Three executed in Bahrain

<div style="text-align: justify;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4msNTBH5ch86442X1hdULbc8riaS_Wvputth-3rruWx3FCMQQ9-es0sF6Q2bK6pqrIfrrZh3M9t7c3jzJLNIsQOZCMQ7YbMrWfIQDjyY0-aFd7tbOl1OOtPrN2-QxfpDpr9N9YB_Wv8/s1600/Death+Penalty+News.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4msNTBH5ch86442X1hdULbc8riaS_Wvputth-3rruWx3FCMQQ9-es0sF6Q2bK6pqrIfrrZh3M9t7c3jzJLNIsQOZCMQ7YbMrWfIQDjyY0-aFd7tbOl1OOtPrN2-QxfpDpr9N9YB_Wv8/s400/Death+Penalty+News.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Three men were executed by firing squad in Bahrain this morning (15th) according to the Attorney General.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The three men executed were Ali Al-Singace (21), Abbas Al-Samea (27) and Sami Mushaima (42).<br /> <br /></div> <div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Commenting, Maya Foa, a director of international human rights group Reprieve, said:</div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> "It is nothing short of an outrage - and a disgraceful breach of international law - that Bahrain has gone ahead with these executions. The death sentences handed to Ali, Sami and Abbas were based on 'confessions' <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/bahrainis-protest-over-fears-for-three.html" target="_blank">extracted through torture, and the trial an utter sham</a>.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> "It would be shameful if the UK continued to support Bahrain's security apparatus and Ministry of Interior in the face of such terrible abuses. The British Government must urgently review its close relations with the Kingdom, and make clear that it condemns these appalling crimes."</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> "The execution of these torture victims was made possible by various actors in Bahrain's criminal justice system, and the UK is providing assistance to all of them. In the last four years, the UK government has paid more than 5 million pounds to train Bahraini police officers, prosecutors, judges, prison guards in the death row prison where these men were held, and a supposedly 'independent' torture watchdog which declared one of these men was lying about his torture allegations without ever conducting a medical examination.”</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The three men are the first people executed in Bahrain since <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde11/003/2010/en/" target="_blank">2010</a>, and the first Bahrainis executed since <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde11/007/1996/en/" target="_blank">1996</a>. </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The execution came less than a week after Bahrain's highest court <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/three-executions-bahrain-imminent-without-urgent-action/" target="_blank">upheld</a> their death sentence on Monday 9 January 2017. </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> There are now concerns about two other men on Bahrain's death row who are also at imminent risk of execution, <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/case-study/mohammed-ramadan/" target="_blank">Mohammed Ramadan</a> and Husain Moosa. Both say they were tortured into providing false confessions at the same police station as the three men who were executed today.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <h3 style="text-align: justify;"> Torture</h3> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The executions went ahead despite serious concerns that their convictions were based on evidence obtained under torture.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> A UN Special Rapporteur, Dr Agnes Callamard, has called them “<a href="https://twitter.com/agnescallamard" target="_blank">extrajudicial killings”</a>.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> During his police interrogation, Mr Mushaima was beaten, electrocuted and sexually assaulted. Although he was illiterate, he was forced to sign a document that he could not read.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Mr al-Samea, a school teacher, was also tortured during his interrogation, including electric shocks to his genitals and suspending him from the ceiling. He was sentenced to death even though his school provided an alibi letter.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The third man, Ali al-Singace, was just a teenager when he was convicted in absentia. His mother says he was also tortured into making a false confession after police arrested him.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Their families were summoned to Bahrain's Jau prison on Saturday for their final visit, although jail authorities refused to tell them that this was what was happening. They describe being surrounded by over 50 police officers and heightened security procedures at Jau.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <h3 style="text-align: justify;"> UK complicity</h3> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The UK Foreign Office has spent over £5 million in aid money on reforming Bahrain's human rights record since protests swept the Gulf kingdom in 2011.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> However, Reprieve has evidence that this aid program failed to protect the three men from torture and execution, and actually contributed to their abuse.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Documents obtained by Reprieve, and reported in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/14/uk-links-bahrain-torture-prisons-yarls-wood" target="_blank">Observer</a> today, reveal that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/14/uk-links-bahrain-torture-prisons-yarls-wood" target="_blank">Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons</a> helped plan inspections of custody facilities in Bahrain, including the CID station where all three men were tortured (both before and after the inspection.) The six-page inspection report failed to mention their allegations of torture.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Bahrain's police has received repeated training from the UK's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/aug/29/british-police-criticised-for-lack-of-transparency-in-bahrain-training-deal" target="_blank">College of Policing</a>, which refuses to publish full details about its work.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Hundreds of prison guards at the death row jail where the executed men were detained have been trained by a Stormont-owned body, <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ni-company-urged-to-stop-training-bahrain-security-forces-1.2811018" target="_blank">Northern Ireland Co-operation Overseas</a> (NI-CO).</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> NI-CO also trained two oversight institutions in Bahrain, an Ombudsman and a <a href="http://bna.bh/portal/en/news/656189">Special Investigations Unit</a>, which rejected Mr al-Samea's torture complaint without conducting a proper investigation.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> ➤ Reprieve’s research into UK support for Bahrain is available <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BelfastToBahrain.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>, while further detail about the cases is available on request.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> ➤ A pre-recorded video interview of Ali al-Singace's mother is available on request</div> </div> <div> <br /></div> <div> Source: Reprieve, January 15, 2017</div> <div> <br /> <br /> <h2> Boris Johnson's Bahrain response 'woefully inadequate' - Reprieve</h2> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> International human rights organization Reprieve has criticised the response of the UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, to Bahrain's execution this morning of three men . </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The three men, Ali Al-Singace (21), Abbas Al-Samea (27) and Sami Mushaima (42), were executed by firing squad after being convicted on the basis of forced 'confessions'. </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/15/bahrain-three-men-death-sentence-shia-muslims-gulf" target="_blank">statement</a> from the Foreign Secretary did not confirm whether the Government took steps to prevent the executions. The statement also did not address concerns, raised by Reprieve, over the risk of UK complicity in the executions and other abuses such as torture. </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Mr Johnson said: "The UK is firmly opposed to the death penalty, and it is our longstanding position to oppose capital sentences in all circumstances. The Bahraini authorities are fully aware of our position and I have raised the issue with the Bahraini Government."</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The UK Foreign Office has spent over £5 million in aid money on reforming Bahrain's human rights record since protests swept the Gulf kingdom in 2011. Reprieve has gathered information that suggests the assistance programme failed to protect the three men from torture.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Commenting, Maya Foa, a director of international human rights group Reprieve, said:</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> "The UK is one of Bahrain's biggest backers - last year Boris Johnson's Department oversaw £2m of support to the Kingdom's prisons and wider criminal justice system. Unfortunately, the Bahraini bodies trained by the UK repeatedly failed to properly investigate appalling torture allegations lodged by the men who were executed today. Given this fact - and the grave miscarriages of justice that have taken place today - the Foreign Secretary's statement is woefully inadequate. It fails even to confirm whether HMG had opposed the imminent executions during recent high level meetings with Bahraini officials.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> "The Government should immediately suspend its involvement with Bahrain's criminal justice system and Ministry of Interior, and make clear to the Kingdom's leaders that the UK unequivocally condemns its actions."</div> <br /> Source: Reprieve, January 15, 2017<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> ⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div> <br /> <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody> <tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div> </td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <br /> <b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Three executed in Bahrain

Three men were executed by firing squad in Bahrain this morning (15th) according to the Attorney General. The three men executed were...

