PNG: Justice Minister Says Executions Will Go Ahead this Year

January 28, 2014: Papua New Guinea's Justice Minister says the execution of 13 people currently on death row will happen this year, despite vocal opposition from human rights groups.

Members of the country's Constitutional Law Reform Commission have recently returned from a tour to see how executions are carried out across the world.

Our correspondent in Papua New Guinea, Todagia Kelola, says that when Parliament resurrected the death penalty last year after a spate of sorcery-related killings and other violent crime, five methods of execution were written in: Lethal injection, electrocution, firing squad, deprivation of oxygen and hanging. He says the Constitutional Law Reform Commission has recently been touring countries including the United States, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to try and decide which one of those options is the best.

"They basically went and checked out the death penalties and [saw] which one is the most appropriate one for Papua New Guinea to use."

Todagia Kelola says the commission is working on recommendations for their preferred method, and those will be given to the National Executive Council for it to decide.

"It just depends on cabinet. Once cabinet agrees on the method then they take it to parliament and parliament agrees and then a facility will be constructed for those who have been sentenced to death."

The justice minister, Kerenga Kua, says the 13 people currently sitting on death row have committed horrendous crimes, including one who slaughtered his family in a premeditated attack.

Source: radionz.co.nz, January 28, 2014

Thailand: Vietnamese dressed as monk arrested for smuggling crystal meth

A Vietnamese man who claimed to be a monk was arrested in Thailand as he allegedly attempted to smuggle 2.3 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine into that country on Wednesday, the Bangkok Post reported.

Nguyen Van Thiet, 64, was caught with luggage in which the drug was wrapped in plastic bags and carbon paper and hidden, when he arrived at Phuket Airport in Phuket Province, located in the north of Thailand.

The total value of the drugs was estimated to be about 8 million baht (US$244,000).

The man, who dressed as a monk, told local customs officers that he was travelling from China's Shenzhen City to Thailand for a pilgrimage, according to the news report.

Before he boarded a China Southern Airlines flight, a Vietnamese woman asked him to deliver the luggage to another Vietnamese person in Phuket, he said.

An unidentified person would meet him at the airport and take him to the recipient, Thiet said.

Paisarn Chuanjit, deputy director-general of the Customs Department, was quoted as saying that the man did not have a monk identification card, and that he entered Thailand on a tourist visa.

Thiet was charged with "possessing a category 1 drug and carrying it through Thailand for sale without permission," according to the newspaper.

In Thailand, the possession of category I drugs, namely heroin, amphetamines, and methamphetamine, carries the death penalty.

Source: Thanh Nien News, January 3, 2014

'Be prepared' for the death penalty says PNG government

The Papua New Guinea Government says the people should be ready for the government to begin executing death row prisoners.

Papua New Guinea's Attorney-General says the country needs to prepare for the government to begin carrying out the death penalty.

PNG's parliament passed legislation in May to reactivate the death penalty and apply it to seven offences like murder and aggravated rape.

The Attorney-General Kerenga Kua says officials have visited the US state of Texas, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia to investigate different methods of capital punishment

"Their job was to go and work out the kind of technicalities involved; the kind of facilities you need to have for this process to take place and the technical methods you need to use." he said.

The team from the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission is now preparing a submission to the government based on their findings.

Mr Kua says it is not a process the government wants to rush.

"You're going to be dealing with human lives so you have to take your time and take each step in a considered and very careful manner,

"We are working through it very very very carefully as we progress this matter forward it is an important agenda for the state, the government is determined to see it through." he said

Mr Kua says the people of PNG need to accept that the death penalty will be carried out in the country.

"I don't want to see people jumping up and down in protest as we get closer to the day," he said.

He says the country is suffering from a law and order crisis and now that the death penalty is on the law books, the government is expected to implement it.

PNG already has around a dozen prisoners on death row and Mr Kua says they should be ready for executions to be carried out sooner rather than later.

"The relatives must get themselves ready now, relatives of the people on death row must come to terms that this is going to unfold in the normal course of government," he said.

Source: Radio Australia, November 22, 2013

Vietnam May Return to Firing Squads Amid Shortage of Lethal Chemicals

Vietnam may return to using firing squads to execute its growing number of condemned criminals after a planned switch to lethal injections last month ran into a shortage of the needed chemicals, state media and people familiar with the situation said.

The Ministry of Public Security, which runs the prison system, is seeking approval from the legislature to reinstate firing squads while awaiting production of lethal chemicals, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday. The ministry wasn't reachable for comment, but the Phap Luat Vietnam newspaper, which is close to the ministry, reported earlier this week about the request before the legislature.

"We don't know yet when the chemicals can be produced domestically, so using the firing squads for the time being is necessary given that the number of death-row inmates is rising," the person said.

Vietnam planned to start lethal injections in November 2011 using imported chemicals, but state media reported in May citing Health Ministry officials that European countries had refused to export the chemicals after learning they would be used for executions.

The government ordered the Health Ministry to sufficiently supply the chemicals by June 27, but the goals haven't been met. The chemicals include sodium thiopental to stop the nerve system, pancuronium bromide to stop the muscular system and potassium chloride to stop the heart.

Meanwhile, the number of death row inmates has been rising. There are now 568 condemned prisoners, state media said Thursday, citing data from the Supreme People's Procuracy. That's around 40% more than 2 years ago.

Nguyen Viet Hung, chief of the office of the Supreme People's Procuracy, told local media Wednesday that lawmakers haven't made any decision on the proposal to reinstate firing squads. They next meet in October.

Vietnam's penal code allows the death penalty for 29 crimes, from murder and terrorism to receiving bribes of 300 million dong (US$14,300) or more, but the vast majority of those on death row are there for drug offenses. Producing, smuggling or transporting 100 grams or more of heroin or cocaine is punishable by death.

