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

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 9


CHINA:

China will not abolish death penalty, for now


Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, told reporters in Helsinki after the
EU-China summit on Saturday that China did not for the time being consider
possible the abolition of the country's death penalty.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Matti Vanhanen (centre), the
Finnish prime minister, Mr Wen added that China would adhere to precise
rules when using the death penalty.

Mr Wen also underscored that China held up human rights as a universal
principle.

Mr Vanhanen, speaking on behalf of the EU, said that the death penalty
question had been discussed at the summit in an open and frank manner.

The EU and China agreed to launch talks on a new partnership and
cooperation agreement.

(source: Newsroom Finland)






AUSTRALIA/INDONESIA:

Thank God I haven't got the death penalty----Lawyers hunt for way out


Deborah Cassrels goes behind the bars of Kerobokan prison to find out how
2 of the 9 Bali drug couriers are coping.

THE sun beats down relentlessly on the small, dusty visiting yard at
Kerobokan prison, which houses the nine Bali drug couriers. It is eerily
quiet around the jail, about 10 minutes' drive from the fashionable Legian
district. There are no guards in the watchtowers and the visiting process
appears relaxed, the guards joking. The banter briefly abates as a plastic
bag full of groceries and toiletries arrives for Schapelle Corby.

She and the Bali couriers share a dubious claim to fame: they have made
Kerobokan an Australian household name.

In the overbearing tropical humidity, prisoners line the walls of the
circular, open-air enclosure. They sit on mats, chatting and eating, as
though at a Sunday picnic.

Huddled against a wall is the only Westerner, Martin Stephens, 1 of the 9
Bali couriers, and 1 of 2 serving a life sentence for his part in trying
to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from Indonesia to Australia in April
last year. On Wednesday his life was spared when appeal judges imposed
death sentences on 4 members of the group. Stephens's appeal to reduce his
sentence failed this week.

Facing the wall, he is almost obscenely entwined (for a public place) with
an older Indonesian woman called Christine, who is visiting. She is his
"girlfriend" of nearly a year. They met when she visited another inmate,
made eye contact and he amorously poked his tongue out at her.

"She brings my food; you've got to have someone."

They both wear tiny earpieces and appear to be listening to music. He
slowly disentangles himself and proudly relates he has spent two birthdays
inside. He is 30 now and much thinner; he weighed 105 kilograms when he
was jailed and now weighs 79 kilogams. Wearing shorts and a short-sleeved
shirt, and blond, scruffy hair he looks like a surfer minus the tan.

He is happy with the weight loss but complains of suffering respiratory
and other infections, for which he receives antibiotics from his mother,
Michelle Stephens. She has also given him antibiotics in case of an
outbreak of bird flu.

Shortly before visiting time finishes at 3pm, Renae Lawrence, the only
female member of the nine, sidles up from inside the jail, smiling shyly.
Sporting an austere haircut, and large "tribal" tattoo snaking down her
left forearm, Lawrence says her parents would be upset to know she has had
it inscribed in prison. She jokes with Stephens she cannot remember her
age. "Am I 29?" she asks him. She too has lost about 20 kilograms.

Wearing pants and T-shirt, she speaks haltingly as if English were not her
native tongue but talks easily to fellow inmates in Indonesian. Stephens
has not mastered the language. She has an upper tooth missing, but will
not say how it happened, only that she has visited a local dentist. One of
10 women to a cell, she says the women live in an overcrowded section and
that the men have it better because Kerobokan is traditionally a men's
prison.

"I'm coping," Lawrence says. "I read, talk. You just cope, otherwise you'd
climb walls or go crazy, like some do in here." Pledging emotional support
for one another, she and Stephens giggle self-consciously. When she is
distressed, the guards summon Stephens to Lawrence's cell. "It's
therapeutic. I've been strong for Renae. You look after each other." In
turn, Stephens says: "I really needed her to get through this."

Stephens shares a cell with 2 others, including another of the Bali
couriers, Michael Czugaj, 21, from Brisbane. His original life term was
cut to 20 years on appeal. But his life sentence has now been reinstated.

Stephens appears to be a one-man band: he says he is lonely and does not
socialise with the other couriers, except for Lawrence. He gets on with
Czugaj and Matthew Norman, suggesting bad blood with the others. But they
cross paths when Stephens "hangs out", playing a bit of tennis and
basketball with the Indonesians.

Stephens said from jail on Thursday that he was surprised by the appeal
verdicts. "It's a stink. Everyone's in shock. They don't know if it's true
or definite; nothing's on paper yet. We don't get told nothing. I can't
see them doing it though [carrying out the executions], not for that many
Australians. The Government won't let them do that."

Not surprisingly, Stephens says he will lie low and stay quiet.

