[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 23


NEPAL/SAUDI ARABIA:

Nepal mission launches bid to save maid on death row


Nepalese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Hamid Ansari, who is also accredited
in Kuwait and 4 other countries in the region, has launched an
international initiative to save a 29-year-old Nepali maid who has been
sentenced to death by a Kuwaiti court for killing a Filipino colleague.

Ansari said that the Nepalese Embassy in Riyadh has already gathered
SR78,000 in donations to the "Save Dolma Sherpa" campaign. The amount
would be used to pay blood money and lawyer and other fees.

"We are now negotiating with the family of the woman allegedly murdered by
Dolma to pay blood money to save her life," he said, adding that the
embassy has already paid the fees to retain a lawyer for the woman.

"There is a good chance for a final verdict from the appellate court
within a few days," he said. "There is happy news that the family of
victim has more or less agreed to receive $10,000 in blood money as
compensation."

Dolma has been in jail in Kuwait for several months. She left her village
2 years ago to work as a maid in the Gulf country. At the time the
Nepalese government had a ban on nationals working as domestic servants in
the Gulf. Dolma is believed to have circumvented the ban by traveling
through India or Bangladesh, like thousands of Nepali men and women do
every year. She left her 3-year-old son in the care of her sister. Dolma's
husband Ang Tenzi Sherpa too went to Iraq in a similar manner to work as a
cook in an American military camp.

Tenzi had rushed back to Katmandu from Iraq to beseech the Nepalese
government to save his wife. According to a report, Dolma allegedly killed
a co-worker in a Kuwaiti home when their employer was away on Haj last
year.

Dolma has not been able to put across her version of the incident in
court. Since Nepal doesnt have any mission in Kuwait, Ansari sent an
official from Riyadh to meet the woman in jail and to expedite legal
proceedings.

Nepalese organizations abroad have already been issuing appeals to the
Kuwaiti government to commute her death sentence. Amnesty International
too has issued an appeal.

(source: Arab News)






PAKISTAN:

Sarabjit unlikely to benefit from Pak govt proposal


Indian national Sarabjit Singh, on death row in a Pakistani jail, is
unlikely to benefit from the government's proposal to commute all death
sentences to life imprisonment as he was convicted for a terrorist act.

The remission would not be applicable to Sarabjit as he has been convicted
on charges of terrorism and espionage, sources in the interior ministry
said.

Only those who were not involved in crimes like terrorism, bombings and
spreading sectarian hatred could benefit from Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani's recent announcement about asking President Pervez Musharraf to
commute death sentences to life imprisonment, the sources told the
influential Daily Times newspaper.

Gilani had announced in parliament on the birth anniversary of slain
former premier Benazir Bhutto on June 21 that the interior ministry would
be asked to move a proposal to the President to commute the sentences of
all prisoners on death row to life imprisonment.

The Prime Minister had also said that the government intended to grant a
remission of 90 days to prisoners. He, however, added that the remission
would not apply to "those involved in heinous crimes".

Pakistani official sources had indicated to PTI shortly after Gilani's
announcement in the National Assembly that Sarabjit, who was sentenced to
death for alleged involvement in four bomb attacks that killed 14 people
in 1990, was not likely to benefit from the proposed remission.

(source: Press Trust of India)






AFGHANISTAN:

Death penalty call for man who spread Koran translation


An Afghan journalist accused of distributing an unacceptable translation
of the Koran should be put to death, says former Prime Minister Ahmad Shah
Ahmadzai.

Former journalist Ghows Zalmay, who was also the spokesman for
Afghanistan's Attorney-General, was arrested in November last year for
distributing a translation of the Koran into Dari, one of Afghanistan's
two official languages.

Ahmadzai, who ran in the 2004 presidential election against current
President Hamid Karzai, told Adnkronos International (AKI) he supported
the death penalty for Zalmay.

"Today Afghanistan is full of vices. Several Afghan restaurants serve
liquor, despite it being illegal and on top of it, such material is
distributed," Ahmadzai told AKI.

"I am in favour of his death."

Muslim scholars in Afghanistan reportedly said that the new version of the
Koran misinterpreted verses about alcohol, begging, homosexuality and
adultery. They also complained that this version was not accompanied by
the original version of the Koran in Arabic.

Ghows, 50, is reportedy in jail after being accused of blasphemy and his
lawyers say he risks the death penalty. He is expected to face charges in
an Afghan court within the next week.

"This is all an American conspiracy to deviate Afghans from their faith,"
said Al-Hajj Farooq Hussaini, the leader of a Muslim prayer association in
the western city of Herat in an interview with Adnkronos International
(AKI).

"They want us to be converted Christians or simply atheists. This American
occupation of Afghanistan is worse than the occupation of Afghanistan by
the Soviets," he said.

Hussaini also referred to the case of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan Christian
convert who was granted asylum in Italy in 2006. Rahman escaped a possible
death sentence in Afghanistan for becoming a Christian.

"Earlier they protected Abdul Rahman who left Islam and converted to
Christianity and now they are encouraging the distribution of the fake
translations of Koran," said Hussaini who is also the leader of a group
led by Ismail Khan, Afghanistan's Energy Minister.

"Ghows Zalmay should be given an exemplary punishment for his crime," he
said.

Many Muslim bloggers have labelled some new translations of the Koran, as
the "American Koran", which they say is unauthentic and aimed at
distracting Muslims from their faith.

(source: AKI News)