[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 23



BANGLADESH:

Nusrat murder: Relatives of accused seek capital punishment for 
murder----Madrasa student and Alim examinee Nusrat lost her battle for life, 5 
days after she was set afire on April 6, an incident that touched off outrage 
all over the country



Relatives of the accused in the murder case of Feni madrasa student Nusrat 
Jahan Rafi, demanded exemplary punishment of the killers.

Shahidul Islam, the father of Umme Sultana Poppy, who was directly involved in 
the killing, said his daughter fell in the trap of the institution's jailed 
principal SM Siraj-ud-Daula.

He said on Monday his daughter should be punished for committing the crime.

He added though Siraj is his brother-in-law, he hates him for the incident.

Fatema Begum, the mother of Shahadat Hossain Shamim, one of the prime accused 
in the murder case of Nusrat Jahan Rafi, said : "I want capital punishment of 
my son."

"I am feeling shame being a mother of a culprit son, " she added.

Rahmat Ullah, father of Javed Hossain alias Sakhawat Hossain Javed, who was 
directly involved with the murder, said his son was very simple in character.

He alleged that the madrasa principal used him as a tool to commit the crime.

"I also demand punishment of my son as he has committed the crime," he added.

Meanwhile, demonstrators under the banner of several organizations in Feni 
organized protest rally demanding a judicial inquiry into the role of police 
over the Nusrat murder.

Madrasa student and Alim examinee Nusrat lost her battle for life, 5 days after 
she was set afire on April 6, an incident that touched off outrage all over the 
country.

A group of 5 people poured kerosene on the 18-year-old girl and set her afire 
allegedly for refusing to withdraw a case against the principal of the madrasa 
over sexual assault on her late last month.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)








IRELAND:

65 years ago today, Ireland executed a person for the last time



On April 20, 1954, Michael Manning, a 25-year-old man from Limerick, became the 
29th and last person to be legally executed in Ireland.

By 1964 the death penalty was abolished for all cases apart from the murder of 
police, diplomats, and prison officers. It was abolished by statute for the 
remaining offenses in 1990 and was expunged from the Constitution of Ireland by 
referendum in 2001.

The Limerick man, the last man executed at the hands of the state, was found 
guilty of the rape and murder of Catherine Cooper (65) who worked at 
Barrington’s Hospital, in the city. The crime took place in February 1953. He 
was found by police because he left a distinctive hat at the scene of the 
crime.

He had been married just the year before the crime and his only child was born 
just weeks before his execution.

Manning blamed his actions on “too much drink.” The statement in police files 
describes Manning movements on the day of the crime, November 18, 1953. It 
lists the pubs that served him drink and recounts how he had been refused by 
the barmaid at the Munster Fair Tavern.

His trial opened on February 15, 1954, and lasted only 3 days. The trial was 
widely attended and hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse.

The defense team had claimed insanity and claimed the charges should be dropped 
to manslaughter as Manning had not planned the attack ahead of time. However, 
the prosecution said that Manning had changed his routine to give himself more 
time to commit the crime.

While there was a history of mental health issues in his family the judge sided 
with the prosecution and told the jury to discard the argument, as he claimed 
the fact that Manning has shoved clods of grass into the victim’s mouth to stop 
her screaming showed he was aware of the crime he was committing.

After just 3 hours of deliberation, he was sentenced to death despite the fact 
that the victim’s family had petitioned to court to show him mercy. When he was 
found guilty he is said to have “paled visibly.”

Manning was the 1st person to be condemned to death since 1948.

The Limerick man wrote a letter to the Government begging for a reprieve.

He wrote:

“I ask the Minister for Justice to show his mercy upon me as it is so near to 
Easter and Good Friday and it is our Holy Mother’s year. I am not afraid to die 
as I am fully prepared to go before my God, but it is on behalf of my wife as 
she is so young and so near the birth of our baby.

“Instead of one life being taken there could be three as it would be a big 
shock to my wife if the execution will be carried out on the date mentioned 
[April 20]. So I would be grateful to you if you showed your mercy toward my 
wife and me.”

After Mass and Holy Communion on Sunday before his execution, Manning played 
handball with other inmates. They noted that he seemed completely normal.

