[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

October 15



IRAN----execution

Man Hanged in Southern Iran for Rape Charges



IA man was hanged for rape charges at Bandar Abbas prison Saturday.

According to Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), a man hanged on Saturday, 
October 12, at the Iranian southern city of Bandar Abbas. He was arrested and 
sentenced to death for rape charges 5 years ago.

Out of the 110 people who were executed in the 1st half of 2019, 13 were 
sentenced to death for rape charges.

(source: iranhr.net)

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

‘Hanging judge’ hears case of outed Iranian Kurdish singer




Notorious hanging judge Mohammad Moqisseh presided over the recent trial of an 
outed singer, according to reports from Iran. Mohsen Lorestani faced charges of 
‘corruption on Earth’ stemming from a conversation on social media. The 
singer’s lawyer only received notification of the trial after it occurred. As 
yet, the verdict is unknown.

The singer is a famous crooner in a mainly Kurdish western province of Iran.

Despite authorities only now announcing his detention, his lawyer says it 
occurred in March at the singer’s mother’s home in Tehran.

Kazem Hosseini said authorities also arrested three others in connection with 
Mohsen Lorestani’s case.

The singer is charged with ‘corruption of Earth’. The charges result from a 
chat on social media some characterise as ‘flirting’ with another man.

“Corruption on Earth’ sometimes carries the death penalty. Last year, Iran 
executed at least 38 people on charges of ‘waging war against God’ and 
‘corruption on Earth’.

Mohammad Moqisseh acts as head of a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Court which 
the regime uses to persecute ideological opponents.

He recently sentenced three women to a combined 55 year’s jail for not wearing 
headscarves.

Iranian lawyers describe him as ignorant of even the simplest judicial 
concepts. He often disposes of trials in minutes, refuses defendants access to 
lawyers and frequently imposes the death penalty.

Moqisseh first came to attention in the 1980s when he worked in Tehran prisons. 
Witnesses claim he played an active role in torturing and executing political 
prisoners. He later took a key role in the Death Committees which massacred 
thousands of the regime’s opponents in 1988.

“You are Sunni dogs!”

He often acts as both prosecutor and judge, ignores due process and screams 
abuse at prisoners. When sentencing four men to death in 2014 after refusing to 
allow them to defend themselves he snarled, “Be quiet. You are Sunni dogs who 
must be hanged!”

The Instagram Dancers

Moqisseh will also preside over the trials of Iran’s ‘Instagram dancers’.

The regime strictly forbids dancing in public and regards posting videos of 
dancing as an ‘enemy plot’ against the state.

The clergy dominated judiciary recently ordered the arrest of three young women 
over social media posts and obviously intend to make an example of them by 
assigning their case to the notorious hanging judge.

Opaque ‘justice’ system

Not announcing the verdict of a trial is commonplace in Iran’s opaque ‘justice’ 
system.

Often, relatives only become aware of a death sentence when a noose suspended 
from a crane in a town square is placed around their loved one’s neck.

It should also come as no surprise if authorities suddenly discover Mohsen 
Lorestani ‘raped’ another man. For 2 decades now, when faced with outrage over 
the hanging of homosexuals, the Iranian regime has suddenly presented hitherto 
unmentioned ‘evidence’ of rape or sexual assault. This is now almost routine, 
especially whenever the regime feels the need to justify the execution of 
juveniles.

(source: qnews.com.au)








PAKISTAN:

Court Hands Down Death Penalty To Accused For Killing 3 Persons In Lahore



A sessions court on Monday handed down death penalty on 3 counts to a man on 
proving guilty of killing his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 300,000 on accused Ghulam Abbas.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Sajeeda Akhtar announced the verdict 
after hearing detailed arguments of the parties and examining available 
evidence.

The prosecution alleged that accused Ghulam Abbas killed his wife, 
mother-in-law and brother-in-law over a domestic dispute and solid evidence was 
available against him.

However, the defence counsel argued that the accused was nominated due to 
personal enmity whereas the murder weapon was also not recovered from him. He 
pleaded with the court to acquit the accused as solid evidence was not 
available against him.

