April 8
AUSTRALIA/INDONESIA:
Nun's call to avert Schapelle Corby death penalty
Sydney Josephite Sr Susan Connelly has called on the Australian Government
to act to ensure that - innocent or guilty - Australian Schapelle Corby is
returned home, rather than remain in Indonesia, where she faces the
prospect of the 'death penalty by firing Squad'.
Queensland Gold Coast resident Schapelle Corby has been detained in a
Balinese prison and now awaits sentencing from a panel of judges on
whether she will be committed to the death penalty, by a firing squad, for
allegedly attempting to import four kilograms of cannabis into Indonesia.
Sr Connelly, best known for her activism on behalf of the people of East
Timor, said it is "disgusting and barbaric in this day and age that a
'death penalty by firing squad' law exists, and that an Australian citizen
should be subject to it".
She said: "This law is out-dated and inhumane, and considering that
convicted terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir has only been sentenced to 2 years
and six months jail (with the prospect of appeal) for his proven
'conspiracy' participation in the Bali bombings that killed 183 people, in
the same country, it is inconsistent and absurd that another person should
face the death penalty for allegedly smuggling cannabis into the country."
Sr Connelly said that the Australian Government and airlines should be
taking more responsibility for the incident, as "it is the fault of the
Australian airlines/airport that the drugs even left Australia in the
first place".
Corby's defence - and the weight of public opinion in Australia - claims
that the drugs were planted in her bag by unscrupulous airline staff, for
transit within Australia, but were not removed as intended.
Sr Connelly is circulating a petition to be sent to the Australian
Government.
The Church's opposition to the death penalty has been highlighted this
week with the death of Pope John Paul II, who condemned the practice
alongside abortion and other manifestations of what he called the "culture
of death".
Following representation in 1997 from Sr Helen Prejean, the nun who
inspired 'Dead Man Walking', Pope John Paul II removed from the Catholic
Catechism a "loophole" reference justifying the death penalty in certain
circumstances. When he visited the United States 2 years later, he
denounced the death penalty as "cruel and unnecessary."
(source: Catholic News)
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Australia Pleads No Corby Death Penalty
Australia has pleaded with Indonesia not to seek the death penalty in the
drugs trial of an Australian woman on the holiday island of Bali, Justice
Minister Chris Ellison said on Friday.
Beauty therapist Schapelle Corby, 27, is accused of smuggling 4.1 kg of
marijuana into Bali in 2004. The drugs were allegedly stashed in a boogie
board, or bodyboard, bag. Corby has said she did not know the drugs were
there.
"At this stage of the court proceedings I understand there is an avenue
for the attorney-general in Indonesia to make representations to the
prosecution in the preparation of their submission on sentencing," Ellison
told Australian radio from Jakarta.
"I indicated to the Indonesian attorney-general our strong desire, indeed
indicating to him the long standing policy of Australian governments, that
the death penalty not be carried out and, indeed, in this case that it not
be sought," he said.
The case has attracted wide media attention in Australia at a time of
improved relations with its majority Muslim neighbour.
Analysts have warned of a backlash that would seriously damage that new
relationship if the death penalty was carried out. Indonesian President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said during a visit to Australia this week that
he was watching the case closely.
Judges in Bali on Thursday postponed a key trial session in which
prosecutors had been expected to present their sentencing demand. Corby
has denied the trafficking charges against her, but under law could be
executed by firing squad if found guilty.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Friday backed Ellison's plea to
the Indonesian government.
Ellison said Indonesia's government was treating the matter seriously and
Indonesia's attorney-general had taken his request "on board".
Australia and Indonesia have also agreed to begin talks on a prisoner
transfer agreement. Ellison said there were about 11 Australians in jail
in Indonesia and more than 30 Indonesians imprisoned in Australia.
(source: Reuters)
UNITED NATIONS:
U.N. Urges Countries to Shed Light on Death Penalty
A U.N. human rights investigator Friday urged countries to remove the
"cloak of secrecy" surrounding the death penalty and disclose the number
of executions and people on death row.
Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions, said secrecy undermined safeguards that can prevent
errors or abuses and ensure fair and just procedures at all stages.
"There is a need for every country that retains the death penalty to
disclose publicly the number of executions, the crimes for which the
people have been convicted, and ideally their identities," Alston told a
news briefing.
"The argument is simple -- you cannot say that 'we have the death penalty
because the majority of people in my country want it' and at the same time
not tell the people what the situation is.
