21, December 2021
Japan hangs three men on death row in first executions since 2019 0
Japan hanged three prisoners on Tuesday, its first executions in two years, with the government saying it was necessary to maintain capital punishment in the face of continued “atrocious crimes”.
Japan is one of the few developed countries to keep the death penalty, and public support for capital punishment remains high despite international criticism, especially from rights groups.
More than 100 people are currently on death row in Japan, most of them for mass murder. Executions are carried out by hanging, usually long after sentencing.
One of the three executed on Tuesday was Yasutaka Fujishiro, 65, who used a hammer and knife to kill his 80-year-old aunt, two cousins and four others in 2004, a justice ministry spokeswoman told AFP.
The other two were 54-year-old Tomoaki Takanezawa, who killed two clerks at an arcade game parlour in 2003, and his accomplice Mitsunori Onogawa, 44.
The executions were the first under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office in October.
“Whether to keep the death sentence or not is an important issue that concerns the foundation of Japan’s criminal justice system,” deputy chief cabinet secretary Seiji Kihara said.
“Given that atrocious crimes keep occurring one after another, it is necessary to execute those whose guilt is extremely grave so it is inappropriate to abolish capital punishment.”
Members of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations “strongly protest” Tuesday’s executions, the body’s president Tadashi Ara said in a statement.
Ara urged the government to “abolish capital punishment and stop all executions until it is abolished”.
Half a century on death row
Japan executed three death row inmates in 2019 and 15 in 2018 – including 13 from the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out a fatal 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.
For decades, authorities have told death row inmates just hours before an execution is carried out.
Two prisoners are suing the government over the system, which they argue is illegal and causes psychological distress.
The pair are also seeking compensation of 22 million yen ($194,000) for the distress caused by living with uncertainty about their execution date.
In December 2020, Japan’s top court overturned a ruling blocking the retrial of a man described as the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner, raising new hope for the now 85-year-old.
Iwao Hakamada has lived under a death sentence for more than half a century after being convicted in 1968 of robbing and murdering his boss, the man’s wife, and their two teenaged children.
But he and his supporters say he confessed to the crime only after an allegedly brutal police interrogation that included beatings, and that evidence in the case was planted.
Worldwide, at least 483 people were executed last year in 18 countries, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International.
That represents a drop of around a quarter from the year before, and fits a downward trend since 2015.
The figure does not, however, include the “thousands” of executions believed to have been carried out in China, which keeps such data secret, along with North Korea and Vietnam.
Japan and the United States are the only members of the G7 group of developed countries that still use the death penalty.
Source: AFP
21, December 2021
Biya regime arrests hundreds for deadly clashes that displaced 100,000 in the Far North 0
Cameroonian authorities say troops have arrested hundreds of armed men blamed for communal violence in the northeast this month that displaced more than a hundred thousand people — most to neighboring Chad. Authorities say they also seized hundreds of weapons as well as cattle stolen during the conflict over scarce resources.
Cameroonian authorities say the military is conducting an intensive search to find and arrest additional armed men operating in Logone and Chari, along the northern border with Chad.
The governor of the Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari, says military raids on hideouts in the area led to the arrests of several hundred men.
Speaking from the region’s capital, Maroua, Bakari said the men were believed responsible for much of the violence this month that displaced more than 100,000 people — most of them across the border to Chad.
He says besides the arrests, the military also seized several hundred weapons that the men were using to attack and kill civilians. Bakari says troops also seized 30 motorcycles that armed men from rival communities were using in attacks. He says more than 200 cattle stolen from ranchers have been recovered and will be handed over after investigations to determine their legitimate owners.
Clashes broke out on December 4 between ranchers and fishers over water resources, leaving scores dead and sending tens of thousands fleeing — most of them women and children.
Arab Choua cattle ranchers and ethnic Mousgoum fishers accuse each other of trespassing and occupying each other’s land.
Bakari says most males who remained in the villages are involved in the fighting.
He would not give details on how many people have been killed in the clashes but said no government troops are among the casualties.
President Paul Biya last week dispatched to the area a delegation of lawmakers, ministers, religious leaders, and traditional rulers to negotiate a peace between the communities.
Retired army colonel Hamad Kalkaba Malboum was part of the delegation.
He says in areas where the clashes have stopped, they are asking villagers to return home.
“The president of the republic of Cameroon sent the mission [delegation] to tell people that they must be calm, the government will give instructions to rebuild what has been destroyed, and we need also to prepare the development of that region, which has also suffered Boko Haram [atrocities],” he said.
Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group from Nigeria, has since 2014 spread to neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, launching attacks that have killed more than 30,000 people and displaced two million.
Cameroon’s government is allocating $300 million to rebuild infrastructure the militants destroyed along the border.
The communal violence this month left several villages and markets burned to the ground.
Cameroonian authorities have asked people in the area who own weapons to hand them over.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports at least 85,000 Cameroonians have fled into neighboring Chad and 15,000 are internally displaced. But it says the real number could be much higher.
Source: VOA