Sun, Jul 09, 2023 page8

• Ending the death penalty in Asia

  • By Maria Wilkinson
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  Wang Xinfu (王信福), 71, is the oldest man on death row in Taiwan. Sentenced to death in 2006 for a double murder committed by someone else more than 15 years prior, Wang continues to insist upon his innocence.

  “I am a bad man, but I did not kill anyone,” he has said.

  In 1990, 19-year-old Chen Rong-jie (陳榮傑) killed two police officers at a karaoke bar. Pointing to an old criminal record from 1971, police and prosecutors were quick to accuse Wang of involvement in a “serial murder.” Wang was sentenced to death under flimsy evidence, including a confession, extracted through intimidation and torture, that he ordered the killing of two men he had never met. Wang, innocent on death row, is just one of many death-row prisoners in Asia, who have suffered great injustice.

  The trend toward abolition of capital punishment is growing, but the Asia-Pacific region continues to be a hotspot with some of the highest rates of death penalty sentencing.

  In May, brought together by the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN), the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), abolitionists in the region shared challenges and strategies at the Asia Regional Seminar on the Abolition of the Death Penalty. Some participants arrived with encouraging news, while others only had traumatizing developments to report.

  POSITIVE CHANGES

  In April, Malaysia’s parliament abolished the country’s mandatory death penalty, giving hope to about 1,300 death-row inmates who might be eligible for resentencing. Malaysia has had a moratorium on executions since 2018. Now that the mandatory death penalty is out of the way, activists hope that this is the first step in a journey to eventually abolishing the death penalty in Malaysia.

  On January 20 last year, the Papua New Guinea parliament voted to repeal a 30-year-old death penalty statute. This is the second time Papua New Guinea has abolished capital punishment; the previous time was in 1974, prior to the country’s independence. To prevent any possibility of regression, human rights defenders hope that the country will ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). While Papua New Guinea ratified the ICCPR itself in 2008, adopting this optional protocol would make it impossible for the death penalty to be reintroduced.

  In 2019, Taiwan established the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). In countries where the death penalty is still retained, there is an opportunity for the national human rights commission or institution to be a bridge between non-governmental organizations and legislatures. With the establishment of the NHRC in Taiwan, the commission has stated support for the abolition of the death penalty. At this time in the Asia-Pacific region, cooperation between national human rights commissions and regional institutions, such as the Asia Pacific Forum of national human rights institutions, are vital to the fight against the death penalty.

  ISSUES CONTINUE

  However, it is not all good news. After a two-year hiatus in executions, Singapore hanged 11 men for drug offenses last year. Most high-profile among these cases was that of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a Malaysian man with psychosocial disabilities who was hanged for trafficking heroin in April last year. Calls from human rights experts, international human rights organizations and even public figures such as Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc boss Richard Branson and British actor Stephen Fry for Nagaenthran fell on deaf ears. The Singaporean government, insisting that he was not disabled, defended the execution as part of Singapore’s uncompromising fight against drugs.

  INTIMIDATION TOOL

  As a result of protests in Iran, the Islamic republic showed it was no stranger to oppression with the use of death by the state to instill fear in the public. The protests were triggered after the state killing of Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, last year. Currently, there are more than 100 protesters at risk of death penalty charges, sentences and execution. At least 20 protesters have already been sentenced and executed. Last year, Iran had some of the highest execution rates. This number continues to rise with 307 executions reported as of June 1. In addition, due to the inability of the Anti-Narcotics Law of 2017 to address due process and fair trial issues, authorities have capitalized on this loophole, and last year, a dramatic rise in the number of executions for drug-related offenses occurred. Executions are systematically targeting ethnic minorities, in particular Kurds. This spike in executions for drug-related offenses is another indicator of the Islamic republic’s use of death sentences as a means to scare society and prevent dissent.

  Myanmar has entered its second year after the military coup. The impact of this coup has trickled into many aspects of Burmese society. After four decades, the military authorities executed four people arbitrarily. These executions ended the unofficial moratorium in Myanmar. Two deaths were of high-profile opposition politicians. There is a lack of transparency with the military government, and other cases are difficult to confirm. What is clear is that the use of executions by the military government is a political tool to oppress the opposition.

  Prior to January this year, Indonesia’s criminal code of 1946, Kitab Undang-undang Hukum Pidana, was based on colonial legislation. In 2026, the 2023 Indonesian Criminal Code is to come into effect. Once enacted, the criminal code’s vague provisions present serious violations of international human rights law and standards. Article 192 criminalizes treason, which would allow peaceful protesters to face the punishment of death, life imprisonment or imprisonment for a maximum of 20 years. Beyond treason, the new code puts the human rights of marginalized people such as LGBTQ+ people and the religious minority at risk in the country.

  CHANGE PROGRESSING

  Despite the grave concerns about the use of the death penalty to oppress undesired members of society, progress is being made. Last year, 112 countries fully abolished the death penalty worldwide. Nine countries were abolitionists for ordinary crimes and 23 countries were abolitionists in practice. The trend toward abolition persists and the Asia-Pacific region continues to make abolition a more common reality for the region.

  Maria Wilkinson is an English correspondent for the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty.
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