[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 13



NORTH KOREA:

Death Row Christian in N. Korea Incites Demand for Release, Pleas for Life


The brother of the North Korean Christian man awaiting public execution
for simply being a Christian pleaded with the world Thursday to press
North Korea to release his elder brother while presidential candidate Sen.
Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) demanded the man's freedom.

Son Jong Hoon, the brother of the imprisoned North Korean Christian Son
Jong Nam, traveled from his home in Seoul, South Korea to plead for the
life of his brother. The younger Son was also born in North Korea but was
able to escape to South Korea in 2002.

"Right now the purpose of my life is to save my brother," said Son Jong
Hoon. "Now I am also praying to God to save my brother.

"Please, please, please write letters to your senators and members in
Congress," he pleaded. "Please, please also write a letter to the United
Nations. Also please write to government authorities in North Korea."

North Korea is one of the most repressive regimes in the World and is
ranked by the ministry Open Doors as the world's worst persecutor of
Christians.

Citizens of the communist state are forced to adhere to a personality cult
revolved around worshipping current dictator Kim Jong Il and his deceased
father, Kim Il Sung.

Son was joined Thursday by Sen. Brownback who last week sent letters
signed by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), James Inhofe
(R-Okla.), and David Vitter (R-La.) to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking them to work to secure
the release of the Christian prisoner.

"This is a horrific case. The execution should not occur. It is wrong,"
said Brownback. "I think the North Korean government, as part of the
6-party talks and as a statement of good faith, should not execute this
individual.

"I think this is also an indicator of the brutality of the North Korean
government. This isn't the 1st time this has happened."

There were about 300,000 Christians in 1953 but the number has shot down
to a few thousand who secretly practice their faith, according to VOM.

"The key thing that people need to know about North Korea is that 10 % of
the population has died over the past 15 years," said Brownback. "You have
a massive genocide that has happened because of the North Korean
government. The weapon of mass destruction has already been deployed [and
that] is the government of North Korea because of the gulag system and
mass starvation by and at the hand of the government.

"People need to know that," said the senator, who has long been an
advocate of human rights and religious freedom in oppressive countries.

The Voice of the Martyrs, which is spearheading the campaign, explained
that the case is special and seems more tragic and unfair than others
because all Son is charged with is being a Christian.

The imprisoned Son had served in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Army and achieved the rank of captain before the government became
suspicious of him and labeled him a traitor. Government officials went as
far as kicking his then 8-month pregnant wife during an investigation and
caused her to miscarry their baby.

A disillusioned Son along with his wife, son, and brother (Son Jong Hoon)
escaped to China in 1998. However, his wife died within months of arriving
in China due to complications from the miscarriage.

It was in China that Son met a South Korean missionary who taught him
about Christianity. He became a believer and wanted to return to North
Korea to be an evangelist. But before he could carry out his dream, he was
captured by Chinese authorities and returned to North Korea where he was
imprisoned and brutally tortured for 3 years.

After his release in 2004, he worked in a rocket research institute and
later reunited with his brother in China. Again he was arrested and
returned to North Korea in January 2006 and was charged with being a
"national traitor" and for "receiving Christianity." His initial date for
public execution was set for March 2006. However, he was handed over to
the Military Security Commander in July 2006.

It is not known if Son is still alive or dead, but there is reason to
believe he is still alive because there has been no news of his execution.

The younger brother, Son Jong Hoon, who is now fighting for his brother's
life, noted that his health is not good because of hardship from escaping
North Korea, but that he "came from far, far away" just to tell the world
of his brother's desperate situation.

"I love my brother. He is a brave and good man," said Son. "If you also
get to know him, I am almost certain you will also love him.

"Please help my brother," he pleaded.

Son also noted that the South Korean government is "not doing anything" to
help the case because of its Sunshine Policy - which emphasizes peaceful
cooperation and reconciliation towards the North rather than punishment or
economic threats. The policy has the goal of eventual reunification of the
Korean peninsula.

