[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

February 6



BANGLADESH:

4 receive death penalty for murdering minor in Sylhet



4 people have been sentenced to death for killing a schoolboy in Chatak upazila 
of Sunamganj district in 2015.

Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal Judge Rezaul Karim passed the order on 
Wednesday.

The condemned convicts are: Imam of the local mosque Suwebur Rahman Sujon, 
Rafiqur Rahman, Zahid Ahmed, and Saleh Ahmad.

Saleh was tried in absentia as has yet to be arrested.

The court also fined the convicts Tk20,000 each.

According to the prosecution, Mostafizur Rahman Imon—of Batirkandi village 
under Chatak upazila of Sunamganj upazila—son of Zahur Ali, a Saudi expatriate, 
was kidnapped by the convicts on March 27, 2015.

Later, the kidnappers killed him after receiving the ransom money. The victim's 
father filed a case in this connection.

On April 8, 2015, police arrested Sujon from Kadamtoli Bus stand area, in 
Dhaka, after tracking his mobile phone.

Upon further interrogation and investigation police recovered a knife— plus the 
skull and bones of Imon—from a haor area in Batirkandi village.

On November 21, 2016, police submitted a charge sheet against 7 people.

(source: Dhaka Tribune)








INDIA:

Judge breaks nib, signs death sentence for murder convict



Session Judge, Senapati, A Nou-tuneshwari Devi has awarded death sentence to 
the main convict involved in the murder of Pukrihongbam Memi Chanu in August 
last year, apart from awarding life imprisonment to a co-convict and 3 years 
and 6 months imprisonment respectively to two other women convicted in 
connection with murder case.

The Court also directed a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to be paid to the victim’s 
family.

The quantum of punishment was announced today after the sentence hearing of the 
case against the main convict Yumkhaibam Rohit alias Rajesh (29) s/o Y 
Ri-jauddin of Khergao Makha Leikai, Kshetrigao, co-convicts Md Farish Shah (18) 
s/o (L) Faruk Shah of Kshetrigao Thambalkhong Makha Leikai, Rehana (50) d/o 
Abdullah of Khergao Makha Leikai, Kshetrigao, Farjina (23) d/o Habi of Khergao 
Makha Leikai, Kshetrigao, as well as another individual (who has since been 
acquitted from the case) Leishangthem Nungchanba alias Ramesh (35) s/o Yaima of 
Leishang-them Awang Leikai.

It may be recalled that yesterday, the Court convicted Rohit under section 302 
(murder) and 201 IPC (for causing disappearance of evidence) and Md Farish Khan 
under section 302 (murder), 201 IPC (for causing disappearance of evidence), 34 
IPC (common intention) and 213 IPC (taking gift to screen an offender from 
punishment).

The Court also convicted Rehana under section 201 IPC (for causing disappearing 
of evidence) and Farjina under section 202 IPC (for intentional omission to 
give information of offence by person bound to inform).

All the convicted individuals were brought from Sajiwa Central Jail and Manipur 
Central Jail for the sentence hearing today before the Court.

During the sentence hearing, Koshia Mao, Additional Public Prosecutor, 
submitted that Rohit was convicted for murder which is heinous offence and 
mentioned that one can hardly imagine what torture and brutality, the victim 
must have faced during the crime.

The APP continued that Rohit hit the victim on her head with a wooden stump and 
then hit her several times on the head and face with a stone pestle while the 
co-convict Md Farish Khan strangulated her using a rope.

The APP conveyed that this has to be taken into consideration while granting 
punishment to Rohit and added that not only this, after the commission of the 
murder, he (Rohit) removed all the gold ornaments worn by the victim before 
packing the dead body inside the gunny bags.

He then went to Rashid & Sons Jewellery Store, Masjid Road, Imphal and sold off 
the gold ornaments for Rs 59, 000.

After selling off the ornaments, Rohit came back to his locality and on the way 
he met Farish and gave him Rs 7000 so that Farish would remain silent and 
refrain from disclosing about the crime to anyone.

