[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide----EUR., S. LEONE, NIGER., JOR., IRAN, LEB., PAKIS., AUST.

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 10



EUROPE:

10 October - European Day against Death Penalty



The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided on 26 September 
2007, to declare a ''European Day against the Death Penalty,'' which is held 
annually on 10 October. The Council of Europe has been a pioneer in the 
abolition process which has made Europe a de facto death-penalty-free zone 
since 1997. The day is a European contribution to the World Day against the 
Death Penalty, which is held annually on the same day.

The 47-nation Council of Europe and the 28-member European Union have published 
a joint statement to mark the European and World Day against the Death Penalty 
on 10 October.

The statement underlines the 2 organisations' firm opposition to capital 
punishment in any circumstances.

It also calls on countries still using the death penalty to commute any 
existing sentences and to introduce a moratorium on capital punishment as a 1st 
step towards abolition.

Through the European Convention on Human Rights, the Council of Europe has 
created a death penalty-free zone covering 47 countries and over 820 million 
people.

No executions have taken place in any Council of Europe member state for over 
20 years.

(source: coe.int)








SIERRA LEONE:

6 sentenced to death



With the help of jurors, Justice Monfred Momoh Sesay on Friday 6 September 2017 
at the Bo High Court convicted and sentenced to death six armed robbers for 
Conspiracy and Robbery with Aggravation.

The convicts include; Augustine Omaska (aka G-Father), Daniel George, Claude 
Nahas, Thomas Mando (aka Love-T), Aruna Bangura (Akon) and Steven Joel Smart.

They were convicted in the on-going High Court Special Criminal Session that 
was initiated by the Chief Justice to see how best pending cases across the 
country can be concluded within the shortest possible time to discourage prison 
congestion.

According to the prosecuting team led by Joseph A.K. Sesay, the convicts were 
brought to Court as a result of being armed with guns and machete attacks 
residents in Pujehun Town in March 2017 robbing them of their valuables and 
cash.

He maintained during the proceedings the State argued that the 1st, 2nd, 3rd 
and 6th accused conceived and planned to rob residence in Bo and that the 6th 
accused being an OSD personnel at the time provided his motor bike for the 1st 
and 2nd accused also OSD personnel and the 3rd accused left for Pujehun to meet 
the 4th and 5th and execute their plans.

It was disclosed that the 1st, 2nd and 3rd convicts were apprehended on their 
way back to Bo town after executing their plans in Pujehun on 3rd March the 
this year, and that the 2nd accused an OSD personnel was unable to convinced 
the personnel at the Bontiwa checkpoint for their reasons of traveling around 
2:00 a.m. with stolen items in their backpacks.

Counsel representing the convicts in the trial tried to convince the Court the 
6th convict was never spotted in Pujehun and the all the convicts were wrongly 
identified claiming the incident occurred during odd hours.

The jurors who have been listening to the trial unanimously agreed on the 
verdict that all the accused are guilty of both charges levied against them and 
Justice Monfred Momoh Sesay without wasting the Court's time convicted them 
with the maximum penalty levied on them sentenced to death by firing squad 
publicly.

As part of their legal rights, the convicts have the right to appeal their 
sentence within 21 days or face the full penalty of the law as provided in the 
laws of the land.

The question now is will these convicts face the law by firing squad? For 
years, there has been a moratorium on the use of the death penalty despite 
recent outcry by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Alfred Palo Conteh, for the 
gallows to be cleaned.

(source: awoko.org)








NIGERIA:

'Any federating state can choose to abolish death penalty'



Today is world day against death penalty. There are arguments about the need to 
abolish the death penalty and replace it with life sentence. According to World 
Coalition Against Death Penalty, it is used discriminatorily, often against the 
most vulnerable people and should be abolished. In this interview with JOSEPH 
ONYEKWERE and SILVER NWOKORO, a former solicitor general and permanent 
secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Lawal Pedro (SAN), speaks on the 
issue and other topical legal matters

Where do you stand on this abolition debate?

Well, I am sitting on the fence. What do we truly want to achieve by abolishing 
death sentence? Is it on humanitarian ground? If we say it should be abolished, 
fine, so all convicts will remain in prison forever. What is the condition of 
our prisons today?

Your position is based on the fact that the death warrants for those already 
convicted never get signed?

