[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 7



AUSTRIA/CHINA:

Austria asks China to revoke death penalty on Chinese 'spy'


Austria's President Heinz Fischer Monday appealed to Beijing to spare the
life of a Chinese biochemist, formerly a resident in Austria, and now
sentenced to death for spying for Taiwan.

"If the father of 2 Austrian citizens faces the death penalty, no matter
where, I believe we can and we should speak out," President Fischer told a
press conference in a reference to the prisoner's daughters, who have
Austrian citizenship.

Wo Weihan, 59, arrested in Beijing in 2005, was sentenced to death last
May for passing military information including copies of missile
blueprints to Taiwan.

Austrian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg said President
Fischer, Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik and Parliamentary Speaker
Barbara Prammer had made appeals to their Chinese counterparts.

Wo Weihan, who lived in Austria from 1990 to 1997, has always protested
his innocence. The Appeals Court in Beijing upheld the sentence on March
24, but the Supreme People's Court must still confirm the decision,
following a new law adopted last year.

President Fischer told a joint press conference with his Slovenian
counterpart Danilo Turk that Austria had appealed on behalf of Wo "in a
polite and respectful manner, not as an interference in the internal
affairs of another country, but as an expression of a moral conviction."

Turk added: "There is always an alternative to the death penalty."

Schallenberg said Slovenia, which currently holds the presidency of the
27-nation European Union, would appeal the sentence on behalf of the 27
members.

"Our first priority is that the death sentence not be carried out,"
Schallenberg said.

Wo, who apparently suffered a brain haemorrhage in prison, initially
confessed to spying in the absence of a lawyer, but later recanted,
according to his daughter, Ran Chen.

"I beg the Supreme Court to intervene and have the facts re-examined," Ran
Chen told the Austrian daily Der Standard. She said she had not been
allowed to visit her father since he was arrested three years ago.

John Kamm, the director of Duihua, a non-governmental organisation dealing
with Chinese prisoners' rights, also expressed doubts over Wo's guilt.

This was the 1at time a civilian was sentenced to death for military
espionage in China, he told Der Standard.

He said he hoped the Supreme Court would overturn the verdict, adding that
this was "a very concrete test case" for China's new judicial reform.

(source: Agence France Presse)






INDIA:

Supreme Court stays death penalty of two 1993 Mumbai blasts case accused


The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the death penalty awarded to Mushtaq
Moosa and Asgar Yousuf, co-accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blast case by
the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) court, till the
announcement of a final judgement.

On Friday, a bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan stayed the
death penalty of Zakir Hussain Noor Mohammed Shaikh.

Sheikh allegedly detonated a bomb in a Mahim fishermens colony in Mumbai,
killing 3 people and injuring 6.

In its previous hearing, the apex court had granted bail to those who had
served 1/2 of their sentences in jail.

So far, over 100 people have been convicted by the TADA court for their
role in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai that claimed over 250 lives
and injured close to 700.

Most of them have filed petitions in the Supreme Court seeking a stay over
their sentences.

On February 29, the Supreme Court also granted bail to one of the main
accused Yusuf Abdul Razak Memon on medical grounds. He was sentenced to
life imprisonment for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V
Raveendran granted him bail till July 14.

(source: ANI)






TUNISIA:

Mobilisation gathers pace in Tunisia


The Tunisian Coalition Against the Death Penalty has launched a campaign
combining support for an abolition bill and reaction to the sentencing of
a man sentenced for terrorism.

On 14 March the Tunisian abolitionists came together at the offices of the
Tunisian section of Amnesty International to launch a twin offensive
against capital punishment in their country. The opposition
parliamentarian, Adel Chaouech, defended the bill he has put before with
the Tunisian Parliament with 24 of his colleagues to banish the death
penalty from national law.

Supporters of the text today await the green light from President Ben Ali
to launch a parliamentary debate on the issue. The president spoke in
favour of the universal moratorium on the death penalty in an interview
with France's Figaro Magazine in November 2007.

"We really hope that this will be discussed. We are optimistic," said
Lofti Azzouz, Director of the Tunisian section of Amnesty International.

A petition launched on 14 March emphasises the universal principles which
denounce the death penalty and recalls that it has not been applied in
Tunisia since 1994. The petition indicates that the persistence of such an
unapplied legal provision "damages the prestige of the legal system
because it loses its power to judge the most appropriate punishment."

Sentenced after an unfair trial

The Tunisian Coalition emphasised the case of Saber Ragoubi who has been
sentenced to death in connection with the Soliman terrorism case. The
death sentence handed down for Imed Ben Ameur, another defendant in the
same case, was commuted to life in prison on February 20, after the
Tunisian Coalition campaigned on his behalf.

Ragoubi's father, who attended the meeting on 14 March, has said that he
was not allowed to visit his son and that he had no information about his
situation.

A 2nd petition has been launched to oppose this sentence. It states that
it was passed "after an unfair trial" and that it is a violation of the
right to life."

The petition for the abolition of the death penalty in Tunisia has
received the support of 126 initial signatures, and 150 for the petition
for Saber Ragoubi.

The 2 texts are currently being circulated by several newspapers and
political parties to garner as much support as possible.

(source: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty)