 A SYDNEY teenager convicted in Cambodia of drug smuggling could serve his 13-year jail term in Australia under a prisoner transfer deal expected to be signed next month.
Chinese-Australian Gordon Vuong was 16 when he was arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport in January, 2005, with 2.1kg of heroin concealed on his body.
He was sentenced by Phnom Penh Municipal Court in May last year to 13 years in prison.
His family and friends say Vuong, a former student at Christian Brothers Lewisham in Sydney's inner-west, was coerced into acting as a drug mule by two adults, who have since been convicted of drug smuggling in Cambodia.
Customs Minister Chris Ellison said today he hoped to sign a prisoner transfer deal with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen when he visited Canberra next month.
- Click Here for Full Story
American Journalist goes inside Laos to Investigate Massacre
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HUMAN RIGHTS FOR EACH PERSON REGARDLESS OF AGE, RACE, RELIGION OR POLITICS
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NEWS ARCHIVE
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| Mara pleads guilty to cocaine plot |
Guilty ... Les Mara. Photo: NSW Police |
Former rugby league star Les Mara has pleaded guilty to involvement in a baggage-handler drug importation racket.
Mara, 54, who played first grade football with Balmain and South Sydney in the 1970s, was scheduled to stand trial this week over the conspiracy.
But he pleaded guilty today before Sydney District Court judge Deborah Sweeney to conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.
Police said Mara was one of the key figures in the scheme, which planned to use airport baggage handlers to smuggle cocaine into Australia.
The syndicate allegedly imported 10 kilograms of cocaine from South America in 2004 and buried it in bushland near Wahroonga, in Sydney's north.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Deane-Johns could be heading for Australian prison |
Convicted Australian heroin trafficker Holly Deane-Johns may be moved from her Thai prison to a Perth jail within months.
Deane-Johns, 36, is serving a 31-year sentence in Bang-Khen women's correctional centre after being jailed in 2003 for possessing heroin and attempting to smuggle the drug.
WA Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk said she had agreed to a federal government proposal for Deane-Johns' repatriation - which could see her serving out a term at Perth's Bandyup women's prison.
"Her health condition is sufficiently serious that we believe her health would be compromised were she to continue to be in a Thai prison," Ms Quirk told reporters.
"She will serve five years in prison in WA, which means that (her) total term of imprisonment ... will be over 12 years.
"She will then be subject to a further five years' parole supervision.
"I think that's long enough for anyone to reflect on what they have done - and a deterrent to anyone who is minded to go to overseas countries and commit serious drug offences."
The minister said the federal government would now put the proposal to the Thai government, as part of a process that usually takes a few months.
"I am confident that they will agree," she said.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Mann set to go free |
 Jailed mercenary Simon Mann’s hopes for freedom have received a boost after judges in Zimbabwe put his extradition case on hold.
The former SAS soldier is in custody in Chikurubi prison awaiting extradition to Equatorial Guinea for his part in a failed coup three years ago.
Friends fear that if he is handed over to one of the most brutal regimes in Africa it will be an effective death sentence. But when Mann’s case came before the Zimbabwean high court last week, it was delayed by judges on the grounds that it was not urgent.
His lawyers say he is suffering complications from a hernia but the government has so far rejected his request for an operation.
State prosecutor Joseph Jagada said that justice minister Patrick Chinamasa had rejected pleas that there was an urgent need for Mann to undergo surgery.
Mr Jagada said the judgment was not based on any medical examination but on the fact that Mann was said to be in urgent need of treatment six months ago but nothing adverse had yet happened to him.
Government lawyers told the court that Mann should be extradited, adding that the crime that Equatorial Guinea intends to have him charged for is also punishable under Zimbabwean law.
“The evidence tendered by Equatorial Guinea would constitute a prima facie case under the security law, POSA (Public Order and Security Act),” said Mr Jagada.
Mann’s lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, urged the court to set aside a lower court’s decision to extradite Mann. He called on the two judges to order Mann’s immediate release, saying he had now served his three-year prison term for arms possession and that his continued detention was now illegal.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Simon Mann loses extradition case
- Simon Mann, ex-Eton, ex-SAS. Now the nightmare of Black Beach prison
- Simon Mann Case Information
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| Death row conviction overturned |
Death row Scot Kenny Richey has had his conviction overturned on appeal for the second time by a US court.
Richey, 43, was sentenced to death more than 20 years ago after being convicted of deliberately starting a fire in Ohio in which a two-year-old girl died.
The grounds of appeal were that Richey, originally from Edinburgh, received inadequate legal representation during his trial in 1987.
The court ordered that Richey should be retried or released within 90 days.
Deputy Solicitor General at the Ohio Attorney General's Office, Den Mizer, told BBC Scotland that they would take time to assess their options.
He said that no decisions had yet been made on what is "a difficult and complicated case".
On the question of whether they would approve a retrial of Richey, he said any decision on that issue would be taken after consulting with local prosecutors.
The latest appeal was decided by the United States Court of Appeal for the Sixth Circuit, the second highest court that can hear the case.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Kenny Richey Case Information
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| Zambia: Prisoner Pardon Important Step |
 THE pardoning this week of more than 800 prisoners by President Mwanawasa, is a very significant step in the fostering of good governance in Zambia.
Some of them are hard-core criminals whose death sentences were commuted to life.
The gesture should indeed be hailed as it is a clear case of healing in that the convicts have been forgiven.
The other benefit is that the release will help decongest the prisons. Zambia's prisons and police cells are not the best of places for one to venture into. In much more fairer language, they are not fit for human habitation.
Beyond that, basic facilities are not available and sanitation is non-existent. There is no water. The outlets are perfect breading grounds for diseases of all sorts.
Decongesting them is, therefore, an inevitable act which should not only cheer prisoners but the jailers themselves who have to grapple with lean resources to maintain the hundreds of prisoners.
But more importantly, the release of such a high figure pushes Zambia a ladder up as a country fast reforming and getting results in the critical sphere of good governance and the observing of the rule of law.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Prisons in Africa
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| In 2007, this still happens |
 A worldwide condemnation erupted after a video posted on an internet video-sharing website showed a Malaysian prisoner being tortured with a cane.
The disturbing video, posted on liveleak, showed a naked man strapped to an upright wooden frame, his rear exposed to a uniformed official who lifts a meter-long rattan stick above his head before bringing it down on the prisoner's buttocks, tearing the flesh with each strike.
In the video the prisoner can be seen moaning and shaking with pain whilst being struck six times and has spread quickly across the internet causing an uproar by incredulous people, most of which commented that they didn’t know these type of things happened in the supposedly civilised societies we live in.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- M'sia defends caning as video hits Net
- Naked prison caning vid draws fury
- View Video (Warning Footage May Offend)
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| The trials of a 'good Indian son' |
 MOHAMED Haneef was about to board Singapore Airlines flight 246 when two police entered the departure lounge of Brisbane Airport.
"You are under arrest for providing support to a terrorist organisation," said Detective Sergeant Adam Simms. The doctor was interviewed first at the airport and then after midnight at the Wharf Street headquarters of the Australian Federal Police.
The long arm of the law had reached Haneef from Glasgow, where, 47 hours earlier, his cousin Kafeel Ahmed had driven a burning Jeep Cherokee packed with petrol and gas canisters into an airport terminal. Before that, two cars packed with explosives had been found in London. British police had also arrested Kafeel's brother Sabeel, a doctor, at a hospital near Liverpool.
The major detail linking the Brisbane doctor to his cousins' alleged crimes was a mobile phone with a SIM card in his name found — it was said — in the wreckage of the Jeep at Glasgow Airport. That was until yesterday morning, when ABC radio's AM program revealed police actually seized the phone from Sabeel Ahmed, hundreds of kilometres away.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Will Dr Haneef be a pawn in the whole terror scare on in Oz?
- Haneef in prison, but makes Aussie cops sweat
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| Bid to move UK teenagers in Ghana |
The girls were stopped at at Kotoka airport in Accra |
The British High Commission (BHC) is in talks with Ghanaian officials to get two girls accused of drugs smuggling moved to a more "suitable" prison.
Yasemin Vatansever and Yatunde Diya, both aged 16 and from London, were held as they tried to board a plane in Accra while allegedly carrying cocaine.
A BHC spokesman said he hoped they would be moved to a "more appropriate" secure juvenile correction centre.
If found guilty the pair could face at least 10 years in jail.
Sharing a cell
The girls, who are next due in court on Wednesday, say they were not aware that drugs - said to be worth about £300,000 - were in their luggage.
