[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 23



NIGERIA:

Why rapists must be sentenced to death by hanging– FIDA



The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), has called on Kaduna 
State government to change the punishment for rape and defilement from 14 years 
to death penalty by hanging.

Mrs. Zainab Atoba, President, FIDA, Kaduna branch, made the call on Monday 
during a courtesy visit to Alhaji Aminu Shagali, the Speaker Kaduna State House 
of Assembly.

She said this had become imperative because the rate of violence against women 
and children in the society was getting out of hand.

Atoba said the daily report of violence, which includes sexual assault, 
battery, rape, defilement, trafficking, forced marriage, abuse and host of 
other vices against women and children must be tamed.

She said one in every three women had suffered some form of gender-based 
violence in her lifetime.

According to her, the statistics translates to a staggering one billion women 
globally who have been abused, beaten or sexually violated because of their 
gender.

Atoba said it was so unfortunate that gender-based violence continued to be a 
global epidemic with dire consequences for women, their families and 
communities.

She said it usually led to negative mental and physical health consequences for 
women and limited their decision-making ability and mobility, thereby reducing 
productivity and earnings.

The FIDA President noted that the time had come to ensure that women were 
capable of fully enjoying their rights and achieving their full potential.

“Legal protection from violence is crucial but it must be backed up with 
sensitisation,’’ she stated.

Atoba said lack of awareness in different local languages of such an issue had 
led to poor awareness about women’s rights among the general public and refusal 
of the government to consider such issue.

She, therefore, suggested implementing a project on sensitising the women and 
children in the remote areas by creating sustainable public awareness and 
translating some of the laws into the local languages in the state.

“We must all realise that laws alone are not sufficient, rather concerted 
action is needed to end violence against women and girls.

Atoba said the move was within the mandate of FIDA, as its primary objective 
“is the promotion, protection and preservation of the rights of women and 
children which also include their civil, political, economic, social and 
cultural rights.

Responding, Alhaji Shagali, Speaker Kaduna State House of Assembly also 
advocated capital punishment for anyone convicted of rape and other forms of 
violence.

He said this had become imperative following the outrage on rape, kidnapping, 
armed robbery and violence against women which had become major crimes now in 
the country, NAN reports.

(source: dailypost.ng)








SINGAPORE:

Lawyer: Singapore acting like N. Korea in treatment of Malaysian death row 
inmate with mental disability



Lawyers for Liberty legal adviser N. Surendran today likened Singapore to North 
Korea in its treatment of mentally challenged inmate on death row, Nagaenthran 
Dharmalingam.

Surendran said executing a mentally challenged man was against international 
law and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which 
Singapore had ratified.

“It is beyond dispute that he suffers from mental disability and the evaluation 
was made by an independent psychiatrist and the evidence has been submitted to 
court,” he told a press conference here today.

“Singapore is putting itself in the same category as Iran or North Korea in 
sentencing to death or putting on death row a mentally challenged individual. 
This is a matter of grave seriousness” he said.

Surendran said Nagaenthran or Naga, 31 was found to have an IQ of 69.

"This means he has an “extremely low range of functioning” and has borderline 
intellectual functions," he said.

Naga’s condition was also assessed by an independent and prominent 
psychiatrist, Dr Ken Ung Eng Khean, who diagnosed him with mental and 
intellectual impairment.

The Singapore courts hired 3 psychiatrists of their own and two of them 
concurred that Naga suffers from a mild form of ADHD (attention deficit 
hyperactivity disorder) of the inattentive type where his executive functioning 
skills are impaired.

The 3rd psychiatrist Dr Koh Wun Wu’s expert evidence was made without further 
independent medical examination of Naga, but was made from reading the reports 
of the other 2 state psychiatrists.

“In considering the views of psychiatrists, the State (Singapore) has been 
shown to be inherently biased in its attitude towards independent 
psychiatrists. This is highly prejudicial to the accused persons and 
accordingly breaches their rights to a fair trial.

“The very fact they rejected the report and condemned Naga’s mental disability 
is indicative of the state of Singapore and their judicial attitude towards 
drug offenders and offences.

“So how do our citizens get a fair trial in Singapore?” Surendran asked.

