[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

March 1


GLOBAL:

Death penalty gets a 2nd global look


The senior U.N. human rights official yesterday said she senses a global
interest in revising the death penalty, triggered in part by the public
execution of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.

Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said she does
not expect to see a "spontaneous uprising or outcry" against capital
punishment, but she does perceive a willingness among governments to
consider restricting the death penalty -- or at least opening up the
opaque process.

"I sense that this year there is an opportunity to move towards abolition
in some countries, moratorium in others and transparency in some which
still surround the application of the death penalty with secrecy," Mrs.
Arbour told reporters here yesterday.

"The call for abolition is rarely the result of a spontaneous
enlightenment. It is usually triggered by an event in countries that have
the courage to face their own shortcomings," she said. "This event is
sometimes a demonstrated wrongful conviction."

The executions in Iraq of Saddam and two of his associates "may have
created an environment in which people are asking a lot of serious
questions" about the need for a review of capital punishment, she said.

Saddam was hanged in December. Shouting and jeering by Shi'ites at the
execution, which was caught on a cell-phone camera, drew condemnation from
President Bush and other world leaders. When Saddam's half brother Barazan
Ibrahim was hanged in January, his head was severed.

Mrs. Arbour was pragmatic on whether her agency could make inroads in the
United States, where capital punishment is administered by states and
appears to have popular support.

She indicated that she would not be bringing up the matter with the U.S.
government or courts the same way her office does in other, more receptive
countries.

"If the courts are willing to listen to us, we are not going to shy away,"
Mrs. Arbour said. "It depends on our own capacity to make a contribution
in a case where the advocacy of international standards are not likely to
be advanced by others."

Mrs. Arbour, a former Canadian justice and a prosecutor for the
international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, is a
tough-minded and plain-spoken advocate for what she sees as basic human
rights.

The official U.N. position is that it respects the domestic laws of member
states. However, Mrs. Arbour and others in the human rights sphere say
that all people have the right to life, a de facto repudiation of capital
punishment.

The Web site of the U.N. special rapporteur for extrajudicial, summary and
arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, notes, in part: "Given that the loss
of life is irreparable, the Special Rapporteur ... emphasizes that the
abolition of capital punishment is most desirable in order fully to
respect the right to life. He also wishes to mention that, while there is
a fundamental right to life, there is no such right to capital
punishment."

According to Amnesty International, 88 nations and territories have
explicitly outlawed the death penalty, while 69 permit capital punishment
for crimes of varying degrees of severity from rape to treason.

The European Union has shelved capital punishment, while the United
States, Iran, Iraq, China and South Korea are among those that impose it.

(source: Washington Times)






YEMEN----female jevenile death row inmate

Al-Tuhaifs lawyer seeks her release from death penalty


At the request of Judge Abdullah Al-Olifi, a first instance court session
was held Monday in Mahwit governorate to investigate Amina Al-Tuhaifs
involvement in a traffic accident that led to killing her daughter and
determine her complicity in the accident or not.

Al-Tuhaif arrived at the court under tight security to protect her from an
exceptional attack by her husbands family.

Supreme Court lawyer Shadha Mohammed Nasser, who is Al-Tuhaifs attorney,
is requesting Mahwit governorates public prosecution review Al-Tuhaifs
death sentence due to new evidence in the case.

Mohammed Sa'eed Ali, a fellow attorney in Nasser's office who attended the
court session in Nasser's stead, is seeking to have the case dropped and
release Al-Tuhaif from the death sentence, especially following her
daughter's death.

"The court doesn't have the right to sentence Al-Tuhaif to death just
because she became the only inheritor from both her daughter and her
husband. So the death penalty is impossible to apply in Al-Tuhaif's case,"
Nasser stated.

Al-Tuhaif now should be free according to Yemeni law, which prohibits
executing those found guilty when they were under age 18 at the time a
crime was committed, so she should be released immediately. Additionally,
failing to release any prosecution against her will be injustice. Nasser
noted that the case's next session will be after 2 weeks.

Nasser clarified that what official newspapers and other media outlets
have published about President Ali Abdullah Saleh's amnesty decision is
incorrect. "If President Saleh has commuted Al-Tuhaif's death sentence,
it's only gossip. The information many newspapers published was untrue and
it's just a way to skew public opinion about the case," she added.

Al-Tuhaif remains imprisoned, but if such newspaper reports were correct,
Al-Tuhaif might have been freed long ago.

Al-Tuhaif, a wife and mother who was just 16 when the alleged crime was
committed, is accused of killing her husband Hizam. In reality, her family
executed her when they deprived her of education and her childhood and
forced her to marry as a child.

(source: Yemen Times)






INDONESIA:

Death-row bombers join Bali nine in 'right to live' plea


THE Bali bombers are claiming that all people have a "right to live" and
will join members of the Bali 9 in trying to overturn their death
penalties with a constitutional challenge.

Amrozi, dubbed the "smiling assassin", Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra, who
carried out the 2002 Bali bombings, will lodge their challenge to capital
punishment in Indonesia's Constitutional Court this month, their lawyer,
Mahendradatta, says.

He said their challenge was of the "same spirit" as that lodged by three
members of the Bali 9 heroin ring on death row, Scott Rush, Andrew Chan
and Myuran Sukumaran. The challenges were likely to be joined together in
one case.

The Constitutional Court last month asked for further submissions from
lawyers for Chan, Rush and Sukumaran to clarify whether constitutional
provisions apply to foreigners before beginning formal hearings. The 3 men
are claiming that Indonesia's constitution guarantees the right to life,
so executions must be outlawed.

The other 3 members of the Bali nine on death row have decided to appeal
to Indonesia's Supreme Court.

The constitutional move is the Bali bombers' last legal avenue to avoid
firing squads, with a final Supreme Court appeal against their convictions
set to be dismissed.

They have claimed they were ready to die as martyrs, but have tried
repeatedly to delay or overturn their sentences.

Mr Mahendradatta said the use of firing squads was akin to torture. "In
our clients' point of view there is still a possibility that someone may
still be alive after being shot. It is torture. Torture is unacceptable
for whatever reason.

"As you know, they are prepared to accept the death sentence. The problem
is with the way the execution is performed."

He then admitted the challenge would be against the death penalty itself,
rather than just the method of execution. "We support the right to live,"
he said.

The resort to the Constitutional Court came after the bombers learnt that
judges from Bali's Denpasar District Court have recommended that their
appeals against their death sentences be rejected. The judges will deliver
their recommendation to Indonesia's Supreme Court, which is expected to
endorse the decision later this month.

(source: The Age)