The APP continued that thereafter, in the midnight of August 14, at about 11.30 
pm, Rohit and Farish brought the dead body on a bicycle (with Rohit steering 
and Farish pushing the cycle from the back) and headed towards Iril river and 
dumped the dead body into the river.

The APP prayed for awarding capital punishment to the prime convict explaining 
that if he is made to live in this society, other innocent woman will become 
his prey and he will continue to outrage the dignity of other women.

The APP further prayed for awarding proper punishments to the co convicts Md 
Farish Shah, Rehana and Farjina as per the law.

On the other hand, the defense counsels of the main convict Y Rohit and 
co-convict Md Farish Shah submitted that both the convicts are orphans and 
their family (wife and children) are living in miserable and pitiable 
conditions.

Claiming that there are no previous antecedents in their past careers, the 
counsels prayed for leniency while sentencing them.

The defense counsel for the convict Rehana and Farjina submitted that Rehana is 
a widow and is the sole bread earner of her family. She is illiterate and she 
does not know the prevailing law of the country and as such she may be excused 
for the offence committed by her, counsel claimed adding that she had cleaned 
the room (scene of the crime) as usual without knowing the fact that the crime 
was committed in her house.

The counsel claimed that Farjina was sick at the time she was arrested and she 
did not inform about the crime in time as she had no idea that she was bound to 
inform about the crime to the police and as such she deserves leniency.

The Court, after hearing the APP and the defense counsels in detail, sentenced 
the convict Y Rohit alias Rajesh to death by hanging.

The Court further sentenced Md Farish Shah to life imprisonment, Rehana to 3 
years simple imprisonment and Farjina to 6 months simple imprisonment.

The Court then recommended a sum of Rs 10,00, 000 to be given to the victim’s 
father Pukhrihongbam Gourasing Meetei by the District Legal Services Authority, 
Senapati, within a period of 60 days from the date of receipt of the order. It 
may be mentioned that today’s death sentence announced by the Session Court is 
the second such sentence awarded within 8 months, as on July 31 last year, the 
same Judge, A Noutuneshwari Devi, sentenced a rape and murder convict R David 
(24) s/o Ngounirang alias Charang of Maram Kavanam village, under section 6 of 
POCSO Act and section 302 IPC, for committing the rape and murder of a 4 year 
and 3 months old minor girl.

(source: thesangaiexpress.com)

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

In a first since independence in Manipur, court awards death penalty to man for 
murder----The police report mentions that Rohit hit the girl with a wooden 
stump and strangulated her with a rope while Farish muffled the victim's mouth.



Terming it as one of the “rarest of rare” cases, a sessions court in Manipur’s 
Senapati district on Tuesday awarded death penalty to a man convicted of 
murder. This is the 2nd death sentence awarded in the state since Independence 
and a 1st to a person charged with murder.

Sessions Judge A Noutuneshwari convicted Yumkhaibam Rohit alias Rajesh, 29, for 
murdering his girlfriend. The court also directed Manipur State Legal Services 
Authority to give the victim’s father Rs 10 lakh as compensation within 60 
days.

“In my considered view, maximum punishment should be awarded and it should be 
an eye opener for the society at large in order to prevent such brutal and 
heinous crime in our society,” the judge said.

The 3 other convicts in the case are Y Md Farish Shah, Rehena and Farjina. 
Rohit was convicted under Section 302 and 201 of IPC, while Shah was awarded 
life imprisonment and Rehana and Farjina were given 3 years and 6 months simple 
imprisonment respectively.

“As the crime committed by the convicts are so inhumane, barbaric and merciless 
and their intention and motive were beyond the thoughts of a rational human 
being, such cruelty deserves to be wiped out and there is no mitigating factor 
to deter in other alternative punishment,” the judge said.

The incident took place on August 14, 2018, at Kshertrigao Thambalkhong Makha 
Leikai, in Imphal East district at Farish’s residence. As per police 
investigation, the girl befriended Rohit on Facebook in February 2018 following 
which they started meeting frequently and entered into a physical relationship.

