Gods forbid: India's temples guard their gold from government

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 30, 2013: India's Hindu temples are resisting divulging their gold holdings - perhaps nearly half the amount held in Fort Knox - amid mistrust of the motives of authorities who are trying to cut a hefty import bill that is hurting the economy.

The central bank, which has already taken steps that have slowed to a trickle the incoming supplies that have exacerbated India's current account deficit, has sent letters to some of the country's richest temples asking for details of their gold. It says the inquiries are simply data collection, but Hindu groups are up in arms.

"The gold stored in temples was contributed by devotees over thousands of years and we will not allow anyone to usurp it," said V Mohanan, secretary of the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad organization in Kerala state, in a statement.

Indians buy as much as 2.3 tonnes of gold, on average, every day - the weight of a small elephant - and what they don't give to the gods is mostly hoarded. Jewellery is handed down as heirlooms and stored away with bars and coins as a hedge against inflation or a source of quick funds in an emergency.

That is costing the economy dear. Gold imports totaled $54 billion in the year ending March 31, 2013, the biggest non-essential item shipped in from overseas and a major factor in swelling the current account deficit to a record in 2012/13.

Guruvayur temple, in Kerala, one of the most sacred in India and boasting a 33.5-metre (110-ft) gold-plated flagstaff, has already told the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) it won't divulge any details.

"The gold we have is mostly offered by the devotees. They would not like the details to be shared with anybody," said V M Gopala Menon, commissioner of the temple's administrative board.

The World Gold Council estimates there are about 2,000 tonnes of gold locked away in temples - worth about $84 billion at current prices - which Indian devotees have offered in the form of jewelry, bars, coins and even replicas of body parts, in the hope of winning favors from the gods or in thanks for blessings received and health restored.

Curbing gold imports and getting the gold squirreled away back into circulation has become a priority for the government and RBI this year. Import duty is at a record 10 percent and the latest new rule - that 20 percent of all imports must leave the country as jewelry exports - caused confusion that dried up buying for two months.

The head of the Hindu nationalist main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala state, V Muralidharan, said the RBI wanted to "take possession" of the gold and maybe sell it for dollars.

Data collection?

The central bank said there was "no proposal under its consideration to convert idle gold into bullion at this juncture".

But its letters, sent to leading temple trusts in Kerala, were prompted by a report looking at "issues related to gold imports" and loans outside the banking system in February, which zeroed in on temples and domestic hoards for fresh supplies.

Under the heading "supply-related measures", the report looks at recycling domestic gold and notes: "Temples in India hold large quantities of gold jewelry offered by devotees to the deities."

Subha Unnikrishnan, a clothes shop owner worshipping at one of the temples in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram, said whatever had been given to the temple should stay there. "We have given it to the god with a purpose," he said. "Nobody can take them away."

Of the three major temple boards in Kerala, which administer more than 2,800 temples, Cochin board has also decided against providing details of its gold, while another has yet to decide and a third says it has not yet received a letter from the RBI.

Some of them cite security reasons for their reticence - and the wealthiest temples do have tight controls and metal detectors at gates to keep their assets safe.

There has been no inquiry from the RBI yet at the centuries-old Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, where two years ago treasure then estimated to be worth over $20 billion - more than India's education budget - was discovered in secret subterranean vaults. But its hoard is already being checked by the Supreme Court to make sure it is adequately protected.

There are some, for sure, who feel the temples should divulge their centuries of gold offerings.

"Everything the temple gets should be known to the devotees," said Shankaram Kutty, head of an advertising firm based in Cochin, who goes at least once a year to Guruvayur with an offering. "I feel every temple should declare their assets."

Mumbai's Shree Siddhivinayak Ganpati temple, often visited by Bollywood celebrities, had already put 10 kg (22 lbs) of its gold into a bank deposit scheme. It still has 140 kg in its vault.

"The gold we have is the nation's property, we will be proud if the nation can benefit from it," said Subhash Vitthal Mayekar, chairman of the temple's administrative trust. He has not yet received an inquiry from the RBI.

It is not alone. The Tirupati temple in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, considered one of India's richest, has lodged 2,250 kg of gold with the State Bank of India, which pays it interest.

As the central bank ponders its options, it could take heart that the temples themselves are already doing their bit to circulate the gold.

"We use some of it for making gold lockets that we sell in our temple counter. For making the lockets, we send some gold to the Mumbai mint through the State Bank of India, which is one of our bankers," said a source at the Guruvayur temple's administration.

Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle

Prabowo Stepping Up to Help Maid Facing Death Row in Malaysia

Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto of the Gerindra party gestures during a speech to members of the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club, in Jakarta September 25, 2013. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)

September 30, 2013: Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) party chief patron Prabowo Subianto said that he is hiring a top Malaysian lawyer to save an Indonesian maid from a death sentence.

Prabowo said he has met with Wilfrida, the Indonesian maid who is on trial for the 2010 murder of 60-year-old Yeap Seok Pen in her Kampung Lubok, Pasir Mas, home.

Wilfrida has been working since she was 12 and is said to be a victim of human trafficking.

The Malaysian woman allegedly accused the young maid of sleeping with her husband in an argument that turned physical, according to reports in Malaysian media.

Prabowo described Wilfrida’s situation as reprehensible, saying she did not get enough legal help and that he had tried to contact the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur via telephone but had not received a response.

Prabowo said the lawyer appointed by the Indonesian embassy to assist her in the death trial only met her a few hours before the trial and therefore he has now hired one of Malaysia’s top lawyers, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee, in the hope that she can avoid the death penalty.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar flew to Malaysia on Thursday to meet with Malaysian officials as the maid’s trial drew to a close.

“The government is doing everything it can to save Wilfrida,” Muhaimin said. “Besides giving a maximum [amount of] legal support, we are also taking a bilateral diplomatic approach to freeing her.”

The ministry coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indonesian embassy to secure a team of attorneys to represent Wilfrida, Muhaimin said.

“The team of attorneys will assist her and observe her trial,” he said. “They are working hard to find strong legal evidence to break the case and free Wilfrida from the death penalty.”

