Death Penalty News

The Medan Court in North Sumatra on Tuesday sentenced Mawardi, a 24-year-old man from Gayo Lues, Aceh, to death after being found guilty of carrying 1.3 tonnes of marijuana, fulfilling the demand of the prosecutors.  In the trial, which was held online, presiding judge Yusafrihardi Girsang said in his verdict that the defendant violated several articles of Law No. 35/2009 on narcotics.  Yusafrihardi said the severe sentence was because the defendant had violated the government’s attempts to fight against drugs.  The judge said he found no mitigating factors for the verdict.  Defendant Mawardi, who was present via teleconference, decided to appeal the verdict. 

Courts in Singapore will next week consider arguments by four men who have spent more than a decade on death row, amid fears the city state may push ahead with executions to free up space on death row. The Singaporean government does not disclose how many people are held on death row, though campaigners believe there are likely more than 50 men awaiting execution, the majority of whom have been convicted of drug offences. Singapore has not carried out any executions for the past two years, due to a number of pending court applications that forced the authorities to pause proceedings. However, sentences of the death penalty have continued to be handed down, even during the height of the pandemic when hearings were held over Zoom. Families fear there is now a backlog that the authorities are attempting to clear. Among the cases to be heard next week, is an appeal launched by Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam , whose execution was stayed last year pending appeal. Nagaenthran, who has an intellec...

Defence lawyers said the death penalty for 38 convicts is the highest in a single case in the country — in 1998, a TADA court had handed the death sentence to 26 accused in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. A special court, designated for speedy trial of the accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts that killed 56 people and injured over 200, handed the death sentence Friday to 38 of 49 convicts. The remaining 11 have been awarded life terms in jail. The 49 were convicted on February 8 by special judge A R Patel who acquitted 38 other accused in the case. Defence lawyers said the death penalty for 38 convicts is the highest in a single case in the country — in 1998, a TADA court had handed the death sentence to 26 accused in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. While the sentencing order has not yet been put in the public domain, the prosecution claimed that the accused planned the serial blasts as “revenge” for the 2002 post-Godhra riots in...

At a virtual court hearing on Monday, Olalekan Hameed was found guilty of murdering his mother’s employer in 2018 and was sentenced to death by hanging. A judge at a court in Lagos delivered the ruling to Hameed, who appeared remotely from prison via Zoom, along with his lawyer and prosecutors who also joined the hearing remotely, justice ministry spokesman Kayode Oyekanmi told Fintech Zoom. Hameed, who denied the charge, remains in prison, Oyekanmi said. Fintech Zoom was trying to reach the suspect and his lawyer for comment. The court held the session via Zoom to comply with the state’s social distancing guidelines to curb coronavirus. Amnesty International Nigeria Director Osai Ojigho slammed the country’s use of the death penalty and questioned why Monday’s hearing couldn’t be delayed. “We know many courts are exploring how they can continue cases virtually, but the challenge is how much thought has been given to the process for virtual court sittings,” Ojigho said. “In this case, ...

A session court in Bihar on 14 June 2021 sentenced 10 persons to death for the murder of a local businessman for extortion in 2018. The court of additional district judge Manoj Kumar also fined each of the convicts Rs 2.60 lakh, additional public prosecutor Nagendra Prasad Singh said. On 6 December 2018, businessman Imran Khan was shot dead and his brother Akil Ahmad injured in a shooting in Shobha market area in Ara town. A BSNL employee also sustained injuries. Imran had allegedly refused to pay Rs 10 lakh in extortion allegedly demanded by the accused. Those sentenced to death are Khurshid Quraishi, his brother Abdullah Quraishi, Babli Miyan, Tausif Alam, Furchan Miyan, Ahmad Miyan, Anwar Quraishi, Guddu Miyan, Raju Khan and Shamsher Miyan. The judgment was delivered via videoconferencing. Source:  Hindustan Times, Staff, June 14, 2021 🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resourc...

Jakarta (AFP) -- Indonesia has sentenced scores of prisoners to death over Zoom and other video apps during the pandemic in what critics say is an "inhumane" insult to those facing the firing squad. The Southeast Asian nation turned to virtual court hearings as Covid-19 restrictions shut down most in-person trials, including murder and drug trafficking cases, which can carry the death penalty. Since early last year, almost 100 inmates have been condemned to die in Indonesia by judges they could only see on a television monitor, according to Amnesty International. The Muslim-majority nation has some of the world's toughest drug laws and both Indonesian and foreign traffickers have been executed, including the masterminds of Australia's Bali Nine heroin gang. This month, 13 members of a trafficking ring, including three Iranians and a Pakistani, learned via video that they would be shot for smuggling 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of methamphetamine into Indonesia. And on ...

