[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 4



IRAQ:

Iraq confirms death sentence for 'Chemical Ali'


Iraq's top court said on Tuesday it has confirmed the death sentence on
"Chemical Ali" and 2 other cohorts of Saddam Hussein convicted of genocide
and they will be hanged within 30 days.

"The Iraqi Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentence on Ali Hassan
al-Majid, Sultan Hashim al-Tai and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti," court chief
Judge Aref Shaheen told a press conference.

Asked when the three would be executed, Shaheen replied: "According to
Iraqi law, sentence must be carried out withing 30 days, no more."

Majid, widely known as "Chemical Ali" for using poison gas against ethnic
Kurds, was the executed Iraqi dictator's most notorious hatchet man, Tai
was his defence minister and Tikriti was armed forces deputy chief of
operations.

The 3 were sentenced to death on June 24 after being found responsible for
the slaughter of thousands of Kurds in the so-called Anfal campaign of
1988.

An estimated 182,000 Kurds were killed and 4,000 villages wiped out in the
brutal campaign of bombings, mass deportation and gas attacks.

"Thousands of people were killed, displaced and disappeared," Iraqi High
Tribunal chief judge Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah said after he had
passed sentence in June.

"They were civilians with no weapons and nothing to do with war."

Majid, 66, was the last of the 6 defendants to learn his fate in the Anfal
case -- the 2nd trial of former Saddam cohorts on charges of crimes
against humanity since the fall of the feared regime in 2003.

He muttered only "Thanks be to God" before being led from the court.

He and the other 2 condemned men are currently on trial for their alleged
roles in brutally crushing a Shiite uprising in southern Iraq in 1991, but
the charges against them will be dropped once they have been executed.

Saddam's regime said the Anfal campaign was a necessary counter-insurgency
operation during Iraq's 8-year war with neighbouring Iran.

It involved the systematic bombardment, gassing and assault of areas in
the Kurdish autonomous region, which witnessed mass executions and
deportations and the creation of prison camps.

Saddam, driven from power by a US-led invasion in April 2003, was executed
on December 30 for crimes against humanity in a separate case and charges
against him over the Anfal campaign were dropped.

Saddam's former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was hanged for crimes
against humanity on March 20, while the dictator's half-brother Barzan
Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, the ex-chief of Iraq's
Revolutionary Court, were hanged on January 15.

Over the course of the Anfal trial, which opened on August 21 last year, a
defiant Majid said he was right to order the attacks.

"I am the one who gave orders to the army to demolish villages and
relocate the villagers," he said at one hearing. "I am not defending
myself. I am not apologising. I did not make a mistake."

Iraqi Kurds were jubilant following the verdicts but initial plans to
execute Majid in the Kurdish town of Halabja have been scrapped so the
hanging does not appear to be motivated by revenge, an Iraqi government
official said.

On March 16, 1988, Saddam's troops strafed Halabja with chemical gases,
killing 5,000 Kurds in one of the biggest military operations against the
people of the northern Kurdish region during the Iran-Iraq war.

Human Rights Watch has expressed concern that the Anfal verdicts were as
"flawed" as in the previous trial of Saddam over the killing of Shiites
from the village of Dujail in the 1980s.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






FRANCE:

Sarkozy And The Death Penalty----Father of abused boy says Sarkozy
supports capital punishment


The father of a 5 year old boy kidnapped and raped by a recently-released
paedophile has claimed that Nicolas Sarkozy confided to him that he, too,
supported the death penalty for paedophiles.

Mustafa Kocakurt, the father of Enis, told French TV personality in an
interview Karl Zero that he supported the death penalty for paedophiles.
When he met the President following the rescue of his son, he said Sarkozy
agreed with his sentiment.

The Elysee is likely to be embarrassed by M Kocakurt's claims. France
abolished the death penalty in 1981 and has since been a high-profile
campaigner against capital punishment. Indeed, it is illegal for EU
governments to reintroduce the death penalty and France earlier this year
modified its constitution to enshrine the law that "nobody can be
sentenced to death."

