[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 12



INDONESIA:

Bali 9: officials given all-clear to move pair for execution ---- Indonesian 
officials have granted permission to transfer Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran 
out of Kerobokan jail



Bali officials have been granted permission to transfer Andrew Chan and Myuran 
Sukumaran out of Kerobokan jail for their executions.

Momock Bambang Samiarso, head of Bali provincial prosecutors, said a meeting on 
Thursday afternoon confirmed the Bali Nine pair would be transferred to be 
executed outside of Bali.

Prosecutors are trying to keep the transfer a secret, and the official avoided 
confirming the men would be taken to Nusakambangan, a prison island off central 
Java.

"We ask it to be as soon as possible," he said.

He also promised to give Chan, Sukumaran and their families the required 72 
hours notice of their executions.

The meeting came after heartfelt pleas in parliament by Julie Bishop and Tanya 
Plibersek, and the Indonesian foreign minister's reiteration that the men be 
dealt the ultimate punishment.

In an at times emotional speech to federal parliament, Bishop said the Sydney 
pair's attempt to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin out of Indonesia in 2005 was 
a grave crime that deserved punishment. But they didn't deserve to pay with 
their lives.

"Both men are deeply, sincerely remorseful for their actions," Bishop said. 
"Both men have made extraordinary efforts to rehabilitate."

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek followed with an equally 
powerful argument against the pair's executions.

She reflected on her husband Michael Coutts-Trotter's drug conviction 30 years 
ago, and what a loss it would have been if he was punished with death.

"They would have missed out on a man who spent the rest of his life making 
amends for the crime that he committed," she said.

Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi said she had received letters from 
both women and phone calls from the minister. Her replies were clear and 
consistent, she said.

"I have told Julie that this is not against a country, this is not against 
nationals of a certain country, but this is against a crime, against an 
extraordinary crime," she told reporters in Jakarta.

"We will keep on communicating, explaining, in consistent language like that."

While Indonesia and Australia keep trading views on the death penalty to no 
effect for Chan and Sukumaran, their families have continued visiting their 
prison daily.

Artist Ben Quilty and Victorian supreme court Judge Lex Lasry joined them on 
Thursday.

Only president Joko Widodo can save the men from execution but he gave a 
defiant vow this week not to succumb to outside pressure on the death penalty 
for drug felons.

In her statement, Bishop said besides more than 55 ministerial and prime 
ministerial representations for the men, high-profile Australians had made 
"discreet overtures to their influential Indonesian contacts".

The Indonesian government says around 18,000 deaths annually are due to drugs, 
but the researchers who compiled the report have said it was only ever intended 
to give a general picture of drug use.

(source: The Guardian)

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

Bali 9 ringleaders to be moved to a new prison ahead of impending executions



Indonesia ordered Bali 9 ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran be moved 
to another prison ahead of their impending executions.

Local authorities today received a permit letter ordering the men be moved from 
Kerobokan prison in coming days.

A meeting will be held tomorrow where their execution date is expected to be 
decided.

Indonesia's Attorney-General has requested the execution happen immediately, 
while the country???s foreign minister has told Julie Bishop the death penalty 
remained in place for "extraordinary crimes".

Chan and Sukumaran were convicted of attempting to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin from 
Bali to Australia in 2005.

The development comes as both sides of Australian politics made heartfelt pleas 
for the pair's lives to be spared.

Ms Bishop told of an "excruciating" meeting she had with the families of the 
death-row accused.

"They told me how it was virtually impossible to be strong for each other," Ms 
Bishop told parliament today.

"How could anyone be failed to be moved?"

-----

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek has begged for the lives 
of Bali 9 drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to be spared.

Her Opposition counterpart Tanya Plibersek joined her in calling for clemency, 
telling the house she had a unique perspective into their plight.

"I have a particular view about remorse and redemption - in 1988 my husband 
left prison after being convicted and sentenced to a very similar crime ... and 
he's spent the rest of his life making amends for his crime," she said.

Ms Plibersek's husband, Michael Coutts-Trotter, was jailed in 1986 at age 21 
for conspiracy to import narcotics.

