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From April 2023, the Asia Death Penalty Blog will have a new home on Twitter. For the most up-to-date Asia death penalty-related news and advocacy, please follow @ADP_Blog_Tweets 

This site will no longer be updated but is kept for legacy purposes. On this site you may view articles posted from February 2006 to February 2023.

斗争还在继续

يستمر الكفاح

संघर्ष जारी है

perjuangan terus berlanjut

闘争は続く

투쟁은 계속된다

ရုန်းကန်မှုဆက်လက်

مبارزه ادامه دارد

การต่อสู้ยังคงดำเนินต่อไป

جدوجہد جاری ہے

Cuộc chiến đấu vẫn tiếp diễn

Yours in solidarity,

ADP Blog

Opinion: Myanmar’s junta keeps on killing

Source: The Washington Post (2 February 2023)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/02/myanmar-military-generals-human-rights/

In the two years since Myanmar’s generals seized power, they have steered the country into one of the worst human rights disasters on the planet, with mass killings and detentions, torture, sexual violence and attacks on civilians. Attempts to stop them have so far failed — but there is more the United States can do.

On Feb. 1, 2021, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing grabbed power from a parliament elected the previous November in what had been an overwhelming victory for the National League For Democracy, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. She previously was de facto leader of a nascent democratic government in a power-sharing arrangement with the military. Since the coup, security forces in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have detained more than 17,600 pro-democracy activists, human rights defenders and their supporters and killed more than 2,900 civilians, according to the nongovernmental Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The military has waged indiscriminate ground and air attacks on civilians in villages. About 1.5 million people have been displaced. Not to be forgotten are the more than 940,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled to neighboring Bangladesh after a scorched-earth campaign the military launched in August 2017. A broad opposition, the National Unity Government, is fighting back, along with numerous ethnic groups.

To spread fear, the junta last year began using the death penalty, executing four political prisoners, the first executions of political prisoners in over three decades. In December, seven students and three others were sentenced to death after sham trials. In total, the junta has put at least 139 people on death row. After closed military trials on politically motivated charges, Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to 33 years in prison.

The junta has blocked humanitarian aid from reaching millions in need. A five-point “consensus” plan by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which called for an end to violence and access for humanitarian relief, lies in ruins. The generals have called for an election in August — but with rules that will prolong the military’s control.

Congress recently boosted U.S. efforts to support democratic forces in Myanmar. On Tuesday, the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia imposed a new round of sanctions on the generals, some of them aimed at cutting off supplies of aviation fuel the military uses in aerial attacks on civilians. But the United States and its allies need to do more to liquidate a spider network of businesses and opaque financial deals that sustain the junta, including ties to China and Russia. A new report by the group Justice for Myanmar documented examples in which the junta drew support from 64 foreign governments and organizations. Sanctions and other tools could help take down these networks.

Myanmar’s agony should not slip out of sight. Action now might return the country to the democratic road on which it had previously embarked.

165 sentenced to death in 2022, highest in 2 decades | India News – Times of India

Source: The Times of India (30 January 2023)

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/165-sentenced-to-death-in-2022-highest-in-2-decades/articleshow/97424728.cms

NEW DELHI: Trial courts in the country sentenced 165 people to death in 2022, the highest in a year in the last two decades. This is up from 146 prisoners who were sent to death row in 2021. In almost a third of the capital punishment cases, the offender had committed a sexual crime.

At the end of 2022, 539 were on death row, the highest since 2016. The population has steadily increased over the years – up 40% in 2022 from 2015. This is attributed to the large number of death penalties handed down by trial courts and the accompanying low rate of disposal of such cases by appellate courts.

These conclusions are part of the ‘Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics 2022’ published by Project 39A at NLU, Delhi. The death sentence given to 38 people in February 2022 by an Ahmedabad court in the 2008 serial blasts case contributed to the sharp rise in the number in 2022. In 2016, death penalty for sexual offences was given in 27, or 17.6%, of the 153 cases. This number shot up to 52, or 31.5%, out of 165 cases in 2022.

Anup Surendranath, law professor and executive director of Project 39A, says the increased numbers also reflect the growing trend in trial courts. “Trial courts have resumed imposing a high number of death sentences since the dip in 2020 due to the pandemic (which was the lowest at 77),” he said.
This, Surendranath said, is in stark contrast to the Supreme Court’s efforts to highlight the serious problems with the manner in which death penalty sentencing is being carried out. In May last year, the SC held that it was the duty of the trial courts to proactively elicit materials on mitigating circumstances while sentencing in death penalty cases, and issued guidelines for the collection of such information.
Surendranath said, “The Supreme Court acknowledged the necessity for reform and identified a set of crucial questions for determination by a five-judge constitution bench. The ever-widening gap between SC guidance and the trial courts’ blatant disregard for procedural guarantees has been repeatedly established in research by Project 39A.”

