[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 6


IRAQ:

WILL THIS END THE KILLING?----WORLD REACTION TO HANGING VERDICT SADDAM
GUILTY IT was a verdict that sent shockwaves around the world...


Key figures have been reacting to the death sentence passed on former
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity.

Here's how the world views this monumental verdict...

USA

PRESIDENT George W Bush said on Sunday that Saddam Hussein's conviction
was a "signature achievement" for Iraq's fledgling democracy.

He called the verdict "a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to
replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law".

"It's a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its
constitutional government," the president said.

And America's ambassador to Iraq added: "Today is an important milestone
for Iraq as the country takes a major step forward in the building of a
free society based on the rule of law.

"Although the Iraqis may face difficult days, closing the book on Saddam
and his regime is an opportunity to unite and build a better future."

UK

FOREIGN Secretary Margaret Beckett said: "I welcome that Saddam Hussein
and the other defendants have faced justice and have been held to account
for their crimes.

"Appalling crimes were committed by Saddam Hussein's regime. It is right
that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face
Iraqi justice.

"Today's verdicts and sentences by the Iraqi Higher Tribunal comes at the
end of a trail during which evidence has been offered and challenged in
the full glare of media scrutiny."

EU

THE European Union urged Iraq not to carry out the death sentence: "The EU
opposes capital punishment in all cases and under all circumstances, and
it should not be carried out in this case either."

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

MALCOLM Smart, director of its Middle East and North Africa programme
said: "We deplore the verdict of the death penalty against Saddam.

"Every individual has a right to a fair trial, even people accused of the
crimes of the magnitude that Saddam Hussein faced - but this has not been
a fair trial."

ITALY

PRIME Minister Romano Prodi said: "The condemnation reflects the judgment
of the entire international community.

"But however ferocious a crime may be, our traditions and our ethics
distance us from the concept of a death penalty."

RUSSIA

KONSTANTIN Kosachev, Foreign Affairs chairman of the Russian Duma
(parliament) said: "Today's ruling was quite predictable.

The punishment was deliberately chosen to be the harshest. It is another
matter that the death sentence will clearly split Iraqi society still
further.

"However, I think that the death sentence is unlikely to be carried out.
It is more of a moral ruling, revenge that modern Iraq is taking on the
Saddam Hussein regime.

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said that "Hussein was tried by
occupation authorities, not by an Iraqi court," and called the verdict an
example of the United States "settling scores with those who did not want
to obey the White House."

KUWAIT

KUWAITIS, who suffered Iraqi occupation, applauded the decision. Former
oil minister Ali al-Baghli said: "Saddam deserves to be hanged because of
the atrocities he inflicted on his people for the past 35 years and on his
neighbours also. He sent millions to their deaths."

PALESTINE

FAWZI Barhoum, a spokesman for the governing Palestinian movement Hamas,
said the verdict was politically motivated.

"The trial ... was a message to the entire Arab and Muslim world of the
fate of those who do not obey the orders of the United States," he said.

PAKISTAN

The opposition religious coalition claimed that American forces have
caused more deaths in Iraq in the past 3 years than Saddam did during his
23-year reign, and insisted Bush should stand trial for war crimes.

"Who will punish the Americans and their lackeys who have killed many more
people than Saddam Hussein?" asked Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior lawmaker
from the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition.

AUSTRALIA

FOREIGN Minister, Alexander Downer, called Saddam "an evil tyrant" and
said the death sentence came as no surprise.

KURDISTAN

KURD MP Serdar Hirki, whose people had been systematically massacred by
Saddam, said: "This is the happiest day in the history of justice all over
Iraq. Today we have achieved justice and this justice is not only for the
Kurdish people but also for the Shi'ites and Sunnis.

"This man oppressed the Iraqi people and ruled the country badly and,
thank God, today he got what he deserved.

SPAIN

SPANISH Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said: "Saddam Hussein,
like any other citizen or political leader, has to answer for his actions,
for what he has done.

