August 23
INDONESIA:
Death penalty sought for Indonesia bombing suspect
Indonesian prosecutors asked a court on Tuesday to sentence a young Muslim
militant to death for involvement in the bombing of the Australian embassy
in Jakarta last year that killed 10 people.
Ahmad Hasan is accused of helping build the bomb and plot the explosion
with Malaysian fugitive Azahari Husin, a senior militant linked to al
Qaeda and the alleged mastermind of the bombing.
Prosecutor Jefri Huwae told the South Jakarta court Hasan rode along with
Azahari and suicide bomber Heri Golun in the explosives-laden van used in
the attack.
Hasan, who had taught the suicide bomber how to drive, and the Malaysian
got out of the van at a bus stop near the Australian embassy before the
blast, the prosecutor said.
"We want the panel of judges to sentence Ahmad Hasan for taking part in
the planning of a terrorism crime ... to punish the defendant with the
death penalty," he said.
Hasan has denied involvement in the embassy bombing and after the court
session on Tuesday he said: "I see all of this as fabrication."
Prosecutors earlier this month demanded the same court sentence Rois, the
main defendant on trial in the case, to death. 2 men have so far been
jailed over the embassy attack, 1 for 4 years and the other for 3 years.
Azahari and another Malaysian Noordin M. Top, who is also on the run, are
believed by police to be senior members of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah
Islamiah network.
Besides the embassy strike, authorities blame Jemaah Islamiah for several
other bombings, including the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks. 3 of the
convicted Bali bombers are on death row.
(source: Reuters)
PAKISTAN:
PM to talk to Musharraf over Sarabjits death sentence
As the family of Sarabjit Singh, who faces the death row in Pakistan,
stepped up the campaign to secure his release, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh today gave an assurance that he will take up the case with President
Pervez Musharraf.
Singh gave the assurance to a delegation of Congress MPs and MLAs from
Punjab who urged him to take up the issue with Musharraf.
"The Prime Minister assured us that he will speak to Pakistan President
Musharraf on the issue and that the government will do all it can to save
the life of Indian national Sarabjit Singh," Punjab PCC Chief Shamsher
Singh Dullo said after the meeting.
"We urged the Prime Minister to do everything possible to save an innocent
man. Why should he be punished for mistaken identity?," Dullo said.
Stepping up the campaign for his release, Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur
met External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and asked him to take up the
matter with the Pakistan government urgently.
Denying that Sarabjit was a RAW agent as claimed by Pakistan, she said it
is a case of mistaken identity and the government should send evidence to
Musharraf to prove his innocence.
Sarabjit, whom the Pakistan government claims is Manjit Singh, a RAW
agent, was given death sentence for allegedly being involved in four bomb
blasts in that country.
(source: PTI)
IRAN:
43 hangings, death sentences since Ahmadinejad's election ; Mrs. Rajavi
urges world community to take urgent action to stop frenzied executions in
Iran
Since the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the mullahs' inhuman regime has
resorted to a frenzied wave of public hangings and death decrees to create
an atmosphere of terror and intimidation in a bid to counter the explosive
state of society.
The state-controlled media reported seven death sentences just in the past
3 days. These bring the number of prisoners hanged since June 26, 2005,
immediately after Ahmadinejad's elections, to 20. The number of those
sentenced to death during the same period stands at 23. At least5 victims
were below the age of 18 at the time of their execution or when the
alleged offense took place. 3 victims were women.
The hangings and death sentences were in Tehran, Karaj (west of the
capital), Arak and Isfahan (central Iran), Hamedan and Pol-e Dokhtar
(west) Mashad (northeast), Salmas and Ardebil (northwest), Kerman and
Bandar Abbas (south) Gonbad-e Kavoos (north), and Ahwaz (southwest).
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, urged the
United Nations Secretary General, High Commissioner for Human Rights and
all international human rights organizations to condemn these barbaric
crimes and to take urgent and serious action to stop the executions.
She stressed that the world community's silence and inaction, including
the failure to table a censure resolution at the UN Human Rights
Commission and the lack of a Special Rapporteur on human rights abuses in
Iran, had emboldened the mullahs to continue and step up their crimes and
medieval executions.
Mrs. Rajavi emphasized that there was no longer any justification for
prolonging the policy of appeasing the mullahs under the pretext of "human
rights dialogue." The mullahs' atrocities against the Iranian people are a
clear manifestation of crimes against humanity and must be referred to the
United Nations Security Council, she added.
(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)
