Indonesia is once again facing a potential legal crisis as the passage of its controversial draft criminal code – a complete overhaul of the current criminal code – looks imminent.Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, the deputy law and human rights minister, has said that the legislation should be passed no later than July this year – although no date has been publicly announced.
The only post on Tan Mei Qian's Instagram profile is a picture of her and two friends delivering a letter to Singapore's President.The letter contained a request to spare the life of Datchinamurthy Kataiah, a 36-year-old man who has been languishing on death row for the past seven years.His crime – trafficking 44 grams of heroin, around three tablespoons worth, into Singapore."The media is heavily censored.
As the Taliban appeared on every corner of Kabul, Marwa and her friend – both gay Afghans – took the drastic decision to become husband and wife.The hurried marriage was conducted with no ceremony or family around them."I was telling myself that the Taliban would come and kill me," the 24-year-old said in an interview conducted by AFP over WhatsApp."I was afraid, I was crying all the time...
Four of the world's five top executioners in 2020 were Middle East states, Amnesty International says.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday drug offenders should be executed by lethal injection, in a fresh push for the death penalty as part of his anti-narcotics crackdown that has killed thousands. In a wide-ranging State of the Nation address, Duterte also admitted the government's response to the coronavirus epidemic had been "far from perfect" as the number of infections surged past 82,000, with nearly 2,000 deaths. Duterte had been expected to u
Singapore on Wednesday denied claims by a Malaysian rights group that it used a brutal "coup de grace" to finish off botched executions and ordered Yahoo and other sites to correct reports of the matter.The Malaysia-based Lawyers for Liberty alleged last week that Singapore prison officers had been instructed to manually break the necks of prisoners if the rope used to hang them broke during executions.This was done by kicking the back of the prisoner's neck, said the group, wh
Filipinos headed to the polls on Monday in a vote that is expected to strengthen President Rodrigo Duterte's grip on power, opening the way for him to deliver on pledges to restore the death penalty and rewrite the constitution.More than 18,000 positions are at stake, including half of the seats in the upper house Senate, which has served as a bulwark against some of Duterte's most controversial policies.Duterte is known internationally for his foul-mouthed tirades, but remains huge
Duterte Youth, a right-wing youth organisation supporting the administration of Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, recently promised that it would push for the revival of the death penalty for heinous crimes if it wins a seat in the House of Representatives in the coming 2019 midterm elections.
Brunei's sultan said Sunday a moratorium on capital punishment will also extend to sharia laws that include stoning to death for gay sex and adultery, after a furious backlash against the punishments.It was the first time Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah had commented publicly on the new penal code since it fully entered force last month, and his remarks appeared aimed at assuaging worldwide criticism.The laws, which also include amputation of hands and feet for thieves in the tiny sultanate on B
The United Nations (UN) decried Monday new "cruel and inhuman" laws set to take effect in Brunei this week which impose death by stoning for gay sex and adultery, and amputations for theft."I appeal to the government to stop the entry into force of this draconian new penal code, which would mark a serious setback for human rights protections for the people of Brunei if implemented," UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.Brunei, an absolute monarchy ruled fo
American actor George Clooney has called for a boycott of nine Brunei-owned hotels over the sultanate's imposition of the death penalty for gay sex and adultery."Every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels, we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery," Clooney wrote on the website Deadline Hollywood."I've learned over years o
On 10 October, also known as World Day Against the Death Penalty, Malaysia’s minister in charge of law in the Prime Minister’s Department Liew Vui Keong announced that the cabinet has agreed to abolish the death penalty. Vui Keong told the media that the government will table a bill in the next parliament sitting to abolish the death penalty. This comes as a pleasant surprise for many as Malaysia has been actively enforcing the death penalty.
