Rights group criticizes death penalties in Gaza

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) Thursday criticized death sentences issued by a military court in Gaza against three Palestinians who were charged of terrorism based on the PLO revolutionary law of 1979. The PCHR press release said two residents of the Gaza Strip were convicted on Wednesday of detonating a bomb outside a café in Gaza which resulted in one death and five injuries. The third was convicted on Tuesday of treason and was also sentenced to deaht by hanging. 'The Palestinian Revolutionary Penal Code 1979 is unconstitutional in the Palestinian National Authority, and was not approved by the legislative council,' said PCHR. PCHR has demanded, since 1995, to stop abiding by the code, because it contravenes international law. It also called on President Mahmoud Abbas not to ratify the death sentences, particularly one issued by a mlitary court in Jenin on Monday against a Palestinian security officer convicted of killling a shopkeeper. According to PCHR, the number of death sentences issued so far this year reached nine -- two in the West Bank and seven in the Gaza Strip. The total number of death sentences issued by the Palestinian Authority has amounted to 121 since 1994, of which 25 were issued in the West Bank and 96 in the Gaza Strip. Among those issued in the Gaza Strip, 32 sentences were issued since 2007. PCHR called for 'an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a form of punishment because it violates international human rights standards and instruments, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), and the UN Convention against Torture (1984).' It pointed out that 'the call for the abolition of the death penalty does not reflect a tolerance for those convicted of serious crimes, but rather a call for utilizing deterrent penalties that maintain our humanity.'