INDIA: AIADMK MEN ON DEATH ROW GET MORE TIME

three AIADMK party men, sentenced to death in India for the 2002 Dharmapuri bus burning in which three women were killed, got a short reprieve after the Tamil Nadu government told the high court that capital punishment would be implemented only after the Supreme Court heard their mercy appeal. Public prosecutor Raja Elango told the Madras High Court that the Coimbatore jail authorities, where the three men are being held, have issued the order not to execute the death sentence till the apex court disposes of their mercy petitions. The lower court had fixed Jan 10 as the execution date for the accused - Neduchezhian, Ravindran and Muniappan.