Attorney General (AG) Azima Shakoor stated on Thursday that the government’s bill on implementing death penalty would be made public early in the coming week.
Speaking at a press conference in Velaanaage, Shakoor confirmed that
the AG’s office had completed drafting the bill, which was now in the
final stages of discussion. She confirmed that the bill would be made
public on the office’s website in the coming week, stating the matter
“is very much connected to public sentiments and a large number of
people feel this matter needs a fast solution”.
Saying that “it was a pity” that three weeks had passed in the
drafting stage, Shakoor said that unlike most other bills, the death
penalty implementation bill was going through processes of in-depth
research and further discussions among a high-level group appointed by
the government.
According to Shakoor, the research took much longer than the state
had expected, adding that the AG office had included the legal systems
of Medina, Egypt and America in its research.
“I would like to point out that the death penalty is still
implemented in over 50 countries across the world even today. Not all of
these are even Islamic states. Nor is murder the only crime for which
the sentence is given. For example, some countries sentence people to
death for being caught trying to bring in narcotics to the country. We
are considering all of these points and have made a comparative legal
assessment,” Shakoor explained.
Other crimes besides murder which are punishable by death according
to Islamic Sharia include apostasy, adultery, sodomy, rape and high
treason.
“We need to conduct an academic exercise since we are trying to do this through a rather weak penal code,” Shakoor said.
“If this can be done before the penal code pending in parliament is
passed, it might be best to include this as part of that code. Right
now, we have drafted this with the thought that if the penal code gets
passed up front, then this can be passed as a separate act on death
penalty.”
Shakoor said that the bill was important as the current practice was
to charge murder convicts under Article 88 of the existing penal code.
Article 88 of the Penal Code states that disobedience to order is a
crime, while Article 88(c) details that if the result of violating the
article leads to a death, the case should be dealt with according to
Islamic Sharia.
Shakoor provided details of the drafted bill, stating it would be
looking at the investigation stages, prosecution stages, sentencing and
the implementation of sentences.
“The act looks into deciding on the number of judges who will sit on
the sentencing panel. Furthermore it considers the rights of the family,
the rights of the murder victim, the rights of the victim’s family, the
final rights of the convict during sentencing,” Shakoor stated.
Responding to a question regarding how those sentenced to death prior
to the bill being ratified would be dealt with, Shakoor said “it is
difficult to give a straightforward answer as the final discussions on
the bill have not yet been completed.”
“We too believe that answers to that must come to light through how
this bill is composed. However, I believe that a solution must be
provided even for past cases. So the act will be drafted to reflect
that. You can see for yourselves once the bill is made public,” Shakoor
replied.
“When an act is passed which explicitly spells out implementation [of
the death penalty], then I believe the benefits of it must be carried
to even past cases.”
Among a number of other cases, a young couple charged with the murder of lawyer Ahmed Najeeb were sentenced to death by the Criminal Court in July, a few days after the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) asked the Maldivian state
to enact legislation to officially abolish the death penalty. The
statement said “the state itself has admitted that capital punishment
does not deter crime.”
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