Bali court: Australians deserve death

Bali's Denpasar District Court has recommended an appeal by three members of the Bali 9 should be rejected, saying international drug trafficking offences "deserved the death penalty".

The lower court's recommendation is not binding on the Supreme Court, which will decide the appeal. But for the appeal to succeed, the Supreme Court would have to overturn its earlier decision upgrading their sentences to death.

Fairfax journalist Mark Forbes reported in today's Sydney Morning Herald that the three judges who heard the appeal have prepared a report rejecting legal arguments used by convicted heroin traffickers Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen.

The newspaper said it had seen a copy of the report, which stated: "In our opinion the judicial review request is DISMISSED."

The Denpasar judges reportedly found the Supreme Court had the right to impose the death penalty even though prosecutors had requested a maximum of life imprisonment.

They said the original penalties were not proportional to the crime and "therefore the panel of judges sees no errors have been made".

"Drug-related crimes are considered as an extraordinary anti-social act," the judges found.

They also said international drug trafficking was included in "the most serious crime and deserved the death penalty".

Erwin Siregar, one of the lawyers for the three men, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the the Supreme Court did not have to take the opinion into account.

The ABC reported he said it was not good news for his clients, but the Supreme Court was totally independent.

"The judges' court, when they make a decision, nobody can influence them," he said.

"They are free to make a decision."

Background

In May 2007, Si Yi Chen, 22, Matthew Norman, 20 and Thanh Duc Tan Nguyen, 24, appeared in Bali's Denpasar District Court for hearings into their judicial review.

Written submissions lodged by their lawyers argued the Supreme Court did not consider the full facts of the cases when it changed their sentences from 20 years to death.

Related stories:
Bali 9 challenge may win and fail -- 03 June, 2007
Drug penalty violates international law -- 06 May, 2007
Australians appeal Bali death sentences -- 02 May, 2007
Firing squad for six of Bali nine -- 10 September, 2006
Bali 9 death sentence confirmed -- 26 April, 2006

Urgent move to stop executions in Japan

Amnesty International has issued an urgent appeal to try to stop three men from the gallows in Japan tomorrow.

The organisation believes Takezawa Hifumi (born 1937), Segawa Kouzou (born 1947) and Iwamoto Yoshio (born 1945) may be hanged as soon as 9 August.

They are currently held on death row in Tokyo and Nagoya, convicted of murder between 1990 and 1999.

The appeal says Takezawa Hifumi has been diagnosed as suffering from mental illness.

Deliberate timing
Amnesty International believes the executions may be deliberately timed for the 62nd anniversary of the detonation of an atom bomb over Nagasaki during World War II.

Executions in Japan are often scheduled during parliamentary recesses or on holidays, to avoid public discussion of the death penalty.

Japan resumed executions on 25 December 2006 after a fifteen month break, when incoming Justice Minister Jinen Nagase approved the hanging of four men. Three more were executed on 27 April 2007.

His predecessor, Seiken Sugiura, had refused to sign execution orders during his term in office due to his devout Buddhist beliefs.

Amnesty International said the death penalty in Japan was "arbitrary and cruel".

"There are 107 prisoners facing the death penalty in Japan including a few who have spent over three decades on death row expecting to die at very short notice," it said.

Take action
Amnesty International has requested people send appeal letters to Japanese authorities calling for an immediate moratorium on executions and an end to the secrecy around the country's use of the death penalty.

Please send appeals to:

Prime Minister
ABE Shinzo
Prime Minister’s Office
2-3-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-0014, Japan

Fax: +81 3 3581 3883
E-mail: jpm@kantei.go.jp
Online: www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/forms/comment.html

Related stories:
Japan hangs three 'to keep numbers down' -- 29 April, 2007
Japan: Christmas hangings draw protest -- 03 January, 2007
Executions may resume in Japan -- 21 December, 2006
Long wait, sudden death in Japan -- 28 August, 2006
Japan: Lonely wait for the noose -- 5 April 2006
Japan's death row hell -- 3 March 2006

Party claims economic penalty 'prudent'

China's ruling Communist Party has claimed it is "prudent" in using the death penalty for economic crimes, as it struggles to contain the threat of widespread corruption.