Another issue of concern is the increasing number of prisoners on death row. The number has increased from 400 in December 2016 to 539 as of December 2022. The highest number of death row prisoners are in UP (100), followed by Gujarat (61) and Jharkhand (46).

“Appellate courts continue to commute or acquit a majority of the death penalty cases considered by them. But they are disposed of too slowly to match the volume of death sentences coming from trial courts. This results in the death row population increasing each year. All of this highlights the crisis in India’s death penalty regime and forces us to ask the question whether it is a punishment that can ever be administered in a constitutionally acceptable manner,” Surendranath said.

Iran executes more than 50 people so far this year

Source: UCA News (28 January 2023)

https://www.ucanews.com/news/iran-executes-more-than-50-people-so-far-this-year/100188

Iranian authorities have executed 55 people in 2023, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said Friday, adding that the surging use of the death penalty aims to create fear as protests shake the country.

Meanwhile, rights group Amnesty International said three young people sentenced to death over protests -- the youngest aged just 18 -- had been subjected to "gruesome torture" in detention.

IHR said it has confirmed at least 55 executions in the first 26 days of this year.

Four people have been executed on charges related to the protests, while the majority of those hanged -- 37 convicts -- were executed for drug-related offenses, IHR said.

At least 107 people are still at risk of execution over the demonstrations after being sentenced to death or charged with capital crimes, the group added.

With Iran's use of the death penalty surging in recent years, IHR argued that "every execution by the Islamic Republic is political" as the main purpose "is to create societal fear and terror".

"To stop the state execution machine, no execution should be tolerated, whether they be political or non-political," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

He added that a lack of reaction from the international community risked lowering "the political cost of executing protesters".

'State-sanctioned killing'

Activists have accused Iran of using the death penalty as an instrument of intimidation to quell the protests which erupted in September following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the country's dress code for women.

UN rights chief Volker Turk has said Iran's "weaponization of criminal procedures" to punish demonstrators "amounts to state-sanctioned killing".

On Friday, Amnesty said three men sentenced to death in December had been subjected to torture "including floggings, electric shocks, being hung upside down and death threats at gunpoint".

They were convicted of inciting arson and vandalism during protests in September in Mazandaran province in Iran's north, Amnesty said in a statement.

Javad Rouhi, 31, suffered torture that included being "sexually assaulted by having ice put on his testicles," Amnesty said.

Mehdi Mohammadifard, 19, was kept for one week in solitary confinement in a mice-infested cell and was raped, leading to "anal injuries and rectal bleeding, which required hospitalization," it said.

Arshia Takdastan, 18, "was subjected to beatings and death threats, including having a gun pointed at his head if he did not 'confess' in front of a video camera".

Surging executions

IHR and other rights groups have yet to publish figures on executions in Iran for 2022.

But IHR said in early December that more than 500 people had been hanged by then -- the highest figure in five years -- while according to its data, at least 333 people were executed in 2021, a 25 percent increase compared to 267 in 2020.

As well as arresting thousands of people, Iranian security forces have also used what campaigners describe as lethal force to crack down on the protests.

IHR said that according to its latest count, security forces have killed at least 488 people, including 64 aged under 18, in the nationwide protests.

Of the 64 children, 10 were girls, it added.

Mohsen Shekari, 23, was executed in Tehran on December 8 for wounding a member of the security forces, while Majidreza Rahnavard, also 23, was hanged in public in Mashhad on December 12 on charges of killing two members of the security forces with a knife.

On January 7, Iran executed Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini for killing a paramilitary force member in November.

In another high-profile execution, Iran said on January 14 that it had executed British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari after he was sentenced to death on charges of spying for Britain. He had been arrested more than two years earlier.

Analysts say demonstrations have subsided since November, but the protest movement still remains a challenge to the Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Kuwait: leading MEPs deplore mass executions

Source: European Interest (17 November 2022)

https://www.europeaninterest.eu/article/kuwait-leading-meps-deplore-mass-executions/

Statement by Maria Arena, (S&D, Belgium), Chair of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on human rights and Hannah Neumann, (The Greens/EFA, Germany), Chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula, following seven people being put to death in a mass execution in Kuwait.

