[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

August 4




IRAN----execution

Prisoner Hanged in Zahedan


A prisoner was executed at Zahedan Central Prison on murder charges.

According to a close source, on the morning of Thursday, August 2, a prisoner 
was hanged at Zahedan Central Prison. The prisoner, sentenced to death on 
murder charges, was identified as Miran Baluchi, son of Mohtaj, from Nik-Shahr.

The execution of this prisoner has not been announced by the state-run media so 
far.

According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 
517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. There 
is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in 
issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and 
intent.

\ **************************

36 Executions in July


According to confirmed reports by Iran Human Rights (IHR), the death sentences 
of at least 36 people were implemented in different Iranian cities in the month 
of July.

So far in 2018, at least 133 people have been executed, among them 4 juvenile 
offenders. An assessment of the charges of the prisoners who were executed in 
July shows that 11 prisoners were sentenced to death on Moharebeh (waging war 
against God) charges, 24 on murder charges, and 1 on drug-related charges.

Among the prisoners who were executed last month, there was also a woman, says 
the report. 8 of the prisoners who were executed on Moharebeh charges were 
sentenced to death over the alleged 2017 ISIS attacks on Tehran's parliament 
and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Several reports indicated that 
some of the executed prisoners were not directly involved in the attacks and 
were sentenced to death on the charge of having information about the operation 
and, in some cases, providing the attackers with logistic support.

1 of the executions of the last month was based on drug-related charges. It was 
the 2nd drug-related execution that was reported by IHR after the enforcement 
of the new drug law on November 14, 2017. The new drug law includes a mechanism 
to decrease death penalty verdicts and reduce the sentence of those prisoners 
who are sentenced to death or life imprisonment. Only 1/2 of the executions 
(18) were announced by the official Iranian news sources. The other 18 cases 
were confirmed by IHR's sources. The actual number of executions might be 
higher.

(source for both: Iran Human Rights)






GLOBAL:

Vatican declares death penalty 'inadmissible'----Pope Francis has decreed that 
capital punishment constitutes an 'attack' on the dignity of human beings.


The Roman Catholic Church says it has changed its teaching to declare the death 
penalty "inadmissible" to reflect that all life is sacred and there is no 
justification for state-sponsored executions.

The Vatican said on Thursday Pope Francis approved the revision to say that 
capital punishment constitutes an "attack" on the dignity of human beings.

The change will be reflected in the most important guide to church teaching, 
the catechism.

Previously, the catechism said the church did not exclude recourse to capital 
punishment "if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human 
lives against the unjust aggressor".

In an accompanying letter explaining the change, Cardinal Ladaria, head of the 
Vatican's doctrine, said the development of Catholic doctrine on capital 
punishment did not contradict prior teaching but rather was an evolution of it.

Pope Francis has long railed against the death penalty. In March 2015 letter to 
the president of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, he 
wrote, "Today, capital punishment is unacceptable, however, serious the 
condemned's crime may have been."

The letter added: "It entails cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment."

Death penalty

Last year, 53 countries issued death sentences and 23 of them executed at least 
993 people, according to Amnesty International.

Most executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.

In the United States, 23 people were executed, a slight increase from 2016 but 
a low number compared with historical trends, Amnesty said.

Among Americans, 54 % favour the punishment for people convicted of murder, 
while 39 % are opposed, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted 
this year.

Capital punishment is banned in most of Europe, with Belarus being the only 
European country that carried out executions in 2017, Amnesty said.

By the end of last year, 106 countries worldwide had banned the death penalty.

But this week Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could soon 
move to reinstate the death penalty, which it had abolished in 2004 as part of 
the country's bid to join the European Union.

(source: aljazeera.com)






PHILIPPINES:

Palace: Restoration of death penalty still a priority


Malacanang said that President Duterte is far from giving up on the restoration 
of capital punishment as the bill which seeks the reimposition of death penalty 
faces a hurdle in the Senate.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the statement after Pope Francis 
declared that death penalty is never admissible and that the Catholic Church 
will work towards its abolition around the world.

Roque, in a press briefing in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, said that the fate of death 
penalty in the Philippines is now in the hands of the Senate.

