[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

August 26




IRAN/SAUDI ARABIA:

Iran warns Saudi Arabia of consequences if activists executed


Iran's High Council of Human Rights has warned Saudi Arabia of the consequences 
of its "cruelties," including reported plans to execute several human rights 
activists.

According to New York-based Human Rights Watch, Saudi Arabia's public 
prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for five rights activists from Qatif in 
the kingdom's Shia-majority Eastern Province.

Iran's High Council of Human Rights "seriously warns the Saudi rulers about the 
consequences of these clear cruelties and crimes against the oppressed people 
in Qatif and other right-seeking and anti-oppression activists," it said in a 
statement.

The council, a subdivision of Iran's Judiciary, also stressed "the necessity 
for international bodies, especially the UN and the Human Rights Council, to 
show sensitivity and pursue the issue seriously."

Saudi Arabia has accused these activists of inciting mass protests in the 
oil-rich Eastern Province, with human rights groups saying the execution threat 
is a calculated bid to stifle dissent.

Israa al-Ghomgham, who has documented the protests in Eastern Province since 
they began in 2011, would be the first woman activist to face the death 
sentence for rights-related work. She was arrested at her home along with her 
husband Musa al-Hashem in December 2015.

The Iranian council described reports of the Saudi prosecutor seeking capital 
punishment for the couple and other activists as "very regretful and 
distressing given the country's disastrous record" in the past.

In January 2016, Saudi Arabia executed prominent cleric Nimr al-Nimr, the most 
vocal critic of the dynasty among Shia Muslims, who had come to be seen as a 
leader of the community's younger activists.

In executing Nimr, the kingdom defied an international outcry and warnings by 
many rights groups and governments, touching off a diplomatic crisis which sent 
relations with Iran into a downward spiral which continues to this day.

Saudi Arabia may for the 1st time execute a female Shia human rights activist 
for supporting anti-government protests.

"Saudi Arabia's policy of cracking down on Muslim thinkers and activists 
fighting tyranny on terrorism charges is absurd and unacceptable," the 
statement by the Iranian rights body said.

"Should terrorists be confronted, current Saudi rulers are the prime suspects, 
who bear responsibility for destroying the lives and possessions of hundreds of 
thousands of innocent people in the region," it said.

"Who has founded, armed and unleashed al-Qaeda, Daesh and similar criminals to 
massacre innocent people? Who is publicly supporting, politically and 
financially, perverted and roaming killers such as Mujahedin Khalq 
Organization?" it added.

The notorious MKO group is responsible for killing thousands of Iranian 
civilians and several officials since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Senior Saudi officials, including former spy chief Prince Turki al-Faisal, have 
attended annual meetings held by the terrorist group, raising the stakes in the 
kingdom's confrontational ways with the Islamic Republic.

In its statement, Iran's High Council of Human Rights said the US and major 
European governments, which arm the kingdom and assist Saudi Arabia's invasion 
of Yemen, are complicit in the atrocities and should be held to account.

(source: presstv.com)






CANADA:

How Florida and Canada took different directions on the death penalty


Canada supplies more visitors to Florida than any other country in the world, 
with more than 3 million of us visiting the Sunshine State each year. Yet, 
while the bustle and beauty of South Beach may be just a 3-hour flight from 
cities like Toronto, there is a sense in which the distance between us is far 
greater. A decades-wide gulf in fact.

We're talking about the death penalty. While Canada abandoned this punishment 
long ago, Florida remains one of its most enthusiastic proponents. The last 
executions in Canada were in December 1962, when 2 men were hanged in Toronto's 
Don Jail.

17 months later, 2 men were killed in Florida's electric chair, in what could 
also have been the state's last executions. Regrettably, they were not. 
Florida's halt in executions proved to be nothing more than a 15-year pause.

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the U.S.'s capital punishment laws 
because of the arbitrary way in which death sentences were being handed out. 
However, later that year, Florida's lawmakers became the 1st in the country to 
enact a new capital statute. That law was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1976.