South Korean NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and churches, on the
other hand, are advocating for Son Jong Nam's release.

The Voice of the Martyrs, based in Bartlesville, Okla., has for 40 years
served the persecuted church and has worked in North Korea for more than a
decade. Some of the activities the ministry does to support and aid
Christians in North Korea include launching helium balloons printed with
either the Gospel of Mark or a tract entitled "How to Know God" into North
Korea. VOM also smuggles copies of an audio drama, "He Lived Among Us,"
and copies of the New Testament through China into the reclusive country.

VOM encourages concerned persons to visit www.prisoneralert.com to write a
letter of encouragement to Son - which a program will translate into
Korean - that will be mailed to the North Korean delegation to the United
Nations.

The ministry also requests that participants attach a cover letter asking
the North Korean government to spare Son's life, release him from prison
immediately, report on his current status and deliver the personal letters
to Son.

(source: Christian Post)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Tried without a lawyer, teen about to be beheaded


Unless a desperate 11th-hour campaign by human-rights advocates can
schedule a court appeal by Monday, a teenage Sri Lankan girl will be
beheaded in Saudi Arabia.

It's punishment for a crime she never got to defend herself against, and
one she denies committing: the murder of a baby in her care. If ever a
case begged for a mass global response, this is it.

The story of Rizana Nafeek (alternately spelled Naffeek and Nazik) has
multiple tragic dimensions. Rizana was just 17 in May 2005 when she was
sent from her home in Sri Lanka to Saudi Arabia as a household worker. Her
impoverished family had lost everything in the tsunami of 2004. She had no
experience in infant care when she was put in charge of the baby,
according to the Asian Human Rights Commission, which has been publicizing
her case. Her employers didn't speak her language, making it questionable
how much training she got.

The incident happened 18 days after her arrival. The Hong Kong-based
commission says the 4-month-old choked on a bottle, and Rizana responded
by stroking his face, chest and neck, while yelling for his mother, who
arrived too late to save him.

According to the commission, the family turned Rizana over to police, who
treated her harshly and didn't provide an interpreter. Unable to explain
what had happened, she was given a confession to sign. She signed one
confessing to strangling the baby, and later tried to recant it.

She was tried without a lawyer, convicted of murder and sentenced to death
July 16. The judge reportedly asked the baby's father if he would waive
the execution - victims have that right in Saudi Arabia - but he declined.

The baby's death is the first tragedy in this story. Others include the
intersection of poverty, natural disaster and the importation of domestic
servants into questionable employment situations in the Arab world. There
are reportedly about 400,000 Sri Lankan migrant workers in Saudi Arabia,
including some trafficked illegally by agencies and exploited by
employers. Their home governments rely on the remittances they send, so,
as Brian Evans, Amnesty's Saudi Arabia specialist notes, they may be
reluctant to get involved.

Prodded by the Rights Commission, activists within Sri Lanka and its own
embassy in Saudi Arabia, the Sri Lankan government did eventually come to
the girl's defense. But it didn't help with the $40,000 needed to launch
an appeal.

Eclipsing everything, of course, is the barbarity of a death sentence - a
beheading, no less - imposed on a juvenile. Rizana is 19 now, though her
passport, obtained by an employment agent, wrongly put her birth in 1982
instead of 1988. Saudi Arabia signed the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, which forbids execution of juveniles who were under 18 when the
crimes were committed.

Saudi law, which strictly interprets Islamic law, according to Evans,
permits the death penalty for both lethal and non-lethal crimes, including
drug trafficking. Saudi Arabia has already put to death 100 people this
year. Amnesty International says under the secretive judicial system, many
of those sentenced to death aren't informed of the charges or kept abreast
of legal proceedings against them, and defendants can be convicted solely
on the basis of confessions obtained under duress. Trials may be conducted
in secrecy, without access to defense counsel or foreign consular
assistance.

