Sept. 23
INDONESIA:
Drugs worth RM2.09 million seized, 2 foreigners held
Johor Customs has arrested 2 foreign nationals and allegedly seized drugs worth
RM2.09 million at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex at the
Sultan Iskandar Building here.
State Customs director Datuk Ramli Johari said the duo were hauled up
separately on Sept 8 and 19 by the Customs Pedestrian Inspection Unit.
He said in the 1st case, the customs seized six kg of metamphetamine worth
RM1.14 million found in a laptop bag brought by a South African man at 12.20 pm
on Sept 8.
"Customs officers inspected a luggage bag belonging to the 41-year-old man
after it rose suspicion during scanning.
"The drugs were stuffed in 2 transparent plastic packets kept in a laptop bag
in his luggage," Ramli told reporters here yesterday.
He said it was the 1st drug arrest at the CIQ since it was opened in December
2008.
In the 2nd case, Ramli said a 24-year-old woman was arrested at 2.15pm on Sept
19 after the Customs Pedestrian Inspection Unit found 5 kg of metamphetamine
worth RM950,000 hidden in a concealed compartment of her luggage bag.
He declined to reveal the nationality of the woman.
Ramli said the 2 cases were not related.
The duo are investigated under Section 39B (1) (a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act
1952 which carries a mandatory death penalty, if convicted, he added.
(source: The Borneo Post)
CHINA:
Kiwi on death row in China
A Kiwi drug convict on death row in China is mounting a last-ditch legal
challenge to have the sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
The New Zealand citizen is believed to be the 1st condemned to death since
Lorraine and Aaron Cohen in 1982.
The case has been shrouded in secrecy since the Kiwi's arrest in Shenzhen in
2009 and has only come to attention through an Official Information Act request
by the Herald on Sunday.
Possessing more than 50g of heroin or other drugs is punishable by death in
China.
After being found guilty, the New Zealander was given a death sentence with a
2-year reprieve, meaning if no further crimes were committed in jail, the
person could apply to have the sentence reduced to life imprisonment.
Amnesty International said that the Asian superpower executed thousands of
prisoners every year. Trials were held in secret and there was no presumption
of innocence.
The Kiwi launched a legal challenge in 2010 but the conviction was upheld in
the Chinese court of appeal.
The prisoner was still trying to convert the sentence to life imprisonment.
Foreign Minister Murray McCully said he had closely monitored the case. "The
Ministry's consular staff are working closely with the family and I am being
kept updated."
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) said: "New
Zealand Consular staff have continued to provide regular consular assistance
and support to the detainee."
She said the prisoner's family had requested privacy.
The revelations of the death sentence have provoked an outcry among human
rights campaigners.
Amnesty International New Zealand media and communications manager Anita Harvey
said: "We were surprised about the death penalty case. We would always engage
on the death penalty."
Former New Zealand ambassador to China Tony Brown said he was unaware of the
death penalty case. He added it would be unusual for anyone with a reprieve
attached to the conviction to be executed.
"At the end of the reprieve period and, if there have been no further problems,
the sentence is normally commuted to a prison sentence."
The citizen is 1 of more than 800 New Zealanders in overseas prisons.
Figures released to the Herald on Sunday show 86 Kiwis in 27 countries, as
far-flung as Serbia and Montenegro and Panama, have sought consular assistance
from MFAT and remain in prison.
These include well-known cases such as Sharon Armstrong - who was sentenced to
a 4-year, 10-month jail term for cocaine-smuggling in Argentina - and Danielle
Te Kani and George James, who were sentenced to 7 and 9 years respectively, for
drugs charges in Japan.
There are also 771 New Zealand-born people imprisoned in Australia, up from 565
in 2003. Figures obtained from Australian Bureau of Statistics show that 68 of
those are in prison for homicide related crimes.
Justice Minister Judith Collins said there were no plans to allow New
Zealanders to serve their sentences at home.
"New Zealand does not currently have formal prisoner transfer agreements in
place or plans to progress work in this area.
"Just as we expect foreign visitors to our country to abide by our laws, we
expect New Zealanders abroad to abide by the laws of the country they are in."
