The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Killer of Australian mob boss gets 32 years in jail
- U.S. citizen jailed for insulting Thai monarchy
- Rights group urges Yemen to ban child marriage
| Killer of Australian mob boss gets 32 years in jail Posted: 07 Dec 2011 09:17 PM PST MELBOURNE (Reuters) - An Australian prisoner who beat to death a mob boss with a pole and then dragged his body back to his cell was sentenced to 32 years in jail on Thursday, with the judge condemning the man's prison code belief that he had a right to kill. Mobster Carl "Baby Face" Williams was serving four life sentences for murder during a gangland war in Australia's second largest city Melbourne, but had turned informant in jail. Prisoner Matthew Johnson said he killed Williams in 2010 in self-defence, but a jail camera showed Johnson approached Williams from behind and beat him over the head with a pole from a prison exercise bike. Williams, who was reading a story about himself in a newspaper at the time of the attack, was then dragged back to his cell. In passing sentence, Victorian Supreme Court Judge Lex Lasry said Johnson was the "General" of a prison gang called the "Prisoners of War" who hated anyone assisting police, local media reported. During Johnson's trial in September, the court heard Williams bragged to fellow prisoners of his involvement in at least 15 murders, three of which he said he had committed. "It was a killing which appears to demonstrate your belief that you have some special entitlement to kill when you think it appropriate or your ego demands it according to some meaningless underworld prison code," said Lasry. "I am left with no choice but to punish what you have done with an appropriately heavy sentence," he said, ordering a 32 year sentence without parole. (Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| U.S. citizen jailed for insulting Thai monarchy Posted: 07 Dec 2011 09:15 PM PST BANGKOK (Reuters) - A U.S. citizen was jailed for two-and-a-half years Thursday for insulting the Thai monarchy, prompting the U.S. Embassy to speak out at the severity of the sentence and say it supported the freedom of expression everywhere in the world. Thai-born Lerpong Wichaikhammat, 55, had pleaded guilty in October to using the Internet to disseminate information that insulted the monarchy, charges stemming from material posted on his blog in the United States, where he has citizenship.
He was arrested in May during a visit to Thailand. "The defendant is found guilty ... The court sentenced him to five years in prison. But he pleaded guilty. That makes the case easier, so the court decided to cut it in half to 2 years and six months," a judge said at the criminal court in Bangkok. Thailand has the world's toughest lese-majeste laws protecting its monarch. The number of cases has jumped in recent years and sentences have become harsher, coinciding with a period of political turbulence in the country. Lerpong's lawyer, Anon Nampa, said there would be no appeal against the verdict. "One month from now, we'll submit a request for a royal pardon," he added. Other foreigners who have fallen foul of the lese-majeste law in recent years have tended to spend a short period in jail before being pardoned. Thais have not got off so lightly, one recently getting 20 years for text messages deemed offensive. Elisabeth Pratt, consul general at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, said Joe Gordon -- the name Lerpong goes by -- was an American citizen and would continue to get consular help. "We're very concerned over the severity of the sentence that has been imposed on Joe Gordon. We support the freedom of expression here in Thailand and internationally throughout the world," she told reporters at the court. Lerpong was also accused of providing a web link to a biography by an American author of 84-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej that is banned in Thailand, where many people regard the king as almost divine. Before the verdict was read out, Lerpong was allowed to speak to reporters. "I'm not Thai, I'm American. I was just born in Thailand. I hold an American passport. In Thailand there are many laws that don't allow you to express opinions but we don't have that in America," he said. Critics say the law is being abused to discredit activists and politicians. The generals who overthrew former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 cited his alleged disrespect for the monarchy among other reasons. "Personally I don't know Thaksin and usually I don't get involved in politics," Lerpong said. "I'm proud to be American." (Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Jutarat Skulpichetrat and Aukkarapon Niyomyat; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Nick Macfie) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Rights group urges Yemen to ban child marriage Posted: 07 Dec 2011 09:12 PM PST DUBAI (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch urged Yemen's government on Thursday to ban marriages of girls under the age of 18, warning it deprives child brides - often forced to wed much older men - of education and harms their health. The New York-based group said the political paralysis born of 10 months of protests aimed at ousting President Ali Abdullah Saleh had drawn attention away from the phenomenon of child marriage, but that Yemen's government must address it. "Girls should not be forced to be wives and mothers," Nadya Khalife, the author of a 54-page report entitled: "How Come You Allow Little Girls to Get Married?," said in a statement. "The government...needs to show that it has the political will to do this by adopting this law," she told Reuters, calling for a law to set 18 as the minimum age for marriage. "As Yemen undergoes political change, leaders should seize the opportunity to correct an injustice that does enormous harm and set the country on a new course of social justice, including equality for women and girls," Khalife's statement said. Saleh last month signed a deal brokered by Yemen's richer Gulf neighbours aimed at averting civil war. It stipulates he formally renounce his powers, and that an interim government lead the country to a presidential vote in February. Quoting United Nations and government data, HRW said nearly 14 percent of Yemeni girls were married before the age of 15 and 52 percent before the age of 18. The group says many Yemeni child-brides-to-be are kept from school when they reach puberty. The report also said bearing children at a young age caused lasting reproductive health problems. In 2009, a group of conservative Yemeni lawmakers blocked legislation setting the minimum age for marriage at 17, arguing the bill contradicted Islamic law. Child marriage in Yemen drew international attention last year, when a 13-year-old Yemeni girl died from internal bleeding after intercourse with a spouse twice her age, and a Yemeni girl published a translated account of her marriage at age 9 to a man three times her age. Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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