[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 9


IRAQ:

11 face imminent execution----Warning against 'wholesale' executions


Amnesty International has issued an urgent appeal on behalf of 11 people
in Iraq who are reportedly facing imminent execution.

The human rights organisation is appealing to the Iraqi authorities to
prevent the executions going ahead, and is also calling on them to impose
an immediate moratorium on executions until they have abolished the death
penalty completely.

According to the Iraqi news agency Aswat al-Iraq, 11 people in Iraq are
facing imminent execution after the Court of Cassation upheld their death
sentences, which will now be passed to the Presidential Council for
ratification. The only hope for the eleven is for the Presidential Council
to refuse to ratify their sentences, or for the president to pardon them.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

'After the squalid spectacle of Saddam Hussain's execution late last year,
it's alarming and disheartening that Iraq is seeking to execute prisoners
wholesale.

'Unfair trials are all too common in Iraq and the last thing the courts
should be doing is imposing capital punishment.

'The Iraqi government should be doing its utmost to reinforce respect for
life. It could start by imposing an immediate moratorium on all
executions.'

According to Aswat al-Iraq, the 11 have been convicted of various criminal
offences including murder, murder followed by robbery, and kidnapping.
They were sentenced to death by criminal courts in Baghdad, Basra, and in
the provinces of Diwaniya, Dhi Qar and Ninewa. No further information is
currently available.

Since the reintroduction of the death penalty in Iraq in August 2004,
hundreds of people have been sentenced to death and there has been a rapid
rise in the frequency of executions in the country.

At least 65 people were put to death in 2006 alone - the fourth highest of
any country in the world - many of them after unfair trials. So far in
2007 at least 171 people have been sentenced to death and 33 have been
executed.

(source: Amnesty International)






IRAN:

2 More Drug Offenders Executed in Iran


2 more drug offenders were executed in Iran, this time in the southeastern
province of Sistan-Baluchstan, the anti-death penalty group Hands Off Cain
reported, citing accounts in Iranian state media. The executions come a
week after Iranian authorities executed 5 men for violent crimes. Iranian
authorities say most executions are for drug trafficking, but human rights
groups have claimed that some people put to death for ordinary crimes,
particularly drug crimes, are actually political opponents of the regime.

Jomeh Gomshadzehi was hanged in the city of Zahedan after being arrested
with 3,300 kilos of opium, 84 kilos heroin, and 95 kilos of morphine. The
state news agency IRNA identified him as a notorious drug trafficker who
sent narcotics to Turkey and Arab states in the Gulf. It said that while
trafficking drugs four years ago, he killed a policeman and then escaped
to Dubai.

The 2nd man, identified as Esmail Barani Piranvand, was sentenced to death
in a prison in Iranshahr in the same province for the possession of 2.5
kilos of heroin, the state television website said.

Under Iranian law, the death penalty can be imposed for possession of more
than 30 grams of heroin or 5 kilos of opium. Other death penalty offenses
in Iran include blasphemy; apostasy; adultery; prostitution;
homosexuality; and plotting to overthrow the Islamic regime, as well as
murder, rape, and robbery.

(source: StopTheDrugWar.org)

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

Court upholds death penalty for journalist


Iran's supreme court has upheld a death sentence against one Kurdish
journalist on espionage charges but overturned that against another,
defence counsel said yeserday.

"The death sentence for Adnan Hassanpour has been confirmed by the supreme
court," the Isna news agency quoted counsel Saleh Nikbakht as saying.

Hassanpour was convicted of "espionage, giving the specifications of
military sites ... and contacting an individual in the US State
Department."

He received the death penalty on the basis that the charges amounted to
the capital offence of Mohareb or "being an enemy of God", an
interpretation the defence lawyer challenged.

"These accusations, supposedly true, are not examples of Mohareb," he
said, vowing to continue his fight to spare his client the gallows.

Nikbakht said that death sentence handed down against a 2nd Kurdish
journalist had been quashed by the supreme court and the case referred
back to the revolutionary tribunal in Marivan, in Iran's northwestern
Kordestan province.

"The death sentence of Hiva Botimar has been annulled and his case has
been sent back, the lawyer said.

The court delivered the death sentences on July 16.

(source: Agence France Presse)






JAPAN:

Trial Begins Of Peruvian Facing Death Penalty For Rape, Murder Of Japanese
Minor


Trial began Thursday in Japan of a Peruvian man accused of sexually
assaulting and murdering a Japanese minor in Hiroshima in 2005.

Jose Manuel Torres Yagi, 35, was given life imprisonment by a lower court
last year but the prosecution appealed the sentence, arguing it was
"extremely light"; instead, they are seeking death penalty, reports
Associate Press (AP).

Yagi, who entered Japan on false passport, is believed to have raped and
murdered 7 year old Airi Kinoshita before disposing her body in a
cardboard box in a vacant lot in Hiroshima's Aki Ward on November 22,
2005. His living quarters were en route to the girl's school. He was
arrested 8 days later and charged with murder, sexual assault and
abandonment of her body.

