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

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 9



CHINA:

Rights group wants death penalty scrapped ahead of Olympics


Human Rights Watch has urged China to end the death penalty ahead of the
2008 Beijing Olympics.

Observers estimate that China executes more people than the rest of the
world combined, although the exact numbers are not known.

As the Olympic Games approach, Beijing's human rights record is coming
under closer scrutiny.

Human Rights Watch is demanding China reduce the number of crimes
punishable by death and says trial procedures should be changed to ensure
international standards of fairness.

(source: Reuters)

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

Rights group appeals to China to stop executions ahead of Olympics


China should suspend judicial executions as a goodwill gesture ahead of
next summer's Olympics, a human rights group said Tuesday.

The call by Human Rights Watch is the latest attempt to use the Olympics
to push Beijing to change its human rights practices or international
relations. China is thought to execute more people each year than the rest
of the world combined, including those convicted of nonviolent crimes such
as fraud.

"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," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human
Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"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," he said.

The appeal comes as China has attempted to reform its capital punishment
system following reports last year of executions of wrongly convicted
people and criticism that lower courts arbitrarily impose the death
sentence.

An amendment to China's capital punishment law, enacted in November,
restored to the Supreme People's Court the sole right to approve all death
sentences, ending a 23-year-old practice of allowing provincial courts
alone to sign off on executions.

China doesn't officially release death sentence figures. Amnesty
International says China executed at least 1,770 people in 2005 - about 80
percent of the world's total. But the true number is thought to be many
times higher.

Human Rights Watch said China should cut the number of crimes eligible for
the death penalty, make public the number of people executed or waiting on
death row, and improve trial and appeal procedures to ensure they meet
international minimum standards of fairness.

The Olympics have been used to try to push China on a range of issues.
Many countries have said over the last week that Beijing should use its
influence with the ruling junta in Myanmar to help resolve the crisis
there.

Beijing is also under fire for a perceived lack of action on pushing the
Sudan government to do more to end the crisis in Darfur. Energy-hungry
China buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil output.

(source: Associated Press)






AFGHANISTAN:

Executions Break Afghan Moratorium


Ending a 3-year moratorium on the death penalty, Afghanistan executed 15
prisoners by gunfire, including a man convicted of killing 3 foreign
journalists during the U.S.-led invasion, the prisons chief announced
Monday.

The United Nations protested the executions, which could complicate the
missions of some NATO nations here.

The mass execution took place Sunday evening according to Afghan law,
which calls for condemned prisoners to be shot to death, said Abdul Salam
Ismat, who oversees Afghanistan's prisons.

On Tuesday, Humayun Hamidzada, a presidential spokesman, said Afghanistan
will continue with executions of inmates on death row, saying they will be
a lesson ''for those who are committing such crimes, as murder,
kidnapping, adultery and rapes.''

The crimes committed by those executed Sunday included murder, kidnapping
and armed robbery, but officials said no Taliban or al-Qaida fighters were
among the prisoners.

Until it was ousted in late 2001, Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban regime
carried out executions in public, many of them at the Kabul stadium. The
new government pledged to the international community it would halt
executions, and had carried out only one previously, in 2004.

The 15 deaths could complicate relationships between the government and
some NATO countries with military forces here. Foreign troops often hand
over captured militants to the Afghan government, raising the question of
whether countries that do not use the death penalty might stop
surrendering prisoners.

The Netherlands was one of the first to criticize the Afghan announcement,
calling the executions ''extremely unwelcome.'' But it also said Dutch
troops would continue to transfer militants to the Afghan government,
saying it had an agreement protecting those prisoners from execution.

Anger over the executions also could prove a snag for NATO's efforts to
get its member nations to send more troops to Afghanistan. NATO has some
40,000 soldiers here but commanders complain they need more helicopters,
mobile troops and instructors to train the Afghan army.

''The fact that we have not fully been able to live up to the promises
that nations have made is a point of concern for me,'' NATO
Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Monday in Denmark before the
executions were announced.

Among those executed was Reza Khan, who was convicted of adultery and the
murder of one Afghan and 3 foreign journalists in 2001. The 4 were pulled
from their cars, robbed and shot near the eastern city of Jalalabad while
driving toward Kabul six days after the Taliban abandoned the capital
under heavy U.S. bombing.

