Dec. 6
LIBYA:
Libya May Review Bulgarian Nurses' Death Sentences
Foreign Minister Abdelraham Shalgham said at a press conference Sunday
that Libya may review the death sentences handed down against 5 Bulgarian
nurses and a Palestinian doctor, if Bulgaria agrees to compensate the
families of more than 400 children infected with HIV. A court in Benghazi
found the medics guilty of infecting the children, purportedly as part of
an international conspiracy. Bulgaria has denied the allegations, and 2
leading experts on HIV testified that the infection preceded any action by
the nurses. The EU and the United States have condemned the verdict.
(source: Agence France Presse)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Baying mob put Dickens off public executions
Like all good reporters, Charles Dickens was determined to see the
executions of Maria and Frederick Manning in what Victorians called "the
hanging of the century."
In November 1849, Dickens, a journalist as well as an author, took
lodgings overlooking the execution scene. He was so appalled by the
"wickedness and levity" of the crowd that he wrote to The Times calling
for an end to public executions.
Today, visitors to the National Archives can see what drew Dickens and
50,000 others to the biggest public execution in Britain, in Movers and
Shakers: Geoffrey Chaucer to Elton John, a collection of documents linked
to 17 Great Britons.
The exhibition shows copies of the "broadsheet" that was sold at the
execution at Horsemonger Lane jail in Southwark, South London. Broadsheets
were the poor peoples newspapers - a Victorian forerunner of the tabloids
of today - until newspaper taxes were removed in 1855. The most popular
were "gallows literature," recounting crimes and punishments.
Called Progress of Crime or the Authentic Memoirs of Marie Manning of
Minver Place, Bermondsey, the broadsheet spelt out the murder of Patrick
OConnor. OConnor was a customs officer of independent means who was
infatuated with Maria de Roux, a Swiss-born ladys maid.
However, she married Frederick Manning, a railway guard who was younger
than OConnor and who claimed to be an heir. The couple set up home in
Bermondsey, but there was no inheritance.
Maria is thought to have had an affair with OConnor, which her husband
appeared to tolerate, and they plotted, apparently together, to kill
OConnor for his cash.
She invited OConnor to supper in August 1849. When he arrived, Mrs Manning
suggested that he wash his hands and, as he stood at the sink, she shot
him in the head.
Her husband finished the job with a crowbar. The couple hid his body below
the kitchen flagstones and covered it with quicklime. The couple fled.
Maria was arrested in Edinburgh; her husband was found in Jersey.
At the two-day trial they blamed each other, but the jury found both
guilty. Dickens told The Times that the night before the executions in
November 1849 children were already in place. Their behaviour "made my
blood ran cold." In daylight, he saw thousands of faces "so odious in
their brutal mirth or callousness that a man had cause to feel ashamed of
the shape he wore."
He added: "When the 2 miserable creatures who attracted this ghastly sight
were turned quivering into the air there was no more emotion, no more
pity, no more thought that 2 immortal souls had gone to judgment, no more
restraint in any of the previous obscenities." Dickens joined a campaign
to end public executions, which were abandoned in 1868.
Movers and Shakers is on until May 31 next year.
Also among the exhibits is Englands oldest surviving printed document,
created by William Caxton at the countrys 1st press in Westminster on
December 13, 1476.
Written in Latin, the document is an indulgence issued by John Sant, Abbot
of Abingdon, to Henry and Katherine Lanley for funding the raising of a
fleet to attack the Turks. An indulgence from a clergyman absolved sins in
return for support or aid to church causes and projects.
Sue Laurence, of the National Archives, said: "Caxtons printed indulgence
is a real gem. To have the first surviving printed document in our care is
a privilege."
(source: The (London) Times)
SINGAPORE:
3 escape gallows in Singapore drug scandal
3 people including a Tunisian caught trafficking cocaine in Singapore
escaped the death penalty on Monday when a court reduced their charges in
a rare high-society drug scandal in the tightly policed country.
