SOUTH Africa does not intend to petition the United States to save a Tanzanian convicted over US embassy bombings from possible execution, the justice ministry said on Wednesday.
“The matter is in the hands of the United States now. We can’t dictate terms to the US,” said ministry representative Paul Setsetse.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that the government acted unconstitutionally by handing over Khalfan Khamis Mohamed (27), to the United States without seeking protection for him from the death penalty.
Mohamed and three other suspects were found guilty by a US federal court in New York Tuesday of bombing two US embassies in East Africa in 1998, killing 224 people in part of a global plot hatched by the Islamic militant leader Osama bin Laden to murder Americans.
Saudi national Mohamed Rashid Daoud al-Owhali (23), and Mohamed face the death sentence for their role in the bombings in the penalty phase of the trial starting Wednesday, while the two others found guilty of conspiracy will face life imprisonment.
Mohamed was extradited in 1999 from Cape Town to the United States.
Setsetse said the government had sent the Constitutional Court judgment – as ordered by the court – to the US prosecuting attorney on Monday.
But, as Monday was a public holiday in the United States, the judgment was sent again electronically on Tuesday via the foreign ministry to South Africa’s consul-general in New York to bring to the attention of the Federal Court.
Setsetse said South Africa had now complied with the Constitutional Court judgment and did not intend pressing the United States any further to save Mohamed.
“The United States is a sovereign state. As South Africa we respect the sovereignty of the US,” he said.
There was nothing malevolent in sending Mahomed to the United States, Setsetse said.
“He chose to be sent there.”
Government lawyers said earlier that Mohamed had begged authorities not to deport him to Tanzania because he believed his countrymen would kill him in revenge for the Dar-es-Salaam bombing.
His own lawyers said though that he had not been properly informed of his right to a lawyer, his right not to incriminate himself and his right to ask for protection from the death penalty. – AFP
*ZA NOW:
SA government’s de facto execution May 30, 2001