Crime and Justice Death Penalty and the Right to Life
July 2011 Inter Press Service Pagina 1 di 2 July 2011
IPS, the global news agency, brings you independent news and views on capital punishment. In this newsletter you will Download as PDF find in-depth reports by IPS correspondents from around the world and columns by experts, in addition to special sections for news from international NGOs and a review of the global media for a glimpse of what is happening on the ground. Join us in helping strengthen awareness about the abolition of death penalty – and encourage your friends and colleagues to subscribe to this free monthly newsletter.
Undisclosed Beheading at Heart of Indonesian, Saudi Row Matthew Cardinale ATLANTA, Georgia, U.S., Jun 30, 2011 (IPS) - Indonesia, which has an estimated 1.2 million emigrants in Saudi Arabia, is deeply troubled that Saudi Arabia beheaded one of its citizens in a death penalty sentence without even contacting the government in Jakarta. MORE >>
Iran Executing Hundreds in "War on Drugs" Matthew Cardinale ATLANTA, Georgia, U.S., Jun 27, 2011 (IPS) - Iran is drawing international criticism for its continued mass executions of people convicted of violating its drug laws. The Islamic Republic's judiciary reported that 300 people were on death row as of May 30. MORE >>
Uphill Battle to Save Australians From Execution By Stephen de Tarczynski MELBOURNE, Jun 23, 2011 (IPS) - Any Australian government efforts to have two of its citizens spared from the death penalty in Indonesia have been made more difficult by past refusals to intervene on behalf of three Indonesian Islamists in the lead-up to their executions in 2008. MORE >>
INDIA: Noose Not Mandatory for Drug Crimes, Rules Court By Ranjit Devraj NEW DELHI, Jun 22, 2011 (IPS) - By striking down a law that makes the death penalty mandatory for drug-related offences, the Bombay High Court has raised hopes among rights activists that other countries in the region will follow suit. MORE >>
BAHRAIN: Tribunal-Issued Death Sentences Cause Outcry By Matthew Cardinale ATLANTA, Georgia, U.S., Jun 11, 2011 (IPS) - Democracy advocates in the United States are troubled by the pending execution of two men who took part in anti-government protests in Bahrain. MORE >>
Death Penalty Popular in China By Gordon Ross BEIJING, Jun 10, 2011 (IPS) - Despite government efforts to curb the number of people it puts to death, China continues to execute more people than the rest of the world combined, and corporal punishment remains popular among the citizenry. MORE >>
ZIMBABWE: They Live by the Sword, But Should They Die by the Sword? By Nyarai Mudimu HARARE, Jun 9, 2011 (IPS) - In her glory days, death-row inmate Rosemary Khumalo (66) lived life dangerously on the edge. She was a sanguinary fortune hunter who would resort to anything, even murder, to land her loot, according to court records of her trial. MORE >>
UGANDA: ‘So Many Innocent People Are Dying’ Wambi Michael interviews EDMARY MPAGI, Ugandan death penalty abolitionist http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/jul2011.asp 06/07/2011 Inter Press Service Pagina 2 di 2
KAMPALA, Jun 7, 2011 (IPS) - Edmary Mpagi and his cousin Fred Masembe were convicted by a Ugandan court and sentenced to death for the murder of a man who was later found alive. MORE >>
DEATH PENALTY-INDIA: Clemency Denial Opens Can of Worms By Ranjit Devraj NEW DELHI, Jun 3, 2011 (IPS) - In a country where capital punishment is rare, human rights activists are surprised by a sudden move to hang a Sikh separatist militant convicted for bombing attacks on a senior police officer and a Congress party politician in the early 1990s. MORE >>
TAIWAN: No Indictment Over Wrongful Execution By Dennis Engbarth TAIPEI, Jun 1, 2011 (IPS) - Taiwan prosecutors certified that Air Force private Chiang Kuo-ching had been wrongfully executed in August 1997 for the rape-murder of a five-year-old-girl at an air force headquarters compound in Taipei, but failed to indict any of the nine military officers responsible for extracting his "confession" through torture. MORE >>
WORLD PRESS REVIEW: IRAN: DEATH SENTENCE FOR APOSTASY REPORTEDLY UPHELD FOR PASTOR NADARKHANI - JAPAN: MAN TO HANG FOR KILLING WOMAN, 21- EGYPT: CLERIC APPROVES COP'S DEATH SENTENCE - IRAQ: PRESIDENCY RATIFIES DEATH SENTENCE AGAINST TUNISIAN - MALAYSIA: RESOLUTION OVER MORATORIUM ON DEATH PENALTY - SAUDI ARABIA: ‘BLOOD MONEY’ PAYMENT SPARES INDONESIAN MAID FROM EXECUTION - TUNISIA: RADICALS SAY TUNISIA MOVING TOWARDS ABOLITION - INDIA: 4 MAOISTS GET DEATH FOR J'KHAND MASSACRE - MOROCCO: WORLD COALITION AGM OPENS WITH PLEA FOR ABOLITION - GEORGIA (USA): MAN EXECUTED FOR 1978 RAPE AND MURDER - ARKANSAS (USA): SUPREME COURT HALTS THREE EXECUTIONS - FLORIDA (USA): MIAMI FEDERAL JUDGE RULES DEATH PENALTY UNCONSTITUTIONAL - EGYPT: DEATH SENTENCE FOR BUS DRIVER WHO SHOT DEAD 6 COLLEAGUES - PAKISTAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR BLASPHEMY - CHINESE COALMINER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDERING MAN IN POLLUTION ROW - BAHAMAS: GOVERNMENT PLANS LEGISLATION TO STRENGTHEN DEATH SENTENCES - AFGHANISTAN: TWO CHARGED IN DEADLY BANK ATTACK EXECUTED - CALIFORNIA (USA): STATE TAXPAYERS HAVE SPENT $4 BILLION ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SINCE 1978 - SAUDI BEHEADS INDONESIAN WOMAN CONVICTED OF MURDER - SAUDI BEHEADS INDONESIAN WOMAN CONVICTED OF MURDER - SOMALIA: AL SHABAB PUBLICLY EXECUTES 2 FOR SPYING - IRAQ: COURT GIVES DEATH PENALTY TO 15 IRAQIS OVER WEDDING MASSACRE - UAE: FORMER FOOTBALLER SENTENCED TO DEATH - TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: PRIVY COUNCIL QUASHES MANDATORY DEATH FOR CERTAIN MURDERS - BAHAMAS: MAXO TIDO DEATH SENTENCE OVERTURNED - SAUDI ARABIA: KILLER SAVED FROM THE SWORD AT THE 11TH HOUR - AFGHANISTAN: TWO SENTENCED TO HANG FOR MASSACRE IN JALALABAD - TUNISIA: BEN ALI MAY FACE UP TO 20 YEARS OR THE DEATH PENALTY - VIETNAM: DEATH SENTENCES TO BE EXECUTED BY POISON - IRAQ: TAREQ AZIZ'S SON- END MY FATHER'S SUFFERING - CHINESE SENTENCED TO DIE FOR MONGOL HERDER'S DEATH - INDIA: HIGH COURT STAYS EXECUTION OF DEATH SENTENCE ON DAS - CHINA: STUDENT EXECUTED OVER HIT-AND-RUN MURDER - IRAN: SUPREME COURT QUASHES DEATH SENTENCE IN 'PORN' CASE - DANES TRY TO BLOCK USE OF DRUG IN US EXECUTIONS - KUWAIT: BANGLADESHI TRIO SENTENCED TO DEATH IN MURDER OF COMPATRIOT - ARMENIAN PRISON CONDITIONS AGAIN CRITICIZED BY CIVIC MONITORS - ETHIOPIA PARDONS 23 TOP DERG OFFICIALS - NEW CHARGES FOR 9/11 SUSPECTS HELD AT GUANTANAMO -
News from International NGOs: ARAB SPRING AT THE HEART OF WORLD COALITION AGM - PENAL REFORM INTERNATIONAL HELD A REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON JUVENILE JUSTICE IN ALGIERS - PUERTO RICO PRESSURES OBAMA TO ABOLISH UNWANTED FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY - OBAMA AND THE DEATH PENALTY - UN ADOPTS DRAFT OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CRC ON A COMMUNICATIONS PROCEDURE - CLEMENCY URGED AS ALABAMA EXECUTION LOOMS - SAUDI ARABIA: SURGE IN EXECUTIONS IN RECENT WEEKS -
IPS has partnered with Penal Reform International to expand its independent coverage of issues surrounding capital punishment and long-term imprisonment.
The contents of this publication, funded by the European Union, are the sole responsibility of IPS and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.
Copyright © 2011 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.
http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/jul2011.asp 06/07/2011 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
PROJECT ARTICLES Khairiya bint Hamid Mijlid. She allegedly stabbed Mijlid several times with a knife
and a meat cleaver. The motive for the Undisclosed Beheading at crime was not revealed by authorities. Heart of Indonesian, Saudi Row Indonesia has set up a special task force in Saudi Arabia to provide legal advice By Matthew Cardinale to the 23 remaining Indonesians on ATLANTA, Georgia, U.S., Jun 30, 2011 death row, in assisting them with their (IPS) - Indonesia, which has an appeals. estimated 1.2 million emigrants in Saudi
Arabia, is deeply troubled that Saudi "The government is committed to Arabia beheaded one of its citizens in a saving them from the death penalty," death penalty sentence without even said Martua Batubara, spokesperson for contacting the government in Jakarta. Indonesia's Justice and Human Rights
Ministry, according to the Jakarta Globe. Indonesia has recalled its ambassador "But at least for now, we have secured from Saudi Arabia, but is lobbying the the commitment of the kingdom" to kingdom to commute the sentences of review the cases. 23 Indonesians who are currently on
death row in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government has also agreed
to let 316 Indonesians out of prison to "The reason they [Indonesia] are upset be deported back to Indonesia. is, number one, they were not
informed. Usually when it's Saudi Arabia has sent back 4,410 international, they will inform the Indonesians who overstayed their visas government concerned. Number two, since March 2011. they want to protect their citizens," T.
Kumar, director of international The 23 Indonesians currently in death advocacy for Amnesty International row in Saudi Arabia were convicted of USA, told IPS. crimes and are not facing the death
penalty for the sole reason of being Roiaiti Beth Sabotti Sarona was undocumented immigrants, Kumar said. beheaded after being convicted in Saudi
Arabia for the murder of Saudi citizen Still, human rights advocates have
Page 3 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/
expressed concerns about the fairness on migrant workers going to Saudi of trials in Saudi Arabia and about the Arabia to begin in August 2011, has recent increase in the number of created a 24 hour crisis hotline for its executions there. workers abroad, and is working to create more jobs at home. Indonesia is trying to convince Saudi Arabia to allow the payment of qisas, or "I decided to apply a moratorium on blood money, to the victims of the sending Indonesian workers to Saudi alleged crimes, which would allow the Arabia to be in effect on Aug. 1, but 23 Indonesians to get off of death row. starting from today, steps toward this have begun," President Susilo Bambang "It's a common practice. It's something Yudhoyono said in a national television that's sanctioned in Islamic law, like address on Jun. 23, according to Saudi Arabia or Iran, that claims to be Reuters. guided by Islamic law," said Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and Indonesia's National Board for the North Africa Division of Human Rights Placement and Protection of Indonesian Watch. Overseas Workers has opened a crisis centre for migrant workers and their "Somebody may offer a certain amount. families. It's my understanding the victim has the right to refuse. You often find society "The migrants are treated pretty badly will put a lot of pressure on a family to there. There are over one million accept blood money," Stork said. Indonesians over there doing menial work. The law does not protect them as Stork said Saudi Arabia has an incentive they should protect," Kumar said. to negotiate qisas, which is to decrease overall their number of executions, thus In response to the steps taken by appeasing death penalty abolition Indonesia, Saudi Arabian Labor Ministry advocates worldwide. "Saudi Arabia Thursday announced a ban on executes a lot of people, far too many," temporary work visas for workers from Stork said. Indonesia as well as the Philippines, to begin on Saturday. Indonesia, in response to the execution of Sarona, has called for a moratorium But Indonesian officials did not seem
Page 4 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
too concerned. Iran Executing Hundreds in
"War on Drugs" "They often say that, but as a matter of By Matthew Cardinale fact, they're still taking workers from
us," said Muhaimin Iskandar, Indonesian ATLANTA, Georgia, U.S., Jun 27, 2011 Minister of Manpower and (IPS) - Iran is drawing international Transmigration, according to the Jakarta criticism for its continued mass Globe. executions of people convicted of
violating its drug laws. The Islamic The diplomatic dispute, which will Republic's judiciary reported that 300 impact the work opportunities of people were on death row as of May 30. hundreds of thousands of Asians, seems
to stem back to Saudi Arabia's decision "For 300 drug-related convicts, including to violate international norms in those who were in possession of at least beheading Sarona without notifying 30 grammes of heroin, execution Indonesia. verdicts have been issued," said Abbas
Jafari Dolatabadi, Tehran's prosecutor- Meanwhile, Amnesty International general, according to the Sharq daily emphasised that even though it has newspaper. raised special concerns about the
situation involving Indonesia and Saudi The Iranian government has already Arabia, it is opposed to the death hanged 126 people for drug offences so penalty not only in Saudi Arabia, but far this year, as of May 30, according to everywhere. Hands Off Cain, a death penalty
abolition organisation. "We are concerned it's a violation of
human rights of any human being- no Iran executed 650 people in 2010, 590 one should have the right to take the of whom were convicted for drug life of another human being - including offences, according to the United the government," Kumar said. Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth (END) Office 2010 report on Human Rights and
Democracy. This was up from 388 in 2009.
Page 5 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/
"Estimates suggest that Iran executes high because 74 percent of those more people per capita than any other executed are traffickers in large country in the world. The year 2010 saw quantities of opium from Afghanistan a steep increase in the number of bound for European markets," executions in response to a tough new Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of anti-drugs policy," the report states. Iran's Supreme Council for Human Rights, said during a press conference in "We've seen a huge surge in numbers May. being reported by the government, we're not sure whether they're the The press conference followed a actual numbers," Faraz Sanei, Iran and meeting with South African Deputy Bahrain researcher with Human Rights Foreign Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim, at Watch's Middle East and North Africa which South Africa criticised the division, told IPS. sentences.
