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

[Rick Halperin]

PUBLIC          AI Index: ASA 22/010/2007
                07 August 2007

UA 203/07       Death penalty/imminent execution

JAPAN           TAKEZAWA Hifumi (m), born in 1937
                EGAWA Kouzou (m), born in 1947
                IWAMOTO Yoshio (m), born in 1945

The three men named above, who are on death row in Tokyo and Nagoya, are
likely to face execution as early as 9 August. All were convicted of
murder between 1990 and 1999. One of the three, Takezawa, has been
diagnosed as suffering from mental illness.

Seven men have already been executed since Justice Minister Nagase
assumed office in October 2006: four on 25 December 2006 and three on 27
April 2007. Minister Nagase's predecessor, Sugiura Seiken, did not sign a
single death penalty warrant due to his personal beliefs. On assuming
office, Minister Nagase stated that death sentences ordered by the courts
must be solemnly executed.

The authorities often schedule executions to coincide with parliamentary
recesses or elections, or public holidays, to minimize public and
parliamentary criticism. Japan observes the 62nd anniversary of the
Nagasaki atom bomb attack on 9 August.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The application of the death penalty in Japan is arbitrary and cruel.
Executions, by hanging, are carried out without the knowledge of
prisoners' families or lawyers, and apparently in an arbitrary manner:
they are scheduled so as to prevent parliamentary or media scrutiny by
coinciding with parliamentary recesses in summer and winter, or national
holidays. Usually the Minister of Justice signs the execution order on a
Monday and the executions are carried out on the following Thursday or
Friday. There are 107 prisoners facing the death penalty in Japan
including a few who have spent over three decades on death row expecting
to die at very short notice.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases. The death
penalty constitutes a violation of right to life and is the ultimate form
of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

The scheduling of these executions represent a retrograde step bucking
the global momentum which is gathering to end capital punishment in all
countries: 129 countries from all regions of the world, including 25 from
the Asia Pacific region, have abolished the death penalty in law or in
practice. Amnesty International's statistics also show a significant
overall decline in the number of reported executions in 2006. The
preparations for these secretive executions also come at a time when a
resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions is to be
introduced at the UN General Assembly 62nd session in October 2007.

Amnesty International issued a report on death penalty in Japan in July
2006, Will this day be my last? The death penalty in Japan (ASA
22/006/2006) which reported that those on death row who are elderly or
mentally ill are waiting for execution for decades in solitary
confinement, and are executed without notice. Amnesty International is
calling for the Japanese government to end the secrecy surrounding the
death penalty as the first step towards abolition. Amnesty International
hopes that the death penalty will be debated from the point of view of
human rights, and that Japan will take the first step towards the
abolition of the death penalty, which is the ultimate human rights
violation.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible,
in Japanese, English or your own language:
- expressing concern that TAKEZAWA Hifumi, EGAWA Kouzou, IWAMOTO Yoshio
and over 100 others who are in death row are at risk of imminent
execution;
- calling for an immediate moratorium on all executions pending the
abolition of the death penalty in Japanese law;
- calling on the Japanese government to ratify the Second Optional
Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
which aims at the abolition of the death penalty, which is the ultimate
form of cruel and inhuman punishment;
- calling on the authorities to end the secrecy surrounding the death
penalty and begin a public and parliamentary debate on abolition of the
death penalty by making available all information regarding its use.

APPEALS TO:

Prime Minister
ABE Shinzo
Prime Minister's Office
2-3-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-0014, Japan
Fax:            +81 3 3581 3883
E-mail:         jpm at kantei.go.jp
                via website:
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment.html
Salutation:     Dear Prime Minister

Justice Minister
NAGASE Jinen
Minister of Justice,
Ministry of Justice
1-1-1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-8977, Japan
Fax:            +81 3 3592 7088
       +81 3 5511 7200 (via Public Information & Foreign Liaison Office)
E-mail:         webmaster at moj.go.jp
Salutation:     Dear Minister

COPIES TO: diplomatic representatives of Japan accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International
Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 10 August
2007.