"I think the matter of the death penalty is in the hands of the senators now. 
So we leave it to the Senate whatever decision they may have," he said Friday.

"It is still this administration's priority to restore death penalty for 
serious drug-related offenses," he added.

"But the decision, since the bill was already passed in the House of 
Representatives, is now with the Senate," he reiterated.

However, Roque said that President Duterte will still try to convince senators 
to restore capital punishment in the country after it was abolished in 2006.

"The President would still try gentle persuasion but it's really a decision of 
the senators now," Roque said.

Last year, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon had earlier expressed that 
the bill might not pass the Senate, saying there are at least 13 senators who 
will block the passage of the bill.

President Duterte has been pushing for the restoration of capital punishment in 
the country. However, the public has criticized the Congress after the House 
Majority bloc decided to exclude plunder, rape, and treason from the list of 
the crimes punishable with death.

The exclusion is reportedly to help them arrive at a compromise after some 
lawmakers remained hesitant about voting in favor of House Bill No. 4727.

Earlier, Malacanang said that the reimposition of capital punishment is an 
important component in keeping a crime-free and drug-free Philippines.

"The reimposition of death penalty is an important component in building a 
trustworthy government that protects its citizens and youth from crime, 
especially the kind perpetrated by illegal drug traffickers and violators," 
Malacanang had said.

Earlier, Duterte said that he would like to know the rationale why Congress 
decided to exclude plunder and rape form the list of crimes punishable with 
death penalty under the said House Bill.

Duterte said that while he did not say he will not kill plunderers or corrupt 
officials, he said that rape is still one of the most heinous crimes that 
should merit the heaviest penalty.

(source: Manila Bulletin)

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

Death penalty revival remains Palace priority despite Pope's call


Restoring the death penalty remains a priority of the Duterte administration, 
despite the Vatican???s pronouncement that it is "inadmissible" in any 
circumstance.

"It is still a priority of this administration to restore the death penalty for 
serious, drug-related offenses," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in 
a press briefing on Friday, a day after Pope Francis approved a change in 
Catholic catechism that had previously accepted capital punishment as a "last 
recourse ... [to] effectively defend human lives against the unjust aggressor."

The new teaching in Catechism No. 2267 now says there are other ways to protect 
the common good, and that the Church should commit itself to working to end 
capital punishment.

According to the new text, "the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, 
that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the 
inviolability and dignity of the person."

The Church acknowledged that it had "long considered recourse to the death 
penalty on the part of legitimate authority and following a fair trial ... an 
acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good."

But it added that "[t]oday, there is increasing awareness that the dignity of 
the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes."

Pope Francis has long opposed the death penalty, saying that the execution of a 
human being is fundamentally against the teachings of Christ because, by 
definition, it excludes the possibility of redemption.

Feeds vengeance

"It doesn't give justice to victims, but it feeds vengeance," the Pope said in 
June 2016, arguing that the biblical commandment "thou shall not kill" applies 
to the innocent as well as the guilty.

The death penalty was abolished in the Philippines in 2006 but President 
Duterte has been actively pushing for its restoration despite resistance from 
the Senate.

Roque said the decision now lay with the Senate, but that the President would 
try "gentle persuasion" to convince the lawmakers of the need for the death 
penalty.

In a text message to reporters on Friday, Senate President Vicente Sotto III 
said he would "try to find some kind of a compromise," to convince his 
colleagues to support the death penalty bill.

Sotto earlier said senators would be more likely to support the bill if the 
death penalty only targeted high-level drug traffickers.

But in a separate message to reporters, former Senate President and Duterte 
party mate Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III categorically said the Senate "won't 
reimpose the law."

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, meanwhile, reiterated the stand of the Liberal Party 
(LP) in opposing the restoration of the death penalty.

"We do not see it as a deterrent to crime," the LP president said.

Heinous crimes

The Senate seemed "somewhat divided on the issue," Sen. Sonny Angara said.

Although the House passed a bill reviving the death penalty for major drug 
offenses in March 2017, it has remained at the committee level in the Senate.

At the House of Representatives, Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza said he "welcomes the 
Pope's pronouncement," and hoped the government would stop pushing for the 
return of capital punishment.