Hard line
* Offenders sentenced to death in China are offered either bullet or injection.
* There are thought to be more executions in China than in any other country,
although the exact number is a secret.
* There is no presumption of innocence in Chinese law and confessions are
sometimes taken before the suspect has had access to a lawyer.
* Convicted prisoners are killed by a single shot to the back of the head or by
lethal injection inside a mobile execution truck.
(source: The New Zealand Herald)
****************
Man axes 3 to death in Chinese daycare center
3 children were killed and more than a dozen injured in an axe attack at a
daycare center in southern China on Friday, state media said.
A man attacked a group of primary-school-aged children gathered in an afternoon
care center, killing 3 and injuring 13, Xinhua said.
Authorities arrested the man, surnamed Wu, after the attack in Pingnan County
in Guangxi Autonomous Region, the report said, adding that he was mentally ill.
China has seen several violent attacks against children over the past 2 years,
including a spate of 5 incidents in 2010 which killed 15 children and 2 adults
and wounded more than 80.
The attacks have forced authorities to increase security around schools and led
to calls for more research into the root causes of such acts.
Violent crime has been on the rise in China in recent decades as the nation's
economy has boomed and the gap between rich and poor has expanded rapidly.
Studies have also described a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders in the
country, some of them linked to stress as the pace of life becomes faster and
socialist support systems wither.
However, authorities say that murder, which carries the death penalty, remains
far less common in China than in most Western countries.
Calls made to local authorities and police in Pingnan County went unanswered as
of Friday evening.
(source: Taipei Times)
GAZA:
Gaza Court of Appeal Sentences Man to Death
On Sunday, 16 September 2012, the Gaza Court of Appeal sentenced H.M.A. (27),
from the BaniSuhaila village east of Khan Yunis in the southern part of the
Gaza Strip, after convicting him for committing 2 murders: 1 against a child,
M.M.A., in 2000 when he was a minor; and 1 against H.H.B. in 2009.
On 19 May 2010, the Khan Yunis Court of First Instance sentenced H.M.A. to life
imprisonment for the second crime, in which H.H.B. was killed on 05 July 2009,
after convicting him of unintentional killing according to the Palestinian
Penal Code No. 74 of 1936. On 16 September 2012, the Gaza Court of Appeal
sentenced H.M.A. to death by hanging after convicting him of the willful
killing of a child, M.M.A., on 12 July 2000 when he was a minor, amending the
ruling issued by the Court of First Instance in 2010.
According to PCHR's documentation, this sentence is the fifth of its kind in
2012. Thus, the number of death sentences issued by the Palestinian Authority
(PA) since its establishment in 1994 is 130, including 104 death sentences
issued in the Gaza Strip and 26 in the West Bank; 44 of these sentences have
been issued since 2007. Of these sentences, 27 have been executed, including 25
in the Gaza Strip and 2 in the West Bank. Since 2007, 14 death sentences have
been executed in the Gaza Strip.
PCHR is extremely concerned about the continued application of the death
penalty in PNA controlled areas, and:
Calls for the announcement of an immediate moratorium on the use of the death
penalty as a form of punishment as it violates international human rights
standards and instruments, especially the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN
Convention against Torture.
Calls upon Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to not ratify such cruel and
inhuman punishment.
Calls for a review of all legislation related to the death penalty, especially
Law No. 74 (1936), which remains in effect in the Gaza Strip, and the Jordanian
Penal Code No. 16 (1960), which remains in effect in the West Bank, and the
enactment of a unified penal code that conforms to the spirit of international
human rights instruments, especially those pertaining to the abolition of the
death penalty.
Points out that a call for the abolishment of the death penalty does not
reflect a tolerance for those convicted of serious crimes, but rather is a call
for utilizing deterrent penalties that maintain our humanity.
(source: Palelstinian Centre for Human Rights)
MALAYSIA----Australian female faces execution
Perth mum sends plea from death jail
A Perth-borb mother of 6, who could become the 1st Australian woman hanged
overseas, sent a heartbreaking Facebook message to her daughter telling her she
was facing execution.
