A civil society leader said death penalty should be abolished in the permanent Constitution of South Sudan.
Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) Coordinator, Edmund Yakani, told CRN that he supports the abolition of death penalty.He said capital punishment contradicts the right to life proclaimed by the Constitution.
Mr Yakani added that it was puzzling indeed that anyone should have the right to take someone’s life by law.
The activist added there are implications regarding death penalty in terms of legal counselling and whether the state can be mandate to kill.
Mr Yakani cautioned that it was important to understand how the communities see capital punishment.
He said communities define death penalty as reconciliation, compensation and the way of making murderers accountable.
Mr Yakani warned that death penalty could be used as tool to quieten political descent, civil society activists and media personnel.
He urged citizens to critically look into the issue of capital punoshment in the upcoming national Constitutional revision under the leadership of South Sudan Law Society.
In the last weeks, a number of people on the death row were executed in Juba and Wau.