[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

Sat Feb 10 09:10:03 CST 2018

Feb. 10

NIGERIA:

170 Imo indigenes on death row

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State has disclosed that 170 indigenes of the 
state in prison custody are on death row.

He added that he would put some factors into consideration, including the 
culture of the people of the state before knowing whether to sign the death 
penalty of the individual culprits or not.

Okorocha gave the hint when the Attorney-General of the federation and Minister 
for Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee 
on Prison Decongestion, Justice U.I. Bello visited him at the Government House, 
Owerri with other members of the committee on Friday.

He however, stated that he would carefully look at the cases of those concerned 
to know whether signing for their death would serve any good purpose.

"170 Imo people have been condemned to death. We shall take a decision. Whoever 
takes life should be ready for the consequences, but we shall look at the 
issues especially from our cultural perspectives before taking action. Where 
forgiveness should be the case, we shall also know. It is going to be a 
holistic approach," the governor said.

(source: punchng.com)

INDIA:

Calcutta HC acquits 2 death row convicts in youth murder case

The Calcutta High Court today acquitted 2 death row inmates and commuted the 
capital sentence of 6 others to jail terms in connection with the murder of a 
youth in North 24 Parganas district in 2014.

Rejecting the prosecutions plea to uphold the capital sentence, awarded by a 
trial court in 2016, a division bench comprising Justice Nadira Patherya and 
Justice D P Dey acquitted Suman Sarkar and Amal Barui.

The bench also commuted the death sentence of Shyamal Karmakar to 30 years in 
prison and that of Ratan Samaddar, Tarak Das, Tapas Biswas, Somnath Sardar and 
Suman Das to life imprisonment.

The court, however, upheld the lower courts decision to award 5-year prison 
term of 2 others, who were found guilty of harbouring the 8 accused in the 
case.

A resident of Bamangachi in North 24 Parganas district, Sourav Chowdury (21), 
was abducted and murdered on July 5, 2014, after he protested against liquor 
consumption in public places.

All 10 accused were arrested by the district police and tried before the 
Barasat Sessions Court in April 2016.

The sessions court ordered death penalty for 8 of them and 5 years imprisonment 
for the other 2.

The 10 convicts had moved appeals before the high court in 2016. Following 
extensive hearings in the case, the order was passed by the division bench 
today.

(source: indiatoday.in)

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

Afzal Guru's execution - a travesty of justice----The more one studies it, the 
more the attack on the Indian parliament seems like an Indian false flag 
operation to justify punitive action against Pakistan

5 years ago, Muhammad Afzal Guru was executed in secrecy, without being allowed 
to meet his loved ones and buried quietly in Delhi's Tihar jail on February 9, 
2013. Afzal Guru had been accused of aiding and abetting the December 13, 2001 
attack on the Indian Parliament.

Afzal Guru was born in Sopore in the Baramulla District of Indian Occupied 
Kashmir (IOK) in 1969. As a medical student at Jhelum Valley Medical College, 
Srinagar, Guru was motivated by a friend to join the Kashmir liberation jihad. 
He later surrendered to security forces and after graduation, took up a job 
with a pharmaceutical firm in New Delhi and became its area manager.

On December 13, 2001, a deadly attack took place on the Indian Parliament 
building in New Delhi. 14 people were killed and at least 22 were injured.

The 2 most incriminating pieces of evidence against Guru were a cellular phone 
and a laptop confiscated at the time of arrest. They were not sealed, as 
evidence is required to be

In the ensuing aftermath, India blamed Pakistan for sponsoring the attack and 
amassed its troops on the Pakistani border in a belligerent manner. Swift 
deployment of its counter offensive ground, sea and air forces by Pakistan 
deterred the bellicose Indians from attacking. The two forces remained in an 
eyeball to eyeball position for 10 months. Even a tiny spark could have pushed 
the 2 nuclear armed nations into mutually assured destruction. India blinked 
first since the mobilisation was costing it more than it had anticipated and 
decided to withdraw.

Indian police arrested Afzal Guru within 24 hours of the attack on the 
parliament, claiming that he was the mastermind of the assault. An Arabic 
Professor at New Delhi, SAR Gilani, Afzal's cousin Shaukat and his wife Afshan 
were also detained.

The quartet was tried in a fast track court and despite flimsy proof, the 
verdict declared them guilty. Renowned human rights activist Arundhati Roy, in 
her opinion piece on the subject titled The hanging of Afzal Guru is a stain on 
India's democracy published in The Guardian on February 10, 2013, 2 days after 
Afzal Guru was furtively sent to the gallows, writes that the Indian Supreme 
Court judgment acknowledged the evidence was circumstantial: 'As is the case 
with most conspiracies, there is and could be no evidence amounting to criminal 
conspiracy.' But then, shockingly, it went on to say: 'The incident, which 
resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation, and the collective 
conscience of society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded 
to the offender.'

