[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 11



JAPAN----executions

Japan executes 3 on death row


Japan executed 3 convicted murderers on Thursday, the Justice Ministry
said.

The death row inmates, all in their 60s, included Yoshiyuki Mantani, 68,
convicted of the murder of a 19-year-old girl.

The executions, by hanging, bring the year's total to 13, with another 100
believed to be on death row.

9 people were executed in Japan last year, marking an increased pace of
implementation of the death penalty.

The latest executions took place under new Justice Minister Okiharu
Yasuoka, who was appointed in a cabinet reshuffle last month.

Capital punishment generates public support in opinion polls, amid fears
of rising violent crime.

But Japan's record and the accelerated pace of executions, when many other
countries in Asia are reducing their reliance on the death penalty, has
provoked sharp criticism from rights groups such as Amnesty International.

Relatives of those due to be executed receive no advance warning of the
event.

It is thought that about 100 convicted murderers and others on death-row
are awaiting execution.

(source: BBC News)




GLOBAL:

'5 countries account for all child executions'


5 countries, led by Iran, account for all child executions in the world,
the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday, while urging an end to the
practice.

According to the HRW, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen are
the only countries that continue to impose the death penalty on people
younger than 18 after they have been convicted. The United States outlawed
execution of juvenile offenders in 2005. The New York-based HRW urged the
United Nations, which holds its annual General Assembly next week, to
pressure for greater protection for children. "We are only 5 countries
away from a complete ban on a juvenile death penalty," said HRWs Clarisa
Bencomo, adding, "These 5 countries should abandon this barbaric practice
so that no child is ever executed for a crime again." HRW said all
countries had ratified or acceded to treaties ensuring that children were
not sentenced to death, but the five in question allow the punishment in
certain cases.

According to the HRW, Iran has executed 26 of the 32 juveniles put to
death globally since January 2005. Iranian law allows such penalties for
girls of at least 9 and boys of 15 or older, said the report, adding that
6 juvenile offenders had been executed there this year. The HRW said the
issue was being complicated by the low birth registration rate in some
countries, making it very difficult to determine a defendant's true age.
"For example, with more than 35 % of Sudanese births not registered, even
very young juvenile offenders can face execution because they have no
birth certificates to prove their age at the time of the offence," said
the HRW.

(source: Agence France Presse)






IRAN:

Iran Parliament Approves Death Penalty for Apostasy Bill


Lawmakers approved the bill with 196 votes in favor, 7 against, and 2
abstentions, according to U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The
draft bill seeks to add several crimes to the list of acts that would
result in execution, including "establishing weblogs and sites promoting
corruption, prostitution, and apostasy."

CSW advocacy director Alexa Papadouris commented, "It is deeply worrying
to hear that just days after Matin-Azad and Basirat have been charged with
apostasy at a court in Shiraz, the Iranian Parliament is debating a bill
that could codify the death penalty for someone choosing their own
religion." In August, there were 5 known arrests of Iranian Christians in
three cities by authorities, according to the persecution watchdog agency
Compass Direct News. Among those arrested was Ramtin Soodmand, who is the
son of the last Christian convert to be executed for leaving Islam, on
Aug. 21.

Soodmands father, Hossein Soodmand, was an Assemblies of God pastor who
was executed by the state in 1990 under the false charge of working as an
American spy. Since Soodmands death, six other Protestant pastors have
been assassinated by unknown assailants.

The younger Soodmand has been held in Tehran since he voluntarily turned
himself in after repeated calls from the Ministry of Information.
According to Compass sources, he was only allowed one phone call to his
blind mother on Aug. 23, and allowed a "visit" by his wife and 2 young
children where authorities only permitted them to have a 2-minute
conversation by phone. They never saw each other and his condition remains
unknown.

Iran is ranked third in Open Doors' World Watch List for countries with
the worst persecution of Christians. The U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom also lists Iran as a "Country of Particular Concern," a
label given to countries with the worst religious freedom abuses.

Reportedly, Iran had removed news of the bill's approval from its
Parliament website within hours of publishing it on Tuesday, according to
CSW. But reports of the bill's process in parliament was published by
other official Iranian news agencies, including IRINN (Islamic Republic of
Iran News Network) and morning papers inside Iran, such as Resalat.

"We call upon the British Government and the European Union to officially
respond to this new development and urge the Iranian Government to reject
the bill and guarantee the immediate release of all who are detained on
the basis of their religious beliefs alone," Papadouris of Christian
Solidarity plead.

The approved bill will be sent back to the Legislative Commission to
debate proposed amendments before it is brought back to the Parliament for
another vote.

(source: Chirstian Post)

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

Calls to ban juvenile death penalty


With at least 26 executions in the past 3 years, Iran remains by far the
leader of five countries still carrying executions for crimes committed by
juveniles, a human rights organization said in a report released today.

The other countries are also part of the Muslim world: Saudi Arabia,
Sudan, Pakistan and Yemen. The organization slammed juvenile death penalty
as a barbaric practice and urged governments attending next week's United
Nations General Assembly to adopt reforms that protect the rights of
children facing trials.

Clarisa Bencomo, a researcher for HRW on childrens rights, sounded the
alarm:

We are only five states away from a complete ban on the juvenile death
penalty.  These few holdouts should abandon this barbaric practice so that
no one ever again is executed for a crime committed as a child.  Even
states that still execute juvenile offenders acknowledge that such
executions are wrong. But changes in law and practice need to be faster.

