[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 19



SAUDI ARABIA----executions

Saudi Authorities Execute 2 Men Convicted of Murder


2 Saudi men were executed on Tuesday for killing 2 people in the southwestern 
city of Abha, the interior ministry said in a statement published by the 
official news agency SPA.

The 1st convict was identified as Ahmed bin Musa, who was sentenced to death 
after stabbing another person in a personal dispute.

The other, identified as Abdel Rahman Saad al-Ahmary, was found guilty of 
shooting and killing a person, according to the interior ministry note.

The 2 verdicts were issued by the general court and later confirmed by the 
appeal court and the supreme court of Saudi Arabia, and the execution order was 
ratified by royal decree, according to the procedure in these cases.

Most of the executions in Saudi Arabia are carried out by beheading, using a 
strict interpretation of Islamic law or "sharia," which punishes those guilty 
of murder, drug trafficking, witchcraft and other crimes with the death 
penalty.

Human rights organizations have denounced that since the arrival of the monarch 
Salman bin Abdelaziz to the Saudi throne in January 2015, executions have 
soared, from 88 in 2014 to 158 in 2015 and 153 in 2016.

(source: Latin America Herald Tribune)






IRAN----executions

5 Prisoners Executed


4 prisoners were reportedly hanged at Isfahan Central Prison, and a prisoner 
was reportedly hanged at Chabahar Prison.

According to close sources, on the morning of Monday July 17, 4 prisoners were 
hanged at Isfahan Central Prison. Iran Human Rights has obtained the identities 
of 2 of the prisoners: Saeed Diyagar, charged with 800 grams of heroin, and 
Morteza Barghi, charged with 2.5 kilograms of heroin. The other 2 prisoners 
were reportedly hanged on Moharebeh (enmity against God) through armed robbery 
charges. Iran Human Rights has not been able to confirm the identities of these 
2 prisoners. One of these prisoners reportedly stabbed himself with a knife in 
order to delay his execution. The prisoner was reportedly given stitches then 
transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for his execution.

'Morteza Barghi was earning money from beading work in the prison in order to 
support his wife and child," an informed source told Iran Human Rights.

The Baluch Activists Campaign has reported on the execution of 1 prisoner on 
the morning of Sunday July 16 at Chabahar Prison (Sistan & Baluchestan 
province, southern Iran). The prisoner has been identified as Akhardad Hamli. 
The prisoner was reportedly arrested eight years ago on drug related charges.

Executions for drug related charges are still being carried out in Iran, even 
though the general outline of a bill to reform the death penalty for drug 
charges was approved by the Iranian Parliament. If the final bill is approved, 
the death sentences for many prisoners with drug charges will be commuted to a 
prison sentence.

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

(source: Iran Human Rights)






PHILIPPINES:

EU lawmakers ask Pimentel about death penalty bill


A delegation from the European Parliament (EP) inquired on tuesday about the 
death penalty bill passed by the House of Representatives and the human rights 
situation in the country during a courtesy call on Senate President Aquilino 
"Koko" Pimentel III.

Soraya Post, chair of the EP delegation of the subcommittee on human rights, 
said the group's visit to the Philippines was not a fact-finding mission but 
rather a "fact-sharing mission."

"As we are friends, we are very interested in the development of the situation 
of human rights in the Philippines. So we would like to have a meeting with 
different stakeholders in [the country]," Post said in an interview with 
reporters.

The EP observed a lot of killings in the administration's war on illegal drugs 
and was concerned with a legislative move to lower the age of criminal 
responsibility from 15 to 9 years old, Post said.

But she said that violation of human rights was not a problem exclusive to the 
Philippines.

"We can see a clear decrease on respect for human rights. It's not only about 
the Philippines, it is across the world," Post said.

She also confirmed reports that the delegation would visit Sen. Leila de Lima 
on Wednesday in her detention quarters in Camp Crame to look into her 
condition.

De Lima, a critic of the Duterte administration's war on drugs, had been linked 
to the drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntuinlupa City when she was 
the justice secretary, an accusation she had denied.

