Rick Halperin
Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:48:12 -0600
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)