Gan Yisheng, spokesman for the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the party's Central Committee told a press conference the death penalty was applied to a "very small" number of people for serious economic crimes.

"We are very prudent in using the death penalty to execute perpetrators of economic crimes and the number of death penalties handed down to economic criminals is very small," Xinhua quoted him as saying.

"China has so far kept the death penalty system and the death penalty is applicable to serious economic crimes."

The death penalty has been politically useful for the Communist Party, which uses the execution of officials for corruption to answer mounting public concern and recent widely reported scandals.

On 10 July China executed Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), for corruption and dereliction of duty after he was convicted of accepting 6.49 million yuan (US$850,000) in bribes from pharmaceutical companies.

"The reason for Zheng Xiaoyu's death sentence was that the bribes he took were huge and he committed serious crimes," Gan said.

He said China retained the death penalty because of its particular circumstances and its cultural background.

"Different countries have different circumstances and have different cultural backgrounds and views on the death penalty. They also have different legal regulations, which is very natural," he said.

"The fact that China keeps the death penalty is due to its national conditions and cultural background. There is nothing to be criticized."

He claimed there were "very strict controls on the death penalty" and all the death penalty decisions were reviewed by the Supreme People's Court.

Human rights groups report the death penalty is applied to a wide range of crimes in China, and political interference in the justice system is common.

Related stories:
China executes drug regulator -- 12 July, 2007
China call for cautious death penalty - again -- 8 April, 2007
China: Judges try to limit death penalty -- 14 November, 2006
China reforms good, but not enough -- 8 November, 2006
China: Supreme Court review from January -- 1 November, 2006
Political questions over China's new appeal judges -- 2 July, 2006
China to retain death penalty, with reforms -- 13 March 2006

China: Courts claim fewer executions

China's official media have reported a reduction in executions this year -- but once again the government refused to release meaningful statistics about the use of the death penalty.

China Daily reported that figures from Beijing No 1 and No 2 intermediate people's courts showed a 10 per cent drop in the first five months of this year compared with the same period last year.

Court spokesperson Ni Shouming said the situation was similar across the country, but he "declined to give details".

The newspaper said in an editorial that the "remarkable drop" showed the return to Supreme Court review had achieved its aim "to rein in irresponsible use of capital punishment" by local courts.

China Daily said the change came "after the Supreme People's Court recovered the right to review and approve all death sentences decided by local courts in the country".

From 1 January 2007, all death sentences handed down by provincial courts must be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court.

Official statistics quoted in the China Daily report showed nearly 890,000 people were convicted by all levels of courts across China, with nearly 154,000 receiving sentences longer than five years.

But these figures were useless for assessing the use of the death penalty, since they included custodial sentences over five years, life terms and executions.

'Trend towards leniency'
Criminal law expert Chen Weidong, from Renmin University of China, predicted death sentences would drop by 20 per cent over this year.

"Leniency and more judicious use of capital punishment is the trend of the time, a concept in line with international practice," he said.

Chen Zexian, deputy director of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily that China would ultimately abolish the death penalty, but "it has to start from strict limits on the use of death penalties".

"It takes a long time for society to accept the abolition of the death penalty," he said.

China Daily's editorial said the implementation of a new approach to criminal law incorporated "both leniency and severity - with the accent on leniency".

This was "a break from China's traditional emphasis on harshness in law enforcement".

"The general appeal for leniency in criminal justice and, more specifically, the call for prudent use of the death sentence are both indications of civilized law enforcement," the newspaper said.

"But a more direct cause for the decline in the number of death sentences in the past months could well be the new requirement that all such verdicts be scrutinized by the Supreme Court."

'Political interference remains'
Human Rights Watch said while there appeared to be a drop in executions in China, the country still executed between 7,000 and 15,000 people a year.

