Source: Eurasia Review (2 June 2022)
https://www.eurasiareview.com/02062022-iran-regime-using-death-penalty-as-means-of-repression/
In its annual review of the death penalty, Amnesty International reported that 2021 saw a worrying rise in executions and death sentences as some of the world’s most prolific executioners returned to business as usual and courts were unshackled from Covid-19 restrictions.
At least 579 executions were known to have been carried out across 18 countries last year – a 20% increase on the recorded total for 2020. Iran accounted for the biggest portion of this rise, executing at least 314 people (up from at least 246 in 2020), its highest execution total since 2017. It is worth noting that these are the statistics that the government of Iran has offered to state-run media, and the actual number of executions in Iran in 2021 is undoubtedly higher. Iran claims most of these executions have been due to a marked increase in drug-related cases– a flagrant violation of international law that prohibits the use of the death penalty for crimes other than those involving intentional killing.
Iran maintains a mandatory death penalty for possession of certain types and quantities of drugs – with the number of executions recorded for drug-related offenses rising more than five-fold to 132 in 2021 from 23 the previous year. The known number of women executed also rose from nine to 14. At the same time, the Iranian authorities continued their abhorrent assault on children’s rights by executing three people who were under the age of 18 at the time of the crime, contrary to their obligations under international law.
A review of Iran’s death penalty practice suggests that religious and political offenses are employed in a relatively arbitrary fashion, with religious offenses being used to silence political dissidents and political offenses used to persecute persons having acted against religion.
On Thursday, March 17, Javaid Rehman, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, presented his report during the 49th session of the Human Rights Council. Mr. Rehman highlighted widespread human rights abuses and drew attention to the system-wide lack of accountability for human rights failures: “I reiterate the fundamental responsibility of the State to take serious steps to ensure accountability. In the absence of such steps and the unavailability of domestic channels for accountability, I stress the role and responsibility of the international community, including this Council.”
At the start of 2022, there were serious concerns regarding a recent spike in executions. During the past few weeks, Iran executed forty-nine individuals—fourteen in ten days alone. Of the forty-nine, ten can be attributed to drug-related offenses. Sentencing data also indicate a spike in the issuance of the death penalty. In the same recent thirty-day period, ten individuals were sentenced to death, including 27-year-old Wushu champion Yazdan Merzaei, on drug-related charges.
The Iranian regime’s killing machine has not stopped and is busier than ever. Prisoners are tortured to their death, execution chambers have a waiting list, and Iran’s officials, courts, and judges in the brutal judiciary system recognize no halt or break for issuing death sentences. Based on the Iranian regime Prison Organization’s classified documents obtained by the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), some 5,197 prisoners are on death row or convicted of Qisas (retribution in kind). “Some 107 prisoners are sentenced to amputation, 51 were sentenced to stoning, and 60 death row prisoners were under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged offense in 2020,” the NCRI stated. According to the documents, there are “1,366 inmates with death sentences, 39 of whom are women; and 3,831 prisoners sentenced to Qisas, 144 of whom are women. The number of prisoners with sentences of more than 15 years is 17,190.”
At dawn on Wednesday, May 25, the Iranian regime’s Judiciary executed at least eight prisoners in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj.
Three of these individuals were identified as Abbas Bitarfan, Ali Nosrati, and Gholam Hossein Zeinali. The other two executed prisoners were Ali Montazeri and Vahid Mianabadi.
On Wednesday, Tehran’s public prosecutor also announced the execution of a prisoner identified only by his initials as R.A. who had previously been sentenced to death on charges of ‘Moharebeh’ (Arabic for war against God). Some sources have verified the identity of the prisoner as Ramin Arab. A local source also reported the execution of another prisoner on May 21 at Zahedan Central Prison in southeastern Iran. The prisoner was identified as Abdullah Brahui from Zahedan. According to the state-run Rokna news agency, a 29-year-old prisoner was executed in Mashhad prison in northeastern Iran on May 22.
The rise in the number of executions in Iran and the regime’s insistence on holding its grounds despite international outrage against this increase reveals a plain and simple reality: The regime of the mullahs is on the verge of collapse and is under the illusion that sending Iranians to the gallows would prolong its life.
Showing posts with label death penalty statistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death penalty statistics. Show all posts
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
UN: Iran Executed More Than 100 People Between January and March
Source: VOA (21 June 2022)
https://www.voanews.com/a/un-iran-executed-more-than-100-people-between-january-and-march/6627085.html
GENEVA —
Iran executed more than 100 people in the first three months of 2022, continuing a worrying upward trend, according to a report by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that was presented Tuesday.
Speaking before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, U.N. deputy human rights chief Nada Al-Nashif presented Guterres' latest report on Iran, decrying that executions in the country were on the rise.
"While 260 individuals were executed in 2020, at least 310 individuals were executed in 2021, including at least 14 women," she said, adding that the trend had continued this year.
Between January 1 and March 20, she said, "At least 105 people were executed," many of whom belonged to minority groups."
Guterres's report had noted with deep concern the increase of executions for lesser crimes, including for drug-related offenses, Nashif said.
"The death penalty continues to be imposed on the basis of charges not amounting to 'most serious crimes,' and in ways incompatible with fair trials standards," she told the council.
Nashif said that in March, 52 people sentenced to death on drug-related charges were transferred to Shiraz prison for execution.
She also lamented the continued use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders, in violation of international law.
'Excessive use of force'
Between August 2021 and March 2022, at least two people who committed their alleged crimes as minors were executed and more than 85 juvenile offenders remain on death row, she said.
"In February 2022, in a positive development, the Supreme Court decided to revoke the death sentence against a child offender who had been on death row for 18 years," Nashif added.
The deputy rights chief also decried other rights abuses in Iran, especially in response to protests over a range of significant social, political and economic challenges over the past year.
"Excessive use of force constitutes the default response by the authorities to managing assemblies," she said.
"In April and May 2022, at least 55 individuals -- teachers, lawyers, labor rights defenders, artists and academics -- were arrested during protests, many of whom are facing national security charges."
To date, no steps have been taken to establish accountability for violations committed during the nationwide protests in November 2019, she added.
Unnecessary deaths caused by excessive force inflicted by the authorities, against border couriers, peaceful protesters and those in detention, has continued with impunity, Nashif told the council.
"The scale of deaths in detention ... is of serious concern," she said.
Mehdi Ali Abadi, Iran's deputy permanent representative in Geneva, slammed the report, saying it was based on a malicious mandate forced on the U.N. by Western countries to stigmatize Iran, insisting it was "biased by default."
"Reducing the lofty code of human rights into a petty political tool is appalling and disgraceful," he told the council.
https://www.voanews.com/a/un-iran-executed-more-than-100-people-between-january-and-march/6627085.html
GENEVA —
Iran executed more than 100 people in the first three months of 2022, continuing a worrying upward trend, according to a report by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that was presented Tuesday.
Speaking before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, U.N. deputy human rights chief Nada Al-Nashif presented Guterres' latest report on Iran, decrying that executions in the country were on the rise.
"While 260 individuals were executed in 2020, at least 310 individuals were executed in 2021, including at least 14 women," she said, adding that the trend had continued this year.
Between January 1 and March 20, she said, "At least 105 people were executed," many of whom belonged to minority groups."
Guterres's report had noted with deep concern the increase of executions for lesser crimes, including for drug-related offenses, Nashif said.
"The death penalty continues to be imposed on the basis of charges not amounting to 'most serious crimes,' and in ways incompatible with fair trials standards," she told the council.
Nashif said that in March, 52 people sentenced to death on drug-related charges were transferred to Shiraz prison for execution.
She also lamented the continued use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders, in violation of international law.
'Excessive use of force'
Between August 2021 and March 2022, at least two people who committed their alleged crimes as minors were executed and more than 85 juvenile offenders remain on death row, she said.
"In February 2022, in a positive development, the Supreme Court decided to revoke the death sentence against a child offender who had been on death row for 18 years," Nashif added.
The deputy rights chief also decried other rights abuses in Iran, especially in response to protests over a range of significant social, political and economic challenges over the past year.
"Excessive use of force constitutes the default response by the authorities to managing assemblies," she said.
"In April and May 2022, at least 55 individuals -- teachers, lawyers, labor rights defenders, artists and academics -- were arrested during protests, many of whom are facing national security charges."
To date, no steps have been taken to establish accountability for violations committed during the nationwide protests in November 2019, she added.
Unnecessary deaths caused by excessive force inflicted by the authorities, against border couriers, peaceful protesters and those in detention, has continued with impunity, Nashif told the council.
"The scale of deaths in detention ... is of serious concern," she said.
Mehdi Ali Abadi, Iran's deputy permanent representative in Geneva, slammed the report, saying it was based on a malicious mandate forced on the U.N. by Western countries to stigmatize Iran, insisting it was "biased by default."
"Reducing the lofty code of human rights into a petty political tool is appalling and disgraceful," he told the council.
Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Saudi Arabia executes 81 in one day for terror offences
Source: Straits Times (12 March 2022)
All had been "found guilty of committing multiple heinous crimes", the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported, saying they included convicts linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, or to Al-Qaeda, Yemen's Huthi rebel forces or "other terrorist organisations".
They had been plotting attacks on vital economic sites, or had targeted or had killed members of the security forces, or had smuggled weapons into the country, the SPA added.
Of the 81 people, 73 were Saudi citizens, seven were Yemeni and one was a Syrian national.
SPA said all those executed were tried in Saudi courts, with trials overseen by 13 judges over three separate stages for each individual.
The wealthy Gulf country has one of the world's highest execution rates.
Saturday's announcement marks the kingdom's highest number of recorded executions in one day, and more than the total of 69 executions in all of 2021.
Friday, 23 April 2021
China, Middle East dominate 2020 list of top executioners: Report
Source: Al Jazeera (21 April 2021)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/21/executions-death-penalties-continued-in-2020-amid-covid-report
While the year 2020 witnessed an overall decline in the number of global death penalties, some countries increased the number of executions they carried out.
In its annual global review of the death penalty, Amnesty International said that the unprecedented challenge of the coronavirus pandemic contributed to a trend of decline in global executions between January and December 2020. But authorities in 18 countries continued executing last year.
Amnesty relied on official figures, judgements, media reports and information from families, individuals and civil societies to collate data for its report titled Death Sentences and Executions in 2020.
Commenting on the findings, Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, said in a statement: “As the world focused on finding ways to protect lives from COVID-19, several governments showed a disturbing determination to resort to the death penalty and execute people no matter what.”
“The death penalty is an abhorrent punishment and pursuing executions in the middle of a pandemic further highlights its inherent cruelty,” Callamard said, adding that many people on death row were unable to access in-person legal representation under these conditions, which is considered “a particularly egregious assault on human rights”.
Although the figures in the report provided an overall reflection of the global breakdown of executions in 2020, they were on the lower end of estimates for many countries.
Data on the use of the death penalty is classified information in some countries, including China and Vietnam, whereas in countries like Laos and North Korea, little or no information is available due to restrictive state practices.
Top six executing countries
China is believed to be “the world’s most prolific executioner”, executing thousands of people each year, said the report.
But with Chinese authorities classifying the total number of death sentences and executions as state secrets, it is difficult to verify the exact number carried out.
After China, four Middle Eastern countries – Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia – accounted for 88 percent of all known executions in 2020, said the report.
Iran came in as the second-highest global executioner with more than 246 executions carried out between January and December 2020.
Among those executed was journalist Ruhollah Zam, who was hung on December 12. He was once-exiled over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017.
Coming in third was Egypt, which at 107 executions, tripled the number of yearly executions in 2020 compared with the year before.
The 2020 toll was the highest since the number of executions peaked in 2013, following the military overthrow in July 2013 of Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. At least 109 executions were carried out in 2013, according to Amnesty.
Dozens of those executions were related to political violence. Many of the trials were marred by serious human rights violations, including torture and enforced disappearances, said the report.
The spike in executions in Egypt occurred between October and November when the government executed 57 people, including four women. Several human rights organisations decried the executions.
In fourth place, Iraq executed more than 45 people last year. That total was still less than half the number of executions carried out by the Iraqi authorities in 2019, said the report.
Several of those cases involved prisoners in terrorism-related crimes, who according to the United Nations human rights experts, faced trials that were unjust.
With at least 27 executions, Saudi Arabia was considered the fifth top global executioner in 2020, according to the report.
Despite this, the number of recorded executions in Saudi Arabia fell by 85 percent from 184 in 2019.
Criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record has grown since King Salman named his son Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) as crown prince and heir to the throne in June 2017 and Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul in October 2018.
In a huge setback, the US became the only country in the Americas to carry out executions in 2020 after the Trump administration carried out the first federal execution in 17 years in July 2020.
And yet, in 2020, the US reached its lowest figure of executions in almost 30 years.
International law violations
Additionally, Amnesty recorded several executions that violated international law including one public execution and three people executed for crimes that occurred below the age of 18 in Iran.
In violation of international law, people with mental or intellectual disabilities were also put to death in countries including the US, Japan, the Maldives and Pakistan, said the report.
Meanwhile, many counties are believed to have imposed death sentences following proceedings that did not meet international standards for fair trials in Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt and Singapore among others.
In China, Iran and Saudi Arabia at least 30 executions were linked to drug-related offences.
Lowest in decade
The total number of known global executions in 2020 was at least 483, said the report, which marked the lowest number of executions recorded by Amnesty in at least 10 years.
The figure represented a 26-percent decrease in the number of executions compared with 2019 and a 70-percent fall from 1,634 global executions in 2015. This drop was primarily linked to reductions in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according to the report.
Furthermore, the number of known executing countries fell from 20 in 2019 to 18 in 2020.
At the same time, at 1,477 the report recorded a 36-percent decline in newly imposed death sentences in 2020 globally, compared with the previous year. According to the report, this decline was partly due to the coronavirus pandemic disrupting and delayed criminal proceedings globally.
No executions were recorded in several countries that executed people in the previous two years, including Afghanistan, Belarus, Japan, Singapore and Sudan.
Abolishing death penalty
Meanwhile, the US state of Colorado and Chad abolished the death penalty in 2020, which as of April 2021, brought the number of countries to have abolished the death penalty for all crimes to 108.
With Kazakhstan committing to abolish the death penalty and Barbados concluding reforms to repeal the mandatory death penalty, the number of countries that abolished it in law or practice reached 144.