"It denies the human dignity of those sentenced, many of whom are still
eligible to appeal, and it denies the rights of family members to know the
fate of their closest relatives," he said.
He also said he had sought an invitation to China and expected to visit
Iran this year.
Amnesty International, in a report this week, said China topped executions
worldwide with 3,400 last year, followed by Iran with 159. Both states had
executed under 18 year-olds in violation of international law, the
London-based group said.
Alston, an Australian jurist and law professor, was speaking to a news
briefing after addressing the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The forum's
53 member states are holding their annual six-week session in Geneva
through April 22.
(source: Reuters)
EUROPEAN UNION/PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY:
EU Protest Gives Hope to Palestinians on Death Row
Samir, sentenced to death by a Palestinian court for spying for Israel,
broke out in a sweat when guards suddenly came to his cell door to summon
him.
Clad in pajamas and slippers, he cadged a cigarette from a guard and
puffed feverishly for several minutes before learning he was only to be
interviewed by a reporter. He calmed down. "I thought the moment had come
for my execution," he said.
The dozens of Palestinians sitting on death row can breathe easier since
the European Union, the biggest aid donor to the Palestinian territories,
raised an uproar over a move by President Mahmoud Abbas to carry out 15
executions.
"We put them on hold after a number of visiting European prime ministers
and foreign ministers told Abbas he would risk a freeze in EU
reconstruction aid if the executions were carried out," a senior
Palestinian official told Reuters.
Emma Udwin, spokeswoman for EU External Relations Commissioner Benita
Ferrero-Waldner, denied any threat to withdraw or suspend aid. "But we
have underlined to them how strongly we are opposed to the death penalty,"
she said.
Aides said Abbas was keen not to endanger EU diplomatic and financial
support key to Palestinians' hope for reconstruction and eventual
statehood on Israeli-occupied land, where they have halted a ruinous
uprising and begun an open-ended cease-fire.
But Abbas, a moderate who succeeded the late Yasser Arafat on a platform
of peace talks, is also sensitive to a domestic clamor for executions to
better rein in murderous armed gangs and deter Palestinians from spying
for Israel.
Acting as informers for Israel ranks as the most heinous crime in
Palestinian eyes. Collaborators' families are shunned in close-knit
Palestinian society and in most cases, informers are disowned by
relatives.
"Abbas has come under tremendous pressure to end the state of lawlessness
by executing criminals and collaborators. Every day we receive petitions
signed by thousands of people demanding executions," a senior presidential
aide said.
VIGILANTE JUSTICE SPIRALS
Pent-up demand for revenge over gang murders and the betrayal of wanted
militants to Israel has spilled into vigilante executions of more than 30
suspects in town squares and even inside prisons after gunmen blasted
their way into cellblocks.
Some alleged collaborators have been abducted and publicly tortured before
being machine-gunned in front of cheering crowds.
So explosive is the issue of spies embedded in the Palestinian population
that Israel plans to remove hundreds of them from Gaza when it evacuates
the occupied territory this summer and absorb them as de facto citizens.
Abbas bowed to public pressure in February by asking the Islamic clergy
for the required final approval to execute 15 prisoners, including 3
convicted collaborators.
But Mufti Ikrima Sabri, the top Muslim cleric in Palestinian areas, said
the initiative was "put to sleep after an outcry from the international
community," an allusion to EU objections.
The watchdog group Human Rights Watch, in a letter to Abbas, urged him to
abolish "cruel and inhumane" capital punishment and Palestinian security
courts behind the verdicts, saying due process and the chance of appeal
had been denied in many cases.
Samir and other jailed collaborators say financial hardship, which
worsened after Israel reoccupied self-ruling Palestinian cities to contain
the uprising, made them amenable to recruitment by Israel's Shin Bet
security service.
Other motivations, Palestinian officials say, have been prized work
permits and medical treatment in Israel, and sex.
Since its 1994 creation under interim peace deals with Israel, the
Palestinian Authority has executed nine men -- 3 collaborators and the
rest common criminals -- despite condemnation from human rights groups and
Western states.
It has not executed anyone since 2002, at the height of the uprising that
spread armed anarchy throughout Palestinian areas, when two Gazans were
hanged for raping and killing a girl of 7.
Samir, the condemned collaborator in Gaza City's Central Prison, knows EU
pressure would not protect him from another break-in by vengeful militants
still thriving because Abbas has yet to reform weak Palestinian security
services.