They were arrested on 2 July and held for several days in cells at the police headquarters in Accra.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Two British teenagers arrested for drugs in Ghana
- British girls held in Ghana with £300k cocaine
- Teen girls held for coke smuggling in Ghana
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| Rare public execution of woman watched by thousands |
Woman Hanging in Iran
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An Iranian woman who killed her husband and paid two men to murder three of her in-laws has been hanged along with her two accomplices at a joint execution watched by thousands of people, a newspaper reported.
The woman, identified only as Houriyeh, 29, and the two men were sentenced to death for the murders three months ago in northwestern Iran, the Tehran-e Emrouz daily said. They were hanged.
Hanging is the most usual form of execution in Iran but women are rarely executed in public.
The daily published a picture of Houriyeh, and the two men, Farhad and Reza, hauled into the air by ropes attached to cranes. Houriyeh was wearing a head-to-toe black chador.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Women and the death penalty in modern Iran
Click Here for Full Story
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Women and the death penalty in modern Iran
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 The comparison between modern British girls and modern Iranian girls living less than 3,000 miles apart could hardly be more stark.
In Britain, a young woman can wear pretty clothes and makeup in public, talk on her mobile, smoke, go for a drink and have a boyfriend. If she gets pregnant, the state will look after her. If she commits a crime, the worst that can happen to her is imprisonment in a humanely run prison.
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| Accused Aussies released in Lebanon |
Ahmed Elomar, pictured with his wife Najatt on their wedding day, was arrested in Lebanon.Photo: Adam Hollingworth |
Two Australian men arrested in Lebanon over suspicion of terrorism have been released without charge.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) identified them as Ahmed Elomar and Mohamed Bassal.
Another Australian is reported to have appeared before a Lebanese military court over allegations that that he supplied weapons to an al-Qaeda-aligned terror group that launched a violent insurgency against the Lebanese Army.
The man was named by The Australian newspaper today as Omar Hadba of Sydney.
A fourth Australian, named as Ibrahim Sabour, is also due to be charged in Beirut, the paper said.
The four Australians, all of Lebanese background, were detained by the Lebanese military over alleged connections to the militant group Fatah al-Islam last month.
DFAT confirmed the two men released had not been charged.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Two Australians ‘tortured' after arrest in Lebanon
- Australian trio arrested in Lebanon
- Three Aussies detained in Lebanon
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| Canadian Indigenous prison program holds promise |
Indigenous Canadian prison inmates at the Stan Daniels Healing Centre pray in their native languages. (ABC TV) |
Indigenous Australians make up just 2 per cent of the general Australian population, but 25 per cent of the prison population. In Canada they used to have similar figures, but 20 years ago Canadians began trying to change this by creating indigenous-run prisons.
The Stan Daniels Healing Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, is where native Canadian inmates go to serve the last six months of their sentence.
The aim is to get them to reconnect with their culture, and the results are extremely impressive.
The centre is about redemption. It is a place where damaged men try to heal and redeem themselves before they are released back into the world.
Many of them have known violence and sexual abuse since they were small children and some now inflict it on their own kids.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Help me save these boys |
FREE: George Forbes (left) and two of his co-accused in talks with UN representatives. |
A BRISBANE man freed from a Sudanese prison is lobbying for the release of four boys he met in the jail, including one charged with the bee-sting death of girl.
George Forbes says he fears for the safety of the boys, between 9and 14 years old, who are locked up with violent offenders and live in appalling conditions.
"It's a complete violation of all world human rights agreements," Mr Forbes told The Sunday Mail.
Mr Forbes took down the names and reasons for imprisonment for the four boys, hoping to help secure their release.
"The nine-year-old had thrown stones at a beehive in a tree. Being a little lad he got what he wanted and the bees got angry and swarmed," Mr Forbes said.
"Unfortunately they went and stung a little five-year-old girl to death and the magistrate charged him with murder."
A 12-year-old boy was jailed for two years for stealing food, a 14-year-old boy had stolen a bicycle and another 14-year-old boy crashed a borrowed motorbike.
"There I was thinking I had problems but when it's a little kid (in jail) that is a hideous problem," he said.
"I reported it to the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees as well as the United Nations International Children's Fund.
"Unfortunately nothing was done. I think there is such a fear factor your average individual is not going to risk it."
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Forbes' bloody nightmare over
- Freed Forbes on way to hospital in Egypt: friend
- Forbes freed at last
- Forbes to head for beach
- Forbes granted Sudan murder appeal, medical aid
- Brisbane man out of jail
- Sudan prisoner 'could die in jail'
- Aussie to appeal Sudan verdict: family
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| Rachel Who? The Aussie teenager lost in Hong Kong |
Rachel Diaz as a schoolgirl |
Funny thing, the media — when it comes to drug smugglers, we can be fickle.
Take Schapelle Corby, sweating it out in a Bali prison with hot and cold running rats.
Television and newspapers can't get enough and those green eyes have sold a million magazines, not to mention her best-selling diary.
She's been convicted and acquitted a thousand times at dinner parties across Australia: Hollywood's got Paris but they haven't got our girl with the funny name — Schapelle, our home-grown pin-up in pinstripes.
But here's where it gets strange.
In a Hong Kong jail there's another Australian woman doing time for drugs.
Her name is Rachel Diaz and it's a fair bet you haven't got a clue who she is, let alone what she looks like…
It was April 2005 and Rachel rang her mother in the Sydney suburb of East Hills to say she was sleeping over at a friend's house.
She was sleeping over alright, but in Hong Kong: Rachel the trainee hairdresser was about to become a heroin smuggler.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Click Here for Rachel Diaz Case Infoirmation
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| Former Laotian Military General Denied Bail |
 Vang Pao
Hmong from across California and several other states packed the courtroom and filled a courthouse plaza and surrounding sidewalks for Vang Pao's detention hearing.
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(AP) SACRAMENTO Hundreds of supporters of Hmong leader Vang Pao demonstrated outside the federal courthouse Monday as a magistrate refused to release the former Laotian general on bail while he awaits trial on charges of trying to overthrow Laos' communist government.
Despite his age and deteriorating health, Vang Pao, 77, is too dangerous and too great a flight risk to be freed under any circumstances, U.S. Magistrate Judge Edmund Brennan ruled after a 30-minute hearing.
Vang Pao and eight other Hmong elders were arrested June 4 on charges that they tried to buy nearly $10 million worth of military weapons and recruit mercenaries to unseat Laos's communist government.
A 10th defendant, retired California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Jack, is also charged in the case, accused of trying to arrange the coup through an arms broker who turned out to be an undercover federal agent.
Hmong from across California and several other states packed the courtroom and filled a courthouse plaza and surrounding sidewalks for Vang Pao's detention hearing.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- 11th Man Arrested in Alleged Laos Plot
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| Free Aung San Suu Kyi – 62nd Birthday Action |
Dear friends
 On Tuesday 19th June, Aung San Suu Kyi will celebrate her 62nd birthday. But she will be celebrating another birthday alone, under house arrest. Burma’s brutal military dictatorship defied calls from the UN, USA, EU and ASEAN to release her and extended her detention under house arrest on 25 May. She is now in her 12th year of detention. She isn't allowed to see family or friends as all visitors are banned and her phone line is cut.
Take action to help free Aung San Suu Kyi!
Send a card to Aung San Suu Kyi and show your support on her birthday.
Please send cards to Aung San Suu Kyi's home address in Burma:
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
54 University Avenue
Bahan 11201
Yangon
Myanmar
Postage costs from UK:
20g = 78p (most cards do not weigh more than 20g)40g = £1.17
- Click Here for Complete Story & Protest Dates
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| Indon hemp talk could help Corby |
 GOVERNMENT agencies are considering the legalisation of marijuana in Indonesia which offers a faint, but real glimmer of hope for Schapelle Corby.
Both the National Narcotics Agency and the Indonesian National Institute for Drug Abuse have made public their consideration in the matter, saying that legalising the drug could make use of its benefits.
National Narcotics Agency drug expert Tomi Harjatno was quoted in the English speaking Jakarta Post this week as saying that `all this time we only emphasise the bad effects of marijuana'. "But people in Aceh ( a province on the island of Sumatra) are using marijuana in their food recipes," he said.
Schapelle Corby's lawyer Erwin Siregar told The Gold Coast Bulletin yesterday that it was well known that marijuana formed part of the diet in Aceh.
"I am from Sumatra and that has been the case for quite a while," he said.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Schapelle Corby Case Information
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| Prober: CIA ran secret jails in Europe |
AP Photo: Swiss senator Dick Marty, who is heading the investigation into alleged CIA prisons in Europe,... |
PARIS - The CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate key terror suspects, shackling and handcuffing inmates, keeping some naked for weeks and reducing contact with the outer world to masked and silent guards, a European investigator said Friday.
The CIA called the report "distorted," but stopped short of denying the existence of prisons in the two countries — the agency said it does not discuss the location of its overseas facilities. Poland and Romania also vehemently denied the allegations.
