[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

September 20




BARBADOS:

Death penalty 'still on the book'



Hang on, says Attorney General Dale Marshall, the death penalty will not be 
abolished in Barbados just yet.

"I can say to you, Mr Speaker, and all of Barbados, that today Barbados has a 
death penalty and when this bill is passed in the House and passed in the 
Senate of Barbados and proclaimed to be the law of Barbados, the country of 
Barbados will still have a death penalty," he said.

His comments came during wrap-up of debate of the Offences Against The Person 
(Amendment) Bill, 2018, which was passed in the House of Assembly on Tuesday 
evening. This was among a suite of bills amended to fall in line with the 
Caribbean Court of Justice's (CCJ) June ruling which stated that the mandatory 
death penalty for murder was in breach of the Constitution.

Stressing that he supported capital punishment in "appropriate" cases, Marshall 
vowed that if the day came for the Mia Mottley-led Administration to consider 
abolishing the death penalty, they would first have a referendum to ascertain 
the public's views.

"We've said that on every issue which Barbadians feel connected to, which is 
part of our legal, cultural, social and economic landscape, we will not even 
begin to think about changing any law unless we have consulted with the people. 
If we were going to say that the death penalty will be abolished, we would have 
gone to the people . . . .

"We did it in 1995 in relation to gambling . . . so we have done it. It is part 
of how we do things on this side of Government. We've had a commission on law 
and order to engage the public and see what their views are, but this is a very 
different thing. This is a case where the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled that 
our mandatory death penalty is unconstitutional and it therefore falls on the 
shoulders of this administration to fix it," he added.

The CCJ ruling is expected to affect 79 people. There are 11 people on death 
row, 62 awaiting trial for murder, and 6 awaiting trial for manslaughter. As a 
result, Marshall said the 11 would be re-sentenced and a hold had been placed 
on adjudication of the other matters.

"It must be a frightening prospect for us that we have 62 people who are 
charged with murder but that on the law as it stands, we would likely not be 
able to inflict capital punishment on them. I don't want to get too deeply into 
whether capital punishment is right or wrong. I've always supported capital 
punishment, but my view on it is not every case that requires the ultimate of 
sanction that your life should be taken . . . .

"The problem with when you choose not to obey the rule of law is that it is 
like a wild horse and no one knows where it will go. So if we choose to disobey 
the ruling of the CCJ on this point, what else will we choose to disobey the 
ruling of the CCJ on?" Marshall asked.

(source: nationnews.com)








BANGLADESH:

5 sentenced to death over double murder



A court here on Wednesday sentenced 5 people to death for their involvement in 
killing a father and his son near Barishur Bazar area in Keraniganj, Dhaka in 
1993, reports UNB.

The convicted are Shafiqul Islam, Nazrul Islam alias Nazu, Mister alias Dela 
Mister, Arif and Masud.

Judge Bazlur Rahman of the Dhaka district and Sessions' judge court handed down 
the verdict after hearing on the review petition.

According to the prosecution, the convicts stabbed the grocery shop owner 
Sharif and his 2 sons on 13 June 1993, leaving them severely injured.

Later, Sharif and one of his sons Khokon died while undergoing treatment at 
Mitford Hospital.

Investigation officer of the case Mahmudul Hasan Kabir submitted a charge-sheet 
accusing the 5 in 1994.

On 21 July 2004, a court sentenced the 5 accused to death over the killing.

On Wednesday, after 25 years of trial proceedings, the court delivered the 
death- penalty and fined TK 40,000 each.

(source: prothomalo.com)








MALAYSIA:

Cabinet discusses case of a man sentenced to death for having medicinal 
cannabis



he Cabinet today discussed the case of a man who had been sentenced to death 
for having medicinal cannabis oil, said Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad.

However, no decision has been made on the matter, he said.

"Just wait for further announcement (if any)," he replied when asked by 
reporters on the matter after his ministry's post-cabinet meeting at the Health 
Ministry here today.

Muhammad Lukman Mohamad, a 29-year-old father of 1, was arrested in Dec 2015 
for possession of 3.1 litres of cannabis oil, 279 grams of compressed cannabis, 
1.4kg of substance containing tetrahydrocan nabinol (THC).

