THERE is concern that a provision under the amended Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, also known as the Patriot Act, seeks to re-introduce the death penalty through the backdoor at a time when human rights defenders are pushing for its removal from the country’s statutes.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed into law the Patriot Act in July this year, despite widespread condemnation of the draconian law.
Legislative watchdog, Veritas and Amnesty International (AI) voiced their concerns over the law during yesterday’s International Death Penalty Day commemorations in the capital.
The day is commemorated annually on October 10.
Zimbabwe is part of the 87 countries that have not abolished the death penalty.
Veritas director, Val Ingham-Thorpe said the death penalty must be removed from the country’s statutes.
“Death penalty and the Patriot Bill are completely unconstitutional. This is against the Constitution, it's inhuman and we are going to challenge that in court,” Ingham-Thorpe said.
“In this country, we really have strange provisions.”
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“It's very difficult to take out the death penalty without a referendum. So we have taken the matter to Parliament through a petition to try to persuade them on this issue. We are still waiting for feedback.”
AI campaign coordinator, Roselina Muzerengi echoed the same sentiments saying: “Some countries have removed laws which promote the death penalty .... however in Zimbabwe we have still retained the death penalty.
“The Patriot Bill has kind of sneaked in the death penalty.”
Under Section 48 of Zimbabwe’s Constitution, the High Court can impose the death penalty on any man aged between 21 and 70 who commits murder in aggravating circumstances.
But no one on death row has been executed for the past 15 years.
Veritas once proposed a retrial of all death row inmates in a model presented as part of its latest push for the abolishment of the death sentence in Zimbabwe.
