[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 10


RUSSIA:

Political will required to abolish death penalty - Russian MP


The Russian authorities should show political will and abolish the death
penalty in Russia at the legislative level, Federation Council Foreign
Affairs Committee Chairman Mikhail Margelov said.

"Any referendum on the issue is predictable in Russia, and it is quite
obvious that the majority of Russians will cast their ballot in favor of
the death penalty. Russia needs to put an end to discussions on the issue
so that the death penalty is legally abolished," he said in an interview
with Interfax.

Russia has yet to ratify some protocols to the Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, he said.

"The death penalty issue and the fact that we have yet to ratify its
protocols, give an irrefutable argument to our critics in the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)," he said.

Russia undertook a commitment to participate in priority projects
implemented by the European Court of Human Rights when it acceded to the
organization, he said.

"The court needs to be reformed. It cannot cope with the ever- increasing
burden in its current state, because more and more people from European
countries, including from Russia, are turning to it every year," Margelov
said.

We need to improve the procedure of accepting claims, as well as to
tighten control over the court's activity and to establish a new
institution of rapporteurs, he said.

(source: Interfax)






IRAQ:

Iraq's president urges another execution delay ---- Saddam's co-defendants
were scheduled to be hanged with ex-leader


Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday the government should delay
the execution of 2 of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants.

Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, Barzan Ibrahim, and
Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraqs Revolutionary Court, were
sentenced to death with Saddam.

They were found guilty, along with the former Iraqi leader, of involvement
in killing 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the
former leader in the northern town of Dujail.

"In my opinion we should wait on the executions," Talabani said Wednesday
at a news conference with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. "We
should examine the situation," he said without elaborating.

Ibrahim and al-Bandar were originally scheduled to be executed with Saddam
on Dec. 30. Their executions were postponed, however, until after the
Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which ended a week ago.

Iraqi officials have said the 2 men were expected to be hanged in the
coming days, but no date has been released. Talabani said he did not know
when Ibrahim and al-Bandar would be hanged.

Saddam's execution devolved into an unruly scene that brought worldwide
criticism of the Iraqi government. Video of the execution, recorded on a
cell phone camera, showed the former dictator being taunted on the
gallows.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that Khalilzad asked him
to delay Saddam's execution for 10 days to 2 weeks, but added that Iraqi
officials rejected the demand.

(source: Associated Press)