Saudi Arabia to enforce 'decency' amid tourism push

Yahoo – AFP, September 28, 2019

Saudi Arabia on Friday said citizens from 49 countries are eligible for online
e-visas or visas on arrival (AFP Photo/Fayez Nureldine)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia on Saturday said it would impose fines for violations of "public decency", including immodest clothing and public displays of affection, a day after the austere kingdom opened up to foreign tourists.

The interior ministry said it had identified 19 such "offences" but did not specify the penalties, as the ultra-conservative Islamic country begins issuing tourist visas for the first time as part of a push to diversify its oil-reliant economy.

"The new regulations require men and women to dress modestly and to refrain from public displays of affection. Women are free to choose modest clothing," a statement said.

"The regulations are meant to ensure that visitors and tourists in the kingdom are aware of the law relating to public behaviour so that they comply with it."

Saudi Arabia on Friday said citizens from 49 countries are now eligible for online e-visas or visas on arrival, including the United States, Australia and several European nations.

Kickstarting tourism is one of the centrepieces of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 reform programme to prepare the biggest Arab economy for a post-oil era.

But the conservative country, which forbids alcohol and is notorious for sex segregation, is seen as an unlikely destination for global tourists aside from Muslim pilgrims visiting holy sites in Mecca and Medina.

Men and women must avoid "tight fitting clothing" or clothes with "profane language or images", read an instruction on an English language website launched by the tourism authority.

"Women should cover shoulders and knees in public," it added.

But tourism chief Ahmed al-Khateeb said foreign women were not obligated to wear the body-shrouding abaya robe that is still mandatory public wear for Saudi women.

Prince Mohammed has sought to shake off his country's ultra-conservative image -- lifting a ban on cinemas and women drivers while allowing gender-mixed concerts and sporting extravaganzas.

The relaxed social norms in a kingdom have been welcomed by many Saudis, two-thirds of whom are under 30.

But new public decency guidelines, first approved by cabinet in April, are widely perceived to be vague and have sparked public concern that they would be open to interpretation.

They have also stoked fears of a revival of morality policing.

Saudi Arabia's religious police once elicited widespread fear, chasing men and women out of malls to pray and berating anyone seen mingling with the opposite sex.

But the bearded enforcers of public morality, whose powers have been clipped in recent years, are now largely out of sight.

Saudi Arabia is attempting a comeback on the global stage one year after journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder, but the crisis has weakened it and undermined its de facto leader's ambitious reforms, analysts say https://t.co/em7O5M25Ec pic.twitter.com/ZKdK9Nqwa6

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 29 september 2019

A personal bodyguard of Saudi Arabia's King Salman has been shot dead and seven others wounded, including security forces, during an altercation at a friend's home, authorities said https://t.co/25K67KmJ0d pic.twitter.com/SKz9nsf8dB

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 29 september 2019

Indonesian court sentences French drug smuggler to death

Yahoo – AFP, May 20, 2019

Felix Dorfin was arrested in September carrying a suitcase filled with about three
kilograms of drugs, including ecstasy and amphetamines (AFP Photo/ARSYAD ALI)

An Indonesian court sentenced Frenchman Felix Dorfin to death for drug smuggling on Monday, in a shock verdict after prosecutors asked for a 20-year jail term.

Dorfin, 35, was arrested in September carrying a suitcase filled with about three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of drugs including ecstasy and amphetamines at the airport in Lombok, a holiday island next to Bali where foreigners are routinely arrested on drugs charges.

Indonesia has some of the world's strictest drug laws -- including death by firing squad for some drug traffickers and it has executed foreigners in the past.

While prosecutors had not asked for the death penalty, Indonesian courts have been known to go beyond their demands.

"After finding Felix Dorfin legally and convincingly guilty of importing narcotics ... (he) is sentenced to the death penalty," presiding judge Isnurul Syamsul Arif told the court.