Ghulam Abbas killed his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law over a domestic 
dispute in Munawan area in 2016. The police had arrested the accused after 
registration of a case.

(source: urdupoint.com)








BANGLADESH:

5 Gaibandha war criminals, including 3 of a family, get death



The International Crimes Tribunal today handed down death penalty to 5 people 
of Gaibandha for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War 
in 1971.

The 3-member tribunal led by Justice Md Shahinur Islam pronounced the verdict 
after finding all the 5 accused guilty in offences.

1 of the 5 convicts Ranju Miah was produced before the court today while the 
rest are on the run.

The fugitives are Abdul Jabbar Mondol and his 2 sons -- Jachhijar Rahman alias 
Khoka and Abdul Wahed Mondol-- and Montaz Ali Bepari alias Momtaj.

The tribunal asked the inspector general of police to take immediate steps to 
arrest the fugitives.

According to the tribunal's investigation agency, they were involved in 4 
incidents of killings, abduction, confinement, torture, arson and looting.

The charges involved killing one Hindu man, torturing 2 Hindu women and forcing 
around 400 Hindus of the Sadar upazila's Sahapara union to leave the country; 
killing nine people at Nandina village and looting around 50 houses; killing 
five people at Doulatpur village, and killing 7 people in Sahapara union.

The prosecution on March 9 pressed 4 charges against the 5.

(source: The Daily Star)

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

9 given death penalty for killing businessman in Comilla



4 others have been sentenced to life term imprisonment for killing a 
businessman in 2013

A Chittagong court on Monday handed down the death sentence to 9 persons, for 
hacking to death a businessman,named Jahangir, in 2013. The businessman hailed 
from Comilla.

The same court also awarded life term imprisonment to 4 accused, and acquitted 
3 accused, as they were found not guilty in the case.

The court of Chittagong Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal acting Judge Md Abdul 
Halim passed the order in a fully-packed courtroom.

Those who were awarded death penalty are Md Sajib, Md Shawon, Md Harun, Abu 
Taher, Md Rajib, Md Rubo,Momin, Mohsin and Md Amin.

Those who were awarded life term are Motin, Shah Poran, Shamim and Kokhon Mia. 
The acquitted are Noyon Mia, Moslem Mia and Bilal Mia.

Prosecution counsel Md Ayyub Khan confirmed, Jahangir was hacked to death by 
his rivals at Gouripur area, under Daudkandi upazila in Comilla district on 
December 1, 2013.

Fajar Ali, father of the deceased, lodged a murder case with Daudkandi police 
station on December 2, 2013.

The case was transferred from Comilla to Chittagong Speedy Trial Tribunal in 
2015. A total of 13 people testified at different times in the case.

(source: dhakatribune.com)








CHINA:

Retrial begins for high-profile defendant in Yunnan



On Monday the Yunnan High People's Court retried a high-profile case involving 
Sun Xiaoguo, who received the death penalty for multiple crimes but later had 
his sentence reduced to 20 years in prison due to the wrongful application of 
laws.

Sun was sentenced to death by the Kunming Intermediate People's Court in Yunnan 
in 1998 for rape, insulting women, intentional injury and disturbance of public 
order. The penalty was then cut to a suspended death sentence with a 2-year 
reprieve by the high people's court, and it was further reduced to 20 years.

Sun was released in April 2010, which means the real prison term he actually 
served was 12 years and 5 months.

On July 18, the high people's court said it decided to rehear the case, as it 
believed the previous ruling was based on the wrongful application of laws 
after a series of investigations, reviews of files and materials as well as 
visits with people involved in the case.

Some parts of the retrial on Monday were not open to the public because the 
court said the sections on the charges of rape, intentional injury and 
insulting women were not suitable for disclosure, citing privacy concerns.

During the rehearing, the provincial prosecutors suggested the court should 
withdraw the previous ruling and make a new and correct judgment.

Sun's legitimate rights were fully protected by the court. It allowed two 
lawyers to defend Sun, and provided him and the attorneys opportunities to 
speak and share opinions for the case facts in the retrial.

The court added it would rule on the case at a later date.