Wilfrida’s trial is scheduled to conclude today when the court issues a verdict. If declared guilty, the woman faces a maximum sentence of death under Malaysia’s criminal code.

Wifrida’s actual age at the time of her arrest is a key point in the government’s defense. Wilfrida was either 21 years old or 17 years old when she was charged with murder.

The woman’s passport carried a birthdate of June 8, 1989, but her christening letter from a Catholic church in Indonesia read Oct. 12, 1993, according to Indonesian news portal Tempo.co.

Courtesy: Jakarta Globe

Tennessee switches to single-drug execution protocol

NASHVILLE (WATE), Monday 30 September 2013: The Tennessee Department of Correction issued a revised protocol Friday for court ordered executions.
 

The department will now use a single drug instead of the previous three-drug method. The new protocol allows sole use of the sedative pentobarbital.
 

The department says the drug has been upheld in court challenges and used in other states.

Pentobarbital is a barbiturate used for medical purposes as a sedative and anesthetic.
 

The last major revision to the state's execution protocols came in 2007, when then-Gov. Phil Bredesen issued an executive order to review the policies and procedures and ordered a moratorium on executions.

Courtesy: Institute of American Studies

Dubai maid who stabbed co-worker escapes death penalty

Sentence reduced to life in jail after appeal court judges fail to reach decision

Dubai, September 30, 2013:  A woman who stabbed her co-worker to death because she called her crazy — and then stabbed herself in the neck with a meat skewer — has escaped the death sentence after appeal court judges failed to reach a decision. Her sentence was reduced to life imprisonment.

Prosecutors accused the 28-year-old Ethiopian housemaid of stabbing her countrywoman co-worker, H.S., 35 times before trying to slit her own throat with a meat skewer.

Prosecution records said F.Y. stabbed H.S. repeatedly with a kitchen knife following a brawl, the reasons for which remain unclear.

The attack happened inside the laundry room of a villa in the Al Bida’a area on July 9.

Courtesy: Gulf News

Arturo Diaz, South Texas man, executed for 1999 slaying

 Arturo Diaz. Diaz, 37

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, September 27, 2013 - A South Texas man was put to death Thursday for a slaying 14 years ago in which the victim was bound with shoelaces and strips of bedding, stabbed 94 times and robbed of $50.

The execution of Arturo Diaz, 37, was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court refused a last-ditch appeal to block his death by lethal injection. It was the 13th execution this year in Texas, the nation's most active capital punishment state.

Diaz smiled and blew a kiss to several witnesses watching through a window, including his mother and grandmother.

He then turned to the father of his victim, watching through an adjacent window to the death chamber. "I hope this can bring some relief for you and your family," he told him.

He spoke in Spanish to his own friends and relatives, telling them: "I am with God."

He also added that he hoped his fate "serves as an example for some youngsters. ... Think about it before you do drugs."

He was pronounced dead 17 minutes later, at 6:30 p.m. CDT.

"It was way too easy," Forrest Nichols, whose son was murdered in 1999, said as he stood watching Diaz.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials have used pentobarbital as the single execution drug for more than a year, but Diaz became the first in the state given the sedative procured from a vendor or manufacturer the prison agency has declined to identify.

Diaz's reaction to the drug was similar to other Texas inmates who have been executed with pentobarbital. He took several deep breaths, began snoring and ceased movement in less than a minute.

The expiration date of the department's existing inventory passed this month, possibly diluting its potency. Like other death penalty states, Texas officials needed to go to nontraditional sources because the usual suppliers bowed to pressure from capital punishment opponents and refused to make their product available.

In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Diaz's attorney, James Terry Jr., argued recent high court rulings allowed another look at previously unsuccessful appeals where inmates had shoddy legal help. Diaz had deficient counsel at his 2000 trial in Hidalgo County and early in the appeals process, his attorney said.

Diaz, from Las Milpas, a small town between McAllen and the Mexican border, was convicted of the April 1999 slaying of Michael Nichols, 25, at Nichols' apartment in McAllen. Diaz also was given two life terms for attempted capital murder and aggravated robbery of another man who survived.

Cregg Thompson, the lead prosecutor at Diaz's murder trial, said evidence showed Diaz tried to steal Nichols' pickup truck but couldn't open a locked gate at the apartment complex. His shoe print was found on the keypad box at the gate, and his DNA was found on a beer bottle at Nichols' apartment.

Diaz said he was high on drugs and alcohol during the attack on Nichols. He also confessed to a slaying that took place a month earlier. In that case, the victim's head was stomped and face beaten with a hammer. Diaz also received a 94-year prison term for aggravated sexual assault for raping a jail inmate.

"You know it's going to take some time for all the appeals and everything to go through," Thompson said this week of Diaz's execution. "But when you say 14 years, that sounds like an awful long time."

Courtesy: CBSNews

Day of judgement: Inside a Gaza murder trial

 Human rights groups have condemned the use of the death penalty under Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. This week, BBC Arabic's Shahdi Alkashif obtained rare access to a murder trial where three defendants faced death sentences.

Defendant Fathi Ashram was allowed to hug his
son during the trial

26 September 2013: In a small room in the basement of a court building in Gaza City, three members of the same family were on trial, accused of killing a relative in December 2010.

Two young men and one man in his fifties stood in a black metal cage in a corner of the room as prosecutors accused them of shooting 28-year-old Mohammed Ashram, who was an official in the Hamas government in Gaza, during an argument over money.

The cage was surrounded by security guards with long beards, and on the back wall there was a plaque bearing words from the Koran: "When you judge between men, you judge with justice."

The judge, a man in his forties also with a long beard, was seated opposite, with advisers to his right and left, as well as a young woman wearing a veil who recorded proceedings.

Also crammed into the room were the prosecution and defence teams, the victim's brothers and several members of the defendants' families, and a number of other lawyers who were waiting for the judge to hear six other cases after the murder trial had ended.

