NOTE: Normally, I don't post these IAL news bulletins.  Butthe news is so bad with so much death in this one that I feltcompelled.  Mostly it is not about pot, but there is mention ofthe execution of  marijuana dealers in Singapore.  Otherwise,it's mostly about Heroin, cocaine, meth,....  hard drug dealers.You too can sign up for the International Anti-prohibitionist Leaguenews bulletin email service.  (see below for email and web address).INSTRUCTIONS for READING THIS DOCUMENT:1)In Internet Explorer, under "File", select "Save As"2)After selecting "Save As", a dialogue box should appear     asking where to save the file (ial_message_2003_10_18.txt).3)In the upper left part of this dialogue box is a select box     for selecting which directory you wish to save this file.4)PC? I recommend that you save it on the "desktop" so     that you can then read it using Wordpad (under Windows Accessories)5)Mac? If you have a Mac, I also recommend that you save    it on the "desktop" to be read using SimpleText.6)Where ever you saved it, rememeber that place for future      reference so that you can read this document.From: "Bulletin Antiprohibitionist" <Liafax@mail.radicalparty.org>To: <sharkhaus@iowatelecom.net>Subject: Liafax [EN] NS. 41Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 21:10:33 +0200X-MailScanner: Found to be clean  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/>  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/mission.html>  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/organs.html>  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/press.html>  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/news.html>  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/documents.html>  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/bulletin.html>  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/events.html>  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/chronology.html>  <http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/>  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/donate.html>  <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/contact.html> <http://www.radicalparty.org/lia_paa_appeal_new/form.php?lang=en>Sign the appeal to reform the UN Conventions on Drugs <http://www.radicalparty.org/lia_paa_appeal_new/form.php?lang=it><http://www.radicalparty.org/lia_paa_appeal_new/form.php?lang=en> Bulletin of the International Antiprohibitionist League on the world campaign for the reform of the UN Conventions on DrugsSpecial Number -Ę18 October 2003 Special issue of the death penalty The most known and documented war on drugs is the one that takes place in the United States. What many people don't know, or think about, is that drug-related crimes can lead to the death penalty in many countries. In this special issue of the Liafax, the <http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/>International Antiprohibitionist League is pleased to present the figures contained in the 2003 "<http://www.handsoffcain.org/caino/navig/argomentolist.jsp?id=129>The Death Penalty Worldwide Report" , prepared by the non-governmental organisation <http://www.handsoffcain.org/>Hands Off Cain (HOC). For the last 10 years, HOC has been monitoring the world situation vis-Ă-vis the death penalty, lobbying dozens of Governments with the view of promoting the introduction of a resolution before the General Assembly of the UN of a resolution calling for a moratorium of capital executions world-wide. 2003 could be the year for such a resolution. We invite you to participate in this campaign signing HOC's international online <http://www.arte.it/caino>petition. Once again, European and American taxpayers' money is wasted to assist governments that apply the death penalty in their fight against drugs. Prohibition is an odious practice that is already creating death and poverty the world over, but when it is used as a pretext to strengthen totalitarian regimes it runs the risk of becoming a criminal activity that freedom-loving individuals should not accept or tolerate in silence. In the next weeks, the IAL will launch a series of initiative to urge legislators to tie the disbursement of "drug control" money to the respect of fundamental human rights by recipient countries. It is a proposal that Anti-prohibitionist parliamentarians should promote within their own legislative assemblies to make "drug control" become also a human rights issue. The Death Penalty for Drug-related Crimes Drug-related offences under ever-stricter laws to combat drug proliferation contributed greatly to upping execution totals in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in 2002.China had one million registered drug addicts by the end of 2002, up 11 