[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 3



SAUDI ARABIA----execution

Egyptian beheaded in Saudi for sorcery


An Egyptian man was beheaded in Saudi Arabia yesterday after he was
convicted of practising witchcraft, the interior ministry said. Mustafa
Ibrahim was executed in Riyadh after to confessing to "adultery with a
woman" and to "insulting the Holy Quran," by "putting it in a toilet," the
ministry said in a statement cited by the official SPA news agency.

It was a rare case of execution for such offences, which are not known to
carry the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. Most executions are carried out
for murder or drug trafficking.

The ministry said Ibrahim was exposed after a foreign resident sued him
for practising sorcery aimed at causing him to split with his wife, and
authorities found suspicious books and artifacts in his home.

Saudi Arabia has executed 141 people so far this year-the highest number
on record. The previous highest number of executions in a year was in
2000, when 113 people were beheaded.

Apart from murder and drug trafficking, rape, apostasy and armed robbery
can also carry the death penalty in the kingdom.

(source: Agence France Presse)






CANADA:

Harper denies Tories want to bring back death penalty in Canada


The Harper government scrambled Friday to clarify its position on capital
punishment amid opposition accusations that the Tories are harbouring a
hidden agenda to bring back the death penalty in Canada.

The accusations followed Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's surprise
announcement Thursday that Canada will no longer seek clemency for
Canadian murderers sentenced to death in other democratic countries after
a fair trial.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper insisted the new policy is not a prelude to
bringing back the death penalty in Canada.

"We have no desire to open the debate on capital punishment here in
Canada," he told reporters in Halifax.

But Liberals said the move is just a "sneak preview" of what the minority
Harper government has planned should it ever win a majority. They
bolstered their argument by pointing to a number of Harper's senior
ministers - including Day, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Defence
Minister Peter MacKay - who have in the past publicly called for the
return of capital punishment.

"I think Canadians have every right to be wary about where they intend to
go," said Ralph Goodale, the Liberal House leader.

"This is one of those little cases where the canopy, the tent, the veil
has been lifted just a little bit and Canadians are seeing what the real
intentions of this crowd would be."

NDP House Leader Libby Davies echoed Goodale's warning, saying she's "very
skeptical" about the government's assurances that it won't reopen the
capital punishment debate at home.

While the Tories were adamant in rejecting those assertions, confusion
remained over how the government intends to apply the new policy on
Canadians facing execution abroad.

Indeed, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier appeared to suggest at one
point that the government has not adopted a new policy at all. He
suggested it has simply decided not to seek clemency in one case - that of
Alberta-born Ronald Allen Smith, who faces lethal injection in Montana for
the 1982 murder of 2 men.

"We have a question about one specific case and we answered that question
on that specific case," he told The Canadian Press.

Later, however, Bernier's office issued a statement in which the minister
said his comments had been "misrepresented." He reiterated the government
line that Canada will no longer "seek clemency in cases in democratic
countries, like the United States, where there has been a fair trial."

There are 64 countries that still invoke the death penalty, including
Japan, China, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia
and Jordan.

Liberals badgered the government to explain how it intends to judge which
countries are sufficiently democratic to warrant allowing them to execute
Canadians without a word of protest from Canada's government.

"What they're risking here is a double or triple or multiple standard that
would in fact end up treating Canadians in these circumstances overseas in
much different ways depending on this whimsical judgment about what
constitutes a democracy," said Goodale.

Peter Van Loan, the government's House leader, said the government will
evaluate the situation "on a case-by-case basis." In the case of Smith, he
pointed out that the murderer "openly admitted" shooting 2 men in the back
of the head.

"I cannot imagine why they (Liberals) want him back in Canada," he
taunted.

Harper also tried to paint the Liberals as wanting to bring Smith home.

"The reality in this particular case is that were we to intervene it would
very quickly become a question of whether we are prepared to repatriate a
double murderer to Canada. In light of this government's strong
initiatives on tackling violent crime, I think that would send the wrong
signal to the Canadian population."

In fact, no opposition MP is calling for Smith to be repatriated to
Canada. They are asking that the government seek to have Smith's death
sentence commuted, as Canada has done in all such cases abroad since
abolishing the death penalty domestically in 1976.

Harper also suggested that seeking clemency for Smith would amount to
interfering in the debate over capital punishment in the U.S.

"I think we'll leave that for the Americans," he said.