An official with the Ministry of Public Security said Thursday that domestically produced lethal drugs have so far been "successfully tested on animals" in the country's labs. The communist country is also considering importing the chemicals made in Thailand, which changed its method of execution from firing squads to lethal injection in 2003.

"Keeping the prisoners waiting for the execution longer will put more mental pressure on them, causing difficulties for prison management," Pham Quoc Anh, president of the Vietnam Lawyers Association, was quoted by Giao Thong Van Tai newspaper as saying Thursday. Condemned inmates are locked in solitary confinement for years before they are executed.

Amnesty International, in a statement posted on its website last month, called on Vietnamese authorities to immediately halt any plans to resume executions, commute all death sentences and reduce the number of offenses punishable by the death penalty. It said execution is the "ultimate form of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and a violation on the right to life."

At least 38 executions were reported to have been carried out in the Asia-Pacific region last year, including in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Japan, North Korea and Taiwan, according to Amnesty. The figures don't include thousands of executions believed to have occurred in China, Amnesty said, adding that it was impossible to obtain an accurate data on capital punishment in China due to secrecy.

Source: Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2013

Changing attitudes to the death penalty in Southeast Asia

Kerobokan prison, Indonesia

There is growing opposition to capital punishment in southeast Asia.

It's our own backyard - but how much do we know about how the death penalty operates in Southeast Asia, asks Brigid Delaney.

The issue only gets media traction here when an Australian such as Van Nyugen is executed or members of the so-called Bali 9, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran receive the death penalty.

Yet there are hundreds of men and women on death row in southeast Asia. The lawyers and groups supporting death row prisoners are often stretched and under-resourced.

But increasingly, laws and attitudes regarding the death penalty in our region are changing.

SINGAPORE

Just 7 years ago Singapore executed Australian man Van Nyugen under the country's harsh drug laws. 10 years ago Singapore had enjoyed the dubious distinction of carrying out the most executions per capita of any country in the world. But things are changing. Late last year, the law changed to allow discretion for judges to impose a life sentence. Previously, a guilty verdict, barring a granting of clemency by the president, meant the death penalty was the only sentencing option.

Last week, it was reported that a Malaysian prisoner in Singapore with a murder conviction escaped the death penalty, having his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, following a relaxation of sentencing laws in Parliament.

Fabian Adiu Edwin, 23, had his low IQ and youth taken into account by Singapore's High Court.

The news was welcomed by death penalty abolitionists and human rights lawyers.

Julian McMahon, part of the legal team who represented Van Nyugen in his capital trial, praised moves by Singapore away from a hardline approach. He wrote on ABC's The Drum, "Singapore, which prides itself on being both conservative and modern, has perhaps been embarrassed by the rigidity of its criminal law regime, parts of which belong to a long bygone era.

"Allowing judges to actually judge and sentence serious drug cases on a case by case basis is a necessary and long overdue step, but most welcomed by the international community."

MALAYSIA

As Australian man Dominic Bird faces a Malaysian court on July 24, on drug charges that attract the death penalty, there are some signs that Malaysians are moving away from support for current laws.

Last week it was reported that a survey of 1,535 Malaysians showed little support for the mandatory implementation of the death penalty - particularly for drugs offences.

Instead there was support for discretionary use of the death penalty.

Members of the Malaysian Bar have been strongly outspoken in their opposition to the death penalty, and leading advocates take on death penalty cases pro bono.

A human rights' activist in Malaysia last year told me: "The Malaysian Bar Council in 2011 carried a unanimous motion against the death penalty."

But convincing the public is a more difficult proposition. "There is a big drug problem in Malaysia and very little rehabilitation centres," she said. The death penalty works as a powerful deterrent, goes the accepted thinking.

But she thought the government might be swayed "to get rid of the death penalty if the public want it abolished."

INDONESIA

Indonesia is a powerful "key domino" in the region when it comes to influencing the death penalty abolition of its neighbours, Dr Dave McCrae of the Lowy Institute wrote last year.

In an analysis published in March 2012 McCrae wrote that "Indonesia remains at a crossroads concerning capital punishment, with competing forces advocating for greater use of the death penalty and for its abolition."

"Whether or not Indonesia abolishes the death penalty matters to Australia for principled and practical reasons."

Last year Indonesia, which has more than a hundred people on death row, made what many Indonesia watchers saw as positive moves towards abolition.

When a 54-year-old Indonesian maid working in Saudi Arabia was beheaded after being convicted of killing her employer, the Indonesian public and government were outraged. The execution provoked a diplomatic incident. Indonesia recalled its consular staff, and the issue was hotly debated in the nation's media.

In the aftermath, Indonesia reached out to its citizens on death row around the world, providing legal assistance and establishing a taskforce to protect the approximately 200 Indonesians facing the death penalty overseas.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, clemency was granted to four prisoners on death row, convicted of drug offences. But a public backlash by some Indonesians against this softening led, this year, to a return to executions after a 4-year moratorium.

In March 2013, Adami Wilson, a Malawi national convicted of drug smuggling, was executed by firing squad. The execution of 3 others followed.

The Indonesian government announced there is a list of around 10 people that they plan to execute this year. It is not known if Australian's Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are on that list. They face a nervous wait in Kerobokan prison for news of their clemency application, which has been lodged with Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

THAILAND

Thailand does not have a mandatory death sentence for any offence, but capital sentences are imposed frequently with 706 people on death row in Thailand as of late May 2013. Around half of these are for drug offences.

Reprieve Australia sent a research team to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in 2012 to report on capital punishment regimes in those countries and on resources and public appetite for abolition.

They found in Thailand that "currently, men condemned to death are permanently shackled by what is politically described as 'instruments of restraint'.

"These shackles are welded on to the ankles and are not removed, even during illness."

In a move welcomed by human rights activists, in May this year leg irons were deemed 'unnecessarily cruel' by the Thai Corrections Department, and their use was banned.

Apart from overturning practices relating to shackling, legal reform in Thailand has been slow.