Naga was 21 when he was caught while entering Singapore from Malaysia at 
Woodlands Checkpoint with a bundle of diamorphine, or heroin, strapped to his 
thigh.

He admitted that he knew the bundle contained heroin, explaining at the time 
that a friend known only as "King" had strapped it to his thigh so that no one 
would find it.

Naga has been in prison for a decade with 8 of those years served under death 
row.

LFL decided to help Naga and has been collaborating with Singaporean lawyer and 
human rights activist M. Ravi, who represents Naga’s family.

“The institutions are all under the thumb of the executive in Singapore that 
goes for the state psychiatrists also,” said Ravi, who was present today.

“They accept in total whatever is said by the state, but fight tooth and nail 
the diagnosis of independent and highly qualified medical practitioners.

“This is wrong as there are manuals on the death penalty trials where this 
practice is unacceptable in criminal trials. Each psychiatrist, be they from 
the State or otherwise, must base their findings on the side of objectivity.

"They must look at the medical reports. If not we can send the report to 
someone in the United States and they can also come to their own conclusions,” 
added Ravi in addressing Dr Koh’s recommendations without ever seeing Naga 
himself.

Since being in prison, Naga’s 1st appeal was to be re-sentenced under 
amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act that were passed in 2012.

The amendments allow a court to sentence a drug offender to life imprisonment 
instead of death if they were merely a courier, on the condition that the 
public prosecutor issues the offender a certificate of substantive assistance — 
for helping Central Narcotics Bureau of Singapore to disrupt drug trafficking 
activities.

Additionally, the court must also sentence the offender to life imprisonment if 
he or she was merely a courier and also suffering from an abnormality of the 
mind.

Despite Naga’s obvious mental disability, the High Court Judge and the Court of 
Appeal opined that borderline intellectual functioning was insufficient to 
qualify Naga as suffering from an “abnormality of the mind".

In May, Singapore’s Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said it is “not 
tenable” for Singapore to go easy on Malaysian drug offenders who are caught in 
Singapore.

He said the majority of Singaporeans favour the death penalty and it would be 
good for both sides if drug traffickers were caught by Malaysian authorities, 
as the offenders could be dealt with according to Malaysia’s laws and not have 
to worry about Singapore’s capital punishment.

“Shanmugam said we can’t go easy on Malaysians, so I want to ask him if he’s 
going to execute someone with mental disability?” asked Narendran.

A clemency application has been sent to Singapore to save Naga, but since 1998, 
Singapore has granted no clemency for anyone and the likelihood of Naga being 
saved is slim.

LFL and Ravi have urged the Malaysian government to intervene, calling it an 
act of ‘barbarism’ from Singapore.

They want Putrajaya to file a complaint with the International Court of Justice 
(ICJ).

The ICJ will apply international conventions, international customs, general 
principles of law recognised by civilised nations, judicial decisions and 
teachings of the most highly qualified publicist as a means for determining the 
rules of law in accordance with Article 38(1)(a) and (b) of the Statute of the 
International Court of Justice (ICJ Statute).

Meanwhile, Naga’s mother Ranchalai Subramaniam, 57, pleaded to the media to 
save her son.

“Please save him. My son knowingly or unknowingly has made a mistake. We’re 
from a very difficult background and we all love him very much.

“He mixed with some people and ended up like this. Somehow please save him,” 
was all she could say as she teared up.

(source: malaymail.com)

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

Singapore's death penalty is both ineffective and inhumane



Before the month of July is out, some 10 convicts on death row in Singapore’s 
Changi Prison – where Australian Nguyen Tuong Van was executed in December 2005 
– will meet their fate.

The last time Singapore executed a large group of men at the same time was 
1975.

Because of the sensitive nature of the executions, Singapore's newspapers have 
made only scant mention of the impending deaths.

In Singapore, executions are usually carried out at 6 o'clock on a Friday 
morning, when most of the city-state is still asleep. The chosen date is 
usually about 2 weeks after the state president has rejected the clemency 
appeals of the condemned men.

That suggests they will be killed by the state this Friday.