He cited Dorfin's involvement in an international drug syndicate and the amount of drugs in his possession as aggravating factors.

"The defendant's actions could potentially do damage to the younger generation," Arif added.

The Frenchman made headlines in January when he escaped from a police detention centre and spent nearly two weeks on the run before he was captured.

A female police officer was arrested for allegedly helping Dorfin escape from jail in exchange for money.

It was not clear if the jailbreak played any role in Monday's stiffer-than-expected sentence.

Dorfin, who is from Bethune in northern France, sat impassively through much of the hearing in front of three judges, as a translator scribbled notes beside him.

He said little as he walked past reporters to a holding cell after the sentencing.

"Dorfin was shocked," the Frenchman's lawyer Deny Nur Indra told AFP.

"He didn't expect this at all because prosecutors only asked for 20 years."

The lawyer said he would appeal against the sentence, describing his client as a "victim" who did not know the exact contents of what he was carrying.

"If he had known, he wouldn't have brought it here," Indra added.

In 2015, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran -- the accused ringleaders of the Bali Nine heroin smuggling gang -- were executed by firing squad in Indonesia.

The case sparked diplomatic outrage and a call to abolish the death penalty.

The Bali Nine gang's only female member was released from jail last year, while some others remain in prison.

A number of foreigners in Indonesia are on death row including cocaine-smuggling British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford and Serge Atlaoui, a Frenchman who has been on death row since 2007.

Last year, eight Taiwanese drug smugglers were sentenced to death by an Indonesian court after being caught with around a tonne of crystal methamphetamine.

Brunei says death penalty moratorium to cover sharia laws

Yahoo – AFP, May 5, 2019

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's remarks on capital punishment appeared aimed at
assuaging worldwide criticism (AFP Photo/Andrea VERDELLI)

Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) (AFP) - Brunei's sultan said Sunday a moratorium on capital punishment will also extend to sharia laws that include stoning to death for gay sex and adultery, after a furious backlash against the punishments.

It was the first time Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah had commented publicly on the new penal code since it fully entered force last month, and his remarks appeared aimed at assuaging worldwide criticism.

The laws, which also include amputation of hands and feet for thieves in the tiny sultanate on Borneo island, sparked fury from celebrities, including actor George Clooney, the United Nations and rights groups.

In a televised speech ahead of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the sultan said: "I am aware that there are many questions and misperceptions with regard to the implementation of the (sharia penal code)."

"There should not be any concern on the sharia law as it is full of Allah's mercy and blessings," he said, according to an official translation of his address.

"As evident for more than two decades, we have practised a de facto moratorium on the execution of death penalty for cases under the common law.

"This will also be applied to cases under the (sharia penal code), which provides a wider scope for remission."

He also vowed Brunei would ratify the United Nations convention against torture which it signed several years ago.

Muslim-majority Brunei operates a dual-track legal system with civil courts operating alongside sharia courts that handle issues such as marital and inheritance cases.

Some crimes were already punishable with death by hanging under the civil code but Brunei has not executed anyone for decades, and the sultan's comments suggest this will not change with the introduction of the new sharia laws.

Rape and robbery are also punishable by death under the sharia code and many of the new laws, such as capital punishment for insulting the Prophet Mohammed, apply to non-Muslims as well as Muslims.

The sultan -- one of the world's wealthiest men -- announced plans for the sharia penal code in 2013.

The first section was introduced in 2014 and included less stringent penalties, such as fines or jail terms for offences including indecent behaviour or skipping Friday prayers.

But the introduction of the harsher punishments in the former British protectorate of about 400,000 people was repeatedly delayed after they sparked criticism.

