June 15
JAPAN:
Top court upholds death sentence for killer of 5
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld lower court rulings that had sentenced
to death a 43-year-old man for killing 5 people during eight months in the
early 1980s.
Seiha Fujima fatally stabbed a high school girl, 16, her 13-year-old
sister, and their 45-year-old mother in 1982 at their home in Kanagawa
Prefecture, after the girl turned down his romantic advances. He then
stabbed to death a man, 19, who had helped him kill the 3 women, in Hyogo
Prefecture. In 1981, Fujima killed a 20-year-old man in Yokohama because
of a dispute over money.
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Lawyers urge gov't to suspend executions
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations urged the Justice Ministry on
Monday not to execute death row inmates after the current Diet session
ends Wednesday.
"The government should suspend executions on 57 death row inmates until
the problematic system of Japan's capital punishment is improved and
public debate over it reaches a certain consensus," the JFBA noted in a
statement submitted to Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa.
(source for both: Kyodo News)
BRITAIN/IRAQ:
Straw opposing Saddam execution----Saddam Hussein offered no resistance
when captured
The UK is to strongly urge the new Iraqi authorities not to execute Saddam
Hussein if he is found guilty of war crimes, Jack Straw has told MPs. The
foreign secretary was asked about reports that Iraq's war crimes tribunal
was planning to prosecute Saddam.
He said that Britain would make "very strong representations" that the
Iraqis "need not use the death penalty".
Iraq's interim premier Iyad Allawi has said the US will hand over the
ousted dictator to Iraq's new government.
Ultimate justice?
That will happen within the next fortnight, he said on Al-Jazeera
television.
Meanwhile UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "It's important we work with
the Iraqi Government to make sure that any tribunal or court system obeys
the proper rules of international law and natural justice but it is
important too that the decision of prosecution and the handling of the
prosecution is taken by the new Iraqi Government and that is what we will
work for."
US President George W Bush called for Saddam's execution after his capture
last year.
"This is a disgusting tyrant who deserves... the ultimate justice," he
said in December.
(source: BBC News)
