The execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana must be halted and an official moratorium on capital punishment established in India, Amnesty International said in an open letter to the country’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Balwant Singh’s execution is scheduled for 31 March 2012, in Punjab state. While death sentences continue to be imposed by Indian courts, no executions have been carried out in India since 2004. Amnesty International publishes its new report Death Sentences and Executions 2011 on Tuesday 27 March. As of 22 March 2012, more than two-thirds of all countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Out of 41 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, 17 have abolished the death penalty for all crimes and 10 are abolitionist in practice.
“Resuming executions after an 8 year hiatus would place India in opposition to regional and global trends towards abolition of the death penalty,” said Bikramjeet Batra, Amnesty International’s Policy Adviser. “We urge Prime Minister Singh to stop the execution of Balwant Singh and establish an official moratorium on executions – and ultimately to abolish the death penalty in India for all crimes.”
Balwant Singh was found guilty in 2007 of the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995. The death sentence was upheld by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in October 2010. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
Source: Amnesty International, March 28, 2012
Life or death? Verdict on 31st
India is set to bring alive the capital punishment debate as it gets ready to carry out first execution in about eight years. Balwant Singh Rajoana is to be executed on March 31 for assassinating former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995 in the backdrop of feeble protests for clemency.
The country last witnessed hanging of a child rapist on August 14, 2004 when Dhananjoy Chatterjee was executed in West Bengal, causing then a bitter debate for and against capital punishment.
While government has officially stuck to its stand on the controversial issue, the fact that no hanging has taken place in India during the last 8 years bears testimony to the fact it has adopted a wait and watch policy.
Indian courts awarded a total of 1,338 death penalties during the last one decade on a plethora of cases ranging from murder and rape to terror. The award profile essentially follows the crime graph in the country with Uttar Pradesh leading the tally at 323. Courts in Bihar and Maharashtra awarded 130 and 122 death penalties respectively during the decade.
Family members of Rajoana have pleaded for converting his death sentence to life imprisonment. There might be merit in their argument if statistics are any indication. During the last decade a total of 2806 death penalty cases were commuted to life imprisonment. Out of these, Delhi reported the maximum 2461 life imprisonment cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with 461 and 339 incidents, respectively.
As if on cue in an open letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog, said the execution of Rajoana would be a major step backwards. "Resuming executions after an 8 year hiatus would place India in opposition to regional and global trends towards abolition of the death penalty," said Amnesty's Asia-Pacific director Sam Zarifi, in his March 26 plea.
The government has maintained silence on the issue but should it go through the March 31 execution, decks would be cleared for the hanging of several other high profile convicts. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), there were 18 mercy petitions pending before the President and MHA as of February 14, 2012. The list includes Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
India is not alone that still swears by capital punishment and has US and Iran for company. Iran, incidentally, boasts of the highest number of 1663 executions in the last 4 years. Saudi Arabia and Iraq follow with 423 and 256 executions each during the period. The United States and Pakistan also reported 220 and 174 hangings in the same period.
On the last count 97 countries had done away with capital punishment preferring life imprisonment over it.
Source: Zee News, March 28, 2012
Amnesty International writes to PM to stop Rajoana's execution
Amnesty International has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stop the imminent execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, scheduled to be carried out on March 31.
"We understand your government has the sole authority to prevent the execution, since the government in the Union Territory of Chandigarh, where he was awarded the death sentence, does not have the power to commute that sentence," Sam Zarifi, director, Amnesty International, Asia-Pacific, has written in a letter which was sent on March 26.
The copies of the letter have also been sent to the President of India, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Governor of Punjab and the administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh and the chief minister of Punjab. Zarifi, in the letter, wrote that, "Amnesty International urges you to take all necessary measures within your power to stop the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana and immediately establish an official moratorium on executions; commute the death sentences of all prisoners in the country; and swiftly abolish the death penalty in India for all crimes."
While death sentences continue to be given by Indian courts, no executions have been carried out since 2004 and the debate on the death penalty has intensified markedly in India in recent years.
Source: The Times of India, March 28, 2012
Parliament Should Repeal the Death Penalty
The Indian government should halt the hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana, who has been on death row since August 2007 for the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 27, 2012, acourt in Chandigarh, Punjab refused a request for a stay of execution and ordered that the hanging proceed on March 31.
On August 31, 2005, Beant Singh and others were killed by a suicide bomber in Chandigarh. Rajoana admitted being part of the conspiracy, and has refused to appeal his conviction and death sentence, saying that he does not regret the killing.
“The death penalty is always wrong and the Indian government should immediately stop this execution,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Beyond that, executing Rajoana would merely continue the cycle of killing and retribution between the Sikh community and the Indian state that has long divided communities.”
The killing of Beant Singh occurred in the context of abuses by government security forces and Sikh militants during a secessionist insurgency in Punjab that began in the 1980s. The militants sought to avenge the 1984 massacres of Sikhs after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. The bodyguards in turn were avenging the government assault on the Sikh Golden Temple in Armritsar, Punjab. Although capital punishment remains legal in India and the courts frequently impose the death sentence, no execution has occurred for more than seven years. If Rajoana is executed, he will be the second person sent to the gallows since 1995. The last person executed was Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was convicted in a rape and murder case of a child and hanged in Kolkata in August 2004.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badalhas said that all legal aspects of the case will need to be examined before his government can consider an execution. The last hanging in Punjab was in 1989.
A number of appeals have been filed against the Rajoana execution. The petition seeking deferment of the hanging was filed by the superintendent of Patiala central jail, saying that although Rajoana had not appealed his conviction, his fellow accused have challenged their convictions and those appeals are still pending.
Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment. A majority of countries in the world have abolished the practice.
“The Indian government has rightly not carried out executions for nearly a decade,” Ganguly said. “It should now officially declare a moratorium, commute all existing death sentences, and then abolish the death penalty for all crimes.”
Source: Human Rights Watch, March 28, 2012
Halt execution, says Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch Wednesday demanded that India should not hang terrorist Balwant Singh Rajoana.
"The death penalty is always wrong and the Indian government should immediately stop this execution," a Human Rights Watch South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly.
"Executing Rajoana would merely continue the cycle of distrust between members of the Sikh community and the Indian state," she added.
Rajoana has been on death row since August 2007 for the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
On Tuesday, a Chandigarh court refused a request for a stay of execution and ordered that the hanging proceed Saturday.
On Aug 31, 2005, Beant Singh and others were killed by a suicide bomber in Chandigarh.
Rajoana admitted being part of the conspiracy. He has refused to appeal his conviction and death sentence, saying he does not regret the killing.
The last person executed in India was Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was convicted in a rape and murder case of a child and hanged in Kolkata in August 2004. The last hanging in Punjab was in 1989.
Human Rights Watch said it opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible and inhumane punishment.
"The Indian government has rightly not carried out executions for nearly a decade," Ganguly said.
"It should now officially declare a moratorium, commute all existing death sentences, and then abolish the death penalty for all crimes."
Source: New Kerala, March 28, 2012
