Legal and Human Rights Commission (LHRC)
Johson Mbwambo, a lawyer with the Legal and Human Rights Commission (LHRC) made the call yesterday in Kahama during a session of the ongoing LHRC Big Bang Campaign meant to educate the public on details of the Second Constitution Draft.
Voicing the anti-death penalty campaigners’ suggestion, Mbwambo said that death sentences should be overturned to life imprisonment with hard labour and revenue so generated is to be handed over to the victim’s family.
Commenting, a resident of Kagongwa in Kahama, Ibrahimu Gosia said instituting capital punishment is a manifestation of a broken legal system because it assumes perfection of the judiciary system yet reality is that mistakes are made cases are manipulated and innocent people are sentenced to die.
“I suggest that there be alternative stern punishments but not the capital punishment,” suggested Gosia who however did not offer what punishment would equate to a death penalty.
Another concerned individual is Valerian Paulo Kessy, a businessman also in Kagongwa, Kahama seconded the previous speaker saying capital punishment is to be abolished with immediate effect and now that the constitution is under review, it is the optimal time to take decisive action against it.
“Convicting one to die amounts to condemnation yet the legal system is flawed so we may very well be killing innocent people with no chance of revoking the sentences,” Kessy lamented.
Tanzania still retains the capital punishment even though the last time the death penalty was carried out was a decade ago in 1994.
Anti-death penalty campaigners have raised concerns over both the first and second Constitution draft which both retain the penalty.
The content in the Constitution Draft comes as a case to challenge the legality of the capital punishment lags at the High Court of Tanzania.
At the moment, there is a case with the High Court of Tanzania challenging the law and was filed by the LHRC in collaboration with the Tanganyika Law Society and the Southern Africa Human Rights (SAHRINGON) Tanzania Chapter.
Also, corruption running rampant in the country, the Constituent Assembly has been faulted for its failure to incorporate an anti corruption section in the first and also in the second draft constitution.
LHRC is conducting a country wide campaign to educate the public on the second constitution draft in what has been dubbed, the Big Bang campaign through which media publications including CDs and DVDs for the deaf as well as flash disks and memory cards recorded with the details of the draft are distributed free of charge.
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
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