He was nabbed by the police along with his 5-month pregnant wife, who was freed 
later, during a raid at his home. He was handed a death sentence by the Shah 
Alam High Court on Aug 30.

On September 9, his lawyer was reported as saying that Muhammad Lukman only 
wanted to assist patients who are suffering from ailments that can be treated 
by THC, an active ingredient in cannabis and he had no intention whatsoever to 
distribute or "push" cannabis on the streets.

Under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, individuals caught 
possessing 200 grams or more of cannabis, will be charged under drug 
trafficking, which carries the death penalty.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has indicated that the 
government should review the case of a man who had been sentenced to death for 
having medicinal cannabis oil.

Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar said she will be writing an appeal to the 
Attorney-General seeking a pardon for Muhammad Lukman.

(source: malaymial.com)

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

Lawyer: AG can reduce charge against man with medicinal cannabis oil



The attorney-general (AG) has the power to reduce the charge against a man 
sentenced to death for having medicinal cannabis oil when the case comes up for 
appeal, a lawyer says.

N Sivananthan said the AG, who is also public prosecutor, could offer an 
alternative charge of possession under Section 6 of the Dangerous Drugs Act 
(DDA) which carries a maximum 5-year jail term.

"If the Court of Appeal bench agrees, the death penalty could be substituted 
with a jail term," he told FMT.

Sivananthan, who represents accused in drug trafficking cases, said the court 
would usually go along with the prosecution's offer to reduce a charge.

He was responding to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who had indicated that 
the government should review the case of Muhammad Lukman, who was given the 
capital punishment by the Shah Alam High Court on Aug 30 for having medicinal 
cannabis oil.

Lukman was arrested in 2015 for the possession of 3.1 litres of cannabis oil, 
279g of compressed cannabis and 1.4kg of substance containing 
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Sivananthan said there was basis for a reduction in charge against the 
29-year-old as he was not using the oil for illegal purposes but for medical 
reasons.

"The AG has the option to concede to the appeal - this is within the law. The 
accused is not a trafficker and he could be spared the death sentence due to 
the unique facts of the case," he said.

Lukman's plight was also raised by Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar who 
earlier this week said she would write to the AG.

Nurul said the use of cannabis oil for medical reasons must eventually be 
decriminalised.

Lawyer Farhan Maaruf said Lukman only wanted to assist patients who were 
suffering from ailments that could be treated by THC, an active ingredient in 
cannabis.

Meanwhile, lawyer Salim Bashir said the use of cannabis oil to treat patients 
suffering from afflictions such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure was 
a recent trend in Malaysia.

He said under Section 16 of the DDA, the health minister need not delist the 
oil but instead regulate its use, manufacturing and sale.

Salim said the minister could, on the other hand, delist certain drugs, 
including the oil for medicinal and research purposes.

He said certain provisions in the DDA needed to be amended to ensure the use of 
cannabis oil was not abused.

Those caught possessing 200g or more of cannabis can be charged with 
trafficking.

Possession of between 50g and 200g carries a minimum 5-year jail term and 10 
strokes of the rotan while the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

Lukman's case is not the only one of its kind as Amiruddin @ Nadarajan 
Abdullah, who is known as Dr Ganja, is facing 36 charges and the death sentence 
for similar offences.

Malaysia Awareness Society secretary Harish Kumar claimed that Amiruddin, a 
former armed forces captain, had cured over 800 people using marijuana for 
different sicknesses.

In many developed countries, the trend is to decriminalise and even legalise 
marijuana, particularly for medical purposes.

(source: freemalaysiatoday.com)








INDIA:

Man gets death sentence for raping 4-yr-old girl in MP----Madhya Pradesh was 
the 1st state to enact a law last December, providing death penalty for rapists 
of minor girls below 12.



A court here on Wednesday awarded death sentence to a contractual teacher for 
raping a four-year-old girl in this Madhya Pradesh district nearly three months 
ago, saying he turned out to be a demon instead of acting as a protector and 
the case fell in the "rarest of rare" category.