A fellow inmate of Manning's recalled later,

“Friends of mine who worked with me, I was serving my time at the time, went up 
to visit him on the Sunday before he was hanged. And they went to mass and holy 
communion together and they played a game of handball that day. He couldn't 
have been more normal.”

He was then taken from his cell at Mountjoy prison and hanged by Alert 
Pierrepoint. The hang house remains today in the grounds of Mountjoy. The 
execution was carried out by Albert Pierrepoint, who had traveled from Britain 
where he was 1 of 3 Senior Executioners. Pierrepoint executed at least 400 
people in his career as a hangman – 13 of those in Mountjoy.

Manning’s body was buried in an unmarked grave in Mountjoy prison as was the 
custom for executed prisoners.

After his death, his widow wrote a letter to the Governor of Mountjoy thanking 
him for the kindness he showed her husband. The letter read:

“We really adored each other and will until I join him in heaven someday. I can 
assure you, sir, that Micheal [sic] is also praying for you all and he will 
return his thanks to you in another way.”

After the execution of Manning, it was common that death sentences be commuted 
by the Irish government. In 1851 the right to commute a death sentence became 
restricted to the President only.

Ireland had previously considered abolishing the punishment from the 
constitution and an early draft of the constitution included a provision to ban 
it.

Before Manning’s execution questions had been raised over the death of William 
Gambom who was the 2nd-last person to be put to death. He was a casual laborer 
who had killed his friend after getting into a drunken fight. When Gambom read 
in the newspaper that his friend had died he handed himself into the police. 
Despite the fact that it was a clear-cut case of manslaughter he was condemned 
to death.

It was argued that he had been sentenced to death due to his social standing 
and had he been a richer man his sentence would have been lower.

In 1964 the criminal justice act abolished the death sentence. However, it was 
only entirely squashed by a referendum in 2001. Ireland was the last country in 
Europe to constitutionally forbid the use of capital punishment.

While the EU has abolished execution it still takes place elsewhere in the 
world. The top five locations where the most executions take place are the 
United States, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and China.

(source: irishcentral.com, April 20)








LEBANON:

Lynn Maalouf on death penalty: “Lebanon could play a role model”----Amnesty 
International’s Middle East research director Lynn Maalouf answers ByTheEast’s 
questions about human rights in Lebanon: violations of different kinds, death 
penalty, torture, women’s rights, rights of sexual minorities, and finally the 
situation of Syrian refugees. Maalouf has a lot to say.



"Even though courts continue to hand down sentences, Lebanon has had an 
unofficial moratorium on the death penalty and has not carried out an execution 
since 2004."

ByTheEast: Let’s begin by getting a general overview of the human rights scene 
in Lebanon. Do you see any signs of progress over the last 10 years?

Lynn Maalouf: The situation of human rights, as anywhere in the world, hinges 
on an operational state – with an independent judiciary, an active parliament 
and government – as well as on rigorous laws and a strong, mobilized and 
strategic civil society. It’s a good indicator of where a society stands in 
this respect.

If you look back at the past 10 years, you see a state that was largely either 
paralyzed, or non-functional, or actively pushing back against demands for an 
improved human rights situation (for instance, the security forces’ excessive 
use of force against protestors in 2015 during the waste management crisis as 
one case in point), but coupled with a more mature, strategic, and active human 
rights community.

On paper, Lebanon has made the right commitments to ensure its citizens their 
main rights: it is a signatory of the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and 
Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the International Convention on the Elimination 
of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

But in practice, if we’re to look at citizens’ access to basic services today, 
such as affordable housing, clean water, air and electricity, which it should 
in principle be ensuring as per its obligations under ICESCR, there’s no 
question the Lebanese state has much to improve on. When looking at the 
situation of migrant domestic workers, who suffer from a range of serious 
violations reaching to the level of forced labor, the Lebanese state needs to 
up its ante on putting in place improved and functioning protection measures, 
as well as carry out legal and administrative reforms that would address the 
dire situation of a quarter million workers in the country. There are growing 
concerns around the ability of individuals to express their opinion freely, 
without fear of repercussion – we continue to document cases of people who are 
summoned for questioning, ill-treated, threatened, made to sign pledges that 
have no legal foundation by a host of security institutions.