The last time Singapore executed a large group of men at the same time was 
1975, when 7 convicted murderers, including 2 brothers, were hanged. Before 
that, in 1966, 18 men died at the hands of hangman Dharshan Singh for their 
roles in the murder of a prison superintendent and his assistants. They were 
hanged in threes.

But unlike the earlier cases, which dealt purely with murderers, the 2019 men 
are all drug dealers.

4 of the condemned in the group are Malaysian drug smugglers, whose nation is 
reconsidering the death penalty for drug dealers, arguing that it is not an 
effective deterrent.

But across the border in Singapore – which was once part of Malaysia – no such 
questions are being asked.

The only thing that the families of the condemned men can now hope for, between 
now and Friday, is a last-minute reprieve.

This would not be unprecedented. The lives of convicted drug dealers Yong Vui 
Kong, Subashkaran Pragasam, Yip Mun Hei and Dinesh Pillai were spared in 2013 
and 2014, some on the grounds of mental illness, others because they had 
substantially helped drug enforcement agents attack narcotics operations in 
south-east Asia.

But what, perhaps, is on trial here is not just the fate of the condemned men 
but the judicial system itself and how it administers mercy pleas. The large 
number of rejections of amnesty pleas is shocking.

Singapore’s constitution states that the president can commute the sentences of 
prisoners.

But the oddity is that the president always seeks the advice of the nation’s 
cabinet, which in turn confers with the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) – the 
same office that prosecuted the defendants in the first place.

It seems unlikely that the AGC would contradict itself when presenting its 
findings to the cabinet and later to the state president.

A recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime stated that 
the drug trade continues to flourish in south-east Asia. Lawyers, speaking 
anonymously, confirm this is the case in Singapore.

This says either that Asia's drug cartel is a well-oiled machine that is able 
to outfox everybody, or that judicial methods aimed at eradicating the menace 
have proven to be inadequate. Malaysia appears to have come to this conclusion 
already.

But none of that has yet dawned on Singapore.

As it stands, the hapless men in Cluster A of Singapore’s maximum security 
prison in Changi have little less than a week to live.

Theirs appears to be a lost cause. We can only wonder how they will pass the 
time until they face their end.

(source: Opinion; James Arokiasamy is a pseudonym for a writer based in 
Singapore----The Sydney Morning Herald)








PHIIPPINES:

President’s call to revive death penalty will only worsen climate of impunity



President Duterte’s call to revive the death penalty during his State of the 
Nation Address (SONA) will only worsen the country’s climate of impunity amid 
the government’s deadly anti-drugs campaign, Amnesty International said today.

“Extrajudicial killings remain rife in the Philippines. Talk of bringing back 
the death penalty for drug-related crimes is abhorrent, and risks aggravating 
the current climate of impunity,” said Butch Olano, Section Director of Amnesty 
International Philippines

During today’s speech, President Duterte called on Congress to reinstate the 
death penalty for drug-related crimes. The use of the death penalty for 
drug-related offences contravene international law and standards.

Duterte’s endorsement of the death penalty comes weeks after the killing of a 
3-year-old girl in a police operation.

“The state of our nation is a state of mourning. We should not be burying our 
children amid deadly and ill-conceived police raids,” said Butch Olano. “This 
speech was a missed opportunity to take stock of the tragic killing of 
3-year-old Myca Ulpina, and thousands of others. The President addressed the 
topic of drugs but did not confront the truth. The country needs an approach 
that delivers justice for the families of the thousands unlawfully killed, and 
effective health and social services for those who need them.”

An Amnesty International report released this month, ‘They just kill’: Ongoing 
extrajudicial executions and other violations in the Philippines’ ‘war on 
drugs,’ showed that the Philippine government’s so-called “war on drugs” 
remains a murderous war on the poor, with rampant killings of mostly poor and 
marginalized people continuing without credible, impartial and effective 
investigations into them. There has been just one conviction of police officers 
to date, following the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos in 
August 2017.

“Kian’s killing became emblematic of the horrors of the so-called ‘war on 
drugs’, and the convictions of police officers were a small step towards the 
justice Filipinos deserve,” said Butch Olano. “Now the country reels from the 
tragic killing of Myca Ulpina. She was three years old. If this tragedy does 
not move this administration to change course, it will be further proof of its 
wanton disregard for human life.”