Sun allegedly organized people and led these people to commit crimes again 
after being freed in 2010, according to a report from Xinhua News Agency.

On Monday, a total of 13 defendants, including Sun, were charged with the 
crimes of organizing, leading and attending organized offenses, opening 
gambling houses, disturbance of public order, illegal detention, intentional 
injury, affray, obstruction of testimony and bribery by prosecutors from the 
province's Yuxi city, the report said.

Prosecutors from the city's Jiangchuan district charged another 22 defendants 
with the crimes of opening gambling houses, disturbance of public order, 
affray, illegal detention, fraud and intentional injury at the same time, it 
added.

Before Monday's retrial and prosecutions, there were 20 people, including 
prison officials, police officers and a judge, under investigation over their 
possible roles in helping Sun escape capital punishment, it said.

Of those people, 19 were transferred to prosecutors for a review on suspicion 
of duty-related crimes on Monday. Of the transferred, 13 including Sun's 
stepfather Li Qiaozhong and Sun's mother Sun Heyu are being reviewed for 
allegedly abusing power, offering bribes, receiving bribes and malpractice, it 
said.

The other 6 people are being reviewed on suspicion of improperly reducing 
prison terms, it said.

Now, the 19 suspects have all been detained by the prosecutors and related 
investigations are still underway.

Sun's case received national attention in April when a local media outlet 
reported several gangs, including one led by Sun, were smashed in a crackdown 
against organized crimes in Kunming. Sun was then detained for the gang 
activities.

The case later triggered widespread concern over possible corruption in the 
judicial and prison systems after follow-up stories discovered Sun was the same 
man convicted of multiple charges in 1998 and he had therefore mysteriously 
escaped a death sentence and been living as a free man.

Sun became shareholder of several enterprises and controlled many bars after 
leaving prison.

As the controversies spread on Chinese social media, a central inspection group 
for fighting gang-related crimes came to Yunnan and began conducting a thorough 
investigation on how Sun appeared to have escaped justice.

(source: ecns.cn)








MALAYSIA:

Nearly Half of Malaysia’s Death Row Inmates are Foreigners----Amnesty’s report 
drew on two years of research as well as interviews with death row inmates, 
their lawyers, families and embassy officials, the group said.



Foreign nationals, account for nearly 1/2 of those on death row, Amnesty 
International said on Thursday.

Amnesty International urged the Southeast Asian nation to abolish the death 
penalty for all offences.

In March, Malaysia rowed back on plans to scrap the death penalty. Saying that 
it would only abolish mandatory capital punishment for certain offences.

Amnesty, in a report published on Thursday, said about 44% of 1,281 inmates on 
death row in Malaysia as of February this year were foreigners from countries 
such as Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, India, and Thailand.

The majority of 141 women on death row, were convicted of trafficking drugs 
into Malaysia, were also foreign nationals. Amnesty added that the offence of 
drug trafficking did not warrant the death penalty.

“Several of these women were meant to travel to Malaysia with their partner or 
friend, who at the last minute had to pull out of the trip for visa or other 
reasons,” Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu, executive director of Amnesty 
International Malaysia, told a press conference.

“These death row cases were quite obviously of unwitting drug mules.”

Its report found that many of those on death row in Malaysia had been subjected 
to harsh treatment by authorities. The also received inadequate access to legal 
or consular services.

They also faced unfair trials and, in some cases, were made to sign documents 
in Malay without a translator present.

The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for 
comment on the report.

Amnesty’s report drew on 2 years of research as well as interviews with death 
row inmates, the group said.

Malaysia must move toward abolishing the death penalty by scrapping the 
mandatory capital punishment for all crimes and maintaining a moratorium on 
executions until then, Shamini said.

“From allegations of torture and other ill-treatment to an opaque pardons 
process, it’s clear the death penalty is a stain on Malaysia’s criminal justice 
system,” she told Reuters.

(source: chiangratimes.com)

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

Abolish mandatory death penalty in current parliamentary session



On the World Day Against the Death Penalty on 10 October, Malaysians Against 
Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) notes sadly that Malaysia has not yet 
abolished the death penalty, let alone the mandatory death penalty.

