[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 13



BANGLADESH:

4 transport workers to die for rape and murder of law student Rupa----Another 
sentenced to 7yrs imprisonment



4 transport workers were awarded death penalty in a case filed for raping and 
killing law student Rupa Khatun in a moving bus in Tangail.

The death row convicts are bus driver Habibur and three helpers Shamim, Akram 
and Jahangir were present in the court when Abul Mansur Miah, acting judge of 
Tangail Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal delivered the 
verdict.

The court in Tangail also sentenced the supervisor of the bus, Safar alias 
Gendu, to seven years rigorous imprisonment and fined Tk 1 lakh, our Tangail 
correspondent reports.

The fine paid by Gendu has been directed to be handed over to Rupa's family.

Rupa Khatun rape murder killer

Meanwhile, Rupa's family expressed their satisfaction with the verdict, reports 
our correspondent.

On August 25 last year, police recovered an unidentified body of a woman near 
Tangail-Mymensingh road in Tangail's Madhupur upazila. Following an autopsy, 
the body was buried at the Tangail central graveyard the next day. A murder 
case was filed with Madhupur Police Station the same day.

Seeing the news in the media, Rupa's family members went to Madhupur Police 
Station on August 28 and identified her from photographs.

The next day, law enforcers picked up five employees of the bus at Madhupur. 
The arrestees during interrogation admitted their involvement in the crime.

All the convicts -- a driver, a supervisor and 3 bus helpers who were in jail 
-- were present in the court when the verdict was delivered by Abul Mansur 
Miah, acting judge of Tangail Women and Children Repression Prevention 
Tribunal.

The court also gave directions to concerned authorities to seize the bus in 
which the incident occurred and hand over its ownership to Rupa's family after 
changing the name of the vehicle.

The Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court in Tangail on August 29 and 30 recorded 
confessional statements of the arrestees and sent them to jail.

Following a court order, police on August 31 exhumed Rupa's body.

(source" The Daily Star)








TAIWAN:

Taiwan aiming to ultimately abolish death penalty: justice minister



The Taiwan government is hoping to one day abolish capital punishment, but 
until then, death penalties must be carried out in accordance with the proper 
legal procedure, according to Justice Minister Chiu Tai-san.

In an interview with CNA earlier this month, Chiu said President Tsai Ing-wen, 
like her predecessor Ma Ying-jeou, sees abolition of the death penalty in 
Taiwan as a long-term goal.

However, extensive public discussion of the controversial issue would be 
required before that goal can be achieved and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has 
not set any timeframe for it, Chiu said.

While human rights groups such as the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty 
have been calling for an end to capital punishment, it will take time to obtain 
public consensus on the issue, he said.

In the meantime, capital punishment will continue to be carried out in Taiwan 
in accordance with the legal procedure, Chiu said.

Although Taiwan has ratified two international conventions that are seen as 
legal foundations for ending the death penalty, they are not binding on that 
issue, he said.

Chiu said that since he took office in May 2016 as minister of justice, the 
Taiwan High Prosecutors Office has not sent him any orders for the execution of 
death row prisoners, who now number 43.

Explaining the legal procedure in Taiwan, he said if the death penalty is 
handed down in the lower courts, the case must go all the way to the Supreme 
Court.

If the Supreme Court upholds the verdict, the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office 
then reviews the matter and decides if to carry out the sentence, after which 
an execution order is sent to the MOJ for the justice minister's signature, 
Chiu said.

Even at that point, the MOJ has the right to assess the case and decide whether 
to sign the execution order, he added.

The death penalty remains a controversial issue in Taiwan, years after its 
Legislature in 2009 ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, 
the 2 conventions that Chiu referred to as the legal foundations for the 
abolition of capital punishment.

Meanwhile, Chiu said his ministry is working to improve prison conditions in 
Taiwan by providing more beds so that inmates can each have 1.

