[Deathpenalty] death penalty news---worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 19


VIETNAM:

Drug traffickers get death sentence


Bac Giang Peoples Court on Wednesday sentenced 3 drug traffickers to
death, gave 4 life in jail  and a total of 122 years in prison to another
13.

Vu Nang Sy, Nguyen Thi Ngoc and Vu Ngoc Viet were sentenced to death.
According to prosecutors, the criminals sold large quantities of drugs on
14 occasions from mid 2004 to April 2006, when they were arrested.

(source: Viet Nam News)






IRAQ:

Iraq executions follow apparently unfair trials


28 people have been executed in Iraq this week following what appear to
have been hasty and unfair trials. Those executed were arrested in clashes
that took place in the past 3 weeks.

Amnesty International has said that, for them to be arrested, sentenced
and executed within such a short period raises serious concerns about the
trial process. The organization has called on the Iraqi authorities to
disclose all relevant information about these trials, including whether
those executed had access to legal representation or not.

"The circumstances of these executions make it urgent for the Iraqi
authorities to establish a moratorium on the death penalty," Amnesty
International said today.

Amnesty International has repeatedly expressed its concerns about the
trials conducted by criminal courts in Iraq, and whose procedures fall
short of international standards for fair trials.

"The Iraqi government argues that reinstating capital punishment would
curb the widespread violence in the country," said Amnesty International.
"The reality, however, is that violence has continued unabated and the
death penalty has not been a deterrent."

The death penalty is being used extensively since its reintroduction in
2004 and hundreds of people have been sentenced to death after grossly
unfair trials. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all
circumstances as a violation of the right to life and as the ultimate
cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

(source: Amnesty International)






TURKEY/SAUDI ARABIA:

skl pleads with Saudi authorities for Turk facing death penalty


Relatives of Sabri Bogday, the Turkish citizen sentenced to death in Saudi
Arabia, protested the decision in his hometown of Hatay on Thursday.

Head of Parliament's Human Rights Commission Zafer skl has pleaded with
Saudi authorities to pardon a Turkish citizen sentenced to death for
blasphemy.

Sabri Bogday, 31, who is from the southeastern city of Hatay, has been
living in Saudi Arabia running a barber shop in the province of Jeddah for
10 years. He is accused of having used obscene language to refer to God
during an argument with his Egyptian neighbor. Bogday and his family say
he is the victim of malicious slander.

skl on Wednesday sent a letter to Ibrahim Bin Abdullah Al Ibrahim, who
heads the Judicial Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Saudi Arabian
Consultative Council.

"Both the relatives and wife of our citizen, who has a
one-and-a-half-year-old child, and the Turkish nation have been very upset
by the decision. Our citizens hope that Sabri Bogday will be subject to
the gracious pardon of his majesty, the king. We would not like to see
developments hurt the Turkish-Saudi friendship. Proceeding with the
sentence of Bogday would lead to great sorrow in our country, where there
is no death penalty," states the letter.

Meanwhile, speaking to journalists on Thursday, Bogday's mother, Atra
Bogday, cried out: "Give me my son back. I want my son." His wife,
26-year-old Muazzez Bogday, mother of the infant Sleyman, found it
difficult to speak because of her deep anguish, reported journalists who
visited the family's house on Thursday.

Atra said her son had appealed the decision and expected to appear before
the court again in two weeks. "Please save my son," she pleaded with the
authorities.

More foreigners face death penalty in Saudi Arabia

Meanwhile, according to the World Coalition, a global network representing
groups and activists against the death penalty, immigrants are at higher
risk of being convicted under Saudi Arabia's strict execution laws.
According to the group's figures, out of 158 people executed in 2007, 76
were foreigners.

"Saudi Arabian justice is particularly intransigent towards foreign
workers and especially those from poor countries in the Middle East,
Africa and Asia, who represent nearly a quarter of the country's
population," noted the World Coalition.

The group also stated that as a result of their origins, they have little
chance of escaping capital punishment. "On occasion, their sentence
depends solely on confessions obtained under constraint, torture or
subterfuge. Trials take place in secret and the accused and their families
are not informed of the accusations against them or the evolution of the
procedures concerning them," the World Coalition stated.

According to an Amnesty International report from April 15, 88 percent of
all known executions in the world in 2007 took place in 5 countries --
China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the US. Saudi Arabia has highest
number of executions per capita, according to the AI report. In 2007 Saudi
Arabia was also 1 of 3 countries that carried out executions for crimes
committed by people below the age of 18.

(source: Today's Zaman)





PAKISTAN:

Pakistani Taliban publicly execute 3 people in tribal region


Pakistani Taliban on Saturday publicly executed people in the country's
South Waziristan tribal region, who were held responsible for the killing
of a local tribesman.

