CAIRO: The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawy, has again rejected calls for the abolition of the death penalty, saying that the death penalty is a legal punishment ordained by Sharia and used to confront “the most serious crimes of aggression which have spread in many Arab and Islamic countries and constitute serious abuses of human rights.
Tantawy was speaking during a meeting organized by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.
According to Masrawy.com, which carried the story via El-Khaleej, the Sheikh told the audience that “protecting killers and criminals who attack lives and property will not bring about justice in any society.
“It will compound the fear, anxiety and chaos our societies are experiencing as a result of the moral and ethical lapse, he continued.
Egyptian law carries the death penalty for murder and rape as well as narcotics and terrorism offences.
The use of the death penalty in terrorism cases has been heavily criticized by rights groups.
In 1993 the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern that Egyptian counter-terrorism legislation is overly broad and enlarges the scope of acts carrying the death penalty.
Furthermore, civilians tried before military courts under the recently-renewed state of emergency only have a limited right of appeal before the Supreme Court for Military Appeals.
The Court may overturn a lower court’s verdict on the basis of procedural irregularities but may not review the factual details of a case.
Tantawy also suggested that the death penalty has a deterrent effect, and said that abolishing it would pose a threat to security.
“If [those demanding the abolition of the death penalty] realized the threat to security our societies would be exposed to as a result of the abolition of qassas (punishment) and the protection of criminals’ and killers’ right to life they would never demand it, he said.
Moufid Shehab El Din, minister of legal affairs and parliamentary councils, recently said during a speech at the Rotary Club in Cairo that if people realized the number of crimes that have been thwarted through the application of the emergency law they would “thank God .
Rights groups have expressed serious concerns over changes to the constitution introduced last year allowing the suspension of basic rights related to judicial supervision of police detention and evidence-collection during the investigation of terrorism offences, which carry the death penalty.
The amendments also provide for the introduction of a new counter-terrorism law, which the government is currently in the process of drafting and which will replace the 28-year-old state of emergency.
Sheikh Tantawy, who came under fire last year for his suggestion that journalists convicted of libel offences should receive 80 lashes, also questioned the motivations of human rights activists calling for the abolition of the death penalty.
“They claim that they are defending human rights; whose rights exactly are they are defending?
“They’re defending killers, murderers and depraved individuals, and calling for their right to life. What about their victims who they have unlawfully killed, who were wrongly and violently killed, whose wives have been widowed and children have been orphaned? Don’t they enjoy any rights?
Tantawy has consistently rejected the abolition of the death penalty.
A 2005 report by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), produced after it sent a fact-finding mission on the death penalty to Egypt, states that Sheikh Tantawy has “violently opposed anyone who challenges the death penalty, which he deems necessary to maintain the social order on the grounds of the cultural characteristics of the Muslim religion.
He also told members of the mission that when he occupied the position of the Grand Mufti of Egypt he had approved all of the 2,000 death penalty sentences sent to him for his opinion.
Under article 381 of the Penal Code death penalty sentences must be sent to the Mufti for his non-binding opinion on the sentence.
While internationally the campaign against the death penalty in Egypt has momentum, relatively few Egyptian NGOs actively work on it.
One of the exceptions is Maat for Judicial and Constitutional Studies.
Maat organized a “moratorium on the use of the death penalty in the Arab world in May in collaboration with the Amman Center for Judicial Studies and Penal Reform International.
The seminar, which was held in Alexandria, discussed the use of the death penalty globally and issued a declaration in support of the implementation of a 2007 United Nations General Assembly resolution which called for a general suspension of the death penalty around the world.
Participants in the seminar emphasised that in the Arab region the death penalty is mostly applied in political and state security cases.
Participants also underlined that efforts to reduce the use of the death penalty are in conformity with Sharia, which prescribes the application of the death penalty in four cases.
At a seminar held in April by Maat, speakers called for the restriction of the application of the death penalty to a narrow range of offences.
Speakers also said that Egyptian legislators do not strictly apply the provisions of Sharia, and pointed to the use of the death penalty in narcotics crimes to illustrate this.
“Under the counter-narcotics law someone found guilty of providing a venue for drug-dealing may receive the death penalty – even if the person himself has nothing to do with drugs. This has nothing to do with Sharia, Jurist Emad El-Fiqy explained.
However, Dr Ibrahim Negm, a Sharia scholar working with Dar Al-Ifta, challenged this.
“Considering the seriousness of drugs offences and their repercussions on society the death penalty may legitimately be handed down, Negm told Daily News Egypt.
“Sharia provides ways of reaching verdicts outside the scope of the Quran and the Hadith such as juristic reasoning.
“It is therefore possible to reason that a death penalty should be handed down for drugs trafficking, for example, because the effects of this crime are more serious than those of murder.
Negm pointed to the Mufti’s mandatory consultation on death sentences as a mechanism that ensures that such sentences are handed down in conformity with Sharia.
While emphasising that he was not speaking in the name of Al Azhar, Negm told Daily News Egypt that Dar El Efta is opposed to the abolition of the death penalty.
“We are not in favour of its abolition but do support a prolongation of the [judicial] measures taken in Egyptian law in order to avoid haphazard verdicts, he said.