In 2018, on the World Day Against Death Penalty, it was announced that the 
Malaysian cabinet had decided to abolish the death penalty, not just the 
mandatory death penalty.

This abolition would have facilitated the return of Sirul Azhar Umar, now in 
Australia, an abolitionist nation that refuses to repatriate him back to 
Malaysia as he faces the risk of execution.

Sirul was seen by many as an important witness who may lead to the 
identification and prosecution of the other persons who were behind the murder 
of Altantuya Shaariibuu, the Mongolian mother of 2.

The abolition of the death penalty would also eliminate the possibility of 
execution of innocent persons – a miscarriage of justice. The police, 
prosecutors, judges and even lawyers of the accused, all of whom human beings, 
are not infallible and could cause the wrongful execution of persons.

We recall the case when in January 2011, when Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice 
admitted that Chiang Kuo-ching, an air force private, had been executed in 
error in 1997 for a murder committed 15 years earlier.

In Malaysia, it has also been shown that the death penalty, even the mandatory 
death penalty, has not deterred crime. In 2017 it was revealed in Parliament 
that drug cases had increased every year despite the drastic measures taken by 
the police, which we could take as including the fact of the existence of the 
mandatory death penalty under Section 39B on drug trafficking of the Dangerous 
Drugs Act 1952. It may be the same for murder, but it is difficult to know as 
Malaysia stopped revealing actual statistics under the previous government.

The failure of government resulting in poverty may also be the cause of many 
crimes including those that now carry the death penalty.

The 2019 17th World Day Against the Death Penalty aimed at raising awareness of 
the rights of children whose parents had been sentenced to death or executed.

Malaysia, a party of the Child Rights Convention, now should have the best 
interests of the child as a major concern. The execution of a parent, sibling 
or relative of any child is certainly never in the best interest of that child.

The abolition of the death penalty would also be consistent with the Malaysian 
policy on crime and sentencing. We believe in second chances. When one pleads 
guilty, the sentence is reduced by a third. For those in prison, good behaviour 
and rehabilitation will lead to remission of sentence and early release. All 
these values and principles cannot apply when a person is sentenced to death or 
faces the mandatory death penalty.

U-turn on death penalty abolition

But on 13 March 2019, the Malaysian cabinet made a U-turn on abolishing the 
death penalty for all 33 offences and instead agreed to abolish the mandatory 
death penalty for all 11 mandatory death penalty offences.

Since the Pakatan Harapan is a coalition government made up of 4 or 5 parties, 
it would be interesting to know which party changed its position on abolition 
and why. Through its MPs, we believe that the DAP was an abolitionist party, 
but its current position is a mystery.

Sadly, we have not yet seen any tabling any bills being tabled in Parliament to 
effectively abolish the mandatory death penalty. The earlier indication was 
that these bills would be tabled in the the current parliamentary session, 
which began in October 2019.

Madpet was concerned about the setting up of a special committee in September 
2019 to look into alternatives to the death sentence – which would be just be 
another excuse to delay the abolition of the mandatory death penalty.

Such a committee or taskforce could have been set up last year after the 
decision to abolish the death penalty. It could have been even earlier – for 
the abolition of the mandatory death penalty was a Pakatan Harapan election 
promise.

We reiterate that the mandatory death penalty could be immediately abolished, 
which would mean that judges would then have the discretion whether to sentence 
people to imprisonment or death.

For the time being, it could simply be life imprisonment or natural life 
imprisonment. Later, if a better ‘alternative sentence’ comes from this or that 
‘committee’, ‘taskforce’ or consultations, the act could always be further 
amended.

The government should not further delay the abolition of the mandatory death 
penalty.

Those accused who are now on trial or whose trial starts before the abolition 
will be greatly prejudiced as both the prosecution and defence lawyers may be 
adducing evidence only towards finding of guilt or innocence. They will not be 
adducing evidence as to why a person should receive a lesser sentence since the 
courts have no discretion as to sentence when they can only provide the one 
mandatory sentence.

