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About capital punishment
While I do agree with the opinion that the harshening of the laws may serve as a limiting factor to the committal and frequency of odious crimes, as expressed by Mr Ahmad Macky in his article published in l?express of 15th July 2003, it is to be underlined that the most important impediment to the establishment and application of capital punishment, in our context, constitutes undoubtedly the quality of justice. Innocent individual and those who have committed minor offences may find themselves on the scaffold.
It is a fact that justice in our country is very expensive and many suspects cannot afford the service of a lawyer to benefit from a fair trial. When many verdicts rendered by lower courts are quashed by higher jurisdictions, including the Privy Council, when a former Chief Justice himself recognised in an interview in l?express of 25 April 2003 that ?le corps judiciaire se porte moins bien aujourd?hui qu?il y a dix ans à cause de la malheureuse tendance des hommes politiques de s?immiscer dans les choses qui ne les concernent pas?, when the recommendations of a committee chaired by a supreme court judge are reversed by his own colleagues ; when a magistrate of a district court is blamed in appeal for ?lack of objective impartiality?, we have to be very careful in our judgement concerning the death penalty.
Nothing and nobody are perfect in nature, not even the judges. Utmost precaution should therefore be guaranteed in so far as the life of a person is concerned. Can official authorities be placed on the same level as a murderer ? In the present circumstances, the rehabilitation of the whole social system where the human factor is constantly being displaced by material consideration should be the top priority of the country?s administrators.
Diplal MAROAM
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