August 3
UZBEKISTAN:
Uzbekistan Pressed For Death-Penalty Moratorium
Amnesty International is calling on Uzbek President Islam Karimov to order
an immediate halt to executions in Uzbekistan.
Karimov issued a decree on 2 August abolishing the death penalty. It does
not take effect until January 2008.
Amnesty International, a London-based international human rights
organization, says Uzbekistan should impose an immediate moratorium. In a
statement issued today, the organization also says that Uzbek authorities
should publish the names of people sentenced to death and awaiting
execution.
Karimov has said the number of executions in his country has dropped below
60 per year. International rights groups say the number is about twice
that.
Amnesty says that Uzbekistan should publish credible statistics on
executions.
Fewer than half the countries of the world still invoke the death penalty.
(source: Radio Free Europe)
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Activists welcome ban on death penalty
Rights activists have welcomed an Uzbek government decision to abolish
capital punishment while at the same time calling on Tashkent to impose an
immediate moratorium on the execution of death row prisoners.
"This is the first step on behalf of the [Uzbek] state with regard to the
problem of the death penalty and I would like to thank the government for
this move which heeded to appeals that the death penalty was against
humanity," Tamara Chikunova, head of the Mothers Against Death Penalty and
Torture, a local rights group advocating for the ban on capital
punishment, said from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on Wednesday. "Until
today even discussing the issue of the death penalty was forbidden in
Uzbekistan," she added.
Chikunova was not alone in her assessment. "This is a good step by the
government but they should have started with a moratorium on the death
penalty first," Surat Ikramov, head of another local rights organisation,
the Initiative Group of Independent Rights Activists of Uzbekistan
(IGIRAU), said.
Amnesty International (AI), an international rights watchdog campaigning
for the abolishment of capital punishment worldwide, echoed that
sentiment, urging Tashkent to effectively stop the death penalty and
executions.
"While welcoming any step that leads to the abolition of the death
penalty, Amnesty International urges the President of Uzbekistan to impose
an immediate moratorium on death sentences and execution as a first step,"
Nicola Duckworth, AI's Europe and Central Asia programme director, said in
a statement one day earlier.
Their comments came after Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed a decree on
Monday abolishing the death penalty in the Central Asian state from 1
January 2008 and replacing it with life and long-term imprisonment.
But the issue of those who had already been sent to death row or might be
until 1 January 2008 remained unclear under the decree, Chikunova warned,
calling on such sentences to be converted to life imprisonment instead.
The flawed criminal justice system in Uzbekistan - which along with
Belarus are the last executioners in Europe and Central Asia - provides
fertile ground for judicial error, AI claimed, adding that it had received
credible allegations of unfair trials and widespread torture and
ill-treatment, often to extract 'confessions'.
"Neither death row prisoners nor their relatives are informed of the date
of the execution in advance, denying them a last chance to say goodbye.
The body of the prisoner is not given to relatives for burial and they are
not informed of the place of burial," AI said.
"Many people do not know that their kin had already been executed years
earlier. We ask for transparency regarding everything related to the death
penalty and executions," Chikunova added.
Although statistics on the number of sentenced to death and executed had
been kept secret in Central Asia's most populous country, Ikramov said
that the number of prisoners sent to death row in the country could be up
to 100. His colleague Chikunova noted that according to President Karimov
the number of those executed in one year had been up to 60 people, but
conceded that the actual number could be much higher.
More than half of the countries in the world - namely 120 countries - have
abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Three countries a year on
average have abolished the death penalty in the past decade.
"As long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the
innocent can never be eliminated," Duckworth maintained.
(source: Reuters)
IRAQ:
Issue of 31 Death Sentences
Several criminal courts have issued 31 death sentences in cases relating
to terrorism and other issues, since resuming the application of the death
sentence, which has been suspended during the regime of the civil governor
Bremer.
The general prosecutor, Ghadamfar Hemoud Al Jasem said that the number of
the settled law suits of death sentence and life imprisonment was 4526,
while 6408 cases that were filed to criminal courts have been studied. He
pointed out that there are other cases on their way to settlement, and
that the most important reasons for the delay of issuing judgments against
suspects are that they were not committed on behalf of the interior
ministry and police stations, or the lack of enough evidence to convict
the suspects. He added that the convicted have the right for spontaneous
cassation after the court issues its death sentence or life imprisonment.
He referred to studying 2557 law suits that were committed to the
cassation court for approval or cassation of the judgment. He added that
the number of visits executed by the general prosecution members to police
sentence and detention centers has reached 1750 visits. He praised the
efforts exerted by the investigation judges, police stations and legal
investigators.
He pointed out that supreme jurisprudence council has ordered the creation
of 3 investigation legal committees to investigate the arrested persons
and supervise the legal procedures, which suspects go through. He noted
that several spiteful complaints and mistakes in arrest should be
considered during the investigation, so as to guarantee that those with no
sufficient evidence against them should not be detained in detention
centers and prisons longer than the period prescribed by the law. He
pointed out that the first committee has launched its duties in the
interior ministry to investigate the suspects and committed persons from
Al Musel region and those suspected of being involved in terrorist
operations there.