#UPDATE Brunei's sultan has announced that a punishment of death by stoning for gay sex and adultery will not be enforced in the sultanate after a global backlash, but critics Monday called for harsh sharia laws to be abandoned entirely. https://t.co/Pz1DSJiNjr

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 6 mei 2019

Global executions at lowest level in a decade: Amnesty

Yahoo – AFP, April 10, 2019

Nooses hang at Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of Kabul, Afganistan (AFP
Photo/WAKIL KOHSAR)

Executions fell worldwide by nearly a third last year to their lowest levels in at least a decade, but several countries recorded a rise, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Use of the death penalty dropped in Iran -- by an eye-popping 50 percent, following a change to its anti-narcotics laws -- Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia, the rights group found in its annual review.

But it rose in Belarus, Japan, Singapore, South Sudan and the United States, while Thailand resumed executions for the first time in a decade and Sri Lanka threatened to follow suit.

"Despite regressive steps from some, the number of executions carried out by several of the worst perpetrators has fallen significantly," said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International's Secretary General.

He added the "dramatic" drop globally proved that "even the most unlikely countries are starting to change their ways and realise the death penalty is not the answer".

"This is a hopeful indication that it's only a matter of time before this cruel punishment is consigned to history, where it belongs," Naidoo said.

In total, death penalty figures fell around the world from at least 993 in 2017, to at least 690 last year.

Amnesty's count excludes China -- the world's top executioner -- where the numbers are classified as a state secret.

The organisation estimates thousands of people are sentenced to death and executed there every year.

Graphic on executions worldwide, according to a 2018 report by Amnesty 

International (AFP Photo/Gal ROMA)

Iran (253), Saudi Arabia (149), Vietnam (at least 85) and Iraq (at least 52) were the other countries that resorted to the death penalty most in 2018.

Vietnamese authorities' decision to release figures for last year was "unprecedented" for the southeast Asian nation, Amnesty noted.

Elsewhere Japan, Singapore and South Sudan reported their highest levels of executions in years.

Naidoo said these three countries "now form a dwindling minority" and challenged them "to act boldly and put a stop to this abhorrent punishment".

Amnesty also noted concern over a sharp spike in the number of death sentences imposed in some countries -- particularly Iraq and Egypt -- over the course of 2018.

But its annual review found the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty had gathered steam.

Burkina Faso adopted a new penal code effectively banning executions, while Gambia and Malaysia both declared an official moratorium.

Meanwhile, courts in the US state of Washington declared the death penalty unconstitutional there.

Amnesty highlighted a December vote by the United Nations General Assembly that saw 121 countries support a global moratorium on the death penalty, with only 35 states opposed.

"Slowly but steadily, global consensus is building towards ending the use of the death penalty," Naidoo said.

Sharia law plunges Brunei gay community into fear

Yahoo – AFP, April 4, 2019

Brunei, ruled by the all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, has fully implemented
tough new Islamic laws after years of delays (AFP Photo)

Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) (AFP) - Transgender woman Zoella Zayce fled her native Brunei last year as the country shifted towards hardline Islam, and thinks more of the LGBT community will follow after the death penalty for gay sex was introduced.

The absolute monarchy on tropical Borneo island, ruled by a sultan who has been on the throne five decades, implemented tough new Islamic laws on Wednesday, including death by stoning for sex between men, and adultery.

The new sharia penal code has sparked a global outcry with governments around the world condemning the measures, and celebrities -- led by actor George Clooney -- calling for Brunei-owned hotels to be boycotted.

The country's tiny lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, who already had to be discreet about their sexual identities in the highly conservative Muslim country, have been left terrified.

"What Brunei is adopting is a violation of basic human rights," a 33-year-old gay man in the country, who spoke anonymously, told AFP.

"All the condemnation and boycott calls internationally speak volumes -- Brunei should just abandon these laws and continue to stick to moderate Islam."

Zayce fled Brunei last year due to the increasingly conservative climate and is now seeking asylum in Canada.

Plans to implement sharia law were announced in 2013 and the first phase, with less stringent punishments, came into effect the following year, before the entire penal code was implemented this week.

Zayce said that gay people in Brunei, who were leading "secretive lives" even before death by stoning came into force, were now even more scared.

