[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 16




PHILIPPINES:

Anti-death penalty bloc plans march


Pro-life advocates are set to hold a "candlelight walk" to oppose plans to 
revive the death penalty.

In a press conference yesterday, organizers of the "Candlelight Walk for Life" 
announced that more than 1,000 people will be joining their procession from 
Plaza Sugbu to the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral this Saturday afternoon.

Dr. Rene Bullecer, a pro-life advocate and vice president for Visayas of the 
Sangguniang Laiko sa Pilipinas, told reporters that they oppose the death 
penalty not only because it is a cruel and an unusual punishment, but also 
because it is anti-poor.

Fr. Eligio Suico, chairman of the Cebu Archdiocesan Commission on Family and 
Life, said they also condemn the national government's anti-drug campaign, 
which has led to the deaths of drug addicts and pushers.

Meanwhile, a member of the Catholic Faith Defenders in Cebu condemned the 
Catholic Bishops Conference in the Philippines (CBCP) for stopping efforts to 
revive the death penalty.

Lawyer Marcelo Bacalso criticized Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma and other members 
of CBCP for opposing the death penalty.

Bacalso claimed that the Catholic Church "supported" the imposition of capital 
punishment, citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church that was approved by 
the late Pope (now saint) John Paul II and the catechism of the Council of 
Trent.

In Section 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the death penalty is 
not an excluded recourse effectively defending human lives against unjust 
aggression.

But it also states that if non-lethal means are sufficient and available, 
authorities must limit themselves to it in conformity to the dignity of the 
human being.

(source: sunstar.com.ph)

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

Palace defends death penalty agenda amid criticisms from foreign lawmakers


Malacanang on Wednesday defended the position of the government to push for the 
reimposition of the death penalty after lawmakers from Cambodia and Malaysia 
expressed opposition to the plan.

The foreign lawmakers warned that the Philippines might lose its credibility in 
the international arena if the measure pushed through.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said that the re-imposition of capital 
punishment was a priority legislative measure under the administration of 
President Rodrigo Duterte.

"While some countries may have their opinion, we find the move to re-impose 
death penalty, reserved for certain heinous crimes, as apt for exercising 
discipline in a culture that now treats adherence to law an option rather than 
a rule of community life," Abella said.

He added that even a progressive country like Singapore did not abolish the 
death penalty.

"A progressive Southeast Asian state like Singapore has retained the measure as 
a final deterrent to crime," Abella said.

While the House of Representatives continue to debate the revival of the death 
penalty, Duterte on Friday argued that there was a spike in heinous crimes when 
capital punishment was abolished in 2006.

(source: gmanetwork.com)

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

Irked by quorum questions, House leaders threaten to end death-penalty debates


Majority Leader Rodolfo Farinas threatened Wednesday to abruptly end the 
debates on the controversial death penalty bill amid constant quorum questions 
by lawmakers opposed to the bill.

He said he would call a caucus of the majority members to ask them if they 
still want to proceed with the deliberation of House Bill No. 4727 seeking to 
restore capital punishment.

Addressing the audience in the gallery, which includes nuns and members of 
religious groups, he said he wanted the debates to continue, but some 
lawmakers, he complained, keep interrupting the session by questioning the 
quorum.

Debates on the bill have been going on for 4 session days.

5 anti-death penalty lawmakers have so far taken the floor -- Reps. Edcel 
Lagman, Raul del Mar, Harry Roque, Rav Rocamora and Lawrence Fortun.

The bill's sponsors -- Reps. Reynaldo Umali, Vicente Veloso and Fredenil Castro 
-- took turns in responding to the questions.

Before Farinas took the floor, Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu, the presiding officer, 
engaged in heated discussions with Lagman and Buhay partylist Rep. Lito Atienza 
on the rules of the House over questions on quorum.

The roll call showed there were 202 members present, but Lagman said the 
congressmen present on the floor began to dwindle as the discussions continue. 
He made a motion to adjourn but was overruled.

Earlier, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he wants voting on the bill before 
Congress goes on break on March 18.

(source: interaksyon.com)






SRI LANKA:

Cabinet to consider reducing death penalty to life imprisonment


A proposal has been made to the cabinet to consider the ability of reducing the 
death penalty to life imprisonment. The proposal was made in the 
recommendations submitted by the inter-institutional task force which was 
tasked with the identification of prison reforms.

Minister of Justice Wijayadasa Rajapaksa and Minister of Prison Reforms, 
Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs D.M. Swaminathan, had 
presented the recommendations made by the inter-institutional task force 
appointed for the Identification of judicial and legal reasons for minimising 
congestion in prisons and prison reforms, to cabinet yesterday.

