[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 18


INDONESIA:

Bali bomber warns of al-Qaida attacks if executed


An Islamic militant awaiting execution in Indonesia for carrying out the
2002 Bali bombings has warned that al-Qaida would be "very likely" to
launch revenge attacks if authorities kill him, a magazine reported.

Imam Samudra and 2 other Indonesian militants were sentenced to death in
2003 for their roles in the suicide attacks that killed 202 people, mostly
foreign tourists, at 2 nightclubs on the resort island of Bali.

The 3  who have admitted to planning and taking part in the strikes  are
awaiting a final legal appeal to their sentences.

Samudra was interviewed in prison by a local hard-line Islamist magazine,
Jihadmagz.

Asked whether al-Qaida would send operatives to Indonesia to launch
attacks if he were executed, he said, "That is very likely. God willing,
hopefully that will happen. Everyone knows that the armies of Allah are
(everywhere)."

The magazine, which has a circulation of 10,000, hit newsstands in
Indonesia last week.

The Bali attacks were carried out by members and associates of Jemaah
Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group whose leaders came under the
influence of al-Qaida in the late 1990s when they trained and fought in
Afghanistan.

Since then, militants have launched three more attacks on Western targets
in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. The latest attack,
against restaurants in Bali in 2005, killed 12.

Indonesia does not announce executions in advance, but authorities have
reportedly been preparing to carry out the punishment if the 3 men's
appeal at the Supreme Court fails. Officials there have not said when they
will rule on the appeal, which is known as a judicial review.

(source: Associated Press)






JAPAN:

Miyazaki case puts death penalty in spotlight


It is worth considering why the Justice Ministry chose to execute serial
child-killer Tsutomu Miyazaki shortly after atrocious crimes committed by
socially isolated youths--including a recent rampage in the Akihabara
district of Tokyo?

Miyazaki, 45, who kidnapped and killed 4 girls in Tokyo and Saitama
Prefecture, was executed along with two other convicts Tuesday.

Officials of the ministry's Criminal Affairs Bureau began to seriously
consider executing Miyazaki in the spring. The ministry decided who would
be executed taking into account the order the death sentences were
finalized.

But the ministry does not execute convicts if special circumstances exist.
These circumstances include a mentally unstable death row inmate, a
retrial request, or an ongoing accomplice's trial.

Miyazaki's death sentence was finalized in February 2006. Before that,
death sentences for about 50 convicts were finalized. Because many of
those convicts cases were seen to have special circumstances, Miyazaki
became the next candidate for execution.

Some legal experts predicted that Miyazaki would be the next to be
executed.

Since December, when Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama first signed an
execution order, 10 death row inmates had been executed. Seven of them
were executed 3 to 4 years after their death sentences were finalized.

The length of time between death sentence finalization and executions has
gradually shortened. Because of this, the time between Miyazaki's sentence
finalization and his execution, two years and four months, was not seen as
problematic.

Maiko Tagusari, Miyazaki's lead attorney at his Supreme Court trial, said
she had to file a request for a retrial as quickly as possible when she
sent a letter to the justice minister in late May.

In the letter, she told the minister she was preparing the retrial request
and demanded the ministry refrain from executing Miyazaki.

Miyazaki claimed that he suffered from auditory hallucinations and sent
letters to lawyers asking for help suspending his execution.

(source: The Daily Yomiuri)

***********************

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL


Japan: Amnesty International condemns latest round of executions

Amnesty International strongly condemns the hanging of 3 men (Miyazaki
Tsutomu, 45, Mutsuda Shinji, 45, and Yamazaki Yoshio, 73) in Japan today,
17 June. This brings to 13 the number of executions carried out since
Minister of Justice Hatoyama Kunio took office in August 2007. Since
December 2007 executions in Japan have been carried out every 2 months.
"Despite a global trend toward abolition of the death penalty, Japan has
gone against the tide by increasing the rate of executions. It has so far
executed 10 people this year, which is more than the total number of
executions carried out in 2007," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty Internationals
Asia Pacific Program Director.

When the UN Human Rights Council reviewed the human rights situation in
Japan in May 2008, they expressed particular concern about the death
penalty. A number of states urged Japan to adopt a moratorium on
executions in accordance with the UN General Assembly resolution (62/149)
which calls for on a global moratorium on the use of the death penalty
Prison authorities carry out executions by hanging in Japan, usually in
secret. Officials notify death row inmates just hours before the
execution, and inform family members only after the execution has taken
place. Once the appeals process is complete, a death row prisoner in Japan
may wait for years or even decades before execution. This practice means
that these prisoners live in constant fear of execution. In 2007 only 24
countries are known to have carried out executions. Japan executed 9
people in 2007. Among G8 members, Japan and the USA are the only countries
to carry out executions. Amnesty International calls on Japan to urgently
adopt a moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolishing the
death penalty and to end secrecy surrounding the death penalty.

