[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 11



INDONESIA:

Indonesia widens use of death penalty


In Indonesia, the death penalty is carried out by firing squad.

When the time comes, after any final wishes have been granted, the
prisoner is taken to a field to stand in front of 12 gunmen. A single shot
is fired from each rifle, carefully aimed at the chest. If that does not
kill the prisoner, the commander will fire a point-blank shot to the head.

This is how it went for Ahmad Suradji, 57, who was executed late Thursday
night for the murder of 42 women a decade ago. No family or witnesses were
allowed. This was how it also went for 2 Nigerians executed June 26 on
drug trafficking charges.

Indonesia resumed executing prisoners in June after a 14-month hiatus,
during which time the Constitutional Court here upheld the death penalty
for drug offenders. Indonesia has some of the strictest penalties for drug
crimes in the world.

Though more than half of the prisoners on death row are there for
drug-related charges, Samuel Iwachekwu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaliosa,
the Nigerian nationals executed in June, were the 1st drug offenders put
to death in 4 years.

"Indonesia is not typically an enthusiastic executioner," said Kathryn
Duff from Amnesty International.

The recent executions, however, coupled with statements from the attorney
general, indicate that might be changing.

The Nigerians were put to death on the International Day against Drug
Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as a powerful message to those trafficking
drugs through Indonesia. That same day, in another warning, the attorney
general, Hendarman Supandji, said other death row inmates on drug charges
could expect their executions to be accelerated.

A.H. Ritonga, a deputy attorney general, said this week that Supandji's
comment did not necessarily mean all 58 prisoners on death row for
drug-related crimes would be executed soon. Many of them, he said, could
still file final appeals or plea for clemency.

"Death row inmates will only be executed according to the law, after their
appeals are exhausted and their clemency bids rejected," Ritonga said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, however, has said publicly he would
not pardon drug offenders.

Indonesia's intention to execute greater numbers of prisoners bucks a
worldwide trend toward abolishing the death penalty. The United Nations in
2007 passed a resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death
penalty.

Amnesty International has appealed for the lives of the prisoners set to
be executed here soon, noting that there "is no clear evidence that the
death penalty deters crime any more effectively than other forms of
punishment."

Indonesia has 112 felons now on death row, seven of whom have exhausted
all their appeals and are expected to be executed soon, including the
three terrorists sentenced to death for their roles in the 2002 Bali
bombings that killed 202 people. Eighteen other prisoners, in a last-ditch
effort to save their lives, are appealing to the president for clemency.

Indonesia is still a long way from ranking among top executing countries.
In 2007, China executed 470 or more, Iran about 320, Saudi Arabia more
than 140 and Pakistan about 135. The United States is ranked fifth with 42
executions carried out in 2007, according to Amnesty International.

Yudhoyono, however, has been a staunch supporter of the death penalty
since taking office, rarely granting clemency. He went ahead with the
execution of three Christian militants in 2004, despite concerns from
international human rights groups that not all the evidence had been
presented during their trial.

Yudhoyono has also so far not bowed to pressure from Australia, which has
a long tradition of fighting against the death penalty worldwide, to
commute the death sentence of 3 Australians imprisoned in Bali for
smuggling heroin.

Abuses in East Timor cited

A truth and friendship commission is set to report its findings that
Indonesia carried out crimes against humanity during East Timor's
successful bid for independence in 1999 and should apologize to the
country for the murders, torture and other abuses that occurred, The
Associated Press reported from Dili, East Timor, on Friday.

The bilateral team, set up in 2005 to investigate the events, in which a
previous UN report said that at least 1,000 people died, said in a
300-page report obtained by The AP that Indonesian soldiers, the police
and the civil authorities engaged in an "organized campaign of violence"
against supporters of independence. The commission concluded that
Indonesia "bears institutional responsibility" and should express
appropriate remorse.

The Commission of Truth and Friendship was scheduled to formally present
the report to President Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Jos
Ramos-Horta of East Timor for their approval on Monday.

The harshest criticism was reserved for Indonesia, but the inquiry said
East Timor should also apologize for abuses carried out by
pro-independence militia, especially illegal detentions.

(source: International Herald Tribune)

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

Indonesian man executed for mass murder


Indonesia has executed a man for killing 42 women and girls in a series of
ritual slayings.

An Attorney General Office spokesman said 57-year-old Ahmad Suradji was
killed by firing squad late Thursday.

Police have said Suradji lured his victims to a sugarcane field near his
home and then strangled them before reburying their bodies with the heads
pointing toward his house.

He apparently believed the 11-year killing spree increase his magical
powers.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Bali bombers remorseless, appeal death sentence


3 Indonesian Muslim militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings
reaffirmed their readiness Thursday to die but insisted again that their
execution must be done in accordance to the Islamic laws, their lawyers
said.

"In principle it (the planned execution) is no problem, as long as it has
strong legal basis," Achmad Michdan, 1 of the 3 men's defence attorneys,
said on his way to Nusakambangan island, off the southern coast of central
Java, where the 3 convicts are incarcerated.