The proposals include considering the ability of reducing death penalty to life 
imprisonment, the use of community-based corrections productively and enabling 
the payment of fines as installments instead of imposing imprisonment for those 
who fail to pay fines.

It has also recommended utilising police bailing method according to provisions 
in Bail Act.These recommendations are to be presented to parliament in due 
course.

(source: newsfirst.lk)






PAKISTAN:

Executing children


16 years ago, Pakistan promulgated the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) 
2000 to bring its current juvenile justice framework into conformity with its 
international obligations. The law was meant to shield children who came into 
conflict with the law from the rigours of the formal judicial system. This 
included right of legal aid, expedited trials held in separate courts, access 
to services for rehabilitation and reintegration with their families. The law 
also provided protection to accused children from corporal punishments, torture 
and the death penalty.

Despite the existence of such a comprehensive legal framework (and being one of 
the earliest countries in the world to ratify the 1998 UN Convention on the 
Rights of the Child), the government has failed to demonstrate much interest in 
implementing a comprehensive juvenile justice system.

The JJSO was not enacted retroactively. A significant proportion of the 
population of juvenile prisoners, therefore, fell outside the ambit of the 
protections accorded by the law, including protection from the death penalty. 
However, the Pakistani president issued a notification in 2001, in exercise of 
his powers under Article 45 of the Constitution (ie, the power to grant pardon, 
reprieve and respite, and to remit, suspend or commute any sentence passed by 
any court).

Under the notification, juvenile offenders sentenced to death prior to the 
enactment of the JJSO were to be accorded remission following an inquiry into 
their juvenility. An upcoming report by Justice Project Pakistan, Death Row's 
Children, reveals that such inquiries hardly ever took place; when they did 
they were marred by arbitrariness and inefficiency.

Additional shortcomings in Pakistan's juvenile justice system, which result in 
the government's unlawful, arbitrary implementation of the death penalty 
against juvenile offenders have been highlighted in the report. The research 
analyses individual cases of juvenile offenders who have been executed or are 
awaiting executions to highlight the many junctures at which violations occur, 
starting from the arrest to the juvenile's unlawful march to the gallows.

In Pakistan, police and courts follow no age determination protocols. This is 
especially problematic for a country where birth registration rates are dismal. 
According to official estimates, nearly 10 million children below 5 years are 
unregistered, with the figure growing by nearly 3m every year. Courts 
inevitably posit the burden of proof on juvenile offenders who are not accorded 
any benefit of doubt. Since a majority of those facing arrest lack any form of 
official documentation, they are placed in a virtually impossible situation.

In May 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its concluding 
observations urged the government to order a stay in executions involving 
minors and launch a review of all cases where there is an indication that the 
accused was a juvenile.

The need for such a review cannot be overemphasised as it is estimated that 
10pc of the current death-row population constitutes juvenile offenders. 
Muhammad Anwar was sentenced to death in 1998 for a crime allegedly committed 
when he was just 17-years-old. Despite having sufficient proof of juvenility 
the government remained unable to provide the benefit of this presidential 
remission and he is still on death row. In December 2014, Anwar came within 
hours of execution; he remains at serious risk of receiving another warrant.

Similarly, Muhammad Azam is another juvenile offender who was arrested in 1998 
for murder and convicted and sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court 
prior to the JJSO's promulgation. Copies of his birth records, jail records, 
including a copy of the birth roll confirm he was 17 when he was first admitted 
into custody. Jail records also demonstrate that Azam was initially held in 
Youthful Offenders Industrial School Karachi - a borstal institution especially 
designed for juvenile offenders. Following the 2001 notification, jail 
authorities sent a request to the trial court asking the court to determine 
Azam's age to ascertain whether his sentence should be commuted. However, he 
couldn't get the relief on the basis that the court was already functus officio 
following the conclusion of the appeals.

JPP in its report asks the government to reinstate the moratorium in the first 
instance, especially for those prisoners who were juveniles or can avail the 
benefit of reasonable doubt of juvenility at the time of offence committed. The 
report additionally asks for the enforcement of the solid age determination 
protocols, in compliance with international legal and policy standards.

As Pakistan prepares for the Universal Periodic Review in November 2017, it is 
absolutely essential that it institutes these measures in order to demonstrate 
its commitment to human rights in both the domestic and international arena.

