South Sudan records increase in executions in 2019: Amnesty

April 21, 2020 (JUBA) – South Sudan executed at least 11 people during the year 2019, according to a report by Amnesty International on Tuesday.

Among these four countries, South Sudan is the only country that recorded an increase in the executions last year, according to Amnesty International Death Penalty Report 2019.

“This was the highest recorded number in South Sudan in any year since the country’s independence in 2011,” further stressed the report.

According to the report, seven men were executed in February 2019, three of whom were from the same family.

“The authorities did not inform the family of the three related men before they were executed,” added the report.

Of the seven people, six were executed in Juba Central Prison, while one was executed in Wau Central Prison.

In September, four people were executed; two men were executed in Juba Central Prison on 27 September and two were executed in Wau Central Prison on 30 September.

Amnesty also underlined the High Court in Tonj sentenced to death for murder a man who was a child at the time of the crime.

South Sudanese penal code prohibits the sentencing to death of a person under the age of 18. However, there is the challenge of confirming the age of the convict due to lack of birth registration.

“The use of the death penalty against people who were children at the time of the crime is strictly prohibited under international human rights law and South Sudan’s 2011 Transitional Constitution,” reads the report.

“Article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which South Sudan is a party, stipulates that “neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without the possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age,” further emphasised the report.

Hanging is the method of execution provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure in South Sudan. Before a person sentenced to death can be executed, the Supreme Court and the President must confirm the death sentence.

On the situation in Sudan, Amnesty says that Transitional Military Council (TMC) pardoned 25 of 31 people sentenced to death during the former regime as part of the implementation of confidence-building measures agreed with the armed groups aiming to achieve peace in Sudan.

(ST)