In the Hiroshima High Court, prosecution argued that the life sentence
handed down by the Hiroshima District Court is "extremely light and unfair
and capital punishment is the only option", according to AP.

They added that "his criminal tendency is deep rooted", citing 2 previous
convictions for sexual crimes in Peru which were not presented to the
district court.

Yagi's defense is appealing that he should be given limited prison term
since he did not plan to sexually abuse or murder Kinoshita. Referring to
his claims that he heard voice of the devil, they argued that he should
have undergone psychiatric examination during the 1st trial and that a
test should be held this time.

The accused was originally given a life sentence because he had murdered
only 1 person. Japanese courts rarely impose capital punishment on someone
without previous murder convictions and who have murdered a single person.

If prosecution wins the appeal, Yagi will be the 1st Latin American to
face death penalty in Japan.

(source: AllHeadlineNews)






AZERBAIJAN:

Death Penalty Not Applied and its Formal Presence in Constitution Creates
No Problem - Chairman of Azerbaijani Constitutional Court


In Azerbaijan death penalty is not applied, and its formal presence in the
Constitution does not create big problems from the standpoint of
international law, the chairman of the Azerbaijani Constitutional Court
Farhad Abdullayev said to Trend on 8 November. He was commenting on the
differences between Article 27 in the Constitution (right for life) and
the Law on Abolishment of Death Penalty passed on 10 February 1998.

The 2nd item in Article 27 says that right for life shall be inviolable,
except of war or death penalty. The 3rd item says that death penalty shall
be applied only in case of very hard crimes until it is complete
abolished. "That means that death penalty was an exceptional punishment
measure when the Constitution was being adopted, and it was expected to be
abolished in future. In 1998 death penalty was completely abolished and
removed from the Criminal Code," he said.

According to attorney Fuad Agayev, there are no differences on that issue
between Azerbaijani and international legislation. Article 2 of the
European Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Main Freedoms (right
for life) envisages life imprisonment. "The 1st item of the article says
that no one shall be sentenced to life imprisonment, except of those who
committed crimes deserving death penalty."

Given abolishment of execution in Azerbaijan, Agayev believes editorial
amendments may be done in the Constitution.

Death penalty was abolished in 47 countries. After its abolishment in
Azerbaijan those sentenced to execution were sentenced to life
imprisonment (128 people). 84 prisoners are detained in Gobustan prison.
They believe that life imprisonment should have been changed to 15 years
after the abolishment of the death penalty.

The European Court on Human Rights' regulation on Alikram Humbatovs
lawsuit considers the change of the death penalty to a life-term
imprisonment as corresponding to the European Convention. Life
imprisonment is a lighter sentence than the death penalty and cannot be
considered a crime.

(source: Trend News Agency)






CANADA:

Canada drops sponsorship of UN anti-death-penalty resolution


Canada said that it will not co-sponsor a United Nations resolution
calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty, breaking a nearly
decade-old tradition by a country that has long prided itself on its
opposition to capital punishment.

The decision Wednesday comes only a week after the Conservative government
said the country would no longer fight to commute the death sentences of
Canadians facing execution in foreign democracies. That announcement drew
ire from the Liberal opposition, which called the policy shift an example
of the government's tacit approval of the death penalty.

Canada will vote in favor of the U.N. resolution in December, but will not
sponsor it, Foreign Affairs Department spokeswoman Catherine Gagnaire said
Wednesday.

"There are a sufficient number of co-sponsors already, and we will focus
our efforts on co-sponsoring other resolutions within the U.N. system
which are more in need of our support," Gagnaire said.

74 other countries have put their names forward as sponsors, including
Britain, Australia and France.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said last week that the government
would not plead for the life of Ronald Allen Smith, who faces lethal
injection in Montana for the 1982 murder of 2 men.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been leaning more conservative since his
government won a confidence vote in Parliament last month, marking a
defeat for the country's Liberal opposition party. Harper told reporters
last Friday that his government had no intention of reopening the debate
on capital punishment.

Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976.

The U.N. Human Rights Commission voted every year from 1998 to 2005 on a
similar resolution, before concluding its final session in 2006 after a
decline in international credibility. The U.N. has created a new Human
Rights Council to replace the old commission.

Canada was a co-sponsor for each of the resolutions, according to Amnesty
International.

"Cosponsorship is the stage at which Canada has the opportunity to
demonstrate that its firm commitment to abolition has not changed,"
Amnesty International secretary general Alex Neve wrote to Harper.

Cosponsorship does not involve much more effort than a phone call or
raising a hand during a meeting, said Canada's former ambassador to the
U.N., Paul Heinbecker.

"You can only take these as signs of how the government wants to be seen,"
Heinbecker said.

The United States and Japan are among the few democracies that have
traditionally voted against anti-death penalty resolutions at the U.N.

Two proposed moratoriums have reached the floor of the General Assembly,
in 1994 and 1999  the former defeated by eight votes and the latter
withdrawn at the last minute.

Canada's change in policy comes amid a slackening of the pace of
executions in the U.S. as lethal injection procedures are under review by
the Supreme Court.