(source: Miqdad Naqvi; The writer is a child rights activist and law 
practitioner in Lahore----Dawn)






SINGAPORE----female foreign national faces death penalty

Indonesian maid charged with murder

An Indonesian maid was charged in court with murder yesterday after an elderly 
woman was found dead in a Tampines flat on Monday.

Minah, 37, who goes by 1 name, is accused of killing Madam Tay Quee Lang in a 
5th-floor flat at Block 276, Tampines Street 22 at around 2.10pm that day.

She is represented by lawyer Nasser Ismail, who was appointed by the Indonesian 
embassy.

The wheelchair-bound Madam Tay, 78, lived in the flat with her husband, Mr Tan 
Hee Seng, who is in his 70s.

Neighbours said the maid had been with the couple for about a month.

Shortly before Madam Tay was found dead, neighbours said they heard a scream 
from the flat.

Minah was the only other person in the unit besides Madam Tay.

Engineer Ashaari Hasan Basri, 28, who lives on the same floor, told The Straits 
Times on Monday that he called the police after hearing the screams.

Police said they received a call for assistance at 2.10pm and paramedics later 
pronounced Madam Tay dead at the scene.

Minah was seen leaving with police officers at about 6pm that day to assist 
with investigations and Madam Tay's body was taken away about an hour later.

Minah was placed under arrest on Tuesday.

She will be remanded for a psychiatric evaluation at Changi Women's Prison and 
will be back in court on March 8.

If convicted of murder, she will face the death penalty.

(source: straitstimes.com)






AUSTRALIA:

Abolishing the death penalty in the Asia Pacific


On 3 February 2017, a small ceremony was held to remember the 50th anniversary 
of the execution of Ronald Ryan at Pentridge jail in Melbourne, Australia. 
Ryan's execution for the murder of a prison guard proved to be the tipping 
point for Australia. It sparked a movement for abolition of the death penalty 
which culminated in 1985 when capital punishment was abolished.

This act of domestic law reform was soon followed by action on the 
international stage in 1990 when Australia ratified the Second Optional 
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 
creating an international law obligation to abolish the death penalty.

Australia has since become a strong international voice against the death 
penalty, partly forged out of the execution of its citizens in Malaysia, 
Singapore and most recently Indonesia, where Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran 
were executed for drug trafficking in 2015. Australia's international advocacy 
for abolition of the death penalty was further advanced in 2016 when the 
parliamentary report 'A World Without the Death Penalty' was released, which 
made 13 recommendations as to how Australia could improve this advocacy. These 
recommendations are under consideration as part of Australia???s Foreign Policy 
White Paper due out in mid-2017.

But Australia's efforts to abolish the death penalty face significant hurdles 
in the Asia Pacific, which were highlighted on 7 February when Australian 
Antonio Bagnato was sentenced to death by a Thai court following his conviction 
for murder. 11 of the 25 states that engaged in capital punishment in 2015 are 
located in the region, including the country with the largest number of 
executions per year - China. There are also worrying signs that some states are 
considering reinstating the death penalty. In the Philippines, the Death 
Penalty Act allowing for the reintroduction of the death penalty is currently 
before the Congress, while Brunei and Papua New Guinea have actively considered 
removing their de facto death penalty moratoria in recent years.

Nevertheless, Australia is well placed to oppose the death penalty among Asia 
Pacific nations. Such an approach should focus on advocacy for either a de jure 
or de facto moratorium on capital punishment. Australia already has strong 
bilateral relations with pro-death penalty retention states such as Indonesia, 
Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. Likewise, South Korea - which is abolitionist in 
practice - is a state with which Australia has strong ties and may be persuaded 
to become abolitionist for all crimes.

Australia is also in a good position to commence a campaign promoting the 
adoption of the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, which has a total of 81 
signatory states and is endorsed regionally by New Zealand, the Philippines and 
Timor-Leste. Article 6 of the ICCPR contains certain provisions that limit the 
application of the death penalty, however, varying positions are taken on the 
interpretation of Article 6, including whether drug offences are the 'most 
serious crimes' to which the death penalty can be applied.

In contrast, the Second Optional Protocol unambiguously requires states parties 
to abolish the death penalty in their national legal systems. Accordingly, a 
state which adopts the Second Optional Protocol indicates to the international 
community and its own citizens that the death penalty will no longer apply. 
This is a matter the Philippines will need to reflect upon in their current 
debate over the death penalty.