However, on August 14, the couple had an argument after the girl pressured 
Rohit to elope. The police report mentions that Rohit then hit the girl with a 
wooden stump and strangulated her with a rope while Farish muffled the victim’s 
mouth. Rohit also smashed the girl’s head and face with a stone several times 
before fleeing with her ornaments.

The police completed its investigation within a month and submitted the charge 
sheet against the convicts on January 15. The trial was completed in a record 
20 days after the court examined and recorded the statement of 28 prosecution 
witnesses.

Noutuneshwari, who is also a special judge of POCSO (Protection of Children 
from Sexual Offences) in Senapati, on July 31, 2018, had awarded death sentence 
to a 21-year-old who was convicted for rape and murder of a 4-year-old girl in 
2015.

(source: indianexpress.com)








TURKEY:

Turkey probes deportation of Egyptian facing death penalty



Turkey will investigate the deportation of an Egyptian facing execution in 
Cairo over a car bomb and has suspended eight policemen involved, the Istanbul 
governor's office said on Wednesday.

Mohamed Abdelhafiz Ahmed Hussein, whom the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement 
identifies as a member, was among 28 people sentenced in absentia to death in 
July 2017 for killing Egypt's public prosecutor in the attack, according to 
state media.

He was sent back to Egypt last month from Istanbul's main Ataturk airport on 
arrival from Somalia for not having a visa.

The case adds to strained Turkey-Egypt relations since the army ousted 
President Mohamed Mursi, of the Brotherhood, following mass protests against 
his rule in 2013.

The Istanbul governor's office said on Tuesday that when Hussein arrived, there 
was no information he was facing trial anywhere, and he did not request 
protection, so officials deemed him an "unacceptable passenger" due to lack of 
a Turkish visa.

In a separate statement on Wednesday, the governor's office said a commission 
had been set up to investigate the deportation and 8 police officers were 
suspended from duty over it.

An adviser to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said it was wrong to repatriate 
anyone facing charges in Egypt and the matter needed checking.

"During the leadership of (Egyptian President Abdel Fattah) Sisi, Turkey has 
not and does not hand over anyone facing the death penalty or any other 
charges," Yasin Aktay wrote in the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper on 
Wednesday.

The Muslim Brotherhood has close ties with Turkey's ruling AK Party and many of 
its members have fled to Turkey since the group's activities were banned in 
Egypt.

Cairo says the Brotherhood, the world's oldest Islamist movement, is a 
terrorist organisation. Most of its senior members have been arrested, driven 
into exile or underground.

The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful organisation.

Defendants sentenced in absentia in Egypt are automatically retried once they 
are captured or turn themselves in.

Sources in Egypt's National Security Service said Hussein was questioned and 
moved to jail ahead of his retrial after arriving in Egypt. (Additional 
reporting by Mahmoud Mourad and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan in Cairo; Writing by Tuvan 
Gumrukcu; Editing by Daren Butler and Andrew Cawthorne) (source: Reuters)








SRI LANKA:

Files of drug peddlers sentenced to death missing?



A discussion regarding drug peddlers was held in Parliament yesterday. UPFA MP 
Dayasiri Jayasekara noted that there are complaints that the files of those 
sentenced to death on charges relating to narcotics distribution have been 
missing.

He questioned; “When the President is attempting to implement the death penalty 
against those who are accused, why is this being delayed? Who is behind this?”

Responding to this Minister of Justice and Prison Reforms Thalatha Atukorale 
said that 48 people were sentenced to death, however, 30 of them have filed 
appeals against their sentences. Therefore, she noted that the death penalty 
can only be implemented against 18 people for now.

Minister Atukorale said the Attorney General’s Department should give 
recommendations with regard to these 18 files and these files have already been 
sent to the Presidential Secretariat.

(source: newsfirst.lk)








EUROPEAN UNION:

EU funding to Africa must be conditional on death penalty abolition, MEPs 
say----Several MEPs say Brussels should link the abolition of the death penalty 
in African and other states with a landmark cooperation agreement currently 
being thrashed out between the EU and Africa.



The Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the EU and African, Caribbean and 
Pacific countries is due to expire on 29 February 2020 and the new agreement is 
currently being finalised by the 2 sides.

