[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 28




SRI LANKA:

Death Penalty: License for Judicial Killings



Last year, on October 2, Iran executed a 24-year-old woman, Zeinab Sekaanvand, 
who was a child at the time of her alleged offense. Under international law, 
she should have been excluded from the death penalty. She was also, like many 
child brides, a survivor of gender-based violence. Born into a poor and 
conservative family, she was married at the age of 15 to a man who had turned 
abusive and violent. She appealed to the authorities and her family to protect 
her from both her husband and her brother-in-law, whom she claimed had raped 
her repeatedly, but her pleas went unheard. When she was 17, her husband was 
found dead, and she confessed to the crime under police torture. At her trial 
hearing – when she was finally appointed a lawyer – she retracted her 
confession, but it was too late: the court sentenced her to death.

Alice Nungu, was a Malawian woman who was sentenced to death after killing her 
abusive husband while defending herself and her elderly mother from his drunken 
attack. In 2015, a court finally heard about the years of intense abuse that 
Alice endured before sentencing, and ordered her immediate release. She had 
languished on death row for over 12 years, fading from HIV, inhumane living 
conditions, and lack of food. Only weeks after her release, Alice died, with 
her mother by her side.

Though there are women in the death row in Sri Lanka, not much information is 
available about gender dimensions of those facing the death penalty. But 
international research indicates that women who are sentenced to death are 
subjected to multiple forms of gender bias. That women who are seen as 
violating entrenched gender norms are more likely to receive the death penalty 
and that most women are sentenced to death for the crime of murder, often in 
relation to the killing of family members and in a context of gender-based 
violence. In Jordan, for example, of 16 women on death row, all but one was 
convicted of killing a close family member who traditionally wields authority, 
creating the potential for abuse: a husband, a father, or a mother-in-law.

Two weeks ago, on June 14, in the United States of America (USA), Charles Ray 
Finch was exonerated of all charges, 43 years after he had been sent to the 
death row. Earlier this year, also in the USA, Clifford Williams Jr., was 
exonerated 42 years after having been sentenced to death. Since 1973, 
exonerations had taken more than 30 years each for ten persons. All of them 
have been black. Williams and Finch were the 165th and 166th persons 
respectively to be exonerated after being given the death penalty in the USA, 
over a period of 36 years, an average of more than 4 exonerations per year. The 
166th came just before the 1500th execution on June 20, 2019.

Sri Lanka’s new license for Judicial Killings

Sri Lanka last’s execution was in 1976 and since then, there has been 
moratorium on the use of death penalty. Although death sentence remained in our 
laws and courts regularly imposed the death penalty, successive Presidents 
didn’t sign the death warrant.

But on June 26, the International day in support of Victims of Torture, media 
announced President Sirisena had brought back the death penalty, a cruel, 
inhumane and degrading punishment, breaking the 43 year long moratorium upheld 
by all Sri Lankan presidents. Sri Lanka, a country notorious for extra-judicial 
executions for last several decades, is on the verge of becoming notorious now 
for judicial executions.

The names of the 4 persons against whom the death warrant has been signed is 
yet to be announced. As of early this year, 1299 persons were reported to have 
been on the death row. All those on the death row, and all of their families, 
must be in agony and trauma, not knowing whether they or their loved ones are 
amongst the first four to be executed or when their turn might come. Media 
quoted Prison officials saying most on the death row were stressed, not eating 
and feeling faint.

Why say NO to the Death Penalty

The death penalty is an irreversible form of punishment which grants no space 
to consider new evidence that may emerge after a conviction is made, for 
example through new technology, indicating a wrongful conviction. As has been 
mentioned above, people wrongly convicted have been released from death row 
decades after they were put there as new evidence has shown they were 
wrongfully convicted. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has pointed out 
that persons wrongly convicted had been later released from the death row or 
prison from countries such as USA, Canada and the United Kingdom. The 
Commission has pointed out a case in the USA, where a convicted man was 
released after 23 years in prison for several crimes, and the lead investigator 
and the judge later had claimed his conviction was a miscarriage of justice.