There have been nonetheless some wins in the recent past – mostly in areas 
where there was sustained, and strategic campaigning and lobbying on specific 
issues, coupled with diplomatic pressure, or where the political cost of 
addressing the issue diminished – for example the ratification of the law on 
the missing and disappeared: 10 years ago, one would have never thought 
possible such a law could pass in the country, even less with a clause that 
included the possibility of seeking criminal prosecutions. In September 2017, 
parliament finally passed the country’s first anti-torture law; and a month 
earlier it abolished the infamous “marry-your-rapist” law. We can and should 
expect to see more positive change in areas where the discourses resisting 
change have lost legitimacy, or credibility, and thus that represent 
low-hanging fruits for decision-makers at little cost – for instance one can 
think of issues concerning children’s rights, women’s rights, domestic workers, 
etc. Human rights organizations and civil society partners need to keep pushing 
– now that all three bodies of the state are finally functioning, and Lebanon 
is under pressure to clean its house so to speak, there can be room for 
improvement in the coming period.

“There has been a drop in over 30% in executions worldwide in 2018, with the 
lowest number that Amnesty has recorded over the past decade.”

BTE: In 2017 and 2018, although Lebanese courts continued to hand down death 
sentences, your report states “no executions were carried out”. What is your 
opinion on abolishing death penalty in the foreseeable future?

Maalouf: Indeed, even though courts continue to hand down sentences, Lebanon 
has had an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty and has not carried out 
an execution since 2004. It has stopped short though of abolishing the death 
penalty, and pressure on decision-makers to resume executions returns every 
once in a while. It wouldn’t be a wild assumption to think that the state could 
decide to abolish it altogether, if decision-makers today decide they want to 
follow the global trend and even play a role model in the region in this 
respect. Amnesty just released its global Death Penalty report, which shows 
that there has been a drop in over 30% in executions worldwide in 2018, with 
the lowest number that Amnesty has recorded over the past decade. This would be 
an example of the low-hanging fruit that I mentioned earlier.

BTE: Let us focus on torture. According to Sahar Mandour from Amnesty’s Lebanon 
office, “The authorities have recently taken steps to align Lebanon with its 
international obligations, namely by ratifying the anti-torture law and a just 
last week, by appointing the members of the National Preventive Mechanism. Ziad 
Itani’s case is a real litmus test of their intent to implement the law and 
meaningfully address torture.” And yet, although a year has gone by since the 
release of Ziad Itani on March 2018, he still carries signs of physical and 
psychological sequelae. What role can Amnesty International further play to 
implement, facilitate and act as a catalyst towards the implementation of this 
new anti-torture law which came into effect from October 2018?

Maalouf: Amnesty has documented the case of Ziad Itani and communicated both 
privately and publicly with the Lebanese authorities, first to call for his 
unconditional and immediate release, then for his case to be transferred from 
the military to a civil court and now for his right to seek redress for the 
claims of torture during his detention. Ziad’s case gained momentum in the 
public domain, and brought pressure on the authorities to address his case. 
Just last Friday, the military prosecutor decided to refer the case back to the 
civilian court, which Amnesty and others have been pushing for – it shows that 
with the right laws, and solid mobilization, there can be impact.

Lebanon has already signaled its willingness to address torture, by enacting 
the anti-torture law and then forming the Committee members. It now needs to 
take the next step which will be enabling the Committee to perform its duties, 
and a judiciary that will follow through on claims of torture with rigorous 
investigations and holding those responsible for the acts of torture or other 
forms of ill-treatment accountable.

BTE: In March 2019, the Lebanese government had approved the appointment of a 
five members committee towards the creation of the National Prevention 
Mechanism against torture and such ill-treatments. Further, the U.N. Convention 
against Torture specifically mentions that such detention centers should be 
physically visited by inspectors in order to discourage and prevent such 
inhumane treatments. In practical terms, what steps should be taken towards 
implementing this mechanism in Lebanon?

Maalouf: The members of the committee were just recently appointed – even 
though this should have happened some 10 years ago, it is still a very welcome 
step. Now the state needs to empower that committee, afford it a budget so it 
can start operating fully.

