Defendant illegally faces death penalty

the Constitutional Court ruled that the South African government illegally handed over to U.S. authorities a Tanzanian suspect now on trial in New York for the bombing of 2 American embassies in Africa. The court said the government should not have turned over Khalfan Khamis Mohamed without first obtaining from U.S. authorities assurances that he would not face the death penalty. South Africa´s constitution does not permit the death penalty and requires assurances that suspects not face execution before they are extradited.
Mohamed, 27, is one of four men on trial in federal court in New York on charges of helping to stage the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. He was arrested in October 1999 in Cape Town and handed over to the FBI.Judge Arthur Chaskalson, the court´s president, said his country had violated Mohamed´s constitutional rights by failing to obtain assurances that he would not be executed. "The fact that Mohamed is now facing the possibility of a death sentence is a direct result of the failure of the South African authorities to secure such an undertaking," he said.