[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 13



LIBYA/BULGARIA:

Bulgarian nurses on death row in Libya at a low ebb: lawyer


5 Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya in an AIDS epidemic case
are awaiting a final verdict from the supreme court "with a great deal of
worry," their lawyer told AFP.

"Their morale is very low," said Othman al-Bizanti, who last saw his
clients more than 10 days ago.

"They are very worried after being sentenced to death. They have been
living for the last 8 years in psychological torture and daily suffering,"
he said Monday.

On February 9, 1999, the five nurses and a Palestinian doctor were
arrested after hundreds of children at the Benghazi pediatric hospital
where they worked contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The 6 defendants were first sentenced to death in 2004, but then the
supreme court ordered a retrial and a new death sentence was issued on
December 19 last year .

The Supreme Court will hear their latest appeal in about 6 weeks.

The nurses and the doctor deny the charges and have been supported in
their appeal by international experts, including the co-discoverer of the
HIV/AIDS virus Luc Montagnier, who said the infection of the children was
due to poor hospital hygiene.

Bizanti said he was sure his clients will be exonerated.

"I am optimistic and we have confidence in Libyan justice," he said. "They
were forced to confess to the crime because they were tortured."

He said the nurses were incarcerated in comparative comfort at the Jdaida
prison, seven kilometres (four miles) east of Tripoli and no requests for
visits by the lawyer or relatives have been refused. The nurses are also
embroiled in a 2nd case brought by a police officer and a member of the
investigative committee who are suing them for defamation over their
torture claims.

The nurses said they were beaten, given electrical shocks and threatened
with dogs by Jomaa al-Meshri and Abdel Majid al-Shoul, who in response are
each suing them for 5 million dinars (around 3 million dollars).

Despite his optimism, Bizanti has not ruled out the possibility that the
Supreme Court will uphold the death sentence.

"In this case, the Supreme Judicial Council -- the highest judicial
authority in Libya -- can overturn the sentence or grant a pardon," he
said.

Bizanti declined to discuss the possibility that the matter could be
resolved in negotiations between a foundation presided over by Seif
al-Islam -- the son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi -- and the Bulgarian
authorities.

Islam told the Bulgarian daily 24 Hours last month that the nurses would
not be put to death. "I guarantee that we will not execute them," he said.
"Believe me, we are approaching a solution."

The sentencing to death of the nurses and the doctor has been fiercely
criticised by Bulgaria and the international community and threatens to
derail Libya's attempts to normalise its relations with the European
Union.

(source: Focus News)






GUYANA:

Death sentence for man who murdered partner


Royston Alfred who was on trial in the High Court for killing his partner
3 years ago on D'Urban Street was convicted of murder last week and
sentenced to death by Justice Claudette La Bennett.

He showed no emotion after judgement was handed down and quietly left the
courtroom. The jury deliberated for 2 hours before returning with a guilty
verdict.

Alfred killed Cathedra Parris called 'Chiney' sometime between March 12
and 13, 2004 at her D'Urban Street, Werk-en-Rust apartment. He was
formally indicted before Justice La Bennett just over 2 weeks ago.

The prosecution led by state counsel, Faith McGusty contended that Alfred
had threatened Paris on numerous occasions prior to her death and that
sometime during the period mentioned he stabbed her in the neck. Parris
was found with a knife in her neck on the morning or March 13.

During the trial witnesses testified to hearing Alfred threatening Parris.
According to the testimony, he said things along the lines of: he would
end her life, terminate her services and kill her.

In a statement he gave police which was admitted into evidence Alfred said
he went to Parris' home and that they were playing around in bed when she
was stabbed. He said she stabbed him first and he retaliated by stabbing
her. He said he then left the home and later turned himself into the
police.

He also gave a brief a statement from the dock. He told the court, "I did
not kill Cathedra Parris. I am innocent of this charge".

State counsel Faith McGusty appeared for the prosecution while Alfred was
represented by attorney-at-law Parmanand Mohanlall.

(source: Stabroek News)






BELARUS:


Belarus sentences 9 to death in 2006, up from 2, court chairman says


9 people were sentenced to death in Belarus last year, up from 2 in 2005,
the chairman of the Supreme Court said Monday  an increase that is likely
to add to European criticism of the ex-Soviet republic's authoritarian
leadership.

There were more death sentences in 2006 because "several large criminal
gangs and organizations were neutralized," Supreme Court chairman Valentin
Sukalo said.

