Rare death sentence revives debate on capital punishment

The long-running debate over capital punishment in Senegal was revived this week when a local court sentenced to death an armed robber who slit the throat of a young soldier 10 years ago. Senegal has enjoyed uninterrupted civilian rule and a strong tradition of tolerance and democracy since independence from France in 1960. No-one has been executed in the West African state since 1967, when two people were sent to the firing squad, one for attempting to assassinate the then president, Leopold Senghor, the other for killing a member of parliament. All those convicted of murder have since then been sentenced to life imprisonment. Even when a judge was murdered in 1993, his killers escaped execution. However, when the government revised the constitution two years ago, President Abdoulaye Wade resisted calls for capital punishment to be abolished completely and so it remained on the statute book. On Monday, a court in Dakar sentenced to death Abdoualaye Diagne, an armed robber nicknamed "Foreman," who stabbed a young soldier in the throat to steal his belongings on 28 August 1993. He was convicted of "armed robbery and violence leading to the death of a man," a crime to which the death penalty applies under local law. However, Diagne has already been in prison for 10 years and his lawyer has announced plans to appeal. The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), a Dakar-based human rights organisations urged the government to reprieve Diagne and abolish the death penalty once and for all. Its president, Sidiki Kaba, said: "The death penalty is an assault on the right to life, legal assassination by the state, which goes against all the advances of international law."