[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 21



MALAYSIA:

Hangings of Kevin Barlow and Brian Geoffrey Chambers in Malaysia destroyed 
families' lives



The tragedy of the 1986 hanging of Kevin John Barlow and Brian Geoffrey 
Chambers behind the imposing concrete walls of Malaysia's Pudu Prison, was for 
me, not the death of the 2 men I had come to know, but in the victims it left 
behind.

I remember my 1st meeting with the 2 men inside the Penang Prison, a relic of 
the British Colonial justice system, built in the 1850s to house 350 prisoners 
but by November 1983, when Barlow and Chambers were arrested, stuffed to 
overflowing with some 2000 inmates.

Despite the crowded conditions, they were in good spirits. They shared a cell. 
The prison was old but kept meticulously clean by a tough but fair-minded 
prison warden of the old school. They were allowed the luxury of Western food 
and time to exercise and sit outside in the sunlight.

They had made a pact, they said, "not to get their families involved".

After all, it was only a "matter of time before things would be sorted, bribes 
paid and they we will be back in Oz again".

They had no sense of their plight - seemingly oblivious to the fact the 
Malaysian Government, in an attempt to crack down on a blossoming and insidious 
drug trade taking hold of the country, had recently introduced new laws making 
the death penalty mandatory for any one in possession of just 15g of a banned 
narcotic.

Barlow and Chambers had been arrested with 179g of low-grade heroin hidden in a 
suitcase - detained by an "observant policeman" who noticed Barlow's nervous 
demeanour as they tried to check in at the Malaysia Airlines 1st-class counter 
for a flight to Kuala Lumpur and a connection to Sydney.

I remember, too, just 18 months later - when their trial began on July 17, 1985 
- that Barlow and Chambers would no longer look each other in the eye. They 
hardly spoke.

The local lawyer, Rasiah Rajahsingham, who had initially been engaged to 
represent both men, had quickly determined that given the evidence against 
them, he could at best save only one.

Now they would be represented by individual counsel - Barlow by charismatic 
political opposition figure and lawyer Karpal Singh, while Rajahsingham chose 
to stay with Chambers.

No one could possibly imagine the anguish of a last goodbye to a son or a 
brother, knowing that in the morning they will be taken out and killed at dawn.

They turned on each other. The parents and family members who Barlow and 
Chambers had early agreed to "keep out of it" now watched on helplessly from 
the court gallery, as each man tried to implicate the other in a desperate 
gambit that at best would send 1 man to the gallows while the other walked 
free.

Parents, sisters, brothers and supporters struggled to understand why the 
guilty party wouldn't own up and accept the blame so "my boy" could live.

It was a high-risk strategy that in the end meant only that in their efforts to 
save themselves, each had condemned the other to die.

The presiding judge found that by their own admissions, Barlow and Chambers had 
arrived, stayed, and were leaving together with an amount of illicit narcotics 
in their joint possession and therefore had a common purpose of trafficking 
drugs.

I remember too, the steamy, oppressive heat of the packed courtroom in Penang, 
where on August 1, 1985, Barlow and Chambers were sentenced to death by 
hanging; the angry, anguished glare of despair as Chambers turned on the 
Australian tabloid reporter who had dared demand a response to a shouted 
question as the condemned men were led from the courthouse: "How does it feel, 
Geoff, how does it feel?"

"How do you think it f---ing feels, you idiot!" he responded.

And I remember lying to Chambers' sister, Kathryn back at the hotel later when 
through her tears she asked: "They don't hang white men in Malaysia, do they?"

"No," I offered in reply, knowing full well they probably would.

What followed was a 12-month period of failed legal appeals, the intervention 
of Australian lawyers to no avail, passionate appeals for a stay of execution 
by both then Australian prime minister Bob Hawke and his foreign minister, Bill 
Hayden, a petition for clemency delivered to the governor of Penang, and 
finally a joint letter from Barbra Barlow and Sue Chambers to the king of 
Malaysia, Sultan Iskandar, pleading for their lives.

With each desperate manoeuvre came brief moments of hope, as the Malaysian 
officials' ditherings were interpreted as a possible weakening of their resolve 
to proceed with the hangings; only to be followed by heartbreak and angst as 
each was dismissed or rejected out of hand.