That is the issue. To me whether you abolish or maintain it, you are within the 
law. The countries we are trying to copy, for example, United State of America, 
some States have it and they have retained it. Some States do not have it, so 
it's a matter of choice. That is why I say I am sitting on the fence. There is 
nothing stopping a state in its own criminal law from abolishing it, while the 
federal government maintains its own act. So it is really a matter of choice 
and what the government intend to achieve by it.

The point has been that death penalty is supposed to serve as a deterrent but 
it doesn't seem to have achieved that purpose. So why can't we try to see if by 
the time we remove the certainty of someone being killed when caught committing 
a heinous crime, maybe violent crime might reduce. This is because, if you know 
you are going for armed robbery but would not be killed if caught, you might 
not want to eliminate those who may likely implicate you at end of the day. How 
do you look at that argument?

I don't buy it! It is the same thing with the offences that do not carry death 
penalty. Had it been of any deterrent? They have not made corruption death 
penalty, but have it deter anybody? It does not! It is more than that. That is 
why I said if you don't carry out execution of the death row inmates, you are 
dehumanizing them. There is no justification for that. The trauma of expecting 
the executioner daily is even a severe punishment for that person. So for you 
to avoid that situation, we must first amend the constitution to remove capital 
offence.

If tomorrow the government says we want to remove death penalty in our statute 
books, will you be against it?

No, I won't be against it at all and if the government maintains it, I won't be 
against it.

I am sure you must have heard or read the report by the NBS that the judiciary 
is the second most corrupt institution in Nigeria. What do you say about that?

To me, it is a wrong perception. I am not saying the judiciary is corrupt free, 
but it is like other institutions, organizations or the society in which we all 
belong. But to have labeled it second most corrupt, I totally disagree. The 
samples they got depend on whom you they talked to. I have advocated that the 
best thing to do in this country is to improve and re-engineer our judicial 
system such that it becomes functional. That way, it will not give room for 
corruption. If the government can spend more money to improve judicial 
infrastructure, its maintenance, the welfare package and manpower development, 
I guarantee you that corruption will reduce to the barest minimum in this 
country. Judiciary to me will be the saving grace to reduce corruption in 
Nigeria.

How do you then relate it to the recent development where the NJC recommended 
the sacking of a chief judge for just taking N200, 000 bribe and a lot of 
others?

The problem is that there is a total system failure. It is not only in the 
judiciary, it is also in government and you cannot separate it. You have a 
judiciary that is within a community. That is why I am saying when we are 
dealing with the judiciary and the executive arm is saying they are doing 
theirs, I say fine, but don't forget there is one government with three arms. 
If the judiciary itself fights corruption within, you must handle it well. It 
is just like saying one of my arms is bad so the solution is for me to cut it 
off. So if the judiciary of your country is corrupt, it is an arm of 
government, so the government too is corrupt. You must not allow the judiciary 
to have a bad image. That is why I said we need to pay special attention to the 
judiciary. If a man knows that if he goes and steal or engage in corrupt 
practices and caught, that within 3 months his trial would have been completed 
and he is jailed, what do you think will happen to his colleagues outside? They 
will think twice. Due to the present state of the judiciary, a criminal who is 
caught and detained in Police station will be the one to tell you to charge him 
to court because he knows that when he gets to court, he can wriggle out and 
regain his freedom. But if we manage our judicial process such that anybody 
that goes into the system can determine when he will be out or if it is a 
criminal matter, he goes to jail, things will change. I recommend we do court 
automation alongside manual filing because of the challenges of having internet 
servers that are down most often and its associated delays. We can do both 
simultaneously to fast track the process and the judges must perform oversight 
function and manage the process, not only the adjudication process, even the 
administrative.

How can some of the innovations in Lagos be replicated at the National level?

It is already percolating to other states and even at the national level. If 
you are talking about the review of civil procedures, we started it in Lagos, 
then other states followed and the federal high court followed. I am talking 
about the administration of criminal justice, Lagos passed its own first, even 
if you are talking about criminal code laws, all the states even the federal 
the criminal code that we are still using back to pre-independence, is only 
Lagos that have been able to review and come up with a modern criminal law. 
Most other states if not all are still using criminal code that they used in 
teaching us law when we where in university in the 80's and 90's.

How can we make justice accessible to the poor at the appellate levels?

