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

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 17



INDONESIA/UNITED KINGDOM:

Manchester dad could face death penalty


A dad from Manchester could be facing the death penalty after being arrested on 
suspicion of drug smuggling in Indonesia, the Foreign Office has said.

53-year-old Jack Walker has been held in jail after being stopped at the 
airport in the capital Jakarta.,

It is understood the father of 2 was arrested as he was about to board a flight 
back to the UK.

Officials allegedly found a substantial amount of methylamphetamine, commonly 
known as crystal meth or 'ice'.

Mr Walker, who is a diabetic, collapsed after he was stopped and his family are 
anxious he may not be getting the right medication while in custody.

A friend of the family said: "The family fear he could be facing the death 
penalty or 20 years in jail.

"He is not the kind of guy that you would expect would get involved in anything 
like this."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of the arrest of a British 
national at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Indonesia. Consular 
assistance is being offered."

(source: ITN)






GLOBAL:

Top 5 countries to execute the most people


According to Amnesty International’s annual Death Sentences and Executions 
report, at least 527 people were executed in 23 countries in 2010, plus 
thousands in China. The number of people executed worldwide since 2007 is more 
than 2,500. Here are the 5 countries registering the most executions since 
2007:

5. Pakistan

Pakistan made the Top 5 despite a moratorium on executions imposed by the 
ruling Pakistan Peoples Party that prevented the government from executing 
anyone in 2009 or 2010. In 2007, 135 people were executed and 36 were in 2008.

Despite the moratorium on executions, Pakistan continued to sentence people to 
death – 276 in 2009 and 365 in 2010 – and thousands of people remain on death 
row from previous sentences, as noted by Monitor correspondent Issam Ahmed.

4. United States

The US, the only country in the Americas to execute people in the past few 
years, executed 46 people in 2010, down from the 2009 total of 52 but still a 
notable increase from the 2008 total of 37. The US has executed a total of 177 
since 2007.

Texas, Alabama, Ohio, Virginia, and Oklahoma are the states with the most 
executions since since 2007.

3. Iraq

Iraq executed at least 120 people in 2009, but Amnesty International has been 
unable to confirm how many were executed in 2010 – the 2010 tally is “1+,” 
meaning Amnesty only knows that at least one person was executed. That person 
was Ali Hassan Al-Majid, better known as “Chemical Ali,” who was hung on Jan. 
24, 2010. Despite the lack of numbers in 2010, Iraq still has the 3rd most 
executions on the books since 2007, with at least 188 confirmed.

Iraq also sentenced more people to death in 2009 than any other country other 
than China and has sentenced at least 1,129 people to death since 2007.

2. Iran

After carrying out more than 300 executions a year in 2007, 2008, and 2009, 
Iran executed at least 252 people in 2010 and at least 1,303 since 2007. A 
large percentage of Iranian executions are punishment for drug-related 
offenses. Seventeen members of Iran’s Kurdish minority are also on death row 
for what the report called “political offenses.”

Iran is also one of the few remaining countries to sentence people to death by 
stoning – the punishment for “adultery while married.” While no one was 
executed by stoning in 2010, at least 14 people were sentenced to it at the end 
of the year.

1. China

China is far and away the global leader in terms of the number of people 
executed: It executed at least 470 people in 2007 and at least 1,718 in 2008. 
For 2009 and 2010, Amnesty's report only lists “thousands” because of the 
Chinese government’s stance that such statistics are state secrets. In 2010, 
China executed more people than the rest of the world combined, according to 
Amnesty International.

According to the Death Sentences and Executions report, a large number of 
China’s death sentences are for drug-related offenses.

(source: Christian Science Monitor)






CHINA:

China must halt execution of Pakistan national


The Chinese government should halt the imminent execution of a Pakistan 
national, Amnesty International said today.

Syed Zahid Hussain Shah, a 36-year-old-Pakistani businessman, is due to be 
executed by lethal injection on 21 September.

Arrested in Shanghai in 2008 on drug trafficking charges, he was sentenced to 
death in 2010. That sentence was subsequently upheld by an appeal court and 
approved by China’s Supreme Court. Four other Pakistanis arrested with Shah 
were sentenced to life imprisonment.