The U.S. high court has allowed only one execution to be carried out since
it agreed in September to hear a case from Kentucky that will decide
whether a method of lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel and
unusual. Some capital punishment states have decided to hold off on
executing death row inmates until the Supreme Court rules one way or
another.

In 1999, Canada strongly opposed the execution of convicted murderer
Stanley Faulder, who was put to death despite the former Liberal
government's multiple attempts to change the mind of then-Texas Gov.
George W. Bush.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Death penalty politics


Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day
have been watching too many pregnancy test ads on TV.

Particularly the ones which evidently tell you the truth at least four
days before your expected period.

The Clearblue Digital ad promises: "It's the most sophisticated piece of
technology you'll ever pee on."

And the ad for First Response Early Pregnancy Test states: "There is such
a thing as being a little bit pregnant."

So inspired were Steve and Stock that they came up with the mantra: "You
can be a little bit for the death penalty."

Day put the new slogan to work right away announcing on Nov. 1 that Canada
will not intervene in the upcoming execution of Albertan Ronald Allen
Smith who has been on death row in Montana for 25 years.

Note that Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976, executing its last
two inmates on Nov. 11, 1962. In 1870, the Netherlands was one of the
first countries to outlaw the death penalty while this year Rwanda and
Gabon became the latest to do so.

It used to be that we tried to convince the U.S. not to execute Canadians.
For example, in 1999 we opposed the execution of convicted murderer
Stanley Faulder. After the former Liberal government made multiple
attempts to change the decision, he was put to death anyway in Texas under
then-Gov. George W. Bush.

But we're not going to bother protesting about Smith's possible execution,
even as the U.S. grapples with the question of inhumane punishment via
lethal injection.

The current unofficial moratorium (now encompassing 38 states) was started
by Illinois Gov. George Ryan in 2000 when the state released 13 death row
inmates who were wrongly convicted.

More recently, the U.S. moratorium spared Earl Wesley Berry, of
Mississippi, whose execution was stayed near the end of October by the
U.S. Supreme Court just 19 minutes before he was scheduled to die. And for
the record, he'd already had his last meal.

In fact, October 2007 was the 1st October since 1989 without a U.S.
execution.

However, it remains to be seen whether Smith will eventually become a
little bit dead. At this point, it is not known if Canada will stop
refusing to extradite people to countries where they could face the death
penalty, something we used to do or may still be doing.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations, 74 countries have agreed to co-sponsor a
resolution to declare a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.

Evidently, for years, UN efforts to pass a ban on capital punishment have
failed, perhaps in part because two of the world's democracies, the U.S.
and Japan, keep voting against it.

Of this practice, a frustrated Kofi Annan, former UN secretary general
stated: "The forfeiture of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one
human being to inflict it on another, even when backed by legal process."

Until this week, Canada, supposedly, was firmly among the co-sponsors of
the proposed moratorium. But on Tuesday, the Conservatives stated we will
not join the other countries who have agreed to sponsor it.

This prompted Amnesty International secretary general Alex Neve to write
the following to Prime Minister Harper: "Co-sponsorship is the stage at
which Canada has the opportunity to demonstrate that its firm commitment
to abolition has not changed."

Chill Alex, take a pill. The Conservatives then announced that when the
resolution comes to a vote in December, Canada will vote in favour of it.

There is but one small problem here. It is not yet clear whether this
decision to not sponsor the UN resolution, but vote in favour of it
constitutes being a little bit for or a little bit against the death
penalty.

(source: Comment: Edmonton Sun)






BAHAMAS:

AG Stresses Death Penalty Still Legal


Despite the fact that there have been no hangings in The Bahamas since the
year 2000, hangings are still on the books and could still be carried out,
Attorney General Claire Hepburn has said.

More than a year after the Privy Council ruled that the mandatory death
penalty in The Bahamas is unconstitutional, it is clear that many people
do not understand the decision in the case of Forrester Bowe and Trono
Davis, she said.

In that decision, the law lords said the death penalty is discretionary,
not mandatory.

"The Privy Council did not overrule the death penalty," Mrs. Hepburn said.
"It simply said that the mandatory death penalty was unconstitutional."

The attorney general explained that this does not mean that the court
cannot hand down death penalty sentences.

"The courts will now have to consider the circumstances of the case before
arriving at that determination whereas in the past when you were convicted
of murder you were automatically sentenced to death," she said.

As was explained by the former attorney general, Allyson Maynard Gibson,
after the landmark ruling, Mrs. Hepburn said the courts will now have to
go back to all of those cases where the death penalty was applied and
re-sentence those persons.

Its a process that has already started.

"All of those persons sentenced to death and sentenced prior to the Bowe
and Davis case will have to go back through the court system to have their
cases considered for the courts to determine the proper sentence for
them," Mrs. Hepburn said.

The attorney general stressed, "The death penalty is on the books. Its a
part of the law and its really up to the courts to determine whether in
fact the death penalty can be carried out. There are a number of cases
before the court and we will have to go to the Privy Council and wait to
see what they say have to say once they get there."

(source: The Bahamas Journal)