Myca Ulpina died in a police operation in Rizal provice in late June, in which 
a police officer was also killed. The government claims her father used her as 
a human shield during a “buy bust” operation; the girl’s mother claims that 
police burst into the family home without a warrant as the family slept.

The Philippine government has acknowledged at least 6,600 killings at the hands 
of police, but evidence points to many more being killed by unknown armed 
persons with likely links to the police. Amnesty International has found that 
the torrent of unlawful killings, many of them extrajudicial executions, may 
amount to crimes against humanity.

“The government keeps saying bereaved families should file cases before the 
courts if they believe the police acted illegally during anti-drug operations,” 
said Butch Olano. “But Amnesty’s research has shown that families are living in 
fear of reprisals from police if they dare to speak up. They are further unable 
to secure police reports, a crucial piece of evidence to support their 
allegations, and pursuing these cases is prohibitively costly for poor 
families.”

“The administration’s war on the poor does not end with the killings. It sends 
families and whole communities into a living hell, all to protect a cruel and 
repressive policy that is doing nothing to protect people from the risks of 
drugs,” said Butch Olano.

President Duterte’s SONA also failed to commit his administration to 
cooperating with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which 
will deliver a report in June 2020 on the human rights situation in the 
Philippines, including unlawful killings in the context of the “war on drugs”, 
as mandated by a resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council earlier this 
month.

“This UN probe offers hope to thousands of families who lost loved ones as part 
of the so-called ‘war on drugs’” said Butch Olano. “As long as the authorities 
deny these families their right to justice, international pressure on the 
architects of this murderous campaign will keep growing.”

(source: Amnesty International)

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

Pacquiao wants death penalty by firing squad for drug traffickers



Evangelical Senator Manny Pacquiao believes that the reimposition of capital 
punishment will serve as a lesson to drug traffickers.

On his first day back to work, Pacquiao said that he wants them to be executed 
by a firing squad, if the proposed death penalty bill is passed. He is one of 
the 4 senators who introduced the measure in the 18th Congress.

"Kung droga, siguro firing squad para 'wag tularan. (If it's drugs, maybe 
[execution] by firing squad so it won't be done anymore)," Pacquiao told 
reporters.

President Rodrigo Duterte once again pushed for the passage of the death 
penalty bill in the 18th Congress during his 4th State of the Nation Address. 
But this time, he wanted plunder to be part of the crimes covered by the 
proposed measure.

While Pacquiao only proposed high-level drug trafficking as part of the crimes 
punishable, he said that he supports the wish of the President. For plunder 
convicts, he said he prefers either firing squad or lethal injection.

Before, Pacquiao wanted death penalty by hanging "because it's cheaper."

Even as he's confident that the measure will gain ground in this Congress with 
more senators allied with the President, Pacquiao said that it would help if 
Duterte certifies the bill as urgent.

"I think it's better if we ask the President to certify it as urgent. I think 
it may be passed."

Pacquiao also said he's willing to sponsor the bill, as Senator Richard Gordon, 
who is poised to head the Senate committee on justice, did not want to. Gordon 
said he is against the bill as head of the pro-life Philippine Red Cross.

The senator also reiterated that advocating for the measure does not run 
counter to his religious beliefs.

Senators on Monday, July 22 said that there will be "heavy debates" on the 
highly "divisive" death penalty bill, especially now that the President wants 
plunder as part of the crimes covered.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III said that the proposed measure will be part 
of the bills that will be prioritized to be tackled.

The 17th Congress senators rejected the passage of the bill, while the House of 
Representatives passed it on 3rd and final reading.

(source: rappler.com)

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

Law enforcement agencies in W. Visayas favor death penalty



Top executives of anti-drug law enforcement agencies in Western Visayas have 
supported the call of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to impose the death penalty 
versus illegal drugs and heinous crimes.

In a phone interview on Monday, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 
officer-in-charge for Western Visayas Alex M. Tablate said that the death 
penalty is already in the Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous 
Drugs Act of 2002. However, since it was suspended, what has been imposed is 
life imprisonment.