Madpet is also against all mandatory sentences, as it removes judicial 
discretion when it comes to sentencing. Laws should only provide for maybe 
maximum sentences and trust our judges to impose a just sentence on each 
convicted person after taking all facts and circumstances into account.

Malaysia created history in December 2018 when it voted in favour of a United 
Nations General Assembly resolution on the abolition of the death penalty.

Madpet hopes that the abolition of the mandatory death penalty is just the 
first step towards the total abolition of the death penalty, which we hope will 
happen soon, certainly before the next general election.

Madpet calls for the immediate tabling of the bill(s) to abolish the mandatory 
death penalty in this current parliamentary session; any other changes can 
easily be brought in through subsequent amendments.

Madpet calls for the passing of an act of Parliament that will have the effect 
of commuting the death sentence of about 1,200 on death row, especially those 
who have exhausted their appeals in court.

Madpet also calls for a further amendment to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, 
where the mandatory death penalty has already been abolished, to allow judges 
to consider all mitigating and aggravating circumstances and remove the 
limitations and conditions now in that law.

Madpet calls for a moratorium on all executions, pending the total abolition of 
the death penalty in Malaysia.

(source: aliran.com----Charles Hector released this statement on behalf of 
Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) ).



SRI LANKA:

Kotakethana double murder accused sentenced to death



The accused in the double murder of a mother and daughter in Kotakethana in 
2012 has been sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court today.

Lokugam Hewage Dharshana, also known as ‘Raju’, was found guilty over the 
stabbing to death of a mother and her daughter in Kotakethana, Kahawatte in 
2012, a gruesome double murder that sparked widespread outrage in the country.

Colombo High Court Judge Vikum Kaluarachchi, delivering the verdict following a 
long trial, stated that the charges against the defendant have been proven 
beyond a reasonable doubt.

Reading out the 221-page verdict, the High Court Judge declared that the 
accused will be given the death penalty.

The Attorney General had filed a case against Lokugam Hewage Darshana alias 
‘Raju’ and his wife Ashoka Chandani Kumari alias ‘Batti’ for the murder of 
52-year-old Nayana Nilmini and her daughter Kavindya Chathurangi (17).

Colombo High Court had previously ordered the acquittal and release of the 2nd 
defendant, Ashoka Chandani Kumari, due to the lack of evidence against her.

(source: adaderana.lk)








INDONESIA:

Drugs and the death penalty



In 2018 there were 39 new death sentences for drug-related offences in 
Indonesia, accounting for a staggering 81 % of all new death sentences. By 
comparison, only 17 % were for murder, and the remaining 2 % were for 
terrorism.

The popular-but-hard-line ‘war on drugs’ has been vociferously condemned by the 
international community. But the Indonesian government remains committed to it, 
motivated in a large part by a moral panic around a national ‘narcotics 
emergency’ which has resulted from data now known to be dodgy.

Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency has claimed, for example, that there are 
around 4.5 million people in the country in need of rehabilitation for their 
drug use at any one time, but this figure is in fact a projection of the total 
number of people in Indonesia who have used drugs – even if only a few times 
ever – not just those unable to manage their drug use.

More than 30 people die from drug-related causes every day in Indonesia, and as 
part of the war on drugs the government has also restored the death penalty and 
executed 18 drug traffickers since 2015, including 15 foreigners – 8 from 
Nigeria, 2 each from Australia and Brazil, and 1 from each of Malawi, the 
Netherlands and Vietnam.

Fair trials for traffickers

Meanwhile, it is common knowledge that some law enforcers in Indonesia rely on 
questionable legal grounds and do not always follow procedure. The legal 
process is at risk of being marred by arbitrary or discriminative practices, 
and law enforcers can, of course, make mistakes, but the death penalty cannot 
be reversed, unlike other severe punishments.