Some of the executions have been It is not disputed that Iran has some recent. Iran executed Esmaeel G., serious problems with drugs and drug Hossein N., Hasan Q., and Hasan K. for trafficking. Many Iranians have drug offences on Jun. 1, according to addiction problems with heroin and Iran's justice department website. opium, while some have reportedly turned to making chemical drugs in their On Jun. 19, two men - Siah Khan Sh. and homes. Mohammad N. - were hanged for drug- related convictions, according to the In addition, "Iran is dealing with a Ettelaat newspaper of Iran. problem of armed drug trafficking gangs from Afghanistan, paramilitaries. There The executions are most often carried have been levels of violence between out by hanging, although another traffickers and government forces," common method is firing squad. Iran's Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of method of hanging, called suspension the Drug Policy Alliance, told IPS. strangulation, is particularly cruel and involves strangulating someone by Still, "that is no reason to move forward pulling them upward with a crane. with the hanging of 300 people, not people who are drug lords. Essentially "The number of executions in Iran is people get caught up in low-level drug
Page 6 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
offences," Nadelmann said. possession," Sanei said, adding, "The amount of drug required under Iranian Larijani defended Iran during the press law to get you the death penalty is very conference. small."
"There is an easy way for Iran and that is "The judiciary is extremely to close our eyes so drug traffickers can nontransparent in Iran. We don't just pass through Iran to anywhere they believe these individuals have fair trials. want to go," Larijani said. "The number In particular with drug laws in Iran, of executions in Iran would drop 74 there's been a streamlining process in percent. That would be very good for last several years which allows, when our reputation." they get someone for drug trafficking, it's not appealable. It goes back to the But Nadelmann said, "The Iranians are prosecutor's office, that's the person being disingenuous when they say who decides if they should be executed there's a requirement to execute people or not. This completely violates because of Western law." international trial standards," Sanei said, adding that access to attorneys is Iran may be in violation of international often also a problem. law, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of At the same time that Iran has taken which Iran is a signatory, Sanei argued. increasingly severe approach in The ICCPR says the death penalty, if not sentencing those convicted of violating abolished entirely, should be reserved drug laws, it also had embraced a public for the most serious and grave offences. health or harm reduction approach in terms of needle exchange programmes. "Look at the Iranian penal code. A whole host of crimes can get you the death "Five years ago the Ayatollah declared penalty. A large number of these crimes needle exchange programmes okay would not be considered by human under Sharia law," Nadelmann said, rights lawyers to be serious," Sanei said. adding that the decision was in part out of concern for preventing the spread of "One of those are drug offences... many HIV. of the individuals on death row in Iran are essentially on death row for drug "Because of the growing totalitarian
Page 7 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/
nature of the Ajmadinejad government, Bali to Australia in April 2005. there has been less support for harm reduction, but it still continues," Acting on information provided by the Nadelmann said. Australian Federal Police, Indonesian authorities swooped, arresting Chan, Meanwhile, India's Supreme Court Sukumaran and seven other members announced last week that the death of the trafficking group, since dubbed penalty for drug related offences was the ‘Bali Nine’. unconstitutional. (END) Although six members of the group actually received death sentences, Chan and Sukumaran are the only two still on death row. Uphill Battle to Save
Australians From Execution Bali Nine couriers Tan Duc Thanh By Stephen de Tarczynski Nguyen, Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen had their sentences downgraded MELBOURNE, Jun 23, 2011 (IPS) - Any to life in prison in 2008 following a roller Australian government efforts to have -coaster ride of appeals and counter- two of its citizens spared from the death appeals. Initially awarded life terms, penalty in Indonesia have been made their sentences were reduced to 20 more difficult by past refusals to years and then upgraded to death intervene on behalf of three Indonesian before finally settling back where they Islamists in the lead-up to their started - at life in prison. executions in 2008. Another member of the group, 24-year- Time is running out for Australian old Scott Rush, experienced similar ups citizens Andrew Chan, 27, and Myuran and downs in his appeal process. Rush’s Sukumaran, 30. final appeal against the death penalty was commuted to a life sentence on The two men were sentenced to death May 10 this year. by firing squad in Indonesia in 2006 for their roles in organising the attempted That same day, Chan’s last available smuggling of more than eight kilograms judicial effort to save himself was of heroin from the Indonesian island of rejected, although the Indonesian
Page 8 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
Supreme Court only revealed its rejection of Chan’s judicial review was decision on Jun. 17. made public.
It means that an appeal to Indonesian Foreign minister Kevin Rudd also spoke President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, of backing Chan, committing "to use who has the power to grant clemency in every form of representation to such cases, is Chan’s only hope of government concerned in support of avoiding being executed. that person."
Clearly, the court’s decision to uphold In approaching Yudhoyono, who Chan’s death sentence does not bode became the first Indonesian head of well for Sukumaran. Both men launched state to address the Australian their final appeals, known as judicial parliament in March last year, reviews, last August. Australian leaders can highlight the close relations that exist between Although the outcome of Sukumaran’s Indonesia and its southern neighbour. review has yet to be announced, the likelihood is that he, like Chan, will not Presently, the two countries cooperate be given a reprieve. Instead, it is likely on a range of issues of concern to both, that both will be pinning all their hopes including counter- terrorism, people on the mercy of President Yudhoyono. smuggling and illegal fishing. Additionally, some 400 Australian firms The Australian Government has pledged operate in Indonesia and bilateral trade to do all it can to help Chan. Sukumaran was worth 11.3 billion Australian dollars can expect the same assistance if his in 2009. Close to 14,000 Indonesian appeal fails. students studied here in 2010.
"I’ll be happy to do whatever is Indonesia is also the largest recipient of necessary to put as much force as we Australian aid funds, worth an can into the appeal for clemency for estimated 458.7 million Australian Andrew Chan, including personally dollars in the last twelve months alone, involving myself," said Australian Prime according to Australia’s Department of Minister Julia Gillard, who also Foreign Affairs and Trade. reiterated the government’s opposition to the death penalty, the day after the While this strong and growing bilateral
Page 9 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/
relationship places Gillard government intercede for the Bali bombers while representatives in a good position from then foreign minister, Alexander which to call on Yudhoyono to grant Downer, was particularly blunt. clemency to Chan and, if required, Sukumaran, considerable obstacles "The Australian government will not lift stand in the way of achieving that goal. a finger to support these three people who killed 88 Australians in Bali," Indeed, Yudhoyono’s own views on the Downer famously said. matter loom as a major challenge for Australian officials. The Indonesian One month prior to leading the leader is regarded as a staunch Australian Labor Party to victory in supporter of capital punishment, elections that year, then-opposition including for those convicted of drug leader Rudd said that his government trafficking. Since coming to power in would never seek clemency for a 2004, he has consistently maintained terrorist on death row, despite having that he will not pardon drug convicts. previously argued that the death penalty "is unacceptable in all But any Australian efforts to influence a circumstances and in all jurisdictions." change of mind in Yudhoyono will undoubtedly be severely weakened by The Gillard government now faces an the attitudes of previous governments uphill battle to persuade Yudhoyono to to the death sentences handed down to grant clemency to Chan and, in the most three Indonesian Islamist militants in likely scenario, to Sukumaran too. (END) 2003.
Convicted for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people died, INDIA: Noose Not Mandatory including 88 Australians, the three men for Drug Crimes, Rules Court were executed by firing squad in By Ranjit Devraj November 2008. NEW DELHI, Jun 22, 2011 (IPS) - By
striking down a law that makes the Despite Australia’s long-standing death penalty mandatory for drug- opposition to capital punishment, related offences, the Bombay High former prime minister John Howard Court has raised hopes among rights stated in 2007 that he would not
Page 10 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
activists that other countries in the The Court however, refrained from region will follow suit. striking down the law, preferring to read it down instead. Consequently, the "While we believe the death penalty for sentencing court will have the option drugs – as a mandatory or discretionary and not obligation, to impose capital sanction – has no place in any country’s punishment on a person convicted a legal system, we believe this is a major second time for possessing drugs in step in the right direction," said Patrick large quantities. Gallahue, analyst with the London- based Harm Reduction International One beneficiary of the ruling is Ghulam (HRI). Mohammed Malik, a Kashmiri man sentenced to death by a special NDPSA Gallahue told IPS, in an e-mail court in Mumbai in February 2008 for a discussion, that some of India’s repeat offence of smuggling charas neighbours prescribe a mandatory (cannabis resin). sentence of death for certain types of drug offences and they argue that it is Malik was sentenced to death with no normal for the region. consideration given to mitigating factors because of the mandatory nature of the "The removal of the death penalty as a punishment provided under the NDPSA. mandatory punishment for drug-related crimes by India means that there is less In general, Indian courts stick by the cover for other countries in the region principle that the death penalty should to defend national policies that go awarded only in the "rarest of rare" against international law," Gallahue case. Hangings, the sole approved mode said. of execution in India, are rarely carried out. The Jun. 16 ruling of the court declared relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs The court verdict toning down the and Psychotropic Substances Act, NDPSA came in response to a petition (NDPSA), that imposes a mandatory filed by the Indian Harm Reduction death sentence for a subsequent Network (IHRN), a consortium of non- conviction for drug trafficking, government organisations (NGOs) "unconstitutional". working for humane drug policies.
Page 11 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/
IHRN assailed the law as "arbitrary, to drugs," Tandon said. "Laws that take excessive and disproportionate" to the away judicial discretion where the crime of dealing in drugs. capital punishment is involved are unacceptable, because there may be Tripti Tandon, who heads advocacy at mitigating circumstances and individual the Lawyers’ Collective, a part of the situations." network, told IPS that the death penalty is reserved for "very serious offences Tandon said she hoped that the Indian that involve the taking of life and this ruling will set a positive precedent in a did not apply to possessing or dealing in region notorious for its draconian drug drugs." laws.
Tandon said she was aware of Some 32 countries currently impose widespread concern that India is capital punishment for offences considered a major transit point for involving narcotic drugs and drugs from the "Golden Crescent" to its psychotropic substances. Of these, 12 northwest and from the "Golden continue to prescribe mandatory death Triangle" to its northeast. "But the fact sentences for drug crimes. is trafficking in this country rarely involves violent crime," she said. In Iran and China drug offenders constitute the vast majority of those "Officially, India sees drug trafficking as executed. In May last year, the Court of an economic offence that is dealt with Appeal in Singapore upheld the by the department of revenue." Tandon mandatory death sentence imposed also pointed out that Indian society has upon a young Malaysian for possession traditionally been tolerant of a certain of heroin. level of the use of such substances as cannabis and opium, which, in their According to Gallahue less than five unrefined state, are not as harmful or percent of the world’s countries impose addictive as refined derivatives such as and carry out the death penalty for drug heroin. -related offences. "That is a very small minority of states and those that still "The Bombay High Court ruling is a impose a mandatory death sentence for recognition of the principles of harm drugs are an extreme fringe for both reduction and human rights in relation capital punishment and drug policies.
Page 12 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
and Mahmoud Farooq Abdulsamad - "Finally, there is not – nor has there during the protests. ever been – any credible evidence that the death penalty for drugs serves as a The execution was issued by the deterrent," said Gallahue. "Capital National Safety Court, a special court punishment is a wildly inappropriate created when Bahrain declared a state response to drugs." (END) of national safety - a close approximation to martial law - in March 2011.
BAHRAIN: Tribunal-Issued The state of national safety was lifted Death Sentences Cause on Jun. 1, but the National Safety Courts are continuing their work in the Outcry prosecution of many pro-democracy By Matthew Cardinale activists, Faraz Sanei, Bahrain researcher for the Middle East and ATLANTA, Georgia, U.S., Jun 11, 2011 North Africa Division of Human Rights (IPS) - Democracy advocates in the Watch, told IPS. United States are troubled by the pending execution of two men who took According to BNA, the special courts part in anti-government protests in consist of two civil judges and one Bahrain. military judge "in order to ensure the fairness of the judicial system in the As some governments around the world Kingdom and safeguards the suspects’ are enacting, and even expanding upon, right for fair trials and allowed them to U.S.-inspired anti-terrorism policies - appeal the verdicts." particularly in the wake of pro- democracy movements that have swept But the trials were held behind closed Egypt and Tunisia - Bahrain is taking doors, and the men all pled not guilty. things to a new extreme. The men were held in undisclosed locations in the weeks leading up to the Ali Abdulla Hassan Al Sinkees and trials, and were denied communications Abdulaziz Abdul Ridha Ibrahim Hassan with family, friends, and attorneys. were convicted on Apr. 28 for killing two policemen - Kashef Ahmed Mandhour The government of Bahrain produced a
Page 13 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/
video of what appears to be the convicted men admitting to the killings Bahrain crushed the popular uprising and describing how they carried them with military help from Saudi Arabia and out, Sanei said. However, considering other Gulf nations. The government has they pled not guilty, advocates like detained hundreds of citizens since the Sanei worry the two men may have state of national safety was declared. been tortured. One of the individuals detained, Many of the protesters jailed since the Mohammed al-Tajer, is a human rights March demonstrations appear to have lawyer who was planning to defend the been tortured, according to the Bahrain men who received the death penalty. Center for Human Rights, a group officially banned in Bahrain. HRW In addition, the two were tried under a believes the reports of torture to be 2006 anti-terrorism law in Bahrain credible. which mandates the death sentence for those convicted. Legal scholars have Two other men who originally received criticised the laws there for employing death sentences had their sentences an overly broad definition terrorism reduced to life in prison by the National which includes "threats to national Safety Court of Appeal in a May 22 unity". ruling. On May 30, BNA reported the Court of Cassation's Technical Office had Bahrain does not issue death sentences received the case, number 75/2011, as often as other countries, such as the appealing the execution ruling of the United States and Iran, but advocates National Safety Court of Appeal. The fear the current sentences could be part Court of Cassation will be reviewing the of a new wave of death penalties there. appeal. "Our concern is that all executions are Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, inherently a violation of human rights. a Sunni Muslim, declared a state of It's a cruel, inhumane, and degrading national safety on Mar. 15 in response punishment," said Brian Evans, a to pro-democracy protests led by Shiite campaigner for Amnesty International Muslims activists who are calling for USA's Death Penalty Abolition more rights and freedoms under the Campaign. monarchy.
