Daily Archives: September 8, 2021

Families of persons killed in anti-drug operations under the Duterte administrations war on drugs regained hope for justice following the release of a report focused on assistance for them by the Victims Participation and Reparations Section (VPRS), an independent office of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The report, released on Aug. 27, stated that families and drug war survivors overwhelmingly support the request of former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to allow a full investigation of the bloody anti-drug campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte. Lawyer Kristina Conti, counsel for Rise Up for Life and for Rights, which provides legal assistance to at least seven families of drug war victims, said the report has given her clients a spark of hope to obtain justice.

During the victim[s] representation stage there were many whose eyes had dimmed at the prospect of Duterte [staying] longer in power, at the reality that nothing has been or likely to be done about the killings, Conti said. The ICC report shows the spark of hope they have now, that someday, there will be an end to all this and justice for them all [will be served].

Lawyers and human rights groups, such as the National Union of Peoples Lawyers and Human Rights Watch (HRW), likewise welcomed the report.

HRW Asia Deputy Director Phil Robertson said the report will certainly encourage other victims and their families to step forward and tell their stories. But Robertson said they must be protected from any sort of harassment or retaliation by the Duterte government when they surface.

How is the VPRS report relevant to the quest for justice over the drug-related killings and other abuses committed under Dutertes drug war? Here are five things you need to know about the report on victims representations of the ICC:

The submission of representations is part of the procedure in the ICC that allows victims to express their views, concerns and expectations to the judges about the pending request of the courts Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) for a full investigation of Dutertes drug war.

This is an integral part of the process, structured as it is to ensure victims rights [to] representation. This is the first active opportunity for victims to make their voices heard in the preliminary investigation procedure, international law expert Romel Bagares explained when asked for a comment.

From June 15 to Aug. 13, VPRS received 212 representation forms from survivors and families or representatives of those killed or injured. However, only 204 of the forms, collectively or individually sent through email or online, were considered relevant.

On Aug. 27, the VPRS transmitted to the ICC judges the 204 pertinent representations and its preliminary assessment report on the victims answers. The ICC judges will carefully analyze all information received and will issue their decision on the OTP request in due time, it explained.

The VPRS said the 204 forms represent approximately 1,530 individual victims and 1,050 families. However, the office did not clarify how many of the 1,530 victims were dead or survivors of the drug war.

According to the VPRS victims booklet, the ICC defines a victim as someone who suffered harm as a result of a crime punishable by the court. It may include victims of sexual violence, children, persons with disabilities, or elderly persons, as well as organizations or institutions with properties dedicated for charitable or humanitarian purposes, among others, that sustained harm.

As most victims of the drug war are already dead, the victims booklet provides that family members who suffered from harm, such as emotional trauma or material loss, due to the killing of their relatives are also considered victims.

The VPRS clarified, however, that the representations will neither be used as evidence in the court nor shared with the prosecutor.

The process of collecting representations was launched a day after Bensouda disclosed on June 14 that she had sought judicial authorization from the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I (PTC I) to proceed with the investigation of alleged crimes against humanity in the Philippines from November 2011 to March 17, 2019. (See ICC begins accepting information on Duterte's drug war - Vera Files)

Bensoudas request came after she wrapped up the three-year preliminary examination into the drug war. She alleged that killings, torture, and other crimes targetting suspected drug personalities were already rampant in the Davao region, where Duterte is from, since 1988 or long before he became president in 2016. (See Gov't officials, police conspired to carry out Duterte's war on drugs -- ICC prosecutor - Vera Files)

Of the 204 relevant representations, 192 or 94% of the victims agreed that the ICC judges must authorize an investigation into the matter.

According to the VPRS, the main motivating factors for their position include the desire to have their voices heard, bring the perpetrators to justice, and launch an investigation by an "impartial international court. Other reasons cited were to end impunity, prevent such crimes from happening again, find out the truth about what really happened, and clear the names of the innocent.