“I believe personally it would be a deterrent because they would see what would 
happen to those who are involved, to the drug personalities,” Tablate said.

He added that in the past years, everyone was a witness of how rampant was the 
problem of illegal drugs.

“Just imagine how many thousands of surrenderers have been reported. We saw the 
magnitude of the problem that affected not only the common people but even law 
enforcers,” he said.

He added that as a whole, President Duterte's fourth State of the Nation 
Address "emphasized what should be given priorities; not just efforts again 
illegal drugs but in a wide sense has a link into corruption in general."

The illegal drug problem and corruption will be addressed, and the effect will 
eventually be seen in the years to come, he said.

“The President recognizes the accomplishment of the Philippine National Police 
but the problem of illegal drugs is persistent,” Brig. Gen. Rene Pamuspusan, 
Police Regional Office Western Visayas (PRO-6) Director, said in a phone 
interview.

He gave his approval to Duterte's call to impose the death penalty for crimes 
related to illegal drugs.

Pamuspusan emphasized that it would be difficult for drug personalities to 
leave behind their illegal activities because “it is big business.”

He noted that the PRO-6 had done a lot to curb illegal drugs but the PRO-6 
“still has a lot to do to fight illegal drugs.”

“Definitely, if the death penalty will be passed into law, it will have a 
chilling effect on those who continue with the illegal drugs,” he said.

Despite the persistence of illegal drugs as stated by the President, Pamuspusan 
has highlighted the accomplishments of the police to fight drugs in this part 
of the region.

>From December 5, 2017 to July 11, 2019, PRO-6 was able to arrest 3, 587, out of 
which 856 are identified drug personalities, the PRO-6 report shows.

Pamuspusan said the police office has also filed cases against drug 
personalities. In the same report, the police in Western Visayas has filed 4, 
459 cases related to illegal drugs.

Based on the record of the PRO 6, Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office 
(NOCPPO) has the most drug cases filed with 1, 676; Bacolod City Police Office 
(BCPO) with 1, 557; and Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) with 482.

“There is an improvement in the (reduction of) illegal drugs in the PRO-6,” he 
said.

Antique Police Provincial Office Deputy Director, Lt. Col. Norby Escobar also 
believed that the death penalty will serve as a big deterrence against crimes.

“However, the justice system must be more precise so that those who are guilty 
are the ones executed and the innocent one is acquitted,” he said.

(source: Philippine News Agency)

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

Re-impose death penalty on illegal drugs, plunder – Duterte



President Rodrigo Duterte urged the members of the Congress to reinstate death 
penalty for heinous crimes related to illegal drugs and plunder.

During his 4th State of the Nation Address on Monday at the Batasang Pambansa 
in Quezon City, Duterte admitted problems of corruption and illegal drugs 
continue 3 years in his administration.

“Believe me, I will end my term fighting,” Duterte said. “It has been 3 years 
since I took my oath of office and it pains me to say that we have not learned 
our lesson. The illegal drug problem persists, corruption continues.”

“I am aware that we still have a long way to go against this social menace. The 
reason why I advocate the imposition of the death penalty for crimes related to 
illegal drugs,” he added.

Duterte requested to re-impose death penalty, recalling tons of illegal drugs 
and graft money found after 5 months of battle in Marawi City led by the Abu 
Sayyaf group.

In his speeches, the President talked about corruption, where he expressed his 
disappointment over the alleged misuse of state health insurance funds on 
“ghost” dialysis treatments.

“The recent uncovering of the massive fraud perpetrated against the public 
health insurance system proves that corruption is pervasive,” Duterte said. “I 
am grossly disappointed.”

“The government is conned of millions of pesos which could be used to treat 
illnesses and possibly save the lives of many,” added Duterte, who ordered 
Philippine Health Insurance Corporation president Ricardo Morales to rid the 
agency of corruption.

Duterte urged Filipinos to be assertive when they encounter corrupt officials, 
urging them to file a report through hotline 8888, which he said is open 24/7.

“Let me ask you. When will corruption end? I don’t know. I’ve been in 
government for almost 35 years now, I’m not singling out myself. It’s the 
entire gamut of our system,” Duterte said.

