Rick Halperin
Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:36:24 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
Aug. 22 EAST TIMOR: Ministers play down execution claims New Zealand and Australia's Defence Ministers are playing down speculation East Timorese rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was executed out of hand. The Australian newspaper reported last week that an autopsy had shown marks on the corpses of Reinado and Leopoldino Exposto suggesting they had been shot at close range, rather than by guards standing metres away. East Timor's Attorney General Longinus Montero denied the claims saying the autopsy gave no indication they were executed. Defence Minister Phil Goff says he hasn't seen the autopsy report, but the allegations regarding it aren't consistent with advice he has received. Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says he has had no briefings on the matter and the circumstances of Reinado's death are entirely a matter for the East Timorese government. Goff and Fitzgibbon met in Wellington on Friday to review the closer defence partnership between Australia and NZ. (source: TVNZ) JAPAN: Death penalty sought over fatal fires Prosecutors on Friday demanded the death penalty for a 48-year-old man charged with arson and murder for his alleged role in fatal fires lit at 2 telephone dating clubs in Kobe in 2000. During a session at the Kobe District Court, the prosecutors said Akihiro Sakamoto, who is alleged to have ordered the arson attacks that killed 4 people and injured 4 others, "carries great criminal responsibility as his cold, cruel acts took lives at random." According to the indictment, Sakamoto ordered 3 men to throw Molotov cocktails into two branches of the Rin Rin House telephone dating club chain, both located in Chuo Ward, Kobe, on March 2, 2000. Sakamoto allegedly ordered the attacks to obstruct the chain's business. (source: Yomiuri Shimbun)