Tunisia | Presidential statement in favour of death penalty is shocking

Tunisian President Kais Saied announced his position in favour of resuming executions during the National Security Council meeting on Monday, saying that “murder deserves the death penalty”.

He made the remarks following the recent murder of a girl in Ain Zaghouan.

Responding to the announcement, Amna Guellali, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

“Tunisia has not carried out any execution since 1991. The President’s announcement in favour of the death penalty is shocking and contravenes the decades-long established practice of not carrying out executions. President Saied is the 1st president to ever announce intentions to implement death sentences in Tunisia.

“Resuming executions would be a slap in the face of all the human rights progress that the country has made so far. We urge the Tunisian President to immediately reverse his disturbing announcement which would take Tunisia’s human rights record backwards instead of forward. We also call on the Tunisia government to immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

“Without a doubt, murder is an abhorrent crime and perpetrators should face justice. But however horrible the crimes committed are, there should be no excuse to kill a human being. There is no credible evidence to show that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than a prison term following a fair trial.”

Background

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to execute the prisoner.

The death penalty is a violation of the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; it is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Since 2012 Tunisia has been voting in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution on a Moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

Source: Amnesty International, Staff, September 28, 2020

President Kais Saied shows his real self, backs use of death-by-hanging in murder cases

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has said he backs capital punishment, after public outrage over a woman’s murder sparked calls for executions to restart following a three-decade-long pause.

“Anyone who kills a person for no reason deserves the death penalty,” Saied told the nation’s security council late Monday, according to a video posted by the presidency.

Tunisia carried out its last hanging in 1991, according to Amnesty International, but death by hanging remains on the statue books of the North African nation.

Convicts have regularly been handed death sentences in recent years — mainly in trials related to national security — but a moratorium on carrying out the punishment has been in place.

“Each society has its choices, we have our principles, and the text is there,” Saied added.

A recent murder revived the debate on the death penalty. The body of a 29-year-old woman, who had vanished after leaving work, was discovered last week near a highway that runs from the capital Tunis to the suburb of Marsa.

A man was swiftly arrested and confessed to killing her and stealing her phone, according to the interior ministry.

The justice ministry said that the suspect had previously been accused in an earlier murder case that was dismissed, without giving further details.

“If it is proven that he has killed one or more people, I don’t think the solution is … not to apply the death penalty,” Saied added.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Staff, September 29, 2020

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