“Despite the continued pursuit of the death penalty by some governments, the overall picture in 2020 was positive,” said Callamard.
“We urge leaders in all countries that have not yet repealed this punishment to make 2021 the year that they end state-sanctioned killings for good,” she added.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/21/executions-death-penalties-continued-in-2020-amid-covid-report
While the year 2020 witnessed an overall decline in the number of global death penalties, some countries increased the number of executions they carried out.
In its annual global review of the death penalty, Amnesty International said that the unprecedented challenge of the coronavirus pandemic contributed to a trend of decline in global executions between January and December 2020. But authorities in 18 countries continued executing last year.
Amnesty relied on official figures, judgements, media reports and information from families, individuals and civil societies to collate data for its report titled Death Sentences and Executions in 2020.
Commenting on the findings, Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, said in a statement: “As the world focused on finding ways to protect lives from COVID-19, several governments showed a disturbing determination to resort to the death penalty and execute people no matter what.”
“The death penalty is an abhorrent punishment and pursuing executions in the middle of a pandemic further highlights its inherent cruelty,” Callamard said, adding that many people on death row were unable to access in-person legal representation under these conditions, which is considered “a particularly egregious assault on human rights”.
Although the figures in the report provided an overall reflection of the global breakdown of executions in 2020, they were on the lower end of estimates for many countries.
Data on the use of the death penalty is classified information in some countries, including China and Vietnam, whereas in countries like Laos and North Korea, little or no information is available due to restrictive state practices.
Top six executing countries
China is believed to be “the world’s most prolific executioner”, executing thousands of people each year, said the report.
But with Chinese authorities classifying the total number of death sentences and executions as state secrets, it is difficult to verify the exact number carried out.
After China, four Middle Eastern countries – Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia – accounted for 88 percent of all known executions in 2020, said the report.
Iran came in as the second-highest global executioner with more than 246 executions carried out between January and December 2020.
Among those executed was journalist Ruhollah Zam, who was hung on December 12. He was once-exiled over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017.
Coming in third was Egypt, which at 107 executions, tripled the number of yearly executions in 2020 compared with the year before.
The 2020 toll was the highest since the number of executions peaked in 2013, following the military overthrow in July 2013 of Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. At least 109 executions were carried out in 2013, according to Amnesty.
Dozens of those executions were related to political violence. Many of the trials were marred by serious human rights violations, including torture and enforced disappearances, said the report.
The spike in executions in Egypt occurred between October and November when the government executed 57 people, including four women. Several human rights organisations decried the executions.
In fourth place, Iraq executed more than 45 people last year. That total was still less than half the number of executions carried out by the Iraqi authorities in 2019, said the report.
Several of those cases involved prisoners in terrorism-related crimes, who according to the United Nations human rights experts, faced trials that were unjust.
With at least 27 executions, Saudi Arabia was considered the fifth top global executioner in 2020, according to the report.
Despite this, the number of recorded executions in Saudi Arabia fell by 85 percent from 184 in 2019.
Criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record has grown since King Salman named his son Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) as crown prince and heir to the throne in June 2017 and Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul in October 2018.
In a huge setback, the US became the only country in the Americas to carry out executions in 2020 after the Trump administration carried out the first federal execution in 17 years in July 2020.
And yet, in 2020, the US reached its lowest figure of executions in almost 30 years.
International law violations
Additionally, Amnesty recorded several executions that violated international law including one public execution and three people executed for crimes that occurred below the age of 18 in Iran.
In violation of international law, people with mental or intellectual disabilities were also put to death in countries including the US, Japan, the Maldives and Pakistan, said the report.
Meanwhile, many counties are believed to have imposed death sentences following proceedings that did not meet international standards for fair trials in Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt and Singapore among others.
In China, Iran and Saudi Arabia at least 30 executions were linked to drug-related offences.
Lowest in decade
The total number of known global executions in 2020 was at least 483, said the report, which marked the lowest number of executions recorded by Amnesty in at least 10 years.
The figure represented a 26-percent decrease in the number of executions compared with 2019 and a 70-percent fall from 1,634 global executions in 2015. This drop was primarily linked to reductions in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according to the report.
Furthermore, the number of known executing countries fell from 20 in 2019 to 18 in 2020.
At the same time, at 1,477 the report recorded a 36-percent decline in newly imposed death sentences in 2020 globally, compared with the previous year. According to the report, this decline was partly due to the coronavirus pandemic disrupting and delayed criminal proceedings globally.
No executions were recorded in several countries that executed people in the previous two years, including Afghanistan, Belarus, Japan, Singapore and Sudan.
Abolishing death penalty
Meanwhile, the US state of Colorado and Chad abolished the death penalty in 2020, which as of April 2021, brought the number of countries to have abolished the death penalty for all crimes to 108.
With Kazakhstan committing to abolish the death penalty and Barbados concluding reforms to repeal the mandatory death penalty, the number of countries that abolished it in law or practice reached 144.
“Despite the continued pursuit of the death penalty by some governments, the overall picture in 2020 was positive,” said Callamard.
“We urge leaders in all countries that have not yet repealed this punishment to make 2021 the year that they end state-sanctioned killings for good,” she added.
Wednesday, 22 April 2020
Death penalty in 2019: Facts and figures
Source: Amnesty International (21 April 2020)
Amnesty International recorded 657 executions in 20 countries in 2019, a decrease of 5% compared to 2018 (at least 690). This is the lowest number of executions that Amnesty International has recorded in at least a decade.
Most executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt – in that order.
China remained the world’s leading executioner – but the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is classified as a state secret; the global figure of at least 657 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in China.
Excluding China, 86% of all reported executions took place in just four countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt.
Bangladesh and Bahrain resumed executions last year, after a hiatus in 2018. Amnesty International did not report any executions in Afghanistan, Taiwan and Thailand, despite having done so in 2018.
Executions in Iran fell slightly from at least 253 in 2018 to at least 251 in 2019. Executions in Iraq almost doubled from at least 52 in 2018 to at least 100 in 2019, while Saudi Arabia executed a record number of people from 149 in 2018 to 184 in 2019.
Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Kazakhstan, Kenya and Zimbabwe either took positive steps or made pronouncements in 2019 which may lead to the abolition of the death penalty.
Barbados also removed the mandatory death penalty from its Constitution. In the United States, the Governor of California established an official moratorium on executions in the US state with biggest death row population, and New Hampshire became the 21st US state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes.
Gambia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the Russian Federation and Tajikistan continued to observe official moratoriums on executions.
At the end of 2019, 106 countries (a majority of the world’s states) had abolished the death penalty in law for all crimes, and 142 countries (more than two-thirds) had abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
Amnesty International recorded commutations or pardons of death sentences in 24 countries: Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco/Western Sahara, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Singapore, Sudan, Thailand, UAE, USA, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
At least 11 exonerations of prisoners under sentence of death were recorded in two countries: USA and Zambia.
Amnesty International recorded at least 2,307 death sentences in 56 countries compared to the total of 2,531 reported in 54 countries in 2018. However, Amnesty did not receive information on official figures for death sentences imposed in Malaysia, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, countries that reported high official numbers of death sentences in previous years.
At least 26,604 people were known to be under sentence of death globally at the end of 2019.
The following methods of execution were used across the world in 2019: beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.
At least 13 public executions were recorded in Iran. At least six people – four in Iran, one in Saudi Arabia and one in South Sudan – were executed for crimes that occurred when they were below 18 years of age. People with mental or intellectual disabilities were under sentence of death in several countries, including Japan, Maldives, Pakistan and USA.
Death sentences were known to have been imposed after proceedings that did not meet international fair trial standards in countries including Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Viet Nam and Yemen.
Regional death penalty analysis
Americas
For the 11th consecutive year, the USA remained the only country to carry out executions in the region. Trinidad and Tobago was the only country to retain the mandatory death penalty for murder.
The number of executions (from 25 to 22) and death sentences (from 45 to 35) recorded in the US decreased compared to 2018.
More than 40% of all recorded executions were carried out in Texas, which remained the leading executing state in the country (from 13 to nine). Missouri carried out one execution in 2019 after none in the previous year. Conversely, Nebraska and Ohio did not put anyone to death in 2019 after carrying out executions in 2018 (one in each state).
Outside the USA, the progress towards ending the use of the death penalty continued. Barbados removed the mandatory death penalty from its constitution while Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Guatemala, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia did not have anyone on death row and no reports of new death sentences.
Asia-Pacific
For the first time in almost a decade, the Asia-Pacific region saw a decrease in the number of executing countries, with seven countries carrying out executions during the year.
Without a figure for Viet Nam, the number of recorded executions (29) showed a slight decrease due to drops in Japan (from 15 to three) and Singapore (from 13 to four). This regional total, as in previous years, does not include the thousands of executions that were believed to have been carried out in China and is affected by ongoing secrecy in this country as well as in North Korea and Viet Nam.
Although Bangladesh resumed executions (two), hiatuses were reported in Afghanistan, Taiwan and Thailand, which all executed people in 2018. Malaysia continued to observe its official moratorium on executions established in July 2018.
Recorded executions in Pakistan in 2019 represented the same total as in the previous year with at least 14 men hanged in the country. Death sentences in the country increased significantly to at least 632, after additional courts became operational to deal with a backlog of cases.
The number of executions in Japan was down from 15 in 2018, when the country reported its highest yearly figure since 2008, to three in 2019. Two Japanese men were executed on 2 August and a Chinese national was executed on 26 December. All men had been convicted of murder.
Singapore reported 4 executions in 2019, from a record-high of 13 in 2018.
The Philippines attempted to reintroduce the death penalty for “heinous crimes related to illegal drugs and plunder”.
At least 1,227 new death sentences across 17 countries were known to have been imposed, a 12% increase compared to 2018.
Europe and Central Asia
At least two executions were recorded in Belarus in 2019, compared to at least four in 2018. The last time another country in the region carried out executions was in 2005.
Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Tajikistan continued to observe official moratoriums on executions. Kazakhstan also announced measures to start the process of joining the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which commits states to abolishing the death penalty.
Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East and North Africa region reported a 16% increase in the number of executions, from 501 in 2018 to 579 in 2019, bucking the trend that has seen a decline in the region’s recorded use of the death penalty since 2015.
This was mainly due to a sharp increase in the use of the death penalty in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Iraq almost doubled the number of executions from at least 52 in 2018 to at least 100 in 2019, while Saudi Arabia executed a record number of people – 184 -- in 2019 compared to 149 people in 2018. Together with Iran, they accounted for 92% of the total number of recorded executions in the region.
Seven countries – Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen – were known to have carried out executions last year.
There were 707 recorded death sentences in 2019, a 40% drop compared to 2018, when 1,170 death sentences were recorded in the region.
Egypt again imposed the most confirmed death sentences in the region, but the 2019 number (at least 435) was dramatically lower from at least 717 people sentenced to death in 2018. The number of death sentences the Iraqi authorities imposed during the course of the year was also significantly lower -- at least 87 in 2019 compared to at least 271 in 2018.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Four countries – Botswana, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan – carried out 25 executions in 2019. Overall recorded executions in the region increased by one compared to 2018.
For a second year in a row, South Sudan saw an alarming increase in executions, putting to death at least 11 people in 2019; the highest recorded number in any year since the country’s independence in 2011. Of the people executed, three were from the same family, one was a child at the time of the crime and was about 17 when he was sentenced to death.
Recorded death sentences rose by 53% from at least 212 in 2018 to 325 in 2019.
The number of countries that imposed death sentences increased to 18 from 17 recorded in 2018.
Monday, 4 February 2019
India: 2018 saw highest death penalties since 2000
Source: Anadolu Agency (25 January 2019)
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/india-2018-saw-highest-death-penalties-since-2000/1374594
In nearly two decades, Indian courts awarded highest number of death penalties last year, a new report has found.
According to The Indian Express, a local daily, the report -- Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2018 -- released by New Delhi-based National Law University said that courts pronounced 162 death sentences in 2018 which are highest in a year since 2000.
India is one of the countries where awarding capital punishment is legal. In 2017, Indian courts had pronounced capital punishment to 108 persons.
The daily noted that rise in death penalties could be a result of an amended law, under which the capital punishment can be given to those convicted of rape and gang rape of girls below the age of 12.
On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old student was brutally assaulted with iron rods and gangraped in a private bus in the capital New Delhi -- a horrific crime that roused anger in India. The then government set up a panel which suggested changes in Indian Panel Code (IPC), which were subsequently adopted by Indian Parliament in August 2018.
According to the report, eight of 29 Indian states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura -- did not award any death sentence during this period.
The report notes that most of the death penalties were awarded by trial courts which can be challenged in Supreme Court of India.
Last year, the Supreme Court had commuted death sentences to life imprisonment in 11 of the 12 cases it heard, the daily noted.
The spike in capital punishment has triggered a debate in India.
Rebecca John, an Indian lawyer, told The Wire, a local news website: “This scheme is a serious abnegation of all constitutional principles settled over decades by courts of law, and poses a direct threat to the fundamental right to life and liberty.”
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/india-2018-saw-highest-death-penalties-since-2000/1374594
In nearly two decades, Indian courts awarded highest number of death penalties last year, a new report has found.
According to The Indian Express, a local daily, the report -- Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2018 -- released by New Delhi-based National Law University said that courts pronounced 162 death sentences in 2018 which are highest in a year since 2000.
India is one of the countries where awarding capital punishment is legal. In 2017, Indian courts had pronounced capital punishment to 108 persons.
The daily noted that rise in death penalties could be a result of an amended law, under which the capital punishment can be given to those convicted of rape and gang rape of girls below the age of 12.
On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old student was brutally assaulted with iron rods and gangraped in a private bus in the capital New Delhi -- a horrific crime that roused anger in India. The then government set up a panel which suggested changes in Indian Panel Code (IPC), which were subsequently adopted by Indian Parliament in August 2018.
According to the report, eight of 29 Indian states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura -- did not award any death sentence during this period.
The report notes that most of the death penalties were awarded by trial courts which can be challenged in Supreme Court of India.
Last year, the Supreme Court had commuted death sentences to life imprisonment in 11 of the 12 cases it heard, the daily noted.
The spike in capital punishment has triggered a debate in India.
Rebecca John, an Indian lawyer, told The Wire, a local news website: “This scheme is a serious abnegation of all constitutional principles settled over decades by courts of law, and poses a direct threat to the fundamental right to life and liberty.”
