Burkina Faso Parliament Unanimously Restores Death Penalty Eight Years After Abolition
Burkina Faso's parliament adopted a revised penal code on Tuesday, October 20, restoring the death penalty nearly a decade after the West African country abolished capital punishment, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.
According to Reuters, the 71-member assembly voted unanimously for the legislation after Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala presented the bill on behalf of the government. The revised code reintroduces the death penalty for crimes including terrorism, espionage, treason and importing expired or banned products that result in death, state-run media reported.
Burkina Faso has struggled for years to contain an Islamist insurgency linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that has killed thousands of people and displaced millions. The government has presented the change as part of its response to that insurgency. Bayala said the relative lenience of the previous penal code helped armed groups recruit members.
Human Rights Watch said when the Council of Ministers first approved the bill last year that reinstating the death penalty could deepen repression, entrench a climate of fear and send a chilling message to critics of the military government. Burkina Faso abolished the death penalty in 2018. Its last known judicial execution was in 1988, according to Amnesty International.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 布基纳法索首都 Ouagadougou 天际线资料图。照片：Thierry Draus 摄，CC BY 2.0，经维基共享资源。 / Skyline of Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso. Photo by Thierry Draus, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
