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World News from 2006
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of World News
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- Afghan
Protests Follow Reports of Christian
Convert Release
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Hundreds
of people protested in a northern Afghan
city following reports that a man who
faced a possible
death penalty for converting to Christianity
would be released, officials said. (3/27/06,
CNN.com)
- Afghan
Christian Could Get Death Sentence
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- An Afghan
man is being prosecuted in a Kabul court
and could be sentenced to death on a
charge of converting from Islam to Christianity,
a crime under this country's Islamic
laws, a judge said Sunday. The trial
is believed to be the first of its kind
in Afghanistan and highlights a struggle
between religious conservatives and reformists
over what shape Islam should take here
four years after the ouster of the Islamic
fundamentalist Taliban regime. ... "We
are Muslims and becoming a Christian is against
our laws. He must get the death penalty." (3/19/06,
ABC.com)
- Amnesty
International Invites October 10th
Actions
Join Amnesty International on Tuesday,
October 10, as activists around the world
mark the annual World Day Against the
Death Penalty. Help raise awareness on
the egregious failures of justice occurring
in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the U.S.,
and Nigeria by taking action on five
individual cases. The cases highlight
five critical aspects of injustice involving
the death penalty: Innocence, execution of
child offenders, discrimination against foreign
nationals, mental illness, and unfair trials.
(10/6/06, Amnesty International)
- Britain
Pardons Soldiers Executed in WWI
Britain's lawmakers Tuesday granted
posthumous pardons for soldiers executed
during World War I, ending years of campaigning
by the families of men condemned to death
for cowardice. Around 300 soldiers, who
were executed during the 1914-1918 conflict
for failing to return to the front lines,
were included in the pardon. The government
has said it is continuing research to identify
other soldiers who were brought before
firing squads after only summary trials.
... "(The act) recognizes that execution
was not a fate that the servicemen deserved," the
Defense Ministry said. (11/7/06, ABC
News)
- China
Admits Selling Executed Prisoners'
Organs
BEIJING -- After years of denial, China
has acknowledged that most of the human
organs used in transplants here are taken
from executed prisoners and that many
of the recipients are foreigners who
pay hefty sums to avoid a long wait.
... Though China doesn't disclose the
number of annual executions, Amnesty
International says at least 1,770 people
were put to death in 2005, based on a
review of Chinese media reports. Some
activists say the annual figure could
be as high as 10,000. The lower estimate
represents more than 80% of at least
2,148 that Amnesty International says
took place worldwide last year. The United
States executed 60 prisoners. (11/18/06,
Los Angeles Times)
- Europe
Marks World Day Against the Death Penalty
At
a joint press conference held by the
European Commission (EC) and the Council
of Europe, Vice-President Franco Frattini
of the EC stated that "the
administration of State killing via the
judicial system serves no useful purpose
in preventing crime but can have a brutalising
effect on societies that inflict it".
Their press release marking this occasion
noted that considerable progress has
been made towards abolishing the death
penalty: There [has] been constant progress
towards worldwide abolition. There are
at present 128 countries that are abolitionist
in law and practice. Over 40 countries
have abolished the death penalty for
all crimes since 1990. They include countries
in Africa (recent examples include Liberia,
Côte d'Ivoire), the Americas (Canada,
Paraguay, Mexico), Asia and the Pacific
(Philippines, Bhutan, Samoa) and Europe
and Central Asia (Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Cyprus, Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey,
Turkmenistan). In 2005, countries having
abolished death penalty were 86, while
in 1977, only 16 countries were abolitionist.
(10/16/06, DPIC Update)
- France: Former Ambassador Addresses Impact
of Death Penalty on Foreign Relations
In a recent op-ed in The New York Times,
Felix G. Rohatyn, the U.S. Ambassador
to France from 1997 to 2001, noted that
during his tenure "no single issue
was viewed with as much hostility as our
support for the death penalty." Rohatyn
urged the U.S. to consider the impact of
maintaining capital punishment on our relations
with our allies, and he stated that consideration
of international trends is appropriate
when cases are reviewed by the Supreme
Court. Rohatyn wrote: "During my four
years as the American ambassador to France,
I discovered that no single issue was viewed
with as much hostility as our support for
the death penalty. Outlawed by every member
of the European Union, the death penalty
was, and is, viewed in Europe as a throwback
to the Middle Ages. When we require European
support on security issues - Iran's
nuclear program; the war in Iraq; North
Korea's bomb; relations with China and
Russia; the Middle East peace process -
our job is made more difficult by the intensity
of popular opposition in Europe to our
policy." (2/6/06, DPIC Update)
- Iraq:
Saddam Hussein Executed
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein
was hanged in the predawn hours today for
crimes against humanity in the mass murder
of Shiite men and boys in the 1980s, sent
to the gallows by a government backed by
the United States and led by Shiite Muslims
who had been oppressed during his rule,
Iraqi and American officials said. ...
Saddam's final days were rife with controversy.
Human rights groups widely criticized his
death sentence as unfair and marred by
procedural flaws. There was failure to
disclose key evidence to Saddam's attorneys,
as well as violations of the basic rights
of the defendants to confront witnesses,
human rights activists said. The first
presiding judge resigned. Iraqi politicians
routinely denounced the tribunal as weak.