Page 14 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
"Beyond that, we're very concerned everywhere and under all civilians have been tried behind closed circumstances. I remind you that we doors in a military court and I believe had, April 24, denounced the death their first appeal was also behind closed sentence at trial of several people doors in a military court. That amounts following the events of recent weeks to an unfair trial," he said. [which] have shocked and saddened Bahrain," a spokesperson for France's "We would like to see a new trial that Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European meets international trial standards," said in a statement. Evans said. "It is time to seek ways of a sincere But Evans noted Bahrain may not be the dialogue between the parties and only nation with this problem. reconciliation, the only lasting solution to the political crisis in Bahrain. Respect "We [the U.S.] are getting ready to have for fundamental freedoms and the fair military trials of our own... [where the administration of justice and accused] could face the death penalty as transparency are essential to carry out well," Evans said. such a process," the statement said.
The European Union (EU) and the nation Earlier this week, on Jun. 7, U.S. of France have been among those President Barack Obama met with outspoken in opposing the pending Bahrain's Crown Prince, Salman bin executions in Bahrain. The United Hamad Khalifa, in a U.S. visit that was States, a major military ally of Bahrain, not pre-announced. has been less critical. Obama's response to the apparent "These death sentences risk further human rights violations in Bahrain has exacerbating recent tensions in Bahrain been "kind of tepid", Evans said, noting and as such, present an obstacle to the double standards of U.S. foreign national reconciliation," Catherine policy. "The U.S. position has been Ashton, Foreign Affairs Chief for the EU, different than it was with Egypt," he said in a statement. said.
"France, like its European partners, is Prince bin Hamad Khalifa has promised resolutely opposed to the death penalty to facilitate a period of national
Page 15 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/
dialogue next month, although it is by Chinese legal scholars who argued unclear how opposition leaders will be that too many people were being able to take part in this dialogue when unfairly executed for committing trivial hundreds of them are in jail. crimes. The group had previously (END) persuaded Communist Party authorities to require Supreme Court approval for all death sentences and to make Death Penalty Popular in confessions obtained by torture inadmissible in capital cases. China
By Gordon Ross In another move to reduce the number
of people China puts the death, the BEIJING, Jun 10, 2011 (IPS) - Despite Supreme People’s Court in late May government efforts to curb the number announced a two-year suspension of of people it puts to death, China execution for condemned criminals if an continues to execute more people than execution is not deemed immediately the rest of the world combined, and necessary. In 2007, the Supreme Court corporal punishment remains popular took over the authority to review all among the citizenry. death penalty sentences.
In February, China reduced the number The court said in its report that the of crimes punishable by death to 55, death penalty should only be applied to down from 68. Crimes that no longer "a very small number" of criminals who warrant the death penalty include have committed "extremely serious smuggling gold and silver, cultural relics crimes." and rare animals; forging or falsely selling tax invoices; teaching crime- The impact these changes will have on committing methods; robbing ancient the total number of people China cultural ruins; and carrying out executes is uncertain. The death penalty fraudulent activities with letters of was seldom used for the 13 crimes credit or financial bills. Individuals over scrapped in this year’s ruling, and the 75 years old are also exempt from the vast majority of executions in China are death penalty. for aggravated murder and large-scale
drug trafficking – something unlikely to The changes were the result of a push change despite the reforms.
Page 16 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
Jiang Bo, a 26-year-old IT engineer in Although the government does not Beijing, agrees. release information about the number of people it executes, the human rights "In China, if death sentences are group Amnesty International has suspended for several years, sometimes estimated that China kills thousands of this means the person has a chance to people each year. The group last year be exempted from the death penalty," refused to release its estimate of the Jiang tells IPS. "People who do evil number of people put to death in China things must die." to protest China’s practice of secret executions, but the Dui Hua Foundation, There is some evidence that support for a San Francisco-based human rights the death penalty is softening. A 1995 groups, estimates that just under 5,000 study by the Institute of Law, the people were executed in 2009. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the National Bureau of Statistics, found Public support for the death penalty that 95 percent of Chinese approved of remains high in China. According to a the death penalty. In a 2003 survey of survey last year by Sina.com, China’s 16,000 netizens by Netease.com, those largest news portal, over 75 percent of in favour of corporal punishment Chinese favoured keeping the death dropped to 83 percent, and dropped penalty, compared with just 13.6 again eight percentage points in the percent opposed. Sina.com survey.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I Liu Wenjuan, a 30-year-old interior support the death penalty," says Yu designer, thinks the death penalty is Dahai, a 24-year-0ld office manager in warranted in cases of murder, drug Dandong city, Hubei province. dealing and other "nefarious" crimes, but she supports the Supreme Court’s Yu disagrees with the People’s Court decision to review some sentences. "I decision to suspend some death penalty think it is a better idea to let a convict sentences for two years, arguing that rethink his crimes for another two because of corruption in the legal years, so he can learn what’s right and system some suspended sentences will wrong." lead to early releases and more crime. Zheng Fengtian, a professor at Renmin
Page 17 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/
University of China who supports abolishing the death penalty, says the HARARE, Jun 9, 2011 (IPS) - In her glory practice does little to deter crimes, days, death-row inmate Rosemary results in people dying for crimes they Khumalo (66) lived life dangerously on didn’t commit, and is grossly overused the edge. She was a sanguinary fortune in China. hunter who would resort to anything, even murder, to land her loot, according "China contributes two-thirds of the to court records of her trial. world’s executions," Zheng says. "India, which has a similar population size as Her last crime in 1998, which ended China, executes only 30 convicts a year. with the murder of her businessman Even if we don’t abolish the death suitor Maxwell Sibanda, marked the end penalty we need to reduce the number of her life of crime, and ushered in her we execute." new life as a death-row inmate at Zimbabwe’s notorious Chikurubi Zhang Qingsong, director of Beijing Maximum Security Prison in 2000. Shangquan Law Firm and deputy director of the Beijing Lawyers Convicted of the murder of Sibanda and Association, says the government armed robbery in 2000 and sentenced reforms are a step in the right direction to death, now a frail and pale shadow of but that further reforms are needed. her former self, Khumalo has been waiting for her execution for over a "Currently we have too many crimes decade. that would warrant the death penalty, most of which are non- violent," Zhang "I have petitioned the President (Robert tells IPS. "We can’t wait until all Chinese Mugabe) for clemency more than five people agree to abolish the death times. Two of these petitions have been penalty." (END) turned down while three have not yet been responded to.
ZIMBABWE: They Live by the "I am now frail and suffer ill heath. I have become hypertensive and all I Sword, But Should They Die plead for is mercy. This waiting, not by the Sword? knowing when I will be executed has By Nyarai Mudimu become torture that is worse than the
Page 18 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
death sentence I am waiting for," Prime Minister Prof Arthur Khumalo told IPS from her cell at Mutambabra’s Movement for Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison. Democratic Change- Mutambara (MDC- M) states: "Every human being has the While Khumalo has been on death row right to life and may not be deprived of the longest, she is not alone; there are it intentionally. A law may permit the 51 others awaiting execution in death penalty to be imposed on persons Zimbabwe. The last person to be convicted of murder but the penalty hanged in this southern African country may be carried out only in accordance was Mandlenkosi ‘Never’ Masina with a final judgment of a competent Mandha who was executed in July 2005. court…" (Although the MDC-T is a signatory of the Kariba draft they have Zimbabwe is drafting a new constitution backtracked on its contents and now say and during the consultative outreach their position is anti-capital programmes, mixed reactions were punishment.) recorded. Both President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and Professor While the politicians call for the Lovemore Madhuku’s National retention of the death penalty, civic Constitutional Assembly (NCA) agree on society has been engaged in a spirited the retention of the capital punishment campaign against it. on Zimbabwe’s statutes. The Catholic Commission for Justice and NCA’s draft constitution states that: "As Peace Alouis Chaumba said his part of the Bill of Rights, this draft organisation was lobbying the minister proposes that the death penalty be of justice and legal affairs Patrick abolished in Zimbabwe in respect of all Chinamasa for the review of the death other offences except serious cases of penalty. Human rights activist and murder." lobbyist for the abolishment of the capital sentence Sanderson Makombe Section 37 of the controversial Kariba believes now is the time for Zimbabwe draft signed by the three parties in the to remove ‘this uncivilized sentence’ government of national unity (Zanu PF, from its statute books. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change- "There is no scientific evidence to Tsvangirai (MDC- T) and the Deputy support the death sentence as a
Page 19 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/
deterrent to criminal behavior death sentence. There is restraint on compared to other forms of the death sentence from the courts," punishment. said Majome, who is also a Member of Parliament. "The death penalty is retributive and justified vengeance with the high costs In support of this Zimbabwe’s two of the litigation far outweighing life in former Chief Justices are recorded to prison sentences," said Makombe. have voiced their concern over executions. The late former Chief Justice He said if put to a referendum, the Enoch Dumbutshena is noted to have majority of Zimbabweans might favour said: "I believe that many people we its retention on the country’s laws. sentence to death for killing somebody should not be sentenced to death but "Because we are more prone to want given a life imprisonment term." revenge, we do not believe those that kill should be spared and treated In apparent reference to the capital differently. sentence, his successor former Chief Justice Antony Gubbay is recorded as "In fact, the majority will probably say having said: "What may not have been prisoners have no rights at all. They regarded as inhuman or degrading a few forfeit their rights when they commit decades ago may be revolting to new crime. However, the arguments for sensitivities, which emerge as abolishing are technical and not civilization advances." populist," noted Makombe. Makombe explained that Britain only Because of the long lapse since the last abolished the death penalty in 1964 execution, former deputy minister of after reviews showed that some people justice and legal affairs Jessie Majome had been executed following erroneous believes Zimbabwe could be on the road court judgments. to the abolishment of the death sentence. "Equally tragic mistakes have been made by the courts in Zimbabwe. An "The country executed in 2005 and if innocent woman Sukholuhle Kachipare, you check the trends in our courts, you who was on death row for a long time in will notice the reluctance to impose the Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison was
Page 20 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
only released in 2001 following a based on fabricated evidence by the judgment review that showed she was state. He claims a pathologist was innocent," said Makombe. bribed to falsely testify that he had carried out a post-mortem on the body Globally, more than 96 countries have of William George Wandyaka, the man abolished the death penalty for all Mpagi and Masembe were accused of crimes, eight for ordinary crimes and 43 murdering. are de facto abolitionists (countries with a death sentence but haven’t used it in Mpagi was released from prison in July the last 10 years and have committed 2000 after receiving a presidential not to use it). Africa has 15 countries pardon. He spends much of his time that have abolished the death sentence campaigning against the death penalty. while 21 have committed not to use it Excerpts of the interview follow. although it is still in the statutes. Q: Why are you opposed to the death (END) penalty?
A: I’m campaigning against the death UGANDA: ‘So Many Innocent penalty because there are so many people (awaiting) execution or who People Are Dying’ were executed when they were Wambi Michael interviews EDMARY innocent. The death penalty is also cruel MPAGI, Ugandan death penalty and barbaric in nature. There are so abolitionist many people who are dying when they are innocent, for example, the poor who KAMPALA, Jun 7, 2011 (IPS) - Edmary cannot afford legal representation. Mpagi and his cousin Fred Masembe Some are accused of capital offenses were convicted by a Ugandan court and because of grudges, and some are sentenced to death for the murder of a convicted because of poor police man who was later found alive. investigation. Though some commit crimes, it is better to free 99 people Masembe died in prison before he could instead of killing one innocent one. face the gallows while Mpagi spent 18 years waiting to be executed by the Q: Has your campaign yielded any state. Mpagi said his conviction was results at home and elsewhere?
Page 21 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/
years on remand. My cousin and I could A: Yes. I have worked with Amnesty not believe that a legal system would International at the United Nations convict innocent people. campaigning for a moratorium on executions among U.N. member states. Q: So your conviction was due to an In Uganda, 170 death row prisoners error in the justice system then. Is this have been pardoned. Sentences of 400 common in Uganda? prisoners on death row were commuted to life sentences following our appeal to A: I have always said that errors in the the Constitutional Court. The court justice system have lead to the ruled that the mandatory death penalty execution of innocent people. My was unconstitutional. That was good for conviction was a typical example... In a us but we wanted the court to equally country like ours where police declare the death penalty itself investigations are done from the office, unconstitutional. But the judges did not. you cannot rule out (the possibility) that We have not had an execution since the evidence they take to courts is 1999, though there are 100s of defective and leads to wrongful prisoners on death row in Uganda. convictions.
Q: What personally drives you to Most of the prisoners who were campaign against the death penalty? executed while I was on death row were innocent but faced the gallows because A: I would not be talking to you today if they were poor. They could not afford the state had murdered me… We had a to hire lawyers to defend themselves. In full trial and the state called several our case we had a state lawyer whom witnesses. The judge and the assessors we only met twice. We did not have a concluded that the state had proved its lawyer in the real sense. There are also case beyond a reasonable doubt and cases of widespread torture during was satisfied that we committed the interrogations so some suspects, offence. We were convicted and especially in treason cases, end up sentenced to death. All this happened admitting to crimes they have not while George William Wandyaka, the committed. man they claimed we had killed, was hiding in Jinja district and enjoying life. I Q: What was life like on death row? spent 18 years on death row and two
Page 22 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
A: Life is terrible on death row in doors of the gallows sprang open and Uganda. No one was ever given any the prisoners were dropped to their notice that they would be executed. death. We would then hear the corpses Each time we were taken by complete fall with a loud bang on the death table. surprise. We lived in complete fear of (END) any unusual activity from the wardens.
In Uganda, conditions for death row DEATH PENALTY-INDIA: prisoners are cruel, degrading and Clemency Denial Opens Can inhumane. We were always denied medication. In 1984 my cousin of Worms developed malaria and stomach By Ranjit Devraj complications. I pleaded with the prison authorities to give him treatment but NEW DELHI, Jun 3, 2011 (IPS) - In a they told me that we were brought to country where capital punishment is prison to face death and that it was a rare, human rights activists are waste of taxpayer's money to treat him. surprised by a sudden move to hang a My cousin died in 1985. This really Sikh separatist militant convicted for scared me. bombing attacks on a senior police
officer and a Congress party politician in Q: Were there executions at the time the early 1990s. you were in prison?
Devinder Singh Pal Bhullar, a member of A: There were five rounds of executions. the Khalistan Liberation Force, was The last one was in 1999, where the sentenced to death on charges of state executed 28 prisoners. But to conspiring to kill Punjab police make matters worse for the inmates, superintendent Sumedh Singh Saini in executions were carried out in a nearby 1991 and Congress party leader place. We would hear the crying of Maninderjit Singh Bitta in 1993. inmates (before their execution).
