[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

December 16




PAKISTAN:

Pakistan army chief confirms death sentence for 15 militants



Pakistan's army chief has approved death sentences for 15 people convicted by 
military courts of involvement in attacks that killed 32 security forces and 2 
civilians.

A military statement issued Sunday says Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa also approved 
prison terms for 20 alleged militants. It says they were involved in attacks on 
security forces and Christians, and the destruction of educational 
institutions. It did not say when the men would be executed.

Military trials are not open to the public in Pakistan, but defendants can hire 
their own lawyers.

Pakistan lifted a moratorium on the death penalty after a 2014 militant attack 
on an army-run school in Peshawar that killed more than 150 people, mostly 
schoolchildren.

(source: Associated press)

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

So far 310 terrorists awarded death penalty: ISPR updates on military courts’ 
performance



Special military courts have so far decided a total of 546 cases out of 717 
sent to them for trial by the government, the Inter-Services Public Relations 
(ISPR) said on Sunday.

The army’s media wing in a statement updated on the military courts’ 
performance, saying since the establishment of these courts, the cases of 717 
suspected terrorists were sent to them by the federal government out of which 
546 have been decided thus far.

It said the military courts awarded death penalty to 310 terrorists while 234 
others were handed rigorous imprisonment of varied terms ranging from life 
imprisonment to a minimum prison term of five years. Two accused were also 
acquitted.

Out of the 310 death row convicts, 56 have been executed after completion of 
the legal process following military courts decisions which included their 
appeal in superior civil courts and rejection of their mercy petition both by 
the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and the President of Pakistan.

The remaining 254 terrorists on death row are awaiting completion of the legal 
process, including their appeals pending in higher courts.

Those who have been awarded death penalty included masterminds, executers and 
abettors/ facilitators of major terrorist incidents, including the Dec 16, 2014 
Army Public School (APS) Peshawar attack (5 terrorist executed), Marriot 
Islamabad terrorist attack (September 2008), Parade Lane terrorist attack 
(December 2009), attack on the ISI office Multan (December 2009), a terrorist 
attack on 4 SSG soldiers including 2 officers( April 2009), attack on the ISI 
office Sukkur (November 2010), Bannu Jail Break (April 2012), Mastung Sectarian 
terrorist attack (April 2012), killing of foreigners in Nanga Parbat (June 
2013), a terrorist attack on civilian and security officials at Chalas (August 
2013), an attack on SSP Chaudhary Aslam (January 2014)

Other incidents of terrorism include Karachi Airport attack (June 2014), 
terrorist attack on Sabin Mehmood (April 2015), terrorist attack Safora Ghot 
Karachi (May 2015), Bacha Khan University attack (January 2016), and terrorist 
attack on Amjad Sabri (June 2016).

(source: arynews.tv)








INDIA:

HC abolishes solitary confinement for prisoners facing death penalty



The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday abolished the practice adopted by 
the jail authorities in Punjab to segregate convicts immediately after the 
pronouncement of death sentence by the trial court and its confirmation by the 
High Court.

The ruling came as a convict escaped the gallows with the High Court commuting 
to life imprisonment the death sentence awarded to him by a Mansa court for 
raping and murdering a minor. Directing the state to modify the Punjab Jail 
Manual, the Bench of  Rajiv Sharma and Justice Gurvinder Singh asserted that 
the convict would not be segregated or isolated till death ntence becomes 
final, conclusive and indefeasible and could not be annulled or voided by any 
judicial process.

The period to keep a convict sentenced to death in segregation or isolation was 
also required to be for “shortest possible time” of 2 to 3 days.

Dubbing solitary confinement as unconstitutional, the Bench asserted there was 
no scientific reason why the convict sentenced to death should be kept in 
isolation for indefinite period till he exhausted all his constitutional and 
legal remedies.

It caused immense pain, agony and anxiety to the condemned convict.

It was also violative of Articles 20(2) and 21 of the Constitution of India.

“A man, even if he is sentenced to death, has certain privileges and rights 
which cannot be denied to him due to a colonial mindset. The provisions of the 
Punjab Jail Manual are anarchic, cruel and insensitive,” the Punjab and Haryana 
High Court Bench added.

Referring to the Punjab Jail Manual, the Bench said a warder would not allow 
any person to go near or communicate with the prisoner except by an authorised 
person.

He was supposed to be in isolation for more than 23 hours in a day. This was 
against the Nelson Mandela rules.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Sharma asserted that the practice to keep the 
convict in custodial segregation or solitary confinement before the exhaustion 
of his constitutional, legal and fundamental rights was without authority of 
law and amounted to additional punishment. It also amounted to torture and was 
violative of his basic human rights.

Justice Sharma referred to the United Nations Standard Minimum rules for the 
treatment of prisoners, articles published in foreign countries and a plethora 
of judgments while reaching the conclusion.

The development took place in the case of Kala Ram awarded death sentence by 
the Mansa Special Judge under Section 376-A of the IPC for committing rape and 
murder of a 6-year-old.

(source: tribuneindia.com)