The families left no stone unturned enlisting the support of British prime 
minister Margaret Thatcher, and even the Pope, in a bid for mercy in order to 
save their loved ones.

But Malaysia's strongman prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, with a domestic 
political constituency to play to, was unmoved and determined to make an 
example of the "criminal Westerners".

He dismissed the argument that no one had the right to take another's life with 
the curt response, "you should tell that to the drug traffickers".

And I remember the gut-wrenching moment of watching Barbara Barlow and her 
children, Michelle and Christopher; Sue and Brian Chambers and daughters 
Margaret and Kathryn, returning from their last visit to the condemned men - 
heartbroken and distraught.

No one could possibly imagine the anguish of a last goodbye to a son or a 
brother, knowing that in the morning they will be taken out and killed at dawn.

This was not saying goodbye to a loved one who was dying of some illness; this 
was an attempt at parting words of love and comfort to those who would the 
subject of state-sanctioned murder. This was innocent bystanders being 
condemned to a trauma so uniquely painful and poignant to be unimaginable.

And I recall coming to the realisation at that moment, that the death penalty 
is not confined just to the prisoners whose lives it takes in the name of 
justice, but that it also condemns family and loved ones to a rollercoaster of 
hope and despair so wrenching and exhausting, that ultimately it extinguishes 
something deep inside them forever. All this in the name of justice.

The parallels between the cases of Barlow and Chambers and that of the Bali 
Nine ring leaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, are many.

Barlow and Chambers were not evil men. Stupid, naive - greedy, even, - but like 
Chan and Sukumaran, capable and perhaps deserving of redemption and a second 
chance.

I remember standing outside of Purdu Prison in the early hours of July 7, 1986, 
when at 6.50am a prison goods truck rolled through the big steel gates.

Inside were he bodies of Barlow and Chambers - their tagged and exposed feet 
providing proof to the waiting mean and women of the press that Malaysian 
justice had indeed been done.

Barbara Barlow would later say she felt her son's moment of death: "At 6.08 my 
heart skipped a beat. I knew it was over."

Sue Chambers released a handwritten statement: "I believe in God. No one has 
the right to take someone else's life. It is inhuman. There is no more to be 
said. But he will be free forever."

Chan and Sukumaran, like Barlow and Chambers, may well be freed forever by 
their state-sanctioned killings.

It is those who are left behind who receive a life sentence.

And it is for them, we should also grieve.

(source: Bruce Dover is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald 
Sun and covered this case from the arrest of Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers to 
their hanging----Herald Sun)








INDONESIA:

TNI to safeguard prison island as Jokowi firm on execution policy



President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo made it clear on Friday that the postponed 
executions of 11 death row convicts, including 2 Australians, was simply the 
result of technical problems in the field and it had no relation at all to 
Australia's pressure on Indonesia to drop the decision.

"No, there were no such issues. It is within our legal sovereignty [to execute 
the convicts]," Jokowi said at the Bogor Palace. "I believe the delay is due to 
technical issues; just ask the attorney general [about the details]."

The President then asked Vice President Jusuf Kalla to brief reporters about 
his telephone conversation with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on 
Thursday, in which the Australian diplomat clarified the statement from Prime 
Minister Tony Abbott that was perceived as offensive to Indonesia. The Prime 
Minister said Australia would feel "grievously let down" if the executions 
proceeded despite the A$1 billion that was given in aid after the 2004 tsunami 
devastated Aceh and Nias in North Sumatra. Kalla, who previously denied 
speculations that the postponement of the executions was based on pressure from 
Abbott, said Bishop phoned him on Thursday to clarify Abbott's statement.

"Yesterday [Thursday], Foreign Minister Bishop explained, and certainly 
regretted, the misunderstanding," Kalla said.

According to the Vice President, Bishop also said that Abbott merely tried to 
emphasize the long history of good relations between the 2 countries, including 
the period in which Aceh was devastated by a tsunami.

Quoting the Australian diplomat, Kalla said Australia wanted to continue 
cooperating with Indonesia in a variety of areas, including the fight against 
drug abuse and trafficking.

