[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 18


CHINA:

Chinese school boss gets death sentence for attack


The multi-millionaire head of a Chinese private tuition firm has been
sentenced to death for paying gangs to attack competitors in a bid to win
their business, a newspaper said on Thursday.

Lu Yunpeng, 35, was among 15 people given death sentences or jailed in
connection with the grisly attacks -- one of them fatal -- on private
teachers in several cities, the Beijing Times said.

Lu was sentenced by a court in Zhengzhou, capital of the northern province
of Henan. His cousin, Zhao Mingjie, an employee of the company, and 2
other co-defendants, Zhao Zhunzhang and Zhang Zhanke, were also sentenced
to death.

Eleven others received jail terms ranging from life to a few years in a
case that involved "beating, disfigurement and other measures of
reprisal," the paper said.

The court found that last year Lu paid Zhao Zhunzhang and four other
people 10,000 yuan ($1,250) each to attack a man, surnamed Qiao, who
opened a school in the Henan city of Kaifeng.

The victim was choked to death, the paper said.

Lu also paid thugs to assault 2 other competitors; one of the victims
suffered serious burns after having sulphuric acid poured on his face and
body.

Last March Chinese newspapers reported the execution of a millionaire
businessman who paid his brother and cousin to kill a blackmailer privy to
a failed murder attempt on a former business partner.

(source: Reuters)






YEMEN:

Appeals court commutes death sentence


The penal section at the Hudeidah court of appeals had On Wednesday
commuted the death sentence verdict against Omar Ali Omar Faqira, killer
of the 37-year- old Russian doctor Sanketa Elena. The penal court had on
20 April 2005 sentenced Faqira to death for premeditated murder.

The court of appeals in Hudeidah chaired by Judge Abdulkarim Abdulrahman
Al-Barghathi changed the verdict to 8 years of imprisonment in addition to
paying YR 350 thousand as wergild as well as paying YR 3 million as fees
of lawyers. Meanwhile a judicial source at the prosecution of Hudeidah
appeals court said the prosecution would appeal the verdict on basis that
the defendant did not receive a just verdict.

On the other hand a member of the Russian embassy in Sanaa told Yemen
Times that the embassy was not satisfied with the appeals verdict and that
the problem was that there was no lawyer representing relatives of the
murdered and her husband had left Yemen following the death sentence
against the defendant was issued. The husband had not retained a lawyer to
follow up the case as he is convinced of the existence of justice.
Moreover the embassy was not called to attend the final session of the
court that spelled out the verdict.

A Yemeni court had in April 2005 decided a death sentence against the
killer of the Russian doctor. The Judge of the court Abdulrazzaq Nouman
had issued his verdict of execution against the defendant Omar Ali Faqira
for murdering the doctor. The Russian doctor was working at the hospital
of the killers father, Dr Ali Faqira Al-Hayat Hospital. The killer
committed his crime in March 2005 at her flat and stole her jewels.

The Judge confirmed that the murdered was blood-immune as she had entered
the country under official authorities permission and in accordance with
the Yemeni law.

(source: The Yemen Times)






PAKISTAN:

Pak SC upholds death sentence of terror outfit activists


In Karachi, the Pakistan Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences of 3
activists of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi involved in a case of sectarian killing.
The 3 activists, of whom 2 were sentenced to death and the 3rd jailed for
life, were handed punishments on April 15, 2002 for killing Syed Zafar
Hussain, director laboratories, Ministry of Defence, in Gulbahar, on July
30, 2001.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) had earlier dismissed the appeals, enhancing
the punishment of Shahid Hanif to death sentence on February 22, local
media reported today.

Their leave to appeals were heard by SCFS 3-member bench comprising Chief
Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice
Saiyed Saeed Ashhad which after hearing the case dismissed the appeals and
upheld the SHC and trial court order.

(source: ZeeNews)






RUSSIA:

Russia's Bar on Death Penalty Questioned----Some groups want a Beslan
siege suspect to be executed, but this would upset European allies.


