INDONESIA AGREES DEATH SENTENCE AGAINST CHEMICAL WEAPONS USE

February 19, 2008: the Indonesian House of Representatives endorsed a bill that threatens the death sentence to individuals who develop, produce and possess chemical weapons, local press said.
The bill says the use, transfer and acts to facilitate the use of chemical weapons will be punishable by sentences ranging from four years' imprisonment to capital punishment.
Endorsed at a plenary season, the bill also bans individuals from involvement in the use of chemical weapons for military purposes.
The bill was drafted to augment the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, which Indonesia ratified in 1998. (Sources: Xinhua, 20/02/2008)