At a seminar late last year in Thailand, human rights activists and experts said the country was "falling behind its neighbours" in southeast Asia when it came to the abolition of the death penalty.

The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006 and Cambodia has no death penalty under its constitution.

Pol Colonel Aeknarat Sawettanand, director-general of the Department of Rights and Liberty Protection told the seminar that "many Thais are still in the mindset of revenge and retribution, which poses a hurdle in trying to convince them that it is against human rights standards to retain the death penalty."

Roseann Rife, deputy director of Amnesty International's Asia Pacific program, said Thailand needs to "move swiftly and decisively" to end the death penalty. She said "public opinion was rarely in favour of abolishing the death penalty until abolition is passed into law. So, it was necessary for activists and the government to take the lead."

Aeknarat called on the Thai Parliament to show leadership in implementing reforms and abolishing the death penalty.

VIETNAM

Last month Vietnam announced it would begin to kill death row prisoners by lethal injection.

Previously prisoners were executed by firing squad due to the unavailability of poisons in Vietnam needed to make the mixture for lethal injection. The EU had refused to export chemicals to Vietnam that would be used in executions.

This has led to a backlog of prisoners awaiting execution as the use of firing squads had been phased out. However once Vietnam started manufacturing its own poisons, the Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang had announced that the implementation of the death penalty by lethal injection would start from June 27.

There are more than 560 prisoners under death penalty and 170 people are eligible for lethal injection.

The New York Times reported that Amnesty International activists working in Vietnam had hoped EU moratorium on manufacturing the drugs would lead to abolition of the death penalty. Yet sentences of death for mostly drug and murder offences continued. In 2012, Amnesty International reported that at least 86 people were sentenced to death.

One of those facing the death penalty is an American citizen who was caught last month allegedly attempting to smuggle more than a kilogram of heroin to Sydney, via Vietnam.

Local media reported this week that despite Vietnam starting to manufacture its own lethal injection drugs, and rights' groups anticipating a 'mass killing', no prisoners have been executed yet.

Cao Ngoc Oanh, director of the central police department in charge of managing nationwide prisons, told the media on June 26 that "we are not ready to carry out with lethal injections." Any further information was "classified."

According to reports in the Vietnamese media, death row prisoners are suffering considerable mental anguish due to uncertainty about their fate.

"'Many prisoners have been waiting to be executed for 5 to 6 years," said lawmaker Nguyen Van Hien, adding that many prisoners have been begging to be executed.'

Source: Commentary; Brigid Delaney is a freelance journalist. She has worked as a lawyer and currently volunteers for Reprieve. She is also the co-founder of the Mercy Campaign, which is campaigning for clemency in the cases of Australians on death row - Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, SBS, July 25, 2013

Thailand: Unshackling death-row inmates 'not enough'

International organisations have welcomed Thailand's decision to remove the leg shackles from death row inmates, but say other forms of ill treatment still need to be addressed.

Matilda Bogner, regional representative of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Regional Office for Southeast Asia, said death row conditions in many countries fall far short of international norms that prohibit cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The OHCHR and the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations have regularly expressed concern over the shackling of inmates on death row, said Ms Bogner.

The practice of shackling undermined the dignity of the judicial process by seriously compromising the respectful treatment to which all prisoners were entitled, the Bangkok-based diplomat said.

"The decision of the government of Thailand is therefore a significant development we very much welcome. It is an important step towards the improvement of the conditions of detention for all detainees in Thailand," said Ms Bogner.

This, she said, illustrated Thailand's efforts to comply with its international obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

"We are confident that the government of Thailand will take additional steps in the near future to prevent any forms of ill-treatment," said the OHCHR regional representative.

Somchai Homlaor, chair of Amnesty International Thailand, said shackling the inmates was a form of torture and a violation of the 2007 constitution.

The unshackling of the first 400 inmates would be hopefully expanded to include other detainees nationwide, and should include when they attend court hearings, said Mr Somchai.

He also called for other integrated measures such as ending the problem of prison overcrowding, separating detainees of different levels of offences and stages of processing - especially those on trial and those already convicted - and ensuring provision of additional and timely medical and public health services inside prisons.

Amnesty International Thailand director Parinya Boonridrerthaikul said 2/3 of the world had already abolished capital punishment. Thailand should follow that trend by announcing an immediate moratorium on the death penalty, under the 2nd national human rights plan of action.

Ms Parinya said the 3rd human rights master plan being drafted now should also continue the effort to end capital punishment.

Eventually, Thailand should adopt the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, she said. The protocol commits signatories to the abolition of the death penalty within their borders.

Source: Bangkok Post, May 16, 2013

Thailand, Malaysia want to crackdown on female drug trafficking

The small flat in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, is dimly lit. A few women stand around waiting. About 30 minutes later, a group of men come in with bags, filled to the brim with pills. The women quickly take out a few bags and place them underneath panels in their carriers. This is the drug trade at its worst.

The women are then sent to Malaysia with the hope of delivering the drugs to agents across the border. For the women, it is a dangerous endeavor that risks their very life by entering Malaysia with drugs. The penalty for drug trafficking in Malaysia is death.

"But the pay is really good and we are all poor. It is either be a drug carrier or worse," said Sunil, who told Bikyamasr.com that without opportunities for women in Thailand, it is either carry drugs or become a sex worker. "And I don't want to do that."

But Malaysia and Thailand are hoping to work together to curtail the rising drug trade that has grown in recent years, with women being the focus of the crackdown.

In Malaysia, Bukit Aman Narcotics Chief Noor Rashid Ibrahim said police are aware of the latest trend whereby women are becoming drug traffickers and not being used as drug mules like in the past. They believe they are the brains behind such operations, but women like Sunil say it is unlikely.

"Maybe all these while police have been focusing on drug traffickers who are men and probably that is why women have seized the opportunity to become drug traffickers.