With this, 14 rapists have been sentenced to death in Madhya Pradesh since 
February 28 in 13 separate cases - for raping 12 girls and sodomising a boy.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Dinesh Kumar Sharma awarded the death 
sentence to Mahendra Singh Gond (27) after convicting him under IPC section 376 
AB (rape on woman under 12 years of age) and section 5/6 of the Protection of 
Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

"Being a teacher, the accused has a duty to improve the society. But instead of 
acting as a protector, he turned out to be a demon with his act of raping a 
4-year four months and 1-day old innocent girl, and inflicted barbaric injuries 
to her private parts," the court said.

"He committed the heinous crime on a hapless girl, who does not even know the 
meaning of sex," the judge observed.

The court said it is of the view that the accused poses a "great threat" to the 
society, and considers the case fit to be in the "rarest of rare" category.

"Therefore, according to the law he deserves death," the court said.

The victim, who was raped on July 1, is still in a critical condition and 
undergoing treatment at a Delhi-based hospital.

The court also sentenced the convict to seven years of rigorous imprisonment 
for kidnapping the girl.

"The court awarded death penalty to Gond after recording the statements of the 
girl and her parents over video-conferencing as they are in Delhi," District 
Prosecution Officer Rampal Singh told PTI.

The judge cross-examined 21 prosecution witnesses.

According to Singh, Gond was friendly with the victim's family. On the night of 
July 1, he went to their place in a village Satna in an inebriated condition to 
meet the girl's father. There, he saw the girl sleeping next to her father on a 
cot outside their house. He returned home after meeting the girl's father.

After some time, Gond came back and spotted the girl alone on the cot as her 
father had gone to relieve himself, Singh said.

"Taking advantage of the situation, Gond took the girl away from her house and 
raped her. After the sexual assault, he dumped her into the bushes," he added.

When the girl's father returned and did not find his daughter, he raised an 
alarm and the family launched a search for her. Later, they found her lying in 
the thick bushes.

Gond was later arrested by the police and a charge sheet was filed against him.

Madhya Pradesh was the 1st state to enact a law last December, providing death 
penalty for rapists of minor girls below 12 after coming under fire for growing 
number of such cases.

The Centre brought an amendment in the IPC to punish the rapists of minor girls 
below 12 with death on April 21.

In the 1st conviction in Madhya Pradesh, a court in Shahdol district had 
sentenced a 23-year-old man to death on February 28 for raping and killing a 
four-year-old girl.

50 special courts have been set up in the state to conduct trials in rape cases 
in the state.

Madhya Pradesh accounted for the highest 4,882 rape cases out of 38,947 
recorded across the country in 2016, according to the last report of the 
National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB).

The state recorded 2,479 cases of rape of minor girls, followed by Maharashtra 
and Uttar Pradesh with 2,310 and 2,115 such cases respectively, the NCRB report 
said.

Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of rape cases (4,391) in 2015 as 
well, the report said.

(source: tribuneindia.com)








IRAQ:

Iraq court condemns to death 'deputy of IS leader'



An Iraqi court on Wednesday sentenced to death on terror charges a prominent 
jihadist described as a deputy of Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr 
al-Baghdadi, after he was captured in Turkey.

Ismail Alwan Salman al-Ithawi was hunted down, caught and extradited after a 
joint operation involving Turkish, Iraqi and US intelligence agencies, 
according to the Iraqi authorities.

"The Karkh criminal court in Baghdad sentenced to death by hanging one of the 
most prominent leaders of IS, who served as a deputy of Baghdadi," judicial 
spokesman Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar said.

The Iraqi authorities announced in February that Ithawi had been extradited 
from Turkey after fleeing first Iraq and then Syria as the group's 
self-proclaimed "caliphate" crumbled.

A senior Iraqi official told AFP at the time that the arrest came after an 
elite Iraqi unit "infiltrated the highest levels" of IS, which has claimed a 
string of deadly attacks in the West in recent years.

It was the first time Iraqi authorities managed to have a top leader of IS 
extradited from Turkey.

A native of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, Ithawi was accused of holding several 
positions including IS "minister" in charge of religious edicts and head of a 
IS committee that decided on senior appointments.

