Amnesty opposes death penalty for convicted soldiers

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.