In response to mass appeals, the Rights Commission has located some donors
and is working with a law firm in Sri Lanka to schedule an appeal by
Monday's deadline. It has also called on Muslims all over the world to ask
the Saudis for mercy for Rizana. Amnesty International recommends writing
to Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud to intervene and commute the
death sentence. Letters can be sent through Amnesty's Web site, at
www.amnesty.org/abolish. Updates are available from the AHRC web site, at
www.ahrchk.net.

A letter from Rizana's father to the baby's parents begs for his
daughter's life to be spared, noting, "Due to the tragic incident that
occurred... you had to lose your child and we are also undergoing the
trauma of the imminent loss of our child."

National borders and sovereign laws must be respected. But unless we use
whatever available channels to speak out, we all become hapless bystanders
to an unthinkable injustice.

(source: Des Moines Register)






TAIWAN:

PrintBack 'Sijhih Trio' verdict overturned


The Taiwan High Court overturned its 2003 ruling that acquitted 3 convicts
known as the "Sijhih Trio," who had been sentenced to death in 1995. The
dramatic reversal June 29 set human-rights and judicial-reform groups into
despair. The defense lawyers appealed their convictions to the Supreme
Court for a 3rd trial July 2, while the 3 defendants insisted on their
innocence, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported July 2.

Meanwhile, Taiwan High Court rejected an application by the Taiwan High
Court Prosecutors Office to detain the trio, saying they were unlikely to
abscond, CNA reported July 2.

Su Chien-ho, Liu Bing-lang and Chuang Lin-hsun were convicted in 1995 by
the high court on charges of murdering Wu Ming-han and his wife Yeh
Ying-lan, who were found dead at their home in Sijhih Township, Taipei
County, March 24, 1991, with more than 75 stab wounds. Prime suspect Wang
Wen-hsiao, a soldier at the time, was sentenced to death by a military
court and executed Jan. 11, 1992.

Wang testified that four other people--including his brother Wang
Wen-chung--were also involved. He was put to death before being able to
confront the 4 in court, which began to try the case Jan. 12, 1992,
according to a chronology of the case posted on the Taiwan Association for
Human Rights Web site.

The trio was first sentenced to death over charges of murder, robbery and
rape in February 1992. The trio exhausted their appeals, and the death
sentence was upheld in February 1995 by the high court. Then
Prosecutor-General Chen Han made special appeals to the Supreme Court in
February, March and July 1995, citing flaws in the investigations, but all
appeals were rejected.

Human-rights groups and individuals called for special pardons because of
a lack of direct evidence linking the three to the crime and of the trio's
claim that they had been tortured during investigation. More appeals have
been made on their behalf since then, holding off execution.

In 2000, the Supreme Court approved an application filed by the defense
team for a retrial. Su, Liu and Chuang were acquitted on grounds of
insufficient evidence in January 2003. They were released after being on
death row for 11 years.

Prosecutors appealed against the acquittals on behalf of the victims'
families, however, and the Supreme Court threw out the not-guilty verdict
Aug. 8, 2003, and ordered the high court to retry the case.

In the latest verdict, the high court reinstated the death sentences,
though exculpated the trio from the charge of rape. Taiwan High Court
Spokesperson Wen Yao-yuan said at a press conference June 29 that the
court found the dead Wang's testimony implicating the 3 valid and their
claims of torture were not credible, CNA reported June 29.

The court admitted forensic results by the Ministry of Justice, which
concluded the murder involved more than 2 people and 3 knives, while
dismissing the opinion of U.S. forensic specialist Henry Lee, who
suggested that it was likely that there was only 1 killer using 1 knife,
the report stated. Conducting his inquiry at the request of Su You-chen,
the defense lawyer, Lee testified in favor of the 3 to the high court in
May.