The thousands of Filipino deaths during Duterte's reign of terror [] have destroyed so many lives. I stand for them, I stand for my brother. You are our last hope ICC. Please help us investigate on (sic) this and hold those people involved accountable. Thank you, wrote one of the victims quoted in the VPRS report.

The VPRS said it believes that fear of reprisals and re-traumatization forced victims in five representations to refuse an investigation. Among the concerns they raised involved security, inconvenience of having a young child to take care of, and lack of knowledge about the actual incident.

Seven other representations did not give clear answers on their position on the proposed investigation.

Ruben Carranza, reparations and war crimes tribunals expert at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), said victims representations provide the ICC prosecutor and the PTC judges a view of what they, including those unable to submit their representations, expect as justice, apart from the punitive form of justice, (that) a criminal court can give.

Drawing from a previous experience working with the VPRS, Carranza said the office wants to be prepared to address victims needs that might emerge in the course of the ICC proceedings.

Other tasks delegated to the VPRS include assisting victims to organize their legal representation or apply for reparations.

Drug war victims, who are mostly men, want the ICC prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes against humanity that inflicted psychological and physical harm, among others, on them. Such crimes were allegedly committed by the police; unidentified riding-in-tandem individuals wearing civilian clothes, bonnets and masks to hide their identities; and other unnamed personalities.

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The VPRS assessed that murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, and other inhumane acts were the most reported crimes. Only a few cited attempted murder and sexual violence, such as rape.

However, it noted that sexual violence could be severely underreported because victims fear the possibility of death. It said some female victims were forced to have sexual intercourse or give in to sexual favors, also known as palit-puri (sex for freedom) or palit-katawan (rape for freedom), in exchange for their liberty.

The VPRS said female relatives of those killed, seen as collateral victims, are largely ignored by the [g]overnment and deprived of its services. In a forum about the ICC in June, womens rights expert Socorro Reyes said 60,000 to 100,000 women and children became widows and orphans as a result of the killing of 12,000 to 20,000 persons in the drug war.

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All 204 representations reported that the crimes resulted in psychological and social harm to victims. Others cited physical and material harm, as well as loss of educational opportunities and deprivation of liberty. Other victims raised concerns about the ineffectiveness of the Philippine judicial system, reparations for damages, and the social and cultural impact of the drug war.

"There is a new social norm now that is brainwashing and is gaining acceptance by many Filipinos today as a result of not only this physical but also culture war on drugs. That is, if you were a victim of [extra judicial killing], you deserved to die, the report quoted one victim as saying.

Both the victims and the ICC prosecutor are waiting for the decision of the PTC judges. If they rule in favor of the prosecutor, Karim Khan, Bensoudas successor, will start gathering evidence and identifying suspects in the killings and other crimes in the drug war. Khan may request the court to issue arrest warrants or summonses to bring the identified suspects to the ICC headquarters in the Netherlands for confirmation of charges and possible prosecution based on the courts legal procedures.

Palace Spokesperson Harry Roque dismissed the ICC report as based only on the opinion of drug war victims.

[W]e consider the Public Redacted Registry Report on Victims Representation submitted to the ICC as more of the opinion of victims wanting the ICC probe rather than erosion of support of the Filipino people, Roque said in a statement on Aug. 30.

Roque repeated his inaccurate claim that the Philippines is not obliged to cooperate with the ICC following the countrys withdrawal from the Rome Statute.

His assertion contradicted the March 16 ruling of the Supreme Court on petitions assailing Dutertes unilateral withdrawal, stating that the country remains covered and bound by the statute even after the pullout took effect in March 2019. (See VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Duterte, Panelo spew three false claims about ICC - Vera Files)

As of July 31, the government has reported 6,181 deaths during drug operations since July 2016. However, rights groups, including United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, have estimated that the actual death toll could be more than triple the government figure.

