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

[Rick Halperin]

June 26



ITALY:

PACE welcomes Italian idea of intl death penalty moratorium.


The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) welcomed the
Italian initiative of the immediate worldwide moratorium on death penalty.

The Assembly said it will support the European Union's promotion of the
idea at the United Nations. The worldwide moratorium on death penalty
would contribute to the international supremacy of law, the delegates
said.

The efforts of the Council of Europe member countries have turned their
territories into a zone free from death sentence. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan
and Russia have not signed the 13th protocol of the European Human Rights
Convention that abolishes death sentences in peace and war times. France,
Spain, Italy, Poland, Latvia and Armenia have not ratified the document.

The Assembly called for the immediate signing and ratification so that the
Council of Europe could speak one voice in support of the moratorium idea.

The number of countries, which abolished death sentence, grew from 16 to
89 in 1997-2006, while the number of states, which did not use death
penalty for the past ten or more years, grew to 129, the delegates said.

China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the United States account for over
90% of death penalties, they noted.

(source: Itar-Tass)






SOUTH AFRICA:

Parliament urged to consider death penalty


There are calls within Parliament's correctional services committee to
reconsider the death penalty for those who mercilessly kill children.
Parole conditions for such criminals serving life sentences will also come
under review.

The committee says that the parole conditions will definitely be
reconsidered when the Correctional Service Act is reviewed after
Parliament ends its recess next month.

Dennis Bloem, the correctional services committee chairperson, says that
innocent children, especially little girls, have become vulnerable to rape
and murder. Bloem says it is time that stricter parole conditions apply to
those serving life sentences. Some members of the Inkatha Freedom Party
(IFP) believe the death penalty should be reintroduced.

Others believe that child killers and dangerous criminals should be kept
in isolation.

(source: SABC News)






BANGLADESH:

Court stays death penalty of 1975 coup convict


Bangaldesh Supreme Court has stayed the execution of the death penalormer
military officer convicted for the killing of country's founder Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman a week after he was extradited from the US.

The stay would remain valid until the disposal of a plea by sacked Lt Col
Mohiuddin Mohiuddin Ahmed to the Supreme Court urging the highest court to
file a regular appeal against his conviction in trial.

A total of 12 ex-army officers were sentenced to death for the August 15,
1975 murder, but only 4 of them faced the trial in person while Ahmed and
others were tried in absentia.

Ahmed in his prayer through jail authorities urged the highest court of
the country to "condone an inordinate delay" in filing the appeal.

Mohiuddin was deported to Dhaka from Los Angeles on June 18 after a US
court rejected his appeal to stay back.

(source: The Hindu)