[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 29



HONG KONG:

Hong Kong, Mainland China disagree on death penalty

EDITORS NOTE: Puget Sound Business Journal Staff Writer Steve Wilhelm is
traveling in China on a fellowship with the Hong Kong Journalism
Fellowship from the East-West Center and Better Hong Kong Foundation. He
will send dispatches for this blog over the next 2 1/2 weeks as he visits
Beijing, Kunming, Shangri-La and Hong Kong to meet with business and
political leaders, scholars, journalists and government officials.


China has the death penalty and Hong Kong does not.

Working with that is one of the subtleties facing Hong Kong's legal
system, one of the most distinct expressions of the "1 nation 2 systems"
structure that distinguishes Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland.

Wong Yan-lung, Hong Kong secretary for justice, is a classic product of
Hong Kongs colonial past. He was educated at Cambridge University in
England, is licensed to practice law both in Hong Kong and the United
Kingdom, and speaks British English with a studied eloquence that would
make most Americans envious.

In a meeting, he made it clear that Hong Kongs legal system continues to
be based on British common law, as set out by the "Basic Agreement," the
original document hammered out by the British and the Chinese government
before Hong Kong returned to Chinese control in 1997.

Wong said the demarcations between the 2 legal systems are clear enough
that there are few disputed areas.

One subject being talked about right now that is difficult is extradition,
technically called "rendition," since China exercises capital punishment
and Hong Kong doesnt, and the Hong Kong government wants to be sure that
none of its citizens will be executed if they are extradited to China.

But at the same time, Wong said constant consultation is taking place
between leaders of China's and Hong Kong's legal systems, and those
consultations are helping the Chinese bring their system up to world
standards.

"They are quite frank to admit they need to be approved upon," Wong said.

One feature of Hong Kong law that many Americans might envy is a guarantee
of free legal representation for lower-income residents who want to pursue
civil cases.

"A citizen of Hong Kong, if they believe they are adversely affected by a
government decree, they can take the government to court," he said.

(source: Puget Sound Business Journal)




IRAN:

A young man on death row


A young man, Rahim Ahmadi, soon will face gallows in Iran. Mahmoud Hashemi
Shahroudi, chief of mullahs' judiciary on Sunday upheld a death sentence
by the lower court for him. Ahmadi was 15 at the time of the alleged
crime.

Mohammad Mostafai, Ahmadi's attorney maintains that his client is innocent
and had no intention of murdering the victim who was his friend.

It is interesting to know that Mostafai's other client, Behnam Zare, was
hanged without the judiciary branch notifying either him or his family in
August.

Mostafai fears that Ahamdi's fate would not be any better than that of
Zare since both cases were tried by the mullahs' judiciary in the southern
city of Shiraz.

Earlier this month, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
expressed grave concern over the violation of human rights in Iran. U.N.
Human Rights official, Rupert Colville, told reporters "On the 27th of
July, for example, 29 executions are reported to have taken place. A month
later, on the 28th of August, another five people, including a woman, were
reported to have been executed. In all, more than 220 people, including
six juvenile offenders, are believed to have been executed this year in
Iran already.

"Iran's legal obligation not to impose the death penalty for juveniles was
assumed voluntarily when it ratified the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both
of which prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by people below
the age of 18,'' Coleville added.

International outrage over the wave of executions heightened in late
August when the regime executed 2 teenagers, Reza Hejazi and Behnam Zare,
for crimes they allegedly committed when they were under 18. On September
10, the state-run daily Etemaad reported that the mullahs Supreme Court
had upheld the death sentence for a 17-year-old boy named Hossein for a
crime he allegedly committed when 14. According to rights groups, 140
minors are awaiting the death penalty in Iran.

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