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Bahrainis protest over fears for three convicts on death row

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4msNTBH5ch86442X1hdULbc8riaS_Wvputth-3rruWx3FCMQQ9-es0sF6Q2bK6pqrIfrrZh3M9t7c3jzJLNIsQOZCMQ7YbMrWfIQDjyY0-aFd7tbOl1OOtPrN2-QxfpDpr9N9YB_Wv8/s1600/Death+Penalty+News.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4msNTBH5ch86442X1hdULbc8riaS_Wvputth-3rruWx3FCMQQ9-es0sF6Q2bK6pqrIfrrZh3M9t7c3jzJLNIsQOZCMQ7YbMrWfIQDjyY0-aFd7tbOl1OOtPrN2-QxfpDpr9N9YB_Wv8/s400/Death+Penalty+News.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the Bahraini capital Manama on Saturday over reports on social media that the authorities may be <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/three-executions-in-bahrain-imminent.html" target="_blank">preparing to execute three Shi'ite men</a> convicted of a deadly 2014 bomb attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executions are rare in Bahrain, a Western allied kingdom tucked between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The authorities have been cracking down on dissent mainly by the Shi'ite majority complaining of discrimination by the island's Sunni rulers. The last execution was carried out in 2008.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Calls for the protests were issued on social media after the families of the three young men - Abbas al-Samea, Sami Mushaima and Ali al-Singace - said they had been summoned to visit their loved ones at Jau prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The men, who were convicted in 2015 of a bomb attack that killed three police officers - two Bahrainis and an Emirati - had maintained their innocence and rights groups have said confessions were obtained under torture. Bahrain denies using torture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prison authorities did not explain the reason for the summons to the families but gave them a telephone number to collect their sons' personal belongings, according to social media reports.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">News of the possible impending executions prompted calls on social media for protests, drawing hundreds of people onto the streets. Bahraini security forces were seen deploying around areas of tension, including Duraz village, where the spiritual leader of Bahrain's Shi'ites has been confined since authorities revoked his citizenship last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Footage on social media showed hundreds of men and women marching with placards denouncing the death sentences imposed on the three men.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"No, No to Executions," one poster carried by demonstrators in Duraz read, above pictures of the three men.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There were no reports of clashes between demonstrators and security forces, who were deployed in armored vehicles outside the village, according to social media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Social media messages said similar protests took place in other Shi'ite villages across Bahrain.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bahrain launched a crackdown on dissidents in June last year, closing down the main Shi'ite Muslim group, al-Wefaq. It has also more than doubled a prison sentence imposed on the head of al-Wefaq, Sheikh Ali Salman, revoked the citizenship of the Shi'ite majority's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Isa Qassim, and arrested prominent activist Nabeel Rajab.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bahrain denies any discrimination against Shi'ites and accuses Iran of fanning unrest in the kingdom, a charge Tehran says is not true.</div><br />Source: Reuters, Sami Aboudi, January 14, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Bahrainis protest over fears for three convicts on death row

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the Bahraini capital Manama on Saturday over reports on social media that the authorities may ...

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Mother of man set to hang in Singapore urges PM to intercede

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqpnu2NZvqyEy-48aC1_EitChviCGCQq2nTYyOXaHGD4x53Sy6qmQyMF8rsPUzqKWzn4Tg3UOryfb1-jk5JC1CoottTud-_yIunF8JgDmU57_1VNguHdi42IoBs50rPdxDbx3U9M5A7Y/s1600/prabagaran.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Prabagaran Srivijayan" border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqpnu2NZvqyEy-48aC1_EitChviCGCQq2nTYyOXaHGD4x53Sy6qmQyMF8rsPUzqKWzn4Tg3UOryfb1-jk5JC1CoottTud-_yIunF8JgDmU57_1VNguHdi42IoBs50rPdxDbx3U9M5A7Y/s400/prabagaran.jpg" title="Prabagaran Srivijayan" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prabagaran Srivijayan</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A woman today pleaded with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to intercede on behalf of her son, Prabagaran Srivijayan, who was convicted of drug trafficking in Singapore and sentenced to die.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">V. Eswary, 54, said in an open letter to the PM that she was told her 29-year-old son received an "unfair trial".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She said that the car he drove when he was arrested did not belong to him, but to a friend who lent it to Prabagaran. Prabagaran only used the car as he was afraid his motorcycle would be repossessed due to delinquent payments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Prabagaran was caught by the police because there was 'stuff' in the car," Eswary said in the letter read out by a representative at a press conference here.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I was told by the lawyers that the proceedings and trial in Prabagaran's case were unfair. All his cases in the Singapore courts were rejected," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eswary said she last met her son on Monday, when he broke down and maintained his innocence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He's always cries, saying he didn't do it and said he is being forced to admit," Eswary added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the Berita Daily news portal, Prabagaran was arrested in 2012 after 22.24g of diamorphine, a banned opiate was discovered wrapped in 2 bundles in the centre console of the car he drove at the Woodlands Checkpoint.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He was convicted in 2014 and given the death sentence that is mandated by the republic's drug laws.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Concerns about possible unfairness in the trial arose when it emerged that the conviction was secured without the testimony of 2 purportedly key witnesses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prabagaran has exhausted all legal avenues to appeal his conviction in Singapore.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His case was taken up by M. Ravi who professed to be an international human rights advocate and established the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ravi is working with Malaysian lawyers Latheefa Koya and N. Surendran to urge Putrajaya to try and stop Prabagaran's execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the press conference, Ravi said that he submitted a memorandum to the Malaysian government via its consulate in Singapore on December 22, but has not received any response despite being promised one.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The memorandum was in relation Singapore's obligation to uphold the right to a fair trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said that the Malaysian government could file an immediate complaint with the International Court of Justice on Prabagaran's case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think Singapore, in my respectful opinion, will abide by the decision," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ravi later told Malay Mail Online that he was a former lawyer who had previously represented Prabagaran in the Singapore courts.</div><br />Source: themalaymailonline.com, January 11, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>2 drug pushers sentenced to death in Malaysia</h2><br />The High Court here sentenced 2 men to death for trafficking 745.6gm and 52.1gm of syabu respectively on Wednesday.<br /><br />High Court Judge Datuk Nurchaya Arshad delivered the sentence on Andy Majudil, 35, a local, and Mohd Noor Jumat, 38, a Brunei national after finding that the prosecution had proven its case.<br /><br />They appeared calm upon hearing the verdict.<br /><br />Andy and Noor were found guilty of committing the offence at a house in Taman Nelly, Inanam at 9.30pm on Nov 19, 2013.<br /><br />They were convicted under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act which carries the death penalty upon conviction.<br /><br />Andy and Mohd Noor had on Nov 29, last year, respectively gave unsworn statements in their defence.<br /><br />They were represented by counsel Ram Singh and Datuk Seri Rakhbir Singh respectively, while Deputy Public Prosecutor Wan Farah Farriza Wan Ghazali appeared for the prosecution.<br /><br />Source: thestar.com.my, January 11, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Mother of man set to hang in Singapore urges PM to intercede

Prabagaran Srivijayan A woman today pleaded with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to intercede on behalf of her son, Prabagaran Srivija...

