[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 13


CHINA:

Chinese teen could face death penalty in killing of Canadian
model----Suspect confessed under questioning


An 18-year-old suspect could face the death penalty after confessing to
killing model Diana Gabrielle O'Brien.

Chen Jun was arrested early yesterday in Xuancheng City in Anhui province,
west of Shanghai, after police, on orders from the top officials in
Shanghai's Public Security Bureau, pulled out all the stops this week to
quickly move on the case.

With the Beijing Olympics less than a month away, they clearly wanted a
suspect caught and an end to the negative media attention the case
attracted in Canada and around the world.

Police said that under questioning he confessed to killing the model as
part of a botched burglary.

"After interrogation, the suspect Chen Jun admitted that on the night of
July 6 he followed the victim into her apartment and committed robbery,"
the police statement said. "The victim resisted. Chen Jun killed her and
took the money."

Police said they found O'Brien's laptop and other possessions when they
nabbed Chen. A Mandarin-language report on the Shanghai website, Eastday,
said they also found a weapon in his possession, but police did not
confirm this.

News of the arrest is bringing a sense of relief for her friends.

"I'm happy that they have found somebody," Alisha Victoria Renaud said.

The violent death of a foreigner is extremely rare in China, and if Chen
is convicted he will likely face the death penalty. Although it is not
mandatory for murder in China, in cases involving foreigners it is usually
applied.

After O'Brien was found dead Sunday, police formed a special task force of
elite detectives who worked around the clock to trace a culprit.

(source: CanWest News Service)

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

China Executes 2 for Alleged Terror Links, While Sentencing 15 Others


Uyghurs, like Tibetans, have a long history under Beijing's heavy-handed
rule-which has at times erupted in violence. But exiled Uyghurs deny the
existence of an organized terrorist campaign and say previous incidents
have been fabricated or exaggerated to secure international support for a
crackdown.

Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have executed 2
ethnic minority Uyghurs and sentenced 15 others for alleged terrorist
links, according to local sources.

Mukhtar Setiwaldi and Abduweli Imin were originally handed death sentences
by the Kashgar Intermediate Peoples Court on November 9th 2007, according
to a November 11th 2007 report by China's official Xinhua news agency.

Referring to them by their Chinese names, Xinhua said Muhetaer Setiwalidi
and Abuduwaili Yiming were sentenced to death for separatist activities,
training at a terrorist camp, and illegally manufacturing explosives.

They were sent to be executed after a public announcement of their
sentences July 9th in Yengi Sheher county, Kashgar, Uyghur sources and a
local official said.

Authorities ordered county residents to attend the meeting but police
banned cameras, lighters, and recording devices, the sources told RFAs
Uyghur service.

Authorities also announced that three others Uyghurs had been handed
two-year suspended death sentences and the rest were sentenced to jail
terms ranging from 10 years to life, the sources said. All 17 defendants
were charged as members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM),
which Beijing accuses of terrorist ties. ETIM denies the allegation.

Prosecutors argued at trial that the men had engaged in separatist
activities from August 2005 until their arrest in January 2007. According
to Xinhua, they made 67 grenades and two bombs that could be used for
suicide attacks. They also acquired 16 kilos of explosives, the news
agency said.

No details were immediately available about the defendants' appeal, which
is automatic in capital convictions under Chinese law, or the approval of
their sentence by the Supreme People's Court (SPC), which is required
under a legal amendment that took effect on January 1st 2007.

The SPC was responsible for reviewing all capital cases until 1983, when
provincial courts were authorized to have the final say in death-penalty
cases as part of a major anti-crime campaign.

"It was an open meeting," one official at the Yengi Sheher county court
said of the July 9th rally. "The Kashgar Intermediate People's Court was
responsible for the case. Our duty was to provide a place for this open
meeting. I am not authorized to speak about it. The Kashgar Intermediate
Court officials can give you detailed information."

Officials at Kashgar Intermediate Court, contacted by telephone, declined
to comment.

'Political criminals'

"I participated in the open meeting," one Uyghur woman said. "17 people
were sentenced. All of them were political criminals. At the open trial,
the authorities announced that these people were terrorists who took part
in Aktu incident and some of them donated money."

The "Aktu incident" refers to a Chinese raid on what authorities described
as a terrorist camp in the Pamir mountains, in Aktu county, in January
2007. Authorities claimed to have killed 18 ETIM members and arrested 17.

"There were a lot of people. About 10,000 people attended the open
meeting," she said. "The parents and relatives of the defendants werent
allowed to attend. Members of the village committees, students, teachers,
and government employees were allowed to attend."

"One of the defendants shouted a slogan as he was being taken awayhe
raised his fist and shoutedbut I couldnt hear what he said," another woman
who watched the trial said.

Earlier incident

The meeting came a day after police used smoke to force open a flat where
15 Uyghurs were staying in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, before shooting
dead five Uyghurs inside who the official media said were planning a "holy
war," witnesses and official media said.