Thursday, 20 April 2017
Beware Vietnam's Death Machine
Source: The Diplomat (20 April 2017)
http://thediplomat.com/2017/04/beware-vietnams-death-machine/
One Thursday in July 2013, Barack Obama and his Vietnamese counterpart, Truong Tan Sang, sat down in the Oval Office to discuss Thomas Jefferson. Sang brought to this historic meeting between the two nation’s presidents a letter Ho Chi Minh had sent Harry Truman, prior to the Vietnam War, seeking cooperation with the United States. Uncle Ho’s words, said Obama, were “inspired by the words of Thomas Jefferson.” In fact, when the Proclamation of Independence was read by Ho in 1945, he chose to begin with an extract from America’s Declaration of Independence, its principal author being Jefferson.
While a visit to the White House by the Vietnamese president was an occasion for historical reflection, the here-and-now was what really mattered. Indeed, diplomacy and trade were the main talking points, signaling the start of an emboldened relationship between the two nations. But the U.S. president did at least mention Vietnam’s human right’s record.
“All of us have to respect issues like freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly. And we had a very candid conversation about both the progress that Vietnam is making and the challenges that remain,” Obama said after the meeting. Sang’s only comment was that the two men “have differences on the issue.”
Little reported afterwards was the execution of a 27-year old Vietnamese man named Nguyen Anh Tuan, a convicted murderer, which took place on August 6, just two weeks after Sang’s visit to White House. Tuan’s execution was the first in years, and the first since Vietnam replaced firing squads with lethal injections in 2011. However, a ban on importing “authorized” lethal drugs meant it had to use untested domestic poisons. Tuan took two hours to die, reportedly in harrowing pain.
Between the date of Tuan’s death and June 30, 2016, Vietnam executed 429 people (or an average of 147 executions per year; or 12 each month). Additionally, 1,134 people were given death sentences between July 2011 and June 2016. The number remaining on “death row” is not known.
These figures only came to light after the public security ministry decided to release them in February. They are normally classified as state secrets and rarely revealed. Surprising many around the world who thought the numbers to be much lower, Amnesty International reported this month that Vietnam is now the world’s third-most prolific executioner of prisoners. Only China and Iran are thought to have executed more people.
In June 2016, the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights provided a lengthy report on the death penalty’s mechanisms in Vietnam, explaining that capital punishment is applied for 18 different offenses, down from 44 in 1999.
Like many of its Southeast Asian neighbors this includes harsh drug laws, and Vietnam metes out the death penalty for those caught in possession or smuggling 100 grams or more of heroin or cocaine, or 5 kilograms or more of cannabis and other opiates. Other crimes, including murder and rape, also carry a death sentence.
After reforms during the 2000s, “the death penalty was effectively abolished on certain crimes, such as robbery, disobeying orders or surrendering to the enemy. But in other cases, crimes were simply re-worded to mask their appearance and deceive international opinion,” the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights report reads.
Particularly troubling is the fact that the Vietnamese regime wields capital punishment for vaguely-defined crimes of “infringing upon national security,” explains the report. These include carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration (Article 109 of the reformed Criminal Code), rebellion (article 112), and sabotaging the material-technical foundations of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (article 114).
Returning to the recent execution figures, it is worth considering why the regime would choose to announce them in February – knowing the reaction they would cause – and whether they are not masking a far larger number of executions.
One problem is that they came with no information as to what the prisoners were being executed for. We might assume that most were for drug offenses or murder, as has been the case in the past, but it is by no means certain. That leads one to wonder whether any of the people executed were arrested for simply protesting against the regime.
Even if they weren’t, capital punishment and human rights are by no means detached issues, as some claim. What is the connection between the drug trafficker, the murder and the human-rights activist in the regime’s eyes? They are all a risk to national security. Indeed, in his famed essay, “Of Crimes and Punishments,” Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria described the death penalty as a “war of the whole nation against a citizen whose destruction they consider necessary.”
But what is the “nation” in Vietnam? It is not just an arbitrary land defined borders. No – according the regime’s own laws, it is defined as akin to the “people’s administration.” Since the Communist Party and the Nation are effectively the same under the law, an attack on the Party becomes treasonous. Indeed, the law makes “no distinction between violent acts such as terrorism, and the peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression,” the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights report reads.
Moreover, what is a “citizen” in Vietnam? And if it is to be treasonous to attack the Party, and thereby the Nation, does this mean the person who wishes the end of the Party is not a citizen? When France did away with the peine de mort in the early 1980s, Francois Mitterrand’s Minister of Justice said the scaffold had come to symbolize “a totalitarian concept of the relationship between the citizen and the state.” It is this same totalitarian relationship that knots capital punishment and human rights in Vietnam.
What also catches the eye is the hubristic nature of Hanoi’s release of the execution figures, coming as they do as criticism of the regime increases. They might be better read as a boast, not an admission. The overriding message is: We are prepared to kill, and have done so more than most people thought.
Following the 2013 meeting between Obama and Sang, some pundits thought Obama’s ambition was to embolden Vietnam’s reformist politicians through diplomatic engagement and improved trade links. This became America’s foreign policy towards Hanoi for the next three years. It didn’t work, however, and suppression has remained as essential as ever for the Communist Party, perhaps even more so, especially as criticism of the Party’s rule nowadays swells on issues such an environmentalism.
So while Vietnam’s economy has flourished since Obama’s rapprochement, its civil society has languished somewhere between desperation and enviable bravery. Obama’s administration bears responsibility for this, and the strategic patience it gambled on played only into Hanoi’s hands. Naive, perhaps. Or just willfully remiss, as Vietnam’s amity was necessary for America’s counter-Beijing Asian ‘pivot’. Maybe, then, Vietnam’s activists were jettisoned for the sake of geopolitics – an unexceptional component of America’s Janus-faced foreign policy.
Today, however, U.S. trade links are far from assured. U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the TPP has jeopardized the free-trade bounty Hanoi was counting on. Vietnam now appears keen to formalize a bilateral free-trade agreement with the US, and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said last month that he wants to visit Washington as soon as possible
In a perverse situation, Trump’s administration now wields the stick that Obama chose not to use. Moreover, it has the ability to bargain in a way Obama couldn’t: No trade pact without improved human rights. Since the Communist Party’s legitimacy depends on a growing economy – and a fifth of all Vietnam’s export are to the United States, which could be further hampered if Trump pushes through trade tariffs and increased taxes on imports – Hanoi might be strong-armed into opening up space for criticism, in return for the United States opening more trade links.
Still, this depends on how much Trump values a human-rights laden foreign policy, which some analysts claim he doesn’t. That said, the State Department’s decision to give the imprisoned Vietnamese activist Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh the “International Women of Courage Award” certainly irked Hanoi.
Perhaps this explains the adroit use of executions statistics by the Vietnamese regime, and the appropriate timing of their release. The numbers will raise hairs in Europe; the European Union (EU) bars membership for countries with capital punishment, though not for countries with which it agrees free-trade agreements, it seems. The EU-Vietnam FTA that should become effective next year but contains no condition regarding Vietnam abolishing the death penalty (surely patronizing, given that the EU has higher expectations of European countries than others).
The execution figures, however, put the United States in an awkward position. It cannot condemn Vietnam when it is still a practitioner in capital punishment, as well as the loudest proponent of drug prohibition internationally, too. As is to be expected, the White House has been silent on the matter. If the Washington can stomach the totalitarian ethos behind Vietnam’s capital punishment then why can’t it overlook Vietnam’s human right’s record, Hanoi may well argue. Indeed, the moral lecturer on human rights has the mirror turned on it when capital punishment arises.
One might assume, then, that with little international support for capital punishment abolition in Vietnam, the cogs will no doubt continue rotating on the death machine, at least until a true separation between the Nation and the Party, and between the State and the Citizen, takes place.
http://thediplomat.com/2017/04/beware-vietnams-death-machine/
One Thursday in July 2013, Barack Obama and his Vietnamese counterpart, Truong Tan Sang, sat down in the Oval Office to discuss Thomas Jefferson. Sang brought to this historic meeting between the two nation’s presidents a letter Ho Chi Minh had sent Harry Truman, prior to the Vietnam War, seeking cooperation with the United States. Uncle Ho’s words, said Obama, were “inspired by the words of Thomas Jefferson.” In fact, when the Proclamation of Independence was read by Ho in 1945, he chose to begin with an extract from America’s Declaration of Independence, its principal author being Jefferson.
While a visit to the White House by the Vietnamese president was an occasion for historical reflection, the here-and-now was what really mattered. Indeed, diplomacy and trade were the main talking points, signaling the start of an emboldened relationship between the two nations. But the U.S. president did at least mention Vietnam’s human right’s record.
“All of us have to respect issues like freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly. And we had a very candid conversation about both the progress that Vietnam is making and the challenges that remain,” Obama said after the meeting. Sang’s only comment was that the two men “have differences on the issue.”
Little reported afterwards was the execution of a 27-year old Vietnamese man named Nguyen Anh Tuan, a convicted murderer, which took place on August 6, just two weeks after Sang’s visit to White House. Tuan’s execution was the first in years, and the first since Vietnam replaced firing squads with lethal injections in 2011. However, a ban on importing “authorized” lethal drugs meant it had to use untested domestic poisons. Tuan took two hours to die, reportedly in harrowing pain.
Between the date of Tuan’s death and June 30, 2016, Vietnam executed 429 people (or an average of 147 executions per year; or 12 each month). Additionally, 1,134 people were given death sentences between July 2011 and June 2016. The number remaining on “death row” is not known.
These figures only came to light after the public security ministry decided to release them in February. They are normally classified as state secrets and rarely revealed. Surprising many around the world who thought the numbers to be much lower, Amnesty International reported this month that Vietnam is now the world’s third-most prolific executioner of prisoners. Only China and Iran are thought to have executed more people.
In June 2016, the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights provided a lengthy report on the death penalty’s mechanisms in Vietnam, explaining that capital punishment is applied for 18 different offenses, down from 44 in 1999.
Like many of its Southeast Asian neighbors this includes harsh drug laws, and Vietnam metes out the death penalty for those caught in possession or smuggling 100 grams or more of heroin or cocaine, or 5 kilograms or more of cannabis and other opiates. Other crimes, including murder and rape, also carry a death sentence.
After reforms during the 2000s, “the death penalty was effectively abolished on certain crimes, such as robbery, disobeying orders or surrendering to the enemy. But in other cases, crimes were simply re-worded to mask their appearance and deceive international opinion,” the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights report reads.
Particularly troubling is the fact that the Vietnamese regime wields capital punishment for vaguely-defined crimes of “infringing upon national security,” explains the report. These include carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration (Article 109 of the reformed Criminal Code), rebellion (article 112), and sabotaging the material-technical foundations of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (article 114).
Returning to the recent execution figures, it is worth considering why the regime would choose to announce them in February – knowing the reaction they would cause – and whether they are not masking a far larger number of executions.
One problem is that they came with no information as to what the prisoners were being executed for. We might assume that most were for drug offenses or murder, as has been the case in the past, but it is by no means certain. That leads one to wonder whether any of the people executed were arrested for simply protesting against the regime.
Even if they weren’t, capital punishment and human rights are by no means detached issues, as some claim. What is the connection between the drug trafficker, the murder and the human-rights activist in the regime’s eyes? They are all a risk to national security. Indeed, in his famed essay, “Of Crimes and Punishments,” Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria described the death penalty as a “war of the whole nation against a citizen whose destruction they consider necessary.”
But what is the “nation” in Vietnam? It is not just an arbitrary land defined borders. No – according the regime’s own laws, it is defined as akin to the “people’s administration.” Since the Communist Party and the Nation are effectively the same under the law, an attack on the Party becomes treasonous. Indeed, the law makes “no distinction between violent acts such as terrorism, and the peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression,” the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights report reads.
Moreover, what is a “citizen” in Vietnam? And if it is to be treasonous to attack the Party, and thereby the Nation, does this mean the person who wishes the end of the Party is not a citizen? When France did away with the peine de mort in the early 1980s, Francois Mitterrand’s Minister of Justice said the scaffold had come to symbolize “a totalitarian concept of the relationship between the citizen and the state.” It is this same totalitarian relationship that knots capital punishment and human rights in Vietnam.
What also catches the eye is the hubristic nature of Hanoi’s release of the execution figures, coming as they do as criticism of the regime increases. They might be better read as a boast, not an admission. The overriding message is: We are prepared to kill, and have done so more than most people thought.
Following the 2013 meeting between Obama and Sang, some pundits thought Obama’s ambition was to embolden Vietnam’s reformist politicians through diplomatic engagement and improved trade links. This became America’s foreign policy towards Hanoi for the next three years. It didn’t work, however, and suppression has remained as essential as ever for the Communist Party, perhaps even more so, especially as criticism of the Party’s rule nowadays swells on issues such an environmentalism.
So while Vietnam’s economy has flourished since Obama’s rapprochement, its civil society has languished somewhere between desperation and enviable bravery. Obama’s administration bears responsibility for this, and the strategic patience it gambled on played only into Hanoi’s hands. Naive, perhaps. Or just willfully remiss, as Vietnam’s amity was necessary for America’s counter-Beijing Asian ‘pivot’. Maybe, then, Vietnam’s activists were jettisoned for the sake of geopolitics – an unexceptional component of America’s Janus-faced foreign policy.
Today, however, U.S. trade links are far from assured. U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the TPP has jeopardized the free-trade bounty Hanoi was counting on. Vietnam now appears keen to formalize a bilateral free-trade agreement with the US, and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said last month that he wants to visit Washington as soon as possible
In a perverse situation, Trump’s administration now wields the stick that Obama chose not to use. Moreover, it has the ability to bargain in a way Obama couldn’t: No trade pact without improved human rights. Since the Communist Party’s legitimacy depends on a growing economy – and a fifth of all Vietnam’s export are to the United States, which could be further hampered if Trump pushes through trade tariffs and increased taxes on imports – Hanoi might be strong-armed into opening up space for criticism, in return for the United States opening more trade links.
Still, this depends on how much Trump values a human-rights laden foreign policy, which some analysts claim he doesn’t. That said, the State Department’s decision to give the imprisoned Vietnamese activist Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh the “International Women of Courage Award” certainly irked Hanoi.
