Human rights court demands Tanzania drop death penalty

By Kizito Makoye

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AA) - The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights urged Tanzania on Thursday to revoke the death penalty to honor the right to life.

In two separate judgments involving Nzigiyimana Zabron, a Burundi national, and Tanzanian Dominick Damian -- both convicted of murderers and have been on death row awaiting the gallows at Lake Victoria’s city of Mwanza's Butimba Central Prison since 2012, the court emphasized that mandatory capital punishment violates the African Charter and gave Tanzania six months to remove statute.

Tanzania grossly violates the right to life by imposing mandatory death sentences without judicial discretion and death by hanging is cruel, inhumane and violates the right to dignity, according to the Court.

Tanzania officials expressed outrage and said the country has maintained the law because of the necessity of the death penalty as a deterrent to heinous crimes.

"This is an infringement on our sovereignty. The Court is overreaching by dictating changes in our legal system. We shall appeal to protect our legal autonomy," Sarah Mwaipopo, Tanzania’s deputy solicitor-general told Anadolu.

Despite the Court’s incessant appeals, the death penalty remains embedded in Tanzania's penal code.

Tanzania has not executed a convict in nearly 30 years. Instead, prisoners languish on death row until they die, with more than 490 inmates currently in limbo.

Human rights activists expressed outrage. "The death penalty has no place in a civilized society. It should be abolished," Anna Henga, head of advocacy group the Legal and Human Rights Centre, told Anadolu.