"Some worry a lot and would like to escape the country before they are found out not to be heterosexual," the 19-year-old said.

Khairul, a gay man in Brunei who gave only one name, described the laws as "daunting", adding: "When I'm ready, I'll be on my way to a safer community."

Before the sharia punishments came into effect, sex between men was already punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

It is now a capital offence, while lesbian sex is punishable by up to 40 strokes of the cane and a decade in prison.

No govt engagement, no NGOs

Observers say it is hard to know the size of the LGBT community in the country of about 400,000 people.

That is because there is nowhere members feel safe to gather openly -- such as gay clubs or bars -- and there is not thought to be any accurate data available on them.

"The LGBT community tends to keep a low profile and LGBT (people) are generally much less open than in some of Brunei's neighbours, such as Thailand," Matthew Woolfe, founder of rights group The Brunei Project, told AFP.

"The government does not engage with the LGBT community and no NGOs are working with them."

Woolfe organised Brunei's first ever LGBT event -- a 2016 gathering at a hotel in the sultanate to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia -- and was subsequently barred from visiting the country.

However sharia law appears to enjoy substantial support in Brunei and some are doubtful the harshest penalties -- such as death by stoning, and severing of limbs for theft -- will be imposed.

Analysts say the new code may be largely symbolic as Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah seeks to burnish his Islamic credentials with conservatives, and note that although Brunei has long had the death penalty, the last known execution was in 1957.

In addition, the burden of proof for stoning to death to be imposed is high. An accused person must either confess, or there must be four witnesses who can testify the offence was committed.

Some members of the LGBT community believe the changes may in reality make little difference in a country where most gay people were already secretive about their sexualities.

A 23-year-old transgender woman in Brunei, who declined to be named, said the new laws had caused concern but added: "I think just as long as we remain discreet, it will be fine."

Indonesia reviewing early release for Bali bombing-linked cleric

Yahoo – AFP, Dessy SAGITA, 22 January 2019

Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was convicted for 15 years in 2011 for
helping fund a paramilitary group

Plans to free a radical cleric linked to the deadly Bali bombings are under review, Indonesia has said, after the surprise decision drew sharp criticism.

Abu Bakar Bashir, once synonymous with militant Islam in Indonesia, was tied to a terror network behind the 2002 attacks that killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Last week, Indonesian president Joko Widodo said he had given the green light for the early release of Bashir -- believed to have been a key figure in militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

Widodo said the 80-year-old preacher was "old and sick".

The plan was slammed both at home and abroad, with objections across Indonesian social media and from Australian leader Scott Morrison, who warned that Bashir was still a threat.

Dozens of Australians were killed in the Bali attacks.

In an apparent backtrack on Monday, Indonesia's Chief Security Minister Wiranto said the president had ordered a "thorough and comprehensive study" of Bashir's release from prison.

"We can't act hastily or spontaneously," the minister told reporters.

He did not say when a final decision would be made.

On Tuesday, Widodo said Bashir must agree to pledge his loyalty to the state in order to win parole -- something the cleric has previously said he would not do.

"This is parole -- not an absolute release. These conditions must be fulfilled," the president told reporters.

Indonesian forces patrol the perimeter of Gunung Sindur prison in Bogor 

where radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashiris jailed

Bashir was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2011 for helping fund a paramilitary group training in the conservative Islamic province of Aceh.

The firebrand preacher was previously jailed over the Bali bombings but that conviction was quashed on appeal. He has repeatedly denied involvement in terror attacks.

Bashir's lawyer Achmad Michdan questioned the apparent official change of heart.

"We have no problem with (the review) but people might wonder why would they announce it in the first place," Michdan told AFP.

Widodo had cited "humanitarian reasons" for agreeing to the release of the elderly preacher, sparking a torrent of criticism on Indonesian social media.

"This whole story is stupid beyond belief," one Twitter user wrote.

Bashir "murdered hundreds of people. They don't get to be with their families, but he does?"

