Dec. 29
SAUDI ARABIA----execution
Saudi execution raises number put to death to 85
Saudi Arabia today executed a Sudanese man convicted of murder, raising to
at least 85 the number of people put to death in the kingdom this year.
The interior ministry said Mohammed Nour Mohammed Ali was put to death in
a rural area outside Riyadh for clubbing and stabbing a fellow Sudanese
national after an argument.
Saudi Arabia implements strict Islamic law, executing convicted murderers,
rapists and drug traffickers, usually by public beheading with a sword.
Human rights groups say they are concerned by the sharp rise in executions
this year in Saudi Arabia, which put to death 35 people last year and 53
people in 2003.
(source: Reuters)
KOREA:
Court to Review Past Execution Ruling on Dissidents
A court Tuesday decided to review a controversial execution ruling against
eight dissidents under the iron-fisted rule of late President Park
Chung-hee due to its unreliable investigation records.
The courts review is expected to shed light on the case again after 30
years to investigate suspicions that the Park government conspired in the
ruling that had eight dissident activists executed in 1975.
The Seoul Central District Court said it has decided to review the case as
police and intelligence agents were believed to have severely tortured the
accused during the internal investigation at that time.
A panel of judges concluded that those who were executed by the court
ruling in the 1970s were forced to admit false accusations because of
torture and mistreatment.
The judges presented the evidence that the accused were forced to take
medicines such as painkillers during a certain period of the
investigation.
According to the court, the ruling is presumed to have been made using
fabricated investigation records based on false statements obtained
through torture.
The court also said that the statements given by the accused were very
similar to each other.
The bereaved families of the executed activists first demanded the
government conduct a truth-finding investigation into the "Inhyok-tang"
incident in 1989.
Supported by the government, the truth committee has been looking into the
incident since 2002.
In the latest revelation of political oppression under former President
Park, a truth committee said it found official documents showing that the
government had issued orders to execute the activists hours before the
Supreme Court handed down its ruling.
In 1974, the government of then President Park outlawed the rebellious
National Federation of Democratic Youths and Students, labeling the group
a North Korean intelligence organization.
The Park government rounded up more than 200 of its members, accusing them
of being controlled by North Korean intelligence agents.
The 8 men, labeled by prosecutors as members of the pro-North Korean
"Inhyoktang," or the "People's Revolutionary Party," were convicted of
conspiracy and treason and executed in the early morning of April 9, 1975,
just 18 hours after the Supreme Court rejected their appeal.
Prosecutors accused Inhyoktang of being the mastermind behind the
student-activist group "Minchonghangnyon," or the "National Federation of
Democratic Youths and Students."
The Peoples Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) said Tuesday
that it welcomes the court's decision to review the suspicious case as it
has remained a disgrace for the nation's judicial history.
"The court should have reviewed the case long ago to restore the
confidence from the disgraceful ruling. We welcome the decision albeit
belatedly," Kim Ki-sik, official of the PSPD, said.
Park Rae-gun, member of the Sarangbang Group for Human Rights, also said
that the review is expected to pave the way for the judicial circles to
reflect on their wrong rulings and practices that were influenced by
authoritarian governments.
(source: Korea Times, Dec. 27)
