[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 28




PAKISTAN:

Pakistan Abducts Own Citizens, Muzzles Rights Watchdog - U.N.



Pakistan must address a catalog of human rights failings including 
state-sponsored abductions and a death penalty that amounts to torture, but its 
national watchdog is muzzled, the U.N. Human Rights Committee said on Thursday.

Human Rights Minister Kamran Michael defended Pakistan's record before the 
committee earlier this month, but members of the committee said his delegation 
had given few responses to their questions and very general answers.

They were also concerned at a no-show by the chairman of Pakistan's National 
Commission for Human Rights, who was allegedly barred from traveling to Geneva 
to meet them and was not able to probe wrongdoing, they said.

"The Commission is prevented from fully cooperating with United Nations human 
rights mechanisms, cannot inquire into the practices of the intelligence 
agencies, and is not authorized to undertake full inquiries into reports of 
human rights violations by members of the armed forces," the U.N. committee 
report said.

Pakistani officials in Islamabad could not immediately be reached for comment 
on the committee's findings.

At the top of a long list of human rights concerns were Pakistan's renewed use 
of the death penalty, its blasphemy laws, and "enforced disappearances" and 
extrajudicial killings.

Enforced disappearances, seen in tribal areas and Baluchistan for the past 15 
years, have become widespread across Pakistan, committee member Olivier de 
Frouville told reporters.

"This is an admitted fact even within the country that this is carried out by 
agents of the state," he said, adding that the government's own investigations 
were insufficient.

A high number of people were allegedly in secret detention in military 
internment centers, the committee's report said. Killings were allegedly 
perpetrated by the police, military and security forces but there was no law 
explicitly against such practices.

The committee also lambasted Pakistan's widespread use of hanging since it 
lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in 2014, following an attack on a 
school in which more than 150 people, mainly children, were killed.

Death sentences were passed on mentally disabled people and suspects who were 
minors at the time of the crime, and the method of execution amounted to 
torture.

"There have been reports of botched executions, failed executions, with grave 
consequences on physical integrity," de Frouville said.

Pakistan has executed 468 prisoners since 2014 and has 1,500 people on death 
row, the report said.

Capital punishment was mandatory under blasphemy laws, which often led to false 
accusations and "mob vengeance", the committee said, calling for those laws to 
be repealed.

(source: Reuters)








CHINA:

Man gets death penalty for killing 19, including own parents, in pickaxe 
massacre



A man was sentenced to death Friday for murdering 19 people, including 3 
children and his own parents, according to a local court in southwest China's 
Yunnan Province.

The people's court of Huize county found Yang Qingpei guilty of murdering his 
parents in their home in Yema village on Sept. 28 last year after they refused 
to give him money.

Fearing he would be discovered, Yang killed 17 villagers with a pickaxe and 
fled to Yunnan's provincial capital Kunming.

Police arrested Yang the following day.

Yang, who was born in 1989, pleaded guilty to all charges and apologized to the 
relatives of the dead when he went on trial on July 19.

He accepted the sentence and said he will not appeal.

(source: Xinhua)








IRAN:

Iran must not squander opportunity to end executions for drug-related offences



Iranian lawmakers must not miss a historic opportunity to reject the use of the 
death penalty for drug-related offences and save the lives of thousands of 
people across the country, said Amnesty International and Abdorrahman Boroumand 
Foundation today.

In the coming weeks, Iran's parliament is expected to vote on a bill that 
amends Iran's anti-narcotics law, but fails to abolish the death penalty for 
non-lethal drug-related offences as is required by international law.

"Instead of abolishing the death penalty for drug-related offences, the Iranian 
authorities are preparing to adopt a deeply disappointing piece of legislation, 
which will continue to fuel Iran's execution machine and help maintain its 
position as one of the world's top executioners," said Magdalena Mughrabi, 
Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

The 2 organizations are calling on Iran's parliament to urgently amend the 
proposed legislation to bring it into line with Iran's obligations under 
international human rights law, which absolutely prohibits use of the death 
penalty for non-lethal crimes.

Over the past 2 years, while this legislation was under discussion, numerous 
senior Iranian officials publicly conceded that decades of punitive drug 
policies and rampant use of the death penalty have failed to address the 
country's drug addiction and trafficking problems. They have also admitted that 
drug-related offences are often linked to other social problems such as 
poverty, drug abuse and unemployment, none of which are solved by executions.

"There's still time to amend the bill. Iranian lawmakers must listen to the 
voices of reason and abolish the use of the death penalty for drug-related 
offences once and for all. A failure to do so would not only run counter to 
Iran's stated plans to change course, but would also be a huge missed 
opportunity to save lives and improve the country's human rights record," said 
Roya Boroumand, Executive Director of Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation.

The human toll of Iran's heavy-handed approach to drug control has been 
devastating. The vast majority of the hundreds of executions carried out in 
Iran each year are for drug-related convictions. Most of those executed come 
from the poorest and most vulnerable members of society including Afghans and 
ethnic and religious minorities. A high-ranking official recently stated that 
since 1988 Iran has put to death a staggering 10,000 people for drug-related 
offences.

