[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 14


IRAN:

Executions: 4 Youths aged 22 to 27 years hanged in public in one week----
92 executions and death sentences in the last 4 1/2 months


State-run media reported that in the past few days the anti-human mullahs
regime in Iran has hanged 4 prisoners in public and handed down 8 death
sentences including to one woman prisoner.

Keyhan reported on November 13 the hanging of two youths named Mokhtar (24
years-old) and Ali (25 years-old) on charges of homosexuality in the
Bahonar Square of the city of Gorgan. It also reported on November 8 the
hanging of another youth named Ahmad Norouzian (22 years-old) in the
Khazar Square of Sari city. The state-run daily Iran reported on November
12 that another prisoner named Majid (27 years-old) was hanged.

That brings the number of hangings and death sentences in the last 4 1/2
months - precisely after Ahmadinejads instatement - to at least 92 which
show an increase of more than 100 % compared to the first 6 months of the
year.

The mullahs regime has also stepped up its cruel and inhuman punishments.
On November 12 the regimes security forces paraded 7 youth in a very
degrading manner in the town of Tonekabon in Northern Iran. The regime
aims to intimidate the youth with such disgraceful acts.

The Iranian Resistance calls on international human rights organizations
to condemn the wave of inhumane executions in Iran and demands the
adoption of a strongly-worded resolution at the current session of the
United Nations General Assembly to censure the systematic and flagrant
violations of human rights in Iran.

(source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran)






AUSTRALIA/SINGAPORE:

NO MORAL DEFENCE FOR DEATH ROW


"I just don't see the sense of killing people to say that killing people's
wrong." Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking.

Susan Sarandon might have convinced audiences across the world of the
moral outrage of the death penalty with her Oscar-winning portrayal of
death row counsellor Sister Helen Prejean.

But, although she was portraying a real-life character, this was just a
brutally effective film.

In 75 countries, the death penalty is retained and used.

Since 2000, executions have been carried out by beheading, electrocution,
hanging, lethal injection, shooting and stoning.

In Singapore, 25-year-old Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van is on death row
and, barring a last-minute reprieve, will be hanged.

Nguyen, who has no previous criminal convictions, was arrested trying to
carry 396.2g of heroin through Singapore's Changi airport in 2002, during
a transit stop. He told authorities he was trying to help his twin brother
pay legal debts.

Singapore has a mandatory death penalty for possession of more than 15g of
heroin. Possession of the drug is regarded as prima facie evidence of
trafficking.

If killed, Nguyen will become the 1st Australian citizen to be executed
since Sydney barman Michael McAuliffe in Malaysia in 1993, hanged on
heroin-related charges.

On Monday, Australia's federal Parliament made an unprecedented bipartisan
appeal to the Singaporean Government to spare Nguyen's life.

Only maverick Western Australian Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey objected,
arguing Australians would become prized as drug mules if Nguyen's sentence
was commuted.

Sadly, Nguyen's case is yet to captivate the Australian public such as
that of Schapelle Corby. Some social commentators, including Phillip
Adams, have argued this is because Corby is an attractive white woman,
while Nguyen is a man of Asian descent.

However, this is just one of many side issues. The chief outrage is the
death penalty, or, more bluntly, legal killing.

It is not considered polite for Australian politicians to "interfere" in
the legal system of another country. But, as renowned ethicist Dr Simon
Longstaff says: "If this is a serious proposition, then all that a vicious
tyrant, in the mould of Saddam Hussein, would have to do is pass a few
laws to cover his brutality - and Australia would remain silent".

One common argument in support of the death penalty is deterrence - that
the threat of capital punishment will stop people committing murder or
smuggling drugs.

Yet research conducted for the United Nations found there is no evidence
to support this theory.

The Australian Coalition Against the Death Penalty cites British Home
Office data showing the U.S. (the only Western nation retaining the death
penalty) has a murder rate 3 times that of many of its European allies who
have banned the practice.

Since 1973, 121 death row prisoners have been released in the U.S. after
evidence emerged of their innocence.

There is no moral justification for the death penalty.

It is a simplistic and barbaric response to the outrage of severe crime.

Put simply, there is no logic in legally killing someone because they have
killed someone, or because the drugs they are smuggling might kill
someone.

(source: Paul Starick, The Advertiser)

*********************

Downer holds little hope for death row Aussie


Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer remains pessimistic about the
fate of an Australian man due to be hanged in Singapore for drug
trafficking.

Van Nguyen, 25, was arrested at Singapore's Changi airport in 2002.

He has appealed for clemency but his application has been refused.

Mr Downer says he hopes to talk to Singapore's Foreign Minister, George
Yeo, about Nguyen at this week's APEC Foreign Ministers meeting in the
South Korean city of Pusan.

He says the clear message he is getting from the Singaporeans is that the
decision to execute Nguyen has been made and will not be changed.

"To be honest with you I'm not hopeful," he said.

"I've been continuing to do what I can to save Van Nguyen's life, but to
be honest with you I'm not having much success."

(source: ABC News)