Death Penalty News

KATHMANDU, AUGUST 24—Members of Parliament from across the party lines in the House of Representatives today called for reforms in laws, including capital punishment for rapists after the rape and murder of three-year-old Garima Chaudhary in Bara.  While acknowledging that capital punishment conflicts with constitutional guarantees and Nepal's international human rights commitments, lawmakers argued that Parliament must have the legislative strength to amend laws in response to severe public outrage.  The three-year-old went missing from her home in Dasdhure Tol, Jitpursimara Sub-Metropolitan City-1, on the morning of August 16. After her mother, Manmati Chaudhary searched for her unsuccessfully for over three hours, local police were alerted. Her body was recovered two days later in a nearby abandoned house. 

Louisiana elected officials are once again pushing to resurrect the use of the death penalty for child rape, framing it as protection while setting the stage for a constitutional showdown.  These efforts are not subtle. They are a direct attempt to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana , which held that imposing the death penalty for a non-homicide offense violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Supporters frame these proposals as being tough on crime and protective of children. In reality, they threaten to unravel years of hard fought progress Louisiana has made to improve reporting, accountability, and access to justice for child sexual abuse survivors.

Nawal Filali, founder of the Aji Nt3awnou Association, told MWN that the petition demands maximum sentences, chemical castration, death penalty, and the removal of any mitigating circumstances for child sexual assaults. Rabat – The Moroccan association “Yallah Nt3awnou” has launched a national petition calling on the Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, and Parliament to impose harsher penalties for rape and sexual assault against children, including the death penalty for repeat offenders.

Jakarta (ANTARA) - A House of Representatives' official lauded the prosecutor's decision to sentence to death Herry Wirawan for raping 13 female students in Bandung and expects the judiciary panel to grant the request. "If that is what the prosecutor demanded, we certainly hold it in the highest regard as possible. That means the prosecutor's demand is in line with the wishes of the people, who strongly condemn the incident, (that is) Herry's behavior towards the students," Chairman of Commission VIII of the House of Representatives, Yandri Susanto, noted in his statement received here on Wednesday. Susanto expects that maximum punishment handed out to Herry Wirawan would serve as a lesson for the public to prevent the recurrence of similar criminal acts in future. Susanto remarked that any deviant citizens or anyone who committed sexual crimes, would think twice or many times before doing inhumane acts like what Wirawan had done. He also expects that this cas...

Amid ever-deepening political polarization, there is one issue on which the vast majority of Indonesians can apparently find common ground: the death penalty.  A 2015 survey by Indo Barometer found that 84.1 percent of respondents were in favor of capital punishment for persons convicted of drug-related offenses.  A 2017 Kompas poll found that a similarly overwhelming 89.3 percent of respondents supported the death penalty for persons convicted of terrorism-related offenses.  Even polls show the death penalty is more popular in Indonesia than democracy (76.2 percent in favor, according to a 2021 Indikator Politik Indonesia survey), vaccines (64.8 percent in favor, according to a November 2020 WHO survey) and the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic is real (79 percent, according to a September 2020 University of Indonesia study). This popularity is reflected in government policy and public discourse.  The use of the death penalty has actually declined globally, with Amnes...

Lawmakers in Nigeria’s Kaduna State have approved surgical castration as punishment for those convicted of raping children under the age of 14. State governor, Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai needs to sign the bill for it to become law in the north-western state. He has previously supported castration to prevent rapists from re-offending. The move follows public outrage over a wave of rapes, which prompted the nation’s state governors to declare a state of emergency. Nigeria’s federal law provides between 14 years and life imprisonment as punishment, but state legislators can set different sentencing rules. Stigma often prevents victims from reporting incidents of rape in Nigeria and the number of successful prosecutions is low. Since 2015, when a new law was introduced, about 40 rape suspects have been charged, in a country of some 200 million people, according to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (Naptip), which has a sex offenders’ list on its website. The new l...

The Minister of State FCT, Dr Ramatu Aliyu, has called for stiffer penalties against rapists to check the increasing cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence. According to the statement released by Mr Austine Elemue, her Special Assistant on Media, the minister suggested that rapists be castrated.  This, according to her, will serve as a deterrent to others. Aliyu revealed that the FCT administration was working closely with security agencies and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP) to ensure that justice is served. Aliyu, who described defilement of minors as a heinous crime, said that the death penalty was not the best of option for offenders. She said that when a society chooses to kill such offenders, they die, not remembering the crime they have committed against humanity. “We will involve every member of the community in this battle against rape. Just recently, we began a search for one offender a...