Nicholas Becquelin, a China researcher with the organisation, said police and political interference was still common in the courts.

He told VOA News that recent efforts to cut the number of executions were also motivated by a desire to clean up the country's image before the 2008 Olympics.

"The number of death penalty [cases] and the sort of callousness in which the Chinese government executes people is regularly one of the top black spots on China's image in the international community," he said.

"And, with the Olympic Games coming closer and closer, this is definitely something that the Chinese authorities want to be seen as acting over."

Related stories:
China call for cautious death penalty - again -- 8 April, 2007
China: Judges try to limit death penalty -- 14 November, 2006
China reforms good, but not enough -- 8 November, 2006
China: Supreme Court review from January -- 1 November, 2006
Political questions over China's new appeal judges -- 2 July, 2006
China to video death penalty appeals -- 28 May 2006
China to retain death penalty, with reforms -- 13 March 2006

China handed evidence for murder trial

Chinese officials spent this week in Canberra collecting evidence to prosecute a student for an alleged murder committed in the Australian capital in 2004.

Zhang Long is facing trial in China for the murder of his girlfriend, Zhang Hongjie (also known as Steffi Zhang). Her body was found in their Canberra apartment in January 2005, six months after she was believed to have been strangled.

Police in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) announced on Thursday that they had handed a brief of evidence and physical exhibits to a visiting delegation of seven police and public security officials.

The handover was the culmination of more than a year's careful negotiation with Chinese authorities.

The ACT government refused to hand over evidence in the case until China gave an undertaking the death penalty would not be imposed if he was convicted of murder. China refused to extradite Zhang to Australia to face trial.

In November 2006 The Canberra Times reported the breakthrough when China agreed to guarantee it would not execute the accused if he was found guilty.

AAP reported Zhang had been in custody in the Chinese city of Dalian since March 2005.

Under Australian law, an international request for assistance in criminal cases can be refused where that assistance may result in the death penalty.

Related stories:
No execution for Canberra murder: Report -- 15 December, 2006
Australia China talks over murder case -- 04 April, 2006

China executes drug regulator

The former head of China's drug regulator was executed last Tuesday (10 July) for receiving bribes and approving fake drugs, according to state-run Xinhua newsagency.


Zheng Xiaoyu, who was director of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), was sentenced to death in Beijing on 29 May for corruption and dereliction of duty.

He had been convicted of accepting 6.49 million yuan (US$850,000) in bribes from pharmaceutical companies. Xinhua said Zheng, 63, accepted cash bribes and gifts directly, as well as through his wife and son.

During his time as head of the agency, he broke reporting and decision-making processes for approving medicines, allowing six fake drugs onto the market, and failed to adequately oversee drug production.

The Higher People's Court of Beijing rejected his first appeal on 22 June, rejecting Zheng's appeal that the penalty was "too severe" and his argument he had cooperated with the investigation.

"The evidence provided by Zheng was obtained by the prosecution team before his confession," said the court.

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) ratified the death sentence, clearing the way for Zheng's execution.

"The judgement made by the first and second [court] hearings was authentic, the evidence was complete and the death sentence was appropriate," the SPC said.

"Zheng"s dereliction of duty has undermined the efficiency of China's drug monitoring and supervision, endangered public life and health and has had a very negative social impact."

The Chinese government has acted in recent years to ease public concern about official corruption, with three other senior officials sentenced to death since 2000.

Cao Wenzhuang, the former head of the SFDA's drug registration department, was also given a suspended death sentence last week.

"The execution of Zheng demonstrated the resolve of the government to punish corrupt officials, and those with high positions and strong power are punished without mercy," said Zhao Bingzhi, director the Criminal Law Institute of the China Law Society.

The SFDA said it was introducing new procedures for approving drugs following the two convictions.

"We should seriously reflect and learn from these cases. We should fully protect public food and drug safety.

"The new drug registration regulation, which will come out soon, will ensure the transparency of the drug approval procedure," said SFDA spokeswoman Yan Jiangying.

