June 30
INDIA:
Kalam assures justice for death row convict
President A P J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday said "right justice" would be
done without any delay on the clemency petition of death row convict
Dhananjoy Chatterjee.
"A decision would be taken the day the papers reach Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Right justice will be done," Kalam told reporters after conferring Padma
Shri Awards to eminent personalities.
Rashtrapati Bhavan sources said the Home Ministry's comments were awaited.
They said the file had been immediately forwarded to the Home Ministry
after Dhananjoy's wife and other inmates of the Alipur Central Jail at
Kolkata requested the President on Thursday, a day before the scheduled
execution, to review an earlier decision rejecting clemency.
The Home Ministry, which was examining the petition seeking commutation of
the capital punishment to life imprisonment, had directed the West Bengal
government not to execute the capital punishment untill further orders.
Another attempt at saving the convict was frustrated last week when the
Supreme Court refused to intervene in the matter on the ground that the
President was "seized of the matter under Article 72 of the Constitution."
Also read: 'If you can honour a soldier, why not me?'
Dhananjoy, who was scheduled to be hanged last week, has been convicted of
raping and murdering 16-year-old Hetal Parekh in 1990 in her south Kolkata
apartment, where the culprit was working as a liftman.
(source: Sify)
QATAR:
Court Jails Russians Over Chechen Killing
A court in Qatar sentenced 2 Russians on Wednesday to life imprisonment
for killing a Chechen rebel leader in the Gulf state and accused the
Russian leadership of being behind the assassination.
Passing sentence on Anatoly Belashkov and Vassily Bogachev, judge Ibrahim
al-Nisf said the 2 men had been acting on orders from Moscow. "The Russian
leadership issued an order to assassinate the former Chechen leader
(Zelimkhan) Yandarbiyev," he said.
"The plan was discussed at Russian intelligence headquarters in Moscow,"
he added.
There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities. Defense lawyer
Dimitri Afanasiev told Reuters the men, who appeared in court in
tracksuits and were surrounded by guards, would appeal their sentence and
seek a transfer to Russia.
"I'm not surprised by the verdict but I am happy that the judge rejected
the prosecution request for the death penalty," he added.
The bombing which killed Yandarbiyev and 2 others traveling home with him
from a mosque shocked tiny, oil-rich Qatar, which prides itself on its
security and low crime rate, It also threatened to cause a diplomatic rift
between Qatar, a key U.S. ally, and Russia.
(source: Reuters)
IRAQ:
Iraq to reinstate death penalty, offer amnesty
Iraq's interim government has decided to reinstate the death penalty and
offer an amnesty to Iraqis who do not have their countrymen's blood on
their hands, President Ghazi al-Yawar was quoted on Wednesday as saying.
Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said Yawar, speaking just after Monday's
handover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, also said Iraq
will reinstate a 1960s "national security law".
The decisions were taken directly after Monday's ceremony and will be
formally issued in the "near future", he said.
Yawar said the death penalty would be reinstated "but with rules which
comply with the norms in most countries of the world". It would apply to a
limited number of crimes including rape, kidnapping, murder and terrorism.
The death penalty was suspended by the U.S. ex-administrator in Iraq, Paul
Bremer.
Yawar's comments were published on the day Saddam Hussein was due to be
handed over to Iraqi justice. The former dictator will be charged with
crimes against humanity for a 1988 massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of
Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, lawyers say.
Yawar said the amnesty will be offered "to all whose hands are not stained
with the blood of Iraqi people and who did not carry out terrorist acts
and did not take part in the massacres in which the Iraqi people were
victims".
Violence has wracked Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam
last year. Insurgents have attacked U.S. forces, Iraqi policemen, and oil
industry targets across the country.
The government also decided to reinstate a national security law from the
1960s, Yawar said. The law was "less severe than emergency laws, but (it)
includes resolute measures against terrorist acts and breaches of the
law," he added.
*********************
Saddam Turned Over to Iraqi Justice
Saddam Hussein and 11 of his top lieutenants appeared before an Iraqi
judge on Wednesday as Iraq took legal custody of them from the U.S.
military.