'Politically deaf'

Analysts questioned the timing of the original announcement, just months before Widodo -- better known by his nickname Jokowi -- seeks re-election to lead the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.

While Indonesia has long been praised for its moderate practice of religion, the political influence of Islamist hardliners has grown in recent years with some viewing Bashir as a hero.

"Why did Jokowi choose to act now, when it was inevitable that he would be accused of trying to score political points?" said Sidney Jones at the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict.

"It makes the president seem either Machiavellian enough to do anything in exchange for a few votes, or so politically deaf and blind that he had no idea of the consequences."

The 2002 bombings prompted Jakarta to beef up counter-terror co-operation with the US and Australia.

"We have been very clear about the need to ensure that, as part of our joint counter-terrorism efforts... that Abu Bakar Bashir would not be in any position... to influence or incite anything," Australia's Morrison was quoted as saying.

Al-Qaeda-linked JI was founded by a handful of exiled Indonesian militants in Malaysia in the 1980s, and grew to include cells across Southeast Asia.

As well as the 2002 Bali bombings, the radical group was blamed for a 2003 car bomb at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta and a suicide car bomb the following year outside the Australian embassy.

Several militants convicted over their involvement in the Bali bombings have been executed while two others, including Malaysian Noordin Mohammed Top, were killed in police raids in 2009 and 2010.

Death penalty 'inadmissible' in Catholic teaching update

Yahoo – AFP, 2 August 2018

Francis has long opposed capital punishment, saying in June 2016 that "it doesn't
give justice to victims, but it feeds vengeance" and arguing that the biblical
commandment "thou shall not kill" applies equally to the innocent and the guilty

Pope Francis has declared the death penalty "inadmissible" in an update of Catholic believers' most important guide to Church teaching, the catechism, the Vatican said Thursday.

"The Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that 'the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person'," the new text states.

Francis approved the change to the catechism, which covers a wide range of moral and social issues, during a meeting in May with the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Church's doctrinal watchdog.

The update also says the Church will "work with determination" for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide.

"Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good," the new text says.

"Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes."

The Catholic Church has steadily hardened its opposition to capital punishment in recent decades, with Francis's calls for its abolition echoing similar pleas from his predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II.

The 1992 text of the catechism says authorities should take appropriate measures in the interest of the common good without excluding the use of the death penalty in extremely grave cases.

More than two-thirds of the world's countrys have abolished or suspended judicial 

killings. The United States is the most developed country where it is still used. Shown 

here in a Texas museum is "Old Sparky", the electric chair discontinued in 1965

'Inhuman remedy'

More recent updates said factors justifying capital punishment have become rare if not practically inexistent.

Francis has long opposed the death penalty, saying that the execution of a human being is fundamentally against the teachings of Christ because, by definition, it excludes the possibility of redemption.

Speaking in October last year, he acknowledged that the Vatican itself had historically had "recourse to the extreme and inhuman remedy" of judicial execution, but said past doctrinal errors should be put aside.

"It doesn't give justice to victims, but it feeds vengeance," he said in June 2016, arguing that the biblical commandment "thou shall not kill" applies to the innocent as well as the guilty.

Francis has also called for an "international consensus" on the abolition of capital punishment.

"Modern society has the ability to punish crimes effectively without definitively taking away the possibility of redemption for those who commit them," he said.

More than two-thirds of the world's countries -- including most predominantly Catholic countries -- have abolished or suspended judicial killings.

Francis has long opposed capital punishment, saying in June 2016 that "it doesn't give justice to victims, but it feeds vengeance" and arguing that the biblical commandment "thou shall not kill" applies equally to the innocent and the guilty

More than two-thirds of the world's countrys have abolished or suspended judicial killings. The United States is the most developed country where it is still used. Shown here in a Texas museum is "Old Sparky", the electric chair discontinued in 1965.