The Commission has also noted alleged prosecutorial misconduct leading to 
conviction of innocents in Sri Lanka. Like everywhere else, wrongful 
convictions are possible in Sri Lanka, especially given serious deficiencies in 
the criminal justice system, including a lack of easily accessible, quality, 
legal aid for the poor and vulnerable – during trial and appeal. Thus, it is 
the poor that are more likely to face wrongful convictions.

There is no evidence in Sri Lanka or any part of the world that the death 
penalty has prevented or reduced crimes.

It is possible and necessary to oppose the death penalty and support 
constructive measures to address crime, including drug related crimes. It is 
crucial to work towards prevention of crime, by guaranteeing all human rights 
for all – both civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural 
rights. If some detainees are engaged in drug-related offenses from within 
prison grounds, security in prisons must be strengthened, including through the 
use of new technology and holding prison officials accountable for allowing 
drugs inside prison.

International commitments and trends

Last year December, Sri Lanka was amongst the 121 countries, the largest number 
ever, that endorsed a United Nations General Assembly Resolution calling for a 
moratorium on the Death Penalty. Sri Lanka joined 120 other countries in noting 
that that any miscarriage of justice in the implementation of death penalty is 
irreversible and irreparable and that there is no conclusive evidence of the 
deterrent value of the death penalty. Sri Lanka also joined the collective 
global expression of deep concern about the continuing application of death 
penalty and encouraged states which had moratoriums to maintain it. Six months 
later, Sri Lanka now appears to be on the verge of reversing the longest 
moratorium, instead of progressing to abolish death penalty. Death penalty for 
drug related offenses also violates article 6 of the International Covenant for 
Civil and Political Rights, to which Sri Lanka is a party to and is considered 
to be unlawful killings under international law.

According to Amnesty International, the number of countries implementing 
judicial executions as well as passing death sentences is on the decline. 
Amnesty says there have been at least 690 executions in 20 countries in 2018, 
down by 31% from 2017 (at least 993 executions), representing the lowest number 
of executions that Amnesty International has recorded in the past decade. 
Amnesty had recorded at least 2,531 death sentences in 54 countries in 2018, a 
decrease from the total of 2,591 reported in 2017. At least 19,336 people were 
known to be under sentence of death globally at the end of 2018. Over 170 
countries have either abolished the death penalty or taken a position in favour 
of ending executions by introducing moratorium in law or practice. Fewer than 
40 countries continue to uphold the practice. According to the UN, as of 23rd 
May 2019, 87 countries had ratified 2nd Optional Protocol to the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights calling for the abolishing of the death 
penalty.

Religious teachings against killings

As a Catholic, a fundamental precept I believe in is “Though Shall not Kill”. 
Pope Francis has been forthright and taken a consistently principled position 
that human life is sacred and the death penalty is “an inhuman measure that 
humiliates human dignity, in whatever form it is carried out” and that it is 
“contrary to the Gospel.” However, last year, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the 
Catholic Archbishop of Colombo, in a statement issued in July, said that he 
supports the implementation of the death penalty in certain cases. He said 
perpetrators of gruesome crimes could be considered as having forfeited their 
own right to life, and whatever punishment was given by courts should be 
implemented. Less than two weeks after Cardinal Ranjith’s statement, the 
Vatican issued a letter to bishops on August 1 categorically stating that the 
death penalty is inadmissible and unnecessary even when used to protect the 
life of innocent people. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka followed 
this up with a statement of their own on August 9, 2018 that quoted extensively 
from the Vatican’s letter and made it clear that they unequivocally oppose the 
death penalty. Cardinal Ranjith had reversed his earlier position and signed up 
to this statement.

The first precept of Buddhism in this Buddhist majority country is to abstain 
from killings.

