[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 20



SAUDI ARABIA----executions

2 Soldiers Executed for Rape


Authorities in Riyadh executed on Friday 2 soldiers convicted of raping a
20-year-old expatriate woman, the Interior Ministry said.

The soldiers, who worked for the Ministry of Defense and Aviation, stopped
the victim who was riding in a car driven by her father. The soldiers
showed the couple their military IDs, and told the man to disembark saying
he was wanted for security reasons, the Saudi Press Agency said quoting a
ministry statement.

The statement said one of the soldiers then drove the woman to a desert
area and raped her, while the other remained with the father.

The soldiers were named as Abdul Rahman ibn Saeed Al-Zahrani and Abdul
Rahman ibn Qassim Al-Feefi. The ministry said the 2 had misused their
official powers to stop the expatriate and rape his daughter.

The ministry said one of the soldiers threatened to kill the man when he
tried to reason with him. "The soldier who raped the girl later returned
to meet his colleague who had taken the expatriate for a drive," the
ministry said.

It added that a police patrol arrived at the scene just when the rapist
was returning.

"The expatriate then explained to police what had happened to him and his
daughter," the statement said.

Police immediately arrested the 2 soldiers, who confessed their crime. The
1st soldier was convicted of kidnap and rape, while the 2nd was convicted
of helping his colleague to kidnap and rape, and threatening to murder.

A general court in Riyadh sentenced the 2 soldiers to death, and the Court
of Appeals and the Supreme Judiciary Council endorsed the verdict. The
execution was carried out in Riyadh in the presence of a large number of
witnesses.

The ministry did not state when the crime took place or the expatriates'
identities.

Citizens and expatriates welcomed the execution of the criminals and
praised the government for stringently punishing those responsible. One
Saudi said the soldiers were supposed to protect the life and honor of
people, and deserved to die 50 times for the crime.

"I take this opportunity to congratulate the Saudi judiciary," said an
Egyptian expatriate. "The execution of the 2 soldiers has increased my
confidence in the Saudi judicial system," he added. Abdullah Al-Anazi, a
Saudi, said the beheading of the rapist and his accomplice would serve as
a deterrent. "In qisas (retribution) there is life for you," he said,
quoting a verse from the Holy Quran.

The ministry also announced the execution in Tabuk of 2 convicted Syrian
drug traffickers  Faras Faisal Al-Aghbar and Faras Hussein Maktabi. The 2
men were arrested by police while receiving an unspecified quantity of
drugs.

(source: Arab News)






AGFHANISTAN:

Taliban urge UN to block Afghan executions


Taliban insurgents urged the international community and right groups to
stop Afghan President Hamid Karzai approving the execution of about 100
prisoners whose death sentences were approved by the supreme court.

The Taliban, fighting to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government, have
executed dozens of captured troops and civilians since U.S.-led and Afghan
forces ousted the Islamist movement in 2001. The Taliban also executed
dozens of criminals, often in public, while they were in power from 1996
till 2001.

Human Rights Watch said on Thursday Karzai should refuse to confirm the
death penalties of about 100 convicted prisoners because of concerns they
had not received a fair trial.

The Taliban's leadership council said 80 percent of those sentenced to
death were members of the Taliban jailed by the government and should not
be executed as they had been "detained on charges of fighting for
freedom".

"We ... demand the UN, the European Union, Red Cross and human rights
organisations to take quick steps for stopping this barbaric act and stop
the killing of innocent prisoners," said a statement posted at the weekend
on the militants' Web site.

The statement said some of the 14 convicts executed last year by Kabul
were also Taliban prisoners.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said the Supreme Court's recent
announcement of about 100 death sentences showed a "disturbing disregard
for the right to life".

Supreme Court officials said those sentenced to death had been convicted
of serious crimes, such as murder and rape, kidnapping, hostage taking and
armed robbery.

Human Rights Watch said legal experts and human rights organisations in
Afghanistan have long expressed concern that international due process and
fair trial standards were generally not met in capital cases.

Afghanistan's judiciary, like much of the government, is criticised for
endemic corruption and red tape.

The Afghan government, set up after the ouster of the Taliban, has
retained the death sentence but only 15 people have been executed since
2001.

Under the Afghan criminal code, death sentences handed down by criminal
courts are reviewed by an appeals court. If the sentence stands, it must
be confirmed by the Supreme Court.

Confirmed death sentences must then be endorsed by the president. Karzai
has commuted some death sentences.

(source: Reuters)






CHINA:

Death-sentence judge now opposes executions


Protesters concerned about China's human rights record have found an
unlikely ally in a former Beijing judge, who sentenced more than 1,000
people to death before retiring from the bench.

Xuan Dong's long career took him almost to the pinnacle of the country's
judiciary - he sat for 10 years on the Supreme People's Court, and on the
judicial committee that oversees capital cases.

But in 2001 he left to work for a private law firm that defends prisoners
facing the death penalty.

China's execution figures are a state secret, but it admits to killing 470
prisoners last year by shooting or lethal injection.

However, Amnesty International says the true figure could be as high as
8,000 every year, and claims this means 370 people could be executed
during the period of the Olympics.

Mr Dong, 59, says unfair use of the penalty has harmed the sanctity of
Chinese law.

"There were times when I didn't think a criminal deserved a capital
punishment but I had to announce one simply because the judicial committee
said so," he said.

He was frustrated that as a judge he could not air his own opinions and
had to pass down sentences with which he disagreed. "Do not mess up with
orders from above," he said.

As a defence lawyer, he estimates that only 1 in 10 of his cases ends in
success.

"I defended a young woman who was accused of having murdered her lover,"
he said. "But she had been threatened with a knife and acted in
self-defence. She was sentenced to death in a lower court, but we won in
the end."

There are 68 crimes that carry a capital sentence - ranging from theft of
VAT receipts to damaging electric power facilities - but it is often
applied because of strictly political considerations, he said.

During the "severe punishment on corruption year", crooked officials were
more likely to be executed to set an example; when the narcotics trade
came under scrutiny, drug dealers were punished more instead.

However, Mr Dong believes the situation is improving. Rather than punish
"severely and quickly", he said, the authorities had now directed that
courts handle capital cases "carefully and strictly" - a slight, but
significant, advance.

Abolishing executions altogether "will take time", he said.

"Public opinion in China is still very much in favour of the death
penalty. I meet people who cannot understand how I can defend people who
may be sentenced to death. They think they are nothing but criminals."

(source: The Telegraph)