[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 27


LIBYA:

Gaddafi should get death sentence - Lebanese


Judicial officials say that a Lebanese prosecutor is seeking the death
sentence for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and 6 other Libyan officials
over the disappearance of a top Lebanese Shi'a cleric 30 years ago.

The case is a long-standing sore issue in Lebanon, where authorities blame
Gaddafi and his aides for the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his
2 companions during a trip to Libya in 1978.

Libya insists that the imam and the 2 aides left its territory.

But the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are
not authorised to speak to the media, acknowledged that Wednesday's move
is largely symbolic because it's unlikely Gaddafi would stand trial in
Lebanon.

(sources: South Africa Press Agency & Associated Press)






INDONESIA:

Execution is Imminent for Bali Nightclub Bombers----Men Refused to Seek
Clemency, Want to Die as Martyrs


The execution of the 3 men convicted for bombing a nightclub in Bali in
2002 is imminent. Amrozi Nurhasyim, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron have been
held responsible for the deaths of 202 people, mostly Australians and
Indonesians, who were killed at or near a disco in the popular tourist
destination of Kuta in Bali.

The 3 men have been on death row for 5 years and have refused to seek
presidential clemency, wishing to die as martyrs, and believing that their
fate lies in God's hands.

"To die a martyr's death is my wish and dream," Samudra and Ghufron wrote
in a letter provided by their legal defense team, according to The Jakarta
Post. "If God has predestined me to be killed by infidels, as well as
hypocrites by way of execution, it means God has fulfilled my wishes...
Praise be to God."

Letters have been sent to their families in preparation.

With 4 days remaining before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, the
expected deadline to carry out the executions by firing squad, the final
confirmation by the Supreme Court is not yet complete.

Nasir Abas, the brother-in-law of Ali Ghufron, is a former top commander
of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), one of the largest terrorist groups in South
East Asia. In 2003 Abas defected after being arrested and is now working
with police to rehabilitate and reeducate Islamic extremists about the
true meaning of Islam.

"My mission now is I want to bring them back to the right part, to the
right understanding of what is Islam's struggle," Abas tells ABC News.

"Islam is peace, religious. Islam is the defend for their rights. Not to
kill innocent people. Because the innocent is also God's creation. We are
all God's creation. We need to respect to the others," he says.

Abas says he has tried talking to his brother-in-law and that Ghufron
wrote him letters that he has not yet replied to.

"He said that I'm not a Muslim anymore. I'm infidel. He will never accept
me as a Muslim," says Abas who is Malaysian and was born in Singapore.

Having trained in Afghanistan, specialized in weaponry, and set up
training camps in the Philippines, today Abas dedicates his time to aiding
police in Indonesia as part of a deradicalization program. He aims to
morally rehabilitate his Muslim brothers and JI members in prison and if
successful, to eventually reintegrate them back into society.

"It's necessary to transform people not just with an intellectual
understanding but with the spiritual realization that comes from the
heart," says C. Holland Taylor, an expert on Islam and Chairman and CEO of
LibForAll Foundation.

"You get people who have a very superficial understanding of Islam -
supremacist, intolerant, violent ideology based on hatred and lacking the
true understanding of the spiritual depths of Islam," says Taylor.

"People's minds are easily filled with hatred and provoked into acts of
violence," he says.

While opening minds is at the core of the police program, opening wallets
also plays a key role.

According to a report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) that
specializes in conflict prevention and resolution worldwide, "Some
(prisoners) have then accepted that attacks on civilians, such as the 1st
and 2nd Bali bombings and the Australian embassy bombing, were wrong. The
economic aid, however, is ultimately more important than religious
arguments in changing prisoner attitudes."

Abas remains on the United Nations Security Council Consolidated List
maintained by the 1267 Committee that implements freezing assets, travel
bans and arms embargos on individuals and entities linked to terrorist
groups.

The Committee is aware of Abas' current activities aiding police in
Indonesia and supports any activities likely to reduce threats posed by
the Taliban, Al-Qaida and their associates.

