[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 15




PAKISTAN:

Over 80 pc of those hanged are ordinary criminals, not jet black terrorists: 
Babar



PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar on Tuesday called for a wide-ranging national 
debate involving all stratas of society, including political parties, lawyers, 
religious scholars, intellectuals, media persons and academia, on awarding 
death penalty in a broken justice system and the laws heavily tilted in favor 
of the rich and powerful.

Addressing a seminar on 'Trial and Terror' organised by the Justice Project of 
Pakistan in a local hotel where a report was launched, he said terrorists had 
refused to be deterred by death penalty. He said the rich and powerful 
manipulated the Qisas law to get away with murder and only the poor were 
hanged. He said 3 years since the lifting of moratorium on executions it was 
time to assess the net result of application of anti-terror laws, the military 
courts, Regulation in Aid of Civil Power and Guantanamo Bay type prisons for 
fighting terrorism.

"Nearly 500 have been executed during the last 3 years, over 80 % of them were 
ordinary criminals and not jet black terrorists as promised at the time of 
(forming) military courts," he said.

He said in a security-driven state, welfare and rights of people mattered 
little. "Our rush to carry out executions is a reaffirmation of the truth that 
a state that does not care about people's lives is least concerned about how 
they died," he said. He said recently 2 brothers were acquitted of murder by 
the Supreme Court after nearly 15 years on death row but only after they had 
already been executed and no one in the criminal justice chain knowing about 
it.

He asked scholars how they rationalised such gross miscarriage of justice with 
the insistence that moratorium on executions was against the religion. He said 
that according to scholars, Islam called for death penalty in only 2 offences 
but today 27 offences in Pakistan carried death penalty. "There is no reason 
why we should not revisit the offences that carry death penalty," he said.

He said the implementation of Action on Aid of Civil Administration Regulation 
2011 was another worrisome area. "The regulation was given back-dated effect 
from 2008 to enable the security agencies to conduct open trial of those in 
their custody for years in PATA (provincially administered areas) of KP," he 
said.

However, Senator Farhatullah Babar said today, no one knows how many internment 
centers had been set up for keeping them, how many inmates were there, what 
were charges, how many had died and whether and how many were being tried for 
what crimes and in which courts. He aid these internment centres had become 
like little Guantanamo Bay prisons, black hole for the inmates and no-go areas 
even for the judiciary and parliament.

(source: thenews.com.pk)








INDIA:

Karnataka High Court upholds death penalty imposed on 'cyanide' Mohan Kumar



The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday confirmed the death penalty imposed on 
'cyanide' Mohan Kumar on the charges of murdering one Sunanda of Sulya in 
Dakshina Kannada district.

The division bench of Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice John Michael Cunha 
upheld the death penalty imposed by the trial court on December 21, 2013, as 
the allegations had been proved.

According to the prosecution, Mohan Kumar befriended Sunanda (28), daughter of 
Rathnavathi, in January 2008. After few days, he took her to Mysuru on the 
pretext of marrying her and murdered her by administering cyanide at a lodge in 
Mysuru.

Sunanda was found dead on February 12, 2008.

(source: New Indian Express)








NORTH KOREA:

Donald Trump 'deserves death penalty' for insulting Kim Jong-un, says North 
Korean state media----President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have exchanged 
increasingly personal attacks



North Korea's state media has said Donald Trump deserves the death penalty for 
insulting the country's leader Kim Jong-un.

An editorial in the ruling party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, focused its anger on 
US President's visit to South Korea last week, during which he denounced the 
North's "cruel dictatorship" in a speech to legislators in Seoul.

The visit was part of a marathon 5-nation Asia tour by Mr Trump aimed largely 
at galvanising regional opposition to North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions.

"The worst crime for which he can never be pardoned is that he dared [to] 
malignantly hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership," the editorial said.

"He should know that he is just a hideous criminal sentenced to death by the 
Korean people," it added.

The members of the ruling Kim dynasty - past and present - enjoy near god-like 
status in North Korea, which has demonstrated extreme sensitivity to any remark 
that might be seen as mocking or disrespectful of the leadership.

Since becoming president, Mr Trump has engaged in an escalating war of words 
with Kim Jong-Un, trading personal insults and threats of military strikes.

The ad hominem attacks between the leaders have come amid rising tension in the 
region of over the hermit state's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

North Korea has carried out a series intercontinental ballistic missile tests 
in recent months and detonated what it claimed to be a hydrogen bomb earlier 
this year.

Towards the end of his Asia tour, Mr Trump sent a tweet from Hanoi taunting the 
North Korean leader over his height and weight.

"Why would Kim Jong-Un insult me by calling me 'old,' when I would NEVER call 
him 'short and fat'?" he tweeted. In the past the President has also referred 
to Mr Kim as ???little rocket man??? in his tweets.

The North Korean leader has also returned the personal invective, calling Mr 
Trump, who is 40 years his senior, a "mentally deranged US dotard" last month. 
The word dotard is an antiquated term defined as "an old person, especially one 
who has become weak or senile".

(source: Agence France-Presse)