Execution hampering return
China has been attempting to negotiate extradition treaties with a number of countries in order to bring back corrupt officials who have fled overseas.

But it has found its use of the death penalty for economic crimes posed a barrier in negotiations with countries that do not use the death penalty.

In March this year, China successfully concluded an extradition treaty with France, which, along with earlier treaties with Spain and Portugal, guarantees that suspects returned to face trial would not be given the death penalty.

Asian activists condemn drug executions

An Asian network of anti-death penalty activists has condemned the region's widespread use of the death penalty for drug offences, despite there being "no convincing evidence" the punishment provides a greater level of deterrence.

The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) released a statement on United Nations Anti-Drugs Day, 26 June, expressing its "growing concern that more people are sentenced to death for drug offences than for any other crime in a number of Asia Pacific countries".

"This is at a time when there is a worldwide trend towards restricting and abolishing the death penalty."

Sixteen Asia Pacific countries continued to apply the death penalty for drug trafficking and possession offences, said ADPAN.

The network recognised that governments should take "appropriate law-enforcement measures" against drug trafficking and crime, including meeting their obligations under international drug control treaties.

"However there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty deters would-be drug traffickers more than any other punishment," it said.

'Not deterring'
The statement said Amnesty International did not know of any evidence that the death penalty had lead to a drop in drug use or trafficking in any of the sixteen countries.

"In China for example, police data shows that the number of drug users grew 35 percent in the five years since 2000.

"In Viet Nam, the BBC quoted an official who said in 2005 the quantity of drugs seized by customs had increased 400 percent year-on-year, despite its use of the death penalty."

Secret, mandatory, guilty
It also condemned the secrecy, mandatory sentences and discrimination that exacerbate the use of the death penalty for drugs.

It was not possible to determine how many death senences were imposed for drug crimes in the region because "the death penalty is shrouded in secrecy in many Asian countries".

"However, reports have shown that in South East Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the majority of death penalty cases are for drug crimes."

ADPAN said the death penalty was mandatory for certain drug offences in Brunei, India, Laos, Thailand, North Korea, Singapore and Malaysia, which gave judges "no authority to take into account extenuating circumstances" in individual cases.

The network was also particularly concerned that countries including Malaysia, China and Singapore made a presumption of guilt for drug offences, reversing the international legal standard that an accused person should first be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a fair trial.

This reversal was even more worrying in capital cases because it "increases the risk that an innocent person may be executed".

Discrimination
The statement said there was evidence that the death penalty was disproportionately used on "the poorest, most vulnerable members of society", including in drug trafficking cases.

"In many cases, people have become involved in drug trafficking out of desperation or ignorance.

"Executing these people not only fails to deter others, but also fails to deal with the underlying issues that drive them to offend, such as poverty and lack of education, and obviously precludes the possibility of reform."

Steps to abolition
The ADPAN statement urged countries in the Asia Pacific to follow the lead of the Philippines and Nepal and move towards abolition of the death penalty.

It said countries should start by "ending the use of the death penalty for drugs offences and studying and implementing alternative treatment to break the cycle of drug abuse and crime".

ADPAN said the sixteen Asia Pacific countries that still had the death penalty for drug crimes were: Bangladesh, Brunei, China, India, Indonesia, North Korea, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

ADPAN described itself as "is an independent informal network with over 34 members made up of individuals and organizations from 18 countries mainly from the Asia-Pacific region".

Related stories:
New voice against Asia's executions -- 10 October, 2006

Australia: Rudd would oppose death penalty

The author of a new biography of Australia's Opposition Leader says Kevin Rudd would launch a campaign against the death penalty if he was elected Prime Minister.

Robert Macklin said Mr Rudd had not spoken widely about the issue before, but his authorised biography contained "a heck of a lot that is absolutely brand new".

"For example, I'm sure that no one has ever mentioned that if he gets to be prime minister one of his important foreign policy objectives will be to begin a campaign to rid the world of the death penalty," the ABC quoted him as saying.