"High value detainees" like self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and suspected senior al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah were held in Poland, said the report, which cited CIA sources. It said lesser detainees, but still of "remarkable importance," were taken to Romania.
Top officials in both countries knew of the detention centers, said the report by Swiss Sen. Dick Marty, a former prosecutor asked by the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, to investigate CIA activities after media reports of secret prisons emerged in 2005.
Marty did not rule out the CIA having more such prisons in Europe, but told reporters he did not include that in his report because his sourcing was insufficient. He accused Germany and Italy of obstructing investigations into secret detentions.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Thai girl wins visa battle |
| YOU beaut . . . Plarm Pongprom celebrates the news of her visa victory with her grandmother Sunan and grandfather Ken Ritchie. Picture: Brian Cassey. |
PLARM Pongprom has finally won the right to call Australia home after a gruelling battle with immigration authorities spanning more than five years.
The plucky 15-year-old, who was abandoned by her drug-addicted parents and faced a life of poverty in Thailand, has been granted a permanent visa allowing her to stay in the country with her loving grandparents.
The Mareeba High School student was forced to take her case to the High Court in a bitter fight involving three successive immigration ministers amid allegations of police corruption, sex abuse and child pornography.
Plarm was rescued and brought to Australia on a tourist visa by her grandmother, Sunan, who found the then-nine-year-old, alone and unloved, selling eggs in a street market in central Thailand in December 2001.
Plarm, who plays the flute in the school band, enjoys tennis and speaks with an Aussie accent, has since become the face of Australia's refugee rights movement.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Thai girl wins long battle to stay in Australia
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| Bali Nine inmate 'suicidal' |
Professor James Ogloff |
ONE member of the Bali Nine heroin smuggling ring has considered suicide and two others are severely depressed, a psychologist said today.
James Ogloff, a psychology professor from Victoria's Monash University, made the revelation after giving evidence at Bali's Denpasar District Court today.
He was in court as an expert witness for three of the nine Australians – Matthew James Norman, 20, Si Yi Chen, 22, and Thanh Duc Tan Nguyen, 24.
The three are fighting for a judicial review of their cases in a last-ditch legal bid to escape the firing squad.
Prof Ogloff said he visited the trio in Kerobokan jail yesterday, on an Australian-government funded trip aimed at aiding their case.
"Without going into detail I can say (suicide) did come up," he said outside the court, after giving evidence.
"And in fact at least one was very open about having those thoughts early on ... if he were in an Australian prison, he would be medicated at the present time.
"And two of them, at least, are very fragile at the moment."
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Bali nine denied chance to plead
- Bali nine trio just naive: psychologist
- 'Why I don't deserve to die'
- UI professor to attend judicial review session on Bali 9 case
- FPSS News Release 29 May 2007
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| Iran: Female Iranian activist jailed |
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A female activist has been sentenced to six years in prison by an Iranian court for attending two banned rallies and for "propaganda activity against the system."
Nasrin Sotoudeh, the lawyer acting on behalf of Roya Tolui, said on Wednesday her client took part in two peaceful rallies in 2005.
The ISNA news agency reported the two rallies were in front of the governor's office in the north-western town of Sanandaj in Iran's Kurdistan province and Sotoudeh said Toloui was found guilty by a court in the town even though Iranian law allowed peaceful protests. ISNA did not give details on what the protests were about.
Numerous convictions
"Roya Toloui was sentenced to five years' imprisonment on the charge of attending the mentioned gatherings and one year's imprisonment on the charge of propaganda activity against the system," Sotoudeh told ISNA.
- Click Here for Complete Story
Click Here for Full Story
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Nahid Keshavarz writes from Evin prison: What will they do about the Growing Awarness among female Prisoners and their Guards?
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 It is Tuesday, April 10, 2007, 3:30 in the afternoon. It has been a good day for both Mahboubeh and I. It’s visitation day. Visitation day is the sweetest of days for prisoners. From the moment they announce your name till the moment you finally see your loved ones, your entire being is filled with anticipation. You stretch the moments in their presence, and in your mind, you dress yourself in your most beautiful clothes—one becoming of the occasion, albeit that you are forced to wear a veil and prison issued slippers.
Perhaps for those who have never experienced prison, there is no difference between the navy colored veil lent to you by your fellow inmates with love, and the prison issued veil, marked with the logo of the Revolutionary Courts, the logo that is supposed to represent justice. But for us, there is a difference between these two, even if their colors are the same. The veil you borrow from your fellow inmates, the veil that is lent to you with love, gives you a better feeling and you view yourselves as being among your sisters and mothers rather than in the position and in the identity assigned to you by your captors.
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| The Death Penalty is NO deterrent |
 The following is an extract taken from an interview with a foreign prisoner (Name withheld) who spent 5 ½ years on Death Row before having his sentence cut to ‘Life' at the 2006 Royal Amnesty.
"Most time we did not know when they were coming. Sometimes they would lock us down early but would use an excuse like important visitors were coming into the building. They would tell us that we had nothing to fear and that we should remain calm."
"They would always come at 4:30(pm) and the sound of the steel bars and chains being unlocked and removed from the door would strike fear and terror into the hearts of every man on the Row."
"The trouble was that those men who had exhausted all possible avenues of reprieve and were on the ‘Blacklist' were spread equally amongst each of the 20 or 50 cells. There were usually 3 – 4 blacklisted guys in each cell so of course when we would hear the block door being unlocked the entire block would fall into a fearful silence."
"Even those guys who knew it wasn't their time would be overwhelmed with fear because of the hysteria generated. Fear is infectious and each time was mental torture because we all knew that some day it would be our turn."
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Click Here to read about the book " The Last Executioner"
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| The Family |
 Jodie Sparrow and her children with David Hicks, Bonnie and Terry |
They were ignored, largely forgotten. In all the hand-wringing, all the furore about David Hicks, how often did you hear about his family. About Bonnie and Terry, the little kids he left behind.
It must have been hard enough accepting they'd been abandoned. But then came the knock-out blow, their dad was a public enemy. To many, a dangerous terrorist.
God knows what it was like at school with all that going on. And now, there's yet another upheaval. Hicks has been back in contact, writing to Bonnie and Terry asking for a second chance.
The surprising thing is, they and their mother Jodie, might just let him have it.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Hicks's former partner visits him in prison
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| HM the King pardons Swiss man jailed for royal insult |
 HM the King has pardoned a Swiss man who was sentenced to 10 years in prison last month for vandalising portraits of the monarch, prosecutors said Thursday.
"I have learned that he received a royal pardon a few days ago. Now he has been released but will be deported from Thailand," said Panu Kwanyuen, the provincial attorney general in the northern city of Chiang Mai.
Oliver Jufer, 57, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison on March 29 after pleading guilty to five counts of lese majeste -- the crime of offending the dignity of a sovereign.
He was convicted of defacing several portraits of the king with spray paint during a drunken spree in Chiang Mai in December.
A prison official in Chiang Mai said Jufer had been released on Tuesday. Thai court officials could not say if he had been deported yet.
Swiss embassy officials were not immediately reachable for comment.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Hicks 'elated' to be in solitary confinement in Adelaide |
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More than seven years ago, Australian David Hicks, then 24, left Adelaide as a Muslim convert on his way to Pakistan to support the cause of Islam.
Just before 11am yesterday, he was home again ? escorted in the back of a van by motorcycle police, prison officers and a high-security response squad.
In Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, where he was held for almost 5½ years by US authorities who declared him a prisoner in the war on terror, he spent most of his time in solitary confinement.
In Yatala Labour Prison, in Adelaide's northern suburbs, he will also be in a small cell by himself, allowed out for exercise for one hour a day before his release in late December ? possibly in time to be reunited with his family for the New Year.
The dramatic return of the former Taliban fighter and convicted supporter of terrorism was not lost on Hicks, now 31, who landed at the RAAF base at Edinburgh, north of Adelaide, at 9.50am Adelaide time (11.50am NZT) after a secretive 24-hour flight from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
"He did make the rather amusing comment ? there are not too many prisoners who get a world trip between stretches," Hicks' civilian lawyer for the past two years, David McLeod, said.
Hicks was grateful to be a prisoner of the Australian Government, after years as a prisoner of the US Government, a situation that, in the end, embarrassed both governments.
- Click Here for Full Story
- Hicks transferred to Adelaide jail
- Ruddock says AFP to decide on Hicks control order
- Hicks to fly home next week: Downer
- Stop slurring my son: Hicks dad
- Ex-PM says Australia and U.S. behave tyrannically
- AG: Hicks Won't Be Able to Sell Story
- Hicks gag affects our liberties
- Let people decide
ARE words considered the new weapons of mass destruction?