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Putrajaya urged to save Malaysian on Singapore death row

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqpnu2NZvqyEy-48aC1_EitChviCGCQq2nTYyOXaHGD4x53Sy6qmQyMF8rsPUzqKWzn4Tg3UOryfb1-jk5JC1CoottTud-_yIunF8JgDmU57_1VNguHdi42IoBs50rPdxDbx3U9M5A7Y/s1600/prabagaran.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Prabagaran Srivijayan" border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqpnu2NZvqyEy-48aC1_EitChviCGCQq2nTYyOXaHGD4x53Sy6qmQyMF8rsPUzqKWzn4Tg3UOryfb1-jk5JC1CoottTud-_yIunF8JgDmU57_1VNguHdi42IoBs50rPdxDbx3U9M5A7Y/s400/prabagaran.jpg" title="Prabagaran Srivijayan" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prabagaran Srivijayan</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The argument put forward by activist groups in Singapore, led by lawyer M Ravi, is that core elements involving prevention and protection of right of life were ignored.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hindraf has come out in support of the call to have a Malaysian on death row in Singapore be given a reprieve.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hindraf chairman P Waytha Moorthy also urged Putrajaya to intervene and "ensure that a Malaysian life is not short-lived or falls prey to antics of Singapore without having an opportunity to preserve their life".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Singapore with its statutory presumption has failed to do what is necessary and in line with customary international law, where a notion of prevention is an important part of protection of the right to life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They have an obligation to provide and facilitate this right including the duties to take reasonable measures to prevent such capital punishment rather than relying on a slapstick statutory presumption," he said in a statement released today.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Waytha was referring to the case of Prabagaran Srivijayan, 29, who is on death row in the island republic and is set to be executed in a few weeks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He was convicted in 2012 after drugs were found in the car he was driving to enter Singapore.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Waytha, Prabagaran had during the trial claimed that he did not know of the existence of the drugs in the car, which he said he had borrowed from a man called Nathan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"During investigations, he had also positively identified Nathan and another man Balu from photographs shown to him by the Singapore police but for unknown reasons the Singapore authorities failed to seek their Malaysian counterpart's assistance to secure the arrest of Nathan and Balu," Waytha said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He added that the Singapore Court of Appeal had rejected Prabagaran's appeal based on circumstantial evidence and after having failed to note that material witnesses were not produced in court by the prosecution in the original trial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that a prominent Singaporean lawyer and 2 of his Malaysian counterparts are racing against the clock to save Prabagaran's life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Singaporean M Ravi, who founded the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign, is <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2017/01/singapore-malaysia-lawyers-race-against.html" target="_blank">working with human rights lawyers Latheefa Koya and N Surendran to stop Prabagaran's execution</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both Latheefa and Surendran are members of PKR. Surendran is also the Padang Serai MP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTYrwfUJBZbuz-ZRmoJwep0wIRSXMZEkE37XBuXCDa-XsNvrUSgOPsaDqzs-sTDaFgTvVRzrPYidVCIcUHUcRw4bOgbxKzp4tXbTJVRQIJU3yudZYfmLlWb7CaQrN5qC9vQogyMTh7AD4/s1600/M+Ravi+SINGAPORE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Singapore lawyer M Ravi" border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTYrwfUJBZbuz-ZRmoJwep0wIRSXMZEkE37XBuXCDa-XsNvrUSgOPsaDqzs-sTDaFgTvVRzrPYidVCIcUHUcRw4bOgbxKzp4tXbTJVRQIJU3yudZYfmLlWb7CaQrN5qC9vQogyMTh7AD4/s400/M+Ravi+SINGAPORE.jpg" title="Singapore lawyer M Ravi" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Singapore lawyer M Ravi</td></tr></tbody></table>According to Singapore website The Independent, the Malaysian lawyers may file for a judicial review in the Kuala Lumpur High Court for an order to compel Putrajaya to file an immediate complaint at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The argument put forward by activist groups in Singapore, led by lawyer Ravi, is that the core elements involving prevention and protection of right of life are ignored.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In contrast, statutory presumptions are prioritised without affording a prompt, thorough and effective investigation and securing all relevant evidence concerning the event to prevent a violation of the right of life for Prabagaran," Waytha, who is a former deputy minister in the prime minister's department, said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Waytha added that Malaysia, like Singapore, are signatories to bilateral and multilateral agreements such as the International Drug Control Conventions of 1961, 1971 & 1988 which allows the infringed party to raise the grievances for their own citizens.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"These treaties envisage reference of disputes to the ICJ that opens a door for the Malaysian government to bring forth a case against Singapore when it involves the Malaysian citizen as it is reflected in Article 36 in the statute of ICJ," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, Waytha noted that almost 70% of the prisoners on death row in Singapore are Malaysians.</div><br />Source: The Independent, January 9, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Putrajaya urged to save Malaysian on Singapore death row

Prabagaran Srivijayan The argument put forward by activist groups in Singapore, led by lawyer M Ravi, is that core elements involving preven...

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Singapore, Malaysia lawyers race against clock to save Malaysian from hangman

