Gaza executions ‘unlawful’ says UN

Human rights office says death sentences were not approved by the Palestinian president as required.

20/04/12 1,589 Views 14 Comments

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.

Image: Anja Niedringhaus/AP/PA Images

THE UN’S HUMAN rights office says three men recently sentenced to death in the Palestinian territory of Gaza were executed unlawfully.

A spokesman for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says the men didn’t have regular access to lawyers and were tried by a military court despite being civilians.

Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva that the death sentences carried out by hanging on 7 April also weren’t approved by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as required by law.

The UN rights office is calling on Gaza’s ruling Hamas faction to halt a planned execution by firing squad.

At least 18 men have been executed in Gaza since Hamas seized power there in 2007.

The Palestinian Authority effectively halted the practice in the West Bank in 2004.

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Shanti Om 20/04/12 #

4 18

Don’t agree with executions, whether legal or not. If someone’s committed a crime they should have to LIVE with the consequences.

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Peter 20/04/12 #

33 50

And here we go sending aid flotillas to these guys ..

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- Dexter Gordon 20/04/12 #
  
  28 48
  
  Come on man. You know it’s not ‘these guys’ that we are sending the aid to. It’s the thousands of innocent civilians who desperately need it.
  
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- Peter 20/04/12 #
  
  22 25
  
  I don’t think aid should be sent anywhere.. The internal fabrics of these places are far to complicated, it’s a mess over there
  
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mattoid 20/04/12 #

28 36

I’m not holding my breath for squeals of indignation and outpourings of condemnation from the loony left. On the other hand if the US farted in the wrong direction…

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- Cal Mooney 20/04/12 #
  
  17 18
  
  How many people did the US execute last year?
  
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Gay Pea McManus 20/04/12 #

23 24

With power there is responsibility, the United States are a superpower yet they have abused their international position through the use and support of violence rather than diplomacy in serving their national interests and on that basis yes they deserve the bulk of the criticism for continually providing cover for Israel’s annexation of Palestine. Obviously anyone committed to the principles of non violent conflict resolution would condemn such executions, however they must be considered in the context of the ongoing situation in the Middle East, Groups like Hamas don’t emerge from nowhere just as the provisional IRA would never have emerged had it not been for the oppression of the Catholic communities in Northern Ireland. As Kennedy himself said those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

@ mattoid by your reasoning John Hume was loony left Nelson Mandela was loony left Aung San Suu Kyi, Martin Luther King, Jr. etc were loony left. Perhaps you ought to inform yourself rather than taking such pride in ignorance.

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- mattoid 20/04/12 #
  
  11 21
  
  @GayPea I have no problem whatsoever in condemning wrongdoing from whatever quarter it arises, whether it be US, Israel, Palestine, China or anybody else.
  The point I’m making is that its completely hypocritical to be selective in who you choose to condemn.
  The attitude of many of those on the far left seems to be along the lines of “The US did wrong and they’re a flagbearer of the free world from who we all expected better. The Palestinians/Taliban/Iranian regime (delete as appropriate) did wrong, but its understandable considering how much they’ve suffered from oppression…”
  
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- Impartial Eclipse 20/04/12 #
  
  6 20
  
  There have been extra judicial executions recently in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya…..Maybe it’s just the way they do things in that part of the world, Israel or no Israel.
  
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- Gay Pea McManus 21/04/12 #
  
  3 5
  
  @mattoid
  
  Is that a general comment or is it directed at me, when you speak of people being selective in their condemnation of violence? What makes you feel you can label anyone who speaks up for the Palestinian people as “far left” or “loony left”? I could just as easily suggest you are far right, perhaps you are I don’t know, all I do know is far right fanatics like Anders Brievik, tar all Muslims and people from countries which are culturally Muslim with the one brush.
  
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Brian Mc Cabe 20/04/12 #

8 9

And executing them legally, sure that would be fine. Feckin savages

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Cal Mooney 20/04/12 #

22 9

How many people have died due to malnutrition in Gaza in the last 12 months, how many died due to being refused access to proper hospitals. This article does not say what these men were executed for… Were they spies for Israel? Can we get some more detail?

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- Impartial Eclipse 20/04/12 #
  
  2 10
  
  That’s hard to measure.
  
  Try infant mortality – that might give some indication. In Gaza, it is 20.6 per 1,000. Compare Lebanon 22.73, Egypt 25.92, Iran 27.16…..
  
  http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/44D2704F089623978525788000527D2B
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate
  
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- Larry O'Connor 20/04/12 #
  
  3 12
  
  These recent executions were for murder, rape, treason and complicity in murder. However there are some 40+ crimes punishable by death, some of which we would see as petty crimes. Often these are civilians tried in military courts without proper representation and there’s widespread reports of confessions acquired by torture.
  
  Hamas in Gaza does not recognise Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ authority and Abbas has not authorised a single execution there. While Israel are mainly to blame for the power shortages, lack of medical equipment and medicines, Hamas are also directly to blame, but that’s for another topic.
  
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Gaza executions ‘unlawful’ says UN