The judge listened to the defence's argument in the Ashram case, but did not appear to find it very convincing. He also heard a prosecutor demand the death penalty.

"The penalty for murder at the Day of Judgement is to be thrown into the fires of Hell," he said. "An innocent young man lost his life, leaving behind a widow and children, and depriving his parents of their son."

After deliberating with his advisers in an adjacent room, the judge emerged to give his verdict.

Those in the courtroom were asked to stand, before the judge found the eldest defendant, Fathi Ashram, guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging.

He then sentenced one of the other defendants to prison and acquitted the third.

The verdicts prompted expressions of both satisfaction and anger from the members of the public in the courtroom. There were cries of "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and also claims that there had been a "great injustice".

Afterwards, the judge told the BBC that the authorities in neighbouring Egypt had "assisted" the investigation into Ashram's murder, with one of their forensic laboratories "proving" the involvement of the man who was sentenced to death.

The trial had been held in accordance with Palestinian law, he added.
 

Public 'very satisfied'

However, such assertions have been challenged by international human rights activists.

Last month, Human Rights Watch demanded that the Hamas authorities halt all planned executions, alleging that Gaza's justice system was deeply flawed.

"The convictions included cases of prolonged arbitrary detention, credible allegations of torture, and convictions based primarily on coerced confessions," it said.

Sixteen prisoners have been executed since 2010, most of them after being convicted of killings or spying for Israel, while another 16 prisoners are awaiting execution, the group said in its report.

The Independent Commission for Human Rights, the official Palestinian rights ombudsman, said a total of 36 people had been sentenced to death in Gaza between February 2010 and June 2013.

Of this number, the authorities had executed at least six men, while another five were sentenced by military courts in absentia, the ICHR added.

Gaza's attorney general, Ismail Jabir, was quoted by the interior ministry's website as saying: "The law will take its course and no criminal will escape punishment."

He claimed that "the public is very satisfied" with the application of the death penalty, and that "the only complaints come from some human rights organisations".

The authorities would "not pay attention" to them, because "our religious tradition" required capital punishment as a deterrent, Mr Jabir insisted.

Courtesy: BBC

The federal government is calling the release of an Iranian-Canadian man who had been facing death row in Tehran a welcomed symbolic step from Iran

Tuesday, September 24, 2013: Hamid Ghassemi-Shall was arrested in 2008 by Iranian police and charged with espionage. He was sentenced to death in 2009.

"We are obviously pleased that he has been able to be back with his family,” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told reporters in Montreal on Tuesday. “We want to encourage him obviously to return to Canada immediately before the situation changes."

 But Baird warned that there is still a long way to go in order to improve Iranian relations.

"We want to see meaningful progress on human rights. It has an abysmal human rights record and that matters. We also want to see it take back steps from supporting terrorism," he said.

On Monday, Ghassemi-Shall's wife, Antonella Mega said she spoke with her husband after his release, but did not know when he would be leaving Iran.

"He sounds OK," Mega told CTV's News Channel. "He's still in the state of not really believing that he has seen the light and that he's breathing the fresh air. I think he's still exhilarated and a little bit out of sorts but extremely happy and delighted."

Mega said she has always been convinced of her husband's innocence and believes that the Iranian government knew this as well.

"I'm thankful that Iranian authorities released Hamid. We haven't given up on exculpating him and we've kept working throughout these years," Mega said.

Ghassemi-Shall, a Toronto shoe salesman, emigrated to Canada from Iran after the 1979 Iranian revolution. He had made several trips back to visit family without incident prior to 2008 when he was arrested.

Ghassemi-Shall was one of 80 prisoners released in Iran just hours after Iranian President Hasan Rouhani's departed to attend the annual UN General Assembly in New York. The unexpected, mass release is seen by some as an attempt to bridge relations between Iran and Western countries.

While in New York, Rouhani is expected to ask to restart stalled negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. The country has repeatedly denied charges that they are seeking to build a nuclear weapon and maintains that their nuclear program is for energy and cancer treatment.

Prior to leaving Iran, Rouhani urged Western leaders to roll back sanctions and move toward greater dialogue and negotiations.

During his address to the UN General Assembly, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with the Iranian leader.

"We are encouraged that President Rouhani has received from the Iranian people a mandate to be a more moderate force," Obama said in his address to the UN.

Rouhini was elected in June, replacing outspoken and often antagonistic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press.

Courtesy: CTV News

Iran lawmakers pass bill allowing men to marry adopted daughters

Human rights activists say approved bill, making girls vulnerable to the ruling from age 13, 'legalises paedophilia'

[Editor: Now we need to define who is a child before accusing Iranian government of promoting pedophilia. In many health care institutions in India, sick children up to 12 or 13 years are registered under Pediatric service and older children under adult Medicine service. This age cut-off has been traditional. So, if we consider this clause then any person above the age of 13 years does not come under the category of Child. Isn't it?]

Young girls in Chah Bahar, Iran. Iran's body of clerics
and jurists has not yet vetted the new legislation on
child marriage. Photograph: Jamshid Bairami/EPA

Thursday 26 September 2013: Parliamentarians in Iran have passed a bill to protect the rights of children which includes a clause that allows a man to marry his adopted daughter and while she is as young as 13 years.

Activists have expressed alarm that the bill, approved by parliament on Sunday, opens the door for the caretaker of a family to marry his or her adopted child if a court rules it is in the interests of the individual child.

Iran's Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists which vets all parliamentary bills before the constitution and the Islamic law, has yet to issue its verdict on the controversial legislation.

To the dismay of rights campaigners, girls in the Islamic republic can marry as young as 13 provided they have the permission of their father. Boys can marry after the age of 15.

In Iran, a girl under the age of 13 can still marry, but needs the permission of a judge. At present, however, marrying stepchildren is forbidden under any circumstances.

As many as 42,000 children aged between 10 and 14 were married in 2010, according to the Iranian news website Tabnak. At least 75 children under the age of 10 were wed in Tehran alone.

