[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 10



FRANCE:

Chirac to call legislative session to abolish death penalty


French President Jacques Chirac has decided to call a joint legislative
session on Feb. 19 to vote on an amendment to inscribe the abolition of
the death penalty in the constitution, the president's office announced on
Friday.

The Senators and representatives of the National Assembly are to meet in
Versailles, west of Paris, for the vote, the announcement said.

Chirac, who has given a clear signal to step down in May, said early last
month that he was devoted to call a legislative session to vote on several
changes to the French constitution before the end of the current
parliamentary session in late February.

One proposed change would inscribe France's abolition of the death penalty
in the current constitution.

Although France banned capital punishment with a 1981 law, Chirac has said
he wants to go further by adding a single line to the constitution: "No
one can be sentenced to the death penalty."

The French government submitted a draft bill on the proposed changes to
the constitution to the parliament last month, demanding the inscription
of the abolition of the death penalty in the constitution. The bill was
approved by the Senate and the National Assembly recently.

Under the current constitution, a bill to change the constitution can only
take effect after it is ratified by a national referendum, which follows
the parliament's approval of the bill.

The alternative lies in the hands of the president, who can call a joint
legislative session instead of a national referendum. The bill must get
three fifth of the legislators' support to pass.

France's official data showed that altogether 78 countries all over the
world uses the death penalty at present.

(source: Xinhua)






INDONESIA:

Court backs death penalty


INDONESIA'S Supreme Court should dismiss a last-ditch appeal by 2002 Bali
bomber Amrozi to escape the firing squad, judges from Bali's Denpasar
District Court have recommended.


The judges sent their recommendation to the Supreme Court, after last
month hearing arguments for and against the appeal being allowed to
proceed.

Amrozi, his brother Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, and Imam Samudra were
sentenced to death for their roles in the bombings which killed 202
people, including 88 Australians.

Lawyers for the three argued that they were convicted on the basis of an
anti-terror law enacted after the bombings and applied retroactively.

But a 2004 ruling by Indonesia's Constitutional Court said new laws could
not be applied retroactively.

In their written recommendations to the Supreme Court, three judges from
the lower district court said the lawyers' arguments in favour of an
appeal were flawed.

They said the Constitutional Court ruling came in July 2004 -- 6 months
after the Supreme Court had upheld Amrozi's death penalty.

As such, it was not considered new evidence that could form the basis of
an appeal, the judges said.

(source: Melbourne Herald Sun)