[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 3



INDONESIA:

Judge: Bali bombers cannot stop execution----Late bid for judicial review
"will not change or delay the execution"

Local chief prosecutor says execution spots have been prepared

Deadly 2002 blasts ripped through 2 popular nightclubs


A Supreme Court judge said 3 Indonesian militants on death row for the
2002 Bali bombings have exhausted legal options and cannot prevent their
executions.

Djoko Sarwoko said Monday a last-minute attempt by relatives of Imam
Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron to file a judicial review "will
not change or delay the execution."

The men were convicted in the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that
killed 202 people and authorities have said they could be shot by a firing
squad this month.

Local chief prosecutor Muhammad Yamin said they were moved to isolation
cells Saturday and execution spots have been prepared on the Nusakambangan
island prison where they are being held.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Priest says don't kill Bali bombers


The Rudd government is putting the lives of Australians on death row at
risk by supporting the execution of the Bali bombers, a Catholic priest
says.

Brisbane priest Father Timothy Harris last week visited former
parishioners and convicted drug mules, Scott Rush, who is on death row in
Bali, and Michael Czugaj, who is serving a long jail sentence.

Fr Harris said supporting the execution of the three Bali bombers would
make it harder for the Australian government to argue against the death
penalty in other cases.

"Our government needs to speak consistently on the death penalty for all,"
Fr Harris told AAP.

"It can't say 'Save Scott and kill the Bali bombers'.

"It is saying this and I believe is putting Scott's life in danger as a
result."

Fr Harris said the Bali bombers should face a harsh punishment but the
death penalty was not the answer.

"I have the utmost contempt for what the Bali bombers have done but I will
never lower myself to their level," he said.

"They must be incarcerated for life never to be released."

He said the Bali bombers should also be introduced to moderate Islamic
teaching.

"When religion goes bad it goes very bad," he said.

(source: 9 News)

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

Fanatics fury over executions


FAMILY and supporters of the Bali bombers are using the time before their
executions to peddle anti-Australian conspiracy theories and praise the
condemned men as holy warriors as they complained bitterly yesterday about
being locked out of the prison where Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra are
being held.

An Indonesian judge insisted yesterday that an appeal by the bombers would
not delay their executions, meaning they could go ahead as early as today.

Extra security was in place in the port town of Cilacap, a short distance
from the prison island of Nusakambangan, with barbed wire being rolled out
around the docks to prevent access by supporters and journalists.

A large team of lawyers and family members are in Cilacap, spending much
of their time holed up in a mosque. They have brought food and letters of
support for the condemned men but have so far been denied access by the
Jakarta office of the Attorney-General.

They arrived at the docks in a minivan yesterday with a huge media
entourage in tow but were blocked by police. They vowed to stay in the
town until they were allowed to visit the prisoners and threatened
protests if they continued to be denied access.

Already, the family and lawyers in Cilacap have been holding court with
the media as authorities decide when they are going to put the killers in
front of a firing squad.

Lulu Jamaludin, a younger brother of Imam Samudra, said that members of
the Bali nine - the Australians convicted of heroin smuggling - should be
killed before the bombers, adding that Australia had been paying for the
executions of his brother and his co-conspirators.

"Obviously, Australia is funding it," he said

Islamist websites in Indonesia were promoting the same conspiracy theory,
saying Australia had donated 3 billion rupiah (about $420,000) to pay for
the execution.

The charge is absurd but is indicative of the kind of rhetoric that is
getting play in Indonesia in the rarefied atmosphere as the executions
approach.

Agus Sentiana, a lawyer who acts for Imam Samudra, said a group of
supporters wanted to set up a foundation in his honour and build a
militant Islamic boarding school in his home town of Serang in West Java.

"We want to immortalise his spirit," he said.

Another part of the public relations strategy employed by advocates for
the bombers is to launch legal challenges such as an appeal made yesterday
to the Denpasar District Court.

But Indonesia's Supreme Court said last night that the bombers had
exhausted all their legal options. The latest appeal "will not change or
delay the execution," Supreme Court judge Djoko Sarwoko said.

A spokesman for the Indonesian Attorney-General's office, Jasman
Panjaitan, said the executions could take place any time between now and
November 15.

