Indian executions would be blow to human rights
| Publisher | Amnesty International |
| Publication Date | 27 May 2011 |
| Cite as | Amnesty International, Indian executions would be blow to human rights, 27 May 2011, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4de477552.html [accessed 22 May 2013] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
President Pratibha Patil has accepted the Home Ministry's recommendations to reject the mercy petitions of death row prisoners Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and Mahendra Nath Das, according to Indian media reports.
"Reports that India will execute two men after an encouraging seven-year hiatus are hugely disappointing, and would be a step backwards for human rights in the country," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director.
"For India to revive capital punishment now would also be bucking the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty, with numbers of executions continuing to decline."
Bhullar was sentenced to death in 2001 for plotting terror attacks that killed nine people in Delhi in 1993. Das has been on death row since 1997 for committing a murder in Guwahati, Assam in 1996.
Although India voted against the resolution for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, 2008 and 2010, President Patil had commuted the death sentences of 20 prisoners since November 2009.
The last execution in India was that of Dhananjoy Chatterjee in Kolkata in August 2004.
Copyright notice: © Copyright Amnesty International
