“SHAMS” Center concludes a training course on combating death penalty
Ramallah: Human Rights and Democracy Media Center “SHAMS” concluded a training course on combating death penalty in Ramallah governorate. The course addressed different themes pertaining to death penalty in terms of the religious perspective, death penalty within international conventions and in the Palestinian legislations, guarantees for fair trial, procedures granted from people facing death penalty, implementing death penalty and mechanisms to combat the capital punishment. Participants included journalists, advocates and representatives of civil society organizations. The training course continued for two days.
His eminence Sheikh Mohammad Said, Mufti of the Palestinian Security Forces tackled the capital punishment from a religious viewpoint. He stressed that the three divine religious have arisen to preserve the human life. He quoted the verses of Quran “And [mention, O Muhammad], when your Lord said to the angels, “Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority.” He said that God grants the right to life to human beings and no one is allowed to murder others. Moreover, he explained the categories who face the capital punishment including the adulterer, the religion’s abandoner and the group’s leaver. He emphasized that Islam calls for tolerance, coexistence and love.
Advocate Mousa Abu Dheim from the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) mentioned that death penalty in inhuman. He added that Child Rights Convention clearly stipulate the abolition of death penalty, and that international charters call for setting guarantees to restrict inflicting of the capital punishment. He stressed that humans have sense of good, while theories assure that humans are nor born criminals, but it is the consequence of socio-economic conditions and surroundings, which encourage committing crimes mainly murder.
Advocate Ashraf Abu Haya from Al-Haq organization spoke about guarantees of Fair Trial, and explained that the constitution represents the umbrella and the Palestinian Basic Law is considered as the major document, which both rule the public. One of the guarantees id article (109) of the Palestinian Basic Law stipulates that death sentence issued by the court shall not be implemented unless the president ratifies it. In addition, the presidents has the powers of the general pardon and special pardon. He added that amnestying is hard to apply in some cases, and when speaking about the death penalty in the prevailing law in Gaza Strip, we should start thinking of death penalty philosophy.
Advocate Bisan Jaber clarified that articles (408) and (409) of Penal Procedures Law, which stress the importance of ratifying death sentences by the president are considered of the guarantees for fair trial. Additionally, it is significant to prosecute citizens before natural judge by virtue of the Palestinian Basic Law. It is worth noting that the law exclude implementing death penalty against the pregnant and child.
While Dr. Mustafa Abdelbaqi, instructor of Law at Birzeit University explained the status of death penalty within existing legislations in Palestine. He defined death penalty as mentioned in the Jordanian Penal Code no. 16 of 1960 applied in the West Bank as a criminal punishment, inflicted by the judge upon those who commit a capital crime. According to the Jordanian Penal Code, the capital punishment is implemented by handing, and the law include 16 capital crimes. He explained that he refuses this punishment because the penalty aims at achieving the general and special deterrence however, after the execution there will be no deterrence for the executed. Statistics indicate that general deterrence isn’t achieved by implementing death penalty, and that number of capital crimes increased. It is worth noting that many people, who were executed, were found innocent later on, and the majority of criminals are victims of psychological, economic and social hard conditions.