Nov. 29
AUSTRALIA:
Senate motion against death penalty
The Australian Greens will today introduce a Senate motion to officially
reconfirm Australia's opposition to the death penalty.
Convicted Australian drug runner Van Tuong Nguyen is due to be hanged in
Singapore on Friday.
The 25-year-old Melbourne man was caught with almost 400 grams of heroin
at Changi airport in late 2002.
Greens senator Bob Brown will today move a motion which conveys
Australia's abhorrence of the death penalty.
"It's a re-affirmation, at a national level, that this country sees the
death penalty with abhorrence," Senator Brown said.
"The indication is that there will be across-the-board support for that
motion going through the Senate."
(source: AAP)
LIBYA/BULGARIA:
Hope for death-sentence nurses
Bulgarian state radio reported on Monday that Libya's foreign minister
said 5 Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death for allegedly infecting about
400 Libyan children with HIV might be freed if Tripoli received
humanitarian aid to treat the victims.
Abdul Rahman Shalgam spoke to Bulgarian reporters in Barcelona, Spain,
where he met his Bulgarian counterpart Ivailo Kalfin on the sidelines of a
Euro-Mediterranean summit.
The five nurses and a Palestinian doctor were convicted in May 2004 of
intentionally infecting more than 400 children with HIV and were sentenced
to death by firing squad.
They have pleaded innocent, and human-rights groups and others have
claimed that Libya concocted the charges to cover up unhygienic practices
in its hospitals.
The 6 have appealed against their death sentences before the Libyan
supreme court. A hearing has been scheduled for January 31.
Not seeking 'blood money'
Although the Bulgarian state radio reported Shalgam said the nurses could
be freed, Shalgam was specifically quoted only as saying their death
sentences could be annulled.
Shalgam told Bulgarian reporters that Libya was not seeking compensation,
or what was described as "blood money," for the families of the
HIV-infected children.
"I cannot interfere with court issues, but what we have here is a
humanitarian issue," he was quoted by state radio as telling the
journalists.
Shalgam said court rulings should be respected.
However, if Libya received humanitarian aid, the death sentences would be
"automatically annulled", he was quoted as telling the Bulgarian
reporters.
Bulgaria wants swift action
Bulgaria has already rejected a Libyan suggestion that it compensate the
victims' families if the death sentences are lifted, saying it would imply
their guilt.
Bulgarian officials, however, repeatedly have said their country was ready
to offer Libya humanitarian help to contain the spread of Aids.
Kalfin did not comment on Shalgam's offer and said only that Bulgaria
wanted a swift solution.
"My country wants the case to be resolved as quickly and as positively as
possible, without further delay," Kalfin told state radio.
(source: News24.com)
INDONESIA:
Indonesian bishop protests death sentences for Catholics
An Indonesian bishop has protested the death sentences imposed on three
Christians who were charged with inciting religious clashes in Poso in
2000, the AsiaNews service reports.
Bishop Joseph Suwatan of Manado says that three men sentenced to death
"are not the ringleaders" who began the violence that eventually claimed
2,000 lives. In fact, he said, they are poor and illiterate men who were
caught up in the rioting long after the battles between Christians and
Muslims began in 1998.
"They also are victims of the riots," Bishop Suwatan said, arguing that
the death sentences are unjust. No Muslims have ever been brought to trial
for the violence.
(source: AsiaNews)