As Opposition spokesman for foreign affairs, Kevin Rudd was active in his opposition to the execution of Australian citizen Van Tuong Nguyen in Singapore, making personal representations and public calls for the Australian Government to intervene in the case.

On 3 December 2005, the day after Van Tuong Nguyen was hanged, Mr Rudd told a media conference that Australia could do "a lot more" to abolish the death penalty.

"The Prime Minister has asked today whether there was anything more that Australia could now do to abolish the death penalty worldwide. The Prime Minister's response was that there was not much more that Australia could do," Mr Rudd said.

"I disagree with the Prime Minister, there is a lot that Australia can do. Australia must, with the Europeans, work through the United Nations to abolish the death penalty universally."

He said Australia could work against the death penalty through the United Nations and in cooperation with "the Europeans".

Australia had signed the Second Optional Protocol of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, along with 50 other countries.

"But [that] leaves about 150 other countries to go, around the world. And that is where Australia can team up with the Europeans, who have a similar attitude to Australia, to make sure that we put in every effort to abolish the death penalty universally and for all time," he said.

"It doesn't matter whether we are talking about the death penalty in the United States, the Islamic Republic of Iran, or in the Republic of Singapore, Australia should get behind the Europeans, through the United Nations, to put in every effort to abolish this form of punishment, once and for all, throughout the world, and for all time."

He also called for consistent opposition to the death penalty worldwide.

"It is important that our policy is consistent. Labor policy, like the Liberal policy, worldwide, is opposed to the death penalty. And whether we are talking about individuals in Iraq or Indonesia or elsewhere, our policy has to be consistent.

"When it comes to Australians, Australian citizens, who are convicted of the death penalty, then together with the Liberal Party, Labor's policy is to make representations to the government concerned to try and seek clemency."

Related stories:
Remembering Van Tuong Nguyen -- 29 November, 2006
MP criticises "tragic waste of human life" -- 29 November, 2006
Trade undisturbed by Singapore execution -- 04 July 2006
Victoria criticises Singapore death penalty -- 17 April 2006

No death penalty in draft Thai constitution

The assembly drafting Thailand's next constitution has removed any reference to the death penalty from its draft charter, according to a report in The Nation.

The Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) this week removed the expression "death penalty", which The Nation said paved the way for "a possible future campaign to eventually end capital punishment in Thailand".

If the death penalty was provided for in the constitution, a campaign for abolition would have to counter the argument that the punishment was allowed -- or protected -- by the country's highest law.

If references are left out of the final constitution, future campaigns against the death penalty will not face this significant impediment.

"It's good that the capital punishment issue has been adjusted [to remove it from the charter] as it reflects the thinking of a society that doesn't resort to violence," said Kannika Bantherngjit, a member of the CDA.

"We should no longer resort to an eye for an eye and should look at the real cause of crime. Strong punishment is not right. It leads to society solving problems by force."

The country's previous constitution was overturned by the military junta that seized power in September 2006.

Bali 9 challenge may win and fail

The current constitutional challenge to three of the Bali 9 death sentences may not be enough to save their lives - even if they win.

Andrew Chan, Scott Rush and Myuran Sukumaran have taken the case against their death sentences for heroin smuggling to the Indonesia's Constitutional Court.

They are challenging the validity of laws used to sentence them to death despite a guarantee of the 'right to life' in the country's constitution.

Professor Tim Lindsey, Director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, wrote about the significance of the case in articles published in The Australian in March and The Herald Sun in May.

He said the Constitutional Court was "neither a quick fix, nor the end of the road" for the three men.

The eventual impact of the case may turn on how Indonesia's constitution is enforced in its judicial system, which is based on the Napoleonic model inherited from the Dutch former colonial ruler.

"In some European-tradition systems, the authority of constitutional courts has often been tightly restricted to constitutional review, sometimes preventing them from hearing appeals from other courts or reversing their decisions," he wrote. Indonesia's Constitutional Court "fits squarely into this category".

