Morocco court sentences Marrakesh bomber to death

The mastermind of a deadly bomb attack on a Moroccan cafe in April has been sentenced to death.

The court in Rabat convicted Adel Othmani of organising the attack on the Argana cafe in Marrakesh, which killed 17 people - most of them tourists.

Eight of his associates were given jail sentences for their roles.

Eight French nationals died in the attack, along with two Moroccans and people from Britain, Canada, Portugal, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

It was the deadliest attack in the North African kingdom since bombings in the coastal city of Casablanca in 2003 killed 45 people, including suicide attackers.

Prosecutors told the court that Othmani disguised himself as a guitar-carrying hippie, and planted two bombs in a cafe in Djemaa El-Fna, the tourist heart of Marrakesh.

He then detonated the explosives using a mobile phone.

The motive for the attack was unclear.

The authorities had suggested that Othmani and his accomplices were "admirers of al-Qaeda".

Source: BBC News, October 28, 2011

Marrakesh bomber sentenced to death

A Moroccan judge sentenced Adel Othmani to death on Friday for plotting and carrying out an April 28 bomb attack on a cafe in Marrakesh that killed 17 people, including eight French nationals.

The blasts were the deadliest in Morocco since coordinated suicide bombings carried out by Islamist militants in the commercial capital, Casablanca, in 2003.

After the sentence was read out, female relatives of Othmani and others convicted of being his accomplices began crying and screaming, a Reuters reporter in the court room said.

The prosecution has sought the "harshest possible" sentence against Othmani and eight men accused of being his accomplices. The death penalty is allowed under Morocco's penal code but it has not been carried out since 1992. Othmani had denied the charges, which included making explosives and committing murder. His lawyers said they would lodge an appeal.

Invited earlier on Friday by the three-judge panel to make a final statement before the verdict was given, a bearded Othmani, wearing a grey New York Yankees sweatshirt, said he was the innocent victim of a political plot.

"The whole affair is baseless," he said.

"There is so much injustice in this country ... I'm failing to understand this country. Innocent people find themselves embroiled in cases like this while they are actually being used in political ploys".

The prosecution case was that Othmani, disguising himself as a guitar-carrying hippie, planted two bombs in a cafe in Jamaa el-Fna, Marrakesh's most popular tourist attraction.

The interior ministry said he showed loyalty to al Qaeda but local affiliates of the group have denied involvement.

A man convicted of being his leading accomplice, Hakim Dah, was given life in jail.

Seven others were given sentences ranging from two to four years in prison for offences that included being members of an illegal organisation, helping prepare the bombing and failing to tell police about the bomber's identity.

Attending the trial were mostly French relatives of the victims of the attack. Some carried pictures of their slain relatives while others gathered around a female translator.

Lawyers for the victims' relatives had said they wanted the suspects to be given tough sentences but that they did not want the death penalty.

Source: HindustanTimes, October 28, 2011

News joins Google Dashboard

Posted by Panchapagesan Krishnamurthy, Software Engineer

Halloween is almost here and we're celebrating early. No trick -- just a treat. As of now, you can access Google News in the Google Dashboard. This gives you the ability to see basic information about your Google News personalizations, check out our privacy policy and click through to edit your preferences.

We're excited to bring you this additional level of control and encourage you to give it a whirl.

UK wants 'reinvigorated' Commonwealth, end to discrimination against gays and scrapping of the death penalty

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague on Thursday called for an end to discrimination against gays and the scrapping of the death penalty as he urged the Commonwealth to embrace reform.

Calling on the assembled leaders to heed the "clarion call" for reform, Hague said the 54-member Commonwealth grouping should act as a greater force for democracy and prosperity and speak out on pressing social issues.

"It is the view of the United Kingdom that the next days can and should be defining ones for the Commonwealth," he told a people's forum in Perth, ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to begin on Friday.

