[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 15




NIGERIA:

Amnesty International urges Nigerian govt to issue moratorium against 
executions

Amnesty International advises Lagos govt against executing death row inmates


Amnesty International has called on the Nigerian government to issue a legally 
binding official moratorium against executions as a first step towards the 
abolition of the death penalty in the country.

It said this will be in line with global trends.

The country director of the civic group, Osai Ojigho, said this during a launch 
of Amnesty International Global Report titled “Death sentences and Executions 
2017” in Abuja on Thursday.

According to her, Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind and must show a great 
commitment for protecting lives and ensuring that the criminal justice system 
is fair.

She said there is need for reforming the judiciary in order to strengthen the 
system.

“Nigeria imposed the highest number of death sentences in the sub-Saharan 
Africa region in 2017,” she said, with 621 people sentenced to death.

She said Amnesty International believes that these death penalties are 
retrogressive, unjustifiable as there is no evidence to suggest the death 
penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishment

“In our reports, it is obvious that executions are reducing and death sentences 
with death penalty is also reducing but the reverse is the case in few 
countries in the world and unfortunately Nigeria is among those countries with 
increasing rate in death sentences and the potential for death penalty is still 
a risk many people face in the country.”

She said it is essential for the federal government to invest in security 
agencies on the use of technology in the prevention of crime thereby limiting 
people going through the justice system that is weak, which can be described as 
discriminatory against the poor and the vulnerable.

Similarly, Damian Ugwu, a researcher with the group said 2285 people were on 
death row as at December 31, 2017 which includes four foreign nationals.

According to him, Nigeria recorded no known executions in 2017 as compared to 
2016 where it executed three death row inmates, although, 621 people were 
sentenced to death in 2017 compared to 527 in 2016.

Mr Ugwu said death penalty is discriminatory and often used against the most 
vulnerable in society which includes the poor, ethnic and religious minorities 
and people with mental disabilities.

“Some government use it to silence their opponents. Where justice system are 
flawed and unfair trials rife, the risk of executing an innocent person is ever 
present and when death penalty is carried out, it is final. Mistakes that are 
made cannot be unmade. An innocent person may be released from prison for a 
crime they did not commit, but an execution can never be reversed,” he said.

But a legal practitioner, Olayinka Ogunmodimu, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on 
Thursday evening, said death penalty should not be totally abolished.

“Once someone is found guilty of a capital offence, the governor should not 
have the discretion of choosing whether or not to sign. Death penalty should 
not be abolished. Once a life has been taken, the punishment can only reduce 
from death sentence to life imprisonment,” Mr Ogunmodimu said.

“By Nigerian law, the death penalty will serve as justice for someone who has 
taken the life of another but the disadvantage is that most governors refuse to 
sign death warrants by the reason of values, culture and beliefs as they prefer 
the inmates to die a natural death.”

He said Nigeria lacks effective legal system that can quickly dispense justice 
without considering factors like favouritism, power among others while noting 
that the judiciary system needs to be strengthened.

“A crime can be prosecuted in Nigeria for 20 years but (that) cannot happen in 
a developed country. The only case in Nigeria’s legal system in which you can 
know the starting and finishing is election petition and it is because the law 
have said that it must start and finish within 180 days,” he said.

“It is a matter of here and there, when you look at event around you, one might 
have to agree with existing laws in which death penalty is part of the 
punishment but Amnesty International is right to say that in most cases, most 
people at the back end of the law are always victims of the law. Let us look at 
the case of Offa, will we say death penalty is not an option if the offenders 
were captured?” Ola Adeosun, a legal practitioner and political analyst said

Mr Adeosun said the law should be reviewed that the manner of offence should be 
put into consideration before pronouncing death penalty.

“Someone who robbed with a toy gun, blade and knife if arrested, prosecuted and 
found guilty will be sentence to death, for me it is too harsh. The manner of 
the offence should be put into consideration but there are some people who are 
serial murderers and since there are no forests to keep them, such people 
should be taken out legally,” he said.

He said most leaders in African countries sign all kinds of treaties without 
reading them, which is the problem the country faces in domesticating most 
international treaties.