Professor Lindsay said the current cases were not "appeals", asking the court to overturn a previous decision of another court. They were rather " 'in principle' challenges to the constitutionality of statutes - in this case, the drugs legislation under which the Bali Nine were convicted".

Even if they won their challenge though, the Constitutional Court had said "its judgments cannot be applied to earlier decisions of other courts". Such a decision would make the death penalty unconstitutional from that point on, but "existing sentences would not be altered".

"This approach is intended to give certainty to court decisions and prevent constitutional reviews from becoming de facto appeals," Professor Lindsey said.

Legal, but harder
However, he said a constitutional win would give their lawyers further impetus for further appeals, and increase the political pressure against the executions.

He wrote in The Herald Sun: "It is hard to imagine a democratic government that would have the nerve to carry out a technically legal execution when the Constitutional Court had declared the death penalty contrary to the Constitution.

"It might be that the Indonesian Government would unilaterally agree to suspend all executions."

Even though President Yudhoyono has said he would not grant clemency to drug offenders, a court decision "outlawing future executions would offer him a way out" by sparing Indonesians and foreigners on death row.

Given the case's challenge to any use of the death penalty in Indonesia, Professor Lindsey concluded in The Australian that the court judges were aware their decision "will be one of the most important they will make, for Indonesians and foreigners alike".

Related stories:
Australians appeal Bali death sentences -- 02 May, 2007
Firing squad for six of Bali nine -- 10 September, 2006
Bali 9 death sentence confirmed -- 26 April, 2006

Indonesian workers face execution in Malaysia

Hundreds of Indonesian workers are facing execution or death sentences in neighbouring Malaysia, but their government's efforts to save them have been hampered by its own stance on drug offences.

Erman Suparno, Manpower and Transportation Minister, said his government had provided legal assistance to 279 workers either on death row or facing possible capital charges, according to a report in The Jakarta Post on 26 May.

He said 95 per cent were convicted, on trial or under police investigation for illegal possession of drugs thought to be from their home villages in Aceh.

But he said there were limits on what Indonesia could do to help.

"The government cannot interfere in the Malaysian judicial system because both countries impose harsh sanctions on such criminal acts," Erman Suparno said.

In recent years Indonesia has handed down increasing numbers of death sentences for drug offences, and President Yudhoyono reportedly said he would not grant clemency in a capital case involving drugs.

Erman Suparno said several Acehnese sentenced to death on drug charged were awaiting execution following rejection of their appeals by Malaysia's High Court.

He said the Indonesian Government had acted to protect the workers' rights, and recruit Malaysian lawyers to represent them during police investigations and in court.

Several Indonesian migrant workers were also on death row in Saudi Arabia in connection with alleged murders at their workplaces.

Torment on Taiwan's death row

A suicide attempt by a death row prisoner in Taiwan has revealed the mental anguish suffered by people waiting for the state to take their lives.

Chang Pao-hui (張胞輝) tried to kill himself by swallowing 13 batteries in Hualien Prison in late March, according to a report in The Taipei Times online.

He was rushed to hospital, where doctors operated to remove the batteries from his stomach and intestines.

The Taipei Times said Chang was thought to have been unable to bear the stress of waiting for his execution, which has been delayed for more than 20 months.

It seems his stress was not significantly eased by the fact that Taiwan's Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been trying to avoid carrying out executions while it moves towards abolishing the death penalty.

A prison official told reporters that Chang seemed emotional recently, and his family rarely visited him.

He was convicted of three murders committed in 2002 and 2003. In June 2005 the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

Minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林) told a legislative committee hearing two days later: "I felt sorry and sad on hearing about the incident."

But he said "the ministry has not changed its goal of abolishing the death penalty in Taiwan".

In January, the Ministry of Justice announced that during 2007 it would encourage public debate about abolishing the death penalty.

In February 2006, Justice Minister Morley Shih said the government was moving towards abolition of the death penalty.

