[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 26


NORTH KOREA:

Unprecedented Call to Stop Execution in North Korea


In an unprecedented move, family and activists have called upon the
international community to intervene to abort the execution of a named
North Korean man, Mr Son Jong Nam.

According to a media release, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has
joined with multiple agencies that protested today outside the government
complex in South Korea in calling for "efforts to rescue Son Jong Nam, who
has been sentenced to public execution."

The appeal comes after Mr Sons brother, Son Jong Hoon, received
information via a relative. He reported: "My brother is sentenced to
public execution and even family members cannot visit him."

CSW says this is the first time that an appeal has been issued to prevent
the known execution of a named individual in North Korea from taking
place. Five North Korean defector organizations working for human rights
in North Korea issued a joint statement on April 4 urging for intervention
to stop the planned execution. They have now broadened their activities to
ask the international community to intervene to raise the case.

The joint agency statement reports that Mr Son (48) is imprisoned in the
basement of the National Security Agency in Pyongyang and is "practically
dead from horrible torture."

CSW reports that Mr Son is accused of betraying his country and sharing
information with South Koreans.

"It is believed the charges are grounded in his visit to China where he
met with his brother and spoke about life in North Korea and, possibly, in
his connection to Christianity. He had also received financial assistance
for his survival from his brother," CSW states.

At a press conference reported by The Daily NK, his brother, Son Jong Hoon
(43), stated: "In China, I only talked to him about how my siblings were
doing and what North Koreans think of the Kim Jong Il regime. He shouldnt
be executed for the crime of betrayal or espionage. His execution needs to
be stopped."

CSW says Mr Son defected from North Korea in 1997 with his wife, son and
brother. He attended Church in China and became a Christian  a serious
crime in North Korea. While his brother was successful in reaching South
Korea in 2002, Son Jong Nam was repatriated in April 2001 and imprisoned
for three years in the Ham-Gyung-Buk area prison camp in North Korea. He
was released on parole in May 2004 after the intervention of influential
contacts. He was expelled to Chongjin where he worked at a rocket research
institute.

The CSW report continues: "In May 2004 Mr Son was able to meet his brother
in China and return to North Korea. However the individual in Musan who
helped him travel to China informed on him to the Musan National Security
Agency. The National Security Office in Musan asked their colleagues in
Pyongyang to arrest Mr Son and he was taken in by the secret police in
January 2006 as he was leaving his younger sisters house in Pyongyang.
Those close to him have been exiled from Pyongyang.

CSW adds: "Those closest to the situation, including Son Jong Hoon, are
now calling for the wider international community to raise its voice to
appeal for the life of Mr Son. The statement from the North Korean
defector organizations states: 'Organizations including Association of
North Korean Defectors, Democracy Network against North Korean Gulag, Free
North Korean Broadcasting and 8,000 North Koreans are asking to stop the
public execution of Son Jong Nam. Mr Son is currently facing critical
danger. By raising the consciousness of the international community, we
may be able to save Mr Son.'"

CSW's International Advocate, Elizabeth Batha, who has gathered extensive
first hand testimony from numerous torture victims and eyewitnesses of
public execution, stated: "We are deeply concerned for the life and
welfare of Mr Son Jong Nam. North Korea practices brutal torture and it is
hard to imagine the pain and suffering that will already have been
inflicted upon him. We urge the international community to match the
bravery and boldness of those who have decided to take this unprecedented
step of announcing this to the outside world. We hope that those in a
position of influence will be unstinting in strongly urging the North
Koreans to abort their plans to carry out this unjust execution."

At the press conference, Son Jong Hoon responded to enquiries about the
date of the public execution, which had been suggested might be scheduled
for mid-April, saying: "The date for the execution is only announced for
murder and other common crimes. For political crimes and treason, the date
is usually not announced beforehand because it might have an undesirable
impact on the people. They carry out the execution on an arbitrary date."
However he said he had heard from a high level source from North Korea
that the execution would be carried out sometime in April.

CSW states it is not known whether the execution has happened. Obtaining
such information from inside North Korea is obviously a difficult and
dangerous business. Although there is uncertainty about the situation it
is hoped that the limited coverage of the case that occurred in South
Korea will have been effective in delaying final action by North Korea.