The 2 most incriminating pieces of evidence against Guru were a cellular phone 
and a laptop confiscated at the time of arrest. They were not sealed, as 
evidence is required to be. During the trial it emerged that the hard disk of 
the laptop had been accessed after the arrest. It only contained the fake home 
ministry passes and the fake identity cards that the 'terrorists' used to 
access parliament - and a Zee TV video clip of parliament house. So according 
to the police, Guru had deleted all the information except the most 
incriminating bits. The police witness said he sold the crucial SIM card that 
connected all the accused in the case to one another to Guru on December 4, 
2001. But the prosecution's own call records showed the SIM was actually 
operational from November 6, 2001.

The more one studies it, the more the attack on the Indian parliament seems 
like an Indian false flag operation to justify punitive action against 
Pakistan. Following the 9/11 attacks, India was certain that Pakistan would 
also be targeted by the US and NATO for supporting terrorism. Pakistan thwarted 
the move by allying itself to the US. Believing that the US was preoccupied 
with its military operations in Afghanistan, India could get away with a swift 
assault on Pakistan, it conjured an excuse to do so. It was Pakistan's swift 
military manoeuvring and positioning of its forces that foiled the Indian plot.

Afzal Guru was a prisoner of conscience. After having surrendered to security 
forces in 1993, he was constantly being harassed by security agencies and 
tortured every time an attack took place.

In an interview granted to Vinod K. Jose, Executive Editor of The Caravan 
magazine on February 1, 2006, Afzal Guru disclosed that after being tortured on 
numerous occasions and threatened with dire consequences for his family 
members, he was tasked by DSP Davinder Singh to take 'someone' to Delhi. Afzal 
was to find a rented house for him in Delhi. This 'someone' was identified as 1 
of the 5 gunmen who attacked Parliament. During the stay, the would-be 
assailant was in constant touch with DSP Davinder Singh.

If this is not travesty of justice then what is?

(source: Op-Ed, S M Hali, Daily Times)

PAKISTAN:

Army condemns 7 'hardcore' militants to death

Pakistan military courts have sentenced 7 "hardcore" militants to death over 
various attacks on security forces that left dozens dead, including civilians, 
the country's army chief said Friday.

A statement issued by the military's Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) 
gave few details of the assaults each suspect was convicted of, but said that 
in total the attacks caused the deaths of 85 people and injured 109 others.

Referring to the detainees as "hardcore terrorists", the statement said they 
were "involved in heinous offences related to terrorism, including killing of 
innocent civilians, attacking Law Enforcement Agencies and Armed Forces of 
Pakistan".

It did not specify which organisations the suspects were thought to belong to.

Pakistan's military courts allow the army to try civilians on terror charges in 
secret, despite strong criticism from rights groups.

They were established in the wake of a December 2014 Taliban massacre at an 
army-run school in Peshawar that killed over 150 people, mostly school 
children.

Following that attack the government lifted the moratorium on the death 
penalty. Scores of militants have since been condemned to death.

(source: The Nation)

IRAN:

UN experts urge Iran to lift academic's death sentence

The death sentence for university professor Ahmadreza Djalali in Iran has been 
widely condemned by rights groups

4 United Nations human rights experts launched a fresh appeal Friday for Iran 
to annul the death sentence given to university professor Ahmadreza Djalali, 
accused of passing information to Israel.

The renewed call came days after Iran's Supreme Court reportedly rejected a 
request to review the sentence. "We urgently call on Iran to lift the death 
sentence imposed on Dr. Djalali, as the state has apparently not complied with 
its international obligations to give him a fair trial and the right to 
appeal," the experts said in a joint statement.

Djalali, a specialist in emergency medicine resident in Sweden, was detained in 
April 2016 after a brief visit to Iran.

He was found guilty in October of passing information about 2 Iranian nuclear 
scientists to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency that led to their 
assassinations.

His death sentence has been widely condemned by rights groups including Amnesty 
International. The 4 experts include Jose Antonio Guevara Bermudez, who heads 
the UN working group on arbitrary detention and Nils Melzer, the UN special 
rapporteur on torture. Agnes Callamard, an expert on summary executions and 
Asma Jahangir, the special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, also co-signed 
the statement. They renewed a call first issued in December for Djalali's 
immediately release. A total of 5 Iranian scientists -- 4 of them involved in 
the country's nuclear programme -- were killed in bomb and gun attacks in 
Tehran between 2010 and 2012 at the height of tensions over the country's 
nuclear ambitions.

Iran has accused Mossad and the CIA of ordering the killings.

(source: al-monitor.com)