Ref: 22/2021

Date: 18 February 2021

Time: 11:40 GMT

On 17 February 2021, the Permanent Military Court in Gaza issued a death by hanging sentence against Sh. S (37) from Rafah after convicting him of premeditated murder in the case of Jaber al-Qeeq, who was killed on 12 July 2020 in a revenge crime that was widely denounced in Palestine.

PCHR reiterates its condemnation of the horrendous crime against Jaber al-Qeeq, a former Palestinian prisoner in Israel; and asserts its support and solidarity with his parents and their right to redress and justice. Nonetheless, the Centre rejects the use of the death penalty and does not consider it a means of achieving justice or deterrence, but rather sees it as an inhuman practice that is in conflict with Palestine’s international legal obligations as per the 1989 Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty and prohibits its application.

Furthermore, PCHR strongly condemns the Gaza authorities illegal conduct of trying civilians before military courts, in violation of Article 30 of the Palestinian Basic Law “Each Palestinian shall have the right to seek redress in the judicial system.” This conduct is also a grave violation of Palestine’s international obligations under the ICCPR, particularly articles 6 and 14 which emphasized fair judicial processes, particularly in terms of issuing death sentences.

This is the third sentence of its kind in 2021 in the Gaza Strip. Thus, the total number of death sentences issued in Palestinian territory since 1994 reached 239; 30 in the West Bank and 209 in the Gaza Strip.  Among those issued in the Gaza Strip, 150 sentences were issued after the 2007 Palestinian political division.

Since the establishment of the PA, 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 after 2007 without the ratification of the Palestinian President in violation of Palestinian law. In this context, PCHR commends the Palestinian President’s position not to ratify any death sentence since 2005 and 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 that permit the death penalty in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, until an elected legislative authority assumes the legislative power and abolishes it from Palestinian legislations.