- Gag order on Guantanamo detainee serves no purpose
- Hicks to serve nine months' jail
- Hicks' conviction revives clash over Guantanamo
- Hicks will seek to live 'a normal life'
- Hicks home 'in months'
- How life in a box changed Hicks
- Hicks plea lucky for Government
- Timeline of David Hicks in custody
- Hicks to appear before military commission today
- David Hicks Case Information
Click Here for Full Story
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Stop slurring my son: Hicks dad
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 David Hicks will be out of jail on New Year's Eve after an extraordinarily lenient plea bargain agreement meant that whatever sentence he got, he would only serve nine months of it in jail.
The Military Commission panel – made up of serving US officers – gave him the maximum possible sentence of seven years. Even that was a reduction on the statutory maximum of life imprisonment.
But the pre-trial agreement meant that six years and three months will be suspended. This means that he will be released on the last day of the year, and as long as he doesnt violate the terms of his agreement, he will stay out of jail.
The pre-trial agreement appears to have been designed with the Australian political calendar in mind.
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| Brain-damaged Briton needs Blair plea to save him from firing squad |
SAVE LUONG
Click below to sign the petition at 10 Downing St.  
Luong is set to be executed
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A personal appeal by Tony Blair is the last hope for a brain-damaged British man who faces death by firing squad after being convicted of drug smuggling in Vietnam.
Le Manh Luong, 46, a British citizen of Vietnamese origin, could be executed in the next few weeks after losing his final appeal against a death sentence imposed last November for heroin smuggling. He can be saved only if the Vietnamese President, Nguyen Minh Triet, grants him clemency.
According to Reprieve, a British organisation that helps with the defence of death row inmates, such pleas are rarely granted to condemned foreign convicts without the personal intervention of a head of government. Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, has made a request for clemency but there has so far been no word on the case from Mr Blair.
Mr Luong’s relatives in Britain and New Zealand insist that he has been easily manipulated by others since sustaining brain damage as a child during the Vietnam War. A report from a British psychiatrist concludes that his ability to make good decisions has been impaired by the head injury.
“Normally the Prime Minister waits until the 11th hour to intervene,” says Clive Stafford Smith, the legal director and founder of Reprieve. “That is not an option in this case — in Vietnam they do not give execution dates, and so there is no way to tell when the 11th hour is. Without Mr Blair’s personal representations to the President of Vietnam we are faced with the real danger of Luong being executed. It would be a terrible stain on Tony Blair’s legacy to see this man executed because he failed to act.”
In 1967 Mr Luong’s family home in the city of Haiphong was hit by an American bomb that caused him brain damage and killed two of his brothers. “He fades in and out,” said his British niece, Thanh Le. “He tends to wander off and fall asleep sometimes. He suffers from chronic depression and he’s taken medication.
“If he is guilty it’s because he is a simple, naïve man who has always been easily led. I think he was led astray without knowing the implications of what he was doing.” In a report for Reprieve, Jon Kennedy, a forensic psychiatrist, wrote that there was evidence that Mr Luong was “suffering from a mental disorder . . .which would have directly impacted on his capacity to make good decisions”.
Mr Luong fled Vietnam as one of the so-called “boat people” in 1980. He became a British citizen three years later and worked in London as a car mechanic. He was arrested in Vietnam in 2004 with seven other people and charged with taking part in a huge smuggling operation that transported heroin out of Laos concealed in motorbike parts to be sold throughout Vietnam, Hong Kong and China. He was also found guilty of illegal possession of a gun and forging identity documents.
Throughout the five-day trial in Dong Hoi last November Mr Luong gave little sign of understanding the significance of the proceedings. When questioned in detail about the 33-page indictment, he answered “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember”. “What is heroin?” he asked the judge at one point, and “What is a weapon?”
Four of his co-defendants were also sentenced to death.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Last Chance On Death Row
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| Drug smuggler Kant get a break |
 A 36 year-old Vietnamese Australian man regained consciousness after being incapacitated for four days in Ho Chi Minh City's Cho Ray hospital after ingesting heroin and after doctors had removed nine packs of heroin from his stomach.
Nguyen Kant was still in a very weak state but is now able to breathe without the support of oxygen, doctors said.
The Australian national was rushed to hospital on May 5 after he had collapsed just after take off on board a plane bound for Sydney, Australia. Pilots of the jet were forced to return to the Tan Son Nhat International Airport to seek treatment for Kant.
This is the second time in three months that narcotic and custom officers at Tan Son Nhat airport have arrested an Australian of Vietnamese origin for drug trafficking.
Jasmine Luong, 33, was caught red-handed in possession of over 1.4 kg of heroin while aboard a plane that was also heading to Sydney.
Luong confessed that she had also thought about swallowing the heroin in order to pass through customs, but changed her mind. Swallowing heroin is a common method of trafficking the drug, police said.
Kant has been placed under strict supervision by police while investigations continue.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Heroin-swallowing smuggler awakens out of 'drug shock'
- 10 facts on drug mules
- Australian, sickened after swallowing heroin packets, forces emergency landing in Vietnam
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| Courts hear Bali death sentence appeals |
 Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman in Denpasar District Court. (Reuters) |
All six members of the Bali nine on death row have had their appeals heard in Bali or Jakarta today.
Handcuffed and looking a little older, Matthew Norman wore a Queensland Police cap to court, where he, Tan Duc Thanh Nyugen and Si Yi Chen attended the first hearing of their judicial review application to Denpasar's District Court.
They are challenging the death penalties handed down by Indonesia's Supreme Court last year.
Nyugen, Norman and Chen's lawyer, Erwin Siregar, will call Australian legal experts to argue that their death penalties handed down by the Supreme Court last year wrongfully ignore lower court decisions.
In Jakarta, at Indonesia's Constitutional Court, the death sentences of Scott Rush, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were also challenged on the basis that Indonesia's death penalty for drug offences breached its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The country has signed the covenant, while other death-sentencing nations in the region, such as Malaysia and Singapore, have not.
University of New South Wales legal expert Andrew Byrne argued Rush, Chan and Sukumaran all deserved the protection of Indonesia's constitution.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Lawyer pleads for expert to help Bali three
- Bali mules seek PM's aid in bid to beat firing squad
- "Bali Nine" Execution In Breach Of Human Rights Says Lawyers
- Three Australians Appeal Indonesia Death Sentences
- Bali 9 legal challenge begins
- Bali drugs trio lodge death penalty appeal
- Death by injection, not gun for Aussies
- Scott Rush in death-row tower
- Drug trafficker sends emotional letter
- Labor moves on death penalty
- Priest holds hope for drug mule Rush
- Bali 9 Case Pages
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Lawyer pleads for expert to help Bali three
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 DENPASAR, Bali: Lawyers for three Australian heroin smugglers have pleaded for John Howard to produce an Australian international law expert to bolster their appeals against their death sentences.
In a move suggesting desperation and under-preparation,the lawyer Erwin Siregar tabled a letter, sent to the Australian Prime Minister last week, during the first Bali hearing of the final appeals of three of the six Australians on death row.
"We respectfully request your assistance to provide any witness who is really opposed to the death penalty," the letter to Mr Howard states.
Mr Siregar said he did not know who he wanted to appear, but Australia had an obligation to assist its citizens and uphold its opposition to capital punishment.
Judges hearing the Supreme Court appeals of thew Norman, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen and Si Yi Chen granted Mr Siregar an extension of up to two weeks to produce an Australian expert with Canberra's help.
Australian officials were still considering their response to Mr Siregar's request last night.
The Bali appeal was one of yesterday's two parallel legal attempts to save the six from Indonesian firing squads.
In Jakarta, Indonesia's Constitutional Court heard a range of experts who claimed Indonesia's application of the death penalty to drug offenders breached its constitution and obligations under international law. The challenge has been lodged by another Bali nine courier, Scott Rush, and alleged ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
The head of Indonesia's Human Rights Commission, Abdul Nusantara, said the death penalty contradicted Indonesia's constitutional guarantee of a right to life.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Former Bangkok Governor Samak and Dusit get jail for slander |
Former Bangkok Governor and talk show host Samak Sundaravej (the one with the towel around his neck)
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Political veterans and talk-show hosts Samak Sundaravej and Dusit Siriwan were each sentenced to two years' imprisonment yesterday for defaming Deputy Bangkok Governor Samart Ratchapolasit last January.
Samak and Dusit were released on bail of Bt200,000 in cash pending an appellate review, following the sentencing session at the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court.
"The court battle is not over yet as I will definitely appeal the verdict," Samak said after his release. He said he already assigned his lawyer to lodge an appeal within 30 days.
Samart, meanwhile, said that, as the plaintiff, he was glad to have proved his innocence to society after being smeared by the two defendants.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Cleared at last, British girl who spent years in an Indian prison |
Daisy Angus: I haven't been able to stop hugging my mother
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A British backpacker told last night how she had survived years in a tough Indian jail after she was wrongly convicted of smuggling cannabis.