Death watch on death row

Another death row inmate, Huang Chih-hsien (黃志賢), reportly committed suicide in Hualien Prison in January, by swallowing three batteries.

The prison official said prison officers had taken steps to ensure the seven death row inmates at Hualien did not kill themselves.

The Taipei Times reported there are currently 24 prisoners under sentence of death in Taiwan.

Related stories:
Taiwan limits mandatory penalties -- 29 January, 2007
Abolition debate for Taiwan in 2007 -- 12 January, 2007
Taiwan: Death penalty benefit an 'illusion' -- 14 December, 2006
Taiwan working towards abolition? -- 21 February, 2006

Drug penalty violates international law

Applying the death penalty for drug-related offences is a breach of international law, according to analysis by a leading human rights adviser to the United Nations.

Professor Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said where it is used, the death penalty should be restricted to the "most serious crimes".

In a detailed analysis in his latest annual report to the Human Rights Council, he concluded the death penalty "must be limited to the most serious crimes, in cases where it can be shown that there was an intention to kill which resulted in the loss of life".

The offences considered to be among the "most serious crimes" did not include those relating to drugs.

The death penalty is widely used across Asia for drug offences, including in China, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, where it is a mandatory sentence for a large number of drug crimes.

The 'most serious' issue
Professor Alston's report said the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) first introduced the "basic requirement" restricting the application of the death penalty.

Article 6(1) states that: "Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life."

This right is elaborated by Article 6(2), which specificies that: "In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes..."

He said the term was not defined in human rights treaties, but its meaning had been clarified over time through debate, principles of interpretation and the practice of international human rights bodies.

The UN Secretary-General and the Commission on Human Rights have stated and reinforced this principle, and it has also been elaborated through a large number of specific cases decided by the Human Rights Committee.

These developments "have all combined to clarify the meaning and significance of the phrase", which is now taken to refer to crimes where there is a deliberate loss of life.

'Not up to governments'
The report argued that it should be international law, rather than the laws or views of individual governments, which decides the crimes that are "most serious" and therefore liable to the death penalty.

Professor Alston said "a vast array of offences might understandably be classified by any given individual or Government as being among the "most serious"."

He cited work by a previous Special Rapporteur, which found death sentences had been imposed for offences and conduct ranging from corruption, drug possession and blasphemy, to prostitution, 'speculation' and vaguely defined 'crimes against the State'.

While these death sentences may have been considered legal within the country's criminal code and sentencing practices, he said it was not acceptable to leave individual governments to take a "subjective approach" to the issue.

Leaving it to governments to decide the meaning of the term was "not viable".

He said "such an approach would render the relevant international law standard meaningless".

The report found in its summary that, after a wide-ranging survey of legal principles and practice, "if it is to comply with the most serious crimes restriction, the death penalty can only be imposed in cases where it can be shown that there was an intention to kill which resulted in the loss of life".

Australians appeal Bali death sentences

Six Australians sentenced to death in Indonesia took two separate appeals to court today in an effort to avoid execution for drug trafficking.

The six men were part of a group of nine Australians - the so-called "Bali Nine" - who were arrested in April 2005 and later charged with trying to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin to Australia.

'Court errors'
Si Yi Chen, 22, Matthew Norman, 20 and Thanh Duc Tan Nguyen, 24, appeared in Bali's Denpasar District Court today with their hands in shackles for the first hearing of their judicial review.

They have asked the Supreme Court to overturn its earlier decision upgrading their sentences to death.

Late last month, their lawyers lodged written submissions arguing the court did not consider the full facts of the cases when it changed their sentences from 20 years to death.

A. R. Henry, a member of their legal team, said: "The court cannot change from 20 years to the death penalty without giving full consideration with what was wrong with the previous court decisions."

It has also been reported they will argue the death penalty violates their right to life, guaranteed under Indonesia's constitution.

Breaching the constitution
In Jakarta, lawyers for the three others sentenced to death took a challenge against the country's death penalty to the constitutional court.

Courier Scott Rush and alleged ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are challenging the constitutional validity of the death penalty for drug offences.