Sources

International Criminal Court, Public Redacted Registry Report on Victims Representations, Aug. 27, 2021

International Criminal Court, Information for victims - Republic of the Philippines, Accessed Aug. 31, 2021

International Criminal Court, Public redacted version of Request for authorisation of an investigation pursuant to article 15(3), 24 May 2021, ICC-01/21-7-SECRET-Exp, June 14, 2021

Communication with international law expert Romel Bagares, Aug. 30, 2021

Communication with war crimes tribunals and reparations expert Ruben Carranza, Aug. 30, 2021

Communication with Public Interest Law Center lawyer Kristina Conti, Aug. 30, 2021

Communication with Human Rights Watch Asia Deputy Director Phil Robertson, Aug. 30, 2021

Presidential Communications Operations Office, On the Public Redacted Registry Report, Aug. 30, 2021

Rise Up for Life and for Rights official Facebook page, Accessed Aug. 30, 2021

International Criminal Court, Victim Representation Form, Accessed Aug. 30, 2021

International Criminal Court, Statement of the Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on her request to open an investigation of the Situation in the Philippines, June 14, 2021

International Criminal Court, VPRS Victim's Booklet [ENG], Accessed Aug. 30, 2021

International Criminal Court, Rome Statute

Supreme Court, G.R. No. 238875/G.R. No. 239483/G.R. No. 240954. March 16, 2021 [Date Uploaded: 7/21/2021], March 16, 2021

Real Numbers PH, #RealNumbersPH, Aug. 28, 2021

Original post:

VERA FILES FACT SHEET: Five things about the ICC report on victims' representations - Vera Files - Vera Files

Richard Wershe Jr.is getting into thecannabisindustry, and plans to use his new business endeavor to push social justice.

Wershe,a former FBI and Detroit police informant known as "White Boy Rick," famously served more than three decades behind bars for a non-violent drug offense after being convicted in 1988 in Wayne County Circuit Court.Now 52, Wershe is believed to have served the longest prison sentencebeginningas a juvenile for a non-violent drug offense. He wasreleased from prison last year after serving 32 years and seven months.

NowWersheis partnering withPleasantrees cannabis company and is launchinghis own brand of products called "The 8th,"areferenceto the 8th Amendment of theU.S. Constitutionthat prohibits cruel and unusualpunishment of criminal defendants.

Wershe's cannabis brand, which includes cannabisplants, T-shirts, concentrates and other products, is expected to launchthis fall. The black T-shirtswill feature two broken handcuffs and the words "White Boy Rick" on the front.

This comes as Eminem is slated to portray Wershe in an upcoming Starz television series by rapper 50 Cent. Wershe's life also has been the focus of books, films and a Hollywood film starring Matthew McConaughey.

Wershe says he hopesto raise awareness about the harshness of sentences for non-violent drug offenses, and use a substantial portionof his proceeds to help people who havebeen wrongfully convicted andimprisoned for non-violent drug offenses.

"It's about being over-punished," Wershe said. "How isit that a non-violent offender is punished more severely than a violent offender? That's not equal justice under the law."

He said he chose to partnerwith Pleasantrees because he likes the company's social justice and social equity program. The company offersjobs to those recently released from prison who because they were wrongfully convicted or incarcerated under excessive sentences.

"Mr. Wershe was recently released from prison after serving over thirty-two years for non-violent drug offenses allegedly committed while he was a minor. As such, his life story, which has been the subject of several recent films and documentaries, is a prime example of the unduly harsh penalties levied against victims of the decades-long War on Drugs which was started by the Nixon Administration and further escalated in the Reagan Era," said Pleasantrees company officials in a statement announcing the partnership.

Attorney Jerome Crawford, Pleasantrees director of legal operations and social equity, said Wershe is the "poster child" of excessive as well as cruel and unusualpunishment.

"He is a walking example of crueland unusual punishment where a minor is sent to prison for three decades of his life behind bars fora non-violent drug crime," said Crawford. "He can give voice to the voiceless. Having him on our team is really a representationof our social equity plan."