The Death Penalty – or Judicial Killings – is against Sri Lanka’s international 
obligations and religious and spiritual values, which uphold sacredness of 
life. We must oppose it, demanding in the short term to maintain the 
moratorium, and in the long term to abolish the death penalty from domestic 
laws and ratify the 2nd Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on 
Civil and Political Rights that calls for the abolition of the death penalty.

(source: groundviews.org)

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

Over 100 human rights organisations call for Sri Lanka to halt impending 
executions for drug offences in Open Letter



Harm Reduction International (HRI) has called for Sri Lankan authorities to 
immediately halt the impending execution of all prisoners convicted of drug 
offences, to commute all existing death sentences, and to abolish the death 
penalty entirely.

In an open letter, HRI has urged the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 
(UNODC) and International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) to apply pressure on 
the Sri Lankan Government following planned executions of four people on death 
row for drug offences, backed by over 100 human rights organisations, including 
the Sri Lanka based Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Giada Girelli, a human rights analyst at HRI, told TalkingDrugs: “There is no 
evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to the drug trade. President 
Sirisena is making a cynical political move that will violate international 
human rights law and turn Sri Lanka into a pariah.”

At least four people have been sentenced to death for drug-related offences as 
part of a so-called “National Drug Eradication Week”, from 21 June – 1 July 
2019, in what would be the first use of the death penalty in Sri Lanka since 
1976.

Execution warrants for the four prisoners have already been signed by President 
Maithripala Sirisena, with their executions appearing to be set as early as 
Saturday, 29 June - ending a 43-year moratorium on the use of the death 
penalty.

President Maithripala Sirisena’s spokesman Rajitha Senaratne has stated that: 
“From now on, we will hang drug offenders without commuting their death 
sentences.” A further 46 execution warrants have been prepared and are now 
awaiting the president’s signature.

Mr Sirisena stated that he would reinstate the death penalty for drug 
trafficking as early as July 2018 – a proposal backed by the Sri Lankan cabinet 
and meant to “replicate the success” of President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called 
drug war in the Philippines. Duterte’s war has led to – on average – 33 people 
being killed in the country every day since his sweeping electoral victory in 
June 2016, with policies targeting the most vulnerable communities in the 
country.

Of the 24,000 people currently incarcerated in Sri Lanka, 60 per cent are for a 
drug-related crimes; there are 1,229 inmates on death row, of which 48 are 
convicted of drug offences. Sri Lankan authorities say a tougher approach is 
needed to combat what they report as an increase in drug-related crime, though 
this approach has yielded few positive outcomes at a global scale and resulted 
in significant human rights abuses and state violence in several countries, 
including - but by no means limited to - the executions and extrajudicial 
killings of Sri Lanka and the Philippines respectively. Figures from the 2019 
European Drug Report showed a significantly higher drug-induced mortality rate 
in adults (15-64) for countries with punitive drug policies, such as Estonia 
(130 per million), Sweden (92 per million) and the UK (74 per million). For 
context, the average mortality rate due to overdoses in Europe in 2017 is 
estimated at 22.6 deaths per million.

Critics have called for Sri Lankan authorities to immediately halt the 
impending execution of prisoners convicted of drugs offences and to commute all 
existing death penalties. Calls to abolish the death penalty continue to be 
made on the grounds that executions for drug offences are prohibited under 
international human rights law.

As South Asia Director at Amnesty International Biraj Patnaik states: “The 
taking of a human life by the state is one of the gravest acts a government can 
commit. The severity of the punishment as a minimum requires complete 
transparency as a key safeguard of due process.”

Drug offences are punishable by death in at least 35 countries and territories 
worldwide. And studies show that “people from less advantaged economic 
backgrounds, and those belonging to racial, ethnic or religious minorities 
disproportionately carry the weight of the death penalty”, writes Dinushika 
Dissanayake, adding that “the death penalty disproportionately affects those 
living in poverty.”