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1akBZt1ss-KDTrMZMiyo5MLEx34SAedzBQo8i1s2XeMTCocqWAB4gC6aEFREEDKVs2onfmv3ZyoeBgJhZvYZOWyOAWj_-aF0_rm9czm5MD2ZhHSanxldkjAK3cHgobB4A-imVtrM2hyM/s1600/Singaporean+M+Ravi%252C+founder+of+the+Singapore+Anti-Death+Penalty+Campaign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Singaporean M Ravi, founder of the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign" border="0" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1akBZt1ss-KDTrMZMiyo5MLEx34SAedzBQo8i1s2XeMTCocqWAB4gC6aEFREEDKVs2onfmv3ZyoeBgJhZvYZOWyOAWj_-aF0_rm9czm5MD2ZhHSanxldkjAK3cHgobB4A-imVtrM2hyM/s400/Singaporean+M+Ravi%252C+founder+of+the+Singapore+Anti-Death+Penalty+Campaign.jpg" title="Singaporean M Ravi, founder of the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Singaporean M Ravi, founder of the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>S Prabagaran is to be executed in Singapore before the end of the month for trafficking drugs in the island republic.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">PETALING JAYA: Malaysian S Prabagaran, 29, is doomed to the gallows for trafficking drugs in neighbouring Singapore in 2012 and is set to be executed in a couple of weeks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But a prominent Singaporean lawyer and two of his Malaysian counterparts are racing against the clock to save his life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Singaporean M Ravi, who founded the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign is working with human rights lawyers Latheefa Koya and N Surendran to stop Prabagaran’s execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both Latheefa and Surendran are members of PKR. Surendran is also the Padang Serai MP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Singapore website The Independent, the Malaysian lawyers may file for a judicial review in the Kuala Lumpur High Court for an order to compel Putrajaya to file an immediate complaint at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They hope that this would save Prabagaran from being “unlawfully executed” under customary international law, on account of a breach of his right to a fair trial in Singapore.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ravi also said he met with Malaysia’s ambassador-at-large for human rights Shafee Abdullah and briefed him on his ICJ memorandum addressed to the Malaysian government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anti-death penalty activists in Singapore say that Prabagaran has maintained his innocence and helped Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau to disrupt drug activities. He is waiting for the result of his clemency petition to the Singapore President.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If the Public Prosecutor so certifies, and if the offender is also merely a courier, then the sentencing judge has the discretion to impose life imprisonment in lieu of the death penalty,” said Ravi.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both Singapore and Malaysia have strict anti-drug laws which can carry the death penalty.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2017/01/08/singapore-malaysia-lawyers-race-against-clock-to-save-malaysian-from-hangman/" target="_blank">FMT News</a>, January 8, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Lawyers from both sides of Causeway cooperate to save Malaysian citizen sentenced to die in Singapore</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Singapore Anti-Death Penalty activists, led by human rights advocate M Ravi, are collaborating with lawyers and lawmakers from across the Causeway to save the life of a convict currently on death row, Prabagaran A/L Srivijayan (Praba).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Praba (age: 29) a Malaysian citizen was arrested on 12 April 2012 when he was just 24 years old, for a narcotic trafficking offence. He has been on death row for more than 4 years since 2012, and is awaiting the result of his clemency petition to the Singapore President.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Writing in his Facebook Mr Ravi said that he was extremely grateful to prominent Malaysian Human Rights Lawyers Latheefa Koya and N Surendren (also a Member of Parliament in Malaysia) for agreeing to represent Prabagaran in Malaysia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They are considering filing an urgent application for Judicial Review in the High Court in KL for a court order to compel the Malaysian government to file an immediate complaint at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to save Prabagaran from being unlawfully executed under customary international law on account of breach of right to a fair trial in Singapore. Mr Ravi said that he also met with Malaysia's ambassador-at large for human rights, Tan Sri Dr Shafee Abdullah and briefed him on his ICJ memorandum addressed to the Malaysian government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ambassador assured Mr Ravi that he will speak to the Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs on Monday and do his level best to assist.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Singapore Anti-Death Penalty activists allege that Praba is being deprived of his life in a manner that is in breach of the principles of the separation of powers, the fundamental rules of natural justice, and the rule of law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In respect of a person who has been convicted of a drug offence that is punishable with death under the Second Schedule of the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA), Section 33B(2)(b) of the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA) provides that the Public Prosecutor may certify that a person convicted of a drug offence punishable with the death penalty has substantively assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in disrupting drug activities. If the Public Prosecutor so certifies, and if the offender is also merely a courier, then the sentencing judge has the discretion to impose life imprisonment in lieu of the death penalty. If the Public Prosecutor does not so certify, then the sentencing judge must sentence the offender to the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As discussed above, although in this case Praba has maintained his innocence, he has, in fact, done his best to provide CNB with credible leads that could well have resulted in persons involved in drug activities (i.e., Balu and Nathan) being apprehended."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They argue that the right to a fair trial is one of the most important fundamental human rights and that the death sentence imposed on Praba violates the right to fair trial under customary international law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The activists said "the Public Prosecutor's determination of whether or not substantive assistance was provided is too fluid and unstable a standard by which to determine the penalty which an offender should receive."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an earlier statement, they further strongly suggested that the matter should compel the Malaysian government to lodge a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and urged the Malaysian government to safeguard the life of its own citizen who is facing impending death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The activists also urged the Malaysian government to consider several factors including the irreversibility of the death penalty and make submissions to ICJ without delay.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In light of the punishment's irreversibility, the very limited time available may not be enough for preparing submissions to the ICJ. Therefore, if a submission to the ICJ is to be ultimately made, that submission should ideally be made as soon as possible."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In speaking to this publication, the activists say that Praba is likely to be executed by the State in the third week of January.</div><br />Source: independent.sg, January 8, 2017<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">➤ <b>Recommended reading:</b> <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2016/07/once-jolly-hangman-singapore-justice-in.html" target="_blank">Once a Jolly Hangman, Singapore Justice in the Dock</a>, July 23, 2016. <i>The government of Singapore does not want anyone to read this book. When it was first published in Singapore, police raided [author] Alan Shadrake's hotel room and arrested him. He was taken into custody and interrogated for two full days and two sleepless nights, then charged with contempt of court by "scandalising the judiciary". As Shadrake awaited trial, he discovered to his discomfort just what happens when a person challenges the Singapore system...</i></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Singapore, Malaysia lawyers race against clock to save Malaysian from hangman

Singaporean M Ravi, founder of the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign S Prabagaran is to be executed in Singapore before the end of the m...

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Pakistan: The love of hanging