However, the Harper government is not entirely committed to leaving other
countries to their own devices on the issue. Bernier confirmed Friday that
Canada will vote in favour of a United Nations resolution calling for a
worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.

Mark Warren of Amnesty International said it's "more than a little ironic"
that Canada is supporting the UN resolution at the same time that it's
washing its hands of Canadians facing execution abroad.

"It's hard to understand how those 2 apparently opposite and diverging
policy positions can be reconciled," Warren said.

In Montana, one of Smith's lawyers said the change in Canadian policy
leaves him "without a very valuable ally."

The news was a "shot out of the blue," said Greg Jackson.

"I really think it's pretty outrageous. They have always expressed a
strong desire to get Ron back home."

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

Tories deny hidden agenda on death penalty


The Harper government scrambled yesterday to clarify its position on
capital punishment amid opposition accusations that the Tories are
harbouring a hidden agenda to bring back the death penalty in Canada.

The accusations followed Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's surprise
announcement Thursday that Canada will no longer seek clemency for
Canadian murderers sentenced to death in other democratic countries after
a fair trial.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper insisted the new policy is not a prelude to
bringing back the death penalty in Canada. "We have no desire to open the
debate on capital punishment here in Canada," he told reporters in
Halifax.

But Liberals said the move is just a "sneak preview" of what the minority
Harper government has planned should it ever win a majority. They
bolstered their argument by pointing to a number of Mr. Harper's senior
ministers, including Mr. Day, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Defence
Minister Peter MacKay, who have in the past publicly called for the return
of capital punishment.


"I think Canadians have every right to be wary about where they intend to
go," Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale said.

"This is one of those little cases where the canopy, the tent, the veil
has been lifted just a little bit and Canadians are seeing what the real
intentions of this crowd would be."

NDP House Leader Libby Davies echoed Mr. Goodale's warning, saying she's
"very skeptical" about the government's assurances that it won't reopen
the capital punishment debate at home.

While the Tories were adamant in rejecting those assertions, confusion
remained over how the government intends to apply the new policy to
Canadians facing execution abroad.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier appeared to suggest at one point
that the government has not adopted a new policy at all. He suggested it
has simply decided not to seek clemency in 1 case - that of Alberta-born
Ronald Allen Smith, who faces lethal injection in Montana for the 1982
murders of 2 men.

(source for both: The Canadian Press)






UNITED NATIONS:

Death penalty foes try new bid for UN resolution


More than 70 countries opposed to the death penalty launched a fresh bid
on Thursday to have the U.N. General Assembly pass a resolution urging an
end to the practice, diplomats said.

Two previous similar attempts failed to win a majority in the 192-member
assembly. This time, the text stops short of an outright demand for
immediate abolition.

Instead, a draft presented to the assembly's human rights committee and
obtained by Reuters calls on countries that put criminals to death to
"establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death
penalty."

It says the punishment "undermines human dignity," that "there is no
conclusive evidence of the death penalty's deterrent value" and that "any
miscarriage or failure of justice in (its) implementation is irreversible
and irreparable."

The United States, where many states perform executions and which opposed
previous resolutions, signaled it would again vote against the measure.
Mission spokesman Richard Grenell said U.S. use of the penalty "is a
decision left to our democratically elected governments at the federal and
state levels.

"The people of the U.S., acting through these elected representatives,
have chosen not to abolish the death penalty. So we would vote against any
resolution at the U.N. that would question its legitimacy," Grenell said.

Unlike Security Council resolutions, those passed by the General Assembly
are not binding.

Diplomats supporting the resolution said it was put to the assembly
committee by New Zealand and Brazil on behalf of 72 countries. Among its
supporters is the 27-nation European Union, which in May mandated Italy, a
leading opponent of the death penalty, to lead a push for a U.N. worldwide
moratorium.

The diplomats said they hoped for a vote by the committee in the 2nd half
of November and, if it passed there, for a vote in the full assembly in
mid-December.

Data collected by rights group Amnesty International showed a fall in
worldwide executions to 1,591 in 2006 from 2,148 in 2005, and a decline in
the number of countries imposing the death penalty.

Some 99 countries ban capital punishment, while 69 still use it. Six
countries -- China, Iran, Iraq, the United States, Pakistan and Sudan --
account for about 90 percent of all executions, and China the bulk of
those.

(source: Reuters)