Amnesty International is a world-embracing movement working for the protection 
of human rights. It is independent of all governments and is neutral in its 
relation to political groups, ideologies and religious dividing lines.

(source: premiumtimesng.com)




INDIA:

Over 100 death sentences recorded in India in 2017: Amnesty


Over 100 death sentences were handed out last year by courts in India which 
also expanded the scope of capital punishment by enacting new laws against 
hijacking, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said.

In 'The Death Sentences and Executions 2017' report released here yesterday, 
Amnesty said it has recorded at least 993 executions in 23 countries in 2017, 
down by four per cent from 2016 (1,032 executions) and 39 per cent from 2015 
(when the organisation recorded 1,634 executions, the highest number since 
1989).

At least 2,591 death sentences in 53 countries were recorded in 2017, a 
significant decrease from the record-high of 3,117 recorded in 2016.

These figures do not include the thousands of death sentences and executions 
that Amnesty International believes were imposed and implemented in China, 
where figures remain classified as a state secret.

In India, 109 death sentences were recorded in 2017. However, there were zero 
executions in the country last year.

Amnesty International recorded commutations or pardons of death sentences in 21 
countries: India, Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, 
Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco/Western Sahara, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New 
Guinea, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tunisia, the UAE, the US and Zimbabwe.

"Against international standards, India, Singapore and Thailand expanded the 
scope of death penalty by adopting new laws that would impose death sentence 
for hijacking, nuclear terrorism and corruption, respectively," it said.

In India, a total of 371 people were known to be under sentence of death at the 
end of 2017.

The report said that nine countries in the Asia-Pacific region carried out 
executions, down from 11 in 2016.

Indonesia and Taiwan did not implement any death sentences and India observed a 
hiatus on executions for the second year running.

The report added that a research by the Centre on the Death Penalty, National 
Law University, indicated that the courts in India imposed 109 new death 
sentences, including 51 for murder and 43 for murder involving sexual offences.

This represented a decrease in the total number of death sentences imposed (136 
in 2016), as well as in those imposed for murder not involving other offences 
(87 in 2016).

2 new death sentences were imposed for drug-related offences.

The Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016, which provided for the death penalty for 
hijacking resulting into death, came into force in July, the report said.

Amnesty recorded drug-related executions in four countries China (where figures 
are classified as a state secret), Iran, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

The secrecy that shrouded capital punishment in Malaysia and Vietnam made it 
impossible to determine whether executions for drug crimes occurred.

Singapore hanged eight people in 2017 all for drug-related offences.

There was a similar trend in Saudi Arabia, where drug-related beheadings 
rocketed from 16 per cent of total executions in 2016 to 40 per cent in 2017.

"Despite strides towards abolishing this abhorrent punishment, there are still 
a few leaders who would resort to death penalty as a 'quick-fix' rather than 
tackling problems at their roots with humane, effective and evidence-based 
policies.

Strong leaders execute justice, not people," Amnesty International's Secretary 
General Salil Shetty said in the report.

He said the fact that countries continue to resort to death penalty for 
drug-related offences remains troubling.

"However, steps taken by Iran and Malaysia to amend their anti-drug laws go a 
long way towards showing that cracks are appearing, even in the minority of 
countries that still execute people," Shetty added.

(source: The New Indian Express)


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


Kathua rape case: Victim's family demands culprits be 'hanged for heinous 
crime', say they do not need CBI probe


As the Bakarwals make their way to the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir with 
their belongings, she trudges along burdened by the weight of her 
eight-year-old daughter's death.

"She was so beautiful and intelligent. I wanted her to be a doctor when she 
grew up," the biological mother of the girl reminisces.

The grief-stricken mother wishes for death penalty for the guilty. "My only 
wish is the culprits should be hanged for the heinous crime, so that no other 
family has to go through it," she said.

The girl was adopted by the woman's brother and his wife in Rasana hamlet of 
Kathua district when she was one year old.

Still in shock, she blames herself for leaving her daughter at brother's house. 
"Why was she killed? She was grazing cattle and taking care of horses. She was 
eight years old. Why did they kill her in such a brutal way. They should be 
given death sentence," she says.

The girl's father said she was at maternal uncle's home in Rasana. "The killers 
should be given death penalty. We do not need a CBI probe, we have faith in 
investigation by the Crime Branch," he said.

