PNG death penalty condemned as 'barbaric' by Amnesty International
~~By PNG correspondent Liam Fox, ABC

May 29, 2013: Amnesty International says Papua New Guinea's move to revive the death penalty is "barbaric" and will not deter violent crime.

After a spate of horrific murders and gang-rapes, to make murder, aggravated rape, robbery, treason and piracy punishable by death.

The sentence can be carried out in several ways, including hanging, lethal injection, firing squad, electrocution and "medical death by deprivation of oxygen" or poisonous gas.

Amnesty's Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze says the death penalty is a cruel form of punishment.

"It violates the right to life as well as freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," she told AM.

"It doesn't matter if a person has been beheaded or burnt in a village or killed by the state. It is just as barbaric."

She says statistics show the death penalty has not reduced violent crime in countries that enforce it.

"If the government is serious about reducing crime, I'd say there's a number of measures which they can take immediately to do that," she said.

"One of them would be to invest in the law and justice sector, including the police force."

PNG has always had the death penalty thanks to its colonial past, but not the means to carry it out.

The amendments to the Criminal Code passed on voices, without a vote required, after a brief debate.

One of those who said "aye" is the member for Manus, Ron Knight.

"I wasn't thinking lightly about this," he said.

"But that horrific murder that happened in the western islands in Manus where a mother was decapitated and raped and her two children - one was about four, one was 13 - they were also slashed to death - the whole community stood behind that and said that they reckon it's about time for the death penalty to be implemented."

As well as implementing the death penalty, the newly-amended Criminal Code has harsher penalties for a range of other offences.

Crimes that can now attract a maximum penalty of life imprisonment without parole include kidnapping for ransom, rape that is not considered to be aggravated and the theft of 10 million kina ($4.4 million) or more.

Parliament also repealed the Sorcery Act, which critics said legitimised so-called sorcery killings.

Courtesy: Yahoo.com