Executions normally took place at night. On May 25, Indian President Pratibha When a prisoner reached the gallows, Patil, who holds a largely ceremonial we would all listen. After a few position, suddenly denied him clemency moments, we would hear a loud sound after keeping frozen for more than eight like a sudden explosion, as the trap
Page 23 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
years his petition for mercy. The decision has stirred up a political storm SAD’s petition said intervention by the in the northwest Indian state of Punjab, prime minister would ensure that the which faces provincial elections next "atmosphere of acrimony, suspicion and year. estrangement between the Sikhs and the Centre is not vitiated any further." "This is surprising because the Indian government has shown reluctance to SAD was referring to the 1984 anti-Sikh resort to the death penalty, and has pogrom that engulfed the national been seen as moving in the direction of capital after Prime Minister Indira eliminating capital punishment," Maja Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh Daruwala, director of the bodyguards to avenge the army raid she Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, ordered on the Golden Temple in told IPS. Amritsar in Punjab. That raid aimed to remove separatist militants who had Punjab is currently ruled by the Sikh turned Sikhism’s holiest shrine into an Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) political party armed fortress. in alliance with the pro- Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on a common stand A trial court sentenced Bhullar on Aug. of opposing the professedly secular 25, 2001, sorely testing India’s justice Congress party that rules at the centre. system as well as the principle laid down by the Supreme Court that the death SAD members, who have been penalty should be awarded only in the sympathetic to the cause of autonomy, "rarest of rare" cases. if not independence, for Punjab, as well as local leaders of the Congress party On Dec.17, 2002, Bhullar’s death unit there, have appealed for a review sentence was upheld when two of the of Bhullar’s clemency petition. three-member Supreme Court bench voted to convict, while presiding judge In a petition, SAD has sought the direct M.B. Shah voted to acquit. intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself a Sikh, to Navkiran Singh, general secretary of the save Bhullar’s life "on grounds of Lawyers for Human Rights International humanitarianism and civilised concern (LHRI) based in Chandigarh, the capital and, above all, the national interest." of Punjab and Haryana, said the split
Page 24 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
decision showed that Bhullar’s case did appeal to the President, dated May 25. not satisfy the principle that, in cases where the death penalty is awarded, According to the LHRI petition, Bhullar’s proof should be "beyond reasonable father and maternal uncle were doubt." arrested in 1991 and tortured to death while in police custody. The Punjab and Singh told IPS that it is noteworthy that Haryana High Court ordered the filing of Bhullar was the first person in cases against Saini, a member of the independent India to be condemned to elite Indian Police Service, for the death on a split verdict by a Supreme custodial deaths. Court bench. Judges Arijit Pasayat and B.N. Agarwal, whose majority decision Bhullar was charged with plotting to kill prevailed, had controversially ruled that Saini but was acquitted by a lower court the principle "beyond reasonable in Chandigarh in December 2006 for doubt" should be a "guideline and not a lack of worthwhile evidence, the LHRI fetish." petition pointed out.
There were other controversies Bhullar’s conviction rested entirely on a surrounding Bhullar’s case. After he was confession, made under duress, which deported in December 1995 from becomes admissible as evidence under Germany where he had sought asylum, the draconian Terrorist and Disruptive a court in Frankfurt ruled that he should Activities Prevention Act (TADA). not have been sent back to India Normally, confessions made in police because his life would be in danger. custody are not admissible as evidence in Indian courts. Singh said Germany had, by deporting Bhullar, violated the European The LHRI noted that Daya Singh Lahoria, Convention on Human Rights and Bhullar’s co-accused in the case relating blamed weaknesses in the German to the bomb attack on Congress party asylum system for landing him on leader Bitta, was acquitted. India’s death row. Lahoria could not be tried under TADA But the flaws in the Indian justice because that was a condition imposed system appear far more glaring, and the by authorities in the United States to LHRI has listed some of these in an which he had fled and from where he
Page 25 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
was extradited. In fact, dissenting Supreme Court judge Shah pointed out TAIWAN: No Indictment Over that since the "rest of the accused, who Wrongful Execution are named in the confessional By Dennis Engbarth statement, are not convicted or tried," there could not have been a conspiracy. TAIPEI, Jun 1, 2011 (IPS) - Taiwan
prosecutors certified that Air Force "It is trite to say that one person alone private Chiang Kuo-ching had been can ever be held guilty of criminal wrongfully executed in August 1997 for conspiracy for the simple reason that the rape-murder of a five-year-old-girl one cannot conspire with oneself," Shah at an air force headquarters compound had ruled. in Taipei, but failed to indict any of the
nine military officers responsible for Daruwala said she hoped the Indian extracting his "confession" through state would stand firm against any torture. pressure, political or otherwise, to abandon its stand on the death penalty, A decade-long campaign by his father, that it should be resorted to rarely, and Chiang Chih-an and mother Ms Wang that guilt should be proven beyond Tsai-lien and human rights lawyers who reasonable doubt. maintained that Chiang had been
tortured into making a false confession Activists say India could play a key role finally led to a call by the Control Yuan, in furthering the cause of human rights Taiwan’s watchdog branch of internationally, as underlined by its government, to open the case May last election on May 11 to the 47-nation year. United Nations Human Rights Council, winning 181 votes from 189 countries. On May 23 this year, the Special
Investigation Division of the Supreme However, ahead of the election, the Prosecutors Office announced that its re London-based Amnesty International -investigation of the case had shown urged the Indian government to ratify clearly that Chiang Kuo-ching was the Convention against Torture and innocent of the rape- murder, and filed Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading an indictment for murder against Hsu Treatment or Punishment. (END) Jung-chou, 34, who had served in the
Page 26 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
Air Force Operations Command retired air force general who served as together with Chiang, and asked for a 20 defence minister in President Ma Ying- -year sentence. jeou’s right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) In a 127-page statement, the administration from May 2008 to prosecutors acknowledged that a re- September 2009 and had acted as examination of the forensic evidence, convenor of the investigative team in including a blood-stained razor, toilet his role as Air Force Combat Operations paper and a palm print, were not Command (AOC) commander at the connected with Chiang and therefore time of the Chiang case. had been insufficient to prove that Chiang had committed the crime. The SID investigation found that in early October 1996 Chen had taken the Moreover, the prosecutor’s brief investigation out of the hands of acknowledged that Chiang had military prosecutors and asked a team definitely been subject to compulsion, of Air Force counter-intelligence agents intimidation and abuse by the led by then Air Force colonel Ko Chung- interrogating Air Force counter- ching to assist in the investigation even intelligence officers and that his though they did not have the judicial "confession" which was the primary status of military prosecutors or military basis for his conviction by a military police. tribunal, was "not voluntary" and was extracted by "torture". The SID brief said Chen had "illegally instructed" the officers to "give it a try" However, citing the passage of a 10-year to "break the mental defences" of statute of limitations for the offences of Chiang and other suspects by "coercion" and "intimidation and "intensifying interrogation methods". endangerment,", which carry maximum penalties of less than three years The SID brief detailed how Ko Chung- imprisonment, the SID prosecutors did ching and other Air Force counter- not indict any of the nine former intelligence agents had handcuffed and military officers responsible, including blindfolded Chiang and dragged him to two former defence ministers. an underground bunker at the AOC headquarters and subjected him to four Leading the list was Chen Chao-min, a hours of intense interrogation under
Page 27 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
continuous and high intensity light, Chiang’s mother, Ms Wang Tsui-lien, compelled him to repeated watch video also said the SID decision not to indict of the autopsy of the murder victim, Chen Chao-min or other officers was forced him to squat and engage in "unacceptable" and said that she would exercises, and used electric cattle prods "never forgive" her son’s torturers. to beat the enlisted man. During an unsuccessful attempt to meet The confession extracted in this process with Chiang’s mother and issue a was used as decisive evidence in a personal apology on the evening of May subsequent military tribunal despite 25, the former defence minister told Chiang’s retraction and declaration that news media that "there had been he had been tortured. administrative shortcomings" in the handling of the case. Nevertheless, the SID refrained from indicting the officers for "causing death "This result falls far short of President through abuse of the power of Ma Ying-jeou’s declaration in February prosecution," an offence which can that the government would clarify the carry sentences from 10 years to life truth, reverse the unjust verdict of the and which has a 20 year statute of Chiang case and prosecute the persons limitation, and stated that the Air Force responsible for this injustice," said officers could only be charged with Judicial Reform Foundation Executive "coercion" and "intimidation and Director and lawyer Lin Feng- cheng. endangerment," offences which carry maximum sentences of three years or Presidential spokesman Fan Chiang Tai- less and have a 10 years statute of chi stated that Ma believed that the limitation for prosecution. government "will deeply re-examine" the errors made by the military in "This result falls far short of President handling the Chiang Kuo-ching case and Ma’s declaration in February that the "absolutely not have any repetitions." government would clarify the truth, reverse the unjust verdict of the Chiang National Taiwan University Professor of case and prosecute the persons Law Chen Tzu-lung, a specialist in responsible for this injustice," said JRF transitional justice issues, told IPS that Executive Director Lin Feng-cheng. the SID finding that Chiang’s confession was the result of torture was potentially
Page 28 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
"explosive". Rasht on October 13, 2009 while attempting to register his church. His "The decision by the SID not to indict arrest is believed to have been due to Chen Chao-min and the other officers his questioning of the Muslim monopoly responsible for Chiang’s torture and on the religious instruction of children execution was political in nature as the in Iran. He was initially charged with prosecutors did not want to take protesting, however the charges against responsibility for opening a Pandora’s him were later changed to apostasy and Box." (END) evangelising Muslims. Pastor Nadarkhani has been held in Lakan prison since that time. He was tried and found guilty on WORLD PRESS REVIEW September 22, 2010 by the 1st Court of June 2011 the Revolutionary Tribunal. The pastor's lawyer filed an appeal on December 5, This review provides a glimpse of 2010. However, following a 6-month developments related to death penalty wait for an appeal hearing, the lawyer as reported by media around the has confirmed that the appeal was world, in a chronological order from unsuccessful, although so far there has the end of June to the beginning of the been no official notification of this month. failure. Pastor Nadarkhani had been imprisoned IRAN: DEATH SENTENCE FOR APOSTASY previously in December 2006, on REPORTEDLY UPHELD FOR PASTOR charges of apostasy and evangelism, but NADARKHANI was released two weeks later in January June 30, 2011: Christian Solidarity 2007. (Source: http:// Worldwide (CSW) reported that the au.christiantoday.com) death sentence handed down in 2010 for the crime of apostasy, to evangelical JAPAN: MAN TO HANG FOR KILLING pastor Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, was WOMAN, 21 reportedly upheld by the third chamber June 30, 2011: Tatsumi Tateyama, 50, of the Supreme Court in the Shia holy was sentenced to death by Presiding city of Qom. Judge Masanori Hatoko of the Chiba Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani of the Church District Court in Japan for robbery, of Iran was arrested in his home city of murder and arson. Tateyama allegedly
Page 29 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
killed female university student Yukari that destroyed it in February, 2006, Ogino, 21, in Matsudo, Chiba followed by a wave of sectarian violence Prefecture, between October 20 and 21, that overwhelmed Iraq’s central 2009, and set fire to her apartment. provinces and its capital of Baghdad. (Source: Japan Times) The Tomb was followed by another explosion in June, 2007, that destroyed EGYPT: CLERIC APPROVES COP'S DEATH the remaining parts of the two golden SENTENCE tombs. (Sources: ABNA.ir) June 28, 2011: in Egypt, Islamic cleric Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa affirmed the MALAYSIA: RESOLUTION OVER death sentence handed down to police MORATORIUM ON DEATH PENALTY officer Mohamed Abdel Moneim for June 27, 2011: A resolution calling for an murder. immediate moratorium on the Moneim was sentenced on May 22, mandatory death penalty in Malaysia 2011, for shooting to death 23 was agreed by a roundtable which protesters rioting near a Cairo police discussed it in Parliament. station on January 28, 2011. Moneim The resolution also called for capital told Egyptian television he was just punishment to be reviewed by a following orders to protect the police Parliamentary caucus consisting of station and had killed no one, firing only NGOs, former judges, lawyers and other into the ground. (Source: UPI.com) stakeholders. The roundtable, which was made up of IRAQ: PRESIDENCY RATIFIES DEATH representatives from NGOs and the SENTENCE AGAINST TUNISIAN legal fraternity, met in Parliament and June 28, 2011: Iraq’s Presidency ratified agreed that there should be further the death sentence against Tunisian discussions on the matter, particularly citizen Yusri Fadhil al-Tureiqi for his for drug offences. involvement in the destruction of the In a statement, the roundtable said drug Tomb of the Askari Imams in Samarra offences were not classifiable as “a most city in 2006, according to al-Iraqiya TV serious crime” and should not be dealt Channel. “The (Iraqi) Presidency has with by capital punishment. issued a number of Presidential It also said that there was no proof that decisions, ratifying the death sentences the death penalty was especially against a number of convicts.” The effective in reducing crime. Tomb had been target for an explosion “The mandatory death penalty for drug
Page 30 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
traffickers and drug mules has had June 26, 2011: An Indonesian maid virtually no impact on the drug trade. convicted of murder in Saudi Arabia has Instead, drug related offences and been spared execution by beheading addiction have been on the rise in after the Indonesian government paid Malaysia since the 1983 amendment to Rp 4.6 billion ($534,000) in “blood the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 which money." brought in the mandatory death Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael penalty,” it added. Tene confirmed the news on Sunday, It also said the punishment was saying that the compensation, or diyat, irreversible and was too great a to spare the life of Darsem has been responsibility to be burdened on a paid by officials from the Indonesian judge. Embassy in Riyadh to the head of the The statement said as of Feb 22 this court in the Saudi capital. year, a total of 696 inmates were on “The court immediately issued a verdict death row. Of that, 676 were males and to repeal her qisas sentence,” Michael 20 were females with 90% of them aged said, referring to the reprisal system between 21 to 50 years old. under Shariah law. “Darsem is now The inmates were sentenced to death released from the death sentence." mainly for drug offences (479) followed The funds were taken from the Foreign by murder (204) and illegal possession Ministry’s protection budget and of firearms (13). transferred to the embassy ahead of the The roundtable, which was chaired by July 7 deadline. Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, has four Darsem, from Subang, West Java, was panelists – former federal judge Datuk convicted in May 2009 and sentenced to Seri Gopal Sri Ram, Bar Council death despite her plea that she had president Lim Chee Wee, Attorney killed the victim in self-defense because General’s Chambers representative DPP he had attempted to rape her. Datuk Nordin Hassan and Suhakam In January, the victim’s family forgave chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam. (Source: Darsem and agreed to spare her, but The Star) only if she could afford to pay the compensation. SAUDI ARABIA: ‘BLOOD MONEY’ Michael said the court would hand over PAYMENT SPARES INDONESIAN MAID Darsem’s case for review to the Riyadh FROM EXECUTION local administration, which would decide whether Darsem should serve a
Page 31 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
prison term or be exonerated. explained "Baccouche also supports his “If she has to serve more time in prison, themes of a Euro-Mediterranean vision, there is a possibility to appeal for that moves from single nations towards clemency from the king [King a regional level." Abdullah],” Michael said. The Radical delegation also met various Anis Hidayah from advocacy group human rights associations in Migrant Care said the diyat payment preparation for the Party's General was “necessary” but should not set a Council to be held in the Tunisian capital precedent. “It is ironic that Darsem had on July 22nd to 24th. (Source: AGI) to pay for the crime she unintentionally committed to defend herself from being INDIA: 4 MAOISTS GET DEATH FOR raped,” Anis said. J'KHAND MASSACRE Darsem’s sparing came a week after the June 24, 2011: Judge Indradeo Mishra of beheading of another Indonesian maid, the Giridih additional district and Royati binti Sapubi, prompted to sessions court in India sentenced four government to announce a moratorium Maoists to death for the 2007 Chilkhari on Indonesian workers heading to Saudi massacre. Arabia from Aug. 1. (Source: Jakarta Jeetan Marandi, Anil Rajwar, Manoj Globe) Rajwar and Chhatrapati Mandal allegedly killed 20 people in the TUNISIA: RADICALS SAY TUNISIA presence of hundreds of villagers taking MOVING TOWARDS ABOLITION part in a cultural programme and a June 24, 2011: Tunisia is moving football match at Chilkhari village under towards the abolition of the death Deori police station on October 27, penalty and joining the International 2007. (Source: Times of India) Criminal Court. The two objectives are central to the meeting of the MOROCCO: WORLD COALITION AGM Transnational and Transparty OPENS WITH PLEA FOR ABOLITION Nonviolent Radical Party delegation and June 24, 2011: Morocco is moving the transitional Tunisian government. gradually towards the abolition of the Education minister Taieb Baccouche death penalty and the adoption of the assured the Radicals, led by Marco draft constitutional revision on July 1, Pannella, of the Tunisian commitment which establishes the right to life, will at the next UN General Assembly: "With accelerate this process, a senior Pannella" Senator Marco Perduca Moroccan official.
