The cases include that of former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who is charged with espionage; Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of bombing a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995; and four men found guilty in the frame-up trial in New York in relation to the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

The prosecution of these individuals puts a spotlight on ways in which Washington is whittling away at democratic rights by using a range of measures adopted under the Clinton administration, such as the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and Clinton’s decision to establish a national "counterintelligence czar" to widen Washington’s spying operations at home and abroad.

Hanssen pleaded not guilty May 31 to 21 charges of espionage and for betraying the United States by giving sensitive information to Moscow over a 15-year period, including the identities of Russian agents hired by U.S. intelligence, details about U.S. eavesdropping and spying operations in Russia, and Washington’s plans for nuclear retaliation in case of war.

The U.S. government prosecutors have made clear their intention to seek the death penalty for Hanssen on several of the charges. This would be the first time Washington has sought the death penalty against someone accused of espionage since Congress reenacted the death penalty for use in espionage cases in 1994. If successful, the U.S. rulers will carry out the first execution on spying charges since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death in 1953.

Unlike previous cases where lighter sentences have been negotiated in exchange for information about spying activities of the accused, the government has refused to drop the possible use of the death penalty against Hanssen, even if he provides them with information about secrets he allegedly revealed.

The main counts on which the government plans to pursue the death penalty are those claiming that Hanssen revealed information that led to the deaths of two Russians who were spying for Washington. Hanssen’s defense lawyers have argued that the application of the death penalty in this case would be unconstitutional since the alleged incident occurred in 1985 when the federal death penalty was not in effect.

The Justice Department is also aggressively pursuing implementation of an execution order against Timothy McVeigh, who up until a few weeks ago was scheduled to be the first person executed on federal charges since 1963. McVeigh, a rightist, proved a useful target for Washington to revive the use of the federal death penalty after he admitted his role in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in which 168 people were killed.

The government reluctantly agreed to postpone McVeigh’s execution for one month after the FBI, nearly on the eve of the execution, admitted to withholding 4,449 pages of documents from his lawyers concerning the case. Defense lawyers are demanding a longer stay of execution and a new trial. They wrote, government’s false statements that everything had been obtained and produced worked a fraud upon the court and defeated Mr. McVeigh’s right to a fair trial and sentencing proceeding."

Attorney General John Ashcroft vowed to "oppose vigorously" any further delay. "Based on overwhelming evidence and McVeigh’s own repeated admissions, we know that he is responsible for this crime, and we will continue to pursue justice by seeking to carry out the sentence that was determined by a jury," affirmed Ashcroft.

Government prosecutors also plan to seek the death penalty for two of the four men convicted in relation to the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, where 224 people were killed. The arrest and interrogation of all four men outside of the United States by U.S. officials involved serious violations of democratic rights. These included being threatened by U.S. agents interrogating them, not being advised of their right to remain silent, or their right to have a lawyer present.

A Washington Post editorial May 30 heralded the convictions and presented the case "as a rare example of a successful prosecution in U.S. courts for an attack against the United States on foreign soil."  
 
Uproar in South Africa over extradition
More light was shed on the methods used to win the convictions after the trial was over. The Constitutional Court in South Africa, the nation’s highest judicial body, ruled May 28, one day before the bombing trial conviction, that the right’s of Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, a citizen of Tanzania who the South African government allowed to be extradited, had been violated in several ways.

The court handed down a scathing criticism of the actions of the South African government’s Department of Home Affairs. According to the Sunday Times of Johannesburg, the court said authorities "had behaved like cowboys riding bareback over the law and ignoring Parliament’s carefully constructed checks and balances. The judges concluded that the officials had indeed acted illegally: they had flouted the law, ignored the Constitution, and set an appalling example for the rest of society."

Among the court’s findings were that the authorities had no legal right to turn Mohamed over to the U.S. government, he could only be sent back to Tanzania; that he was denied the right to fight an extradition order when he was put on a plane to the United States within 24 hours of his arrest, instead of the usual 72 hours; and that Mohamed was never advised of his right to remain silent and to have a lawyer.

Criticism has also focused on the fact that the South African government, having abolished the death penalty after the overthrow of the racist apartheid regime, is barred by law from extraditing anyone to a country where they face execution if convicted.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department agreed to a request by the French government to waive the death penalty for James Kopp, a fugitive wanted for the 1998 assassination of Dr. Bernard Slepian, a doctor who performed abortions in upstate New York. Kopp was arrested March 29 in the French province of Brittany. The French government, which abolished capital punishment, has refused to allow the extradition unless Washington pledges not to seek the death penalty in this case.
 
 
Related article:
No to the death penalty!  
 
 
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