"It is well known that for a long time the EU has not been in favour of
the death penalty. Obviously it is a penalty which is not provided for in
any legal system in the EU or, of course, in our country."

IRAN

FOREIGN Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said: "The Islamic
republic of Iran welcomes the death sentence.

"But even if Saddam and his accomplices are the agents who carried out
these crimes, we cannot forget the Western protectors of Saddam who, by
supporting him with their supply or arms over the years, prepared the
ground for the execution of his crimes."

FRANCE

FOREIGN Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said: "France notes the sentence
made by the Iraqi court at the end of the Saddam Hussein trial. This
decision belongs to the Iraqi people.

"In the climate of violence Iraq is currently experiencing, I hope this
decision will not lead to new tensions and that the Iraqis will show
restraint, whatever community they belong to."

INDIA

EXTERNAL Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said: "Such life and death
decisions require credible due process of law, which does not appear to be
'victors' justice' and is acceptable to the people of Iraq as well as the
international community. We hope that this verdict will not add to the
suffering of Iraq."

(source: The Mirror)

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

Bush claims credit for Saddam's death verdict


President George W. Bush whose approval ratings have plummeted as
bloodshed in Iraq has increased hailed Saddam Hussein death sentence
Sunday as a ''milestone'' in the country's transition to a democratic
nation governed by the rule of law.

Saddam's guilty verdict gave Bush a rare bit of good news from Iraq just
as Americans prepare to go to the polls Tuesday in mid-term elections that
are widely seen as a referendum on the president's handling of the war.

''It's a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its
constitutional government,'' Bush said in Waco, Texas, before departing on
a final campaign swing in the Midwest ahead of Tuesday's balloting.

''History will record today's judgment as an important achievement on the
path to a free and just and unified society.''

But while Bush sought to squeeze political advantage from Saddam's fate,
the White House was broadsided by new demands for the resignation of
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Four leading military publications the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force
Times and Marine Corps Times said in an editorial to be published today
Rumsfeld had ''lost credibility'' with senior U.S. commanders and
shoulders the blame for strategic blunders in Iraq.

''His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised,'' the
editorial says. ''And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests
with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt.''

Democratic critics, meantime, said Saddam's penalty does nothing to change
the need for a dramatic shift in strategy in a country tilting towards
civil war between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

''It was important that Saddam be brought to justice and everyone is
united in the hope that it doesn't lead to an increase in violence,'' said
Rand Beers, president of the National Security Network, and a former
counter-terrorism adviser to Bush and former president Bill Clinton.

''What is equally true, however, is that this changes nothing. America is
no safer, Iraq is more dangerous and in chaos.''

Senate minority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said: ''Iraqis have
traded a dictator for chaos'' and that White House policy had left
American troops ''caught in the middle.''

Saddam was found guilty of crimes against humanity for ordering the 1982
killings of 148 people in a Shiite town, reportedly as an act of revenge
against a failed plot to assassinate the former Iraqi dictator, a Sunni.

During a 45-minute hearing in a Baghdad courtroom, Saddam shouted ''Allah
Akbar'' ''God is great'' and ''Long live Iraq'' after the court's judge
announced the hanging sentence.

His verdict was initially set to be announced on Oct. 16, but was
postponed by the Iraqi Criminal Tribunal, leading to charges by U.S.
liberals and Saddam's defence team that Iraq's government was seeking to
influence the American elections.

White House press secretary Tony Snow told the Associated Press it was
''absolutely crazy'' to suggest U.S. influence in the timing of the
verdict.

''The idea is preposterous that somehow we've been scheming and plotting
with the Iraqis.''

But Snow said U.S. voters should see the trial's conclusion as a sign Iraq
is capable of following the rule of law despite sectarian strife that has
enveloped the country over the past year.

''I think American voters ought to be heartened by it,'' Snow said. ''This
is getting Iraqis to stand up on their own.''

The Saddam verdict followed one of the deadliest months in Iraq for U.S.
troops since the March 2003 invasion, with 105 American soldiers killed.

It also follows a period of growing tension between the White House and
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has refused to accept American
timetables for dismantling Iraq's Shiite death squads. Last week, al
Maliki ordered the U.S. to remove a military blockade of Baghdad's Sadr
City neighbourhood, where militias loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al Sadr
operate freely.

3 of Saddam's defence lawyers and one witness were murdered during his
9-month trial. But Bush said the very fact Saddam's trial even took place
showed Iraqis were better off now than under Saddam's reign.

''The man who once struck fear in the hearts of Iraqis had to listen to
free Iraqis recount the acts of torture and murder that he ordered against
their families and against them,'' Bush said.

''The victims of this regime have received a measure of the justice which
many thought would never come.''

The Iraq war has been the central issue in the U.S. mid-term campaign.
Several polls have shown close to 70 per cent of voters do not approve of
Bush's war strategy, endangering the Republican majorities in the House of
Representatives and Senate.

Democrats have campaigned on claims Bush's dream of an Iraqi democracy is
fading amid uncontrolled violence pitting Sunnis against Shiite death
squads.

''It has been three years since Saddam was found hiding in a hole. Since
then, Osama bin Laden the guy who actually attacked us remains at large,''
said Beers, who quit the Bush administration in protest days before the
March 20, 2003 invasion.

''Like Ahab with his whale, the (Bush) administration has seen its
obsession with Saddam to its conclusion. Now the United States military
and the Iraqi people are left to clean up the mess.''

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

Keep Saddam Alive, Says Kurdish Leader


"Saddam Hussein ought to remain alive to be judged for all the crimes he
inflicted on the Iraqi people. If he is eliminated, all the witnesses to
his massacres and genocides will be gone," this according to Saywan
Barzani, Kurdish representative in Europe.

For Saywan Barzani, nephew of the President of Iraqi Kurdistan Massoud
Barzani, it is important "to reveal the truth about these massacres and
genocides because they can show the role played by Western and Eastern
countries in backing Saddam, in selling him weapons and in closing their
eyes to what he was doing."

In view of the ideologically-contrived reaction to the former dictator's
sentence (for or against the US; for or against the death penalty),
Barzani's proposal is out of synch with what most say. "Executing him for
148 Shiites killed in Dujail," he noted, "when we are still waiting for
the truth over the massacre of hundreds of thousands of other victims,
Shia and Kurdish, could end up concealing the guilt of many others in the
world who were linked to Saddam Hussein."

"Saddam's trial must be an education for the whole world. The US and the
USSR played out the Cold War in Iraq; Middle Eastern dictatorships helped
Saddam in the war against Iran, but also against the Iraqi people; all
Western country, the Vatican being perhaps the only exception, sold
weapons, poisonous gas, chemical bombs, anti-personnel mines to him."

According to Iraq's Human Rights Ministry, at least two million people
were killed or wounded during the Iraqi invasion of Iran in the 1980s. In
the first Gulf War 200,000 people died. In the 1991 Shia uprising, another
200,000 were killed. Saddam's genocidal policy against the Kurds left
500,000 Kurds dead. Under his regime, Iraq held the world record for
disappearances--an estimated 200,000 people vanished after 1980, including
10,000 Feyli (Shia) Kurds and 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe.

In the 1980s, 4500 villages and 26 cities were destroyed. In Iraqi
Kurdistan, 110 concentration camps called "collective camps"--"strategic"
or "modern villages" in the regime's lingo-- were created, surrounded by
barbed wires and encircled by security forces. More than 750 000 Kurds of
the mountainous areas were moved in these camps. In addition, another
half-million was moved to the desert, in camps on the border with Saudi
Arabia and Jordan, in Arar, Rutba, Nougra Salman, and Rumadiya.

Altogether, the former Iraqi regime was responsible for 4 million
refugees, said Patrick Baudouin, honorary president of the Fdration
internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme (FIDH) [International
Federation of Human Rights Leagues].

Saddam Hussein is currently on trial in another case in which he is
accused of genocide and crimes against humanity for the al-Anfal ("The
Spoils") campaign carried out in 1987-1988 that killed more than 100,000
Kurds, many as a result of the use of poisonous gas. However, if his first
sentence is upheld in the appeal phase, he might be executed before the
Kurdish genocide trial is ever completed.

In answering a question about whether Hussein's sentence will improve
things in Iraq, Barzani said: "A great deal of rhetoric is said about
that. Saddam Hussein does not have any more power in Iraq. Whether he
lives or dies won't change anything. No one backs him, and Iraq's problems
are no longer caused by men linked to Saddam's fate. Even the idea that
Iraq is on the verge of civil war or an ethnic-religious war is false.

"It is certainly true that there are extremists among the Shiites as well
as among the Sunnis, but the real problem lies in the permeable borders.
Suicide bombers keep on entering the country from neighbouring countries."

"Al-Qaeda said that it had 4,000 mujahideen ready to give their lives in
Iraq. According to the Iraqi secret services at least 8,000 mujahideen
have already died. This means there is a virtual army of fundamentalists
in our country coming from Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, etc. To these we must
add the more than 46,000 common criminals Saddam Hussein released before
his fall. The latter are running the abduction industry. The formers are
running the car bomb industry. The result is insecurity everywhere."

"The problem is that the Americans won't accept our ways to impose
security. If they left it to us in a few months there would be quiet
everywhere."

"Look at Kurdistan. Security there is delegated to Kurdish peshmergas and
there are no attacks and abductions, and the borders are under control."

(source: Assyrian International News Agency)

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

Saddam sentence 'sends dangerous message'


The head of the Council of Europe's legislature today warned that Saddam
Husseins death sentence would send a "dangerous message to the region."

Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly president Rene van der Linden
said that although Saddam should have been found guilty, death by hanging
will only heighten tensions in Iraq.

"Iraq today does not need more death. Capital punishment is wrong  even
for the worst crimes  and I appeal to the Iraqi authorities not to carry
out this sentence," the leader of Europe's foremost human rights
organisation said in a Strasbourg statement.

"The crimes committed by Saddam Hussein are appalling, and it is right
that he be judged and punished for them," Van der Linden said.

"But the sentence of the death penalty sends a dangerous message to the
region: that the new Iraq is to be built on vengeance rather than respect
for fundamental human values."

Officials from the UN, the Vatican and the European Union have also
denounced the sentence, hoping that it will somehow be commuted. The US
hailed the verdict, calling the sentence the result of an independent
Iraqi judiciary.

The 46 member states of the Council of Europe ban the death penalty.

(source: The Evening Echo)

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

Vatican official says death penalty for Saddam would be wrong


The head of the Vatican's justice and peace office and an editor of a
Vatican-approved Jesuit journal said it would be wrong to carry out the
death penalty against Saddam Hussein.

The former Iraqi president was sentenced to death by hanging Nov. 5 in a
case involving the deaths of 148 Iraqis in 1982.

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace, said, "For me, to punish a crime with another crime, such as
killing out of vengeance, means that we are still at the stage of 'an eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.'"

In a Nov. 5 interview with ANSA, the Italian news agency, the cardinal
said both Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical, "Evangelium Vitae" ("The
Gospel of Life"), and the Catechism of the Catholic Church teach that
modern societies have the means to protect citizens from the threat of a
murderer without resorting to execution.

"God has given us life, and only can God take it away," the cardinal said,
adding, "the death sentence is not a natural death."

"Life is a gift that the Lord has given us, and we must protect it from
conception until natural death," he said.

"Unfortunately," he said, "Iraq is among the few countries that has not
yet made the choice of civility by abolishing the death penalty."

Jesuit Father Michele Simone, assistant director of La Civilta Cattolica,
a Vatican-reviewed magazine, told Vatican Radio the sentence "certainly
would not resolve the situation in Iraq."

"In a situation like that of Iraq, where hundreds are, in fact, condemned
to death each day" by the ongoing violence, "adding one more does not help
anything," he said.

Father Simone said if Saddam had not been condemned to death, most Iraqis
probably would have questioned the integrity of the trial "because death
has become the order of the day. But to save a life -- which does not mean
accepting what Saddam Hussein did -- is always positive."

The Jesuit said the Iraqi government must find a political solution to
promote and protect the lives of all its citizens and the value of human
life in general.

(source: Catholic News Service)






LIBYA:

An open letter to Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi


1993 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Chief scientific officer,
New England Biolabs, 240 County Road, Ipswich, MA 01938-2723, USA

A full list of signatories to this letter is available as supplementary
information at /nature/journal/v444/n7116/suppinfo/444146a.html.

Dear Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi:

We, Nobel Laureates in the sciences, are gravely concerned about the
ongoing trial of 5 Bulgarian nurses, Valya Chervenyashka, Snezhana
Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropulo, Kristiana Valcheva, and a
Palestinian doctor, Ashraf Ahmad Jum'a, in Tripoli. The 6 face
death-penalty charges of deliberately infecting 426 children with HIV at
al-Fateh Children's Hospital in Benghazi in 1998. Strong scientific
evidence is needed to establish the cause of this infection. However,
independent science-based evidence from international experts has so far
not been permitted in court.

Libya is currently making efforts to join the community of peaceful
nations by renouncing weapons of mass destruction and adhering to
international standards regarding the rule of law. This trial is another
opportunity for Libya to demonstrate its commitment to recognized values
and norms. But so far Libya has failed to follow the norms of
international justice in the case of the charged medical workers.

We appreciate the agony and the sadness of the parents of these children
and we sympathize with the difficult situation of the Libyan authorities
in trying to deal with this matter. However, we feel that if justice is to
be served it is essential that the defence should be permitted to present
its case.

Among the disallowed scientific evidence is a 2003 report, which Libya
requested, and which was provided by Luc Montagnier, a co-discoverer of
the virus that causes AIDS, and Italian microbiologist Vittorio Colizzi.
The report concluded that the infection at the hospital resulted from poor
hygiene and reuse of syringes, and also that the infections began before
the arrival of the nurses and doctor in 1998.

On 29 August 2006, a Libyan prosecutor reiterated the call for the six to
be given the death penalty. The next, and probably last, court hearing is
scheduled for the 4 November, with a verdict expected shortly thereafter.
A miscarriage of justice will take place without proper consideration of
scientific evidence. We urge the appropriate authorities to take the
necessary steps to permit such evidence to be used in this case.

To uphold justice, and ensure a fair trial, we affirm the need for:

Defence lawyers to have the right to call and examine witnesses on the
health workers' behalf under the same conditions as witnesses called
against them, and

The appropriate authorities to call upon internationally recognized
experts in AIDS research to examine and testify on the evidence as to the
cause of the HIV infections in the children.

Yours sincerely,

Richard J. Roberts and 113 fellow Nobel Laureates

(source: )






SINGAPORE:

'Took picked own obit photo' ----Family bought Took new clothes days
before he was hanged yesterday morning


HE had 15 shots taken of him.

Most of the photos showed Took Leng How attired in a black suit, complete
with a tie and wearing leather shoes.

>From the shots of a grim-looking man to those which showed him posing
gamely for the camera and smiling broadly.

The photos were taken by a warden at the Changi Prison Complex on Monday,
just 4 days before he was hanged, after his plea for clemency was rejected
by the President.

It marked the end of a dramatic case which has gripped Singaporeans for
the past 2 years.

Took, a Malaysian, was convicted of the murder of 8-year-old Huang Na on
10 Oct last year.

He was sentenced to death on 26 Aug.