Shadi Sadr, a human rights lawyer with the London-based group Justice for Iran, told the Guardian she feared the council would feel safe to put its stamp of approval on the bill while Iran's moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, draws the attention of the press during his UN visit to New York.

"This bill is legalising paedophilia," she warned. "It's not part of the Iranian culture to marry your adopted child. Obviously incest exists in Iran more or less as it happens in other countries across the world, but this bill is legalising paedophilia and is endangering our children and normalising this crime in our culture."

She added: "You should not be able to marry your adopted children, full stop. If a father marries his adopted daughter who is a minor and has sex, that's rape."

According to Sadr, officials in Iran have tried to play down the sexual part of such marriages, saying it is in the bill to solve the issue of hijab [head scarf] complications when a child is adopted.

An adopted daughter is expected to wear the hijab in front of her father, and a mother should wear it in front of her adopted son if he is old enough, Sadr said.

"With this bill, you can be a paedophile and get your bait in the pretext of adopting children," Sadr said. Some experts believe the new bill is contradictory to Islamic beliefs and would not pass the Guardian Council.

An initial draft of the bill, which had completely banned marriage with adopted children, was not approved by the council and it is feared that MPs introduced the condition for marriage to satisfy the jurists and clergymen. This is why Sadr fears it can pass the council this time.

The bill has prompted backlash in Iran with the reformist newspaper, Shargh, publishing an article warning about its consequences. "How can someone be looking after you and at the same time be your husband?" the article asked.

Shiva Dolatabadi, head of Iran's society for protecting children's rights, has also warned that the bill implies that the parliament is legalising incest. "You cannot open a way in which the role of a father or a mother can be mixed with that of an spouse," she said, according to Shargh. "Children can't be safe in such a family."

Execution of juvenile offenders in Iran has also been in spotlight in recent years amid confusion between the age of majority – when minors cease to be legally considered children – and the minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is 15 for boys and nine for girls under Iranian law.

Courtesy: The Guardian

Ohio executes racist killer, 61, with its last dose of lethal drug after he eats final meal of steak, french fries, peach pie and ice cream

• Harry Mitts Jr. shouted racial slurs before shooting dead his neighbor's black boyfriend, John Bryant, in 1994
• He then opened fire on responding officers, killing Sgt. Dennis Glivar
• Mitts, who admitted to the crimes, asked for his victims' families' forgiveness before he was put to death on Wednesday morning
• It was Ohio's last use of pentobarbital as manufacturer is putting it off limits to states for executions; a new method will be announced soon.

25 September 2013: A white man who yelled racial slurs before fatally shooting a black man and a police officer in a 1994 rampage was today executed with the state's last use of its execution drug.

Harry Mitts Jr ate a last meal of steak with sauteed mushrooms, Caesar salad with ranch dressing, Italian bread, french fries, peach pie, butter pecan ice cream and Dr Pepper before asking his victims' families to forgive him, saying he had carried the burden of his crimes with him for 19 years.

'I had no business doing what I did,' he said in a last statement to six witnesses representing his victims. Two clergy members and a friend were also in attendance.

Mitts Jr., 61, was pronounced dead at 10.39am by lethal injection of the powerful sedative pentobarbital at the state prison in Lucasville after years of acknowledging his crimes and repenting.

The state's supply of pentobarbital is expiring, and a new execution method will be announced later

Mitts was convicted of aggravated murder and attempted murder in the August 1994 rampage against random neighbors and responding police officers at his apartment complex in a Cleveland suburb.

Wielding a gun with a laser sight and later other weapons, Mitts first shouted racial epithets and killed a neighbor's black boyfriend, John Bryant, and then shot and killed white Garfield Heights police Sgt. Dennis Glivar as he responded to the scene. Mitts also shot and wounded two other police officers.

The Ohio Parole Board and Republican Gov. John Kasich had denied Mitts' pleas for mercy.

Mitts, at his clemency hearing, had pointed to a virtually clean record before and after the day of the shootings and said he had found God in prison.

After his conviction, he spoke of receiving a Bible from Glivar's mother and sister and a letter expressing their forgiveness and urging him to seek repentance.

Lock up: He was put to death at the Southern
Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville on
Wednesday morning

Mitts told the Ohio Parole Board he had drunk heavily because he was distraught over his divorce and had likely shot Bryant to draw police to his home in hopes they would shoot and kill him.

He said he wasn't a racist and didn't remember directing racial slurs at Bryant before shooting him
.

He said he couldn't say why he didn't shoot two white neighbors he encountered ahead of Bryant.

Prosecutors argued that, with the murders, multiple shootings and additional death threats carried out that day, Mitts 'exhibited complete disregard for the lives of officers and innocent bystanders at the scene'.

'That further tragedy did not result from the bedlam that Mitts created on August 14, 1994, is in many respects a miracle,' a clemency report said.

With Ohio's supply of pentobarbital expiring, the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has said it expects to announce its new execution method by Oct. 4.

Pentobarbital is no longer available because its manufacturer has put it off limits to states for executions.

Courtesy: Mail Online 

China executes former street vendor, provokes outcry

September 25, 2013: China today executed a street food vendor who drew widespread sympathy after fatally stabbing two "heavy-handed" security officials, provoking outraged webusers to denounce his death penalty as unjust.

China's Supreme Court upheld a death sentence against Xia Junfeng, who murdered two officials after a dispute over his streetside stall in 2009, the Shenyang Intermediate People's court in northeast China said in a verified social media account.

Xia had appealed his sentence on the grounds he killed the two officers in self-defence when they savagely attacked him and others in the city of Shenyang as he barbecued food on the street.

Xia's case drew widespread sympathy amid regular reports of abuses by China's quasi-police city management officials.

The officials, known as chengguan, "have earned a reputation for brutality and impunity... They are now synonymous for many Chinese citizens with physical violence, illegal detention, and theft," a spokeswoman for advocacy group Human Rights Watch said last year.

Hundreds of people rioted in southwest China in 2011 after chengguan reportedly beat a disabled street vendor to death, while the alleged murder of a street vendor in southern China in July provoked a nationwide outcry.

