[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 12



IRAN:

Mullahs' Supreme Court upheld death sentences for three Kurdish activists


The mullahs' Supreme Court upheld an earlier death sentence by a lower
court for three Kurdish political activists Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian
and Farhad Vakili on Friday. The 3 were first arrested on April 2006 and
tried in the lower court in February 2007.

The 3 political prisoners have been tortured repeatedly while in jail in
the past 3 years.

The Iranian Resistance calls on the international human rights
organizations and the United Nations to condemn the violation of human
rights by the ruling clerics and adopt urgent measures to save the lives
of political prisoners in Iran.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)






VIETNAM:

Vietnam to execute 2 Taiwanese heroin traffickers


A court in southern Vietnam sentenced 2 Taiwanese men to death for their
involvement in an international heroin trafficking ring, local media
reported Friday.

The People's Court of An Giang province, 190 kilometres south-west of Ho
Chi Minh City, handed death sentences to Wei Chun Lung and Lee Chih Wen at
a 2-day trial that ended Thursday, the People's Police newspaper said.

The court also sentenced 2 Vietnamese accomplices, Phan Thi Cam Tu and
Huynh Thi Anh, to 20 and 18 years in prison.

According to the court's indictment, the ring was uncovered on May 20,
2007 when Anh was arrested en route from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City with
1.2 kilograms of heroin in her luggage.

The province's anti-narcotics force later arrested other members and found
more heroin at the Ho Chi Minh City hotel room of ring leader Lee,
People's Police said.

The group confessed to having brought 2.5 kilograms of heroin from
Cambodia into Vietnam. They said the heroin was then illegally transported
to Taiwan.

Trafficking or transporting 600 grams or more of heroin is punishable by
death in Vietnam.

The communist country has sentenced at least 27 people to death this year,
including 13 death sentences for drug crimes. 3 of the death sentences
were handed to foreigners.

In March, a court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced an Australian woman of
Vietnamese origin to death for smuggling heroin. Jasmine Luong, 34, was
arrested in February last year when she was trying to bring 1.4 kilograms
of heroin to Sydney.

(source: Bangkok Post)