[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 8


CHINA:

Issue Moratorium on Executions Before Olympics----Secrecy, Unfair Trials,
Overbroad Laws Still the Rule Despite Reform


China should impose a moratorium on all executions as a goodwill gesture
before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch issued its call for a moratorium in advance of the
World Day against the Death Penalty on October 10. China is estimated to
execute more people than the rest of the world combined.

Human Rights Watch said that during the moratorium the Chinese government
should sharply reduce the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty,
make public the number of people executed and awaiting execution, and
institute changes in trial and appeal procedures to ensure that they meet
at least international minimum standards of fairness in all cases where
capital punishment is demanded by prosecutors.

"As the world focuses on China's poor human rights record in the run-up to
the Olympics, the Chinese government could avoid further embarrassment by
making a bold step to address its position as the world's leading
executioner of its own citizens," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human
Rights Watch.

The Chinese government classifies as "state secrets" all statistics
regarding capital punishment. Credible estimates suggest approximately
7,500 executions per year. State media claim that the number of people
executed decreased in 2007 after the adoption of a system of mandatory
vetting by the Supreme People's Court, Chinas highest judicial
institution, took effect on January 1, 2007. The government also cites 2
additional regulations aimed at "killing fewer, killing more cautiously,"
which were promulgated on February 27 and March 9, respectively. However,
while this new system provides an additional centralized administrative
review, it does not address serious systemic weaknesses in the trial
process.

"The reported decrease in the number of executions is welcome, but that is
no substitute for full transparency, fair trials, adequate defense
counsel, and judicial independence," said Adams. "Because of structural
deficiencies in the conduct of trials in China, no one executed in China
today receives a fair trial in line with international standards."

The Chinese criminal justice system recognizes neither the presumption of
innocence nor the right to remain silent, and places sharp limits on
defense counsel and the rights of the accused. Torture to obtain
confessions remains prevalent. A spate of wrongful convictions have
emerged in recent years, with the deputy procurator-general, Wang
Zhenchuan, estimating in 2006 that there are at least 30 cases every year
of wrongful convictions attributable to confessions extracted through
torture and that "nearly every wrongful verdict in recent years relates to
illegal interrogation."

Chinese scholars have also expressed doubts that the newly introduced
regulations can ensure justice in cases that have political implications.
In particular, they point to the extreme speed with which the Supreme
People's Court approved the execution of two former senior officials whose
cases had national repercussions. In the case of Guo Yanyu, the former
head of China's food and drug agency, who was charged with corruption, the
Supreme Court completed its review in 13 working days, while it took just
10 working days for Duan Yihe, a member of the Chinese Peoples Congress
from Jinan, Shandong Province, who was convicted of murdering his mistress
in a car explosion.

The desire to be seen as being tough on corruption and public order and to
"appease public indignation" is a repeated justification advanced by the
Chinese government to retain capital punishment.

Human Rights Watch said it was particularly concerned about official
announcements by top security officials that the authorities would carry
out anti-crime campaigns in the run-up of the 2008 Summer Olympics. These
campaigns are often directly linked with an increase in death penalty
sentences and executions.

In July, China's top law and order official, Luo Gan, announced that the
authorities would "crack down severely on all kinds of hostile forces and
troublemakers" bent on disturbing a "peaceful Olympics," and "severely
punish all kinds of crimes."

"The International Olympics Committee should publicly press China for a
moratorium on all executions during the Games," said Adams. "This would be
in line with the Olympic Charter, which aims to promote through sport 'a
peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.'"

The death penalty is currently mandated for no fewer than 68 crimes,
including embezzlement and corruption. Chinese legal experts have long
advocated that the most effective way of limiting the number of executions
would be to limit the death penalty to violent crimes. But the government
has shied away from such reform, because it does not want to appear as if
it is unwilling to punish severely corrupt cadres and party officials,
which is a growing cause of social discontent in China.

