[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 4




ZIMBABWE:

Mugabe wants return of death penalty to cure rising murder cases



Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has made a case for the return of death 
sentence onto the law books.

Mugabe cited the increasing rate of murder cases in the southern Africa country 
as justification for a return of the law. He also expressed worry at how people 
killed others because of trivial and ritual purposes.

The 93-year-old was speaking at the funeral of a political ally, Don Muvuti, in 
the capital Harare on Wednesday. "Let's restore the death penalty. People are 
playing with death by killing each other.

"Is this why we liberated this country? We want this country to be a peaceful 
and happy nation, not a country with people who kill each other," he added.

The AFP news agency reports that the last execution in the country happened 12 
years ago after which the hangman retired. But a justice ministry official is 
said to have disclosed that that over 50 people have since applied for the 
vacant post of the executioner.

Reports indicate that the country currently has over 90 prisoners on death row. 
Rights groups have increasingly called for the death penalty to be scrapped 
from the law books across the world.

Most African countries only have them sitting on the books but hardly implement 
them. Nigeria's Lagos State recently mooted death sentence for kidnappers after 
a spike in the crime.

In Tanzania, however, President Magufuli was quoted as saying even though it 
was on the books, he will not be in a position to sign death warrant of 
convicts.

"I know there are people who convicted of murder and waiting for death penalty, 
but please don't bring the list to me for decision because I know how difficult 
it is to execute," he said.

Tanzania's Penal Code, Cap 16 stipulates the death penalty for serious offenses 
like murder and treason.

(source: africanews.com)








EGYPT:

ourist 'faces death penalty in Egypt' for carrying painkillers----Laura Plummer 
remains in custody and her family says they were told she could face execution



A British woman has been detained in Egypt after flying into the country with 
painkillers for her husband's sore back.

Laura Plummer, 33, from Hull, was arrested when she was found to be carrying 
tramadol and Naproxen in her suitcase.

The newspaper said she signed a 38-page statement in Arabic which she thought 
would result in her being able to leave the airport, but she has been held in a 
15ft by 15ft cell with 25 other women for nearly a month.

Her brother James Plummer, 31, said the family has been told she could face up 
to 25 years in jail, with one lawyer even mentioning the death penalty, The Sun 
reported.

Irish citizen released from prison in Egypt after 4-year detention

Mr Plummer said his sister had been arrested for what he thinks the authorities 
in Egypt call "drug trafficking", but said she had only brought a small amount 
of medication for her Egyptian husband who she visits 2 to 4 times a year.

The Sun said she took 29 strips of tramadol, each containing ten tablets, plus 
some Naproxen, adding that her husband suffers back pain due to an accident.

Mr Plummer said: "It's just blown out of proportion completely."

He said his sister just thought she was doing a "good deed" by bringing the 
medication over to her husband, and said she will be "completely out of her 
comfort zone" in jail.

"She's so by the book, so routine, she just likes her own home comforts, 
watches Emmerdale every night or things like that, going to bed at 9 o'clock 
every night," he said.

Mr Plummer said his mother and sisters have travelled to Egypt to visit Laura 
following her arrest on 9 October, adding: "They say she's unrecognisable. When 
they seen her, she's like a zombie, they said."

He said her hair is starting to fall out due to stress and he voiced concerns 
about how she will cope.

"I don't think she's tough enough to survive it," he said, adding: "She has a 
phobia of using anybody else's toilet, so let alone sharing a toilet and a 
floor with everybody else. That will be awful for her, it'll be traumatising."

Mr Plummer said the family feel "helpless" due to being in a different country, 
and said of his sister: "It's awful for Laura ... she's not a tough person at 
all. She's only small."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are supporting a British woman and her 
family following her detention in Egypt."

(source: The Independent)








IRAN:

Thousands of Iranian Death Row Inmates to Receive Sentence Reviews Under 
Amended Drug Law



Thousands of Iranians currently on death row for low-level drug crimes will 
receive sentence reviews under a newly amended law, announced Tehran Prosecutor 
Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi on October 31, 2017.

"The judges presiding over these cases have to be ready to implement the newly 
amended Law Against Drug Trafficking," he said. "The law will become mandatory 
15 days after its publication in the official newspaper [of the Islamic 
Republic of Iran] www.rrk.ir."

"The judges have to review the death penalties and issue new sentences based on 
the new law," he added.

On October 14, the Guardian Council, which vets laws for conformity with 
Islamic principles, approved the amendment after it was passed in Parliament, 
giving hope to an estimated 4,000 prisoners on death row in Iran for petty 
drug-related crimes.

Iran maintains one of the highest per-capita execution rates in the world. At 
least 567 people were executed in 2016, down 42 % from the 977 who were in 
executed in 2015. The vast majority of executions were for petty 
drug-trafficking crimes, including for carrying small amounts of illegal drugs.

Under the new law, the death penalty can only be issued in convictions 
involving:

Armed trafficking

Playing a leading role in organizing and financing drug trafficking, including 
with the use of child trafficking

In cases involving previous death sentences, life sentences, or sentences of 
more than 15 years

Possession or transportation of more than 50 kilos of opium and other 
"traditional drugs," 2 kilos of heroin, or 3 kilos of methamphetamine

The initial version of the law mandated capital punishment for possession or 
transportation of more than 5 kilos of opium or 30 grams of heroin or 
industrial narcotics.

"Most of the people who have been executed in the country were mainly 
small-time traffickers, while the profits went to gang leaders living 
comfortably abroad," said the deputy chairman of the parliamentary Legal and 
Judicial Affairs Committee, Mohammad Kazemi, on October 18.

