Palestine: Rights body criticises death penalty

Palestine’s national human rights institution has criticised the death penalty imposed on a man from Rafah by a military court in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The Ma’an News Agency reports that the court handed down the sentence after finding Fadel Msallam Shallouf, 26, guilty of collaboration with enemy entities.

The Independent Commission for Human Rights condemned the sentence, saying it was imposed "despite the continuous calls by human right groups to avoid death sentences against Palestinian citizens".

The sentence was based on the 1979 Revolutionary Penal Code of the PLO, the commission said.

But the penal code is unconstitutional when applied by the Palestinian Authority as it has not been presented to, nor approved by, the legislature, legal experts say.

Palestinian rights groups have called for its abolition on the grounds that it violates international standards of fair trial.

Five people were sentenced to death in the Gaza Strip in 2011, three in a military court and two in a civilian court. In 2010, the Hamas government implemented five death sentences.

Date: 1 June 2011