Currently, Taiwan's prison population is 62,000, while the number of prison 
beds is 23,000, which indicates that about 40,000 prisoners are sleeping on the 
floor.

"Frankly, such conditions are inhumane," Chiu said. He said three new prisons 
are under construction, each with a capacity of 4,000 inmates, while existing 
facilities are being expanded.

Chiu said he is also hoping to implement a prison rehabilitation program that 
would provide training for inmates to learn new skills and increase their 
chances of entering the job market after their release.

(source: focustaiwan.tw)








YEMEN:

Coveney urges Yemen to release man sentenced to death over Baha'i 
faith----Minister says State condemns use of death penalty 'in all 
circumstances'



Tanaiste Simon Coveney has called on the Yemeni authorities to release a 
52-year-old man sentenced to death for his religious beliefs following an 
appeal by a number of TDs and the Baha'i community in Ireland.

Mr Coveney, also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, said: "Ireland strongly 
condemns all forms of persecution on the basis of religion or belief and is 
unequivocal in its stance on the death penalty."

Hamed Bin Haydara, one of 2,000 members of the Baha'i community in Yemen, was 
sentenced to death on January 2nd.

The Tanaiste said the State opposes and condemns the use of the death penalty 
"in all circumstances, and in particular in cases where there are allegations 
of unfair trials preceding its implementation. The abolition of the death 
penalty is one of Ireland's international priorities, and my department 
regularly conveys our stance on this issue to all countries where the death 
penalty is still in use."

Patricia Rainsford, co-ordinator of the Irish Baha'i Office of Public Affairs, 
said when Mr Haydara was sentenced the local judge also called for the 
dissolution of all elected Baha'i institutions, placing the entire Baha'i 
community in imminent danger.

State of war

Yemen has been in a state of war for 3 years and Ms Rainsford said that since 
the Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital, Sana'a, "a cultural 
campaign of 'antagonism towards others' has been promoted. This campaign is 
directed against Baha'is, Jews and other religious followers."

Ms Rainsford said Amnesty International had also highlighted Mr Haydara's case 
as a "prisoner of conscience who has been tried on account of his 
conscientiously held beliefs and peaceful activities as a member of the Baha'i 
community".

Ms Rainsford said: "We are asking the Government, EU representatives and 
everyone who values justice to add their voices to the international efforts to 
save this man's life."

The Baha'i religion originated in Iran in the 1860s, spreading mainly through 
the Middle East. It has between 5 and 7 million followers globally. Followers 
believe God is revealed through the ages by prophets including Buddha, Moses, 
Jesus and Muhammad and that all religions are fundamentally unified in purpose.

Parliamentary questions

Labour leader Brendan Howlin, Fianna Fail foreign affairs spokesman Darragh 
O'Brien and Independent TD Maureen O'Sullivan have raised Mr Haydara's case in 
a number of parliamentary questions.

They asked the Tanaiste what action he and the Department of Foreign Affairs 
had taken to assist Mr Haydara and if the Yemeni's case had been raised with 
the EU's external action service.

Mr Coveney said that last year Ireland joined the small core group at the UN 
Human Rights Council that initiated the adoption of a resolution on Yemen, 
establishing a group of international experts "to investigate the facts in 
relation to violations of human rights and humanitarian law on the ground. This 
group will report back to the human rights council, as an important step 
towards accountability in Yemen."

(source: Irish Times)








EGYPT:

Egypt's House of Reps contests EU Parliament's statement on death penalty



Egypt's House of Representatives has been drafting a memorandum that shall 
respond to the European Parliament's (EP) latest statement requiring the end of 
the death penalty implementation against terrorists by Egyptian authorities.

The Egyptian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) rejected in a 
statement the EP's interference in Egypt's domestic affairs. "The death penalty 
is applied in more than 1/3 of the world's countries," the statement read.

The statement stressed that Egypt has not signed the international agreement to 
prevent the death penalty implementation; the United Nations recognizes Egypt's 
right to implement this penalty.