Although the death penalty has not been banned categorically in
international law, the strong trend is toward its eventual abolition.
Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as
inherently cruel, irreversible, and usually discriminatory in application,
and believes it violates the right to life and fundamental dignity that
all human beings possess.

(source: Human Rights Watch)






AFGHANISTAN:

Afghanistan carries out rare executions


Afghanistan has put 15 people to death for various crimes including
murder, government officials told AFP, in the first confirmed executions
in more than 3 years.

The convicted criminals were shot dead in a Kabul prison late on Sunday, a
senior official said on condition of anonymity.

"15 people who were convicted earlier were executed," the official said,
adding that most had been found guilty of murder.

The national head of prisons, Abdul Salaam Asmat, confirmed 15 were put to
death at Afghanistan's largest prison Pul-i-Charki. He refused to give
details.

The last known execution by the post-Taliban government of President Hamid
Karzai was in April 2004 when military commander Abdullah Shah was killed
with a single bullet after being convicted for a spate of murders.

A Supreme Court spokesman, Wakil Omari, told AFP that other people were
believed to have been executed in secret since then, but he had no
details.

Around 300 people are on death row, a judge told AFP on condition of
anonymity.

They had been sentenced for crimes such as murder, rape, armed robbery,
kidnapping and "political crimes" such as bombings and anti-government
activities, he said.

Karzai has however been reluctant to sign their execution orders.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

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

Top UN envoy speaks out against death penalty following Afghan executions


The top United Nations envoy to Afghanistan today expressed concern at the
recent execution of 15 prisoners in the capital, Kabul  the first time the
death penalty has been used in 3 years.

"The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has been a staunch supporter of
the moratorium on executions observed in Afghanistan in recent years,"
said UNAMA chief Tom Koenigs, recalling that the UN had previously stated
its concern over the use of the death penalty.

In a statement, he acknowledged the sovereign right of the Afghan people
and their Government to decide how to carry out their own laws, but called
for Afghanistan to "continue working towards attaining highest human
rights standards and ensuring that due process of law and the rights of
all citizens are respected."

"It is my personal view that the death penalty should be abolished
worldwide," he added.

Also today, UNAMA reported that more than 353,000 Afghans have returned to
their homes so far this year  nearly 348,000 of them from Pakistan and
more than 5,000 from Iran  with the assistance of the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR).

Over 16,000 Afghans returned to their home country from Pakistan and Iran
last month, UNAMAs Nazifullah Salarzai told reporters in Kabul, adding
that the pace of returns is slowing down as winter approaches.

"We're now seeing return numbers averaging 200 per day  down from a peak
of over 12,000 assisted returns per day in April," Mr. Salarzai stated.

While UNHCRs voluntary repatriation operation from Iran will continue
throughout the winter, its operation from Pakistan will take a "winter
break" at the end of October and then resume next March.

Since 2002, some 5 million Afghan refugees have returned to their
battle-scarred homeland, mostly from Pakistan and Iran, a majority aided
by UNHCR. Most of the 3 million registered Afghans remaining in
neighbouring countries have been abroad for more than 2 decades.

(source: UN News Centre)






AUSTRALIA:

Labor to campaign against death penalty


A LABOR government would lobby Asian countries to abolish the death
penalty. In a speech in Sydney tonight, opposition foreign affairs
spokesman Robert McClelland said it was hypocritical for the Howard
government to oppose the death penalty for Australian citizens while
failing to speak out against its application elsewhere.

He singled out Prime Minister John Howard for supporting the executions of
the perpetrators of the Bali bombings, al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden
and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, when officially the Government
opposes capital punishment.

"This contradiction came increasingly into focus when Indonesian terrorist
Amrozi was condemned to capital punishment at the same time as Van Nguyen
in Singapore," Mr McClelland told the Wentworth Human Rights Forum.

Labor believes that supporting executions - even by a nation state - gives
justification to all kinds of fanatical lunatics to take the lives of
others in pursuit of their own warped ideologies.

"That is why, at the highest levels, Australia's public comments about the
death penalty must be consistent with policy."

(source: Melbourne Herald Sun)