The courts and Indonesian authorities have consistently turned down
requests for a so-called "Islamic execution," and the men are under
sentence to die in a lawful execution - by firing squad, usually at night
in isolated and undisclosed locations. The condemned are notified of the
date at least 72 hours beforehand.

Michdan was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara news agency that the
3 men - Ali Ghufron, alias Muhklas, his younger brother Amrozi and Imam
Samudra - were currently waiting for a legal decision from the Supreme
Court of a 3rd legal review - the latest attempt to stall their
executions.

(source: Deutshce Presse Agentur)

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

4 hanged in public


The Iranian regime publically hanged four people in Borazjan, southern
Boushehr province, on Thursday July 10, reported Khalij Fars provincial
News Agency.

The public hangings were carried out after the mullahs' judiciary chief,
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, announced last February that "The death penalty
should be carried out behind closed doors." He also banned television
footages and publication of photographs of executions.

But the ruling clerics, fearing the increasing popular uprisings and
protests have turned to its medieval public hanging to terrorize the
people.

Another prisoner was hanged in Sanandaj central prison, western Iran, on
July 10. Execution of Ahmad Khalaj took place while he could not stand on
his feet due to his ailment. His sentence was carried out in total
violation of international human rights regulations.

(source: Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance
of Iran)






JAPAN:

Japanese lawyer indignant after her client is executed without notice


On June 17, Tsutomu Miyazaki, Shinji Mutsuda and Yoshio Yamazaki were
executed in Japan. Lawyer Maiko Tagusari, who defended 1 of the 3 men,
denounces the rising number of executions in her country.

"On the morning of June 17, my client on death row, Tsutomu Miyazaki, was
executed in Tokyo Detention Centre without any prior notice, as well as 2
other inmates, one also in Tokyo and the other in Osaka. Since the
inauguration of the current Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama, there have
been executions every two months. He has executed as many as 13 people in
only 6 months.

I was therefore gravely worried that my client's execution could be
imminent. Miyazaki was mentally ill and had been receiving psychiatric
medical treatment in the detention centre for more than a decade.

I had been preparing for an appeal for retrial for the last several
months, obtaining his medical record from the detention centre authorities
and requesting an expert to examine his mental condition. On May 30, I
sent a letter to the Minister and requested him no to execute my client,
citing these circumstances.

I am now in Taiwan and joining the campaign organized by Taiwan Alliance
to End the Death Penalty, together with Speedy Rice from the World
Coalition Against the Death Penalty and Mark Allison from Amnesty
International.

Japan going against the trend

Although I do not know if the Ministry of Justice selected my client as a
target because I am outside Japan now, it is symbolic that he was executed
during my visit to this country which has been under de-facto moratorium
on executions for 2 1/2 years. Even Mainland China is also reducing the
number of executions drastically. Japan is almost the only country which
is clearly and intentionally going against the internal trend toward
moratorium and abolition.

Japan should stop executions immediately, following repeated
recommendations by UN Human Rights Committee, Committee against Torture,
Human Rights Council and United Nations General Assembly Resolution on
moratorium on executions.

Hereby I strongly denounce the execution of the 3 people including
Miyazaki and call for raising awareness about realities in Japan, which is
totally isolated in the context of human rights."

(source: Maiko Tagusari, Attorney at law, ADPAN memberJapan)






MEXICO:

Court to rule on Mexico bid to halt U.S. executions


The World Court said on Friday it will rule next week on a Mexican request
that it seek a delay of the imminent U.S. executions of 5 of its citizens,
who Mexico argues were denied consular assistance.

1 of the 5 on death row, Jose Medellin, is due to die on August 5 in
Texas, prompting Mexico to make its petition last month for urgent action.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will issue its decision on July
16.

The ICJ in The Hague ruled in 2004 that the United States had violated
international law by failing to inform 51 Mexicans on death row of their
right to consular assistance and said the cases should be reviewed.

Mexico opposes the U.S. death penalty and the issue has strained relations
between the 2 neighbors.

In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush, a staunch defender of the death
penalty, directed state courts to review the 51 cases following the World
Court's ruling, saying the United States must adhere to its international
treaty obligations.

But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that Bush overstepped his
authority when he directed Texas to comply with the ICJ's ruling and
reopen the case against Medellin.

A gang member, Medellin was denied the right to meet with a consular
official from Mexico after his arrest for the June 1993 rape and murder of
2 teenage girls in Houston. The killings were linked to a gang initiation.

Under the Vienna Convention, foreign nationals have a right to talk to
consular officers after their arrests.

Texas has acknowledged Medellin was never told he could talk to Mexican
officials. But it has argued that claim cannot be made now because he
never raised it at trial or sentencing.

Even if his treaty rights had been violated, it would not have made any
difference in the outcome of the case, Texas said.

The ICJ, also known as the World Court, is responsible for handling
disputes between U.N. member states. Its rulings -- which often take years
-- are binding and not subject to appeal.

(source: Reuters)