[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 22




NIGERIA:

600 Nigerians On Death Row in Asia



Barely 1 year ago, Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), a human rights 
organisation, alerted the nation that about 300 Nigerians were on death row in 
prisons across Asian countries. During the World Day Against the Use of the 
Death Penalty last week, LEPAD once again drew the country's attention to the 
rising number of Nigerians awaiting execution in different parts of the world. 
Within this period, the number of offenders has doubled as more than 600 
Nigerians in South- East Asia countries are awaiting the hangman, most of them 
on drug-related offences.

The revelations highlight the increasing desperation of some Nigerians in the 
narcotic trade. More Nigerians are pouring across the borders with hard drugs 
in spite of the sophistication in technology as well as the stiff punishment 
mapped out to curb the illegal business. The boom in the illegal trade perhaps 
speaks to the fact that the country's law enforcement agencies still have much 
work on their hands. Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia are evidently among the 
active drug routes, judging by the number of traffickers caught regularly. 
Incidentally, these are countries where it is public knowledge that trafficking 
in hard drug carries the mandatory death sentence.

Indeed, many convicted drug traffickers had been executed in Asia, from 
Singapore to Vietnam. Some 120 Nigerians were reportedly on death row in 
Chinese prisons, due mainly to peddling in narcotics.

According to reports, about 16,500 Nigerians are pinning away in various 
prisons across the world, most of them on drug-related cases. But Indonesia 
seems an exceptional destination as many Nigerians have been caught, tried and 
executed there in the recent past. The gravity of the problem was underscored 
recently when the federal government led by Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, pleaded with the government of Indonesia to commute the death 
penalty passed on Nigerians to life imprisonment. But Indonesia was 
non-committal.

In 2016, 3 convicted drug peddlers were killed in Indonesia while some 153 
others were placed on death row. In one particular sensational outing which 
captured the attention of the world in April 2015, four Nigerians convicted of 
drug trafficking were executed along with other nationals by Indonesian 
authorities via firing squad. Pleas for leniency by Nigeria, the United Nations 
and Amnesty International were reportedly downplayed by the Indonesian 
government partly because "at that point, 7 fresh cases of drug trafficking 
involving Nigerians had just emerged in Indonesia".

Unfortunately, that execution came shortly after the upper house of parliament, 
the Senate, debated a motion entitled: "Nigerians involvement in illicit global 
drugs trade and increase in domestic drug abuse by Nigerian youth." The Senate 
noted rightly that our nationals were viewed with suspicion and subjected to 
demeaning treatment at airports across the world as a result of this negative 
perception. Indeed, they inflict grave damage on the country's image across the 
world.

Yet LEPAD also raised other concerns: that Nigeria has often greeted these 
reports with no more than a shrug. In effect, the country is not doing much to 
get some of those who had conflict with the law out of trouble. According to 
Mr. Chino Obiagwu, National Coordinator of LEPAD, the government "has not shown 
reasonable interest in the plight of these Nigerians in foreign land." He said 
many of the convicts were subjected to summary trials and convicted without the 
benefit of legal counsel.

While we agree that the authority could do more to get Nigerians out of trouble 
in foreign land, we have also emphasised that Nigerians should live within the 
laws of the country they chose to reside or do business. But the scale of the 
problem and the consequences for our image, national security and public health 
are so severe that something must be done urgently.

(source: allafrica.com)








BANGLADLESH:

Ex-Jamaat MP, 5 other Gaibandha war criminals get death



A special tribunal in Dhaka today handed death penalty to 6 people from 
Gaibandha, including a former Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker, for committing crimes 
against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

The accused are Jamaat's ex-MP Abu Saleh Md Abdul Aziz Mia, Ruhul Amin alias 
Manju, Abu Muslim Md Ali, Abdul Latif, Najmul Huda and Abdur Rahim Mia. Latif 
is now in jail while the others are absconding.

While delivering the verdict, the 3-member panel of International Crimes 
Tribunal-1 led by Justice Md Shahinur Islam asked the Inspector General of 
Police (IGP) and the home ministry to secure the arrest of the fugitives.

The accused were facing 3 charges -- looting and killing of a Hindu man at 
Moujamali village in Gaibandha Sadar upazila, killing of a Chhatra League 
leader, and killing of 13 chairmen and members of 5 unions in Sundarganj of the 
district.

On October 23, wrapping up their arguments, Prosecutor Syed Hider Ali prayed 
for capital punishment, saying that they have been able to prove all the 3 
charges against the accused.

On the other hand, defence counsel Gazi MH Tamim sought acquittal of the 
accused, saying that the prosecution could not prove any charge.

On June 28 last year, the tribunal indicted the accused.

(source: thedailystar.net)








BAHRAIN:

High Appeals Court upholds sentences



The High Appeals Court today issued its verdict accepting the appeal in form 
and rejecting it in substance by upholding the sentences issued by the High 
Criminal Court against 8 defendants.

The defendants were charged and convicted of establishing intelligence 
connections with a foreign country, illegal possession, handling and detonation 
of explosives and firearms and creating a blast and deliberately murdering a 
woman, subjecting public and private transport to danger as well as trained on 
the unlicensed use of firearms and explosives for the purpose of committing 
terrorist crimes with accomplices, concealing a fugitive and inflicting 
property damage during their implementing their terrorist purposes.

On 19 June 2016, the High Criminal Court sentenced the 1st defendant to death 
penalty and the 2nd defendant to life in jail term, and 3 years' incarceration 
against 7 defendants, the 1st and 2nd defendant were stripped from the 
citizenship and obliged both of them to pay the value of damages, fined the 3rd 
defendant and confiscating the seized materials.

The case dates back to 30 June 2016 when the defendants planted and detonated 
an explosive device on Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah Street and deliberately 
killed a Bahraini woman and injured her accompanying children.

Investigations led to the culprits, including a fugitive who is currently in 
Iran working in the interest of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), 
who tasked two defendants who carried out the crime to detonate the explosive 
device that targeted police patrols in a bid to kill them. He furnished both 
defendants with the explosive device. After monitoring police movement in the 
area, the 2 defendants planted the explosive device in place to implement their 
plot. They subsequently detonated the explosive device and the blast killed the 
victim who happened to be driving her car at the time and place of the 
incident. The women was killed and the children who were accompanying her 
inside the car were injured.

The 1st suspect escaped after implementing the crime. He was sheltered and 
concealed by several suspects. The suspects were arrested in compliance with 
the legally prescribed procedures and referred to the Prosecution.

10 suspects were referred by the Prosecution, including eight defendants who 
were in custody, to the High Criminal Court. Legal order was issued to arrest 
the fugitive suspect. The case was deliberated by the court. The court listened 
to their defence pleas. The Public Prosecution insisted the court issues 
maximum penalty against the defendants. The court issued its above sentence 
which is upheld by the High Court of Appeal during its session today.

(source: Bahrain News Agency)