Australian gran escapes death in Malaysia drugs case

Yahoo – AFP, Patrick Lee, 27 December 2017

Exposto is escorted upon arrival in court before her acquittal

An Australian grandmother who said she was tricked into carrying drugs into Malaysia after falling for an online romance scam was Wednesday cleared of trafficking, a crime punishable by death.

Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto wept and hugged her son after being found not guilty of smuggling crystal methamphetamine, a rare outcome in a country where hundreds of people have been sentenced to death for drugs offences in recent years.

"I'm happy now that I'm free," said the 54-year-old, as she was ushered out of the courtroom after the verdict.

But prosecutors have indicated they want to appeal the acquittal, her lawyer said, meaning Exposto won't be able to go back home yet and there is still a chance she could be sentenced to death.

She was arrested in December 2014 while in transit at Kuala Lumpur airport with 1.1 kilos (2.4 pounds) of the drug stitched into the compartment of a backpack she was carrying.

The mother of four argued she did not know about the hidden stash of "ice". She said she had been fooled into carrying the bag after travelling to China to see someone she met online called "Captain Daniel Smith", who had claimed to be a US serviceman.

Anyone caught with at least 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of crystal meth is considered a trafficker in Muslim-majority Malaysia, and death by hanging is mandatory in the case of a conviction.

However handing down his verdict at the High Court in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, Judge Ghazali Cha accepted the defence's argument that Exposto did not know the bag contained drugs and acquitted her.

"I agree with the defence lawyer that the accused did not have knowledge about the drugs," he said.

"I believe that at that time her (Exposto) feelings of love towards 'Captain Daniel Smith' overcame everything, including her own husband, her family and her future."

Hundreds on death row

Exposto's lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah welcomed the verdict but said he was surprised at prosecutors' intention to appeal as the judge had sided firmly with the defence. Prosecutors have 14 days to lodge the challenge.

After engaging in a long online romance, Exposto had travelled to Shanghai to see "Smith".

But she did not succeed in meeting her supposed love interest while there and ended up being given a bag by a stranger, who asked her to take it to Melbourne.

When she arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport to change flights, she mistakenly went through immigration as she was unfamiliar with the airport.

She voluntarily offered her bags for customs inspection and the drugs were discovered.

There are at least 900 people on death row in Malaysia, officials have said, but executions have been rare in recent years.

Malaysian lawmakers voted last year to amend legislation so that capital punishment is no longer mandatory in drug-trafficking cases.

But the changes have not yet come into force as they must be passed by the upper house, meaning that in the case of a conviction in Exposto's case, the judge would have had to impose the death penalty.

Two Australians were hanged in Malaysia in 1986 for heroin trafficking -- the first Westerners to be executed in the country -- in a case that strained relations.

In 2013 Dominic Bird, a former truck driver from Perth, was acquitted of drug trafficking charges after he was allegedly caught with 167 grams of crystal methamphetamine.

Australian grandma escapes death penalty in Malaysia drugs case: Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, who said she was tricked into carrying drugs into Malaysia after falling for an online romance scam, has been cleared of trafficking, a crime punishable by death https://t.co/i0tFYnOqtx pic.twitter.com/U5l9fH2NPZ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 27, 2017

Indonesia Rejects UN Recommendation to Abolish Death Penalty

Jakarta Globe, Sheany  September 25, 2017

Indonesia on Thursday (21/09) accepted 167 of the 225 recommendations it
 received from international delegations during the 27th session of the United
Nations Universal Periodic Review, or UPR, earlier in May, but crucially rejected
a recommendation to abolish the death penalty. (Photo courtesy of Foreign
Affairs Ministry)

Jakarta. Indonesia on Thursday (21/09) accepted 167 of the 225 recommendations it received from international delegations during the 27th session of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review, or UPR, earlier in May, but crucially rejected the recommendation to abolish the death penalty.

Indonesia said the remaining 58 recommendations, including ones on abolishing the death penalty, addressing past human rights violations and ending prosecutions under blasphemy laws, "were noted" but considered "not in line with the priorities in Indonesia’s human rights agenda."