Less than 2 weeks later, the Canadian parliament voted to abolish the death 
penalty, except for some military offences. In 1998, Canada removed these last 
vestiges of capital punishment from its statute books. That same year, Florida 
- which by then had put more than 40 people to death since resuming executions 
in 1979 - moved to cement the death penalty into its Constitution to protect it 
from judicial ban.

It is now more than 50 years since Canada carried out its last execution. 
Florida has executed more than 50 people since 2000 alone. It has the 2nd 
largest death row of any state and lies fourth in the number of people it has 
put to death. There has been no executive clemency granted in a capital case in 
Florida for the past 35 years, a period that has seen more than 90 executions.

A new Amnesty International report calls on Florida to rethink its attachment 
to the death penalty. Building on recent concerns raised by U.S. Supreme Court, 
it questions whether Florida is reserving the ultimate punishment for the 
"worst of the worst," by which it is constitutionally bound.

Cases highlighted in our report of individuals sent to death row for crimes 
committed when they were barely out of their frequently abusive childhoods, or 
those with claims of mental or intellectual disability, suggest that it is not.

In the past 2 years, Florida's Supreme Court has added a new layer of 
arbitrariness to the capital justice system. It decided that only about 1/2 of 
those on death row could benefit from a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that 
Florida's capital statute was unconstitutional for giving juries only an 
advisory role in death sentencing. As our report shows, the fate of many 
prisoners now hinges on nothing more than the timing of their cases in the 
appeals process.

This decision was the final straw for one state Supreme Court justice who wrote 
that this partial retroactivity, coupled with the "bitter reality" that racial 
discrimination continues to be a factor in death sentencing, meant Florida's 
death penalty was unconstitutional. Unfortunately, his opinion was in the 
minority.

Florida may be in the same time zone as cities like Toronto, Ottawa and 
Montreal, but on this issue it is poles apart. This need not mean distant 
relations, however.

Canadians are in as good a position as anyone to call upon Florida to change 
direction. We spent $3.8 billion in Florida last year, and when we visit, 
mostly for leisure and holidays, we stay about 3 weeks on average - twice as 
long as other international visitors.

We can let Floridians know how we have lived for more than half a century 
without the death penalty and are proud that dozens more countries have joined 
the abolitionist cause since then. The Sunshine State should look to Canada as 
more than an economic opportunity and learn from our experience in ending the 
ultimate cruel and degrading punishment.

(source: Alex Neve is secretary general, Amnesty International CanadaGenevieve 
Paul is director general of Amnesty International Canada's Francophone 
Branch----thestar.com)






PHILIPPINES:

PDEA pushes death penalty for large-scale drug dealers


The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is renewing its call for the 
reimposition of the death penalty for large-scale drug traffickers.

PDEA spokesman Derrick Arnold Carreon said the absence of stricter laws is the 
reason why the drug problem persists despite the government's intensified 
campaign.

"It has something to do with the gap in our laws where the death penalty is 
suspended," he said in an interview with ABS-CBN on Friday.

Carreon's appeal came on the heels of seizure of large quantities of narcotics, 
including P24-million worth of ecstasy tablets and P4.3-billion worth of shabu.

At least 4,410 suspected drug pushers and users have been killed in law 
enforcement operations since President Duterte took office in July 2016.

Carreon said another problem is the difficulty in securing all the country's 
ports, as the Philippines is an archipelago.

There are also indications that some drug addicts are shifting to more 
expensive party drugs like cocaine, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief 
Director General Oscar Albayalde said.

Albayalde cited the recovery of 27 kilos of cocaine in the shores of Camarines 
Sur last April and the recent seizure of P24 million worth of ecstasy tablets 
in Pasay City last week as indications of shifting preferences among drug 
users.

"It is not a remote possibility that many are shifting to cocaine, especially 
those who have money," he added.