The high profile case of Muhammad Lukman in Malaysia, who was sentenced to 
death for processing cannabis oil and distributing it to patients in need, 
prompted a public outcry. And Iran, among the most prolific executioners for 
drug offences, passed reforms in 2017, resulting in a drastic reduction in the 
implementation of the death penalty. This was a bold acknowledgment that such 
sanctions do not effectively deter drug offences - over 4,000 people were 
executed globally between 2008 and 2018, with a significant downward trend to 
below 100 globally following Iran’s reforms.

(source: talkingdrugs.org)

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

UK warns Sri Lanka against implementing death penalty



The United Kingdom has urged Sri Lanka not to reinstate the death penalty while 
warning that doing so would make it “more difficult” for the UK to cooperate 
with the island nation on law enforcement issues, including on counter 
terrorism.

The UK Foreign Office issued a statement expressing concern at the possible 
abandonment of the moratorium on the death penalty in Sri Lanka.

“We are deeply concerned at reports that Sri Lanka intends to abandon its 
long-standing moratorium on use of the death penalty. The UK opposes the use of 
the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle,” a Foreign 
Office spokesperson said.

Sri Lanka voted in favour of a global moratorium on the use of the death 
penalty at the UN General Assembly just 6 months ago.

A reversal of this policy would be a regressive step that would harm Sri 
Lanka’s international standing and its reputation as a tourist destination and 
growing centre for business, the statement said.

“Implementation of the death penalty will inevitably make it more difficult for 
the UK to cooperate on law enforcement issues, including on counter terrorism, 
and will require us to review our technical assistance programmes on relevant 
policing, defence and other security issues.”

“We have raised our concerns at the highest levels of the Sri Lankan 
Government. We continue to call on Sri Lanka to maintain its moratorium on the 
death penalty,” the spokesperson said.

Sri Lankan president on Wednesday signed the death warrants of four prisoners 
jailed on drug-related offenses, to end a 43-year moratorium on the island.

“I would like to announce today, on International Day Against Drug Abuse and 
Illicit Trafficking, that I am completely committed to carrying out the capital 
punishment for drug related offenses.

This includes drug trafficking, selling, distributing and the use of any 
illegal substances,” President Maithripala Sirisena told reporters.

Although the exact date of the executions was withheld, Mr Sirisena told 
reporters that the death penalty would be carried out “very soon.”

“None of the four prisoners or their families have yet been notified. We don’t 
want to announce their names yet as it may lead to unrest in the prisons,” he 
said.

The four convicts will be notified 2 weeks prior to their executions, and 
according to Sri Lankan law, they will have a chance to appeal their sentences 
to the president.

“Just the thought of executions should create fear and put an end to this 
sweeping narcotics trade. Too many children are at stake,” he told The 
Telegraph.

(source: adaderana.lk)

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

EU warns Sri Lanka against reviving death penalty



Sri Lanka is moving towards resuming executions, which would bring an end to 
its 43-year moratorium on the death penalty.

EU opposed Sri Lanka’s actions in a statement, saying: “Such a move would 
directly contradict Sri Lanka’s commitment taken at the 73rd United Nations 
General Assembly in December 2018 to maintain the moratorium.”

“Resuming the death penalty would also send a wrong signal to the international 
community, investors and partners of the country.”, the EU spokesperson said.

(source: neweurope.ceu)








BANGLADESH:

Murder of Teen Girl----Man gets death



A Pirojpur court yesterday handed down death penalty to a man for killing a 
college girl after kidnaping her in Nesarabad upazila in 2009.

The convict, Liton Mondal, 34, son of Sudhir Ranjan Mondal from Atghar village 
in the upazila, was tried in absentia.

Judge Md Mizanur Rahman, of Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 
of Pirojpur, delivered the verdict.

The court acquitted three other accused who were produced before the court.