Jammu has been on tenterhooks since the brutal rape and killing of the girl 
belonging to the nomadic Muslim Bakarwal community. Her body was found in 
Rasana forest on 17 January, a week after she went missing while grazing horses 
in the forest area.

The couple along with their two kids and cattle left their hamlet in Samba and 
in Round-Domail in Udhampur district as part of their annual trek to Sanasar 
mountainous belt. The mother said that earlier they had good relations with 
Hindus and lived in harmony with them.

"But after this incident, the relations have soured and we are fearful. We only 
want justice for her. She was our dear child. She was beautiful and we loved 
her," she said.

The parents wanted to take her back, teach her and make her a doctor, the 
mother said, adding that she was very intelligent.

"The prime minister had said "Beti Padhao Beti Bachao" but how are they 
teaching and saving girls like this," her adoptive father asks.  "The ministers 
are supporting the rape accused, saying that they are innocent, but they are 
wrong," he said.

The biological father said the world knows that their daughter, who did not 
know about the difference between Hindus and Muslims, was wronged and murdered 
in most barbaric manner.

"The world and entire India knows it. They are supporting them. I do not say 
she was our only child, she was everyone's child. The incident should not be 
looked at through the religious lens," he said.

On 23 January, the government had handed over the case to the Crime Branch of 
the state police which formed a special investigation team and arrested eight 
people including two Special Police Officers (SPOs) and a head

constable.

The police have arrested eight people in the case, but the Bar Association has 
opposed the action, alleging targeting of minority Dogras.

(source: firstpost.com)





MOROCCO:

Amnesty International Morocco Accuses the Government of Using Religion for 
Political Agenda


Following the publication of Amnesty International annual report, 'The State of 
the World's Human Rights 2017/2018,' Amnesty International Morocco accused the 
El Othmani government of instrumentalizing religion to violate scores of human 
rights.

In a report published on April 13, Assabah said that the executive director of 
Amnesty International Morocco, expressed the human rights organization's 
concerns over the Moroccan government's use of religion for its own political 
ends.

The newspaper reports that the executive director the NGO's Morocco branch, 
Salah Abdellaoui, made his remarks during a conference on Thursday, April 12. 
Speaking about the 'rampant' human rights abuses, Mr. Abdellaoui reportedly 
criticized the government for its inflexibility on some articles in the civil 
and criminal codes.

Singling out the state of death penalty in Morocco, Salah Abdellaoui allegedly 
said that the government refuses to take bold steps to abolish capital 
punishment because of its desire to maintain its in power, especially as 
Moroccan officials reportedly fear that such 'revolutionary moves' would 
unsettle some conservative circles, undermining their authority.

According to Mr. Abdellaoui, while it harbors the ideological and emotional 
needs of a minority of the population, maintaining the death penalty frustrates 
the aspirations of the majority of Moroccans.

He also explained that the government's resolve to keep some people 'retarded 
in the criminal code' so as to 'toy with Moroccans' emotions and lure them in 
believing that keeping the law on death penalty is the surest way to prevent 
high criminality rates.'

In its 2017 report on the death penalty, Amnesty International pointed out that 
despite the existence of some positive signs mainly motivated by 'recent 
judicial reforms,' Morocco and North Africa in general are still faced with the 
reality of 'disturbing trends' that do not favor for human rights.

The report documented that, although Morocco has witnessed no execution in 
recent years, death sentences are still being issued. In addition, of the 90 
people who were sentenced to death by 2017, over 15 death sentences were issued 
just last year alone.

In its general 2017 annual report, the group mentioned the repression of 
political dissent and the bleak prospects of freedom of expression, saying that 
the prevalence of 'Islamic tenets' in the country's laws and legal system 
prevents officials from a bold commitment to allowing more fertile grounds for 
the advancement of human rights.

This is not the first time that such claims are directed at the Justice and 
Development Party-led government. Since rising to the realm of the executive in 
2011, the party has constantly been criticized for its Islamic leanings and a 
vision of society which opponents claim constitutes a major impediment to the 
consolidation of a secular way of life in Morocco.

(source: menafn.com)