[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 14



KUWAIT:

Death row rapist nabbed, Syrian 'friend' robs Kuwaiti


Officers of the Sentences Enforcement Department Wednesday arrested an
Asian expatriate who was earlier sentenced to death in absentia in a
kidnapping and rape case.

Allegedly, the Asian was found guilty of kidnapping an Indonesian woman
and raping her at gunpoint. Securitymen tracked him and arrested him at
his hideout in Farwaniya.

He was handed to authorities for the execution of his sentence.

(source: Arab Times)






UKRAINE:

Rada communist leaders for death penalty


Rada committee on legal support for law-enforcement activities has
recommended VR to pass a bill in the first reading reinstituting a death
penalty. "Violence caused by maniacs raises special concern as they
terrorize the populace and kill tens of Ukrainians. Saving the lives of
such cut-throats has little to do with humanitarian issues," the bill
authors say. Communist lawmaker Oleksandr Holub who initiated the bill has
this to say:

"We are speaking about premeditated and especially ruthless murders,
murders committed after a preliminary complicity by a group of persons and
coupled with rape."

- How did the discussion of your bill in VR go? What were the main
arguments of your opponents?

"The discussion aroused interest. The bill was supported by 7 committee
members, with 4 voting against. According to opponents, Ukraine has to
meet its obligations to international organizations, specifically, to the
European Union. My arguments were: Ukrainian do not walk the safe streets
of the EU, they walk our streets and parks where they are raped,
burglarized and killed.

- There is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty is an efficient
deterrent to crime. On the contrary, there are many facts about fatal
mistakes of investigation and courts in sentencing the wrong people to
death. A life sentence can allow to correct these mistakes, while
reinstitution of a death penalty takes away this chance.

"We propose that death sentences be passed by a jury. To avoid fatal
mistakes, we also propose that death sentence prisoners be executed only 6
months after the appropriate court verdict.

Now about the deterrent to crime. In the Soviet Union about 2,000
premeditated murders were committed annually. Nowadays, more than 5,000
are registered. This is a telling statistics.

According to Amnesty International NGO, 80 countries have cancelled a
death penalty for all kinds of crimes, 15 countries cancelled it with
exceptions, and 23 countries have laws banning it but these laws are not
enforced.

Simultaneously, 78 countries use a death penalty, among them the United
States, Jaspan, China and Egypt.

(source: Western Information Agency)






INDIA:

'Zero tolerance policy' ---- Possible death penalty to hijackers instead
of life imprisonment


The government has responded to the growing terror threat after TIMES NOW
exposed the ULFA's plot to hijack a plane. It has been learnt that the
Civil Aviation Minister -- Praful Patel -- wants death penalty, instead of
the present life sentence for those plotting to hijack a plane.

The Indian government is in a process of ammending The Anti-Hijacking Act
of 1982, which provides a maximum penalty of life sentence for hijacking.
As per the new law, anyone convicted of planning to use a plane as a
missile is likely to receive death penalty. Praful Patel brought the issue
to the cabinet on Thursday (February 14, 2008) and he is likely to get a
nod from his colleagues. The minister said, "Hijacking is an unpardonable
crime and the government wants to send out a strong message."

The new measures will flow from the anti-hijacking policy cleared by the
Cabinet Committee on Security in August 2005. It allows shooting down of a
"hostile plane if there is conclusive evidence that it is likely to be
used as a missile to blow up strategic establishments", on the lines of
the 9/11 Al-Qaeda attacks in the US in 2001. The policy will recognise
that, hijacked aircraft can be transformed into a "hostile" entity.

These new amendments, will make the law more stringent, and has proposed
death sentence for hijackers who use or seek to use the aircraft as a
"missile". The move was undertaken by the government with the aim to
reduce the reaction time and has proposed that if an aircraft registered
in India is hijacked, personnel at all airports will have the power to
immobilise the same without seeking any permission from superior
authorities. The airborne hijacked plane, according to the new proposal,
will be immediately surrounded by fighter aircrafts within the Indian
airspace. The Indian Air Force has been given the authority to take
necessary steps for scrambling fighters to guard and guide the hijacked
aircraft and force it to land on an Indian airport, according to the
anti-hijack policy of 2005.

India is yet too recover from the shocking IC 814 hijacking in 1999 where
the Vajpayee government was forced to release three wanted criminals
including Jaishe Mohammed, Chief Maulana Masood Azhar to ensure the return
of the plane and the passengers. So far, only three men have been
sentenced and they were the small fish. They received life sentences,
however, for worse crimes, there is finally some tough legislation.

Six years after the greatest catastrophe in aviation history -- 9/11 --
the Indian government has finally got its act together by amending The
Anti - Hijacking Act of 1982. On February 12, 2008 TIMES NOW brought the
inside story of how the ULFA schemed with the ISI to hijack a plane from
Guwahati to Pakistan. The plot was exposed before it was too late. But
finally for these worse crimes there is some tough punishment.

(source: Times Now)