Egypt has the right to choose and set its legal and judiciary systems according 
to the constitution approved in 1923 and in accordance with judiciary 
independence constitutional articles 94/2014.

Egypt's official response to EP???s report

"The Parliament will take an official detailed response to the EP???s statement 
within a few days," said Tarek Radwan to Egypt Today on Sunday.

Radwan, who chairs the parliament's FAC, stressed that any foreign intervention 
into Egypt's domestic affairs is categorically rejected. "The European 
Parliament should have issued statements to support Egypt's anti-terror war. 
End of the death penalty against terrorists, who have been proved guilty, does 
not seem a logical move, while several military, security and civilian lives 
have been taken."

Egypt rejects foreign interference in domestic affairs

Tarek el-Kholy, the FAC's secretary, asserted that the EP's statement demanding 
Egypt to abolish death penalties against terrorists is an "insistence to 
interfere into the Egyptian domestic affairs."

He revealed that 3 international institutions have continued this interference; 
U.S. Congress, House of Commons of the United Kingdom and the European Union. 
"Some members affiliated to those 3 parties provoked topics related to human 
rights activities and attempted to draft bill laws against Egypt, but they 
failed," Kholy added to Egypt Today.

Kholy manifested that the Egyptian Parliament has sent a report to the UK House 
of Commons about the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, following the report 
that the Britons had released over the MB. "The Parliament's FAC also has 
successfully dealt with the U.S. Congress's reports over alleged data about 
Copts in Egypt."

Regarding the EP's report related to the death penalty against terrorists, 
Kholy affirmed that many parliamentarian tours have been made to Europe to 
tackle this matter.

Kholy stressed that Egypt rejects any foreign attempt to interfere in its 
domestic affairs, adding, "These Parties do not pay attention to Egypt's war 
against terrorism. They neither care about our martyrs nor about the violent 
and terrorist acts that the Egyptian street has witnessed."

"Since toppling the MB-affiliated Mohamed Morsi from president post in 2013, 
Egypt has suffered dozens of terrorist and violent acts conducted by the Muslim 
Brotherhood group and its associated movements," Kholy added.

As a concerned committee, FAC is fully aware of the responsibility that it 
bears to take responsive reactions to similar reports, according to Kholy who 
also stressed that those international parties are not conspiring against 
Egypt, but some of their members, in coordination with Qatar and Turkey, have 
negative stances towards Egypt.

EP's report relies on unreliable sources

"The EP's report's data mainly counted on suspicious human rights centers' 
reports," revealed member of the Egyptian-EP Friendship Association and FAC's 
member Ahmed Ali.

Ali added to Egypt Today on Sunday that a visit to the European Parliament was 
paid nine months ago; the Egyptian parliamentarians attended a hearing session 
where they were shocked to listen to untrue data about the detainees in 
Egyptian prisons and the enforced disappearance phenomenon. The Egyptian 
security senior officials have affirmed many times that this phenomenon is 
limited.

"The Egyptian expatriates should play an influential role in responding to 
similar rumors which only seek to defame the Egyptian state's reputation," Ali 
added.

Partisan condemnation of EP's report

Free Egyptians Party condemned the report released by the European Parliament 
on Thursday. "The EP looks unaware of Egypt's judiciary system as the announced 
death penalties are not the final verdicts and are submitted to many 
constitutional and legal articles," said Free Egyptians Party's Chairman Essam 
Khalil in a statement on Friday.

Khalil added that the EP does not care about the death penalty as a punishment, 
but it only becomes interested in this topic when it comes to Egypt. "Can the 
EP interfere in any European country's judiciary system?" Khalil wondered.

He called on the European Parliament to show support to the Egyptian people's 
battle against terrorism and their right to save the lives of the innocent, 
adding, "The European Parliament should revise and double-check reports and 
data that it receives from unbiased organizations on the Egyptian domestic 
affairs, including the human rights file."