According to Carreon, a gram of shabu could be sold for P3,000 while cocaine 
can be bought for at least P5,000 per gram and ecstasy for P1,300 each. 
Albayalde urged drug users to stop taking illegal drugs before it is too late. 
"Drugs destroy brains," he said.

(source: philstar.com)






VIETNAM:

2 women arrested for transporting drugs from Laos to Vietnam


The border guard force of Vietnam's central highlands Kon Tum province said 
Saturday that they have detained 2 local women for transporting synthetic drugs 
from Laos to Vietnam.

The detainees, Y Thao, 24, from Kon Tum, and Luong Thi Trang, 24, from central 
Quang Nam province, who were found hiding one kg of crystal amphetamine and 367 
pills of lab-made drug in their luggage and bodies.

According to Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of 
heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine are punishable by death. 
Making or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also 
faces death penalty.

(source: xinhuanet.com)






INDIA:

Death penalty to youth for rape, murder of deaf and dumb girl----Prime accused 
Ram lured the 5-year-old victim, later killed her by smashing her head on the 
floor in 2015


A Special Court of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)in Durg 
has awarded capital punishment to a 24-year-old youth convicted of killing a 
5-year-old 'deaf and dumb' girl after raping her.

The convict after brutally raping and murdering the kid had stuffed her body in 
a sack and dumped it near a nullah at Khursipar, Bhilai. The convict was 
sentenced to gallows for both rape and murder under Sections 376 (A) and 
Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It is the 1st such sentence in the 
district and perhaps the state after a law entailing capital punishment to 
those convicted of raping a child below 12 years of age came into force.

Meanwhile, two other accomplices connected with the incident including the 
mother of the convict were also convicted for causing removing the evidence of 
offence.

The Fifth Upper Sessions Judge of POCSO Court Shubhra Pachouri while awarding 
the death penalty observed that the act committed by the convict came under the 
category of 'rarest of the rare' rape cases and termed it as the 'cruelest' 
while concluding that it will be injustice towards the 'daughters' if the 
convict is not given harshest punishment.

The Sessions Judge also quoted Delhi's 'Nirbhaya' judgment in her 140-page 
order and sentenced the convict under s6 different Sections of the IPC. 
Mentioning 'Nirbhaya' judgement, the Special Judge quoted that 'it becomes 
important to ensure gender justice not only remain on paper' and convicted the 
youth on the basis of 'circumstantial evidences'. After convicting him, the 
Special Court decided the quantum of the punishment at around 20:00 hours on 
Friday.

The convicts have been identified as Ram Sona (24), his mother Kunti Sona (38) 
and his friend Amrit Singh (38), all residents of Shivaji Nagar, Khursipar, 
Bhilai. Additional Public Prosecutor, Kamal Kishore Verma informed that the 
incident had occurred on February 25, 2015 after the 5-year-old girl had gone 
missing while playing near her house.

The prime accused Ram had lured the minor and raped the deaf and dumb girl, 
later killing her by smashing her head on the floor. The victim had sustained 
multiple injuries and she died on the spot while the accused had stuffed the 
victim's body in a sack and dumped it near the nullah at Khursipar.

The police later recovered the body and the accused trio were arrested during 
the course of investigation, he added.

Meanwhile, the Special POCSO Court while categorising the case to be 'rarest of 
the rare' concluded that the physical and mental pain underwent by the victim's 
family is unimaginable. The Special Judge Shubhra Pachouri also directed the 
District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to provide compensation to the 
victim???s family.

Meanwhile, the convict Ram was awarded death penalty under sections 376 (A) and 
302; five years Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) under sections 363, 365 and 201 each 
and seven years RI under section 366 of the IPC. Meanwhile, his mother Kunti 
was awarded 5 years imprisonment under Sections 201, 216 and 212 of the IPC 
each and 6 years imprisonment under section 202 of the IPC. Similarly, Amrit 
Singh was awarded 5 years imprisonment under section 201-24 and 6 months under 
section 202 of the IPC each. The court has also imposed penalty on the 
convicts.