Daisy Angus, 26, a former fitness instructor, was acquitted on appeal after serving nearly half of a 10-year sentence of what the judge demanded should be "rigorous imprisonment".
Daisy Angus, A British backpacker told last night how she had survived years in a tough Indian jail after she was wrongly convicted of smuggling cannabis
"I am over the moon to finally be free," Miss Angus said. "Knowing that I was innocent and that justice would eventually prevail is one of the things I have clung on to during the past five gruelling years.
"I could not have got through this without the love and support of my family, especially my mum who has stood by me throughout, working tirelessly to get me out and prove my innocence. I just haven't been able to stop hugging her since coming out of jail."
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Briton freed from jail after drug-running appeal victory
- Free after 5 years, the girl accused of Indian drug run
- It took 5 years to justice; HC rules Daisy
was erroneously sentenced to 10 yrs' RI
- Daisy Angus Case Information
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| Detainee still plans to sue |
Cornelia Rau ... seeking compensation.
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THE Federal Government still hopes to reach an out-of-court settlement with an Australian resident wrongly held in immigration detention, despite her lawyers' intention to sue.
Former Qantas flight attendant Cornelia Rau, who suffers from mental illness, is seeking compensation after being mistaken for an illegal immigrant and detained for 10 months.
German-born Ms Rau was held at a Queensland women's prison and then for four months at South Australia's now-defunct Baxter detention centre during 2004 and 2005.
One of her solicitors, George Newhouse, yesterday said the Government's contracting of Baxter's operations to private company Global Solutions Limited had complicated Ms Rau's compensation claim.
The legal team had been forced to withdraw from a dispute resolution process and launch proceedings through the NSW Supreme Court, Mr Newhouse said.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Schapelle Corby off to the Dentist |
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Dear Supporters,
Mercedes would like to thank everyone for continuing their support to her, the Corby family and especially for standing strong for Schapelle. These have been a very hectic few months and there's been a great deal of upheaval. Schapelle has been amazed by the number of letters still coming in and care packages that are helping her maintain that much needed contact with the outside world and normality. Please keep your letters coming and thank you to all those who have sent gifts, reading material, elephants, and letters.
A very special thank you to the Red Cross for fixing the water pump problem in the female section of Kerobokan. It's a real moral boost to have clean water most times.
Schapelle is keeping her spirits up, despite the set backs, and she's so grateful that all the supporters have not forgotten her. It really does make a difference when the night comes and she's cut off from her family, knowing that she can pick up a letter from someone back home and read such comforting words before finally attempting sleep.
Schapelle will be visiting the dentist again today [Wed, April 4, 2007]. Mercedes wont' be going with her this time but said that brother Michael will hold Schapelle's hand like a good brother should.... and the Australian consulate will also be attending in accordance with policy relating to prisoners.... AND just in case a certain Australian Television program is reading this.... a proper police escort will also be escorting Schapelle to and from the prison, as USUAL, and without any sidetrips to exotic beaches or bars! Teeth will be pulled today!
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Mercedes Corby launches suit over 'Today Tonight' allegations
- Story on Schapelle documentary
- Coren confesses Corby lies
- Australia, Indonesia on verge of prisoner treaty
- Corby protesting her innocence
- Corby friend's TV claims raise questions
- Schapelle's sister to sue
- Corby insider exposes family's dark past
Click Here for Complete Story
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Mercedes Corby launches suit over 'Today Tonight' allegations
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 Mercedes Corby, sister of Schapelle Corby who was convicted of a drug importation offence in Bali and who remains imprisoned there, has commenced legal action for defamation against the Channel Seven program 'Today Tonight' in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Ms Corby's Sydney lawyer, Bill Kalantzis, said today that unspecified damages were sought for the program's allegations to the effect that Mercedes Corby was knowingly involved in the Schapelle Corby importation, that she has sold drugs, that she has imported drugs to Bali, and that she interfered with her sister's defence, costing her a chance of acquittal. The court documents filed by Mercedes Corby assert that the allegations are false.
The defendants include Channel Seven, the 'Today Tonight' presenter, Anna Coren and its reporter Bryan Seymour, as well as JodiePower, the woman who made the allegations.
The case is expected to have its first mention in the Supreme Court next month. Ms Corby will be represented by Stuart Littlemore QC."
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| Man gets 10 years for Thai King insult |
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A Swiss man has been jailed for 10 years for spray-painting portraits of Thailand's revered King.
Oliver Jufer, 57, was initially condemned to 20 years in prison for lèse majesté, insulting the monarch, but the court in Chiang Mai immediately halved the penalty because he had confessed.
"The court sentences him for defaming the king, which is the most serious crime," said judge Pitsanu Tanbuakli.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who marked 60 years on the throne last year and is the world's longest-serving head of state, is deeply respected in Thailand, but the severity of the penalty is as much a reflection of politics under the country's military dictatorship.
Prison terms for lèse majesté are unusual in Thailand, and even more so for foreigners, but the Thai authorities have become more sensitive to anything that might be interpreted as criticism of the royal family after last September's coup.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Defacing king's pictures earns Swiss man 10 years
- Swiss may spend years in prison under Thailand lese-majeste law
- European faces jail for insulting Thai king
- Thai king's image 'defaced'
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| Zambia Ultimate Prison Ministries. |
Appeal for Zambia Orphans
 Dear Friends,
I recently received an update from Reverend Gilbert Mwamba, who heads the New Life Community School and Orphanage in Zambia.
This is a fabulous project that Reverend Gilbert has been a part of for many years. It offers discipleship courses to the inmates detained in Zambia prisons, many of which are on death row, and FREE education to their children, who are now classed as orphans.
Reverend Gilbert says that although their work is spiritually rewarding, they do find it quite difficult at times due to an obvious lack of funding. Therefore it is for this reason that Reverend Gilbert hopes the international community, individuals, churches and other christian and non-christian organisations might offer some support financially, spiritually and materially.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Wife's plea for SA's 'forgotten terrorist' |
 AN ADELAIDE man jailed in a former Stalinist labour camp in Central Asia as a convicted terrorist has appealed to the Federal Government not to forget about him.
Noorpolat Abdulla, 36, was sentenced to 15 years in a Kazakhstan jail for terrorism just a month after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. He was the first Australian convicted on terrorism charges after September 11.
He was tried in a closed court for alleged connections with a Uighur Muslim group accused of murdering two police officers.
Kazakhstan authorities claim the Uighur separatist movement has established terror cells and received funding from terrorist group al-Qaida.
Rabiya Abdulla, 30, the Adelaide wife of "Australia's forgotten terrorist", broke her silence about her family's plight in an interview with The Advertiser after her husband on Wednesday telephoned home for the first time in six months.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Australia, Indonesia on verge of prisoner treaty |
 Australia is finalising negotiations with Indonesia for a prison exchange treaty that will allow Schapelle Corby, Renae Lawrence and others to serve the remainder of their sentences back home.
The Indonesian Justice Minister, Hamid Awaludin, told The Sydney Morning Herald that the treaty will be signed after a final meeting in Australia.
"Everything is fine, from my side we are done," Awaludin said yesterday in Jakarta, after meeting the Attorney General Phillip Ruddock.
However, the Indonesian minister said he is still awaiting clarification as to how the prisoners will be monitored from overseas.
"[We need to know] what sort of mechanism we have to establish on both sides so the prisoner can be checked on a regular basis, whether through our embassies in both countries, or any other sort of mechanism."
Ruddock said that as far as Australia is concerned, "there is absolutely no difficulty in terms of control mechanisms. It's something that can be worked out very easily."
He refused to give a "daily commentary" as to when the treaty would be finalised and signed.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Schapelle could come home
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| Australian Woman Arrested For Drug Trafficking In Vietnam |
 Hanoi, Vietnam (AHN) - Authorities in Vietnam on Tuesday arrested an Australian woman for carrying over 1.4 kg of heroin, the local newspaper People's Army reported.
Reports said the woman, identified as Jasmine Luong, and holding an Australian passport, was about to board a flight from Vietnam's southern city of Ho Chi Minh to Australia, when police and customs officers were alerted.
Investigators said the 33-year-old Luong is believed to be a member of an international heroin trafficking syndicate founded in 2003. The group is suspected of using Vietnam as a key trans shipment point for its drug dealing.
The Ministry of Public Safety said that in 2006, Vietnam detected 10,783 drug-related cases, detaining 16,686 involved people, and seizing 276.6 kg of heroin, 645 kg of marijuana, 62,870 lab-made drug pills, and 167,138 pills and tubes containing addictive substances.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Aussie faces criminal investigation in drug arrest
- Australian woman caught in Vietnam with drugs
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| Heroin-smuggling NZ woman home from Thai jail |
 A New Zealand woman has been pardoned and freed from a Thai prison, where she spent the past 11 years for attempting to smuggle $4 million worth of heroin out of the country.