We have access to courts in Nigeria, but not access to justice and we all know 
that justice delayed is justice denied. I expect judges to query certain things 
without going through the pleadings. A judge should be able to go through the 
file, for instance and ask why 2014 case file is just getting to him now. He 
should able to look at the record and say wait a minute, my brother gave a 
directive that this file should be taken to Lagos 3 months ago, why is it 
getting to me now. The judge should be to ask questions, raise query and pass 
it to the registrar that he wants to know what happened, the officer 
responsible should be queried and disciplinary action taken.

So what name do we call this kind of activism?

I will call it judicial efficiency. That is how you can get it right. We need 
to focus attention to the support staff such as the registrars and the clerks. 
How many times do they train them? Are they well educated? We inherited some of 
them; some have been working for 30 years and about to retire. So, what have we 
done with them? In fact, some level of judicial officers in my own opinion, 
should be lawyers. I suggest that there should be a guideline even if it is a 
practice direction that the Chief Judges of each state can easily issue for the 
support staff that on no circumstance must a file be on your table more than 24 
or 48 hours, unless you have a genuine reason. That way, corruption will 
reduce. Most times, if you file a process, if you don't tip, your file will be 
there. If you don't tip, they won't upload the thing to the system. The 
computer won't work by itself, so there is human factor that needs to be 
addressed. So, when you have a guideline, a regulation that would bind the 
support staff of the judiciary, it will be the efficiency I am talking about. 
If a clerk knows that if the file doesn't get to his superior within 48 hours, 
he will be queried, he won't wait so much waiting for money.

Will you suggest that Salami committee, which was set up by the CJN only to 
look at how the judges are handling corruption cases, be expanded to oversee 
support staff activities?

No, because that one has a mandate. I think each state judiciary should look 
inward. It is not going to be a national or global, no, but there must be a 
policy that can be done to ensure that there is speedy, efficient and 
effectiveness in the judicial process. That is what will give confidence to the 
people because if the confidence in judiciary is lost, we are inviting anarchy.

On the area of legal education, NBA just finished its annual conference and you 
played a vital role in that. From the benefit of hindsight, how do you look at 
responses of young lawyers in that conference?

To me, it was impressive for the young lawyers. In fact, more young lawyers 
registered than the senior ones and this is encouraging. To me, they want to 
know how it is done. To me, that is not enough, it is a follow up that is 
required and I believe the NBA will tackle it. We learn everyday even the 
senior lawyers will continue to learn everyday. So we must continue that 
process. To me, when I look at the training of young lawyers, I am particularly 
not too happy. For instance, one at 15 years, passed school Certificate 
examination, took JAMB and passed, you then study law. Before 20, you are 
already a lawyer and law is something that really requires experience. People 
who are not lawyers can also be judges. In the past, we use to have lay 
magistrates. They are not lawyers but they adjudicate. You go to the customary 
court, they are not lawyers but they adjudicate fine. It shows that you don't 
have to be a lawyer before you can adjudicate or even mediate. But before you 
do that adjudication or mediation, you need experience and that is what I see 
that is lacking in the new breed of lawyers.

Will you suggest one first get a first degree before coming to law?

I will recommend a minimum of Higher School Certificate (HSC) or you call it 
GCE advance level as a prerequisite to study law. That is what made some of us.

Are you worried that is no law faculty is offering professional ethics as a 
course?

When you are well groomed at the faculty, then you go to law school where you 
will be taught professional ethics. The core subjects should be taught in the 
university and when it is being taught, the people who are learning should be 
people with experience not just copy and paste.

(source: guardian.ng)

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

Death penalty for kidnappers



To halt the heinous crime of kidnapping that has become a major threat to the 
safety of Nigerians, the Senate on Wednesday October 4, 2017 approved death 
penalty as the punishment for anyone found guilty of abduction, wrongful 
restraints or wrongful confinement for ransom. This resolution followed the 
adoption of a report by the Joint Committee on Police Affairs, National 
Security and Intelligence presented by its Chairman, Senator Abu Ibrahim.

The Senate Joint Committee observed that security agencies were unable to 
perform optimally due to inadequate support which it said deprived them of the 
necessary funding required to procure and deploy modern technology and 
equipment to sufficiently combat crimes. The Committee equally noted what it 
described as "unnecessary and unhealthy rivalry among security agencies" which 
denies them the benefit of synergy and intelligence sharing. Although relations 
of victims were always ready to pay ransom, which tend to encourage criminals 
to perpetrate their act, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu said there is 
need to discourage the payment of ransom.