EP session addressed Russia, Egypt and Haiti

On Thursday during the EP plenary session in Strasbourg, the European 
Parliament called for the "immediate release of Oyub Titiev in Russia", 
condemned the "death penalty in Egypt" and urged Haitian government to end 
child slavery.

The EP called for reviewing all pending death sentences and reconsidering the 
Egyptian criminal codes. It also urged Egypt to "halt all planned executions."

(source: Egypt Today)

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

Christian cleric's killer sentenced to death----The convict fatally stabbed the 
victim in Cairo suburb last October



An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced a Muslim man to death by hanging after 
convicting him of murdering a Coptic Christian cleric last October.

The Cairo Criminal Court issued the sentence against Ahmad Saeed, a suspected 
militant, after the verdict was approved by the country's top Islamic official, 
the Grand Mufti - a routine procedure in Egypt in cases involving the death 
penalty.

The ruling can be appealed.

On October 12, the convict was arrested after he fatally stabbed Coptic priest 
Samaan Shehata in the Cairo suburb of Al Salam City.

Saeed attacked the cleric with a long knife as the latter was leaving his car, 
witnesses said. He also injured another Coptic clergyman, who was accompanying 
the victim.

Footage of a surveillance camera in a nearby store showed the suspect chasing 
Shehata as he was attempting to escape and stabbed him in the stomach and the 
head.

The 40-year-old victim was a priest at a Coptic church in Egypt's southern 
province of Beni Suef. He was in Cairo raising donations for the church when he 
was assaulted.

In May last year, 28 people were killed in an attack, claimed by Daesh, on a 
bus transporting Coptic Christians to a monastery in the southern province of 
Minya.

A month earlier, 47 people were killed in suicide attacks, also claimed by 
Daesh, on 2 churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Delta province 
of Tanta.

The attacks prompted Egypt to declare a nationwide state of emergency that is 
still in effect.

Christians are among staunch supporters of Egypt's President Abdul Fattah Al 
Sissi, who is pursuing a relentless campaign against radical Islamists.

Christians make up around 10 % of Egypt's population of nearly 95 million.

(source: Gulf News)



MALAYSIA:

Man charged with murdering 9-year-old daughter



A 35-year-old man has been charged at the magistrate's court here with 
murdering his 9-year-old daughter.

The accused, Mohammad Abdullah Mohamed, allegedly caused Nur Aina Nabihah's 
death at their home in Taman Vista Jaya in Lukut near here between 8.30pm and 
11.30pm on Jan 31.

No plea was recorded from the suspect, who is a sergeant in the armed forces.

He was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder, which carries 
the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.

Magistrate Siti Khairiah Abd Razak then fixed March 15 for re-mention.

Police detained the suspect and the victim's stepmother on Feb 1 after a 
post-mortem conducted on Nur Aina Nabihah showed serious injuries caused by a 
blunt object.

(source: thestar.com.my)








INDONESIA:

Aussie drug accused to learn if he will face death penalty in Bali


Australian accountant Isaac Emmanuel Roberts is set learn today whether he 
could still face the death penalty when he goes to trial in Bali.

The accused drug smuggler will for the 1st time have his charges formally read 
to him in court, the most significant step yet in bringing him to trial.

The one time Liberal Democrats candidate is facing drug possession or drug 
importation charges, which carry the maximum penalty of death, after customs 
officials at Denpasar airport allegedly found 20.54 grams of the drug ice and 
14 ecstasy tablets in his luggage on December 4 last year.

Mr Roberts maintains he is a drug addict who was set up by customs officials, 
and the drugs were for his personal use.

If a judge agrees today to charge Mr Roberts with the lesser offence of 
"personal use" it will see the death penalty taken off the table.

The maximum penalty would be reduced to 4 years in prison.

