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

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 22



SOUTH KOREA:

Death Penalty Crime Statute Ups to 25 Years


The statute of limitations for crimes that are punishable by the death
sentence is likely to be extended to 25 years.

The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee presented a
revision bill on criminal procedures to a plenary session Thursday which
proposes a general strengthening of penalties for crimes.

The Assembly is expected to pass the bill soon.

According to the revision bill, the statute of limitations for death
penalty crimes will be increased from 15 years to 25 years.

The statute of limitations is the length of time prosecutors can prosecute
a criminal after an offense has been committed.

For crimes punishable by life sentence, the statute of limitations will be
extended from the current 10 years to 15 years. It will also will be
increased from 7 years to 10 years for crimes subject to 10 years in
prison or more, and from 5 years to 7 years for crimes punishable by jail
terms under 10 years.

The committee also acknowledged a revision bill of the law on crimes under
jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, so the statute of
limitations for crimes against humanity, including massacre and warfare,
will be lifted and such offenders will be traced forever no matter how
many years have passed since their crimes. The law, however, will not be
retroactive.

The revision bill will also forbid the inspection of prison inmates'
letters. Prisoners will be able to write letters without prior permission
being granted - something they have needed so far.

Correctional officers will also be allowed to use tasers to control
violent inmates.

(source: Korea Times)






VIETNAM/AUSTRALIA:

Diplomats monitoring Aussie on death row


Australian diplomats in Vietnam have been regularly visiting an Australian
on death row for drug smuggling to ensure he is healthy and being treated
properly, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says.

A Vietnamese court upheld the death sentence against Tony Manh, who was
convicted in September of trafficking almost 1kg of heroin.

Manh, 40, of New South Wales, was arrested in March after security
officers at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City found drugs hidden on
his body before he boarded a plane to Sydney.

The death sentence handed down in September was upheld by Ho Chi Minh
City's People's Court of Appeals.

A DFAT spokesman confirmed Australian consular officials attended Manh's
trial and appeal hearing and had been in regular contact with him.

"The Australian Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City is providing
consular assistance to the man through regular visits to him in detention
to ensure his health and welfare are appropriately safeguarded," the
spokesman told AAP.

He said DFAT was ensuring Manh stayed in contact with his family.

"The consulate-general and the department also act as a channel for 2-way
communication between the man and his family in Australia."

Manh now has 7 days to send a letter to President Nguyen Minh Triet asking
for clemency. Australia will support him in the appeal.

"The government will strongly support an appeal for clemency by the man,
consistent with longstanding policy (but) we are confident the Vietnamese
government fully understands our position on Australians subject to the
death penalty," the spokesman said.

Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws.

About 100 people are sentenced to death in Vietnam each year for
drug-related offences.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)






MALAWI:

Malawi has to take a stand on death penalty


The issue of death penalty where a convict is executed to exact justice
has always been controversial and it is important that the recommendations
by British High Commissioner Richard Wildash to consider abolishing this
form of punishment are taken seriously.

In this country, the death penalty is usually given to convicted murderers
and those found guilty of plotting to overthrow the legally constituted
government. But for one reason or another or further still reasons best
known to former president Bakili Muluzi and the incumbent leader Bingu wa
Mutharika, punishment by death has not been handed out in this country
since 1992.

This means that the law as regards death penalty has remained intact in
past 15 years while people have been convicted and sentenced to death but
no executions have been carried out. It would not be wrong to argue that
by remaining on death row indefinitely the convicts have suffered
mentally.

Each day they have woken up not knowing whether the President had changed
his mind and decided to sign the death warrant. They might be murderers
but they do not cease to be individual human beings. They go through the
same trauma that would engulf someone who has never committed murder
before.

Therefore, it would not be wrong to tell these people in no uncertain
terms what they would eventually face. Either let them be told that they
would not be killed as demanded by the court sentence but rather serve a
life term in jail or execute them as prescribed by the law.

Yes, these could be difficult decisions to make and we come to that
conclusion by simply looking at the results of the global debate on the
subject at hand. For instance, we are told that last week the United
Nations General Assembly passed a resolution titled Moratorium on the use
of the death penalty calling on countries to do away with the executions.
The results were close though with 99 votes for, 52 countries against and
33 abstentions, showing that there is still a large constituency in the
world that believes in killing murderers.

At least in this exercise some of the participants were resolute except
those who abstained. Malawi, therefore, must be resolute and not sit on
the fence in such an important matter by sentencing its citizens to the
gallows and at the same time holding them indefinitely in prison.

The problem in this country is that a large section of the society does
not see why someone who takes a weapon and deliberately kills another must
have a bigger right than the victim and they could be right too.

However, the best way forward is to exhaust the debate and find out what
is best for our society. The British envoy has clearly said that the
abolition or retention of the death penalty was a matter for Malawi to
decide.

(source: The Daily Times)






CHINA:

Car smuggling gang leader gets death penalty


The leader of a smuggling ring was given the death penalty, suspended for
2 years, in south China's Guangdong Province on Thursday after being
convicted of smuggling 2,043 cars and evading taxes of 223.7 million yuan
(29.8million U.S. dollars).

