On
this date, August 18, 2012, the ruler of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh made
announcement that he would carry out the death sentences in his country. I will
now post an article stating that in 2015, the firing squad will return.
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The
Gambian Firing Squad
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/gambia-reinstate-firing-squads-president-162216521.html
& http://www.jollofnews.com/index.php/national-news/human-rights/851-gambia-to-reinstate-firing-squads
Gambia to reinstate firing squads: president
July 18, 2015 12:22 PM
Banjul
(Gambia) (AFP) - Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh has warned that death row
inmates should expect to have their sentences implemented, apparently
signalling an end to a three-year unofficial moratorium on executions.
The
military strongman said in a meeting with religious leaders broadcast on state
television late on Friday that the move was a response to the spiralling murder
rate.
"During Ramadan, someone buried her child alive. Three days
before Ramadan, someone in the Upper River Region threatened to kill someone
and ended up killing the individual,"
he said.
He
did not say whether death sentences for convicts already on death row would be
brought forward, but he appeared to pre-empt criticism of any move to resume
executions.
"If I am driving a vehicle on the road and you decide to cross
in front of the vehicle, if the vehicle knocks you down and you die, am I the
one that killed you or are you the one that killed yourself?" he said.
No
official crime statistics are released by the government of mainland Africa's smallest
country, which is surrounded by Senegal except for a narrow strip of Atlantic
coast.
Jammeh
announced in August 2012 that all death row prisoners would be executed by
mid-September that year.
A
week later the first batch of nine convicts were executed by firing squad.
The
killings caused international outrage, especially in Senegal, which had two
citizens among those put to death.
Rights
groups estimate another 30 convicts face the firing squad but no executions
have been announced since.
Jammeh,
an outspoken military officer and former wrestler, has ruled the Gambia --
which has a population of just 1.7 million -- with an iron fist since seizing
power in a bloodless coup in 1994.
He
is often accused of rights abuses and the suppression of free speech, and is
pilloried for paranoia as he regularly reshuffles his government.
The
country currently allows the death penalty only for people convicted of causing
someone's death through violence or the administration of toxic substances.
The
government announced in June however it would hold a referendum on expanding
the list of offences punishable by death to any crime deemed sufficiently
serious by parliament.
All
Gambians aged over 18 will be entitled to take part in the vote, a date for
which has yet to be set.
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