Dec. 10
NIGERIA:
Stoning death sentence overturned
An Islamic appeal court in northern Nigeria on Thursday threw out a
sentence ordering a 25-year-old mother be stoned to death for adultery.
Judge Suleiman Yusuf of the Upper Shariah Court in the rural town of Ningi
in Nigeria's Bauchi state said Daso Adamu's conviction in September was
based on flawed evidence.
Adamu, whose conviction was based on her birth of a 4-month-old baby, had
been married and divorced twice. She had allegedly confessed to committing
adultery but later retracted the confession.
The man she named as the father of her baby had been acquitted of adultery
by the lower court for lack of evidence.
In quashing her conviction, the court in Ningi ruled that Adamu could have
been made pregnant by a former husband.
Under the interpretation of Shariah law here, men can be convicted of
adultery only on the basis of witness statements, while pregnancy is
considered sufficient evidence to convict women.
In all but one case in Nigeria, men have been cleared, as Shariah courts
found there was insufficient evidence to prove they had sex with the
women.
None of a dozen stoning-death sentences passed since 12 states in
predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria adopted strict Shariah law four
years ago have been carried out.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has criticized harsh sentences under Islamic
law but has not moved to ban them because states are empowered to make
laws in Nigeria's federal system.
The introduction of strict Islamic law in the northern states in 1999-2000
heightened ethnic and religious tensions across the country, triggering
violent clashes between Christians and Muslims that left thousands dead.
Africa's most populous country of more than 126 million people is almost
evenly split between a mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian and
Animist south.
(source: Associated Press)
CHINA----executions
China Executes 3 for Abducting Boys
2 men and a woman were executed in southwestern China on Friday for
abducting and selling 11 boys ages 2 and 3, a news report said.
The executions were carried out in Kunming, a city in Yunnan province,
where the boys were abducted between 2001 and 2003, the official Xinhua
News Agency said. It said several other people convicted in the case were
sentenced to prison terms ranging from 6 years to life.
The case comes amid a crackdown in China that has brought lengthy prison
terms and a handful of death sentences for people convicted of selling
scores of children.
Thousands of children are believed to be bought or abducted every year in
China for sale to families that want more children, a servant or a future
bride for an only son.
Xinhua identified those executed in the latest case as Yu Mingfen, a
38-year-old woman; Ren Shunbo, 24, and Ning Dewan.
Yu and Ren were convicted of abducting the boys from several villages and
selling them to Ning, who resold them to other traffickers, the report
said, citing Zhu Zhengyu, the judge in the case.
The boys eventually were sold for $1,300 each, Xinhua said.
It said 7 boys were recovered but 4 were still missing.
(source: Associated Press)
LIBYA:
Gadhafi's Son: Convicted Nurses Won't Die
5 Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death for allegedly infecting more than
400 Libyan children with HIV-contaminated blood will be spared, the son of
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Thursday.
Seif el-Islam Gadhafi said the Appeals Court might change the death
sentence to a prison sentence and indicated the nurses may be extradited
to Bulgaria. Gadhafi's son holds no official position but often acts as a
spokesman for his father.
The 5 nurses were convicted in a trial criticized by international
observers for, among other things, using confessions extracted by torture.
"I rule out the possibility of executing the Bulgarian defendants and
capital punishment, in general, will be reconsidered so that it will be
applied only on limited, narrow cases," Gadhafi told The Associated Press
in a telephone interview.
"The accused Bulgarians have already appealed the death sentence, which
might be reduced to a lighter sentence ... and then the extradition
agreement with Bulgaria could be started."
A court in the eastern city of Benghazi convicted the 5 Bulgarian nurses
and a Palestinian doctor of intentionally infecting more than 400 Libyan
children with HIV-contaminated blood as part of an experiment to find a
cure for AIDS. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. 23 infected children
reportedly have died.
During the trial, Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French co-discoverer of the AIDS
virus, testified that in his estimation, the children were infected in
1997 -- more than a year before the Bulgarians were hired. He said the
probable cause was poor hygiene at the Benghazi hospital.
Some human rights groups have accused Libya of concocting the experiment
story to cover up unsafe practices in its hospitals and clinics. They, and
European governments, have also said confessions used in the trial were
extracted by torture.
On Sunday, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalqam suggested for the
first time that the death sentence could be reconsidered if the families
of the victims were compensated and those still alive were treated.
Gadhafi also said compensation should be paid to the victims' families and
a health center should be established in Libya to treat the children still
carrying the HIV virus.
But Bulgaria has rejected the compensation idea, saying that would be an
acknowledgment of guilt.
Gadhafi's son runs the Gadhafi International Association for Charitable
Organizations, which has mediated in kidnapping cases and other
international disputes involving Libya. The association is seen as trying
to rehabilitate the image of Libya, long considered a rogue state accused
of sponsoring terrorism.
Libya has taken a number of steps in the recent past to end its
international isolation, including abandoning its aspirations to become a
nuclear power and agreeing to a $2.7 billion settlement for the 1988 Pan
Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
(source: Associated Press)
BAHRAIN:
Group probes relevance of death penalty
A Bahraini human rights campaigner has just returned from a 9-day
fact-finding mission to investigate how the death penalty is being
implemented in Egypt.
