[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 6



ZAMBIA:

A quiet life on death row ---- Hundreds are killed each year, but the
government couldnt find an executioner


In a country where most people have no job, and those who do are rarely
paid, you would expect a horde of applicants for an occasional position
that requires only basic skills and pays US$3,500 a go, plus a nice house
to live in and a Lexus to drive.

But the job's been vacant for 12 years. Finally the government has given
up searching for an applicant at home, and has gone abroad to find
someone. And its search has been successful.

>From this week, Mr Jonas Chilembe, 34, of Zambia, is the official
Zimbabwean State Executioner.

Mr. Chilembe will not find himself that busy. There are only 7 condemned
men on our death row at present, even though no-one has been executed here
since 1995.

(source: The First Post)






VIETNAM:

Vietnam sentences 6 drug traffickers to death


A Vietnamese court Thursday gave death sentences to 6 Vietnamese people,
and life sentences on 2 women for heroin trafficking, Vietnam News Agency
reported.

The People's Court of northern Thanh Hoa province also handed down jail
terms of 16-20 years on four local people in the drug trafficking ring,
which trafficked 14 cakes of heroin (4.9 kg of heroin) from northern Son
La province to Thanh Hoa between December 2005 and March 2006.

The death sentence receivers include Giang A Pao, 26, and his
father-in-law Song A Vang, 41, from Son La; and Nguyen Kim Tuan, 38,
Nguyen Kim Hai, 33, Tran Dang Hinh, 35, and Tran Dang Binh, 43, from Thanh
Hoa.

Tuan's younger sister named Nguyen Thi Chinh, 28, and Binh's wife named
Doan Thi Thanh Huong, 41, got life imprisonment sentences.

In Vietnam, possessing, trading or trafficking 600 grams of heroin or 20
kg of opium is punishable by death or life in prison.

Vietnam, as of late 2006, had a total of 160,226 drug addicts, over 70
percent of whom are in the age bracket of 18-35, according to statistics
from the country's Ministry of Public Security.

(source: Xinhua)






CHINA----execution

Execution finale for car-bomb man


A former law maker in eastern Shandong Province was executed yesterday
after the Supreme People's Court upheld his death penalty for ordering the
killing of his mistress with a car bomb and taking huge bribes. Justice
came quickly, with his death barely eight weeks after the crime.

Duan Yihe, 61, former chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's
Congress of Jinan, capital of Shandong, received the death penalty for
asking his nephew-in-law, a Jinan policeman, to plant the car bomb that
killed his mistress, Liu Haiping, on July 9, the Zibo Intermediate
People's Court ruled on August 9.

Police found remnants of the bomb in Liu's car after the blast, which
killed her on the spot and destroyed a nearby taxi. The cab driver and a
pedestrian were injured in the explosion.

Duan was also convicted of taking bribes and asking for money - 1.69
million yuan (US$223,805) in total. He was unable to explain the source of
another 1.3 million yuan worth of assets, which authorities said were
beyond his income level.

Duan's nephew-in-law, Chen Zhi, an officer with the Jinan Municipal Public
Security Bureau, was also sentenced to death for murder.

Chen Changbing, the boss of an auto-repair shop, received a life sentence
for helping to plant the bomb in the victim's car with Chen Zhi, the Zibo
court said.

Duan, Chen Zhi and Chen Changbing appealed to China's Supreme Court but
the court upheld all the original sentences, saying the crime "was
extremely brutal and seriously harmed society."

Duan had maintained an intimate relationship with Liu, a divorced woman 30
years his junior, since 2000, buying her a house and arranging jobs for
many of her relatives.

With Duan's help, Liu secured employment in the Jinan Financial Bureau and
then the Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources. Her two sisters also
secured higher-paying jobs.

Duan was trying to split up with Liu after growing tired of her. She asked
for money, demanded he divorce his wife and marry her and threatened to
report him to prosecutors.

Duan previously told police he just wanted to arrange a traffic accident
with the help of Chen Zhi so that Liu would "lose her ability to think."

About 5pm on July 9, Chen Zhi and Chen Changbing planted the homemade bomb
in Liu's car and detonated the device 30 minutes later by remote control
as she was driving. Liu died instantly.

Duan was arrested on July 16. He was expelled from the Communist Party and
removed from Party posts soon after the case was exposed.

Statistics from China's top prosecutor's office show that of the 16
provincial-level or higher officials punished for "serious corruption" in
the past 5 years, 14 kept mistresses.

(source: Shanghai Daily)






EUROPEAN UNION:

Barroso will intensify EU fight against death penalty


EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso speaking at a major gathering
of Christian churches on Thursday said he would seek to intensify the EU's
worldwide campaign against capital punishment.

Speaking to reporters in the Romanian town of Sibiu, where the European
ecumenical meeting is taking place until Sunday, Barroso said that
opposition to the death penalty was one of the values of the European
Union.

Supported by the spiritual contribution of the churches the Union could
however do more to propagate this message among nations where capital
punishment still existed, Barroso said.

Some 2,500 participants from all Christian confessions were due to attend
the third ecumenical gathering in Sibiu, including the Ecumenical
Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, and the secretary general of
the Council of Europe Terry Davis.

The main theme of the gathering on Thursday was European politics and
migration.

According to Barroso the churches could also help the EU to develop in the
ethical-spiritual sense, as "a Union that is reduced to its geographic and
economic dimensions will fail to achieve unity."

Conditional to this development was however not only ecumenical
cooperation, but also more tolerance for non-Christian religions that are
gaining an increasing foothold in Europe as well as for non- believers in
any faith.

Barroso said Romania, where for hundreds of years Catholics, Protestants
and Orthodox Christians had co-existed, could also serve as the connecting
link between the eastern and western Christian churches.

This multiculturalism and also the country's geographic position could
also contribute to Romania playing a role in bringing peace to the
conflict-riven Balkans, Barroso said.

The EU Commission president was to travel on to Bucharest for talks with
Romanian Premier Calin Popescu Tariceanu.

(source: The Nation)


PAKISTAN:

Young man on death row acquires master's degree


A prisoner, on death row until recently, has acquired higher education
during his time in the Haripur central prison.

Sohail Fida of Mingora was a 1st-year student when he was sentenced to
death in July 2002 in a murder case despite being a juvenile. He passed
intermediate in first division during his trial which started in April
2000.

He got BA and MA (International Relations) degrees from the Hazara
University while serving time on the death row.

The man, who has now turned 24, is preparing for final exams of MA
History. He also did Urdu and Arabic proficiency courses.

He improved his spoken English because of interaction with 2 South African
jail mates.

Mr Fida is now working on a book, "Takhta-i-Dar Kay Pulsirat Se," a
collection of letters he wrote to his family from the death cell.

Last month, the Federal Shariat Court commuted his death sentence to life
imprisonment. He is now working as a teacher in the juvenile sections
school.

(source: Dawn newspapers)