July 27
BARBADOS:
Barbados to bring 1st death penalty case to new Caribbean court
Barbados will take the 1st death penalty case to the Caribbean court that
replaced the colonial-era Privy Council as the country's highest court of
appeal, an official said yesterday.
Barbados will ask the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice to restore
death sentences against Lennox Boyce, 28, and Jeffrey Joseph, 29, Barbados
Attorney- General Mia Mottley said during a conference in Trinidad. The
pair was convicted and sentenced to hang in 2002 in the murder of a
22-year-old woman. The Barbados High Court commuted their sentences to
life imprisonment in June, ruling they would likely be on death row for an
inhumanely long time while they wait for their cases to be heard in the
Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. Several Caribbean governments,
faced with rising crime, have welcomed the new regional court as an
opportunity to resume executions, something the London-Based Privy Council
has blocked in recent years. Barbados has not executed anyone since 1984.
Mottley said the government would ask the Barbados High Court for leave to
appeal to the Caribbean court.
"We have decided that we will appeal and as we speak today, the formal
process of applying for leave ... is going ahead," she said.
Although the Caribbean court was inaugurated in April, Barbados and Guyana
are the only 2 countries that have formally adopted it as their highest
appellate court. Other countries are struggling to overcome legal and
political obstacles to shedding their dependence on the 170-year-old Privy
Council, the highest appellate body for most former British colonies in
the Caribbean.
(source: Jamaica Observer)
EUROPEAN UNION/IRAN:
EU reminds Iran of moratorium on executions
European Union on Tuesday expressed concern over reports of executions of
2 youths in Mashhad on July 19.
EU said in statement faxed to IRNA by British Embassy in Tehran that one
of the youths, Mahmoud Asgari, was aged under 18 at both the time of the
crime and the execution.
"The EU recalls its long held position that capital punishment may not, in
any circumstances, be imposed on persons below 18 years of age at the time
of the commission of the crime. Such punishment is in direct contravention
of Iran's obligations under International Convention of Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) and also the Convention of the Rights of the
Child," it said.
"EU calls on Iran to clarify its position urgently. In October 2004,
Iranian government assured the EU that a moratorium was in place on all
lashing and executions for crimes committed by those under the age of 18.
"The EU hopes that a law to abolish such punishments will be adopted soon
and implemented and until that time, calls for Iranian government to
respect the moratorium," said the statement.
(source: Payvand)