One such alleged gang, based in the city of Gomel, was accused of 16
murders and had 48 members, according to Belarusian authorities.

Belarus is the only European country that is not a member of the Council
of Europe and practices the death penalty. Neighboring Russia has not
abolished capital punishment, but suspended the death penalty a decade ago
when it joined the continent's leading human rights body.

Sukalo did not say how many of the death sentences had been carried out,
but President Alexander Lukashenko did not pardon any of those sentenced.
Executions in Belarus are carried out with a gunshot to the back of the
head; relatives are not officially told of the date of the execution or
where the body is buried.

Lukashenko has been dubbed Europe's last dictator by Western governments
because of his suppression of dissent in the nation of 10 million, where
he has held on to power since 1994 through elections dismissed by the
United States and European countries as illegitimate.

(source: International Herald Tribune)




PAKISTAN:

Too Many Dubious Convictions Say Activists


The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and the
Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights have called for an
immediate moratorium on death penalties in Pakistan -- or many innocent
people may be executed.

There are "very serious defects" in Pakistan's criminal, police and
justice system, the rights organisations charge in their joint
fact-finding report Slow March to Gallows,' launched late January. There
is also "chronic corruption" and bias against women and religious
minorities.

All this has made the capital punishment system in Pakistan
"discriminatory and unjust" and allowed for the "high probability" of
miscarriage of justice. "Until we wait for the imperfect system to be
corrected many people, including quite a few innocents, will have been
hanged," I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP), told IPS. There should be an immediate freeze on executions of
those already sentenced, he said.

HRCP council member Zohra Yusuf added: "We are for abolition. A moratorium
is proposed to give immediate relief in the interim period." A moratorium
would spare those convicted under Pakistan's controversial Blasphemy Law.
Minority religious groups in Pakistan, especially Christians, have long
charged that this law was being used to persecute them.

The United States-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has welcomed HRCP's call
for a moratorium as a 1st step to abolition. "The use of the death penalty
must end, period," said Ali Dayan Hasan, South Asia researcher for HRW,
adding that HRCP was highlighting the "very serious plight of large
numbers of prisoners on death row."

Currently there are more than 7,400 prisoners on death row, some of whom
have been there for decades. Rights groups say executions have been
increasing, with 1,029 carried out between 1975 and 2002 in the Punjab
province alone. In the 1st half of 2006, the number of people executed was
54.

In spite of the steady increase in the numbers sentenced to death and
actual executions, the HRCP report states that there has been a spiral in
the number of crimes carrying the ultimate penalty.

At the time of independence, in 1947, only murder and treason carried the
death sentence. But today there are 27 capital crimes, including
blasphemy, stripping a woman of her clothes in public and sabotage of the
railway system. Many of these were introduced during the 1977-88 military
dictatorship of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq.

It was under Gen. Zias rule that former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
was executed despite worldwide appeals for clemency. Bhutto was hanged on
Apr. 4, 1979 on the charge of conspiring to murder a political opponent,
after what was widely held to be an unfair and politicised trial. His
appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected by 4 judges out of seven and one
of the four stated afterwards that he regretted his decision.

HRCP has urged the government to put a restriction on the number of
offences carrying death sentence and refrain from adding new ones, but
Rehman said he did not expect an immediate government response to their
call. "The government is a thick-hide mule. We do not expect an early
breakthrough. It has other priorities," he said.

By calling for a moratorium rather than a complete abolition of capital
punishment, HRCP hopes to start a debate and "allow the government and the
public to thrash out issues and reach a consensus," Rehman said. "Laws
made without public concurrence rarely succeed."

Rehman conceded that the abolitionists would have to work hard to convince
the public about their cause. "The public, at the moment, does not seem
interested or supportive of abolition. People have been brutalised. They
are also much too confounded by clerics claiming that killing is enjoined
by faith. They would like to see more heads rolling than fewer," he said.

Giving an example of how the abolitionists might press their case in
Pakistan, Rehman said: "One could argue, for instance, that murder apart,
there is no sanction in Islam or in our legal tradition for awarding death
in many of the cases that have been added to the capital offences list."

On the issue of deterrence, HRCP is arguing that the "certainty of
conviction not the harshness of punishment," was decisive in reducing
crime. "Capital punishment or any other punishment can be deterrent only
in states where the legal order is not strong enough to prevent the
wrongdoer escaping. We should be at the stage where even a minor
punishment should act as a deterrent: Then there would be no need to hang
anyone," explained Rehman.