The Senate Committee recommended adequate funding for security agencies and 
advised the federal government to ensure that deliberate efforts are made 
toward creating employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths. The 
Senate also tasked security agencies to embark on training and re-training of 
security personnel for effective capacity building. Besides, it charged state 
governments to make laws that will enable security agencies to prosecute 
kidnappers and culprits of related offences in their respective states.

Kidnapping which started in the Niger Delta region of the country with the 
abduction of foreign oil workers has gradually advanced into a flourishing 
nation-wide business for criminals. Many parts of the country now suffer from 
it. The ordeal that victims of kidnapping and their families go through has 
made armed robbery a less feared crime. These days, mass abduction of bus 
passengers has been added to the equation. The entire Northwest zone of the 
country was recently hit by a gale of kidnapping. Kidnappers operated almost 
freely on the Abuja-Kaduna expressway, Birnin Gwari-Kaduna road; 
Obajana-Lokoja, Ajaokuta-Lokoja and Kabba-Obajana roads in Kogi state. The 
Benin-Akure road in Edo State is another notorious route for kidnappers.

In the Committee's report submitted to the Senate, Director-General of the 
Department of State Security [DSS] Lawal Daura was quoted as saying in October 
2015 alone, Nigeria recorded 108 cases of kidnapping. He said the cases which 
involved 180 victims including 26 foreigners occurred in 24 states of the 
federation. In July this year, a permanent secretary with the Osun State 
government Mrs. Olufunke Oluwakemi Kolawole was kidnapped on the Okene-Abuja 
highway. Her body was later found on the road. On September 18, 2017 a Kaduna 
businessman Alhaji Sheriff Abidu Yazid was shot dead on the Kaduna-Abuja 
expressway and his wife was abducted. An Assistant Commissioner of Police with 
the Zamfara State Police Command, Emmanuel Agene was abducted on Wednesday 
September 27, 2017 along Birnin Gwari-Funtua road and was released after being 
held for 6 days.

In spite of the arrest of a large number of suspected kidnappers by the police, 
the heinous crime still rages on in parts of the country. It is also 
unfortunate that even with the existence of death penalty for kidnappers in 
some states including Enugu, Edo and Lagos; no culprit has yet been condemned 
to death. This is why we support the adoption of capital punishment for 
kidnappers. Given the traumatic experience that victims and their relations go 
through, death penalty should be the just deserts of any convicted kidnapper.

We urge Police investigators to be thorough in their jobs in order to 
facilitate and ease proper prosecution and eventual conviction of suspects. 
While we encourage other states to domesticate the anti-kidnap law of the 
Senate, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to, without delay, assent to the 
bill. All hands must be on deck to stamp kidnapping from this country.

(source: Editorial, Daily Trust)

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

LEDAP tasks govt on abolition of death penalty



As the world marks the World Day Against the use of the Death Penalty with the 
theme Poverty and the death penalty, a rights group, Legal Defence and 
Assistance Project, LEDAP, has reaffirmed its position that the abolition of 
death penalty in law and practice should be the firm desire of the Nigerian 
government as death penalty was cruel and inhumane treatment, which has no 
place in modern society.

National Coordinator of LEDAP, Mr Chinonye Obiagwu in a statement, yesterday, 
said "We contend that the application of death penalty is discriminatory in 
Nigeria as it has become a punishment exclusive to the poor in society.

"LEDAP is continually in legal battles with the federal and state governments 
in its quest to ensure that fundamental rights of citizens are safe-guarded and 
death penalty is abolished. Currently, we have 3 cases in court where we are 
challenging the imposition of death sentences and the proposal of the federal 
and state governments to execute death row inmates."

"We urge state governors not to sign any death warrants as it constitutes state 
murder. With high number of criminal convictions overturned on appeal, 
continued execution is risky as innocent people may be wrongfully killed.

"We strongly believes that in its practical application, death penalty is 
discriminatory as there is hardly any rich or influential person in society who 
is sentenced to death. We contend that the reason for the discriminatory 
outlook is due to the fact that the rich have the resources to settle the 
police or afford the best lawyers who ensure they are not convicted.

"LEDAP therefore, takes the commemoration of the World Day Against Death 
Penalty, to re-live the experiences of the inmates saved from the gallows, 
inviting freed former death-row inmates to tell their stories in a media 
parley. It is our conclusion that poverty is a common factor to all prisoners 
on death row in Nigeria.

