The United Nations and rights groups say capital punishment has no proven deterrent effect and have called for it to be abolished. Still, Singaporean officials insist it has helped make the country one of Asia's safest.

Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad, a Singaporean citizen born in the city-state to a Singaporean mother and an Iranian father, was convicted in 2013 for drug trafficking.

Appeals against his conviction and sentence, as well as petitions for clemency from the president, had been dismissed. After he was informed of his impending hanging, Masoud filed an 11th-hour appeal to stay his execution, which was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Nov 28.

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The figures exclude some countries that are thought to carry out executions but where figures are unavailable because data on the death penalty is classified.

The rights group was also able to confirm that executions were carried out in North Korea, Vietnam, Syria and Afghanistan, but said there was insufficient information to provide credible minimum figures.

Of the countries with known figures, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt alone carried out 90% of 883 known executions.

These figures, however, exclude China, which is thought to execute thousands each year.

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The spate of hangings included, in April, the widely criticised execution of a man with limited cognitive function. It came after Singapore resumed executions in March after a hiatus of more than two years.

The prisons department said in a statement that Singaporeans Abdul Rahim Shapiee, 45, and Ong Seow Ping, 49, were executed.

Shapiee, a former driver for a ride-hailing service, was convicted of trafficking 39.87 grams of pure heroin, Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said.

It said an appeals court dismissed his last gasp petition for a stay of the sentence.

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She has now been released from jail.

Observers who've watched the Bibi's story unfold over the past eight years say the Pakistani Supreme Court's decision to acquit the mother of five of blasphemy charges marks a major step toward making the country a more modern, tolerant nation.

In 2009 Bibi was charged with blasphemy after fetching water for herself and fellow workers on a hot summer day. Two women refused to drink from the same container as a Christian. The following year Bibi was sentenced to death.

According to the blasphemy laws in Pakistan's Penal Code, insulting the Prophet Muhammad is a crime punishable by death. Offending the ‎Koran, Islam's holy book, incurs life imprisonment.

After speaking to Bibi's 18-year old daughter about Bibi's release, John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need (UK), said:

"We have to salute the courage of the justices in reaching this decision in the face of huge opposition from powerful extremists mobs. This really is a victory for justice, a triumph of honesty and truth over tyranny and oppression.

"For so many thousands of people who have prayed for Asia, this is a long-awaited day. We need to continue praying because now is the most delicate time.

"So many extremists want her dead and as the process towards her release gets underway, security concerns will be acute. Her family - indeed everyone associated with her - is in danger."

Evangelical Christian writer and teacher Krish Kandiah spoke of his joy at Bibi's release and concern for Pakistan:

"This is fantastic news. Asia Bibi is to be freed. Please pray for peace in Pakistan as the nation responds to the news."

Father Bernard Cervellera, head of Asia News for Crux Now, says the decision to acquit Bibi "is something big," and is proof that there are groups in Pakistan, even among Muslims, "who want a more modern Pakistan, more tied to the origins of this country.

"It must be a country that allows people to be free to practise their religion more than a state religion."

Cervellera says the decision is also a show of courage from the judges, who sometimes cave under pressure from fundamentalist Islamic groups including death threats.

Source

• The Tablet
• The Tablet
• Vatican News
• Image: Christian News Journal

The Asian country's decision is winning praise and adds further momentum to a growing global trend that human rights advocates hope will spell an end to state-sanctioned killing. Read more

In a new Pastoral Letter on the issue of the death penalty the bishops say capital punishment has "no place in a Christian country, where true justice and mercy should prevail."

The bishops say where executions are performed by the State, people develop the attitude that it is acceptable to respond to violence with violence.

"We pray that the rejection of this form of public violence will set an example and lead to a rejection of domestic violence and all other forms of violence in our society and open the way to a lasting peace."

In 1991 the Papua New Guinea Parliament reintroduced the death penalty.

In 2013 the Criminal Code was changed to set out the acceptable ways to do it: to hang, suffocate, electrocute, shoot or poison someone with a deadly injection.

The government argued that "this is the best way to protect society from the repetition of terrible crimes."

"It is in response to this political legislation and this popular reaction that we, the bishops of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, are addressing this letter in defence of life, highlighting several main reasons to say "no" to the death penalty," the bishops say.