Attorney General M. Prasetyo, whose office is responsible for carrying out the 
execution, reiterated that the government decided to delay the executions from 
the original date earlier this month simply for technical reasons.

He also warned Australia not to intervene in Indonesia's domestic affairs. "We 
never put pressure on others; we hope they also do not put pressure on us," 
said the attorney general.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen. Moeldoko supported the 
President's decision saying that he was ready to deploy military personnel to 
secure the execution site from any threats.

Moeldoko said that he would provide any support that the government needed to 
complete the executions of the 11 convicts, including the 2 Australians that 
the current controversy is centered around, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

"The TNI will never be influenced by anything or by anybody. On the death 
penalty issue, we have a clear stance; right or wrong this is my country," 
Moeldoko said.

Moeldoko said military leaders would hold a meeting with the Attorney General's 
Office (AGO) and the Law and Human Rights Ministry to discuss possible threats 
that might emerge before and during the executions.

"We will make a detailed emergency plan to prepare for any disruptions that may 
interfere with the executions," Moeldoko said.

Although Moeldoko declined to give further information on what kind of security 
threats might emerge as a result of the executions, he insisted that he had 
sufficient information from TNI intelligence reports.

"Of course we don't want to clearly state the threats that may come from 
certain countries. But the TNI understands that there are possible threats. 
This is why we asked the head of military intelligence to attend the meeting," 
he said, adding that he was ready to deploy military personnel whenever the 
government needed it.

For instance, the military will allocate its personnel to secure several areas 
in Nusakambangan prison island, Central Java, where the executions are set to 
take place.

"There are several empty roads on the island that need to be secured from 
outsiders," the 4-star general said.

(source: The Jakarta Post)






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

Indonesia recalls ambassador to Brazil in row over death penalty



Indonesia recalled its ambassador-designate to Brazil on Saturday as Jakarta's 
diplomatic rows worsened over the planned executions of convicted foreign drug 
smugglers.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff refused to accept the ambassador's 
credentials in protest over the death sentence of Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte.

"We deplore the Brazilian government's decision to delay at the last minute the 
acceptance of the Indonesian ambassador-designate's credentials," the Foreign 
Ministry said.

"Indonesia is a democratic and sovereign country with an independent and 
impartial legal system, and no foreign country or any party can interfere in 
law enforcement in Indonesia," the ministry said.

It said envoy Toto Riyanto was already in the presidential palace when Rousseff 
decided to delay accepting his credentials.

Rousseff insisted that she plans to accept the Indonesian diplomat's 
credentials at a later date.

Jakarta said it had recalled the diplomat and "strongly protested the 
unfriendly action."

Brazilian authorities are trying to prevent the execution of Gularte, 42, who 
is on death row for drug trafficking in Indonesia. They argue that he is 
schizophrenic and should be receiving psychiatric care.

Brazilian Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, 53, was executed on December 17 for 
drug trafficking in Indonesia. At the time, Rousseff said she was "outraged and 
shocked" and recalled her ambassador to Indonesia.

Australia has also clashed with Jakarta this month over the planned execution 
of two of its citizens for drug smuggling.

(source: dalje.com)








AUSTRALIA:

Bali 9: Philip Ruddock says he didn't know police planned to tip off Indonesia 
---- Former attorney general says he would have raised concerns about the risk 
Australians facing the death penalty if he had known in advance



Philip Ruddock says he would have raised concerns about the death penalty had 
he known the Australian federal police planned to share intelligence on the 
Bali Nine with Indonesia in 2005, when he was attorney general.

But Ruddock says no one in the Howard government had power to give "any 
direction politically" to the AFP on its fateful decision, which has faced 
renewed criticism in light of the imminent executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran 
Sukumaran.

Barrister Bob Myers, who tipped the AFP off about another Bali Nine member, 
Scott Rush, said the police had "not a legal but a moral obligation" to ensure 
a waiver of the death penalty as a condition for sharing intelligence.

Myers said the AFP would have known executions were likely when their agent 
wrote to Indonesian police the day after Myers's tip-off to request 
surveillance and suggest they "take what action they deem appropriate" if they 
suspected the group had heroin when leaving Indonesia.

