death penalty news December 15, 2004
INDIA: Member for capital punishment for those selling spurious drugs Government should enact a law to provide for capital punishment for those selling spurious medicines, a Samajwadi Party member in the Lok Sabha demanded today. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Ramjilal Suman (SP) said raids in Ghaziabad, Aligarh and Agra in Uttar Pradesh and Indore in Madhya Pradesh had led to seizure of large quantities of such spurious drugs. "Spurious medicines are like poison being given to the people. Government should bring in a law to provide for death sentence for offenders," Suman said, adding under the present legal system, light punishment was prescribed for such offences. Jayaben Thakkar (BJP) said the Government should review its decision on installation of high tower chimneys in brick kilns as small manufacturers were finding it difficult to meet this condition. TDP leader K Yerran Naidu sought appropriate minimum support price for paddy and cotton in Andhra Pradesh as 2500 farmers had committed suicide in the absence of proper returns. Expressing similar concern, Ananth Kumar (BJP) said farmers in Karnataka too had committed suicide owing to difficulties arising out of crop insurance. PTI (source: teamindia.net) ================ INDONESIA: Death penalty to stay: Attorney General Attorney General Abdul Rachman Saleh says Indonesia will continue to impose the death penalty for certain crimes, as the country lacks competent law enforcement institutions. "I think the death penalty remains relevant," he said on the sidelines of a seminar on the death penalty sponsored by the European Union here on Tuesday. The seminar was attended by Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia and EU President Ruud Treffers, European Commission Charge d'Affaires Ulrich Eckle, Hungary Ambassador Gyorgy Busztin, France Ambassador Renaud Vignal, United Kingdom Ambassador Charles Humfrey and Germany Ambassador Joachim Broudre-Groger. Unlike developed countries, Abdul Rahman argued, Indonesia was a poor country that could not provide free-of-charge medication for the rehabilitation of drug users. "They are forced onto the streets (and increase the crime rate) while our police, prosecutors, penitentiaries and other law enforcers remain weak. "If we abolished it, I'm afraid we would send the wrong message to drug traffickers," he said. Abdul Rahman said his office would continue to impose the death penalty for cases involving drugs, corruption, human rights abuse, terrorism and treason. "From 1945 to 2003, we only executed 15 convicts," he said. An Indian national and two Thai citizens were recently executed by firing squad for smuggling drugs into the country. Among some 60 convicts on death row -- mostly there for drug-related offenses -- a convicted murderer in South Sumatra is expected to be executed soon after the Supreme Court rejected his plea for a judicial review. Jurit, the convict, was condemned to death for two separate murders in 1997. Two prominent lawyers, Todung Mulya Lubis and Frans Hendra Winarta, have raised their opposition to the use of the death penalty, saying the Constitution guarantees the rights to live. "The Constitution is the highest law in the country. Isn't it contradictory if lower laws justify the death penalty?" Todung said. Frans added that the country's weak legal system raised the possibility that innocent people could be put to death. "(A death sentence case) must be tried by a just, independent, impartial and competent court. At the moment, we just don't have this in our court system," said Frans. Busztin said that the EU did not demand that Indonesia abolish the death penalty, but hoped that the issue would be further discussed. "Maybe (Indonesia) could put on hold the execution of those condemned to death," he said. Brodre-Groger said that there was no justification for capital punishment, which would not settle conflicts and could incite new ones instead. Spanish Ambassador Damaso De Lario -- whose country faces the separatism movement of Basque's ETA, and recently suffered a train bombing -- raised the possibility that the use of the death penalty could incite new terrorist attacks. "A terrorist killed can always be claimed as a martyr so he will encourage others to keep on killing people," he argued. Following the Bali bombings in 2002, Indonesia issued an antiterror law acknowledging the maximum penalty of death. (source: The Jakarta Post) =============== VIETNAM: Vietnam Drug Gang Of 28 Face Death Penalty Twenty-eight members of the largest drug-smuggling gang to be apprehended in Vietnam face the death penalty at a trial scheduled for January 11 on charges of selling a record 3.5 tonnes of heroin, state media reported on Wednesday. The defendants, including two former narcotics police officers, were arrested in August 2003. Their trial will last 20 days, the Thanh Nien (Young People) quoted the Ho Chi Minh City Supreme Court as saying. The gang members are also accused of illegal arms possession and using false identities. Convictions in the communist country for smuggling as little as 600 grams of heroin are punishable by execution. Last week, six Vietnamese men, aged between 31 and 44, were executed by firing squad for trafficking 33 kg of heroin to Ho Chi Minh City from Cambodia. Drug abuse is a major problem in Vietnam, especially among young people. Around 80 percent of the country's estimated 300,000 HIV sufferers are intravenous drug users. (source: Reuters 7 xtramsn (New Zealand))
