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

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 1



SOUTH KOREA:

Killer Soldier Protests Death Sentence


The Supreme Court has called on the Constitutional Court to judge upon
constitutionality of a clause of the military law which gives the death
penalty to those who murder their superiors, accepting a complaint
submitted by Kim Dong-min who has been indicted for killing his superiors.

Kim killed superior officers in a shooting rampage last June while serving
at guard post.

On May 24, Kim asked the Supreme Court to judge on the constitutionality
of the clause that stipulates the death punishment of those who kill their
superiors and another clause which stipulates it as punishment. Both
clauses were applied to Kim at military court martial, subjecting him to
the death sentence.

According to the Supreme Court on Saturday, it accepted a request for
revising the f1st clause on Aug. 31, saying that the constitutionality of
the clause is a prerequisite for judgment and there was sufficient reason
to doubt its constitutionality.

However, it rejected the request for revising the other clause, saying
that the military criminal law's stipulation of death penalty a punishment
cannot be seen as violating the Constitution.

(source: The Korea Times)






ENGLAND/PAKISTAN:

Family of man facing death penalty holds UK protests


Relatives of a British man facing execution in Pakistan urged the
country's president to spare his life, staging a demonstration as Pervez
Musharraf arrived to speak at Oxford University on Friday.

Mirza Tahir Hussain, born in Leeds in northern England, is due to be
hanged on Sunday. He was accused of killing a taxi driver in 1988 but was
acquitted by the Lahore High Court. Pakistan's Federal Sharia Court then
took up the case and convicted him.

"He has lost the prime of his youth behind bars for an offence that has no
eyewitness and a crime he did not commit," said his brother Amjad Hussain,
outside the Oxford Union.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said Blair raised the issue with
Musharraf during a private meeting between them on Thursday but did not
give any details. Security at the event in Oxford was extremely tight.

(source: Reuters)






BANGLADESH:

Bangladesh court stays execution of militants


Bangladesh's Supreme Court has ordered a stay of execution for 7 Islamist
militants sentenced to death for bomb attacks that killed at least 30
people last year, a court official said on Sunday.

The militants included Shayek Abdur Rahman and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai,
heads of 2 outlawed Islamist groups seeking the introduction of
sharia-based Islamic law in Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy.

The 2, who head the groups Jamaat-ul Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata
Bangladesh, appealed for clemency on Friday. Their petition is to be heard
on Oct. 15 and execution has been suspended until its settlement, said
Fazlul Karim, secretary of the Supreme Court.

A court sentenced the 7 militants to death for killing 2 judges in the
coastal town of Jhalakathi in November last year. Bombs wrecked the
judges' car as they headed to court.

In bomb attacks between August and December 2005, the militants killed at
least 30 people and wounded 150. Victims included lawyers, judges, police,
officials and journalists.

6 of the convicts are in jail but one is absconding and was tried in
absentia, police said.

(source: Reuters)

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

Bangla militants ask for Islamic trials in death penalty cases


2 Islamic militants facing death sentences in Bangladesh over deadly bomb
blasts failed to meet a weekend deadline for appeals, but instead asked
the Supreme Court for trials under Islamic law, an official said on
Sunday.

"In their long letters, they said they did not recognise any satanic laws
or man-made courts. They want Islamic laws to hear their case. Their
letters are full of quotes from the holy Koran on the need for Islamic
laws," said deputy inspector general of prisons Shamsul Haider Siddiqui.

Siddiqui forwarded the letters to the court today.

Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam, the leader and 2nd in-command of
the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh, were sentenced to death in May
for their roles in a bombing campaign to press for Islamic law that left
28 people dead, including 4 militants.

Last month, jail officials had said that if they failed to appeal their
conviction in the Supreme Court by September 30, they would be hanged to
death as early as October 19, though officials may delay any sentence
until the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh follows civil law, but the Supreme Court may
decide to issue a statement after reading the letters and decide if they
represent an appeal, deputy attorney general Helaluddin Molla said.

6 militants, including Rahman and Islam, were sentenced to death in
October 2005 by a lower court for the murder of 2 judges. The sentences
were upheld in late August.

2 militants have appealed the death sentences, while the remaining 2 said
they would not appeal.

(source: Zee News)