(source: Amnesty International)






IRAN:

List Sheds Light on Death Row Children


A human rights group has published the 1st detailed list of juvenile
offenders on Iran's death row, finding that at least 114 children under
the age of 18 are awaiting the ultimate penalty.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran says that 2 child
offenders have already been executed this year, and notes that Iran's
judicial system is so opaque, it is unclear whether others on the list
have already been put to death.

At least one of those awaiting execution, Ahmad Noorzehi, was just 12
years old at the time of his crime.

"Iran is the only country putting child offenders to death in great
numbers," Hadi Ghaemi, a spokesperson for the campaign, told IPS. "This
barbaric practice is justified in the name of Islamic law, but many
religious scholars have challenged it," he added.

Launched on Wednesday, the list is the result of comprehensive research by
prominent Iranian human rights defender Emad Baghi. It forms part of a
book he has written called "Right to Life II", which argues that such
executions are not sanctioned by Islamic law as claimed by Iranian
authorities.

Baghi's book compiles numerous authoritative religious sources arguing for
the abolition of executions of child offenders. Copies of it have been
distributed to Iranian officials in the judiciary and parliament, as well
as to human rights defenders and organisations inside Iran. However,
Iranian censors have not permitted the book to be published.

The campaign obtained a copy of "Right to Life II", which documents 177
death sentences for child offenders over the past decade. At least 34
executions have been carried out, another 114 are apparently pending, and
the remaining offenders were pardoned.

"While the whole world is moving towards abolishing death penalty in
general, Iran's increasing number of executions of minors is shameful,"
said Ghaemi. "They should immediately abolish it. There is much momentum
in this direction both domestically and on the international front, and
this is the time for Iran to act and bring its practices in line with its
international commitments."

According to a report published by Human Rights Watch this year, only
Iran, Sudan, China and Pakistan are known to have executed juvenile
offenders since 2004. Sudan carried out two such executions in 2005, while
China executed one juvenile offender in 2004 and Pakistan executed one
juvenile offender in 2006. In contrast, Iran is known to have executed at
least 3 juvenile offenders in 2004, 8 in 2005, and 4 in 2006.

In terms of total numbers, only China carries out more executions than
Iran. On a per capita basis, Iran executes more people annually than any
other country. Murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping and drug
trafficking are all punishable by death in Iran.

2 major international human rights treaties -- the Convention on the
Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights -- forbid imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed
under the age of 18. Iran has ratified both treaties.

Most of the child offenders on the list were convicted of murder. However,
as Baghi's research shows, many of the sentences appear to be based on
dubious confessions extracted after torture and interrogations in which
they were denied access to a lawyer. Courts routinely ignore evidence
presented by defendants demonstrating that they acted in self-defence,
says the campaign's report.

"In every case we've looked into, there have been serious violations of
Iranian law and procedure, often at more than one stage of investigation,
trial, and sentencing," said Clarisa Bencomo, a children's rights
researcher at Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division.

"I have no doubt that in many cases on this list there are children who
would have been found innocent if they had adequate legal assistance and
fair trials by properly trained juvenile court judges who rejected coerced
confessions," she told IPS.

The execution of minors in Iran will be one of the issues raised in a
forthcoming report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the General
Assembly meeting in September.

The Iranian government has not allowed the U.N. Human Rights Council's
special rapporteurs to enter Iran and investigate alleged abuses. But in a
joint meeting with the Council in Geneva earlier this month, 4 human
rights organisations from inside and outside the country provided evidence
on major violations in areas such as the execution of minors.

Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Noble Peace Prize Laureate, was one of the
participants; she and others urged the Iranian government to cooperate
with the U.N. investigators.

Human Rights Watch has followed some of the cases on the list, as well as
several of the cases of juvenile offenders executed during the last
several years.

"The Iranian lawyers and activists who collected this information should
be applauded, as should all the lawyers, judges and activists in Iran
working to end the use of the juvenile death penalty in Iran," said
Bencomo.

"But the new parliament should make it a priority to pass legislation
bringing Iran into compliance with its legal obligation to end the
juvenile death penalty, that legislation... should include a provision
guaranteeing free legal assistance to all children charged with criminal
offences," she added.

"The head of the judiciary should order a stay of execution in all capital
cases involving juvenile offenders pending further review, and trial
judges should exclude coerced confessions from evidence," Bencomo said.
"Prosecutors should ask children charged with crimes about their treatment
by police and investigate and prosecute police who commit abuses, and
lawyers' associations should organise a system to provide free legal aid
to all children charged with capital offences."

(source: *Omid Memarian is World Peace Fellow at UC Berkeley's Graduate
School of Journalism and a regular contributor to IPS)