Speaking at a meeting of Commonwealth leaders, he said the group tasked with developing options to reform the bloc - an Eminent Persons Group commissioned in 2009 - had found a need for change.

"And their clarion call for reform is one we should not ignore, whatever the precise details of what we agree to do," he said.

"The case for reinvigorating the Commonwealth is abundantly clear and Britain whole-heartedly supports the recommendations of the Eminent Persons Group.

"In particular, we welcome their focus on promoting the values of the Commonwealth."

Hague said as problems became increasingly global - from financial crisis to climate change - the Commonwealth was the "ultimate network".

Yet while the organisation had taken strong action on human rights in the past, expelling apartheid South Africa from its ranks, it had not reacted as quickly to more recent problems.

Key challenges

"In recent years it has sometimes shied away from key challenges and has not always spoken out as clearly and decisively as it could have done, failing for example to take action on the human rights situations in Zimbabwe or Fiji before they became extreme."

Hague said Britain wanted to see the Commonwealth strengthening its role as "a standard bearer for human rights and democracy".

He said this meant Britain favoured the Eminent Persons Group's recommendation for a charter for the Commonwealth, and supported the push for a Commonwealth commissioner for democracy, rule of law and human rights.

But re-emphasising values should not involve "one group of countries lecturing" others, but learning from each other to raise standards, he said.

"The United Kingdom for instance would like to see the Commonwealth do more to promote the rights of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens," he said.

"It is wrong, in our view in Britain, that these groups continue to suffer persecution, violence and discrimination within the Commonwealth. And that many members have laws criminalising homosexuality.

"Britain also wants to see the death penalty abolished throughout the Commonwealth."

Old British Empire laws against gays are still in force in 41 of the 54 member nations. These include statutes against homosexual sex.

Source: Agence France-Presse, October 27, 2011

Taiwan pays compensation for wrongful execution

President Ma Ying-jeou has apologised to the family of the executed man

Taiwan's defence ministry says it will pay $4.4m (£2.7m) in compensation to the relatives of an air force private who was wrongly executed in 1997.

Chiang Kuo-ching was found guilty of raping and killing a 5-year-old girl, but in September this year a military court overturned the conviction posthumously.

The court said Mr Chiang was innocent and had been tortured into confessing.

The case has reignited debate in Taiwan about the death penalty.

Mr Chiang was working at a military base in 1996 when the girl, whose mother also worked there, was found dead.

After he was executed, his parents spent years campaigning to clear his name.

'Lessons learned'

The case was reopened earlier this year and investigators found no evidence that Mr Chiang had been at the scene of the crime.

Another man with a history of sexual abuse has since been arrested.

A lawyer for Mr Chiang's mother said the family accepted the compensation offered.

Taiwan's President, Ma Ying-jeou, has apologised to the family.

The island's defence ministry says it has learned lessons and will not allow such miscarriages of justice to happen again.

However, campaigners against the death penalty say Taiwan's justice system cannot guarantee that mistakes will not be made in future.

In 2003, three men sentenced to death were acquitted on appeal after a court said there was no evidence linking them to the crime.

They were also found to have been tortured into confessing.

Taiwan's Supreme Court this year asked for a retrial.

No executions were carried out in Taiwan between 2006 and 2009 due to a moratorium, but the government revived the death penalty last year under pressure from the families of murder victims.

Since then, 9 death row inmates have been executed.

Source: Taiwan News, October 27, 2011

Death penalty policy remains unchanged: justice minister

Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu reaffirmed Thursday that there has been no change in the government's policy of minimizing rather than abolishing capital punishment. "Our policy remains unchanged -- the death penalty will be used as little as possible, but will not be scrapped for the time being," Tseng said during a Legislative Yuan session. While death-row inmates will definitely be executed once all legal proceedings are completed, prosecutors have been asked to minimize recommendations of capital punishment, he said. Tseng's statements came after the United Daily News (UDN) said in a front-page story the same day that Taiwan had reversed its policy on capital punishment.