The four were Australian TV cameraman Harry Burton, Afghan photographer
Azizullah Haidari of the Reuters news agency, Maria Grazia Cutuli of
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera and Julio Fuentes of the Spanish
daily El Mundo.

Also executed was Farhad, who is also known as Pahlavan and like many
Afghan used only a single name. He was involved in the 2005 kidnapping of
Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni; she was freed after 3 weeks.

Tom Koenigs, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said the
U.N. had expressed its concern over the use of the death penalty many
times in the past.

''The United Nations in Afghanistan has been a staunch supporter of the
moratorium on executions observed in Afghanistan in recent years,''
Koenigs said. ''I expect Afghanistan to continue working towards attaining
the highest human rights standards and ensuring the due process of law and
the rights of all citizens are respected.''

The government's official announcement of the executions came on state
television Monday evening, saying said Karzai ordered the executions
following a decision by a special commission he set up to review rulings
by the Supreme Court.

''After all the discussions and after looking back over the cases ... in
order to prevent future crimes, such as murders, armed robberies,
kidnappings, and to maintain the stability of the country, (Karzai)
approved the prisoners' death sentences,'' a statement read over the news
said.

Hamidzada, Karzai's spokesman, had told The Associated Press last week
that Karzai was taking ''extreme care in execution cases.''

''He has been holding on to these cases because he wants to make sure that
the justice is served and the due process is complete. He personally does
not like executions, but Afghan law asks for it, and he will obey the
laws,'' Hamidzada said.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry expressed distress at the executions.

''For the Netherlands, the abolition of the death penalty is one of our
priorities in terms of international human rights policy,'' spokesman Bart
Rijs said. ''We had understood there was a moratorium on the death penalty
in force.''

Rijs said Dutch troops would continue to hand over prisoners because the
Netherlands had signed a memorandum of understanding with Karzai's
government guaranteeing those inmates would not be executed. Rijs said
there were 10 such prisoners and all were believed in good health.

Amnesty International said 6 countries were responsible for 91 % of all
known executions worldwide last year: China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan
and the United States. 18 other countries also carried out executions, the
group said.

(source: Associated Press)






IRAN:

Concern in Kabul over fate of Afghan minors on death row


The Afghan parliament has expressed its concern over the fate of 17 Afghan
minors who have been sentenced to death in Iran.

The parliament has asked the government of president Hamid Karzai to
intervene and get Tehran to save the lives of these minors.

The Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan presented the parliament with
the list of 17 Afghan minors who are on death row in Iran. These offenders
committed the crimes as minors - under the age of 18 - and will only be
sentenced to death after they turn 18.

According to this independent commission, at least 2 Afghans who had
committed crimes in Iran when they were minors, were executed over the
past few months.

The Afghan parliament is currently involved in discussions with Tehran for
a bilateral agreement on the exchange of ordinary prisoners.

Earlier this year, the international human rights group Amnesty
International released a report saying that since 1990, 24 child offenders
have been executed in Iran - more than in any other country in the world.

The rights group said that 11 of these people were still under 18 at the
time of their execution, while the others were kept on death row until
they reached 18 or were convicted and sentenced after reaching that age.

The Iranian government however denies executing children.

(source: AKI News)






BOLIVIA:

'We could have saved Che' from execution, says ex-CIA operative


A former CIA operative has spoken out about the last hours of the Cuban
revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara before his execution in the jungles of
Bolivia 40 years ago, recalling how he looked like a "beggar" and was shot
against the wishes of the US government.

Felix Rodriguez, a prominent Cuban exile in Miami with a long career
working for the Central Intelligence Agency that spanned the Bay of Pigs
invasion of Cuba and the Vietnam War, said Che was in "rags" when he was
first brought to him after his capture by Bolivian soldiers near the town
of La Higuera on 8 October 1967. The former brother-in-arms of Fidel
Castro was in Bolivia trying to foment socialist revolution.

"I remembered him from the time that he used to visit Moscow and he used
to visit Mao Tse-tung in China, that arrogant man in uniform, and now you
see this man here who looks like a beggar," he told the BBC. "His uniform
was basically in rags. He didn't have a pair of boots, it was just a pair
of ... leather, covering his shoes. And, you know, I just felt sorry for
the man as an individual, as a human being."