Page 32 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
“Morocco is moving gradually towards ambassador to Morocco, and the abolition of the death penalty,” said Abderrahim Jamai, of the Moroccan in Rabat the Ministry of Justice’s Coalition against the death penalty. director for penal affairs Mohamed (Source: worldcoalition.org) Abdennabaoui, “If the proposed constitutional GEORGIA (USA): MAN EXECUTED FOR amendment that enshrines for the first 1978 RAPE AND MURDER time the right to life is adopted on 1 June 23, 2011: Georgia executed by July, it will speed up the process to lethal injection a man convicted of abolish the death penalty,” said raping and murdering a 78-year-old Abdennabaoui, who leads the most Savannah woman. important branch of the Ministry of Roy Blankenship, 55, was sentenced to Justice of Morocco. death for the 1978 murder of Sarah Mr. Abdennabaoui was speaking on the Mims Bowen, who died of heart failure sidelines of the opening of the General after she was raped and beaten in her Assembly of the International Coalition apartment. against the Death Penalty, held for the It was the state's first execution using a first time in an Arab country. new sedative, pentobarbital, in place of A draft reform of the current Moroccan sodium thiopental. constitution, which strengthens the In March, agents with the U.S. Drug powers of the Prime Minister while Enforcement Administration seized preserving the political and religious Georgia's supply of sodium thiopental, powers of the king, will be submitted to which attorneys for several death row a popular referendum on July 1. inmates said Georgia had improperly “I personally am in favor of the death imported from England. penalty be abolished,” has said. Hospira Inc. of Illinois, the only U.S. Some 103 death row prisoners, company that manufactured sodium including two women, are awaiting thiopental, said in January it would stop execution in Morocco, said making the drug after Italy, where it Abdennabaoui, who presented these planned to move production, objected figures as the “latest official figures.” because the European Union has Participants at the meeting Federico banned the death penalty. Mayor Zaragoza, president of the Several states have either run out of International Commission against the supplies of sodium thiopental or death penalty, Eneko Landaburu, the EU switched to pentobarbital, a barbiturate
Page 33 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
often used to euthanize animals. update on the case. Georgia now has executed 50 men since Arkansas has not executed anyone since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the 2005, in part because of legal challenges death penalty in 1976. Blankenship was to the state’s method of execution. the 27th inmate put to death by lethal Several other executions have been injection in Georgia, which has 100 men stayed because of court challenges. and one woman on death row. “As we have stated previously, we Blankenship was the 24th person respect every decision issued by the executed in the United States this year. Supreme Court but are troubled by the There were 46 executions in 2010. court’s reasoning in these cases,” Aaron (Source: Reuters) Sadler, a spokesman for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, said today. ARKANSAS (USA): SUPREME COURT (Source: Arkansas News) HALTS THREE EXECUTIONS June 23, 2011: The state Supreme Court FLORIDA (USA): MIAMI FEDERAL JUDGE today halted the executions of three RULES DEATH PENALTY inmates who are challenging the UNCONSTITUTIONAL constitutionality of lethal injection in June 22, 2011: A Miami federal judge Arkansas. ruled that the way Florida courts mete The high court issued stays for the out the death penalty is executions of Jason Farrell McGehee, unconstitutional because juries — not who was scheduled to die July 26; Bruce judges — should be the ones to spell Earl Ward, who was scheduled to die out which details about the crime justify Aug. 16; and Marcel Wayne Williams, execution. who was scheduled to die July 12. U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez The three men are plaintiffs in a lawsuit ordered that Paul H. Evans, convicted in filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court a 1991 murder-for-hire case in Vero alleging that a 2009 state law Beach, must receive a new sentencing authorizing the director of the state hearing. Department of Correction to choose the The ruling, likely to be argued in drugs used for lethal injection amounts appellate courts for years, does not to an unconstitutional delegation of strike down Florida’s capital- authority. punishment law. But it could force The Supreme Court today directed the lawmakers to change the statute, and circuit court to provide it with a status could give recent convicts new avenues
Page 34 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
for appeal, legal experts say. Florida legal community over the jury’s “If the case survives appeals, the Florida role in deciding on the death penalty. Legislature is going to have to modify Florida is one of the few states that the law to allow jurors to explain why allow juries to issue death penalty someone deserves the death penalty,” recommendations that are not said Miami attorney Terry Lenamon, unanimous. Here, 12-person juries founder of the Florida Capital Resource recommend by majority vote whether Center, a support group for death- someone convicted of first-degree penalty defense cases. murder should be executed. But state Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, jurors do not have to check off on an through a spokeswoman, said instruction sheet which reasons Wednesday that her office would contributed to their decision, as jurors request a rehearing and appeal the are required to do in the rare death decision. penalty case in federal court. Legal scholars say Martinez’s ruling Trial judges in Florida’s state courts marks the first time a Florida judge has have authority to override jury overturned a death sentence under the recommendations, although in death U.S. Supreme Court case Ring v. Arizona. penalty cases, they rarely do. In that 2002 ruling, the court held that Judge Martinez, in the ruling said there defendants are entitled to have juries was no way to know if all nine of the decide on whether any “aggravating jurors in Evans’ case who voted for factors” in a crime justify enhanced death were swayed by the same punishment. aggravating factors as the judge. He Evans was convicted in the 1991 trailer conceded that jury unanimity may not park murder of Alan Pfeiffer. Jurors be constitutionally necessary, but voted 9-3 for the death penalty in wrote: “… It cannot be that Mr. Evans’ February 1999. The trial judge imposed death sentence is constitutional when death, finding that Evans committed the there is no evidence to suggest that crime for “pecuniary gain” and the even a simple majority found the murder was “committed in a cold, existence of any one aggravating calculated and premeditated manner.” circumstance.” (Source: Whether any convicts will be miamiherald.com) resentenced because of Martinez’s ruling remains to be seen, but the opinion has reignited debate in the
Page 35 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
EGYPT: DEATH SENTENCE FOR BUS that contents of the messages and DRIVER WHO SHOT DEAD 6 conversation of the caller blasphemed COLLEAGUES Holy Quran, Prophet and Sahabas June 22, 2011: the Giza Criminal Court in (companions of the Prophet). Egypt sentenced Mahmoud Suweilam, A case was registered and District Police the Arab Contractors bus driver, to Officer Syed Ali Mohsin set up a special death for murder. inquiry committee, headed by then Suweilam was driving company Superintendent of Police (Investigation) employees to a work site in Giza in July Malik Matloob. The committee 2010, when indiscriminately opened fire collected data of calls and text messages on passengers with a machine gun, sent by a cell number belonging to killing six. Suweilam believed a Abdul Sattar, who was arrested in colleague was excavating antiquities Larkana. under Suweilam’s house. Public SP Matloob said Sattar had confessed to prosecutors had called for the severest have committed the crime. “The punishment for the defendant, accused behaved quite normally when particularly since a psychiatrist's report arrested,” the SP added. (Source: found that the driver was mentally DAWN.com) stable when he committed the murder. (Source: Almasryalyoum.com) CHINESE COALMINER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDERING MAN IN PAKISTAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH POLLUTION ROW FOR BLASPHEMY June 21, 2011: A court in China's June 21, 2011: an additional district and northern region of Inner Mongolia sessions judge in Talagang, Pakistan, sentenced to death a coal mine worker sentenced a man to death for for killing a resident who had committing blasphemy. complained about pollution, state Abdul Sattar, a 29-year-old resident of media said. Larkana was sent to prison in Jhelum. Sun Shuning was convicted of Mohammad Saeed, of Talagang town, murdering Yan Wenlong after "a dispute had filed a complaint with the city police over pollution caused by a coal mine" station on Feb, 2010. He said he had where Sun worked, the official Xinhua been receiving derogatory text news agency said. messages and calls from a wrong Sun killed Wen with his forklift, the number for several days. He told police report added.
