International Death Penalty News 2024, Issue 14: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, United States of America

Bangladesh

Twenty-one-year-old Mohammad Ali Bappi has been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old in 2019. The girl went missing from Gazaria Government Primary School, where she was in third grade, on March 15, 2019. Her body was discovered a few days later in a river. Bappi confessed to the crime after his arrest, claiming he lured the child into an empty room by promising her snacks.

Indonesia

Twenty-year-old Rui Viana, from Madeira Island, was arrested last month in Jakarta during a trip. Another Portuguese national, 39-year-old Fernando de Sousa was arrested along with Rui. The men were arrested for drug trafficking. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death. Police reports indicate that Rui has confessed and shown regret for committing the crime. Rui claims he was coerced into flying with the drugs as a way to pay some of his debts before his girlfriend gave birth. The Portuguese government has asked that the men not be sentenced to death and be allowed to serve out their jail sentences in Portugal.

Iran

Sixty-four-year-old Shahriar Bayat, a political prisoner, has been sentenced to death on blasphemy charges. Bayat is convicted of “insulting the prophet of Islam…through the publication of pictures and post on social media.” He was arrested in 2022, during protests that were nationwide.

Malaysia

A three-member panel of the Federal Court has commuted the death sentences of two people. Fifty-four-year-old Daud Ahmad, a father of five, was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering his ex-wife in Johor about 19 years ago. His sentence has been reduced to 33 years in prison. He has already been in prison for 19 years. Seventy-two-year-old Othman Aziz has also had his death sentence commuted. Aziz’s sentence was commuted to 31 years in prison. He is convicted of murdering 23-year-old Ratna Suffizahriyanti Omar on May 2, 2011. Aziz was arrested the following day.

Pakistan

On Wednesday, April 3, 2024, a District and Sessions Court sentenced Muhammad Aftab to death. He was convicted of murdering Sajid Hussain over a land dispute in 2021. Aftab was also fined.

Russia

Following last month’s terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in Russia that left nearly 700 people dead, several individuals have been arrested. Now, Vladimir Putin is seeking to have the arrested individuals tried in Belarus, as Belarus permits the death penalty. At least two of the victims in the attack were from Belarus. Russia has had a moratorium on executions since 1996, however, there is allegedly talk of abolishing it. Belarus is an ally of Russia.

Singapore

On Tuesday, April 2, 2024, 28-year-old Seet Poh Jing was sentenced to death after being convicted of passing cannabis with the intent to distribute the drug. Seet was arrested on June 28, 2018, after the drugs were found in his BMW. Seet claimed that the drugs were for use in research and he did not plan to traffic the drugs.

United States of America

On Thursday, April 4, 2024, Michael Smith was executed in Oklahoma. He was convicted of murdering 40-year-old Janet Moore and 24-year-old Sarath “Babu” Pulluru, on February 22, 2002, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

On Friday, April 5, 2024, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced that he is using a state law to resentence the 15 inmates on California’s death row from Santa Clara County to life in prison, without the possibility of parole. The law permits a district attorney to resentence inmates if it is determined that the original sentence “no longer serves justice.” Rosen stopped pursuing capital sentences after the death of George Floyd in 2020. Now, he has announced that he has lost faith in capital punishment, calling it an “…antiquated, racially-biased, error-prone system that deters nothing and costs us millions of public dollars…” There is currently a moratorium on executions in the state of California, which has the largest death row in the nation, with 641 inmates. The last execution in the state occurred in 2006.

A jury in Florida has resentenced Tavares Calloway to life in prison. In 2010, Calloway was sentenced to death by a jury for murdering five men in a Liberty City, Florida apartment. Calloway was granted a new sentencing hearing after a 2016 Supreme Court decision that ruled Florida’s capital sentencing statute unconstitutional. At his original trial, only seven of the 12 jurors recommended he be sentenced to death. Currently, Florida law, which came about after the 2016 ruling, requires at least eight jurors to vote for the death penalty.