The delegation also made a courtesy call on Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday.

Pimentel said the delegation was indirectly appealing for the Senate not to 
pass the death penalty bill.

(source: globalnation.inquirer.net)






INDIA:

No Mercy: Pranab Mukherjee rejected 30 mercy petitions as President----As 
president, Pranab Mukherjee rejected 30 mercy petitions, a number greater than 
the combined total of mercy petitions rejected by his 4 immediate predecessors.


Next Tuesday, when Pranab Mukherjee demits the office of the President of 
India, he will leave behind an in-tray empty of any mercy petitions requesting 
him to commute a death sentence to life. Over the 5 years of his presidency, 
Mukherjee has disposed of 34 mercy pleas (35, if you consider the case of 1993 
Mumbai serial blasts financier Yakub Memon who, unsuccessfully, appealed for 
the presidential pardon twice).

Mukherjee has rejected 30 mercy petitions (31, again, if you include Memon's 
follow-up plea), and has given fresh leases on lives in 4 cases. His record of 
rejecting mercy petitions is unparalleled among his immediate predecessors and, 
in the history of the Indian republic, is 2nd only to President R Venkatraman, 
who rejected 45 mercy pleas.*

When Mukherjee's successor, who trends suggest will likely be Dalit leader and 
Bharatiya Janata Party member Ram Nath Kovind, takes office, they will have no 
pending mercy pleas to act upon, an event that hasn't happened in three 
presidencies.

When Pranab Mukherjee became president on July 25, 2012, he inherited at least 
10 pending pleas for mercy, including 1 from President Kocheril Raman 
Narayanan's term (1997-2002).

In fact, President KR Narayanan and his successor President Abdul Kalam 
(2002-2007) hold the distinction of sitting on mercy petitions, or what the Law 
Commission said in a 2015 report, putting the "brakes on the disposal of mercy 
petitions."

President Narayanan did not act upon a single mercy petition sent to him, while 
President Kalam disposed of a grand total of 2 pleas - commuting 1, rejecting 
the other.

The 10 years of indecision under Narayanan and Kalam were in stark contrast to 
the term of Pratibha Patil (2007-2012), India's 1st female president who 
quickly became known for being one of India's most lenient head of state.

Patil's term saw 34 commutations and 5 rejections. Only India's first 2 
presidents (Rajendra Prasad with 180 commutations and Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan 
with 57) accepted more mercy petitions than she did.

RUBBER STAMP?

Under the Indian constitution, the president acts on the advice of the 
executive, i.e. the prime minister and his cabinet. And so, the argument has 
often been made that a president's decision - on mercy petitions or otherwise - 
should be seen in context of the political dispensation in power.

However, the 20 years of presidents Mukherjee, Patil, Kalam and Narayanan have 
been divided almost equally between governments led by the Congress (2004-2014) 
and the BJP (1998-2004; 2014-now).

Furthermore, the constitution does not set a time frame in which the president 
must act upon a mercy plea, though the Supreme Court has indirectly set some 
restrictions by ruling that an inordinate delay in settling a mercy petition 
could be grounds for commuting a death sentence altogether.

This allows presidents to express dissent by refusing to act on a mercy 
petition, a trend seen during the Narayanan and Kalam years.

There have also been precedents, though rare, of presidents going against 
government advice - just this year, President Mukherjee commuted to life the 
death sentences of 4 men, going against the Centre's recommendation.

An analysis of denials (or commutations) of mercy pleas suggests that that the 
person occupying the president's chair does matter, even though the Rashtrapati 
Bhavan has sought to argue otherwise in the past, for example, in 2012, when it 
released a statement on behalf of Pratibha Patil to convey essentially that the 
president acts on behalf of the government and not out of her own will.

The Law Commission in its 2015 report too noted the influence a president has 
on deciding mercy petitions, saying, "A perusal of the chart of mercy petitions 
disposed by Presidents suggests that a death-row convict's fate in matters of 
life and death may not only depend on the ideology and views of the government 
of the day but also on the personal views and belief systems of the President."