Lynching the rapists, death penalty and castration of the accused were some of the suggestions that Parliamentarians proposed on Monday as they expressed outrage over the 26-year-old veterinarian’s rape in Hyderabad.  Union Minister Rajnath Singh, meanwhile, said that the Centre is “ready for discussions to curb such crimes”. Leading the chorus of angry parliamentarians, Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan Monday said rapists should be “brought out in public and lynched.” “I don’t know how many times I’ve stood and spoken after this kind of crime. I think it is time… whether Nirbhaya or Kathua or what happened in Telangana… I think the people now want the government to give a proper and definite answer,” she said in Rajya Sabha. She also added that the security personnel in charge of the area where the crime took place be held accountable and questions be asked. “I think these people need to be shamed in front of the entire country.” Four men have been accused of raping...

The first Indonesian convict to be sentenced to chemical castration says he is refusing the punishment amid doubts that the authorities actually have the means to carry it out. Allowed out of his isolated cell for an authorized interview with the media yesterday, convicted child molester Muh Aris bin Syukur said he would actually prefer capital punishment over chemical castration for his crimes. “If they inject me, I will refuse. Because the effect lasts a lifetime. That’s what my friends tell me,” the East Java native said, as quoted by Sindonews, adding that he will refuse to sign a release for the punishment. “I choose the death penalty instead of [chemical castration]. Or life imprisonment is fine as well. If I can ask for it, then 20 years [is preferable].” Chemical castration, or the use of hormonal drugs to lower sex offenders’ sex drives, as a punishment, is already utilized in a number of countries based on the idea being that it should reduce the risk of r...

An Indonesian man named Muh Aris bin Syukur from the city of Mojokerto in East Java was sentenced with chemical castration for the rape of nine children in a landmark ruling for the country. In 2016, President Joko Widodo signed a Perppu (Presidential Regulation In Lieu of Law) introducing the death penalty and chemical castration for convicted child molesters, which was ratified into law that same year by the House of Parliament (DPR).  Three years on, Aris has become the first convicted child molester to be given the sentence in court. Aris was found guilty of raping nine girls from 2015-2018 in Mojokerto. He was arrested in October 2018 after he was caught by a CCTV camera molesting his latest victim. RELATED | Indonesian man sentenced to chemical castration says he would prefer death penalty As reported by CNN Indonesia, documents from Aris’ court case showed that, on July 18, the Mojokerto High Court upheld a 12-year prison sentence and IDR100 million (US$...

The legislation will affect thousands of men aged between 18 and 65 found guilty of raping or sexually abusing minors. Ukrinform news agency says the measure “involves the forced injection of anti-androgen drugs consisting of chemicals that should reduce libido and sexual activity”. And it is described as “coercive chemical castration”. In 2017, figures showed 321 child rapes in Ukraine but the number of paedophile sex abuse cases are understood to run into the thousands. National police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin said this week: "Five children were raped in four regions of Ukraine…. within just 24 hours. “And these are the crimes which parents reported to police despite their fear and anxiety to do so.  "We can only guess how many latent sexual crimes against children we have in the country.” In one harrowing case, Daria Lukyanenko, 11, was killed after she “fought back” against an alleged rape attempt by family friend Nikolay Tarasov, 22. H...

A string of cases in which missing children were found dead has reignited calls to reinstate the death penalty in Turkey, but some see political motives behind the outcry. The Turkish media in recent weeks has been awash with stories of missing children, some of whom have met a tragic end. On July 2, the body of a 4-year-old girl was found outside a village in the eastern province of Agri, where she had gone missing 18 days before while the family was visiting relatives. On June 30, the security forces dug up the body of an 8-year-old girl in Polatli near Ankara. The girl, who had been missing for a week, was reportedly tortured, sexually abused and strangled to death. On July 8, a 2-year-old boy was found dead outside his village in the southeastern province of Bitlis a day after he went missing. Also on July 8, the security forces recovered the body of a speech-handicapped 6-year-old boy in a mountainous area in the southern province of Hatay, about a week after he vanished wh...

The introduction of the death penalty in Turkey is not such an easy issue, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, when commenting on the issue of the possibility of instituting death penalty on pedophiles, Turkish media reported July 4. Erdogan noted that, first it is necessary to have a constitutional ruling for this purpose. The head of state noted that the government, as well as the defense and law enforcement agencies of Turkey are doing everything possible to protect their citizens. Earlier, the Spokesman and Deputy Chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party of Turkey Mahir Unal said that Turkey is considering the issue of introduction of the death penalty against pedophiles, as well as their castration. Unal noted that, the protection of children will be provided at the highest level in Turkey. The deputy chairman of the ruling party also noted that the issue of execution and castration of pedophiles will be discussed by the Turkish Parliament once ...