[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

August 18



CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC:

Rebel chief faces death penalty


The prosecutor in a Central African Republic case against a rebel leader
accused of plotting to assassinate President Francois Bozize requested a
death penalty on Friday.

Jean-Jacques Larmassoum, known as "lieutenant Larma", has admitted to
charges including threatening state security, conspiracy and rebellion,
and has alleged ex-president Ange-Felix Patasse hatched the plot.

"Larmassoum is guilty as charged, notably for serious crimes such as
assassinations, threatening state security, complicity, rebellion
etcetera," said prosecutor Modeste-Martineau Bria.

Bria rejected defence counsel claims that Larmassoum was insane, and also
requested "severe sentences" for co-defendants Sosthene Guetel and
Lydie-Florence Ndouba, members of Patasse's Central African People's
Liberation Movement (APRD).

The APRD made itself known by claiming responsibility - in communiqus
signed by "lieutenant Larma" - for raids conducted in September and
December 2005 in the towns of Markounda and Kabo, in the northwest of the
country.

'Recruit commandos to assassinate Bozize'

Prosecutors said the rebels answered to Patasse and their "goal was to
destabilise republican institutions and to take power".

At the time of his arrest on February 24, Larmassoum was allegedly trying
to recruit commandos to assassinate Bozize.

Patasse, who lives in exile in Togo, is to be tried in absentia next month
for misappropriation of public funds.

He is also accused by the international human rights federation (IHRF) of
war crimes committed by his forces in defeating a first coup attempt by
Bozize, launched from neighbouring Chad in October 2002.

(source: News 24)






JAPAN:

Japan cult death sentence upheld ---- The gas attack killed 12 and left
thousands ill

A court has upheld the death sentence for a Japanese chemist who oversaw
the development of nerve gas used in a 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway.

Masami Tsuchiya, 41, was sentenced to death in January 2004 for his role
in the attacks, which killed 12 people.

Prosecutors said he was the 2nd most important person in the Aum Shinrikyo
cult, which was behind the attack, after leader Shoko Asahara.

Asahara was sentenced to death in February 2004.

Chemist

The Tokyo High Court said Tsuchiya, who was studying for a doctorate in
chemistry, played in a key role in the cult's drive to develop chemical
weapons including VX, mustard and sarin gases.

"The Aum-related crimes, such as the sarin gas attack, could not have
taken place without him, and he was at the centre of the crimes," Kyodo
news agency quoted Judge Yu Shiraki as saying.

Tsuchiya was also convicted of producing sarin gas for a July 1994 attack
on a residential area in the central city of Matsumoto, which killed 7
people and injured 144 others.

The Tokyo subway attacks shocked the Japanese public.

Judicial proceedings against the accused have gone on for years,
complicated by lengthy witness testimony and replacements to the legal
teams.

Altogether, 12 cult members have been sentenced to death, but none of the
sentences have yet been carried out.

The cult changed its name to Aleph in 2000 and has renounced violence, but
is still heavily monitored by police.

(source: BBC News)






RWANDA:

Genocide suspects won't face execution in Rwanda ---- Move meant to
encourage nations to extradite suspected ringleaders


Rwanda plans to strike capital punishment for genocide suspects from its
statute books to encourage European and North American countries to
extradite suspected masterminds of the 1994 genocide, the attorney general
said Friday.

Rwanda has repeatedly demanded that Western nations extradite any genocide
suspects they may know are living in their countries, but some nations
have expressed reservations because Rwanda has the death penalty.

"I have just submitted a draft law on the waivers to the minister of
justice," Attorney General Martin Ngoga told The Associated Press.

Last month, Rwanda released a list of 93 genocide suspects thought to be
living in Western Europe and North America. Many on that list are former
political leaders and businesspersons.

"We know that capital punishment is a sensitive subject in Rwanda but we
would rather compromise a little and get the suspects here for trial than
allow them to roam the world freely," said Ngoga.

Rwandan genocide survivors' organizations have denounced moves to remove
capital punishment for any genocide suspects, especially those outside the
country, who they consider to be planners of the genocide.

The 1st and only execution of genocide convicts was carried out in 1998 at
a football field in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. In spite of pressure from
Western governments, 22 convicts were executed by firing squad.

About 600 convicts are on death row in Rwanda's crowded prisons.

Only the United States has extradited a genocide suspect to Rwanda. Last
year, Enos Kagaba was deported from Minnesota after he was judged to have
entered the United States illegally.

Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland have been pursuing genocide
suspects through their own courts.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that sits in the
northwestern Tanzania town of Arusha tries suspected masterminds of the
1994 genocide during which more than half a million members of the Tutsi
ethnic minority and moderates from the Hutu majority were slaughtered.

The tribunal was set up in 1994 and has so far convicted 20 suspects and
acquitted 3. Trials are under way for 27 others.

(source: Associated Press)