HOW PRESIDENTS HAVE ACTED ON MERCY PLEAS

Based on data collated by the Law Commission, here's how India's presidents 
have dealt with mercy petitions:

Rajendra Prasad accepted 180 mercy pleas and rejected just 1.

Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan allowed 57 mercy petitions while rejecting none.

Zakir Hussain did not send a single man to the gallow, accepting 22 mercy 
pleas.

VV Giri too did not reject a mercy petition, and accepted 3 pleas.

Fakrudhin Ali Ahmed and N Sanjeeva Reddy did not deal with any mercy petitions 
in their tenures.

Zail Singh rejected 30 mercy petitions, allowing just 2.

R Venkatraman holds the record of rejecting the highest number of mercy pleas - 
45. He allowed 5 petitions.

SD Sharma did not hand out a single commutation, rejecting 18 pleas for mercy.

KR Narayanan kept all mercy petitions pending.

APJ Kalam ruled on just 2 pleas, rejecting 1 and accepting the other.

Pratibha Patil commuted 34 mercy petitions and rejected 5.

Pranab Mukherjee rejected 30 mercy petitions and allowed 4.

HOW MERCY PETITIONS ARE DECIDED

Once the Supreme Court gives in its final ruling in a death penalty case, a 
convict on the death row can approach the president directly, via prison 
officials, via the Union Home Ministry or via the governor of the state where 
he/she is incarcerated.

The president then seeks the opinion of the Union cabinet, which is provided by 
the Ministry of Home Affairs. The president might, in some cases, send the 
MHA's recommendation back for further clarifications. The Home Ministry may 
also recall its recommendation in order to provide a fresh opinion.

Once the MHA submits a recommendation, the President will then accordingly 
decide upon a mercy petition. However, there is no set time frame within which 
a President must act.

* The numbers in this article are based on data collated by the Law Commission 
in its 2015 report. However, in a hallmark of Indian bureaucratic record 
keeping, exact figures on the mercy petitions rejected or allowed by India's 
first few presidents aren't easily available. Even the Law Commission in its 
report noted that the figures it was able to collate were based on empirical 
verification from the archives which may not be complete.

(source: indiatoday.in)






NORTH KOREA:

North Korea conducts public executions for theft, watching South Korea media: 
report


North Korea carries out public executions on river banks and at school grounds 
and marketplaces for charges such as stealing copper from factory machines, 
distributing media from South Korea and prostitution, a report issued on 
Wednesday said.

The report, by a Seoul-based non-government group, said the often 
extra-judicial decisions for public executions are frequently influenced by 
"bad" family background or a government campaign to discourage certain 
behavior.

The Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) said its report was based on 
interviews with 375 North Korean defectors from the isolated state over a 
period of 2 years.

The TJWG report aims to document the locations of public killings and mass 
burials, which it says had not been done previously, to support an 
international push to hold to account those who commit what it describes as 
crimes against humanity.

"The maps and the accompanying testimonies create a picture of the scale of the 
abuses that have taken place over decades," the group said.

North Korea rejects charges of human rights abuses, saying its citizens enjoy 
protection under the constitution and accuses the United States of being the 
world's worst rights violator.

(source: Reuters)

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

Mapping the Brutality of North Korea, and Where the Bodies Are Buried


For 2 years, from a cramped office in central Seoul, activists and volunteers 
from 5 different countries have been doing something never tried before: 
creating interactive maps of places where North Korea is thought to have 
executed and buried prisoners.

Over the years, defectors from the isolated country have testified to 
widespread human rights violations there, including what United Nations 
investigators have determined were extrajudicial executions of political 
prisoners and others. But there has never been a coordinated attempt to locate 
where those killings actually took place because the country remains off limits 
to outside rights investigators.

On Wednesday, activists affiliated with the Transitional Justice Working Group, 
a human rights group based in Seoul, announced their initial findings, 
identifying more than 300 sites where executions are thought to have occurred 
and 47 sites believed to have hosted cremations and burials, places where as 
many as 15 people may have been executed and their bodies dumped together or 
left "like trash."

