\n Sierra Leone's president on Friday signed a bill abolishing the death penalty, declaring the West African country had \"exorcised horrors of a cruel past\" after a long campaign to end capital punishment.\n<\/p>\n
\n President Julius Maada Bio signed the abolition bill during a ceremony in the capital Freetown after lawmakers approved the text in July.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a statement, the president denounced capital punishment \"inhumane.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We today affirm our belief in the sanctity of life,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sierra Leone, which is still recovering after decades of civil war, had frequently come under fire from rights groups for keeping capital punishment on the books.\n<\/p>\n
\n Deputy Minister of Justice Umaru Napoleon Koroma told AFP that Sierra Leone's first recorded execution dated from 1798 -- around a decade after Britain founded the colony for freed slaves in 1787.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ninety-four people were living under a death sentence at the end of 2020, the minister added.\n<\/p>\n
\n No execution has taken place in the country since 1998, however, and death sentences were often commuted.\n<\/p>\n
\n After long resisting a formal ban on capital punishment, the government announced abolition plans in May. The parliament then voted in favour in July.\n<\/p>\n
\n Under the new law, execution will be replaced with life imprisonment or a minimum 30-year jail term for crimes such as murder or mutiny.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sierra Leone joins a growing number of African countries that have outlawed the death penalty, with Chad abolishing the punishment last year, for example.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Ultimate cudgel' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Sierra Leone's 1991 constitution allowed the use of the death penalty for aggravated robbery, murder, treason and mutiny.\n<\/p>\n
\n The country's last executions in 1998 targeted 24 military officers who had attempted a coup the year before.\n<\/p>\n
\n The diamond-rich but poor former British colony was ravaged by a 1991-2002 civil war that claimed 120,000 lives.\n<\/p>\n
\n A truth and reconciliation commission set up in 2005 to investigate the brutal conflict recommended outlawing the death penalty, calling it \"an affront to civilised society\".\n<\/p>\n
\n But the authorities in the nation of 7.5 million people resisted the idea, and courts continued to condemn people to death.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Friday, Bio said \"some cautioned it was unwise to let go of the ultimate cudgel that had kept political opponents in line.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"My position was a hard and firm no to the death penalty in all its forms,\" he said. \"We are a civilised nation\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Bio's assent means the death penalty is now officially off the books.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to Amnesty International, 108 countries had completely scrapped the death penalty by the end of 2020, while 144 had abolished it either in law or in practice.\n<\/p>\n
\n Twenty-two African countries have banned the death penalty for all crimes, the rights group said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Both executions and death penalties also fell across sub-Saharan Africa last year, according to Amnesty International.\n<\/p>\n
\n Recorded death sentences fell by six percent, from 325 in 2019 to 305 last year, while executions were down 36 percent, falling from 25 in 2019 to 16 in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sierra Leone's president on Friday signed a bill abolishing the death penalty, declaring the West African country had \"exorcised horrors of a cruel past\" after a long campaign to end capital punishment. President Julius Maada Bio signed the abolition bill during a ceremony in the capital Freetown after lawmakers approved the text in July. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-83044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n