Wen said, after comparing the trio's confessions and the dead Wang's
statement, that the court found them consistent. All 3 defendants had
retracted their testimonies and the high court noted that the trio changed
their stories, which discredited them, the report stated.

Wang Wen-chung, who was convicted for serving as a lookout during the
robbery of the Sijhih house and had served his 32-month prison term, also
retracted his testimony about the trio's involvement, testifying to
torture done by the police in 1995.

The trio's lawyers requested July 2 to hold an open debate in their appeal
to the Supreme Court. One of the defense lawyers, Hsu Wen-bin, said the
legal team expected the court to deliver a final verdict on this
16-year-long case, one of the most high-profile in the country's judicial
history.

Hsu expressed confidence in Taiwan's judiciary and in the defense team's
ability to convince the court of the trio's innocence, CNA reported July
2.

(source: Taiwan Journal)




CHINA:

Ex-convict given death penalty for killing mistress


Wu Huizhong, an ex-convict from Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui
Province, has been sentenced to death for killing his mistress, according
to local sources.

In the ruling handed down by the Intermediate People's Court of Hefei in a
first-instance trial held on Tuesday, Wu, 34, was also deprived of his
political rights for life.

The court was told that Wu first met his mistress, identified only by her
surname as Yang, at a ballroom last December. In the afternoon of Jan.27,
2007, the 2 met at the ballroom again, danced till midnight and decided to
pass the night together.

Yang, who was 14 years older than Wu, suggested that they rent an
apartment and live together. Wu quickly agreed but, the next morning, a
fierce quarrel erupted between the 2 when the woman thought better of her
decision.

Wu then lured Yang to a construction site in Dayang Township of Luyang
District, Hefei City, and when Yang stumbled and fell to the ground, Wu
picked up a brick and repeatedly hit his lover in the head, killing her.

Wu fled the scene with Yang's personal belongings.

An autopsy showed that Yang had died of severe brain injuries caused by a
hard object.

Wu, who served jail terms for robbery and theft in 1996 and again in 2006,
was on Tuesday convicted of robbery leading to death and was given the
death penalty.

Wu said he would appeal.

(source: Xinhua )

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

A Chinese Reformer Betrays His Cause, and Pays


Zheng Xiaoyu once ranked as one of the most powerful regulators in China.
He rose from modest beginnings to help create and lead Beijing's version
of the Food and Drug Administration in the United States.

But last March, locked up in the Qincheng Prison here, he wrote a short
confession. "Why are the friends who gave me money all the bosses of
pharmaceutical companies?" he wrote in his letter, entitled How I Look on
My Mistakes. "Obviously because I was in charge of drug administration."

In his confession, Mr. Zheng acknowledged that during his 8-year tenure,
he had accepted gifts and bribes from 8 drug companies that sought special
favors: a car, a villa, furniture, cash. And corporate stock. All told, he
and his family accepted gifts valued at more than $850,000  in a country
where the average worker earns less than $2,000 a year.

For his crimes, the 62-year-old was executed on Tuesday, making him one of
the highest-ranking Chinese officials ever to be put to death.

The rise and fall of Mr. Zheng offers a rare glimpse inside Chinas flawed
regulatory system. He started out as an idealistic reformer. Concerned
about Chinas unsafe drug supply, he lobbied for the creation of the State
Food and Drug Administration. But in the end, according to friends and
associates, he was corrupted by the very system he sought to change  even
enlisting his wife and son to solicit bribes.

There were so many companies going to him and he simply couldnt resist the
temptation, said one drug company executive who befriended Mr. Zheng in
the 1980s and did not want to be identified discussing the delicate issue.

While Chinas tainted exports have attracted international attention,
China's own citizens suffer most from the shortcomings of its drug
regulators. Tens of thousands of crates of unsafe pharmaceuticals have
reached the local market  from antibiotics to vaccines, from drugs to
treat erectile dysfunction to ones to strengthen the immune system. The
government does not know how many deaths and serious illnesses have
resulted from faulty drugs.

