[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 31




MALAYSIA:

Property agent sent to the gallows for drug trafficking



A woman could not hold back her tears at the High Court here today when her son 
Hari Singh Kanda was sentenced to the gallows for trafficking 32.3 gramme of 
heroin and 18.1 gramme of monoacetylmorphine last year.

The mother, who sat at the court's public gallery was calm when Judicial 
Commissioner Datuk Mohamad Shariff Abu Samah read out his judgement after 
hearing submissions from both defendant and prosecution team today.

However, the woman in her 50s, burst into tear after Shariff meted out the 
sentence against the 25-year-old property agent after reading the 131-pages of 
judgement sheet.

Hari Singh, clad in a grey shirt, put up a calm demeanor and several people, 
believed to be his family members and friends, got up and hugged him after the 
proceeding.

He was charged under Section 39(B)(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which 
carries the death penalty upon conviction.

Shariff said the defendant had failed to raise reasonable doubt in the 
prosecution's case.

"I am satisfied that the testimonies from 10 prosecution's witnesses were true.

"I do not believe that the accused was a victim or that he was framed by the 
police," he said.

Shariff said the accused had indeed held a red plastic bag which contained the 
contraband item (drugs).

"The police seized the red plastic bag from his right hand," he added.

The accused represented by lawyers Datuk Geethan Ram Vincent and Datuk Rajpal 
Singh when pleaded for lenience sentence said it was the 1st offence committed 
by their client.

The court then allowed a stay of execution pending an appeal at the Court of 
Appeal.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ahmad Nazneen Zulkifli prosecuted.

(source: New Straits Times)








JAPAN:

Efforts continue to achieve hanged killer's final wish



Efforts to achieve the final wish of a serial killer continue even 20 years 
after his execution, with around 200 people gathering for a charity event on 
Saturday in Tokyo to raise money for underprivileged children.

The main speaker of the event commemorating Norio Nagayama, who was hanged on 
Aug. 1, 1997, for the murder of 4 people in 1968 at the age of 19, was 
Yoshihiro Ishikawa, a psychiatrist.

Based on his experience of performing mental evaluations on Nagayama, Ishikawa 
said, "He could not develop his personality in the face of multiple 
posttraumatic stress disorders."

Born into an extremely poor family, Nagayama was abandoned by his mother at age 
5, left in a bleak house in the middle of winter. He also had to overcome both 
an abusive brother and the death of his gambling-addict father whose life ended 
in destitution.

Despite a patchy school record, he completed his junior high school studies in 
a rural northeastern town and in 1965 moved to Tokyo at a time when Japan was 
experiencing an era of high economic growth.

"Nagayama worked hard to change from a miserable boy into someone else," 
Ishikawa said. "But he could not make friends and fell into loneliness, while 
his PTSD left him exhausted."

Following his arrest for the serial murders, Nagayama published several books, 
including a best-selling autobiography "Tears of Ignorance" and an 
award-winning novel.

He donated his book royalties to some of his victims' bereaved families, and he 
asked before his death that the royalties would also be used to support poor 
children around the world.

Responding to the request, his lawyers and volunteers established the Nagayama 
Children Fund to manage the money and organize a charity event every year 
around the anniversary of his execution to raise even more money. The first 
charity event was held in 2004.

Up to 2016, the group had collected more than 21 million yen and distributed it 
mainly to fund scholarships for children in Peru.

"Nagayama wanted to know why he had been driven to commit the crime through a 
psychiatric examination so similar crimes would not be repeated, and he was 
aware of the necessity of providing sufficient education to children," Ishikawa 
said at the 14th edition of the event. "His last words reflect this wish."

Nagayama was initially sentenced to death, but the Tokyo High Court commuted 
the ruling to a life sentence, arguing the government should also take some 
blame for its failure to rescue him from his desperate situation.

Kyoko Otani, his defense lawyer who heads the Nagayama Children Fund, told the 
event, "I think the high court decision depended on the findings of the 
psychiatric evaluation by Mr. Ishikawa."

The Supreme Court, however, ordered a retrial, which eventually led the high 
court to reverse the life imprisonment decision and reinstate the death 
sentence which was finalized in 1990.

The event was held at a time when debates over Japan's use of the death penalty 
has drawn public attention, with the hanging of two death-row inmates on July 
13 bringing further focus.

1 inmate was seeking a retrial while the other withdrew an appeal, filed by his 
defense lawyers following the 1st trial.

On the latest executions, Yoshihiro Yasuda, a lawyer leading the campaign 
against the death penalty, said that the hanging of an inmate seeking a retrial 
breaches Article 32 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right of access 
to the court.

"Some former death row inmates were exonerated in postwar Japan after their 
pleas for retrial had been rejected several times," Yasuda told a recent public 
gathering in Tokyo. "Executions terminate such a development."

He also emphasized the need to introduce a system under which capital cases are 
automatically and thoroughly examined at three levels -- lower, high and top 
courts -- even if the accused no longer wants to fight.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has called for the abolition of 
capital punishment by 2020, given that more than 2/3 of the world's nations 
have abolished the death penalty by law or in practice.

(source: Japan Today)








SOMALIA:

Military court sentences Somali Minister's killer to death again



The High Court of Somali military has sentenced a government soldier to death 
for killing Minister of Public Works, Abas Siraji in Mogadishu on last May, 
Garowe Online reports.

The convicted soldier identified as Ahmed Abdullahi Abdi (Aideed), 29, has 
appealed against the a death penalty sentence he had been given by the first 
degree court in June 19.

Abdi who was a bodyguard for former Auditor General Nur Farah Jimale has been 
accused of killing the country's youngest Minister at a security checkpoint 
near the Presidential Palace in Mogadishu.

Lawyers representing the soldier say he mistook the Minister, who was in his 
vehicle, for a militant Islamist trying to kill Jimale in drive-by shooting, 
after he found the movements of the car to be suspicious.

Speaking to reporters in Mogadishu, Liban Ali Yarow, the Chief Judge of 
Somalia's Military Court has announced the verdict, saying the soldier has 
pleaded guilty after evidence and sentenced to death.

At 31, Abas became Somalia's youngest-ever member of Parliament last November, 
before becoming the Minister of Public Works and Reconstruction earlier this 
year. The Minister's death caused shock and anger at the time.

(source: garoweonline.com)








IRAN:

Iranian parliament receive law meant to spare 5,000 drug smugglers



A bill making its way through the Iranian parliament could spare 5,000 
convicted drug smugglers from the death penalty, the ILNA news agency reported 
on Monday.

"As soon as the new drug law is passed, the death sentence of more than 5,000 
prisoners could be converted into prison sentences," said Hassan Norouzi, a 
spokesman for parliament.

Mr. Norouzi said lawmakers are still reviewing the draft legislation, and it 
will not be in its final form until after they return from summer recess.

Scepticism has grown in Iran over the effectiveness of the death penalty in 
deterring drug smuggling, with government reports showing it has had no impact 
on reducing the volume and variety of drugs in Iran.

Instead, many are calling for long prison sentences combined with forced 
labour.

Iran has one of the highest execution rates in the world. Amnesty International 
says 319 people have been put to death this year, including 183 for 
drug-related offences.

The human rights group said the legislation does not go far enough in reducing 
the scope of crimes eligible for the death penalty.

"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," said Magdalena Mughrabi.

(source: premiumtimesng.com)