Armed Taliban executed 2 local tribesmen Farooq Wazir and Janan Mehsood
and an Afghan national outside their office at Makin area in South
Waziristan at 10:30 a.m., witnesses said.

Taliban said that the slain people had confessed killing of a local
tribesman Intezar Mehsood after snatching 60,000 rupees from him last
week.

Local administration has confirmed the incident and said that Taliban have
executed the men under the tribal tradition of 'Lashkar' or tribal army.

Locals said that a Taliban court tried the accused and handed down death
penalty to him.

Taliban have banned kidnappings, robberies and narcotics and have also
announced punishment to the contractors for defective work on projects.

(source: IRNA)

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

Protests continue over clemency for Pak death row inmate Sarabjit Singh


A voluntary organisation and several other people staged a demonstration
in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, seeking clemency for Sarabjit Singh, the Indian
on death row in Pakistan.

Activists held placards seeking forgiveness for Sarabjit and shouted
slogans for his early release.

"He should be released soon. His daughters have also given a warning that
they will commit suicide if Sarabjit is hanged. So for him and his
daughters, we want the Indian Government to release him as early as
possible," said Disha, one of the protestors.

Blindfolded girls also raised slogans during the protest march, suggesting
that New Delhi needed to open its eyes.

"If Pakistan forgives Sarabjit Singh, then relations between India and
Pakistan will improve. We are demanding that the Indian Government to take
steps to release him. We also hope the Prime Minister of the new
government in Pakistan will release him in order to improve relations with
India," said Dinesh Talwar, another protestor.

On Friday, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the Government
has made a fresh appeal to the Pakistan Government to grant clemency to
Sarabjit Singh, even as his execution date (April 30) is approaching.

Mukherjee hoped mercy would be shown to Sarabjit who has been in a
Pakistani jail since 1990. According to official sources in Islamabad, the
Indian Government had taken up Sarabjits case with the new coalition
government shortly after it assumed office last month.

The Indian Government is now hopeful that Sarabjit will be shown clemency.

To prove that Sarabjit's case was a case of mistaken identity, his family
gave former Pakistan Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney a police report
wherein he was reported as missing.

Sarabjit's family members are expected to visit Pakistan on Sunday to
personally appeal to the Pakistani leadership to grant him clemency.

President Pervez Musharraf had earlier rejected Sarabjit's appeal for
clemency.

On a recent visit to India, Burney had rekindled hopes of Sarabjits
release, saying he could have been "a victim of mistaken identity."

Burney, who had played a significant role in the release of another
Indian, Kashmir Singh, has urged the new Pakistan Government to consider
converting Sarabjit's death sentence into life imprisonment on
humanitarian grounds, as he has spent more time than a life sentence on
death row in Pakistan.

Sarabjit has been on death row since the Pakistan's Supreme Court rejected
his petition for mercy in March 2006. He has been accused of having played
a major role in serial blasts across Pakistan, which claimed at least 14
lives in 1991.

Earlier, he was to be hanged on April 1, but the hanging was put off till
April 30 after India appealed to the Pakistan Government not to go ahead
with the hanging.

(source: ANI)






PHILIPPINES/KUWAIT:

Arroyo urges Filipinos to pray for OFWs in Kuwait death row


President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has rallied the people to pray for the 2
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who were recently sentenced to death by
Kuwaiti courts for allegedly killing their employers.

"I don't want to preempt the cases of the two. So let us pray for them,"
Arroyo said during a visit here on Wednesday, referring to May Vecina and
Jakatia Pawa.

Both Vecina and Pawa are from Mindanao.

Arroyo said the sentencing was bad news for the Filipino people but it did
not cause her to lose hope that the two OFWs will eventually be spared
from the gallows.

Recalling the case of Marilou Ranario, whose death sentence was reversed
by the Kuwaiti high court, Arroyo said she went an extra mile to save the
OFW.

"We went through a great length to save Ranario from the death penalty. I
went to Kuwait and asked the help of the King," Arroyo said.

But it was not clear if she would again plead for the lives of Vecina and
Pawa.

Under the Kuwaiti justice system, the emir or king has the final say on
whether a convict would hang or not.

In Zamboanga City, Pawa's kin said they only discovered about her fate
from television reports.

"We were already aware of her case but we were all shocked and surprised
to discover about her conviction from television reports," Air Force Major
Angaris Pawa, brother of the 31-year old OFW, said.

He said the family was worried about the situation. "We don't know what to
do about it," he said.

Retired police officer Wares Pawa, the eldest among the nine Pawa
siblings, said what frustrated them was the lack of official information
from the government.

"If we did not see it on TV, we will never know. There had been no new
information coming out of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The last time
they wrote us was in 2007, when we were told she was in jail," he said.

Tita Rebollos, information officer of the DFA in Western Mindanao, said
they already talked with Pawa's brothers on Tuesday.

(source: Philippine Inquirer)