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc_zsbdDalAnCERM7nttum4zrUSuCMpXhKNDF-AIa38ww8RPBYAeJEj9D5ThUCZJnVBTP263BoXqtIpmkryZzmbrIg8v3yGIlQtIw68ISLx-Zk72-GcufW8e8aqo4mZI-UZ1PLBvRyqE/s1600/Gallows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Gallows" border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc_zsbdDalAnCERM7nttum4zrUSuCMpXhKNDF-AIa38ww8RPBYAeJEj9D5ThUCZJnVBTP263BoXqtIpmkryZzmbrIg8v3yGIlQtIw68ISLx-Zk72-GcufW8e8aqo4mZI-UZ1PLBvRyqE/s400/Gallows.jpg" title="Gallows" width="400" /></a></div>Pakistan chose to vote against the recent resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that had called for a global moratorium on the death penalty and was adopted by a majority of member-states.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gist of this resolution has been adopted by the UN General Assembly every 2 years since 2007. The resolution adopted on Dec 19, 2016 was backed by 117 states, while 40 voted against it and 31 abstained. As against the voting pattern in 2014, the new supporters of the moratorium call were Guinea, Malawi, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Swaziland.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Asia maintained its fondness for the death penalty as Pakistan joined Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Maldives in rejecting a universal moratorium, while Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka voted in favour.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who defend the death penalty as a principle enjoined by Islam may look at the division among the Muslim states (the category includes all members of the OIC).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those voting in favour of a moratorium included: Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Benin, Bosnia Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Suriname, Togo, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who abstained included: Bahrain, Cameroon, Comoros, Djibouti, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and the UAE.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Muslim states that voted against were: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Egypt, Guyana, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We find that 24 of the OIC's 57 member states voted in favour of the moratorium, while 13 abstained and only 18 voted against. In other words, Pakistan is in the minority group of 18 OIC member-countries that opposes the moratorium.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is for Pakistan's government and its Islamic scholars to ponder as to why a majority of the OIC members do not find any faith-based bar to the acceptance of a moratorium on capital punishment. They may also consider the possibility that, as in the case of some international treaties, reservations expressed in the name of religion are in fact dictated by the culture or custom of the countries concerned.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What is more distressing for human rights activists, abolitionist groups and promoters of humanitarian laws in Pakistan is the authorities' aversion to any scrutiny of the rationale for their love of the death penalty regime.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What one hears of references to the death penalty during the Universal Periodic Review or at talks with the European Union on the GSP+ status is not the result of any serious deliberation. Indeed, one doubts if any discussion on the subject has ever taken place in Pakistan. That there is an urgent need for such a discussion can easily be established.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The recent cases in which the Supreme Court acquitted two individuals who had already been executed, or ordered the release of persons who had spent long years on death row, have strengthened the call for abolition of the death penalty on the ground of high risk of miscarriage of justice. A number of other issues that have surfaced over the past many years also need to be addressed. These are:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The view that the death sentence is not a deterrent to crime has not been challenged nor has the view that hangings brutalise society.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The Qisas law has prevented the president from pardoning death convicts or commuting their sentence although his power to do so under Article 45 of the Constitution remains intact. How does one explain the fact that the army chief can pardon a person awarded the death sentence by a military court while the president cannot do so?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The scholars agree that Islam prescribes the death penalty in only 2 instances. How does the state defend the fact that capital punishment is prescribed for 27 offences in the name of religion?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The judiciary has pointed out the problems it faces in cases in which capital punishment is mandatory if the evidence on record warrants a lesser penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">-- The possibility of a minor or a mentally challenged person being executed keeps cropping up every now and then.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One ventures to suggest a look at the Indian response to the issue of the death penalty in view of the shared legal tradition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Law Commission of India recommended in August 2015, vide its Report No. 262, that "the death penalty be abolished for all crimes other than terrorism-related offences and waging war". The commission agreed to retain capital punishment for certain offences in view of the parliamentarians' plea that "abolition of death penalty for terrorism-related offences and waging war will affect national security", although in the commission's view "there is no valid penological justification for treating terrorism differently from other crimes."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The commission noted the significant steps taken during India's decades-long efforts to restrict the use of the death penalty: removal of the requirement of giving special reasons for awarding life imprisonment instead of death (1955); introduction of the requirement of imposing the death penalty (1973); and the Supreme Court's decision that the death penalty should be restricted to the rarest of rare cases (1980). The conclusion reached by the commission was:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Informed also by the expanded and deepened contents and horizons of the right to life and strengthened due process requirements in the interactions between the state and the individual, prevailing standards of constitutional morality and human dignity, the commission feels that time has come for India to move towards abolition of the death penalty."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the latest debate in the UN General Assembly, however, India again voted against the resolution calling for a moratorium although it could have shown some respect for the Law Commission's recommendation by abstaining. Which only goes to show that, in developing countries, state policies are often determined by authorities that are too timid to disturb the status quo or too proud of their conservatism to heed the counsel of experts who are conscious of the call of the age.</div><br />Source: dawn.com, January 6, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Pakistan: Reviewing the death penalty</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCMrehjtnKWFCuyKdj8RCaoNR8xtTkR8f5XYwT9Vri3mpFfiaSO3xNRb0uLpRpxDhE3qOg7eG3b_207J_3H2hz2zyf5Y1lA5r8zAoj5rhmAAufnOv7X9Q4JaEcmcvvo-Wc-JDAkabngPM/s1600/Peshawar+Central+Prison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Peshawar Central Prison" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCMrehjtnKWFCuyKdj8RCaoNR8xtTkR8f5XYwT9Vri3mpFfiaSO3xNRb0uLpRpxDhE3qOg7eG3b_207J_3H2hz2zyf5Y1lA5r8zAoj5rhmAAufnOv7X9Q4JaEcmcvvo-Wc-JDAkabngPM/s400/Peshawar+Central+Prison.jpg" title="Peshawar Central Prison" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The first thing you notice about the death penalty is how much preparation is involved. In two years, Pakistan has carried out 419 executions. 419 death row prisoners wore a hood as six warders accompanied them to the scaffold each time. 419 bodies remained suspended for 30 minutes after being hanged. Some of these bodies likely ended up in prison graveyards, unable to break free from jails even in death.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On December 17, 2014, Pakistan lifted the moratorium on the death penalty in the wake of the tragic terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. Originally lifted for terrorism related offences in March 2015, the moratorium was lifted for all capital offences. In the face of international opposition, the government has consistently maintained that the death penalty is the only effective means of fighting terrorism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, an analysis of the 419 executions that have occurred in less than 2 years by Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a rights group, reveals significant flaws in this narrative. In Pakistan, criminal culpability is at best, widely misunderstood and at worst, casually measured with irreversible consequences. The numbers that confirm this are frightening.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">27 offences are liable for a black warrant in this country, explaining the macabre achievement of having one of the world’s most populated death rows.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 100th prisoner to be hanged after executions resumed was mentally ill, unaware until his death as to why he was being punished. Undiagnosed until 2014, Muneer Hussain was mentally unwell since childhood and later, killed two family members.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There have been at least six juveniles executed since the moratorium was lifted in December 2014. Between then and March 2016, at least 444 mercy petitions were sent to the President of Pakistan, including one for schizophrenic prisoner, Imdad Ali and Abdul Basit who is a paraplegic prisoner. So far, the known number of presidential pardons granted stands at zero.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Pakistan, the judicial system that enables the carrying out of death sentences warrants close examination. The legal infrastructure is faulty, mired in red tape, beholden to power, creating a permissive environment for the routine miscarriage of justice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In November this year, the Supreme Court exercised its suo moto right to reassess a case of kidnapping in Bahawalpur in Punjab, for which two brothers had been sentenced to death. Unsurprisingly, the prosecution’s case was riddled with contradictions, with insufficient evidence and incongruous eyewitness testimonies, and the SC acquitted the condemned prisoners. Only Ghulam Qadir and Ghulam Sarwar were no longer prisoners, having been executed last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given the Bahawalpur case, it is critical to overhaul a system that hangs the living, and exonerates the dead. The dearth of resources for law-enforcement incentivises corruption and other abuses of authority. Police lack forensic capabilities and other reliable means of investigation. As a result, there is over-reliance on confessions, easily obtained through torture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1,424 cases of torture have been uncovered in just one district of Faisalabad from 2006 to 2012, according to Justice Project Pakistan</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">444 mercy petitions have been sent to the president between Dec 2014 and March 2016; none have been granted so far</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">JPP uncovered 1,424 cases of torture in just one district of Faisalabad from 2006 to 2012. At 17, Abd-ur-Rehman was subject to such brutal torture following his detention that he admitted to every accusation levied at him, including being told that his name was Azam. Today, no one in Karachi Central Jail, where he remains imprisoned, knows him by the name he was born with. His involvement in an attempted burglary has kept him on death row for the last 18 years — well over half his life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Every defendant is entitled to effective legal counsel at all stages of proceedings under the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Pakistan is a signatory. Though Pakistan provides needy capital defendants with counsel at state expense, the quality of representation is poor. In fact, it is generally not perceived as acceptable for lawyers to be seen in a jail.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Such scant contact between lawyers and their clients in criminal cases actively enables the miscarriage of justice, given the former essentially forgoes the chances of uncovering potentially exculpatory evidence. But with a fee below the minimum wage (a minimum of Rs2,000, with a daily fee of Rs200), there is little motivation for a state-appointed attorney to pursue a case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">International law dictates that capital punishment be reserved only for the most serious crimes, subject to fair and legitimate processes that protect a defendant’s basic rights and provide avenues for post-conviction relief. Pakistan has not lived up to its obligations. At each stage of a defendant’s encounter with this system, severe violations emerge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Calling for anything short of a complete moratorium on executions means the continued killing of individuals whose rights have repeatedly been violated from the time of their arrest to their conviction and beyond. Sending even one innocent person – and the government sent two in the Bahawalpur case – to the gallows should prompt this step.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given these systemic failings, legal reforms, while an important first step, are inadequately implemented at the local level. An executive mechanism to examine mercy petitions must be assembled which refers credible mercy petitions to the presidency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because of the lack of transparency, it is recommended that independent actors such as the National Human Rights Commission, a statutory body constituted under the National Human Rights Commission Act 2012, conduct investigations into cases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wrongful and unjust death sentences must be commuted. Because the death sentence warrants a high standard of proof, the state should also commute cases for individuals whose convictions were based primarily on confessions, in recognition of the high prevalence of custodial torture and inadequate safeguards in place.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Passing the Anti-Torture Bill, which has been pending since 2012, would be a good place to start. In short, Pakistan’s criminal justice system needs to undertake a detailed review of the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1303817" target="_blank">Dawn</a>, Rimmel Mohydin, Zainab Malik, December 22, 2016. Rimmel Mohydin and Zainab Malik work on public and policy advocacy at Justice Project Pakistan.</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Pakistan: The love of hanging

Pakistan chose to vote against the recent resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that had called for a global moratorium on the d...

