[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 3



GAMBIA:

Gambia sentences second person to death in a week


A court in Gambia sentenced a Guinean man to death on Wednesday for
murdering his housemate by beating him with an iron bar, the 2nd death
penalty handed down in the West African country in a week.

Kanifing Court found Sulayman Bah guilty of killing his housemate Mamudou
Jallow on Sept. 1 by bludgeoning him over the head following a dispute
over 10,000 dalasi ($457) in their apartment.

Magistrate Moses Richards said the court had taken strong action to
curtail a rising tide of violent crime by foreigners which he said was
alien to Gambian culture.

Last week, the same court sentenced a Senegalese woman, Tabara Samb, to
death for killing her husband by pouring boiling oil over him after she
grew suspicious the Muslim man was going to take a 2nd wife.

Death sentences in Gambia are rare and require the signature of President
Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled the country of 1.5 million people since
seizing power in a bloodless military coup in 1994.

Although permitted under the 1996 constitution, only 2 person has been
executed since independence from Britain in 1965.

(source: Reuters)






INDIA:

Ex-MP Anand Mohan gets death sentence in DM Krishnaiah murder case


The Justice delivery system at last pronounced the judgement after a long
wait of 13 years.

Patna sessions court awarded death sentence to ex -MP Anand Mohan along
with other 3 in G. Krishnaiah murder case.

Lynching happened thirteen years ago in 1994. Anand Mohan's wife Lovely
Anand gets Life sentenced for the same case.

They were alleged to have incited mob which killed the then DM of
Gopalganj. JDU MLA Akhlaq Ahmad also get death sentenced by the court.

Along with Anand Mohan and his wife former Vaishali MP, Lovely Anand,
JD(U) legislator Vijay Shukla alias Munna Shukla, former MLA Akhlaq Ahmad,
former MP and JD(U) leader Arun Kumar and JD(U) leaders S.S. Thakur and
Harendra Kumar were convicted in the case.

Ramsreshtha Rai, Additional District and Session's Judge has earlier ruled
the accused persons guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to
murder) and 147 (rioting).

A mob carrying the body of Chotan Shukla, a don and a leader of Bihar
Peoples Party who was shot dead in a gang war. The mob led by Anand Mahan
and Lovely Anand stopped the G. Krishnaiah, an IAS officer's car on the
outskirts of Mujaffarpur .He was dragged out by the infuriated mob and was
thrashed badly.

Chottan's younger brother Bhutkan Shukla shot thrice in his head while he
lay on the street.

G. Krishnaiah was a native of Andhra Pradesh and was an IAS officer of
Bihar Cadre.

On that unfateful day he was on the way to Gopalganj from Hajipur via
Mujaffarpur after attending a meeting.

Recently the case was transferred to the session court in Patna for speedy
trial on the instruction of Patna High Court.

Uma Krishnaiah said on the conviction of all seven "They deserve no less
punishment than the death sentence. The court should award capital
punishment to them to send a message to society."

She said "At last, justice does not seem to be far away."

While the sentence will be challenged in other higher court, justice still
seems to be far away .

But pinning hope has become a way of life for those who believe in our
justice delivery system. In fact this is for the first time that a former
MP has been awarded the death penalty.

(source: Newstrack)






IRAQ:

Iraqi PM ponders execution delay ---- Majid was sentenced to death for
crimes against humanity


The Iraqi government may seek legal advice on delaying the execution of a
cousin of the late Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, the prime minister says.

Nouri Maliki said he did not want the execution of Ali Hassan "Chemical
Ali" al-Majid during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends next
week.

An Iraqi appeals court upheld Majid's sentence in September for the
killings of at least 100,000 Kurds during 1988.

A 30-day deadline set by the court was due to expire on Thursday.

2 others also face the death penalty for their role in the killings.

The Iraqi authorities may be hoping to avoid the controversy that arose
when Saddam Hussein was executed during the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha in
December, correspondents say.

Majid was found guilty of crimes against humanity in June for organising
what was known as the Anfal campaign against the Kurds of northern Iraq in
the late 1980s.

He acquired his nickname Chemical Ali during the operation after poison
gas was used.

Thousands of villages were also destroyed, as part of a systematic attempt
to wipe out the Kurdish people.

