Dec. 17
SOUTH AFRICA:
Death row prisoners go to court
Several former death row prisoners whose sentences were commuted to life
imprisonment in the 1990s have turned to the Pretoria High Court in a bid
to force the Department of Correctional Services to grant them parole.
The prisoners believe they have served the required time in jail but
Correctional Services says that in terms of parole provisions, the
prisoners have to serve 20 years of their sentence (from the time the
sentence was commuted from death to life) before they can even be
considered for release.
According to the department, the time the prisoners had spent on death row
did not count as time off from their life sentences.
One of the prisoners, Paul van Vuren, said the distinction drawn by the
department between prisoners who were sentenced to life terms and those
whose death penalties were commuted, was misplaced.
Van Vuren said the nature of the crime committed should also never be a
factor when considering parole as this was done when sentence was passed.
He was sentenced to death in November 1992 on a charge of murder and of
robbery after he killed a 19-year-old British tourist.
Van Vuren was on death row for a number of years before the death sentence
was declared unconstitutional and his sentence was commuted to life
imprisonment in 2000.
Carel Paxton, a director at Correctional Services, said there was a clear
distinction between prisoners who were sentenced to life before the death
penalty was abolished and those who were sentenced to death and whose
sentences were commuted.
Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann was to hear an application by Van Vuren and the
others this week, but postponed the matter as the issues in these cases
were similar to those in the Clive Derby-Lewis matter, in which judgment
was still pending.
(source: The Pretoria News)
THAILAND:
Australian charged with drug smuggling
THAI customs have charged an Australian man with smuggling drugs after
arresting him at a Bangkok airport with packs of heroin allegedly strapped
to his body, officials said on Wednesday. Andrew Hoods, 36, was arrested
at Suvarnabhumi international airport's departure hall on Wednesday
afternoon in possession of 12 packets of heroin weighing 3 kilograms in
total, an official said.
A customs official estimated that the drugs would have a street value of
12 million baht in Thailand.
Police said another Australian, believed to be a friend, managed to
escape.
Thailand toughened its stance on illegal drugs in 2002, but remains a
transit point for narcotics produced in neighbouring Myanmar, the world's
2nd largest opium producer and a major methamphetamine hub.
Drugs trafficking carries the death penalty in Thailand.
(source: Melbourne Herald Sun)
MALAYSIA:
Acehnese ganja dealer faces death penalty in Malaysia
An Indonesian of Acehnese background was executed by hanging, by a
district court in Shah Alam, Malaysia, on Wednesday, after having been
found guilty of trafficking 980 grams of cannabis eight years ago.
Mohammad Nor Fauzi, 43, had worked as a truck driver prior to the arrest.
The sentence was laid down after hearing the testimony of the defendant,
said Judge Zaharah Ibrahim.
(source: The Jakarta Post)
CHINA:
China hands death penalty to 2 'bent on jihad'----Court: Muslim militants
killed 17 police in attempt to sabotage Olympics
A Chinese court sentenced 2 people to death Wednesday for what it said was
attempt to sabotage the Beijing Olympics with an attack in the far-west
region of Xinjiang that killed 17 police days before the games.
The Xinhua News Agency said the sentences were handed down by the Kashgar
Intermediate People's Court. It did not give any other details. Calls to
the court rang unanswered Wednesday.
The Aug. 4 attack, four days before the start of the Olympics, took place
in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar near the border with Afghanistan
and Pakistan. Two men stole a truck and rammed it into a group of police
on their morning jog. The men continued attacking with homemade bombs and
knives, killing the officers and wounding 15 others.
"The Kashgar court said the two conducted the terrorist attack to sabotage
the Beijing Olympic Games that began Aug. 8," Xinhua reported. It
identified the 2 as Kashgar natives, Abdurahman Azat, 33, and Kurbanjan
Hemit, 28.
The 2 are a taxi driver and vegetable seller who were "bent on jihad", the
city's Communist Party secretary said in August. One of the men lost his
arm when he set off an explosive device during the attack.
Chinese authorities say militants among the Uighurs Turkic-speaking
Muslims are leading a violent Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang and
are seeking to set up an independent state in the Central Asia border
province.
Critics accuse Beijing of using claims of terrorism as an excuse to crack
down on peaceful pro-independence sentiment and expressions of Uighur
identity.
About 1.5 percent of China's 1.3 billion people are Muslim, according to
the U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report. But
not all of them are Uighurs or live in Xinjiang.
Wave of violence
The Aug. 4 attack was the start of a wave of violence in Xinjiang. 6 days
later, bombers struck in the west-central Xinjiang county of Kuqa,
targeting a police station, government building, bank and shops owned by
Chinese. Police said they killed 10 attackers including 1 woman while a
security guard and a bystander died in the violence. State media said
another attacker, a 15-year-old girl, was injured.
On Aug. 12, attackers jumped from a vehicle and stabbed civilian guards,
killing 3 of them at a roadside checkpoint in Yamanya town, near Kashgar.
The assailants escaped.
No one has claimed responsibility for any of the incidents, though
government officials have suggested terrorism is behind the violence.
In November, the same Kashgar court sentenced to death five ethnic Muslims
who were accused of separatist activities.
(source: MSNBC News)
************************
Human trafficker sentenced to death in China
CHINA has sentenced to death the head of a human trafficking ring that
lured dozens of women with promises of work, then kidnapped and sold them
across the country, state media reported today.
The 29-member gang sold 88 women to be wives in 3 different provinces, the
Xinhua news agency said, citing a court in Guiyang, capital of China's
southwestern Guizhou province. An 11-year-old girl was also sold, it said.
He Kaixun, the ring-leader, who had kidnapped and sold 35 of the 89
victims, was sentenced to death in his 1st trial, the agency said.
2 other gang members were given suspended death sentences, pending 2
years' good behaviour. A number of others were given jail terms ranging
from two years to life.
The traffickers had promised their victims jobs packaging tea and
sunflower seeds, even taking them to "a fake factory where the ring
members pretended to be managers and workers", Xinhua said.
The victims were then sent to other provinces on the pretence of
purchasing raw materials, but were sold as "wives" to local people, the
agency added.
88 of the victims had been rescued and sent home after police cracked down
on the ring, Xinhua said.
(source: The Australian)
