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

[Rick Halperin]

April 8



IRAN:

Outrage at execution of political prisoners in Iran


Following the reports about the date set for execution of a political
prisoner in Iran, human rights organizations as well as Iranian
communities around the world expressed their outrage at the extent of
brutalities going on in Iran.

According to the Iranian Resistance, the mullahs regime informed in
writing Mr. Valiollah Feiz-Mahdavi, member of the People's Mojahedin
Organization of his death sentence to be carried out on May 16.

Valiollah Feiz-Mahdavi, 28 was arrested in 2001 and subsequently sentenced
to death in a kangaroo court.

The Iranian Resistance has appealed on international organizations and
authorities, especially the United Nations Human Rights Council and the
High Commissioner for Human Rights, to take urgent action to stop the
execution of Mr. Feiz-Mahdavi.

Iranian communities in the United States condemned the death sentence
against Mr. Feiz-Mahdavi in their public statements. In their statement,
the Iranians in South Florida said: "We strongly condemn execution of
political prisoners in Iran and urge all governments and international
human rights organizations to condemn Iran and put pressure on mullahs
regime to prevent the execution of Mr. Feiz-Mahdavi and other political
prisons."

Iranian communities in Ohio, Missouri and other states issued similar
appeals to save the lives of political prisoners in Iran.

(source: National Council of Resistance of Iran)






ETHIOPIA:

Tortured MP spared execution


New shocking revelations about the extent of the gross human rights
violations in Ethiopia have emerged as some Members of Parliament have
gone public with allegations that they were tortured, harassed, threatened
and denied their right to meet with members of the public in their
respective constituencies.

Honourable Abiyot Kebede, who represented the Oromo Federalist Democratic
Movement (OFDM) in the May elections and won a parliamentary seat in
Werejarso Woreda, North Shewa, told VOA that he and a close companion were
subjected to traumatic kidnapping, torture, false imprisonment and were
even threatened with execution.

The young MP claimed that security men in plain clothes kidnapped a friend
of his and himself a fortnight ago from around his residence in the
capital. He said they were forced into a car and were immediately
blindfolded. The lawmaker tried to stop the tormentors by showing his
parliamentary ID card. "They trashed my ID card and told me to use it as
toilet paper", the traumatized MP alleged.

The constitution of the "Federal 'Democratic' Republic of Ethiopia",
Article 54 (6), stipulates that no member of the parliament shall be
arrested or prosecuted unless his or her immunity is revoked by the
legislature.

Honourable Abiyot recounted at lenght to VOA's Nuhamin Bikila how they
were driven to an unknown church cemetery out of Addis and were told that
their graves were already dug. According to him, the 2 were severely
beaten and threatened that they would be executed and buried unless they
confess that they were involved in inciting students in Oromia to rise up
against the government and being sympathizers of Mecha and Tulema Welfare
Association. The association was banned two years ago and its leaders,
along with many of its members, are still languishing in jails.

Before their ordeal ended, the kidnappers told the MP and his friend that
they had been given orders to take any necessary measures against them. At
one point, the duo were even ordered to face a tomb and guns pointed at
them from 4 directions as if they were going to be executed. "One of them
put the muzzle of his gun into my mouth while another one poked my stomach
with his gun," he alleged.

Honourable Derbe Yirga Sireda, who represented the Oromo National Congress
(ONC) and won a parliamentary seat in Jeldu Wereda, Oromia, also claimed
that she was denied her right to hold a meeting with members of the public
in her constituency. She said she faced threates and intimidation by the
local administrators when she tried to call a public meeting. Honorable
Derbe noted that her son is still in jail and her daughter was detained
and sebsequently beaten up while she was taking an exam. Though she was
later released on bail, she is ill as a result of being beaten up by
securitymen, she said.