"This is not a new phenomena because many women are involved willingly and not being forced into such activities," he told reporters after chairing the 35th Malaysia-Thailand bilateral meeting on Narcotics Law Enforcement Cooperation.

Thailand was represented by Deputy Secretary-general of the Thailand Narcotics Control board, Sukhum Opasniputh.

Noor Rashid said statistics involving Malaysians detained for drug offenses by Thailand in 2011 showed 17 men and a women but the statistics released until October this year showed 30 men and 7 women were detained in Thailand for drug trafficking.

He added that the number of Thai nationals detained in Malaysia for the year 2011 was 208 men and 66 women but the figures until September showed 145 men and 74 women were detained for drug trafficking.

"The statistics clearly show that there has been a drastic increase in women drug traffickers. More and more women are daringly involved in drug trafficking," he said.

Source: Bikyamasr, November 11, 2012

Locked away and forgotten: inside Thailand's high security jail

Khao Bin Central Prison’s ‘special zone’

At Khao Bin Central Prison in Ratchaburi, we expected to find incorrigible drug lords - but met instead the poor, the disaffected and the foreign.

At 2 security checkpoints visitors are frisked and scanned with metal detectors. No sharp objects, no liquids, no metals, no mobile phones or gadgets.

Khao Bin Central Prison's special zone, where selected drug traffickers were moved in order to halt smuggling and cut inmates off from outside drug contacts.

As in Dante's Inferno, there are several levels of discomfort here, namely 9 zones of increasing security. We proceed inwards, but the deepest rung is still under construction - a reported 600 million baht behemoth of a building where the most notorious drug lords will be held.

Khao Bin Central Prison in Ratchaburi's Chom Bung district covers 213 rai of land in a remote part of the province surrounded by hills. Phone signal around the area is unreliable, suppressed by advanced signal dampers within the prison - the 1st official signal jamming system of its kind in the country. Even on the roads outside, reception is sporadic until the prison is a kilometre or more away.

The prison houses around 3,000 inmates. In Zone 5, around 1,000 serve sentences ranging from 30 years to death. There are murderers, rapists and, above all, drug traffickers, from "lords" and mules, to the guilty by association. Zone 4, a 2-storey building divided into 6 cells equipped with surveillance cameras, accommodates most of the more than 200 high-profile inmates from around the country who were moved to Khao Bin in February, as part of a move by authorities to stifle smuggling and drug dealing by inmates. The overflow from Zone 4 gets moved to Zone 9.

On the day of out visit, prisoners sit on the bare concrete floor of the school, nearly 300 of them, mostly Burmese, Cambodian and Lao - ones outside the highest security that we are allowed to meet. One Tanzanian with a thick Tom Clancy book under his arm. Almost all of them are here on drug trafficking charges. They are not drug overlords by any stretch of the imagination, simply those from impoverished backgrounds who saw a chance to make a quick profit peddling ya ba (methamphetamine) tablets or ya ice (crystal meth), or who were convicted by association -- the proverbial wrong place at the wrong time, and too poor to mount a proper legal defence. The conviction rate is often tied to how rich a suspect is, as well as what country he comes from. Those whose embassies provide legal, financial or moral assistance fare much better, as do those whose countries have extradition arrangements with Thailand. After a few years, most Europeans, for example, can apply to be transferred to a prison in their country, where the conditions are better and where they will be released years earlier.

Click here to read the full article

Source: Bangkok Post, November 4, 2012

Thailand: Death penalty abolished for young offenders

The Thai government has abolished the death penalty for offenders younger than 18 years of age and further reduced life imprisonment terms for minors to 50 years in prison.

The change came after the cabinet approved on May 20 the withdrawal of Thailand 's interpretative declarations to Article 6(5) and Article 9(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

"[As per Article 6(5) of the ICCPR] Thailand has amended its domestic laws to comply with these provisions. Thailand has abolished the death sentence for persons below 18 years of age," the Justice Ministry said.

"Moreover, in the case where life imprisonment is imposed on persons below 18 years old, the sentence is to be reduced to 50 years' imprisonment."

As for Article 9(3) of the ICCPR, the Criminal Procedure Code has been amended to oblige officials to bring arrested persons before the court within 48 hours after he or she is brought to the inquiry office, with exceptions for when force is used or in the case of other unavoidable necessities.

The withdrawal of the interpretative declarations is part of the implementation of the pledges Thailand made during its successful candidature for membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2010-2013 term.

It is also part of the implementation of voluntary pledges made by Thailand during its Universal Periodic Review by the Human Rights Council in October 2011.

Source: Bangkok Post, August 30, 2012

Thai police get death penalty in drug war killing

A Thai court Monday sentenced three police officers to death for killing a teenager during a much-criticized drug crackdown by the government 8 years ago.

The officers were found guilty Monday of killing a 17-year-old student in Kalasin province in the northeast in 2004 and moving his body to conceal the cause of death.

The killing took place under former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government, which declared a crackdown on the drug trade to stem an influx of methamphetamine. Rights activists allege it resulted in more than 2,000 extrajudicial killings.

The Criminal Court also sentenced a former deputy police district commander to life in prison for the boy's murder and the former district commander was given a 7-year jail term for abuse of authority. One police officer was acquitted.

Few criminal cases involving alleged abuses during the Thaksin government's drug war have reached court, and fewer still have resulted in guilty verdicts.

Thailand carries out the death penalty infrequently, with just a handful of executions in the past decade.

Source: Associated Press, July 30, 2012

Capital punishment in Thailand

There are two kinds of royal pardons. First, there are individual applications allowed under the 2003 Ministerial Rules of the Justice Ministry Criteria and Execution Procedures. A prison official must tell the condemned person that he or she has the right to request a royal pardon and must help the condemned make the request, for example by making legal counsel available to prepare the papers. If the condemned person doesn't have the money for a lawyer a public defender will be appointed.