(source: BBC News)






FINLAND:

Historian claims number of executions of deserters during Continuation War
was deliberately understated----Director of Department of Military History
at Defence University accuses author of "stigmatization"


In his new book that was published on Tuesday, Emeritus Professor Heikki
Ylikangas indicates that the number of deserters from the Finnish armed
forces who were executed during the Continuation War (1941-44) was
considerably higher than can be seen from official documents.

According to Ylikangas, the number of executions was about 250. In his
view, dozens of them were illegal. The name list of the allegedly executed
soldiers is included in the new book, entitled Romahtaako rintama? ("Is
the Front Collapsing?")

Based on the official figures given by the Finnish Defence Forces, Finns
executed just 58 of their own soldiers during the Continuation War.

However, Ohto Manninen, Professor of War History at the Finnish National
Defence University, says that he himself has never noticed that the
Defence Forces would have wanted to conceal such information.

While admitting that he has not read Ylikangass new book in its entirity
as yet, Manninen seriously doubts that the Defence Command would have
ordered its archives to be systematically cleaned.

Some errors have already been found in the book. For example, one soldier
whom Ylikangas had mentioned as having died during the war had passed away
as recently as in the 1990s.

Ylikangas admits that some mistakes can found in his book, but says that
the aim of the book was to prompt a need to find out the exact number of
the executed soldiers and to look into the fate of those who vanished
during the Continuation War.

Previously Manninen and Jarmo Nieminen - the director of the Department of
Military History at the National Defence University - have proposed that
the fate of those soldiers who vanished during the wars over the period
from 1939 to 1945 should be looked into.

According to current information, the fate of as many as 5,311 Finnish
soldiers is still unclear.

During the launch of the book on Tuesday, Nieminen presented Ylikangas
with a written statement of his "twisting the facts" and of "stigmatizing"
the institution Nieminen is heading.

After reading the book, Nieminen regarded it as insufficient and lacking
in facts. He also believes that this book will arouse an academic debate
on the fate of those soldiers who vanished or were executed during the
war.

Ylikangas started his book by comprehensively rejecting the allegations of
the executions of hundreds of wartime deserters in Lappeenranta in the
summer of 1944.

The exhumation of remains in the cemetery at Huhtiniemi has continued for
some time: thus far the only bodies that have been found were shown to
date from the 19th century, and not from the 1940s.

Towards the end of the Continuation War, the Red Army launched a massive
infantry and artillery assault on Finnish positions in the Karelian
Isthmus in June 1944. The lines broke in various degrees of order and
disorder and the Finns retreated back towards the former border with the
Soviet Union.

This is the background to the allegations of mass desertions and field
courts-martial.

(source: Helsingin Sanomat)






NIGERIA:

Amnesty International, others call for abolition of death penalty


International and 11 other non- governmental organisations in Nigeria on
Thursday called on President Umaru Yar'Adua to abolish the death penalty
from the country's statute books.

"It is imperative for the President to drop the penalty to bring the
country in line with the global trend," Mr Louis Mendy, President of
Amnesty International in Senegal, said at a , briefing in Lagos.

Mendy, who spoke on behalf of the group, said that the sentence appeared
to be targeted at women and that there was a global call for its
abrogation.

"We are glad to note that about 131 countries have abolished it.

"The forthcoming celebration of Nigerias 47th bi rthday offers Y ar'Ad ua
the opportunity to reaffirm his commitment to the
internationally-recognised and constitutional right to life."

The group said the government should join the trend by declaring a
moratorium, pending the abolition of the death penalty for all offences
and to commute all death sentences to jail terms.

They also urged the Federal Government to review all cases of prisoners on
death row, especially the cases of those above 60, who have been on death
row for more 'than 10 years.

"The development will enable the government see if the prisoners will be
suitable for release, as promised by the previous administration on May
16, 2007," he said.

The human rights organizations pleaded that the government should ensure
that "all prisoners currently on death row, suffering from severe
illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or mental illnesses are given
:access to medical treatment and healthcare."

The groups called on the National Assembly to pass into law the draft
Penalty Moratorium Bill, submitted by HURILAWS, in order to stop
executions, pending the abolition of the death penalty.

The NGOs are Access to Justice, Liberties Organisation, CLEEN Foundation,
Human Rights Law Service, Human Rights Watch, Legal Defence and Assistance
Project and Legal Resources Consortium.

Others are the National Coalition for Death Penalty, Prisoner
Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, Project Alert on Violence Against Women
and West African Network for Peace Building Nigerian.

(source: The Tide)