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Abolition of the death penalty in Montana

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBx83ETv0V3LBOmIuz86823h6AX-xLxwjtAFjjh8wV-Vf_CReuBIIhYjZec76YGNm7i1IWxd52gyFtKCYmbfiRlB6rwMOOxsFFohr4_1QJ6CM-tCgB-hOaArEi1HU9WUwDYXFnh0hsEY/s1600/welcome+to+Montana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Welcome to Montana" border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFBx83ETv0V3LBOmIuz86823h6AX-xLxwjtAFjjh8wV-Vf_CReuBIIhYjZec76YGNm7i1IWxd52gyFtKCYmbfiRlB6rwMOOxsFFohr4_1QJ6CM-tCgB-hOaArEi1HU9WUwDYXFnh0hsEY/s400/welcome+to+Montana.jpg" title="Welcome to Montana" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now is the time for a significant act of righteousness – the time to put the admonition “thou shalt not kill” into action.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We must act soon to permanently abolish the death penalty in Montana.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Relevant bills to do so will be introduced when the Montana Legislature convenes in January 2017. Our great state would be further distinguished by abolition of this archaic practice. The death penalty is not a large numerical issue in Montana, since, thank God, we have few on “death row.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is, however, big to the few and to our moral/ethical conscience. The death penalty is on legal “hold” in Montana, as uncertainty about drugs for lethal injection has become and continues to be an issue.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The moral/ethical position against capital punishment: Abolish the death penalty because it is the right thing to do.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• “Thou shalt not kill.” We need to put this into action related to violence worldwide. In few instances do we have the power to control killing, but abolition of capital punishment is one such instance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Mistakes are made in some cases. Infrequently, persons, who are later shown to be innocent, have been on death row awaiting execution. Some have, no doubt, been executed and later been proven innocent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Family and loved ones of victims often favor life imprisonment over death and find solace in mercy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• The death penalty has not been a deterrent to crime, nor is there evidence that its abolition promotes or facilitates crime.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Is the person convicted and sentenced the same person who awaits execution, often many years after sentencing? Or has that person changed? It’s a privilege given humankind to be able to change.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Spare the executioner the experience of executing. Imagine such a job.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another position: Abolish the death penalty because it’s the responsible thing to do.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It costs society more to carry out a death penalty sentence than to maintain a life sentence, in terms of monetary costs of appeals, etc. Anti-death penalty legislation proposes life in prison without possibility of parole. It would cost less.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lethal injection is not the merciful means of killing envisioned. About 7 percent of such executions are “botched.” The availability of drugs used to kill has been an issue for some time, and recently the pharmaceutical company Pfizer refused to provide its drugs for lethal injection. This makes a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not unexpectedly, there are pros and cons about these points, but we have chosen the position that suits our individual moral consciences. See <a href="http://deathpenalty.procon.org/" target="_blank">deathpenalty.procon.org</a> for a ten-point argument.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whatever your personal reasons, please support efforts to abolish capital punishment in Montana by writing to representatives of your district, simply stating your support for bills abolishing capital punishment.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://ravallirepublic.com/news/opinion/viewpoint/article_224d054c-d3c4-11e6-9670-3704ae1d69bd.html" target="_blank">Ravalli Republic</a>, Guest Column, Mary Darby and Blaise Favara, January 6, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Abolition of the death penalty in Montana

Now is the time for a significant act of righteousness – the time to put the admonition “thou shalt not kill” into action. We must act soon ...

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Problems Remain in China’s Death-Penalty System Even After Reforms

