[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 23



ETHIOPIA:

Ethiopias S. Court approves sentences against 6 "terrorists"


The Federal Supreme Court today approved the Federal High Court (FHC)
sentences passed against 6 people who carried out terrorist attacks in
Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa 1996.

The FHC pronounced death sentences against 5 and imprisoned 1 to 25 years
in jail, the Ethiopian TV said.

Those who were sentenced to death by the Federal Supreme Courts criminal
bench for committing terrorist crimes were: Mohamed Mahmoud Farah, Mohamed
Hassan Mahmoud, Ibrahim Hussein Nalai, Mohamed Almi Liben and Mohammad
Ahmed Ibrahim.

The court, in its ruling, said that the death sentences pronounced by the
Federal High Court on 3 April and 11 April 2002 found it appropriate and
correct. The supreme court also approved the sentence pronounced on the
sixth defendant, Abdi Nur Mohamed Ado.

The Supreme Court in its ruling said that the defendants not only caused
the death of several people but also terrorized the public and government.
The court, in its ruling, said that the defendants in their terrorist
attacks threatened the peace and stability of the country and endangered
the sovereignty of the country as well.

The Supreme Court said that the courts should pass strict and sever
sentences against such criminals. The court said the sentence should match
the serious crimes committed and should also serve as a serious warning
against similar terrorists.

(source: Sudan Tribune)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Group attacks Saudi over Sri Lankan executions


An international rights group said on Thursday that 4 Sri Lankans beheaded
in Saudi Arabia this week for armed robbery suffered a sham trial and that
2 of the men may not have known they were sentenced to death.

The bodies of the 4 men, beheaded by the sword in a public square in
Riyadh on Monday, were displayed on wooden crosses for over an hour as a
deterrent, amid fears of an increase in organised crime among expatriates.

The kingdom, which is home to Islam's holiest shrines, applies strict
Islamic law and regularly beheads murderers, rapists and drug traffickers.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), which followed the case and said
it managed to speak to one of the men by telephone several days before
execution, said they were victims of poverty and arbitrary justice that
denied them legal representation.

"The execution of these four migrants, who had been badly beaten and
locked up for years without access to lawyers, is a travesty of justice,"
the group's Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson said
in a statement.

One of the men, Ranjith de Silva, told the group he had been driven to
commit the crimes in 2004 by "financial desperation". He said he came to
the country for work paying 400 riyals per month ($NZ153), but his
employer only paid 250 riyals.

"He claims that at no stage of his arrest, interrogation, detention, or
trial was he ever told that he could see a lawyer," said HRW in the
statement dated Feb. 21 which appeared on the group's website on Thursday.

It said that during a fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia in November HRW
was told that two of the men had been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
"Indeed, 2 of those convicted may have been unaware that they had been
sentenced to death," it said.

The men were not informed of an appeal hearing that took place which
upheld the verdicts.

Sri Lanka's government made an appeal for clemency in the case, which has
highlighted the plight of millions of migrant labourers in Saudi Arabia
and Saudi fears of social tension.

Almost one third of Saudi Arabia's population of 24 million people are
foreigners, mostly blue-collar workers from Asia.

Most are tied to Saudi employers who usually take their passports as a way
of controlling their movements and behaviour, a system rights groups says
deprives expatriates of rights.

But police and religious officials said this week that there was a growing
underworld of criminal behaviour among foreigners.

(source: Reuters)