[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 23



INDONESIA:

Terror Suspect Apologizes for Bali Bombing


An Islamic militant told a court Tuesday he regretted his role in the 2005
Bali bombings that left 20 people dead.

Abdul Aziz, 30, is 1 of 4 suspects facing trial in the suicide bombings on
3 crowded restaurants, which were blamed on the al-Qaida-lininked Jemaah
Islamiyah terror network.

He was charged with sheltering Noordin Top, the alleged mastermind, and of
setting up a Web site that called on Muslims to wage war against
"infidels." The site also gave step-by-step instructions on how to kill
foreigners in the capital, Jakarta.

"I'm really sorry," Aziz said after a judge at the Denpasar District Court
decided the trial should go ahead. "I want to apologize especially to the
Balinese people."

Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for at least four attacks in Indonesia in
recent years that have together killed more than 240 people, many of them
foreign tourists.

If found guilty, Aziz and the other defendants - Mohammad Cholily, Dwi
Widianto and Anif Solchanudin - could face the death penalty.

(source: Associated Press)






IRAQ:

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ----A Half Brother Defends Hussein's Role in Dujayl In
his testimony, the former official describes the deposed president as a
benevolent leader and strives to justify the 1982 massacre of villagers.


Saddam Hussein's half brother testified in defense of the deposed
dictator's character on Monday, giving an unapologetic narrative that
seemed crafted not only to deflect criminal charges but also to burnish
Hussein's legacy.

The testimony marked the first time lawyers have mounted a vigorous
defense of the former Iraqi president, who has been charged with crimes
against humanity.

In a monologue that infused the courtroom with a sense of historical
sweep, Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan Tikriti, Iraq's long-dreaded intelligence
boss, described Hussein as a benevolent leader who delighted in roaming
the provinces to meet common Iraqis and labored to create a fair country.

Speaking from a partially curtained witness booth, he acknowledged that
Hussein's regime was harsh, but argued that a tough government was
necessary to defend a country that was at war with Iran.

In an outburst sure to stir sectarian tensions, Hassan also used the
televised trial to blast the Shiite political party of Iraq's new prime
minister. The Islamic Dawa Party conspired to kill Hussein on Iran's
behalf, he said.

"Anyone saying that the Dawa Party is not a bloody party, let them come
and discuss it with me," Hassan said. "You call the national resistance
'terrorists.' Well, I won't call the Dawa Party 'terrorists,' but I will
say that they are bloody."

By contrast, Hassan described Hussein as a man who "was never offensive or
hostile. He was a peace-loving man who cared for the welfare of the sons
of his country.

"Everybody knows that Saddam Hussein was visiting and inquiring about the
living conditions of his countrymen everywhere in Iraq," he said.

Hassan's testimony did little to undercut charges that Baath Party
officials had massacred, tortured and forcibly deported villagers in the
mostly Shiite town of Dujayl. Prosecutors allege that the president and
his codefendants carried out the massacre after Hussein survived an
assassination attempt while visiting the town in 1982.

But in his remarks, the former intelligence boss strove to create a sense
of historical justification for the deaths. The Iran-Iraq hostilities were
not provoked by Iraq, he argued. Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had
implied that Iraq was ruled by non-Muslims, he said, and had interfered in
Iraq's internal affairs through proxies in Iraq's Shiite parties.

He implied that a heavy-handed response to the assassination attempt was
appropriate.

"I know that there were certain measures taken," Hassan said. "We were in
a state of war and it was an aggression that took place against the
leader. It was discovered that this operation was encouraged by Iraq's
enemy..

"It would have been a disaster if no firm measures had been taken at that
time."

The punishment meted out by security officials was "exaggerated," Hassan
said. Then he quickly pinned the deaths not on Hussein, but on a security
official who was a childhood friend of Hussein's. The official later fell
out of favor with the notoriously capricious president and died in prison.

"The Americans would use a cannon to attack a fly under the banner of
security. They would not hesitate," Hassan said. "When a president of a
country is targeted, this means the attack was launched against Iraq and
the sovereignty of Iraq."

In fact, Hassan said, it was he - not Hussein - who preached vengeance
against the people of Dujayl after the assassination attempt. The
president urged moderation and patience, he said.