He asked the top 5 agencies – Land Transportation Office, Social Security 
System, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Land Registration Authority, and PAG-IBIG – 
to drastically improve their services.

“I reiterate my directive to the government offices and instrumentalities, 
including local government units and government corporations: Simplify. 
Simplify just like the others,” Duterte said.

“I have been asking that from you since 3 years ago,” he added. “Simplify and 
make your services responsive to client. Your client is the Filipino, our 
employer, from where the money in our pockets come from.”

Meanwhile, Duterte praised to the country’s gaming regulator for delivering 
billions of pesos in revenue to state coffers.

Collections from government owned and controlled corporations (GOCC) reached 
P61 billion, including P16 billion from PAGCOR or the Philippine Amusement and 
Gaming Corp.

“My salute to Andrea Domingo,” Duterte said, referring to PAGCOR chairperson. 
“Our GOCCs, infamous for high salaries and bonuses being paid for their 
executives and employees have started to shape up.”

Duterte added there was no corruption in the entry of the country’s third 
telecommunications Dito Telecommunity, composed of Davao tycoon Dennis Uy’s 
Udenna Corp. and China Telecom.

“Do not worry about us. There is no corruption at all. I guarantee you, upon 
the grave of my father, I don’t allow. I do not talk to them, I just say, just 
do your work and kung maaari, according to what the specifications are required 
by this government,” he said.

“I challenge this new player to fulfill its commitment to provide fast and 
reliable telecommunications services to our people especially in the 
underserved areas,” added Duterte

(source: Panay News)

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

PDEA: Imposing death penalty on those who destroy lives is ‘morally justified’



Drug traffickers and those who commit heinous crimes fueled by illegal drugs 
deserve the death penalty, which would also serve as a strong deterrent against 
such crimes, the head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said.

“Foreign and local drug offenders, especially drug protectors and coddlers who 
were found guilty of manufacturing, trafficking and pushing of dangerous drugs, 
warrant the capital punishment,” PDEA chief Director General Aaron Aquino said 
Tuesday.

Aquino said death penalty must be reimposed in order to send a strong message 
to drug syndicates that the Philippines is not a “business hub” for illegal 
drugs.

The PDEA chief also said that life sentence as a punishment has its share of 
disadvantages.

“Besides the problem of overcrowding in jails, there are reports that several 
convicted drug lords are still involved in the illegal drug trade and continue 
to communicate with the outside world while in incarceration,” Aquino said.

Aquino denied that authorities are promoting a cycle of violence, arguing that 
it is "morally justified" to impose the death penalty on "people who seek to 
destroy the lives of Filipinos, most especially the youth."

"If you have done something evil, you have to pay," Aquino said.

In his recent State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Rodrigo Duterte 
called on Congress to reinstate the death penalty for drug-related crimes and 
plunder.

"The drugs will not be crushed unless we continue to eliminate corruption that 
allows the social monster to survive," Duterte said.

"I respectfully request Congress to reinstate the death penalty for heinous 
crimes related to drugs as well as plunder," he added.

(source: gmanetwork.com)

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

Criminals to 'think twice' if death penalty is restored: justice chief



Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Tuesday said the death penalty "may 
somehow deter" serious crimes after President Rodrigo Duterte moved to 
reinstate capital punishment.

"Ordinary human behavior indicates that the fear of being put to death for the 
commission of a crime will naturally prompt a criminally minded person to think 
twice," Guevarra said in a statement.

Guevarra said it was up to Congress to determine which crimes are heinous.

"The constitution grants the Congress the authority to impose the death penalty 
for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes," he said.

The death penalty bill faced strong opposition from senators of the 17th 
Congress but the President's allies in the new Senate could pave the way for 
the revival of the measure.

Duterte has been hoping to reinstate the death penalty in the Philippines, 
where nearly 80 % of its population is made up of Catholics, as he wages his 
war on illegal drugs and pursues an anti-crime campaign.

(source: ABS-CBN News)

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

Bacolod bishop on Duterte push for death penalty: ‘We’re retrogressing’



Bacolod Bishop Patricio Buzon on Monday expressed dismay at President Rodrigo 
Duterte’s push to restore the death penalty for drug-related crimes to combat 
what the President had admitted was a narcotics problem that he has failed to 
solve so far and for plunder because corruption continued to fester.

