[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

August 2


CHINA:

Official: China 'prudent' in using death penalty


China is very prudent in its use of the death penalty to punish economic
criminals, the Communist Party of China's disciplinary watchdog said on
Thursday.

"We are very prudent in using the death penalty to execute perpetrators of
economic crimes and the number of death penalties handed down to economic
criminals is very small," Gan Yisheng, spokesman for the Central
Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of
China (CPC) Central Committee, said at a press conference.

"China has so far kept the death penalty system and the death penalty is
applicable to serious economic crimes," he said.

Gan's remarks came when a journalist from Agences France Presse questioned
the severity of the punishment given to Zheng Xiaoyu, who was executed on
July 10 for corruption during his tenure as director of China's State Food
and Drug Administration.

"The reason for Zheng Xiaoyu's death sentence was that the bribes he took
were huge and he committed serious crimes," said Gan.

Zheng, 63, was sentenced to death on May 29 by the Beijing Municipal No. 1
Intermediate People's Court after being found guilty of taking 6.49
million yuan (US$850,000) in bribes and dereliction of duty.

Gan said Zheng's punishment was supported by the Chinese people and also
appraised by the international community.

"Different countries have different circumstances and have different
cultural backgrounds and views on the death penalty. They also have
different legal regulations, which is very natural," said Gan.

"The fact that China keeps the death penalty is due to its national
conditions and cultural background. There is nothing to be criticized," he
said.

"Moreover, we have very strict controls on the death penalty and all the
death penalty decisions need to be reviewed by the Supreme People's
Court," he added.

On January 1, 2007, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) retrieved the right
to review all death penalty decisions made by lower courts, ending its
24-year absence in approving China's execution verdicts.

(source: China Daily)






BAHRAIN:

Bahraini MP calls for scrapping death penalty


A lawmaker called for the scrapping of death penalty to avoid jeopardising
human rights achievements of Bahrain.

Faisal Fulad, a Consultative Council (Shura) Member and human rights
activist, told Gulf News yesterday the kingdom attracted criticism for the
recent activation of death penalty as according to human rights principles
no one has the right to take away lives.

Last year 3 Asians - 2 women and 1 man - were executed for their
involvement in murder cases after almost 20 years of suspension of death
penalty in Bahrain.

A Bangladeshi cook convicted of killing his sponsor's daughter, and a
retired Pakistani policeman convicted of burning down his friend's house
out of revenge resulting in the death of a man, face the gallows.

Judges must be careful

"As a politician and human rights activist, I feel that life sentence is
the best punishment for murderers and high risk criminals," he said. "If
you kill murderers they would die before repenting their deeds, but
sentencing them to life imprisonment could allow them to change and become
better persons."

Fulad said judges should be more careful in giving verdicts for murder
cases as many individuals executed worldwide turned out to be innocent
after their deaths.

He, however, supports death sentence in crimes like treachery or genocide.

"I was about to table a law proposal banning death penalties for criminal
[cases] but I reconsidered my plan after discussing the matter with the
Ministry of Interior as security officials told me not intensifying
penalties could attract members of organised crimes, terrorists and drug
dealers to the country."

(source: Gulf News)



KENYA:

Death penalty here to stay, MPs decide


Murderers and robbery with violence offenders will not walk away Scot-free
but face the noose, Parliament has resolved.

Members defeated a Motion seeking to abolish the death penalty when it was
put to vote by temporary Speaker, Mr Kirugi MMkindia, shortly after 11am.

Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister, Ms Martha Karua, said the
death penalty would be comprehensively dealt with when the Constitution is
being reviewed after the December General Election.

Karua reminded the House that Bomas Constitutional Conference had resolved
to uphold the death penalty and it would be against the wishes of Kenyans
to abolish it.

MPs Mr Zaddock Syong'o (Gwassi, Narc), Mr Kenneth Marende (Emuhaya (Narc),
Mr Owino Likowa (Migori, Narc), Mr Kalembe Ndile (Kibwezi, Narc), Mr Ekwe
Ethuro (Turkana Central, Narc) and Mr Joseph Munyao (Mbooni, Narc) rallied
to defeat the Motion with contributions against it.

It elicited heated and emotional contributions for and against it.

MP sought amendments through the Penal Code

Said Assistant minister, Dr Bonny Khalwale: "This Parliament has been
called namesthieves, greedy and we cannot allow ourselves to be branded
for licensing murderers."

The Motion moved by Kasipul-Kabondo MP, Mr Paddy Ahenda (LDP), sought to
abolish the death sentence on grounds that no person had been hanged since
1985.