A U.S. official said the United States formally transferred Saddam and the
others to the charge of Iraq's new government but Saddam would remain in
the physical custody of U.S. forces.
An official in interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office had said
earlier that Saddam and his aides would be told at the initial court
appearance that they would be charged on Thursday.
Iraq's president was quoted as saying the country would reintroduce the
death penalty and the national security adviser said the judges trying
Saddam could order his execution.
"Tomorrow Saddam and 11 others will be officially charged," said the
official. "The focus at this point will be on Saddam and tomorrow's
proceedings will mark the start of his trial."
Saddam will be charged with crimes against humanity for a 1988 gas
massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq
war, said Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal that will
try the former dictator.
French lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, one of a 20-strong team appointed by
Saddam's wife to represent him, said the former president would refuse to
acknowledge any court or any judge.
"It will be a court of vengeance, a settling of scores," Ludot told France
Info radio, saying any judge sitting in the court would be under pressure
to find Saddam guilty. Ludot said he expected Saddam to say last year's
U.S.-led war was illegal.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as
"Chemical Ali" for his role in using chemical weapons, are among those to
be turned over to Iraqi legal custody with Saddam, an Interior Ministry
official said.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
Those former officials and others among the 55 most wanted Iraqis on a
U.S. list are seen as witnesses who could help prove a chain of command
linking Saddam to crimes against humanity.
Among others who were expected to be handed over were Barzan Ibrahim Hasan
al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; Abid Hamid Mahmud
al-Tikriti, his secretary; Sabawi Ibrahim, Saddam's maternal half-brother;
Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; and
Aziz Salih Numan, Baath Party regional commander and head of the party
militia.
Saddam, accused by Iraqis of ordering the killing and torture of thousands
of people during 35 years of Baathist rule, has been held as a prisoner of
war since U.S. forces found him hiding in a hole near his hometown of
Tikrit in December.
Government offices were shut on Wednesday for a new national holiday
declared to mark the transfer of sovereignty.
Allawi's new interim government wants to show ordinary Iraqis that the
14-month occupation is really over, at least in political if not military
terms, while also proving it can curb violence still blighting the
country.
Insurgents fired six to 10 mortar rounds that landed north of Baghdad
international airport on Wednesday, wounding 6 soldiers of the U.S.-led
force, a U.S. military spokesman said.
A bomb exploded in the southern town of Samawa, where Japanese and Dutch
troops are deployed, but no one was badly hurt, witnesses said. The blast
was not near the Japanese camp.
The Iraqi government has decided to reinstate the death penalty and offer
an amnesty to Iraqis who do not have blood on their hands, President Ghazi
al-Yawar was quoted as saying.
Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said Yawar, speaking just after Monday's
handover of sovereignty to the interim government, also said Iraq will
reinstate a 1960s "national security law."
The decisions were taken directly after Monday's ceremony and will be
formally issued in the "near future," he said.
Yawar said the death penalty would be reinstated "but with rules which
comply with the norms in most countries of the world." It would apply to a
limited number of crimes including rape, kidnapping, murder and terrorism.
The death penalty was suspended by the U.S. former administrator in Iraq,
Paul Bremer.
Yawar said the national security law due to be reinstated was "less severe
than emergency laws, but (it) includes resolute measures against terrorist
acts and breaches of the law."
Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said Saddam would get
a fair trial and could face the death penalty.
"We promise the Iraqi people and the world that Saddam will receive a fair
hearing," he told BBC radio. "The death penalty is going to be available
to the court. We are now an independent sovereign country again and we
need to reimpose the penalty."
Saddam would not be allowed to call witnesses such as British Prime
Minister Tony Blair and former U.S. President George Bush, Rubaie said,
recalling demands made at the U.N. court trying former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic.
"We are not going to allow this to be a political game. We are going to
restrict ourselves to the crimes. We are not going to allow him to turn
the trial into a Milosevic-type showdown."
(source for both: Reuters)
