Jan. 16 SAUDI ARABIA----executions Saudi beheads cruel couple Saudi Arabia has beheaded a couple convicted of torturing to death a nine-year-old girl, including burning her with a red-hot spoon and beating her with a metal pipe, the interior ministry said. Saudi Nashat Haji was beheaded by the sword for murdering his daughter, Khosoun, said a ministry statement carried by the official SPA news agency. He was executed in the eastern city of Mecca along with his second Saudi wife, Iman Ghazawi, after they both tortured the girl, including driving a car into her in the courtyard of her home. Haji decided to "get rid of" his daughter after he became doubtful that he was her biological father from a previous marriage, the ministry said. Another Saudi national, Adel al Huthrumi, was also executed in Mecca on the same day for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young boy, the ministry announced in a separate statement carried by SPA. The latest beheadings brought to 7 the number of executions announced in Saudi Arabia this year, after a record 153 people were put to death in 2007. That figure compared with 37 beheaded in 2006, and the previous record number of 113 executions in 2000. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking can all carry the death penalty in the ultra-conservative Gulf country, where executions are usually carried out in public. (source: Agence France Presse) IRAQ: Iraq seeks end to "Chemical Ali" execution impasse Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is trying to end an impasse that has delayed the execution of Saddam Hussein's cousin and 2 other men convicted of genocide, a government spokesman said on Wednesday. Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali", former Defence Minister Sultan Hashem and former army commander Hussein Rashid Muhammad are in U.S. military custody awaiting execution after they were convicted for their roles in a campaign against Iraq's Kurds in 1988. An Iraqi court in September upheld death sentences against the 3 men. Iraq's constitution stipulates that the sentences must be carried out within 30 days but they remain in custody while Iraq's leaders squabble over who has authority to sign off on the executions. The legal dispute between the government and Iraq's presidency council has been complicated by growing calls for Hashem to be spared. Many Sunni Arabs say he was a soldier who was just following the orders of Saddam's feared cousin Majeed. "The prime minister is trying to find a solution and a sort of balance between these demands and upholding the law and the constitution and the decisions made by the court," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told a news conference. Dabbagh did not say what form the balance might take, or whether Maliki was considering any compromises in the dispute or a pardon for Hashem. The U.S. military has said it will not hand the men over for execution until it receives what it calls an "authoritative government of Iraq request". "It's dependent on a decision still to be taken by the government of Iraq," U.S. military spokesman Major-General Kevin Bergner said at the same news conference. What constitutes such a request, and who is authorised to make it, is at the heart of the argument between Shi'ite Islamist Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Sunni Arab Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi. Maliki has written to U.S. President George W. Bush demanding that he order the 3 men be handed over. Talabani and Hashemi say Maliki has no right to make such a request and the 3 man-presidency council -- made up of the president and 2 vice-presidents -- should sign the order. (source: Reuters)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Rick Halperin Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:24:35 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin
- [Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide Rick Halperin