[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 25



RWANDA:

Death Penalty - Recidivists to Have Special Imprisonment


The Minister of Justice Tharcisse Karugarama has said that the draft law
on the scrapping of Death Penalty will have a special provision for
recidivists for capital crimes. During an exclusive interview, Karugarama
said that several measures have been taken for such people especially
those who will commit genocide or extermination in the future. "They will
be tough in that they (criminals) will regret not having been hanged," he
stressed, citing examples of solitary confinement and having less frequent
visits. Karugarama also clarified that after the waiver, the people who
are on death row will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

The draft bill to scrap the death penalty was recently endorsed by the
Cabinet and will be discussed by both chambers of Parliament before being
forwarded to the President.

Karugarama also expressed optimism about the special bill to waive the
death penalty for the genocide suspects under the custody of the United
Nations Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

"It was passed by the lower chamber and it was forwarded to the Senate and
from there it will be promulgated," he said and added that the kick-off of
the transfers will be sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

Last year the ICTR Chief Prosecutor Bubacar Jallow announced that the
Tribunal would start sending suspects to face trial in Rwanda by January
this year. Commenting on the judicial changes after Rwanda joined the East
African Community, Karugarama: "We shall not have change in policies on
issues of great national importance such as our stance on unity and
reconciliation and zero tolerance to corruption; all we will do will be to
harmonise it with of the member states.

Most of the East African countries use the English Common Law system, as
opposed to the Romanic Civil Law used in Rwanda.

(source: The New Times)






JAPAN:

Minister Nagase Jinen

Ministry of Justice

1-1-1 Kasumigaseki

Chiyoda-ku

Tokyo 100-8977

Japan

24 January 2007

OPEN LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE OF JAPAN, THE HON. NAGASE JINEN

Dear Minister,

I am writing on behalf of Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty
Asia Network (ADPAN)[1] to register our grave concern at the executions of
four prisoners (Hidaka Hiroaki, 44, Hiroshima; Fukuoka Michio, 64, Osaka;
Akiyama Yoshimitsu, 77, Tokyo; Fujinami Yoshio, 75, Tokyo) which took
place on 25 December 2006.

This retrograde step runs counter to the universal protection of human
rights and is at odds with the international trend away from the use of
the death penalty. Very few countries currently carry out executions:
provisional figures compiled by Amnesty International indicate that only
20 of the United Nations 193 member states carried out state killings in
2006. These executions in Japan, after a 15 month hiatus, will send a
discouraging signal to nations in the Asia-Pacific region at a time when
others  South Korea and Taiwan for example  are considering the abolition
of the death penalty.

On his appointment in October 2005, your predecessor, the former Minister
of Justice Sugiura Seiken, refused to sign execution orders due to his
personal beliefs. This is not the 1st time a Minister of Justice in Japan
has refused to sanction hangings. Former Minister of Justice Sato Megumu
also refused to sign execution orders because of his religious beliefs.

During the 4-year informal moratorium on death penalty between 1989 and
1993, homicides in Japan reached some of the lowest rates in modern times
with 1,215 murders reported in 1991, well below recent figures such as the
1,419 homicides reported in 2004. Such figures contradict the argument
that the death penalty is a uniquely effective deterrent against serious
crime. The experience of other countries also shows that an absence of
executions does not lead to an increase in homicide rates.

The four executions on 25 December run counter to a growing trend towards
the abolition of the death penalty and a lessening in the number of
executions; this global trend away from the use of capital punishment was
highlighted in our recent report on the death penalty in Japan published
in July 2006, "Will this day be my last?": The death penalty in Japan" (AI
Index: ASA 22/006/2006) The death penalty has already been abolished in
Cambodia, Nepal, Timor Leste and recently in the Philippines. Currently
the National Assembly of South Korea is giving serious consideration to
abolition and the authorities in Taiwan have also indicated their desire
to remove capital punishment from their laws. Japan seeks to become a
permanent member of the UN Security Council; steps towards abolition of
death penalty would demonstrate that Japan is progressing towards the full
protection of human rights and showing strong leadership on this important
matter.

We note your comments reported in various media sources that nearly 80 %
of the people of this country have no objection to the existence of the
death penalty. After over 30 years researching the death penalty, Amnesty
International believes that public support for the death penalty is
overwhelmingly based on a desire to be free from crime as well as the
erroneous belief that executions prevent murders. Amnesty International
recognizes the right of citizens to create laws via their elected
representatives; such laws must be formulated with respect for human
rights. History is littered with human rights violations that had the
support of the majority but in modern times are looked upon with horror.
Slavery, racial segregation and lynching all had widespread support in the
societies where they occurred but constituted gross violations of the
victims' human rights. In more recent times, grave violations of human
rights in Bosnia, Rwanda and East Timor all had the support of large
sections of the population in those countries but were no less
unacceptable because of such popularity.