Perhaps this explains the adroit use of executions statistics by the Vietnamese regime, and the appropriate timing of their release. The numbers will raise hairs in Europe; the European Union (EU) bars membership for countries with capital punishment, though not for countries with which it agrees free-trade agreements, it seems. The EU-Vietnam FTA that should become effective next year but contains no condition regarding Vietnam abolishing the death penalty (surely patronizing, given that the EU has higher expectations of European countries than others).
The execution figures, however, put the United States in an awkward position. It cannot condemn Vietnam when it is still a practitioner in capital punishment, as well as the loudest proponent of drug prohibition internationally, too. As is to be expected, the White House has been silent on the matter. If the Washington can stomach the totalitarian ethos behind Vietnam’s capital punishment then why can’t it overlook Vietnam’s human right’s record, Hanoi may well argue. Indeed, the moral lecturer on human rights has the mirror turned on it when capital punishment arises.
One might assume, then, that with little international support for capital punishment abolition in Vietnam, the cogs will no doubt continue rotating on the death machine, at least until a true separation between the Nation and the Party, and between the State and the Citizen, takes place.
Tuesday, 11 April 2017
Amnesty flags China’s non-transparency on ‘capital offenses’
Source: Asia Times (11 April 2017)
http://www.atimes.com/article/amnesty-flags-chinas-non-transparency-capital-offences/
Lack of transparency in relation to enforcement of terrorism and drug laws in China is identified as a growing area for concern by Amnesty International in a report published today.
‘China’s Deadly Secrets’, a companion to the organization’s annual report on capital punishment around the globe, notes that the country has sought greater diplomatic, military and law enforcement co-operation from other countries in its attempts to combat terrorism and stem the drug trade. However it flags a lack of understanding internationally as to how the law is applied in such cases as a concern.
Charges of “terrorism” or “extremism” are cited as a possible smokescreen for broad persecution of religious minorities and individuals who criticize the Chinese government. The authors also note that drug-related offences do not belong to the category of “most serious offences” to which the death penalty should be restricted under international law.
Amnesty’s annual report reveals that China remains the top executioner in the world, with thousands killed by authorities each year.
The human rights NGO says China executed thousands of people in 2016, more than all the other countries around the world put together. However, the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China “still remains unknown” as the data is kept secret.
Excluding China, 23 states around the world executed a total of 1,032 people in 2016, a 37% decrease from the 1,634 in 2015, when the organization recorded the highest number of executions in a single year since 1989. Other countries making up the world’s top five executioners in 2016 were Iran (at least 567), Saudi Arabia (at least 154), Iraq (at least 88) and Pakistan (at least 87).
Despite the significant year-on-year decrease, the overall number of executions in 2016 remained higher than the average recorded for the previous decade, Amnesty said.
Breakdown of death executions, excluding China. Source: Amnesty International
New disclosures in Vietnam and Malaysia also found that the numbers of executions in those countries were higher than previously thought. Vietnam executed 429 people from August 6, 2013 to June 30, 2016. The figures were first revealed in Vietnamese media in February 2017, making the country secretly the world’s third biggest executioner over the last three years, according to Amnesty.
“The magnitude of executions in Vietnam in recent years is truly shocking. You have to wonder how many people have faced the death penalty without the world knowing it,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International at the launch of the report in Hong Kong. “This conveyor belt of executions completely overshadows recent death penalty reforms.”
While unable to arrive at a conclusive figure for China, the report exposes hundreds of death penalty cases missing from its national online court database. Amnesty counted at least 931 reports of executions in China’s public news media from 2014 to 2016; however only 85 of them were recorded in the state database.
“How many people are executed in China every year and how they are executed remains completely unknown,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Regional Director for East Asia at Amnesty International. “This really stands in contrast with what the government is claiming in recent years.” The online database is touted as the government’s “crucial step towards openness” and evidence that the country’s judicial system has nothing to hide.
The database contains only “a tip of an iceberg” in relation to the thousands of death sentences that Amnesty International estimates are handed out every year in China, Bequelin said. The organization is “calling on the Chinese government to come clean, and disclose the actual level of capital punishment,” he added.
The total number of death sentences reported in 2016 (as opposed to executions carried out) jumped to 3,117 in 55 countries, exceeding the record-high total of 2,466 in 2014. The increase was mainly led by spikes in 12 countries including Bangladesh, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The organization’s improved ability to obtain credible data on countries such as Thailand is cited as having contributed to the higher overall figure.
http://www.atimes.com/article/amnesty-flags-chinas-non-transparency-capital-offences/
Lack of transparency in relation to enforcement of terrorism and drug laws in China is identified as a growing area for concern by Amnesty International in a report published today.
‘China’s Deadly Secrets’, a companion to the organization’s annual report on capital punishment around the globe, notes that the country has sought greater diplomatic, military and law enforcement co-operation from other countries in its attempts to combat terrorism and stem the drug trade. However it flags a lack of understanding internationally as to how the law is applied in such cases as a concern.
Charges of “terrorism” or “extremism” are cited as a possible smokescreen for broad persecution of religious minorities and individuals who criticize the Chinese government. The authors also note that drug-related offences do not belong to the category of “most serious offences” to which the death penalty should be restricted under international law.
Amnesty’s annual report reveals that China remains the top executioner in the world, with thousands killed by authorities each year.
The human rights NGO says China executed thousands of people in 2016, more than all the other countries around the world put together. However, the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China “still remains unknown” as the data is kept secret.
Excluding China, 23 states around the world executed a total of 1,032 people in 2016, a 37% decrease from the 1,634 in 2015, when the organization recorded the highest number of executions in a single year since 1989. Other countries making up the world’s top five executioners in 2016 were Iran (at least 567), Saudi Arabia (at least 154), Iraq (at least 88) and Pakistan (at least 87).
Despite the significant year-on-year decrease, the overall number of executions in 2016 remained higher than the average recorded for the previous decade, Amnesty said.
Breakdown of death executions, excluding China. Source: Amnesty International
New disclosures in Vietnam and Malaysia also found that the numbers of executions in those countries were higher than previously thought. Vietnam executed 429 people from August 6, 2013 to June 30, 2016. The figures were first revealed in Vietnamese media in February 2017, making the country secretly the world’s third biggest executioner over the last three years, according to Amnesty.
“The magnitude of executions in Vietnam in recent years is truly shocking. You have to wonder how many people have faced the death penalty without the world knowing it,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International at the launch of the report in Hong Kong. “This conveyor belt of executions completely overshadows recent death penalty reforms.”
While unable to arrive at a conclusive figure for China, the report exposes hundreds of death penalty cases missing from its national online court database. Amnesty counted at least 931 reports of executions in China’s public news media from 2014 to 2016; however only 85 of them were recorded in the state database.
“How many people are executed in China every year and how they are executed remains completely unknown,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Regional Director for East Asia at Amnesty International. “This really stands in contrast with what the government is claiming in recent years.” The online database is touted as the government’s “crucial step towards openness” and evidence that the country’s judicial system has nothing to hide.
The database contains only “a tip of an iceberg” in relation to the thousands of death sentences that Amnesty International estimates are handed out every year in China, Bequelin said. The organization is “calling on the Chinese government to come clean, and disclose the actual level of capital punishment,” he added.
The total number of death sentences reported in 2016 (as opposed to executions carried out) jumped to 3,117 in 55 countries, exceeding the record-high total of 2,466 in 2014. The increase was mainly led by spikes in 12 countries including Bangladesh, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The organization’s improved ability to obtain credible data on countries such as Thailand is cited as having contributed to the higher overall figure.
Saturday, 25 February 2017
Vietnam to build five more lethal injection venues
Source: DTI News (9 February 2017)
http://www.dtinews.vn/en/news/017/49419/vietnam-to-build-five-more-lethal-injection-venues.html
Five more venues to facilitate lethal injections will be built in Vietnam in the coming time according to the Ministry of Public Security.
A report from the ministry showed that since the first execution carried out using lethal injection in August 2013, 429 prisoners on death row had been executed by this method by July 2016 at five facilities in Hanoi, HCM City, Nghe An, Son La, and Dak Lak.
The National Assembly amended the Penal Code in 1999 and 2009 in which the number of death-eligible crimes were reduced from 44 to 22. However, the number of death sentences, especially in crimes relating to drugs, murder, and rape, has not declined for many reasons, the report said.
There were 1,134 criminals given death sentences in five years between July 1st, 2011 and June 30th, 2016.
According to the ministry, there have been many difficulties in carrying out executions using lethal injection instead of firing squads during the trial period, especially in obtaining lethal drugs and relieving the pressure of holding hundreds of death row inmates in prison.
"But this is certainly a more humane method of execution which causes less pain to the convicted and their family, and relieves pressure on executors, the ministry claimed.
The injection will contain three substances -- sodium thiopental, an anesthetic; pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant; and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
http://www.dtinews.vn/en/news/017/49419/vietnam-to-build-five-more-lethal-injection-venues.html
Five more venues to facilitate lethal injections will be built in Vietnam in the coming time according to the Ministry of Public Security.
A report from the ministry showed that since the first execution carried out using lethal injection in August 2013, 429 prisoners on death row had been executed by this method by July 2016 at five facilities in Hanoi, HCM City, Nghe An, Son La, and Dak Lak.
The National Assembly amended the Penal Code in 1999 and 2009 in which the number of death-eligible crimes were reduced from 44 to 22. However, the number of death sentences, especially in crimes relating to drugs, murder, and rape, has not declined for many reasons, the report said.
There were 1,134 criminals given death sentences in five years between July 1st, 2011 and June 30th, 2016.
According to the ministry, there have been many difficulties in carrying out executions using lethal injection instead of firing squads during the trial period, especially in obtaining lethal drugs and relieving the pressure of holding hundreds of death row inmates in prison.
"But this is certainly a more humane method of execution which causes less pain to the convicted and their family, and relieves pressure on executors, the ministry claimed.
The injection will contain three substances -- sodium thiopental, an anesthetic; pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant; and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Wednesday, 6 April 2016
Amnesty death penalty report: The secret China won’t share with the world
Source: news.com.au (6 April 2016)
http://www.news.com.au/world/asia/amnesty-death-penalty-report-the-secret-china-wont-share-with-the-world/news-story/f8c406c3301992b28bbfc5d6f8e2eb51
Asian nations are continuing to put thousands of people to their deaths every year.
Yet while the rest of the world is abolishing the death penalty, China and North Korea refuse to reveal how many people it executes each year.
China claims its figures are a state secret while North Korea remains uncooperative with human rights organisations.
Information surrounding its figures remain so tight that the world can only sit back and guess how many people they put to death every year.
Once again Asian powerhouse China has been named as the world’s biggest executioner in Amnesty International’s Death Sentences and Executions 2015 report.
In releasing the annual report this morning, the human rights group said it was impossible to obtain an exact figure on the number of people China has executed, but it is believed the figure is in the thousands, and is more than all the other countries in the world combined.
Amnesty International Australia spokesman Rose Kulak said the group obtained a rough figure based on non-government agencies, families who’ve had bodies returned to them and activists on the ground.
Ms Kulak, Individuals at Risk Program Coordinator at Amnesty, told news.com.au said the main issue at hand was China’s lack of transparency.
“There is close to 50 crimes that people can get executed for,” she said.
“These crimes include things like embezzlement which in Australia would amount to jail time.”
China was also named as the world’s top executioner in 2014, with Amnesty estimating it was at least 1000 — a conservative figure, and one it believes is much higher.
However this year’s report did note, there are indications that the number of executions has decreased since the Supreme People’s Court began reviewing the implementation of the death penalty in 2007.
NOT ALONE
China was not the only nation in the spotlight.
The rogue nation of North Korea was also criticised for its lack of transparency and refusal to co-operate with human rights organisations, or release figures surrounding its execution rates.
Amnesty said it continued to receive reports, which it could not independently verify, indicating that executions were carried out and death sentences imposed for a wide range of alleged offences including questioning the leader’s policies.
However, according to media reports, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has executed 70 officials since taking power in late 2011 in a “reign of terror” that far exceeds the bloodshed of his father.
In 2013, Kim executed his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, for alleged treason. Jang was married to Kim Jong-il’s sister and was once considered the second most powerful man in North Korea.
More recently, South Korean media outlet Yonhap News agency reported 15 high-ranking officials were executed in North Korea prior to April.
Last August, it also reported Vice Premier Choe Yong-gon and Defence Minister Hyon Yong-cool had been executed in May by shooting.
Ms Kulak said it was also a concern that Pakistan, another country in our region, has resumed executions on a massive scale, with 320 killed last year alone.
She said the government’s reasoning of a terror crackdown on militants simply wasn’t justified.
THE BIG OFFENDERS
The number of executions recorded in Iran and Saudi Arabia have increased by 31 per cent and 76 per cent respectively, and executions in Pakistan were the highest Amnesty International has ever recorded in that country, the report found.
Pakistan recorded a massive rise in executions after lifting a moratorium on civilian executions in December 2014.
More than 320 people were put to death in 2015, the highest number Amnesty International has ever recorded for Pakistan.
Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before — the vast majority for drug-related crimes.
In Saudi Arabia, executions rose by a whopping 76 per cent compared to 2014’s figures, with at least 158 people being executed last year.
According to Amnesty, most were beheaded, but authorities also used firing squads and sometimes displayed executed bodies in public.
The United States came in next for mention.
For the seventh consecutive year, the US was the only country to execute across the Americas, carrying out 28 executions, the lowest number since 1991 and seven less than the year before.
METHOD
The following methods of executions were used across the globe.
Beheading, Saudi Arabia; hanging, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Sudan, Sudan; lethal injection China, USA, Vietnam as well as firing squad.
DEADLY GLOBAL RISE
In the report, Amnesty noted a dramatic global rise in the number of executions recorded last year which saw more people put to death than at any point in the last 25 years.
The surge was largely fuelled by three countries including Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which accounted for almost 90 per cent of all recorded executions.
Excluding China, at least 1634 people were executed in 2015, 573 more than recorded the year before.
According to the report this represents a rise of more than 50 per cent and the highest number Amnesty International has recorded since 1989.
Amnesty International’s Secretary-general Salil Shetty said the rise in executions was profoundly disturbing.
“Not for the last 25 years have so many people been put to death by states around the world,” he said.
“In 2015 governments continued relentlessly to deprive people of their lives on the false premise that the death penalty would make us safer.
“Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have all put people to death at unprecedented levels, often after grossly unfair trials. This slaughter must end.”
According to Amnesty, in almost all regions of the world, the death penalty continued to be used as a “tool by governments to respond to real or perceived threats to state security and public safety posed by terrorism, crime or political instability.”
This was despite the lack of evidence that the death penalty is any more of a deterrent to violent crime than a term of imprisonment.
Mr Shetty said the major upside of the report was that for the first time ever, the majority of the world’s countries were abolitionist for all crimes after four more countries abolished the death penalty last year.
Congo (Republic of), Fiji, Madagascar and Suriname repealed the death penalty during the year.
“2015 was a year of extremes. We saw some very disquieting developments but also developments that give cause for hope. Four countries completely abolished the death penalty, meaning the majority of the world has now banned this most horrendous of punishments,” Mr Shetty said.
The report found five of the 53 member states of the Commonwealth were known to have carried out executions including Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore.
Japan and the US were the only countries in the G8 to carry out executions with 28 and three respectively.
At least 20,292 people were under sentence of death worldwide at the end of 2015.
PUNISHMENT AND CRIME
According to the report, several nations, including China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, put people to death for crimes.
This included for economic crimes such as corruption (China, North Korea and Vietnam); armed robbery (Saudi Arabia); adultery (Maldives, Saudi Arabia); aggravated circumstances of rape (India), rape (Afghanistan, Jordan, Pakistan); apostasy (Saudi Arabia); kidnapping (Iraq); kidnapping and rape (Saudi Arabia); insulting the prophet of Islam (Iran).
Amnesty said these did meet the international legal standards of “most serious” to which the use of the death penalty must be restricted under international law.
Asian nations are continuing to put thousands of people to their deaths every year.
Yet while the rest of the world is abolishing the death penalty, China and North Korea refuse to reveal how many people it executes each year.
China claims its figures are a state secret while North Korea remains uncooperative with human rights organisations.
Information surrounding its figures remain so tight that the world can only sit back and guess how many people they put to death every year.
Once again Asian powerhouse China has been named as the world’s biggest executioner in Amnesty International’s Death Sentences and Executions 2015 report.
In releasing the annual report this morning, the human rights group said it was impossible to obtain an exact figure on the number of people China has executed, but it is believed the figure is in the thousands, and is more than all the other countries in the world combined.
Amnesty International Australia spokesman Rose Kulak said the group obtained a rough figure based on non-government agencies, families who’ve had bodies returned to them and activists on the ground.
Ms Kulak, Individuals at Risk Program Coordinator at Amnesty, told news.com.au said the main issue at hand was China’s lack of transparency.
“There is close to 50 crimes that people can get executed for,” she said.
“These crimes include things like embezzlement which in Australia would amount to jail time.”
China was also named as the world’s top executioner in 2014, with Amnesty estimating it was at least 1000 — a conservative figure, and one it believes is much higher.
However this year’s report did note, there are indications that the number of executions has decreased since the Supreme People’s Court began reviewing the implementation of the death penalty in 2007.
NOT ALONE
China was not the only nation in the spotlight.
The rogue nation of North Korea was also criticised for its lack of transparency and refusal to co-operate with human rights organisations, or release figures surrounding its execution rates.
Amnesty said it continued to receive reports, which it could not independently verify, indicating that executions were carried out and death sentences imposed for a wide range of alleged offences including questioning the leader’s policies.
However, according to media reports, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has executed 70 officials since taking power in late 2011 in a “reign of terror” that far exceeds the bloodshed of his father.
In 2013, Kim executed his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, for alleged treason. Jang was married to Kim Jong-il’s sister and was once considered the second most powerful man in North Korea.
More recently, South Korean media outlet Yonhap News agency reported 15 high-ranking officials were executed in North Korea prior to April.
Last August, it also reported Vice Premier Choe Yong-gon and Defence Minister Hyon Yong-cool had been executed in May by shooting.
Ms Kulak said it was also a concern that Pakistan, another country in our region, has resumed executions on a massive scale, with 320 killed last year alone.
She said the government’s reasoning of a terror crackdown on militants simply wasn’t justified.
THE BIG OFFENDERS
The number of executions recorded in Iran and Saudi Arabia have increased by 31 per cent and 76 per cent respectively, and executions in Pakistan were the highest Amnesty International has ever recorded in that country, the report found.
Pakistan recorded a massive rise in executions after lifting a moratorium on civilian executions in December 2014.
More than 320 people were put to death in 2015, the highest number Amnesty International has ever recorded for Pakistan.
Iran put at least 977 people to death in 2015, compared to at least 743 the year before — the vast majority for drug-related crimes.
In Saudi Arabia, executions rose by a whopping 76 per cent compared to 2014’s figures, with at least 158 people being executed last year.
According to Amnesty, most were beheaded, but authorities also used firing squads and sometimes displayed executed bodies in public.
The United States came in next for mention.
For the seventh consecutive year, the US was the only country to execute across the Americas, carrying out 28 executions, the lowest number since 1991 and seven less than the year before.
METHOD
The following methods of executions were used across the globe.
Beheading, Saudi Arabia; hanging, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Sudan, Sudan; lethal injection China, USA, Vietnam as well as firing squad.
DEADLY GLOBAL RISE
In the report, Amnesty noted a dramatic global rise in the number of executions recorded last year which saw more people put to death than at any point in the last 25 years.
The surge was largely fuelled by three countries including Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which accounted for almost 90 per cent of all recorded executions.
Excluding China, at least 1634 people were executed in 2015, 573 more than recorded the year before.
According to the report this represents a rise of more than 50 per cent and the highest number Amnesty International has recorded since 1989.
Amnesty International’s Secretary-general Salil Shetty said the rise in executions was profoundly disturbing.
“Not for the last 25 years have so many people been put to death by states around the world,” he said.
“In 2015 governments continued relentlessly to deprive people of their lives on the false premise that the death penalty would make us safer.
“Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have all put people to death at unprecedented levels, often after grossly unfair trials. This slaughter must end.”
According to Amnesty, in almost all regions of the world, the death penalty continued to be used as a “tool by governments to respond to real or perceived threats to state security and public safety posed by terrorism, crime or political instability.”
This was despite the lack of evidence that the death penalty is any more of a deterrent to violent crime than a term of imprisonment.
Mr Shetty said the major upside of the report was that for the first time ever, the majority of the world’s countries were abolitionist for all crimes after four more countries abolished the death penalty last year.
Congo (Republic of), Fiji, Madagascar and Suriname repealed the death penalty during the year.
“2015 was a year of extremes. We saw some very disquieting developments but also developments that give cause for hope. Four countries completely abolished the death penalty, meaning the majority of the world has now banned this most horrendous of punishments,” Mr Shetty said.
The report found five of the 53 member states of the Commonwealth were known to have carried out executions including Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore.
Japan and the US were the only countries in the G8 to carry out executions with 28 and three respectively.
At least 20,292 people were under sentence of death worldwide at the end of 2015.
PUNISHMENT AND CRIME
According to the report, several nations, including China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, put people to death for crimes.
This included for economic crimes such as corruption (China, North Korea and Vietnam); armed robbery (Saudi Arabia); adultery (Maldives, Saudi Arabia); aggravated circumstances of rape (India), rape (Afghanistan, Jordan, Pakistan); apostasy (Saudi Arabia); kidnapping (Iraq); kidnapping and rape (Saudi Arabia); insulting the prophet of Islam (Iran).
Amnesty said these did meet the international legal standards of “most serious” to which the use of the death penalty must be restricted under international law.
Sunday, 21 June 2015
Compassionate Communists
Source: The Economist (20 June 2015)
ONE ordinary farmer, Nguyen Thanh Chan, is now a celebrity in Vietnam. In 2004 he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a woman in Nghia Trung, a village north-east of Hanoi, the capital. Yet he was released in 2013 after a neighbour, confronted with evidence, confessed to the crime. Earlier this month the country’s Supreme People’s Court announced that it would pay Mr Chan $360,000—many times what he would earn in a lifetime—as compensation for his nightmare.
The day after the announcement Mr Chan welcomed reporters to his one-storey farmhouse. He said that after his arrest police roughed him up and forced him to make a false confession. Had it not been for his wife’s long-shot campaign to clear his name, he might still be rotting in prison.
As in China, death-penalty statistics in Vietnam are state secrets. But Amnesty International, a rights group, says that at least three prisoners were executed last year and more than 700 face possible execution. Of the 72 who were sentenced to death in 2014 alone, four-fifths were found guilty of drug trafficking.Mr Chan’s case comes as the Vietnamese government attempts to reform the criminal-justice system. Proposed changes to the penal and criminal-procedure codes were discussed this week in the National Assembly, Vietnam’s tame parliament. In part, the Communist Party seems to be pursuing change as an easy way to curry favour with Western governments at a time when Vietnam faces heightened tensions with neighbouring China. Yet the reforms seem to be gathering a momentum of their own, including over capital punishment.
Now the assembly is debating whether to cut the number of crimes for which the death penalty applies to 15 from 22. Stealing and disobeying military orders would no longer be capital offences. Drug trafficking will remain one for now. Yet a Western diplomat in Hanoi who follows legal matters thinks that it, too, could go within a year. He adds that if that happened, Vietnam’s stance on capital punishment would instantly become among the most enlightened in South-East Asia. Only the Philippines has abolished it altogether.
Yet whatever the assembly decides, Vietnam’s criminal-justice system will remain deeply flawed. The criminal-procedure code permits harsh interrogation tactics, while the penal code is littered with clauses that criminalise, on grounds of national security, vaguely defined activities such as “conducting propaganda against the state”. In court, the judge is almost always a Communist Party member, while the two jurors who flank him typically have ties to the security state. Most prisoners who attempt to kick against the system are silenced. In one well-known example, Nguyen Van Ly, a Roman Catholic priest, accused the police and the court of practising the “law of the jungle”, whereupon a courtroom officer clamped a hand over his mouth. As for death row, inmates there are not told when their executions will take place, while questions swirl around how the executions are conducted. Four years ago the government gave up firing squads in favour of lethal injections. But because of a European Union ban on selling lethal-injection drugs, it switched to home-grown varieties. Doctors have been coerced into administering them.
But at least lawmakers are beginning to acknowledge irregularities in state prosecutors’ work. One controversial case they are reviewing concerns Ho Duy Hai, a man in the southern province of Long An who was convicted of murder in 2008. The evidence against him looks questionable. In December Vietnam’s president, Truong Tan Sang, suspended Mr Hai’s execution after behind-the-scenes pressure from Western diplomats.
Meanwhile, though the farmer, Nguyen Thanh Chan, still believes that the system broadly works, he wonders aloud if all crimes are being properly investigated. In his own case, the only reason the courts finally paid attention to his pleas of innocence was that his wife became an amateur gumshoe. After months of sleuthing, she showed up at the justice ministry, grabbed a bureaucrat by the collar and demanded the right to present reams of overlooked evidence. The ministry should give her a job.
Saturday, 27 November 2010
China claims one tenth overturned
China: 10 percent of death sentences overturned
Fri, Nov 26, 2010
From: China Daily/Asia News Network
Beijing - China's top court has overturned, on average, 10 percent of all death sentences nationwide since 2007 when it took back the right of final review from lower courts, a senior court official said.
Hu Yunteng, head of the research department under the Supreme People's Court (SPC), said regaining the review "played an obvious role" in reducing the number of executions.
"It has ensured that the death penalty can only be applied for the most serious crimes," he told China Daily.
But Hu declined to specify the number of death sentences carried out each year.
In 1981, to tackle rising crime, the highest court granted provincial courts the authority to pass death sentences.
The practice, widely criticized following reports of miscarriages of justice, ended on Jan 1, 2007, when the SPC was again given the sole power to review and ratify death sentences.
Hu said death sentences were overturned mostly for lack of evidence, procedural flaws or for an inappropriate penalty.
"The SPC will not tolerate any mistakes regarding evidence or procedure and will thoroughly investigate" questionable judgments, he said, adding that the quality of local courts' handling of death penalty cases is improving.
"We must make sure the use of the death sentence is accurate and free of mistakes to respect and protect the convicts and their rights."
Earlier, Zhang Jun, SPC vice-president, told judicial departments to only impose a death penalty for the most heinous crimes.
The SPC also increased its criminal tribunals from two to five to better examine all death sentences passed, Hu said.
The SPC also ordered that all cases that carried a possible death penalty must be heard at a court session, with the defendant or defendants in attendance, he added.
The move "prevents unjust, false or invalid cases on the one hand and, on the other hand, respects the rights of defendants", he said.
About 90 percent of death sentences passed are for serious crimes ranging from intentional homicide, robbery, serious injury, rape, drug trafficking to kidnapping, according to Hu.
In August, the National People's Congress, the top legislature, dropped the death penalty for 13 economy related, non-violent crimes in the latest amendment to the country's Criminal Law.
Hu said the SPC "strongly supports" the move as it has sent "a positive signal for strictly controlling the imposition of a death penalty".
Despite these moves, he said, the final review still faces challenges, including the use of torture as well as poor standards among some rural judges.
In one of the country's most notorious forced-confession cases, Zhao Zuohai, after serving 11 years in prison, was released in early May after the man he was alleged to have murdered turned up alive.
The Henan farmer said the police tortured him into making a confession.
Zhao Bingzhi, head of the criminal law research committee under the China Law Society, said it's essential for the SPC to classify and summarize cases where the death penalty has been overturned and then release them to guide lower courts.
"What's more, the SPC should go beyond only examining evidence, and establish rules to better define serious crimes where the death penalty is applicable to ensure its appropriate use," he said.
-China Daily/Asia News Network
Fri, Nov 26, 2010
From: China Daily/Asia News Network
Beijing - China's top court has overturned, on average, 10 percent of all death sentences nationwide since 2007 when it took back the right of final review from lower courts, a senior court official said.
Hu Yunteng, head of the research department under the Supreme People's Court (SPC), said regaining the review "played an obvious role" in reducing the number of executions.
"It has ensured that the death penalty can only be applied for the most serious crimes," he told China Daily.
But Hu declined to specify the number of death sentences carried out each year.
In 1981, to tackle rising crime, the highest court granted provincial courts the authority to pass death sentences.
The practice, widely criticized following reports of miscarriages of justice, ended on Jan 1, 2007, when the SPC was again given the sole power to review and ratify death sentences.