Abas is also on the foreign assets control list maintained by the US
Department of the Treasury.

While deradicalization efforts continue within prison walls, corruption
and activity to strengthen terrorist networks also exists. Prisoners with
time on their hands help recruit and translate JI websites and
publications for local distribution.

Measuring the success of deradicalization programs is difficult. Abas will
not talk about how many people he has converted or speaks with regularly.

"One of the key problems is how do you define working? When do you know
that a person has been deradicalized? Is it when they accept funds from
their former enemy ie the police?" asks American Sidney Jones, senior
advisor for ICG. "Is it when they are willing to say yes, yes to Nasir
while they are still in prison? Is it after they are released from prison
and are invited to join an operation and refuse?"

In Abas' case, the once instructor of operating small arms, rifles, rocket
launchers and artillery guns, recalls when the tables turned, and it was
not on his own terms.

In 2003 he was arrested. "They (police) are pointing guns against me but I
don't run away. I rush them. I run towards them, hoping they would shoot
at me," says Abas, who had trained his men that it is better to die than
to be arrested.

But not one bullet was fired and after what Abas describes as "kung-fu
fighting", police had broken limbs and Abas ended up wearing 3 pairs of
handcuffs and his legs were tied.

"I'm thinking, why god not let me die? I tried. I tried," says the former
commander who was stunned that he was arrested. He thought he would have
died first and to do so by his own hand, he considers sinful.

That night in jail and until the 1st call to prayer at dawn, the only
words Abas spoke were "God forgive me" in Arabic. After many prayers and
self exploration, Abas came to terms with his own beliefs and his past.

Though Abas did serve time in prison, he is now a free man.

Having watched Abas over the last 3-4 years, Jones is convinced he has
changed. "I don't think there's any going back now," she says, "And yet
I'm also convinced that if there was an attack on Muslims in the region in
a major way by a western power or by a non-Muslim power, he would be the
first to volunteer."

"I believe that I am doing good deeds so god will protect me," Abas tells
ABC News.

Terrorist networks in the region may appear to have quieted, however their
networks are actually quite strong, and there are areas experts don't know
enough about  training camps in and movement to the Philippines, how and
if prisons are monitored, the impact of international developments, and
what the future holds for younger generations of JI members.

"Extremist Islamist ideology represents an existential threat to the
global economy and modern civilization - and to people throughout the
world," says Taylor. "This ideology serves as a means to expand political,
economic and military power, to harvest that power in the cause not of
religion but of those who are using religion to expand their own power
here on earth. It's extremely dangerous."

"It is true that Nasir has done an extraordinary job going around to these
prisons, but there are a lot of people that don't want to see him, don't
want to talk to him, and don't want to accept any aid from the police,"
says Jones, "and those are the people to worry about."

Abas plans to visit his unrepentant brother-in-law before his execution,
the date of which will not be published until afterwards. "I have many
things to tell him," Abas tells ABC News.

"My personal feeling, I feel sad because when he is being executed - my
sister will be a widow, my nephew also will lose their father," he says,
"I feel sad also because God did not open up his mind."

(source: ABC News)




INDIA:

Abolish death penalty at earliest: rights body


The organisation of death penalty in India is strikingly defective and the
only remedy to this is to abolish it completely from the country at the
earliest, Amnesty International India (AII) has said. Mukul Sharma,
director of AII, made the demand at the release of the rights body's
report on death penalty, titled, "Lethal Lottery: The Death Penalty in
India", in Chandigarh Wednesday.

Mukul said this was the 1st regional release of the report after its
national release May 2, 2008. "It is a comprehensive study of Supreme
Court judgments in death penalty cases during 1950-2006," he added.

"Ironically, a peaceful country like India preferred to remain with the
minority countries during the United Nations voting on moratorium on the
death penalty in December 2007. 150 countries supported this issue but
India was not sure on its stand," Gowhar Fazili, coordinator of AII, told
IANS in Chandigarh Wednesday.

