March 9, 2023
Gaza Military Court Issues Death Sentences: PCHR Calls Upon the Authorities to End This Inhuman Penalty
Gaza Military Court Issues Death Sentences: PCHR Calls Upon the Authorities to End This Inhuman Penalty

 Ref: 32/2023

Date: 09 March 2023

Time: 13:00 GMT  

The Permanent Military Court in Gaza issued a death sentence by hanging against (‘A. D.) (65), a fugitive from justice, after being convicted of drug dealing.The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) affirms its condemnation of drug dealing crime due to their drastic consequences on the society 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.

With the issuance of this sentence, the death sentences issued by the Court of First Instance since the beginning of this year have risen to 2: 1 issued by the military court and the second one issued by a civil court against a person n accused of a drug dealing, in addition to two other sentences issued in affirmation of former death sentences by the Appeal Court. Thus, the number of the death sentences issued in the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas since 1994 has risen to 282: 252 in the Gaza Strip, and 30 in the West Bank. Of those issued in the Gaza Strip, 193 have been issued since the 2007 Palestinian political division.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 stresses that the trial of civilians before military courts is not permissible, whatever the crime, under Article (30) of the Palestinian Basic Law, which stipulates: “Filing an action before a court shall be a protected and guaranteed right for all persons. Every Palestinian shall have the right to seek redress in the judicial system.”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.