[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 28




BANGLADESH:

Dhaka court awards death penalty to 5 for killing Bangladesh's award winning 
journalist


A Dhaka court on Tuesday sentenced 5 persons to death for killing award-winning 
photojournalist Aftab Ahmed in 2013, a media report said.

The verdict was announced by Judge Abdur Rahman Sarder of Dhaka Speedy Trial 
Tribunal 4.

The convicts are Humayun Kabir, Habib Hawlader, Belal Hossain, Raju Munshi and 
Md Rasel, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

Of them, Rasel and Raju have been absconding since the case was filed.

The court also sentenced Sabuj Khan to 7 years imprisonment and fined him. If 
he doesn't pay, he will serve an extra year in jail.

According to the case details, on December 25, 2013, the 80-year-old 
photojournalist was killed at his house in Rampura here.

Aftab was awarded 'Ekushey Padak', the 2nd highest civilian award in 
Bangladesh, in 2006. He had an illustrious career during which he served as 
chief photographer for the Bangla newspaper The Daily Ittefaq.

(source: hindustantimes.com)






MALAYSIA:

Assigned lawyers will still represent those facing death penalty----Chief 
Justice says this is important as it involves offenders' lives.


The judiciary will continue to assign lawyers to represent accused persons, 
including foreigners, who are facing the death penalty, Chief Justice Arifin 
Zakaria says.

"The government gives priority to this matter as it involves the life of 
accused persons," he told reporters after the launch of a coffee table book 
titled "Palace of Justice" by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department 
Azalina Othman Said.

Arifin, who retires this week, said this when asked if payments of legal fees 
to court-appointed lawyers were affected since the government had slashed 
allocations to ministries.

It is a practice that those who face charges carrying capital punishment must 
be represented by lawyers if they cannot afford to engage counsel.

Such lawyers appear during trial in the High Court and during appeals in the 
Court of Appeal and Federal Court.

Among the offences that carry the death penalty are murder, drug trafficking, 
kidnap and discharge of firearms.

Meanwhile, Azalina in a speech today said "something would be in store from the 
government" for Arifin after his retirement.

"I will make sure of this as long as I am the de facto law minister," she said.

When approached later, Arifin declined to comment.

To questions about his post-retirement plans, Arifin, who was interviewed by 
the media yesterday, said he would accept a consulting position at a law firm 
in a manner similar to that of other retired judges.

"Why not? You need some income and something to fill up the time. I need to be 
active, otherwise my mental capacity will be reduced," he had said.

(source: freemalaysiatoday.com)






JAPAN:

Death-row inmate convicted of killing 4 people in 1993 dies of illness


Gen Sekine, a former pet breeder on death row for killing 4 people in Saitama 
Prefecture in 1993, died Monday while in detention, a person familiar with his 
condition said.

The 75-year-old inmate - who was convicted of conspiring with his former wife 
Hiroko Kazama to kill 3 people in a financial dispute stemming from his dog 
breeding business - is believed to have died of an illness, according to the 
source. Kazama, 60, is also on death row.

Sekine, who was also convicted of a separate killing the same year, died at the 
Tokyo Detention House on Monday morning. He had collapsed there in November 
last year, according to the source.

In 1993, he murdered a 39-year-old company employee, a senior member of a crime 
syndicate and the man's driver by making them swallow poison capsules. He then 
dismembered their bodies before incinerating and abandoning the remains, 
according to a court ruling.

In the separate case, Sekine murdered a 54-year-old woman after selling dogs of 
foreign origin to her in a scam.

Sekine and Kazama were initially arrested in January 1995. In March 2001, a 
district court in Saitama Prefecture sentenced them to death for committing, in 
the words of its presiding judge, "cruelly ruthless and extremely heinous 
crimes."

The Tokyo High Court rejected the pair's appeal in July 2005, and the Supreme 
Court upheld the decision in June 2009.

(source: Japan Today)






UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:

British lord joins call to save Jennifer Dalquez from death row


A member of United Kingdom's House of Lords or upper parliament has called on 
the government of the United Arab Emirates to grant Filipina domestic helper 
Jennifer Dalquez clemency to save her from death row.

"It is clear from the evidence that her action was not pre-meditated, but a 
desperate response to an unprovoked sexual attack," Inderjit Singh, Lord of 
Wimbledon CBE, said in a letter addressed to UAE Ambassador Sulaiman Hamid 
Almazroui.

"I am writing to you to use your good offices to remove the threat of the death 
penalty and for the authorities to show due clemency," added Singh, a former 
BBC journalist, engineer, and champion of interfaith relations.

An excerpt of the letter was posted on the website of Network of Sikh 
Organizations, the British-registered charity that Singh chairs.