According to the prosecution, Liton used to stalk Jhorna Rani Dewri, 19, 
daughter of Subhas Chandra Dewri from the same village and an HSC examinee from 
Shah Mahmudia College in Jhalakathi.

On May 14 in 2009, while Jhorna was returning home from her elder sister’s 
house in Andharmanik village of Kachua upazila in Bagerhat, Liton and four to 
five youths kidnapped her from Kourikhara boat terminal on the Sandhya river in 
Nesarabad.

On May 17, her father went to Barishal’s Banaripara upazila and identified his 
daughter’s body that the local police had buried as an unidentified victim of 
murder.

(source: The Daily Star)








MALAYSIA:

Malaysia to decriminalise drug use, says health minister



Malaysia has some of the world's most punitive drug policies, but the new 
government is reviewing the approach.

Malaysia, which has long imposed harsh penalties for the possession of drugs, 
will stop the criminal prosecution of users in what Health Minister Dzulkefly 
Ahmad described as a "game changer policy".

Dzulkefly noted that 30 countries around the world had already taken steps 
towards decriminalisation stressing that the decision was a "sensible path 
forward" and did not mean Malaysia was legalising drugs.

"Decriminalisation is the removal of criminal penalties for possessing and 
using a small quantity of drugs for personal use, as opposed to those who are 
involved in trafficking drugs," he said in a statement. "Trafficking of drugs 
will undoubtedly remain a crime."

Under existing legislation, people found using drugs can be fined and jailed, 
and just half of the more than 65,000 inmates in the country's prisons are 
there after being found guilty of drug possession.

People caught with 200 grams or more of cannabis or 15 grams or more of heroin 
or morphine are presumed to be trafficking, an offence that currently carries a 
mandatory death sentence.

Decriminalisation will be a critical step towards achieving a national drug 
policy that puts science and public health before punishment and 
incarceration.----Dzulkefly Ahmad, Minister of Health

Law Minister Liew Vui Kheong told Al Jazeera last November that the government 
had embarked on a review of drug policies, and some prominent politicians have 
been campaigning for the legalisation of cannabis for medical purposes. There 
is currently a moratorium on executions amid an ongoing debate over the death 
penalty.

Liew said at the time that a less punitive approach to drugs would mean the 
money currently spent on incarceration could be redirected towards treatment 
and education programmes. Malaysia began a harm reduction programme in 2005 as 
part of efforts to curb the spread of HIV.

The health minister said drug use was a complex, chronic condition that could 
be triggered by a variety of factors from family breakdown to poverty and peer 
pressure and was best treated in a medical setting rather than a prison.

"Drug decriminalisation will indeed be a critical step towards achieving a 
national drug policy that puts science and public health before punishment and 
incarceration," he said. "An addict shall be treated as a patient [not as a 
criminal], whose addiction is a disease we would like to cure."

The next session of parliament is due to begin on Monday. Dzulkefly did not say 
in his statement when the proposed changes in the law would be introduced.

(source: aljazeera.com)








IRAN:

Maryam Rajavi and the Death Penalty



The Iranian Regime is on its last legs because, as US President Donald Trump 
would put it, its leadership aren’t very smart and have pushed the county into 
the drain. Given that the mullahs will not be around very much longer, we are 
taking a look at the viewpoints of the leader of the Iranian opposition Maryam 
Rajavi.

In this piece, we will look at Maryam Rajavi’s views on the death penalty.

Maryam Rajavi and the Iranian Resistance have long called for the abolition of 
the death penalty in Iran, as well as an end to torture and all forms of rights 
abuses.

Maryam Rajavi’s plan for a future free Iran is that the death penalty will be 
removed from the law books and all existing sentences will be commuted. They 
will also immediately end torture and any other human rights abuses.

Maryam Rajavi said: “Our plan is to revive friendship, conciliation and 
tolerance.”