It was also the job of Rodriguez at the time to ensure that Che was kept
alive and transported to Panama, where he would face interrogation by his
American colleagues. In the interview, he explains how he was overruled
during a phone call to the jungle encampment from Bolivia's military high
command.

"When I answered the phone they gave me the codeword 'five hundred six
hundred'," he recalled. "We had agreed a simple code; 'five hundred' was
Che Guevara, 'six hundred' was dead, 'seven hundred' was alive. I asked
him to repeat because the line had a lot of noise. And they confirmed, it
was 'five hundred six hundred'."

Rodriguez, who earned the nickname Lazarus after surviving the disastrous
Bay of Pigs invasion, was handpicked by the CIA to head up the team to
track down Che, an experience he described in a book. Other historians
have documented his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair and his
acquaintance with the then vice-president George Bush Snr, who knew him
while he was the CIA director.

Rodriguez said this week that he argued with his Bolivian counterpart in
the jungle, whom he identified as a Colonel Senteno. "Felix, we are
grateful for what you have done," the Colonel replied. "But this is an
order from my president, from my commander-in-chief. I want your word of
honour that at two o'clock in the afternoon, you will bring me back the
dead body of Che. You can do anything you want because we know the harm he
has done to your country."

Rodriguez said that upon his initial capture, Che was almost
good-humoured, even agreeing to be photographed with him as he was led out
of his hideaway. He also remembers the moment when he told the
Argentine-born revolutionary that he would not be spared.

"I went into the room, I stood in front of him and said 'Commander
Guevara, I'm sorry, I tried my best. But this is an order from the
Bolivian high command'. He perfectly understood what I was saying; he
turned white like a piece of paper, I've never seen anybody look depressed
like he did. But he said, 'It's better this way, I should have never been
captured alive.' It was one o'clock in the afternoon, Bolivian time, when
we left that area. And between 1.10 and 1.20, I heard the burst."

The vivid memories of Rodriguez are not coloured with a great deal of
regret over the way Guevara's life was ended, however. Nor does he believe
that the killing of the revolutionary made him a martyr and resulted in
his being mythologised in the decades since.

"That was done by the Cuban government," he said. "Most people don't know
the real Che Guevara  the Che Guevara who wrote that he was thirsty for
blood, the Che who assassinated thousands of people without any regard for
any real legal process."

(source: The Independent)






AUSTRALIA:

Australia under fire for 'inconsistent' death penalty stance


Opinion polls in Australia have consistently pointed to an undercurrent of
support for the death penalty for terrorism-related crimes.

Opponents of capital punishment say a Labor minister's stance against the
death penalty could help save Australians from death rows overseas.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Robert McClelland, earlier said the ALP
would oppose the death penalty in principle, including for the notorious
Bali bombers.

But Labor leader Kevin Rudd's decision to strongly distance himself and
his party from Mr McClelland's views was a stern reminder to all and
sundry that he has no intention of compromising his strong position in the
polls.

Promoting opposition to the death penalty on the eve of the Bali bombing
anniversary was never going to be a vote-winner, especially in a country
where opinion polls have consistently pointed to an undercurrent of
support for the death penalty for terrorism-related crimes.

Mr McClelland's views drew a significant point of difference between Labor
and the Coalition, which has long been accused of a hypocritical and
inconsistent approach to the death penalty.

The United Nations' spokesman on the death penalty, Philip Alston, is a
professor of law at New York University.

He has long been a critic of the Federal Government for what he describes
as 'Australian exceptionalism'.

That is, the Australian Government's support for the death penalty for the
Bali bombers, but its opposition to the sentence when Australian citizens
such as the so-called Bali nine face the death penalty in Asia.

Professor Alston says the Government has had numerous opportunities to
voice its disapproval to the death penalty, but has chosen not to.

"I've been struck by the silence of the Australian Government,
particularly in United Nations' forums," he said.

"I've presented, very recently, reports arguing that the death penalty is
not legal under international law for offences such as drugs.

"There would have been very good opportunities for the Australian
Government to stand up and support that position, and they remained
silent."

A regional approach

Professor Alston says if Labor took an in-principle stand against the
death penalty, it could play a key role in lobbying for its abolition in
countries across Asia.

