[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 11


CHINA:

China sentences 3 Uighurs to death for terrorism


A court in China's Central Asian region of Xinjiang has sentenced 3 men to
death for terrorism and separatism and handed suspended death sentences or
life imprisonment to 3 others, state media said on Sunday.

The court in Xinjiang's Kashgar city convicted the 6, who appeared from
their names to be from the Uighur minority, on charges linked to
'separating the nation, organising and leading a terrorist group' and
illegal production of explosives, the semi-official China News Service
reported.

>From August 2005 to January this year, they set up a terrorist cell and
training facilities for more than 10 people to conduct 'armed revolt' with
help from terrorist groups in unspecified foreign nations, the agency
said.

The group caused the death of one police officer and injury to one other,
it said without giving details.

They were found in illegal possession of 16 kilograms of explosives, 67
grenades and two 'suicide bombs', the agency said.

The court on Friday sentenced 3 of the group to death and gave suspended
death sentences for 2 more of the group, and life imprisonment for the 6th
man.

Suspended death sentences are normally commuted to life imprisonment after
2 years.

The Chinese government said terrorists were responsible for 200 incidents
that killed 162 people in Xinjiang from 1990-2001, but almost no attacks
have been reported since then.

In recent years, the ruling Communist Party has intensified its
ideological battle with Uighurs who seek an independent state in Xinjiang.

Uighur exiles and human rights groups say the global fight against
terrorism following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United
States has allowed China to claim the moral right to crack down on
political and religious dissent in Xinjiang.

In January, Chinese forces claimed they killed 18 suspected terrorists and
destroyed a training camp in Xinjiang, but international experts cast
doubt on China's account of the incident.

It was not immediately known if the sentences reported on Sunday were
linked to the incident in January.

Xinjiang is a vast Muslim-majority region that borders Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.

More than 60 % of its 20 million people are from the Uighur, Kazakh,
Kyrgyz, Hui, Mongol and other ethnic minorities, according to government
statistics.

Some 7.5 million Uighurs, most of whom are Muslims, form the largest
minority in Xinjiang.

Millions of ethnically Chinese people have migrated to the region since it
came under Communist Party control in 1949.

(source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur)






IRAQ:

Iraqi PM determined in execution of "Chemical Ali"


Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Sunday that he is determined in
executing "Chemical Ali" and 2 aides of Saddam Hussein.

At a news conference held in Baghdad, the prime minister said that "We are
determined that the law be applied and those (convicted) be handed over to
judicial system."

He criticized the United States for refusing handing over the 3 for
execution, which should be fulfilled more than a month ago according to
the Iraqi law.

"We have asked the side concerned (U.S. officials) to hand over the
prisoners but regrettably the U.S. embassy has a role to prevent handing
over of them or tried to hand over some of them and delaying some others,"
he added.

However, Maliki said he has no objection to exclude Saddam's defense
minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie from execution but stressed that a legal
way out is needed for the impasse.

"If they (judiciary officials) find a legal way not to execute some of
them, I will welcome that, but nobody was able to find such way," Maliki
said.

The 3, "Chemical Ali," Saddam's half brother Ali Hassan al-Majid notorious
for his use of poisonous gas against Kurds, Sultan Hashim al-Taie and
Hussein Rasheed Mohammad, a former deputy director for the Iraqi Armed
Forces were convicted by the Iraqi High Criminal Court of genocide, war
crimes and war against humanity in June and got death penalties by
hanging. In September, an appeals court upheld the verdict, which means
the executions would be carried out within 30 days according to the Iraqi
law.

However, the executions were delayed due to the coming of Muslim holy
month of Ramadan.

At Sunday's news conference, the Iraqi prime minister also disclosed that
an amnesty would be announced for detainees who have been slightly
involved in insurgency in the war-torn country.

But he stressed that the amnesty would not fall on those who committed
killings and bombings and were found guilty by the Iraqi courts. "I have
talked with the legal department and the political council national
security about granting amnesty for detainees and they all agreed on the
necessity for releasing those who were deceived and those who committed
minor crimes," Maliki told reporters.

"We believe that some detainees were deceived and lured to commit such
crimes and their families will not allow them to return to terrorism," he
said.

Meanwhile, Maliki gave a positive criticism to the security situation in
the capital, saying the "terrorist acts" in Baghdad have lowered by 77 %
from the last year's level.

He saw the security improvement as a signal that the sectarian conflict
between Sunni and Shiite communities is reaching its end.

"When the sectarian conflict is over, then I will not be worried from
those gangs who are running between the provinces," he said, referring to
the al-Qaida and some other Sunni insurgent groups that fled the capital
to provinces to continue insurgent acts.