Prospects of a guilty verdict in the trial of the only surviving suspect
in the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis have now turned the debate here
to Russia's 10-year-old moratorium on the death penalty.

A judge in southern Russia has been asked by prosecutors and victims'
relatives to ignore the policy and impose a death sentence in the attack,
the worst case of terrorism in the nation's history.

Such a decision would pose political difficulties for Russia, which is
scheduled Friday to take over the chairmanship of the Council of Europe's
steering committee. The 46-member organization has urged Moscow to adopt
the group's protocol against capital punishment.

The court also must weigh demands from some of the victims' families, who
insist that the suspect, Nur-Pashi Kulayev, may still have information
about who organized the attack and what touched off the shootout in which
371 people died, including 31 attackers.

"We don't have all the information about this Beslan tragedy, and we have
reason to hope that if Kulayev remains alive, that he will reveal more
information," said Ella Kesayeva, head of the Voice of Beslan, whose
brother-in-law and two nephews were among the victims. The attack in
Beslan, a city in North Ossetia, was the worst in a wave of violence in
Russia's North Caucasus region, where growing Muslim and separatist
militancy has spread from Chechnya.

On Wednesday, in neighboring Ingushetia, the deputy interior minister was
killed along with seven people when a bomb exploded near his motorcade.
And in Dagestan, officials said Wednesday that two militants killed a day
earlier in a shootout with police had a hand-drawn map of a local school.
Six explosive devices were found in the yard of the school, in the town of
Kizil-Yurt, authorities said.

Susanna Dudiyeva, head of a group of Beslan mothers who have supported the
push for the death penalty, said terrorist attacks against schoolchildren
warrant the ultimate punishment.

"I'm by no means bloodthirsty, but I believe it's pointless to try to
reeducate or reform terrorists. They simply need to be annihilated," she
said in a telephone interview.

The Soviet Union executed an average of 730 people a year from the 1960s
to its dissolution in 1991. In 1996, Russia imposed a moratorium on the
death penalty, and three years later, the Constitutional Court formally
barred death sentences. Lower courts since then have ordered the death
penalty in a few cases, but it has not been carried out.

Russia has not adopted the Council of Europe's protocol abolishing the
death penalty, despite increasing calls from Europe to formalize the ban.

To the contrary, several legislators this year have talked of reinstating
capital punishment, in part citing overwhelming support in opinion polls
and a wave of terrorist bombings and hostage-takings that have left
hundreds dead across Russia.

No case is more incendiary than Beslan, where a group of mainly Chechen
and Ingush militants held more than 1,000 children, teachers and parents
in a gymnasium for three days, before a massive series of explosions and
gunfire erupted that left hundreds dead.

The prosecutor-general's office has officially requested the death
penalty, arguing that it is the only appropriate punishment. A judge for
the last several days has been reading his lengthy finding in court, and
observers believe it will end with a guilty verdict. Sentencing will
follow immediately thereafter, perhaps by the end of the week.

"This was not your ordinary killing. It was a cynical terrorist attack
with numerous victims, and on this basis, the prosecutor-general's office
has asked for capital punishment," spokesman Sergei Prokopov said in a
telephone interview. "We are acting on the basis of the rights that we
have under the law."

He said courts have the right to impose the death penalty and that the
moratorium expires in January 2007, when the system of jury trials is in
place in the last region of Russia that doesn't have them, Chechnya.
"Then, this will be the basis of either prolonging the moratorium, or it
is possible that the Constitutional Court will ban the death sentence
outright throughout the country," he said.

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian parliament's Foreign Affairs
Committee, told reporters in April that there was "no stable majority" in
the State Duma in favor of ratification of the protocol against the death
penalty, and substantial sentiment for reinstating executions.

"We certainly have no right to debate ratification while there is a risk
that it will be rejected," Kosachev said. "If this happens, the issue will
inevitably be delayed."

But many members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
said it was important for Russia to ratify the death penalty protocol as
it prepares to take over the 6-month chairmanship of the council's
committee of ministers.