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has suggested in its first-ever human rights report that prosecutors refrain from recommending the death sentence for defendants or criminal suspects, the paper said. "The suggestion aims to minimize and even avoid death sentencing," an MOJ official was quoted as saying. The newspaper cited the example of a case in Nantou County in which prosecutors recommended Wednesday either the death penalty or life imprisonment for a man charged with the death of four people. The man allegedly poisoned the four victims with a toxic industrial solvent in July. Usually, prosecutors would seek only the death penalty in such a case, the paper said. Commenting on the newspaper report, Tseng said that even though prosecutors have been asked to recommend penalties other than capital punishment, the ministry has consistently respected prosecutors' decisions. Asked whether the 51 convicts on death row will be executed, Tseng said the government's stance remaines unchanged because majority public opinion is still in favor of the death penalty, as various polls have shown. The death row prisoners "will be executed once all the relevant screening procedures are finalized," Tseng said. The execution of five death row inmates in March sparked strong protests at home and abroad. Citing MOJ officials, the UDN report said it remains unclear when next death-row executions would take place.

"There is no timetable for the executions," an official said. Although the death penalty remains valid under the current law, the official said, the MOJ has been working to gradually limit the use of capital punishment, through measures such as scrapping the regulations that list the death sentence as the only option for certain types of crime. The Judicial Yuan is also planning law revisions that, if passed, will require the Supreme Court to conduct an open debate on any death penalty case, the report said. In its human rights report that will be published early next year, the MOJ will outline steps to reduce the use of capital punishment, the paper said. The newspaper also said the MOJ will invite foreign legal scholars and internationally renowned human rights experts to help scrutinize its human rights reports and refer those reports to Taiwan-friendly countries and relevant United Nations agencies in the hope of upgrading Taiwan's human rights record. According to the MOJ human rights report, there are still nine acts that stipulate the death penalty for 57 types of crime. Over the past decade, the average time for a case to close with a death penalty verdict has been 5.8 years, with some stretching to 20 years, the UDN report said.

Source: Taiwan News, October 27, 2011

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Verdict in Morocco blasts case expected Friday

The trial of 9 people accused over an April bomb attack that killed 17 in Marrakesh neared closure Thursday as a lawyer for the alleged mastermind insisted his client was innocent.

Prosecutors say Adil al-Atmani and eight accomplices orchestrated the April 28 blast at a cafe packed with European tourists, but defence lawyer Hassan Mouhib told the court in Sale, near the capital Rabat, that the government had not proved its case.

A final hearing is set for Friday with a verdict expected later in the day against the suspects who all deny guilt in the case.

Mouhib asked the tribunal to be "fair" in judging his client Atmani, who initially admitted to his role in the bombing but later retracted his confession, claiming he had been set up.

Prosecutors last week said Atmani and co-accused Hakim al Dah should be sentenced to death.

But lawyers representing the victims' families previously asked the court to sentence the accused to life in prison and not death, partly to deprive them of boasting that they will die as martyrs.

Mouhib invoked Morocco's new constitution, which was massively backed in a July referendum, which guarantees the "right to life."

Morocco has not enforced its death penalty provision since 1992.

Atmani has said he made trips to Libya, Mauritania, Mali and Algeria, which prosecutors have pointed to as proof of his links to global jihadist organisations, including Al-Qaeda.

But his lawyer dismissed those arguments, saying his client had travelled in pursuit of trade opportunities.

According to co-defendant Mohamed Njim, Atmani previously expressed a desire to practice jihad (holy war) in Chechnya.

Moroccan authorities had initially blamed Al-Qaeda's north African branch for the bombing but AQIM, seen behind a series of attacks and kidnappings in north Africa, denies responsibility.

