Ref: 12/2023
Date: 31 January 2023
Time: 10:30 GMT
On Monday, 30 January 2023, the Higher Crime Committee in Gaza issued a death sentence by hanging against (A. A.) on charges of drug dealing and possession along with recidivism (i.e., recommitting the same, similar or even higher crimes).
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reaffirms its condemnation of all drug dealing crimes due to their drastic consequences on the society and youth, and stresses the importance of prosecuting the perpetrators and bringing them to justice. In the meantime, PCHR reiterates that death penalty is not the only mean to achieve justice or deter crimes and underlines the fact that Palestine is a State Party to the 1989 Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.
PCHR expresses its concern over the remarkable increase in use of death penalty in the Gaza Strip, recording an unprecedented level last year when 27 new death sentences were issued. Yesterday’s sentence is the first of its kind this year. Thus, the number of the death sentences issued in the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas since 1994 has risen to 281: 251 in the Gaza Strip, and 30 in the West Bank. Of those issued in the Gaza Strip, 192 have been issued since the 2007 Palestinian political division.
This sentence constitutes a dangerous precedent, as death penalty was used as a punishment for drug dealing, which is one of the crimes that was not codified and punished by death penalty according to the legislations in force in the Gaza Strip. However, this penalty was decided according to Article (29) of the 2013 Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law that was enacted in violation of the Palestinian Basic Law by the Change and Reform Bloc, which convenes on behalf of the Legislative Council in Gaza without any legal basis. This Article allows the court to decide a death penalty against those convicted of drug dealing in certain cases, including recidivism.
It is noteworthy that since the establishment of the PA in 1994, 46 death sentences were executed: 44 in the Gaza Strip, and two in the West Bank. Of those executed in the Gaza Strip, 33 were conducted without the ratification of the Palestinian President in violation of Palestinian law. PCHR stresses the need to perpetuate the policy of refraining from ratifying death sentences in a prelude to abolish this punishment from the Palestinian legislations.PCHR reemphasizes that the Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR is biding to the authorities in Palestine, including the Gaza Strip. Therefore, use of death penalty must stop in a prelude to abolish it from the legislations.
PCHR calls on the authorities in the Gaza Strip not to use the death penalty and replace it with a life sentence with hard labor.PCHR also calls upon the Palestinian President to issue a law by decree to repeal any legal articles in the Palestinian Law that conflict with Palestine’s obligations under the ICCPR Protocol aiming at abolishing the death penalty.