(source: thehitavada.com)

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

HC commutes death penalty to imprisonment for rest of life, says it's not 
rarest of rare case


High court, Jabalpur bench commuted death penalty awarded to a 21-year-old rape 
and murder convict to imprisonment for the rest of his life while observing it 
was not a rarest of rare cases. The judgment reserved on August 17, 2019 was 
delivered on Friday.

The convict Sunil Adivasi happens to be one of the 14 convicts in 13 cases of 
sexual offences who were awarded death penalty in Madhya Pradesh after 
promulgation of the ordinance by the central government on April 22 for 
awarding death penalty to convicts involved in rape with minor girls below 12 
years of age. One of the convicts was involved in a sodomy and murder of a 
minor boy, as per department of prosecution in Madhya Pradesh.

Sunil Adivasi, a resident of Sagar district, 186 kilometers north east of 
Bhopal, accused under sections 376A, 302, 342, 201/511 of Indian Penal Code 
(IPC) and section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 
2012 for allegedly raping and killing a 9-year-old girl on April 13, 2017 was 
convicted by the court of additional sessions judge, Khurai in Sagar district 
on June 19 this year and awarded death penalty. He filed an appeal in the high 
court challenging the conviction.

The bench of justice JK Maheshwari and justice Akhil Kumar Srivastava of high 
court, Jabalpur said in its judgment that 'on perusal of the medical of the 
girl, the sign of commission of rape is present but brutality to the body is 
not present, though she was found dead'.

The bench, however, said the finding of conviction for the offences committed 
didn't warrant interference but on the question if the case was rarest of rare 
the bench cited the Supreme Court guidelines drawn on 'aggravating 
circumstances' and 'mitigating circumstances' in the case of Bachan Singh. The 
bench also cited the Apex Court observation in certain other cases to arrive at 
its judgment.

Commuting the death penalty to sentence 'for the remainder life subject to any 
remission by the government for good reasons??? the bench said the record 
indicated that the convict was left by his mother and was residing alone. He 
was living separately from his family at the age of 21 years and the 
probability of his being rehabilitated and reformed couldn't be ruled out. 
"Nothing is available on record to suggest that he cannot be a useful member of 
the society. In our considered opinion, it is not a case in which the 
alternative punishment would not be sufficient to the facts of the case", 
observed the bench.

(source: Hindustan Times)






JORDAN:

Death penalty for man who shot another to death out of revenge


The Court of Cassation has upheld a November Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 
man to death after convicting him of murdering a man in a drive-by shooting in 
Amman in August 2015.

The court declared the defendant guilty of fatally shooting a man while in a 
vehicle driven by another man in order to avenge an old argument on August 17 
and handed him the maximum sentence.

Court papers said that, a few days before the shooting incident, the defendant 
and the victim engaged in a heated argument.

"The victim attacked the defendant and then the matter ended but the defendant 
would not stop thinking of revenge," according to court papers.

On the day of the murder, the defendant rode with a friend towards the victim's 
house and "the minute he saw him, he pulled a gun and shot him once in the 
stomach at close range".

The higher court ruled that the Criminal Court followed the proper procedures 
and the defendant deserved the verdict he received.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zubi, Yassin 
Abdullat, Bassim Mubeidin and Majid Azab.

(source: The Jordan Times)






ZIMBABWE:

United against capital punishment


For 13 years, Zimbabwe has been without a hangman.

More than 50 people applied for the job last year but the Zimbabwe Prisons and 
Correctional Services is still to fill the post.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is strongly opposed to capital punishment, but the 
law keeps the death sentence on the statutes even though the last execution 
came back in 2005.

The 2013 Constitution-making process indicated the majority of Zimbabweans 
support the death penalty, but there is significant and vocal opposition to it 
- not least from President Mnangagwa who himself narrowly escaped capital 
punishment at the hands of colonial authorities during his youth.