Page 36 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
"The act was utterly cruel, the crime rape or drug trafficking. There are a very serious, and the consequences number of other things that they said," extremely bad," it cited the court in said Mr Ingraham. Xilinhot as saying. Xinhua provided no "For instance a policeman being killed in other details of the case. (Source: the line of duty would be something Reuters) that we would regard as fitting for the death penalty being imposed. So we're BAHAMAS: GOVERNMENT PLANS going to seek to categorise all of those LEGISLATION TO STRENGTHEN DEATH and put us in a better position to have it SENTENCES upheld by the Privy Council," Mr June 20, 2011: the Government in the Ingraham added. (Sources: Bahamas plans to introduce capital Tribune242.com) punishment legislation which will strengthen death sentence cases from AFGHANISTAN: TWO CHARGED IN being overturned on appeal by the Privy DEADLY BANK ATTACK EXECUTED Council, Prime Minister Hubert June 20, 2011: Two men charged with Ingraham said. The new legislation will murder for a February bank attack that specify which categories of crimes killed 38 people were hanged around warrant capital punishment and he 11.00 am in Kabul, a spokesman for plans to bring the law to Parliament for Afghanistan's intelligence agency said. debate before the summer recess. Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for the The proposed legislation will be crafted National Directorate of Security, around recent recommendations made identified one of the men as Zar Ajam of by the Privy Council after it quashed the Pakistan. He identified the other man as death sentence of Maxo Tido, who was "Matiullah, whose real name was found guilty of the 2002 murder of 16- Mahmood," a resident of eastern year-old Donnover Conover, Mr Afghanistan. Ingraham said. A third person involved in the attack has "They set out in their judgment a been sentenced to 20 years in prison, number of circumstances which, they Mashal said. say, can result in the death penalty In February, a group of attackers being imposed. stormed a branch of the Kabul Bank in "For instance, somebody being killed Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar during the course of an armed robbery province. Four of them were killed, or being killed during the course of a Interior Ministry spokesman Najib
Page 37 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
Nekzad said at the time. capital trials, enhanced security on Nekzad said 13 police officers were death row and legal representation for among those killed in the attack. The the condemned adds $184 million to the February 19 incident also left 41 people budget each year. The study's authors, wounded, including 14 police officers, U.S. 9th Circuit Judge Arthur Alarcon he said. and Loyola Law School professor Paula Fighting between attackers and security Mitchell, also forecast that the tab for forces lasted for more than four hours, maintaining the death penalty will climb said Ahmadzia Abdulzai, a spokesman to $9 billion by 2030, when San for the provincial governor. Quentin's death row will have swollen The NATO command in Afghanistan said to well over 1,000. In their research for reports indicated the incident might "Executing the Will of the Voters: A have been a suicide attack. It issued a Roadmap to Mend or End the California statement saying three people Legislature's Multi-Billion-Dollar Death apparently entered the bank wearing Penalty Debacle," Alarcon and Mitchell suicide vests and detonated themselves. obtained California Department of An eyewitness said some civilians were Corrections and Rehabilitation records taken hostage. (Sources: CNN, DPA) that were unavailable to others who have sought to calculate a cost-benefit CALIFORNIA (USA): STATE TAXPAYERS analysis of capital punishment. Their HAVE SPENT $4 BILLION ON CAPITAL report traces the legislative and PUNISHMENT SINCE 1978 initiative history of the death penalty in June 19, 2011: Taxpayers have spent California, identifying costs imposed by more than $4 billion on capital the expansion of the kinds of crimes punishment in California since it was that can lead to a death sentence and reinstated in 1978, or about $308 the exhaustive appeals guaranteed million for each of the 13 executions condemned prisoners. The authors carried out since then, according to a outline three options for voters to end comprehensive analysis of the death the current reality of spiraling costs and penalty's costs. infrequent executions: fully preserve The examination of state, federal and capital punishment with about $85 local expenditures for capital cases, million more in funding for courts and conducted over three years by a senior lawyers each year; reduce the number federal judge and a law professor, of death penalty-eligible crimes for an estimated that the additional costs of annual savings of $55 million; or abolish
Page 38 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
capital punishment and save taxpayers report says. Unless profound reforms about $1 billion every five or six years. are made by lawmakers who have failed Alarcon, who prosecuted capital cases to adopt previous recommendations for as a Los Angeles County deputy district rescuing the system, Alarcon and attorney in the 1950s and served as Mitchell say, capital punishment will clemency secretary to Gov. Pat Brown, continue to exist mostly in theory while said in an interview that he believes the exacting an untenable cost. Among their majority of California voters will want to findings to be published next week in retain some option for punishing the the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review: worst criminals with death. He isn't The state's 714 death row prisoners cost opposed to capital punishment, while $184 million more per year than those Mitchell, his longtime law clerk, said she sentenced to life in prison without the favors abolition. Both said they possibility of parole. A death penalty approached the analysis from an prosecution costs up to 20 times as impartial academic perspective, aiming much as a life-without-parole case. The solely to educate voters about what least expensive death penalty trial costs they are spending on death row. $1.1 million more than the most Alarcon four years ago issued an urgent expensive life-without-parole case. appeal for overhaul of capital Jury selection in a capital case runs punishment in the state, noting that the three to four weeks longer and costs average lag between conviction and $200,000 more than in life-without- execution was more than 17 years, parole cases. The state pays up to twice the national figure. Now, it is $300,000 for attorneys to represent more than 25 years, with no executions each capital inmate on appeal. The since 2006 and none likely in the near heightened security practices mandated future because of legal challenges to the for death row inmates added $100,663 state's lethal injection procedures. The to the cost of incarcerating each capital long wait for execution "reflects a prisoner last year, for a total of $72 wholesale failure to fund the efficient, million. (Source: Los Angeles Times) effective capital punishment system that California voters were told they SAUDI BEHEADS INDONESIAN WOMAN were choosing" in the battery of voter CONVICTED OF MURDER initiatives over the past three decades June 18, 2011: An Indonesian woman that have expanded the penalty to 39 was beheaded by the sword after being special circumstances in murder, the convicted of murdering a Saudi woman,
Page 39 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
the interior ministry said. neck, the ministry said in a statement The woman named Roiaiti Beth Sabotti carried by the official SPA news agency. Sarona, according to a transliteration The ministry did not elaborate on the from Arabic, was found guilty of killing motives of the crime, nor it did disclose Saudi Khairiya bint Hamid Mijlid by the relation between the two women. striking her repeatedly on the head with But Indonesian officials say that around a meat chopper and stabbing her in the 70 percent of the 1.2 million neck, the ministry said in a statement Indonesians working in Saudi Arabia are carried by the official SPA news agency. domestic staff. The ministry did not elaborate on the The beheading in the western province motives of the crime, nor it did disclose of Mecca brings the number of the relation between the two women. executions in the ultra-conservative But Indonesian officials say that around kingdom this year to 28, according to an 70 percent of the 1.2 million AFP tally based on official and human Indonesians working in Saudi Arabia are rights group reports. (Source: AFP) domestic staff. The beheading in the western province SOMALIA: AL SHABAB PUBLICLY of Mecca brings the number of EXECUTES 2 FOR SPYING executions in the ultra-conservative June 18, 2011: the court of Al-Shabaab kingdom this year to 28, according to an in Daynile district in Mogadishu, AFP tally based on official and human Somalia, carried out the sentence of two rights group reports. (Source: AFP) young men saying they were working for the Somali Security Agency. SAUDI BEHEADS INDONESIAN WOMAN “The men were very young. They aged CONVICTED OF MURDER 19 and 24. They were called Adil June 18, 2011: An Indonesian woman Mohamed Hussein and Abas Mohamed was beheaded by the sword after being Abukar. They were killed as the court it convicted of murdering a Saudi woman, had affirmed that the men were spying the interior ministry said. for the transitional government of The woman named Roiaiti Beth Sabotti Somalia, we were very sorry,” said one Sarona, according to a transliteration witnesses who requested not to be from Arabic, was found guilty of killing named. Saudi Khairiya bint Hamid Mijlid by More people came together to watch striking her repeatedly on the head with the killing of the two men who were a meat chopper and stabbing her in the
Page 40 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
reportedly captured three months UAE: FORMER FOOTBALLER before. (Source: www.mareeg.com) SENTENCED TO DEATH June 15, 2011: Former Emirati football IRAQ: COURT GIVES DEATH PENALTY player Fayez Juma was sentenced to TO 15 IRAQIS OVER WEDDING death for premeditated murder of his MASSACRE compatriot. June 16, 2011: The Criminal Court of The Abu Dhabi Supreme Court delivered Karkh sentenced 15 Iraqis to death the capital punishment verdict to Juma penalty after they were found guilty in for intentionally killing, along others, the massacre of 70 people at a wedding their compatriot following a scuffle in a party in 2006. parking lot in Sharjah, reported 'Gulf Firas Hassan Fleih al-Jubouri, a main News'. criminal in the wedding massacre, and The court overturned a ruling from 14 codefendants were among the 25 Sharjah Appeals Court that sentenced arrested earlier by Iraqi security forces Juma to a year in jail. for connection to the massacre of Dujail Another player for Sharjah, Mohammed City located 60 km north of Baghdad, Najib, and Juma's brother, Moses, were spokesman of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial also sentenced to death, reported AP. Council Abdul-Sattar al- Biraqdar told Fayez Juma played for Sharjah and for reporters here. the national team more than four years "These verdicts will automatically be ago. appealed within 30 days starting from The defendants were charged with Thursday, and then the verdicts must be preplanning and plotting the intentional ratified by the Federal Appeals Court murder. They brought sharp tools, before sending them to the presidency including swords and knives, and for approval," Biraqdar told China's stabbed the victim to death, heard the Xinhua news agency. court. Jabouri was accused of leading a Tuesday's verdict is irrevocable. Only terrorist group that killed dozens of the President, Sheikh Khalifa, or the Iraqis, including a wedding party during ruler of Sharjah, Sultan bin Mohamed Al the mass killing of the sectarian strife -Qasimi, can now halt the execution or that engulfed the country after the U.S.- issue a pardon. (Sources: led invasion in 2003. (Source: Bernama, emirates247.com) 16/06/2011)
Page 41 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: PRIVY COUNCIL However, in 1997, the Criminal Law Act QUASHES MANDATORY DEATH FOR was amended and made death by the CERTAIN MURDERS hangman’s noose mandatory for June 14, 2011: The mandatory death persons convicted of killing a person sentence for murder in Trinidad & during the commission of an arrestable Tobago was again overturned by the offence. Privy Council, who quashed the death In Miguel’s judgment, Lord Clarke ruled sentence of Nimrod Miguel, ruling it that they were unable to accept the "unconstitutional". The ruling is likely to State’s submissions, adding that the affect most Death Row inmates who 1997 Act did not repeal the common were convicted under similar law rule, as it had already been circumstances. On January 30, 2008, repealed. Miguel was sentenced for the murder of “It simply enacted a new provision Ramesh Lalchan, whose body was found which was no doubt intended to on December 31, 2003, in Rio Claro. reproduce something very similar to the Miguel and three other men had common law rule.” hijacked Lalchan, a taxi-driver, in Princes Clarke also noted that any attempt to Town and Lalchan was robbed, bound, reinstate a repealed law, which was shot and dumped. On December 31, inconsistent with Sections of the 2003, Lalchan was found shot dead in a Constitution as it relates to invalidate an canefield in Rio Claro. existing law, can only be done by votes Miguel claimed he walked away before of no less than three-fifths of each Lalchan was shot twice in the head. Houses of Parliament. (Source: Trinidad Miguel appealed to the local Court of Express) Appeal on February 27, 2009, but his appeal was dismissed. BAHAMAS: MAXO TIDO DEATH The Law Lords pointed out that while SENTENCE OVERTURNED the felony murder rule, at common law, June 14, 2011: The Privy Council had formed part of the law of Trinidad overturned convicted murderer Maxo and Tobago for many years, this was Tido's death sentence. abolished in 1996 and a distinction was The London-based court, the highest drawn between felonies and recognised by Bahamian law, delivered misdemeanors, and as a result no one its judgment today allowing the appeal could be convicted of felony murder or of Tido's death sentence which was sentence to death for such offences. handed down by Supreme Court Justice
Page 42 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
Anita Allen in March 2006. within this most serious class of the Observers considered this a test case, as offence." it was thought the outcome would The Privy Council held that while it was indicate whether the Privy Council a dreadful crime, Tido's behaviour could would let any Bahamian death penalty not be placed along side the most stand. horrific murders. A jury found Tido guilty of brutally The judgment said "this was, in short, an murdering 16-year-old Donnell Conover appalling murder but not one which in 2002. warrants the most condign punishment Tido was convicted and sentenced to of death". death only days after the Privy Council The Privy Council decided under the ruled that the mandatory death circumstances it was unnecessary to sentence in The Bahamas is reach a conclusion on the second unconstitutional. ground. During her ruling, Supreme Court Justice In 2009, the Committee for the Anita Allen said she was satisfied Prerogative of Mercy decided the law beyond a reasonable doubt the should take its course, as it did not see appropriate sentence in this case was Tido's case as "an appropriate one for death. the Prerogative of Mercy to be The Privy Council's judgment said the exercised." The Minister of National approach to sentencing a person to Security had advised the Governor death is two-fold. Firstly, the death General of the decision at that time. sentence must only be given in cases However, the Government also said no where the facts of the offence are "the further action would be taken pending most extreme and exceptional - the the outcome of the appeal at the Privy worst of the worst or "the rarest of the Council. rare." The matter will be returned to the Secondly, there must be no reasonable Bahamian Court of Appeal for prospect of reform, and death would be sentencing in view of the Council's the only way punishment is achieved. judgment. (Sources: Tribune242.com) The judgment said: "Murder is always a heinous crime. But it is clear that a SAUDI ARABIA: KILLER SAVED FROM death sentence - the ultimate and final THE SWORD AT THE 11TH HOUR sentence - must be reserved for the June 14, 2011: Saudi Arabia’s wholly exceptional category of cases executioner mounted the platform,
Page 43 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
raised his sword and was about to bring Abdul Aziz a new life.” (Sources: it down on the killer’s head in a packed emirates247.com; 14/06/2011) field in the Gulf Kingdom before he abruptly stopped at hearing a man AFGHANISTAN: TWO SENTENCED TO shouting through a loudspeaker. The HANG FOR MASSACRE IN JALALABAD man, who was the victim’s father, June 14, 2011: Two men who were part declared he had pardoned the killer. of a group of Taliban assailants that Hundreds of people had arrived into the killed at least 42 people in an attack on execution field in the western town of a bank in eastern Afghanistan in Madina amidst tight security to witness February have been sentenced to death, the beheading of Abdul Aziz bin Ibrahim a court official said. Al Anzi, a young Saudi convicted of Qari Matiullah, a Pakistani national, and murdering his friend Mamdouh bin Zar Azam, an Afghan, were convicted of Mutab Al Fakeer, another young Saudi, murder and sentenced to hang, said during a fight five years ago. Abdul Wakeel Omari, spokesman for the The victim’s father, Mutab Al Fakeer, court. Their accomplice Daad was among the crowd as he had Mohammed was sentenced to 20 years rebuffed previous attempts to pardon in prison for his involvement. the killer and accept blood money that At least 42 people were killed and 71 could have led to the release of Abdul others injured when six would-be Aziz under Islamic law. suicide bombers armed with rifles and “As the swordsman was about to bring explosive vests attacked a branch of his sword down and cut off Abdul Aziz’s Kabul Bank in Jalalabad city, capital of head, he immediately stopped when the the eastern province of Nangarhar. victim’s father screamed through a Afghan security personnel were queuing loudspeaker that he had pardoned the up to receive their salaries when the killer of his son,” the Saudi Arabic attackers dressed in army uniforms language daily Alriyadh said. entered and started a gun battle that “He announced that he was pardoning lasted several hours. the killer in response to mediation by At least 21 security personnel and four the Monarch and many other insurgents died. The rest of the victims people….as he made the announcement were civilians. and the execution was halted, the Azam was the main organiser of the crowd began shouting ‘Allah Akbar (God attack, the court official said. is great)…God the Almighty has given "These men killed dozens of people and
Page 44 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