One of the people Wershe hopes to help isRudi Gammo, 42, who was sentenced in 2018 in Oakland Countyto five and a half years in prison. He owned a medical marijuana dispensary in Detroit, but was charged for letting patients grow marijuana in homes he owned in Oakland County.

Wershe attended a rally at the Oakland County Circuit Court on Wednesdayto urge a judgeto release Gammo.

"This is what we do," Wershe said about his efforts to help Gammo. "This is what this brand is all about."

Gammo's attorney, Barton Morris Jr., said for a number of yearsunlicensed and unregulated "gray market"products were grown by caregivers and sold by hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Michigan. Morris added that prior to2018, when state voters approved an initiative for recreational adult use of marijuana,"this was the only way to operate, and was permitted by most municipalities."

"Rudi was convicted of something that became legal a few short months later when the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act (MRTMA) became law in November 2018. Even though the 'Clean Slate'bill was signed into law this past fall; the law that permits thousands of Michiganders to expunge many misdemeanor and felony marijuana offenses, he still remains behind bars," Morris,principal attorney and founder of the Cannabis Legal Group, said in a statement.

Morris said Gammo, who is at the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian,is one of the "most prominent" examples of the need for restorative criminal justice in Michigan.

Recreational cannabis use was legalized in Michigan in 2018. Under the law, individuals over the age of 21 can possess 2 ounces of cannabis.Medical marijuana became legal in the state in 2008.

Harrison Township-based Pleasantrees, which operates in Michigan and Massachusetts, said it is amongMichigans largest wholesalers of medical and recreational cannabis. The company has three recreational cannabis retail establishmentsin Hamtramck, East Lansingand Denton Township in Roscommon County.

Pleasantrees also has two cultivation facilities in Harrison Township. The company has launched its first retail location in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and is seeking to expand toHolyoke, Massachusetts.

Wershe said in a lawsuit he filed in Julyagainst the city of Detroit, Detroit police officers and FBI agents that he was first approached by FBI agents when he was 14. He regularly metwith FBI agents and Detroit police officers to give information on Detroit's burgeoning drug gangs before he wassentenced at 17 to life behind bars without parole for possession to deliver more than 650 grams of a controlled substance.

Wershe's sentence was later amended to life with the possibility of parole, and in 2017 the Michigan Parole Board unanimously granted Wershe parole.Documents obtained by The Detroit News after Wershe's parole was granted showed that his remorse and good behavior played a role in the board's decision.

bwilliams@detroitnews.com

See the rest here:

Wershe launching own brand of cannabis products with social justice focus - The Detroit News

Photo courtesy of The Guardian

In 2018 the former President of Sri Lanka, influenced by Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs policy, attempted to resume executions for people convicted of drug trafficking. The Presidents move reignited the debate on capital punishment. Although the Supreme Court issued an interim injunction preventing resumption, calls to resume executions have since been frequently used by successive politicians for electoral purposes.

Historically public opinion, or what is perceived to be public opinion, has influenced criminal justice policy in Sri Lanka on numerous occasions. For instance, as the report of the National Study of Prisons conducted by the Human Rights Commission states, in 1999, in response to a public outcry against persons being released from prison too early, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga suspended the commutation of death sentences to life imprisonment and limited the number of days that incarcerated persons received pardons. These changes disrupted a system of periodic evaluation of their sentences against their behaviour to avoid long term incarceration.

Public opinion can therefore have a direct influence on criminal policy and politicians often introduce harsh punishments claiming merely to reflect public opinion. However, research on public opinion on penal policy has shown that while politicians assume the public to be punitive the public, on the contrary, often stresses more reform-orientated and less punitive goals.

We set out to test the level of support for the death penalty in Sri Lanka. In particular, we explored to what extent the public endorsed the war on drugs rhetoric, testing the public appetite to sentence drug-related offenders to death. We posted a Twitter poll during 1 to 8 July 2021 asking the public to respond to questions on the death penalty. The number of responses ranged between 152 and 170 depending on the question posed. We make no claims that the results of the Twitter poll are representative of the public, and further research is necessary to confirm our hypothesis. Bearing in mind this caveat, our poll confirmed the US finding and showed a striking lack of correspondence between the public will and politicians perception of that will.