The same post contains a statement from the pro-migrant worker group Justice 
For Domestic Workers (J4DW), which described Dalquez, 30, as another "victim of 
gross inhumane abuse and injustice faced by migrants in the Gulf states."

"Her plea in mitigation of self defense as she resisted and fought off her 
assailant when he attempted to rape her at knife point has been disregarded," 
J4DW Coordinator Marissa Begonia said.

Dalquez was sentenced to death for killing her employer on May 20, 2015. She 
insisted it was self defense as her employer, armed with a knife, allegedly 
tried to rape her.

The Court of Appeals in Al Ain on Monday deferred to April 12 its ruling on 
Dalquez's execution after 1 of the victim's children did not attend the 
hearing.

Dalquez could be saved from execution if the victim's 2 children will opt for 
the payment of blood money.

(source: gmanetwork.com)






INDONESIA:

Death penalty should be abolished, says Baru


State PKR chairman Baru Bian wholeheartedly agrees with the call by human 
rights advocates that capital punishment be removed for all crimes currently 
punishable by death.

According to him, imposing of the death penalty was believed to act as a 
deterrent against crime but there is no conclusive evidence that capital 
punishment is an effective deterrent.

"Those who are about to commit crimes do not stop and sit down to weigh the 
consequences if they are caught, especially those who commit murder.

"I believe most people do not even know what the penalties are for various 
crimes except for drug trafficking as that is well-publicised, but even that 
does not have any deterrent effect, judging from the unabating illegal drug 
activities in this country," Baru said in a press statement yesterday.

Baru, who is Ba Kelalan assemblyman, said while capital punishment does not 
give the offender the chance to be rehabilitated, he believed that people can 
change, and there are many offenders who do change.

"Whether it is through spiritual input, professional counselling or even the 
ageing process, many former criminals have changed their attitudes towards 
crime and emerged as reformed individuals.

"There is ample evidence of such transformations and I believe that we should 
not give up on anyone, even hard-core criminals."

Baru pointed out that there is also the human rights aspect, that executing 
people runs contrary to the principle of holding high regard for the sanctity 
of human life.

"I do not believe that we have the right to end someone else's life, and 
executions merely serve to label us as barbaric while having no deterrent 
effect on crime."

Most horrifying of all, Baru said, once the death sentence is carried out, it 
is too late to reverse the decision or to compensate the executed if it is 
later discovered that there has been a miscarriage of justice.

"This is not merely a hypothetical situation, as there are documented cases of 
people being executed for crimes they did not commit."

He said research in the US in 2014 found that over 4 % of death row inmates 
were innocent, calling this a conservative estimate.

"If this is applied to the number of death row inmates in Malaysia, there could 
be 32 people languishing in prison waiting to be executed for crimes they are 
innocent of. This is not inconceivable, given the pressures and limitations 
that our criminal justice system operates under."

Baru said the idea that the innocent could be executed is so abhorrent that of 
itself, that would be reason enough to abolish the death penalty.

"I agree with Suara Rakyat Malaysia director Sevan Doraisamy that the death 
penalty is not a solution to crime and should be abolished."

The Cabinet last week agreed to review the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, to allow 
judges to use their discretion in sentencing offenders instead of imposing the 
mandatory death sentence.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said 
the review will enable judges to mete out suitable sentences in marginal cases 
where offenders could be given jail sentences.

(source: theborneopost.com)

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

Indonesia's president says open to death penalty review


Indonesia's President Joko Widodo said he would restore a moratorium on the 
death penalty if he won the backing of the people, after a spate of executions 
that drew international condemnation.

Widodo declared an anti-drugs campaign soon after coming to power in 2014 and 
refused all requests for pardons from death-row drug convicts, ending a 4-year 
moratorium.

But in recent months he has softened his position.

Asked in an interview with AFP on Monday whether he would consider a 
moratorium, Widodo said: "Why not? But I must ask my people.

"If my people say OK, they say yes, I will start to prepare," he said.

A moratorium could be the 1st step towards abolishing the death penalty, a move 
which needs approval in parliament which has been discussing the issue for the 
past year.

However, Widodo said it would be difficult to secure parliamentary backing 
without clear public support in a conservative, Muslim-majority country where 
voters are deeply concerned about high levels of addiction.

He cited a 2015 survey by a private pollster that found 85 % of Indonesians 
support the death penalty for drug traffickers.

- Jungle killings -

Since Widodo came to power, Indonesia has hauled 18 people -- 15 of them 
foreigners -- before the firing squad for drug trafficking.

They include a group of 8 -- 2 Australians, a Brazilian, an Indonesian and 4 
Nigerians -- who were put to death in a single night in April 2015 on the 
prison island of Nusakambangan.