Ahenda sought amendments through the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill to have
the sentence abolished, saying life was sacred and no person had right to
take another's.

Ahenda had a paltry 2 members in support of his Motion and was taken aback
when he donated his time as a mover to 2 MPs Mr Sospeter Ojaamong
(Amagoro, Narc), and Mr Jakoyo Midiwo (Gem, Narc), but both opposed it.

Only Rongo MP, Mr Ochillo Ayacko (Narc) and Subukia MP, Mr Koigi Wamwere
(Narc), supported the abolishment of the death penalty.

Koigi supported the Motion

Said Ayacko: "The sentence does not deter criminals or robbery with
violence offenders as people continue to commit robberies with impunity
and we should find better ways of dealing with that."

Ayacko, who is a lawyer, said those always committed to the sentence were
the poor who could not hire good lawyers to win a case.

Koigi supported the Motion, saying he had been sentenced to hang after
being charged with treason.

"I fought for 2nd liberation and was charged with the capital offence and
would have been hanged if the law was enforced, but I am lucky," Koigi
said.

He pleaded with the House to learn from Mahatma Gandhi that an eye for an
eye would end up with a society whose people could not see.

But Sirisia MP, Mr Moses Wetangula, opposed the Motion arguing the death
penalty was an emotive matter and too sensitive to be left to MPs to
decide. All Kenyans should have a say, he said.

"What would Ahenda do with a man of sound mind who sexually molests a
6-month-old child to death?" Wetangula said.

(source: The East Standard)






RWANDA:

EU Backs Govt On Death Penalty


THE European Commission has backed Rwanda's decision to scrap the death
penalty.

European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel
recently congratulated the Rwandan government on the move the body
regarded as tough but important.

"It is with great satisfaction that I have learnt that Rwanda has formally
adopted the law abolishing the death penalty. This important decision
confirms the political and democratic engagement of the country towards
national reconciliation," Mr Michel said.

Rwanda's Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty early June, with
the ban taking effect last month. The move is aimed at enabling countries
that are holding genocide suspects, but which object to capital
punishment, to extradite them to Rwanda.

But there has been strong opposition to the scrapping of the death penalty
from many survivors of the genocide, a move that prompted the Kigali
establishment to undertake a comprehensive public consultations with
various stakeholders countrywide.

"This significant step sends an important signal to the international
community, showing Rwanda's commitment and respect for human rights. I
hope that this decision will encourage other countries in Africa to
follow," Mr Michel said.

Under the new law, Rwanda's estimated 800 death-row inmates will
automatically have their sentences changed to life in jail. The country
last implemented the death penalty in 1998, when 22 people found guilty of
genocide crimes were put before a firing squad.

(source: The Monitor)


IRAN:

Iran hangs judge's killers in public


Iran hanged the killers of a judge, who had jailed several reformist
dissidents, before a crowd of hundreds of people on Thursday.

Majid Kavousifar and Hossein Kavousifar, his nephew, were hanged in front
of Tehran's Ershad judiciary complex, where they shot dead judge Hassan
Moghaddas in his car in 2005.

The 2 were not political activists, but Tehran's public prosecutor said
Majid Kavousifar had believed the judge was corrupt. The prosecutor
branded the killers as "terrorists."

Judge Moghaddas had presided over the jailing of seven dissidents in 2000
after they attended a conference in Berlin on Iranian reform.

Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, but public
executions are relatively rare.

Hoods over the heads of the judge's killers were removed before the
hanging, which took place in front of a giant portrait of Moghaddas.
Hossein Kavousifar was in tears. His uncle smiled and waved goodbye.

Onlookers in the street and on the roofs of houses chanted and took
pictures with mobile phones. Some laughed.

The tearful mother of one of the killers shouted: "God, please give me
back my son."

Dozens of people have been executed for rape, smuggling and other offences
in Iran in recent weeks. Most were arrested in a crackdown on "immoral
behavior," which began in April.

Iran hanged 9 men on Wednesday for rape, armed robbery and other offences.
Some 16 people were hanged in July.

Murder, rape, adultery, armed robbery, apostasy and drug smuggling are all
punishable by death under Iran's Islamic Sharia law, imposed since the
1979 revolution.

The number of executions doubled to at least 177 last year, according to
Amnesty International. Since the beginning of 2007, at least 124 people
have been put to death. Western rights groups have called on Iran to
abolish the death penalty.

(source: Reuters)