Myers, who contacted the AFP on behalf of Rush's family on the eve of the 
group's journey to Bali, said he and his police contact were "used" by the AFP, 
which already had passport details for all except Sukumaran.

Myers said the AFP always knew there was a risk that people might die as a 
result of their actions. "They had no right or authority to do it," he said.

Ruddock told Guardian Australia that he had "no clear recollection" of his 
meeting with Myers.

"I certainly at no stage was informed of this matter [by the AFP] and if I had 
been, I think it is fair to say given my position on the death penalty, I would 
have been very conscious of it and said [that] others should be," Ruddock said.

According to AFP guidelines in 2004, the attorney general had decided that 
police would adopt a future policy where a lack of guarantees of no death 
penalty could be grounds for refusing requests from overseas police.

The guideline was adopted in 2009. It followed a federal court judge ruling in 
2006 that while the Bali 9 were the "authors of their own harm", the case 
showed a need for the minister and the AFP chief to address the death penalty 
issue when the AFP itself was making requests overseas.

Ruddock said in 2004 he could only apply the policy when ruling on 
extraditions, and the justice minister, Chris Ellison, who had oversight of the 
AFP, was not "in a position to give [the AFP] any direction politically".

Asked if he imagined AFP officials regretted the outcome, Ruddock said: "I 
can't speak for the Australian federal police but I can't imagine that people 
wouldn't be looking back over what has happened and tried to ask themselves, 
could we have dealt with it differently?

"I can't imagine that they wouldn???t."

As Canberra continued to press its 11th-hour case with Jakarta to grant 
clemency, Ruddock said he "would like to think there's still hope but I can't 
speak with certainty".

"My focus is on seeking to have the penalties waived and I do that having been 
a member of Amnesty for 40 years and now being the co-chair of the 
parliamentary group that is seeking to have the death penalty removed 
universally," Ruddock said.

Myers said revelations that the suspected mastermind of the Bali Nine syndicate 
was living freely in luxury in Sydney after winning the lottery hammered home 
how the worst punishment was borne by low-level players.

He said a royal commission should be held to examine the AFP's conduct of the 
case "because it's almost as if police didn't want to find any more other than 
petty criminals like 19-year-old Scotty Rush".

Chan and Sukumaran had their transfer to Nusa Kambangan, the island of their 
planned execution, postponed this week.

Peter Russo and Stephen Keim - former lawyers for Pakistani doctor Muhamed 
Haneef, who was wrongly accused by the AFP of terrorism offences in 2007 - were 
speakers at a mercy vigils for Chan and Sukumaran in Brisbane on Wednesday.

Russo, a solicitor and now Queensland Labor MP, told Guardian Australia that 
only the AFP could disprove his belief that "there was no reason they couldn't 
have stopped them from leaving Australia".

"What always worried me about the AFP was [that] they always left me with the 
feeling [of], let???s get a conviction at any cost," he said.

"I think the AFP definitely need to give a more forthcoming explanation and 
they have to accept some culpability for what occurred.

"They'll never do this but they need to come out and say we made a mistake, we 
made an error of judgment, we wouldn't do that again.

"I think that would be cold comfort to the families but it would be good for 
their process to acknowledge they got it terribly wrong."

Keim, a barrister, told Guardian Australia the actions of the AFP regarding the 
Bali 9 were "wrong on all levels".

He said the police had violated national policy by "causing 9 Australians to be 
placed in danger of being subject to capital punishment", 14 years after 
Australia had signed up to the 2nd optional protocol to the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

"And the action was both vindictive and deliberately bloody-minded since any 
anti-drug importation objectives could have been achieved by allowing the 
individuals to land in Australia and arresting them at that time," Keim said.

"The failure to make a full explanation as to how these events occurred and who 
were responsible for them adds to the concern about the actions which were 
taken."

The AFP have declined to go into details of the Bali 9 operation but defended 
their actions in a statement to Fairfax radio this month, saying they had not 
been "in a position to prevent these people from travelling to Indonesia".

"The AFP had no evidence or lawful reason to detain, much less arrest or 
charge, any member of the Bali 9 before their departure from Australia," they 
said.

(source: The Guardian)