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)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide
Rick Halperin Thu, 7 Sep 2006 20:12:20 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide Rick Halperin