According to the New-York-based Human Rights Watch, over 100 offenders who
were under 18 when they allegedly committed crimes remain on death row
around the world.

In Iran, capital punishment can be imposed if the defendant has reached
the age of "majority," which is set by Iranian law as young as 9 for girls
and 15 for boys. In Saudi Arabia, offenders who have reached puberty at
the time of the crime can be sentenced to death.

In 2005, the United States Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional capital
punishment for those who commit crimes under age 18.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, the decision was expected to
reverse the death sentences of 72 convicted murderers who committed their
crimes as juveniles.

(source: Los Angeles Times)

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

Stoning sentences for 2 prisoners still pending


A 30-year-old women prisoner identified as Gilan Mohammadi and an Afghan
national, Gholamali Eskandari, are sentenced to death by stoning. Both are
awaiting their sentences to be carried out in Isfahan prison central Iran.

Despite much smoke screening by the mullahs' judiciary last month
regarding the commuting of all such rulings, there has not been any change
made in these 2 cases.

In July 2007, the Iranian regime caused international outrage when Jafar
Kiani was stoned to death in the northwestern city of Qazvin.

A man and a woman -- Abbas H. and Mahbubeh A. -- were also stoned to death
in May 2006 in the northeastern city of Mashhad, although their execution
has never been officially confirmed.

On February 4, the mullahs' Supreme Court upheld the death sentence by
stoning of 2 sisters Zohreh (27) and Azar (28) Kabiri-Neyat in the
notorious Gohardasht (Rajaishahr) prison in Karaj some 40 km west of the
capital Tehran.

Similarly, in the winter of 2007, the death sentence by stoning of a
49-year-old man named Abdullah Farivar was upheld by the Supreme Court in
the northern city of Sari. The man has 2 children.

(source: National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs
Committee)






VIETNAM:

Vietnam sentences 3 men to death for heroin trafficking


A court in Hanoi sentenced 3 men to death for trafficking heroin, a
criminal court official said Thursday. The court handed down death
sentences for Nguyen Van Quy, 42, Du Van Nha, 38, and Tran Van Tu, 53. 2
accomplices, Cao Xuan Trung, 42, and Dang Xuan Hai, 48, received life in
prison and 20 years respectively, said Dao Vinh Tuong, a deputy judge at
the Hanoi People's Court.

The only woman in the ring, Nguyen Thi Loi, 48, was sentenced to 17 months
in prison for hiding the traffickers.

The group was convicted Thursday of smuggling heroin from Laos into
Vietnam starting from July 2006. The head of the ring, Nguyen Chien Thang,
was arrested in May 2007, but committed suicide one month later while in
detention.

"This is the second-biggest trial related to heroin trafficking this
year," said the court's presiding judge, Ta Phuc Cuong.

According to the indictment, the ring was detected on in November 2006,
when Nguyen Van Quy was arrested with 10.4 kilograms of heroin in his
luggage while en route from Vientiane to Hanoi.

The anti-narcotics force of Hanoi city followed links from Quy to the
other members of the ring, which was found to have trafficked and consumed
40 kilograms of heroin in addition to Quy's load.

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

Vietnam has this year sentenced at least 39 people to death, including 18
for drug crimes. This marks a slower rate than last year, when 71 people
were sentenced to death.

(source: The Earth Times)






UGANDA:

Death row inmates and abolitionists take Uganda's death penalty to court


Hundreds of Ugandan death row inmates and those who support them are
awaiting a final decision in the constitutional case they have taken
against the death penalty in their country.

On July 4 last, Uganda's Supreme Court heard both sides' arguments in a
5-year long legal battle against the death penalty. The government wants
to retain the death penalty as a constitutional form of punishment, while
all 417 prisoners who were on death row in 2003 then took a court case
against capital punishment, which "amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment their lawyer," according to their lawyer, Frederick Ssempebwa.

The constitutionality of hanging, Uganda's method of execution, was also
questioned in the case. Since then, Ssempebwa's legal firm has been
providing free legal representation for the petitioners. They have
received support from the Death Penalty Project, a British NGO that offers
legal help to people facing the death penalty around the world. According
to documents published by the Death Penalty Project at the time, "the case
is of huge significance as it represents a broad constitutional challenge
to all aspects of the death penalty in Uganda."

A first victory

In June 2005, Susan Kigula and her 416 fellow death row prisoners claimed
a first victory in the Constitutional Court. The judges ruled that
mandatory death sentences, as well as a delay of more than 3 years between
the death sentence and the execution, was unconstitutional. All the
petitioners fell under either condition, and the decision meant that all
their death sentences were overturned. However, the Constitutional Court's
decision failed to outlaw the principle of the death penalty.

Uganda's Attorney General then took the case to the Supreme Court, arguing
that mandatory sentences should remain constitutional. In turn, the 417
petitioners appealed the ruling, hoping that the courts would ban the
death penalty completely.

Final stage

With last July's hearing, the case has entered its final stage. In its
latest newsletter, the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), a
Ugandan member of the World Coalition that has supported the petitioners
since 2003, reported that the case was heard in "a packed court room."
According to FHRI, there are now more than 900 death row inmates in
Uganda, all of which are "eagerly awaiting the judgement."

According to the Ugandan newspaper Daily Monitor, the case holds hope for
anti-death penalty activists: "For the most part, the government's legal
team looked ill-prepared, and there were instances that just fell short of
resulting in embarrassment," it reported.

However, they will need patience as the Supreme Court has warned that it
would take time to make a decision.

(source: World Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty)