[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 22



IRAQ:

Report: Iraqi court hands death sentence to killer of Japanese hostage


An Iraqi court sentenced to death an al-Qaida operative over the 2004
kidnapping and beheading of a Japanese hostage, a news report said
Wednesday.

Hussein Fahmi was arrested earlier this year and confessed to beheading
24-year-old Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda, according to Iraqi officials.

Fahmi, who told investigators he carried out 115 other beheadings, was
sentenced to death for Koda's murder by the Iraqi central criminal court,
Kyodo News agency reported.

Still, Fahmi told the court, "I didn't kill anyone," after hearing his
death sentence, the report said.

Japanese Foreign Ministry official Yoshihiro Yamamura said the government
was still trying to confirm the ruling.

Koda was killed in October 2004 by a militant group then led by Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi after Japan refused to bow to their demands and pull its troops
out of Iraq.

The group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and beheading in a Web
posting that included a gruesome video of the killing. Koda's decapitated
body was found wrapped in an American flag in a Baghdad street.

Al-Zarqawi, who led al-Qaida operations in Iraq, was killed in a U.S.
airstrike in June.

Fahmi, who is of Egyptian and Palestinian descent, was captured by the
Interior Ministry's counterinsurgency Wolf Brigade after a tip from local
residents.

Koda's slaying led to public pressure on Japan's government to withdraw
its troops from southern Iraq, where they worked on humanitarian projects.

Tokyo finally withdrew its troops in July, after Iraq's own government was
installed. Japan has since expanded Kuwait-based air operations to ferry
U.N. and coalition personnel and supplies to Iraq.

(source: Associated Press)






KUWAIT----executions

Kuwait hangs 4


2 Pakistani nationals convicted of drug trafficking and a Bangladeshi and
a stateless resident found guilty of premeditated murder were hanged in
Kuwait Tuesday, officials said. The 4 men were hanged inside the Central
Jail, some 25 kilometers (16 miles) west of Kuwait City, before a number
of officials and journalists. Pakistani nationals Taj Mohammad Abdulghani
and Abdulrahim Nader Shah were convicted of smuggling a large quantity of
drugs into Kuwait, while Jhangir Alam Hussein, a Bangladeshi, and Faraj
Joudah Majood, a stateless resident, were sentenced to death for
premeditated murder.

A fifth man, a Sri Lankan convicted of murder, was supposed to be hanged
with the group but the public prosecutor ordered a stay of execution, an
Interior Ministry official said without elaborating. The hanging was the
1st since 2002 which the public has not been allowed to attend. Kuwait has
executed a total of 70 people, 3 of them women, since its 1st use of the
death penalty some 4 decades ago. Most have been convicted murderers or
traffickers.

Four persons, 2 Pakistanis, a Bengali and an illegal resident, were
executed by hanging at the Central Prison on Tuesday after being convicted
on various offenses. Asked about press reports that another prisoner who
was to be executed at the same time, but had been given a stay of
execution, Najib Al-Mullah  head of the Criminal execution Department said
Sri Lankan, had not been referred to the department. On reports that the
family of the victim who had been murdered by the Sri Lankan had pardoned
him, he added that "No death sentence (in this respect) had been revoked
so far." He added that the public prosecution would look into this case.
But Colonel Ghazi Al-Qattan, the director-general of the said and
execution, clarified, saying that the execution of the Sri Lankan had been
delayed by the prosecution.

(source: Arab Times)