(source: 9news.com.au)

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

Wife fears execution near for Frenchman on Indonesia death row



The wife of a Frenchman on death row in Indonesia for drug offences said on 
Wednesday she will continue to fight for his release despite fears he might be 
executed soon.

Serge Atlaoui, has a "sword of Damocles hanging over his head", his wife Sabine 
Atlaoui told an anti-death penalty press conference.

The Frenchman, 51, saw his appeal for clemency rejected in January by 
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, a vocal supporter of capital punishment for 
drug offenders.

"He is scared that he will never see his children again," said Atlaoui's wife, 
who said she is still "holding onto hope".

Atlaoui, a father of 4, was arrested near Jakarta in 2005 in a secret 
laboratory producing ecstasy. He was sentenced to death in 2007 on drug 
trafficking charges.

Imprisoned in Indonesia for 10 years, he has always denied the charges saying 
he was installing industrial machinery in what he thought was an acrylics 
factory.

According to local media reports, Atlaoui, 1 of 7 foreigners on Indonesia's 
death row, could soon face execution.

His lawyer in Indonesia filed a request last Tuesday for a trial review, a 
last-ditch attempt to save his client's life.

Sabine Atlaoui says she has placed all her hopes in the review and will 
continue to fight for her "innocent" husband.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was scheduled to visit Indonesia to try 
to get Atlaoui off death row, but had to postpone his trip because of the 
crisis in Ukraine.

He did, however, speak to his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi on 
Wednesday, to remind him of France's anti-death penalty stance, a foreign 
ministry spokesperson told AFP.

French President Francois Hollande also wrote to Widodo last month asking him 
to grant Atlaoui a reprieve, the spokesperson said.


Around 12 Indonesians and foreigners are on death row following drug offence 
convictions in a country with the some of the toughest drug laws in the world.

The country executed 6 drug offenders last month, 5 of them foreigners.

(source: Agence France-Presse)

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

Australia makes last-ditch Indonesia appeal for death row drug traffickers



Australia has made an urgent appeal for the lives of 2 citizens facing imminent 
execution in Indonesia on drug convictions. Canberra says Jakarta should show 
the same mercy it pleads for in similar situations.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop called on Indonesia to spare the lives 
of convicted heroin smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, whom Jakarta 
said last week were part of a group it was preparing to execute by firing 
squad.

The pair were convicted in 2006 as the ringleaders of the so-called 'Bali 9' 
group, caught in 2005 trying to smuggle 8.3 kilograms (18.3 pounds) of heroin 
out of Bali. Sentences in the case ranged from 15 years' jail to death.

Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33, recently lost their final appeals for clemency 
from Indonesian President Joko Widodo, a vocal supporter of capital punishment. 
Lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran on Wednesday lodged a rare legal challenge to 
the president's decision.

Bishop told parliament in Canberra the pair had made "shocking mistakes," but 
deserved another chance.

"This motion goes to the heart of what we believe will be a grave injustice 
against two Australian citizens facing execution in Indonesia," she said.

"We are not understating the gravity of the nature of these crimes. Without 
doubt, Andrew and Myuran need to pay for their crimes with lengthy jail 
sentences but they should not need to pay with their lives," Bishop said. "Both 
men have made extraordinary efforts to rehabilitate."

Hundreds of Indonesians face death penalty abroad

Bishop said the Indonesian government was trying to seek the release of more 
than 200 citizens facing the death penalty overseas.

"We urge the Indonesian government to show the same mercy to Andrew and Myuran 
that it seeks for its citizens in the same situation abroad."

Australian judge Lex Lasry said this was relevant to the case of Chan and 
Sukumaran.

"Indonesia itself of course is endeavoring to do what it can to save the lives 
of Indonesian citizens who are on death rows in other countries. That's 
obviously relevant to this case and it may well be that other countries are 
saying, 'Well, in order for us to be sympathetic to your cause on behalf of 
your citizens, we need to consider what you are proposing to do to not just the 
2 Australians, but another seven or eight people,'" Lasry told ABC TV's 7.30 
program.

