June 24
JORDAN:
Jordan court upholds guilty verdict over al-Qaeda bomb plot
In Amman, a Jordanian military court upheld on appeal Wednesday the
sentences, including 2 death penalties, it imposed on 10 people linked to
al-Qaeda and convicted of a millennium bombing plot, a judicial source
said.
In April 2000, 16 people appeared in the state security court charged with
planning attacks around the turn of the millennium on sites frequented by
Western tourists.
10 were convicted and the other 6 acquitted. The 10 filed an appeal last
year with the Court of Cassation, an appellate tribunal that rules on
legal technicalities, and its ruling is expected in the near future.
The ringleader, Khader Abu Hosher, one of the two defendants whose death
sentence was confirmed, had been accused of working since as far back as
1995 in recruiting people to "carry out armed operations against Jews and
American interests."
When the verdict was read out Wednesday, he shouted: "our dead are in
paradise; yours are in hell."
(source: Agence France-Presse)
INDIA:
SLP in SC challenges West Bengal death sentence
A special leave petition was filed today in the Supreme Court challenging
an order of the West Bengal Governor dismissing the mercy petition of
Dhananjay Chatterjee, scheduled to be hanged in Kolkata tomorrow for
raping and killing a minor girl in March 1990.
The petition filed by his brother Bikas Chatterjee and others is likely to
be heard this evening at the residence of Justice K G Balakrishnan who is
heading a 2-judge vacation bench.
The petitioners have challenged the governor's June two order on the
ground that there was non-application of mind by him as to the mitigating
circumstances of the case.
"The governor has gone solely by the nature of the crime committed and he
was not apprised of all the material facts while dismissing the mercy
petition. The procedure established and required by the law here was not
followed by the governor," the petioners contended.
The petitioners said no legal aid was provided to the convict to challenge
the governor's order in the Calcutta High Court.
Besides, the death sentence awarded to Dhananjay Chatterjee remained
unexecuted for 10 years due to procedural wranglings, the petitioners
added.
Earlier, the apex court had upheld a Calcutta High Court verdict
confirming the death-sentence as awarded by the trial court in January
1994 for raping and murdering a minor -- Hetal Parikh -- on March 5 1990
in Bhowanipore area of Kolkata.
(source: WebIndia)