Source: Yahoo.com, October 27, 2011

Officials ask Perry to allow DNA tests for death row inmate

Hank Skinner

With convicted killer Henry Skinner's execution less than two weeks away, a group of legislators and former prosecutors and judges on Thursday called on Gov. Rick Perry for prompt DNA testing of items that could help clear the one-time paralegal of the triple murder that sent him to death row.

Skinner, 49, consistently has contended he was too impaired by alcohol and codeine to have fatally bludgeoned his girlfriend and fatally stabbed her two adult sons in a 1993 New Year's Eve rampage at the couple's Pampa home.

Execution set Nov. 9

Skinner, who came within an hour of execution in March 2010, before the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay, has petitions to obtain the DNA testing before state and federal courts. He is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 9.

In the letter to Perry, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Gray County District Attorney Lynn Switzer, the current and former officials expressed "grave and growing concerns about the state's stubborn refusal to date to test all the evidence in the Skinner case."

Among untested items are the female victim's fingernail clippings, swabs from a rape kit, two knives, a blood-stained windbreaker and a bloody towel found at the crime scene.

The letter says there is "simply no justifiable reason" for the state to resist granting DNA testing.

No state response

"We believe that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for certain crimes and we understand that the DNA testing might well show that Mr. Skinner is deserving of that punishment," the authors write. "But we are also steadfast in our belief that when it comes to the ultimate penalty, we must do everything in our power to ensure certainty before taking the irreversible step of carrying out an execution. ... We implore you to take the lead in the search for the truth in this case."

Among those signing the letter were former Gov. Mark White; state Sens. Rodney Ellis and Juan Hinojosa, Democrats from Houston and McAllen, respectively; state Reps. Pete Gallego and Eddie Rodriguez, Democrats from Alpine and Austin; former Harris County assistant district attorneys Wendell Odom Jr., Earl Musick and Joanne Musick; and former Harris County state District Judge Norman Lanford.

Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed referred requests for comment to Abbott and Switzer, saying the governor would not comment on a case in the courts. Abbott's office did not respond to inquiries.

Source: chron.com, October 27, 2011

Please sign and share widely this online petition to Lynn Switzer, Gray County District Attorney, to urge her to grant Hank Skinner the DNA testing. 

Rival hits Perry on death penalty

Former New Mexico governor and current Republican presidential hopeful Gary E. Johnson said he saw the dangers of the death penalty up close during his 2 terms in office - and says he is convinced Texas has executed innocent people.

In a wide-ranging interview with editors and reporters at The Washington Times this week, Mr. Johnson, who is mounting a long-shot bid for GOP nomination, said his current opposition to the death penalty stems from having once pushed a bill to curtail appeals that he modeled on Texas law, but which, he now says, would have led in at least one case to the execution of innocent persons in a gang-murder case.

“If my legislation would have passed, they would have been put to death, and they would have been innocent. And I believe Texas has done the same,” he said, pointing to the neighboring state run by Gov. Rick Perry, who is also running for the presidential nomination.

He said he does not know for certain Texas has executed innocent people, but is convinced it has happened “just because of how many people have been put to death.”

Mr. Perry’s campaign referred calls to his official governor’s office, which said he is confident in the systems and safeguards the state has in place.

“Like the vast majority of Texans, Gov. Perry supports the death penalty as a fitting and constitutional punishment for the most heinous crimes,” said spokeswoman Lucy Nashed. “We are confident that Texas’ criminal justice system has the appropriate due process, thorough appeals and necessary protections to ensure that only those who are guilty receive the ultimate punishment.”

During one GOP presidential debate, the audience applauded Mr. Perry’s record of overseeing executions - something Mr. Johnson told The Times caused him to recoil.

“I’m thinking, ‘Oh, gosh, I bet there were a few of them that were innocent,’ ” he said.

Mr. Johnson, a 58-year-old former businessman who calls himself the “No. 9 candidate” in what most press accounts portray as an eight-candidate field, is fighting to win a regular place on the debate stages and higher visibility in opinion polls.

Source: The Washington Post, October 27, 2011