[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 7



AUSTRALIA/INDONESIA:

Australia to Seek Clemency for Citizens on Indonesia's Death Row


Australian officials are expressing concern over death sentences handed to
six of its citizens in Indonesian for drug smuggling. Indonesia's use of
the death penalty is a cause of concern in Australia, which does not
execute criminals.

Australians serving prison terms in Indonesia for heroin trafficking
including Scott Rush, 20, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, 23, Si Yi Chen, 21, and
Matthew Norman, 19, during their trials in Bali Australian officials urged
clemency Thursday for 6 of its citizens facing the death penalty in
Indonesia for drug trafficking.

Indonesia confirmed Wednesday that the Supreme Court had rejected an
appeal by 4 Australians, instead handing down even harsher sentences.

The four were among nine people convicted last year of trying to smuggle
heroin to Australia.

The 2 leaders of the trafficking ring have already been sentenced to
death, and their sentences upheld.

2 others in the group face life sentences and the ninth member is serving
a 20-year sentence.

The Australians now have two legal options. One is a judicial review, used
if there is new evidence or the judge was in error. The second is a direct
appeal for clemency to the Indonesian president.

Steven Barraclough, spokesperson for the Australian Embassy in Jakarta,
says his country has voiced objections to the use of capital punishment
throughout the case and would appeal for clemency.

"The Australian government would support sentences being reduced to
custodial terms if the death penalty still stood at the end of the appeals
process and they applied for clemency," said Barraclough. "So at the right
and appropriate time, we would seek presidential clemency."

Tim Lindsey is the director of the Asian Law Center. He says it is also
possible to call for a constitutional review to evaluate if capital
punishment violates Indonesia's constitution. Such a move could delay the
executions for a few years.

But Lindsay says the group's sentences are not particularly harsh or
unusual in Indonesia.

"These people are receiving sentences that, whether you like them or not,
are in the range," he said. "And they're not particularly complex cases,
the evidence is overwhelming, all the positive aspects of the Indonesian
court system and all the negative inefficiencies and blunders of the
normal court system are being seen in these cases. There's nothing special
or unusual about any aspect of it in my view."

Harsh sentences handed to Australians in Indonesia have in the past caused
a public outcry in Australia, which does not administer capital
punishment.

Australians also accuse Indonesia of double standards, comparing the death
sentences to the jail terms handed down to extremists convicted of
bombings in Bali in 2002 and 2005. Eighty-eight Australians died in the
2002 blasts, which killed 202 people, and 4 were among the 20 who died in
the 2005 bombings.

In June, Australia expressed its concern when Indonesia released a radical
Muslim cleric jailed for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings.

On Thursday a court in Bali sentenced 2 militants for their roles in the
2005 bombings. One was sentenced to 18 years in prison for assembling the
bombs and the other to 8 years for helping the mastermind of the attacks.

(source: Voice of America News)






EGYPT----new death sentences

3 Egyptians get death sentence over Taba bombs


Egypt's state security court sentenced 3 people to death during a court
hearing on Thursday over involvement in a series of blasts targeting Red
Sea holiday resorts.

The 3 were convicted of 7 charges, including illegal possession of
weapons, manufacturing explosives and plotting to kill Egyptians and
foreigners.

The prosecutors said Younis Gurair, Osama el-Nakhlawi and Mohamed Hussein
were members of a local group called Tawhid wal Jihad, blamed for bombings
and attacks in Sinai over the past 2 years.

The three have denied the charges and said they confessed under torture.

11 other people are on trial over the bombings in Taba and 2 other beach
resorts popular with Israelis in October 2004. The attacks killed more
than 34 people.

Egyptian prosecutors had originally indicted 3 men over the bombings but 1
man charged in absentia, Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Fulayfel, was killed in a gun
battle with police.

The prosecutors said the group had proclaimed the Egyptian leadership
religiously illegitimate and targeted foreign tourists.

Human rights groups have said the authorities detained up to 2,500 people
for questioning after the bombings, subjecting many to torture. Egyptian
officials deny the torture.

The case is scheduled to resume on November 30.

Several men the authorities have said were wanted in the case have died in
gun battles with police in Sinai.

Egyptian authorities say the bombers were Sinai bedouin, some of them with
Palestinian connections, but that it does not believe they had any outside
connections.

The authorities have previously said they suspect the group behind the
bombings was also responsible for a blast in August that damaged a
multinational observer force vehicle.

(source: Reuters)






INDIA:

MATTOO CASE: WAITING FOR JUSTICE ---APPEAL: WELCOME STEP, SAYS VICTIMS
FATHER CBI wants death penalty for accused


THE CBI today sought the death penalty for accused Santosh Kumar Singh
during a hearing on the appeal in the Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case in
Delhi High Court.

The CBIs case for the death penalty, ironically, is backed by the same
pieces of evidence and lines of argument which the trial court had earlier
dismissed as shoddy investigation.

Speaking before the Division Bench of Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin,
Additional Solicitor-General Amarendra Sharan said in cases of rape and
murder, the High Court has given death sentence earlier, and added that he
would press for the same later.

The prosecution was summing up arguments in front of the Division Bench
today. The defence is slated to commence its arguments next week.

The investigating agencys move for the death sentence comes after it
reiterated its forensic evidence to the Division Bench earlier.

In his judgment of December 3, 1999 acquitting Singh, Additional Sessions
Judge G P Thareja had spelt out the shortcomings in the CBIs
investigations.

The trial court questioned why the CBI took 2 days  January 27-29, 1996
to locate the swabs and other samples of Mattoo stored in Safdarjung
Hospital.

Thareja observed that DNA tests had confirmed evidence of sexual assault
on the victim by the accused, Santosh Kumar Singh. However, the delay in
locating the samples and sending them to the Centre for Cellular and
Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, as well as indications that the volume of
blood in the sealed containers had gone down, left open the question of
tampering, a fact exploited by the defence then.

Thareja also asked why the CBI did not immediately examine Mattoos clothes
for forensic evidence.

During the prosecution submission in front of the Division Bench yesterday
and today, the CBI went over the same arguments.

The Division Bench found it an "erroneous action" that the CBI had not
examined the clothes, following which the prosecution today said there was
sufficient circumstantial evidence to seek the death penalty.

>From being on the backfoot over the way it had conducted investigations
then, the CBI has now gone on the offensive backed by the same evidence
and reasoning it had used earlier. Whether it can convince the High Court
is another matter.

"It is a welcome step that the CBI has sought the death sentence for the
accused," Mattoos father, Chaman Lal Mattoo, who recently sought a
complete re-investigation and re-examining of evidence, said.

(source: Express India)