At a briefing in Brussels on Tuesday, Moraes was 1 of 3 MEPs who spoke about 
conditionality between EU funds and human rights compliance with countries 
linked to the EU by international agreements such as the ACP countries (African 
Caribbean Pacific) and the Cotonou agreement.

Moraes, who chairs Parliament’s civil liberties committee, described the death 
penalty as “abhorrent”, saying that victims were often “tortured, abused and 
threatened” before being killed.

He said, “There must be something badly wrong with any country that feels the 
need to have the death penalty. Africa, it has to be said, is moving in the 
right direction on abolition and this is positive of course. But there also 
need to be incentives for those countries which are still to abolish the death 
penalty and one thing the EU should be doing is making this issue a red line in 
the ongoing Cotonou discussions.”

One of the oldest and most comprehensive frameworks of cooperation between the 
EU and 3rd countries, the Cotonou Partnership Agreement was signed in 2000 for 
a period of 20 years.

The agreement covers more than 100 countries (EU Member States + 79 ACP 
countries) and represents over 1.5 billion people.

As part of the ongoing negotiations for the extension of the Cotonou 
agreements, MEPs from different political groups say that the universal 
abolition of the death penalty is one of the key priorities of the European 
Union human rights external policy and have asked the European Commission to 
initiate a debate on making the EU funds conditional on the abolition of the 
death penalty in the countries it supports.

HUMAN RIGHTS IN FOCUS

Moraes said the European Commission should be encouraged to strengthen 
discussions on issues of human rights in the ACP countries, one quarter of 
which still have the death penalty.

Figures presented at the hearing show that 144 countries abolished the death 
penalty in 2018 but there are still 52 states that have retained it, including 
11 in Africa.

The meeting was told that “thousands of executions” are also unaccounted for 
every year.

He said, however, that this was an issue of concern in other parts of the 
world, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, which carries out murders in a 
“particularly terrible way” and is guilty of “gross violations” of human 
rights.

Moraes argued that some EU members with close ties to the Saudi regime were 
reluctant to raise human rights issues with the country.

It was also notable, he said, that a “disproportionate” number of people 
sentenced to death were black people.

According to UK MEP Alex Mayer (S&D), a member of the Committee of economic and 
monetary affairs, “as EU citizens we say no to the death penalty and this 
message must be used across the world.”

She added that “in some countries people say that the death penalty is a 
deterrent and it works. No, it doesn’t work because the death penalty is an act 
of violence and there is always the possibility of errors.”

The EU, she added, should make it easier for authorities to block trade, for 
example, to countries which still retain the death penalty.”

In her view “EU policy has never been about selling only but also improving 
human rights.”

She highlighted the use of the death penalty in the United States, saying that 
the EU had invested some €3m in lobbying efforts designed to pursuade the US to 
abolish it.

Mayer also underlined the risk of innocent people being killed, saying that 
since 1973 some 153 people in the US had been released from death row because 
their innocence had been proven.

“The fact that the death penalty is being used less around the world gives 
cause for optimism, but we must still seek a global abolition.”

Referring to the Cotonou agreement, she said, “Trade policy should be not just 
about trade but about improving human rights.”

European states also had to “get their house in order,” she said, adding “Some 
bad stuff also happens here and when it does we need to call it out.”

Another speaker, German Greens MEP Klaus Buchner, a member of the sub-committee 
of human rights, said “In order to push through human rights it is often more 
effective to do it through trade.”

He added, “before the Lomé agreement, the EU had made countries participating 
in it aware of the respect of human rights, but it had not worked fully in some 
countries.”

“Trade policy should be not just about trade but about improving human rights.”

‘PERSUASIVE MEASURES’

Parliament approved, in the last session in Strasbourg, a formal position 
linking human rights to the support of organisations and general support to 
developing countries.

Parliament said it is increasingly concerned that the rule of law and human 
rights be respected in Member States. The adopted resolution said it is anxious 
that those Member States which do not respect those principles, interfere with 
courts or fail to tackle fraud and corruption will “undermine the foundations 
on which the EU has been built.”