Hu said death sentences were overturned mostly for lack of evidence, procedural flaws or for an inappropriate penalty.
"The SPC will not tolerate any mistakes regarding evidence or procedure and will thoroughly investigate" questionable judgments, he said, adding that the quality of local courts' handling of death penalty cases is improving.
"We must make sure the use of the death sentence is accurate and free of mistakes to respect and protect the convicts and their rights."
Earlier, Zhang Jun, SPC vice-president, told judicial departments to only impose a death penalty for the most heinous crimes.
The SPC also increased its criminal tribunals from two to five to better examine all death sentences passed, Hu said.
The SPC also ordered that all cases that carried a possible death penalty must be heard at a court session, with the defendant or defendants in attendance, he added.
The move "prevents unjust, false or invalid cases on the one hand and, on the other hand, respects the rights of defendants", he said.
About 90 percent of death sentences passed are for serious crimes ranging from intentional homicide, robbery, serious injury, rape, drug trafficking to kidnapping, according to Hu.
In August, the National People's Congress, the top legislature, dropped the death penalty for 13 economy related, non-violent crimes in the latest amendment to the country's Criminal Law.
Hu said the SPC "strongly supports" the move as it has sent "a positive signal for strictly controlling the imposition of a death penalty".
Despite these moves, he said, the final review still faces challenges, including the use of torture as well as poor standards among some rural judges.
In one of the country's most notorious forced-confession cases, Zhao Zuohai, after serving 11 years in prison, was released in early May after the man he was alleged to have murdered turned up alive.
The Henan farmer said the police tortured him into making a confession.
Zhao Bingzhi, head of the criminal law research committee under the China Law Society, said it's essential for the SPC to classify and summarize cases where the death penalty has been overturned and then release them to guide lower courts.
"What's more, the SPC should go beyond only examining evidence, and establish rules to better define serious crimes where the death penalty is applicable to ensure its appropriate use," he said.
-China Daily/Asia News Network
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Drugs and death: Major new study released
IHRA launches 'The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2010' report
17 May 2010
The International Harm Reduction Association released a study on the death penalty for drug offences today on the opening day of the 19th session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, taking place in Vienna. The report, titled ‘The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2010’, finds that hundreds of people are executed for drug offences each year around the world, a figure that very likely exceeds one thousand when taking into account those countries that keep their death penalty statistics secret.
The report is the first detailed country by country overview of the death penalty for drugs, monitoring both national legislation and state practice of enforcement. Of the states worldwide that retain the death penalty, 32 jurisdictions maintain laws that prescribe the death penalty for drug offences. The study also found that in some states, drug offenders make up a significant portion – if not the outright majority – of those sentenced to death and/or executed each year.
Direct link to the report. (Please note 2.42MB file.)
17 May 2010
The International Harm Reduction Association released a study on the death penalty for drug offences today on the opening day of the 19th session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, taking place in Vienna. The report, titled ‘The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2010’, finds that hundreds of people are executed for drug offences each year around the world, a figure that very likely exceeds one thousand when taking into account those countries that keep their death penalty statistics secret.
The report is the first detailed country by country overview of the death penalty for drugs, monitoring both national legislation and state practice of enforcement. Of the states worldwide that retain the death penalty, 32 jurisdictions maintain laws that prescribe the death penalty for drug offences. The study also found that in some states, drug offenders make up a significant portion – if not the outright majority – of those sentenced to death and/or executed each year.
Direct link to the report. (Please note 2.42MB file.)
Saturday, 3 April 2010
How many does China execute?
The details of the executions of thousands of people a year is a state secret – and it could be worse than Amnesty fears
30 March 2010
The Guardian - Comment is free
You might have heard it said that China executes more people than all other countries in the world put together. Not just a handful, but thousands and thousands of people every single year. This, broadly, is true.
But suppose you actually wanted to find out exactly how many people the People's Republic executes annually. Any chance of getting this information? No. Try asking the Chinese authorities, and you'll get a stern "it's a state secret" rebuff. If you happened to get hold of some solid information (from lawyers in China, for example) you'd then be in possession of a state secret which it would be illegal to make public. It's basically as if there's a super-injunction on the information – not just on the actual information, but anything relating to it.
Amnesty's new report on the death penalty worldwide does its best to cut through the secrecy by estimating that there were "thousands" of executions in China in 2009. Based on sources – which we can't, for safety's sake, reveal – this seems reasonable. But it's still a rough and ready guesstimate. Amazing, given the seriousness of the topic.
China likes to have it both ways. It's been boasting that it has reformed its capital punishment system and that execution numbers are down. But it won't give any figures.
30 March 2010
The Guardian - Comment is free
You might have heard it said that China executes more people than all other countries in the world put together. Not just a handful, but thousands and thousands of people every single year. This, broadly, is true.
But suppose you actually wanted to find out exactly how many people the People's Republic executes annually. Any chance of getting this information? No. Try asking the Chinese authorities, and you'll get a stern "it's a state secret" rebuff. If you happened to get hold of some solid information (from lawyers in China, for example) you'd then be in possession of a state secret which it would be illegal to make public. It's basically as if there's a super-injunction on the information – not just on the actual information, but anything relating to it.
Amnesty's new report on the death penalty worldwide does its best to cut through the secrecy by estimating that there were "thousands" of executions in China in 2009. Based on sources – which we can't, for safety's sake, reveal – this seems reasonable. But it's still a rough and ready guesstimate. Amazing, given the seriousness of the topic.
China likes to have it both ways. It's been boasting that it has reformed its capital punishment system and that execution numbers are down. But it won't give any figures.
One thing we know – more or less – is that there are approximately 68 offences in China for which you can receive a death sentence. Many are not for lethal crimes – as we saw with the shocking execution of the British man Akmal Shaikh in December for alleged drugs offences. China's capital crimes reportedly include reselling forged VAT receipts, causing damage to public property, and cattle rustling. Three years ago a man was sentenced to death for selling overpriced ants.
However, I don't think a full list exists. That would be far too open for the Chinese authorities. If a proper source ever comes to light, it will be interesting to see if "revealing a state secret, including information about the People's Republic of China's use of capital punishment" is included as a capital crime. It wouldn't surprise me – this Catch 22-like paradox would suit China's secretive use of the death penalty down to the ground.
But here's an ominous thought. State secrets are normally things like defence matters or intelligence issues. What, then, is China so keen to hide on the death penalty?
Could it be that the numbers of people in China going to their deaths before firing squads and in mobile lethal injection chambers is actually far higher than we already feared?
Monday, 3 August 2009
China again claims execution decline
Fewer executions expected, top judge says
By Xie Chuanjiao
From China Daily, 29 July 2009
The number of criminal executions will be reduced in China, with the sentence of death penalty with reprieve handed out more often in courts.
Zhang Jun, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), said legislation will be improved to restrict the number of death sentences and the SPC will tighten restrictions on the use of capital punishment.
The sentence of "death penalty with reprieve" would be used more often in courts, Zhang said.
Death penalty with reprieve can be commuted to life in prison and later reduced to 20 years and even lessened further for good behavior.
"As it is impossible for the country to abolish capital punishment under current realities and social security conditions, it is an important effort to strictly control the application of the penalty by judicial organs," Zhang said in an interview with Legal Daily.
"Judicial departments should use the least number of death sentences as possible, and death penalties should not be given to those having a reason for not being executed," Zhang said.
He said the death penalty has had strong support from many people for more than 5,000 years and that the punishment was seen as "an eye for an eye and a life for a life".
The country will retain death sentence, but it should be applied only to "an extremely small number" of serious offenders, he said.
The SPC has been working to ensure that the death sentence is given only to those who have committed extremely serious or heinous crimes that lead to grave social consequences.
Zhang said the highest court exercises extreme caution in handing down the death sentence to those guilty of killing family members or neighbors over disputes.
People who plead guilty, compensate family members of the victims, or are pardoned by the latter are generally given more lenient punishments.
Last week, the SPC overturned a death sentence handed to a man surnamed Shao, who killed his lover when he found out she was having an affair with another man in September 2006.
Shao's crime was judged as serious enough for capital punishment, but the SPC considered the woman was also partly responsible.
Shao had shown regret and compensation was paid to the victim's family, the SPC said.
Moreover the case did not have a major social impact, so the SPC suspended Shao's capital punishment.
In January 2007, the SPC reserved the right to review all death penalty decisions made by lower courts.
Provincial high courts had handled appeals until that point but had been criticized after reports of miscarriage of justice.
With the SPC given the sole power to review and ratify all death sentences, the country is applying fewer death sentences. An average of 15 percent of sentences were overturned in 2007 and 10 percent were overturned in 2008, insiders told China Daily.
Last year a total of 159,020 criminals were sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or more than five years in prison, accounting for 15.8 percent of all criminal sentences.
Related stories:
DP improvements not for economic crimes: China -- 10 March 2009
China: Death over milk, but no official answers -- 29 January 2009
China: Executions to preserve order, control -- 12 December 2008
Judge backs harsh sentences: China -- 20 April 2008
Party claims economic penalty 'prudent' -- 4 August, 2007
China: Courts claim fewer executions -- 31 July, 2007
China call for cautious death penalty - again -- 8 April, 2007
China: Judges try to limit death penalty -- 14 November, 2006
China reforms good, but not enough -- 8 November, 2006
China: Supreme Court review from January -- 1 November, 2006
Political questions over China's new appeal judges -- 2 July, 2006
China to retain death penalty, with reforms -- 13 March 2006
By Xie Chuanjiao
From China Daily, 29 July 2009
The number of criminal executions will be reduced in China, with the sentence of death penalty with reprieve handed out more often in courts.
Zhang Jun, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), said legislation will be improved to restrict the number of death sentences and the SPC will tighten restrictions on the use of capital punishment.
The sentence of "death penalty with reprieve" would be used more often in courts, Zhang said.
Death penalty with reprieve can be commuted to life in prison and later reduced to 20 years and even lessened further for good behavior.
"As it is impossible for the country to abolish capital punishment under current realities and social security conditions, it is an important effort to strictly control the application of the penalty by judicial organs," Zhang said in an interview with Legal Daily.
"Judicial departments should use the least number of death sentences as possible, and death penalties should not be given to those having a reason for not being executed," Zhang said.
He said the death penalty has had strong support from many people for more than 5,000 years and that the punishment was seen as "an eye for an eye and a life for a life".
The country will retain death sentence, but it should be applied only to "an extremely small number" of serious offenders, he said.
The SPC has been working to ensure that the death sentence is given only to those who have committed extremely serious or heinous crimes that lead to grave social consequences.
Zhang said the highest court exercises extreme caution in handing down the death sentence to those guilty of killing family members or neighbors over disputes.
People who plead guilty, compensate family members of the victims, or are pardoned by the latter are generally given more lenient punishments.
Last week, the SPC overturned a death sentence handed to a man surnamed Shao, who killed his lover when he found out she was having an affair with another man in September 2006.
Shao's crime was judged as serious enough for capital punishment, but the SPC considered the woman was also partly responsible.
Shao had shown regret and compensation was paid to the victim's family, the SPC said.
Moreover the case did not have a major social impact, so the SPC suspended Shao's capital punishment.
In January 2007, the SPC reserved the right to review all death penalty decisions made by lower courts.
Provincial high courts had handled appeals until that point but had been criticized after reports of miscarriage of justice.
With the SPC given the sole power to review and ratify all death sentences, the country is applying fewer death sentences. An average of 15 percent of sentences were overturned in 2007 and 10 percent were overturned in 2008, insiders told China Daily.
Last year a total of 159,020 criminals were sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or more than five years in prison, accounting for 15.8 percent of all criminal sentences.
Related stories:
DP improvements not for economic crimes: China -- 10 March 2009
China: Death over milk, but no official answers -- 29 January 2009
China: Executions to preserve order, control -- 12 December 2008
Judge backs harsh sentences: China -- 20 April 2008
Party claims economic penalty 'prudent' -- 4 August, 2007
China: Courts claim fewer executions -- 31 July, 2007
China call for cautious death penalty - again -- 8 April, 2007
China: Judges try to limit death penalty -- 14 November, 2006
China reforms good, but not enough -- 8 November, 2006
China: Supreme Court review from January -- 1 November, 2006
Political questions over China's new appeal judges -- 2 July, 2006
China to retain death penalty, with reforms -- 13 March 2006
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
DP improvements not for economic crimes: China
The Supreme People's Court (SPC) is attempting to improve consistency in the application of the death penalty in China in cases involving violence, robbery or drug trafficking.
The SPC is developing a guideline to "unify standards" for lower courts, according to a senior judge quoted by state newsagency Xinhua.
The guideline would apply to murder, robbery, abduction, drug trafficking and intentional injury, which the judge said accounted for nearly all death sentences handed down.
"It will include the necessary conditions for handing down the death sentence to those found guilty of any of the five crimes," he said.
"We must unify standards across the county so as to avoid such situations where different sentences are handed down to people found guilty of committing similar crimes."
However the report said the guideline was not expected to apply to cases involving economic crimes.
Xinhua said professor Chen Weidong, from the Renmin University of China, said unifying standards for capital punishment in serious economic cases would be complicated as "the value and harm done by economic crimes differ greatly, and the time is not yet right to set guidelines".
Capital, and punishment
China applies the death penalty to 68 offences, including for non-violent crimes.
A number of high-profile financial scandals have generated debate in China recently over the use, and consistency, of death sentences for economic offences.
Amnesty International (AI) reported an appeal by businesswoman Du Yimin was rejected on 13 January, after she was sentenced to death for illegally raising 700 million yuan (102 million U.S. dollars) in investments in her beauty parlours.
"Du Yimin’s death sentence has caused a debate about consistency in application of the death penalty," AI said.
"The day before she was sentenced to death, an official who used 15.8 billion Yuan of public funds to cover his personal spending was sentenced to fixed term imprisonment."
She was convicted of "fraudulent raising of public funds", although her lawyer argued she should have been convicted of the lesser offence of "illegally collecting public deposits", which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 yuan (73,000 U.S. dollars).
She could be executed at any time if her sentence is confirmed by the SPC.
'Reduced', but insufficient evidence
The SPC has claimed it overturned 15 per cent of death sentences in 2007 and the first half of 2008, although the government has consistently failed to release statistics to verify this claim.
Statistics about the use of the death penalty in China are classified as 'state secrets'.
