Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Executions that are cute by Western standards
It seems that HRW found time given their occupation with the health and physical condition of right-wing Lebanese lawyer, Muhammad Al-Mughrabi. ""It's deeply disturbing that Palestinian courts have resumed issuing death sentences at a time when the rest of world is moving toward abolishing capital punishment," said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division. "President Abbas should make clear that he will commute all of these sentences when they arrive on his desk." Seven of the 11 death sentences this year were issued by military courts, in breach of a commitment made by Abbas in June 2005 to refer all death penalty cases to civilian courts. Palestinian military and state security courts do not meet international fair trial standards. In two of the cases, before military courts in Jenin and Hebron, the trials lasted just one day."