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

[Rick Halperin]

April 2



PHILIPPINES/KUWAIT:

Arroyo asked to save Filipina maid's life


A militant alliance of overseas Filipino workers and their families urged
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to go to Kuwait again to save domestic
helper May Vecina from a death sentence that was recently affirmed by the
emirate's highest court.

"If it would take such a step to save her, then by all means she should
go, not just to Kuwait, but to each and every country where there are OFWs
on death row," Migrante International secretary-general Maita Santiago
told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview.

"In fact, the government shouldn't have waited for the (Vecina's) sentence
to become final before launching a full effort to save our OFWs facing
execution," she added.

Last November, Arroyo went to Kuwait to personally seek clemency from Emir
Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah that he may spare the life of another
domestic, Marilou Ranario, who was also sentenced to death for murdering
her employer.

The emir later commuted her sentence to life imprisonment.

Santiago said the President should use her full diplomatic powers in
saving OFWs as assiduously as the current administration has been
promoting the country's labor export policy.

"Ms Arroyo said promoting and protecting the welfare of OFWs are one of
the pillars of her foreign policy, so she should prove this now by doing
all that she can to save Vecina," the Migrante leader said.

Migrante members carrying pictures of Vecina, Ranario and other OFWs in
death row held a noise barrage in the group's office in the village of
Claro, Project 3, Quezon City on Wednesday.

They were joined by Ranario's sister Wilfreda, who mentioned that the
Arroyo administration had yet to make good its promise to help Ranario's
family go to Kuwait to see her.

Migrante chair Connie Bragas-Regalado relayed the group's sadness about
the Kuwaiti Court of Cassation's upholding of Vecina's death sentence.

"We empathize with her family and demand that the Arroyo government truly
exhaust all means to save her life. At the same time, this is another grim
wake-up call regarding the very exploitative and vulnerable plight of
OFWs, particularly of domestics," she said.

Regalado also called on the family to stay strong in this entire ordeal
and to never stop fighting for Vecina in Kuwait.

She said the government should conduct a "genuine investigation" of how
the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait address cases of abuses of domestics in
the emirate.

She quoted Vecina's lawyer Faisal al-Matar as saying that Vecina
complained of maltreatment by her employer before the killing. Regalado
said Migrante received reports every month of "hundreds" of Filipino
domestics forced to run away from their abusive employers.

Vecina, 28, was sentenced to hang for killing her employers youngest son
Salem Sulaiman Al-Otaib on January 6 last year, as well as attempting to
kill his 13-year-old brother Abdulla by slitting his throat and stabbing
his 17-year-old sister Hajer.

The court ruling is final and only needs to be signed by Kuwait's Emir
Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah to be implemented.

Migrante's Middle East chapter said it was also preparing to launch an
online petition to appeal to Ms Arroyo to "act without much ado," and to
the Kuwaiti government to spare Vecina.

In a statement from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Migrante-Middle East regional
coordinator John Leonard Monterona said that despite the pronouncement
from Malacaang and the foreign affairs department that they would "exhaust
all legal remedies and take diplomatic initiatives" to save Vecina,
Migrante members around the world would closely monitor and follow up any
remedial and diplomatic actions to be undertaken by the Arroyo
administration.

"We will closely keep an eye on Vecina's case and will tightly observe the
actions to be undertaken by the government especially that Ms Arroyo
herself promised last year to intervene on Vecinas case and those of other
25 OFWs in death row," Monterona added.

Citing government data, Migrante counted 73,000 OFWs in Kuwait, with
60,000 of them working as domestic workers earning less than US$200
monthly.

According to the group, more than 25 Filipino workers are on death row
around the world while five OFWs have been beheaded overseas during the
term of the Arroyo government.

(source: Philippine Daily Inquirer)






SYRIA:

Death penalty for prescription drugs


A Syrian court sentenced 4 Syrians, 2 Turks and 1 Lebanese to death for
being involved in drug trafficking, the Syrian al-Thawra newspaper said
yesterday.

2 of the Syrians were arrested in the city of Homs, while they were in
their way to deliver what police suspected was 5kg of heroin and 1kg of
cocaine.

The drugs were painkillers and other prescription drugs, investigators
found.

(sources: Sapa & DPA)