Alternatively, an interested person such as a relative can prepare this request.

The request must be submitted to the justice minister within 60 days of the final decision by the Appeal Court or the Supreme Court. The minister of justice must then pass on the request to His Majesty the King, with a recommendation as to whether the pardon should be granted. The Council of Ministers may also submit a recommendation on the issue.

It is then up to the discretion of His Majesty as to whether to grant or deny the pardon. There are no legal requirements to be followed at this point, but the condemned person cannot be executed while awaiting His Majesty's decision. Of course, His Majesty can commute the execution and reduce the sentence, for example, to life imprisonment. In fact, most death sentences in Thailand are commuted by this type of royal pardon.

The second kind of royal pardon is a general pardon, as provided for in sections 261 and 261 bis of the Criminal Code. On special occasions, His Majesty may commute the sentences of a group of prisoners. The members of such a group are those recommended to His Majesty by the Council of Ministers and do not apply individually. Drug offenders convicted after 2000 are not eligible for general pardons.

If the application for a royal pardon is turned down, there is no further appeal.

In Thailand state executions are carried out by lethal injection.

Click here to read the full article

Source: Bangkok Post, April 1, 2012

Death penalty 2011: Alarming levels of executions in the few countries that kill

Public execution in Iran

 Countries that carried out executions in 2011 did so at an alarming rate but those employing capital punishment have decreased by more than 1/3 compared to a decade ago, Amnesty International found in its annual review of death sentences and executions. 

Only 10 % of countries in the world, 20 out of 198, carried out executions last year. 

People were executed or sentenced to death for a range of offences including adultery and sodomy in Iran, blasphemy in Pakistan, sorcery in Saudi Arabia, the trafficking of human bones in the Republic of Congo, and drug offences in more than 10 countries. 

Methods of execution in 2011 included beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. 

Some 18,750 people remained under sentence of death at the end of 2011 and at least 676 people were executed worldwide. 

But these figures do not include the thousands of executions that Amnesty International believes were carried out in China, where the numbers are suppressed. 

Nor do they account for the probable extent of Iran’s use of the death penalty – Amnesty International has had credible reports of substantial numbers of executions not officially acknowledged. 

"The vast majority of countries have moved away from using the death penalty," said Salil Shetty Secretary General of Amnesty International. 

"Our message to the leaders of the isolated minority of countries that continue to execute is clear: you are out of step with the rest of the world on this issue and it is time you took steps to end this most cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment." 

In the Middle East there has been a steep rise in recorded executions – up almost 50 % on the previous year. 

This was due to 4 countries – Iraq (at least 68 executions), Iran (at least 360), Saudi Arabia (at least 82) and Yemen (at least 41) – which accounted for 99 % of all recorded executions in the Middle East and North Africa. The rise in Iran and Saudi Arabia alone accounted for the net increase in recorded executions across the world of 149, compared to 2010. 

Thousands of people were executed in China in 2011, more than the rest of the world put together. Figures on the death penalty are a state secret. Amnesty International has stopped publishing figures it collects from public sources in China as these are likely to grossly underestimate the true number. 

The organization renewed its challenge to the Chinese authorities to publish data on those executed and sentenced to death, in order to confirm their claims that various changes in law and practice have led to a significant reduction in the use of the death penalty in the country over the last 4 years. 

In Iran, Amnesty International received credible reports of a large number of unconfirmed or even secret executions which would almost double the levels officially acknowledged. 

At least 3 people were executed in Iran for crimes that were committed when they were under 18 years of age, in violation of international law. A further 4 unconfirmed executions of juvenile offenders were reported there, and 1 in Saudi Arabia. 

The United States was again the only country in the Americas and the only member of the G8 group of leading economies to execute prisoners – 43 in 2011. Europe and former Soviet Union countries were capital punishment-free, apart from Belarus where 2 people were executed. The Pacific was death penalty-free except for five death sentences in Papua New Guinea. 

In Belarus and Vietnam, prisoners were not informed of their forthcoming execution, nor were their families or lawyers. Public judicial executions were known to have been carried out in North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Somalia, as well as in Iran. 

In the majority of countries where people were sentenced to death or executed, the trials did not meet international fair trial standards. In some, this involved the extraction of 'confessions' through torture or other duress including in China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia. 

Foreign nationals were disproportionately affected by the use of the death penalty, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. 

But even in those countries that continue to execute on a high level some progress was made in 2011. 

In China, the government eliminated the death penalty for 13 mainly 'white collar' crimes, and measures were also put forward to the National People’s Congress to reduce the number of cases of torture in detention, strengthen the role of defence lawyers and ensure suspects in capital cases are represented by a lawyer. 

In the USA, the number of executions and new death sentences dropped dramatically from a decade ago. Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty. A moratorium was announced in the state of Oregon. And victims of violent crimes spoke out against the death penalty 

"Even among the small group of countries that executed in 2011, we can see gradual progress. These are small steps but such incremental measures have been shown ultimately to lead to the end of the death penalty," said Salil Shetty. 

"It is not going to happen overnight but we are determined that we will see the day when the death penalty is consigned to history." 

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The death penalty violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. 

Regional summaries 

The Americas 

The US was once again the only executioner in the Americas. A total of 43 executions were recorded in 13 of the 34 states that retain the death penalty, a drop by a third since 2001, and 78 new death sentences were recorded in 2011, a decrease by half since 2001. 

The Caribbean 

An execution-free area, with the number of countries imposing new death sentences appearing to be in decline. Only three countries are known to have handed down a total of six death sentences: Guyana, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. 

Asia-Pacific 

Positive signs questioning the legitimacy of capital punishment were evident throughout the region in 2011. Not counting the thousands of executions that were believed to have taken place in China, at least 51 executions were reported to have been carried out in 7 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. At least 833 new death sentences were known to have been imposed in 18 countries in the region. The Pacific sub-region was death penalty-free with the exception of 5 death sentences handed down in Papua New Guinea. No executions were recorded in Singapore and, for the 1st time in 19 years, Japan. The authorities in both countries have previously shown strong support for capital punishment. 