Lasry said the men are holding up well but are "extremely apprehensive."

The executions threaten to strain already fragile relations between the 2 
countries. Tensions flared in 2013 after reports Canberra had spied on top 
Indonesian officials - including the former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono 
and his wife.

Indonesia executed 6 people for drugs offences in January, 5 of them foreign 
nationals from Brazil, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Malawi and Vietnam.

(source: Deutsche Welle)








AUSTRALIA:

Bali 9: Australia must widen death penalty opposition, says Philip Ruddock ---- 
The attorney general at the time of the 2005 arrests says Australia must go 
beyond campaigning only in those countries where its citizens are involved



Philip Ruddock, the attorney general at the time of the Bali 9 arrests for 
heroin trafficking in 2005, has said Australia needs a "fundamental review" of 
how it advocates for the abolition of the death penalty.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, Ruddock, who was also the chief law 
officer when Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van was executed in Singapore in 2005, 
said he had personally raised the American use of the death penalty with the 
then president George Bush Sr when he visited Australia more than 20 years ago.

"There needs to be a fundamental review in relation to our advocacy on the 
death penalty not only in relation to Indonesia but to the United States, 
China, Iran and Saudi Arabia," he said.

"We don't have Australians on death row in the US, China, Iran or Saudi Arabia, 
but I think we need to be willing to be work on those issues."

Australia has been criticised for lack of strong advocacy on the death penalty 
apart from when its own citizens are on death row. Ruddock is a long-time 
opponent of capital punishment and called Nguyen's execution for heroin 
trafficking "barbaric".

He was the lead signatory to a letter signed by more than 100 Australian 
politicians pleading for Indonesia to show mercy to Andrew Chan and Myuran 
Sukumaran, who have been sentenced to death for their attempt to traffic heroin 
into Australia.

The 2 men, ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine, have exhausted legal appeals 
and their execution by firing squad is scheduled for this month. Bali officials 
have been granted permission to transfer the condemned men out of Kerobokan 
jail for their executions.

On Thursday, Ruddock addressed the foreign affairs, defence and trade 
legislation committee following a parliamentary clemency motion for Chan and 
Sukumaran. The committee is believed to have visited the Indonesian ambassador, 
Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, to make a last-ditch plea for mercy.

Ruddock defended the role of the Australian federal police in the arrest of the 
9 people involved in the trafficking attempt. The AFP tipped off its Indonesian 
counterparts about a potential drug trafficking attempt and passed on the names 
of most of the Bali 9 and their flight details, despite the offence attracting 
the death penalty. 7 drug couriers are serving lengthy jail terms for their 
involvement.

The AFP has always defended its actions as inter-country police co-operation. 
In 2006, Justice Paul Finn ruled its actions lawful, but urged a review of 
policies that could expose Australians to the death penalty. The procedures 
were tightened in 2009.

As attorney general, Ruddock formally withdrew Australia's co-operation after 
the Bali 9 were charged because the offences carried the death penalty, but at 
that point Indonesia said it no longer needed Australia's help to prosecute.

"Where it is clear that the death penalty might be sought - that is, where you 
are seeking to extradite somebody - you would seek an assurance that they would 
not apply to use the death penalty before you deliver them up," Ruddock told 
Guardian Australia. "But that has never been the case in relation to the 
sharing of information with police abroad."

He said it would be wrong for police only to share information with an 
assurance that the death penalty would not be sought before knowing what the 
offence might be.

"An issue that might involve a terrorist act in Indonesia in which a large 
number of Australians might possibly lose their lives - would it be seriously 
argued we should not provide the Indonesians with information we have received 
which may have enabled the prevention of that on the basis that if they carried 
it out and they later arrested them ... it might carry the death penalty?"

The former foreign minister Bob Carr has called on the AFP to provide a "more 
compelling explanation" as to why it tipped off the Indonesian police.

Ruddock said Australians should not give up attempts to save Chan and 
Sukumaran, but their executions were "getting perilously close, unfortunately".