The number of death sentences handed down by Indonesian courts last year rose by 46 % on the previous year, a leading rights group says. According to Amnesty International Indonesia, 117 death sentences were handed down in 2020, compared with 80 in 2019. In its latest report on the death penalty released on April 21 , Amnesty said 101 out of the 117 death sentences were given in drug cases, while the other 16 were handed to convicted murderers. The rights group said the increase ran contrary to world figures, which saw a 36 percent decrease in such sentences — from 2,307 in 2019 to 1,477 in 2020. Condemned prisoners are executed by firing squad in Indonesia. It “shows a very low appreciation of human life when the world is now focusing on trying to save people from the deadly coronavirus,” the report said. “The death penalty, in any situation, is a cruel and inhumane sentence” Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, called the situation “very ironic.” “Here’...

In May 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, the Supreme Court of Singapore sentenced a man to death for a drug offence. This has happened countless times before as Singapore is one of the 35 countries that retains the death penalty for drugs. The only difference? This sentencing happened via Zoom. As human rights groups have pointed out, sentencing someone to death via an impersonal medium such as Zoom makes this already cruel and inhumane punishment even more inhumane. It is also a violation of a person's right to a fair trial, and it puts confidential data at risk. A few months later, the court did this again. I found this deplorable and I am currently representing this person in court. For the first time since 2013, my home country of Singapore did not carry out any executions last year. This mirrors the trend on the global level. A new report from Harm Reduction International reveals that 2020 saw a record low number of confirmed drug-related executions. Worldwide, 30 peopl...

A district court in West Java has handed death sentences to a gang of more than a dozen drug traffickers, including an Iranian couple and a Pakistani man, the prosecutor's office said. A total of 13 suspects -- three Iranians, a Pakistani and nine Indonesians -- were ordered to be executed by firing squad for the gang's role in smuggling about 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds) of methamphetamine, according to authorities. The ruling was delivered by videolink late Tuesday in West Java's Sukabumi city, where members of the drugs ring were caught last June, due to Covid-19 restrictions. RELATED |  Indonesia, Singapore | Drug Smugglers Are Being Sentenced to Death via Zoom Iranian Hossein Salari Rashid led the smuggling plot, said Bambang Yunianto, head of the Sukabumi prosecutors' office. "There are 4 foreigners in the group with (Rashid) the mastermind of the crime. He was sentenced together with his wife," Bambang said. Tuesday's ruling was a record for the num...

At least 21 drug offenders have been handed the death penalty via video calls on WhatsApp or Zoom during the pandemic. Courts in Indonesia and Singapore are using video calls to sentence to death people convicted of drug trafficking, according to drug harm reduction experts. Harm Reduction International (HRI), which published its annual report into global drug war death penalties on Wednesday, told VICE World News that 19 drug offenders were sentenced to death in Indonesia during virtual hearings held on video apps such as Zoom and WhatsApp between March 2020 and March this year. 2 people convicted of drug trafficking were handed death sentences over Zoom calls in Singapore last year. The report said use of video calls for trial hearings and to administer death sentences introduced due to COVID-19 constituted a “significant violation of their fair trial rights”. Lawyers for defendants said the video conference calls, which featured defendants speaking from prison, were often prone to i...

Former commerce minister Banyin Tangpakorn has been sentenced to death for the premeditated murder of construction tycoon Chuwong Sae Tang that he tried to pass off as a car accident six years ago. The Phra Khanong Criminal Court on Wednesday handed down the maximum penalty for the 56-year-old former Nakhon Sawan MP. The court said the death sentence was warranted as Banyin, a former senior police officer, had never confessed to the murder, although all evidence showed the victim was slain. On June 26, 2015 Chuwong, 50, was found dead in the passenger seat of a black Lexus SUV driven by Banyin after the vehicle hit a roadside tree in Suan Luang district of Bangkok.  Banyin was only slightly injured. He told police that his close friend died because he did not buckle up his safety belt. The court said the evidence showed the accident was staged, an attempt to cover-up a murder. The ruling was delivered to the defendant via video conference. He is serving a life sentence in high-secu...