Corruption is not the only problem, say industry insiders. Agencies
battled over who had the authority to fine companies and who was
responsible when things went wrong. The rapid growth of the drug industry
has also made it hard for regulators and their staffs to keep up.

During Mr. Zhengs tenure, for instance, his agency approved over 150,000
applications for new drugs, an approval rate that dwarfs the F.D.A., which
approves only about 140 new drugs each year.

And when regulators do discover counterfeit pharmaceutical operations,
powerful local officials often seek to shield companies in their area from
punishment.

As much as his own greed, all these larger problems stymied the
intelligent but nave Mr. Zheng. "He was smart in a technical way," says a
drug company executive who knew him for more than 20 years. "But he didn't
have political skills. He should have never gone into government."

Zheng Xiaoyu was born in coastal Fujian Province in 1944, when China was
still being torn apart by war. He and several siblings were raised by an
aunt, friends say. Mr. Zheng was bright enough to gain acceptance to the
prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai, where he studied biology and
played the trumpet in the school band.

After graduation, he got a job as a technician at the state-owned No. 1
pharmaceutical factory in nearby Hangzhou, where he eventually rose to
become factory manager.

Colleagues remember him being passionate about his work. "He was
innovative and liked new ideas," said one retired worker who knew Mr.
Zheng well, but asked not to be identified. "In the 1980s, he even bought
computers for the factory in an attempt to computerize manufacturing and
management."

Later, in the mid-1990s, Mr. Zheng took a job in the countrys
pharmaceutical regulatory administration. There he pushed the government
to create a separate body to regulate food and drug safety, one with more
power to protect Chinese consumers.

In 1998, Beijing did. The amiable Mr. Zheng headed the state agency for
the next eight years, pushing a modernization plan that was supposed to
help transform China into one of the world's leading centers for
pharmaceutical production.

To improve industry standards, the agency cracked down on fake drugs and
illegal factories. Mr. Zheng would occasionally show up at the side of
victims to grieve and declare his own fears about product safety.

He talked like a determined enforcer. "The crimes of making and selling
fake drugs haven't been uprooted," he said in a speech in 2001. "And
criminals and corrupt officials in the system should be severely punished
according to the law."

One of his boldest reforms was an effort to push new production standards,
giving companies a "good manufacturing practice" seal of approval. Mr.
Zheng promised to use the standards to weed out irresponsible
manufacturers. His agency declared that any pharmaceutical company that
did not get G.M.P. approval by July 2004 would lose its license.

"The intention of the G.M.P. certification was good," says Yang Yue, a
professor at the Shenyang Pharmaceutical University. "You don't know what
horrible conditions some drug makers had been in. For example, in some
traditional Chinese medicine companies, workers stirred the drugs with
their feet."

The plan had its intended impact: the industry shrank from 6,700 drug
makers to about 4,000.

But the agency's higher standards coincided with an effort by Beijing to
curb soaring drug prices. Companies were caught between the mandatory
government price cuts and the increased costs to upgrade equipment and
retrain staff members to meet Mr. Zheng's modernization plan.

Companies complained that because of their shrinking profit margins, they
did not have the money to develop new drugs. Some producers switched to
drugs not covered by the governments price caps, or simply changed the
dosage of existing drugs to maintain higher prices, exploiting a loophole
in the pricing regulations. And companies bribed agency officials to get
speedier drug approvals or other special favors.

Those officials included Mr. Zheng, according to court records. His wife,
Naixue, and son, Hairong, eventually formed a consulting company in
Shanghai that helped solicit bribes from companies.

Court records show that when a company named the Double Dove Group sought
to register disposable syringes, it offered shares to Mr. Zheng's wife;
his son received a used Audi, consulting fees and property in Shanghai.