The prime minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O'Neill, said the death penalty is "under review" in Papua New Guinea after recent global outcry over the execution of foreign drug convicts in neighbouring Indonesia.

O'Neill's comments came on the eve of a two-day visit by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, under whose brief leadership 14 drug convicts have been executed, 12 of them foreigners.

Jakarta put to death two Australians, a Brazilian, and four Nigerians on a prison island, along with one Indonesian last month despite worldwide calls for them to be spared and heartrending pleas from their families.

Widodo was unmoved, arguing that Indonesia is facing an emergency due to rising narcotics use.

In response, Australia, a close friend of Papua New Guinea, recalled its ambassador from Indonesia for what it called the "cruel and unnecessary" executions while the United Nations expressed deep regret.

PNG has also faced national and international opposition to the reintroduction of the death penalty in a country where an execution has not been carried out since 1954.

Source

• Fides
• The Peninsula
• Image: asiapacific.anu.edu.au

The scholarships will provide full tuition fees to the student's chosen course over four years and be awarded to those who write an essay based on the theme of "the sanctity of human life". Continue reading

Gularte suffered from schizophrenia and he also had a bipolar disorder.

"I was joking with him, saying that 'I am 72; I will be up there with you soon enough," said Father Charles Burrows.

He said Gularte was calm as he was handcuffed by warders but became agitated when he was handed over to police outside the jail who put leg chains on him.

"I thought he'd got the message he was to be executed but … when the chains started to go on, he said to me, 'Oh father, am I being executed?'," Burrows said.

Gularte continued to hear voices in his final days telling him everything would be fine. "He believes the voices more than he does anybody else," Burrows said.

Gularte was one of eight men who were executed in Indonesia shortly after midnight on April 29.

He was caught entering Indonesia in 2004 with six kilograms of cocaine hidden in surf boards, and was sentenced to death in 2005.

The condemned sang Amazing Grace together as flashlights shone on targets pinned to their hearts.

"We were in a tent nearby, also singing hymns," Burrows said. "Unlike previous executions, they died relatively quickly."

Burrows had also been assigned as a counselor to Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, 53, the Brazilian who was executed in the January round of shootings.

But the he never got onto Nusa Kambangan to be with the condemned man for his final hours.

"I rang them [Indonesian officials] about 20 times that day, but they didn't call me back," he recalled, describing the alleged bureaucratic fumble.

"Marco was crying alone in the cell, asking, 'Where is my father; where is my father?'"

Source

• National Catholic Register
• EuroNews
• Image EuroNews

In an interview on Radio Australia he said that he hoped that the circumstances surrounding the executions in Indonesia will bring "more light to our into our leadership."

In 2013 Ribat spoke about the church's opposition to the death penalty at a press conference in Port Moresby.

He acknowledged the immense pressure on the Government to curb law and order problems and its moves to introduce maximum penalties to crack down on the country's serious law and order problems.

Speaking on behalf of the other churches, he said the church would live by its principles.

"No life will be taken. We do not have the right to do that but we do have the right to better a person's life," the Archbishop said.

Ribat said there was moral breakdown in PNG society and called on the Government to work with churches to address the serious law and order problems by properly funding and strengthening the law enforcing systems from the top right down to the local level governments and get perpetrators to answer for their crimes.

He said the judicial system needed to be strong and firm in addressing serious law and orders problems.

Bishop Aronold Orowae, the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, has issued a letter laying out the reasons behind the Bishops' opposition to the re introduction of the death penalty.

Capital punishment has not been carried out in PNG for more than 50 years, but was re-activated two years ago when the law was amended to include more offences.

Since then, 13 people have been waiting on death row, but lack of infrastructure has meant there has been no method to enact the capital punishment.

Both Indonesia and Thailand have made offers of financial assistance and expertise.

Source

• Radio Australia International
• Island Business
• asopa.typepad.com
• Image: abc.net.au

He has also criticised the way two Australian detainees Andrew Chan and Myuran Shaveukumaran have been treated.

Following Easter Sunday mass, in Jakarta, Archbishop Ignatius told reporters the church was strictly against the use of the death penalty.

"We are worried and saddened that we are resorting to capital punishment and by the treatment of the detainees."

The Archbishop is known to be on excellent terms with President Joko Widodo.

He supported Widodo's election campaign.

This is the first time he publicly criticised of the President.

Archbishop Ignatius said he was saddened by the heavy-handed way in which the two Australian detainees were relocated from Kerobokan prison to the island where their execution is being planned.