"Mahatma Gandhi was also in favour of abolishing the provision of death
penalty," he added.

AII and Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry) have
issued this report. They have said in their report that the fate of these
death row prisoners is ultimately a lottery that is not based on any
rational thinking.

"There is a detailed analysis of around 700 Supreme Court judgments on
death penalty cases in the report. The authors of this report have exposed
a judicial system that has failed to meet international laws and standards
relating to the death penalty," Fazili said.

"Indian penal code (IPC) needs an immediate overhauling as it itself
acknowledges the fact that there can be a discrepancy in a court's order.
So we cannot take it granted and need to amend it. Death can never be a
solution for any ailment," said Usha Ramanathan, an independent law
researcher from New Delhi.

"Just like European Union countries India should abolish death penalty.
Many times the decisions are also not balanced, even in the case of martyr
Bhagat Singh, the decision of death penalty was based on judiciary's
vested interests. They did not even listen to the accounts of eye
witnesses," stated Jagmohan Singh nephew of Bhagat Singh.

(source: IANS)






IRAN:

Iran hangs 2nd youth for crime committed as a minor


Iran has hanged a man for a murder committed at the age of 15, a report
said on Wednesday, the 2nd execution in a week that violated international
rights conventions.

Behnam Zaree, 18, was executed in prison in the southern city of Shiraz on
Tuesday for murdering a fellow teenager identified only by his first name
Mehrdad in a street fight three years ago, the Etemad daily reported.

Zaree had told the court that he did not mean to kill Mehrdad and asked
for his family's forgiveness, the paper said.

Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, whose signatories
commit not to execute convicts who were under the age of 18 at the time of
an offence.

But on August 19, Iran hanged Reza Hejazi, 20, in the central city of
Isfahan for stabbing a man to death in a fight when he was 15.

The conservative judiciary maintains that minors are not executed in Iran,
but 17-year-old Mohammad Hassanzadeh was hanged in the western city of
Sanandaj in June.

The European Union and international human rights groups have sought to
raise the age of legal responsibility in Iran's Islamic law, which deems a
boy punishable from the age of 15 and a girl from the age of 9.

According to reports by the human rights group of Nobel peace laureate
Shirin Ebadi, at least nine people were executed for crimes they committed
as minors in the past Iranian year to March 2008, and 73 such offenders
remain on death row.

"Child rights advocates are very concerned about the current situation and
our protests have got nowhere," Ebadi told AFP last week.

Rights activists often seek to stop such executions by negotiating with
the victims' families, who under Iran's Islamic law have the right to
pardon a murderer or ask for their execution.

The family can spare a murderer from execution by accepting blood money,
leaving the convict to serve a prison sentence instead.

The latest hanging brings to at least 175 the number of executions in Iran
this year, according to an AFP count.

According to Amnesty International, Iran applied the death penalty more
than any other country apart from China last year, executing 317 people.

Capital offences in the Islamic republic include murder, rape, armed
robbery, drug trafficking and adultery.

(source: Agence France Presse)

***********

Teen crime ends in hangingFrom correspondents in Tehran


IRAN has hanged a man aged 19 who was arrested for a murder he committed
when he was 15. It is the 2nd such case this month.

Behnam Zarei was arrested at the age of 15 on charges of murder, the daily
Etemad-e Melli reported.

He was hanged in Shiraz prison on Tuesday, without the knowledge of his
lawyer and family, the newspaper said.

Major human rights groups appealed to Iran in July to stop imposing the
death penalty for crimes by juveniles and to commute sentences of nearly
140 youths known to be on death row.

Earlier this month a 20-year-old man was hanged in central Iran for a
murder he also committed when he was 15.

Iran has executed at least 30 juvenile criminals since 1990, including 7
in 2007, according to the groups. Saudi Arabia and Yemen have also
executed juveniles.

Murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking are
all punishable by death under Iran's sharia law, practised since the 1979
Islamic revolution.

Amnesty International in April said Iran executed at least 317 people last
year, trailing only China which carried out 470 death sentences.

(source: News.com)