His fear seems well-founded. He was wounded in August 2004 when militants
invaded the Gaza prison, opened fire and threw grenades, killing three
other inmates accused of collaboration.
Samir now places his hopes in a possible appeal of his death penalty
imposed by a security court. "I hope I would be tried again in a civil
court and be sentenced to life," he said in the interview monitored by
prison officials.
INFORMERS KEY TO ISRAELI CRACKDOWNS
Before the truce, Israel used an increasingly effective network of
informers to track down and assassinate dozens of militant leaders behind
deadly attacks on Israelis, or to pre-empt some attacks by intercepting
perpetrators en route to their target.
Despite the cease-fire, Palestinian security officials say Israeli
intelligence has not stopped recruiting collaborators.
"The Israelis believe that during this period of calm, the militant
factions are reorganizing, so Israel wants further information on their
activities," one senior official said.
Samir's Israeli handlers instructed him to inform on Islamist militants
sworn to destroy Israel.
He said they slipped him into Jewish settlements in Gaza or an apartment
in Jerusalem where he was trained to use a computer and the Internet as a
means to relay information.
Samir, who was working for an Islamist newspaper when arrested, said the
fat financial rewards made him accept the deadly risk of what he was
doing.
"I'm lucky I'm still alive," he said.
(source: Reuters)
YEMEN:
Yemeni President orders to stop juvenile execution
President of Yemen Ali Abdulla Saleh stopped on Wednesday the execution of
a 17-year juvenile in Taiz at the last moment.
Hafez Ibrahim,17 years, was convicted for killing a man last year and he
was supposed to be executed on Wednesday.
The order of the president, who is the head of the Supreme Judicial
Council, came to postpone the execution to give the authorities chance to
convince the relatives of the killed man to accept reconciliation.
Amnesty International pleaded with President Saleh on Wednesday to commute
the death sentence, arguing that the Yemeni law bans the execution of
juveniles under 18.
(source: www.kz.com)
IRAN:
Iranian Christian faces death penalty
An Iranian Christian is facing the death penalty in an Islamic court,
according to the human rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Hamid Pourmand, 47, is scheduled to go on trial in a Shari'a court next
week on charges of apostasy from Islam and seeking to evangelize Muslims.
Under Islamic law, a Muslim who tries to convert to another religion can
be put to death.
Pourmand was a colonel in the Iranian army and a member of an Assembly of
God church in the port city of Badar-i-Bushehr. He was arrested along with
85 other Christians at a meeting of the church last September. Local human
rights groups said he was the only one not released shortly after being
arrested.
On February 16, he was tried in a military court on charges he misled his
superiors about his conversion 25 years ago. Non-Muslims are not allowed to
become officers in the military. While Pourmand testified that his
superiors knew about his faith, the evidence he presented was rejected and
he was sentenced to three years in prison. His wife and children were
evicted from their home and lost his pension.
Pourmand is the first Iranian to be charged with apostasy since 1993.
(source: CWNews.com)
SOUTH AFRICA:
Death penalty appropriate now, says Leon
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon this week defended his change of heart
on the death penalty, but says his party still subscribes to a liberal
approach to dealing with the issue.
Leon came under pressure last year ahead of the national election when he
came out in support of the death penalty. His detractors accused him of
turning his back on his party's liberal values in favour of a more populist
message in search of votes.
In a lecture on liberalism honouring veteran politician Helen Suzman, Leon
said he had long opposed the death penalty under apartheid.
"I devoted the final speech I made in my campaign for the parliamentary
seat of Houghton, on the eve of the 1989 election, to a passionate attack
on the National Party's use of the death penalty."
Leon said that was an appropriate stance in an era where the death penalty
was part and parcel of the repressive state apparatus and where there were
few, if any, safeguards for accused persons.
But the South Africa of 2005 was very different to that of 1985 or 1975,
in at least two ways.
South Africa's legal system today provided far greater guarantees and
protections for the accused, while citizens were currently living through
an unprecedented crime wave that had seen a quarter of a million South
Africans killed in the past decade.
"In that context, I believe that the death penalty may be an appropriate
punishment for exceptionally limited cases and extremely violent crimes,
such as murder with aggravating circumstances."
Leon acknowledged that the case against the death penalty remained a
compelling one.
"Faced with the liberal dilemma on this issue, the DA has chosen a liberal
way to address it: to allow our public representatives a free vote on the
death penalty and other issues of conscience, such as abortion."
(source: The Star)
