Zambia’s Supreme Court has rejected a petition by two death-row inmates who sought the abolition of capital punishment on the grounds that it went against ”Christian values”.
”The courts in this country have no powers to abolish the death penalty because they do not have power to legislate,” the Supreme Court said in a judgement passed late on Monday.
”We, therefore, hold the opinion that it is the people of Zambia, through their Parliament representatives, who can legislate to abolish it,” the judges Ireen Mambilima, Lombe Chibesakunda and Sandson Silomba said in a ruling.
Two prisoners, awaiting execution for their role in a robbery, had argued through their lawyer that the Zambian Constitution described the country as a Christian nation and that the death penalty negated Christian values.
The Roman Catholic Church, highly influential in Zambia, has also been actively campaigning against capital punishment, which it says is inhuman.
Zambians have been divided over the issue. President Levy Mwanawasa, who opposes the death penalty, has vowed not to sign any warrant of execution during his presidency.
”I do not want to be the chief hanger,” Mwanawasa had said in 1999 when he commuted the death sentences handed down to 44 soldiers who had tried to oust his predecessor Frederick Chiluba.
Zambia has more than 200 people on death row but Mwanawasa has refused to sign their warrants of execution. — AFP
