URGENT
ACTION
india:
three men face imminent execution
Two
Sri Lankans and an Indian national convicted for the assassination of India’s
former Prime Minister , Rajiv Gandhi, are facing
imminent execution in Vellore prison in Tamil Nadu, India. This follows the rejection of their mercy petitions by the President of India. If
carried out, these would be the first executions in India since 2004.
Murugan and Santhan, both 41, and Arivu alias Perarivalan, 37, were sentenced to death
in January 1998 by a Special Anti-Terrorist Court on grounds of involvement in
the assassination of India’s former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Their sentence
was confirmed by the Supreme Court of India in May 1999. According to information
received by Amnesty International and reports in the Indian media, their mercy
petitions were rejected by the President in August 2011, following the advice
of the Government of India.
The
three men were amongst 26 people sentenced to death by a special court at the
Poonamallee jail complex in Tamil Nadu, under the Terrorist and Disruptive
Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 (TADA) – a law that contained provisions that
were incompatible with international standards for fair trial. On appeal, a
three-judge Supreme Court bench confirmed the death sentences of Murugan,
Santhan, Perarivalan and a woman, Nalini, while acquitting 19 persons of the
murder charges and commuting the death sentences of three others. In April
2000, the Governor of Tamil Nadu commuted Nalini’s sentence to life
imprisonment, but rejected the mercy petitions of the three men. A mercy
petition for the three men was sent to the Government of India in April 2000
and eventually only decided upon at the beginning of August 2011.
Amnesty
International opposes the death penalty in all cases as the ultimate cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishment. The eleven-year delay in announcing the
verdict of the mercy petition and the resultant stay on death row may further
amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The Supreme Court of India
has itself commuted death sentences in a number of cases due to prolonged delay
in deciding mercy petitions.
Please
write immediately in English or
your own language:
Urge
that the death sentence of Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan be commuted;
Acknowledge
the seriousness of the crime, i.e. assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi, but raise concern that their stay on death row, since the mercy
petition was kept pending for eleven years, may further amount to cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishment;
Reiterate
the call of the UN General Assembly to establish a moratorium on executions
with a view to abolishing the death penalty, and pointing out that India’s
decision to resume executions after a seven-year gap goes against regional and
global trends towards abolition of the death penalty.
P LEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 26 SEPTEMBER 2011:
Prime
Minister of India
Dr.
Manmohan Singh
South
Block
Raisina
Hill
New
Delhi 110 001
Fax:
+91 11 23019545
23016857
Email:
(via form)
http://pmindia.nic.in/feedback.htm
Salutation:
Dear Prime Minister
President
of India
President
Pratibha Patil
Rashtrapati
Bhavan
New
Delhi 110 004
Fax:
+91 11 23017290,
23017824
Email:
(via form)
http://helpline.rb.nic.in/GrievanceNew.aspx
Salutation:
Dear President
And
copies to:
Minister
of Home Affairs
P
Chidambaram
104,
North Block,
Central
Secretariat
New
Delhi 110001
Fax:
+ 91 11 23094221
Email:
hm@nic.in
Also
send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.
Please
check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
URGENT
ACTION
india:
three men face imminent execution
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This
is the third set of mercy petitions to be rejected since June 2011. No
executions have taken place in India since 2004. The move to resume executions
after a seven-year hiatus would put the country against the regional and global
trend towards abolition of the death penalty.
UN
bodies and mechanisms have repeatedly called upon Member States to establish a
moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, most
recently through the adoption of a third UN General Assembly resolution on the
matter in December 2010. In a general comment on Article 6 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a State Party, the UN
Human Rights Committee stated that Article 6 "refers generally to
abolition [of the death penalty] in terms which strongly suggest... that
abolition is desirable. The Committee concludes that all measures of abolition
should be considered as progress in the enjoyment of the right to life...
".
Other
national and regional bodies have also recognized that prolonged detention on
death row can amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. This is in addition
to international law and standards which make clear that prisoners under
sentence of death have the right throughout the process to make maximum use of
the judicial and clemency processes available, including by petitioning
international bodies.
Amnesty
International opposes the death penalty in all cases, regardless of the nature
of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method of execution.
Name:
Murugan, Santhan and
Arivu alias Perarivalan
Gender
m/f:
അഭിപ്രായങ്ങളൊന്നുമില്ല:
ഒരു അഭിപ്രായം പോസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്യൂ