"The injured were sent to hospital and the other nine people were
captured," the official Xinhua news agency quoted a police officer as
saying. "The suspects confessed they had all received training on the
launching of a holy war. Their aim was to kill Han people, the most
populous ethnic group in China whom they took as heretics, and found their
own state."

Uyghurs, like Tibetans, have a long history under Beijings heavy-handed
rule-which has at times erupted in violence. But exiled Uyghurs deny the
existence of an organized terrorist campaign and say previous incidents
have been fabricated or exaggerated to secure international support for a
crackdown.

In March, Chinese authorities said they had broken up and arrested members
of a group that were threatening to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.

China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are
violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an
independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a
border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan,
Russia, and Mongolia.

After the September 11th 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took
the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that ETIM
was a "major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin
Laden." ETIM has denied that charge.

(source: Salem News)






MADAGASCAR:

Death Penalty for Malagasy Farmers over Land Dispute


21 farmers from the locality of Ankorondrano-Analavory (90 km west of
Antananarivo) were sentenced by the state court of Miarinarivo to various
sentences because of a collective act of rebellion that stemmed from a
dispute over land ownership. To protest the expropriation of lands that
they believe was theirs for decades, farmers fought with police force that
came to evict them from the disputed land. The scuffle resulted in the
deaths of 2 policemen and 1 woman from the community. The ruling came out
8 months ago but an increased online campaigning for clemency for the
farmers put the story back into public awareness. Polarized conversations
about the verdicts are taking places in online forums and blogs.

Before reporting the different viewpoints, a brief background on the legal
implications of the dispute and sentences is necessary.

According to L'Express de Madagascar, The legal rights to the 172 ha of
land belongs to a promoter who acquired the land for a development project
(unconfirmed sources mentioned the construction of an amusement park).
However, the farmers have been effectively growing crops on the land since
the 70's when the legal ownership of the land were not clearly defined.

The 21 farmers were sentenced as follows: 12 with death penalties, 6 to 12
years of forced labors, one to one year of imprisonment and another one to
one year on probation.

A netizen, Raharimbahoaka Andriahobijaona, explains on the facebook page
advocating clemency for the farmers that Madagascar is one of the nation
that signed the pact to abolish death penalty (instituted in 1958 in
Madagascar) so even though death penalty has not been removed from the
constitution yet, all the 53 death penalty sentences pronounced to this
day have all been effectively "transformed" into life sentences. He goes
on arguing (fr): "devant la justice, vu les faits et les preuves, les
riches ont presque toujours gain de cause. La justice n'est pas mal faite,
mais certaines lois sont dpasses et ne correspondent plus au monde
actuel.[..]Le vrai problme est que le foncier dans la tradition malgache
reste un hritage culturel."

In front of the court justice, given the facts and evidences, wealthy
people will always eventually win their case. The judicial system is not
all at fault here, its just a few laws that are obsolete and do not
respond the reality of the current world. The main issue in Madagascar is
that real estate is still rooted in the tradition of cultural inheritance
[inadequate in the globalization trends].

He also adds: "Utiliser la presse trangre, la diaspora malgache et tous
les mdias dont on disposent est, je pense, trs utile. Car  notre re, la
prsidence suit de trs prs ce qui se passe au pays et ailleurs. Ce qui
compte c'est la manire et la faon dont on s'y prend pour agir. Nous devons
respecter la loi en vigueur tout en ngociant pour pouvoir trouver ce qu'il
convient de faire sur le moment."

I believe that utilizing foreign media, the Malagasy disapora and all
other media avenues can be effective. In this era, the presidency is
following closely what is being said in the country and overseas. What
matters is the way that we would go about acting [on behalf of the
farmers]. We must respect the current legal system while negotiating what
is best [for the farmers] at the moment.

A petition to free the farmers has been issued and formally presented to
the president Marc Ravalomanana and the minister of Justice Bakolalao
Ramanandraibe Ranaivoharivony by the French Association for friendship and
solidarity with the African People (AFASPA).

Supporters of the liberation of the Malagasy farmers voiced their outrage
at the sentencing especially considering the complex history of real
estate inheritance in that region. Jean Razafindambo explains that the
colonization period induced a lot of confusion regarding actual ownership
of land. He offers the following solution (fr):

"Le dialogue ne devrait-il pas toujours primer sur la rpression dans un
litige foncier? [..]L'Etat de Madagascar devrait racheter ces hypothques
leurs justes valeurs actuelles et effectuer une rforme agraire en bonne et
due forme qui tient compte des facteurs historiques et non juste des
archives hrites de la colonization"

Shouldnt a dialog always be attempted before one moves on to aggressive
repression when it comes to real estate dispute? [] The State of
Madagascar should purchase back all the mortgage at their current values
and implement an agricultural reform that takes into account historical
factors and not just real estate archives inherited from the colonization
period.

(source: GlobalVoiceOnline)