On September 10, committee member Yahya Kamalipour said the amended law would 
be applied retroactively.

The UN, other international rights-monitoring groups, and human rights 
activists inside the country have heavily criticized Iran's high execution 
rate.

Several anti-death-penalty activists have been imprisoned in part for their 
stance on the issue, including human rights defender Narges Mohammadi and 
political activist Arash Sadeghi.

(source: Center for Human Rights in Iran (formerly known as International 
Campaign for Human Rights in Iran)








MALAYSIA:

Death penalty reforms must be an opportunity for positive human rights change - 
Amnesty International Malaysia



Amnesty International Malaysia welcomes the statement by the Malaysian 
government outlining its efforts to amend Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs 
Act 1952 and to provide courts with the discretion to spare lives when imposing 
the death penalty. The organisation encourages the Government of Malaysia to 
ensure that the proposed amendments will fully remove the mandatory death 
penalty and establish a moratorium on all executions as first critical steps 
towards abolition of the death penalty.

The announcement comes after a parliamentary reply by Law Minister Datuk Seri 
Azalina Othman Said on 30 October 2017, stating that the 1st draft of the 
amendment has been completed by the Attorney General's Chambers and is awaiting 
the approval of the cabinet.

The organisation also welcomes the support of the Attorney General, Tan Sri 
Mohamed Apandi Ali in giving the discretionary power to the judiciary in 
drug-related offences in a statement made on 31 October.

While Amnesty International believes that these amendments is a step in the 
right direction, the organisation hopes that these amendments will be 
implemented in a manner that is effective and far-reaching.

The organisation renews its call on the Malaysian authorities to abolish the 
mandatory death penalty for all offences and restrict the scope of the death 
penalty to the "most serious crimes", which do not include drug-related 
offences. International law prohibits the use of the mandatory death penalty 
and restricts the use of the ultimate punishment, in countries where it has not 
yet been abolished, to intentional killing.

Amnesty International Malaysia is in fact concerned that the statement of the 
Attorney General suggested that the death penalty legislative amendments, as 
currently drafted, would introduce limited sentencing discretion only for those 
found guilty of transporting prohibited substances. Amnesty International's 
analysis of the impact of similar reforms implemented in Singapore since 2013 
indicate that the introduction of limited sentencing discretion that fell short 
of fully abolishing the mandatory death penalty has done little to improve the 
protection of human rights.

In its report Cooperate or Die; Singapore's Flawed Reforms to the Mandatory 
Death Penalty, Amnesty International found that the mandatory death penalty 
continues to be extensively imposed in Singapore, and that drug trafficking 
continues to involve the great majority of the death sentences imposed in the 
country. In cases where information is available, the burden of the death 
penalty once again appears to fall on those with less advantaged socioeconomic 
backgrounds and convicted of importing relatively small amounts of controlled 
substances.

The amendments also introduced a new section in the Singaporean Misuse of Drugs 
Act, giving courts discretion to sentence persons to life imprisonment, if 
found guilty of drug trafficking or importing prohibited substances over 
certain amounts if they can prove their involvement in the offence was 
restricted to that of a "courier"; and if the Public Prosecutor issues a 
"certificate of substantive assistance", confirming that the convicted person 
has substantively assisted in disrupting drug trafficking activities.

This not only narrows the court's discretionary powers considerably, it 
violates the right to a fair trial as it places life and death decisions in the 
hands of an official who is neither a judge nor a neutral party in the trial 
and should not have such powers.

It is our hope that the Malaysian authorities will make the ongoing legislative 
reforms on the death penalty a meaningful opportunity to improve the protection 
of human rights and adopt a comprehensive approach on its policies on the death 
penalty.

Pending abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International Malaysia renews 
our call on the authorities to establish a moratorium on all executions. The 
government had stated that as of April 30, 2016, 1,042 people comprising 629 
Malaysians and 413 foreign nationals were sentenced to death due to murder, 
drug trafficking, firearms trafficking or kidnapping; Sixteen (16) death row 
inmates have been executed since 2010 in Malaysia.

Even with plans to amend laws and rulers granting pardon to death row inmates, 
Amnesty International Malaysia still calls for the total abolition of the death 
penalty as it is proven multiple times not to have a unique deterrent effect on 
crimes, and violates the Universal Declaration of Human rights, including the 
right to life and the right to live free from torture.

It is in this context that Amnesty International Malaysia welcomes the pardon 
by the Sultan of Perak on November 1 of 2 prisoners, who have been imprisoned 
for more than 16 years. Death row prisoners are usually kept in solitary 
confinement once their sentence has been imposed.

In a country where information on the use of the death penalty is not publicly 
available, the announcement of the pardon is a positive development which the 
organisation hopes it can be replicated to allow for greater transparency and 
more commutations of death sentences.

Background

Mandatory death sentences leave courts no option but to condemn drug offenders 
and those convicted of murder to the gallows. Drug trafficking does not meet 
the threshold of the "most serious crimes" to which the use of the death 
penalty must be restricted under international human rights law.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and under any 
circumstances, regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of 
the offender, or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The 
organisation considers the death penalty a violation of the right to life as 
recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ultimate cruel, 
inhuman and degrading punishment.

Pending full abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International calls for 
the government's urgent intervention to halt all executions and to broaden the 
scope of the proposed reforms to encompass all capital offences; and to abolish 
the automatic presumptions of drug possession and trafficking allowed under 
Section 37 of the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1952 as initial steps.

Amnesty International has ranked Malaysia 10th in the use of the death penalty 
among 23 countries that carried out capital punishment last year.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not 
necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.

(source: themalaymailonline.com)