[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 30



THAILAND:

Village chief gets death for rape, killing girl


The Kalasin Provincial Court on Thursday morning sentenced to death a former 
village chief for the rape and fatal assault of an 18-year-old student and 
ordered he pay more than 2 million baht compensation to her family.

The court found Krittidech Rawengwan, 35, formerly village chief of Ban Si Than 
in Kamalasai district, guilty of rape and physical assault causing the death of 
Ruadeewan Polprasit on Dec 23, 2015.

Ruadeewan was travelling home from school when her attacker kicked and knocked 
over her motorbike, then dragged her into a rice field on the side of the Ban 
Si Than-Ban Non Muang road. She fought back and was able to fend off his 
attempts to rape her.

However, she was severely beaten during the attack and died from her injuries. 
A post mortem showed that her liver had been ruptured.

Krittidech was arrested on April 4, 2016 and the case was filed with the court 
on June 4, 2016. He was charged with rape and physical assault causing death.

Krittidech denied any wrongdoing through the trial. The court heard testimony 
from 40 prosecution witnesses in November last year and questioned 11 defence 
witnesses in December.

The court found him guilty as charged and handed down the death sentence. He 
was ordered to pay 2.39 million baht to the victim's family.

The courtroom was packed with Ruadeewan's relatives and neighbours.

(source: bangkokpost.com)






GAZA:

Gaza military court sentences 2 to death for drug offenses


In the 1st ruling of its kind since the creation of the Palestinian Authority 
(PA) in 1994, a military court in Gaza City sentenced 2 Palestinians convicted 
of selling drugs to death on March 18. The court condemned others convicted of 
the same charges to prison with hard labor. The sentences were welcomed by many 
Palestinians but slammed by human rights groups.

According to the charge sheet published by the Ministry of Interior, based on 
intelligence received, the Palestinian Anti-Narcotics Department arrested the 2 
while in possession of large quantities of drugs they had smuggled across the 
Gaza Strip???s southern border. A 2013 law on psychotropic substances allows 
for the execution of drug dealers in the Gaza Strip.

The head of the military court, Nasser Suleiman, told journalists on March 18 
that those condemned to death had previous convictions of drug dealing but had 
committed the same crime again, meaning that the previous punishments had not 
deterred them.

He said the military court was hearing 30 cases of drug dealing. The cases had 
been heard previously by civilian courts, but 3 months ago, they were 
transferred to the military court as drugs are considered a threat to public 
security. As the crimes involve smuggling through the border areas, said 
Suleiman, they should be under the control of the National Security Forces.

Gaza's Interior Ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bazm told Al-Monitor the drugs are 
primarily smuggled into the Strip from Egypt through its southern border and 
from Israel through its eastern border, and that security measures by the 
Interior Ministry had thwarted the delivery of large quantities of narcotics 
and resulted in the arrests of those selling them.

The Ministry of Interior said that by the 1st quarter of 2017, the ministry had 
seized about 1,200 packages of hashish and 400,000 Tramadol pills.

Bazm said that 2015 and 2016 saw a rise in drug smuggling into Gaza, and the 
ministry would not allow Palestinian society to be destroyed from the inside by 
such substances. Every effort would be made to protect the youth from the 
dangerous phenomenon, he added.

The head of planning at the Palestinian police's Anti-Narcotics Department, 
Hassan al-Swerky, told Al-Monitor that January saw the largest drug bust in 3 
years.

Swerky urged the court to carry out the death sentences as soon as possible to 
deter others thinking of smuggling such substances into Gaza. Despite the large 
quantities of drugs that have been seized over the past months, he claimed that 
addiction levels have dropped. Swerky declined to give figures for drug abuse 
in the Strip, saying only that rehabilitation centers and primary care clinics 
run by the Interior Ministry had successfully treated many addicts who checked 
themselves in for treatment.

Hundreds of activists and citizens in Gaza organized protest vigils on March 
19, calling for severe punishments for drug dealers and welcoming the harsh 
sentences.

Human rights groups, meanwhile, condemned the sentences.

"We are against the death penalty and the sentences issued on March 18, which 
represent an attack on the civilian judiciary by the military judiciary, 
because drug cases should be tried before civilian courts," Issam Younis, the 
head of Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, told Al-Monitor.

Younis called on the Gaza authorities to repeal the sentences and examine why 
those convicted had committed their crimes. He said the Gaza Strip and the West 
Bank face partition, blockade, unemployment and rising poverty, all of which 
create fertile ground for criminality.

He said that drug trafficking is a crime that no one can condone, and those 
guilty of it must be punished - but within the framework of laws that preserve 
human rights. He also expressed doubt over the sentences' efficacy, asking, 
"Does the death penalty, which needs to be approved by President Mahmoud Abbas 
before it is carried out, deter crime?"

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights protested that no law allows for the 
death penalty for drug possession and that the court had overstepped by hearing 
a case that was entirely civilian.

In a March 19 statement, the organization said, "We express our deep concern 
over these dangerous developments in the use of the death penalty, and we 
emphasize the danger of using it or approving it in drug cases, especially in 
light of the lack of fair trial guarantees and the many reports of widespread 
torture during interrogations, especially in connection with drug crimes."

The organization has registered 35 executions since the establishment of the PA 
in 1994, 33 in Gaza and 2 in the West Bank. They have included various types of 
cases ranging from spying for Israel to homicide, and most were carried out 
without the approval of the Palestinian president.

al-monitor.com)






PAKISTAN:

Judgment announced: Court awards death penalty, life term to 2 in murder case


A court awarded death sentence and life term to 2 accused for their involvement 
in a murder case in Sargodha on Tuesday.

The judgment was announced by Additional District and Sessions Judge Zulfikar 
Ahmad. The prosecution told the court that accused Hashmatullah, resident of 49 
Tail, Sargodha and his accomplices Asmatullah, Ehsanullah and Ikram, had gunned 
down 2 real brothers Haroon and Amjad over a property dispute a few years ago.

The local police registered a case against the accused and presented the 
challan before the court. After hearing the arguments, the judge handed down 
death sentence to Hashmatullah and life imprisonment to Ehsanullah along with a 
fine of Rs0.4 million as compensation money. However, the court acquitted 
Asmatullah and Ikram over lack of evidence. The accused was sent to District 
Jail Sargodha.

Earlier on March 1, 2017, accused Shanaf had killed Adil over a land dispute in 
Parthanwala Village. The judge awarded death sentence to the accused and 
ordered him to pay fine of Rs200,000.

(source: The Express Tribune)






UNITED KINGDOM:

Half of Leave voters want to bring back the death penalty after Brexit

More than a 1/2 of Leave voters want the death penalty brought back after 
Brexit, according to a new poll.

The YouGov survey also found 42 % of those who opted to part ways with the 
European Union want corporal punishment back in schools and 30 % want 
inefficient light bulbs to return to shop shelves.

The results were released on the day Theresa May sent a letter to European 
Council President Donald Tusk and formerly triggered the 2-year countdown to 
Brexit.

The results have been compiled into a chart by Statista, exclusively for The 
Independent.

The death penalty for murder was abolished for the entirety of the UK in 1973 
but votes on whether to restore it were held every year until 1997.

But the poll found 53 % of those surveyed want a return to capital punishment 
after Britain leaves the Union.

The poll, quizzed 2,060 adults on 21 and 22 February. The research, also 
surveyed 810 Remain voters and found that 20 % of people opting to stay in the 
European Union backed the death penalty.

(source: indpendent.co.uk)