"LEDAP beckons on the government at all levels to ensure that they give life 
rather than exercise eagerness in taking it away while we condemn the 
recommendation that prisoners on death row be executed as a means of 
decongesting the prisons. We believe that the government has a duty to protect 
and respect the sanctity of human life rather than supervising its termination 
and recommends a moratorium law be passed against executions in Nigeria."

(source: vanguardngr.com)



JORDAN:

Poor women in Jordan most vulnerable to death penalties



The World Coalition against the Death Penalty will focus this year's World Day 
against the Death Penalty by looking at the close link between poverty and the 
death penalty and highlighting how people living in poverty are the most 
vulnerable to the death penalty.

The Association for the Solidarity of Jordanian Women, Tadamoun, has found that 
poorer women who are marginalised because of their social status are more 
vulnerable to the death penalty and less able to take conciliatory and tribal 
measures to drop the personal right to commute the punishment either by them or 
by their families.

In 2016, Jordan issued 13 death sentences. During the period 1975-2016 Jordan 
carried out more than 1,226 executions, including 26 since 2014. At the 
beginning of March 2017 Jordan executed 15 people, most of whom were convicted 
of terrorist crimes, a first for mass executions in Jordan since 2006.

Those living with imminent death sentences in Jordan (currently 15 women) are 
living under great psychological pressure, according to Tadamoun, which is 
pursuing a number of cases for tribal reconciliation.

However, the weak response of the government has prevented reconciliation 
taking place; authorities are unwilling to pay large sums of money for tribal 
reconciliation if the offenders are female.

According to statistics from 2016 from the reform and rehabilitation centres in 
Jordan, 87,442 people were admitted into rehabilitation centres that year of 
which 21,117 were sentenced, 36,197 were brought before a jury and 3,128 were 
administratively detained.

(source: Middle East Monitor)








IRAN----execution

Man Executed For Drug Offence



A prisoner was executed at Qazvin central prison on drug related charges.

According to the Iranian state-run news agency Mehr, on the morning of Sunday 
October 8, a prisoner was executed at Qazvin Central Prison. This prisoner was 
sentenced to death for drug related charges.

"The defendant, Reza N., was sentenced to death on the charge of possessing 11 
kilograms and 490 grams of meth. After the sentence was confirmed by the 
Attorney General, it was carried out on the morning of Sunday October 8, while 
a number of judicial authorities, the Head of the Penitentiary of Qazvin, the 
Police representatives, and the forensic physicians were present," said Esmaeil 
Sadeghi Niaraki, the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Qazvin.

Sadeghi Niaraki added, "The defendant's case went to court and the execution 
sentence was carried out by the Section for Implementation of Sentence of 
Public and Revolutionary prosecutor's office of Takestan."

Kurdistan Human Rights Network identified the executed prisoner as Reza 
Naalbandi, son of Ali, from Tabriz (Northwestern Iran).

The execution of prisoners with drug related charges continues to be carried 
out in Iran despite the fact that the bill for the amendment to the drug law in 
Iran has been approved by Iranian Parliament. However, the Guardian Council 
must still approve the bill.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

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

Annual Report on Execution in Iran - 2017



On the anniversary of the International Day of Fighting against People's 
Execution, The Department of Statistics and Publications of the Human Rights 
Activists in Iran publishes an annual report on executions in Iran. This report 
is intended to provide visibility to the dire situation where thousands of 
people are awaiting execution. The present report concerns the individuals 
executed in the 1 year period from 10 October 2016 until the beginning of 
October 2017 and refers to at least 508 people executed in different parts of 
Iran by hanging. The report shows a rise by about 1% in the number of 
executions compared to the same period last year. Most of these individuals had 
been condemned to death in unfair courts and deprived of access to lawyers. 
Moreover, this report shall not be considered an accurate and comprehensive 
estimate since the Iranian government has placed enormous restrictions on human 
rights related activities and independent human right organizations.

Since October 10th, 2016 to the beginning of October, 2017, this organization 
published 381 reports regarding the executions in Iran. These reports include a 
total of 223-execution decrees out of which 508 individuals have been already 
executed. Out of the 508 executions, a total of 32 people were executed in 
public. Among the victims whose identity has been established, there were 6 
women, and the age of 6 individuals was under 18 years at the time they 
committed the alleged crimes.

