March 23
TAIWAN:
Supreme Court votes to abolish the death penalty for minors
A historic decision is made at the Supreme Court level to abolish the
death penalty for minors. Members of the Supreme Court cite the
"overwhelming weight of international opinion" as one reason for the
decision, stating that only seven countries, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
Yemen, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and China, have executed
persons under 18. All these countries have since that time publicly
disavowed the practice.
(source: NewsTarget.com)
LIBYA:
Libya rejects call to release Bulgarian nurses from death row
Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi has rejected calls for the release of
Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death for injecting children with the HIV
virus.
"Everyone from the west comes to Libya, and says to me release the
Bulgarian nurses. This means that our children died and this was not
considered as important," Mr Gaddafi said.
"I swear to God I will not release them," he told an Arab League summit in
Algiers, attended by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death
last year after being found guilty of deliberately infecting hundreds of
Libyan children with the deadly HIV virus that causes AIDS.
The verdicts were based on confessions that the nurses - who remain jailed
- say were extracted under torture.
They prompted strong protests from the United States and the European
Union and have hampered Libya's efforts to renew normal ties with the west
after decades of diplomatic isolation.
"When the court sentenced the Bulgarians to death by hanging there were
demonstrations (in Benghazi) supporting this sentence," Mr Gaddafi said.
"They (the west) consider our people cheap."
"The 47 children are dead and the others are still on the death bed," Mr
Gaddafi said.
"The Bulgarian nurses and a physician said to be Palestinian injected...
children in the children's hospital in Benghazi with the AIDS virus."
The nurses, who have been imprisoned since 1999, say they are being used
as scapegoats to prevent a backlash against medical authorities at the
Benghazi hospital where they worked.
Late last year Tripoli suggested it would release the nurses in exchange
for financial compensation.
Bulgaria has refused, saying any payout would be an admission of guilt.
The AIDS epidemic killed at least 40 of the 426 infected children and
caused outrage in Libya.
AIDS experts have testified the epidemic began before the medics arrived
at the hospital, possibly due to the unhygienic handling of needles and
blood products.
In January 9 Libyan police officers and a physician appeared in a Tripoli
court on charges of torturing the 5 Bulgarian nurses to confess they
infected the children.
Libyan lawyers and diplomats see the public trial of police officers as a
move intended to counter foreign criticism of the Tripoli authorities.
(source: Reuters)