The Iraqi prime minister also warned the neighboring countries of the
presence of those insurgent groups who are fleeing Iraq to their soils.

"The majority of those terrorists are fleeing to neighboring countries,
and I warned our brothers in the neighboring Islamic and Arab countries to
take care so that they would not harm them," Maliki said.

(source: Xinhua News)

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

US 'stalling' on Iraq executions ---- Sultan Hashim's supporters say he
did not drive policy


Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has criticised US forces for failing to hand over
for execution 3 former prominent figures in Saddam Hussein's regime.

The 3, including Ali Hassan "Chemical Ali" al-Majid, were condemned to
death for the campaign against the Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s.

There has been division in the Iraqi leadership over the executions and
the US says it is waiting for consensus.

There is suspicion the US does not want ex-defence chief Sultan Hashim to
hang.

It is on the former defence minister, one of Majid's alleged accomplices,
that the controversy is focused.

The death sentences on the 3 were upheld by an appeals court in September.

Under Iraqi law, the 3 men should then have been hanged within 30 days.

But the verdict should also have been approved by the 3-man presidential
council and that is where the issue turned into a major political row.

'Incensed'

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd himself, opposes the death penalty in
principle.

"Chemical Ali" is the cousin of late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein

One of his 2 vice-presidents, Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, is particularly
incensed by the death sentence on Sultan Hashim and has threatened to
resign if it is carried out.

The Americans, who are physically holding the 3 convicted men, have
refrained from handing them over to Mr Maliki's Shia-led government for
execution.

Now Mr Maliki has lashed out at them, accusing the US embassy of dragging
its feet and causing a violation of the constitution.

He insists all 3 men should be delivered for execution.

There is a strong suspicion the US is reluctant to see the former defence
minister hang.

It has been widely reported that he was in touch with the CIA during
Saddam Hussein's rule and took part in plots to unseat him.

Sultan Hashim's supporters, Sunnis and others, say that like many others
at the time he was simply obeying orders and not driving policy.

(source: BBC News)






AFGHANISTAN:

Afghan demonstrators demand death penalty for 'Koran abuse'


More than 1,000 university students demonstrated in eastern Afghanistan
Sunday to demand the death penalty for an official accused of insulting
the Koran, police and witnesses said.

The attorney general's spokesman, former journalist Mohammad Ghaws Zalmai,
was arrested at the Pakistan border a week ago trying to flee after being
accused of misinterpreting the Muslim holy book in a new translation.

"Death to Ghaws Zalmai!" shouted the angry mob in the eastern town of
Jalalabad, an AFP reporter in the crowd said. "We want him hanged!"

"He has insulted our religion and must be killed," the group said.

The demonstrators blocked a main road linking the eastern town to the
capital, Kabul, for several hours. Dozens of police officers were on hand
to prevent violence.

The conservative parliament last week banned Zalmai from leaving the
country days after the distribution of about 6,000 copies of his
Dari-language translation, called "Koran-i-Pak" or "clean Koran".

A commission of clerics and prosecutors is examining the text, which does
not include the original Arab verses and is said to differ on several
issues, including homosexuality and adultery.

Zalmai is meanwhile being interrogated and police are searching for a
cleric who approved his version, said Abdul Rauf Arab, an official in the
attorney general's office.

The Afghan branch of the International Federation of Journalists has said
its information was that Zalmai, president of a media union, was accused
of not having his version of the holy book certified by an authorised
scholar.

Afghanistan is a deeply devout country, with its 10-year resistance of the
Soviet invasion called a "holy war", and issues of religion have in the
past triggered massive demonstrations.

The constitution is based on Islamic Sharia law, which allows the death
penalty in some circumstances.

(source: Agence France Presse)






SUDAN:

10 Get Death Penalty for Sudan Journalist Murder


A Sudanese court sentenced 10 people to death on Saturday for the murder
of a Sudanese journalist last year.

The 10, who hail from the western Darfur province, were found guilty of
murdering Muhammad Taha, the editor of the Al-Wifaq daily newspaper.

Taha was kidnapped from his home in September 2006. His decapitated body
was found in southern Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

Taha was considered close to the Muslim Brotherhood, but was tried in 2005
after his newspaper ran a series of articles questioning the ancestry of
the Prophet Muhammad. Many Sudanese found the publications offensive to
the prophet and to Islam, and some called on the authorities to have Taha
executed.

He was tried on charges of defying religion, inciting public opinion and
generating religious malice. Taha was fined and his newspaper was shut
down for 3 months.

