Ref: 43/2022
Date: 13 April 2022
Time: 11:00 GMT
On Wednesday, 13 April 2022, the Court of Appeal in the Gaza Strip unanimously issued a sentence by hanging against (M. D.) (37) amending a previous life imprisonment sentence issued by the Court of First Instance against the same person after convicting him of the murder of his wife (S. ‘A) on 22 April 2017.
The verdict said that the death sentence should be executed when the youngest child of the convicted person attains the age of legal majority.
PCHR emphasizes its total support for the families of victims and importance of the rule of law.
In the meantime, PCHR insists on its position against use of death penalty and believes it is an inhuman punishment.
PCHR reiterates that death penalty is not the only mean to achieve justice or deter such crimes; rather, it is an inhumane way that conflicts with Palestine’s international legal obligations under the 1989 Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.
Thus, the death sentences issued in 2022 in Gaza rise to five, and the total number of death sentences issued by courts of first instance in the Palestinian territory since 1994 reached 257; 30 in the West Bank and 227 in the Gaza Strip. Among those issued in the Gaza Strip, 167 sentences were issued after the 2007 Palestinian political division. Since the establishment of the PA in 1994, 41 death sentences were executed: 39 in the Gaza Strip, and two in the West Bank. Of those executed in the Gaza Strip, 28 were carried out without the ratification of the Palestinian President in violation of Palestinian law.
In this context, PCHR stresses the need to refrain from ratifying death sentences in a prelude to abolishing this punishment from the Palestinian legislations.
PCHR reminds the authorities in Gaza of Palestine’s international legal obligations under the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which obliges Palestine to suspend use of the death penalty as a prelude to its abolishment from Palestinian legislations. Therefore, 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 suspend the use of legal articles related to the death penalty in the Palestinian Law until an elected legislative authority assumes the legislative power and abolishes it from Palestinian legislations.