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

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 14


MALAYSIA:

RI worker in Malaysia released from death sentence


An Indonesian worker from West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara province, Adi
bin Asnawi, who had earlier been sentenced to death in a murder case in
Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, has been acquitted by a higher court which had
found him insane.

Information obtained from reliable sources in Mataram on Tuesday said Adi
was freed from the death sentence after the Seremban High Court in Negeri
Sembilan State, West Malaysia, issued a ruling affirming that he was
insane.

As reported earlier, a local district court in Malaysia sentenced Adi bin
Asnawi to death.

Although the Seremban high court had acquitted Adi , until now he is still
being detained in a Malaysian jail, pending a pure release from the Negeri
Sembilan Sultanate in West Malaysia which will take at least 6 months.

Adi's parents especially his mother Zakiyah and his father Asnawi were
very happy with Adi's acquittal from the gallows.

(source: The Jakarta Post)






LIBYA:

Men Face Possible Death for Planning Peaceful Demonstration----2 Others
'Disappeared' for Nearly 6 Months


The Libyan government should drop charges against 12 men, one of them a
Danish citizen, on trial for planning to hold a peaceful political
demonstration in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, Human Rights Watch said
today. 2 other men have "disappeared" since their arrest in connection
with the case nearly 6 months ago.

"For all its promises of better behavior and improved ties with the world,
Libya still imprisons those who express alternative political views, and
it has 'disappeared' others," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human
Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division. "12 men are
potentially facing death sentences, and two are missing in custody, their
whereabouts unknown."

The 2 "disappeared" men are `Abd al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi, a 4th-year medical
student who, together with the 12 men on trial, was reportedly organizing
the demonstration, and Jum`a Boufayed, brother of the demonstration's main
organizer, Dr. Idris Boufayed. Neither man has been seen since their
arrests in mid-February, nor have the Libyan authorities provided
information on their whereabouts.

Jum'a Boufayed was apparently not one of the demonstration planners.
Security agents arrested him a few hours after he gave an interview to a
Libyan website based abroad, www.libya- almostakbal.net, about his brother
Idris' arrest.

Security agents arrested the demonstration organizers on February 15 and
16, 2007. They had announced plans to hold a peaceful demonstration in
Tripoli on February 17 to commemorate the 1st anniversary of a violent
clash between demonstrators and police in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest
city.

On February 17, 2006, demonstrators attacked the Italian consulate in
Benghazi in response to statements by an Italian government minister
defending the controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that had
appeared in Danish and other European newspapers. The police used force to
disperse the crowd, killing at least 11.

The 12 men are on trial for planning to overthrow the government,
possession of arms, and meeting with an official from a foreign
government.

3 open court sessions have taken place with family members in attendance.
The 4th session on August 4 was postponed. The defendants have denied the
first 2 charges, but admit that some of them met an official from the US
embassy to inform him of their plans.

Despite Libyan pledges to abolish the death penalty, some or all of the
defendants could face execution. Article 206 of the Libyan penal code
imposes the death penalty on those who call "for the establishment of any
grouping, organization or association proscribed by law," and on those who
belong to or support such an organization.

Article 166 imposes the death penalty on anyone who talks to or conspires
with a foreign official to provoke or contribute to an attack against
Libya.

Article 167 imposes up to life in prison for conspiring with a foreign
official to harm Libya's military, political or diplomatic position.

It is not clear whether 'Abd al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi, apparently one of the
organizers, faces the same charges, even though he has never been produced
in court. The charges against Dr. Boufayed's brother Jum'a are also
unclear.

To Human Rights Watch's knowledge, none of the 14 men have called for or
advocated violence. The demonstration's main organizer, Dr. Idris
Boufayed, 50, is an outspoken critic of Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi
and runs a small exile group called the National Union for Reform.
Security agents detained him for 55 days on a previous occasion in
November-December 2006, after he wrote critical letters published on a
Libyan opposition website.

After 16 years in exile in Switzerland, Boufayed had returned to Libya for
a visit in September 2006. In recent years, al-Qadhafi and top government
officials have publicly promised that government critics could safely
return.

Another of the defendants, Jamal Ahmad al-Haji, is a recognized writer and
government critic. In an article he wrote a few days before his arrest, he
called for "freedom, democracy, a constitutional state, and law."