"Russia is the last member of the Council of Europe who has not yet
ratified. They have the moratorium, that's fine. And since their
membership, they haven't practiced the death penalty," Rene van der
Linden, the Dutch president of the council, said in a telephone interview.

"But I also have the impression when I have had meetings with members of
the [parliament] and the government in Russia that, especially after
Beslan, it has become more difficult," he said. "Because public opinion
has taken a strong stand after this - terrible event."

(source: Los Angeles Times)






SOUTH KOREA:

The Death Penalty: Who Can Decide?


There are no greater legal issues than those involving the decision of
whether or not to take a human life. We lawyers have often analyzed and
debated these great issues with finely honed legal arguments sometimes
worthy of further study and admiration. Yet, also as lawyers, we need to
recognize that all of these debates are merely academic unless they have a
real effect upon the world for which our laws were created. That is why
lawyers agree to stop arguing a point because it is "moot," which means
having no practical effect upon an existing controversy.

I have recently had an interesting discussion with a Korean judge, Judge
Jeong Jaehun of the Jecheon District Court, who is also a good friend and
my brother in the profession. He explained to me that in Korea many in the
legal profession are opposed to capital punishment. However, he pointed
out that there is a strong voice, as in the USA, among the general
population favoring it. It seems to me that, as public servants, we must
address this issue but not just with those sophisticated arguments
developed after many hours of study in law school.

Instead, of citing numerous cases and precedents, we should realize that,
for the public (Korean and American), the issue turns on a strong visceral
human feeling. It is something deep within the human psyche. We may talk
of deterrence, prohibition and other theories of punishment; yet, the
issue is actually quite simple. As human beings, we are so sickened by
certain heinous and vile acts committed against others that we demand that
justice be done. In a word, we demand vengeance. And, it is this that
understandably troubles our peoples.

Vengeance is the notion that a wrongful party should compensate a harmed
party. It is well accepted that "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth" is an outdated legal policy. Instead, we now believe that society
should make certain other demands from those found guilty of crimes. Thus,
for homicide and other great offenses, we have accepted the notion that
certain defendants were so incapacitated or the circumstances were such
that the death penalty is not warranted.

For those crimes for which the death penalty may be given, certain people
must decide whether a guilty defendant deserves the death penalty. In
various ways, that person or persons is typically asked whether or not the
crime was especially heinous and vile, and whether the defendant
understood that such an act was wrongful.

Yet, before we can decide this issue, we must first answer this very
important question: Who can possibly decide something like this? Even with
all of my credentials in law and government, I must confess that I am
unqualified to do this. I wonder how other people confidently apply such a
standard.

To put it more concretely, imagine that instead of letting someone else do
the dirty work of executing another, you do it yourself with your own
hands. If you still have the conviction to carry it out, ask yourself the
following question: How do I thereafter justify my act to my Maker, be it
your respected deity or the infinite wisdom of the universe? Does anyone
really have such an amazing insight into the human soul and know the true
standard? If so, please state it clearly enough so that we can apply it
with confidence in each case. And, if you are wrong, is that not murder?
In addition, consider that in the USA that genome technology has proven
that many on death row were actually not guilty.

I was once asked at an interview for a deputy prosecutor's job if, in good
conscience, I could ask a jury for the death penalty. I answered, "Sure,
no problem. I am in direct communication with God." I did not get that
job.

Some may say that we need to do something about these vile perpetrators.
That's easily solved by keeping such dangerous people incarcerated for as
long as so needed. Keeping society safe is still well served.

Finally, before we so quickly adjudge others, I leave the reader with this
thought. As a child, I heard a great quote from a TV drama about lawyers.
The defense counsel said: "If we were all held truly accountable for each
and every crime and offense we committed against God and humanity, very
few of us would escape the gallows." I know I sure wouldn't. Would you?

(source: The Seoul Times; Steven Specter, who is an American professor at
Semyung University in Jecheon City, North Chungcheong Province, serves as
a contributing writer for The Seoul Times)