percent on the figure for 2001. The official Xinhua news agency quoted an official with the Ministry of the Public Security as saying that illegal drug use was recorded in 2,148 cities, counties and districts across China, 97 more than in 2001.Yet Chinese authorities believe that harsh punishments are an effective weapon against the spread of drugs. The international anti-drugs day is regularly marked with a wave of public, and publicised, executions and followed by the public destruction of huge quantities of prohibited drugs. UN officials said they do not condone the practice.In 2002, on June 26 alone, 64 people were put to death following mass sentencing rallies attended by thousands of onlookers throughout the country. Another 188 people also accused of drug crimes were given prison terms of up to life at the rallies. The biggest number of executions took place in the south-western city of Chongqing, where 24 people were shot for drug crimes, mainly heroin-trafficking. In Shanghai three men were executed after being condemned in front of a 1,000 strong crowd for smuggling, heroin, ecstasy and crystal methamphetamine - also known as ice - according to a spokesman for the Shanghai Higher People's Court, which organised this rally. At another open rally, in Hainan Province's Qiongshan city, six convicted drug dealers were escorted to the execution ground. Li Zhenkun and Zhuang Yaoxing were convicted of getting drugs from Puning, in Guangdong Province, and selling 20 kg of heroin in Hainan Province. Zhang Ruifa, Zhang Chunlie, Zhang Bingkun and Zhuang Xifa were condemned for trafficking around 59 kg of heroin between them. Provincial judicial organs in Guizhou Province tried 12 alleged narcotics manufacturers and executed three of them.The nationwide crackdown on drug traffickers had begun ahead of the international drugs day.In Beijing, six drug dealers were executed respectively by Beijing's No.1 and No.2 intermediate people's courts on June 25 and June 26, an official from the Supreme People's Court of Beijing reported.On June 25, in south China's Guangzhou City, 17 drug traffickers were sentenced to death and various jail terms at a public trial at the city's railway station. A court in Guangzhou on the same day gave the death penalty or prison sentences to 14 drug dealers and traffickers. In Chengdu City, in the southwest, nine drug traffickers were executed and 40 kg of heroin were burnt at a public rally at a local stadium. In east China's Fujian Province, 16 drug traffickers were executed by courts in Fuzhou, Quanzhou and Putian cities, and judicial organs in Hengyang, Hunan Province, ordered the execution of seven others. The provincial government also burnt 15.1 kg of heroin, 1 kg of opium, 13.8 kg of ecstasy pills and 2.5 kg of cocaine. The Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Huaihua, Hunan Province, sentenced four drug traffickers, including a woman, to death. Tianjin city convened anti-narcotics 'strike hard' rallies and the Tianjin Number One and Number Two Intermediate People's Courts sentenced 26 people found guilty of drug-related crimes to death, life, and other terms of imprisonment. Two Hong Kong men were executed for smuggling 1kg of heroin each. Ting Yuen-ming and Ho Kwong-fat had their appeals rejected by the Guangdong Higher People's Court, that upheld the death sentences delivered earlier by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, Xinhua reported.On June 24, the municipal court in Changde, Hunan Province, sentenced eight cross-border drug traffickers to death. Judicial organs in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, convened rallies in Fuzhou, Quanzhou and Putian to pronounce the execution of 16 people for drug-related crimes. They burnt 1,700 kg of narcotics in Lianjiang and registered 24,000 addicts, the Fujian Daily reported. A court in Xiamen, Fujian Province, with the approval of the Supreme People's Court, ordered the execution of a Taiwan national, Li Yuzhang. He was discovered carrying 4.18 kg of heroin by customs checkpoint inspectors on his way from Xiamen to the southern port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan.Over a period of two months in China in 2002, the vast majority of reported executions concerned people convicted of drug-related crimes. Chinese news media reported that between June and July, 185 persons were executed in China: 164 drug traffickers, 17 criminals involved in organized crime and 4 others guilty of corruption. From January to June 2002, Beijing courts tried 300 drug cases involving 381 people, an increase of 20% compared to the same period in 2001. Some 310 people were sentenced to five-year terms of imprisonment and above. From January to May 2002, 54 women were