"It is not unreasonable to assume that mass grave sites in existence today will 
still be there years from now," said Sarah A. Son, the group's research 
director. "As we have seen in many other post-conflict settings around the 
world, people will want to know what happened to family members, and an 
accurate historical record will need to be created as part of the process of 
recovery, particularly on a scale such as that in North Korea."

Armed with Google Earth satellite imagery, the group has interviewed 375 North 
Korean defectors, asking them to help locate sites so that international rights 
officials can one day visit them to investigate, exhume bodies, secure forensic 
evidence and possibly bring charges against perpetrators. With the maps, the 
group said it aimed to provide "a sense of the scale of the human rights 
violations, their locations, and their victims and their approximate numbers."

"We don't know when there will be a trial or other steps to hold perpetrators 
of the human rights abuses accountable, but that time will come, and we want to 
be as ready as possible," said Dan Bielefeld, a web developer and human rights 
activist from Milwaukee. "Our location-based map of suspected sites is a start 
down that road."

The activists said they were inspired by the United Nations' commission of 
inquiry, which in 2014 reported prison camps, systematic torture, summary 
executions and other widespread rights violations in North Korea.

The report led United Nations member states to adopt a resolution asking the 
Security Council to refer the North Korean leadership to the International 
Criminal Court in The Hague, for prosecution of possible crimes against 
humanity.

The North vehemently denied the findings, and its allies China and Russia have 
stalled any attempt to bring the North before the tribunal.

The activists' group, whose mapping project was financed by the National 
Endowment for Democracy, based in Washington, did not include the interactive 
maps in its report for fear North Korea would tamper with the sites. But it 
allowed a reporter to examine them on the condition that the locations of the 
sites would not be revealed.

More than 200 locations where killings are suspected, marked with blue squares, 
were clustered in Hamgyongbukdo, a northeastern province of North Korea. Most 
of the defectors interviewed hailed from that province. (A vast majority of 
30,000 North Korean defectors living in South Korea come from the provinces 
bordering China.)

When Mr. Bielefeld zoomed in on one town, 53 blue squares appeared within 2.5 
miles of a hillside site where burials are suspected. When he clicked on a 
square, a brief summary popped up: a public execution by firing squad on 
charges the victim stole parts of mining equipment. The victim was shot by 3 
officers from the Ministry of People's Security.

Each square was linked to digital testimonials, including audio files, from 
defectors. Some testimonials gave detailed firsthand accounts with the name and 
profession of the victim, while others relied on secondhand information.

In 1 testimonial, a defector cited a neighbor who saw security officers hacking 
a victim to death in a garage. The neighbor later confirmed from a relative 
working as a security officer that such extrajudicial killings were common in 
the garage. Mr. Bielefeld put a blue square on the building on his program 
based on the open-source OpenStreetMap.

The group said North Koreans were executed for such crimes as smuggling 
mushrooms to China, stealing copper from factories, distributing South Korean 
dramas, human trafficking and "a slip of the tongue," usually a reference to 
criticism of the regime.

Public executions took place most often between 1994 and 2000, during which 
North Korea struggled to control its people suffering in a nationwide famine, 
it said.

"They hanged people in crowded places like markets and left the bodies there 
for hours to instill fear among the people," said Oh Se-hyek, a North Korean 
defector who conducted the interviews for the mapping project.

Mr. Oh said the biggest challenge for him was to persuade other defectors to 
testify for the mapping project, even when he promised not to reveal their 
personal information. Even after resettling in South Korea, defectors feared 
that the North Korean authorities would trace their whereabouts and retaliate 
against their relatives back in the North.

Some of the executions on the digital maps dated from the 1960s, but some were 
as recent as 2015. As many as 15 people were executed at the same time, usually 
by firing squad.

Lee Young-hwan, executive director of the Transitional Justice Working Group, 
recalled the shock he felt when he was a college student doing volunteer work 
with North Korean defectors in 1999. During a painting class, a 7-year-old boy 
from the North depicted a scene he saw in his old homeland: uniformed North 
Korean soldiers executing people by shooting.