Xinhua reported in June 2008 that the "high rejection rate shows how cautious the judiciary has been with capital punishment after the SPC took back the right to review death sentences from lower courts" from 1 January that year.
The presiding judge of the SPC's Third Criminal Law Court, Gao Jinghong, said at that time that the majority of the death sentences overturned were inappropriate or lacked sufficient evidence.
Xinhua also reported claims in May 2008 that Chinese courts had handed down 30 per cent fewer death sentences in 2007, compared with 2006 figures.
Related stories:
China: Death over milk, but no official answers -- 29 January 2009
China: Executions to preserve order, control -- 12 December 2008
Judge backs harsh sentences: China -- 20 April 2008
Party claims economic penalty 'prudent' -- 4 August, 2007
China: Courts claim fewer executions -- 31 July, 2007
China call for cautious death penalty - again -- 8 April, 2007
China: Judges try to limit death penalty -- 14 November, 2006
China reforms good, but not enough -- 8 November, 2006
China: Supreme Court review from January -- 1 November, 2006
Political questions over China's new appeal judges -- 2 July, 2006
China to retain death penalty, with reforms -- 13 March 2006
The SPC is developing a guideline to "unify standards" for lower courts, according to a senior judge quoted by state newsagency Xinhua.
The guideline would apply to murder, robbery, abduction, drug trafficking and intentional injury, which the judge said accounted for nearly all death sentences handed down.
"It will include the necessary conditions for handing down the death sentence to those found guilty of any of the five crimes," he said.
"We must unify standards across the county so as to avoid such situations where different sentences are handed down to people found guilty of committing similar crimes."
However the report said the guideline was not expected to apply to cases involving economic crimes.
Xinhua said professor Chen Weidong, from the Renmin University of China, said unifying standards for capital punishment in serious economic cases would be complicated as "the value and harm done by economic crimes differ greatly, and the time is not yet right to set guidelines".
Capital, and punishment
China applies the death penalty to 68 offences, including for non-violent crimes.
A number of high-profile financial scandals have generated debate in China recently over the use, and consistency, of death sentences for economic offences.
Amnesty International (AI) reported an appeal by businesswoman Du Yimin was rejected on 13 January, after she was sentenced to death for illegally raising 700 million yuan (102 million U.S. dollars) in investments in her beauty parlours.
"Du Yimin’s death sentence has caused a debate about consistency in application of the death penalty," AI said.
"The day before she was sentenced to death, an official who used 15.8 billion Yuan of public funds to cover his personal spending was sentenced to fixed term imprisonment."
She was convicted of "fraudulent raising of public funds", although her lawyer argued she should have been convicted of the lesser offence of "illegally collecting public deposits", which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 yuan (73,000 U.S. dollars).
She could be executed at any time if her sentence is confirmed by the SPC.
'Reduced', but insufficient evidence
The SPC has claimed it overturned 15 per cent of death sentences in 2007 and the first half of 2008, although the government has consistently failed to release statistics to verify this claim.
Statistics about the use of the death penalty in China are classified as 'state secrets'.
Xinhua reported in June 2008 that the "high rejection rate shows how cautious the judiciary has been with capital punishment after the SPC took back the right to review death sentences from lower courts" from 1 January that year.
The presiding judge of the SPC's Third Criminal Law Court, Gao Jinghong, said at that time that the majority of the death sentences overturned were inappropriate or lacked sufficient evidence.
Xinhua also reported claims in May 2008 that Chinese courts had handed down 30 per cent fewer death sentences in 2007, compared with 2006 figures.
Related stories:
China: Death over milk, but no official answers -- 29 January 2009
China: Executions to preserve order, control -- 12 December 2008
Judge backs harsh sentences: China -- 20 April 2008
Party claims economic penalty 'prudent' -- 4 August, 2007
China: Courts claim fewer executions -- 31 July, 2007
China call for cautious death penalty - again -- 8 April, 2007
China: Judges try to limit death penalty -- 14 November, 2006
China reforms good, but not enough -- 8 November, 2006
China: Supreme Court review from January -- 1 November, 2006
Political questions over China's new appeal judges -- 2 July, 2006
China to retain death penalty, with reforms -- 13 March 2006
Friday, 6 March 2009
Government clash with top lawyer: Singapore
Singapore's law minister has attacked the president of the Law Society in Parliament for questioning the transparency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system.
Law Minister K. Shanmugam said in Parliament on 19 January that society president Michael Hwang SC had mounted "theoretical arguments" about crime and punishment that lacked "any real merit".
He was responding to an editorial published in the January edition of the Law Gazette, which argued that a measurable deterrence and proportionality between crime and punishment should underpin "a rational sentencing policy".
The article was a largely theoretical discussion of the purpose of punishment, and the role of deterrence and proportionality in sentencing.
Hwang called for greater research to inform a fundamental "re-think" of the country's laws and sentences, concluding that "Singapore is sadly lacking a principled and transparent penal policy".
"Possibly, this is because Government has not published detailed statistics of crime and punishment so that social scientists can undertake adequate research on the causes of crime and the effects of current penal policies on prisoners (especially recidivists)," he wrote.
"Only rigorous research with full access to relevant information can help us determine important penological questions such as:
"Is the death penalty effective in preventing murder and other capital crimes?
"Do strict liability offences achieve their object of deterring anti-social behaviour?
"What kind of punishments best deter what kind of behaviour?"
Shanmugam rejected the argument that the criminal justice system was "unprincipled".
"[A]any objective analysis of our penal system will show that the system is based on sound practical philosophy and principles, which have been made clear several times," he said.
"While we take a tough stand on crime, we also believe strongly in compassion and rehabilitation."
Statistics, secrets
He told Parliament the lawyer's article was unclear about what statistics should be published to aid research, and it ignored statistics currently published by police and narcotics control officials.
He said Hwang suggested the "publication of detailed statistics will lead us to a possibly conclusive answer to the debate on capital punishment".
"The debate on capital punishment ... is not going to be settled on the basis of statistics," he said.
There was "no universal consensus on such punishment".
"Serious and bitter debate on capital punishment has raged on in many countries.
"The philosophical and ideological chasms that separate the proponents and opponents of capital punishment are quite unbridgeable. Both sides marshal powerful arguments.
"On an issue like this, the Government has to take a stand."
Shanmugam responded to the claim the system was lacking in transparency with the government's usual argument that capital cases were "matters of public record" and the media reported on cases heard in open court.
However, the Singapore government has resisted repeated calls from human rights organisations and the United Nations (UN) to publish comprehensive information about who is sentenced to death, and for what crimes, as well as how many people are executed each year.
Threat, clarification
In comments quoted by The Straits Times, Shanmugam implied the criticism could damage the government's relationship with the Law Society.
"We have had a constructive and professional relationship with the Law Society for several years," Shanmugam said, according to The Straits Times.
"And for that to continue and for us to take the views seriously, the views that are expressed by the Law Society have to be well thought through and substantiated by facts.
"Sound bites and sweeping statements which are contrary to the facts, and which show a basic lack of understanding of our criminal laws and procedure, and approach to sentencing is not really constructive or helpful."
Michael Hwang stressed in the February 2009 issue of the Law Gazette that his article did not represent the views of the Law Society and was not approved by its governing council.
He said he would write to the minister "to explain the basis" of his message.
"I do not intend to have a public debate with the Minister but hope to have a constructive private dialogue with him."
Related stories:
Tochi in Singapore: "the burden thus shifted" -- 26 January 2008
Asian activists condemn drug executions -- 8 July 2007
Drug penalty violates international law -- 6 May 2007
Singapore activists: Rethink death penalty -- 23 January 2007
Remembering Van Tuong Nguyen -- 29 November 2006
Law Minister K. Shanmugam said in Parliament on 19 January that society president Michael Hwang SC had mounted "theoretical arguments" about crime and punishment that lacked "any real merit".
He was responding to an editorial published in the January edition of the Law Gazette, which argued that a measurable deterrence and proportionality between crime and punishment should underpin "a rational sentencing policy".
The article was a largely theoretical discussion of the purpose of punishment, and the role of deterrence and proportionality in sentencing.
Hwang called for greater research to inform a fundamental "re-think" of the country's laws and sentences, concluding that "Singapore is sadly lacking a principled and transparent penal policy".
"Possibly, this is because Government has not published detailed statistics of crime and punishment so that social scientists can undertake adequate research on the causes of crime and the effects of current penal policies on prisoners (especially recidivists)," he wrote.
"Only rigorous research with full access to relevant information can help us determine important penological questions such as:
"Is the death penalty effective in preventing murder and other capital crimes?
"Do strict liability offences achieve their object of deterring anti-social behaviour?
"What kind of punishments best deter what kind of behaviour?"
Shanmugam rejected the argument that the criminal justice system was "unprincipled".
"[A]any objective analysis of our penal system will show that the system is based on sound practical philosophy and principles, which have been made clear several times," he said.
"While we take a tough stand on crime, we also believe strongly in compassion and rehabilitation."
Statistics, secrets
He told Parliament the lawyer's article was unclear about what statistics should be published to aid research, and it ignored statistics currently published by police and narcotics control officials.
He said Hwang suggested the "publication of detailed statistics will lead us to a possibly conclusive answer to the debate on capital punishment".
"The debate on capital punishment ... is not going to be settled on the basis of statistics," he said.
There was "no universal consensus on such punishment".
"Serious and bitter debate on capital punishment has raged on in many countries.
"The philosophical and ideological chasms that separate the proponents and opponents of capital punishment are quite unbridgeable. Both sides marshal powerful arguments.
"On an issue like this, the Government has to take a stand."
Shanmugam responded to the claim the system was lacking in transparency with the government's usual argument that capital cases were "matters of public record" and the media reported on cases heard in open court.
However, the Singapore government has resisted repeated calls from human rights organisations and the United Nations (UN) to publish comprehensive information about who is sentenced to death, and for what crimes, as well as how many people are executed each year.
Threat, clarification
In comments quoted by The Straits Times, Shanmugam implied the criticism could damage the government's relationship with the Law Society.
"We have had a constructive and professional relationship with the Law Society for several years," Shanmugam said, according to The Straits Times.
"And for that to continue and for us to take the views seriously, the views that are expressed by the Law Society have to be well thought through and substantiated by facts.
"Sound bites and sweeping statements which are contrary to the facts, and which show a basic lack of understanding of our criminal laws and procedure, and approach to sentencing is not really constructive or helpful."
Michael Hwang stressed in the February 2009 issue of the Law Gazette that his article did not represent the views of the Law Society and was not approved by its governing council.
He said he would write to the minister "to explain the basis" of his message.
"I do not intend to have a public debate with the Minister but hope to have a constructive private dialogue with him."
Related stories:
Tochi in Singapore: "the burden thus shifted" -- 26 January 2008
Asian activists condemn drug executions -- 8 July 2007
Drug penalty violates international law -- 6 May 2007
Singapore activists: Rethink death penalty -- 23 January 2007
Remembering Van Tuong Nguyen -- 29 November 2006
Friday, 2 January 2009
Executions in Japan -- 2006 - 2008
Japan has executed 28 people since December 2006. All were hanged for crimes including murder.
Justice minister Mori Eisuke
+ Appointed minister 24 September 2008
+ Approved 2 executions (to end 2008)
28 October 2008
Michitoshi Kuma, 70 (Fukuoka)
Masahiro Takashio, 55 (Sendai)
Justice minister Okiharu Yasuoka
+ Minister from August -- September 2008
+ Approved 3 executions
+ Approved 3 further executions when he served as justice minister from July -- December 2000
11 September 2008
Yoshiyuki Mantani, 68 (Osaka)
Mineteru Yamamoto, 68 (Osaka)
Isamu Hirano, 61 (Tokyo)
Justice minister Kunio Hatoyama
+ 27 August 2007 -- August 2008
+ Approved 13 executions
17 June 2008
Tsutomu Miyazaki, 45 (Tokyo)
Shinji Mutsuda, 37 (Tokyo)
Yoshio Yamasaki, 73 (Osaka)
10 April 2008
Masahito Sakamoto, 41 (Tokyo)
Kaoru Okashita, 61 (Tokyo)
Katsuyoshi Nakamoto, 64 (Osaka)
Masaharu Nakamura, 61 (Osaka)
1 February 2008
Masahiko Matsubara, 63 (Osaka)
Takashi Mochida, 65 (Tokyo)
Keishi Nago, 37 (Fukuoka)
7 December 2007
Seiha Fujima, 47 (Tokyo)
Hiroki Fukawa, 42 (Tokyo)
Noboru Ikemoto, 75 (Osaka)
Justice minister Jinen Nagase
+ Minister from 26 September 2006 -- August 2007
+ Approved 10 executions
23 August, 2007
Hifumi Takezawa, 69 (Tokyo)
Yoshio Iwamoto, 63 (Tokyo)
Kozo Segawa, 60 (Nagoya)
27 April 2007
Kosaku Nata, 56 (Osaka)
Yoshikatsu Oda, 59 (Fukuoka)
Masahiro Tanaka (also Miyashita), 42 (Tokyo)
25 December 2006
Yoshimitsu Akiyama, 77 (Tokyo)
Hiroaki Hidaka, 44 (Hiroshima)
Yoshio Fujinami, 75 (Tokyo)
Michio Fukuoka, 64 (Osaka)
Seiken Sugiura, who was justice minister from October 2005 -- September 2005, approved no executions as a result of his Buddhist religious beliefs.
The last execution prior to his appointment was reported to have been on 16 September 2005.