The convicts were taken to a jungle clearing on the island, which houses 
several high-security prisons, and tied to stakes before being shot, in an move 
that triggered global revulsion.

The executions of Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in 
particular caused tensions, with Indonesia's neighbour Australia temporarily 
recalling its ambassador from Jakarta.

Among the foreigners currently on death row are Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and 
Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, who were both pulled from the April 2015 round of 
executions.

A British grandmother, Lindsay Sandiford, is also on death row in Bali after 
she was caught smuggling a huge stash of cocaine into the resort island which 
attracts millions of visitors to its palm-fringed beaches every year.

Widodo has insisted that the death penalty is part of Indonesia's law and 
serves as deterrent against drug trafficking.

However, last November he said he was "open for options" to abolish it. In 
another concession, only drug convicts from countries that implement the death 
penalty were executed last year.

- 'Good sign' -

International and domestic rights groups have appealed to Indonesia to put a 
stop to capital punishment, arguing that miscarriages of justice are inevitable 
in a judicial system deeply compromised by corruption.

Ricky Gunawan from Community Legal Aid Foundation, a group calling for the 
abolition of the death penalty, said Widodo's latest comments were "a good sign 
that he is shifting from his stubbornness".

"But the downside is he leaves it to the people to decide, and a good leader 
should make a stance instead of leaving to the people to decide," he told AFP.

Gunawan urged President Francois Hollande, who will visit Indonesia this week, 
to press the issue during their talks. France scrapped the death penalty at a 
time when public support for it was high.

Some analysts have said that since Widodo is the 1st Indonesian president from 
outside the establishment -- he was not in the military nor part of the elites 
-- he needed to show a strong hand on law enforcement.

Halfway into his term, Widodo is faced with rising religious intolerance in a 
country that has always prided itself as a moderate Muslim nation.

In a case seen as a major test for pluralism, the governor of Jakarta -- an 
ethnic Chinese Christian - is currently on trial on allegations of blasphemy 
against Islam.

Widodo said that extensive freedoms have opened the way for hate speech, but 
played down the extent of intolerance, saying that a "small" number of 
incidents was "normal" in a nation that embraces many religions and 
ethnicities.

"People must know the balance of rights and duty... if they are too free, it is 
not good for our country," he said. "Indonesia is one of the most tolerant 
countries in the world."

(source: Agence France-Presse)






TRINIDAD:

'Will power needed for death penalty'


Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj says the Government has been 
given the plan on how to implement the death penalty and all that is required 
now to get the job done was will power.

Speaking at a press conference at his San Fernando law chambers yesterday, 
Maharaj SC said: "It comes to the will power of a government to deal with the 
problem and the government depends upon its ministers. A plan is only as good 
as its implementation...I believe it can be implemented. I believe if the 
government wants to continue with the death penalty it can be implemented."

Maharaj who has passed on a dossier detailing how he was successful in hanging 
Dole Chadee and his eight accomplices during his tenure as attorney general to 
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, reiterated that he charged no fee.

He said the Government has the option of retaining the services of Peter 
Pursglove SC, who is presently on vacation here, as a consultant to assist them 
in carrying out the death penalty. Pursglove had been retained by Maharaj to 
assist in fast-tracking murder cases.

Addressing the issue of the abolition of preliminary inquires, Maharaj said 
that move will put additional strain on the High Court which already had 
hundreds of people awaiting trial.

He endorsed the comments of Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard who 
described the move as short-sighted during a parliamentary committee meeting 
last Friday given the lack of resources in the DPP's Office and other 
inefficiencies in the criminal justice system. Maharaj said the government must 
withdraw the bill pending further study.

Similarly, he said the Miscellaneous Provisions (Trial by Judge Alone)Bill 
should have gone through a process of proper and adequate consultation with the 
legal profession and the public.

He said the law will not make any dent in the delays of the criminal justice 
system and it would have no impact on increasing the detection rate for murders 
and serious crimes.

Maharaj added that the time has come for the population to see and to feel the 
government is declaring war against the criminal elements. Maharaj called on 
the Government and the police to take immediate action to halt the spiralling 
rate of criminal activities and bring the criminals to justice.

He said it was unacceptable that 85 % of the people who committed murders and 
serious crimes are walking free and called for an immediate action plan to 
increase the detection of crimes.

Maharaj said this must include:

* An overhaul and purge of the existing investigative units of the Police 
Service

* An overhaul for the forensic laboratory with immediate steps to have the 
necessary staff and forensic technology to detect murders and serious crimes

* Immediate changes to the Witness Protection Unit so witnesses will be 
encouraged and induced to come forward to testify

* Government must take steps to implement the DNA Act and establish a DNA bank.

(source: Trinidad Guardian)