(source: The Guardian)








NEW ZEALAND:

Time to Kill the Death Penalty



It is very likely that within the next couple of weeks two Australian drug 
dealers will be executed in Indonesia. There is an understandable sense of 
revulsion developing about that probability, leading to a renewed focus in this 
part of the world at least about the barbarity of the death penalty. A New 
Zealander is about to go on trial in Indonesia on drug-related charges and 
could well face the same fate, which gives added relevance to the outcome of 
the case of the 2 Australians.

While we do not, nor should not, condone their crimes - even they admit their 
guilt - we are as a civilised society repulsed by the fate that waits them.

But we are also a hypocritical society. Virtually every week, there is an 
execution or 2 in the United States - the victims often being of low 
intelligence, and the execution process botched and unnecessarily prolonged and 
painful - and we do not bat an eyelid. Our new best friend, China, routinely 
executes miscreants for all manner of offences, and we stay silent for fear of 
upsetting them. The Saudi Arabian regime beheads, stones, hangs or maims people 
after prayers each week, yet we honour the late King by flying our flag at 
half-mast on official buildings. There is no difference between each of these 
situations and the firing squads now being lined up in Indonesia.

Well, you might ask, aside from chest-thumping and expressions of outrage, what 
can New Zealand do, if anything, about all this? Is this not a matter of 
national sovereignty, been left for countries to deal with as they see fit, 
without the interference of well-meaning external busy bodies?

There are 2 courses of action New Zealand could follow. We should be prepared 
to speak out against the death penalty, as and when it is applied, on the 
principle that no state has the right to deprive its citizens of life. We 
should be strongly supporting the advocacy work of groups like Amnesty 
International and generally not giving succour to the death penalty states.

Over the next 2 years we have the advantage of being a member of the United 
Nations Security Council. As a small, independent state, generally recognised 
as having a good human rights record, we should be using that role to promote 
an international campaign for the elimination of the death penalty. In 1994, we 
were, as a member of the Council, able to bring a human rights focus to the 
resolution of the Rwandan crisis, being widely applauded and still remembered 
for that achievement. We have the credibility to be similarly effective, were 
we to take on the death penalty challenge during our current term.

It will be too late for the Australians in Indonesia and for others immediately 
similarly threatened, but being part of a successful international campaign for 
the abolition of the death penalty, however idealistic and impractical it may 
seem, is a worthy goal to strive for. It would be great to see New Zealand pick 
up the challenge.

(source: Commentary, Peter Dunne, Scoop News)








EGYPT:

Egypt Brotherhood leader's death sentence struck down



An Egyptian appellate court has quashed the death penalty handed down to 36 
Muslim Brotherhood members, including its spiritual leader, and ordered a 
retrial.

On Wednesday, Egypt's Court of Cassation overturned death sentences handed to 
Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 35 others, the website of the 
Egyptian daily newspaper al-Ahram reported. No date has been set for a fresh 
trial.

The defendants were indicted for raiding a police station in the Egyptian city 
of Minya, killing a police officer and 8 others. The Minya court of first 
instance had initially sentenced several hundred supporters of former President 
Mohamed Morsi to death.

The Cassation Court accepted the appeals filed by only 36 of 136 defendants 
against their June sentence in the case known locally as 'Adwa incidents', 
named according to a village in Minya governorate where clashes erupted after 
the ouster of former president, Mohamed Morsi, in August 2013.

In 2014, 4 Brotherhood members got life term and 1 was sentenced to 15 years in 
jail while 14 others got 7 years in prison.

Egypt's 2011 revolution led to the overthrow of the dictator, Hosni Mubarak. In 
an election after Mubarak's ouster, Muslim Brotherhood-backed Morsi was elected 
president.

Morsi was later ousted in a military coup led by former military chief and 
current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013.

The Egyptian government has been cracking down on any opposition since Morsi 
was ousted. Sisi has been accused of leading the suppression of Morsi 
supporters, as hundreds of them have been killed in clashes with Egyptian 
security forces over the past year.

Rights groups say the army's crackdown on the supporters of Morsi has led to 
the deaths of over 1,400 people and the arrest of 22,000 others, including some 
200 people who have been sentenced to death in mass trials.

(source: Press TV)