Dear Friends,
We are releasing an appeal send to the President of Philippines to Commute the Death Sentences of Mr Leo Echegaray.
24 December 1998
Mr. Joseph Estrada President of the Philippines Malacanang Palace, Manila, Philippines. Fax: +(63 2) 832 3793
Your Excellency,
Re: An appeal to Commute Death Sentence of Leo Echegaray
The Asian Human Rights Commission make this appeal to commute the death sentence of Mr Leo Echegaray to life imprisonment as a humane gesture. As we celebrate Jesus’s birth, this gesture will recall that Jesus gave his life to forgive sinners. We sincerely request for a Presidential Review.
Leo Echegaray is the first person to be sentenced to death in the Philippines in two decades. Leo Echegaray may face execution by lethal injection on 4 January 1999. Only a Presidential Review will stay the execution at this stage. Leo Echegaray was sentenced to death for raping the child of his mistress.
The appeal is not based on any under-estimation of the crime he committed. It is based on the highest principle of recognition of death penalty as an inhuman punishment.
Besides, there are, in the Philippines hundreds of persons, mainly soldiers who have committed rape on fellow Filipinas during the \"marshall law\" under the Marcos’ regime, but they have not even been prosecuted. Thus, there is hypocrisy in the claim that it is pure righteousness supporting the death sentence demanded.
We truly hope that your excellency will call for a Presidential Review and commute the death sentence of Mr Leo Echegaray to life imprisonment as a humane gesture.
We wish you a happy Christmas.
Sincerely Yours,
Asian Human Rights Commission
Please visit the Asian Human Rights Commission’s and Asian Legal Resource Centre’s Campaign For Recognition of State-sponsored Disappearances as a Crime Against Humanity website: www.disappearances.com