Al Jasem called the interior ministry to cooperate and coordinate with the
judiciary authorities through speeding with committing suspects to courts
to complete the investigation procedures with them, and execute the
ministers' council's decision of making all prisons under the supervision
of the justice ministry, in accordance with the context in force.
Within the same context, Bayan Jabr Al Zubaidi has previously announced to
Al Sabah, in a special interview, that the ministry has committed hundreds
of suspects of terrorist acts to the competent judiciary departments, and
that the reason for the delay of issuing judgments against them is
attributed to the jurisprudence and not to the interior ministry.
(source: Al Mendhar)
ENGLAND/SCOTLAND:
Walk marks execution of Wallace
A historian is marking the 700th anniversary of the death of William
Wallace by marching the route of his journey to execution.
David Ross, convener of the William Wallace Society, is walking the route
from Wallace's capture in Robroyston, Glasgow, to his death in London.
The march is expected to take him nearly 3 weeks.
After arriving he hopes to be joined by hundreds of Scots for a march to
the spot where Wallace was killed in 1305.
A private commemorative service will then be held inside St Bartholomew
the Greater, the oldest church in London.
Speaking ahead of his journey, Mr Ross said: "I realised that this day
could possibly come and go and there would be no mention of Scotland's
national hero, that the 700th anniversary was upon us.
"It will be a strange journey for me, especially to cross the border and
think about Wallace there 700 years before, every step taking him a step
further away from Scotland that he loved.
"This will be the mourning that Wallace never had."
Tried for treason
Mr Ross stressed the solemnity of the occasion and the importance to Scots
of commemorating the "betrayal".
Mr Ross will arrive in London on 23 August with an open invitation for
people to join him on the final 2 hours of his walk along the route was
dragged through the streets.
A symbolic coffin will then be returned to Scotland and go on show at the
Stirling Smith Museum.
Wallace, who led the Scots to a victory over English forces at Stirling
Bridge in 1297, avoided capture until 3 August, 1305, when Sir John de
Menteith, a Scottish knight loyal to Edward, turned Wallace over to
English soldiers at Robroyston.
Wallace was taken to London and tried for treason at Westminster Hall
where he was crowned with a garland of oak to suggest that he was the king
of outlaws and declared guilty.
On 23 August, following the trial, Wallace was removed from the courtroom,
stripped naked and dragged to Smithfield Market at the heels of a horse.
He was strangled by hanging, but released near death, drawn and quartered
and beheaded, rendering the execution complete at the Elms in Smithfield,
London.
His head was placed on a pike atop London Bridge, which was later joined
by the heads of his brother, John, and Sir Simon Fraser, who had fought
for Robert the Bruce.
The English government displayed his limbs, separately, in Newcastle,
Berwick, Stirling, and Perth as a warning to others.
(source: BBC News)
INDIA:
Srilakshmi killing: classmate found guilty ---- Vijayawada Mahila Sessions
Court to pronounce judgement tomorrow
The Mahila Sessions Courts Judge, M. Chalapathi Rao, on Tuesday pronounced
that the charges framed against Y. Manohar, a student of Sarada College in
the city, by the prosecution of 'killing' his classmate R. Srilakshmi in
the college classroom on June 21, 2004, had been proved. He, however,
reserved the final judgment for August 4.
The judge announced that the accused was liable to be punished under
sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), section 27 (1) of the
Indian Arms Act and the Ragging Act. The accused boy had been acquitted of
charges under section 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. 2 other
accused persons in the case-- Uma Maheswari and Varamma-- cousin and
maternal aunt respectively of Manohar, were acquitted of all charges.
In a crowded court hall, the judge announced that the charges had been
proved on the accused and asked the latter whether he wished to say
anything to the court in connection with the charges. The accused person
replied in the negative.
The special public prosecutor, M. Ramakrishna Rao, argued that it was a
'rarest of the rare case' and the accused deserved severe punishment. He
felt that broad daylight killing of a student in the classroom was a
brutal crime. The defence lawyers--B. David Ratnakumar and K. Janardhana
Rao-- argued that incidents like outraging the modesty of own sister and
killing her would be considered the `rarest of the rare' cases and the
persons involved in such cases deserved capital punishment and this case
did not attract one like that.
'Rarest of rare' case?
The senior advocate Karnati Rama Mohan Rao, too, felt that the nature of
the case was not 'rarest of rare' and the capital punishment was in vogue
only in Arabic and African countries. Referring to epics like the Ramayana
and the Mahabharata, Mr. Rao said that the Indian culture had given utmost
priority to 'kshama' (forgiveness) and the court had to consider
humanitarian grounds before pronouncing the judgment.
Students and representatives of women's organisations in large numbers
staged a demonstration in front of the court, and raised slogans demanding
capital punishment to the accused person.
(source: The Hindu)
