Islamist groups and human rights organizations are clashing over the idea of abolishing capital punishment in Algeria.
By Ademe Amine for Magharebia in Algiers – 11/03/10
Islamists and human rights activists are locked in a heated public debate over the future of capital punishment in Algeria.
Both sides have used conferences and the media to present their positions, with Islamist groups strongly supporting the death penalty. According to a 2009 Amnesty International report, Algeria ranks fourth in the world in terms of handing down death sentences, even though actual executions have been suspended since 1993.
Farouk Ksentini, who presides over the National Advisory Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, revived the debate by vowing to lobby government officials for an end to capital punishment.
Upon returning last month from the 4th World Congress against the Death Penalty in Geneva, Ksentini told reporters that the punishment had been "irrelevant" for 20 years, and that Algeria must "get rid" of it.
But some leaders in Algeria's religious community have since challenged Ksentini's stance.
"We must preserve the death penalty as a precept set forth by the Qur'an," the Movement for Society and Peace announced in a March 2nd press release, which adds that putting a halt to such punishment would contradict sharia.
The head of the High Islamic Council, Sheikh Bouamrane, said on March 2nd that his organization "could never endorse the abolition of the death penalty", because doing so would "jeopardize several verses of the holy Qur'an".
"A criminal who kills a child and sells his organs, for instance, can't flee the death penalty," APS quoted Bouamrane as saying in a press conference on March 3rd.
The minister for religious affairs and endowments, Bouabdellah Ghlamalah, added his voice to the discussion. "I oppose the abolition of the death penalty," he said on March 1st in Algiers during the National Week of the Holy Qur'an.
Meanwhile, other rights activists are rallying to Ksentini's side. Ali Yahia Abdennour, who founded the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights in 1987, told Magharebia on March 2nd that the death penalty "must be abolished".
Abdennour said that Algeria's justifications for capital punishment ring hollow. He claimed that there has not been a significant drop in the number of crimes committed since the death penalty became legal, and that the religious justification is weak.
"In the Qur'an, there are only two verses that call for the 'law of retaliation', leaving room for other options before the execution of this sentence," he said.
At least one government representative has publicly rejected Islamists' claims that ending capital punishment would go against Islam.
"We won't defy the religion by abolishing the death penalty, if that will benefit society," the Foreign Ministry's director of political affairs and international security, Benchaa Dani, said on national radio. He did not, however, indicate that the current situation would change.
"We are in the phase of applying the suspension" put in place in 1993, he added.
The death penalty has not been applied since 1993, when then-president Liamine Zeroual declared a moratorium on executions. Since then, the courts have continued to pronounce death sentences for crimes ranging from treason to murder.
On the international front, Algeria has signed several accords that support the abolition of the death penalty, and in 2004 lawmakers ratified the new Arab Charter of Human Rights, which rejects the use of capital punishment.
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/03/11/feature-02.
By Ademe Amine for Magharebia in Algiers – 11/03/10
Islamists and human rights activists are locked in a heated public debate over the future of capital punishment in Algeria.
Both sides have used conferences and the media to present their positions, with Islamist groups strongly supporting the death penalty. According to a 2009 Amnesty International report, Algeria ranks fourth in the world in terms of handing down death sentences, even though actual executions have been suspended since 1993.
Farouk Ksentini, who presides over the National Advisory Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, revived the debate by vowing to lobby government officials for an end to capital punishment.
Upon returning last month from the 4th World Congress against the Death Penalty in Geneva, Ksentini told reporters that the punishment had been "irrelevant" for 20 years, and that Algeria must "get rid" of it.
But some leaders in Algeria's religious community have since challenged Ksentini's stance.
"We must preserve the death penalty as a precept set forth by the Qur'an," the Movement for Society and Peace announced in a March 2nd press release, which adds that putting a halt to such punishment would contradict sharia.
The head of the High Islamic Council, Sheikh Bouamrane, said on March 2nd that his organization "could never endorse the abolition of the death penalty", because doing so would "jeopardize several verses of the holy Qur'an".
"A criminal who kills a child and sells his organs, for instance, can't flee the death penalty," APS quoted Bouamrane as saying in a press conference on March 3rd.
The minister for religious affairs and endowments, Bouabdellah Ghlamalah, added his voice to the discussion. "I oppose the abolition of the death penalty," he said on March 1st in Algiers during the National Week of the Holy Qur'an.
Meanwhile, other rights activists are rallying to Ksentini's side. Ali Yahia Abdennour, who founded the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights in 1987, told Magharebia on March 2nd that the death penalty "must be abolished".
Abdennour said that Algeria's justifications for capital punishment ring hollow. He claimed that there has not been a significant drop in the number of crimes committed since the death penalty became legal, and that the religious justification is weak.
"In the Qur'an, there are only two verses that call for the 'law of retaliation', leaving room for other options before the execution of this sentence," he said.
At least one government representative has publicly rejected Islamists' claims that ending capital punishment would go against Islam.
"We won't defy the religion by abolishing the death penalty, if that will benefit society," the Foreign Ministry's director of political affairs and international security, Benchaa Dani, said on national radio. He did not, however, indicate that the current situation would change.
"We are in the phase of applying the suspension" put in place in 1993, he added.
The death penalty has not been applied since 1993, when then-president Liamine Zeroual declared a moratorium on executions. Since then, the courts have continued to pronounce death sentences for crimes ranging from treason to murder.
On the international front, Algeria has signed several accords that support the abolition of the death penalty, and in 2004 lawmakers ratified the new Arab Charter of Human Rights, which rejects the use of capital punishment.
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/03/11/feature-02.
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