Some MEPs say “persuasive measures” could include suspending budget payments or 
reducing pre-financing to countries still using the death penalty.

Human rights advocates in the EU want to expand this principle of 
conditionality to the African Caribbean Pacific countries that are linked to 
the EU by the Cotonou Agreement. These countries receive EU support and 
cooperate with the EU through trade and aid channels.

Tuesday’s meeting at the Brussels press club comes ahead of the 7th World 
Congress Against the Death Penalty which will be held later this month at the 
European Parliament. An exhibition of faces of people who have been spared the 
death penalty after many years on death row is on the walls of the press club.

(source: Martin Banks is a senior reporter at The Parliament Magazine)








PHILIPPINES:

House withdraws approval of death penalty for drug possession----House Bill 
8909, which imposes the death penalty and a P10-million fine on those found 
with illegal drugs at social gatherings, has been recommitted to the committee 
on dangerous drugs



The House of Representatives on Wednesday, February 6, withdrew its approval of 
the bill reimposing the death penalty on those caught with illegal drugs at 
parties or social gatherings.

During the session on Wednesday, February 6, Deputy Majority Leader Wilter Wee 
Palma II moved to withdraw the 2nd reading as well as the 3rd reading of House 
Bill (HB) 8909, which had been approved on Monday, February 4.

“Madam Speaker, on February 4, 2019, we approved on 3rd reading House Bill 
8909. I move that we reconsider the approval on 3rd reading of House Bill 
8909…. Madam Speaker, I move that we reconsider the approval on 2nd reading of 
House Bill 8909,” said Palma.

No lawmaker objected, so the motions were approved. HB 8909 was then 
recommitted to the committee on dangerous drugs “to introduce necessary 
amendments thereto.”

HB 8909 was supposed to have hurdled the House already after legislators 
approved it on 3rd and final reading House Bill (HB) 8909 with a vote of 
172-0-0 on Monday, February 4.

If passed into law, the House bill would bar a senior high school student from 
graduating if he or she fails to complete the ROTC program House leaders vs 
death penalty to be replaced in May

On possibly losing support after the House reorganization, Speaker Pantaleon 
Alvarez says, 'Well if I'm burning bridges, then so be it' After shabu 
smuggling, Barbers asks Senate to pass death penalty bill

'Death is the only language these criminals and big-time syndicates 
understand,' says House committee on dangerous drugs chairperson Robert Ace 
Barbers

House committee on dangerous drugs chairperson Robert Ace Barbers told Rappler 
earlier on Wednesday that the measure is "consistent" with the death penalty 
bill passed by the House in March 2017. (READ: When the House whips go to work 
for the death penalty)

HB 8909 seeks to amend Republic Act No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous 
Drugs Act of 2002 so that any person found possessing illegal drugs during a 
social gathering "or in the proximate company of at least two persons" would 
face "life imprisonment to death" and a fine between P500,000 and P10 million.

This is "regardless of the quantity and purity of such dangerous drugs."

In 2016, 5 young attendees of the Closeup Forever Summer concert died after 
suffering from a drug overdose. They allegedly took the illegal designer drug 
called "green amore," a mixture of methylenedioxymethamphetamine or ecstasy, 
methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, and cialis, a drug used to treat 
erectile dysfunction. (READ: Music, drugs, and alcohol: Do young Filipinos 
party to get high?)

Drug possession was not among the drug-related crimes listed under the 
previously approved death penalty measure or HB 4727. Barbers explained that 
the provisions of HB 8909 would be in effect only if the bill reimposing the 
capital punishment in the Philippines becomes a law.

The death penalty measure, however, has remained pending in the Senate since 
2017. It is not a priority for senators.

Surprisingly, Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is among the co-authors of HB 
8909. This is despite the Pampanga 2nd District congresswoman thumbing down the 
bill proposing the death penalty for drug convicts in 2017.

A devout Catholic, Arroyo abolished the death penalty in 2006 when she was 
still president.