Sub-Saharan Africa 

Significant progress in 2011 - Benin adopted legislation to ratify the key UN treaty aimed at abolishing the death penalty. Sierra Leone declared, and Nigeria confirmed, official moratoriums on executions. And the Constitutional Review Commission in Ghana recommended the abolition of the death penalty. There were at least 22 executions in three countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. Only 14 of the 49 countries in the region are classified as retaining the death penalty. 

Middle East and North Africa 

At least 558 executions could be confirmed in eight countries. At least 750 death sentences imposed in 2011 could be confirmed in 15 countries. The continuing violence in countries such as Libya, Syria and Yemen made it particularly difficult to gather adequate information on the use of the death penalty in the region in 2011. No information was available about judicial executions in Libya, and no death sentences are known to have been imposed. Extrajudicial executions, torture and arbitrary detention were often resorted to instead. 

4 countries – Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen – accounted for 99 per cent of all recorded executions in the Middle East and North Africa. The authorities of Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco/Western Sahara and Qatar imposed death sentences but continued to refrain from carrying out executions. 

Europe and Central Asia 

Belarus was the only country in Europe and the former Soviet Union, and apart from the USA the only one in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to have carried out executions in 2011, executing 2 men. 

Source: Amnesty International, March 27, 2012

Thailand: Chalerm seeks swift death penalty for drug traffickers

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung is backing an amendment to the Narcotics Act to shorten the appeals process for drug offenders sentenced to death and expedite their executions.

Mr Chalerm, who oversees the government's narcotics suppression drive, said on Monday he was discussing the idea with Achporn Charuchinda, secretary-general of the Office of the Council of State.

His proposal covers drug offenders given the death penalty by the Criminal Court. They will no longer be allowed to file an appeal to the Court of Appeal in Regions 1-9 but only to the main Court of Appeal.

If the Appeal Court rules in favour of the lower court’s decision to execute the defendants, a clear time frame will be given for when the sentence is to be carried out, he said.

“In drug cases, when the lower court and the appeal court agree [with the death sentence], the execution date can be scheduled immediately. There will be no need for extensions,” Mr Chalerm said.

Source: Bangkok Post, Feb. 6, 2012

Death Penalty in Asia-Pacific

Kerobokan Jail, Indonesia

The death penalty combined with unfair trials is a hallmark of the justice system in far too many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with 14 countries executing more people than all the rest of the world combined.

Those 14 countries - including China, Pakistan, India and Japan - cover 95 per cent of the region's population, though just a minority of the 41 countries. (India hasn't executed anyone since 2004, but nearly 400 people are believed to be on death row.)

A report from an anti-death-penalty group in Asia makes for bleak reading. Forced confessions are a regular feature of death-penalty cases in Afghanistan, China, Japan, India and Indonesia, says the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, which formed in 2006, with civil-society members in 23 countries. A confession may produce a conviction and a death sentence even in the absence of other evidence. Access to lawyers is spotty and in some countries it is not even possible to appeal a death sentence or conviction.

The positive news is that, while the number of abolitionist countries, at 17, is small, another nine countries have not executed anyone for at least a decade, joining an international trend against the death penalty. Singapore, once the world's per-capita leader in executions, did not execute anyone in 2010, and just 14 in the previous three years, according to government figures. But two countries, Thailand and Taiwan, have gone back on their stated goals of abolition.

The death penalty is barbaric at the best of times; but when it is applied in an unfair justice system in which the right to counsel barely exists, in which the judiciary is not independent from government, in which torture is rife, the innocent are at high risk of being put to death. It is a stain on any country in which it exists, and on the region as a whole.

Source: The Globe and Mail, December 27, 2011

South African Janice Linden executed in China

Janice Bronwyn Linden

China has executed a South African woman for drug smuggling, rejecting an appeal by President Jacob Zuma to spare her life, an official says.

Janice Bronwyn Linden, 38, was executed more than three years after her arrest.

Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned China for imposing the death penalty, saying its legal system did not guarantee a fair trial.

South Africa's government said the execution would not affect its close diplomatic relations with China.

Chinese authorities allowed two of Ms Linden's sisters to spend an hour with her before she was executed with a lethal injection, South Africa's privately owned e.News reports, quoting a correspondent in China.

'Not enough done'

Ms Linden was arrested in November 2008 after being found in possession of 3kg of methamphetamine on her arrival at the airport in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

She maintained her innocence, saying the drugs had been planted in her suitcase.

However, both the Guangdong High Court and the Supreme Court in Beijing rejected her appeal.

A spokesman for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Clayson Monyela, told the BBC that Mr Zuma had intervened in a bid to commute the death sentence to a life sentence.

"All the necessary interventions were done at every possible level, even the highest ones," Mr Monyela said.

The Chinese authorities would hand her ashes to her family, following her cremation, in accordance with an arrangement made between the two states, he said.

A foreign affairs spokesman for South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party, Stevens Mokgalapa, said the government had not done enough to save Ms Linden's life, South Africa's privately owned Times Lives reports.

"A commitment to human rights is a guiding principle of South Africa's international relations," he is quoted as saying.

"There has been little evidence of this commitment in our dealings with China of late."

Amnesty International has repeatedly appealed to China to halt the death penalty.

The human rights group argues that no-one sentenced to death receives a fair trial in China, where thousands are people are executed for drug trafficking every year - more than the rest of the world combined

Click here to read the full article

Source: BBC News, December 12, 2011

Linden family lashes out at Chinese govt

The family members of Janice Bronwyn Linden, who was executed in China for alleged drug smuggling, say they are unhappy about the way that country's government handled her case.