A sleuth of executions in 2015 drew attention to how Indonesia’s legal system 
is not well-equipped to make sure criminal proceedings against drug users and 
traffickers are fair. On 29 April of that year 43-year-old Rodrigo Gularte from 
Brazil was executed after being convicted of smuggling cocaine into Indonesia 
back in 2004. But his lawyers say that his case should never have gone to trial 
in the first place because, as Amnesty International reported, he had been 
diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Rodrigo had lived with this mental 
illness from the age of 16, and throughout the 10 years he waited on death row 
in Indonesia’s prison system, his illness was not recognised. Indonesia’s penal 
code ought to prevent people with mental illnesses like Rodrigo from ever 
standing trial. But the revelation was not enough to save him from the firing 
squad.

In a more fortunate case, 30-year-old Mary Jane Veloso from the Philippines 
avoided execution at the eleventh hour. She had been working in Malaysia as a 
domestic servant but was convicted of carrying drugs on her first visit to 
Indonesia back in 2010. Since then Mary Jane has languished in an Indonesian 
prison on death row without much support even from the Philippine Embassy in 
Jakarta. Her family in the Philippines was never informed about her case, and 
it has since come to light that the Indonesian police did not even provide her 
with a translator so she could properly defend herself. Her planned execution 
in 2015 was only stayed after the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo 
Duterte, provided evidence that Mary Jane had been manipulated into carrying 
the contraband.

Keeping the death penalty?

The Draft Criminal Code proposes to change things for the worse. One severe 
proposal is that the death penalty be made final, meaning that the president 
would not have authority to grant clemency. But the Indonesian government seems 
to have backtracked, asking instead that any death sentence be able to be 
commuted to life imprisonment for good behaviour on death row, and that the 
death penalty be re-categorised as an ‘alternative punishment’. Lawmakers from 
both the governing coalition and the opposition admit that the death penalty 
has been an ineffective deterrent, particularly for drug-related crime, as the 
number of cases has risen rather than fallen.

The current war on drugs can only be won if the Indonesian government shifts 
its focus from punishment and the disproven ‘deterrent’ of the death penalty to 
the important battle against the underlying causes of drug use. At the heart of 
the new approach, there needs to be a greater commitment to protecting the 
human rights of everyone, including drug traffickers and drug users who have 
borne the brunt of Indonesia’s punitive war on drugs.

(source: Puri Kencana Putri (puri.kencanaputri at amnesty.id) is campaign manager 
at Amnesty International Indonesia----insideindonesia.org)








LIBERIA:

RAL, ACAT-Liberia Urge Govt of Liberia To Repeal The Death Penalty Law



As part of activities marking the 17th anniversary of the World Day Against the 
Penalty, Rescue Alternatives Liberia (RAL) and Action by Christians for the 
Abolition of Torture (ACAT-Liberia) are calling on the Liberian Government to 
repeal the clause within the Penal Code that talks about death penalty.

The 2 human rights organizations remind the Liberian Government that the 
country had acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, which calls 
for the abolition of the death penalty in 2005 and increased the number of 
crimes punishable by the death penalty in its legislation in 2008.

It still remains a point to concentrate on that despite advocacy and lobbying 
with the National Legislature and other relevant government institutions for 
the repeal of the 2008 law that allows the death penalty, practical action is 
yet to be taken by the government of Liberia that will lead to its abolition.

In a release, the organizations recounted the last execution in the country 
that took place in 2000, but lamented that death sentences are still handed 
down by the courts. They also expressed dismay that Liberia is the only country 
in the world to have gone backwards after accession to the UN protocol.

ACAT-Liberia and RAL in line with their action plan through a press release 
further reminded the Government of Liberia of its responsibility to ensure 
signed and ratified UNCAT and OPCAT, Optional Protocol to the United Nations 
Convention against Torture (UNCAT) are criminalized and domesticated within the 
Penal Code of Liberia.

This includes respect Procedural Rights Standards a centerpiece for cooperation 
related to human rights and torture, in particular as related to the procedural 
rights of suspects and accused persons and provide data on all places of 
detention and on all persons in detention in their respective jurisdictions.

“Steps should also be taken to ensure that the data reflect detainees’ age, 
gender, vulnerabilities and other relevant information about socio-demographic 
and legal status,” the two organizations said in a release.