There is considerable potential for Australia to begin a regional campaign to 
adopt the Second Optional Protocol. Based on Amnesty International's 2016 
report on the status of the death penalty worldwide, there are 12 Asia-Pacific 
states that are abolitionist for all crimes but have yet to adopt the Second 
Optional Protocol, 3 states that are abolitionist in practice and 9 
pro-retention states. Such a campaign could initially seek to focus on those 
abolitionist states with whom Australia has close bilateral relationships and 
then focus on pro-retention states in the region.

Australia already has experience with these types of diplomatic campaigns, 
having promoted regional support for the Rome Statute of the International 
Criminal Court in the 2000s. This is even an area where Australia could find 
common ground with Timor-Leste. A joint Australia - Timor Leste campaign 
promoting the adoption of the Second Optional Protocol with Nobel Prize winner 
Jose Ramos Horta taking an active role would carry significant moral weight.

(source: Donald R Rothwell is a Professor of International Law at the ANU 
College of Law, The Australian National University----East Asia Forum)






NIGERIA:

The Plight of Nigeria's Living Dead


Hundreds of Nigerians are enduring daily torture on death row as they await 
execution for crimes ranging from kidnapping to blasphemy.

Nigeria has no qualms about sentencing thousands of its citizens to death. A 
1998 Supreme Court decision ruled that "the sentence of death in itself cannot 
be degrading and inhuman", and in recent years, the number of crimes punishable 
by death in Nigeria has been growing.

For example, in 2013, the Nigerian Senate approved the death penalty for acts 
of terrorism. In 2014, 54 soldiers were awarded death sentences for mutiny. In 
2015, the Upper Sharia Court of Kano sentenced 9 people to death for blasphemy. 
And in 2016, Lagos became the latest of several Nigeria states to make 
kidnapping a capital offence. It is little surprise then that in 2014, Nigeria 
led the entire world in death sentences as 659 people were condemned.

However, despite these high numbers, Nigeria has reportedly executed just 7 
people in the past decade.

It could be that state authorities are reluctant to authorise executions - only 
two governors have signed execution warrants since the return to democracy in 
1999 - or it could be that even a nation with a population of 180 million 
cannot recruit enough hangmen to operate its gallows. But regardless of the 
reasons, the result is that hardly any prisoners sentenced to death have 
actually been executed.

The president and state governors do sometimes grant pardons or commute death 
sentences, but there is no evidence of any policy framework regulating this. 
What happens in practice then is that office holders occasionally make 
pronouncements commuting sentences, usually as a token of goodwill, but even 
supposedly reprieved prisoners continue to languish on death row for years, 
along with their unpardoned cellmates.

Deplorable conditions

Not to mention the deep controversies around the justness and effectiveness of 
condemning citizens to death in the first place, the standards of trial 
processes leading to these sentences in Nigerian courts are often highly 
questionable. The use of torture for interrogation by Nigerian police is 
well-documented, yet this tainted evidence forms the basis of many convictions. 
A criminal justice system in which 80% of inmates claim having been beaten, 
threatened or tortured in police custody is not one that can be trusted with 
upholding a fair trial.

But even after contentious death sentences may be passed down, detainees often 
face further miscarriages of justice as they are kept in deplorable conditions 
for years.

The opaque and broken state of Nigeria's criminal justice system makes it 
difficult to know exactly how many prisoners there are on death row, but a 2015 
Amnesty International report puts the number at 1,673.

These inmates are incarcerated without an end in sight in prisons that are 
notorious for overcrowding, human rights violations, infrastructural decay, 
torture, poor funding, improper management and poorly-trained officials.

According to a presidential commission investigation, inmates spend an average 
of 10-15 years on death row. And during this time, they live under the weight 
of uncertainty in appalling environments, with many suffering from mental 
illnesses.

Right to dignity

Debates on the effectiveness and morality of capital punishment will no doubt 
rage on, but even its most unyielding proponents agree that the sentence is not 
for torture and then death. Moreover, while a citizen may forfeit some of their 
freedoms by committing a crime, they retain many of their human rights as 
protected under the constitution. These rights are not benefits or privileges, 
but are conferred simply by being a member of the human race.

Yet in contravention of this legal and ethical reality, much of the process 
that an individual may go through - from the legitimacy of the trial, to the 
conditions on death row, to the method of execution (if this ever occurs), to 
the treatment of the body - all fail to protect the dignity of the human 
person.

A system that relies on questionable evidence; that keeps condemned persons in 
daily apprehension of death for 15 years; that houses them in unventilated 
concrete cubicles; that routinely starves them; and that makes them clean the 
gallows is unjustifiably cruel and undignifying.