"I think that if Australia now gets together with some of the Asian
nations that feel the same way, notably the Philippines, there's a chance
of a real coalition building up, and that's a very good thing for the
opponents of the death penalty," he said.

The director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne,
Professor Tim Lindsey, says Australia's approach is inconsistent.

He says that as long as Australia continues to pick and choose when it
will or will not support the death penalty, Federal Governments - be they
Labor or Liberal - will always face a challenge mounting a clemency case
for Australians facing the death penalty overseas.

"The current Government has been supportive of the execution of the Bali
bombers - the Prime Minister indicated that he didn't see why anybody
could say that [Bali bomber] Amrozi's execution would be barbaric," he
said.

"Now, when Australians face execution in Singapore, for example,
Australian views that execution of a drug offender would be barbaric are
thrown back in our faces.

"There's no doubt that Australian support, whether express or in a more
subtle form, for the execution of the Bali bombers, weakens our capacity
to argue against the execution of Australian citizens, for example the 6
of the Bali nine who face the death penalty."

(source: ABC News)

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

Bali survivors slam death penalty call


Survivors of the 2002 Bali bombings have criticised the timing of Labor
foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland's comments on the death
penalty in Indonesia.

Mr McClelland reportedly said in a speech on Monday night a Labor
government would campaign against the death penalty in Asia.

Coogee Dolphins member Eric de Haart, who lost teammates in the deadly car
bombings in Kuta, said it was poor timing for Labor to raise the issue
only days before the fifth anniversary of the bombings.

"It's a bloody silly week to bring it up if you ask me," Mr de Haart told
Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"It's beyond stupidity.

"I'm so angered by it."

Mr de Haart said the bombers were responsible for the deaths of 202 people
and many more injured survivors.

"Their lives will never be the same and these guys are showing no remorse
at all, in fact, they've revelled in the fact that they've done so much
damage," he said.

"The way that our government wants us to cow-tow to the Indonesian
government and let them get away with it buggers me up as well."

Ray Mavroudis, the cousin of Coogee Dolphin's member David Mavroudis, 29,
who died in the bombings, was also critical of Labor's timing.

"This time of year, something comes up in the government that brings
everything back to life again, unfortunately," Mr Mavroudis said.

"It's just a reminder to everyone."

He said he had no sympathy for the bombers whatsoever.

"I would've liked to have seen them been gone by now," he said.

"This is really dragging on beyond what it should be."

Labor leader Kevin Rudd told Mr McClelland his comments were insensitive.

Peter Hughes, who survived the bombings despite horrific burns to much of
his body, agreed with Mr Rudd.

"I kind of wish they'd done this the week after ... they've probably
picked the wrong week. It's nearly 5 years to the day," Mr Hughes told Sky
News.

He said using a political platform to make the comments would have upset
many of the victim's families.

"Even making points against the Bali bombers and people that were involved
I think is just madness to be honest, madness."

He said the bombers deserved everything that was coming to them.

"These bombers over in Bali did their research basically for 2 years to
plan this attack," Mr Hughes said.

"These guys deserve everything that's coming to them. There's no question
about that."

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)






UGANDA:

Scrap the Death Penalty - It's the World Order


He was only 18 at the time. He should have been at home, but the pretty
girls and the evening breeze caused him to loiter a few more minutes. He
did not know there was to be a robbery that night; and that his friends
were watching the man with the brief-case and not the girl in the blue
dress.

> He did not know that, for a witness, in the confusion of gunfire and the
half-light of evening, everyone looks the same; or that standing in the
wrong place with the wrong people is punishable by death. But he knows it
now... Every dusk he is grateful for the day well spent but, with every
coming dawn, he regrets that evening, dreading the infamous call to
prepare him for the noose that will tighten around his neck, and make his
body limp, with life no more.

Tomorrow is the World Day Against the Death Penalty, an international
initiative to bring the worldwide abolition of the death penalty a step
closer. The United Nations General Assembly is using their Sixty-Second
session to call for a global moratorium on executions; and activists,
human rights NGOs and individuals around the world are uniting under the
slogan 'Stop the Death Penalty: the World Decides'. In Uganda, we ask you
to support a moratorium (a halt) on executions, and to decide. Decide to
support the right to life, and put an end to the death penalty.