Mr Son Jong Nam was born in Sadong, Soryongdong, Pyongyang and served his
full military term as a non-commissioned officer at the Security
Protection Headquarters from October 1975 - May 1983. On 20th January 1998
Mr Sons sister-in-law was investigated by the secret police while
pregnant. During the interrogation she was kicked in the stomach and she
miscarried. Mr Son brought the matter before the Central Peoples
Committee, but he was put under pressure for his actions and told to
leave. This led to his disillusionment with the regime and his decision to
leave North Korea followed shortly afterwards.

Background on North Korea's human rights record

North Korea's human rights record is ranked amongst the very worst in the
world, CSW says.

CSW continues: "It was the focus of a General Assembly resolution in
November, reflecting mounting international awareness and concern over the
seriousness of what is taking place behind closed doors in the country.
Egregious torture and public executions have been amongst the most serious
of these concerns. The first ever footage of North Korean executions was
shown last year at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and on
BBC and other channels. It showed a typical scene of a North Korean
execution: a very brief summary trial with no right of defense and almost
immediate pronouncement of the death sentence; the tying of the victims to
poles and the shooting of the victims by three gunshots from 3 marksmen."

(source: ASSIST News Service)






CONGO:

Minors Sit On Death Row


In a dank dormitory lit only by shafts of sunlight from holes in the roof,
a hundred Congolese prisoners lie silently on straw mats and soiled
blankets, some of them waiting to die.

The prison in Mbandaka, a western provincial capital, is typical of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Half its prisoners were gravely ill
when an IPS reporter visited in March, but there were no doctors or
medicines. Forty prisoners told a reporter they suffered from diarrhea.
The inmates defecated into an open metal bucket sitting in the corner. The
stench permeated their crowded space.

Among the inmates languishing in prisons throughout Congo are at least ten
children, some as young as 15 years old, condemned to death and waiting to
be executed, according to a September 2005 letter from the United Nations
to the Congolese government.

IPS was not allowed to visit them, but one prisoner documented by the U.N.
is 15-year-old Mbeko Banza. A child soldier working with government
troops, he was one of 33,000 children recruited and armed during Congo's
1998-2002 war. In May 2005, a military court sentenced Banza to be
executed for homicide, the U.N. letter said.

Minors like Banza sit on death row in DRC often because they cannot prove
their age. More often, U.N. workers say, these children lack the funds to
pay for adequate legal counsel.

Court-appointed lawyers frequently are too over-worked and under-paid to
provide more than superficial service and Congolese judges preside over
trials that may not provide a high level of justice, U.N. officials added.

"The trials are usually expeditious without respect for fair trial
guarantees for the rights of the accused or victims. Some children
condemned did not even have lawyers," Daniela Baro, a U.N. lawyer
investigating juvenile criminals on death row told IPS in an interview.

"Last year, someone was condemned to death in just one day."

So far U.N. officials say they have gotten no concrete response from the
government.

Congo's new constitution, approved during the country's first democratic
vote in 40 years, in December 2005, enshrines human life as sacred, but it
makes no mention of the death penalty.

Still, while Congo's penal code allows for it under certain circumstances,
it is illegal to condemn a person to death for crimes committed when they
were younger than 18 years old.

But Congo's crippled judiciary lacks qualified magistrates, funds and the
infrastructure to carry out proper trials and protect witnesses in
sensitive cases, such as those dealing with minors, U.N. workers said.

A corrupt 32-year dictatorship under Joseph Mobutu and Congo's five-year
war left the country's infrastructure, including its judiciary, in
shambles. Judges are now paid as little as 10 dollars a month and largely
live off underhand payments in lucrative cases such as property disputes,
many believe. Few magistrates bother to properly deal with cases involving
impoverished minors, the U.N.officials added, because they are unlikely to
be paid a tip for their services.

Still, it has been at least 5 years since anyone was executed in Congo,
partly because of a moratorium on the death penalty imposed in 2003 and
subsequently lifted in 2004. For minors sentenced to death, this means
endless waits in Congo's decrepit prisons - a de facto life imprisonment.

Though executions have not been carried out, people continue to be
sentenced to death, mostly at Congo's military tribunals. Judges at
military courts, where most of Congo's death penalties are handed out,
rarely follow the penal code's guidelines, observers said.

"Military justice is often unacceptably expeditious, even in condemning
people to death," Luc Henkinbrandt, a senior U.N. human rights official in
Kinshasa told IPS.