Encouraged by the 2014 United Nations report, Mr. Lee began putting together 
the international team to use satellite imagery and open-source mapping 
technology to record North Korean human rights violations, just as security 
analysts use such technology to monitor the North???s military and nuclear 
sites.

"As we interview more defectors down the road, we expect to locate more killing 
and burial sites across the North," Mr. Lee said. "Our work is still at an 
early stage. This is a collaborative work, and we expect more technical and 
other volunteers to join us."

(source: New York Times)






THAILAND:

Suspects In Krabi Massacre Will Be Executed Police Chief Says----Police 
question Surifat about the Krabi massacre.


Police said Sunday they arrested a man who engineered a home invasion which 
left a local official along with 7 family members dead in Krabi province.

Surifat Bannobwongsakul, 41, was detained without a court warrant on Saturday 
evening and accused of killing village administrator Worayuth Sanlang and his 
relatives, including his 2 young daughters, at their residence. The June 10 
incident has drawn widespread attention due to the savage nature of the crimes.

Police commissioner Chakthip Chaijinda said he even wished Surifat would have 
put up a fight during the arrest so that security officers could have gunned 
him down.

"In fact, I didn't even want him captured alive," Gen. Chakthip said at a 
Sunday news conference about the investigation. "I prayed he would fight, but 
he didn't."

7 men identified as Surifat???s accomplices were also arrested, the police 
chief said. All of them are being held at an army base in Krabi under a special 
junta order that allows soldiers to detain individuals without charges for up 
to a week. Legal counseling is typically not provided during the detention.

Chakthip said police will apply for a formal arrest warrant for Surifat and his 
alleged accomplices after they are released from questioning, but insisted 
investigators have enough evidence to implicate them.

"In the end, all of them will be executed anyway," Chakthip said.

All of the suspects are civilians, he added.

The police commissioner said Surifat confessed to plotting vengeance on 
Worayuth because the official was suing him over a land dispute. Worayuth also 
owed a large sum of money to Surifat, he said.

"The deceased and the perpetrator had many heated arguments, especially about 
land deeds," Chakthip said. "There was a lawsuit. They took it to the court. 
The lands were worth millions."

The shootings took place at the Sanlang family residence. Of the 11 people 
present at the home at the time, only 3 survived the killings. The rest were 
either killed on the spot or died later at the hospital, from gunshot wounds to 
the head.

The dead include Worayuth, his wife and his daughters, age 13 and 11. Another 6 
year old girl was among those killed.

In Sunday's news conference Chakthip gave chilling details of how Worayuth and 
his family were murdered.

According to the police commissioner, Surifat and 7 men donned army uniforms 
and entered the residence on the pretense that they were searching for 
narcotics. Since the May 2014, it's become common for soldiers to raid 
properties without warrants.

The assailants then reportedly held the family members hostage as they waited 
for Worayuth to come home. When he did, he was detained alongside his family.

Although the survivors described the intruders as being armed with assault 
rifles, Chakthip said those were in fact BB guns. He said Surifat acquired the 
murder weapon from Worayuth; as the village chief reportedly owned several 
handguns and shotguns at his home.

Surifat, the police chief said, then shot Worayuth and his family 1 by 1 in 
cold blood.

"He was the one who shot them all," Gen. Chakthip said. "I think he planned it 
all along. He's a cruel man."

This was a truly horrific crime, it is unimaginable what those poor people went 
through. There are many valid arguments against the death penalty but in this 
case it's hard to put them forward.

(source: Buriram Times)






PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

Govt to pay K400 million for 'killing machine'


It will cost the State about K400 million to set up a State-sanctioned killing 
machine to carry out the death penalty.

K400 million, is how much the new government will spend to build the 
infrastructure for the death penalty.

But Constitutional Law Reform Commission secretary, Dr Eric Kwa has a better 
alternative to save this money also avoid international condemnation by 
anti-death penalty advocates - repeal the death penalty.