In comparison with the number of executions in the same period last year, there 
has been a 1% rise in the number of executions but also a 62% increase in the 
number of execution decrees. The number of public executions has fallen by 5% 
over the same period, and execution of women has also shown a 33% decline.

According to this report, 57% of the executions were related to the charges of 
drug trafficking, 36% for murder, 4% for rape, 2% for political charges, and 1% 
for miscellaneous cases.

The following pie chart illustrates the number of executions in different 
provinces of Iran. The graph shows that the province of Alborz with 3 most 
populated prisons and 25% executions comes in the 1st place, and provinces of 
West Azerbaijan and Gilan with 11% and 6% are in the 2nd and 3rd places, 
respectively.

According to this report, the number of public executions has been 6% of the 
total number of executions as shown in the following figure.

(source: HRANA)








LEBANON:

MP calls for death penalty in Zgharta murder as tensions mount



MP Estephan Douaihy Monday called for the death penalty in the case of a high 
profile murder of a Zgharta woman, allegedly by a Syrian national, which has 
triggered a crackdown on Syrians in the area.

(source: The Daily Star)




PAKISTAN:

Standing against death penalty



Today, on 10th October the European Union (EU) joins many partners across the 
world to commemorate the 15th World Day against the Death Penalty. Despite a 
positive trend towards abolition and restriction of the use of capital 
punishment in most countries, we have seen worrying evidence of serious 
violations of international norms and standards where it's applied including 
the non-limitation of execution to the most serious crimes, the non-exclusion 
of juvenile offenders, the execution of mentally ill persons and the lack of 
guarantees for access to justice and a fair trial for all.

While the death penalty is still considered constitutional in Pakistan, it is 
very encouraging and promising to see a decline in executions from 333 in 2015 
to 87 in 2016, and 44 until today in 2017.

However it is still too many.

Indeed, arguments can be made of the difficult security situation and the 
brutal and cowardly attack on the Army School in Peshawar, which led to the 
decision to lift the moratorium.

I can appreciate and understand the strong call for retribution which it 
prompted.

In the European Union we are also facing terrorist attacks; however, people are 
keeping their commitment against the death penalty.

Evidence around the world continues to highlight that death penalty is a 
discriminatory practice and that at every stage of criminal proceedings, social 
and economic inequalities affect access to justice for those who face the death 
penalty.

Lawmakers and practices still have not taken adequate steps to ensure that the 
death penalty is applied evenly across a society, or to guard against wrongful 
convictions based on errant identifications of witnesses or mistakes at 
forensic laboratories.

False testimonies or forced confessions and prosecutorial missteps are still 
alarmingly common.

Taking of a human life is irreversible and it does not make any society safer.

Evidences around the world conclusively show that death penalty does not deter 
crime more effectively than other punishments.

The European Union is firmly committed to the eradication of death penalty, 
torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and remains among the strongest 
advocates for worldwide abolition of the death penalty.

As a sign of its strong commitment against the death penalty, the EU and 
Belgium have agreed to co-host the 7th World congress against the death 
penalty, in Brussels from 27 February to March 2019.

This commitment also includes the regional congress, which will take place in 
the Ivory Coast, in April 2018.

The World Congress is a major triennial event drawing together over 1500 high 
level participants from around the world.

I sincerely hope that Pakistan will be in position to attend as a country 
having reinstated the moratorium on death penalty.

At these conferences we will reiterate our strong opposition to the death 
penalty.

There, we will also reiterate that we have since long done away with the 
capital punishment on our territory.

Because we believe that it can never be morally justified for any state to take 
a life.

Because there is no evidence that capital punishment has any deterrent effects 
on the level of violent crime in a society.

Because no justice system is immune of mistakes, and executions make it 
impossible to reverse miscarriages of justice.

And finally, because experiences show that death penalty is deeply socially 
biased, affecting mostly the poor.

A true search of justice implies the abolition of death penalty.

(source: Jean-Francois Cautain; The writer is the ambassador of the European 
Union to Pakistan----The Nation)








AUSTRALIA:

Australia must continue to campaign against the death penalty in our region



In a kitchen in suburban Melbourne sit 2 English lawyers who have saved 
hundreds of convicted criminals from execution.

Parvais Jabbar and Saul Lehrfreund's strike rate of keeping death row clients 
alive in the Caribbean and Africa is nothing short of extraordinary - more than 
90 %, they say, much of it done from a cluttered London office smaller than the 
kitchen we are sitting in.