Moreover, military courts are not even supposed to try minors because the
law does not allow children to fight in the army. Still, in most cases
magistrates rule that the defendants, especially those who are now adults,
do not have adequate proof of age to show they were minors at the time
they allegedly committed their offences.

Congolese, including children, rarely possess identity cards or proofs of
age. For most citizens, a voter registration campaign in 2005 allowed them
to obtain official identification for the first time in their lives.

"Some lawyers are not able to prove the child's age by lack of resources
to obtain alternative proofs of age and the judge then considers them as
adults. This means they can impose the death penalty legally," Baro, the
U.N. official, said.

Children who served with armed groups during the war often have been
separated from their families for years. Lawyers could travel to the
native villages of the children to find evidence of their age, but that
would often mean journeying hundreds of kilometres from court proceedings
- something few are prepared to do.

The main problem abolitionists of the death penalty face in Congo,
explains Henkinbrandt, is that war-weary Congolese public are eager to see
their country's criminals face justice. They believe the orchestrators of
Congo's gruesome massacres deserve poor trials, and that by and large they
should die for it.

"Even if the death penalty is not carried out, the population is for
expeditious justice and the death penalty sometimes. Abolition of the
death penalty is not very popular among people," Henkinbrandt said.

"Though abolitionist politicians have managed to stop executions, they
don't have the courage to go against clear public opinion and eliminate
the death penalty," he added.

Congo's war killed nearly 4 million people, mostly from hunger and disease
but also during numerous battles and politically-motivated massacres.
Peace deals ended the war in 2002. A new a transitional government was
formed that comprises former rebels and warlords, some of whom are said to
have participated in the war's worst killings. Dozens of militia leaders
were not involved in the 2002 peace deals however, and they continue to
rape, kill and recruit children even after the war ended.

Amnesty International said in a report this month that alarming numbers of
children still were being enlisted by militia leaders in Congo's restive
east. Hiding in Congo's forests beyond the reach of military, these
warlords fear harsh reprisals for crimes such as killing civilians,
torture, and enslaving children as concubines, porters or soldiers.

Efforts by the 17,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo,
the world's largest, and ill-trained government troops, have managed to
rope in some lawless militants like Thomas Lubanga, a former eastern
warlord in Congo's conflicted Ituri territory.

Lubanga is now in The Hague as the International Criminal Court's (ICC)
first case, to be tried for charges including the recruitment of children
as soldiers. The maximum sentence allowed at the world's criminal court is
life imprisonment.

Lubanga, therefore, will not face the death penalty if he is found guilty.
Most of Lubanga's wartime accomplices however, including children
recruited to fight alongside him, remain in Congo. Tragically, they could
face execution.

Some Congolese believe Lubanga has escaped true justice.

"Lubanga is one of Congo's worst criminals, he is one of the most
dangerous people, but because he went to The Hague he will not face the
death penalty. That is a shame," said Ken Ilunga, a 28-year-old computer
technician in Congo's capital, Kinshasa. "But children should not face the
death penalty. After all, they were young and only obeyed orders."

(source: Inter Press Service)


PHILIPPINES:

Anti-crime groups unfazed by moves to scrap death penalty


Following the wholesale commutation to life imprisonment the death
sentences of all convicts on Death Row by the supposedly taray lady in
Malacaang and her subsequent call on Congress to abolish the death penalty
law, it looks like both chambers of the legislature are softening their
stand on the retention of capital punishment in our statute books.

Death penalty for heinous criminals had been in this country for so long,
dating back to the American colonials days. For reasons of their own, the
framers of the 1987 constitution which, to repeat for the umpteenth time
in this corner, was drafted not by constitutional delegates elected by the
people but by a few dozen men and women hand-picked by a
housewife-installed-president-by-a-mob, did away with capital punishment.

But in 1994, Congress restored death penalty, this time with modifications
from the old law. Foremost of the changes is the shift from electric chair
to lethal injection as the method of execution for death convicts. Also
this time, only heinous crimes are subject to capital punishment among
which are murder, rape, kidnapping, drug trafficking and plunder.

House deputy majority leader Edcel Lagman, one of GMA's staunchest allies
in the lower chamber, has predicted that capital punishment will be
abolished before Congress adjourns in June. The Albay congressman is the
principal author of House Bill 4826 seeking to repeal the death penalty
law which GMA has certified as urgent.

Pressing for the abolition of death penalty, another Arroyo ally in
Congress, Rep. Joseph Santiago of Catanduanes, pointed out that 123
countries in the world, including the whole European Union, have done away
with capital punishment.

