On Tuesday, 29 December 2015, Jericho Court of First Instance sentenced M. M. D. (26), from Nablus, north of the West Bank, who works in Jericho, to death by hanging after convicting him of murdering a civilian from Jericho.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is gravely concerned over increasingly applying such irreversible penalties in light of the absence of real guarantees to achieve justice, especially in view of the Palestinian split and the absence of respect to the Penal Code. PCHR reiterates its call upon the Palestinian President to sign the 1989 Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.
According to PCHR’s documentation, the number of death sentences issued this year has risen to 12 sentences, of which 3 have been issued in the West Bank and 9 in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, the total number of death sentences issued in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) controlled areas has risen to 168 sentences since 1994, of which 30 have been issued in the West Bank and 138 in the Gaza Strip. Among those issued in the Gaza Strip, 80 sentences have been issued since 2007; i.e. since Hamas has taken over the Gaza Strip, while the PNA issued 32 death sentences since its establishment; of which 30 have been issued in the Gaza Strip and 2 in the West Bank. Among the sentences issued in the Gaza Strip, 19 were issued since 2007 without ratification of the Palestinian President in violation of the law.
It should be mentioned that the application of death sentences stopped in the West Bank since 2005, and stopped in the Gaza Strip after the formation of the National Unity government in June 2014. PCHR encourages this step and stresses that the application of death penalty should stop.
PCHR is gravely concerned over the continued application of the death penalty in PNA controlled areas, and:
