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The struggle for abolition of the death penalty is not over, not even where it is no longer being enforced. Abolition – or the moratorium several states have in place on the death sentence – often seems to become a cover for inhumane alternatives such as life-sentences. IPS correspondents report on the campaign against the death penalty, and for legal and prison reforms that would give prisoners the right to life, and also to justice and decency.

In this newsletter you will find in-depth reports by IPS correspondents from around the world and analyses of civil society’s work on the ground.

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ipsnews.net/_newsletter/deathpenalty.asp

MIDEAST: Palestinian Death Penalty Very Much Alive
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – Last November, Muhammad Al Saba, 36, from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip was sentenced to death by hanging by a military court in Gaza for alleged acts of “treason and collaborating with hostile forces.”
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50856

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RIGHTS: Not Quite Islamic Executions
By Sanjay Suri
LONDON (IPS) – The Middle East leads the world in executions after China, says an annual Amnesty International report.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50836

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PERU-CHINA: Extradition to Death Row
By Angel Paez
LIMA (IPS) – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has asked for precautionary measures in Peru to prevent the extradition to China of Wong Ho Wing, a Chinese national accused of crimes that could carry a death sentence in his country.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50502

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LEBANON: ‘Roumieh Prison Breeds Criminality Not Reform’
By Mona Alami
BEIRUT (IPS) – Lebanon’s notorious Roumieh prison, the scene of a stand-off between inmates and security personnel this month, is no stranger to rioting, escapes, corruption and abuse.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50884

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RIGHTS-BAHRAIN: It’s Time to Abolish the Death Penalty – Activists
By Suad Hamada
MANAMA (IPS) – Bahrain has observed a de facto moratorium on the death penalty for years, but many are watching to see if the Gulf country will follow the international trend toward the abolition of capital punishment in the future.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50879

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BULGARIA: Inhuman Life Sentences Replace Death Penalty
By Claudia Ciobanu
BUCHAREST (IPS) – The death penalty was outlawed in Bulgaria in 1998. But restrictive legislation on conditional release, and the overcrowding and precariousness of the Bulgarian prison system makes life hardly livable for some lifers.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50871

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EGYPT: Death Sentences Rise With Poverty
By Cam McGrath
CAIRO (IPS) – Egyptian courts are handing down death sentences with “alarming frequency” as the state attempts to use capital punishment to stem rising crime rates.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50870

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LATIN AMERICA: Subdued Response to Cuban Dissident’s Death
By Humberto Marquez
CARACAS (IPS) – The deafening silence of Latin American governments has fallen like another shovelful of earth on the grave of Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata, a bricklayer who died Feb. 23 after nearly three months on hunger strike in prison on the Caribbean island.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50537

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TUNISIA: Rights Groups Condemn Harassment of Ex-Prisoners
By Charles Fromm
WASHINGTON (IPS) – The Tunisian government should stop the harassment of political prisoners after their release from jail, say rights groups in two new reports.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50773

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TRINIDAD: Sharing a Cell with Cockroaches and Rats
By Peter Richards
PORT OF SPAIN (IPS) – One of the newest opposition politicians to join the Trinidad and Tobago Senate, Verna St Rose-Greaves knows a lot about human rights abuses.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50791

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MORE IPS COVERAGE OF THE DEATH PENALTY:
http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/deathpenalty/index.asp

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U.S. President Barack Obama has inherited wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a tanking economy, and global crises like climate change. IPS reports on the implications of the new administration not just for U.S. citizens, but for the world.
http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/us_elections2008/index.asp

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