The right to life is the most fundamental of human rights, the cornerstone
from which all other rights flow. Why then is it so often overruled in the
name of punishment? The traditional arguments: deterrence, incapacitation,
and high crime rates have been disproved. Research conducted in countries
around the world has found the death penalty to offer no more deterrence
to would-be-criminals than life-imprisonment; and to be no more effective
at incapacitation. Nor does the death penalty reduce crime.

In fact, in countries where the death penalty has been abolished crime
rates have often fallen. Add to this the risk of error and the certainty
that among those persons destined to hang there are many who are innocent,
(some estimate as many as 40%). And add too, the testimony of prison
warders who lament their hand in the execution of the innocent and the
miserable; and surely the case for abolition is won.

Indeed, worldwide 90 countries have abolished the death penalty. Rwanda
the latest in the Great Lakes region abolished it earlier this year, and
both Kenya and Tanzania have adopted unofficial moratoriums. Yet in
Uganda, despite the 2005 landmark case: Kigula and 416 others vs. the
Attorney General of Uganda, sentences of death are continually pronounced.
More than 600 people are currently on death row.

And perhaps you are not yet convinced of the need for abolition? Perhaps
you say: 'It could be that the death penalty does not reduce crime... and
offenders are not deterred' and you may even concede that some innocent
people die. 'But' you say- 'we must punish those who offend, and justice
demands that those who have killed, robbed and maimed pay for their crime
with their life.'

But justice does not demand the death penalty. There is nothing natural,
or inherent in punishing someone with death. It does not arise in a
situation of self-defence.

The condemned are in prison for years before they are executed, and are of
no immediate risk. This is a pre-meditated decision by society, in
response to a person who has violated the laws of that society.

In formulating that decision it is vital we understand what it is we do
when we execute, and why we do it. This is why we are calling for a
moratorium, which provides time for reflection.

Today, Uganda celebrates her independence from colonial rule. Yet
tomorrow, one day later, we shall be debating a remnant of colonial
justice.

The death penalty was introduced by the British, not as the just
punishment of all men equal before the law, but as a punishment
exclusively for the indigenous African population.

(source: Lucy Freeman; The writer is Intern at Foundation for Human Rights
Initiative--The Monitor)






INDONESIA:

Indonesian lawyer warns against politicising death penalty


With the 5th anniversary of the 2002 Bali bombings only days away, an
Indonesian lawyer representing the Bali bombers and the Bali 9, says
political wrangling over the death penalty is making it harder to save the
lives of condemned Australians.

Wirawan Adnan represents Bali 9 drug mule Martin Stephens and the three
Bali bombers awaiting execution in Indonesia.

Both sides of Australian politics have now said they will never campaign
to save the lives of individual terrorists.

But Mr Wirawan says that position makes it harder to save the lives of the
6 members of the Bali nine also facing the death penalty.

"We perceive this as a little bit inconsistent with the death penalty and
makes it difficult for the Bali 9 to go for a lesser sentence than death,"
he said.

Another lawyer for the Bali bombers, Achmad Michdan, called Australia's
position hypocritical.

(source: ABC News)

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

Indonesia reconsidering capital punishment


INDONESIAN Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji has shied away from
supporting capital punishment and suggested delays in the execution of
convicted Bali bombers.

The comments bring hope to 6 of the Australian "Bali 9" drug couriers on
death row in Bali, some of whom have been challenging their sentences.

During a Fairfax interview Mr Supandji said a constitutional court ruling
on the issue was expected soon and if it decided against capital
punishment, the Government would implement the decision.

However, during the same interview Mr Supandji said negotiations on
prisoner exchange programs had stalled, meaning Australians such as
Schapelle Corby were no closer to returning home to serve their sentences.

"There is still controversy among the community about capital punishment,"
Mr Supandji told Fairfax.

"I leave it up to the people. If the Indonesian nation rejects it, as
attorney-general I have to follow it." The attorney-general's comments
follow federal Australian Labor Party foreign affairs spokesman Robert
McClelland's speech outlining his party's opposition of capital
punishment.

Labor leader Kevin Rudd has since said he would never seek to have the
death sentence of a terrorist overturned and has reprimanding Mr
McClelland which came close to the anniversary of the Bali bombings which
killed 202 people.

(source: Herald Sun)