Mother-of-three Phyllis Tarawhiti, of Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt, was sentenced to death in 1996 when she was 38.
However, the Bangkok court immediately commuted the sentence to 50 years in prison, because Tarawhiti had pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle 250 grams of heroin, with a street value of $4 million, out of Thailand.
Her sentence was later reduced to 35 years on appeal.
At her trial, Tarawhiti told the Thai court she had fallen into drug-smuggling after a relationship break-up.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Aussie charged over Uganda study 'scam' |
 An Australian man accused of illegally operating a university in Uganda and issuing students with bogus degrees has appeared in court.
Police arrested 52-year-old Tony Lenart in the capital, Kampala, on Tuesday and he faced court on Wednesday charged with operating a university without a licence and forging degree certificates.
Prosecutors alleged that Lenart, and others who remain at large, operated the World University of Leadership through Lenart's Institute of Advanced Leadership in Uganda between 2003 and 2007.
But the activities of the university were never licensed by higher education authorities in the country, prosecutors say.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Peaceful Rally and Event against the Death Penalty |
 'This Precious Life ' invites you to attend Peaceful Rally and Event against the Death Penalty Melbourne, Australia on 25 February 2007
Dear Friends, We hope you will join us to rally peacefully against the death penalty, with particular focus on the plight of the nine young Australians in the Bali Prison - SIX ON DEATH ROW.
In order to make our stand loud and clear we have organised a day of guest speakers, music and political activity.
1.30p.m. Welcome from Djadjwarung elder, Aunty Carmel Barry Music - DJ Wasabi and Elftranzporter
followed by; An appeal by Lee and Christine Rush, the parents of Scott Rush, 2l who is currently on death row in Kerobokan Prison [Bali], sentenced to death by firing squad.
An appeal on behalf of the families by Catherine King (Federal Labor member for Ballarat)
A Ceremony will follow. Led by the local Buddist community - linking hands and sending our love directly to the Bali prison. We have told the boys that this will take place at 3p.m and hope they will feel our thoughts and prayers.
Speech - Colleen Harland (Member, Vic Greens)
- Click Here for Rally Information
- More Information on the Bali 9 Cases
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| Australia to take 200 Lao refugees from Thailand |
 Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Australia plans to give refuge to 200 of about 8,000 Lao ethnic Hmong refugees currently in Thailand.
"We'll take about 200 of them at this stage," Mr Downer told reporters in Bangkok when asked how many Hmongs, an ethnic minority who fought alongside America in the Vietnam War, Australia planned to take.
"Whether we'll take them more, that remains to be seen."
Mr Downer, who made a brief stopover in the Thai capital to meet his counterpart, says Australia will start relocating the Hmongs after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had completed the legal process on them.
Australia was one of four Western countries that pledged to repatriate 153 Hmong refugees, due last month to be deported to Laos, where rights groups say they face persecution.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| Australian drug accused jailed in Bali |
Australian arrested for drug possession in Bali |
A VICTORIAN woman says justice has been served after she was sentenced to three months in jail for drug possession by a court in Bali.
With time already served, Michelle Condon, of Port Melbourne, will be released in less than two weeks.
The 35-year-old says she is planning to return to Australia.
"Everything that was taken into consideration today was fair and just, and justice has been served," she said, smiling, after the hearing in Denpasar District Court today.
Condon was caught on November 16 purchasing 0.2 grams of crystal methamphetamine from a local man.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- I'm an addict, Aussie tells Bali court
- Bali drug trial starts
- Another Aussie in Bali jail
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| Aussie teachers face drug charges in Japan |
 Japanese officials have arrested two Australians living in the outer suburbs of Tokyo on drug charges.
The two Australians are among seven foreigners arrested by Tokyo police for possession of cocaine and marijuana.
All of them are reported to be teachers at branches of a prominent English language school.
The two Australians are 36-year-old Adam Charles Renwick and 28-year-old Daniel Enrique Tapia, both living in the Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo.
Australia's embassy in Tokyo says it is aware of the case and it is offering consular assistance.
The men could face jail terms of up to five years if they are found guilty under Japanese law.
- Click Here for Complete Story
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| No review of death sentence for Nigerian convicted of drug trafficking |
 SINGAPORE : Singapore will not review the death sentence for Nigerian Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi who was caught for importing over 700 grammes of diamorphine into Singapore in 2004.
In a letter, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong assured Nigeria's President, Olusegun Obasanjo, that all factors relevant to the case had been considered.
These include the petition for clemency made to President SR Nathan by Nigeria's Acting High Commissioner Dr Ozichi Joel Alimole, and a recent letter from the Nigerian President requesting Singapore to review the sentence.
Mr Lee said the amount of illegal drugs brought in by Mr Tochi amounts to more than 48,000 doses of heroin on the streets - enough to destroy many lives and families.
He said he also realises that Mr Tochi's family will find Singapore's position difficult to accept.
But the government has a duty to safeguard the interests of Singaporeans, and protect lives that would otherwise be ruined by drug syndicates. - CNA/ms
- Click Here for Archive of Story
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| Prisoner exchange deal 'held up by govt' |
Debbie Singh
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The sister of the first Australian repatriated under a prisoner exchange deal with Thailand has accused Canberra of holding up the return of others, for two years in one case.
Debbie Singh's brother John Doran came back to Australia in 2003 to complete a jail term he received in Thailand for fraud. His return came about six months after the exchange deal was ratified, but Singh said waiting times had blown out since then.
She said there were currently six Australians in Thai jails who had lodged applications to return.
"One of the applications has been in for two years and the rest range from six to 18 months," she said.
"I'm very frustrated on hearing that because I don't see what the problem is. Why has it taken so long?"
Singh blamed the delays on Canberra, saying that if family members weren't "constantly knocking on doors" things don't seem to progress as they should. "It's red tape gone mad as usual," she said.
"This transfer treaty has been set up to bring Australians back and rehabilitate them so let's get on and do it."
Doran was arrested in 1997 and jailed for 10 years for passing forged travellers' cheques in Bangkok. In Australia, a similar offence would have attracted a fine. Singh said she spent years campaigning for the prisoner exchange deal, which was initially discussed by the two nations in 1997. It was finally ratified in September 2002.
- Click Here for Complete Story
- Background information on Debbie Singh and her brother John Doran
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| Another day, another execution! |
Another day, another execution!
Only this time the executed was one of the 20th century's worst butchers of man kind.
Saddam Hussein was executed on the 30th December 2006 for crimes against humanity.
A charge more serious on earth does not exist. From the gassing of Iraqi Kurds, Shi'ites both Iraqi and Iranian, torture, mutilation, rape and execution of Iraqi's from all sects and faiths Saddam had ordered them all. The case against him was strong, the evidence mountains high and the list of potential witnesses literally stretching into the thousands.
Should Saddam Hussein, the Butcher of Baghdad, been executed? If the video of his execution does not persuade you enough that the death penalty is and does constitute a crime against Human Rights, then consider the following.
In the context of the death penalty what you have just seen is relatively sedate. For many this will be the first time they have witnessed via television or the internet the cold reality of the death penalty. Having seen many more executions, you have seen what I consider the most "mild" execution I have personally seen on film. From death by stoning, being beheaded, delayed death via lethal injection, decapitation from hanging to the disaster of inaccurate marksmen executions very rarely go to plan. In fact there is no method of execution on earth that is not cruel and unusual punishment; a charge that itself is a breach of International law. The most favoured method championed by "civilized" societies who still continue this barbaric practice is the lethal injection. Having recently taken more than 30 minutes to kill a man Florida and California have suspended even this practice that uses chemicals vets now refuse to put down animals with.
If you support the death penalty it is therefore clear you support cruel and unusual punishment that constitutes torture. But is Saddam any different? Can an exception be made for a man that has ordered the very same for many thousands. The answer is no and as a World Leader recently said, you are either with us or against us. There is no middle ground when it comes to the death penalty. International and Human Rights Law is very clear, we are all equal before the law and are entitled to certain inalienable rights. There are no caveats, no ifs, buts or maybes. If you believe that Saddam Hussein's crimes where a breach of International law and Human Rights standards then logically you must also agree that his execution breached the same. Just as we don't allow victims of violent assault to then legally assault their attacker nor should we allow a state who outlaws murder, to carry out that very act. We cannot say on the one hand we believe murder to be the most horrendous of crimes and on the other justify doing it ourselves or through proxies. We cannot say that Human rights are for all and then break those very rules, no matter the circumstance.