(source: 9news.com.au)








NORTH KOREA:

North Korean athletes face FIRING SQUAD on Winter Olympics return


Bombastic leader Kim Jong-un has allowed 22 athletes to cross the border to 
arch rival South Korea for the Pyeongchang Games on Thursday.

They will even march with athletes from the South under a "unified" Korea flag, 
marking a significant thaw in relations between the 2 countries.

It follows a string of ICBM tests by the North that have riled world rival 
leaders, especially US President Donald Trump.

But lurking behind Kim's veil of animosity lies a horror threat to have the 
athletes killed.

(source: dailystar.co.uk)




AUSTRALIA:

Morant execution fundamentally flawed: MPs



MPs have acknowledged fundamental flaws leading to the execution of Harry 
'Breaker' Morant.

Harry 'Breaker' Morant and Peter Handcock are the only Australians executed for 
war crimes but the process which condemned them to death was fundamentally 
flawed, MPs say more than a century later.

With George Witton, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, the lieutenants 
were convicted during the Boer War of killing 12 prisoners, believing they were 
doing so on the order of British superiors.

Prosecutors had 3 months to prepare for their trial, but the defence was given 
just 1 day.

2 days after they were convicted, Morant and Handcock were executed on February 
27, 1902, without the opportunity for an appeal.

"The process used to try these men was fundamentally flawed," coalition MP 
Scott Buchholz told parliament on Monday, moving a motion to acknowledge 
serious deficiencies in the legal case and offer sympathy to descendants.

If parliament supports Mr Buchholz's motion it could be used to call for 
posthumous pardons.

Labor MP Michael Danby supported his Liberal colleague's motion saying it was 
commendable the issue keeps being raised with the British, under whose military 
law the executions occurred.

"I don't think any justice will be done until the capital punishment suffered 
by those 2 poor men is overturned," he said.

Lt Witton was released from prison after intervention by the Australian 
government.

Labor's Mike Kelly, himself a former Australian Army lawyer, said the 
executions were a "deep scar" on the Australian experience, but some good came 
out of it.

"If there's anything that we can say came out of this positive, it's that ... 
we were never going to be subject to (British) military justice again," he 
said.

(source: bunburymail.com.au)








MYANMAR:

Suspected U Ko Ni killers to face death



The Yangon Region North District Court has allowed the prosecution of 3 accused 
killers of prominent lawyer U Ko Ni for the charge of murder, a prosecution 
lawyer said.

The judge decided last Friday to try the accused Kyi Lin, the suspected gunman, 
and 2 of his accomplices - Aung Zaw Win and Zayar Phyo - for violations that 
carries a maximum penalty of death under penal code 302(1)(b), according to 
lawyer U Khin Maung Htay.

Aside from the charge of murder, Kyi Lin and Aung Win Zaw are also charged with 
illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

"I didn't bring it [the gun]. I didn't carry one. It was given to me by the one 
who asked me to do (it)," Kyi Lin protested at last Friday???s court hearing

A 4th accused man, Aung Win Tun, who served as the suspects' driver, will be 
prosecuted for aiding a crime, which carries a penalty of up to 5 years' 
imprisonment, he added.

The judge also issued an arrest warrant for the suspected mastermind of the 
killing - identified as former Lieutenant Colonel Aung Win Khaing - who remains 
at large and is also charged with murder.

The judge has given the court one month to arrest the suspected mastermind.

"Aung Win Khaing can now be arrested by anyone," U Khin Maung Htay said.

U Ko Ni was shot dead on January 29, 2017, shortly after arriving at Yangon 
International Airport. He was the legal adviser of the ruling National League 
for Democracy and a Muslim.

A taxi driver was also killed in the attack after he tried to stop the 
suspected killer Kyi Lin.

"I think, based on the evidence and preliminary facts, the court made the right 
decision in accordance with the law," plaintiff's lawyer U Khin Maung Htay 
said.

The next trial will be on February 16 and it will hear recalled witnesses.

(source: Myanmar Times)