Xia's death sentence was the most discussed topic on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, today, where many expressed sympathy for him and called the verdict unjust.

"This was a normal act of self-defence, how can you give the death penalty?" commentator Wei Zhuang wrote.

"This is a father who killed to retain his dignity... At the time (of the murders) shouldn't it be the street, the city and the country who feel guilty?" author Li Chengpeng wrote.

Others questioned the equality of China's legal system, referring ot the high-profile case of Gu Kailai, the wife of former top-ranked politician Bo Xilai, who was sentenced to a suspended death sentence -- usually commuted to life in prison -- last year for the murder of a British businessman.

"Gu Kailai didn't get death sentence for killing. Why did Xia Junfeng get the death sentence for self defence," one Sina Weibo user wrote.

One of Xia's lawyers, Chen Youxi, wrote on Sina Weibo that the court invited Xia's wife to meet her husband ahead of the execution.

"After two and a half years of struggle, we are finally powerless," he added.

Xia's family were reportedly ordered to pay the victims USD 106,000 in compensation, and were raising money by selling paintings by Xia's son.

Courtesy: Business Standard

British ex-PCSO faces death penalty for 'drug trafficking in Indonesia after £3k of crystal meth was found in her underwear'

• Andrea Ruth Waldeck, 43, was arrested in April after tip off to police
• Trial began on Monday and prosecutors say she faces firing squad if guilty
• Worked for Gloucestershire Police until February last year 

25 September 2013: A former police community support officer is facing the death penalty after allegedly smuggling drugs into Indonesia in her underwear.

Andrea Waldeck (right) appears
at court in Indonesia

Andrea Waldeck, 43, was arrested by detectives who searched her hotel room and found crystal methamphetamine worth £3,000 taped to her stomach.

After leaving her job as a PCSO last year, Waldeck crossed the globe to become part of an ‘evil conspiracy’ involving an Indonesian drug-smuggling gang, according to prosecutors.

If found guilty, she will become the second British woman facing the firing squad in Indonesia for drug-smuggling. 

Grandmother Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death in January after cocaine worth an estimated £1.6millon was found in the lining of her suitcase.

Andrea Waldeck worked as a PCSO
for Gloucestershire Constabulary
until she left the force
in February 2012

Waldeck has told authorities that she was ordered to deliver 3lb (1.47kg) of the highly addictive drug, known as crystal meth, to Indonesia by her boyfriend.

She is thought to have been living with the man, whose nationality is not known, in Dongguan in China before flying to Indonesia to meet drug-dealing gangsters.

Waldeck, who was declared bankrupt in 2009 with debts of more than £120,000, had previously lived  and worked in Cheltenham. She left Gloucestershire Police in February last year.

Prosecutors say she initially evaded customs officials at Juanda Airport while hiding four packets of drugs in her underwear. 

She was arrested in April at her hotel room in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, after police received a tip-off. 

Officers raided her room after she rang an associate in China to arrange for someone to pick up the crystal meth, it is alleged.

On a Facebook profile, which appears to have been set up by Waldeck in July, she apologised to family and friends: ‘I’m so very sorry I’ve disappointed you all’.

Prosecutor Deddy Agus Aktavianto said Waldeck will face execution by firing squad if convicted, due to the quantity of drugs she was allegedly carrying and the likelihood of trafficking.

Her trial began this week at Surabaya district court and Waldeck is expected to give a statement next Monday, he said.

Her brother Mark Waldeck, of Brecon, Powys, said yesterday: ‘We don’t want to talk about it until the trial is over.’ He said his sister is being assisted by London-based legal charity Reprieve.

The British Embassy has been aware of Waldeck’s case since shortly after her arrest and has provided consular assistance.

Courtesy: Mail Online 

Four prisoners hanged in southeastern Iran - Three prisoners to be hanged Tomorrow

Iran Human Rights, September 24: Four prisoners were hanged in Kerman Prison (southeastern Iran) on September 24, reported state run Iranian news agencies.

The prisoners— identified as "Farzad T.", "Masoud Kh.", "Meysam S." and "Ali M."— were reportedly charged with rape, immoral relationship, kidnapping and robbery.

According to reliable sources from Iran, three prisoners are scheduled for execution in Rajai Shahr Prison tomorrow morning. The prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement earlier today.

Courtesy: Iran Human Rights

Execution of Juvenile Offender Mohammad (Maher) Ayashi Postponed- Remains in Danger of Execution

Iran Human Rights, September 24: The execution of juvenile offender, Mohammad (Maher) Ayashi, scheduled for this morning, was postponed indefinitely.

According to reports from Iran, Mr. Ayashi’s execution has been postponed, but may be carried out in the coming days.

Last week another juvenile offender was executed in Kazeroun, convicted of a murder that he allegedly committed at the age of 14.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) emphasizes that Mohammad Ayashi is still in danger of execution; the international community must continue with efforts to save his life.

Courtesy: Iran Human Rights

Death sentence for UAE maid who killed baby to spite nanny

~~Ayesha Al Khoori

Abu Dhabi, Sep 23, 2013: A maid who murdered a baby to spite the child’s nanny has been sentenced to death.

ST, from Indonesia, smashed the 4-month-old girl’s head on a wooden table, causing her skull to fracture and brain to haemorrhage. She then placed the baby back in her crib and left the room as she waited for the nanny to discover the body.

At the Criminal Court she confessed to murder, saying she was driven by her hatred of the nanny, whom she had a rivalry with.

The maid’s defence lawyer Ali Al Abadi claimed the maid was not mentally fit to stand trial, but the court rejected the argument, finding she did not suffer any medical or mental issues.

The child died on April 28 this year.

All death sentences are automatically appealed at both the Appeals Court and Cassation Court before being forwarded to the Ruler for final approval. If the verdict is upheld by all, the maid will face a firing squad.

Courtesy: The National 

Too young to be hanged

Boy convicted of multiple murders to be detained at the pleasure of Head of State

SIBU, September 24, 2013, Tuesday: The High Court here yesterday found a teenage boy guilty of murdering four members of a family in their house at RTM Road in January last year.