According to parliamentarians, there are currently an estimated 5,000 people on 
death row for such offences across the country. About 90% of them are 1st-time 
offenders aged between 20 and 30 years old.

An earlier version of the bill, approved by the Judicial and Legal 
Parliamentary Commission on 23 April 2017, had vastly reduced the scope of the 
death penalty for drug-related offences. Between April and June, members of the 
commission tried to repeatedly schedule the bill for a vote but said they 
failed to do so due to opposition from security bodies overseeing Iran's 
anti-narcotics programmes.

Eventually, in July, they introduced multiple regressive amendments to the 
bill. Some members of parliament said in media interviews that they made these 
amendments after immense pressure from Iran's judicial and law enforcement 
officials as well as the country's Drug Control Headquarters.

The latest version of the bill, like Iran???s current anti-narcotics law, 
maintains the death penalty for a wide range of drug trafficking offences based 
on the quantity and type of drugs seized. However, it proposes to increase the 
quantities of drugs required for imposing the death penalty.

Under Iran's current laws, the death penalty is imposed for trafficking more 
than 30g of heroin, morphine, cocaine or their chemical derivatives or more 
than 5kg of bhang, cannabis or opium. The proposed law increases this quantity 
to 2kg for heroin, morphine, cocaine or their chemical derivatives and more 
than 50 kg for bhang, cannabis or opium.

"Though this law, if implemented properly, may contribute to a drop in the 
number of executions, it will still condemn scores of people every year to the 
gallows for offences that must never attract the death penalty under 
international law," said Magdalena Mughrabi.

"The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and its use is 
abhorrent in any situation. The choice between life or death should not come 
down to a crude mathematical calculation based on a quantity of drugs seized 
from an individual," said Roya Boroumand.

Amnesty International and Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation call on the 
international community, particularly the EU, to urge Iran to amend the bill to 
abolish the death penalty for all drug-related offences. The Iranian 
authorities must move towards a criminal justice system that is focused on 
rehabilitation and treats prisoners humanely.

Background:

Amnesty International has collaborated with Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation to 
record Iran's execution figures. As of 26 July 2017, Amnesty International and 
Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation have recorded 319 executions, including 183 
for drug-relatedoffences. In 2016, at least 567 people were executed, of which 
328 were for drug-related offences.

Efforts to amend Iran's anti-Narcotics law first began in 2015, when 70 members 
of parliament proposed a bill to abolish the death penalty for all drug-related 
offences except those involving armed trafficking. This bill was halted after 
it was deemed unconstitutional. In 2016, efforts to amend the legislation were 
renewed. These culminated in a draft bill finalized in April 2017, which 
proposed replacing the death penalty with up to 30 years' imprisonment for all 
drug-related offences, except those that: involved the use of arms; involved 
the recruitment of under 18-year-olds; or were committed by the leader of an 
organized criminal network or an individual who had been previously sentenced 
to death, or more than 15 years in prison.

Although this version of the bill still fell short of Iran's international 
human rights obligations, it raised great hopes that the number of people 
sentenced to death and executed every year for drug-related offences would be 
significantly reduced.

(source: Amnesty International)








INDONESIA:

Indonesia ombudsman finds rights violations in execution of Nigerian



The office of Indonesia's ombudsman has unearthed evidence of rights violations 
in the execution of a Nigerian drug convict in 2016, an official said on 
Friday.

Humphrey Jefferson was still seeking clemency from President Joko Widodo at the 
time of his execution, which meant he still had a chance of being pardoned, 
said Ninik Rahayu, an official of the ombudsman's office who is overseeing the 
case.

Mr. Jefferson, sentenced to death in 2004, had also sought a second judicial 
review of his case by the Supreme Court, but his request was denied by the 
Central Jakarta court without proper explanation, Rahayu said, in what she 
called maladministration.

If the court had taken on Mr. Jefferson's case, his execution would have had to 
be delayed until its final verdict.

"When one is given the death penalty, all of the procedures must be done 
according to the laws," Rahayu told reporters at her office.

"The rights of the person must be fully met before his sentence is carried out. 
You can't bring back the dead to life."

Rahayu also said the Attorney General's office, responsible for conducting the 
execution, had not followed rules requiring it to give Mr. Jefferson and his 
family 72 hours' notice of the event.

The execution was done according to law, said Muhammad Rum, a spokesman for the 
Attorney General's office.

Telephone calls to the Central Jakarta court to seek comment were not answered.

A Supreme Court spokesman, Judge Suhadi, who goes by one name like many 
Indonesians, did not comment on the specific case but said the court did not 
generally grant a 2nd review.

Mr. Jefferson, 2 other Nigerians and an Indonesian were the only prisoners to 
face the firing squad on July 29 last year, from a group of 14 picked 
initially.