"I am quite lucky. It would have been nice to get 20, the same as Renae,
but I just thank God that I haven't got the death penalty. But I don't
believe they [the 4 Bali couriers] should have got the death penalty. The
only person who should have got it was Andrew [Chan, the ringleader], and
he already did. As for the others, they're just the small pawns in a big
game. They didn't do anything to me  I'm against the death penalty anyway.
It's morally wrong."

How is he coping?

"I play tennis and basketball and read. I talk to my parents. I pray to
God but I've always done that."

What would he be doing if he was free? "I wish I was back working at the
bowling club, " says Stephens, a former barman in Wollongong.

"Living expenses and bills" come from the $200 a month his parents provide
but he is worried about their welfare and the fact they have had to
remortgage their house.

"You have to buy everything here." As if on cue he and Christine tuck into
a plate of chicken wings bought from the jail's kitchen. He has also
bought a small fan for his cell to try to combat the sweltering heat but
complains he still cannot sleep at night. Bottled water, which inmates buy
themselves, is essential because tap water is polluted and undrinkable.

Can he buy a day or a night out? No, things have changed since the
appointment of the new prison warden, Ilham Djaya, who is tougher than his
predecessor but fairer too.

"He tries to listens to us."

Stephens is also thankful the warden is cleaning up the gangs that operate
within the jail. The guards are no problem, he says, while surreptitiously
pointing to a gang member sitting beside us, who clearly is. Is he a
member of the Balinese mafia, Laskar Bali, which holds sway across the
prison? Stephens is too petrified to answer.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)






JORDAN:

Jordan Reduces Crimes Eligible for Execution


In lowering the number of crimes for which the death penalty would be
eligible, the Jordanian government says it has moved one step closer to
becoming the first Arab state to abolish capital punishment altogether.

But the move has received very mixed responses from everyone else. Within
the Jordanian population, it is wildly unpopular. Human rights groups are
torn. One local group called it a first step toward abolition, but the
International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) called it "symbolic at
best."

In August, the government eliminated four crimes  relating to drugs,
possession of illegal explosives and weapons -- in the criminal code which
carry the death penalty. Defendants still can be executed for murder,
rape, terrorism, drug trafficking, treason and espionage.

Jordanian Minister of Justice, Dr. Abed al-Shakabneh, told the Jordanian
Dostoor newspaper that the cabinet's approval was given to help the
government cope with the new regulations concerning the human rights.

FIDH, however, says the move will have no practical effect. "If the death
penalty is retained for these crimes it is unlikely that the number of
executions will decrease," FIDH said in a statement. According to official
figures, 41 people were executed in Jordan since 2000, all of whom were
convicted for murder, terrorism or sexual assault charges  crimes which
still carry the death penalty.

Like other groups, such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and
local, Jordanian human rights organisations, FIDH opposes the use of the
death penalty because it contradicts the notion of human dignity and
liberty.

Specifically, the groups said they are concerned that Jordans State
Security Court, responsible for the majority of the countrys death
sentences, will remain intact. That court includes military judges  its
president is an army officer  who are appointed by the prime minister and
therefore violate the principal of judicial independence and the
separation of powers.

Moreover, rulings by the Court of Cassation to uphold death sentences do
not require unanimity. A FIDH fact-finding team examined final rulings by
that court and found cases in which defendants were sentenced to die on a
5  4 vote.

"Torture and mistreatment in places of detention in Jordan is another
well-documented concern that adds to the necessity of an absolute
abolition of the death penalty," FIDH said.

Still, the governments action was greeted by local human rights groups as
a 1st step. "We have been lobbying for an end to the death penalty for
years," Essam Rababa'ah from Adaleh Human Rights group told IRIN news
agency. He urged officials to consider annulling the capital punishment
entirely.

Yet the president of the Jordan Bar Association , Mr. Saleh Al-Armouty,
and many Jordanian lawyers and segments on the Jordanian population,
vociferously oppose an easing of death penalty laws.

"This is absolutely unacceptable. Dubious human rights groups should not
interfere in our legal system," Al-Armouty said. He pointed out that death
sentences, which are issued annually in Jordan, are very rare.

Al-Armouty was not alone.

"I have many reservations concerning the cancellation of the execution
sentence in Jordan. The tribal nature of the Jordanian community would
increase the revenge crimes in Jordan," Adnan al-Momani, former general
prosecutor of Jordan Customs Department and currently a lawyer, told IPS.

Saad Azzouni, editor-in-chief of the Jordanian newspaper, al-Hayat, he
told IPS, "I refuse to abolish this penalty categorically. It is a strong
deterring penalty for criminals. And cancelling it would only increase the
rate of crime on the Jordanian society."

Still, in spite of the strong public reaction against even the slightest
move, King Abdullah II recently told an Italian newspaper that, "Jordan
could soon become the first country in the Middle East without capital
punishment."

(source: IPS)