Call to stay executions during pandemic

LAHORE JUSTICE Project Pakistan and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty on Friday called on all countries that still use the death penalty to impose a moratorium on death sentences and executions on the ground that fair trials and fair legal representation are impossible to maintain during the Covid-19 pandemic. When the whole world is trying hard to save lives from Covid-19, an execution by the state is contradictory and perverse,” said Kevin Miguel Rivera Medina, President of the World Coalition Against Death Penalty, an alliance of more than 150 NGOs, bar associations, local authorities and unions.

“While some countries now sentence people to death by video conference, as in Nigeria or Singapore, in others the prison restrictions have seriously infringed the rights of those awaiting execution because courts are stalled and law firms are closed. Options to help people whose lives are at risk are decreasing,” said Medina. “The current global health crisis has demonstrated how profoundly unfair the system has been on people already weakened by their heavy sentence. A lack of visits to people on death row and the inability for lawyers and judges to work normally are all unfair consequences of an ill-equipped system.” Sarah Belal, Executive Director of Justice Project Pakistan, adds: “Article 10A of the Constitution of Pakistan guarantees a prisoner’s rights to meet their counsel to pursue any relief for the enforcement of their fundamental rights. This right is inviolable throughout the course of imprisonment.

A recent judgment by the Lahore High Court has also established that this right cannot be denied even if a death warrant has been issued. At a time when lawyers do not have access to their clients, these fundamental due process guarantees cannot be carried out.And until things return to normal, the state must not send anyone to the gallows.”