The delay was due to a "comprehensive review", said Attorney General H. 
Muhammad Prasetyo.

The executions were the 2nd round under Widodo, whose predecessor, Susilo 
Bambang Yudhoyono, imposed a moratorium on the death penalty.

Many international bodies and foreign governments have urged Indonesia to 
pardon those on death row. They have also called on Indonesia to abolish 
capital punishment, but the calls have gone unheeded.

Widodo has told law enforcement officers not to hesitate in shooting drug 
traffickers who resist arrest in the war on drugs.

The ombudsman's office has given government bodies 60 days to respond to its 
findings. But its limited powers mean it can only take its recommendations to 
Widodo in cases of failure to respond.

Mr. Jefferson's lawyer, Ricky Gunawan, said he planned to use the ombudsman's 
findings to file a civil lawsuit against the office of the attorney-general, 
seeking compensation for his client.

"We call on the Attorney General's office to stop the preparation of any future 
death execution ... and treat the convicts with respect and have their rights 
fulfilled," Gunawan said.

(sources: Reuters/NAN)




JAPAN:

Death penalty to stand for woman convicted of murdering 2 men



The death sentence given to a woman convicted of murdering 2 men in the western 
Japan prefecture of Tottori in 2009 is set to be finalized after the Supreme 
Court upheld lower court rulings Thursday.

The top court said in its ruling that the defendant carried out the 
premeditated and "cruel crimes based on firm intentions to kill" and she bears 
"grave criminal responsibility."

According to the lower court rulings, Miyuki Ueta, a 43-year-old former bar 
worker, drugged truck driver Kazumi Yabe, 47, and drowned him in the sea in 
April 2009 and she drugged and drowned in a river electronics store owner 
Hideki Maruyama, 57, in October of the same year.

Ueta, who owed money to both victims, maintained her innocence and the verdicts 
were based mainly on circumstantial evidence, including that Ueta was the last 
person to meet with the men before they went missing and she obtained sleeping 
pills beforehand.

(source: Japan Today)








SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi Arabia's top court upholds 14 Shias' death penalty



Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences handed down to 14 
Shia nationals amid the Riyadh regime's heavy-handed crackdown on pro-democracy 
activists from the minority population, a report says.

The Saudi Okaz newspaper reported on Thursday that the 14 men were among 24 
people convicted last year of carrying out attacks on police stations in the 
town of Awamiyah and the city of Seihat, both situated in the Qatif region of 
the Shia-dominated Eastern Province.

9 other members of the so-called "Awamiyah Cell" were also sentenced to prison 
terms ranging from 3 to 15 years and 1 was cleared of the charges.

The ruling by the top court is final and will be carried out after it is 
approved by King Salman.

The Okaz newspaper also reported that the Specialist Penal Appeals Court had 
upheld the death sentences against 15 people convicted of allegedly spying for 
Iran.

The case would be referred to the Supreme Court for a last decision.

Saudi Justice Ministry and court officials have not commented on the rulings.

Earlier this week, rights activists and family members of the so-called 
"Awamiyah Cell" said the defendants had been transferred to the Saudi capital 
Riyadh, a sign that they would face imminent execution.

"The sentences were based on confessions that the accused had retracted in 
court, because they were taken by pressure and torture," a Saudi rights 
activist, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

On Monday, Amnesty International urged the Saudi king not to ratify the death 
sentences of the 14 Shia Muslims, saying, "King Salman's signature is now all 
that stands between them and their execution."

Amnesty's director of campaigns for the Middle-East, Samah Hadid, said the 
death penalties were the result of "sham court proceedings that brazenly flout 
international fair trial standards."

"By confirming these sentences Saudi Arabia's authorities have displayed their 
ruthless commitment to the use of the death penalty as a weapon to crush 
dissent and neutralize political opponents," she added.

At least 66 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of 
2017, including 26 in the past three weeks alone.

Since February 2011, Saudi Arabia has stepped up security measures in Eastern 
Province, which has been rocked by anti-regime demonstrations, with protesters 
demanding free speech, the release of political prisoners, and an end to 
economic and religious discrimination.

The government has suppressed pro-democracy movements, but they have 
intensified since January 2016 when Saudi Arabia executed respected Shia 
cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

(source: presstv.ir)








ISRAEL:

Netanyahu seeks death penalty for settler attack



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling for the death penalty for 
a Palestinian man who sneaked into a West Bank settlement home last week and 
killed 3 Israelis.

Netanyahu on Thursday visited the family of the 3 Israelis stabbed to death and 
said that "the time has come for the death penalty for terrorists in extreme 
cases."

Though Israeli law permits the death penalty, the Israeli government has only 
put one person to death: Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, in 1962.

Netanyahu says his position in the case of the 19-year-old Palestinian 
attacker, who was wounded by an off-duty soldier during Friday night's attack, 
"is that he needs to be put to death."

Several members of Netanyahu's cabinet issued similar calls in the week since 
the attack.

(source: Associated Press)