Nabeel Rajab was joined by 2 other activists and they will now file a
report with the International Federation for Human Rights in 1 month's
time.
"We were there to find out how it is being implemented, where and how many
people are being executed," Mr Rajab told the GDN.
"We wanted to know if it contravenes human rights."
During the trip to Cairo, the group met Egyptian officials, human rights
groups and people who have witnessed the death penalty in practice.
However, Mr Rajab could not comment on the findings of the visit and said
their report will be forwarded to the International Federation for Human
Rights soon.
(source: Gulf Daily News)
SRI LANKA:
Sri Lanka Churches Disapprove Restored Death Penalty
Church leaders in Sri Lanka have added their voices to criticism of the
government's decision to reinstate the death penalty last month
Church leaders in Sri Lanka have added their voices to criticism of the
government's decision to reinstate the death penalty last month after a
High Court judge was shot dead in the capital, Colombo, by a suspected
drug gang.
According to Ecumenical News International, the Protestant National
Christian Council has joined human rights groups and the Catholic Center
for Society and Religion in opposing the restoration of the penalty for
rape, murder and drug dealing.
It was on Nov. 20 that President Chandrika Kumaratunga restored the
penalty, a day after members of a suspected drug gang shot and killed high
court judge Sarath Ambepitiya - a jurist known for his tough verdicts
against gangsters and drug dealers.
Chairperson of the National Christian Council Anglican Bishop Kumara
Illangasinghe said the government had acted hastily. "Churches stand for
the affirmation of life," he said. Punishment handed down by courts should
be "punitive and corrective rather than destructive".
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International criticized the move
as a knee-jerk reaction by the government to the judge's murder and to
increasing violence in the conflict between Sri Lanka's security forces
and Tamil rebels.
In a statement, Amnesty International said there was no proof the death
penalty was a more effective deterrent to crime than imprisonment.
"This is a negative response to the challenge," said Anslem Silva,
director of the Catholic Center for Society and Religion.
Sources report that there have been no hangings in Sri Lanka since 1976
and while many drug smugglers and murders are on death row, their
sentences were effectively commuted to life in prison.
According to the Associated Press, there are currently 49 condemned
prisoners whose clemency appeals have been rejected. There are 152 others
who have been sentenced to death, but whose appeals are pending.
The island's history of executions goes back to when Sri Lanka was the
British colony known as Ceylon. The 1st hanging was held Feb. 11, 1884, at
Welikada Prison, and the last was June 23, 1976, nearly 20 years after Sri
Lanka achieved independence. Over that time, a total of 1,868 men and
women were executed.
The sudden change in policy came with a sharp rise in crime on this island
of 19 million people, AP reported. A civil war - now largely calmed by a
cease-fire - has torn at the country since 1983, killing some 65,000
people and resulting in thousands of military desertions.
(source: The Christian Post)
PAKISTAN:
4 get death penalty in Pak for sectarian massacre
4 Sunni Muslim militants have been sentenced to death by a Pakistani
anti-terrorism court for the massacre of 14 Shiites in 2002, police and
court officials said on Friday.
Judge Manzoor Ahmed Mirza on Thursday convicted Hameed Ullahmujahid, Fazal
Hamid, Hafiz Naseer Akhtar and Tahir Mahmood but acquitted 5 others, all
members of the banned militant Lashkar Jhangvi (LJ) group.
On February 26, 2002, gunmen stormed into shah Najaf Mosque in Rawalpindi
city and sprayed bullets at dozens of Shiite Muslims during evening
prayers.
14 people were killed and 29 wounded.
(source: Press Trust of India)
INDONESIA:
Death row inmates plead for clemency
"Ibu, please help us. Don't let us be shot by the firing squad ... We
still have families and children," Edith Yunita Sianturi told visiting
First Lady Kristiani Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday, seeking
clemency from the death sentence imposed on her.
Sianturi is 1 of 6 female inmates on death row at the Tangerang
Penitentiary who were paid a visit by Kristiani and the State Minister for
Women's Empowerment Meutia Hatta, accompanied by Banten deputy governor
Ratu Atut Choisiah.
The visit to the women cells was in conjunction with the Women's Day on
Dec. 22.
As the 6 only had 2 minutes to meet Kristiani, they tearfully tried to
stop her from leaving. Presidential bodyguards and prison officers pushed
them back in.
Before leaving, Kristiani told the warden and guards to treat the inmates
well and asked that the convicted women write a journal "which could be a
mirror for others to avoid committing crimes".
"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla are
working hard to build a prosperous, peaceful and just country. So, you
must abide by the law when you're out of here someday. Never return to
jail," she said.
Meanwhile, Meutia pledged to hold a 1-hour breath exercise session each
day in the prison to maintain the inmates' mental health.
The women's penitentiary currently houses 260 inmates and 60 % of them
were convicted for drugs offenses, including those on death row: Sianturi,
Merry Utami, Meirika Franola and Rani Andriani, and 2 Thai nationals,
Nonthanam M. Saicom and Bunyong Kaosa Ard.
(source: Jakarta Post)
