Bahraini MP calls for scrapping death penalty

Manama: A lawmaker called for the scrapping of death penalty to avoid jeopardising human rights achievements of Bahrain.

Faisal Fulad, a Consultative Council (Shura) Member and human rights activist, told Gulf News yesterday the kingdom attracted criticism for the recent activation of death penalty as according to human rights principles no one has the right to take away lives.

Last year three Asians - two women and one man - were executed for their involvement in murder cases after almost 20 years of suspension of death penalty in Bahrain.

A Bangladeshi cook convicted of killing his sponsor's daughter, and a retired Pakistani policeman convicted of burning down his friend's house out of revenge resulting in the death of a man, face the gallows.

Judges must be careful

"As a politician and human rights activist, I feel that life sentence is the best punishment for murderers and high risk criminals," he said. "If you kill murderers they would die before repenting their deeds, but sentencing them to life imprisonment could allow them to change and become better persons."

Fulad said judges should be more careful in giving verdicts for murder cases as many individuals executed worldwide turned out to be innocent after their deaths.

He, however, supports death sentence in crimes like treachery or genocide.

"I was about to table a law proposal banning death penalties for criminal [cases] but I reconsidered my plan after discussing the matter with the Ministry of Interior as security officials told me not intensifying penalties could attract members of organised crimes, terrorists and drug dealers to the country."

Suad Hamada is a journalist based in Manama