If you are yet to be convinced then there is yet further persuading argument as to why his execution was intolerable.
- Click Here for Full Story
- Government MPs unruffled as hangman closes chapter
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| Lethal injection under microscope |
This is an undated photo of the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif. Faced with grim testimony of poorly trained executioners operating in cramped, dimly lit quarters, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel |
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Death penalty foes have warned for years of the possibility that an inmate being executed by lethal injection could remain conscious, experiencing severe pain as he slowly dies. Angel Nieves Diaz, a career criminal executed for killing a Miami topless bar manager 27 years ago, was given a rare second dose of deadly chemicals as he took more than twice the usual time to succumb. Needles that were supposed to inject drugs into the 55-year-old man's veins were instead pushed all the way through the blood vessels into surrounding soft tissue. A medical examiner said he had chemical burns on both arms.
"It really sounds like he was tortured to death," said Jonathan Groner, associate professor of surgery at the Ohio State Medical School, a surgeon who opposes the death penalty and writes frequently about lethal injection. "My impression is that it would cause an extreme amount of pain."
The error in Diaz's execution led Gov. Jeb Bush to suspend all executions Friday. Separately, a federal judge extended a moratorium on executions in California, declaring that its method of lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
They were just the latest challenges to lethal injection the preferred execution method in 37 states. Missouri's injection method, similar to California's, was declared unconstitutional last month by a federal judge. The
- Click Here for Full Story
- When Executions Go Wrong
- Florida halts executions after botched lethal injection
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Another Botched Execution
Angel Nieves Diaz was executed on the 13th December 2006 in the state of Florida for the murder of a bar manager 27 years ago. Following the shooting and with no eye witnesses Mr Diaz was convicted largely on the evidence of a jailhouse informer who later admitted in an affidavit that he had fabricated much of his evidence in a bid for a plea deal of his own. Mr Diaz, whose mental health was under serious question chose to represent himself during his initial trial. The difficulty of this compounded by the fact he did not speak English being a native of Puerto Rico, requiring a translator, and for the fact the judged ordered him to be shackled during the trial despite the fact he was defending himself before the court.
Appeals all the way to the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, failed despite the mounting concerns regarding the initial trial, the retraction by a key witness, his mental state and inability because of language to defend himself. One final appeal to the Supreme Court was made on the grounds that the drugs used for lethal injection in Florida would result in cruel and unusual punishment. Sadly while the Supreme Court rejected the appeal, just hours later at Mr Diaz’s execution these fears would be realised. Mr Diaz took more than 30 minutes to die after the initial injection was performed and shockingly a second dose of lethal chemicals was required to finally end Mr Diaz’s life. The reason’s for the botched execution were laid at the feet of Mr Diaz himself when a spokesperson for the department of corrections stated it was Mr Diaz’s liver disease which inhibited the ability of the first round of chemicals to have their full deadly effect. Governor Bush of
Florida also added that it was Mr Diaz’s illness that slowed his death and assured the public that other executions carried out in Florida this year had been much faster in their effect.
Even from the gurney before enduring 34 minutes of torture Angel Diaz pleaded his innocence one last time.
"The state of Florida is killing an innocent person," Diaz said from the gurney.
"The state of Florida is committing a crime, because I am innocent.
The death penalty is not only a form of vengeance, but also a cowardly act by humans.
- Click Here for Full Story
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| Girlfriends deny complicity in drug deals by partners |
 Three women in Thon Buri Remand Prison for alleged drugs offences claim they were unfairly charged and are innocent of the crimes that put them behind bars. They claim they have been incarcerated simply because they happened to have been with the wrong people at the wrong time.
The women are among more than 7,000 convicted criminals and people facing charges who say they have done nothing wrong.
The Justice Ministry has agreed to reinvestigate their cases.
This is not the first time that judicial officials have been forced to re-open cases where serious doubt exists.
One of the most high profile cases of recent years involved the murder of Sherry Ann Duncan in 1986. Four construction workers were accused of killing her, but many years later they were exonerated after the case was re-opened in a blaze of publicity.
"Noi", 22, is among 561 individuals the ministry believes may also have been wrongly charged.
In November 2005 she was accused of possession of methamphetamines with intent to sell. She was having a meal with her boyfriend when arrested.
"We met a while ago and I had no idea he was a drug dealer," she said.
Her boyfriend told police Noi was not involved in dealing but she was still arrested and charged.
"I've been on remand for one year now and I wonder how I'm going to get out because I'm innocent, yet I know I'll be in this jail for years to come until my trial ends," she said.
The ministry reinvestigation means she has a chance to prove her innocence. She has witnesses to back up her story.
"Bee", 21, is awaiting trial for possession of 91 vials of the psychedelic drug ketamine.
She was arrested with her boyfriend of two months who told her he was a paper supplier.
"He pleaded guilty. I deny the charge. I told police I'd only just met the guy but they didn't believe me," Bee said.
"The reinvestigation will give me a chance to prove my innocence and has raised my hopes to be freed," she said.
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| Hmong refugees deserve better |
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FPSS wish to thank journalist Jim Pollard for sending these news articles for our members to read.
The last of the main refugee groups in Thailand must be safely and properly repatriated to Laos - only if willing Issues related to Hmong ethnic rebels said to be fighting a protracted jungle war against the communist government inside Laos and Hmong refugees who have sought shelter in Thailand continue to crop up intermittently. Invariably, these issues involve alleged brutality by the Lao military against the rebels and harsh treatment of the refugees by Thai authorities.
More than 30 years after the communist takeover in Laos, the international community, including Thailand, has lost interest in the plight of the Hmong minority groups. This is not surprising. The latest mass surrender to the Lao government of some 400 "rebels" and their dependants in the northern Lao province of Xieng Khouang indicates that the Hmong's decades-long anti-communist struggle is finally winding down.
Hmong ethnic groups led by General Vang Pao fought for the United States against the communist Pathet Lao movement before the fall of Vientiane in 1975. Hundreds of thousands fled the country after the war and were resettled in the US. It is estimated that only a few thousand Hmong rebels continue to be active in the mountainous jungle regions of northern Laos. In the middle of last year, the last group of 15,000 Hmong refugees - who had been sheltered in Saraburi province for much of the past three decades - were finally resettled in the US. Their departure brought a sense of closure for Thailand, as the country could be said to have fulfilled its obligation as a responsible member of the international community in providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and displaced persons.
In the aftermath of the Indochinese war that ended in the mid-1970s, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam had passed through Thailand and been given shelter on their way to resettlement in third countries. Thailand's record in playing host to such large numbers of refugees may have been tainted by human rights violations and corruption on the part of some local officials...
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| Dr. Kiyingi acquitted |
SWEATING WITH RELIEF: Kiyingi wipes his face soon after the judge read the verdict
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Ululations resounded throughout the High Court yesterday when Dr. Aggrey Kiyingi was acquitted of killing his wife, Robinah Kayaga Kiyingi, in what had become the most publicised murder case in Uganda's recent history.
His co-accused, friend Charles Berwanaho and former bodyguard Bob Mugisha, also walked free.
Justice Opio Aweri ruled that although evidence by the key witnesses was admissible, it could not be proven as it was based on information from the fourth suspect, John Atwine, who died in prison.
"In my view, Musiime and Nassuna's evidence cannot be dismissed as hearsay. They were facts heard from Atwine," the judge said in his one-hour and 54-minute ruling.
"My mind is still nagging as to whether Kiyingi committed the crime. Nicholas Musiime and Sadha Nassuna's evidence could not, unfortunately, be corroborated because of the death of Atwine. I have to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt. If that hasn't been accomplished, I feel uncomfortable to convict the accused. I acquit the accused," the judge ruled.
The verdict was greeted with shouts of "God is great" as the relatives and friends of the acquitted jumped up and hugged each other.
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- Dr. Kiyingi sues govt
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Cleared doctor thanks Australian govt
 An Australia cardiologist acquitted in Uganda of having his wife murdered has thanked the Australian government for its support.
Dr Aggrey Kiyingi said he was grateful for support from both the Australian and Canadian governments while on trial accused of killing his estranged wife, prominent human rights lawyer Robinah Kiyingi.
"I would like to thank the Australian government. There has been a lot of background logistical support which has ensured my safety and kept me in good health," he said.
Mrs Kiyingi was gunned down in a hail of bullets as she returned to her home in Kampala on July 11 last year. Dr Kiyingi, who holds dual Australian-Ugandan citizenship, was in Sydney at the time.
He and three co-accused - Bob Mugisha, Charles Brewanaho and John Atwine - were arrested and charged with the murder.
Prosecutors alleged the 51-year-old Dr Kiyingi ordered the killing by phone from Sydney where he ran a medical practice.
Atwine confessed to being the killer, but died in mysterious circumstances in Luzira prison before the matter went to court.