"He said, 'Listen, Sabawi, let us wait until the investigations tell us
more. I ask you please not to prejudge and have such an attitude toward
Dujayl and its people,' " Hassan said.

"He told me that the Iranians might exploit this kind of incident in order
to tell the world that the Iraqi people don't like Saddam."

A habitual expression of stony indignation fell from Hussein's face after
Hassan took the stand. The former president flashed toothy grins and
turned his head from side to side when his half brother sparred with the
judge.

Hassan was captured by the Americans after the fall of the regime and
remains in prison. He appeared in court clad in traditional white robes
and a headdress. During a particularly sharp exchange with the judge, he
snapped that despite his clothing he held a doctorate in law and was not a
simple farmer.

>From the first moments, the trial crackled with tension. Judge Raouf
Rasheed Abdel Rahman's first official act was to toss one of the defense
lawyers out of the courtroom. The argument began as soon as he caught
sight of Bushra Khalil, a Lebanese Shiite who has clashed with the court
in the past.

"In the last session we sent you out of this court," the judge told her.
"You have to stick to the rules."

Khalil stood and asked the judge to explain the rules so she wouldn't
repeat her mistake. The judge lost his temper and ordered her to sit. When
she stayed on her feet, he ordered bailiffs to haul her from court.

"Wait a moment," she said, ripping off her lawyer's robe and heaving it
toward the judge as the bailiffs approached. Khalil was quickly forced out
of the room, slapping at the bailiffs and screaming.

"Get your hands off me!" she shouted.

"I was stunned and shocked," Khalil said by telephone after the trial. "I
think that because I am a Shiite woman from a religious family, that is
something that confuses them."

Hussein, who had arrived at the courtroom with downcast eyes and a Koran
in hand, piped up in her defense.

Reviving one of the old gestures of dictatorship, he jabbed a finger
toward the judge and yelled in protest.

"This does not concern you," the judge told him, shaking his gavel in
Hussein's direction.

"I am Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq," the former president
shot back. "Your accusations don't change anything. I am over your head."

(source: Los Angeles Times)






PAKISTAN:

Death row Briton: Stay of execution


Pakistan's president has granted an indefinite stay of execution for a
British-Pakistani man acquitted of murder, the man's brother said.

Mirza Tahir Hussain was set to hang next month for the killing of a taxi
driver 18 years ago.

Hussain, now 35, was acquitted of murder by the high court 10 years ago,
but an Islamic court imposed a death penalty 2 years later.

Human rights groups have protested that his trial was unfair.

Last week, Prime Minister Tony Blair urged President General Pervez
Musharraf to reconsider the sentence.

Amjad Hussain is currently in Islamabad to lobby his brother's case.

He said the Pakistani high commissioner to Britain had phoned him to say
Hussain had been granted an indefinite stay of execution.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said appeals for
clemency from Britain and other countries and rights groups had been
forwarded to Musharraf.

She could not, however, immediately confirm reports that the president had
delayed Hussain's execution.

(source: Press Association)

******************

Failed Pakistani assassins get death


4 people were sentenced to death and 3 brothers to life in prison in a
2004 suicide attack in Pakistan that killed 6 but whose target, Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz, escaped, official media reported Tuesday.

Anti-Terrorist Court Judge Safdar Malik announced the sentences late
Monday in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, awarding the death sentences to
Malik Noor Badshah, Qari Muhammad Siddique, Sulman alias Zaheer and Qari
Ahmed.

All the convicts were also tried under the Explosives Act and sentenced to
another 10 years in prison and fined 8,333 dollars, the official
Associated Press of Pakistan said.

Eight people were acquitted in the case.

Several people were also wounded in the July 30, 2004, attack when a
suicide bomber blew himself near the car of then-finance minister Aziz
after a public meeting in the Fateh Jhang area of the Attock district,
south of Islamabad.

President Pervez Musharraf has also escaped at least three attempts on his
life since his country joined the US-led war against terrorism in the
aftermath of September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

Pakistan has since captured about 700 accused pro-al-Qaeda militants and
killed more than 200 mostly foreign militants in military operations in
the country's tribal regions along the Afghan border.

(source: Bangkok Post)