The operation involved hundreds of balaclava-clad police and Sukhoi fighter jets.

"These men were handcuffed, was it necessary to be guarded by Sukhoi?" the archbishop said.

"For me that's not strictness, for me that's very saddening because it's obvious that power wants to show itself and human dignity is not cherished."

The Archbishop Ignatius said said using the death penalty was "a failure of humanity".

Source

• Vatican Insider
• News.com.au
• Image: News.co.au

Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira was executed on January 18, the last of five drug felons shot by firing squads on Nusakambangan, Indonesia's execution island.

The horrific last minutes of Moreira's life were relayed to Fairfax Media by Cilacap priest Father Charles Burrows, who was supposed to be called upon to comfort the man.

Cilacap is a town located within sight of Nusakambangan Island.

"He had to be dragged from his cell crying and saying 'help me'," said Burrows.

"He actually excremented in his trousers."

The guards hosed him down but he continued to weep "all the time up to his last minutes".

The priest said that, though the wardens were very polite, the attorney did not give him a letter to get on to the island to comfort the man even after he had kept telling them he wanted to be there.

"Usually there is a time when the minister or spiritual director gets to go forward to console them."

"Nobody consoled Marco."

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, two Australian drug convicts, are due to face the firing squad in Indonesia.

The executions have once more been put on hold until An Indonesian court hears an appeal is heard on Thursday against president Joko Widodo's refusal to grant them clemency.

Source

• smh.com.au
• au.ibtimes.com
• Image: bbcimg.co.uk

At a meeting with representatives of the International Association of Penal Law last week, the Pope denounced what he called "penal populism".

This promises to solve society's problems by punishing crime instead of pursuing social justice.

Pope Francis called on Christians and all people of good will to struggle not only for the elimination of the death penalty, but to also improve prison conditions.

The Pope made a link between this struggle and life imprisonment.

"Life imprisonment is a hidden death penalty," he said.

The Pope noted that the Vatican recently eliminated the death penalty from its own penal code.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, cited by Pope Francis, admits the possibility of the death penalty as a last resort, where this is the only way to protect human lives from an unjust aggressor.

But the Catechism adds that such conditions are very rare, "if not practically non-existent" today.

The Pope said it is impossible to imagine that states cannot use means other than capital punishment.

Yet the death penalty is applied in various ways, often illegally, all over the planet, the Pope noted.

Pope Francis said contemporary societies overuse criminal punishment, partially out of a primitive tendency to offer up "sacrificial victims, accused of the disgraces that strike the community".

The Pope said some politicians and media promote "violence and revenge, public and private, not only against those responsible for crimes, but also against those under suspicion, justified or not".

He denounced a growing tendency to think that most social problems can be resolved through public punishment.

This thinking is characterised by the vain hope that punishment will result in the same benefits brought about by inclusive economic and social reform, he said.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Image: Amnesty International

He says there are other measures that can be taken to try to reduce violence in the community.

The Kiribati parliament has passed the first reading of the bill and leaders are supposed to hold consultations with their electorate before the second reading and the vote in a month.

The President Anote Tong says the bill is a deterrent against deliberate killings in the country.

His comment comes after five women recently lost their lives allegedly at the hands of their husbands or former partners.

But Mea, who is also the chairman of the Kiribati Council of Churches says they will fight the bill because it will not stop the killing in the community.

"The thing that is going to stop them, is the education. Preparing the man and wife before their marriage. To understand what love is, to give them input on what the church teaches about real love between a husband and wife and all that."

"Counselling, introducing counselling for all those who have problems. But capital punishment is not going to give any solution."

Source

• Radio Australia International
• Radio New Zealand Pacific
• Image:omtimes.omtimes.netdna-cdn.com

It is calling on the government to petition the Sudanese government to immediately release Mariam Ibrahim from imprisonment.

Ibrahim, a Sudanese mother, doctor and a Catholic, has been sentenced to be flogged 200 times and then sentenced to death unless she recants her Christian faith. She is 8 months pregnant and has a two-year-old son.

She is charged with adultery on the grounds that her marriage to a Christian man from South Sudan is considered void under Shari'a law, for which the penalty is flogging. She has also been charged with apostasy, or abandonment of religion, for which she has been sentenced to death.