Speaking on behalf of the family, Ntando Mthalane says the family does not believe that she was a drug mule. Thirty five-year-old Linden, who comes from KwaZulu- Natal, was executed by lethal injection yesterday. She was arrested in Guangzhou in November 2008 after she was caught with three kilograms of crystal methamphetamine in her luggage. Mthalane says they don't believe Linden was a drug mule.

He says the fact that she pleaded her innocence right till the end is also proof that in itself, "Because if you know that you are guilty, a sure point your conscience does play a role, and make you say sure okay I'm guilty of the crime, I will rather have a life sentence than to die. Sure something I know I did not do. It was not fair," said Mthalane.

Meanwhile, a Grahamstown woman is the latest South African to be arrested for drug smuggling. Twenty-three year old Nolubabalo Nobanda was arrested at Bangkok international airport last night. She is the 12th South African to be arrested on drug trafficking charges in Thailand this year.

The South African drug mule smuggled a kilogram and a half of cocaine braided into her dreadlocks. Alert customs officials noticed white powder in her hair. She's understood to have admitted smuggling the drugs, valued at close to R2 million for a fee of R16 000.

Back home - her family is devastated. Friends and family want government to intervene. A friend, Asanda Gqeke, says she saw her two weeks ago and she said she was going to Brazil. South Africa's Ambassador to Thailand, Douglas Gibson has confirmed the arrest. Gibson will speak to her once she's taken to an awaiting trial prison.

A group called The Locked-Up Campaign has been pushing for stronger government intervention. It says the use of South African drug mules is spiraling out of control. About 600 South Africans have been arrested around the world for alleged drug trafficking since March this year. The risks for carrying illegal substances across most borders are extremely high, with harsh jail terms and possibly even the death penalty.

Source: SABC, December 13, 2011

Related articles:

Death Penalty News: SA Janice Bronwyn Linden to be executed in ...

15 hours ago

Janice Bronwyn Linden, 35, from KwaZulu-Natal is due to be executed on Monday by the Chinese government after she was caught carrying three kilograms of crystal methamphetamine at an airport in that country in ...

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Death Penalty News: China sentenced South African woman to death

Apr 09, 2010

Janice Bronwyn Linden, 35, was caught at the airport in the southern city of Guangzhou in November 2008 with more than three kilos of 'ice', or crystal methamphetamine, the Xinhua news agency said. She was sentenced on...

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Recommended articles: 

"Photos: The final 12 hours of Chinese women on death row", Ministry of Tofu, November 29, 2011

"Asian countries putting thousands to death after unfair trials - new report", Amnesty International UK, December 6, 2011

Asian countries putting thousands to death after unfair trials - new report

A hard-line group of Asian countries are defying the global trend against the death penalty and putting to death thousands of people after unfair trials every year, Amnesty International and colleagues in the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) said today in a new report.

Some 14 Asian countries, taken together, execute more people than the rest of the world combined. Worryingly Thailand and Taiwan have both resumed use of the death penalty after a period of cessation.

The report, When justice fails: thousands executed in Asia after unfair trials, highlights the struggle to secure a fair trial in eight of these countries. The report calls for action for eight people facing execution in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Pakistan. In each case, a death sentence was delivered after an unfair trial and in six of the cases the conviction relied on a confession extracted through torture.

Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Asia-Pacific, said:

"The flawed justice systems in many of these countries, creates a situation where people are executed after blatantly unfair trials where they have had little or no access to legal advice and may even have been convicted after being tortured into confessing."

Over 1/2 of all Asian countries have officially abolished the death penalty, or have in practice not carried out executions in the last 10 years.

Yet Taiwan restarted executions in 2010 after a 4-year break, despite declaring a policy of gradual abolition in 2000. Thailand resumed executions in 2009, despite committing to abolishing the death penalty in its human rights action plan.

Chiou Ho-shun is Taiwan’s longest-detained criminal defendant in its longest-running criminal case. Sentenced to death for murder in 1989, he has been detained for more than 23 years. His case was described by lawyers as “a stain on our country’s legal history”.

Chiou’s case has been re-tried 11 times. He claims he was tortured into making a false confession.

Taiwan’s High Court recognised that violence was used against Chiou, but excluded from evidence sections of his interrogation tapes where the abuse could be heard.

He lost his final appeal to the Supreme Court in August 2011 and could be executed at any time.

In January 2011, Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice admitted that a previous prisoner, sentenced to death, Chiang Kuo-ching, a private in the Air Force, had been executed in error in 1997 for a murder he did not commit. The authorities acknowledged that a statement “confessing” to the crime had been made as a result of torture.

Hsinyi Lin, Executive Director the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, said:

“Only abolition of the death penalty can guarantee that no innocent person is executed. Government apologies for execution ‘in error’ can never be enough.”

Forced confessions are regularly relied upon as evidence during trials in Afghanistan, China, Japan, India and Indonesia despite laws against the practice.

In India, Devender Pal Singh, currently on death row, claimed to the Supreme Court that his interrogators threatened to kill him and “manhandled” him to “sign several blank papers”.

Prisoners facing the death penalty in Asia often have little or no access to lawyers, either before or during trial.

Japan’s daiyo kangoku system allows the police to detain and interrogate suspects without a lawyer for up to 23 days, on the assumption that a lawyer’s presence would make it hard to ‘persuade the suspect to tell the truth’.

Maiko Tagusari, Secretary-General of the Center for Prisoners' Rights Japan, said:

“That a person can be sentenced to death when there is virtually no evidence against them beyond a ‘confession’ is the ultimate indictment of a society’s justice system.”

Hakamada Iwao is believed to be the world's longest-serving death row inmate who has spent the last 43 years awaiting execution in Japan. He was convicted after an unfair trial. In Japan no notice is given prior to the execution day, and so he faces the mental torment of never knowing if each day could be his last. Hakamada Iwao is one of Amnesty's ten priority cases for this year's letter campaign; Write for Rights. Hakamada, a former boxer, was sentenced to death in 1968. During his trial, judges raised concerns that confessions provided by the prosecution were not signed voluntarily. Of 45 documents, only one was declared admissible. He was convicted and sentenced to death. He has been kept in isolation for over 30 years.