Taha denied the charges of blasphemy and wrote a letter of apology that
was published in the press.

He also raised the ire of Darfur inhabitants for publishing criticism of
them in his newspaper.

The guilty parties, whose ages range from 16 to their mid 40s, were
sentenced to death by firing squad following a 9-month trial.

Their lawyer, Kamal Umar, said the verdict was unjust, and that the method
of death was reserved for the military. He also said the court was
influenced by political interests.

The lawyer plans to appeal the sentence.

(source: The Media Line)






JAPAN:

Dissenting Judge Breaks 40-Year Silence


Norimichi Kumamoto says he still feels "tremendous anger" and cannot
maintain his silence any longer. In 1968, he was 1 of 3 judges who
sentenced a boxer to death on charges of murdering a family of 4, although
at the time he was convinced the man was innocent.

"My vote was overruled. It was a 2 to 1," Kumamoto, his voice rasping with
troubled emotion, told a press conference here on Nov 6.

The other 2 judges had rejected his massive 360-page document arguing his
reasons for believing the man to be innocent. A year later, Kumamoto, then
a young judge with a promising future before him, quit the bench in
protest.

For 39 years the convicted man, Iwao Hakamada, now 71, has remained on
Japans death row in a small, windowless cell, wondering when the guards
will come to march him to the scaffold.

Hakamada is slowly losing his mind, say his sister and campaigners.
"Iwao's spirit is on the verge of its end," confirmed Catholic Cardinal
Seiichi Sirayanagi of Tokyo in a booklet, entitled Save an Innocent
Prisoner, which was circulated at the press conference.

"I have thought about his trial for many years," Kumamoto, 70, told the
gathered journalists. "I have felt sadness and disappointment over this."

Besides finally breaking his silence by talking to the press, this month
Kumamoto filed a petition with Japan's Supreme Court demanding a retrial
for Hakamada.

The evidence presented by the state prosecutors against Hakamada was
insufficient for a conviction, Kumamoto said. "I thought we could not find
him guilty ... the 5 pieces of evidence that were provided did not make
sense." Prosecutors provided 5 items of bloodstained clothing as evidence.
There was a pair of trousers which did not fit the 1-time boxer, Kumamoto
said.

He added: "The guilty verdict was based solely on Hakamada confessing to
the killings. But he confessed after being confined and tortured in a
small room for 20 days."

The court rejected 44 out of the 45 records of interrogations -- in which
Hakamada admitted to killing a soybean company executive and his family of
3, in Shizouka prefecture, in the Chubu region of Honshu island --
questioning whether these had been given voluntarily.

But it accepted 1 confession and based its conviction on this, said
Kumamoto who now risks being charged for breaking a secrecy law barring
judges from speaking after they reach joint decisions.

"During his trial at the Shizuoka District Court in December 1966 he
retracted his confession and claimed he was innocent," Amnesty has also
reported, adding that taken together all the statements "contained nothing
of substance".

"I have to let the world know what happens in Japan," Kumamoto said. "The
police use shocking, barbaric means to extract confessions and those who
make them do so only out of despair." His view was supported by Hakamada's
chief lawyer Hideo Ogawa, who also spoke at the press conference.

"Japan has not changed its treatment of suspects since the 1600s, and they
(the suspects) are not recognised as human beings," Ogawa said. The
judicial system was based largely on obtaining written confessions given
to police investigators in unrecorded interrogation sessions, he said.

This was supported by official statistics provided by the Supreme Court to
IPS after the press conference. In more than 90 % of all court convictions
last year there was an accompanying confession.

"If you are innocent but accused of a crime, there are few safeguards to
protect you," Ogawa charged. "The police can detain citizens up to 24
days. They do not have any rules regarding what time they can start the
interrogation in the morning, or finish in the evening. And there is no
lawyer in the room." He added: "The Japanese believe that if the
prosecutor says someone is guilty then it must be true."

Ogawa is convinced that some innocent people had been wrongly convicted
and executed. He recalled the case of Sakae Menda who was accused of
murdering and injuring a family of 4 in Hitoyoshi City in Kumamoto
Prefecture in 1948. He had been coerced into a confession after days of
interrogation. Evidence supporting his alibi was ignored. Menda's
conviction was eventually overturned after he had spent more than 30 years
in prison.

Japan is the only member of the Group of Seven industrialized nations,
other than the United States, to maintain capital punishment.

Currently there are 104 people awaiting execution in Japan, according to
Norimichi Kumamoto. Between 1946 and 1993, Japanese courts sentenced 766
people to death and 608 were executed.

Hakamada's request for a retrial was rejected in 1994. His appeal to the
Supreme Court for retrial has been held up for the last 3 years.