When a Beijing drug maker needed approval to import more Madame Pearl's
Cough Syrup from Hong Kong and to distribute a new intravenous drug, the
companys chairman helped Mr. Zheng's wife pay for a villa and then went
shopping with her for furniture. Decorating fees came to about $30,000.

The court offered detailed accounts of other bribes: secret payoffs at a
Beijing hotel, checks handed to Mr. Zheng in his office; and instructions
for Mr. Zheng's son to fly to Hong Kong, where he got over $120,000 that
he later told prosecutors he put away for his parents' retirement.

At least 8 other senior drug agency officials have been accused of taking
bribes, according to court records and the state-controlled media. Mr.
Zheng's top deputy, Hao Heping, the director of the medical devices
division, accepted cash, expensive golf memberships and a Honda Accord.

Cao Wenzhuang, head of the drug registration division, accepted at least
$300,000 in gifts and bribes. Both men also worked with their wives to
solicit the money.

The court that handed down Mr. Zhengs death sentence said at least six
drugs that had been approved by the State Food and Drug Administration
during his tenure were fake. The agency's current leaders say hundreds of
fake drugs are on the market at any given time  some approved, many not.

According to state-run media accounts, prosecutors began hearing from
informants about corruption at the highest levels of the S.F.D.A.
beginning in 2002, when a drug regulator who had worked with Mr. Zheng was
sentenced to death for corruption. (That official received a reprieve and
was never executed.)

Soon, several other agency officials came under scrutiny. One drug
industry insider, who asked not to be named discussing government agency
rivalries, said bureaucratic battles also worsened between Mr. Zheng's
drug watchdog and the Ministry of Health, which had primary oversight over
the drug market before Mr. Zheng's agency was formed. That fight,
according to this official, could have led his rivals to inform on Mr.
Zhang.

In June 2005, Zheng Xiaoyu quietly stepped down as director of the State
Food and Drug Administration. Rumors spread that he was under
investigation.

But Mr. Zheng's arrest did not come until a year later. In the meantime,
he remained head of the China Pharmaceutical Association, even attending
high-level government meetings, according to China Vitae, a Hong Kong Web
site that tracks government officials.

About the same time, Mr. Zheng's wife and son, sometimes at his direction,
began returning some of the gifts they had received from drug company
executives, including the $30,000 dividend Hairong had been paid for his
stake in the Double Dove property. Naixue returned some of her consulting
fees.

After attending a December 2006 meeting of the Beijing Pharmaceutical
Association, Mr. Zheng was questioned by the governments disciplinary
agency, according to court documents.

Two months later, the State Council, Chinas highest governing body, held a
special meeting to consider Mr. Zheng's crimes. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao
attended. The council was told that Mr. Zheng had "neglected his duty to
supervise the drug market, abused the administration's drug approval
authority, took bribes and turned a blind eye to bad practices by
relatives and subordinate officials."

Mr. Zheng was officially arrested in March. Soon after, the entire Zheng
family was undergoing intense interrogation. All three members confessed
to soliciting and accepting bribes.

"Some money wasnt given to me directly, but through Naixue and Hairong,"
Mr. Zheng wrote in his confession. "Naixue was retired and stayed at home.
Hairong was just a student. So their target was still me. Indirect ways
were easier for me to accept. So I agreed, consented. This was bribery."

Eventually, the court found him guilty of accepting bribes from eight drug
companies, condemned him for dereliction of duty for failing to police the
drug industry or his subordinates and creating regulatory schemes that
allowed dangerous drugs to come to the market.

Industry officials say Mr. Zheng probably accepted many more bribes, but
the government did not need evidence of any more to ask for the death
penalty.

Many drug company officials still defend Mr. Zheng, arguing that he was a
good man, undone by temptations that would have corrupted many people.
They say that the industry was plagued by dishonesty that no regulator
could have controlled; and that in a country where counterfeiting is
rampant in all types of industries, where doctors and hospitals regularly
accept kickbacks, that Mr. Zheng was made a scapegoat for national ills.