Indonesia went through its third UPR cycle in May, and had straight away accepted 150 recommendations put forward by 101 delegations during the review while placing the remaining 75 under further examination.

Indonesia stated its final position on the pending recommendations during the 36th session of the Human Rights Council last week.

During the session, Indonesia reaffirmed its position that "the death penalty is still a prevailing positive law in Indonesia."

"However, the revision of the penal code had provided a more robust safeguard in due process of law on the death penalty," Indonesia's deputy permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva, Michael Tene, said.

The United Kingdom said it "regretted that the recommendations on the moratorium on the use of the death penalty had not been supported" and repeated its call that no evidence suggests death penalty is a more effective deterrent than alternative forms of punishment.

Other delegations in the session also expressed concerns that the Indonesian government had not addressed discrimination against minority groups in the country, which include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and followers of religious minorities.

"Indonesia took note of the remaining 58 recommendations with the consideration that they are not in line with the priorities in Indonesia’s human rights agenda. Some of the recommendations were also inaccurate and not based on facts," Michael said, according to a statement released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) urged the Indonesian government nevertheless to take some measures to deal with the recommendations it did not accept, including "measures to eradicate impunity, prioritize the settlement of gross human rights violations, guarantee freedom of religion and belief, ensure freedom of expression and abolish the death penalty.”

Komnas HAM and Amnesty International also noted that Indonesia has yet to ratify several international human rights accords, including the Optional Protocol on the Convention Against Torture and Convention for the Protection of All Persons From Enforced Disappearance.

Philippine church bells ring in drug war protest

Yahoo – AFP, September 14, 2017

Philippine police have reported killing more than 3,800 people to fulfil President
Rodrigo Duterte's vow to rid the country of narcotics (AFP Photo/NOEL CELIS)

Church bells rang across the mainly Catholic Philippines late Thursday as bishops rallied opposition to the "reign of terror" that has left thousands dead in President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war.

Police have reported killing more than 3,800 people to fulfil Duterte's vow to rid the country of narcotics, with the 15-month crackdown triggering wider violence that has seen thousands of other people found dead in unexplained circumstances.

An elderly church sexton tugged on a rope to ring a 171-year-old bell atop the San Roque cathedral, its slow, deep peals sweeping over the vast slums of northern Manila around the 211-year-old church.

"Many of the drug killings had taken place in this diocese," Ryan Rezo, another church employee, told AFP.

Church leaders said bells around the country would simultaneously ring for five minutes from 8:00 pm (1200 GMT) to honour the dead and remind the living that the bloodshed must stop. The ritual will continue for 40 nights.

"We cannot allow the destruction of lives to become normal. We cannot govern the nation by killing," Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle said in a pastoral letter last week launching the campaign.

The president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, followed up this week with an even stronger pastoral letter.

'Reign of terror'

"For the sake of the children and the poor, stop their systematic murders and spreading reign of terror," Villegas wrote.

Duterte won last year's presidential elections on a brutal law-and-order platform in which he promised an unprecedented campaign to eradicate illegal drugs in society by killing up to 100,000 traffickers and addicts.

Duterte has made the drug war the top priority of his administration, and has regularly encouraged more bloodshed with comments such as describing himself as "happy to slaughter" three million addicts.

Nevertheless, the president and his aides reject allegations they are overseeing a crime against humanity.

They say police are killing only in self-defence, and the thousands of other unexplained murders could be due to drug gangs fighting each other.

Many Filipinos looking for quick solutions to crime continue to support Duterte, according to polls, and he enjoys majority backing in both houses of Congress.

But the Church has emerged as the leader of a growing opposition in recent months.

The killings of three teenagers, two of them at the hands of police in the northern Manila district of Caloocan on consecutive nights last month, sparked rare street protests against the crackdown.