The Indonesian newspaper Suara Merdeka reported that the 3 bombers spent
yesterday reading the Koran and fasting.

A prison source said the bombers were locked in the main part of their
isolation cells and denied access to exercise areas.

The prison chief, Bambang Winahyo, said the bombers appeared calm and
ready to die, in line with their repeated assertions that they were
looking forward to becoming "martyrs".

In Sydney, Pauline Whitton who lost her 29-year-old daughter, Charmaine,
in the bombings, said the killers should not be executed but left to "rot
in prison" for the rest of their lives.

"I'm as happy as everybody will be to see them gone from the face of the
earth but there are families who are still suffering and there are people
in Bali who are still suffering and a lot of people who are still
suffering with burns and injuries.

"I'm not a violent person but they should suffer."

3 Islamic groups have been re-listed as terrorist organisations by the
Attorney-General Robert McClelland. The decision means it remains illegal
to deal with Abu Sayyaf, Jamiat ul-Ansar and al-Qaeda in Iraq.

(source: Sydney Morning Herald)





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

Court says no delay from new appeal by Bali bombers


Indonesia's Supreme Court said on Monday that a new appeal filed by
lawyers for relatives of the Bali bombers against their imminent execution
would not delay the sentence being carried out.

Imam Samudra, 38, Mukhlas, 48, and Amrozi, 46, members of the militant
Islamist group Jemaah Islamiah, were sentenced to death for their role in
attacks on 2 nightclubs in Kuta in 2002 that killed 202 people, including
Indonesians and foreign tourists.

Security has been increased across Indonesia in the past few days ahead of
the expected executions. On Monday, police laid down barbed wire and
stationed armed officers at the entrance to the port that serves the
prison island housing the 3 men.

The Attorney General's office said on Saturday that the firing squad
execution of the men, who have been on death row since 2003, was "very
close." Authorities have previously said that all legal avenues have been
exhausted.

"We lodged the judicial review to Denpasar court to question (previous)
decisions," said Fahmi Bachmid, a lawyer for the families, adding
separately that the appeal should be addressed by the courts before the
executions could go ahead.

But Djoko Sarwoko, a Supreme Court judge, denied that the move would have
an impact on the timing of the execution.

"A judicial review will not delay the implementation of the verdict, even
for the death penalty," said Sarwoko, who is a spokesman for the court.

Indonesia's Supreme Court has previously thrown out requests for a
judicial review, while the Constitutional Court also overruled a petition
from the bombers arguing the country's method of execution by firing squad
was inhumane.

Denpasar court official Nengah Sanjaya also said by telephone that the
three-page appeal had been lodged and would be sent to a court in Cilacap,
central Java, close to the maximum security prison on Nusakambangan island
housing the 3 men.

The family and lawyers had tried to visit the men on Monday but were
unable to get access after the port was sealed, although a lawyer said
they were able to send in food and a letter.

3 small bombs exploded in Indonesia's Moluccas islands early on Monday
morning but there were no casualties, local police said.

The bombs went off in Ternate, in North Maluku, damaging the governor's
office and house, police said. The area has previously seen fighting
between Muslims and Christians, but it was unclear if there was any link
to the Bali executions.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Sunday urged Australians to
reconsider travel plans to Indonesia because of concerns about reprisals
from supporters of the bombers. The 2002 bombings killed 88 Australians.

However, security analysts such as Sidney Jones of the International
Crisis Group have said it was unlikely that the executions would spark
another bomb attack because Jemaah Islamiah has been severely weakened.

(source: Reuters)






CHINA:

Death sentence for Mongolian drug smuggler


A Mongolian citizen has been sentenced to death in far western China for
smuggling 20.2 kilograms of heroin, Mongolian news agency Montsame said on
Monday.

The Mongolian, identified as Damdin, 37, was arrested in August last year
while crossing the border into China from a central Asian republic,
Montsame said.

He was sentenced to death in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, which
borders Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan as well as
Mongolia.

Previous cases of Mongolian citizens arrested as drug ''mules'' had
resulted in sentences of 15 years to life in jail, Montsame said.

(source: Reuters)