Mr. Zheng's lawyer pleaded for leniency, saying his client had cooperated
with the authorities and, at times at least, had actually worked to
improve the drug industry.

But on July 10, the state-run media issued a terse statement: "Zheng
Xiaoyu, former director of China's State Food and Drug Administration, was
executed Tuesday morning with the approval of the Supreme People's Court."

Whether Mr. Zhengs wife and son will be tried is not clear.

The day after his execution, the agency Zheng Xiaoyu had helped found said
it was dismantling his drug approval system and putting in place new
measures to bring transparency to the drug approval system. The agency
also said it would start making unannounced visits to check on drug
factory production.

Industry analysts say Beijing will have to do a great deal more to solve
the country's food and drug safety problems "If the head of the drug
agency is corrupt," said James J. Shen, a longtime industry analyst in
Beijing and the publisher of Pharma China, "you can imagine how corrupt
the whole system is."

(source: New York Times)



LIBYA:

Sarkozy's Wife Meets Detained Nurses


Cecilia Sarkozy, the wife of France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy,
visited 5 Bulgarian nurses in Tripoli, Libya, who have been sentenced to
death for infecting more than 400 children with H.I.V.

Mr. Sarkozy told reporters in pinal, France, that she would meet with the
Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Thursday night. On Wednesday,
Libya's Supreme Court upheld the death sentences, although an independent
investigation has found that the infections were caused by unsanitary
conditions. In Benghazi, where she met with families of the children, Ms.
Sarkozy said that her visit was "not official" but that she had been sent
"as a mother," Agence France-Presse reported.

(source: New York Times)






ETHIOPIA:

Court urged to disregard prosecutors request for death penalty for 4
journalists


Reporters Without Borders appealed today to the federal high court to show
clemency towards 38 government opponents, including 4 journalists, for
whom prosecutor Abraha Tetemke requested the death penalty on 9 July. The
court is to pass sentence on 16 July.

"By demanding the death penalty for members of the Coalition for Unity and
Democracy (CUD), the prosecutor has confirmed to the international
community that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government is trying to
stifle all political opposition. The requested sentence is outrageous. The
high court must disregard it, and show that Ethiopia is capable of
respecting free expression."

The defendants include Abay editor Mesfin Tesfaye, Ethiop editor Andualem
Ayele, Asqual editor Wonakseged Zeleke and Dawit Fassil, the deputy editor
of the now defunct weekly Satenaw, who was released on bail in April and
then re-arrested.

Various unofficial sources have reported that negotiations were under way
between the government and opposition leaders that could influence the
outcome of the trial.

The high court decided that the defendants' refusal to defend themselves
in court was an admission of guilt and on 11 June found them guilty of
trying to overthrow constitutional rule. Mesfin and Andualem initially
faced the death penalty or life imprisonment for "inciting revolt" and
"conspiracy to overthrow constitutional rule" while Wonakseged faced a
10-year prison sentence on the same charges and Dawit faced 3 years in
prison for publishing inaccurate information.

The 4 journalists were arrested in the course of roundups carried out by
the government in November 2005 in order to crack down on opposition
protests against alleged fraud in the legislative elections that had just
taken place. A total of 15 journalists are currently imprisoned in
Ethiopia.

(source: Reporters Without Borders)






JAPAN:

Death penalty on AUM's Nakagawa upheld at high court


The Tokyo High Court upheld Friday a lower court's death sentence against
former senior AUM Shinrikyo member Tomomasa Nakagawa who was convicted of
his involvement in the killings of 25 people in various criminal cases
from 1989 to 1995, including the cult's sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo
subway and in Nagano Prefecture.

Presiding Judge Ritsuro Uemura turned down an appeal from Nakagawa, 44, a
former physician, against the death sentence given in October 2003 at the
Tokyo District Court.

(sourc: Kyodo News)