Jamal al-Haji holds Danish citizenship, which the Libyan government has
refused to recognize. The authorities have refused Danish government
requests to visit al-Haji, although such visits are allowed under the 1963
Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Some of the detainees reportedly suffer from medical ailments. Ahmad Yusif
al-'Ubaidi has serious problems with his legs and Al-Sadiq Salih Humaid
needs psychological care.

On July 30, Human Rights Watch wrote the Libyan government to inquire
about the 14 men, including the charges against them and the locations of
'Abd al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi and Jum'a Boufayed. As of August 13, the Libyan
government had not replied.

In a media interview on August 2, the son of Mu`ammar al-Qadhafi, Saif
al-Islam al-Qadhafi, who runs the influential Qadhafi Foundation for
Development, said the men had possessed arms and ammunition. "Idris
Boufayed and his people are terrorists," he told the BBC. "And you will
see with your own eyes in the trial that he's a terrorist." According to
Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi: "We got all the emails, his [Boufayed's] emails,
saying that we have to communicate with other people abroad. That we have
to go to the Green Square and we have to provoke the policemen and to let
them shoot at us and then we create another problem in Libya and we can
manipulate it and use it against the regime, and so on." From the
interview, it remains unclear who obtained Dr. Boufayed's alleged emails.

The trial of the 12 men follows the release last month of 5 Bulgarian
nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting more than 400
Libyan children with HIV. They spent 8 years in prison in a case marred by
torture and unfair proceedings.

Shortly after their release on July 24, Libya purchased anti-tank missiles
and communications systems worth more than $400 million from a company
jointly controlled by French and German interests. The European Commission
said it will negotiate an agreement with Libya that paves the way for
renewed partnership and cooperation.

"Governments and businesses should not embrace Libya just because it
released people from prison who should not have been there in the first
place," Whitson said. "Meanwhile these 12 men  one a European citizen
remain unjustly behind bars, while 2 remain completely unaccounted for."

The arrested men are:

1. Al-Mahdi Humaid

2. Al-Sadiq Salih Humaid

3. Faraj Humaid

4. 'Adil Humaid

5. 'Ali Humaid (5 brothers)

6. Ahmad Yusif al-'Ubaidi

7. 'Ala' al-Dirsi

8. Jamal al-Haji

9. Dr. Idris Boufayed

10. Farid al-Zuwi

11. Bashir al-Haris

12. Al-Sadiq Qashut

13. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi

14. Jum'a Boufayed (brother of Dr. Idris Boufayed)

For more of Human Rights Watch's work on Libya, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=mideast&c=libya

(source: Human Rights Watch)






INDONESIA:

Final Bali 9 appeal dismissed


A FINAL appeal against the death penalty by 3 members of the Bali nine has
been rejected.

During the appeal in Bali's Denpasar District Court, Australian heroin
couriers Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen pleaded for
their lives, saying their actions were stupid, Fairfax newspapers report.

However the judges dismissed the appeal before handing details of the
appeal to the Supreme Court which has the power to overrule their
decision.

"In our opinion the judicial review request is dismissed," the district
court judges said.

"Drug-related crimes are considered as an extraordinary anti-social act,"
they said.

Other members of the Bali nine - Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran - have challenged their death sentences by way of a
constitutional challenge for which a response is expected this month.

(source: The Herald Sun)






IRAN----executions

Iran hangs 2 drug smugglers


Iran has hanged 2 convicted drug smugglers in a prison in the town of
Taibad in the eastern Khorasan Razavi province, the student ISNA news
agency reported on Tuesday.

The men, identified as M.T. and M.R., were found guilty of bringing an
unidentified narcotic substance into the country, the agency said, quoting
the local judiciary.

The date of the execution was not specified.

It said that the local revolutionary court also warned that it was "the
security forces of the Islamic republic are ready to combat decisively
those who deal in death."

The hangings brought to at least 159 the number of executions carried out
in the Islamic republic so far this year, most of them by hanging and
often in public.

At least 177 people were executed in 2006, according to Amnesty
International, making Iran the most prolific applier of the death penalty
in the world after China.

Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy,
blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, pederasty, adultery or prostitution,
treason and espionage.

Iran has stepped up executions of rapists, drug traffickers and others
deemed a public menace in recent months as part of a campaign it says is
aimed at improving security in society.

(source: Agence France Presse)