Originally from Iraq, his boss Baghdadi has been dubbed the "most wanted man on 
the planet" and the United States is offering a $25 million reward for his 
capture.

Baghdadi has been pronounced dead on several occasions, but an Iraqi 
intelligence official said in May that he remained alive in Syrian territory by 
the Iraqi border.

In a purported new audio recording released last month, the IS chief called on 
Muslims to wage "jihad".

He made his only known public appearance in Iraq's 2nd city of Mosul in July 
2014.

- Hundreds on death row -

Iraq has condemned several hundred people, including around 100 foreign women, 
to death for IS links, and dozens of convicted jihadists have already been 
executed.

Most of the women were from Turkey and republics of the former Soviet Union.

Many more have been jailed for life, which in Iraq is equivalent to 20 years.

They include nine Tajik women who were sentenced by an Iraqi criminal court on 
Wednesday for belonging to IS, a judicial official said.

Iraq has repeatedly faced criticism from international human rights groups over 
the high number of death sentences handed down by its anti-terrorist courts.

Iraq's anti-terrorism law empowers courts to convict people who are believed to 
have helped IS even if they are not accused of violence.

It also allows for the death penalty to be issued against anyone -- including 
non-combatants -- found guilty of belonging to IS.

Iraq declared "victory" over IS in December after a 3-year war against the 
jihadists, who once controlled nearly 1/3 of the country as well as swathes of 
neighbouring Syria.

The Iraqi military has kept up operations targeting mostly remote desert areas 
where jihadists have continued to carry out attacks.

Over the border in Syria, US-backed fighters last week launched a fierce 
assault against a dwindling pocket of territory held by IS in eastern Deir 
Ezzor province.

(source: Agence France-Presse)








IRAN:

Iran Regime's Horrific Crime Against Humanity----1988 Massacre-Iran Regime's 
Horrific Crime Against Humanity



The 1988 massacre in Iran is one of the most horrific atrocities of recent 
times. During the summer of that year, the then-Supreme Leader of Iran issued a 
fatwa ordering the execution of political prisoners and dissidents. Around 
30,000 people were executed, most of them members of the People's Mojahedin 
Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) - the main opposition to the Iranian regime.

Special so-called "death commissions" were set up and political opponents to 
the regime were killed. Anyone affiliated with the opposition was executed. The 
incident has been described as the most atrocious crime against humanity since 
the Second World War.

Human rights organisations from around the world, activists and the people of 
Iran have been campaigning for justice for those that lost their lives. The 
Iranian regime has, in recent years, proceeded to destroy evidence including 
mass unmarked graves where victims were buried.

The families have not had any closure and many of them, to this day, still do 
not know where the bodies of their loved ones lie.

3 decades later and the perpetrators of the crime have still not been brought 
to justice. Even worse, some of the officials that played a role in the 
massacre have risen through the ranks of the regime. Some are influential to 
this day.

Ebrahim Raisi, a former presidential candidate, is once such person. Although 
he missed out on the presidency during the last so called 'elections,' he is 
currently serving as the custodian of Astan Quds Razavi. It is a large 
organisation with tens of thousands of employees. It owns a large amount of 
real estate (allegedly worth around $20 billion), mostly in the Mashhad area.

The organisation is also the source of a significant slush fund for the Supreme 
Leader of the Iranian Regime - Ali Khamenei. Part of Raisi's role is to bring 
in money to the organisation which is in turn used to further the regime???s 
agenda. This includes funding terrorist activities across the Middle East and 
beyond as well as suppressing dissent within the country's borders.

The United States under the Trump administration has spoken extensively about 
the Iran threat. President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions so as to put the 
Iranian regime under extreme economic pressure. Trump and officials in his 
administration have explicitly said that the regime needs to be cut off from 
the funding that allows it to spread terror across the Middle East and further.

If the United States is to succeed in this goal it is essential that the regime 
no longer has access to its slush fund. This goes without saying.

The people are sick of the Iranian regime's destruction of the country they are 
so proud of. They want to restore it to the great nation that it once was and 
the only way for this to happen is for the Iranian regime to be replaced with a 
democratic government that respects the law, human rights and the people.

(source: ncr-iran.org)