Three defense lawyers and a witness were
assassinated. Outbursts by the second chief
judge, Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman, undermined
his impartiality, the activists said. ...
European leaders appealed to the Iraqi
government not to impose the verdict. Cardinal
Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI's top
official on justice matters, told the Italian
newspaper La Repubblica that executing
Saddam would punish "a crime with
another crime." (12/30/06, The Daily
Camera)
- Iraq:
Saddam Hussein Could Be Executed Within
Days
The Iraqi government has told U.S.
officials that former Iraqi president Saddam
Hussein could be executed within the next
few days, a senior Bush administration
official said on Thursday. "I've heard
that it's going to be a couple more days,
probably," the official said while
Bush took a holiday break at his Texas
ranch. (12/28/06, ABC News)
- Iraq: Rights Group Criticizes Saddam
Trial
Human Rights Watch said Monday that
the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein was not carried out fairly, calling
the verdict "questionable" and
saying the Iraqi court was not equipped
to handle such a complex case. (11/20/06,
ABC.com)
- Iraq:
Killing Saddam Hussein is No Solution,
Say Churches
The Vatican has said that it would be
wrong to execute former Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein, and other opponents of
the death penalty - including peace churches
(Mennonites, Quakers, and Brethren in
Christ) and ecumenical bodies - are likely
to argue that such an outcome would be
counterproductive as well as morally
corrosive. The concern of church and
human rights bodies comes after the verdict
of death by hanging was passed upon Saddam
after the first of two projected trials in
Iraq, following the ex-president’s
seizure by the Americans after the US-led
invasion and occupation of the country
in 2003. (11/5/06, Ekklesia)
- Iraq:
Army Recommends Soldiers' Death in Iraq
Slayings
An Army investigator has
recommended that four soldiers accused
of murder in a raid in Iraq should
face the death penalty if convicted,
according to a report obtained Saturday
by The Associated Press. ... Paul Bergrin,
Clagett's civilian attorney, said he
was surprised that Daniel recommended
the case be taken to trial at all. "I'm extremely
disappointed and disheartened," Bergrin
said Saturday. "They are being used
as pawns in the war on terror. They followed
the rules of engagement. They were confronted
with violence by a known al-Qaida training
camp member." (9/3/06, ABC.com)
- Iraq:
More U.S. Soldiers in Iraq Facing Death
Penalty
No American serviceman has been executed
since 1961. But in the past month, new
cases in Iraq have led to charges against
12 American servicemen who may face the
death penalty in connection with the
killing of Iraqi civilians. ... As investigators
complete their work, military officials
say, the total of American servicemen
charged with capital crimes in the new
cases could grow substantially, perhaps
exceeding the total of at least 16 other
marines and soldiers charged with murdering
Iraqis throughout the first three years
of the war. (7/9/06, New York Times)
- Iran:
Executions of Gays Stir Powerful Emotions
WASHINGTON -- Not since they confronted
snapshots of a slightly built young man
named Matthew Shepard and the fence where
he was left for dead in 1998 by two drug-addled
no-hopers in Laramie, Wyo., have gay
people been so agitated by a set of photographic
images. Protesters brought black-and-white
reproductions of the pictures -- which
show the public execution last year of
two teen-age boys in Iran -- to a rally
in Dupont Circle here this week. The
images were also used in other protests,
at least 26 in countries around the world,
according to bloggers involved in organizing
them. (7/22/06, The Daily Camera)
- Philippine President Orders Commutations
Of All On Death Row
Philippine President Gloria Macapagel-Arroyo
ordered the commutation of
all death sentences to life in prison,
an order that will spare the lives of
the 1,205 people on death row. As her
nation marked Easter Sunday, she issued
the clemencies: "I wish to announce
that we are changing our policy on those
who have been imposed the death penalty.
We are reducing their penalty to life
imprisonment. Anyone who falls and makes
mistakes has a chance to stand up and
correct the wrong he has committed." (4/24/06, DPIC Update)
- U.N.
Human Rights Committee Urges U.S. Death
Penalty Moratorium
Citing the 1966
International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, a United Nations
panel recommended that the United States
impose a moratorium on executions.
The report, issued on July 28 by the
U.N. Human Rights Committee, stated the
panel was "concerned by studies
according to which the death penalty
may be imposed disproportionately on
ethnic minorities as well as on low-income
groups, a problem which does not seem
to be fully acknowledged." (8/7/06, DPIC Update)
- USA:
Foreign Nationals on U.S. Death Rows
There are currently 120 foreign nationals
from 32 countries on death rows across
the U.S. These are individuals who have
been condemned to death in this country
but are not citizens of the U.S. In many
cases, these defendants were not informed
of their rights under Article 36 of the
Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. (6/5/06, DPIC Update)
- Worldwide Organizations to Focus on the
Death Penalty October 10
The World
Coalition Against the Death Penalty was
created in Rome on May 12, 2002, and consists
of 52 organizations throughout the world:
NGOs, attorneys' associations, trade unions,
local communities, and other organizations
(including many that are active in the
U.S.) challenging capital punishment. The
Coalition has chosen October 10, 2006 as
the day to put particular focus on problems
with the death penalty around the world. (8/21/06, DPIC Update)
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