However, because he was under 18 when he committed the murders the boy escaped the death sentence and was ordered to be detained in prison pending a decision on his fate by the Head of State.

The boy, who was also charged with an attempted murder, has to stay behind bars for eight years.

The youth, now 19, was found guilty of murdering businessman Ling Tong Hock, 36, Ling’s 76-year-old mother Leong Nyuk Lan, son David Ling Chei Qi, 10 and daughter Amy Ling Zi Jiun, 7, by bludgeoning them to death with a steel hammer.

He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Ling’s other son Kelvin Ling Chei You in their house at RTM Road about 7am on Jan 3, 2012.

In her judgement, Judge Supang Lian said that at the time of the offence, the youth was only 17 years and seven months old and as such was defined as a ‘child’ under Section 2 of the Child Act 2011.

She ordered the imprisonment to take effect from the date of his arrest and to run concurrently with the sentence meted out for the four murder charges.

The judge also noted that the accused had elected to remain silent when he was called upon to enter his defence on all five charges preferred against him.

On the evidence adduced, she found that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused on all the charges beyond reasonable doubt.

“For the first, second, third and fourth charges of murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code, pursuant to Section 91 of the Child Act 2001 a sentence of death shall not be pronounced or recorded against the accused for he was 17 years and seven months old at the time of the commission of the offences on Jan 3, 2012 and as such, was still a child.

“Pursuant to Section 97(2) of the Act, there is one sentence in lieu of a sentence of death. It is this. The Court shall order a person convicted of an offence of murder to be detained in a prison at the pleasure of the Yang di-Pertua Negeri of the State of Sarawak.”

On the attempted murder charge, Supang said the accused was found guilty and convicted of an offence under Section 307 Penal Code.

Stating that the maximum penalty prescribed by law for this offence is 20 years’ imprisonment, she pointed out that the medical evidence adduced at the trial through Dr Zul Imran Malek showed that Kelvin Ling who was then only a child aged eight had suffered horrendous injuries at the hands of the accused.

Courtesy: Borneo Post

Jennifer Mee, known as 'Hiccup Girl,' found guilty of murder

Jennifer Mee breaks down in court

September 21, 2013: A Florida woman who became famous as a teen for her uncontrollable hiccupping was found guilty of first-degree murder Friday in the shooting death of Shannon Griffin.

It only took a Pinellas County jury four hours Friday night to deliberate before delivering the guilty verdict against 22-year-old Jennifer Mee, the Associated Press reported.

According to Tampa Bay Times, Mee, and some of the jurors, burst into tears as the verdict was read in the courtroom. Minutes later, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Nancy Moate Ley explained that the only possible sentence for the charge was life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In closing arguments, the prosecution painted Mee as not the mastermind of murder, but a willing participant whom officials say lured the 22-year-old victim to an abandoned home in October 2010, under the pretense of buying marijuana, local station WTSP news reported.

"She was the bait," said prosecutor Jan Olney pointing directly at Jennifer Mee. "She was the bait that lured Shannon Griffin to a back alley that was dark where two of her cohorts waited."

Once there, two of Mee's friends robbed him at gunpoint — but Griffin struggled and was shot four times, WESH news in Florida reported.

The defense argued the evidence proving Mee's involvement in Griffin's death simply wasn't there, WTSP writes.

"What witnesses do you have? What documents show that Jennifer Mee, not someone else, but Jennifer Mee had a conscious intent for the robbery to be done," Mee's defense attorney John Trevena asked.

As a 15-year-old, Mee developed a case of the hiccups that wouldn't go away. Videos of her hiccupping, and of her trying to quell the hiccups, gained her national attention.

Now at age 22, prosecutor Olney said Mee gained attention during the five-day trial in a different way: Mee became the prosecution's "star witness," she said

That's because prosecutors said Mee set everything up and acknowledged that fact on tape when she was first arrested and called her mother from the Pinellas County Jail.

During the recorded call, she told her mother that she did not pull the trigger of the gun that killed Griffin, but that she was charged with murder.

"Because I set everything up," Mee explained during the call that was played for the jury. "It all went wrong, Mom. It just went downhill."

After the verdict, Mee's mother declined to talk to media.

Griffin's mother and cousin, however, did express their relief at the guilty verdict.

"It is just too much right now because we are still grieving and we just wanted it to be about him," Shanna Griffin told ABC Action News.

Mee has 30 days to appeal her conviction.

Mee's co-defendant, LaRon Raiford, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in August, the AP said. Lamont Newton, the other co-defendant who was also Mee's boyfriend at the time of the crime, has not yet gone to trial, according to the AP.

Courtesy: Digital Journal

Death penalty in Delhi gang rape won't end sexual violence - activists

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Hanging the four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman will not end India's scourge of rape, activists said on Friday, adding there was no "quick-fix" to the multiple threats faced by women in the country.

A special fast track court sentenced the men to death on Friday following the brutal attack nine months ago, which prompted thousands of usually apathetic urban Indians to take to the streets and stirred national debate about rising crime against women.

As many Indians - including the parents of the victim, politicians, Bollywood celebrities and the public on the streets and on social media sites - welcomed the death penalty, human rights groups and some feminists expressed concern.

"Sending these four men to the gallows will accomplish nothing except short-term revenge," Tara Rao, director of Amnesty International India, said in a statement.

"While the widespread anger over this case is understandable, authorities must avoid using the death penalty as a 'quick-fix' solution. There is no evidence that the death penalty is a particular deterrent to crime, and its use will not eradicate violence against women in India."

Increasing the number of courts, judges and prosecutors, sensitising police to gender crimes and improving security on the streets are essential steps for tackling sexual violence, said Amnesty India, adding that the gang-rape case should not be taken as an exception.

Some 244,270 crimes against women were reported to the police in 2012, against 228,650 in 2011, according to the National Crimes Records Bureau.

These included rapes, kidnappings, sexual harassment, trafficking, molestation and cruelty by husbands and relatives.