“I find that we are again retrogressing. I thought that we were already moving 
towards a more humane civilization and society. It’s sad”, Buzon said.

“Our stand is very clear . Even in the Church, we have already grown in 
maturity about understanding that issue. It’s sad. I think we are moving 
backwards,” he said.

In his fourth State of the Nation Address, Duterte listed the restoration of 
death penalty on the top of his wish list for Congress. Capital punishment, 
Duterte said, should also cover plunder. He made the statement in the presence 
of Joseph Estrada, the only Philippine ruler so far convicted of plunder and 
sentenced to life in prison. He was pardoned by his successor, Gloria Macapagal 
Arroyo, who herself was sent to jail for but acquitted of a plunder.

(source: newsinfo.inquirer.net)








INDIA:

1996 blast case: Rajasthan HC upholds death sentence of UP doctor



A division bench of the Rajasthan High court Monday upheld the death sentence 
awarded to Abdul Hamid from Uttar Pradesh, who was convicted by a trial court 
of Bandikui in the Samleti bomb blast case of May 22, 1996. The court also 
acquitted 6 of 7 people convicted in the same case and given life imprisonment 
by the trial court.

14 passengers, including those from Jaipur and Bharatpur, were killed and 39 
others injured when a blast ripped through a Rajasthan State Roadways 
Corporation (RSRTC) bus, which was travelling from Agra to Bikaner, at 4pm near 
Samleti under Mahwa police station area in Dausa district. After the arrest of 
the accused and filing of chargesheets, the additional district and sessions 
judge of Bandikui awarded capital punishment to one Abdul Hameed, a doctor by 
profession who hails from Firozabad in UP, and life imprisonment to seven, 
including 5 from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, on September 29, 2014.

Javed Khan alias Javed Junior, Abdul Gani alias Abdullah, Latif Ahamad alias 
Waja, Mohammad Ali Bhat and Mirza Nisar Hussain Naza and two from Uttar 
Pradesh, named Raees Beigg and Pappu Saleem, were sentenced for life.In the 
same case, 3 others—Farookh Ahamad (Srinagar), Kuljinder Singh (Punjab) and 
Chandra Prakash Agarwal (Bandikui) were acquitted by the lower court.

The convicted went in appeal before the high court. “Following our appeal, the 
court acquitted 6 persons but upheld capital punishment for Abdul Hamid and 
life imprisonment for Pappu Saleem,” said Syed Shahid Hassan, the counsel for 
the convicted, to TOI.

While upholding capital punishment for Abdul Hamid, the bench, comprising 
Justice Sabina and Justice Govardhan Bardhar, said that he had played a key 
role in the bomb blast and planted the bomb in the bus. “He has spread terror, 
thus his capital punishment by the trial court should be maintained,” the court 
observed.

The trial court in Bandikui had heard 100 witnesses and gone through scientific 
evidence, provided by the CB-CID wing of the Rajasthan police.

The state government is likely to file a petition against the acquittal. Those 
whose sentences have been upheld will now go in appeal before the Supreme 
Court.

(source: timesofindia.com)

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

3 Get Capital Punishment for Killing Woman in West Bengal



A city court on Monday sentenced three persons to capital punishment for 
killing a woman, chopping her body into pieces and dumping the severed limbs at 
Sealdah station.

Additional sessions judge (I) Jimut Bahan Biswas sentenced Surojit Deb, Lipika 
Poddar and Sanjoy Biswas to death for the murder of Jayanti Deb.

Jayanti Deb was the wife of Surojit Deb while Lipika is his paramour, the 
prosecution lawyer said, adding that Biswas, a supari killer, was given Rs 
12,000 by the duo to kill Jayanti Deb in May 2014.

After killing the woman, Biswas cut the body into several pieces and stuffed 
the legs and hands in 2 bags and the head in another. The rest of the body was 
wrapped in a quilt and dumped at Sealdah station along with the bags.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) investigated the murder and arrested 
Surojit from his home at Lake Town area in north Kolkata. Following his arrest, 
Lipika and Biswas were also arrested.

(source: news18.com)