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBLE0Ug4Rfnnz6Yqs197-3pi8iISWLeqJuAH5jDdKjETU-j2vNl7wWe1lMmgTVy4XMgi1ae5Ut_-g8RBdsCZfLVSf6ag5yU5m5jy8K_20bArHZiQbTwK1CVRbJoXcYHOG5uVgMkC9crA/s1600/executing+drug+trafickers+in+China.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Chinese death-row inmates" border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBLE0Ug4Rfnnz6Yqs197-3pi8iISWLeqJuAH5jDdKjETU-j2vNl7wWe1lMmgTVy4XMgi1ae5Ut_-g8RBdsCZfLVSf6ag5yU5m5jy8K_20bArHZiQbTwK1CVRbJoXcYHOG5uVgMkC9crA/s400/executing+drug+trafickers+in+China.jpg" title="Chinese death-row inmates" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chinese death-row inmates are marched to a nearby execution ground<br />where they will be put to death by firing squad.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">(Beijing) — Lai Changxing, the kingpin of a multibillion-dollar smuggling ring in the coastal city of Xiamen and once dubbed “China’s most-wanted fugitive” by state media, was given only a life sentence by a Chinese court in 2012, although more than a dozen of his accomplices had been executed by firing squad a decade earlier.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lai's network smuggled products as diverse as cigarettes, cars, oil and textiles. But the 58-year-old was able to literally dodge a bullet after Chinese authorities agreed to drop the death sentence in his case after a 12-year-long extradition battle with Canada.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Critics say Lai’s sentencing highlights the uneven implementation of the death penalty, which is used by government-controlled courts as a means to deter crime — often at the expense of justice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amid mounting international pressure and rising public discontent at home over its widespread use of the death penalty, China’s top court has taken a series of steps to reform the system of capital punishment in the past decade.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chinese academics estimate the number of death sentences handed down has dropped sharply since 2007, after the Supreme People’s Court took over the system of reviewing these verdicts that was earlier left in the hands of provincial-level courts. Yet legal reformists say more changes are needed to avoid possible wrongful convictions. They point out that the review happens behind closed doors, often without the presence of defense lawyers, and so are calling for open court-style hearings instead of allowing a small group of Supreme People’s Court judges to have the final say.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The defense lawyer’s voice must be heard during these reviews because they can make or break a life,” said Zhang Qingsong, a founding partner at Beijing’s Shangquan Law Office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Under the current system, a person who is sentenced to death by a local court can appeal the verdict to a high court at the provincial or regional level. A death sentence upheld by a high court is then referred to the Supreme People’s Court for review.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This review process works as follows: A judge from a lower court wanting to give out a death sentence must first file an application with a three-judge panel at the Supreme People’s Court, and the panel then produces a review report either approving the verdict or disapproving it. This is then referred to a deputy president of the Supreme People’s Court for approval. Next it is submitted to an internal trial committee for the final decision, explained a Supreme People’s Court official who asked not to be named.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The public does not have access to information about the workings of this internal trial committee, which is composed of an unknown number of Supreme Court judges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once a death sentence is upheld, the president of the Supreme Court will issue an execution order that has to be carried out by a lower court within seven days.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But despite its lack of transparency, the current review process is a far cry from the system that existed before 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">'Strike Hard'</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, had decentralized the review system in the 1980s, allowing provincial and regional high courts to have a final say on cases involving capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The move was part of the “strike hard” anti-crime campaign launched nationwide amid a noticeable uptick in serious felonies such as murder, rape, armed robberies and arson attacks in the earlier years of the country’s reform and opening-up.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During this period, judges — many of them former police officers or demobilized soldiers without legal training — were ordered by the Communist Party to be severe. They were often told to expedite trials or to give harsh punishments, well above those prescribed in the penal code, for the sake of “maintaining social order.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The decision to decentralize reviews had eroded the credibility of the review system and the public no longer trusted it as the last resort to address potential miscarriages of justice, according to legal experts, including Li Hongjiang, a Supreme Court judge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During this period, “the review system was made meaningless and toothless because a provincial or regional high court is unlikely to change a death sentence it had already upheld in a subsequent review,” Li wrote in 2007, in an article published by the People’s Judicature, a journal affiliated to the Supreme Court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The string of death sentences overturned and pronounced as wrongful convictions in recent years were all reviewed and given the green light by provincial or regional courts in the 1980s and ’90s.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXXPzXUGrbie2ljiPK4S3QD1liVYSwNhewhrmHe750Z43rTSvVTURHdFbaOrJa4RlYmyTQxwyadTdLWPDVaCb_VLPSPP-uTZkIMDCs-4nSeiy4cGFY2BQvcQ3dHrOyOItu15e_WtBtgU/s1600/Nie+Shubin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nie Shubin" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXXPzXUGrbie2ljiPK4S3QD1liVYSwNhewhrmHe750Z43rTSvVTURHdFbaOrJa4RlYmyTQxwyadTdLWPDVaCb_VLPSPP-uTZkIMDCs-4nSeiy4cGFY2BQvcQ3dHrOyOItu15e_WtBtgU/s400/Nie+Shubin.jpg" title="Nie Shubin" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exonerated Nie Shubin, "hastily executed" during the "strike hard" campaign</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest example is <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/search/label/Nie%20Shubin" target="_blank">the exoneration of Nie Shubin</a>, 21, from Hebei province, who was executed after being convicted of the rape and murder of a young woman in 1995.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie was arrested, given a death sentence and hastily executed, largely based on evidence extracted via a forced confession when the “strike hard” campaign was in full force, court documents show.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But after an alleged serial rapist, arrested over a similar crime in the central province of Henan a decade later, confessed to killing the victim in Nie’s case, the previous verdict was put into doubt.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It took Nie’s family another 10 years to petition various judicial authorities and courts before a retrial was granted by the Supreme Court in June, and Nie’s name was cleared in early December 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Hebei Provincial People’s High Court, which upheld Nie’s death sentence during an appeal on April 25, 1995, was also in charge of the final review on the verdict. It gave the go-ahead to the execution in a review completed just two days after the appeal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number on death row in China is a closely guarded state secret. But the number of death sentences given out has dropped sharply after the Supreme Court took charge of all reviews in 2007, down from tens of thousands to several thousand, according to estimates by Chinese academics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number of executions each year has also declined from five-digit figures to a several thousand as a result.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Chinese government had previously argued that the number on death row was small given China’s large population. But fewer than 40 people are sentenced to death every year in India, a country with a comparable population, according to Zhao Bingzhi, president of the College for Criminal Law Science at Beijing Normal University.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2016, 30 people were sentenced to death in the United States as of November, one-tenth of the 315 capital punishment verdicts in 1996, according to Washington-based rights group Death Penalty Information Center. There were only 20 executions in the U.S. in 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China's widespread use of capital punishment remains a stumbling block when the country negotiates bilateral extradition treaties with many Western nations such as the U.S and Canada, where most Chinese fugitives are in hiding. This has hampered the anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping in 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Only a handful of developed nations, including Spain and France, are among the approximately 40 countries that have signed extradition treaties with China, government data showed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Going Easy on the Noose</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the decision to centralize the review process in 2007 by making the Supreme Court in Beijing the sole body to green light death sentences, the court also removed 22 crimes from the list of 68 capital offenses, including many white-collar financial crimes, in 2011 and 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a document the court released in August 2007, lower courts were also told to “exercise caution” when giving death sentences to people who have killed a spouse over a marital dispute or in confrontations with neighbors, if they have shown remorse and adequately compensated the other party.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This stealthy reform process has cut down the number of death sentences by half and even two-thirds in some regions, according to professor Chen Guangzhong at China University for Political Science and Law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivDOwEFCDym47e6kBZW1IF5_W27LjCSXEG57Nm23SZCEvxh3HYnYboBP2WIe0w9Cyeh7gtd3jbI2JABoxyrbshVuydim-ao2Z1_0ujSuireItiLvDokpSct4h1OwbEYXwqkcr0oRaiUDES/s1600/chine_ex%25C3%25A9cution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Execution in China" border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivDOwEFCDym47e6kBZW1IF5_W27LjCSXEG57Nm23SZCEvxh3HYnYboBP2WIe0w9Cyeh7gtd3jbI2JABoxyrbshVuydim-ao2Z1_0ujSuireItiLvDokpSct4h1OwbEYXwqkcr0oRaiUDES/s400/chine_ex%25C3%25A9cution.jpg" title="Execution in China" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Liver transplants in China  primarily relied on organs harvested<br />from executed inmates." Execution by firing squad in China.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">“We are now more cautious when imposing the death sentences as the Supreme Court has significantly tightened the review process,” said a president of an intermediate court in a western region who asked not to be named.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Why should we bother if our applications for a death penalty won’t pass the reviews by the top court?”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over 95% of the death sentences imposed since 2007 have been limited to those who committed serious crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and robberies that result in deaths, according to Zhao from Beijing Normal University, who also serves a director of criminal law research unit under the government-backed China Law Society.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China has also gradually changed the method of execution in most cases from firing squad to lethal injection. In 2015, the country dropped the controversial practice of harvesting organs from executed criminals for use in transplant operations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But given the lack of official data on people on death row, the number of livers harvested served as an indicator of the number of executions in the country for several years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number of liver transplants, which primarily relied on organs harvested from executed inmates, dropped by one-third from 2006 to 1,822 in 2007 when the Supreme Court began to take charge of death sentence reviews, according to the China Liver Transplant Registry, an online liver transplant database backed by the Health Commission.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite the progress made over the last decade, the death penalty review system is still plagued by a lack of transparency, according to critics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A search of China Judgment Online, a database affiliated with the Supreme Court, by Zhang Peng, a postgraduate student at the China University of Political Science and Law, found 320 cases between Jan.1, 2014, to Aug. 31, 2016, where review documents showed the Supreme Court had upheld the death penalty. But only 28 of the documents, or less than 9% of cases, said that a defense lawyer was involved in the final review.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some academics said that it might be impossible to add another layer of court trials to replace the review system, but the Supreme Court can turn these reviews into open hearings, which allows for greater public scrutiny.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.caixinglobal.com/2017-01-03/101032821.html" target="_blank">Caixin</a>, Shan Yuxiao, Wang Yiyin and Li Rongde, January 3, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Problems Remain in China’s Death-Penalty System Even After Reforms

Chinese death-row inmates are marched to a nearby execution ground where they will be put to death by firing squad. (Beijing) — Lai Changxin...