convicted of drug crimes, 19% of the total number. Some 10 to 29% of people found guilty of these crimes were under the age of 25.In 2001,Chinese authorities had sent 217,000 addicts to drug dependence centres for treatment and more than 70,000 repeat addicts to re-education through labour.Between 1991 and 2001, Iran executed around 5,000 drug pushers, according to a March 2001 report on the Economist. In December 2002, AFP reported, of Iran's 180,000 prisoners, at least 100,000 were drug users or drug dealers. Iran had an estimated two million drug addicts at the end of the year.Iran is a main route for drugs from Afghanistan to the West though Iranian law imposes the death penalty for possession of more than 30 grams of heroin or five kilos of opium.In the first quarter of the Iranian year, that began on March 21, over 2,000 smugglers, and 6,100 addicts and dealers were rounded up, the police Commander in Khorasan Province, Brig-Gen Eskandar Mo'meni, told the official news agency IRNA on June 30. Khorasan province is near the Afghan border. He said that, in the same period, police had seized five tons of narcotics in the northeastern province, that had ranked first in the country in terms of drug confiscation in 2001. Over 12 smugglers were killed or executed after going through judicial proceedings, he added.Media reports dated May 20 said five convicted armed drug traffickers, described as members of an international drug ring, were hanged inside a prison in the city of Mashhad, Khorasan province. The Kayhan daily newspaper said the five were arrested three weeks before with half a ton of morphine, after a shootout with police. Seven other smugglers were killed in the clashes.In November at least seven executions of people convicted of drug-related crimes were carried out. The Kayhan daily reported, on November 10, the death by hanging of five convicted drug traffickers in a prison in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj. Ismaeel Dana, Ali Kamyab, Majid Mostamand, Nasser Ismaeel-Zadeh and Beitollah Maleki were found guilty of purchasing at least two tonnes of various drugs in 2001 and distributing them throughout the country, Kayhan said. On November 3, Ettelaat newspaper reported that a drug trafficker found with close to a kilogram of heroin, named as Mohammed Keramti, was hanged in jail in the northwestern city of Tabriz. On November 6, an unidentified Iranian man was hanged in Tabriz after being convicted of drug-trafficking, IRNA reported. The man was arrested in 2000 in a sting operation, trying to sell two kilograms of heroin to police.Eight of Saudi Arabia's 49 executions were imposed for drugs. At least half of the offenders beheaded were foreign nationals. Pakistani national Muhammad Qol Muhammad Nabi Fatih Qol was executed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on July 25 after being convicted by the Islamic Shari'ah Court of smuggling drugs into the kingdom, according to a Saudi Interior Ministry statement carried by the Saudi news agency SPA website. An unnamed compatriot, convicted of smuggling heroin, met the same fate in Riyadh on August 20.The execution for heroin-smuggling of Indian national, Mohammed Ali Haji, in Al Khobar on August 11, raised an outcry in India, with relatives of Indians on death row in Saudi Arabia slamming unscrupulous agents for using people seeking jobs in the Gulf kingdom as couriers.An unnamed Afghan man who had hidden heroin in his intestines was beheaded on May 13, and an unidentified man whose nationality was not given, was publicly beheaded for a drug-related crime on October 20. Three Saudi men sentenced to death for taking drugs and robbing an exchange company were beheaded in public with a sword in the northeastern province of Arar on December 17.The number of known drug addicts in Vietnam almost doubled over five years despite a government crackdown, state-controlled media reported in October. It rose to 131,733, an average increase of 10-15% each year since 1997, when it stood at 69,780, the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper quoted a Ministry of Public Security report as saying. Authorities arrested 11,945 people on drug charges in the first six months of 2002, 2% more than in the same period in 2001, according to government figures. Hundreds of inmates escaped from harsh drug rehabilitation centres since the government announced earlier in 2002 that all known drug addicts must be treated for at least a year, up from the previous three months. Use of illegal drugs, mostly heroin, increased in Vietnam despite tough punishments, including the death penalty, and had spread to students and to the countryside, the Lao Dong report said.In 2001, the People's Supreme Court had issued a