Caloocan Bishop Pablo David said earlier Thursday he was giving refuge to two witnesses to the killing of one of the three slain boys.

"If you are a relative of a victim of extrajudicial killing or a witness to the extrajudicial killing of a particular victim, now is the time to come out," he told reporters.

Church officials say the tolling of bells for the dead originated from the Crusades, when Christian nations of Europe sent military expeditions to reclaim holy places in the Middle East.

The Catholic Church, to which eight in 10 Filipinos belong, has a history of influencing politics in the Philippines and helped lead the "People Power" revolution that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Duterte has repeatedly praised Marcos as a "hero", and made speeches seeking to discredit the Church.

Philippine church bells to toll as Catholic bishops oppose President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war https://t.co/r7pCEije3y pic.twitter.com/9MED60B0eM

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 14, 2017

Philippine Church head urges end to drug killings

Yahoo – AFP, Ayee Macaraig, August 20, 2017

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has launched an unprecedented crackdown
on illegal narcotics since winning the presidency last year (AFP Photo/TED ALJIBE)

Manila (AFP) - The head of the Philippines' powerful Catholic Church called Sunday for an end to the "waste of human lives" following a brutal week in President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war in which a 17-year-old boy was among dozens killed.

Police raids dubbed "One Time Big Time" saw at least 76 people shot dead, authorities said, as rights groups and lawmakers condemned the operation as an alarming "killing spree" in Duterte's flagship campaign.

On Sunday, the highest-ranking Church official in the predominantly Catholic nation expressed concern about the increase in the number of deaths.

"We knock on the consciences of those who kill even the helpless, especially those who cover their faces with bonnets, to stop wasting human lives," Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle said in a statement read in Sunday Masses in the capital.

"The illegal drug problem should not be reduced to a political or criminal issue. It is a humanitarian concern that affects all of us."

Duterte, 72, launched an unprecedented crackdown on illegal narcotics after winning the presidency last year on a promise to kill tens of thousands of criminals.

The Church, one of the nation's oldest and most influential institutions, had been among the few voices denouncing the deaths as polls showed Duterte continued to enjoy widespread popularity.

During the 14 months Duterte has been in power, police have confirmed killing more than 3,500 people -- insisting they acted in self-defence.

More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes and thousands more murdered in unexplained circumstances, according to police data.

The numbers saw a sudden increase this week, with Duterte praising officers who shot dead 32 people in a single province as he urged for more.

Following Duterte's call, at least 44 people were killed in various cities, including a 17-year-old boy whose death on Thursday sparked a national furore.

Relatives of Kian Delos Santos released CCTV footage of the boy being dragged away by two officers as they questioned a police report that he shot at them first.

'Awaken consciences'

In Sunday's statement, Tagle called for nine days of prayer for people who have died in the drug war.

"Those with sorrowful hearts and awakened consciences may come to your pastors to tell your stories and we will document them for the wider society," he said.

The Catholic Church has been a central figure in some of the Philippines' most tumultuous political events, including the 1986 "People Power" revolution that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The Church had initially declined to criticise Duterte's drug war but as the death toll of mostly poor people mounted, it began last year a campaign to stop the killings.

Church groups have sheltered witnesses and provided financial and emotional support for families of those slain.

In response, Duterte had launched a broadside against priests and bishops whom he accused of "hypocrisy".

On Sunday, the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines joined Tagle in denouncing the deaths, calling on the faithful to ring church bells daily in solidarity with the victims.

"The sound of the bells is a wake-up call for a nation that no longer knows how to condole with the bereaved, that is cowardly to call out evil. The sound of the bells is a call to stop consenting to the killings!" Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a statement.

Duterte's spokesman said Saturday the government would investigate the deaths but added the president would "vigorously pursue" his drug war.

The head of the Philippines' powerful Catholic Church urges end to president's unprecedented drug killings https://t.co/CF7qPtSCs1 pic.twitter.com/ssr5O9N9qX

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 20, 2017