Chen Naizhi, 32, originally from Jiujiang Township in Nanhai District of
Guangdong's Foshan City -- now a Canadian national -- also had all of his
assets confiscated under the sentence handed down by the Municipal
Intermediate People's Court of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

22 members of Chen's ring, most of whom were his relatives and friends,
were also sentenced on Thursday to jail terms of as long as 15 years. They
were also fined between 1,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan.

The group was accused of buying cars in Hong Kong and smuggling them into
China via Vietnam between February 2004 and August 2005,the court heard.

Chen, pretending to work for an American company, signed an agreement with
a Vietnamese car assembly firm. He and his accomplices brought the cars
into south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region via Vietnam, it heard.

To sell the cars, the smugglers pretended to be transport authorities.
They stole information about legal cars and made fake license plates, the
court heard.

Chen and 12 members of the group were arrested on Sept. 17, 2005 in his
hometown. The other 10 accomplices were arrested later that year.

Local media said Thursday that it was the "No. 1 case of Chinese auto
smuggling."

The vehicles smuggled by the group were mostly luxury cars from such
makers as Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and BMW. The cars were sold everywhere in
China, except the southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region, according to the
Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News.

"Of the smuggled cars, many are still in service," the paper said.

(source: Xinhua News)






INDONESIA:

Bali bombers to launch last bid against death penalty


1 of 3 Indonesians sentenced to die for the 2002 Bali blasts says the trio
plan to ask the country's top court to review their case in a last bid to
stop their execution.

Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas were sentenced to death for the resort
island bombings in which more than 200 people died, most of them
foreigners.

They face execution by a firing squad after the country's Supreme Court
rejected their final appeal, unless President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
pardons them.

The 3 bombers have repeatedly said they will not appeal to the president
for clemency, saying they want to die as martyrs.

"Although we are ready to die, we want our case review to be heard and we
want a halt on all execution plans, because it (the decision to reject the
last case review) is against Islamic law and the criminal code," Samudra
told Reuters at a high security prison during a meeting with family
members of one of the bombers.

The 3 men are being held in the Batu Prison off the southern coast of
Java.

Indonesia does not, normally, announce the date or location of executions.

Lawyers for the 3 Muslim militants had earlier sought a review of their
case, arguing that anti-terrorism laws, which were written in the wake of
the 2002 attacks, cannot be applied retrospectively.

The Supreme Court turned down that appeal in September.

Another case review is not possible under existing laws, said senior
Supreme Court official Rikar Zarof.

"You can't ask for another case review, that is not possible. The case has
already been reviewed and it (the appeal) was rejected. And that's it,"
Zarof told Reuters by phone.

But lawyer Achmad Michdan said the defence team will pressure the Supreme
Court to overturn its decision.

Mukhlas's wife, Paridah binti Abbas, and her children flew from
neighbouring Malaysia for what is likely to be their last visit before the
execution, accompanied by a defense lawyer for the 3 bombers.

In the 2-hour reunion Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, read out a list
of messages for his children, including prohibiting them from working for
a democratic and secular government and urging them to continue his jihad
to defend the right path of Islam.

The bombings in Bali and other attacks that have hit Indonesia in recent
years have been blamed on the Southeast Asian Islamic militant group
Jemaah Islamiah.

(source: Reuters)

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

Execute me soon: Bali bomber


1 of 3 Bali bombers on death row has urged the Indonesian government to
execute him quickly.

Mukhlas has spent a final few hours with his family at the island prison
where he is awaiting execution for his role in the 2002 bombings that
killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

His lawyer Achmad Michdan accompanied the bomber's wife Farida Abbas and
six children, who live in Malaysia, to the jail.

5 of the couple's children - who came bearing presents and were allowed to
hug and kiss their father - are in their teens, but the youngest is just 4
years old.

Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron, used the time to tell his family to
stay true to the Muslim faith, and not to mourn his death.

"He gave 11 points, including his demand that if they (the government)
wanted to execute him, please go ahead with the execution as soon as
possible," Michdan quoted Mukhlas as saying.

The bomber told his children they must stay true to their faith, and only
work in countries that respect Islamic Sharia law.

The 2 other bombers awaiting execution - Amrozi, Mukhlas's brother, and
Imam Samudra - have already received final visits from their families.

Prosecutors will soon visit the trio to ask if they intend to seek
clemency from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

All have previously said they won't. Yudhoyono has said he will refuse any
request to spare their lives.

If the clemency option is passed in, they could be executed within weeks.

Michdan said Amnesty International had urged the bombers' defence team to
fight the death penalty, but he said that would not happen.

But the lawyer did say he intended to write to Indonesia's Supreme Court
in the new year, questioning the legal procedures that applied in the
bombers' case and making the point that the trial process had been unfair.

Another of the 3 Bali bombers says the trio plan to ask the country's top
court to review their case in a last bid to stop their execution.

"Although we are ready to die, we want our case review to be heard and we
want a halt on all execution plans, because it (the decision to reject the
last case review) is against Islamic law and the criminal code," Imam
Samudra told Reuters at a high security prison during a meeting with
family members of one of the bombers.

Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas were sentenced to death for the resort island
bombings in which more than 200 people died, including 88 Australians.

They face execution by a firing squad after the country's Supreme Court
rejected their final appeal, unless President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
pardons them.

(source: The Age)