Executions looming in Philippines are provoking protest

Lawyers and anti-death penalty groups stepped up efforts to stop this week's executions of two men they claim were wrongly convicted of kidnapping -- a politically sensitive issue that has divided many Filipinos.

Government lawyers defending convicted kidnappers Roberto Lara and Roderick Licayan were scheduled yesterday to present new evidence at the Supreme Court they said would prove their innocence and persuade the court to defer Friday's executions and order a retrial.

Outside the court, two groups of left-wing activists protested the scheduled executions -- the first since 2000 -- and called for a repeal of the law that brought capital punishment back to the Philippines.

Hundreds of death row inmates also planned to stage a protest later yesterday by banging the bars of their cells, according to a prison chaplain, Roberto Olaguer.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/01/27/2003092626