No alla Pena di Morte - NO to the Death penalty

Archives News IT EN

NO alla Pena di Morte
Campagna Internazionale

PECHINO, 15 MAG - In Cina, a partire da oggi, chiunque ''diffonda intenzionalmente'' la Sars o rifiuti le misure di quarantena puo' venire condannato a morte o all' ergastolo. Lo ha stabilito Corte Suprema cinese interpretando le leggi gia' in vigore sulla prevenzione e la cura delle epidemie.

La Corte ha decretato che chi diffonde la malattia ''mette in pericolo la sicurezza pubblica e causa gravi danni personali o la morte (di altri cittadini) e danneggia la proprieta' pubblica e privata'' . Quindi, ''verra' punito con sentenze (che possono andare) dai 10 anni di prigione, alla prigione a vita, alla pena di morte''.

Coloro che rifiutano o evadono la quarantena, rifiutano gli esami medici e le cure, prosegue il pronunciamento della Corte, potranno essere condannati a pene tra i tre ed i sette anni di prigione. Inoltre, coloro che si ''approprieranno indebitamente'' di fondi o beni destinati alla lotta contro la malattia potranno essere condannati a pene ''fino a sette anni di prigione''.

La stessa pena, ha aggiunto la Corte, si applichera' a impiegati e funzionari statali che ''non fanno il loro dovere'' o ''abusano della loro autorita''' nel quadro della lotta contro

la Sars.

China threatens Sars death penalty

China has threatened to execute or jail for life anyone who breaks Sars quarantine orders and spreads the virus intentionally.

The Supreme Court and China's lead prosecutor set out the punishments in an interpretation of existing laws which regulate the containment of sudden disease outbreaks and the response to disasters, China's official news agency said.

The move comes days after China warned officials across the country that they would be punished if they covered up information about the spread of Sars.

China was criticised for failing to reveal the true extent of the crisis to its people and the world, after the pneumonia-like illness was first reported in November.

On Thursday China reported four more Sars deaths and 52 new cases, taking its total death toll to 271 and the cumulative caseload to 5,163.

And the Sars emergency worsened in Taiwan, which with 26 new incidents saw its biggest one-day jump in fresh cases as the disease spread to the southern part of the island.

There have been about 7,700 cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome around the world, and more than 600 people have died.

But there was relief in Canada - which suffered 24 Sars deaths - after the UN health agency said the country had contained Sars, and lifted it from the UN list of affected areas on Wednesday.

Law 'may deter victims'

Human rights activists reacted with horror to news of China's latest crackdown, saying the death penalty ruling violated international human rights covenants.

"The measure is too extreme and the punishment too heavy," Hong Kong-based activist Frank Lu told Reuters.

The World Health Organization said the draconian law could be counterproductive as it would deter possible Sars patients from going to hospital.

"There is a fine balance with this kind of disease where you need to isolate and quarantine patients, but if you are too heavy handed it may end up only stigmatising people," a WHO spokeswoman said.

The legal announcement reported by the Xinhua news agency, said that intentionally spreading disease pathogens that endangered public security or lead to serious injury, death or heavy loss of public or private property was punishable by 10 years to life in prison, or death.

Officials found guilty of negligently allowing the disease to spread face three years in jail; those making or selling fake drugs face 15 years to life in prison if their actions cause heavy losses; using violence to hinder aid workers could result in a three-year term.

Other crimes like taking advantage of an outbreak to raise the price of goods, misusing aid funds, illegally administering medical care, false advertising, false alarms and fabricating news of attacks can also lead to jail terms.

Fears for countryside

The crackdown responds to concerns that China's under-resourced rural health care system would struggle to cope with a serious Sars outbreak in the countryside.

The fact that at least 10% of cases in Beijing are among migrant workers has raised fears that the disease could spread within China's rural communities as workers return home.

Beijing hopes that the new rules, which will require any emergency to be reported within hours, will encourage authorities to respond as quickly as possible to fresh cases.

