[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 12



SINGAPORE:

34,000 people sign petition against Took Leng How's death sentence


Lawyers for convicted murderer Took Leng How say some 34,000 people have
signed a clemency petition against his death sentence.

The petition was submitted to President SR Nathan on Thursday, and a
decision is expected over the next few months.

Took's parents took to the streets to ask Singaporeans for support for a
plea for their son to be spared the death penalty.

The vegetable packer, a Malaysian, was sentenced to death in August last
year for the murder of 8-year-old Huang Na in October 2004.

Since the verdict for the appeal against the death sentence in January was
split, some of the petitioners felt the 22-year-old deserved a 2nd chance.

Justice Kan Ting Chiu delivered the dissenting judgment that Took should
be convicted for voluntarily causing hurt rather than murder.

(source: ChannelNewsAsia)






LIBYA:

New Trial of Nurses, Doctor Starts in Libya


A new trial for 5 Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of
infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV began Thursday with a
judge refusing bail.

The nurses and doctor have been in jail since 1999 on charges that they
spread the virus that causes AIDS to children at a hospital in Benghazi
during a botched experiment to find a cure for the disease. Western
nations blame the infections on poor hygiene at Libyan hospitals and
accuse Tripoli of concocting the charges as a coverup.

Amnesty International has said the women reported being tortured with
electric shocks and beaten until they confessed. 2 nurses said they had
been raped.

The medical workers were sentenced to death in 2004. But Libya came under
strong international pressure, and the Supreme Court threw out the
sentences in December 2005, ordering a retrial.

The chief judge said at the time that prosecutors had agreed with defense
lawyers that there were "irregularities" in the arrest and interrogation
of the medical workers, suggesting he believed the defense's contention
the workers were tortured to extract confessions.

Defense lawyers argued Thursday that the nurses had spent enough time in
prison.

(source: Los Angeles Times)