism outfit, found 
that Muslims were targeted in 51 % of violence connected with bovine issues 
between 2010 to 2017.

Hindu leader Narayana Maharaj Shinde during the recent VHP meeting defended cow 
vigilantes and said those who sell cows were as much culprits as those who 
slaughtered them.

Bishop Barwa said demands for capital punishment for cow slaughter targeted 
Christians, Muslims, Dalits and indigenous groups who had no religious 
prohibition on the eating of beef.

He said attempts by some Hindu groups to exploit the issue for political 
purposes would fail because India remained a peace-loving country.

Vinay Kumar, of the National Federation for Dalit Land, expressed concern that 
even without a draconian capital punishment law, Dalits would continue to be 
murdered with impunity in the name of cow protection.

(source: ucanews.com)

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

MP: 8-year-old minor raped after Parliament passes death penalty bill



Hours later MP assembly has passed the bill awarding death penalty to child 
rapists, an 8-year-old minor child was raped by her neighbor in MP. The 
incident is reported from Indore's Depalur tehsil were the accused Sandeep 
Chaganlal (19) reportedly entered the minor 8-year-old victim's house in 
absence of her parents while she was busy watching TV along with other children 
says Deccan Chronicle's report.

The Police has filed FIR against the accused who had reportedly raped the minor 
after sending the other children out. The enraged parents barged into the 
accused neighbour's house on knowing the incident said India Times.

(source: siasat.com)