Death Penalty News

Durban - As 9-year-old Sadia Sukhraj was laid to rest on Tuesday after she was shot in a botched hijacking in Shallcross on Monday morning, an online petition calling for the return of the death penalty was gaining traction throughout the day. With more than 54 000 signatures on the petition, Shailen Singh, the chairperson of the Jem Foundation, said he was driven by Sadia’s sudden death to start this petition. Sadia was his cousin’s granddaughter. Singh plans to take the petition to Parliament with the hope that Section 51 of South Africa’s Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1997 will be reconsidered in favour of the death penalty. Section 51 reads: “The court convicting any person - (a) of an offence under section four may, instead of imposing sentence of death on that person, impose upon him any other punishment within the jurisdiction of that court.” Singh said it was devastating for the shooting to have taken place at the start of Child Protection Week. He ex...

Over 100 death sentences were handed out last year by courts in India which also expanded the scope of capital punishment by enacting new laws against hijacking, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said. In 'The Death Sentences and Executions 2017' report released here yesterday, Amnesty said it has recorded at least 993 executions in 23 countries in 2017, down by four per cent from 2016 (1,032 executions) and 39 per cent from 2015 (when the organisation recorded 1,634 executions, the highest number since 1989). At least 2,591 death sentences in 53 countries were recorded in 2017, a significant decrease from the record-high of 3,117 recorded in 2016. These figures do not include the thousands of death sentences and executions that Amnesty International believes were imposed and implemented in China, where figures remain classified as a state secret. In India, 109 death sentences were recorded in 2017. However, there were zero executions in the country...

In the new law, the definition has been expanded to include the death of "security personnel on board" or "ground support staff" as well. NEW DELHI -- The country's new anti-hijacking law, which prescribes capital punishment in the event of death of "any person", has come into force following a government notification. The 2016 Anti-Hijacking Act replaces a 1982-vintage law, according to which hijackers could be tried for death penalty only in the event of death of hostages, such as flight crew, passengers and security personnel. In the new law, the definition has been expanded to include the death of "security personnel on board" or "ground support staff" as well. In other cases of hijacking, guilty will be punished with imprisonment for life and fine, besides confiscation of movable and immovable property held by him or her. The new law, which has come into effect after its notification on July 5, includes s...

Gallows at the Old Central Jail, Bangalore, India Two Acts passed this year widen the scope of capital punishment in India. While a majority of countries globally have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, at least 2 laws have come into force in India in the last 2 months that expand the scope of the death penalty. The Bihar Excise (Amendment) Act, 2016, passed in March, says that mixing poisonous substances with liquor can be punishable by death, in cases where death is caused. Then, the Anti-Hijacking Act 2016, which was notified by Parliament in May, allows for capital punishment in cases of hijacking that have resulted in the deaths of hostages, security personnel or any person not involved in the offence. This is in sharp contrast to the position taken by the Law Commission of India in August last year. In a report, the commission said that the time had come for India to move towards abolishing the death penalty. The commission recommended doing away...

Pakistan on Thursday executed 8 death row convicts, including 3 men who hijacked an airplane in May 1998. Shahsawar, Sabir and Shabbir Baloch hijacked a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Balochistan province's Turbat town on May 25, 1998, Dunya News reported. The PIA Flight 544 was carrying 33 passengers, including 5 crew members. The hijackers demanded the pilot to enter India. They were arrested when the flight finally landed at Hyderabad Airport. The 3 men were sentenced to death on August 20, 1998. Shahsawar and Sabir were hanged in Hyderabad Central Jail, while Shabbir was executed in Karachi Central Jail. Death row convict, Mahmood was also hanged in Karachi Central Jail. He was sentenced for killing a minor boy in 2003. 3 convicts were hanged in jails across Punjab province. Akseer was found guilty of killing a man over a business dispute in 1998. Muhammad Ashraf was sentenced for a double murder in 2000. Amir Abdullah was found gui...

Aviation ministry has sent the draft anti-hijacking bill, which includes death sentence as a punishment, to the law ministry for vetting. To make the anti-hijacking law much tougher the aviation ministry wants to repeal the Anti-Hijacking Act 1982 and replace it with a new one.  "In order to improve aviation security and create deterrence, it is proposed to introduce anti-hijacking bill 2014 by repealing the Anti-Hijacking Act 1982. The proposed legislation will enlarge the scope and definition of "hijacking" and enhance the punishment to include death penalty and confiscation of property of perpetrators as well as of conspirators/ abettors," said the aviation ministry 100-day action plan submitted to the Prime Minister's Office.  Source: HindustanTimes, July 31, 2014

NEW DELHI, June 11 (Xinhua) -- India will introduce a new anti- hijacking law to impose death penalty on hijackers, local media reported Wednesday. The civil aviation ministry plans to introduce the Anti-Hijacking Act 2014, which proposes to incorporate the death penalty for convicted hijackers if there is loss of life of passengers and will treat conspirators at par with those actually carrying out the hijacking, and also provide for confiscation of property of the guilty, said local daily Asian Age. The new law will repeal the current law on hijacking which was taken effect in 1982. Under the new law, the ambit of hijacking is also expected to be widened from just "in-flight", which means when aircraft doors are closed to "in-service". The law will apply to acts of violence or force not just in the air but also on the ground when the aircraft doors are not yet fully secured. In 2005, the Indian government approved a new anti-hijack policy sa...