Across the kitchen table is Melbourne barrister Julian McMahon, an intense, 
quietly spoken criminal defence advocate.

His record is grimmer then his English counterparts, though not from lack of 
effort. McMahon was recently awarded of Companion of the Order of Australia for 
his efforts trying to keep Australians on death row alive.

His best-known clients, though, are dead. It is likely that McMahon will lose 
more clients in Asia in the coming years. Teaming up with Parvais and Saul is 
aimed at changing these odds.

In 2002, McMahon and Lex Lasry, QC, led the campaign to stop the hanging of 
Melbourne man Van Nguyen?, a low-level drug mule arrested in transit in 
Singapore. McMahon worked furiously on the legal case, while relentlessly 
pressing journalists, diplomats and politicians.

Several things remain seared in my mind about Nguyen, whose story I covered 
closely at the time. Media reports that he found religion on death row never 
fully reflected the depth of his discovery, detailed in his prison diaries. At 
a gathering a year after his death, friends and family shared stories about 
Nguyen's transformation on death row and his bravery in facing death.

A little-known fact is that he was prepared to testify against the Australian 
heroin syndicate that recruited him. His death meant he never got the chance.

Research has proven that the death penalty does not work as a deterrent, yet 
even the proponents of deterrence must acknowledge that Nguyen's execution 
achieved precisely the opposite effect: it allowed a syndicate to continue to 
operate with impunity.

I also recall staring at a clock as it crept towards 9am on December 2, 2005, 
the moment the Singapore justice system had decided Nguyen would drop into a 
cavity so the rope around his neck would break it. I recall reeling at the 
barbarity of the premise that I knew the precise moment that a person's life 
would end.

And yet the time of death is the only certainty that criminal justice systems 
can deliver. Every such system endures wrongful convictions, false confessions 
and levels of corruption and inequity. It is an unavoidable truth that while a 
state can chose the moment it will end a life, it cannot guarantee it will not 
sometimes kill the wrong person.

The night before Nguyen was declared dead, I watched McMahon leave Changi 
prison with his arm draped over Nguyen's mother's shoulder as she wept, dragged 
away from her last visit.

10 years later, McMahon farewelled his clients the Bali nine members Myuran 
Sukumaran? and Andrew Chan. They were shot dead in Indonesia 35 minutes after 
midnight. The pair refused to be blindfolded and sung Amazing Grace before 
being killed.

Jabbar and Lehrfreund's success at saving lives lies partly in their use of the 
UK Privy Council, which remains the last point of appeal for some common law 
nations but which was not available to McMahon's clients.

Without similar legal appeal rights, Lehrfreund believes Asia and the Middle 
East are set to remain "hold outs", resisting a trend his Death Penalty Project 
helped engineer. In 1998, 62 % of countries retained the death penalty. Today 
the figure is less than 30 %.

And yet there is hope. McMahon says Australia's relative inactivity in 
advocating for abolishment is changing. In 2015, Australia made it clear that 
it opposed all executions in all circumstances. This bipartisan policy is now 
embedded in Australia's campaign to win a seat on the United Nations Human 
Rights Council. Jabbar and Lehrfreund say this can be bolstered in a variety of 
ways.

Research and polling they have commissioned has helped prove to politicians 
that most people, when presented with information about wrongful convictions 
and the failure of deterrence, don't support the death penalty. In Malaysia, 
such research has been instrumental in changing views inside government. The 
same could occur in Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam, although the prospect of 
reform in authoritarian China or Rodrigo Duterte's Philippines (where the 
president wants to reintroduce the death penalty) appears bleak.

Australian diplomacy on this front, say Jabbar and Lehrfreund, should also be 
aimed at restricting the type of crimes and people which can receive a death 
penalty. A demand for abolishment is likely to be ignored, while a campaign to 
prevent the mentally ill from being executed, or to limit capital punishment to 
the most extreme cases of murder, may allow governments to save face but stop 
killing prisoners.

While they and McMahon keep fighting, the Melbourne barrister is sure to remain 
anxious. McMahon dreads receiving an out of hours phone call from an overseas 
number, the prelude to a long struggle he will probably lose and the strike of 
a clock marking the moment a person's life will be taken.

(source: Nick McKenzie is an Age investigative journalist)