Nigeria's death row crisis mirrors the defects in the criminal justice system, 
and resolving it would require the collaborative effort of all tiers of 
governments. But sadly, political elites have long benefited from these same 
systemic weaknesses, which those in authority are able to exploit in order to 
delay, frustrate or influence unwelcome trials and to strengthen their own hold 
on power.

These structural failings, and lack of political will to correct them, means 
that many Nigerians are at risk of being denied their constitutional rights and 
their inalienable human right to dignity - not least the forgotten hundreds of 
living dead undergoing psychological if not physical torture day by day as they 
await a sentence that may have been passed down unjustly and may dangle over 
their heads indefinitely.

(source: Tosin Osasona is a Research Associate and Criminal Justice Expert at 
the Centre for Public Policy Alternatives, Lagos, Nigeria----allafrica.com)






IRAN----executions

15 Prisoners Executed


Iran Human Rights has received reports of 15 executions in Iran, 3 of the 
prisoners were hanged on Monday, while 12 of them were hanged today.

12 prisoners hanged at Karaj's Rajai Shahr Prison (northern Iran):

According to close sources, the 12 prisoners were executed on the morning of 
Wednesday February 15. 6 of the prisoners have been identified as: Mir Mohammad 
Mousavi, Farzad Taghavi, Yousef Mohammadi, Arash Bayat, Bahram Yazdani, and 
Taher Rezalou. The 12 prisoners were reportedly transferred to solitary 
confinement before their executions, and according to a confirmed source, 
majority of the prisoners were sentenced to death on drug related charges. 2 
death row prisoners, who were also taken to solitary along with the 12 prison, 
were reporyedly taken back to their cells after their death sentences were 
suspended by the complainants on their case file.

3 prisoners hanged at Zabol Prison (Sistan & Baluchestan, eastern Iran) on drug 
related charges:

According to a report by the human rights news agency, Baloch Activists 
Campaign, 3 prisoners were hanged at Zabol Prison on Monday February 13. The 
prisoners were reportedly sentenced to death on drug related charges. The 
report identifies the prisoners as Mohammad Sarani, 32 years of age and Zaher 
Nahtani, 31 years of age. Both of these men were reportedly held in prison for 
5 years each before their executions.

Iranian official sources, including the Judiciary and the media, have been 
silent on these executions.

(source: iranhr.net)

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

Family Members, Protest to Death Sentence of Their Son


According to the released reports, the family of Mostafa Azadi on Tuesday, 
February 14th staged a sit-in protest in front of the office of the Head of the 
Judiciary, Sadegh Larijani until the morning of Wednesday, February 15th 
demanding the halt of the death penalty for their son who is imprisoned in the 
solitary confinement awaiting execution.

On Monday 13th February the family of Mostafa Azadi was informed that their son 
has been transferred to the solitary confinement of Zahedan Central Prison in 
order to receive the inhumane death penalty. They immediately came to Tehran 
from Kuhdasht (in Lorestan Province) and went to the office of Sadegh Larijani 
on Tuesday demanding the halt of execution for their son. They were told that 
the death penalty will be carried out on Wednesday, February 15.

The family announced that they will continue the sit-in protest unless the 
death penalty of their son halts.

It is noteworthy that according to a statement by the National Council of 
Resistance of Iran, The mullahs' regime's henchmen sent 10 inmates to the 
gallows in Qum and Zabol on February 13. One of them was executed while his 
appeal had been sent to the regime's judiciary.

Also, 3 other prisoners, 29 and 30 years old, were executed in Jiroft and 
Mashhad prisons on February 11 and 12. On the other hand, 9 prisoners have been 
reportedly transferred to solitary confinement in Gohardasht prison for 
execution. Iranian Resistance calls all relevant international authorities to 
take urgent and effective action to prevent these executions.

A few days ago, Ali Alizadeh, an official in the so-called anti-drug campaign, 
called for the continuation of brutal punishments and said, "Adjusting death 
penalty does not contribute to the campaign, and faces it with challenges." 
(Khaneh Mettlat, state-run news agency- 5 February 2017) In yet another case, 
the mullahs' judiciary in Tehran issued the ruling for cutting off the hands of 
3 individuals charged with theft. (Hamshahri, state daily- 12 February 2017) 
Unable to cope with the growing domestic and international crises, and in fear 
of public uprising, the hated regime of mullahs finds the only way out in 
intensifying suppression. The regime's officials should be expelled from the 
world community for their anti-human crimes, and must be tried for crime 
against humanity. Silence and inaction before the crimes of this savage regime 
over the past three decades has encouraged it to continue and intensify these 
crimes.

(source: ncr-iran.org)