FINAL GIFT

At his wake held at Sin Ming Drive last night, the Malaysian's father, Mr
Took Long Hai, told The New Paper: 'Ah How personally selected one of the
photos for his 'yi zhao' (obituary photo in Mandarin).'

Mr Took and his wife had bought 2 black suits, 4 shirts and 2 pairs of
black leather shoes - their final gift to their son.

Took's mother explained: 'Ah How loved black. It was the only thing I
could do for him, so that he'd look good on his last journey.'

He will be cremated wearing one of the suits at 12.30pm tomorrow.

Placed inside his coffin were other pieces of his favourite outfits and a
set of paper suit.

Took saw his family members - parents, wife Madam Yuli and son Shun Wang,
grandaunt and younger sister - for the last time on Thursday around noon.

Their visit lasted more than three hours, with each of them taking turns
to see him.

Took's father said: 'Ah How said he wished he had more time to take care
of my wife and I.

'He expressed regret that he could no longer do so and asked that we look
after ourselves.'

Took also requested that his father help care for Madam Yuli and raise
their son.

'He pleaded with me not to forsake the mother and son,' said Mr Took.

While he was unsure if Madam Yuli would return to Indonesia after this, he
said he would try to fulfil his son's wishes.

Later on Thursday evening, Took was served his last dinner - rice, a
roasted chicken drumstick, a white chicken drumstick and prawns.

'These were his favourite dishes. He'd always have them on special
occasions, like his birthday,' said Took's father.

Took would have turned 25 next month.

And as the hours crept closer to the morning, Took penned his final words
on a blue letter pad.

Written in Malay, he apologised to his wife, whom he calls Mak, for not
being able to make her happy.

'Mak must look after yourself and Ah Wang (their son) well. Mak, remember
what Pak told you this afternoon, ok...'

NOBODY CAN BLAME YOU

Took also asked that she continue to live with his family if possible, but
'if Mak wants to return to Indonesia, nobody can blame you. Mak can do
whatever Mama wants, ok'.

He concluded: 'Pak is writing this letter tonight, just like Mama used to
write for me.

'Pak feels very happy, Mama and this is Pak's love letter to Mama...

'I want to remember your love for me. People can die but love never dies.
Speak to me whenever you have the chance ok!

'Bye! I love you Mama.'

THE CASE

MALAYSIAN vegetable packer Took Leng How, 24, was found guilty last August
of murdering Huang Na, 8, in a storeroom at the Pasir Panjang Wholesale
Centre.

Huang Na went missing on 10 Oct 2004, while her mother was away in China.

Her disappearance sparked a search that eventually spread across the
Causeway when Took fled the country.

He gave himself up to the Malaysian police on 30 Oct.

The next morning, back in Singapore, he led officers to Huang Na's body,
which had been placed in a box and dumped at the Telok Blangah Hill Park.

Took appealed against the conviction and death sentence, but it was
overturned by the Court of Appeal.

His lawyers submitted a plea of clemency but they were informed on Monday
that it was rejected by the President.

Took was hanged early yesterday morning.

LAST LETTER WRITEEN HOURS BEFORE HANGING:

(Letter written in Malay)

Mak! Don't be too sad. Pak has gone. Mak must look after yourself and Ah
Wang well. Mak, remember what Pak told you this afternoon, okay.

Mak, Pak made you very unhappy. It is all Pak's fault. Pak was wrong to
not make Mak happy. Sorry.

Mak lived with Pak's family for 6 months to a year. If it is okay with
Mak, live with Pak's family for another 6 months to a year.

If Mak wants to return to Indonesia, nobody can blame you. Mak can do
whatever Mama wants, okay. Pak is writing this letter tonight, just like
Mama used to write for me.

Pak feels very happy, Mama, and this is Pak's love letter to Mama. We have
also spoken for three days. I want to remember your love for me. People
can die but love never dies. Speak to me whenever you have the chance
okay!

Bye! I love you Mama.

(source: The Electric New Paper)