BTE: OK, let’s go in a different direction. I would like to talk about women’s 
rights. Lebanese civil society has called on the authorities to repeal articles 
505 and 518, which allow for marriage with minors aged between 15 and 18 as a 
way to escape prosecution (in case of rape). What can you do to change this 
tragic reality?

Maalouf: On this issue, Amnesty can support and join forces with the very 
active and leading women’s rights organization who have been successfully 
fighting against child marriage, the marry-your-rapist law, domestic violence 
amongst other issues. The success of rights’ groups in recent years hasn’t been 
to only push for legal reforms but also in changing mentalities, in raising 
awareness, in making it more and more difficult for decision-makers to be 
taking regressive and repressive positions – so there is still much to be done 
but I do have hope for impact on women’s rights issues in Lebanon in coming 
years.

BTE: Lebanese women are not allowed to transmit their citizenship to their 
children. Many officials are afraid of Palestinians; they say it would mean a 
“raz-de-marée” of naturalizations. But reliable figures and statistics clearly 
say it’s a false reasoning since it would apply only to 3000 
Lebanese-Palestinian families, a minority compared to the 18000 bi-national 
families. What can be done to change Lebanese authorities’ perception on this 
issue?

Maalouf: So the “raz de maree” argument has become quite difficult to hold in 
our day and age. The Lebanese government itself in fact commissioned the first 
survey of Palestinians living in both official camps and informal settlements – 
and the results showed that there was less than half of the estimated 450,000 
Palestinians in Lebanon. So of course, this provides a good entry-point to push 
for a change in policy in this respect towards ensuring women’s right to pass 
on their citizenship – which affects Lebanese women primarily in fact, married 
to Palestinians or any non-Lebanese person.

“On homosexuality, mentalities have changed […] but the Lebanese authorities 
are still very much influenced by the pressure of religious institutions.” BTE: 
With regard to the LGBT community, they are prosecuted and stigmatized in 
Lebanon. Traditional habits and archaic legislations condemn homosexual 
practices as they “contradict the laws of nature”, which is a moral and 
religious point of view. But recently, a military court cleared staff by ruling 
that sodomy’s “not punishable by law”. Could we consider this decision as a 
huge step forward?

Maalouf: Actually even though the law itself hasn’t been abolished, there have 
been a number of judicial decisions in the recent past that have all but made 
the law irrelevant, arguing that a homosexual act is not contrary to nature. 
There is no doubt that in the past decade or so, mentalities have changed and 
this has provided a backbone to the judges who have taken such decisions. This 
is in no small part due to the very brave activism by LGBTI groups sustained 
over the past years.

However, the Lebanese authorities are still very much influenced by the 
pressure of religious institutions and groups in the country in this area – and 
in the past couple of years, there have been a number of attempts by security 
institutions to shut down IDAHOT activities or conferences for example, that 
came on the back of threats proffered by religious groups.

So the need to keep pushing back against such repressive moves, with the 
overarching goal of abolishing the law altogether, is still very much needed – 
even though the recent judicial decisions can be seen as bearers of potential 
positive change.

BTE: Let’s conclude with your statement about Syrian refugees in Lebanon. For 
the past 4 years, Lebanese government forbid UNHCR to register new refugees’ 
entries in Lebanon. Therefore many refugees faced difficulties to renew their 
residency. What have done Amnesty International for them?

Maalouf: Indeed the Lebanese state stopped allowing UNHCR to register refugees 
since May 2015, which Amnesty called out since the decision had been taken, and 
has since been advocating for a reversal of this decision. Many refugees are 
struggling with a host of legal and administrative difficulties in the country, 
which all represent what we call “push” factors – or in other words, an 
environment in which the conditions of life are so dire that some refugees 
prefer to risk going back to their country where the situation is far from 
safe. Lebanon, along with Jordan and Turkey, have carried the greatest weight 
of the Syrian crisis and war; at a time when the rest of the world has to a 
large part closed its doors and fallen behind on supporting the host countries. 
Since the beginning of the refugee crisis, Amnesty has called on the world to 
“share the responsibility” and step up its support of host states; but also 
continues to raise its concerns, publicly and privately, to the Lebanese 
authorities about its handling of the refugees in the country.

