[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

September 6



THAILAND:

Death penalty for Aussie auditor's killers


THE trial of 4 men charged over the 1999 murder of Australian accountant
Michael Wansley, who had uncovered a $150million Thai sugar mill fraud,
ended yesterday with 2 death penalties, a life sentence and the acquittal
of the accused mastermind.

Bangkok Criminal Court sentenced Namtal Kaset sugar mill employee Somchoke
Sutthiwiriwan and retired policeman Sompong Buasakul to death for
conspiring to murder the auditor near the city of Nakhon Sawan.

Wansley, a Melbourne accountant seconded from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Jaiyos to help restructure the debt-laden Kaset Thai Sugar Company, was
travelling in northern Thailand on March 10, 1999, when two men on a
motorcycle pulled alongside his van and shot him.

Somchoke's brother Boonphan Sutheevirawan, who was the mill's human
resources manager, was sentenced to life in jail for conspiring to kill
Wansley.

But sugar mill owner Pradit Siriviriyakul, accused of funding and
masterminding the murder, walked free after the court ruled there was not
enough evidence to convict.

Sompong and Somchoke face death by lethal injection, although that is
unlikely to happen for at least a couple of years as Thai courts review
all cases involving the death sentence.

Wansley, the 1st foreign executive to be murdered in Thailand, was
restructuring the huge debts of 3 sugar companies in Nakhon Sawan that
collapsed after the Asian financial crisis of 1997.

He discovered that the firms, which had total debts of about $700 million,
had had about $150million siphoned off into shelf companies.

A witness, Chalong Pienpong, told the court that Pradit had paid him
30,000 baht ($1000) to dispose of the motorcycle used for the killing.

He also said Pradit told him after the murder: "It's very good the farang
(foreigner) is dead, now we can all live comfortably."

A senior policeman also gave evidence, claiming that Pradit offered a $4
million bribe not to charge him with murder.

In their verdict, the judges said while there were phone records that
showed Pradit had been in regular contact with the other three accused,
there was no actual witness to prove he was part of the conspiracy to have
Wansley killed.

Yesterday's verdicts followed the conviction in 1999 of Somchai Jaihao,
the motorcyclist who drove the gunman that shot Wansley. Somchai confessed
several weeks after the killing and ended up with a life term.

Pichet Kaewsamduang, the alleged gunman who shot Wansley, is being tried
separately. Pichet, arrested in August 2003, claims he played no part in
the killing. He also faces trials for two separate, unrelated murders.

Public prosecutor Rut Kaewsuwan, who has spent the past seven years trying
to convict Pradit and the 3 others, did not even bother to go to the court
yesterday, having possibly been tipped off about the result.

Robin Hamilton-Coates, the consul at the Australian embassy, appeared
equally unimpressed, referring journalists to the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade in Canberra for comment.

Australian ambassador Bill Paterson and his predecessor Miles Kupa had
both written to the Thai authorities to express Australia's strong
interest in the Wansley case.

Given the likelihood of appeals, the Wansley murder case is expected to
drag on for 1 or 2 more years at the very least.

(source: The Australian)






AUSTRALIA/INDONESIA:

Family shocked at death penalty reports


The father of convicted Bali Nine drug courier Scott Rush says he is
dumbfounded by news his son is now facing the death penalty in Indonesia.

The Australian government was urgently trying to confirm reports that
Indonesia's Supreme Court has issued new, unexpected appeal verdicts on 4
of the 9 Australians convicted of trying to smuggle heroin to Australia
last year.

Brisbane-based Lee Rush said a Fairfax journalist told the family on
Tuesday night that death sentences had been handed down to 20-year-old son
Scott Rush, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, 23, Si Yi Chen, 21, and 19-year-old
Matthew Norman - 4 of the Bali 9.

Nguyen, Chen and Norman had previously had life terms reduced to 20 years
on appeal.

Rush did not originally challenge his life sentence but his father said he
was aware his son had recently launched an appeal.

The reported death sentences are a shock because prosecutors had asked
only that their life terms be reaffirmed.

Mr Rush said he had no reason not to believe the reports in Fairfax
newspapers.

But he said the family was "dumbfounded" at the shock decision and was
doing its best to cope.

"We've never fully understood the Indonesian law and their method of
delivering verdicts and we're even more dumbfounded now," he told ABC
radio.

Mr Rush told AAP the family would fly to Bali "in the future" but had not
yet had time to decide how soon.

"I haven't even thought down that way and there's much too much to think
about," Mr Rush said.

"With the amount of phone calls that we've been taking I haven't even been
able to think.

"It's very hard to think or even book an air flight."

The family will contact Mr Rush's Indonesian lawyer to seek more news.

The sentences mean at least 6 of the Australian heroin smugglers now face
execution, with Andrew Chan, 22, and Myuran Sukumaran, 25, already facing
the death penalty.

Verdicts in the appeals of Michael Czugaj and Martin Stephens are pending,
and Renae Lawrence did not lodge a further appeal to her 20-year sentence.

(source: AAP)






CHINA:

Student who murdered husband gets death penalty


Chinese graduate student Chen Danlei has been sentenced to death with a
2-year suspension for murdering her husband when they were in the United
States.

The verdict came from the Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court on
Monday.

Chen, 29, was also required to pay her parents-in-law 440,000 yuan
(US$55,000) in compensation.

During the previous trial, Chen had pleaded guilty to killing her husband.

Chen shot He Lei, also in his late 20s, in the back of the head on August
20, 2005, at their apartment in Lafayette, Indiana. She then placed He's
cut up body parts in their car and left the vehicle in a hotel car park
before escaping, the court heard.

Chen told the court during the hearing that she had hired someone named
Jack to move He's body into the refrigerator after the shooting but Jack
cut him up into eight pieces instead, without her instruction.

But there has been no evidence for the existence of Jack.

Chen Danlei and He Lei were classmates at the prestigious Tsinghua
University in Beijing. They got married in 2001 when they moved to the
United States for further studies at Purdue University.

Chen told the court she loved He very much and He was always loyal to her.
But later He wanted to divorce her after they argued a lot.

On December 25, 2004, Chen stabbed He. Local media said she did it during
sexual intercourse.

At that time, He hired a lawyer to defend Chen and bailed her out of jail
with US$50,000. The local court issued an order forbidding Chen to
approach He unless for therapeutic consultations. A few months later they
lived together at the suggestion of a therapist.

However, the court heard that their arguments began again and He
threatened divorce again. Chen bought a gun over the Internet on August
18, 2005, under the name of Jack Washington. The seller Christopher
Michael Land provided an affidavit to the court.

On the evening of August 19, 2005, the couple had a serious fight and He
threatened to move out. Chen shot him the next morning.

Chen told the court she wanted to put He's body in the refrigerator when
it started to smell, but could not. She then said she found someone named
Jack from the Internet and agreed to pay him US$2,000 to do the job for
her.

Chen said she wanted to visit her mother's tomb at her hometown in Sichuan
Province. She was arrested when she arrived in Shanghai on August 26,
2005.

China sent a team to the United States in November 2005 to take over all
the evidence and conduct further investigations.

If Chen behaves in the next 2 years, she may escape the death penalty.

(source: China Daily)