Maryam Rajavi would also seek to overhaul the legal system and end the mullahs’ 
Sharia law, religious decrees, inhumane penal code, Retribution laws, and any 
other abusive laws of the Regime. Instead, the Resistance would advocate for 
laws that are based on forgiveness, compassion and humanity.

Maryam Rajavi cites the example of her husband and Iranian Resistance Leader 
Massoud Rajavi who, during the Resistance’s battle with the Regime in the 1980s 
Iran-Iraq War, ordered that thousands of Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini’s 
agents arrested during the battles with the National Liberation Army of Iran, 
be released without the slightest violation of their human rights, even though 
they had murdered many Resistance members.

Maryam Rajavi said: “This is an enduring tradition of the Iranian people’s 
resistance.”

Maryam Rajavi also wants to institute an independent, dynamic and free 
judiciary, which will work to enforce the law, not the whims of those in power. 
She said that the Resistance’s plan is to defend democratic values, freedom, 
equality and sanctity of every citizen’s private life.

Maryam Rajavi said: “No one will be arrested arbitrarily; torture is banned; no 
defendant is deprived of the right to defence and having a defence attorney; 
the principle of presumption of innocence is respected and no one, especially 
no woman, will be deprived of having access to justice when subjected to 
violence, aggression and abuse of her freedoms.”

Maryam Rajavi said that no one should be denied their freedoms, rights, or life 
because of their faith, political affiliation, gender, race, or anything else.

Maryam Rajavi said: “Our plan is for all citizens to enjoy genuine security and 
equal rights before the law. We are seeking a new order based on freedom, 
democracy and equality.”

She also wants to ensure that children are no longer sentenced to death and are 
tried as children in fair trials for any crimes that they are accused of.

Maryam Rajavi said: “Our motivation for resistance till victory is not spite 
and revenge but our love for freedom and human rights. This is the fuel of our 
steadfastness. And the secret to this endurance is nothing but being prepared 
to sacrifice and pay the price.”

(source: irannewsupdate.com)








MOROCCO:

Death penalty sought for 3 accused of murdering hikers in Morocco



Moroccan prosecutors on Thursday called for the death penalty for the 3 main 
jihadist suspects on trial for the "bloodthirsty" murder of 2 young 
Scandinavian hikers.

The maximum sentence was sought for 25-year-old suspected ringleader Abdessamad 
Ejjoud and 2 radicalised Moroccans, although the country has had a de facto 
freeze on executions since 1993.

The 3 admitted to killing Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and 
28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland in the High Atlas mountains last December.

The prosecution called for jail terms of between 15 years and life for the 21 
other defendants on trial before an anti-terror court in Sale, near Rabat.

The life sentence was sought for Abderrahim Khayali, a 33-year-old plumber, who 
had accompanied the 3 assailants but left the scene before the murders.

The prosecution called for 20 years in jail for Kevin Zoller Guervos, a 
Spanish-Swiss convert to Islam.

All but 3 of those on trial had said they were supporters of the Islamic State 
(IS) group, according to the prosecution.

The 3 killers of the girls were "bloodthirsty monsters", the prosecution said, 
pointing out that an autopsy report had found 23 injuries on Jespersen's 
decapitated body and seven on that of Ueland.

Ejjoud, an underground imam, had confessed to beheading 2 of the girls and 
Younes Ouaziyad, a 27-year-old carpenter, the other, while Rachid Afatti, 33, 
had videoed the murders on his mobile.

- Laywers blame state -

Lawyers for the Danish victim's family on Thursday accused authorities of 
having failed to monitor the activities of some of the suspects before the 2 
women camped in an isolated mountain area had their throats slit.

The brutal killings could have been spared had authorities heeded information 
on the behaviour of street vendor Ejjoud, they said.

The alleged ringleader who had been convicted for trying to join IS in Syria 
was released early from prison in 2015 and went on to meet former inmates and 
other individuals without checks by authorities, attorney Khaled El Fataoui 
said.

He alleged police had been informed of their activities but failed to act.

(source: Agence France-Presse)