They also included crimes in which a woman was driven to suicide as a result of demands for a dowry from her husband or in-laws.

Women's rights groups and lawyers say many of these cases take years to come to trial, if at all, and that the Delhi gang rape case was exceptional because of the level of media and public attention.

DEEP-ROOTED MISOGYNY

Bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh, gym instructor Vinay Sharma, fruit seller Pawan Gupta, and unemployed Mukesh Singh lured the trainee physiotherapist and her male friend onto a bus in New Delhi after watching a movie at a shopping mall on December 16.

As the bus drove through the streets, the men repeatedly raped the victim before dumping her naked and semi-conscious on the road.

Prosecutors said the men used a metal rod and their hands to pull the woman's organs from her body after raping her. She died two weeks later.

The crime was seen by Judge Yogesh Khanna as "the rarest of the rare" which means the death penalty can apply according to Indian law.

Some women's rights groups said that while they welcomed steps taken by the authorities over the last nine months, including a stronger law to tackle sex crimes, these measures were not enough to change patriarchal mindsets which see women as inferior.

"Eliminating these men will not eliminate the culture of rape. The deep misogyny of potential assailants, as well as many actors within the criminal justice system needs to shift," said Karuna Nundy, a supreme court lawyer and prominent activist.

Organisations such as global campaign group Avaaz say the only way to reverse such attitudes, which lie at the root of gender crimes, is through a massive public education campaign across India.

The United Nations called on India on Friday to take a more "comprehensive approach" to women. "Laws by themselves are not the solution - their implementation also matters as does changing mindsets," said a statement from UN Women.

"Violence against women is preventable, not inevitable. Prevention is achievable because the majority of the factors associated with men's use of violence can be changed."

Courtesy: Reuters

'The death penalty is not the solution'

An Indian court has sentenced four men to death for a fatal gang rape last year in New Delhi. But UN Women's representative Rebecca Tavares believes capital punishment is not the right way to deal with these crimes.

Dr. Rebecca Reichmann Tavares

13.09.2013:  The crime took place last December when a 23-year-old female physiotherapy student and her male companion were attacked upon boarding a private bus they thought would take them home after watching a movie at a shopping mall in New Delhi. Six attackers savagely beat the man and repeatedly raped the woman, inflicting massive internal injuries with an iron rod, according to police reports. The woman died from her injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

Some nine months later, four of the adult suspects were sentenced to death by hanging. The presiding judge stated that "in these times, when crime against women is on the rise, the courts cannot turn a blind eye toward such gruesome crimes." But in a DW interview, UN Women's representative for India, Rebecca Reichmann Tavares, says that while perpetrators of crimes against women must be brought to justice, there is no evidence that the death penalty has a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment.

DW: Indian fast-track court judge Yogesh Khanna said the December gang rape in New Delhi was "an extreme case of brutality" and a "beastly crime" that shocked the collective conscience of society. Despite the nature of the crime, do you think the death sentence is the right kind of punishment in this case?

Rebecca Tavares: No, I don't. The official position of the United Nations is that the death penalty is a human rights violation. There is no evidence that capital punishment has a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment. While UN Women recognizes the brutality of the crime, we cannot condone that type of punishment for any human.

We believe this ghastly crime deserves the maximum sentence of life imprisonment and that all perpetrators of crimes against women should be brought to justice. But we are also of the opinion that higher conviction rates will serve as a deterrent to those willing to commit acts of violence against women. We therefore call on the government of India to ensure speedy justice to the survivors of the violence and to facilitate the rehabilitation of the perpetrators.

India must reform its judiciary, work with the police to enforce the laws that have been brought forward. The country is a leader in terms of making progressive and positive laws for women, but the problem lies in the enforcement, along with prevailing attitudes and long-standing positions that violate women’s human rights.

What signal do you believe the Indian judiciary is sending out with this ruling?

It is sending a very clear message to the public at large that this type of crime cannot be tolerated. In India and across the world there have been very low conviction rates for rape and other forms of violence against women. It’s time for that to change. The Indian people have demanded an end to the culture of rape. Since the incident took place in December last year, there has been an uptick in the number of crimes against women being reported. More women and more families are now willing to come forward and report cases these cases.

The ghastly attack has also led to many progressive reforms and changes such as the approval by Parliament of the Criminal Amendment Act 2013, which called for an end to impunity, and recognized a broad range of sexual crimes against women. The law acknowledges that lesser crimes often escalate to graver ones and that deterrence is important.

Based on anonymous interviews with more than 10,000 men in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea, a UN study found that about one in ten men had raped a woman who was not his partner. When their wife or girlfriend was included, that figure increased to nearly a quarter. What are the reasons behind such a high prevalence of rape?

One of the interesting aspects of the study is the way the questions were phrased. Instead of asking the participants whether they had ever raped a woman, the researchers asked if they had ever had sex with a woman against her will, which resulted in a positive response in many cases.

The men who took part in the survey thought that they had a right to women’s sexual services automatically. There seems to be a culture of entitlement. This is why we need to work to change men's attitudes towards women, gender relations and long-standing patriarchal structures. But we also need to focus on other aspects such as education, women's economic empowerment and the justice system.

International media mostly focuses on rapes, dowry deaths and forced marriages when reporting about the situation of women in Asia. But what positive changes have taken place in Asian countries?
More and more governments recognize the importance of women and are taking measures to empower them economically. There are many programs involving housing, land distribution and cash transfer especially designed for women. Furthermore, progressive legislation aimed at incorporating prevention, education and a comprehensive approach to addressing violence and discrimination against women is currently being passed in many countries.

Dr. Rebecca Reichmann Tavares is the UN Women’s representative for India, Maldives, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.

The interview was conducted by Gabriel Domínguez.

Courtesy: DW

Death penalty not 'foolproof' solution: Lawyer
~By T S Sekaran |

Sudha Ramalingam

CHENNAI, 14th September: Death penalty is not a solution to prevent the crime against women, noted lawyer Sudha Ramalingam said on Friday.