The weight of cocaine seized from them was reduced to below the limit that
warrants the death penalty in cases of trafficking after police chemists
extracted impurities added to increase the volume for selling on the
street, a police spokeswoman said.
The 3 -- 35-year-old Tunisian Guiga Lyes Ben Laroussi, his 24-year-old
Singaporean girlfriend Mariana Abdullah and 31-year-old Singaporean Marx
Oh Chee Wee -- were arrested and charged in a series of October raids that
exposed a high-society world of drugs amid celebrities in tightly
controlled Singapore.
They now face 20-30 years in jail, said Subhas Anandan, a lawyer
representing the defence. The 2 men could also receive 15 strokes of cane,
he said.
"They don't hang and that is the only consolation you have," Anandan told
reporters.
Police have detained 23 people since Oct. 7, including 5 expatriates. All
but 3 face lesser charges of possession that carry sentences of up to 10
years in jail and fines.
Others arrested include the son of a former Singapore High Court judge,
the British-born editor of high-society magazine "Singapore Tatler", a
British-born financial broker, an award-winning French chef and the
daughter of a prominent entertainment mogul.
Singapore enforces some of the world's toughest drug laws. Anyone aged 18
or over convicted of carrying more than 30 grammes of cocaine, 500 grams
of cannabis or 250 grams of methamphetamines faces mandatory death by
hanging.
Police originally found 61.2 grammes of cocaine in the home of Laroussi, a
restaurant marketing manager, and his girlfriend. That was reduced by 60
percent, or by 25.32 grammes, when impurities were extracted, a police
spokeswoman said.
Cocaine is frequently mixed with various powdery fillers to increase its
volume -- often with baking soda, or sugars such as lactose and
anaesthetics.
The weight of cocaine found on Oh was reduced to 21.67 grammes from an
initial 49.02 grammes, said Dawn Sim, a spokeswoman for the Central
Narcotics Bureau.
"Analysis from the lab tests showed that the drugs weigh lesser than the
original amount seized, so the charges have been amended accordingly," she
said.
Laroussi and Oh will be released on bail after spending about 2 months in
jail.
Caning is a common punishment in Singapore for offences ranging from
vandalism, immigration violations to drug crimes. Offenders are strapped
to a wooden A-shaped frame and whipped across their bare buttocks with a
rattan rod.
Caning is forbidden for women.
(source: Reuters)
INDONESIA:
Indonesia court seeks clemency for Bali bombers
In Jakarta, an Indonesian court has submitted a request for presidential
clemency on behalf of 2 men sentenced to death for the Bali nightclub
blasts which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, a court official
said on Monday.
Court requests for clemency are automatic under Indonesian law if those
convicted are sentenced to death and do not submit a request themselves.
The 2 bombers, Amrozi and Imam Samudra, failed to file for clemency by a
Nov. 3 deadline following their convictions as key players in the Oct. 12,
2002 carnage.
"So, it's true we have submitted the clemency request," I Made Suratmadja
of Denpasar District Court in Bali told Reuters.
"This is just a matter of legal procedure ... the judges do not make any
judgment this time," Suratmadja added.
"This is a matter of life, so there must be many considerations, the
verdict can not be carried out easily" Suratmadja said, adding that a
clemency request can take years to process before the president gives an
answer.
Earlier this year Indonesia's Supreme Court upheld a death sentence on
Amrozi, the 1st Muslim militant convicted over the bombings.
More than 2 dozen Indonesian militants have been convicted over
involvement in the Bali bombings. 3 have been sentenced to death.
Amrozi, dubbed the "smiling bomber" for his chilling grin and expressions
of delight at the Bali carnage, had said during his trial he welcomed the
death penalty.
The bombings in the nightclub district of Kuta Beach, Bali have been
blamed on the Southeast Asian Islamic militant group, Jemaah Islamiah,
which authorities say has links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
(source: Reuters)
