[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

September 5



THAILAND:

Death penalty for Michael Wansley's murderers


Criminal Court delivered death penalties on 2 men on Tuesday for
murdering an Australian auditor, Michael Wansley in Nakhon Sawan province
in 1999.

The Court found that Somchoke Suthiviriwan and Sompong Buasakoon guilty of
planned murder Wansley in March 1999.

Wansley, 58 at the time of his death, was travelling to a sugar mill in
Nakhon Sawan when 2 men on a motorcycle pulled alongside his van and
shot him dead.

Wansley, an employee of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, had been hired by the
banking creditors of the Kaset Thai Sugar Co to help address the firm's
Bt17.1-billion debt.

The Court acquitted the mill's owner, Pradit Siriviriyakul, who was
initially charged with masterminding the murder because of lack of
evidence.

Australia had complained in 2003 of what it called tardiness in the slow
investigations and trial into the murder. At that time, police was still
only at the stage of interrogating state witness.

(source:  The Nation)






INDONESIA:

Youths demand end to death penalty


The government should abolish capital punishment and accelerate
development in island provinces throughout the country, the 13th Catholic
Youth National Congress in Ambon says.

Delegates at the forum finished their four-day meeting in Ambon on Monday.

They also called for police to question 16 people, who lawyers for 3 men
on death row say were behind sectarian riots in Poso in 2000.

Youth movement chairman MT Natalis Situmorang said in Ambon on Sunday the
members "strongly object to the use of the death penalty against any
person in this country".

Secretary general Cosmos Refra said the conference was afraid the true
perpetrators of the Poso riots would be revealed only after the death-row
convicts had been executed.

"We renounce the death penalty because God has given life to humans so
that they can live freely, and only God has the right to take (life) back,
not fellow humans," Refra said.

The congress' rejection of the death penalty was not motivated by
political or sectarian concerns, he said.

"In principle, we reject the use of the death penalty against all people,
be they (Fabianus) Tibo and his friends (NAME THEM) or (the convicted Bali
bombers) Amrozi, (Ali Ghufron) and Imam Samudra as well as others
sentenced to death," he said.

The 3 Christian men, Fabianus, NAME and Name have are due to be executed
later this year, after being convicted of inciting a riot in Poso in
which 198 people, mostly Muslims, died.

They have protested their innocence, saying 16 other people, including
members of the security forces, were behind the riots.

Regarding the economy, the congress asked President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono and the House of Representatives to immediately accelerate
development in seven outlying island provinces in Indonesia, including the
Riau Islands, Bangka Islands and North and South Maluku provinces.

Recent development initiatives for the areas were endorsed in the Ambon
Declaration on Aug. 10 signed by governors and legislators from the
provinces.

The government should support other efforts made by the Inter-Island
Province Cooperation Forum led by Ambon Governor Karel Albert Ralahalu,
delegates said.

They also urged the government to revise the 2004 National Resources Law,
increase investment and improve infrastructure in the nation's outlying
islands.

Outlying areas needed sufficient funding from the state budget, Situmorang
said.

"We only want impartial treatment from the central government."

(source:  The Jakarta Post)