A poll last year showed that 51 % of French voters opposed the death
penalty and 41 % supported it. Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front is
the only prominent politician to support the death penalty.

Sarkozy, while unlikely to reopen the debate on capital punishment, has
indicated that he will seek new ways of dealing with persistent paedophile
offenders. In August, M Kocakurt's son Enis was kidnapped and raped by 61
year old Francis Evrard, who had recently been released from prison after
serving 2/3 of a 27 year sentence for raping three children. The French
public's disbelief and fury mounted as it became clear that Evrard, who
claimed to have abused forty children, had been given Viagra by a prison
doctor.

Sarkozy called an emergency cabinet session, after which he announced he
was considering introducing chemical castration for offenders.

The French response once again contrasts notably with the British
experience. This week, a 39- year old man was sentenced to 6 years in
prison for the rape of a 12 year old girl. Shakil Chowdhury raped the
child 11 times and even invited 2 friends to sexually abuse her too. The
Victims Support Group reacted with disgust to the leniency of the
sentence.

(source: EURSOC)






JAPAN:

CABINET INTERVIEW----NEW JUSTICE MINISTER; Hatoyama a hawk on death
penalty, illegal immigrants


When he appointed Kunio Hatoyama as justice minister Aug. 27, Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe requested that the veteran lawmaker help Japan regain
its recognition as one of the world's safest countries.

Facing reporters later that day, Hatoyama was quick to display his
determination to heed Abe's call, quickly supporting capital punishment
and pointing to the threat of crimes committed by foreigners.

"The death penalty embodies preventive functions against crimes. I
disagree with abolishing the system," the 58-year-old stated in his first
news conference at the Justice Ministry. "Cutting the number of illegal
immigrants in half is also a goal for this administration. We must tighten
up immigration management to achieve that," he said, referring to the
growing perception that more crimes are being committed by foreign
nationals.

Hatoyama, a conservative hawk who makes frequent visits to Yasukuni
Shrine, hails from a prominent political family. His grandfather, Ichiro,
was a prime minister, and his father, Iichiro, a foreign minister.
Hatoyama's older brother, Yukio, is secretary general of the Democratic
Party of Japan.

The Tokyo native began his political career as a secretary to his father
and the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka before winning a seat in the
1976 Lower House election.

Hatoyama later went through a period of turbulence, leaving the Liberal
Democratic Party in 1993 and helping form the DPJ in 1996, only to resign
as a lawmaker 3 years later and run for Tokyo governor in 1999. When that
failed, he ran on the LDP ticket and won a Lower House seat in 2000.

Although Hatoyama has served as both education and labor minister, the
tasks he faces at the Justice Ministry require trickier decision-making,
especially authorizing hangings. But he pledged to make advancements
during his stint in office.

In an interview Friday, he said the death-row population, reduced to 103
after Hatoyama's predecessor, Jinen Nagase, sent 3 to the gallows last
month, is still "a large number."

"One must be extra careful in approving death penalties because it is
about ending human life," Hatoyama said, but added that failure to
authorize capital punishment runs against the nature of the legal system.

"Executions should be carried out aptly" under the Constitution, he said.

Cabinet profiles Regarding long-term policies for accepting overseas
workers, Hatoyama said the government could add more job categories for
which foreign nationals with skills and expertise can apply.

But he disagreed with some of Nagase's proposals to open the market and
accept manual laborers and unskilled workers.

"Considering Japan's culture, I must question whether that is a good
idea," Hatoyama said. "This may not be the right thing to say, but that
could provoke an increase in crimes by foreign nationals."

Asked if he intends to reject Nagase's proposal, Hatoyama simply stated,
"I am the justice minister (now)."

A close friend to LDP Secretary General Taro Aso, Hatoyama promised not
only to "become a good justice minister" but also support Abe and his
Cabinet in the wake of the LDP-New Komeito ruling bloc's loss of its
majority in the July Upper House election.

"This Cabinet is facing a difficult time, but I believe it's healthy for
Cabinet members to feel pressure and tension," he said. "I will make use
of my connection with my brother if that is required anytime in the
future."

(source: Japan Times)