“We are deeply dismayed by the mass execution of seven individuals in Kuwait. We reaffirm the European Parliament’s strong opposition to the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances. The use of capital punishment has been consistently condemned by the European Parliament, constituting as it does the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

We wish to express our full support for EU diplomacy and the summoning of the Ambassador of Kuwait. Furthermore, we expect the EU to actively address the recent executions and the death penalty in Kuwait as a matter of priority within the framework of the upcoming EU-Kuwait Human Rights Dialogue.

The resumption of executions in the country is a negative signal coming after no executions in five years. We call upon the Kuwaiti authorities to immediately suspend the death penalty as a step towards its abolition.”

Resolve fate of 1,300 death row prisoners, govt urged

Source: FMT (9 January 2023)

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2023/01/09/resolve-fate-of-1300-death-row-prisoners-govt-urged/

PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Bar has urged the government to work with the Pardons Board to ensure that more than 1,300 convicted persons currently on death row are also spared the death penalty.

This follows a statement by law minister Azalina Othman Said last month that Putrajaya will amend laws that carry a mandatory death sentence to allow for alternative sentencing.

Bar president Karen Cheah said these prisoners should not be allowed to linger in prison uncertain of their fate.

At present, there is a moratorium on the execution of death row inmates.

“It is an inhumane way of treating convicts on death row,” she said at a ceremony to mark the opening of the legal year here today.

Cheah said as Malaysia progressed democratically, it must shift away from killing people in the name of justice.

She said these convicts deserve some baseline protection.

“We, therefore, welcome the announcement that the mandatory death penalty will be done away with in respect of 11 offences carrying such sentences, with the discretion as to sentencing returning to the unfettered domain of the judiciary,” she said.

Azalina had said amendment to the penal laws will be tabled at the next session of Parliament.

Cheah said the death penalty is cruel and degrading, and breaches the rights to life and to live free from torture.

She said sentencing should focus on rehabilitation and restoration, adding that the death penalty achieves very little except to satisfy the need for retribution.

“The irreversible, irreparable and non-deterrent nature of the death penalty should in and of itself be sufficient (reason) to abolish the death penalty,” she said.

On another matter, Cheah said that as of November last year, the National Legal Aid Foundation, or YBGK, had assisted 222,361 Malaysians.

It was established in 2012 with the help of the government, which had provided RM5 million to kickstart the programme.

Under the scheme, lawyers assisted the poor and needy by representing them in cases involving arrests, remands, mitigation and bail, trials and appeals.

Cheah said access to justice is the hallmark of a strong presence of the rule of the law in the country.

“The Bar, therefore, seeks to continue facilitating the provision of access to justice by lending the assistance of our members to Malaysians,” she said.

Cheah said it is the duty and responsibility of the government to ensure that access to justice remains strong and present.

“We urge that sufficient resources be made available for this programme to continue to be a success,” she said.

Open letter to the President on the moratorium on executions and the abolition of the death penalty

Source: FIDH (29 December 2022)

https://www.fidh.org/en/region/asia/south-korea/open-letter-to-the-president-on-the-moratorium-on-executions-and-the

December 29, 2022

Yoon Suk-yeol
President of the Republic of Korea
22, Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 04383
Republic of Korea
E-mail: president@president.go.kr

CC.
Speaker of the National Assembly Kim Jin-Pyo
National Assembly of the Republic of Korea
1 Uisadang-daero, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul 07233
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82 6788 4351

President of the Constitutional Court Yoo Nam-seok
Constitutional Court of Korea
15 Bukchon-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03060
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82 2 708 3566

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo
Office for Government Policy Coordination / Prime Minister’s Secretariat
Government Complex-Sejong
261 Dasom-ro, Sejong-si 30107
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82 44 200 2144

Foreign Minister Park Jin
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
60 Sajik-ro 8-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03172
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82 2 2100 7934

Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon
Ministry of Justice
47 Gwanmun-ro, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do 13809
Republic of Korea
Fax: +82 2 2110 0350

Re: Republic of Korea’s moratorium on executions and the abolition of the death penalty

Dear Mr. President,

We welcome the Republic of Korea’s vote in favor of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s resolution 77/222 on December 15, 2022, which called upon states that maintain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing capital punishment and to consider acceding to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. We take this opportunity to renew our calls on the Republic of Korea to take further steps towards the complete abolition of the death penalty for all crimes.

