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Activists Call on President Biden to End the Federal Death Penalty Before Leaving Office

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A conversation with Death Penalty Action Co-founder and Executive Director Abe Bonowitz. Now that Joe Biden is a lame duck president, activists are holding him accountable to make good on his promise to end the federal death penalty during his remaining six months as president. Biden’s election campaign in 2020 had pledged to end the federal death penalty and incentivize the remaining 27 states that still allow executions to do the same. While he made history as the first president in the United States to openly oppose the death penalty, there has been no movement to actually end federal executions during his nearly four years in office.

Sweden rejects China's extradition request of former official accused of embezzlement

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STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Sweden's Supreme Court said on Tuesday (July 9) it was refusing the extradition of a Chinese man accused of economic crimes because the man risks persecution and the death penalty in China.

Qiao Jianjun, a former official of the Chinese state grain administration who has lived mainly in the United States since 2011, is wanted by Beijing as part of a sweeping government campaign against corruption.

He is accused of having embezzled over 200 million yuan (S$39.5 million), according to documents from Chinese authorities provided to Sweden.

Qiao Jianjun contests the accusations against him and claims he has been in Beijing's sights since joining the "China Democracy Party" in 2010.

"He denies the crimes and is only being hunted by Chinese authorities because they think he isn't faithful to the (Communist) party," his lawyer, Henrik Olsson Lilja, told AFP.

The Swedish top court said that there was a "real risk" that the accused could be sentenced to death, and assurances otherwise by Chinese authorities could not be given enough weight to justify extradition.


"The Supreme Court makes the assessment that there is a risk that he will be subjected to persecution because of his political activity and that he will be subjected to treatment in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights," Justice Petter Asp said in a statement.

"Under these conditions, extradition cannot take place," he added.

Qiao Jianjun was arrested and detained in Sweden in June 2018 at the request of China.

He was released on 19 June 2019 only to be again arrested a week later in another case, this time at the behest of the US, where authorities suspect him of money laundering in 2015.

Sweden has given the US until Aug 2 to submit a more detailed account of the crimes he is suspected of before it decides on a potential extradition.

The Swedish government officially makes the final decision on extradition matters, but it is obliged to follow the Supreme Court's rulings.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Staff, July 9, 2019


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Sweden
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