There is also the question of reforms in Pakistan's judiciary, police, and
executive which are considered essential issues. "Wherever justice has
moved from retribution to reformation and meeting people's economic needs,
the crime rate has fallen," said Rehman.

He stressed that Pakistan's religion-based Qisas and Diyat Ordinance,
highly criticised by rights activists for miscarriage of justice, must be
reformed. This law allows families of murder victims to accept
compensation and pardon the offender. "It gives the victims family
veto-power to decide whether a convict should live or die," Rehman said.
"It's a privatisation of justice because murder, which is a crime both
against the victim and society, is reduced to a matter between the killer
and the victims family. Society is deprived of its say."

HRCP's Yusuf adds that the ordinance allows the rich to "literally get
away with murder by paying the 'blood money' while the poor are hanged.
The law will have to go if death penalty is abolished."

Besides calling for a moratorium, the HRCP report presses for several
administrative measures to be introduced. These include greater
accessibility for members of civil society to prisons and contact with
condemned prisoners. It wants a strengthening of the police investigation
system, an increase in spending on the police and justice system and a
mechanism for protection of victims and witnesses taking part in criminal
procedures.

(source: IPS News)






KOREA:

Korea to Retain Death Penalty System


The government is unlikely to abolish capital punishment despite the
National Human Rights Commission's recommendation to do so.

The Ministry of Justice on Tuesday announced a draft of a roadmap for
human rights protection during a public hearing in Seoul. It said it has
collected opinions from all sectors, including the government, academics
and civic groups.

According to the National Action Plan on Human Rights, the ministry
deferred a decision on eliminating the death penalty, 1 of 3 key laws or
practices the human rights commission recommended the government abolish
in January last year.

The ministry said it would examine the appropriateness of capital
punishment under the current laws during the first half of this year and
review whether to retain the penalty.

"The government will study whether it should adopt non-commutable life
imprisonment instead of capital punishment. With the studies, we'll assist
the National Assembly's review of a pending bill calling for an
abolishment of the death penalty," a ministry official said.

Early last year, the ministry said it would consider replacing capital
punishment with a life sentence as part of its plan to better protect
criminals' rights and strengthen the criminal justice system. Since 1997,
no Korean citizen has been executed, although 63 people have been
sentenced to death. If the trend continues through the end of the year,
Korea will become the 31st country listed by Amnesty International to have
abolished capital punishment in practice.

The ministry delayed discussing whether to abolish the National Security
Law and security supervision system, under which those who are put behind
bars for espionage charges have to report their address to the police on
their release.

"The government will apply the National Security Law flexibly to prevent
misapplication. But whether to abolish it or not should be decided through
national consensus after reviewing related laws as a bill on scrapping the
law is pending at the Assembly," he said.

The ministry decided to retain the security supervision system after
preparing measures to prevent misapplication.

The draft also includes measures to boost foreigners' rights. The
government will force authorities to obtain the justice minister's
permission when they need to take foreigners who are ordered to leave the
country into custody for more than 6 months. After the 6 months, the
authorities should obtain permission every 3 months.

(source: The Korea Times)






IRAQ:

Ex-VP given death penalty by hanging


In Iraq, a court has raised the sentence against former Iraqi vice
president to death by hanging, for killings carried out decades ago. Taha
Yassin Ramadan, is the fourth member of the ousted regime of Saddam
Hussein to face execution.

Ramadan was silent during the reading of the verdict, but he reacted
angrily afterwards, before the judge ordered him to be removed from the
courtroom.

The decision had been expected, after an appeals court ruled that
Ramadan's previous sentence of life in jail was too lenient.

However, there were mixed reactions toward Ramadan's sentence.

Tareq Harib, Iraqi legal expert, said, "Ramadan committed a crime, so he
should be sentenced to death. The court didn't alleviate the sentence for
life in jail or any other sentence. The measure taken by the court was
right according to law."

Iraqi citizen, said, "He had already been sentenced to life in jail. Why
did they change the sentence to the death penalty?"

The decision to impose the maximum sentence against Ramandan came despite
appeals from UN as well as human rights groups.

They had urged the court not to impose the death penalty, saying there had
been a lack of evidence tying Ramadan to the Dujail killings, and the
death sentence would break international law.

(source: CCTV News)