June 14
LIBYA/BULGARIA:
Libya Issues Motives of Death Sentences Against Bulgarian Nurses
A Libyan court on Monday issued motives of death sentences it has handed
to 5 Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor whom it convicted more than
a month ago of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the virus
that causes AIDS.
The 218-page document written in Arabic was handed to a Bulgarian diplomat
in the capital Tripoli, deputy foreign minister Gergana Grancharova said.
A court in Libyas northeastern coastal city of Benghazi has sentenced the
nurses and the doctor whom to a firing squad last May 6 on charges of
deliberately infecting 426 children at a local hospital with the HIV virus
that causes AIDS.
Bulgaria has branded the verdict unfair and absurd and has won wide
international backing for its protest. The court has ignored testimony
from international experts, who said the medics didn't cause the infection
as it existed in the hospital before it hired them back in 1997.
(source: Bulgarian News Network)
PHILIPPINES:
UK law interns coming to study capital punishment
Law interns from England will fly to Manila on Saturday, June 26, for a
thorough study of the capital punishment being implemented in the
Philippines.
This was revealed yesterday by Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda Acosta.
Acosta said the 3 law interns will be headed by James Dawson and Tessa
Gregory of the Center for Capital Punishment Studies based at the
University of Westminster in London.
Seema Kandelia is the coordinator of the law interns, who are also
expected to exchange ideas and consultations with staff members of the
Public Attorneys Office (PAO) in their capital defense work.
They support the move for the abolition of death sentence in the country.
Acosta had earlier urged lawmakers to hasten the repeal of capital
punishment in the country when the 13th Congress opens on July 26 in
support of the efforts and programs of the Coalition Against Death Penalty
and the Amnesty International.
The PAO head stressed that life is above all other issues, pointing out
Jesus Christ was the first victim of the death sentence.
The mandate of PAO is to provide legal assistance and ensure the
protection of rights of the accused, Acosta said.
It will be recalled that the PAO has provided legal assistance to five of
the six condemned men on death row whom President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
granted a 90- day reprieve.
The six are supposed to be executed via lethal injection this month.
No death convict has been executed since the President assumed office in
2001.
(source: The Manila Bulletin)