Dr Kiyingi was acquitted in Uganda's High Court on Monday.
He said that while in Luzira prison, medicine was flown from Australia and the High Commission office in Nairobi rang him daily to check he was safe.
"I would like to put it on record that the ambassador in Nairobi and his two assistants have been so dedicated in ensuring that under the circumstance I am safe.
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| Images Show Padilla in Chains; Lawyers Claim Harsh Treatment |
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MIAMI Dec 4, 2006 (AP)— Photographs of alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla wearing chains, noise-blocking headphones and blacked-out goggles have been seized on by his lawyers as evidence he was subjected to harsh treatment while in military custody as an enemy combatant.
The still video images were filed late Friday in federal court in Miami as part of an effort by his lawyers to get terrorism-related charges against Padilla thrown out because of "outrageous government conduct" during the 3 1/2 years he was jailed without charges.
"The extended torture visited upon Mr. Padilla has left him damaged, both mentally and physically," Padilla lawyer Orlando do Campo said in court papers. "The government's treatment of Mr. Padilla has robbed him of his personhood."
The images, taken from an unclassified Pentagon video, show Padilla chained hand and foot, wearing headphones and goggles, and being led out of his cell by guards dressed in camouflage and wearing riot helmets and visors. The images are the first publicly released photos of his detention at a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.
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| Over 500 women prisoners released from Punjab Jails |
 ISLAMABAD: Inspector General for prisons Punjab, Captain (Retd) Mufti Sarfraz, has said more than 500 women prisoners had been released from different jails of the province under presidential ordinance so far after completing legal formalities.
The Inspector General told the media after appearing before the supreme court here on Tuesday in a case regarding provision of medical facilities to prisoners in jails.
He said that more than Rs. 25 million had been allocated by the provincial government to provide possible medical facilities to prisoners at hospitals jails
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| Risk to UK's young prisoners |
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Child custody rates in England and Wales are among the highest Western Europe. Since 1993 the number of 15 to 17 year olds in custody has risen by 90%; the number of under 14 year olds detained has gone up 800%. Jackie Long looks at what being a child in custody can mean.
Joseph Scholes killed himself after just nine days in prison
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While other boys would play, Joseph Scholes would often sit slashing at his skin with knives or scissors. He would drive blades into his toes until the nails went septic and once cut his nose so badly the bone was exposed.
That Joseph was a boy who struggled with life was obvious to everyone. But it was just nine days in prison that finally broke him.
He was found hanging from the bars of Stoke Heath Young Offenders Institution a few weeks after his sixteenth birthday.
Of all the catalogue of problems common to young offenders, Joseph had pretty much suffered them all. Sexual abuse, drugs, alcohol, depression and family breakdown. But by any standard, he was not a persistent offender.
He had one conviction for affray. When he was later convicted of a mobile phone robbery, the judge accepted he had never been violent.
But the timing was bad for Joseph.
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| Australia's Guantanamo? |
 A visit by US officials has raised fears on Christmas Island that an immigration detention centre could be turned into a Guantanamo-style prison, the November 17 Melbourne Age reported. Christmas Island is 2400 kilometres from Perth, 360km from Jakarta and nearly 2000km from Darwin. The federal government is spending $240 million on the new detention centre. A group of about six [US defence officials] arrived by American plane and left on a commercial flight a week later & they took photos, and prepared a report for their masters in Washington, Christmas Island shire president Gordon Thomson told the Age.
The guys who came here were part of the military machine, one of them gave me a card which said he was based in Virginia and that is where the CIA is. They were looking at a Guantanamo style prison.
Thomson said the US officials had studied Christmas Islands port, airport and hospital. They said that they were here to make a report because they dont want to be caught flat footed in the event US assets are engaged in a humanitarian mission.
Thomson said most of the islands inhabitants were opposed to the detention centre. We dont want a prison on Christmas Island at all, we dont want a prison for refugees anywhere.
The detention centre includes possible solitary confinement cells, Thomson said. Click Here for Full Story
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Drug police 'betrayed' force
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Australian arrested for drug possession in Bali |
Two former drug squad members committed the crime they had sworn to eliminate, a judge said in jailing them over a heroin conspiracy.
Justice Stephen Kaye said it was disappointing that two men who had lived useful and beneficial lives had stooped so low to indulge in the corrupt activity for which they had been convicted.
Former detective Glenn Sadler, 41, was sentenced to 10 years' jail, with a six-year minimum term. His co-accused, ex-sergeant Stephen Cox, 43, was jailed for seven years, with a four-year non-parole period.
Both men were found guilty in September of conspiring to traffic in a commercial quantity of heroin.
Another former drug squad detective, Ian Ferguson, is serving a 12-year sentence with an eight-year minimum, after being convicted of money laundering and taking part in the same conspiracy.
An estimated 5.5 kilograms of heroin, worth $1 million to $1.5 million, was trafficked to a Melbourne drug dealer between August 1999 and December 2002.
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- Transcript of R v Cox & Sadler [2006] VSC 443
More Arrests in Bali
Australian arrested for drug possession in Bali |
Richard Smarr of originally from New Zealand, was arrested Wednesday (20/9) in a restaurant on Jln. Danau Poso in Sanur for selling marijuana. Police claim they were tipped off by a member of the public regarding the mans activities and caught him red-handed selling 6 packets of marijuana totalling 42.5 grams.
In an unrelated incident the Indonesian police said Tuesday an Australian woman was detained on the resort island of Bali and charged with the country's tough anti-drug law, which so far has put seven other Australians on death row.
Michele Condon, 35, was arrested last week for illegal possession of 0.2 gram of amphetamine, Bali police spokesperson Sri Harmiti told local media in the provincial capital of Denpasar.
According to the preliminary investigation, Couldorn was suspected as a user instead of trafficker, Harmiti said.
- New Zealand Man Arrested for selling Marijuana in Sanur Cafe
- Melbourne woman on drug charges in Bali
- Australian woman arrested in Bali for drug
 A 21-year-old English woman has been caught with a small amount of cocaine on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, police said today.
Her arrest comes just a week after Australian teacher Michelle Condon was allegedly found with 0.2g of crystal methamphetamine.
Bali provincial police spokeswoman Sri Harmiti said police caught the English woman holding a package of 0.7g of cocaine near her hotel in Seminyak at 5am on Friday, after a tip off.
Police allege the woman – who threw the package on the ground when she saw police – bought the cocaine for 500,000 rupiah in nearby Kuta.
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English woman arrested over drugs
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Teen in Cambodian jail could come home
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Laos (FFC) American photo/journalist Roger Arnold visited the jungles of Laos to investigate and document the reported massacre of 26 Hmong near Vang Vieng earlier this year. Arnold is the first American journalist to visit the U.S. Secret War veterans and their families that have been hiding in the remote jungles of Laos for nearly 30 years. He is also the first American since 1975 and the end of the war in Southeast Asia to meet with these people.
Recently U.S. Ambassador to Laos, Patricia Haslach called on the Lao government to investigate allegations that on April 6, 2006 the LPDR military had massacred the 26 Hmong people, mostly women and children, north of the popular tourist city of Vang Vieng. This request came after several independent sources, including Amnesty International and the Fact Finding Commission confirmed the incident.
It took a three-day arduous trek through the dense mountainous jungles of Laos for Arnold to reach the group lead by former U.S. Secret Army veteran Blia Shoua Her. Upon his arrival Arnold was met by the group: "They all fell to their knees crying for me to save them from the communist military they claim has hunted them like wild animals. It was the first contact most of them had ever had with the outside world. They are starving and too afraid to leave the jungle. Most have bullet or shrapnel wounds and all of them are terrified from being regularly shot at."
Arnold visited the scene of the massacre, the burial sites, and interviewed the survivors.
He found evidence of the group having been ambushed as they traversed a ridge while searching for food. Those that survived had wounds consistent with having been shot at from behind as they ran. All the victims were women or children with the exception of one man. Blia Shoua Her reported that five babies died of starvation after the attack because they no longer had access to their mother's milk.
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Briton arrested for buying drugs
 MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara: A British man was arrested Friday following a drug seizure at Senggigi beach resort.
Mataram Police drug squad chief First Insp. Dawud said that besides the Briton, Alexander John Spencer, 30, police Mataram resident Ahmad Yani was also arrested, for dealing drugs.
"We seized two 1.6-gram packages of marijuana and Rp 400,000 in cash. We also confiscated Alex' passport," he said.
The two men were arrested at 10:30 a.m. after police received a tip-off from a resident. The transaction was made 500 meters away from the Senggigi beach police station.
The maximum punishment the two men could face is 15 years' jail and a Rp 1 billion fine.
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Too harsh a punishment
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Kenny Richey Video