The global trend towards the abolition of the death penalty is clear. At the end of 1997, when the Republic of Korea carried out its last execution, there were 102 countries that had abolished the death penalty in law or practice. [1] By the end of 2007, when the Republic of Korea became an abolitionist country in practice, the number of countries that had abolished the death penalty in law or practice jumped to 134. [2] By 31 December 2021, that number further increased to 144. [3]

This global trend is reflected in the voting patterns at the UN General Assembly. In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 62/149, the first ever biennial resolution on the moratorium on the death penalty, by a 106-46 vote, with 34 abstentions. [4] In December 2020, the Republic of Korea for the first time joined the growing number of countries that supported the UN General Assembly resolution with its vote in favor of resolution 75/183, [5] adopted by a 123-38 vote, with 24 abstentions. Earlier this month, resolution 77/222 [6] was adopted by an all-time high of 125 votes in favor, with 37 votes against and 22 abstentions.

We recall that the use of the death penalty is inconsistent with the Republic of Korea’s international legal obligation to respect fundamental human rights, including the right to life. With 59 persons still on the death row, including one who has been under death sentence since November 1993, the Republic of Korea may also be in breach of its international legal obligation to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. UN human rights experts have recently reiterated that the “death row phenomenon” (the psychological effects on prisoners of being on death row for a prolonged period while awaiting an imminent execution under harsh conditions of confinement) has long been characterized as a form of inhuman treatment. [7]

We also note that lawmakers have proposed bills to abolish the death penalty in every session of the National Assembly, including the current one, since 1999. [8] The Constitutional Court twice upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment by a 7-2 vote in 1996, and by a 5-4 vote in 2010. However, it now has the opportunity to declare the death penalty unconstitutional in a case pending before it, and to pave the way for its abolition.

We respectfully call on you to immediately take the following steps to make progress towards the abolition of capital punishment, in keeping with the Republic of Korea’s support for the UN General Assembly’s biennial resolution:

Declare an official moratorium on executions.
Commute all death sentences to prison terms.
Repeal or amend all laws that prescribe the death penalty for various criminal offenses, with a view to abolishing capital punishment for all crimes.
Ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

We also urge the Republic of Korea to stop the extradition or refoulement of persons to countries that retain the death penalty - including the United States, Japan, China, [9] and North Korea [10] - as they could be in danger of being subjected to the death penalty.

We thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely yours,

Alice Mogwe
President, FIDH

Ethan Hee-Seok Shin
Legal Analyst, Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG)
Footnotes


[1] Amnesty International, The death penalty worldwide: Developments in 1997 (31 March 1998), Index Number: ACT 50/004/1998, pp. 3 and 23; https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/004/1998/en


[2] Amnesty International, The death penalty worldwide: Developments in 2007 (15 April 2008), Index Number: ACT 50/002/2008, APPENDIX 1- LIST OF ABOLITIONIST AND RETENTIONIST COUNTRIES AS OF 1 JANUARY 2008; https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/002/2008/en


[3] Amnesty International, Death sentences and executions 2021 (24 May 2022), Index Number: ACT 50/5418/2022, ANNEX II: ABOLITIONIST AND RETENTIONIST COUNTRIES AS OF 31 DECEMBER 2021; https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/5418/2022/en


[4] https://undocs.org/A/RES/62/149


[5] https://undocs.org/A/RES/75/183


[6] https://undocs.org/A/RES/77/222


[7] OHCHR, UN experts warn of associated torture and cruel punishment, 10 October 2022; https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/10/un-experts-warn-associated-torture-and-cruel-punishment


[8] ROK National Assembly, Bill for the “Special act to abolish the death penalty” (Bill no. 152463) proposed by 90 members on 7 December 1999; https://likms.assembly.go.kr/bill/billDetail.do?billId=016007; Bill for the “Special act to abolish the death penalty” (Bill no. 2112795) proposed by 30 members on 7 October 2021, https://likms.assembly.go.kr/bill/billDetail.do?billId=PRC_P2K1H1I0C0B7F0V9D2D4H5N7Z1V2N6


[9] Kim Ki-Yoon, The killer of a Chinese Public Security officer from 30 years ago who had laundered his identity repatriated, Donga Ilbo, 18 May 2022; https://www.donga.com/news/Society/article/all/20220518/113468246/1


[10] HRW, South Korea Investigates Forcible Return of Two North Koreans: Inquiry Should be Credible, Impartial, Independent, 22 July 2022; https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/22/south-korea-investigates-forcible-return-two-north-koreans