A panel of nine judges convened today to hear arguments that the law under which they were sentenced to death violated their human right to life under the constitution, and Indonesia's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

International law experts testified that human rights law restricts the death penalty to "the most serious crimes", which is usually interpreted as excluding drug-related offences.

Jeffrey Fagan from Columbia University told the hearing that Indonesia was in breach of its obligations as a party to the ICCPR.

"There is no social science evidence that shows any deterrent effects of capital punishment on drug trafficking or on any other drug crime," he said.

International legal expert Andrew Byrnes, from the University of New South Wales, told the court that imposing the death penalty for drug offences would violate international law.

"This court is not being asked to break radical new ground in terms of international human rights law," he said.

"Rather, the international law has been set out very clearly."

A team of high profile Indonesian lawyers is representing the three in court, backed by leading Australian human rights lawyers.

On Sunday Lex Lasry QC and Julian McMahon flew to Indonesia to observe the hearings, joining Rush's Australian lawyer Colin McDonald QC.

Lasry and McMahon also represented Australian Van Tuong Nguyen, who was hanged for heroin smuggling in Singapore on 2 December 2005.

Background
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to death in February 2006 for allegedly organising the failed Bali Nine operation.

Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman and Thanh Duc Tan Nguyen were sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2006. Their sentences were reduced to 20 years' imprisonment on appeal to the Denpasar District Court.

The Supreme Court later imposed death sentences, despite the prosecutors' request only that the original life sentences be reinstated.

Scott Rush was originally sentenced to life imprisonment. When he appealed the sentence, the Supreme Court imposed a death sentence.

Related stories:
Indonesia's drug penalty 'appropriate' for syndicates -- 29 January 2007
Firing squad for six of Bali nine -- 10 September, 2006
Bali 9 death sentence confirmed -- 26 April, 2006

Japan hangs three 'to keep numbers down'

Japan hanged three men on Friday, bringing to seven the number of prisoners it has executed in the past four months.

The latest executions were reportedly carried out now to keep the country's death row population below 100.

Kosaku Nata , Yoshikatsu Oda and Masahiro Tanaka were hanged on 27 April in detention centres in Osaka, Fukuoka and Tokyo.

In an unusual step, the men were executed while Japan's parliament, the Diet, was in session. Executions in Japan are usually timed to avoid parliamentary debate or scrutiny.

According to a report by the Mainichi Daily News, government sources said Justice Minister Nagase ordered the executions at this time because the number of death row inmates had risen sharply to over 100.

Japan's Justice Ministry said the hangings reduced the number of inmates on death row to 99.

The Asahi Shumbun reported that Kosaku Nata, 56, was convicted of a 1983 robbery and murder in Hyogo Prefecture, in which he stole a health insurance card and other items and murdered a colleague's wife and her child.

Yoshikatsu Oda, 59, was convicted of murdering a man and a woman for insurance money in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1990.

Masahiro Tanaka, 42, who went by the family name of Miyashita, was convicted of stabbing to death a female sales assistant and stealing 50,000 yen from a pornography shop in Kagawa Prefecture in 1984.

He was also convicted of three other murders in Tokyo and Tokushima and Kanagawa prefectures, carried out in 1991 and earlier.

Four men, including two over seventy years of age, were hanged on 25 December, 2006.

'Against global trend'
The latest group of executions drew condemnation from human rights and legal organisations opposed to the death penalty.

Amnesty International said the men were hanged on the same day the human rights organisation released statistics indicating a worldwide decline in the number of executions and encouraging progress towards abolition.

According to Amnesty International's figures, the number of reported executions worldwide fell from 2,148 in 2005, to 1,591 in 2006.

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Japan: Christmas hangings draw protest -- 03 January, 2007
Executions may resume in Japan -- 21 December, 2006
Long wait, sudden death in Japan -- 28 August, 2006
Japan: Lonely wait for the noose -- 5 April 2006
Japan's death row hell -- 3 March 2006