Amnesty International's opposition to the death penalty does not in any
way distract from the sympathy the organization and others feel towards
the victims of violent crime and their loved ones. As an organization
dedicated to working for the victims of human rights violations, Amnesty
International is fully aware of the suffering caused by violent crimes. We
believe that everyone in society should work to lessen violent crime and
that all those impacted upon by such appalling acts as murder, rape and
other crimes should be supported and helped as they rebuild their lives
after suffering such trauma.

Amnesty International and the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) urge
the Japanese government to:

Stop further executions;

Commute all death sentences and impose an immediate moratorium on
executions, pending abolition of the death penalty;

End secrecy around the application of the death penalty and initiate a
public and parliamentary debate on abolition of the death penalty by
making available all information regarding the use of the death penalty;

Implement procedural safeguards around the right to life and respect the
rights of detainees, by improving prison conditions, allowing families,
friends and lawyers greater access to prisoners, and ensuring prisoners
have access to medical facilities.

I look forward to hearing from you on this important matter.

Yours sincerely,

Irene Khan

Secretary General

[1] The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) was launched on 10 October
2006. ADPAN consists of lawyers, parliamentarians and activists from 16
countries: Australia, Hong Kong, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan,
South Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand,
UK and USA.

ADPAN has 33 members, including 13 organizations: Hong Kong Society and
Community Organization, Commission for Disappearances and Victims of
Violence (KONTRAS) (Indonesia), Forum 90 (Japan), Catholic Human Rights
Committee (South Korea), Malaysians against the Death Penalty and Torture
(MADPET), Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (USA), Philippine
Human Rights Information Center (Philrights), Think Centre (Singapore),
Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP), FORUM-ASIA (Thailand),
Comunit di Sant'Egidio (Italy), World Coalition against the Death Penalty
and Amnesty International. See: http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/ (source:
Amnesty International)






IRAQ:

Iraq delays death penalty hearing --- Ramadan was originally sentenced to
life in prison for the Dujail killings


An Iraqi court has postponed a decision on whether to execute Taha Yasin
Ramadan, who was vice-president under Saddam Hussein.

He was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killing of 148 Shia
villagers in Dujail in 1982.

The Appeals Court ruled that the sentence was too lenient and recommended
the death sentence.

3 of his co-defendants, including ex-President Saddam Hussein have already
been executed by hanging.

Executions criticised

The Iraqi High Tribunal adjourned the hearing until 12 February after the
lawyers for the prosecutors seeking the death sentence failed to appear
because they were not notified, judge Ali al-Kahishi said.

Taha Yasin Ramadan was originally sentenced on 5 November, the same day
Saddam Hussein, his half-brother and former head of Iraq's secret police
Barzan al-Tikriti, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar - a former head of Iraq's
Revolutionary Court - were sentenced to death for the Dujail killings.

Saddam Hussein was hanged on 30 December. Barzan and al-Bandar were hanged
on 15 January.

All 3 executions have been criticised by the international community.

Three other defendants in the Dujail trial were each sentenced to 15 years
in prison while a seventh defendant was acquitted.

(source: BBC News)






GLOBAL:

Death penalty against Christ's teaching


The Editor, Sir:

I am deeply saddened whenever I hear calls for the death penalty,
especially when these calls come from professing Christian leaders who
wield strong influence over thousands of persons, because of the respect
these persons have developed for them over time.

In The Gleaner of January 23, 2007, a prominent church leader is reported
as making a call for the death penalty to be implemented in the case of
'career murderers'. If we are going to call for the death penalty, please
let us not appeal to the Bible as Christians for support, because the
death penalty is against the teachings of Christ, the one whom we claim to
follow. A case can be made from the Old Testament for the death penalty,
but this has serious implications for us if we do not recognise that we
are living in a new dispensation.

Playing it safe

If we appeal to the Old Testament to justify our pro-death penalty stance
in the case of murder, we should also be calling for the death of those
persons who break the Sabbath (Numbers 15:35), commit adultery and incest
(Leviticus 20:10, 11), participate in homosexual activity (Leviticus
20:13), and commit fornication (Deuteronomy 20: 13-21), just to name a
few. The church leader seems to be playing it safe by speaking about
'habitual murderers' but this is just limiting our forgiveness as
Christians. Did Jesus really put a limit on the number of times we should
forgive?

Love is the main theme running throughout the Gospel of Christ. Even if we
consider murderers our enemies, as Christians we are taught by Christ
himself to love our enemies and to do good to them.

I am, etc.,

GARY GARDINER

Kingston 3

Via Go-Jamaica

(source: Letter to the Editor, Jamaica Gleaner)