HARARE, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Tuesday moved to abolish the death penalty as the government backed legislation to do away with capital punishment nearly two decades after the last execution.
The southern African country has not had a hangman since 2005, but men found guilty of aggravated murder can still be sentenced to death. There are currently dozens of convicts on death row in the country.
“Cabinet approved the abolition of the death penalty,” Jenfan Muswere, the information minister, said in a statement. He further said that after holding nationwide consultations, the government decided to support a new law to end the practice.
“In view of the need to retain the deterrent element in sentencing murderers, it is expected that the new law will impose lengthy sentences without violating the right to life,” Muswere said.
In the case of murders involving “aggravating circumstances”, convicts could face “life sentences”, he added.
It was not immediately clear when parliament, where the ruling ZANU-PF party holds a large majority, would vote on the legislation.
According to official figures, 79 people have been executed in the country since the country’s independence from British colonial rule in 1980.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 81, has been a vocal opponent of the death penalty since he was sentenced to death in the 1960s for blowing up a train during a guerrilla war for independence. The sentence was later commuted.
In 2022, some 87 countries still had the death penalty, but only 52 imposed death sentences and about 20 carried them out, according to Amnesty International.