Officials said that China would invest more funding and resources in rural health care in the wake of Sars.

"China is a country with a big population. It's also a vast developing country, so problems of epidemics spreading is still very serious," said Qi Xiaoqiu, director of the Ministry of Health's department of disease control.

"Recently, we've asked various levels of government to step up prevention of other epidemics in addition to fighting Sars. This includes our prevention and control work in Aids in China's countryside."

CHINA: China to execute SARS quarantine offenders; Taiwan hospitals stumble

China said it may execute SARS patients who violate quarantine in the most radical step so far to contain the epidemic as Taiwan struggled to prevent new outbreaks among health workers.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) claimed four more lives in China, 7 in Hong Kong and five in Taiwan, health officials said Thursday.

China, the epicentre of the outbreak with 5,163 cases and 271 deaths, reported 52 new infections -- its lowest number since the government admitted covering up the epidemic on April 20.

In a bid to curtail the spread of the disease China's judiciary announced that under the country's infectious diseases law SARS patients who violate quarantine restrictions could face execution or life imprisonment.

"Intentionally spreading sudden contagious disease pathogens that endangers public security or leads to serious personal injury, death or heavy loss of public or private property will be punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment or the death penalty," Xinhua news agency said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) immediately expressed concern that the draconian law could deter possible SARS patients from going to hospital.

"There is a fine balance with this kind of disease where you need to isolate and quarantine patients, but if you are too heavy handed it may end up only stigmatizing people," WHO spokeswoman Mangai Balasegaram said.

China, believed to be the source of the SARS virus, also insisted Thursday that the situation was improving and there was little sign of widespread infections in its heavily-populated and poorly-equipped countryside.

The numbers of new infections in China has also been steadily falling, although some experts have raised doubts about the country's reporting methods.

"In general, we have not found a large scale occurrence of SARS cases in rural areas except for a few found in very limited areas," said a joint statement from the ministries of agriculture, health and finance.

As the number of cases appeared to subside in China, officials in Taiwan were under pressure to contain the spread of the virus among health workers as another hospital shut its emergency and outpatient services.

Officials at the private Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Kaohsiung quarantined 600 in-patients after 15 staff became infected.

The private Mackay Memorial Hospital also reported seven SARS cases involving medical workers who had treated a noodle stand proprietor who was later confirmed to have died of SARS. 3 other hospitals have closed or quarantined patients and staff because of SARS.

Taiwan Thursday reported 26 more infections and 5 deaths, including that of a doctor, taking the death toll on the island to 34 from 264 cases.

"Infections at hospitals in the past 2 days are getting serious ... more than what we had expected. Now our focus is fighting against hospital infections," said Li Ming-liang, commander of the national anti-SARS task force.

In Singapore, more patients and staff from the Institute of Mental Health have been quarantined because of SARS fears, the health ministry said.

And in the Philippines two new SARS cases were reported, taking the country's total caseload to 12. However, both patients have recovered. The Philippines has reported two deaths from the virus.

5 new cases emerged Thursday in Hong Kong and 7 deaths were reported. The territory's death toll stands at 234 from 1,703 infections.

Other deaths have occurred in Vietnam (5), Malaysia (2), Singapore (28) and Thailand (2). More than 600 people have succumbed to the disease worldwide.

Canada, the only country outside of Asia to record SARS deaths, was celebrating Thursday after the WHO declared the virus was no longer spreading in the country and lifted the last remaining travel advisories.

The WHO said it considered the chain of transmission was broken in Toronto, Canada's worst affected area, as no new locally-contracted case had been diagnosed there for more than 20 days.

The country recorded 24 deaths after a 78-year-old elderly woman 1st brought the virus to Toronto in March from Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, the financial fallout from SARS continued around Asia, with figures from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics showing industrial output growth slowed in April compared with the 1st 3 months of the year.

Global credit rating agency Fitch halved its forecast for Singapore's 2003 economic growth and in the Philippines, an airline industry official admitted the jet-setting virus is inflicting the worst crisis the global aviation industry has known.