Chinese authorities can make it difficult for lawyers to meet with clients or access case files, and lawyers have been charged for introducing evidence that “challenges the prosecution’s case”.

Under international law, the death penalty can only be imposed for intentional crimes with lethal consequences, and mandatory death sentences are prohibited. Yet some Asian countries impose the death penalty for non-lethal crimes, including drug trafficking and theft. Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, and North Korea are among Asian countries imposing a mandatory death penalty for possession of a certain quantity of drugs.

There are at least 55 capital offences in China, 28 in Pakistan, and 57 in Taiwan.

The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) launched in 2006. ADPAN is an independent cross-regional network that campaigns for an end to the death penalty across the Asia-Pacific Region. ADPAN is independent of governments and any political or religious affiliation. Members include lawyers, NGOs, civil society groups, human rights defenders and activists from 23 countries.

Source: Amnesty International UK, December 6, 2011

UN General Assembly Approves New Resolution For Universal Moratorium on Death Penalty

December 22, 2010: The United Nations General Assembly yesterday approved a new resolution in favour of a universal moratorium on the death penalty. It is the third time after the historic resolution approved in December 2007 and then again in December 2008.

108 countries voted in favour, with 41 against and 36 abstentions (another 7 countries were absent at the time of the vote). It recorded a decisive step forward compared to 2007 when in a plenary assembly the votes in favour were 104, with 54 against and 29 abstentions (with 5 absent at the time of the vote). Another step forward was taken also in respect to the second vote on the pro moratorium Resolution in December 2008 when there were 105 in favour, 47 against and 34 abstentions (6 were absent at the time of the vote).

The most significant political data regarding the favourable is that of 6 countries that in 2008 voted against (Kiribati, the Maldives and Mongolia) or abstained (Bhutan, Guatemala and Togo) or the abstentions of 4 countries (Comoros, Nigeria, the Solomon Islands and Thailand) that in 2008 voted against. The number of cosponsors of the Resolution also increased, 90 in total, three doing so for the first time: Cambodia, Russia and Madagascar.

The only new part of the text of the Resolution concerns the request – in part contained in the 2007 text – directing the member states to ‘make information available relevant to the use of the death penalty to allow an informed and transparent national debate.'

“The new vote at the UN in favour of the moratorium records the positive evolution happening for more than ten years around the world towards the end of the State-Cain and the ending of the fake and archaic principle of an eye for an eye,” Hands Off Cain secretary Sergio D’Elia said.

Sources: Hands Off Cain, December 22, 2010

Asia a bastion for executions despite abolitionist wave

Japan is reviewing the death penalty and Singapore's frequent use of capital punishment is under the spotlight, but Asia remains a bastion of support for executions despite outrage from rights groups. Amnesty International says thousands of convicts may have been executed in China and at least 26 others were put to death in other Asian countries in 2009 despite growing global support for abolition.

The execution of 2 Japanese men for murder on Wednesday reignited a debate over the relevance of judicial executions in the 21st century.

Justice Minister Keiko Chiba announced a review after witnessing the 1st executions since the centre-left government took power last year.

"It made me again think deeply about the death penalty, and I once again strongly felt that there is a need for a fundamental discussion about the death penalty," Chiba said.

Even China is taking a look at its laws by launching a review of the 68 offences currently punishable by death, according to state media reports.

But in Singapore, British writer Alan Shadrake, 75, will appear before the High Court on Friday to face contempt of court charges after launching a book titled "Once a Jolly hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock."

In the book, Shadrake highlights candid conversations with a retired hangman, Darshan Singh, who the author says executed some 1,000 local and foreign criminals in a career spanning nearly half a century.

Shadrake, based in Malaysia and Britain, is out on bail and undergoing a separate investigation for criminal defamation.

Among human rights groups, Singapore is known as the execution capital of the world because of the number of hangings it has carried out relative to its population, currently standing at just 5 million.

Singapore keeps its tally of executions secret and maintains that the death penalty on murderers and drug traffickers has been crucial in keeping the crime rate low in island, widely acknowledged as one of Asia's safest countries.

Amnesty International estimates that Singapore executed at least 420 people between 1991 and 2009.

"Our view is that there is a growing global sentiment against the death penalty," Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, told AFP, adding that countries that still execute convicts are "seriously out of touch" with international opinion.

Amnesty says China was believed to have executed thousands of people in 2009 -- more than the rest of the world combined -- although the figures are a state secret.

The London-based human rights group said at least 26 people were known to have been executed in other Asian countries in 2009, led by nine in Vietnam and seven in Japan.

In Malaysia, the government rarely releases information about executions but activists said there were 358 hangings carried out between 1981 and 2005.

"The death penalty is inhumane," said lawyer Charles Hector, from rights group Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture.

Thailand has executed 325 convicts, including 3 women, since 1934, when it began using firing squads instead of beheadings, according to government figures.

It introduced lethal injection in 2003 and has since executed 6 people by this method.

India has not carried out any execution since 2004 and has hanged only 2 people since 1998.

The last available government statistics show that 308 people were on death row at the end of 2007, although no breakdown was provided about the status of prisoners in the appeals process.

Those waiting to hear their fate include the killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991, and Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, convicted for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

In Taiwan, a total of 541 people have been executed since 1981, according to figures compiled by Taiwan's Justice Ministry.

The last took place in April, when 4 prisoners were executed after the justice minister stepped down, causing a political storm by saying she would not allow any convict to be put to death during her term.

In Indonesia, executions are carried out by firing squad. The last one was in November 2008 when 3 extremists behind the 2002 Bali bombings were shot.

Source: Agence France-Presse, July 29, 2010