(source: rappler.com)








AUSTRALIA:

Feature doc ‘Guilty’ continues the campaign against the death penalty



Matthew Sleeth’s Guilty, the feature documentary which chronicles the final 72 
hours of Bali 9 convicted criminal Myuran Sukumaran before his execution in 
2015, continues to have a powerful impact internationally.

The Australian government tied the launch of its strategy for the abolition of 
the death penalty to national screenings of Guilty last October on the World 
Day Against the Death Penalty.

Next, the film produced by Maggie Miles, who co-wrote the script with Sleeth 
and Matthew Bate, will screen at the triennial World Congress for Abolition of 
the Death Penalty in the Egmont Palace library in Brussels on March 1.

Miles will host a post-screening discussion with Sukumaran’s lawyer Julian 
McMahon SC, the president of Reprieve Australia, on the relationship between 
art and the death penalty. Sukumaran became an accomplished artist while he was 
on death row, tutored by Ben Quilty.

Sir Richard Branson, a long-time anti-death penalty campaigner, who introduced 
a screening of the film on World Day, will speak at the Congress.

Ndume Olatushan, who spent 28 years in prison in the US for a crime he did not 
commit and taught himself to paint while on death row, has been invited to join 
the panel.

“Our key aim has been to lend the voice of the film to the incredible work of 
organisations working tirelessly to abolish the death penalty,” Miles, who is 
spearheading the Good Pitch impact campaign with Reprieve Australia, tells IF.

“Human Rights Watch Australia and Amnesty International Australia have embraced 
our screenings as platforms to urge people to join the movement to end the 
death penalty, as have the Human Rights Law Centre and Virgin Unite.”

Monash University and Reprieve Australia launched the Monash Anti-Death Penalty 
Clinic last year, now a permanent element of the curriculum, using Guilty as 
the opening session with students.

“The extent to which Guilty has been embraced by those partners shows we’re on 
the right track,” she says. “Extraordinarily, our three-year campaign began as 
Australia took its seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, a seat won 
on strong abolition platform.

“Our World Day screenings event was pitched to the UN as the Australian 
community was reiterating its opposition to the death penalty at a time when 
the biennial resolution on the death penalty was taking place at the UN. The 
vote count of those supporting the resolution increased from 117 to 123, a 
significant jump, particularly as the numbers had been stagnant for several 
years. Malaysia was the most notable change in our region, voting yes for the 
first time.”

Sukumaran’s mother Raji was involved in the production of the film and is 
playing a pivotal part in the campaign.

Madman Entertainment and Demand Film distributed the doc, which features Adam 
McConvell as Sukumaran, Bela Kusumah Kasim as the Indonesian guard and Pastor 
Christie Buckingham as herself, in Australian cinemas. The title will be 
released on home entertainment on World Day in October. LevelK is handling 
international sales.

Co-funded by HIVE, Guilty had its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival 
and was then broadcast on the ABC, marking the third anniversary of the 
executions of Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, last April.

In May the film will screen at the 1905 Human Rights Film Festival in Taiwan, 
interesting timing given the Chinese government’s recent death sentence for 
convicted Canadian drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg.

Miles concludes: “The social and political impact of the film within the 
context of the abolition movement in Australia and internationally is tangible. 
We’re humbled to bring a compelling human dimension to the issue.”

(source: if.com.au)








IRAN----execution

Man Hanged at Quchan Prison



A prisoner who was sentenced to death on murder charges, was hanged at Quchan 
prison last Wednesday.

According to IHR sources, on the morning of Wednesday, January 30, a man 
identified as Tabib Rouzmehr, was executed at Quchan prison.

A source close to Tabib told IHR, “2 years ago, he was working for a person 
called Vahid who had given him a cheque for the salary. However, there was no 
money in the account. Tabib could not find Vahid to ask for his money but found 
Vahid’s brother. The brother refused to give Tabib the address and the 2 
fought.”

Vahid’s brother fell down and bump his head to the street curb. The person died 
and Tabib sentenced to qisas (retribution in kind).

There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results 
in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and 
intent.

(source: Iran Human Rights)