Oct. 21
SINGAPORE/AUSTRALIA:
Downer wants clemency for condemned man
The Federal Government will appeal to Singapore's President for clemency
for a Melbourne man who has been sentenced to death there.
The death penalty was imposed on Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, in March after he
was found guilty of smuggling almost 400 grams of heroin into Singapore.
Yesterday, a Singaporean court rejected an appeal against both his
conviction and his sentence.
His only chance to escape the death penalty now is to ask Singapore's
President, SR Nathan, for clemency.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says he does not want to see a young
Australian executed.
"He's obviously been convicted by the courts, so on the face of it we've
got to accept the decision of the court," Mr Downer told Southern Cross
Radio.
"It's now just a question of the sentence and we hope that by appealing to
the President of Singapore that it'll be possible to get clemency granted
and ... Mr Nguyen serve an appropriate custodial sentence in Singapore,"
he said.
The Victorian Government has also said it will do all it can to save
Nguyen's life. Attorney-General Rob Hulls says the state will assist the
Commonwealth in any way it can.
"This young Victorian man has been convicted of a serious drug offence and
is the 1st Australian citizen to be sentenced to death in Singapore," he
said.
"The Victorian Government is vehemently opposed to the death penalty and
we'll do all we can to work with the Federal Government in any efforts to
save the life of Mr Nguyen."
(source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
*******************
Amnesty joins fight against death penalty for Australian man
Human rights group, Amnesty International, and the Australian government
have urged Singapore to spare the life of an Australian man sentenced to
death for drug trafficking.
Amnesty has called on the city state to grant clemency for Nguyen Tuong
Van, who has been convicted for smuggling almost 400 grams of heroin
following his arrest at Singapore's Changi airport.
Singapore's highest court has rejected an appeal by Nguyen, 25, to set
aside his conviction and sentence.
Only a rare clemency from President, S R Nathan, could spare him from
hanging, the only form of execution in the country.
In Australia, Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, says the government will
appeal directly to the president to spare Nguyen's life.
Mr Downer says while he accepts the court's guilty verdict, Australia
opposes capital punishment.
(source: Radio Australia News)
BANGLADESH:
Some killers escaped death penalty for flawed probe: Judge
The judge of the jail killing case blamed the investigation officer (IO)
of faulty investigation and said all the killers of the four national
leaders could not be awarded capital punishment due to negligence of the
IO.
The Judge Mohammad Motiur Rahman presented details of flaws in the probe
by the IO Abdul Kahar Akand.
"Faulty investigation is the reason behind damaging the merit of the
case," the judge said, adding, "The IO did not investigate many important
aspects, failed to prove many things including the conspiracy behind the
assassinations and presented faulty documents."
"The IO did not conduct any investigation into the role played by two or 3
accomplices of captain Moslemuddin who led the killing squad," said the
judge.
"The identity of all the killers could be learnt and the court might award
them capital punishment had the IO conducted a proper investigation after
consulting necessary papers and documents from the army headquarters," he
said.
Information on all the people directly involved in the killings could not
be found due to the severe flaws in his investigation, the judge added.
Abdul Kahar Akand was the fourth IO of the case who started his
investigation into the case in 1996 and submitted the charge sheet in
1998.
"There was severe weakness in the investigation," Public Prosecutor
Abdullah Mahmood Hassan told journalists, adding, "The IO did not mention
the supplementary charge sheet during his deposition."
The verdict might be tougher had the IO not acted on his whims, he
commented.
Meanwhile, BNP lawmaker KM Obaidur Rahman told journalists after his
acquittal that he would soon file a defamation case against the IO.
"I'm going to discuss it with my attorney," he said, adding, "I suffered 3
years in jail for nothing. My name was intentionally added into the charge
sheet in 1998."
(source: The Daily Star)
LEBANON:
Seminar rejects validity of death penalty----Draft law to abolish sentence
has yet to be addressed
Human rights activists and legal experts denounced Lebanon's death penalty
as immoral and ineffective at stopping crime at a seminar held at
Universite Saint Esprit Kaslik this week.
The seminar was attended by government officials, religious leaders and
legal experts who stressed that capital punishment should be abolished or
at least lessened to life imprisonment.
Wael Kheir, president of Lebanon's Human and Humanitarian Rights
Association said that Lebanon has ordered many executions in addition to
the four cases officially registered in 2004.
He denounced the penalty, saying that there "is no use behind applying
this ultimate punishment in restraining crimes."
Michael Toub, president of the international campaign "Together against
Capital Punishment," said in a telephone call to participants in the
seminar that by applying "capital punishment, Lebanon has generated
criticism from the international community and the European Union."
He said that Lebanon, "which is a civilized country that respects human
rights, should move ahead in abolishing the penalty."
Lawyer Badawi Abu Deeb explained that capital punishment "is still
effective through Article 549 of the Lebanese Criminal Code, which notes
the cases which activate Article 549.
However, even with the enforcement of capital punishment, "this didn't
stop criminals from trying to assassinate Chouf MP -resigned Economy and
Trade Minister - Marwan Hemadeh," he said.
Former Premier Salim Hoss and legal expert Edmund Neim's recorded opinions
regarding capital punishment were played for attendees. Both men denounced
the death penalty, calling it "immoral and contradicting with religious
teachings."
A draft law presented by seven MPs to Parliament in July 2004 called for
abolishing capital punishment.
The draft law, submitted by MPs Nayla Mouawad, Mosbah Ahdab, Bassem
al-Sabeh, Nabil de Freij, Henry al-Helo, Marwan Fares and Salah Honein,
suggested that the death penalty be replaced with life imprisonment and
hard labor.
Honein, among the speakers at Monday's seminar, said that adopting or
abolishing capital punishment "is a political decision," since all
countries which respect human rights and protect them through their
constitution "have stopped applying the death penalty."
The fate of the draft law "is still vague," de Freij told The Daily Star
in a telephone interview.
"It must have reached the Justice and Administration committee by now, to
be studied," he said.
(source: The Daily Star)
PHILIPPINES:
Suspected drug lord might be spared death penalty--DoJ chief
Jusretary Rul Gonzalez raised the possibility that suspected drug lord
Calvin de Jesus Tan might be spared the death penalty as a condition for
Hong Kong to agree to his extradition back to the country.
Gonzalez said Hong Kong authorities had asked the Department of Justice if
Tan would be executed. Tan is the alleged financier of the Cebu drug
laboratories where 1.3 billion pesos worth of "shabu" (methamphetamine
hydrochloride) was found in September.
"We cannot guarantee for certain [that he would not be executed] but we
said that the Supreme Court would automatically review his case and that
the President has the power to commute death sentences," Gonzalez said.
The Philippines is working for the extradition of Tan, arrested in Hong
Kong on October 1 after he was caught with 820,000 dollars in cash as well
as a small amount of shabu and cocaine.
(source: INQ7 News)