The Sunday Times has uncovered the frantic message sent after 34-year-old Emma
L'aiguille was arrested for drug trafficking in Malaysia.
We also reveal extraordinary details of her troubled and turbulent life and how
her 18-year-old daughter tried to convince her to return home prior to her
arrest.
No Australian woman has ever been hanged overseas (outside of war), but Foreign
Affairs officials confirmed that if convicted, the charge she faced carried a
mandatory death penalty.
Australian officials in Malaysia are providing Ms L'aiguille, who was arrested
in Kuala Lumpur on July 17, with consular support before she appears in court
next week.
When Ms L'aiguille was arrested and taken to a police cell, she managed to get
access to Facebook and messaged her daughter Tayla Walton, begging for urgent
assistance.
In the message titled "help", Ms L'aiguille wrote: Please Tay get mum to call
me ASAP on this number. (XXXX) got me arrested and the Australian embassy has
been trying to reach you.
"Call now if possible . . . I am locked up and it is a serious case DEATH if
found guilty . . . pls im sorry I didn't do what they say try to call . . .
love you all." An investigation by The Sunday Times reveals a turbulent life,
including:
* Ms L'aiguille has given birth to 8 children by 7 men.
* 2 of the children have died. The other 6 have not lived with her since well
before her arrest.
* She has been married twice. One marriage to a man from Mauritius was aimed at
getting him a visa to stay in Australia.
* From the age of 10, she started living in different homes, sometimes with
family and friends and sometimes living rough.
* Her journey to find happiness has taken her from Perth to Victoria, Sydney,
Adelaide and Queensland before ending up in Malaysia.
When she received the Facebook message, Ms Walton waited 3 days before
responding to her mother's plea for help.
She feared the call for help may have been a scam to get money from the family.
Since then, Ms Walton has been in contact with her mother.
"I told her to be strong, I told her nothing bad is going to happen," she said.
Ms Walton was raised by her grandmother (Ms L'aiguille's mother) in northern
Victoria because Ms L'aiguille couldn't cope. "She would have been a really
good mum if she could have handled it," Ms Walton said.
Her relatives describe Ms L'aiguille as a woman who wants to be loved, feel
attractive and happy, but who has endured a constant battle with depression.
Unemployed, Ms L'aiguille fled to Malaysia 3 years ago to be with a Nigerian
man she met on the internet.
Ms L'aiguille's sister, Amber Lawn, said her older sibling was always running
away; running from responsibility and running from her past.
Running to Malaysia could now mean a date with the hangman.
She was arrested in central Kuala Lumpur for allegedly driving a vehicle
carrying 1kg of methamphetamine, though she claims she did not know the drugs
were in the car. Ms L'aiguille's boyfriend fled the car minutes before police
swooped. He has not been found.
Her lawyer, Tania Scivetti, said Ms L'aiguille was innocent and planned to
fight the charges.
She believed she was set up.
Ms L'aiguille's mother, Amanda Innes, and Ms Lawn will fly to Kuala Lumpur this
week to visit her in Kajang Women's Prison, where she is being held until her
court appearance on October 1.
A Foreign Affairs Department spokesman told The Sunday Times that Ms
L'aiguille's charge carried a mandatory death penalty upon conviction.
He said it was too early for the Australian Government to be making
representations about a possible death penalty.
"The matter of representations does not arise at this stage as Ms L'aiguille is
at the beginning of the legal process and she has not been convicted or
sentenced with the death penalty," the spokesman said.
"Australia strongly opposes the death penalty and Malaysia is well aware of our
position."
Malaysian justice expert and lawyer Ashley Halphen said if a person was found
with more than 50g of drugs in Malaysia, there was a presumption they were
trafficking.
Malaysia introduced the death penalty for drug trafficking in 1983. Between
1980 and 2005, 358 people have been executed. Of these, 19 were foreigners and
three were Australians caught with drugs.
Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, both of Perth, were hanged in 1986 for
trafficking 141.9g of heroin.
Sydney barman Michael McAuliffe was hanged in 1993 for heroin trafficking.
(source: Perth Now)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