Another MP Honourable Dejene Tafa Geleta of ONC, who won a parliamentary
seat in Cheliya, Oromia, said that he is receiving complaints from his
constituency that members of the the ruling party were committing gross
human rights violations against residents of his constituency including
violating homes, committing roberry, beatings and rapes.

Yohannes Tesfay, an exiled lawyer in London said that the ordeals of the
MPs and their families is clearly indicative of the determination of the
ruling party to go to any length to stay in power. "If this kinds of
shocking abuses happen to the nation's lawmakers, one can imagine what may
happen to ordinary citizens.

"This is a serious case that calls for a sincere independent investigation
to find and prosecute the perpetrators of these heinous and outrageous
crimes. An attack against an elected lawmaker without due process of law
is a serious assault against the parliament, if at all there is any real
one, the law of the land and the electorate at large.

"While Ethiopia is still gripped with election disputes, the few remaining
opposition MPs who won clean seats without resorting to cheating and fraud
need to be protected," he noted.

He underlined that the gross human rights violations being committed
across Ethiopia in a bid to suppress peaceful political dissent should
cease without further aggravating the volatile political situations.

(source: Nazret.com)






FRANCE:

Louis XVI died with dignity, executioner writes


French King Louis XVI died regally, according to his executioner's account
written to correct reports that his nerve broke when faced with the
revolutionary mob and the guillotine in January 1793.

Now the original letter by Charles Henri Sanson, chief executioner of
Paris as the revolution's reign of terror began, is to go under the hammer
at Christie's in London on June 7 with a price of up to 120,000 pounds
($210,000).

Sanson details the demeanour of Louis, whose Austrian wife Marie
Antoinette was executed 9 months later and is famously said to have
suggested that starving pre-revolutionary peasants should eat cake when
their bread ran out.

Lost from public view for nearly 200 years in the archives of an unnamed
family, Sanson's account echoes that of Henry Edgeworth, a French-based
English priest who accompanied Louis in the carriage to the guillotine.

Sanson, who oversaw the execution of more than 2,900 people between 1778
and his retirement in April 1793, tells how Louis, at the foot of the
scaffold, initially resisted having his coat removed for reasons of
decorum but then took it off himself.

He also did not want his hands tied at first, but was persuaded to comply.

"To pay homage to the truth, he withstood all that with a composure and
steadiness that astonished us all," Sanson wrote to the Thermometre du
Jour revolutionary journal.

"I remain very convinced that he had drawn this steadiness from the
principles of religion, of which nobody more than he appeared deeply
affected and persuaded," Sanson added.

His account, last referred to by Chateaubriand in 1826, contradicted
another version in circulation at the time that described Louis as having
to be forced to mount the scaffold at pistol point, crying out: "I am
lost, I am lost."

In the moments before the blade fell, Sanson says Louis turned to the mob
and proclaimed "People, I die innocent".

He then turned to his executioners with the words: "Gentlemen, I am
innocent of everything of which I am accused. I hope that my blood can
cement the happiness of the French."

In the letter, dated "Paris, 20 February 1793, 1st year of the French
republic," Sanson signs off with the words:

"You can be assured, citizen, that here is the truth in its greatest day."

(source: Reuters)






VIETNAM:

Vietnam PM calls for amending capital punishment laws


Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has called for a review of capital
punishment while authorities are seeking to replace the firing squad with
remotely-fired weapons to shield the troops from any trauma.

Khai also called on the public security ministry, the supreme court, the
supreme people's Procuracy - the prosecutor's office - and the justice
department to consider handing over the bodies of executed criminals to
their family.

A decision by the interior ministry in 1974, still in force, bans their
handing over.

Besides, the PM called on the agencies to examine the 1999 criminal code
and consider abolishing the death sentence for certain economic crimes.

Thorough studies were needed before making any such move, he admitted,
however.

In the meantime, the public security ministry is examining replacement of
the firing squad with either remotely-fired guns or lethal injection to
ease the burden on the executioners and make for more precision.

(source: Thanh Nien Daily)