“Executing someone for drug related offences violates internationally accepted 
standards for imposing the death penalty,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty 
International’s Asia Pacific Director. “The Chinese government should grant 
clemency in this case, particularly n light of its ‘special relationship’ with 
Pakistan.

"The Pakistani government should provide Shah with urgent additional consular 
assistance.”

Members of Shah’s family told Amnesty International that they believe he is 
innocent. They said he had been falsely implicated by his business partners.

Although Shah received consular assistance during his three years in detention, 
his family claim it was inadequate.

Pakistan’s Advisor for Human Rights told Amnesty International he has asked the 
President to intervene and request his Chinese counterpart to delay the 
execution.

No one sentenced to death receives a fair trial in China. Fair trial standards 
fall short of international commitments made by the Chinese government.

Allegations of torture are seldom investigated adequately. Many defendants are 
convicted based on confessions they insist were extracted through torture. 
Defendants are in effect presumed guilty unless they can prove their innocence, 
and often have limited access to legal counsel.

Statistics on the death penalty are a state secret. But Amnesty International 
estimates that China executes thousands of people every year, more than the 
rest of the world combined. It provides no clemency procedures for condemned 
prisoners after they have exhausted their appeals through the courts.

Amnesty calls on the National People’s Congress to introduce a legal procedure 
for clemency. An immediate moratorium should be placed on executions in China 
and all other countries that retain the death penalty, including Pakistan.

(source: Amnesty International)






NIGERIA:

4 Nigerians hit with terrorism rap


4 Nigerian men were charged yesterday with organizing a suicide bombing that 
killed 25 people and wounded more than 100 at the United Nations’ headquarters 
in Nigeria. The charges carry the death penalty.

The defendants are among 19 Nigerians believed to belong to a radical Muslim 
sect that claimed responsibility for the attack. The sect is known as Boko 
Haram, Hausa for “Western education is sacrilege.”

Prosecutors say Abdusalami Adamu, Danzumi Haruna, Salisu Mohammed and Musa 
Mukailu ordered a suicide bomber to drive a Honda SUV to the UN.

The suspects, who did not enter pleas, were ordered held until their next court 
appearance, scheduled for Nov. 3.

Boko Haram has engineered the assassination of local officials and bombed 
locations around Nigeria in the last year, continuing its campaign for the 
strict implementation of sharia law.

The prosecutor, Chijioke Okezie, told the court that government investigations 
into both the bombing and the sect were ongoing and that more arrests and more 
charges were possible.

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is split largely between a Christian 
south and a Muslim north. The existence of high unemployment and unceasing 
poverty in a nation that pulls in billions of dollars a year from oil 
production has fueled resentment in recent years, especially in the north. Boko 
Haram and other extremist groups have tapped into that unrest.

Meanwhile, another man charged yesterday is accused of carrying out a New 
Year’s Eve bomb attack on an army barracks in Abuja, killing at least four 
people and wounding 21.

The charges against Hamisu Husseini marked the first time authorities have 
linked that attack to Boko Haram.

(source: Associated Press)






SOMALIA:

Puntland Court Sentences Judge Killer to Death


A court in Somalia's Puntland region has convicted and sentenced a killer to 
death, Radio Garowe reports.

Mr. Mohamud Hassan Osman, Puntland's Attorney-General, told Puntland-based 
independent station Radio Garowe that Bossaso First Degree Court had ruled the 
death penalty after convicting Jama Abdullahi Abdulle.

Mr. Abdulle was convicted of killing court judge Abdinasir Haji Aden in front 
of the courthouse on Sept. 14, 2011. Mr. Abdulle was immediately captured by 
the court police, according to witnesses.

It was not immediately clear why Mr. Abdulle had targeted the court judge. Mr. 
Abdulle, who is the young brother of notorious Somali pirate Boyah, had 
previously served a jail term for piracy crimes.

Mr. Boyah, who was arrested by Puntland police in May 2010, remains in jail.

(source: All Africa News)