BTE: According to your 2018 report, around 9900 Syrian citizens have returned 
to their hometown in 2018. It sounds really short. What can Amnesty 
International do to facilitate their return? Can you work properly in Syria?

Maalouf: Amnesty, as a human rights organization, is not involved in the 
returns process. Our role is to monitor the situation and raise our concerns 
before the authorities and globally. To our knowledge, at this point in time, 
not one party or organization is able to ensure the safety of refugees 
returning to their country. There are credible reports that those returning, 
whether in an organized manner or not, are doing so without sufficient clarity 
or information about the situation on the ground in their places of origin – 
and that includes first and foremost the issue of safety.

With regards to our access to Syria, we have requested access on a regular 
basis from the authorities but receive no response. Our teams have been able to 
access the northeastern part of the country in the past couple of years, but it 
has been restricted to that area.

(source: bytheeast.com)








BRUNEI:

Brunei defends death penalty against homosexuals in absurd letter



Brunei demands “tolerance, respect and understanding” from the EU when it comes 
to the death penalty for homosexuals. The sultanate had triggered a worldwide 
wave of protests with the tightening of criminal law.

The sultanate Brunei has defended the internationally heavily criticized 
introduction of the death penalty against homosexuals in a letter to the 
European Parliament. The “Guardian” cited a four-page letter from the Sultanate 
to the European Parliament stating that stoning as a punishment for same-sex 
sex would be rare, since 2 men of “high moral rank and piety” were required as 
witnesses. In view of the country’s desire to preserve its traditional values 
and its “family line”, it demands “tolerance, respect and understanding”.

On April 3, harder criminal laws came into force in the Sultanate. The 
penalties for theft have also been tightened: in the future, thieves will have 
to expect that their hands and legs will be amputated. The basis for this is 
Sharia, which regulates the religious and legal norms in Islam in a broad 
sense.

George Clooney calls for boycott of luxury hotels

In the letter cited by the Guardian, it was said that international criticism 
was due to a misunderstanding. “The criminalization of adultery and fornication 
should ensure the inviolability of the family line and the marriage of various 
Muslims, especially women.” The EU was also asked to review assets freezes, 
visa bans and a blacklist of hotels owned by the Sultanate. Among other things, 
the actor George Clooney had demanded to boycott hotels belonging to the 
sultan.

(source: noblenashville.com)








PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

Enforce death penalty: Steven



THE DEPARTING Justice minister has made a strong recommendation to the national 
government to fully implement the death penalty.

In announcing his resignation last Thursday, Davis Steven said the delay in 
implementing the death penalty is taking too long amid rising serious crime in 
the country.

He said: “One of the final submissions I have signed is to give the National 
Executive Council is an information paper giving an update on where this issue 
is with a strong recommendation that we begin to enforce the death penalty.

“The current government has recognised the importance of that particular 
provision of law as a deterrent to the rising crime situation.”

He said the delay lies with the relevant authorities, especially the 
Correctional Services and prison system, identifying the proper method to 
effect the sentence.

In many countries that enforce the death sentence, prisoners are put to death 
by various means, including by firing squad, hanging, electric chair or lethal 
injection.

PNG has more than 50 death row prisoners but none has been put to death since 
the first man was sentenced to die by Justice (now retired) Tracy Doherty in 
the 1990s.

Mr Davis said: “The death penalty is part of our laws. Question is whether it 
can be enforced. The judges say it can be because they have imposed judgments 
with penalties reflecting the death penalty.

“The executive arm of government under Prime Minister did what it could to help 
our authorities, mainly the CS Commissioner, and relevant institutions to 
decide on the method that should be employed in executing the death penalty 
ordered.”

Mr Steven said the delay is “one of a political will, and the implementation 
and they call it the resourcing constraint”.

“The current government has recognised the importance of that particular 
provision of law as a deterrent to the rising crime situation.

“So I think it is time, that question and the implementation of death is timely 
and must be encouraged, so that is now before cabinet again as one of my final 
submissions which I will not be there to deliberate on.”

(source: postcourier.com.pg)