When Express contacted her over phone to ascertain her views on the death sentence passed by a Fast Track Court to the four accused in the Delhi rape and death case, Ramalingam vehemently argued that the capital punishment can never be a solution to such crimes, as it is not a “foolproof” one.

“In a civilised country like India, this kind of barbarous punishment of taking the lives of human beings, should be abolished. It will neither serve as a deterrent to others or bring down the crime rate. It denies an opportunity to the accused to reform themselves,” she said.

Statistics will reveal that in a country where death sentence is in vogue, the crime rate is higher. On the other hand in a country where such a practice was abolished, the crime rate is comparatively low, she said.

Meanwhile, Woman Lawyers Association president D Prasanna wholeheartedly welcomed the judgment. “We have insisted that the accused must be sentenced to death and staged several agitations... Persons committing such a heinous crime like animals, should be dealt with such an extreme punishment. Finally, justice is done,” she said.

According to senior advocate A Natarajan, the highest punishment of death sentence is the apt one to the rape-cum-murder accused, who can never be pardoned. “It is the rarest of rare case, which deserves death sentence,” he said and added that punishments like this only help maintain public order and uphold the faith of the people in the judiciary.”

K Santhakumari, president of the Tamil Nadu Federation of Woman Lawyers said that the punishment had reinforced the faith of the woman-folk in the judiciary.

Courtesy: The New Indian Express

India: Death penalty will not end violence against women

Four men convicted of a gang-rape in December 2012 were sentenced to death by a court in New Delhi.
© Amnesty International

13 September 2013: Far-reaching procedural and institutional reform, and not the death penalty, is needed to tackle the endemic problem of violence against women in India, Amnesty International said today after four men convicted of the December 2012 gang-rape were sentenced to death by a court in New Delhi.

The court found the four men guilty of gang-rape, murder and other related charges on 10 September. A 17-year old convicted in the same case was sentenced to three years detention in a juvenile home on 31 August. Another accused was found dead in his prison cell on 10 March.

“The rape and murder of the young woman in Delhi last year was a horrific crime and our deepest sympathy goes out to the victim’s family. Those responsible must be punished, but the death penalty is never the answer,” said Tara Rao, Director of Amnesty International India.

“Sending these four men to the gallows will accomplish nothing except short-term revenge. While the widespread anger over this case is understandable, authorities must avoid using the death penalty as a ‘quick-fix’ solution. There is no evidence that the death penalty is a particular deterrent to crime, and its use will not eradicate violence against women in India.”

Cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against women are still common throughout India. In April, the government passed new laws which criminalized several forms of violence against women including acid attacks, stalking and voyeurism. However, rape within marriage is still not considered a crime under law if the wife is over 15, and security forces continue to enjoy effective legal immunity for sexual violence.

“Addressing this issue requires legal reform, but also sustained commitment by the authorities to ensure that the justice system responds effectively at all levels to reports of rape and other forms of sexual violence,” said Rao.

“The attention that authorities have given to this case must extend to the thousands of other pending cases of sexual violence in India as well. Authorities must take steps – including appointing more judges to ensure swift but fair trials in all these cases.”

Crimes against women are still under-reported. Authorities are yet to fully implement several progressive recommendations made by the Justice Verma Committee, including around police training and reform, and changing how reports of sexual violence are registered and investigated.

“There must be concerted efforts to change the discriminatory attitudes towards women and girls which lie at the root of the violence. These measures will take hard work, but will be more effective in the long run in making India safer for women,” said Rao.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution.

Courtesy: Amnesty International

An 18 Year Old Boy Hanged Publicly in Northern Iran 

Iran Human Rights, September 14: An 18 year old boy was hanged publicly in the town of Ghaemshahr (northern Iran) this morning.

According to the state run Iranian news agencies the 18 year old boy was identified as Erfan Gholinejad and was convicted of a rape committed in April 2013. He was arrested in June 2013 according to the reports.

Depending on Erfan’s exact date of birth, there is a possibility that he was under 18 years of age at the time of committing the alleged crime. Iran Human Rights is currently investigating this matter.

Courtesy: Iran Human Rights

Britain, Amnesty slam death penalty
~Kounteya Sinha

LONDON, Sep 14, 2013: Amnesty International and Britain have strongly opposed the death penalty awarded to Nirbhaya's rapists. While Amnesty International condemned the decision to hang the four convicted of the crime, saying death penalty will not end violence against women, Britain asked India to refrain from carrying out death sentences and called on the government to establish a moratorium in order to permanently abolish capital punishment.

Soon after the fast track court ordered the hanging on Friday, Britain's foreign office told TOI, "We note that four men have been sentenced to death in India following prosecution for rape and murder. While the UK fully respects India's right to prosecute this awful crime, the UK is opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle in India as elsewhere".

 The foreign office added "We urge the Indian government to refrain from carrying out any further executions. We also call on the government of India to formally establish a moratorium with a view to abolition of the death penalty."

In a statement released in London, Amnesty said far-reaching procedural and institutional reform, and not the death penalty, is needed to tackle the endemic problem of violence against women in India.

"The rape and murder of the young woman in Delhi last year was a horrific crime and our deepest sympathy goes out to the victim's family. Those responsible must be punished, but the death penalty is never the answer," said Tara Rao, director of Amnesty International India. "Sending these four men to the gallows will accomplish nothing except short-term revenge. While the widespread anger over this case is understandable, authorities must avoid using the death penalty as a quick-fix solution."

Amnesty says there is no evidence that the death penalty is a particular deterrent to crime, and its use will not eradicate violence against women in India. The brutal crime on Nirbhaya highlighted "the unacceptable reality millions of women in India are facing", it said. It said violence against women is endemic—more than 2,20,000 cases of violent crimes against women were reported in 2011 according to official statistics, with the actual number likely to be much higher.

Speaking to TOI, Amnesty's death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio admitted that "calls for death penalty, particularly when made in these highly emotional moments, undoubtedly express people's desire to live in a safer society, free from fear of crime" but "there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime more than any other punishments."

Courtesy: The Times of India