Right to Life is asking New Zealanders to speak out and to urge the government to join the international community in calling upon the government of Sudan to respect the right to life and Meriam's right to religious freedom.

The United States, the European Union and advocacy groups have strongly condemned the death sentence imposed on Ibrahim.

Source

• Right to life
• Vatican Radio
• Image: d1bghp9m77ju8l.cloudfront.net

The will soon submit the framework to Cabinet for discussion.

The justice minister, Kerenga Kua, says members of government will debate the details of the policy once it is is written.

He says the government will have the final say on which execution method will be used: lethal injection, firing squad, deprivation of oxygen, hanging, or electrocution.

Kua said it was very important to introduce the death penalty in PNG despite "dissenting views from foreign governments...and human rights groups".

"The state in its own sovereign right has determined to go ahead with this process".

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea strongly opposes the introduction of the death penalty

Kua claims that just having the debate on the death penalty had already prevented many "gruesome crimes" and deterred many would-be criminals.

However last year the Archbishop of Mount Hagan, Douglas Young, said, "The evidence continues to show us the death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime,"

He pointed out that evidence from nations where capital punishment continues to be practiced, the majority of those who commit violent crimes do not think they will be caught with even more of this number believing that even if they are caught, they will not be sentenced and condemned to die.

At the same time, Jack de Groot, CEO of Caritas Australia said "The death penalty equates to state-sponsored violence and will not change anything,"

"We have long known there is no point using violence as a means of preventing violence," he says and insists that rather than expand and update the nation's death penalty law which has not been enforced since 1954, PNG needs to confront the reality of its struggle with violent crime and find solutions that work.

There are 13 prisoners on death row in Papua New Guinea at the moment, some of whom have been awaiting execution for more than a decade.

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Pacific Media Centre
• Sydney Catholic
• Image: s3.amazonaws.com

Death by lethal injection has been legislated as the preferred method for judicial killings in PNG.

Previously, hanging was the only option for capital punishment but it's now considered barbaric and has been removed from the statutes. A small number of serious crimes will attract the death penalty including pack rape. Listen to interview

After many months of public condemnation of PNG's revived and expanded death penalty laws, Archbishop Young says Church leaders are now looking at hosting a national and international coalition to lobby against the laws, and to have them repealed.

13 men are on death row and, according to the media, "have very few days left". "It is unlikely they will see another Christmas", said the "The National" newspaper on January 27

On 29 January the fate of the 13 men, five of whom were sentenced to death for wilful murder and the other eight with "crimes of piracy" became more urgent when Fides, the international information service of Pontifical Mission Societies reported claims in The Nation, that the men "only have a few days left."

Source

• SydneyCatholic.org.
• Fides
• Image: Amnesty.org.nz

Kerenga Kua told the chamber last Thursday a government task force had visited Texas in the United States, Indonesia and Thailand to gauge the mechanics of how to implement it, the Post Courier reported.

"A full report has been compiled from these visits and I would like to ensure the people of Papua New Guinea that we will be passing legislation for the extreme penalty's usage soon," he said in response to a question.

Kua said the legislation was only directed at a small group of people and that the "mainstream of society did not need to be too concerned about the implications of the death penalty".

"If implemented properly, it should add to creating a more orderly and peaceful society that our people will enjoy," he said.

The last person put to death in PNG was a man called Aro in 1957, 18 years before PNG gained independence from Australia.

The last known execution in the pacific region was in Tonga in 1982, according to Amnesty International.

Source

• news.com.au
• MSN News
• Image: elitedaily.com

Silas Yatan has been reported as saying the government might bring in the death penalty following recent murders, including two woman. Continue reading

Vanuatu's Minister for Justice and Community Services, Silas Yatan, says the government may bring in the death penalty.

This follows several recent killings, including the murder of two women.

In May this year the Papua New Guinea Parliament adopted a series of amendments to provide stronger punishments for major crimes.

In particular it re-activated the death penalty. This decision prompted a number of vigorous international reactions.

Amnesty International expressed the belief that the death penalty is a "barbaric" act and would not be effective in deterring violent crimes.

Yatan did not deny the influence Papua New Guinea's decision was having on the thinking in Vanuatu.

Unlike Papua New Guinea, the death penalty has never been part of Vanuatu's the Criminal Code.

Source

• Newspad.Pacific.info
• Radio New Zealand
• Image: Fuman.org