Apparently in anticipation of the eventual scrapping of capital
punishment, what with the persistent agitation by the Catholic Bishops'
Conference of the Philip-pines to abolish death penalty, Senator Juan
Ponce Enrile has a no-nonsense proposal to combat terrorism. A while back,
we pointed out in this corner that the first victim in the abolition of
death penalty is the country's fight against terrorists.

In filing Senate Bill 2187, Enrile proposes that suspected terrorists
should be held for 15 days for questioning by authorities even without a
warrant of arrest. Under existing laws, authorities can detain any person
only for 12 to 36 hours depending on the gravity of the offense allegedly
committed. Enrile who was defense chief during the Martial Law regime of
Ferdinand Marcos knows whereof he speaks. His bill will give more teeth to
the anti-terrorism measure pending in Congress.

Still another lawmaker, House deputy majority leader Eduardo Gullas of
Cebu City wants people convicted of heinous crimes to be punished with 40
years of hard labor. The proposal is obviously meant to soften the stand
of death penalty hardliners.

Among the groups expected to raise a howl against SB 2187 are leftist
organizations fronting for the terrorist Communist Party of the
Philippines and its armed wing and extortion arm, the New People's Army.
We don't know if it is already in the anti-terror bill long gathering dust
in Congress, but the anti-terror law should clearly define who are
terrorists and what acts constitute terrorism.

According to Lagman, capital punishment "culti-vates a culture of death
and violence and could even breed more vicious crimes." That, of course,
is a personal opinion of the foremost advocate of the abolition of death
penalty. What did we expect from the man, anyway? Alas and alack, many
people, this wordsmith included, are not about to say "amen" to the Bicol
congressman's opinion.

Is Lagman's statement that death penalty "cultivates a culture of death
and violence" supported with a study? We don't think so. If his assertion
were backed up by a survey conducted by a reliable pollster, he would have
produced documents to support his claim and waved them for everyone to
see.

An anti-crime group in the nation's capital called Volunteers Against
Crime and Corruption headed by Dante Jimenez for sure won't take Lagman's
self-serving statement with folded arms.

Already the group has consulted lawyers to determine if GMA violated any
law when she issued a sweeping order reducing the death sentences of
convicts at death row in the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa to life
imprisonment.

Citing Article 81 of the Revised Penal Code, Jimenez said a death convict
should be executed not later than one year after the affirmation of his
death sentence by the Supreme Court. To that we say amen, amen, amen.

(source: Opinion, Mindanao Daily Mirror)





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

Death penalty in hell


Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo did the right thing when she let go the
death sentence to all death convicts at the New Bilibid Prison. Although
GMA's decision was met with some stiff opposition from families of
victims, GMA has even recommended to Congress to abolish the death penalty
law.

Many religious advocates welcome GMA's decision and many pious Catholics
and Evangelicals feel that the decision is only fulfilling God's
commandment, "thou shall not kill." Still many believe that abolishing the
death penalty will only encourage would-be killers to put the law into
their own hands.

There are pros and cons of commuting the death sentence to life. The
reported innocent persons who had been convicted of life for the crime
they allegedly did not commit, are also happy about GMA's decision. But
the real killers are the ones benefited of the abolition of the death
penalty by the president. It's up to Congress to abolish the death penalty
law.

Though the real killers may no longer face the death row, there is still
hell when sinners leave their earthly tent someday. Ezekiel 31:16: "I made
the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to
hell with them that descend into the pit." Proverbs 15:11: "Hell and
destruction are before the Lord; how much more then the hearts of the
children of men?"

While still on earth, God is giving men and women the chance to repent, do
away with all filthiness in his/her life and be born again. Repent of all
sins and live a new and purposeful life and follow God's commandments.

Mark 9:47: "And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better
for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two
eyes, to be cast into hell fire."

God has a warning to His people even to Capernaum in the Biblical times
which is still enforced to the present generation. Matthew 11:23: "And
you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades;
for if the mighty works which are done in you had been done in Sodom, it
would have remained until this day."

God has promised eternal life to all faithful believers who follow His
precepts and obey His commandments. Why not stick to God and do His will,
as we have nothing to lose but everything to gain plus eternal life.

