May 2
JORDAN:
Jordan executes 3 for murder and theft
Jordan on Monday executed a Palestinian, a Jordanian and an Iraqi
convicted of killing a jeweller during a robbery, a security official
said.
Palestinian Ibrahim Yousef, 25, Mazouz Mohammed, 27, a Jordanian, and
Iraqi national Oras Faleh, 24, were hanged at dawn in the main Swaqa
prison outside Amman.
The executions raised to at least 8 the number of people put to death this
year in Jordan, a police source said.
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has repeatedly raised its
concerns about the number of executions in Jordan. It has urged the
authorities to stop executions and work towards abolishing the death
penalty.
The kingdom executes convicted murderers, usually by hanging, but has
rarely applied the death penalty against political detainees.
(source: Reuters)
CARIBBEAN:
Caribbean leaders inaugurate own court
Caribbean leaders inaugurated a court Saturday that will serve as the
highest judicial body for much of the region, a step toward shedding their
170-year-old dependence on Britain's Privy Council that many have resented
as a vestige of colonialism.
Saturday's inauguration came after years of delays and despite political
and legal obstacles still facing several countries trying to remove
themselves from the jurisdiction of the London-based Privy Council.
"It's a birth that has not been without complications," said Chief Justice
Michael de la Bastide.
Advocates say the Trinidad-based court will bolster sovereignty in a
region where many countries gained independence less than 4 decades ago
and other islands are still European territories.
"Today more than any other tastes like true emancipation. If a people
cannot trust themselves to dispense justice upon themselves, what worth
are they?" St. Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony told a gathered crowd.
The Privy Council's Judicial Committee is the court of final appeal for
British overseas territories and for those Commonwealth countries that
have retained the appeal to the committee. 5 judges normally sit to hear
Commonwealth appeals and 3 for other matters.
Critics of the new court include Caribbean opposition politicians who
complain it will be vulnerable to political pressure and rights activists
who warn it will open the door for governments to resume executions.
The Privy Council has overturned death sentences in several countries, and
last year ruled that Jamaica's mandatory death penalty for murder
convictions was unconstitutional.
The Caribbean court will hear civil and criminal appeals arising out of
national courts and settle trade disputes stemming from the Caribbean
single-market economy, which the region's leaders hope to launch this
year. Twelve Caribbean states, mostly former British colonies, are taking
steps to adopt the court, though some will only turn to it in limited
cases.
Only Guyana and Barbados have completed legislation need to adopt is as
their final civil and criminal appellate court. Jamaica and Trinidad are
mired in political battles over the court, while other countries are
facing administrative difficulties.
De la Bastide insisted Friday several measures will ensure the court's
independence, including a board of trustees to manage the justices'
salaries and other operational costs, which are expected to be about $6
million a year. The justices are chosen by the Caribbean Community's
commission on judiciary affairs.
De la Bastide said it was difficult to predict when the first case would
be heard.
(source: Associated Press)
SWITZERLAND/TAIWAN:
Swiss court seeks local guarantees
Switzerland will only hand over bank documents to Taiwan relating to a
decades-old corruption scandal if the island guarantees that it will
refrain from using the death penalty in the case, the Swiss supreme court
ruled yesterday.
The Federal Tribunal upheld an appeal from the family of former arms
dealer Wang Chuan-pu that previous Taiwanese assurances were nonbinding
and had to be improved.
The case concerns allegations that the French firm Elf Aquitaine used
kickbacks in the early 1990s to persuade French authorities to approve the
sale of 6 frigates to Taiwan, and to encourage Taiwan to buy the warships
in a deal worth US$2.5 billion.
Wang was a local agent for Thomson-CSF, the French firm which sold 6
Lafayette frigates to Taiwan for US$2.7 billion. He fled Taiwan following
the death of a navy captain, who was widely believed to have been murdered
when he was about to blow the whistle on colleagues for allegedly taking
kickbacks in the Lafayette deal.
The ships were delivered in 1991, and both Switzerland and Liechtenstein
have blocked funds in accounts allegedly linked to the case. A Taiwan
court issued a warrant for Wang's arrest but the former arms dealer went
into exile first in the United States and later in Europe.
Switzerland's Justice Ministry must demand further guarantees from Taiwan
that capital punishment will not be used before it can hand over any
documents, according to the judgment.
But spokesman Folco Galli said that the Justice Ministry had asked the
court to annul the judgment on the grounds that Taiwan has already said
that it would not ask for, pass sentence of, or execute the death penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