they confessed their crime," Omari said. spokesman Kadhem Zine al-Abidine President Hamid Karzai would have to said. sign death warrants for the sentence to The former ruler is currently facing a be carried out, he said, adding the potential 93 charges. Authorities have decision has already been sent to the said they are looking into allegations of president's office for signature. (Source: murder and torture—crimes punishable DPA) by the death penalty. They are also looking into cases of TUNISIA: BEN ALI MAY FACE UP TO 20 money laundering and the trafficking of YEARS OR THE DEATH PENALTY archaeological artifacts. June 14, 2011: Tunisia’s ousted Essebsi told Al Jazeera that Saudi president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali could authorities had not responded to face 20 years in jail if convicted of drugs, Tunisian requests to hand over Ben Ali. weapons and cash charges and possibly (Source: AFP) the death penalty for murder and torture, the justice ministry said. VIETNAM: DEATH SENTENCES TO BE The country’s interim leader Beji Caid EXECUTED BY POISON Essebsi said that Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali June 13, 2011: the Law on Execution of and his wife Leila Trabelsi will be tried in Criminal Sentences will take effect as of absentia in the case beginning June 20. July 1, 2011, under which death The couple fled to Saudi Arabia after a sentences in Vietnam will be executed popular uprising forced Ben Ali’s by poison injection, instead of shooting. downfall on January 14 after 23 years of This is said to be more advantageous rule. than shooting because families of death They are accused of withholding public -sentence criminals can take the bodies. funds and theft following the discovery The law was approved by the 12th of $27mn in cash and jewels in their National Assembly. palace in the Tunis suburb of Sidi Bou The Ministry of Public Security Said. organised training courses on the Ben Ali himself has also been charged implementation of the Law on over the discovery of drugs and Execution of Criminal Sentences. weapons at the presidential palace in The new law is also praised to have Carthage. specific regulations on rewards and If convicted he could receive between punishments for prisoners who perform five and 20 years in jail, justice ministry
Page 45 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
well or violate regulations at prisons. sentence was achieved. "We know that (Sources VietNamNet Bridge) many preeminent voices such as President Jalal Talabani spoke of the IRAQ: TAREQ AZIZ'S SON- END MY possibility of clemency, however the FATHER'S SUFFERING Iraqi law does not allow for this." June 9, 2011: Sentenced to hang in Iraq, The Minister explained that "regardless, Saddam Hussein's ex chief of diplomacy it is important that we still speak about Tareq Aziz has serious health problems Tareq Aziz today as a man in prison and and does not want to die in jail. His son not in a tomb." (Sources: TMNews) Ziad asked the Iraqi government to put an end to his suffering. "My father can CHINESE SENTENCED TO DIE FOR no longer move or speak, and has great MONGOL HERDER'S DEATH difficulty feeding himself," Ziad June 8, 2011: A Chinese truck driver was explained in a telephone interview from sentenced to death for killing an ethnic Amman with the daily Le Figaro. Mongol herder by dragging him under Aziz's family is indignant over the Iraqi his truck in a case that triggered Inner authorities' silence. "Two weeks ago my Mongolia's largest demonstrations in 20 mother and my sister went to meet the years. authorities in Baghdad, but they weren't Li Lindong's sentence was read out at able to. The vice Justice minister did not the end of his six-hour trial at the even respond to our phone calls" Ziad Intermediate People's Court in the said. region's Xilingol League, the official Three months after the confirmation of Xinhua News Agency said. his death sentence, Aziz launched a Fellow driver Lu Xiangdong, who had petition for either his sentence to be been sitting in the cab of Li's truck when carried out immediately or for him to be he drove over the herder, was also provided needed medical care. The convicted of homicide and sentenced to request life in prison, Xinhua said. that Aziz receive all necessary assistance Two others, Wu Xiaowei and Li has been rejected by Nouri al-Maliki's Minggang, were convicted of Shiite government many times. obstructing justice and given three-year In a visit to Baghdad yesterday, Italian sentences for having blocked police who foreign minister Franco Frattini arrived at the scene, allowing Li Lindong expressed satisfaction that a and Lu to escape. moratorium on Tareq Aziz's death The speed of the trial and severity of the
Page 46 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
sentences underscore authorities' INDIA: HIGH COURT STAYS EXECUTION sensitivity over the case and their desire OF DEATH SENTENCE ON DAS to assuage Mongol demands for justice. June 7, 2011: The Gauhati High Court in Outcomes in such trials are usually a India stayed the hanging of death row foregone conclusion, and proceedings convict Mahendra Nath Das till June 17, are often shown on television as a after his mother Kusumbala filed a writ public relations tool. Xinhua said 160 petition to keep her son’s execution in people attended the trial including abeyance for at least 14 days. The relatives of the victim and the accused. family will file a writ petition in the The herder, Mergen, who like many Supreme Court, seeking commuting of Mongols uses just one name, was killed his death sentence to life term. on May 10 while he and others were Mahendra Nath Das was sentenced to blocking the road through their village death in 1997 for murdering Harakanta to protest noise and pollution produced Das in Fancybazar on April 24, 1996. The by coal trucks transiting the grasslands. death sentence was confirmed by the Police said Li ran over Mergen and then High Court in February 1998, while the dragged his body for 160 yards (145 Supreme Court rejected the appeal in meters) before he died. 1999. Das is now kept confined in an His death and that of another Mongol in isolated cell meant for condemned a clash with Chinese coal miners prisoners. sparked protests across the sprawling Authorities of Central Jail, Jorhat have northern pastureland by herders and already initiated arrangement for students demanding justice and greater installing the gallows for execution of protection for Mongol culture and the the death sentence, while prison nomadic herding lifestyle. authorities in the State are on the Mass migration to the region by lookout for a hangman, as President members of China's majority Han ethnic Pratibha Patil on May 25 rejected the group and a booming mining industry clemency plea. (Sources: The Hindu, The have placed traditional ways of life Telegraph) under severe pressure. Protesters were reportedly detained by CHINA: STUDENT EXECUTED OVER HIT- security forces, but there has been no AND-RUN MURDER official word on arrests. (Source: Ap) June 7, 2011: China executed music student Yao Jiaxin, 21, for stabbing 26- year-old mother Zhang Miao to death
Page 47 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
after hurting her in a car crash on June 6, 2011: Iran’s Supreme Court has October 20, 2010. The high court in quashed the death sentence for Saeed north China's Shaanxi province turned Malekpour, a web programmer who down his appeal over the April 22 death was facing execution on charges of sentence, China Central Television developing and promoting porn reported. The execution was also websites. approved by China's Supreme People's The 35-year-old was convicted of Court, which noted the "extremely designing and moderating adult despicable and odious" nature of the materials online although his family said crime. he was a web programmer whose photo Zhang, who was riding her bike, only uploading software was used by a porn suffered minor injuries in the accident website without his knowledge. but instead of helping the woman, Yao Defence lawyers said the conviction was stabbed her eight times with a knife as quashed after they provided the court she eyed his car number plate. with expert evidence. Yao, a student at the Xian Conservatory Malekpour, a Canadian resident who of Music, fled the scene but was later was arrested in October 2008 on arrival caught and, according to an earlier in Tehran, will remain in jail while a Xinhua report, confessed that he killed judicial review into his case is held. her because he feared the "peasant Speaking from Toronto, his wife, Fatima woman would be hard to deal with" Eftekhari, said: "This a sigh of relief for over the accident. me, I'm very pleased that his life is The crime has prompted hand-wringing finally saved. over the country's so-called "rich second "It's unbelievable that someone in this generation." world has spent three years of his life in The term is applied to the wealthy jail for merely designing software and offspring of people who have prospered was until now facing execution for that." with China's economic opening of the According to Eftekhari, the campaign by past 30 years -- youths seen as human rights groups in support of her expecting privilege and sometimes husband was crucial in saving lacking in morals. (Sources: Agence Malekpour's life. France Presse) "Never underestimate the power of such campaigns when you can save the IRAN: SUPREME COURT QUASHES life of an innocent somewhere miles DEATH SENTENCE IN 'PORN' CASE away from you by clicking a button or
Page 48 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
signing a letter," she said. take to restrict the distribution of "I remember that I was collecting pentobarbital so that it is not delivered signatures in support of my husband to execution chambers in the U.S., but and people were reluctant to put their still reaches legitimate users." names on the campaign because they Lundbeck is a U.S.-government- were pessimistic that they can save approved manufacturer of someone else's life by doing so. Now pentobarbital. Pentobarbital has been you can see how a signature affects used in 13 executions in the U.S. thus lives." far. Over the course of the last one year, A year after his arrest, Malekpour was an increasing number of correctional put on state television to confess to his facilities in the U.S. have turned to using charges. He later retracted the pentobarbital – also known confession in a letter sent from prison in commercially as Nembutal – as the which he said it was made under duress. unconsciousness-inducing component Students from some of the Iran's of the lethal injection cocktail. Reprieve leading universities also wrote to the officials said that while Lundbeck judges calling for his release. (Source: refused to make concrete assurances The Guardian) the company had agreed to hire “external consultants to assess the most DANES TRY TO BLOCK USE OF DRUG IN effective strategies." US EXECUTIONS The statement by Mr. Wiinberg came June 6, 2011: Lundbeck, the Danish after months of intensive campaigns company embroiled in the controversy against Lundbeck, which also resulted in over the use of its products in lethal a major Danish pension fund, injections in the United States, has Unipension, selling 40 million Danish agreed to take action to restrict such Kroner – nearly $8 million – worth of use after facing intense pressure at shares in the pharmaceutical company home and abroad. owing to concerns regarding In a meeting today with Maya Foa, of pentobarbital use in U.S. executions. the Legal action charity Reprieve, After the meeting with Mr. Wiinberg, Lundbeck Chief Executive Officer Ulf Reprieve said in a statement that the Wiinberg reportedly said that the fierce criticism from press, politicians, company had “reconsidered its non-governmental organisations and position” and he acknowledged that shareholders had led Lundbeck to “there are steps that the company could promise that it would “be more
Page 49 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
transparent in their communications on It has been reported the brutal killing this matter going forward... [and] that was an act of revenge because the this time the full independent victim allegedly had an affair with the consultancy would be published." girlfriend of one of the suspects. The Following the meeting with Lundbeck, session was presided over by Judge Reprieve representative Maya Foa said, Mohammad Al-Khalaf. (Source: Arab "At last we are beginning to see some Times) positive movement from Lundbeck on this issue. But too much time has ARMENIAN PRISON CONDITIONS already been lost - not to mention too AGAIN CRITICIZED BY CIVIC MONITORS many lives." Ms. Foa said that in June 2, 2011: Conditions in Armenia’s addition to the 13 people killed to date prison remain inadequate and have only using Lundbeck’s drugs, another 7 were worsened in recent years, a team of civil set to be executed by the end of June, society representatives that regularly which is the timeframe in which inspects them claimed on Thursday. Lundbeck promised to reconsider the Artur Sakunts, a prominent human issue. (Source: The Hindu) rights campaigner heading the monitoring team, singled out prison KUWAIT: BANGLADESHI TRIO overcrowding as the most serious SENTENCED TO DEATH IN MURDER OF problem facing the country’s 5,100- COMPATRIOT strong prison population, which also June 5, 2011: The Kuwait Criminal Court includes those kept in pre-trial sentenced three Bangladeshis to death detention. for the premeditated murder of a “Our objective is to have humane compatriot taxi driver. conditions in the correctional system, Case files indicate the suspects where a part of our citizens is being kidnapped the victim and set fire to him kept,” he said. “Conditions that do not in a desert in Jahra, leading to his infringe on their dignity.” death. Autopsy reports revealed the “The trend in the last three years has suspects beat the victim before burning been negative. The number of unsolved him to death, while the results of problems has increased,” Sakunts told a investigations showed that they had news conference. been keeping sharp objects for a long Sakunts’s team comprises time — a clear indication the killing was representatives of more than a dozen planned. non-governmental organizations
Page 50 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
involved in human and civil rights also take into account prison advocacy. The Armenian government remodeling done there and the creation allows them to visit prisons and inspect of new cells.” conditions there on a regular basis. The The official added that overcrowding monitoring group officially publishes its will be significantly alleviated with the findings in annual reports. early release of some 400 prisoners “During our visits we have repeatedly which is currently underway in seen 12, 18 or even 20 individuals kept accordance with a general amnesty in prison cells designed for 8 persons,” declared by the authorities late last Sakunts said. “When I ask inmates how month. (Source: www.azatutyun.am/ they sleep they say, ‘We take turns.’” content/article/24213711.html) “I would urge those inmates to take legal action against the Republic of ETHIOPIA PARDONS 23 TOP DERG Armenia because of the inhuman OFFICIALS conditions in which they are kept,” June 1, 2011: Ethiopian government added the campaigner highly critical of commuted the death sentences of 23 the Armenian authorities’ human rights former Derg regime high ranking record. officials for committing genocide to life Arsen Babayan, the spokesman for a time imprisonment. According to Justice Ministry department running the Ethiopian President Girma Wolde Armenian prisons and detention Giorgis, who made the announcement centers, dismissed these claims, saying to local media at the national palace this that the problem of overcrowding is morning, all the 23 prisoners have “very often exaggerated.” He insisted received pardon from the government that every prisoner in Armenia has their and they are sentenced to life time own bed and does not have to share it imprisonment. with cellmates. The former Derg regime high-rank According to Babayan, the total number officials were in prison for the last 20 of prisoners and detainees exceeds the years. According to the Ethiopian law, country’s nominal prison capacity by someone who will be punished with a roughly 800. “Just because a certain life sentence will not be imprisoned for [maximum] number is set doesn’t mean more than 25 years. that it’s not possible to keep more Speaking at the event, “There is no half people than that in penitentiary forgiveness,” said Abune Paulos, institutions,” he told journalists. “Let’s Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch
Page 51 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
and member of the religious Kidan, Desalegn Belay, Lisanu Molla, representatives who addressed Abebe Eshetu and Berihun Mammo are forgiveness request of the prisoners to also set free from the death sentence, the government. “In their pardon according to President Girma's request, the prisoners urged the statement. (Sources: New Business government to release them completely Ethiopia) from prison so that they will spend the remaining few years of their life time NEW CHARGES FOR 9/11 SUSPECTS with their children,” Abune Paulos HELD AT GUANTANAMO noted. “I hope and believe that our June 1, 2011: US military prosecutors government will fully release them from have filed new charges against self- prison,” he said. Indicating that the described 9/11 mastermind Khalid genocide committed during the Derg Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co- regime has knocked the doors of conspirators, held at Guantanamo Bay. millions of Ethiopians, including The charges of murder and conspiracy religious leaders, Sheikh Elias Redman, could result in the death penalty. representing the Muslim community of Five defendants had previously been the country, also urged the government charged at Guantanamo over the to consider releasing the prisoners fully attacks. pardoning. The list of top high ranking But the charges were set aside as the the Derg regime officials who set free Obama administration tried to move the from death sentence includes: Fikre- trial into US civilian courts; a move Silasse Wegderes, Legesse Asfaw, which was reversed in April. Melaku Teferra, Tesfaye Welde-Silasse, The new charges are similar to those Gesigis Gebre Meskel and General laid under President Bush's Legesse Belayneh. administration. The list also includes, Abdulkadir The five men are charged with Mohamed, Petros Gebre, Sileshi conspiracy, murder in violation of the Mengesha, Colonel Nadew Zekariayas, law of war, attacking civilians, attacking Begashaw Atalay, Major General civilian objects, intentionally causing Woubishet Desse, Colonel Fisseha serious bodily injury, destruction of Desta, Colonel Endale Tessema and property in violation of the law of war, Colonel Debella Dinsa. In addition, hijacking aircraft and terrorism. Argaw Yimer, Degene Wendimagegnew, The Pentagon has said before that Eshetu Shenkute, Gessesse Welde – Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted to
Page 52 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
being responsible "from A to Z" for the He abandoned that plan in April, 2001 attacks in New York and because of opposition in Congress. Washington, which claimed about 3,000 Instead, the five accused will be tried by lives. a military commission, sitting at He was captured in Pakistan in March Guantanamo Bay. (Source: BBC) 2003 and sent to the US detention centre in Cuba in 2006. US prosecutors say he has confessed to News from International involvement in a host of terrorist NGOs - June 2011 activities in addition to 9/11.