Related stories:
Japan: Record toll with new hangings -- 28 October 2008
Japan: New minister sends three to death -- 12 September 2008
Justice minister Mori Eisuke
+ Appointed minister 24 September 2008
+ Approved 2 executions (to end 2008)
28 October 2008
Michitoshi Kuma, 70 (Fukuoka)
Masahiro Takashio, 55 (Sendai)
Justice minister Okiharu Yasuoka
+ Minister from August -- September 2008
+ Approved 3 executions
+ Approved 3 further executions when he served as justice minister from July -- December 2000
11 September 2008
Yoshiyuki Mantani, 68 (Osaka)
Mineteru Yamamoto, 68 (Osaka)
Isamu Hirano, 61 (Tokyo)
Justice minister Kunio Hatoyama
+ 27 August 2007 -- August 2008
+ Approved 13 executions
17 June 2008
Tsutomu Miyazaki, 45 (Tokyo)
Shinji Mutsuda, 37 (Tokyo)
Yoshio Yamasaki, 73 (Osaka)
10 April 2008
Masahito Sakamoto, 41 (Tokyo)
Kaoru Okashita, 61 (Tokyo)
Katsuyoshi Nakamoto, 64 (Osaka)
Masaharu Nakamura, 61 (Osaka)
1 February 2008
Masahiko Matsubara, 63 (Osaka)
Takashi Mochida, 65 (Tokyo)
Keishi Nago, 37 (Fukuoka)
7 December 2007
Seiha Fujima, 47 (Tokyo)
Hiroki Fukawa, 42 (Tokyo)
Noboru Ikemoto, 75 (Osaka)
Justice minister Jinen Nagase
+ Minister from 26 September 2006 -- August 2007
+ Approved 10 executions
23 August, 2007
Hifumi Takezawa, 69 (Tokyo)
Yoshio Iwamoto, 63 (Tokyo)
Kozo Segawa, 60 (Nagoya)
27 April 2007
Kosaku Nata, 56 (Osaka)
Yoshikatsu Oda, 59 (Fukuoka)
Masahiro Tanaka (also Miyashita), 42 (Tokyo)
25 December 2006
Yoshimitsu Akiyama, 77 (Tokyo)
Hiroaki Hidaka, 44 (Hiroshima)
Yoshio Fujinami, 75 (Tokyo)
Michio Fukuoka, 64 (Osaka)
Seiken Sugiura, who was justice minister from October 2005 -- September 2005, approved no executions as a result of his Buddhist religious beliefs.
The last execution prior to his appointment was reported to have been on 16 September 2005.
Related stories:
Japan: Record toll with new hangings -- 28 October 2008
Japan: New minister sends three to death -- 12 September 2008
Friday, 30 May 2008
India: "Abusive lottery must be abolished"
The most comprehensive study of India's death penalty system ever conducted has concluded that it is an abusive and inconsistent process, hanging people on the basis of shockingly inadequate evidence.
Describing the system as a "lethal lottery", at the launch of the report on 2 May 2008, the study's authors said "the only remedy is to abolish the death penalty [in India] completely".
The landmark 243-page report Lethal Lottery: The Death Penalty in India, A study of Supreme Court judgments in death penalty cases 1950-2006 was published by Amnesty International India and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (Tamil Nadu & Puducherry).
Researchers analysed Supreme Court judgements handed down in more than 700 death penalty cases over a 56 year period.
Woefully few, too many
A summary of the study findings said the work was necessary "because of a vital gap that affected those campaigning against the death penalty: the absence of a comprehensive analysis of facts relating to the practice of capital punishment".
"There exist woefully few researched studies on the subject," it said.
Amnesty International reported at least 140 people were sentenced to death in 2006 and 2007. The most recent official figures, from 31 December 2005, showed at least 273 people were on death row, a figure which would certainly have increased.
"The fate of these death row prisoners is ultimately a lottery," the study's authors said.
This research was "the first to examine the essential unfairness of the death penalty system in India by analysing evidence found in Supreme Court judgments of abuse of law and procedure and of arbitrariness and inconsistency in the investigation, trial, sentencing and appeal stages in capital cases".
It found that the death penalty was not limited to "rarest of rare cases" as claimed by politicians and courts. But "on the contrary, there is ample evidence to show that the death penalty has been an arbitrary, imprecise and abusive means of dealing with defendants".
Poor evidence, poor defence
The main failings identified in the report were:
1. errors in consideration of evidence -- most death sentences handed down in India are based on circumstantial evidence alone. In a 1994 Supreme Court appeal, the Court noted the main witness's memory constantly improved from his statement a few days after the incident to the trial three years later
2. inadequate legal representation -- concerns include "lawyers ignoring key facts of mental incompetence, omitting to provide any arguments on sentencing, or failing to dispute claims that the accused was under 18 years of age at the time of the crime despite evidence to the contrary"
anti-terrorist legislation -- concerns include "the broad definition of 'terrorist acts', insufficient safeguards on arrest, and provisions allowing for confessions made to police to be admissible as evidence"
3. arbitrariness in sentencing -- "in the same month, different benches of the Supreme Court have treated similar cases differently, with mitigating factors taken into account or disregarded arbitrarily"
4. failure of the courts and state authorities to consistently apply the procedures supposed to limit the death penalty to the "rarest of rare" cases.
The report also condemned a range of failings in India's death penalty system, which were at odds with international standards on the use of the death penalty.
These included expansion in the scope of the death penalty, mandatory death sentences -- for example for drugs and firearms offences -- and a lack of safeguards to prevent execution of children and the mentally ill.
Doing without, for how long?
Amnesty International welcomed the "current hiatus" on executions in the past decade, and said this "illustrates that the people of India are willing to live without the death penalty".
The last execution in India was carried out in August 2004, when Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged for the 1990 rape and murder of a girl. He was the first person to be hanged in India for over six years, having spent more than 14 years in prison.
However this week the Times of India reported that on May 16 a Bettiah court issued a "black warrant" for the execution of Prajeet Kumar Singh.
The newspaper said authorities in Bhagalpur Central Jail were preparing for its first execution in 13 years, which by law must take place between 21 and 28 days from a warrant being issued.
It quoted prison superintendant Uma Kant Sharan as saying the gallows would have to be readied and a hangman recruited.
"A separate request will be made to manufacturers of the special noose rope in Buxar," he said.
Prajeet's family, however, has reportedly lodged a petition for mercy with the President.
Related stories:
India: The politics of hanging -- 16 January, 2007
Describing the system as a "lethal lottery", at the launch of the report on 2 May 2008, the study's authors said "the only remedy is to abolish the death penalty [in India] completely".
The landmark 243-page report Lethal Lottery: The Death Penalty in India, A study of Supreme Court judgments in death penalty cases 1950-2006 was published by Amnesty International India and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (Tamil Nadu & Puducherry).
Researchers analysed Supreme Court judgements handed down in more than 700 death penalty cases over a 56 year period.
Woefully few, too many
A summary of the study findings said the work was necessary "because of a vital gap that affected those campaigning against the death penalty: the absence of a comprehensive analysis of facts relating to the practice of capital punishment".
"There exist woefully few researched studies on the subject," it said.
Amnesty International reported at least 140 people were sentenced to death in 2006 and 2007. The most recent official figures, from 31 December 2005, showed at least 273 people were on death row, a figure which would certainly have increased.
"The fate of these death row prisoners is ultimately a lottery," the study's authors said.
This research was "the first to examine the essential unfairness of the death penalty system in India by analysing evidence found in Supreme Court judgments of abuse of law and procedure and of arbitrariness and inconsistency in the investigation, trial, sentencing and appeal stages in capital cases".
It found that the death penalty was not limited to "rarest of rare cases" as claimed by politicians and courts. But "on the contrary, there is ample evidence to show that the death penalty has been an arbitrary, imprecise and abusive means of dealing with defendants".
Poor evidence, poor defence
The main failings identified in the report were:
1. errors in consideration of evidence -- most death sentences handed down in India are based on circumstantial evidence alone. In a 1994 Supreme Court appeal, the Court noted the main witness's memory constantly improved from his statement a few days after the incident to the trial three years later
2. inadequate legal representation -- concerns include "lawyers ignoring key facts of mental incompetence, omitting to provide any arguments on sentencing, or failing to dispute claims that the accused was under 18 years of age at the time of the crime despite evidence to the contrary"
anti-terrorist legislation -- concerns include "the broad definition of 'terrorist acts', insufficient safeguards on arrest, and provisions allowing for confessions made to police to be admissible as evidence"
3. arbitrariness in sentencing -- "in the same month, different benches of the Supreme Court have treated similar cases differently, with mitigating factors taken into account or disregarded arbitrarily"
4. failure of the courts and state authorities to consistently apply the procedures supposed to limit the death penalty to the "rarest of rare" cases.
The report also condemned a range of failings in India's death penalty system, which were at odds with international standards on the use of the death penalty.
These included expansion in the scope of the death penalty, mandatory death sentences -- for example for drugs and firearms offences -- and a lack of safeguards to prevent execution of children and the mentally ill.
Doing without, for how long?
Amnesty International welcomed the "current hiatus" on executions in the past decade, and said this "illustrates that the people of India are willing to live without the death penalty".
The last execution in India was carried out in August 2004, when Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged for the 1990 rape and murder of a girl. He was the first person to be hanged in India for over six years, having spent more than 14 years in prison.
However this week the Times of India reported that on May 16 a Bettiah court issued a "black warrant" for the execution of Prajeet Kumar Singh.
The newspaper said authorities in Bhagalpur Central Jail were preparing for its first execution in 13 years, which by law must take place between 21 and 28 days from a warrant being issued.
It quoted prison superintendant Uma Kant Sharan as saying the gallows would have to be readied and a hangman recruited.
"A separate request will be made to manufacturers of the special noose rope in Buxar," he said.
Prajeet's family, however, has reportedly lodged a petition for mercy with the President.
Related stories:
India: The politics of hanging -- 16 January, 2007
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Judge backs harsh sentences: China
China's Chief Justice has said violent criminals should be severely punished, including with death sentences, marking a clear departure from his predecessor who encouraged a 'cautious' use of the death penalty.
President of the Supreme People's Court, Wang Shengjun, said during a court inspection in Guangdong province that tough sentences were necessary to ensure the public's sense of security.
"Courts at all levels should severely punish those violent criminals that seriously jeopardize public security, especially those involved in gangsters or organized crimes and terrorism," Wang said in a report by state-run newsagency Xinhua.
According to The Associated Press he added: "Where the law mandates the death sentence, the death sentence should be given."
Wang said crimes that involved terrorism, organised groups or violence, and crimes that "seriously threaten social order" should be dealt with especially harshly.
His remarks contrasted with the more measured approach of the previous Chief Justice, Xiao Yang, who in November 2006 urged the country's courts to use "extreme caution" when handing down death sentences and said every judgement should "stand the test of time".
"In cases where the judge has legal leeway to decide whether to order death, he should always choose not to do so," Xiao Yang said, according to a Xinhua report.
The death sentence should be reserved for only an "extremely small number" of serious offenders, he said.
Fewer, but necessary
A senior Chinese judge recently said more death sentences were overturned on appeal last year, but the death penalty was still needed in the country.
Huang Ermei, head of the Supreme People's Court criminal case chamber, said in March that the death penalty suited the country's current level of development and was needed to deter crime.
The Associated Press reported her comments were posted in an interview on the government China Peace Web site.
"Abolishing the death penalty is an international trend in punishment, but this trend cannot be divorced from a country's own conditions," Huang said.
"Currently our country does not have the conditions to abolish the death penalty and will not have those conditions for a considerable period of time."
She said the Supreme People's Court last year rejected 15 per cent of death sentences imposed by local courts.
The Beijing Morning Post said the verdicts were overturned "because facts surrounding initial convictions were unclear, evidence insufficient, punishment inappropriate, procedures illegal and other reasons".
Since 1 January 2007, all death sentences had to be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court before they could be carried out.
Huang said the death penalty was mostly applied for murder and other violent crimes, drug trafficking and crimes against social order, but it was also used for serious economic crimes and corruption.
The Chinese government again provided no meaningful statistics on the use of the death penalty, combining the number of death sentences with all custodial sentences over five years.
Related stories:
Party claims economic penalty 'prudent' -- 4 August, 2007
China: Courts claim fewer executions -- 31 July, 2007
China call for cautious death penalty - again -- 8 April, 2007
China: Judges try to limit death penalty -- 14 November, 2006
China reforms good, but not enough -- 8 November, 2006
China: Supreme Court review from January -- 1 November, 2006
Political questions over China's new appeal judges -- 2 July, 2006
China to retain death penalty, with reforms -- 13 March 2006
President of the Supreme People's Court, Wang Shengjun, said during a court inspection in Guangdong province that tough sentences were necessary to ensure the public's sense of security.
"Courts at all levels should severely punish those violent criminals that seriously jeopardize public security, especially those involved in gangsters or organized crimes and terrorism," Wang said in a report by state-run newsagency Xinhua.
According to The Associated Press he added: "Where the law mandates the death sentence, the death sentence should be given."
Wang said crimes that involved terrorism, organised groups or violence, and crimes that "seriously threaten social order" should be dealt with especially harshly.
His remarks contrasted with the more measured approach of the previous Chief Justice, Xiao Yang, who in November 2006 urged the country's courts to use "extreme caution" when handing down death sentences and said every judgement should "stand the test of time".
"In cases where the judge has legal leeway to decide whether to order death, he should always choose not to do so," Xiao Yang said, according to a Xinhua report.
The death sentence should be reserved for only an "extremely small number" of serious offenders, he said.
Fewer, but necessary
A senior Chinese judge recently said more death sentences were overturned on appeal last year, but the death penalty was still needed in the country.
Huang Ermei, head of the Supreme People's Court criminal case chamber, said in March that the death penalty suited the country's current level of development and was needed to deter crime.
The Associated Press reported her comments were posted in an interview on the government China Peace Web site.
"Abolishing the death penalty is an international trend in punishment, but this trend cannot be divorced from a country's own conditions," Huang said.
"Currently our country does not have the conditions to abolish the death penalty and will not have those conditions for a considerable period of time."
She said the Supreme People's Court last year rejected 15 per cent of death sentences imposed by local courts.
The Beijing Morning Post said the verdicts were overturned "because facts surrounding initial convictions were unclear, evidence insufficient, punishment inappropriate, procedures illegal and other reasons".
Since 1 January 2007, all death sentences had to be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court before they could be carried out.
Huang said the death penalty was mostly applied for murder and other violent crimes, drug trafficking and crimes against social order, but it was also used for serious economic crimes and corruption.
The Chinese government again provided no meaningful statistics on the use of the death penalty, combining the number of death sentences with all custodial sentences over five years.
Related stories:
Party claims economic penalty 'prudent' -- 4 August, 2007
China: Courts claim fewer executions -- 31 July, 2007
China call for cautious death penalty - again -- 8 April, 2007
China: Judges try to limit death penalty -- 14 November, 2006
China reforms good, but not enough -- 8 November, 2006
China: Supreme Court review from January -- 1 November, 2006
Political questions over China's new appeal judges -- 2 July, 2006
China to retain death penalty, with reforms -- 13 March 2006
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