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Death Penalty Movie Week to be held at Tokyo theater

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjy8cBaDopv6QH5NFRtjD_Yzv3QA6q9Obivh6jEnbFTmUvsmSr67CDc9PrTf552UiFP28151oUp7xtrR00-wZqSFDrgSSplH7_OXthyphenhyphenD0GZ0K9pyLY1g6o8N64ZYjYW5_dTn3Kpg4kHRI/s1600/Former+death-row+inmate+Iwao+Hakamada+and+his+sister.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release" border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjy8cBaDopv6QH5NFRtjD_Yzv3QA6q9Obivh6jEnbFTmUvsmSr67CDc9PrTf552UiFP28151oUp7xtrR00-wZqSFDrgSSplH7_OXthyphenhyphenD0GZ0K9pyLY1g6o8N64ZYjYW5_dTn3Kpg4kHRI/s400/Former+death-row+inmate+Iwao+Hakamada+and+his+sister.jpg" title="Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release in March 2014</td></tr></tbody></table>TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The annual Death Penalty Movie Week will be held at a Tokyo theater in February, with eight films from home and abroad providing viewers with an opportunity to think about the "right to life."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The event will take place as pro- and anti-death penalty groups have been facing off at symposiums and on other occasions since the Japan Federation of Bar Associations declared in October it would work for the abolition of capital punishment by 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The eight films to be screened include 2005 German movie "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426578/" target="_blank">Sophie Scholl -- The Final Days</a>," which depicts the anti-Nazi struggle of a student who was executed, and "Freedom Moon," produced in Japan in 2016, that recounts the life of death row inmate Iwao Hakamada.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hakamada, convicted of a 1966 quadruple murder, was released in 2014 after a court decided to reopen the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The film shows how his mental state has deteriorated due to decades-long solitary confinement and the endless fear of execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Korean popular movie "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2659414/" target="_blank">Miracle in Cell No. 7</a>," produced in 2013, will also be screened during the sixth event.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Murder victims are deprived of their lives unjustifiably, but offenders are also robbed of their 'right to live' under capital punishment," said Masakuni Ota, one of the event organizers. "People seem to accept such circumstances without question, at a time when exclusion and intolerance are prevalent around the world."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the event from Feb. 18 to 24 at the Eurospace movie theater in Tokyo's Shibuya district, four movies will be shown each day, accompanied by sessions with guest speakers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The scheduled speakers include actress Kirin Kiki, who played the mother of a death row inmate in a movie based on a true story, and pop singer Tsuyoshi Ujiki, whose father was convicted of war crimes after World War II.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We welcome both those seeking abolition of the death penalty and those who support or accept capital punishment" so the issue is discussed from various viewpoints, Ota said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The previous five Death Penalty Movie Week events attracted a total of around 6,000 viewers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the four years since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to power, 17 inmates have been hanged, with a government survey showing over 80 percent of people in Japan support the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, Tokyo was urged by the U.N. Human Rights Committee in 2014 to "give due consideration to the abolition of the death penalty."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Currently, more than two-thirds of nations have abolished the death penalty by law or in practice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For further information on the screenings, call Eurospace at 03-3461-0211 or check its website at <a href="http://www.eurospace.co.jp/" target="_blank">http://www.eurospace.co.jp/</a></div><br />Source: Mainichi, January 3, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Hakamada: Tapes point to police duress in miscarriage of justice</h2><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr8vj-u4mA02VRwROPa4sr8grOzhtYYHKjaBJd4YSJsFC8IhcTKrEgvqcY8Yt8LyzUy96Ci-Ht9mqZvJjLB_KV8pNigT2V_nN3t_ABNgXLifi_bu_WhtyY4a9-jj-vNxxFPCmPdD9bpnk/s1600/Iwao+Hakamada.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Iwao Hakamada (left) spent more than three decades on death row." border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr8vj-u4mA02VRwROPa4sr8grOzhtYYHKjaBJd4YSJsFC8IhcTKrEgvqcY8Yt8LyzUy96Ci-Ht9mqZvJjLB_KV8pNigT2V_nN3t_ABNgXLifi_bu_WhtyY4a9-jj-vNxxFPCmPdD9bpnk/s400/Iwao+Hakamada.jpg" title="Iwao Hakamada (left) spent more than three decades on death row." width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iwao Hakamada (left) spent more than three decades on death row.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Police records of interrogations that led to Iwao Hakamada being wrongfully convicted of multiple slayings show that the one-time death row inmate was not allowed to use the restroom as officers relentlessly tried to force him to confess.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just two days later, Hakamada, now 80, confessed to killing a family of four and setting fire to their home in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1966.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A former professional boxer, Hakamada spent more than three decades on death row. He was released in March 2014 after the Shizuoka District Court ordered a retrial, having concluded that his conviction was likely based on faked evidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense lawyers pressing for an early retrial presented documents to the Tokyo High Court on Dec. 21, highlighting apparent brazen violations of procedures during Hakamada's interrogation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The high court is weighing whether to hear Hakamada’s case. Prosecutors have appealed the district court decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hakamada, who is from Hamamatsu in the prefecture, had his death penalty finalized in 1980.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense lawyers said 24 tape recordings of Hakamada being questioned were discovered at the police storage room in October 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The tapes recorded interrogations between his arrest on Aug. 18, 1966, and late September that year after he was indicted. The lawyers played the tapes to get a better grasp of how the interrogation was carried out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They said a session on Sept. 4 was particularly problematic as it appeared Hakamada was deprived of the use of restroom facilities, as he later testified in court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the tape, an investigator trying to get him to confess, says, “It must be the case.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After more exchanges with the investigator, Hakamada says, “I would like to use the bathroom.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The investigator responds, “Why don’t you reply (to my question) before doing so?”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawyers said the recording makes clear that Hakamada had to urinate inside the interrogation room.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Get a lavatory pan. Let him urinate here,” the interrogator is heard saying.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During his trial at the Shizuoka District Court in December 1967, Hakamada testified that he was forced to urinate in the interrogation room.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I was not permitted to go to restroom on many occasions,” he said. “I was not permitted to do it properly.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The interrogator in question denied Hakamada’s account when he appeared in court as a witness in 1968.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There never was such a thing,” he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The defense team also said that among the tapes were recordings of conversations between Hakamada and his lawyers, suggesting that the police eavesdropped on them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lawyers argued that the investigators violated various laws in the course of establishing the case against Hakamada and during his trial. This, they said, was further ammunition for an early retrial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Forcing a suspect to urinate in the interrogation room constituted assault and cruelty by special pubic officers, and eavesdropping and recording interviews between defense lawyers and a client constituted an act of malpractice, they noted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They also noted that lying in court constitutes perjury.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201612220063.html" target="_blank">The Asahi Shimbun</a>, December 22, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Death Penalty Movie Week to be held at Tokyo theater

Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release in March 2014 TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The annual Death Penalty Movie Week will be held at a...

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