(source: Rodolfo Gurnabong, The News)






UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:

Death penalty call


The father of a British bar hostess who was raped and dismembered in Japan
in 2000 warned yesterday that conditions persist for similar crimes to
occur again, and demanded the maximum possible penalty for his daughters
alleged killer.

Tim Blackman, the father of Lucie Blackman, denounced accused murderer
Joji Obara as a "disgusting creature" and "filthy animal" and said the
"eyes of the world" are demanding the "longest possible sentence."

The crime was especially egregious because of the lasting trauma to Lucies
brother and sister, the elder Blackman said in Tokyo after testifying at
Obaras trial.

Her brother Rupert has failed years at university due to illness and
sister Sophie tried to commit suicide.

(source: 7 Days)






CHINA:

Death sentence for police murdere


A policeman from Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi Province, has
been sentenced to death for the murder of a Beijing policeman.

9 suspects stand trial at the Intermediate People's Court of Taiyuan,
North China's Shanxi Province on April 26, 2006.

The court was told that at 8 pm on May 3, 2005, Beijing policeman Li
Zhongyi, who was on holiday with his family in Taiyuan, quarreled with
local policeman Liu Limin when their vehicles nearly collided at a road
crossing.

Still angry about the encounter, Liu followed Li's jeep to the Xintangdu
Hotel where Li and his family were staying, and called 8 other people. The
gang gathered and waited outside the hotel.

When Li re-emerged from a parking lot near the hotel at 8.50 p.m the same
day, Liu and his accomplices surrounded Li and beat him with wooden
planks, sticks and aluminium alloy pipes before fleeing the scene.

Li died at the local hospital after failing to respond to medical
treatment.

Liu was sentenced to death with a 2-year reprieve and Zhou Chuanquan, who
used a wood plank to hit Li's head, was also sentenced to death.

The 7 other men involved were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 9 to
15 years.

(source: China Daily)






INDONESIA:

Judges uphold Bali Nine death sentences


Indonesian judges have upheld the death penalty for convicted Bali Nine
ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

The clerk of the Denpasar High Court, Ni Made Sudarmini, said appeals
lodged with the Bali High Court had been rejected, although full verdicts
had yet to be released.

"The court has upheld the death penalty for Myuran Sukumaran," she told
AAP.

"The judges maintained Andrew Chan's verdict, but with a correction to
Chan's case," she added, without giving details.

Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death in February for their roles in
masterminding the failed attempt to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from
Bali to Australia.

7 other members of the Nine were sentenced to life behind bars.

All except for Brisbane youth Scott Rush lodged appeals with the High
Court.

A senior High Court judge, Soedarto, who was part of the appeal panel for
both cases, hinted that the correction - ordered on April 20 - could be
technical and related to the legal argument used by the lower Denpasar
District Court when judges there ruled on February 14.

"A correction could mean the time served, it could mean to the legal
summation in the verdicts," he said.

The appeal verdicts were still being typed and the decisions on all eight
Australians who have lodged appeals would be released this week, Sudarmini
said.

Lawyer Agus Saputra, who is a member of both Chan and Sukumaran's legal
team, said he could not comment on the High Court's ruling until he had
seen the full text of the verdicts.

But the defence teams for all 8 gang members apart from Rush have promised
to take their case all the way to Indonesia's peak Supreme Court in
Jakarta should their High Court appeals fail.

Chan was arrested reading a newspaper on an Australian Airlines flight
waiting to depart Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport for Sydney in April 2005.

He was carrying 3 mobile phones, but no drugs were found in his
possession.

Sukumaran, a London-born martial arts expert, was arrested with three
others in a room at the Melasti Hotel on Bali's Kuta Beach on April 17,
2005, his 24th birthday.

Police testified he was the gang enforcer.

4 drug couriers - Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens and Renae
Lawrence - were arrested carrying blocks of heroin worth more than $A4
million strapped to their bodies.

Death penalties in Indonesia are carried out by paramilitary police firing
squads.

Meanwhile, the Denpasar District Court has set May 9 as the trial date for
4 Islamic militants accused of involvement in the 2nd Bali bombings, a
court spokesman said.

Prosecutors this week handed over trial dossiers on Muhamad Cholili, 28,
Abdul Aziz, 30, Dwi Widiyarto, alias Wiwid, 34, and Anif Solchanudin, 24.

The attacks on 3 popular restaurants in Kuta and Jimbaran Bay last October
killed 4 Australians among 20 innocent bystanders, as well as the 3
suicide bombers.

(source: The Age)