Dr Kwa said the commission was preparing a report for the new government.

He said the challenge for the new government is to repeal the death penalty if 
it could not implement it, as the previous government had failed to implement 
in the past 5 years.

Dr Kwa said the Constitutional Law Reform Commission report was based on a 
recent public forum which drew participants including churches who were also 
divided over the application of death penalty in PNG.

Dr Kwa added that the government could repeal the law if it could not implement 
it.

"The death penalty law was amended to include more offences and passed by 
Parliament in 2013," Dr Kwa said.

He said the method of execution had not been implemented on the 12 people who 
were still waiting on death row - 1 recently died in jail.

"The government has approved the method of killing, it's all set, it's the 
implementation the government has withdrawn a bit."

Dr Kwa said the delay was caused by public and international pressure.

He was tight-lipped on the approved method of execution, saying it was 
confidential.

Following the amendment, a team including Dr Kwa had visited places on a fact 
finding mission where the death penalty was practised. They visited Texas in 
the US, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand and returned with 
recommendations for the government.

"We looked at execution by hanging, electrocution, firing squad, lethal 
injection with depravation of oxygen, lethal injection with overdose. We 
recommended 1 out of the list," he said.

He added that it would cost K400 million to step up the system to execute the 
12 on death row.

Under the amended law, the offences that attracted death penalty included 
"willful murder, aggravated piracy, aggravated robbery, sorcery-related 
killing, rape and killing of a girl under the age of 10."

(source: Post-Courier)






KENYA:

Matatu driver, tout to hang for stripping woman


Three men accused of stripping and robbing a female passenger in a 
Githurai-bound bus in December 2014 have been sentenced to death.

Bus driver Nicholas Mwangi, conductor Meshack Mwangi and petrol station 
attendant Edward Ndung'u were found guilty of robbery with violence and assault 
by Nairobi Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi.

The magistrate handed them another sentence of 25 years in jail for stripping 
and sexually assaulting the woman. But the jail term was suspended as the trio 
had already been handed the death penalty.

SENSELESS

In the judgement, the magistrate ruled that the accused took part in a 
"senseless and uncouth act that they seemed to enjoy because they were cheering 
as they stripped the woman."

The victim had told the court that there were about 7 men in the bus and they 
wanted to rape her but she lied that she is HIV-positive.

She said the video recording was only 59 seconds long but the incident lasted 
longer.

VIDEO

The 3 had been charged with robbery with violence and assault.

The charges against them state that on the night of September 19 and 20 at 
Millenium petrol station in Githurai 44, jointly with others, they robbed a 
woman identified as H E W (to protect her identity) of Sh10,200, a Samsung 
Galaxy mobile phone worth Sh27,000, one bottle of perfume, a clutch bag and a 
make-up kit all amounting to Sh41,700.

They further faced a charge of sexually assaulting the victim in the incident 
that caused an uproar after a video clip of the act was circulated on social 
media.

(source: nation.co.ke)






ZIMBABWE:

Mphoko wants death penalty for graft


Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko has called for sweeping law reforms which 
impose stiffer penalties such as cutting hands and shooting people tried and 
found guilty of corruption.

Mphoko's calls are at odds with his colleague - Vice President Emmerson 
Mnangagwa who has publicly said he is against death penalty - a position which 
stems from his personal experience during the war which saw him avoiding the 
noose due to young age.

Zimbabwean laws currently impose capital punishment on people who would have 
been found of guilty of committing aggravated murder.

Mphoko told State media last weekend that Zimbabwe must wage war on deep-seated 
corruption by introducing stiffer penalties and methods such as those used by 
the Chinese and Muslims.

"I wish we were like the Chinese or the Muslims who say if you steal, they will 
cut your hand off; the Chinese would take you to the firing squad straight 
away.

"But here, people have no feelings for other people. The solution we keep on 
talking and have stiff penalties,'' said Mphoko.

"But stiff penalties also are questionable because if you are taken to prison, 
especially when there is politics of poverty, everybody is accessible to be 
bought.