resolution guiding the implementation of six Criminal Law regulations. The new guidelines envisaged a 20-year jail term for defendants guilty of trafficking from 100g to 300g, life in jail for trafficking 300g to 600g, and capital punishment for 600g and upwards. Since 1997, possession or smuggling at least 100g or more of heroin, or 5kg or more of opium, had been punishable by death. In that year, 55 people were sentenced to death for drug-related offences.2002 kicked-off with the execution of seven unidentified men, shot dead by firing squad for drug-trafficking and murder on January 6. A Taiwan national and a 68-year-old Vietnamese-Chinese were shot dead on May 21. Chen Chi Tien and Tram Huy, had been arrested in May 1995 in Ho Chi Minh City for producing heavy narcotics (methamphetamines) under cover of a soap factory. Chen Chi Tien's was Vietnam's eighth execution of a foreigner. On December 18, six drug traffickers were executed by firing squad in Ha Tinh province, central Vietnam. Provincial chief judge Nguyen Tri Tue said they had been executed after their appeals for clemency were rejected by President Tran Duc Luong. They had been issued death sentences in January 2001. The men were among 23 defendants convicted of trafficking more than 30kg of heroin from neighbouring Laos into Vietnam between 1997 and 1999.Laos is the world's third-largest producer of opium and a production base for methamphetamines. The Communist government has vowed to turn the country into a ‚drug-free zoneé by the year 2015. In April 2001, the National Assembly approved a hotly debated amendment to the country's 1990 criminal code introducing the death penalty for drug trafficking. The amended law prescribes capital punishment for producers, distributors, smugglers and anyone found in possession of heroin, as well as traffickers of amphetamines and methamphetamines. A death sentence would be assured for people found in possession of more than 500 grams of heroin, or more than three kilograms of methamphetamines. Before the amendments prison terms for drug offenders ranged from life to ten years, depending on the amount found in possession.On June 19 the People's Court in Ventiane Prefecture passed its first drug-related death sentences. The official news agency KPL reported that two women and a man were condemned to death. Nang Chanhsamone Anoulak, 27, from Nkaham, Sikhotabong district, Nang Davone K?odara, 42, and Thao Khammane K?odara, 52, both from Pholphanaou, Xaysettha district, were found guilty of possessing and trafficking 2.750 grams of heroin and 16,000 amphetamine tablets and convicted under article 135 of the Penal Code. All three had been arrested on March 7.Singapore has one of the highest execution rates in the world relative to its population. Local civil rights group the Think Centre says about 70 percent of the city-state's hangings are for drug offences.The government does not publish information on the death penalty. Capital punishment in Singapore has in fact long been shrouded in silence, with little public debate about the issue and even less information on how the process is carried out. Even the families of those facing the gallows receive scant notice, and any information about the Friday hangings in Changi prison is typically released only after the deed has been done.‚We do have a general policy not to give any information on the death penalty,é a prison official told Reuters in April 2002.The government had just revealed, only in reply to a question in parliament, that 340 people were hanged between 1991 and 2000. In a response to a Reuters query, it also said 22 people were executed for drug trafficking in 2001 and 17 in 2000.In 2002, Syed Abdul Mutalip and Roetikno Shariff were hanged for drug trafficking on October 25, and Norazmi Bin Morsit and Abdul Malik Bin Abdul Jamil were executed for the same offence on December 20. Singapore takes a hard line on all illegal drugs, handing out stiff sentences for possession and mandating the death penalty for trafficking in 15 grams or more of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine or 500 grams of cannabis. To wage its war more effectively on drugs Singapore's highest court ruled in 2001 that the act of helping dealers pack heroin into smaller sachets for sale is as bad as selling the drug. So anyone who performs these chores could face the death sentence.The death penalty applies in Thailand to heroin or amphetamine drug trafficking and especially where the prisoner is found guilty after pleading not guilty at the start of their trial. A guilty plea allows judicial leniency - 25 years to life in jail instead of execution for heroin trafficking and export. It is never known in advance when a death warrant is to be issued, and executions are performed only once in a while. Usually a death warrant arrives in the morning and the execution takes place in the evening of the same day.In January 2002, more than 3 million Thais, including students, were known to be abusing narcotics. Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanjana said drug abuse was prevalent in every province and the number of drug users, especially methamphetamine users, was rising. Prem Tinsulanonda, president of the Privy Council, said drug traffickers should be treated as traitors to the country and executed. ‚They do not deserve to be Thais, they deserve the death penalty,é he said.A Bangkok Post editorial dated January 16, said ‚even capital punishment has proven unsuccessful at deterring drug traffickers. Despite the death sentence, not a day goes by without a press report of one or two more drug gangs being busted. Around 300 drug offenders are now on death row at Bang Kwang maximum security prison.éOn April 24, in the first executions in Thailand in 2002, five prisoners were executed at Bang Kwang Maximum Security Prison in Thailand. Two - Thawin Munsarn, 36, and Surakij Limcharoenwonge, 47 - had been convicted of murder. The other three, all people from hill tribes, had been found guilty of drug-trafficking. Jai Sangoh, 38, Kulchanok Intesaraj, 24, and Netnoi Sangkad, 36 had been arrested in possession of a total of 560,000 amphetamine pills on December 8, 1997. Eighteen inmates - 11 men and seven women - were executed in 2002 on charges of drug trafficking or murder.On March 1, a woman on trial for nearly a year on a drug trafficking charge died of heart failure minutes before the verdict on her was read. Manit Trapracha, 40, collapsed after the judge said she would face a death penalty if found guilty. She was acquitted.Malaysia's Dangerous Drugs Act carries a mandatory death sentence. Since the implementation of the mandatory death sentence was introduced for convicted drug traffickers in 1975, 155 Malaysians and 45 foreigners were hanged under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, Narcotics Department Supt Nooryah Mohd Anvar said on June 11.In 2002, two people were hanged for drug-related crimes. On January 25, a 49-year-old man convicted of drug trafficking was hanged at the Kajang Prison. Gan Kim Siew, who was unemployed, was sentenced to death by the High Court in Shah Alam on July 6, 1993. He failed in his appeal at the Federal Court on October 19, 1997 and his petition for clemency to the Selangor Pardons Board was also rejected, the Kajang Prison said in a statement. In the same prison, Mohamed Alladin Talib, 41, was executed on December 27. The ex-police constable from Sungai Way, was found guilty on June 23, 1994, by the Kota Baru High Court of trafficking cannabis on June 26, 1993.Brunei drastically toughened penalties for drug abuse, including wider use of the death penalty, in a desperate bid to curb its drug problem. The sultanate in 2002 amended the law to mete out the death penalty to anyone caught trafficking or smuggling more than 50g of the synthetic drug methamphetamine hydrochloride, commonly called ice, or shabu. Before the Misuse of Drugs Act was amended, the death penalty was reserved for those trafficking or smuggling more than 200g of shabu. The amendments, effective as from February, were prompted by the staggering rise in drug abuse, especially of shabu, which was flowing into the country in ever-increasing amounts. Before the amendments traffickers or smugglers of 50g of shabu would have earned a minimum sentence of 20 years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane. Now, this punishment is applicable to those caught dealing in a minimum of 20 g of shabu. Traffickers of less than 50g of shabu were previously liable only for a minimum sentence of five years in jail and five strokes of the cane. In the years previous to the amendments, drug pushers hauled to court were generally in possession of 20g to 50g of narcotics. The new law also provides that anyone caught possessing more than 100g of shabu - as opposed to 200g earlier - would be sent to the gallows.---------------------------------------------------------------------Editor in Chief: Marco PerducaDirector: Vincenzo DonvitoLayout & Distribution: ĘC.E.D. RomaThe Liafax is published with a contributionĘfrom the Open Society InstituteTo <mailto:liafax@radicalparty.org?subject=**subscribe_Liafax_#41NS_1810[EN]**>SUBSCRIBETo <mailto:liafax@radicalparty.org?subject=**unsubscribe_Liafax_#41NS_1810[EN]**>UNSUBSCRIBEIf you wish not to receive this bulletin,send a message without modifying the object of the email.Important: please send a message from the email addressthat you want to delete from our emailing list.