(source: IPS News)






GLOBAL:

Arab world opposes EU resolution on death penalty


THE 192-MEMBER U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote later this month,
on one of the most crucial political issues before the world body - a
moratorium on the death penalty. Earlier in 1999, the EU tried to foist
such a resolution, but failed.

The 27-member European Union (EU), backed by virtually every single major
international human rights organisation, will introduce a draft resolution
on the death penalty. The EU is confident it will command a majority on
its side of the aisle, which could help in carrying the resolution (albeit
by a narrow margin). The resolution is not binding legally, though.

The draft is being "co-authored" by 36 member-States, including the 27 EU
members and as many as 75 countries "co-sponsoring" the draft resolution.
Amnesty International has welcomed the decision of the 75 countries to
co-sponsor a draft resolution at the General Assembly and urged all States
to resist any amendments that could weaken the purpose of the resolution.

"Amnesty International is very encouraged that so many countries from all
regions co-sponsored this draft calling for a global moratorium on
executions," said Yvonne Terlingen, Head of Amnesty Internationals UN
Office in New York. "It clearly demonstrates broad regional support for
ending this cruel and inhuman practice. A resolution calling for a
moratorium on executions will be a significant step towards realizing the
General Assemblys vision of a death penalty-free world." said Terlingen.

However, the EU resolution is facing strong opposition from the Arab world
and also other countries where capital punishment is still on the statute
book. The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), the League of Arab
States, China and some of the Caribbean and Asian countries are opposing
this resolution. When the EU tables the draft resolution, it is likely to
be resisted by many countries which have death penalty on their statute
books and which do not view death penalty as a human rights issue but as
an issue dealing with law and order. India is also non-committal on its
stand on the resolution.

Singapore, which has been consistently and vocally advocating the death
penalty, believes the EU resolution will be "divisive." Singapore
Ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon suggested that under the circumstances, it
will be best for the EU not to try to push ahead with its draft. He argued
such a resolution will only "sour the atmosphere" in the Third Committee,
which will discuss and vote on the resolution before it goes to the
General Assembly and "cause unnecessary divisiveness in the house."

Some of the non-EU States, which are "not very comfortable" with the
existing draft, are trying to delay the tabling of the resolution by
asking for amendments.

Within the EU too, there is a split as to accommodating some of the
amendments proposed by the non-EU sponsors. Since the draft is still being
debated, the EU has not officially released it, leading to further
speculation. The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso made it
clear that the EU is unreservedly opposed to the use of capital punishment
under all circumstances and has consistently called for the worldwide
abolition of this punishment. "The death penalty is against human dignity.
We want to give visibility to the efforts of the many non-governmental
organisations and individuals who strive, day after day, towards the
abolition of the death penalty," he added. According to the EU, a growing
number of countries are abolishing the death penalty: 133 countries have
done so in practice or in law. Only 25 countries carried out executions in
2006. Over 50 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes
since 1990. In Asia, 25 countries have abolished the death penalty in law
or practice. In Africa, only 6 out of 53 States carried out executions in
2006.

The General Assembly has already adopted 2 resolutions on capital
punishment, in 1971 and 1977, in which it proclaimed it was desirable that
the death penalty be abolished in all countries. The EU has funded around
30 anti-death penalty projects worldwide since 1994, with an overall
budget of about 15 million euros.

Those opposing the resolution are mainly arguing that capital punishment
is not prohibited under international law. For a large number of countries
the application of death penalty is first and foremost a criminal justice
issue and not a human rights issue. According to them it is an important
component of the administration of law and our justice system and is
imposed only for the most serious of crimes and serves as a deterrent.

(source: MeriNews)

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

UN moves to halt the death penalty worldwide


The UN will next week vote on a resolution calling for a worldwide
suspension of the use of the death penalty.

The Pan African News Agency (PANA) at the UN, reports that Singapore,
which applies the death penalty most, led the pack of nations in moving
the resolution.

A UN source told PANA at the weekend that "about 81 of the 192 UN members
support the resolution''.

The source said: "the resolution calls for countries which still have the
death penalty to introduce a moratorium or a suspension, with a view to
abolishing the practice''.

PANA learnt that so far 132 countries have already banned the death
penalty and only 25 of them carried out executions last year.

It was, however, gathered that there is considerable opposition to the
resolution suspending the death penalty by some countries, who use it as a
deterrent to drug trafficking and other social problems.

Although, UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, a vote
calling for a suspension of the death penalty and backed by a majority of
countries, will be a significant statement of changing international
opinion.

(source: Afrique en ligne)