The World Day Against the Death Penalty is celebrated on the 10th of October 
every year, but the organizations in collaboration with partners including the 
Swedish Embassy, Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR), 
Office of the High Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR), Liberia National Bar 
Association (LNBA), Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law among others will now 
celebrate the day on October 29, 2019 in Monrovia.

The World Day Against the Death Penalty is a day set aside to advocate for the 
abolition of the death penalty and to raise awareness of the conditions and the 
circumstances which affect prisoners with death sentences.

The focus of this year’s celebration is “Children: unseen victims of the death 
penalty.” Frequently forgotten, children of parents sentenced to death or 
executed carry a heavy emotional and psychological burden that can amount to 
the violation of their human rights.

This trauma can occur at any and all stages of the capital punishment of a 
parent: arrest, trial, sentencing, death row stays, execution dates, execution 
itself, and its aftermath. The repeated cycles of hope and disappointment that 
can accompany all of these stages can have a long-term impact, occasionally 
well into adulthood.

(source: frontpageafricaonline.com)








UGANDA:

Uganda denies plans to impose death penalty for gay sex amid global concern



Uganda will not impose the death penalty for gay sex, a presidential spokesman 
said on Monday, after major aid donors said they were monitoring a plan by the 
African nation to reintroduce a bill colloquially known as “Kill the Gays”.

Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo last Thursday said the 
government planned to re-introduce an anti-homosexuality bill in parliament 
within weeks to curb the spread of homosexuality in the east African nation.

Lokodo’s statement was widely reported across the world and international 
donors such as the European Union, World Bank, the United States and the Global 
Fund said they were monitoring the situation closely and stood by the rights of 
LGBT+ people.

A spokesperson for President Yoweri Museveni on Monday said the government has 
no plans to introduce the legislation that would impose the death penalty for 
gay sex.

“There are no plans by the government to introduce a law like that,” Don 
Wanyama, President Museveni’s senior press secretary told the Thomson Reuters 
Foundation.

“We have the penal code that already handles issues of unnatural sexual 
behavior so there is no law coming up.”

Lokodo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation and local press last week that the 
bill was about to be tabled in the largely conservative Christian country where 
gay sex is currently punishable with life imprisonment under British colonial 
law.

This prompted major aid donors on Friday to voice concerns, and a government 
spokesman took to Twitter on Saturday to deny any such plan.

It was not possible to confirm any link between the donors’ concerns and the 
government spokesman’s statement on Saturday.

VIOLENCE AND PREJUDICE

When asked why Lokodo had made the statement, Wanyama said: “Ask him. I don’t 
know where he got this idea from. There is no plan by government to introduce a 
law of that nature.”

Lokodo said the bill - that was nullified 5 years ago on a technicality - was 
being resurrected and would be voted on by the end of the year.

“Our current penal law is limited. It only criminalises the act,” he told the 
Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“We want it made clear that anyone who is even involved in promotion and 
recruitment has to be criminalised. Those that do grave acts will be given the 
death sentence.”

Lokodo did not immediately respond to calls and messages from the Thomson 
Reuters Foundation on Monday.

Earlier this year, Brunei in Southeast Asia sparked international outcry over 
plans to impose the death penalty for gay sex, backtracking only after intense 
criticism.

African countries have some of the world’s most prohibitive laws governing 
homosexuality with same-sex relationships considered taboo and gay sex deemed a 
crime across most of the continent, with punishments ranging from imprisonment 
to death.

Uganda is seen as one of the most difficult countries in Africa to be in a 
sexual minority with members of the LGBT community facing prejudice in getting 
jobs, renting housing or seeking medical care or education.

LGBT+ rights groups report that 3 gay men and 1 transgender woman had been 
killed in homophobic attacks in Uganda this year - the latest on Oct. 4 when a 
gay man was bludgeoned to death.

Rejected by their families and fearful for their lives, hundreds of LGBT+ 
Ugandans have fled over the last five years to seek refuge to countries such as 
neighboring Kenya.

Human rights groups said Lokodo’s comments would inflame homophobic attitudes 
further.

“This is an example of how Uganda’s politicians are stoking dangerous 
intolerance and bias against LGBTI people,” said Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty 
International’s director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, in a 
statement.

(source: Reuters)