Amnesty opposes death penalty for
convicted soldiers

OCTOBER 5, 2014
BY TOBI AWORINDE

An international human rights advocacy
group, Amnesty International, has opposed
the death sentence passed on 12 Nigerian
soldiers by a military court in Abuja for
mutiny, among other offences.
The court three weeks ago, convicted the
soldiers for firing shots at the General Officer
Commanding the newly created 7 Division of
the Nigerian Army, Maj.-Gen. Ahmed
Mohammmed, in Maiduguri, Borno State.
But in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH ,
AI’s Media Director, Ms. Susanna Flood, said
the organisation was opposed to the death
penalty, regardless of the offence.
“The reason we have not said anything about
(the conviction) was because we weren’t able
to monitor the trial and assess that it was fair,
which is very important for us. We have to
back up our comments with facts.
“We oppose the death penalty in all
instances. So, in the case of these soldiers,
we would be opposed to their death penalty.
We are looking into the trial and trying to
ascertain more facts about all that went on or
the situations that led to these men being,
first of all, charged and then convicted. We
are now investigating,” she said.
She noted that human rights change would
not happen overnight and that one needed to
look at the proverbial big picture.
“If you look at our work on the death penalty,
and you examine the statistics when we
launched our campaign against the death
penalty, which was more than 20 years ago,
compared with the figures now, you will
notice that the number of countries around
the world executing prisoners is decreasing.
“Sadly, Nigeria is still executing. Eliminating
the death penalty is a slow bit of progress.
We can see all the achievements we have
made over the years in getting the death
penalty reduced around the world.
“Recently, we got news from Israel. Israel has
had a particularly harsh form of detention for
African asylum seekers, where they have
been locked up in unacceptable conditions.
We heard that the Israeli Supreme Court had
overturned the ability to do this and this
detention will no longer continue for
Africans,” she said.


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