Allowing the death penalty violates the Constitution and the government's 
treaties with the United Nations, Atienza said, adding that proponents of 
capital punishment "transcended God who created human life."

Under the 1987 Constitution, the death penalty shall not be imposed but 
Congress may pass a law prescribing death for heinous crimes.

The Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country, has a history of invoking 
and suspending capital punishment.

4 months after the declaration of martial law in September 1972, the late 
dictator Ferdinand Marcos ordered the execution of notorious drug lord Lim Seng 
to serve, Marcos said, as a deterrent against the growing drug menace.

Between 1946 and 1965 - the year when Marcos became President - 35 people were 
executed for crimes committed with "senseless depravity" or "extreme criminal 
perversity."

>From 1971 to 1972, several laws were passed and presidential decrees issued 
that made hijacking, drug offenses, car theft, subversion, illegal possession 
of firearms, arson, embezzlement and illegal fishing capital crimes.

In 1987, former President Corazon Aquino abolished the death penalty "unless 
for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, [and] Congress hereafter 
provides for it."

Lethal injection

In 1993, Congress passed Republic Act (RA) No. 7659, which reimposed capital 
punishment. The law was amended in 1996, prescribing lethal injection for those 
convicted of heinous crimes.

Between 1999 and 2000 during the term of then President Joseph Estrada, 7 
inmates were put to death as part of the administration's anticrime drive.

In June 2006, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed RA 9346 and 
abolished the death penalty, saying it had not proven to be a deterrent to 
crime.

Although more than 2/3 of countries around the world have abolished or 
suspended judicial killings, the human rights organization Amnesty 
International has recorded at least 2,591 death sentences in 53 countries and 
nearly 1,000 executions in 2017 alone, excluding those unreported in China.

(source: Philippine Daily Inquirer)






PAKISTAN:

Cops' murderer gets death penalty


An anti-terrorism court awarded death sentence to the murderer of 2 police 
officials in the prison van on 3 counts. According to the police, a sessions 
court of Khushab announced death penalty to convict Nasrullah of Quaidabad in 
the murder case of 2002.

He was being shifted to jail after court decision in prison van.

He snatched the official gun from a cop and sprinkled a volley of bullets. 
Resultantly, 2 policemen identified as Shafqat and Ashiq Hussain died on the 
spot while 2 others Ramazan and Aslam sustained injuries.

However the other police staff on duty had to run away. The anti-terrorism 
court in Sargodha division announced 3 counts death penalty to the convict and 
also ordered for the payment of Rs2 million which will be given to the heirs of 
the affected families as compensation. Police shifted him in stringent security 
to jail.

(source: The Nation)






INDIA:

6 on death row for 'human sacrifice' case move HC


6 death convicts in a sensational human sacrifice case of Yavatmal, moved the 
Nagpur bench of Bombay high court challenging death penalty awarded to them on 
August 14 last year.

A division bench comprising justices Pradip Deshmukh and Murlidhar Giratkar on 
Friday, adjourned the hearing till August 7, after petitioners' counsel 
Rajendra Daga completed arguments from the defence's side. He contended that 
his clients were falsely implicated, as the prosecution failed to establish the 
chain of circumstances. The prosecution would start its arguments from Tuesday.

The accused - Manoj, Punaji, Ramchandra, Motiram and Devidas Atram, Yadavrao 
Tekam, and Yashodabai Meshram - were convicted by the Yavatmal Sessions Court 
for allegedly 'sacrificing' 7-year-old Sapna Palaskar on October 23, 2012.

The residents of Choramba village in Ghatanji tehsil, were found guilty under 
section 302 of IPC and were slapped with Rs5,000 fine each. One of their 
accomplices in the sensational killing Durga Shirbhate, was awarded 5 years of 
rigorous imprisonment. About 13 witnesses were examined by the prosecution.

It was on Shirbhate's instance that the accused committed the heinous act as 
they were told that the goddess needs 'human blood' of a child to save the 
entire village from its wrath. The victim was taken to Meshram's home where the 
accused allegedly chopped her head after performing rituals and buried the body 
outside the home. The incident came to light after about 1 1/2 months when the 
girl's parents lodged a missing complaint with the police that led to recovery 
of her body parts.

(source: indiatimes.com)