Uganda’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment after three years in jail, in a move rights groups hailed as a major step towards ending capital punishment.
In its judgement, the court upheld the death penalty as constitutional but ruled that ”a delay beyond three years after a death sentence is an inordinate delay.”
The case was brought against Uganda’s attorney general by a prominent Kampala human rights organisation on behalf of 417 death row inmates.
”This is a very important development because many of the people who are on death row have actually been there for more than three years,” said Livingstone Sewanyana, executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative.
Sewanyana said about 330 of his clients were affected by the ruling.
Frederic Sempebwa, who argued the case on behalf of the condemned, told AFP he was not surprised that the court chose to uphold capital punishment.
”We were not very optimistic about having the death penalty struck down completely, knowing the general opinion in the country,” he said.
”Things like child sacrifice are still going on. That acts on public opinion and the court.”
The Supreme Court justices also urged the legislature to ”re-open the debate on the desirability of the death penalty in our Constitution”.
The decision argued the fact that no one has been executed in Uganda since 1999 ”would seem to indicate a desire to do away with the death penalty”.
”We have actually come a long way,” Sewanyana said. ”Way back in 1993, this was a taboo subject. You couldn’t even discuss eliminating the death penalty.”
Neighbouring Burundi and Rwanda abolished the death penalty in 2008 and 2007, respectively. — Sapa-AFP