Even religious groups hold divergent views on the death penalty.

Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe leader Bishop Johannes Ndanga saya his 
organisation is opposed to the death sentence.

"In some cases one can be wrongfully convicted and hanged if he is sentenced to 
death. In such circumstances, that cannot be reversed ... Someone may be 
innocent and be wrongly convicted and die," he argues.

"Some families may be tormented by the spirit of someone who was wrongfully 
executed. The death penalty has no reversal or appeal: once one is dead, he is 
gone for good. Therefore, we say no to the death penalty."

Bishop Ndanga says the biblical "eye for an eye principle" was discared in the 
New Testament; adding that the death sentence is an attack on human dignity.

"When Jesus came, the Mosaic law which provided for an eye for an eye was 
changed. In the New Testament, there is no provision for killing for whatever 
reason," says Bishop Ndanga.

Traditionalist Sekuru Calista Magorimbo is also opposed to the death penalty.

"In (African Traditional Religion), we believe in avenging spirits or mweya 
wengozi and as such there is no justification for killing. If someone kills a 
human being, there are consequences. So it's not easy even for the hangman.

"It's a tricky situation. Being a hangman, is a job but killing is killing. 
Someone will have blood on their hands."

Sekuru Magorimbo goes on: "Killing attracts ngozi and this is regardless of the 
circumstances. The surviving family members are haunted by the avenging spirit. 
So the death penalty can cause problems for families; hence we say no to the 
death sentence. We are Africans and these avenging spirits can always get to 
us."

(source: The Sunday Mail)






UGANDA:

Kayihura's journey from most feared man to prisoner


After nearly 2 1/2-months in detention at the Makindye Military barracks, 
former inspector general of police Gen Kale Kahiyura, 62, was on Friday 
arraigned before the General Court Martial on 3 charges.

Two counts are on failure to protect war materials contrary to Section 122 of 
the Uganda People's Defence Forces Act of 2005 and the 3rd count relates to 
aiding and abetting the kidnap and repatriation of Rwandan refugees in Uganda 
contrary to Sections 19 and 242 of the Penal Code Act.

He faces the death penalty if convicted.

"A person subject to military law who fails to protect war materials; misuses 
or sells them; commits an offence and is on conviction, is liable to suffer 
death," the section reads.

Under Section 19 (1) of the Penal Code Act, Kayihura is charged with aiding and 
abetting the kidnap and repatriation of Rwandan refugees in Uganda including 
Joel Mutabazi, the former aide to Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

The section says a person convicted of aiding and abetting can be tried as if 
he personally committed the offence and is liable to suffer the same sentence 
available to the actual offender.

Section 242 of the Penal Code recommends a sentence of 10 years for the offence 
of kidnap.

The first 2 charges relate to issuance of arms to the Boda Boda 2010, an 
association that gained notoriety for its brutal tactics in dealing with 
especially opponents of the NRM government and non-compliant boda boda riders 
in areas it controlled.

Its leader, Abdallah Kitata, named in the charge sheet, is facing the same 
court on charges of illegal gun possession and has been denied bail on various 
occasions.

The second count of failure to protect war materials relates to special units 
that became the defining element of Kayihura's tenure at the helm of the police 
as he discarded traditional units like the Special Branch in preference for new 
outfits whose loyalty he fully commanded.

The charges, serious as they are, mark a major fall for a man who hardly a year 
ago had arguably the most sought-after phone number in Kampala as the holder of 
authority probably only next to the president's. Kayihura was the ultimate 
fixer.

But as he was escorted into the courtroom by junior officers of the UPDF, and 
led to the metal cage marked "Dock" where he saluted before sitting down before 
the panel of the General Court Martial chaired by Lt General Andrew Gutti, who 
is a rank below him, Kayihura cut a forlorn figure, only mumbling his initial 
responses when asked to take plea.

(source: theeastaftrican.co.ke)