[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 12



INDIA:

4 Found Guilty in 1993 Mumbai Bombings


4 family members were found guilty Tuesday in the 1st verdict in the
prosecution of India's deadliest terror attack, a string of bombings that
killed 257 people in Mumbai in 1993.

Brothers Yaqoub, Essa and Yusuf Memon were found guilty of all charges,
including conspiracy to commit terrorist acts and waging a war against the
country. They could receive the death penalty at sentencing, which was
expected Wednesday.

Rubeena Memon, the wife of another brother, Suliman, was found guilty of
abetting the attack.

3 other members of the Indian Muslim family were acquitted.

The powerful bombs detonated over 2 hours on the afternoon of March 12,
1993, ripping through the country's financial heart, and targeting the
Bombay Stock Exchange, Air India offices, hotels and a movie theater,
among other locations in India's commercial and entertainment capital.

The blasts appeared to be revenge for the demolition of a 16th century
mosque in northern India by Hindu nationalists. The mosque's demolition
sparked religious riots in many parts of the country that left more than
800 people dead, mostly Muslims.

A total of 123 men and women have been accused of involvement in the
bombings, allegedly orchestrated by a brother of the convicted men and an
accomplice, both of whom are believed to have fled the country.

The Memon family ran a meat export business and also have real estate
holdings. Yaqoub, an accountant, was one of the main financiers of the
plot, police said.

The judge has said the verdicts would be handed out in groups, over as
long as 2 months.

The accused include gangsters, housewives and a Bollywood movie star.

Judge Pramod Kode said the three family members acquitted Tuesday were not
entirely innocent.

"I have concluded that I will give them the benefit of the doubt. It is
not a clean acquittal but it is short of being guilty," he said.

After the verdicts were read, Yaqoub Memon attacked the judge in a fiery
outburst laced with expletives.

"Innocent people have been made into terrorists," he shouted. He was the
only family member held in prison since being arrested in 1994. The others
were released on bail.

One of India's lengthiest trials, the prosecution began June 6, 1995, and
hearings ended in January 2003 after 686 witnesses gave testimony that
filled 13,000 pages. The delay in the judgment was largely over procedural
matters.

(source: Associated Press)






IRAQ:

Hussein Accuses His Accusers of Trying to Divide Nation----The ex-leader
says Kurds testifying in his genocide trial are 'trying to create strife'
between Iraqis.


Saddam Hussein, standing trial on genocide charges, used his courtroom
time Monday to urge Iraqis to resist forces he said were trying to divide
the country.

"Iraqis will not split," an agitated Hussein said.

The former president's comments, which included references to an ongoing
controversy over the Iraqi national flag, came on a day of continued
sectarian violence.

At least 40 people were killed in shootings and bombings, most of them in
Baghdad, authorities said. At least 16 people were killed in a suicide
bombing at an army recruitment center in the capital.

In the trial, which is taking place in a heavily guarded palace in
Baghdad's Green Zone, 3 witnesses testified about chemical attacks in
Kurdistan in the late 1980s that left people blinded and maimed.

"All the witnesses said in the courtroom that they were oppressed because
they were Kurds," Hussein said.

"They're trying to create strife between the people of Iraq. They're
trying to create division between Kurds and Arabs, and this is what I want
the people of Iraq to know."

Hussein and 6 former aides are on trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal.
They are charged with killing as many as 100,000 Kurds during a 1988
military offensive known as the Anfal campaign. If convicted, Hussein
could face the death penalty. It is the 2nd capital case against Hussein.

An earlier trial focused on the alleged involvement of the former Iraqi
leader and 7 codefendants in the slayings of 148 Shiites after a 1982
assassination attempt on Hussein in the village of Dujayl. A verdict is
expected in October.

Katrin Michael, 56, a former Kurdish fighter who lives in Virginia, where
she works as a writer and editor, testified about 2 Iraqi air force
bombings in 1987 and '88 in Kurdistan. In the 1st attack, she said, the
Iraqi military used chemical weapons.

Michael, who wore a tailored suit and her hair uncovered, described the
pungent smell of the chemical weapons as being like "garlic and apple." In
slow and deliberate testimony, she echoed previous accounts by Kurdish
villagers and laid blame for the massacres on the defendants and those who
supplied them with weaponry.

Michael said that after the attack on June 5, 1987, she fled to the
mountains with other Kurds, bringing a Kalashnikov rifle. Many Kurds had
been blinded by the attack.

"I saw hundreds of people - not dozens, but hundreds - and they were
vomiting with tears coming out of their eyes," Michael said.

Once in the mountains, she visited a badly injured victim, Abu Rizgar.

"His words were heavy," she said, describing the effects of the chemical
weapons. "He couldn't speak properly. His voice is still in my ears."

Rizgar, whose back was covered with blisters, died later that day, she
said.

Michael said she blamed not only Hussein and his cousin and codefendant
Ali Hassan Majid, nicknamed Chemical Ali, but also "every international
organization and international company who supplied the Iraq regime with
these weapons." She said all of them should compensate the victims.

At the time of the Anfal campaign, Hussein's government enjoyed wide
support from the West that included weapons sales to Iraq.

A United Nations measure to condemn the campaign as genocide failed, and
President George H.W. Bush vetoed a Senate resolution urging sanctions.

"Chemical weapons used to be dropped regularly," Michael said. "It was
genocide."

At one point in the trial, the judge admonished a defense lawyer because
he referred to Hussein as "president."

Hussein replied: "The Americans - the enemies of Iraq - took this title
from me. Some Iraqis still consider me the president."

His microphone was cut off.

A short while later, Hussein asked to speak for "2 minutes."

He used the time to comment on the flag controversy, which began Sept. 2,
when Kurdistan regional President Massoud Barzani banned the Iraqi flag
from local government buildings and functions in the semiautonomous
region.

Barzani's decree prompted outrage from Sunni Arabs, who said the Kurdish
leader was trying to divide the country.

"This flag behind you," Hussein told the presiding judge, a Shiite, "we
inherited it. I did not create it. I, Saddam Hussein, just inserted the
words between the stars," he said, referring to the phrase "God is great,"
which he added after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Toward the end of the day, Hussein questioned a witness, arguing that the
trial was meant to divide Iraq. When the judge asked him to be quiet,
Hussein lost his temper.

"Don't you know how many insults were spoken here today?" he yelled. "The
whole point is to create a split between the Arabs and the Kurds."

The judge responded, "Iraq won't be divided."

Hussein countered: "Of course not. Iraq is not 50 years old or 200 years
old. It's 9,000 years old."

The trial was adjourned until today.

(source: Los Angeles Times)