We used a scenario-based question to gauge public sentencing preference for drug possession:

Chethana got married when she was 15. Her drug-dependent husband forced her into sex work to fund his drug habit. She becameaddicted to heroin and was charged with possession of 2.5 grams of heroin.

In Sri Lanka, the possession of heroin above two grams is a capital offence, which means the court has the discretion to sentence Chethana to death. Chethanas circumstances of domestic abuse and drug dependency have been commonly found amongst women in prison for drug-related offences. The majority of respondents (79%) did not think Chethana should be punished. Among the remaining minority of respondents who thought Chethana should be punished, only four per cent thought that Chethana deserved a death sentence. An overwhelming majority thought she should receive a community sentence.

In addition, respondents did not see the death penalty as a solution to the countrys drug problems. The majority of respondents (79%) disagreed with the statement in Sri Lanka, drug problems can be solved by the resumption of executions. In addition, when respondents were asked to choose the most effective policy to solve drug problems, resuming executions was perceived to be the least effective policy (7%); the most popular response was treat [drug problems] as a health issue (40%), followed by target supply of drugs (35%), and decriminalise personal drug use (18%). These results strongly suggest that the call to resume executions for drug-related offences, if implemented, would be at odds with public opinion.

Our results clearly suggest that the respondents are not only rejecting the use of the death penalty for drug-related offences but also for at least some categories of homicide, as the following scenario-based question demonstrates.

Nimals income depends on his two cows. He found one cow bleeding with a broken toddy pot. A drunk man claimed that a cow broke hispot and threatened Nimal with a knife saying I will cut you like I cut your cow. Nimal stabbed and killed the man during a struggle.

In Sri Lanka, the mandatory death penalty applies to murder. If Nimal were to be convicted of murder, the court must sentence him to death. Again, Nimals case of a poor man resorting to violence due to poverty is common among persons on death row as illustrated by the National Study of Prisons. While the majority of respondents considered Nimal should be punished, only 5 per cent of respondents thought that the death penalty was the appropriate punishment.

Indeed, our results show that the respondents are ready to abolish the death penalty altogether, with 76 per cent of respondents taking the position that the death penalty should be abolished in law. The majority of respondents also do not see the death penalty as a deterrent to crime: 70 per cent of respondents considered the abolition of the death penalty having no impact on crime rates. After 45 years without an execution, the death penalty appears to be no longer about law and order and seems to have become a reputational issue, with 60 per cent of respondents believing that the retention of the death penalty harms Sri Lankas international reputation.

Even though the last execution took place in 1976, the courts continue to hand down death sentences every year. As long as the death penalty remains a lawful punishment, the possibility of an execution is a reality for the 1,284 persons on death row (as of September 2020). In addition, we must not forget that executions are not the only way the criminal justice system kills its detainees. Due to the increasing number of persons on death row, the detention conditions on death row have seriously deteriorated due to overcrowding, limited infrastructure and poor prison healthcare, leading to an increase in the number of deaths in custody without being judicially executed. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, persons in prisons have become even more vulnerable to the possibility of becoming seriously ill or dying in prison. The outbreak of COVID-19 in prisons since October 2020 has led to over 13,000 cases of infection and at least 21 deaths (as of August 2021). As Sri Lanka and the rest of the world struggle to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, an early release of persons in prisons becomes key to preventing and containing infections in prisons an option unavailable to those on death row.

This was an exploratory piece of research. Our sample was small, self-selected and not representative of the Sri Lankan public overall. Nevertheless, the results are striking and, we think, important. In 2022, we will be undertaking a larger-scale in-depth survey with a fully representative sample of the Sri Lankan public.

Link:

Who Wants the Death Penalty? - Groundviews