"Stiff penalty? You take a man to prison and in the prison, he lives like a 
king because he has money," he added.

Since assuming office 4 years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged war 
on corruption, with dozens of senior people jailed, including Zhou Yongkang, 
who was once China's powerful domestic security chief, given a life sentence 
for corruption last year.

Human rights law expert Dzimbabwe Chimbga said that under current Zimbabwean 
laws, it was not possible to impose capital punishment for corruption.

"Legally, it is not possible to impose capital punishment, which is the death 
penalty, because Section 48 of the Constitution now limits imposition of the 
capital punishment to only persons who have committed murder under aggravated 
circumstances.

"And even then, the capital punishment may not be imposed on a woman or anyone 
below the age of 21 or above the age of 70 at the time the offence was 
committed," Chimbga said.

For bribery, one may be convicted for a period of up to 20 years and for 
criminal abuse of office, for a period of up to 15 years, in terms of the 
Criminal Code. Critics and the opposition accuse President Robert Mugabe of 
failing to tackle high-level graft and say endemic corruption is one reason 
foreign companies are hesitant to invest in the country.

Mugabe has at times admitted to corruption among his Cabinet ministers but says 
police lack the evidence to prosecute.

Harare lawyer Obert Gutu said that the maximum sentence for corruption is not 
well defined in the country's statutes, but agreed with Mphoko that the law was 
too lenient in punishing offenders.

"In fact, there are yawning gaps in as far as what level of sentence, exactly, 
should be imposed on corruption offenders. I definitely agree with . . . Mphoko 
that we are too lenient when it comes to sentencing corruption offenders and 
consequently, there is not enough incentive for Zimbabweans not to indulge in 
acts deemed as corruption.

"In the same breath, I am unable to agree that we should impose the capital 
sentence on corruption offenders as is the case in countries such as China.

"At any rate, the Constitution of Zimbabwe outlaws the imposition of the death 
sentence on corruption offenders. My take is that our courts should be ruthless 
when they sentence corruption offenders. It might sound draconian but I humbly 
submit that high-level corruption offenders should be sentenced to life 
imprisonment with hard labour," Gutu told the Daily News.

A Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) revenue performance report for the 1st 
half of 2017 released last week by chairperson Willia Bonyongwe bemoaned 
runaway corruption in the country.

(source: bulawayo24.com)






BARBADOS:

Death penalty discussion necessary


The loss of a loved one as a result of an accident or a medical condition is 
heart-rending to say the least. But the anguish that accompanies the murder of 
a relative, I cannot begin to imagine what that would feel like.

With a heavy heart I wish to express condolences to the families of those whose 
lives have been taken by individuals who can best be described as soulless 
monsters.

I never thought the day would come when Barbadians would be advised to exercise 
caution when going about our normal day to day activity. When are we going to 
take these killings seriously as a nation? Will it take divine intervention?

I continue to hold the view that if a person wilfully, maliciously and 
callously takes the life of another, they have lost their right to live. I can 
appreciate the many variables and motives that must be considered when dealing 
with those accused of murder.

Once the evidence (DNA) and otherwise proves that the accused has committed a 
murder so heinous, so unnecessary, that it sent a very cold chill down the 
backbone of our psyche, a murder so brutal that Barbadians are compelled to 
live in fear, in my opinion that individual should no longer benefit from, or 
be rehabilitated at, tax payers' expense.

We can ill afford the spin-offs of inaction as we have seen the repercussions 
in other places when serious issues like murder are allowed to fester. My 
fellow Barbadians, we must never cower in our agitation for a safe society and 
we must never allow ourselves to be scared into inaction. Again I make an 
urgent appeal for national dialogue on the topic of capital punishment. I look 
forward to having conversations with anyone who wishes to do so; feel free to 
email me at ensforasafebarbados at gmail.com. Let us come together Barbados and 
ventilate our respective positions and viewpoints. Let us weigh the pros and 
the cons. Let us decide as a nation what our best interest is and let us return 
our country to the status it once held.

(source: Letter to the Editor, Sean St Clair Fields; Barbados News)