These include the 2002 nightclub ARAB SPRING AT THE HEART OF bombing in Bali, Indonesia, the 1993 WORLD COALITION AGM World Trade Center bombing, the 26 June 2011 murder of American journalist Daniel “We don’t want cosmetic change. What Pearl and a failed 2001 attempt to blow we want is abolition.” This statement is up an airliner using a shoe bomb. from Tagreed Jaber, Penal Reform In a 2007 hearing, Mr Mohammed International’s regional director for alleged that he had been tortured at Middle east and North Africa, took a Guantanamo Bay. CIA documents particular meaning in Morocco, where confirmed that he had been subjected the draft new constitution protects the to waterboarding - simulated drowning - “right to life”, but doesn’t go any 183 times. further. The other four accused are: Waleed bin
Attash, a Yemeni; Ramzi Binalshibh, a “This is not enough for abolitionists. Yemeni who allegedly helped find flight That article doesn’t ban the death schools for the hijackers; Ali Abd al-Aziz penalty, contrary to other constitutions Ali, accused of helping nine of the or the international protocol,” said hijackers travel to the US; and Mustafa Mostafa Znaidi of the Moroccan Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi, accused of Coalition Against the Death Penalty. helping set up the hijackers with money, Jaber underlined the positive and clothes and credit cards. negative aspects associated with the President Barack Obama's original protest movements under way in the intention was to close Guantanamo Bay, region in relation to the abolition of the and have the five tried by federal courts death penalty. on US soil.
Page 53 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
debate on the inhumanity of the death Halem Chabouni of the Tunisian penalty, which will be the theme of this Coalition said that his organisation had year’s World Day Against the Death recovered its freedom to exist after it Penalty on October 10. being banned by the Ben Ali government. Nobody has called for the Rosalyn Park of The Advocates for death penalty for the ex-president so Human Rights, Bernadette Jung of far, but he still considers that option as FIACAT and Essadia Belmit of the UN a risk. Most participants, however, are Committe Against Torture discussed the optimistic about the effect of the Arab overlaps between the death penalty and Spring on the death penalty. Montassir inhuman treatments in international Sakhi, a Moroccan blogger and activist law. The Rabat general meeting is who has been taking part in the continuing on Sunday with the World February 20 Movement, said that the Coalition’s statutory meeting and online networks created during the training workshops for its members. protests could help push for abolition in the near future. PENAL REFORM INTERNATIONAL HELD In some Arab countries, however, the A REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON trend is far from pointing towards JUVENILE JUSTICE IN ALGIERS abolition. Nasser Abood of the Iraqi On 22 and 23 June 2011, Penal Reform Coalition said that his country moved International’s Middle East and North from the Saddam Hussein regime, which Africa Office, organized a conference in used multiple laws to impose the death cooperation with the Ministry of Justice penalty on its people, to the current in the People’s Republic of Algeria in government, which uses anti-terrorism Algiers. The conference, entitled legislation to sentence thousands of “Juvenile Justice in the Arab World: The people to death. Reality of the Situation and Future Prospects, ” included representatives Although a recent report by the Iraqi from Jordan, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, ministry of human rights stated that Yemen, Kuwait, Oman, Sudan, and the 1145 people were on death row, Abood Palestinian National Authority. estimates the real figure to be several times higher. The public section of the The session began with opening World Coalition’s AGM ended with a remarks from Mr. Fleon, Director of
Page 54 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
Prisons and Reintegration, Ms. Alison presentations of the experiences of Hannah, Executive Director of Penal Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen, Reform International, Ms. Eva Amanus and Kuwait. the Swedish Ambassador to Algeria, and Mr. Massoud Bifrisha, the Secretary- On the second day, the conference General of the Ministry of Justice in presented information on inspection Algeria. The opening remarks focused mechanisms in detention centers and on the importance of assessing the the status of children within those reality of juvenile justice in the Arab centers. Workshops were conducted world and determining constructive discussing issues of child custody, developments for the future. Their transfer, deprivation of liberty, words stressed that these reintegration, and aftercare. The developments are a conceivable conference was concluded with a field through programs and projects visit to El Harrach Foundation, organized implemented by Penal Reform by the Ministry of Justice. International and its governmental and non-governmental partners. PUERTO RICO PRESSURES OBAMA TO During the first day, Taghreed Jaber, ABOLISH UNWANTED FEDERAL DEATH director of the Middle East North Africa PENALTY Regional Office of Penal Reform 19 June 2011 International, gave a brief overview of In a letter addressed to President the organizations achievements and Obama, World Coalition member, the role in enhancing juvenile justice with Puerto Rican Coalition Against the international standards. She presented Death Penalty (PRCADP), has requested the results of a study, entitled “The that the President abolish the Development of Juvenile Justice application of the federal death penalty Systems in Jordan, Algeria, Egypt, in Puerto Rico. The letter, signed by Morocco, and Yemen.” Additionally, the PRCADP’s General Coordinator Edgardo first day included presentations on the Roman-Espada, was sent to the White international Rights of the Child by D. House before the President’s visit to the Kamel Filali and Fatima Zahra, Member island on 14 June 2011. of the Committee of Experts on the Mr. Roman-Espada ‘s letter points out Rights and Welfare of the child. These that Puerto Ricans are still exposed to presentations were followed by the death penalty despite its abolition in
Page 55 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
law in 1929 and constitutionally in 1952 and the last execution occurring over 80 Those seeking the abolition of the death years ago in 1927. Public opinion of the penalty in Puerto Rico have repeatedly largely Catholic population is against its argued that the federal death penalty application and as the letter states “no should not be applied in jurisdictions jury has ever imposed a death penalty in that do not have capital punishment the Federal District Court for Puerto statutes. In 2000, this argument was Rico, although the US District Attorney’s supported by a federal judge who Office is constantly trying to push for it”. ruled that the federal death penalty could not be sought against two According to PRCADP spokesperson defendants in Puerto Rico because the Carmelo Campos Cruz “ there are three death penalty is “locally inapplicable”. cases before the Federal District Court for Puerto Rico that have been certified This decision was reversed by the US 1st for the death penalty, as well as three Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001 and the other procedures pending to be two defendant were tried under the certified as possible cases for capital federal death penalty. Two years later punishment”. the defendants were acquitted.
“In flagrant disregard to our Obama and the death penalty Constitution, the Secretary for Justice In his capacity as senator in Illinois, and the Police Superintendent, with the Barack Obama lead a successful acquiescence of the Governor of Puerto campaign to reduce the risk of Rico, has mobilized the Commonwealth prosecution misconduct by passing a government’s resources to help federal law that requires the video taping of authorities impose the death penalty on confessions in capital cases. Puerto Rico.” Nonetheless, President Obama is Under the Federal Death Penalty Act officially for the death penalty. In the 1994 signed by President Clinton, the lead up to the presidential election, number offences Puerto Ricans could be Obama stated during a live television executed for increased tremendously, debate that “we have to have this including several non death offences ultimate sanction for certain such as treason and drug trafficking in circumstances in which the entire large quantities.
Page 56 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
community says this is beyond the pale, in U.S. presidential elections despite the and I think it is important that we islanders being U.S. citizens. preserve that”.
When asked if the PRCADP thought UN ADOPTS DRAFT OPTIONAL President Obama would act on the PROTOCOL TO THE UN CRC ON A recommendations in the letter, COMMUNICATIONS PROCEDURE spokesperson Campos Cruz replied; PRI welcomes the adoption on 17 June “Although we are aware of his previous 2011 of the final draft Optional Protocol positions on capital punishment, being a establishing a communications person awarded with the Nobel Peace procedure for children's rights violations Prize, makes him– at least in theory – a by the UN Human Rights Council. The sensitive recipient of our requests. We final text will now be transmitted to the know that given the current scenario in UN General Assembly to be discussed by the US Congress it will be difficult to its Third Committee in Autumn 2011 approve an amendment to the Federal and endorsed and adopted by the Death Penalty Act to exclude the General Assembly in December application of federal capital 2011.This will be the third Optional punishment in Puerto Rico. Protocol to the CRC. If the GA adopts it, Nevertheless, there are administrative ratification of the new instrument measures that can be adopted by would be open from January 2012. President Obama to limit capital punishment”. The Draft was crafted by an intergovernmental working group over He then added that the “PRCADP will ten days in December 2010 and continue to use any viable strategy to February 2011. The new protocol will demand the end of federal capital enable the Committee on the Rights of punishment in Puerto Rico. Next June the Child to examine communications 20, our organization will present – for from children and their representatives the fourth consecutive year – a brief of alleging violations of their rights.The the application of federal death penalty Convention on the Rights of the Child is in Puerto Rico before the UN’s Special the only core international human rights Committee on Decolonization”. treaty that does not have a Interestingly, Puerto Ricans cannot vote communications procedure.
Page 57 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
A complaints or “communications” discrimination. procedure allows individuals, groups or their representatives, claiming that their “Alabama’s Governor should spare rights have been violated by a State that Eddie Powell’s life. The power of is a party to a Convention, to bring a executive clemency is not constrained in communication before the relevant UN the same way the courts are and he Committee, provided that the State has should take this opportunity,” said accepted the procedure. A coalition of Susan Lee, Americas Programme over 80 international and national Director at Amnesty International. NGOs, supported by more than 600 “There is no doubt that Eddie Powell organisations in all regions, has been has been convicted of a serious crime, actively lobbying for the establishment but given the irrevocable nature of the of this new mechanism since 2006. For death penalty, the authorities should further information on the campaign surely err on the side of caution when see here: http://www.crin.org/law/ the constitutionality of an execution has crc_complaints been questioned in this way.”
Four years after Eddie Powell was sent CLEMENCY URGED AS ALABAMA to death row, the US Supreme Court EXECUTION LOOMS ruled that the execution of prisoners 14 June 2011 with “mental retardation” was Amnesty International today called on unconstitutional. A clinical psychologist the Governor of the southern US state recently found that Eddie Powell has of Alabama to commute the death “mild mental retardation”. In his sentence of a man who is due to be childhood, Powell had been placed in executed on 16 June. Eddie Duval special-education classes from the age Powell, a 41-year-old African-American, of 10. US courts have dismissed a claim was sentenced to death in 1998 for the by Eddie Powell’s appeal lawyers on rape and murder of a 70-year-old white these grounds, without holding an woman near Tuscaloosa, Alabama three evidentiary hearing on the claim. years earlier. His appeal lawyers have claimed he has a mental disability that His lawyers have lodged a new appeal would render the execution asking the Alabama Supreme Court to unconstitutional while questions have order a hearing and are also seeking also been raised over possible racial clemency from the state’s Governor.
Page 58 Crime and Justice — Death Penalty and the Right to Life
However, they failed in a 2010 attempt SAUDI ARABIA: SURGE IN EXECUTIONS to have the US Supreme Court take the IN RECENT WEEKS case, which included claims that racial Executions in Saudi Arabia are mainly discrimination had played a role in the carried out by beheading. jury selection and trial. 10 June 2011 The Saudi Arabian authorities must halt Out of 29 African-Americans in the the use of the death penalty, Amnesty original jury pool, only one ended up on International said today, following a the jury, along with 11 white jurors. The significant increase in executions in the jury voted by 11 to one to recommend country in the last six weeks. At least 27 that Eddie Powell be put to death. people have been executed in Saudi Studies of the USA’s capital justice Arabia in 2011, the same as the total system have consistently indicated that number of people executed in the race plays a role in the death penalty, in whole of 2010. Fifteen people were particular that a death sentence is more executed in May alone. likely when the murder victim is white. “The Saudi Arabian authorities must halt The USA has executed 1,254 people this disturbing pattern, which puts the since the death penalty was reinstituted country at odds with the worldwide in 1977. Blacks and whites are the trend against the death penalty,” said victims of murder in approximately Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s equal numbers in the USA, but in nearly Deputy Director for the Middle East and 80 per cent of the cases that have North Africa. “Amnesty International is ended in execution since 1977, the aware of over 100 prisoners, many of crimes involved white murder victims. whom are foreign nationals, currently The state of Alabama has carried out 52 on death row. The Saudi authorities executions – in 86 per cent of these must immediately stop executions and cases the victim was white. commute all death sentences, with a view to abolishing the death penalty Amnesty International unconditionally completely,” he added. opposes the death penalty in all cases worldwide. There have been 20 Two brothers, Muhammad Jaber executions in the USA so far this year. Shahbah al-Ja’id, 54, and Sa’ud Jaber Shahbah al-Ja’id, 47, are at imminent risk of execution. They were sentenced
Page 59 http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition/http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/Título del documento
to death in 1998 by a court in Mecca, for the murder of another Saudi Arabian At least 158 people, including 76 foreign man. In April 2011 their sentences were nationals, were executed by the Saudi said to have been ratified by the King Arabian authorities in 2007. In 2008 and it is feared that they could be some 102 people, including almost 40 executed at any time, although no date foreign nationals, were executed. In is known to have been set. 2009, at least 69 people are known to have been executed, including 19 They did not have access to a lawyer foreign nationals and in 2010, at least during their pre-trial investigation or 27 people were executed including six their trial. Furthermore, it appears that foreign nationals. Sa’ud Jaber Shahbah al-Ja’id confessed to the murder under duress as the Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty authorities reportedly arrested his for a wide range of offences. elderly father in order to place pressure Defendants are rarely allowed formal on him. “Amnesty International is representation by a lawyer, and in many opposed to the death penalty in all cases are not informed of the progress circumstances, but it is particularly of legal proceedings against them. They appalling that Muhammad and Sa’ud al- may be convicted solely on the basis of Ja’id were sentenced to death after a confessions obtained under duress or trial in which they received no legal deception. R assistance,” said Philip Luther. Read also: “However strongly the Saudi Arabian http://www.fidh.org/Release-of- authorities support the death penalty, prominent-human-rights-defender- they must at least recognize that no one while should be executed after such http://www.fidh.org/Arbitrary-arrest- problematic legal proceedings and and-detention-of-Ms-Mansoureh commute their death sentences.” Five http://www.fidh.org/Iran-Shirin-Ebadi- of those executed this year are foreign about-the-Iranian-Bar nationals. Amnesty International has previously documented the disproportionately high number of executions of foreign nationals from developing countries.
Page 60 Read the latest information about worldwide efforts to abolish the death penalty!
http://www.ipsnews.net/deathpenaltyabolition
These pages include news coverage which is part of a project funded by the European Union
The contents of this news coverage, including any funded by the European Union, are the sole res- ponsibility of IPS and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.
www.ipsnews.net